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.
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...
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