The Keys of Marinus

20,000 Quatloos!

The Keys of Marinus is one of those stories that people neither like nor despise. The story itself is ambitious but falls short in a few ways. Having just finished watching it, my own opinion is probably a bit higher than the average viewer but I'll admit to being a softy when it comes to shortcomings due to production values.

In my opinion, there are three distinct problems with the story. Two of these were something that couldn't be helped and I'm willing to forgive the story mostly for them. The third thing though is something that could have been addressed and I mark it down for that.

First is William Hartnell's vacation. Having already taken off in episode 3 of Marco Polo, Hartnell takes another leave of absence in episodes 3 and 4 of this story. Ian is as always the man of action, but the absence of the Doctor in the quest for two of the four missing keys seems very odd. It creates a bit of a hole that maybe one doesn't realize would be there until it actually shows up.

The second issue is the production values. The show tries hard, but with the need for several new sets every week the strain on time and budget start to show. Now, the show is saved a bit by being in black and white. This buys level of camouflage that was lacking when the show moved into the lean years of the 1980's. But there are many instances where there is a little reminder that yes, we are on a studio set.

The first two issues were probably unavoidable given the constraints of the time, but the third issue was something that could have been dealt with. As I was watching this, I kept being taken out of the story by the abruptness of the resolution to each episodic adventure. It felt very rushed and I found myself wondering if this was one of the few instances where a story needed to be expanded to more episodes. I decided that the problem was not the story's length, but just how it was packaged.

Episode 1 is fine as far as set up goes and it draws the viewer in nicely. There is also an excellent set up in episode 2 with the brains taking control of everyone but Barbara. But here is where things start to go south. Barbara's defeat of the brains is too hurried and it would have served the story better to have a cliffhanger while still under threat from the brains. The defeat of the brains and the move to the next quest would have taken up the first half of episode 3.

I would have then omitted The Screaming Jungle entirely. Leave it at four keys rather than five. The jungle adventure only involves Ian and Barbara and it's so haphazard that it does very little for the overall story. It was definitely the weakest episode and could have been dropped. This would have then put the second half of episode 3 in the mountains and I would have had the cliffhanger be with the trapper threatening Barbara.

Episode four would then have spent the majority of it's time in getting the key from the mountain cave and the escape from the Ice Knights. But it would have left a little time to show Ian and company getting their bearings and splitting up to search for the next key. This would have then led into the scene as it was with Ian finding the key but getting attacked and framed for murder as was shown. Episodes five and six would have then proceeded as shown since they had a nice flow with the overall narrative.

If you do eliminate The Screaming Jungle you would have to create a new fake key. But that is fairly easily resolved as a fake key would have fit in nicely in the episode 5 plot. A fake key could have been made as part of the stealing the key plot (plant fake key so no one knows you stole the real key) and then have the fake key be planted on Ian after he was knocked out. Later, Sabetha could realize that it is a fake key and that sets the plotters even more on edge than they already are. Fits nicely.
One other nit to pick was the acting of Altos and Sabetha. The vacation of William Hartnell probably ended up elevating their roles more than intended but even in small roles, they had the feel of amateurs compared to Ian, Barbara and the Doctor. Susan goes over the top often enough that their woodenness is actually a welcome contrast to her. I've seen worse acting on this show, but I've also seen much better and poor acting is something that I have trouble with in any show.

With all that I've said above, one might think that I'd be inclined to give it a terrible rating, but there are still a number of things to like about this one. It is fast paced with some interesting ideas. There is a great deal of adventure and no quest point is entirely like the previous one. This gives different characters and their various attributes a chance to shine. It would have been nice to see Susan be the strong one for once, but the others come off fairly well when called forward. It's not a great one but it's not a stinker either.

Overall personal rating: 2.5 out of 5