The Keys of Marinus
Doctor Who Serials
"The Sea of Death"
"The Velvet Web"
"The Screaming Jungle"
"The Snows of Terror"
"Sentence of Death"
"The Keys of Marinus"
We skipped the Marco Polo serial because they don't have it complete. It was a special feature on the disc but my friend who collects the DVDs thinks they will animate it at some point so we can go back then.
We watched The Keys of Marinus on Monday. It was an interesting serial and it had the Doctor and his companions going all over a planet, starting in an island surrounded by acid water and ending up in a courtroom. It was a lot of fun! Susan did too much screaming and I did really want to slap her throughout, but that seems par for the course lately. Barbara was brave and awesome and I'm starting to be quite fond of her. There was a good chunk of the serial where the Doctor was elsewhere, kinda pulling a Gandalf so the rest of the characters could shine I think.
Anyway... the plot!
They have just returned from their adventure with Marco Polo and Ian is wearing a tunic/shirt thing he got during the adventure. Barbara traded in her awesome pants to my chagrin but oh well. There were these weird looking creatures showing up in one-man submarines. They were called Voord and were trying to take over the island and it's because there is this giant machine on the island that is guarded by a guy kind of like a monk named Arbitan. He explains the machine started as a judicial system but then eliminated evil thoughts from people in the society. The Voord aren't controlled by the machine anymore. It had been like 2000 years since anyone committed any crimes. The next bit I kinda missed (because people were talking at my house) but Arbitan wanted them to get five keys to upgrade the machine or something and he has one of them and he wants the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara to get the other four. He explains he's sent people off the island to find them but no one has come back. They actually say no, but Arbitan puts a forcefield around the TARDIS and they can't leave until they do this for Arbitan. I kinda liked that they were like "yeah, eff this, we are leaving" for once instead of just doing what the first person they ran into told them.
Arbitan has these sweet watches they they can program to teleport them to close to the keys so they can grab them and come back. But much like a D&D adventure or episode of Firefly, it's not that simple. The first place they go, Barbara gets there first. It seems like she has been there for awhile and it looks like a Roman palace and they are offered whatever they want. Everyone thinks this is awesome and doesn't question it. Barbara realizes they are under a hypnotic suggestion and they are seeing what they want to see and the city is actually terrible. It's being run by giant brains in jars with huge eyes. They find Arbitan's missing daughter, who has the key and they eventually escape after destroying the brains in the jar. This other guy tags along who was with Sabetha (Arbitan's daughter) called Altos. So that was a thing. It was a really weird side story that could have been it's own story but they continued on their adventure. The Doctor says he will go ahead and get the last key and meet them at the city it is located in while the others go to the second spot.
The Screaming Jungle is where Barbara, Ian, Susan, Sabetha and Altos end up. It's kind of like what is imagined as a South American hidden temple in the pulps with loads of traps and such. Barbara finds a key (but it's a fake one to throw people off) and is captured by the temple. The others figure that she just used her teleport device to go to the next place and they all leave except Ian who continues to look for the real key. The jungle itself is alive and trying to kill all of them. A dying scientist tells them where to find the real key and they get it and teleport away JUST IN TIME.
They end up in a frozen wasteland and meet a trapper named Vasor. He brings them back to his cabin and Ian decides to go looking for Susan, Altos and Sabetha. Vasor gives him some furs and is hoping the wolves will eat Ian. Ian find Altos and escapes from the wolves and finds Altos. Altos tells him that Vasor is actually a dick and they go back to rescue Susan. Meanwhile, Susan has discovered that Vasor has stolen the keys and when she accuses of him of the theft, he starts to get kinda rapey. Luckily, Altos and Ian arrive JUST IN TIME and they force Vasor to bring them to where he saw Susan and Sabetha last. They are in ice caves and things look bad as they are unable to light more fires so they go wandering through the caves to try and escape.
Eventually, they all reunite but Vasor keeps going on about demons in the cave and then destroys a rope bridge and runs off so they can't escape. I mean, seriously, what a jerk. So they find the key being guarded by knights that are frozen but revived when they try and take the key. The knights try and kill them, but they escape and repair the bridge. They go back to Vasor's cabin and the knights follow them and kill Vasor. They teleport away JUST IN TIME.
