Doctor Who 18.06 The Keeper of Traken
DOCTOR: "If I knew everything that was going to happen, where would the fun be?"
Overview
Tom Baker's penultimate adventure as the Doctor, this is also the first in a loose trilogy of stories that mark the transition to a new era of the show. I find my reaction to this one quite hard to summarise - it's a curious mixture of good and bad. There's a lot of witty banter and interesting character dynamics in the mix, and the main characters each get a decent share of the action, with positive contributions all round. On paper, it's a solid story. On-screen, however, the writing doesn't always translate as well as it might - the special effects have improved since the '60s and '70s, and they've done the best they could with sets on their shoestring budget, but there's a terribly theatrical, Shakespearean ring to the whole production that I feel undercuts the story in an unfortunate manner. Even Tom Baker's performance, once so energetic, has a subdued and melancholy feel to it as he nears the end of his run, although his Doctor remains as charmingly charismatic as ever.
This is Adric's first and only story as solo companion to the Doctor, after Romana and K9's departure from the Tardis in the previous adventure, Warrior's Gate - Nyssa is introduced in this story but doesn't become a companion until Logopolis. I'm always in two minds about Adric. There's always that part of me that just barely remembers him from my childhood, and remembers him fondly because childish eyes are less discerning - plus knowing that he is heading toward a tragic early death at the end of the next series generates automatic sympathy. I really want to like him. He is as cute as a button, underneath that unfortunate pudding-basin haircut and in spite of the unflattering outfit he got stuck with for the duration of his run. The character concept is decent enough, he gets to make important plot contributions and he gets some good lines, at least on paper; he can be a bit sulky and petulant at times, sure, and doesn't always make the right choices, but that's realistic for a precocious and naïve teenage boy. It's just a terrible shame Matthew Waterhouse is such a weak and wooden actor, because where the character falls down is in the execution.
The Doctor did not invite Adric aboard. He stowed away. That may or may not be a factor in the sometimes thorny relationship they develop over time, although the different personality traits that come to the fore with the Doctor's forthcoming regeneration are probably more of a factor there. The Fourth Doctor seems to like him well enough and to appreciate his company: the boy is intelligent and pro-active enough to be extremely useful at times, someone that the Doctor can talk science with instead of at, and he looks up to the Doctor as a mentor, which is a role he enjoys, on the whole - he loves being able to expound at length and impress a suitable audience with his knowledge and experience. Adric's immaturity and naivety is a two-edged sword, however. He is the youngest companion the Doctor has had in a good long while - young in both years and maturity - and already here in their first adventure together since leaving Adric's home universe, their first and only adventure alone together, there are occasional hints that the Doctor isn't entirely comfortable with the level of responsibility that comes with a companion who is still child enough to need so much instruction and guidance, for whom he is perhaps more of a father-figure than a friend. The Doctor is tired, nearing the end of his regeneration (not that he knows that yet), and Adric's perpetual thirst for knowledge and need for validation seem to wear on him at times, even as he appreciates the opportunity to grandstand under the guise of teaching.
This story also sees the introduction of Nyssa, who will later become a companion to the Doctor, although there is no sign of that here. It's a shame that this is probably the strongest storyline she ever gets - she is allowed to be very pro-active and gutsy here, whereas her contributions seem to fade away once she is aboard the Tardis as a regular and competing for screen time with two other companions, both rather louder than her.
Observations
Random thoughts while watching:
Tom Baker is really tall and Matthew Waterhouse is very short. The two of them standing side by side is always funny! Talk about little and large. It's a visual that really reinforces the impression of Adric as a mere child with the Doctor as his pseudo father-figure.
The Doctor's hair has become terribly bouffant!
I believe this adventure is the only time the Doctor has ever had a solo male companion. He has travelled with solo female companions on numerous occasions, but never before or since this one excursion with Adric has he had a solo male companion.
Adric does not come from this universe. That makes him even more alien than the Doctor. This story is his first experience of our universe. The cultural barrier may be part of the reason he can be so clueless at times.
