View Poll Results: How would you rate The Keys of Marinus?
- Voters
- 8. You may not vote on this poll
-
10: LOOK at that FANTASTIC city!
1 12.50% -
9: It's Barbara's travel dial: there's blood on it
0 0% -
8: Hmmm?
0 0% -
7: I'm going ahead
1 12.50% -
6: Besides which, it's too warm
3 37.50% -
5: Machines can make laws but they cannot preserve justice
2 25.00% -
4: It's just filthy rags!
1 12.50% -
3: ...you could lend her hers
0 0% -
2: if you had your shoes...
0 0% -
1: Besides which it's too warm
0 0%
Results 1 to 10 of 10
-
30th Nov 2011, 7:56 AM #1
Rate and Discuss: The Keys of Marinus
The Doctor and co go on their first quest, one that takes in filthy rags, potential rapists, men trapped in ice, a screaming jungle and a holiday for the Doctor!
What do you think of Keys of Marinus?
I've just got my handcuffs and my truncheon and that's enough.
-
30th Nov 2011, 8:56 AM #2
Not nearly as bad as Raymond Cussick would have you believe!
Pity. I have no understanding of the word. It is not registered in my vocabulary bank. EXTERMINATE!
-
30th Nov 2011, 11:49 AM #3
- Join Date
- Feb 2007
- Posts
- 3,622
I love this story. I would of loved to have seen it turned into a feature film in the 60's. The cardboard Voord plunging to it's death in part one is a bit daft, but I can see beyond the limitations. It's a fantastic quest adventure. I don't want to come up with ten reasons why it's great but I remember watching it on the BSB Dr Who weekend. And I still find the brains screaming when the jars are smashed up quite blood curdling.
And there's also the unintentional comedy of "Now Barbara! Now!" when Ian and Barbara get their travel dials back. And for an early 60's show this story is quite dark in places. Could you imagine Vasor in a scene all alone with Amy Pond?
-
30th Nov 2011, 1:20 PM #4
The trouble with this story is that it follows directly from the rich dialogue and sumptuous set and costume design of Marco Polo. We have rubbish sets and seriously insipid dialogue. I part 1 the cramped studio means that people have to be blind not to notice the building and the subs sooner than they do, and that poor Carole Anne Ford has to amble painfully slowly around so that she doesn't cover the distance of the set before the sinister music and the creepy Voord actually come in. People intrude on scenes too early on more than one occasion. Ian says he would have thought the pyramid was impregnable immediately after no less than five people, including himself, have gained access to it without even trying. Then there's the miming of the force field that Carole Anne Ford ruins completely by walking in front of William Russell's frantic hand movements, the cardboard Voord and the incredibly poor stabbing of Arbitan.
Unfortunately it doesn't get better. The premise is fine but the execution is frankly dreadful. There is a lot of confusion about how much time has elapsed, with the writing sometimes running as though the same time has passed for the characters on screen and the viewers, despite the narrative actually running straight on. Vasor's actions make no sense. If he wanted Ian dead and Barbara for 'companionship' why not kill him when he was uncoscious and take Barbara back to the hut alone? Why all the fuss about that gorge in the cave when Ian, Barbara and a bunch of Thals jumped a worse one on Skaro? The business in Millennius relies on some very inept criminals indeed (one of them gives himself away with the 'but you can't know that because I-' things twice and the prosecutor gives himself away by not simply waiting until Ian had been executed to collect the Key. For that matter, why did he have a bag over his head when he of all people would have had the authority to be there collecting the stuff anyway?!
And of course there is the absurdity of Yartek disguising himself as Arbitan despite having great big handlebars on his head.
That's not to say there isn't some good stuff here. Ian and Barbara's scenes alone are wonderfully acted, and Hartnell clearly a) benefited from his holiday and b) loved the material he was given when he got back. Unfortunately it remains an example of hack writing that was way beyond the scope of what could be achieved on the show at the time, and it does show.
-
30th Nov 2011, 2:33 PM #5
Well... while I can't really argue with a word Jason's written, I do find The Keys of Marinus a very pleasant journey to take, so I've given it a 6. It's fun, and that's not a crime.
-
1st Dec 2011, 12:55 AM #6
I think I've mentioned this on another thread recently, but can't now think where - anyway, I got the Target version of this at Christmas 1980, when I was 9. At the time, it was just THE most exciting book - so many different stories, some great cliffhangers, just brilliant.
I've seen the story twice, maybe three times, since then (most recently this Summer when I got the DVD) and each time it's just such a crushing disappointment that the TV version is not only so inferior to the book, but so inferior to the whole of the rest of season 1. As well as the various faults Jason's mentioned above, I'd also like to add the 'guest regulars' of Altos and Sabetha, who are just awful (particularly him) and mark a real sense of 'am dram' to the whole thing. I guess we should admire the ambition - and yet, when that ambition has convincingly given us Skaro and 12th Century China, it's perhaps fair to say that something went wrong on Keys that thankfully didn't go wrong elsewhere in that first year. It's just... awful.
-
1st Dec 2011, 8:29 AM #7
I agree with Andrew and Jason- the premise is great, the book was wonderful, on TV it was disappointing. That said I do rather like the bits in the City of Morphoton- there's some great bits in that sequence.
I've just got my handcuffs and my truncheon and that's enough.
-
1st Dec 2011, 8:31 AM #8
The thing I love about the stuff in Morphoton is how Barbara manges to get herself locked up, and the people searching for her have no idea that they have sucessfully incarcerated her by accident!
-
1st Dec 2011, 8:35 AM #9
I always laugh at the Doctor and Ian examining an old cup thinking it's an electron microscope!
I've just got my handcuffs and my truncheon and that's enough.
-
3rd Dec 2011, 4:12 PM #10
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
- Location
- Loughton
- Posts
- 11,593
Well isn't it?
I pretty much agree with the "The premis is good..." factor. The trial is good, the jungle is pretty weak, Morphoton not bad and the ice caves section promised more than it delivered.
Average fare. 5/10
Similar Threads
-
Rate and Discuss: The Sensorites
By SiHart in forum ...to Season 1!Replies: 10Last Post: 21st Dec 2011, 11:40 AM -
The Stageplays: The Seven Keys to Doomsday
By Anthony Williams in forum Big Finish and BBC AudiosReplies: 9Last Post: 31st Oct 2011, 3:51 PM -
Rate and Discuss: The Almost People
By SiHart in forum The New SeriesReplies: 135Last Post: 26th Jun 2011, 12:25 AM -
The Keys of Marinus DVD - and it's got blood on it!
By Antony Cox in forum DVD and Blu-rayReplies: 178Last Post: 22nd Oct 2009, 8:12 PM -
Rate And Discuss 3.7: 42
By Pip Madeley in forum The New SeriesReplies: 87Last Post: 9th Jun 2007, 3:01 PM
PSAudios 6.1. Bless You Doctor Who
[/URL] (Click for large version) Doctor Who A thrilling two-part adventure starring Brendan Jones & Paul Monk & Paul Monk Bless You,...
23rd Nov 2020, 3:02 PM