Story #103 - The Armageddon Factor (1979)

Harry -

Here we are, Sarah, the grand finale of the Key to Time season. It's "The Armageddon Factor." The name conjures up images of an epic war, a space opera, perhaps the end of time itself.

Sarah -

The first-time viewer can only be giddy with the anticipation of what is to come! Silly fools.

Harry -

Indeed, but for the first few episodes all we get is a terribly tedious marshal cooped up in a bunker, directing invisible armies in a losing battle against an unseen enemy. At first he seems quite smitten with himself, always creeping over to that alcove to smile at himself in a mirror. Yes, definitely creepy. But when the Doctor, Romana and K-9 arrive on the scene, we soon find out that the warmongering marshal is merely a puppet.

Sarah -

Oh, look, another tedious, shouty, bullying authority figure -- a recurring trope in the Key to Time series. Fortunately, we have our favorite counter-trope: the skeptical aide-de-camp. The Armageddon Factor gives us Shapp, who delivers his put-upon best -- and even, we think, manages to survive the story.

Harry -

Davyd Harries could have made a career for himself as a John Cleese impersonator. The resemblance is uncanny. I was half expecting him to do a silly walk behind the Marshal's back.

Sarah -

That would liven up the bunker.

Harry -

Rogue Harries!

Sarah - 

We also meet the lovely Princess Astra, who bears a striking resemblance to a soon-to-be-regenerated Time Lady of our acquaintance. Astra is the nominal ruler of Atrios, but the Marshal is the one calling the shots.

Harry -

The first half of this story really did drag on after the premise was established. It seemed stuck in a recurring loop between the Marshal's command centre and the tunnels in K Block, with everyone shuffling back and forth. The story almost became a parody of itself when the Doctor rigged up an actual time loop. (Fire!)

Sarah -

The time loop is one of those Doctor Who moments that always takes up a little part of my brain. Perhaps it's because it distills the entire Key to Time into one moment.

Harry -

If you scrape away all the padding -- and there was a lot of it -- it's basically a good guys/bad guys runaround with the Key to Time as the prize. (Fire!) As the concluding story in this season's arc, it was always going to come down to that. (Fire!)

Sarah -

Could the episode wrap-arounds be any longer? This is the most padding we've seen since the Pertwee era.

Harry -

I couldn't help being a bit disappointed by the ending, when the resolution was to break up the key and scatter the segments throughout time and space. It brought us right back to the beginning again. Presumably both Guardians would restart their pursuit of the key immediately.

Sarah -

There are so many individual moments of this story that are burned into my brain, that it's always disappointing to get to the end and be so, well, disappointed.

Harry -

I've jumped to the ending, but it's worth noting a few memorable guest performances. William Squire gave us one of the most sinister villains in all of Doctor Who. That voice was something else. And the skull mask and weird makeup made for a truly shadowy Shadow.

Sarah -

I was going to suggest you slow down there a bit, Old Boy!

The Shadow never fails to creep me out. I love that the baddie in this story turns out to be just a puppet himself.

Harry -

The Doctor's encounter with Drax in the tunnels of the third planet will always be one of the show's biggest "WTF?" moments for me. Amidst all the, er, shadowiness perpetrated by the lead villain, out pops this unexpected character, who turns out to have been a classmate of the Doctor's back on Gallifrey, now working as something of a space-time mercenary. An interesting premise, but Barry Jackson's chirpy cockney caricature makes the whole thing, well, WTF?

Sarah -

As I've mentioned, the Key to Time was my introduction to Doctor Who, so the first time around I didn't realize how "WTF?" Drax's appearance really is. The second time I watched the season, having caught up on previous Third and Fourth Doctor seasons, I nearly fell out of my chair at the appearance of another Time Lord. Drax still feels like such an anomaly in the history of Doctor Who. How fun would it be to have him turn up again sometime?

Harry -

Lalla Ward did so well as Astra that she would return next season as a regular. Which means it's time for us to say goodbye to the first Romana, Mary Tamm.

Sarah -

I like Romana! Both Romanas, truth be told -- but we'll get to Lalla later.

Mary Tamm was the perfect companion to anchor this season. Her Romanadvoratrelundar was meant to be an entirely new direction from Leela and she could not have been more different. I love that she is a Gallifreyan and a Time Lady -- and that she is more than a match for the Doctor. It's been a while since we had a companion, Zoe and Liz come to mind, who was as smart as or perhaps smarter than the Doctor. Mary Tamm's calm, cool performance was perfect for the quest for the Key.

