The Keys of Marinus [3.5]

‘The Keys of Marinus’ is the first standalone sci-fi story in Dr Who. It isn’t setting up some massive concept like the TARDIS or the Daleks. It’s not an experimental psychodrama or a pure historical. It’s what would become the bread and butter format of the Dr Who series and as such it’s generally pretty enjoyable.

Arriving on an alien beach surrounded by very escapable booby traps, the Doctor and company are blackmailed by otherwise affable monk-scientist Arbiton into travelling around the planet Marinus collecting the titular ‘Keys’. When gathered, these will be used to turn on a mind-control machine that will make everyone on the planet peaceful, happy and productive citizens.

The Majesty

The idea of the mind-control machine (though never properly explored) is a good set-up, and the idea of Arbitan’s tower being besieged by rebel Voord in groovy wet suits is also fun. Sadly we don’t get to see more of this throughout the story. The Voord are only bookends, and the machine is only a plot device.

Two of the set pieces are magnificent. In the Castle of the Velvet Web, the crew are hypnotised by jellyfish brains in jars. They believe they are living in luxury while really they are in squalor. It’s a great idea, and it’s very nicely done. The brains, when we meet them, are suitably revolting.

Similarly the Screaming Jungle is an excellent idea, unfortunately too short. Ian and Barbara are under siege in a small house. In scenes reminiscent of Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” or Hitchcock’s “The Birds”, our heroes scream and hit things with other things as plants break in through the walls. Wonderful stuff!

The Misery

The episodic nature of this story means that none of the elements can be fully developed. Part One is set by Arbitan’s tower; Two in the Castle of the Velvet Web; Three in the Screaming Jungle; Four on a frozen mountain range; Five and half of Six are set in the ‘civilised’ city of Millennius and the finale is back at Arbitan’s tower.

Sadly the longest and most developed sequence – the courtroom drama in Millennius – is one of the weaker sections and although it is a cool idea to have a courtroom drama in Dr Who, the twists and turns are conducted in such a ham-fisted fashion that there’s little tension and lots of boredom.

Equally, the mountain sequence suffers from too little logical coherence and too much polystyrene snow.

Magical Moments

• The Doctor: “A frozen sea? Impossible in this temperature. Besides.... it’s too warm.” (Thanks for clarifying that, Doc!)
• The Doctor: “If you had had your shoes on, my boy, you could have lent her her’s.” (Ummm... what?)
• Apparently if you are a Voord, trying to hide, all you need do is crouch down near a tiny rock and nobody will ever see you.
• The crew are seen so often in Episode One that you start to wonder if it is deliberate – legs behind doors, randoms walking into the background of shots, shadows of mikes and cameras and people everywhere.
• A Voord falls down a hole, turning in mid-air to reveal it is a totally flat cardboard but out.
• Any time the TARDIS crew decide to use their time rings to move from place to place, they make sure they move in front of a large black background before they do so.
• There is a charming moment when the crew gather in the Castle of the Velvet web. They are all ogling over the food. (“Perhaps if your majesty would stop hogging the grapes, we could all have some” - "I say! Is that a pomegranate?" - "Truffles! I do believe they're truffles!") Mind you, all they have in the TARDIS is the rather dodgy ‘bacon and egg bar dispenser’ so who can blame them.
• Barbara gets a magnificent scene where she grabs a rock and attacks some hypnotic jellyfish brains in jars. She’s a proper action hero and a great character.
• Episode Four contains surprisingly adult content with an attempted rape on Barbara. Despite ending up in a ‘running-round-and-round-the-table’ routine, it’s a serious threat, and again Barbara comes out strong, biting her attacker and wielding a red-hot poker.
• The trial in the city of Millennius is presided over by a tribunal of men who – with tall hats and long beards - appear to have been fashioned on the Old Testament high priests. When they are all nodding their heads in unison, beards and hats flapping about, they are highly entertaining
• The Doctor: “I can’t improve.... I can’t prove that Chesterton is innocent”. (Certainly your line delivery hasn't improved!)
• The moment the door has close, Karla, recently widowed, stops crying and bursts out into an evil cackle that would put any Disney villain to shame.
• Susan celebrates being set free by shouting “Whoopee”. Literally.
• One of the Voord trips over its own flippers. I love these moments.
• There’s a deliberately comic moment when Ian and the Doctor both cautiously peer round a corner at knee hight, only to leap out of their skins as they come face to face with each other. (The Doctor: “What are you playing at? You’re all running around here like a lot of scared chickens!”)

In Summary

The story is too episodic to hold together as a unity. Had the Voord rebels been chasing the Doctor and the crew through the locations; had we split the team up between locations and intercut the stories; had we been having an ongoing discussion as to the morality of the mind control machine – then we would have had a better story. Some set pieces were brilliant, others were lame. On average, the story is average. Extra points for all the magical moments!

Overall: 3.5