Following on from Romana, the Doctor's fellow Gallifreyan, it is interesting that the producers chose to give him another companion familiar enough with advanced technology to be comfortable with the Tardis controls. At the start of this story, the Doctor comments on how fast Adric is getting the hang of the console; in later stories we even see him operating it on his own. Nyssa, too, is an alien character completely at home with advanced technology. They make a curious contrast to the less advanced human companions the Doctor more often takes around with him.
The Traken Union, we are told, is famous for its universal harmony. "A whole empire held together by...well, by people just being terribly nice to each other," according to the Doctor. This is meant to be a wonderful thing. It sounds dreadfully boring to me. What we see of it reinforces that first impression!
The Keeper of Traken is able to take control of the Tardis and even to materialise on it briefly. That's some impressive power! It's also a fairly novel way of providing exposition and yanking the Doctor off-course into an unexpected adventure, I suppose.
The Keeper of Traken has heard of the Doctor, who is apparently famed for his intelligence. He's come a long, long way since his reclusive first incarnation, who liked to keep himself to himself!
It amuses me that the Keeper seems somewhat miffed that Adric has never heard of the Traken Union, although he acknowledges his own vanity in assuming that the whole universe had heard the history of their empire. The Doctor brushes it off by saying that Adric isn't local. I'd wager any amount that there are plenty of worlds out there, even in this universe, where they have also never heard of Traken. Earth, for one!
I get a little confused over the origins of the Melkur statue, which apparently turned up on the planet from somewhere out in space, was too evil to survive in Traken's atmosphere of universal harmony, and was instantly calcified. The Keeper says that they have had many such visitations, the same thing happened to each of them, and Melkur is the name used for them all, yet we only ever see or hear of the one. Maybe the others have all long since disintegrated and this is the only one they currently have? It isn't completely clear.
I'm amused by the dusty old handwritten books the Doctor produces for him and Adric to leaf through in search of any reference to Traken - his old time logs, he says, before he stopped bothering to keep them. Adric finds them about as confusing to read as one might expect!
Kassia is an odd character. We are told that she was made consul because of her purity of spirit, but what we are shown is that she is mostly an object of ridicule because of her lifelong devotion to the Melkur statue, having been made responsible for tending it when she was a mere child. She's terribly inconsistent and comes across as more than a little unbalanced, which begs the question of why anyone thought she would be a suitable consul in the first place. She and Tremas are presented to us as a devoted newlywed couple, and her desire not to lose her new husband to his imminent Keepership is offered as her main motivation for her traitorous actions...but Tremas doesn't seem that bothered to be rid of her, by the end of the story! Given how hysterical and murderous she turns out to be, I can't say I blame him. My word but Sheila Ruskin doesn't half over-act!
While everyone does tend to be terribly nice most of the time, I don't actually see all that much evidence of harmony among the consuls of Traken. Rather, they spend a lot of time disagreeing with one another in this story! I'm glad, though, to know that universal harmony doesn't mean they can't think for themselves. Every Traken character we meet has a very distinct personality.
I especially like Proctor Neman and his fondness for bribes, because it tickles me to know that even amid the universal harmony of the Traken Union, government officials are not above petty corruption.
Tremas is a lovely character - I love the way he strikes up such an instant rapport with the Doctor, bonding as fellow scientists, and that he so willingly sticks his neck out to save the Doctor and Adric's lives - but whenever I watch this story I am always acutely aware that he is wearing a face that the Master will very shortly take from him. Hindsight may be a wonderful thing, but foreknowledge can have a huge impact on one's appreciation of a show and character!
It does tickle me rather that while the Doctor is struggling to unlock one side of a double gate, Adric just strolls over and pushes the other side open. Because it isn't actually locked. The Doctor doesn't get the wind taken out of his sails like that often enough!