Harry -

Travel broadens the mind, as we've heard. Like the first Doctor, the first Romana evolved as she travelled. She threw out the proverbial book that she arrived with, and by this story she was leading chunks of the story on her own while the Doctor caught up with his obviously not-a-well-missed old classmate. Posh and haughty? Definitely Mary Tamm's Romana, but to me that's not a bad thing. One thing I forgot was how often she wore all-white this season. That really became her signature look.

Sarah -

Romana's character really develops in our first season with her. I suspect more changes are ahead for her -- perhaps she'll even make President someday. (Spoilers, children, spoilers!)

Harry -

And so the quest is at an end, and the key has once again been dispersed. This season-long arc was unique for Doctor Who. Prior to it, there were arcs involving the Master and the Ark in Space, but this was all about the quest. I'd call the season a roaring success.

Sarah -

A smashing success!

Harry -

Another thing that stood out was the absence of all the classic monsters, so everyone got a break. This season also provided a good recalibration of the Tom Baker era. We've now done five seasons with Tom. Didn't we predict we'd have gone doo-lally by now?

Sarah -

I believe you have been on the lookout for that, Old Boy.

Harry -

Tom certainly rallied in this season, aided by Mary Tamm's arrival. They both performed great in every story and while I wish we could have seen more of Mary Tamm, I'm glad we still have more Tom to come.

Sarah -

Mary Tamm's Romana is an excellent sparring partner for the Doctor. It's hard to tell what reeled him in, but there was so much less hamming it up for the camera in this season.

Harry -

Way less hamming, much appreciated.

Sarah -

Speaking of classic monsters, I have a sneaking suspicion that we're on the verge of running into some of them in the not-too-distant future...

Harry -

Oh boy!

Sarah -

Best Line:

The Doctor: Whenever you go into a new situation, you must always believe the best until you find out exactly what the situation's all about, THEN believe the worst.

Romana: Ah, but what happens if it turns out NOT to be the worst after all?

The Doctor: Don't be ridiculous. It always is.

Favorite Moment: Meeting Drax

Lasting Image: "FIRE!"

7/10

Harry -

I liked this entire sequence as Best Lines:

Doctor: "Think positive. Why do you always assume the worst?"

Romana: "Because it usually happens."

Doctor: "Empirical poppycock. Where's your joy in life? Where's your optimism?"

Romana: "It opted out."

K-9: "Optimism. Belief that everything will work out well. Irrational, bordering on insane."

Doctor: "Oh do shut up, K9."

Favourite Moment: the Shadow's over-the-top evil laughter.

Lasting Image: Drax literally appears out of a hole in the wall.

6/10 (I was going to give it 7, but the annoying "universal distress signal" noise was stuck in my head after watching.)

Our marathon continues with Story #104: Destiny of the Daleks...

Story #102 - The Power of Kroll (1978-79)

Sarah -
It all looks great on paper -- a script by Bob Holmes, a guest cast led by the brilliant Neil McCarthy and the majestic Philip Madoc -- but somehow the story never seems to come fully together. It's not a bad story, it's just a bit dull and lacks the humor and wit of our previous outings with the Key to Time.


Harry -
What a cast! It should have worked, but you're right dear Sarah. After a brilliant opening half, "The Power of Kroll" dragged to an unsatisfying finish.

Still though, what a cast!


Sarah -
An utterly amazing cast!


Harry -
Neil McCarthy played his baddie Thawn with glaring ferocity. Philip Madoc smouldered as the morally conflicted Fenner. And imagine the roller coaster of feelings John Leeson must have felt when he found out that he'd get to play a human character (yes!)... only to have Dugeen spend 90% of the story sitting hunched over a console, squinting at a radar screen with bafflement (err...). Seriously, in some scenes he barely moved. His eyes did all the acting. Best of all, I love how the refinery crew were constantly drinking. It was one of those little things that made the characters more alive.


Sarah -
With K-9 marooned in the TARDIS, it was past time to give Leeson some screen time - plus, the actor originally hired couldn't make it, so let's have John in! Still, he did get to die a heroic death. Sort of...


