The Keys of Marinus

This story from Dalek creator Terry Nation begins with the episode the Sea of Death. It is in my view an excellent opening episode. It features an intriguing, well written plot with the TARDIS crew searching a strange planet. The design of the planet and its Voord creatures is very good indeed, ideas such as seas of acid and beaches of glass are cleverly used to create a truly interesting and exciting alien planet. The Voord look good, there is menace and suspense, an excellent alien landscape and building design, a proficient script and quality acting all round which gives a 10/10 opening episode to the story.

However, episodes 2-4 are decent but a little disappointing in comparison. The idea of the story means each episode of the first 5 takes place in a different location with a self contained adventure searching for the hidden Keys of Marinus. This really would be a great idea for a story but is a pity when the original world in the opening episode is so well designed. Episode 2 has a hugely different location and features the crew suffering mind control. This second episode is very good in most aspects but a few less impressive aspects such as a minor plot hole cause its quality to drop from the high of part 1. This plot hole is that Barbara is meant to travel, via a kind of teleportation device, just a minute before the rest of the travellers and yet in that minute before they join her numerous things are meant to have happened.

Episodes 3 and 4 are not as interesting or well executed as the first part either with episode 4 the weakest. Even then it is not bad at all it is just a bit underwhelming. Episodes 5 and 6 return to a higher standard and are like a murder mystery. Very good but they still are not a match for the top quality first part.

My Ratings: Episode 1 - 10/10, Episode 2 - 8/10, Episode 3 - 7.5/10, Episode 4 - 7/10, Episode 5 - 9/10, Episode 6 - 9/10

Overall: 8.42/10

The MacGuffins of Marinus. The Tardis crew is stranded and bounces from one location to another without much of anything terribly interesting happening in any of them. Somehow, despite the frequent location changes, the story seems to crawl. This might be unsurprising considering that the show is about bending the laws of time but for Terry Nation to be able to manipulate the viewers' relative experience and nearly halt time as this serial slogs on is a real technical marvel. Easily skipped when watching through the classics.

An interesting concept for an episode, 'The Keys of Marinus' takes the TARDIS team on a 'planet-trotting' quest to find the titular keys. This story is very unique, with each episode taking place somewhere different. The big cast of characters is particularly enjoyable, and it's fun to see them all go off to different places and have different adventures. The Doctor doesn't even show up for two of the episodes!

I particularly enjoyed the penultimate episode inside the courtroom ('Sentence of Death'), with Ian on trial and the Doctor defending him. It highlights the relationship that is building between these two and the considerate nature of the Doctor begins to shine through more strongly.

Unfortunately, as is the case with many Hartnell-era episodes, the pace is very slow. Even with the variety in the locations in each episode, this story still feels like it's dragged out. Overall, this is a pretty mediocre, badly-paced adventure, with some enjoyable and interesting aspects that make it a 5/10 for me.

I really like the keys of marinus, I think the reason I enjoy it so much is because when I was a child I grew up watching a lot of "Quest" based shows and cartoons where the main characters would be searching for an item or a small piece of a large item before the bad guys could find it.

The acting is...solid all round, nothing spectacular but sometimes you can only do so much with the material you're given and while I do like this story I am not blind to the fact it is quite weak in terms of plot.

William Hartnell and Jacqueline Hill both deserve special praise however, with Jacqueline being excellent in episode two where she plays a Barbara that is on her own and on the run and William Hartnell having the strongest material in episode 5 where the doctor must try and acquit Ian.

All in all, a vastly underrated story.