It isn't ever explained why the Melkur statue that turns out to be the Master's Tardis regains the ability to move when its evil nature is supposed to keep it eternally trapped and destroyed by the universal harmony of Traken. I can hypothesize that it happens because the Keeper's power is weakening as his death approaches, time of transition and all - we are certainly told that this has been causing difficult weather conditions, so it is the most likely explanation. But we aren't actually told.
The complacence of the Traken people reminds me of the Time Lords and Gallifrey - set in their ways, unchanging, for thousands of years, stale and stagnant. That's the trouble with that universal harmony of theirs - they don't seem to have anything left to strive for, so they just stagnate as they are and nothing ever really changes. Boring!
Man, the Keeper doesn't half land the Doctor and Adric in it! He hijacked the Tardis to bring them to Traken and talked them into investigating his forebodings of doom - then when they are brought before him in the midst of a group of very suspicious consuls, he starts yelling about the sanctum being invaded by evil! Because he has seen the Melkur lurking behind them, sure, so he had a reason, but he could have avoided a hell of a lot of trouble for everyone - not to mention several unnecessary deaths - if he'd made himself clear instead of screaming hysterically and then disappearing!
Kassia seems upset when she sees Nyssa tending to Melkur in her place - but it isn't clear if she's upset because she wants to protect her stepdaughter or because she doesn't want her own standing with Melkur to be usurped.
Adric and Nyssa strike up quite a nice little friendship over the course of this story - bonding over science, just as the Doctor and Tremas did. Since Nyssa seems to be the only young person on the whole of Traken, I suppose it's hardly surprising that she should feel drawn to another teenager when one comes along!
There's a heck of a lot more technobabble in this era of Doctor Who than we get in the re-booted show today!
I like that Adric is so good at picking locks. It's a very useful skill for a companion to have! He makes a lot of valuable contributions to this story - researches important discoveries, has useful ideas that impress the Doctor, successfully sabotages the Source to break the Master's link with it. It's just such a shame about the acting.
Okay, so the Doctor, Adric and Tremas are captured in the grove before they can reach the safety of the Tardis. The Foster who captured them is right there. Yet Kassia promptly turns and gloats to Melkur, who responds aloud to her. The Foster should have heard and raised the alarm! Idiots.
Well, the set dressers certainly went all out to give that cell the look of a traditional dungeon - there's even straw on the floor! You'd think an ultra-civilised society such as Traken would have progressed beyond straw on the floor of its prison cells, however infrequently they are used.
Nyssa is a really cool, strong character in this story. I mean, she'd be a hell of a lot cooler if she lost the fairy dress, but just look at her go: she's intelligent, educated, pro-active, resourceful and a very cool head in a crisis. She turns an ion-bonder into a stun gun and stages a jail break - she single-handledly busts her father, the Doctor and Adric out of their straw-strewn dungeon! That's awesome! And she does it all without so much as batting an eyelid, like it's all in a day's work. Yet she's a child of Traken, which has enjoyed a thousand years of total harmony - she can't have ever known such turmoil in her life! What a shame she wasn't allowed to stay this pro-active when she joined the Tardis as a companion.
The Doctor shoots several Fosters in this story! I mean, he shoots them with Nyssa's ion-bonder stun gun, sure, so he's only stunning them rather than killing them, but it still comes as a bit of a shock to see him firing a weapon, no matter what the crisis.
I like that the Doctor takes a pretty hard line with Tremas when he suddenly starts equivocating about showing an outsider the plans for the Source. The Doctor is right - this is the greatest crisis Traken has ever faced and Tremas has already chosen his side; half measures now aren't going to help anyone. It's a nice scene because the Doctor and Tremas have become such good friends, but the Doctor doesn't let that friendship cloud his judgement; when Tremas is wrong and hindering his efforts to save Traken, the Doctor won't hold back from telling him so.
The Doctor must get so fed up of suspicious people resisting his efforts to help them.
To short-circuit the security systems, we are told, the Doctor has to calculate an integer key based on just one out of five components. Tremas protests that the calculation will take thousands of years. The Doctor manages it in a matter of seconds. Clever the Doctor might be, but the thousands of years thing was kind of an exaggeration, no?
