Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus (Story 5)

It's the 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who this year. What better why to celebrate it than by getting a Doctor Who DVD. Yeah Yeah Yeah

When one sees the name of writer Terry Nation on a Doctor Who story, one might assume Daleks are involved. More so, perhaps, if the designer Raymond Cusick is included in the same serial's credits. But, surprise, no Daleks feature in The Keys of Marinus, Nation's second outing for Who and something of a replacement when another story fell through. And what a story it turned out to be.The Keys of Marinus is the first quest narrative in the show's history. By that, I mean that the TARDIS crew finds themselves given a mission to perform rather than getting themselves into trouble like, say, the earlier Dalek tale. In this case, to track down the five keys that control a powerful device known as the Conscience of Marinus. To do so, they must travel to different locations around the planet. They'll go from cities to jungles and icy mountains to do so and get back to their travels.The episodic nature of Nation's scripts is part of what makes this story so compelling. Indeed, one might see a tribute to Jules Verne's Around The World In 80 Days and the 1956 film version with its all-star cast. Both feature planet-hopping narratives, varieties in locations, our protagonists becoming separated, and characters picked up along the way who join our main characters in their journey around the world. Ian's murder accusation and the delay in their quest late in the story share a point of similarity with Verne's Phileas Fogg, who finds himself arrested as an alleged bank robber late in Around's narrative. Even the appearance of George Coulouris as Arbitan (which Clayton Hickman calls Doctor Who's brush with Citizen Kane on the audio commentary) imitates the cameos of the later film version. If Doctor Who, in its earliest years, is paying tribute to the serial fiction that came before it, than Marinus sees Nation paying tribute to Verne's tale.Nor is Verne the only source on display. One too might see echoes of The Day of the Triffids in the jungle episode with plants moving on their own, killing and destroying. As mentioned above, the latter parts of the serial feature a mini-courtroom drama, with the Doctor playing the role of Perry Mason to save Ian from a system that assumes his guilt rather than innocence. If variety is the spice of life, then this story is very rich indeed!It's also full of ambition that is a hallmark of this era. There's a new set of locations practically every episode, not to mention changes in casts and costumes. The second episode, set in a city that isn't quite what it seems, perhaps speaks most to those efforts with director John Gorrie and designer Cusick doing everything they can to get the maximum effect. Fans often point to The Web Planet the following year as early Who at its most ambitious and, while there's no disputing the ambitions there, there's an argument to be made that this story is even more so. After all, it's trying to create an entire planet in the confines of the BBC's oldest studio.Does it always work? Not quite, as one can see where photo blowups and photo blow-ups get used in the first episode, for example. Some of the dialogue, never a Nation strong suit, is clunky at times, especially where exposition gets involved. More than that, Susan's characterization is all over the place, inconsistent from scene to scene, let alone episode to episode. All of which serve to undermine the story slightly.At the end of the day, it can be easier to forgive over-ambition where there's a good story to be told. And there is plenty to like about the Keys of Marinus from its location-hoping, genre-changing narrative and the efforts made to bring it to life. It may not always succeed, but by Jove, it tries. In the end, it's an overlooked tale from the opening days of the show and one that deserves another look.

I'm trying to work out why I'm so willing to forgive this first season of Doctor Who so much corniness, so many plot devices, and sometimes just plain lack of quality, when I'm much pickier about later seasons. It's partly the consideration I feel is owed to the first people to pioneer a concept, but there's more to it than that. And, this particular story arc helps me get nearer to the root of the mystery. The story has some huge weaknesses, but it also has some wonderful character moments, some of which have yet to be surpassed. For example, The Velvet Web is the only Doctor Who episode I have ever encountered wherein a female companion saves herself and everybody else all on her own without so much as a helpful hint from any male. AND IT WAS 1964!!! Some of the later seasons took a big step backward from this in the way the writers treated female companions. To be fair to later seasons, The Velvet Web is part of a larger story arc in which the males also get their chance to come to the rescue. But to also be fair to 1964, this is the turning point in Barbara's character development where she discovers her strength, and from here on out, she is (kind of mostly) treated with respect as a force to be reckoned with. For this reason alone, I would recommend this story.But as I said, there are plenty of Cons:(1) The plot devices are in full swing, and some of them are awfully hard to swallow.(2) A serious lack of budget.(3) Too slow for pacing and overmuch haste in filming.(4) Had no one on the production crew ever experienced severe cold before? Because, speaking as a Northerner, The Snows of Terror was the least realistic depiction I have ever seen.The pros are mostly inter-related:(1) Tons of character development for the tetchy, selfish first doctor (which is a bit surprising, considering that he's not even in 2 of the episodes). Sentence of Death has the moment when the doctor first realizes that it would really, really hurt if one of his human companions died. This is a constant fear in the back of his mind in later seasons, but it takes him by surprise the first time and is a big moment of truth for him. Up until this episode he'd thought of himself as only tolerating Ian and Barbara.(2) I believe it's also the first story arc where the doctor expresses any confidence in the abilities of a human companion as well as the first story arc where he actually laughs out loud in appreciation of how clever one of them has been. I've said it before, and I'll say it again--we've got Ian and Barbara to thank for the doctor's acquired taste for human companions.(3) I've already mentioned Barbara finding her strength. Ian also continues to shine overall, and I love the little ways that their relationship develops. Also the fact that they were strong enough characters to handle 2 full episodes with no doctor at all. It's admittedly a win/lose situation, but the fact is that because their doctor is so much less experienced and more prone to error than later doctors, these two have the (dubious) advantage over later companions of never being so much in awe of him that they forget they have brains and initiative of their own.(4) In spite of the plot devices and slow pacing, the stories really were pretty interesting in concept, and there was certainly variety to them.