Harry -
Thanks to our friend Toby Hadoke, I have a heightened sense of awareness whenever John Abineri appears in a Doctor Who story. He was barely recognizable in this one, under that green paint and braided wig.


Sarah -
Toby! How I do miss him and Rob. It was fun romping through the first two Doctors with them. Maybe they'll catch up to us sometime.

So, back to the story. We begin in the marshes of the third moon of the planet Delta Magna, where a methane refinery is raising the ire of the locals, disparagingly referred to as "Swampies" by the refinery crew.


Harry -
Who in turn refer to the refinery crew as "Dryfoots," so at least there's equal opportunity racism on this moon.


Sarah -
The Doctor and Romana become separated almost immediately -- she to the Swampies and he to the Dryfoots.


Harry -
The separation was almost too textbook, but it got the story off to a quick start. I loved all the external filming. The marshes looked more marshy than swampy, but still looked good.


Sarah -
It was quite marshy, wasn't it? The perfect setting to get the story going -- and then drop it like a hot potato. I don't mean to be overly critical, but I suspect that's just my part to play in this outing. Haven't we seen this story before -- several times, in fact? Capitalist bastards raping the land, aboriginal populations repressed. Oh, look, it's the history of North America writ small by the BBC.


Harry -
This story had a very Pertwee-era Mac Hulke feel to it, no doubt. It had that look about it, too. The locals' costumes were rather shabbily assembled, the refinery model looked shaky, and the special effects for Kroll were primitive looking. There were also some unfortunate moments of shaky camera work, or a boom mic shadow on an actor's face that marred the production.


Sarah -
Mac Hulke definitely came to mind while I was watching. Alas, the overall production values left much to be desired.


Harry -
Director Norman Stewart was given a hell of a task with this one. The script called for him to realize a swampland set peopled by an indigenous tribe with enough space for some hovercraft action, an external refinery set, oh and also find a way to fit the most gigantic monster in Doctor Who history on the screen. No wonder he had the refinery crew drinking all the time, he must have wanted to join in.


Sarah -
That might explain a few things!


Harry -
If you squint your eyes and acknowledge the effort, those split screen images of Kroll rising from the swamp do look impressive. Kroll attacking the model refinery, however, did not. It was basically an ugly puppet attacking a LEGO set.


Sarah -
Those floppy tentacles were more amusing than scary!


Harry -
I did genuinely jump when one of its tentacles burst through a pipe and attacked Harg. That was scary good.


Sarah -
Definitely one of the story's more effective moments. Poor Harg.


Harry -
That moment came at the halfway point of the story. From then on, it got a bit tedious. The "Seventh Holy Ritual" execution that was prepared for the Doctor, Romana and Rohm-Dutt was torture on this viewer as well. It went on for almost half of Part Three. After that, everyone did some running about before the villain got his come uppance and the Doctor found the fifth segment. Hurrah!


Sarah -
Hurrah!


Harry -
But wait! They were still two minutes short, so they tasked Philip Madoc with presenting a Terrible Dilemma for Tom Baker to solve. Fiddling with wires as the timer counts down to zero, that time honoured story filler, wraps up "The Power of Kroll."


Sarah -
Yawn.


Harry -
I'd say this was the weakest story in the Key to Time season by far. I don't even want to say that modern techniques might have saved it. The story felt very dated, and other than some interesting marsh scenes it wasn't all that great visually.


Sarah -
You're right Old Boy, but it must be said ... Philip Madoc!


Harry -
A Sofa of Rassilon favourite.


Sarah -
Best Line:
The Doctor : "Well, you'd better introduce me."
Romana : "As what?"
The Doctor : "Oh, I don't know, a wise and wonderful person who wants to help. Don't exaggerate."

Favorite Moment: Philip Madoc! (Does that count as a moment?)

Lasting Image: Kroll looming over the horizon

5/10


Harry -
Best Line:
Romana: "What's that you've got?"
The Doctor: "I think it's an illustrated history of the tribe. A sort of Bayeux tapestry with footnotes."
Romana: "Oh, a sort of Holy Writ."
The Doctor: "I think it's atrociously writ, but the pictures aren't bad."

Favourite Moment: All Philip Madoc moments are favoured! I liked when he got frustrated in the control room and asked if anybody wanted another drink.

Lasting Image: a barely recognizable John Abineri as a Swampie.

6/10

Our marathon continues with Story #103 - The Armageddon Factor...