Okay, so Melkur destroys the blueprints for the Source manipulator. I hope someone else has a copy stashed away someplace, 'cause if that sucker breaks down at some point in the future (what future?), they're going to be really screwed without those plans!
Nyssa and Adric are both so very clever and capable. They work really well together when the plot allows it. But they do share too many skill sets to work well as a permanent Tardis team, which is probably part of the reason Nyssa fades into the background so much once she becomes a regular companion. Companion groups function best if they all have different skills and resources to offer. Then again, though, Nyssa remains sidelined even after Adric's death.
It takes the Doctor an awfully long time to figure out that Melkur is the Master - but then again, he's only got that statue to go on until very late in the day.
I think it's kind of cool that it's timid, insecure little Luvic who ultimately becomes the new Keeper of Traken, after he'd so nervously demurred at the thought of being nominated earlier, protesting that he didn't have such greatness in him. When it actually comes to the crunch, all his hang-ups just melt away and he doesn't even stop to think, never mind panic, he just does what he has to do to save his people and steps into the breach. That's the stuff heroes are made of - the little heroes, who never know what they are capable of until they are tested.
The end of the story is terribly rushed. There's barely time for the Doctor and Adric to so much as say goodbye, they just go dashing off. What's the rush? The Doctor is assuming that everything is okay now, that the Master has been properly destroyed this time, but he doesn't check and he doesn't wait for even as long as a minute to find out. He just assumes and goes dashing off. And it turns out that he is wrong, the Master has survived and is still on Traken undetected, and terrible things happen as a result.
Hindsight is an absolute killer for this story. I mean, there's Tremas, who is such a lovely, kindly, loyal and brave character, whose every moment is poignant because we know he is not only going to die but have his body stolen by the Master. And then, the biggest kick of all, there's the fact that everything everyone goes through in this story is ultimately completely futile. They put so much effort into saving Traken and its people from the Master, and then by the end of the very next story, Logopolis, Traken has been completely obliterated anyway. Bummer!
Quotable Quotes
DOCTOR: "Adric, I give you a privileged insight into the mystery of time, yes?"
ADRIC: "Yes."
DOCTOR: "Open your mind to adventures beyond imagining, yes?"
ADRIC: "Yes."
DOCTOR: "And you criticise my logic?"
ADRIC: "No. No, I'm just saying that a lot of the time you don't really make sense."
DOCTOR: "Ah. Ah. Oh, you've noticed that, have you? Well, I mean, anyone can talk sense. As long as that's understood, you and I are going to get on splendidly."
DOCTOR: "I thought so."
ADRIC: "Thought what?"
DOCTOR: "I thought you might appreciate it if I gave you the impression I knew what was happening."
DOCTOR: "They say the atmosphere there was so full of goodness that evil just shrivelled up and died. Maybe that's why I never went there."
DOCTOR: "It's probably the usual misunderstanding. We keep running into this sort of thing."
KASSIA: "This evil must be stamped out."
DOCTOR: "Quite! And Adric and I are willing to stamp with the best of them, but let's stamp with some justice and precision."
DOCTOR: "What can't be cured must be endured."
ADRIC: "That's the silliest thing you ever said."
DOCTOR: "Yes, yes, don't listen to me. I never do."
NYSSA: "But why is it so much bigger inside than it is outside?"
ADRIC: "Oh, the Doctor told me that was because it was dimensionally transcendental."
NYSSA: "What does that mean?"
ADRIC: "It means it was bigger inside than outside."
DOCTOR: "It [the Tardis] badly needs an overhaul."
ADRIC: "Then why don't you?"
DOCTOR: "Well, it involves an awful lot of recalculation, and this type's not really my forte."
The Verdict
Overall, this is a strong, well-written story with engaging character interaction, let down slightly by some weak acting and overly theatrical production.
