The Keys Of Marinus

Series 1

Title - The Keys Of Marinus

Production Code - E

Serial arc/story - #005

Episodes:

"The Sea Of Death" (also the alternate arc title)

"The Velvet Web"

"The Screaming Jungle"

"The Snows Of Terror"

"Sentence Of Death"

"The Keys Of Marinus"

Original air dates - April 11 - May 16, 1964

Writer - Terry Nation

Director - John Gorrie

Doctor - First Doctor - William Hartnell

Yay! I'm back! Randomly decided to sit and watch this serial tonight. And I've bookmarked the playlist for the next arc that I've not seen, The Sensorites. I did see The Aztecs already, thanks BBCA 50th anniversary specials and Netflix! Will be rewatching though, just for continuity's sake. I've also decided that when and if the time comes that I find myself having watched all available episodes of the classic series, I will continue with the movie and the new series, in their proper order - meaning I will watch 8's regen minisode before I watch Rose. Fantastic! Allons-y! Geronimo! What color are my kidneys?

haha Ian's Chinese Hawaiian style shirt - something he apparently picked up when they met Marco Polo...

So...our premise - 

The TARDIS lands on an island on an unknown planet. After venturing outside, Susan gets separated from the others and taken into the Tower. There the group meets Arbitan, a monk and the creator of the Consciousness of Marinus, a giant computer that keeps law and order for the planet. Arbitan enlists the Doctor and his companions to find the Keys which will control the computer and which will reset it, giving it back control over everyone on the planet. 

After the first episode where we meet Arbitan and the group gets sent on it's way, the rest of the episodes follow their journeys to find the Keys and return to the Tower. Along the way, the group meets others that were looking for the Keys, some with good intentions, some not, and they face a number of trials, including an actual courtroom trial for Ian, while on their search. 

Here we meet the classic villains, the Voord. Their costumes are rather simple - a wetsuit and gloves, flippers, and a full face mask/helmet with a pointed back end. Low tech, but effective. 

Most of what the group faces are typical sci-fi "danger" - plants that move, statues that move, brains in jars...

Not sure when the talking-brains-in-jars thing originated in sci-fi but it's used to full effect here. Very reminiscent of the more recent famous-head-in-a-jar gag from Futurama. I'd guess this was an influence. 

Nice that with this arc, we have episodes where the Doctor doesn't even feature. (Apparently Hartnell was on holiday during part of the time...) Early versions of the "Doctor-Lite" episodes of the reboot. But it's great that we get to see the companions interacting with each other and with those they meet instead of just being there for the Doctor's instructions and orders. Shame though that once again, we have Susan the victim, the whiny, impetuous child. She was supposed to be smart, right? Why does she keep having to be the one to be rescued? Not that Barbara doesn't need her fair share of rescuing, but at least she does other stuff, like keep Ian from getting his head whacked and eventually figuring out who the real criminal accomplice was at the end of the last episode. 

And nice on that too, a murder mystery in the middle of an arc on a sci-fi show :)

And one with a decent twist at the end to boot!

But does Barbara always have to look so dour? The oddly stiff, helmet hair bob and weird neckline sweater don't do her any favors. 

Interesting though how those in the early 60s thought computers would take over the world, or at least could. Having a whole planet's population get their law and order and justice from and all knowing computer? Yeah...we aren't there yet. Computers rule our lives, sure, but law and order is still a mandate of the people and still controlled by human thought and emotion. I'm kinda glad I don't have to rely on a cold, calculating computer in order to seek justice. Though I'm sure it would work a lot faster...

Lovely bits of miniature work for the landing and leaving of the TARDIS.

I wonder if they'll ever bring the Voord back to the new series, and if they do, will they keep the costumes as low tech? The Cybermen are still just people in metal-ish looking costumes, so why not the Voord in wetsuits and masks?

EXTRA

"The Sets Of Marinus"

Little bonus video at the end of the playlist I used about the sets and designs of the story arc. Moral of it - everything was done as cheaply as possible - and sometimes it looks like it, other times, it looks just as good as what is done in this day and age, particularly the Consciousness computer. Still very futuristic looking, even by today's standards. And all it was was some silver painted pipes, a many sided, lit box made by the visual effects department, and some black curtaining that cost them nothing to use as the background. They made the best of what they had and what they could do. 

I watched the episodes here - http://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x2k83v_greendude33_season-1-the-keys-of-marinus-005/1#video=xymu8x

I can't say that these will necessarily still be online whenever it is that you are reading this, but I know that the Dailymotion user is one who continues to upload classic Who videos. It's the same user I've gotten all of my other First Doctor episodes from (aside from the one arc on Netflix...which was the arc used in the 50th anniversary First Doc special...)

They Keys Of Marinus - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Keys_of_Marinus

I will continue to format my heading as I have above, listing all basic info. Too lazy to go back and edit my old posts though. I will also try to link where I've watched episodes online, if I'm not using discs. But I'm pretty sure most of the classic episodes out there in the public view are streaming online someplace...