They end up in a city that is very modern. A DUDE'S BEEN MURDERED AND THE POLICE ARREST IAN. The Doctor shows up and says he'll be Ian's lawyer. The justice system is that you are guilty until proven innocent and have to prove your innocence beyond a shadow of a doubt so the Doctor has his work cut out for him. The person murdered was Eprin, a friend of Altos. The key is gone and Eprin is dead and Ian's on the hook. They figure out that one of the guards is part of the plot to frame Ian but the guard is murdered too. It turns out it was the guard's wife, but I couldn't exactly work out why she did it. Anyway, she kidnapped Susan and they rescue Susan and clear Ian and go back to the island.
Arbitan has been murdered but they don't know that. One of the Voord is pretending to be Arbitan and they have given him all of the keys but one. The Doctor frees Sabetha and Altos and they give the Voord the fake key. It destroys the machine and the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara all escape to the TARDIS JUST IN TIME.
I don't know what happened to Sabetha and Altos. I was kinda lost at the end because so much was going on and they kept moving around so quickly. I hope that doesn't make me sound stupid. To be fair, we had more guests than normal for Doctor Who night so I think I missed some stuff.
I'd say it was a fun serial. I wish we had time to stay on the different parts of the world. It felt kinda rushed at parts. The Doctor was missing for a good chunk of it, but I thought Barbara continued to shine as an awesome character.
I didn't really understand what happened to the world after the machine was gone. Did it descend into chaos? I don't know if I missed stuff or if it wasn't explained.
I also thought it was interesting that Susan and Ian seem to want to go back to their own time. It seems like since the reboot, all of the companions are like, screw modern Britain, running with the Doctor is way more awesome. We talked about it at my house and one of my friends thought it was a difference in life in Britain in the 1960s versus the early 2000s. I thought it was more the types of companions the Doctor had. Ian and Barbara both have professional jobs and such, whereas someone like Rose Tyler or Donna Noble didn't have much to go back to. The only thing Amy really had to go back to was Rory and he just tagged along. Eventually, Amy and Rory were getting more attached to their jobs and their lives but Rose and Donna didn't seem to have much to go back to. I don't know, what do you all think?
Thanks for reading, I feel like this was a long one!
"The Sea of Death"
"The Velvet Web"
"The Screaming Jungle"
"The Snows of Terror"
"Sentence of Death"
"The Keys of Marinus"
We skipped the Marco Polo serial because they don't have it complete. It was a special feature on the disc but my friend who collects the DVDs thinks they will animate it at some point so we can go back then.
We watched The Keys of Marinus on Monday. It was an interesting serial and it had the Doctor and his companions going all over a planet, starting in an island surrounded by acid water and ending up in a courtroom. It was a lot of fun! Susan did too much screaming and I did really want to slap her throughout, but that seems par for the course lately. Barbara was brave and awesome and I'm starting to be quite fond of her. There was a good chunk of the serial where the Doctor was elsewhere, kinda pulling a Gandalf so the rest of the characters could shine I think.
Anyway... the plot!
They have just returned from their adventure with Marco Polo and Ian is wearing a tunic/shirt thing he got during the adventure. Barbara traded in her awesome pants to my chagrin but oh well. There were these weird looking creatures showing up in one-man submarines. They were called Voord and were trying to take over the island and it's because there is this giant machine on the island that is guarded by a guy kind of like a monk named Arbitan. He explains the machine started as a judicial system but then eliminated evil thoughts from people in the society. The Voord aren't controlled by the machine anymore. It had been like 2000 years since anyone committed any crimes. The next bit I kinda missed (because people were talking at my house) but Arbitan wanted them to get five keys to upgrade the machine or something and he has one of them and he wants the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara to get the other four. He explains he's sent people off the island to find them but no one has come back. They actually say no, but Arbitan puts a forcefield around the TARDIS and they can't leave until they do this for Arbitan. I kinda liked that they were like "yeah, eff this, we are leaving" for once instead of just doing what the first person they ran into told them.