I am rewatching Dr Who in order, and filling in occasional gaps in my collection. I watched this with no expectations and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm old enough to remember William Hartnell's Dr Who, though not in detail. Patrick Troughton is the first doctor I remember clearly.I like the fact that the serials had different numbers of episodes, and since there was no press release, you didn't know what was going to happen that week until you watched it. The NuWho trend of 45 minute episodes doesn't really allow me to get engaged, despite meta-narratives. Though, of course, I still watch!The key to enjoying 60s Dr Who is to remember that we watched the originals on much smaller screens with 405 lines on them, and they came out once per week, so don't try to binge watch - I tend to watch them one or two at a time.So, if you're someone who enjoys Classic Dr Who, this is an enjoyable quest serial, with a different setting almost every week. Susan doesn't have much to do other than scream, and I can see why the actress got bored with that. Barbara has to see off a hunter with dishonourable intentions, and Ian is still wearing his Marco Polo outfit.All good fun, and worth £5.99 of anyone's money! :)

Nostalgia brought me back to this after a gap of 56 odd years. I remembered the sea of acid and the one man submarines used to get through it, the rest I had forgotten. Not a bad quest story but it looks very cheaply done now with shaky painted backgrounds and cheap furniture but that didn't matter in 1964 because the tv picture wasn't as sharp and a child's imagination filled in the rest. The actor playing Marinus, George Couloris was also in Citizen Kane, not a bad C.V. - Doctor Who and Citizen Kane.

Thoroughly enjoyed this story when watching and would recommend it to any doctor who fan.Episode 1 - The Sea of Death - Really good introduction to the setting and storyline.Episode 2 - The Velvet Web - My favourite episode from this story. Very creepy story.Episode 3 - The Screaming Jungle - Another great episode but a shame that The Doctor is absent from this story and episode 4.Episode 4 - The Snows of Terror - Not a huge fan of this episode just because of the lack of action until the second half.Episode 5 - The Death Sentence (Or Sentence to Death - I can’t remember) - A fantastic storyline. It is nice to see the Doctor’s compassion to a certain character being in danger.Episode 6 - The Keys of Marinus - A bit of a rushed ending especially at the final scenes but an ok way to round off the serial.In conclusion I think that this story is a great 1st doctor story and it is like a condensed Key To Time with each episode having a different setting, enemy and characters.

This is the fifth adventure of Dr Who, first aired in the first season way back in 1964. It features William Hartnell as the 1st Doctor, Carol Ann Ford as Susan, William Russell as Ian and last, but not least, Jacqueline Hill as Barbara. This is the second script for the show from Terry Nation, who had a lot to live up to after his creation of the Daleks a few months earlier.This is a quest story, the crew land on an alien planet and are soon drawn into a quest to locate the four keys of Marinus, which will allow the possessor to do something or other. The whys and wherefores don’t seem to matter so much. The format allows the crew to be split up and go off on different adventures independently of each other. It also allowed William Hartnell to go off on holiday for a couple of weeks, so the Doctor doesn’t actually appear in episodes 3 and 4. This episodic nature gives each of the main characters a bit of limelight, which in the case of Ian and Barbara is very welcome, though unfortunately Susan is written as just screaming a lot. It also allows a wide variety of locations and situations, and the constant change helps keep the story feeling fresh and not becoming too boring.That’s not to say that there aren’t problems. The plot is nonsensical for a start. And as usual the resources are not always up to the production team’s imaginations, so there are a few dodgy looking sets and effects. Also this has a disturbing theme of violence towards women running through it which I have always felt ill at ease with, and feels at odds with the liberal progressive vision that the producers often seemed to be trying to put over. The Doctor’s absence for two episodes is a particular problem, the script covers reasonably OK, but he leaves far too big a hole to fill easily.As usual 2¦Entertain have done a great job with this release. The picture has been cleaned up and is in the best possible condition. There is a plethora of extras, including the production subtitles (I never watch old Who without them now) audio commentaries, a documentary on the sets, radio times listings, 8 mm footage from on set and a photo gallery. As good as it gets really. 4 stars in total – it’s a 3 star story but a 5 star DVD production, so on average 4.

This is a story that reminds me of The Key to Time story arc in Tom Bakers era, but this gem of a tale in which The Doctor, Susan Ian and Barbara are tasked with finding microkeys for a machine called The Conscience of Marinus and have travel to various parts of the planet to retrieve them.This is a rare story by Terry Nation that is not all about Daleks which became his most famous creation and shows just how talented he was as a writer and must have been the inspiration for when the producers were looking for a different way of telling several stories with one main arc going them for one of the 4th doctors seasons.There are commentaries from the cast and crew and extra features.This has to be in your stash of classic who specially to get a totally different feel of a story from the creator of The Daleks.