The Keys Of Marinus: Doctor Who: Season 1

Goldby

Grob

Long

The Keys Of Marinus REVIEWS



Goldby

The Keys Of Marinus

These early six part stories really take it out of you and this was the very first six parter.

The first Dr Who where the star takes a blatant holiday for the middle two episodes and gets away with it. Wasn't prepared for that and felt ripped off. Mind you was feeling pretty ripped off for the whole story. Bad enough these early Who's are B & W but it really wheezes in parts, especially as some of the supporting artists appear to have been people pulled off the street and told to act in it (let's call them Streeties) it's almost watchable...but only once. Maybe it was the let down feeling of it not being like the novella I read as a kid too? The Voord appear creepy, even though they're just guys in wet suits with triangles on their heads, big come down from the Daleks. And the episode of the brains in jars controlling the characters' will was a great idea for early Who, pity it's ruined by the eyestalks...

Nice attempt in trying to do a story featuring heaps of different characters and locales but also a bad attempt as it was too ambitious for it's time and it shows. Can't remember much more though, fell asleep during the trial scene. The only good thing is the Tardis crew is really gelling and in their groove now and they've noticeably softened Hartnell's character to make him more approachable. Susan is actually being overly stupid in the best teenage tradition too. Pity the budget constraints show for the story remember the Marinus machine blowing up was just a big bit of cardboard falling over and two bags of sand being pouring through the roof. 3/10.

Would've marked it 2 but 1 point is for Hartnell's hilarious guff "If you had forgotten to get your shoes you could lend her hers" (although bad that he's starting to fluff lines on a regular basis only 20 episodes in.)

Grob

When I was in grade six I read the Keys Of Marinus book so many times cos I thought it was unreal. When I finally saw it for the first time a few years ago - well, disappointment is one word for it. A waste of $29.95 was another thing that sprung to mind. Fortunately the Keys Of Marinus didn't cost me a relationship like the VHS copy of The Tenth Planet that I bought from Minotaur in 2003 did - but the feeling of "what the fuck have I done?" was still there.

Terry can't write for toffy and its probably better he just write corridor scenes that feature Daleks in them. Whatever he was smoking when he came up with the Keys Of Marinus still has the jury deciding but you gotta ask - one exotic location per episode - plus actors in major and minor speaking roles (and extras) - plus monsters - is really stretching the budget here. And it shows.

Its fun to spot the same extra that appeared as a handmaiden in episode 2 (the one with brains on stalks) turn up in episode 6 as a guard in a setting that is supposed to be on the other side of the planet. Or even the same set - just filmed from another angle with a bit cloth over it to make it look slightly different. Another game you can play is "spot the stagehand". So far I have spotted 6 different crew members walking accidentally into shot or disappearing behind some scenery somewhere - and I kid you not its ALL in episode one (the one with the giant pyramid with the revolving trap doors).

On the plus side for those who get their rocks off on this sort of thing - episode 4 (The Snows of Terror) features Dr Who's first attempted rape scene. Yes; grizzly old Vaber who's opening line is "My name is Vaber - most men fear me." He wants to slam dunk some sausage into Babs. On the other hand maybe there's another reason men fear him cos old Vaber stops paying attention to Babs and starts hightailing it after Ian when him and his gay mate Altos appear on the scene. So; its a rape scene and some man-on-man action in Dr Who's fifth adventure broadcast during dinner time for the kiddies.

Oh, I gotta mention the ice soldiers which are actors in white raincoats with bickets on their heads. Ingenious. Anything else? There's the revolving Buddha statue with human arms that grab Susan's breasts. There's Edmund Warwick's atrocious acting as Darrius in The Screaming Jungle - Edmund by the way went on to play the unconvincing robot double of the Doctor in "The Chase." I'm sure there are tonnes of other crappy things I've missed out like unconvincing model shots and missed cues but you get the picture by now.

The Keys Of Marinus is not just crap, but bad, overlong, badly written and shoddily directed crap. So just like the bowel movement I had this morning, its a big fat number 2 from me.



Long

You know what... for someone who doesn't like many Hartnell stories... I quite enjoy the Keys Of Marinus!!

You probably need to look past some of the production values on these stories... they're all beyond crap really. Bad acting, bad sets, bad lots of stuff getting in the way that shouldn't!

But the difference between the Keys Of Marinus and others is that stuff actually happens! It's a bit drawn out, but the fact that it moves from place to place reasonably quickly really works for me... it's a good, traditional, Sci Fi quest - clearly defined early, and then well resolved in the end. Definitely has it's boring bits (the trial for one!), but it still shines more than a lot of the first 3 series... and maybe the absence of Billy for two episodes helped that!!

This was a bold story that worked... maybe because I hadn't read the book!

7/10

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