This is the first story where the TARDIS crew travel to a different place for each episode (or story in the case of The Key to Time season) and it's also the first of these stories that I've ever seen. I quite like the idea, it defiantly adds quite a lot of pace to this story. In fact is is a lot faster paced than the stories that we've seen before. I'm not sure it quite works though. It means that in each episode there has to be a new set up and location but it also has to get resolved fairly fast. Episode three (The Screaming Jungle) has a rather interesting set up that could be quite spooky, even if it is Day of the Triffids, but we move on again before we get to really enjoy it. I'm not really sure how else it would have worked though. If the story had spent an an episode or two more in each setting it might have been better but it would mean the overall story would be a lot longer and would be in fear of becoming overlong and potentially boring. And by the time we got back to the first setting we'd have forgotten why the keys were so important in the first place (and I felt the machine that they were needed for could have been done with a bit more explanation). As it is the story is an interesting idea and concept that as a whole works well, but perhaps not as well as it could have.
The world of Marinus is well realised though, with all the different settings showing the different civilizations that inhabit it.
Though it wouldn't have seen this way at the time the story is perhaps most significant in showing just how much the Doctor has changed already. He is much more pleasant throughout, and especially so in the last two stories. Everyone knows that in The Talons of Weng-Chiang the Doctor is basically Sherlock Holmes, but we get an earlier riff on that idea in episode five (Sentence of Death) and the end of episode six (The Keys of Marinus) with Hartnell's Doctor in full detective mode. It's a delight to watch (especially after a two episode break from the Doctor with Hartnell on holiday) and the Doctor really is having a ball of a time. He only does it so that he can save Ian from death, which just goes to show how much has changed in their relationship. During episode six he says that Ian really drives him round the bend sometimes, but to my mind he says it quite fondly.
Passing notes:
- It's a shame the Voords never really took off. They were supposed to be the next Daleks and you can see why they didn't take off. We didn't see that much of them and their only weapons were knives, and they seemed to be taken out rather easily. I do however love the design of their helmets (or heads, it was never made clear if it was part of the swimsuit or their actual faces) and it would have been nice to see them again in some form.
- Susan is still annoying with all her screaming. When I make notes on the episodes I always just write "bloody Susan!" whenever she starts screaming. Her kidnapper even resorts to putting cloth over her mouth! She always seems to be the one who sees something that scares her but none of the others see it or believe her too.
Individual episode scores:
1. The Sea of Death: 7/10-good action but got a bit boring with all the exposition. Really bad framing in this ep, the top of Ian's head kept getting chopped off
2. The Velvet Web: 7/10-quite good, good POV shots from Barbara's perspective, not sure about the brains with eye stalks in jars
3. The Screaming Jungle: 7/10-nice idea with the plants if not very well realised, and wouldn't they have attacked before this?
4. The Snows of Terror: 6/10-starts off alright but the knights are a bit shit and using stalagmites to get across? And then the bridge reappears. Bad snow/cave effects
5.Sentence of Death: 7.5-Dr as detective good fun and quite clever
6. The Keys of Marinus: 6.5/10-not a great wrap up, bit rushed
The overall average is 6.83 which I would normally round up to 7 but I'm going to round it down to a 6.5/10 in this instance.
Next up is The Aztecs which I hear good things about.
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