Arbitan has these sweet watches they they can program to teleport them to close to the keys so they can grab them and come back. But much like a D&D adventure or episode of Firefly, it's not that simple. The first place they go, Barbara gets there first. It seems like she has been there for awhile and it looks like a Roman palace and they are offered whatever they want. Everyone thinks this is awesome and doesn't question it. Barbara realizes they are under a hypnotic suggestion and they are seeing what they want to see and the city is actually terrible. It's being run by giant brains in jars with huge eyes. They find Arbitan's missing daughter, who has the key and they eventually escape after destroying the brains in the jar. This other guy tags along who was with Sabetha (Arbitan's daughter) called Altos. So that was a thing. It was a really weird side story that could have been it's own story but they continued on their adventure. The Doctor says he will go ahead and get the last key and meet them at the city it is located in while the others go to the second spot.
The Screaming Jungle is where Barbara, Ian, Susan, Sabetha and Altos end up. It's kind of like what is imagined as a South American hidden temple in the pulps with loads of traps and such. Barbara finds a key (but it's a fake one to throw people off) and is captured by the temple. The others figure that she just used her teleport device to go to the next place and they all leave except Ian who continues to look for the real key. The jungle itself is alive and trying to kill all of them. A dying scientist tells them where to find the real key and they get it and teleport away JUST IN TIME.
They end up in a frozen wasteland and meet a trapper named Vasor. He brings them back to his cabin and Ian decides to go looking for Susan, Altos and Sabetha. Vasor gives him some furs and is hoping the wolves will eat Ian. Ian find Altos and escapes from the wolves and finds Altos. Altos tells him that Vasor is actually a dick and they go back to rescue Susan. Meanwhile, Susan has discovered that Vasor has stolen the keys and when she accuses of him of the theft, he starts to get kinda rapey. Luckily, Altos and Ian arrive JUST IN TIME and they force Vasor to bring them to where he saw Susan and Sabetha last. They are in ice caves and things look bad as they are unable to light more fires so they go wandering through the caves to try and escape.
Eventually, they all reunite but Vasor keeps going on about demons in the cave and then destroys a rope bridge and runs off so they can't escape. I mean, seriously, what a jerk. So they find the key being guarded by knights that are frozen but revived when they try and take the key. The knights try and kill them, but they escape and repair the bridge. They go back to Vasor's cabin and the knights follow them and kill Vasor. They teleport away JUST IN TIME.
They end up in a city that is very modern. A DUDE'S BEEN MURDERED AND THE POLICE ARREST IAN. The Doctor shows up and says he'll be Ian's lawyer. The justice system is that you are guilty until proven innocent and have to prove your innocence beyond a shadow of a doubt so the Doctor has his work cut out for him. The person murdered was Eprin, a friend of Altos. The key is gone and Eprin is dead and Ian's on the hook. They figure out that one of the guards is part of the plot to frame Ian but the guard is murdered too. It turns out it was the guard's wife, but I couldn't exactly work out why she did it. Anyway, she kidnapped Susan and they rescue Susan and clear Ian and go back to the island.
Arbitan has been murdered but they don't know that. One of the Voord is pretending to be Arbitan and they have given him all of the keys but one. The Doctor frees Sabetha and Altos and they give the Voord the fake key. It destroys the machine and the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara all escape to the TARDIS JUST IN TIME.
I don't know what happened to Sabetha and Altos. I was kinda lost at the end because so much was going on and they kept moving around so quickly. I hope that doesn't make me sound stupid. To be fair, we had more guests than normal for Doctor Who night so I think I missed some stuff.
I'd say it was a fun serial. I wish we had time to stay on the different parts of the world. It felt kinda rushed at parts. The Doctor was missing for a good chunk of it, but I thought Barbara continued to shine as an awesome character.
I didn't really understand what happened to the world after the machine was gone. Did it descend into chaos? I don't know if I missed stuff or if it wasn't explained.
I also thought it was interesting that Susan and Ian seem to want to go back to their own time. It seems like since the reboot, all of the companions are like, screw modern Britain, running with the Doctor is way more awesome. We talked about it at my house and one of my friends thought it was a difference in life in Britain in the 1960s versus the early 2000s. I thought it was more the types of companions the Doctor had. Ian and Barbara both have professional jobs and such, whereas someone like Rose Tyler or Donna Noble didn't have much to go back to. The only thing Amy really had to go back to was Rory and he just tagged along. Eventually, Amy and Rory were getting more attached to their jobs and their lives but Rose and Donna didn't seem to have much to go back to. I don't know, what do you all think?
Thanks for reading, I feel like this was a long one!