Overview
Tom Baker's penultimate adventure as the Doctor, this is also the first in a loose trilogy of stories that mark the transition to a new era of the show. I find my reaction to this one quite hard to summarise - it's a curious mixture of good and bad. There's a lot of witty banter and interesting character dynamics in the mix, and the main characters each get a decent share of the action, with positive contributions all round. On paper, it's a solid story. On-screen, however, the writing doesn't always translate as well as it might - the special effects have improved since the '60s and '70s, and they've done the best they could with sets on their shoestring budget, but there's a terribly theatrical, Shakespearean ring to the whole production that I feel undercuts the story in an unfortunate manner. Even Tom Baker's performance, once so energetic, has a subdued and melancholy feel to it as he nears the end of his run, although his Doctor remains as charmingly charismatic as ever.
This is Adric's first and only story as solo companion to the Doctor, after Romana and K9's departure from the Tardis in the previous adventure, Warrior's Gate - Nyssa is introduced in this story but doesn't become a companion until Logopolis. I'm always in two minds about Adric. There's always that part of me that just barely remembers him from my childhood, and remembers him fondly because childish eyes are less discerning - plus knowing that he is heading toward a tragic early death at the end of the next series generates automatic sympathy. I really want to like him. He is as cute as a button, underneath that unfortunate pudding-basin haircut and in spite of the unflattering outfit he got stuck with for the duration of his run. The character concept is decent enough, he gets to make important plot contributions and he gets some good lines, at least on paper; he can be a bit sulky and petulant at times, sure, and doesn't always make the right choices, but that's realistic for a precocious and naïve teenage boy. It's just a terrible shame Matthew Waterhouse is such a weak and wooden actor, because where the character falls down is in the execution.
The Doctor did not invite Adric aboard. He stowed away. That may or may not be a factor in the sometimes thorny relationship they develop over time, although the different personality traits that come to the fore with the Doctor's forthcoming regeneration are probably more of a factor there. The Fourth Doctor seems to like him well enough and to appreciate his company: the boy is intelligent and pro-active enough to be extremely useful at times, someone that the Doctor can talk science with instead of at, and he looks up to the Doctor as a mentor, which is a role he enjoys, on the whole - he loves being able to expound at length and impress a suitable audience with his knowledge and experience. Adric's immaturity and naivety is a two-edged sword, however. He is the youngest companion the Doctor has had in a good long while - young in both years and maturity - and already here in their first adventure together since leaving Adric's home universe, their first and only adventure alone together, there are occasional hints that the Doctor isn't entirely comfortable with the level of responsibility that comes with a companion who is still child enough to need so much instruction and guidance, for whom he is perhaps more of a father-figure than a friend. The Doctor is tired, nearing the end of his regeneration (not that he knows that yet), and Adric's perpetual thirst for knowledge and need for validation seem to wear on him at times, even as he appreciates the opportunity to grandstand under the guise of teaching.
This story also sees the introduction of Nyssa, who will later become a companion to the Doctor, although there is no sign of that here. It's a shame that this is probably the strongest storyline she ever gets - she is allowed to be very pro-active and gutsy here, whereas her contributions seem to fade away once she is aboard the Tardis as a regular and competing for screen time with two other companions, both rather louder than her.
Observations
Random thoughts while watching:
Tom Baker is really tall and Matthew Waterhouse is very short. The two of them standing side by side is always funny! Talk about little and large. It's a visual that really reinforces the impression of Adric as a mere child with the Doctor as his pseudo father-figure.
The Doctor's hair has become terribly bouffant!
I believe this adventure is the only time the Doctor has ever had a solo male companion. He has travelled with solo female companions on numerous occasions, but never before or since this one excursion with Adric has he had a solo male companion.
Adric does not come from this universe. That makes him even more alien than the Doctor. This story is his first experience of our universe. The cultural barrier may be part of the reason he can be so clueless at times.
Following on from Romana, the Doctor's fellow Gallifreyan, it is interesting that the producers chose to give him another companion familiar enough with advanced technology to be comfortable with the Tardis controls. At the start of this story, the Doctor comments on how fast Adric is getting the hang of the console; in later stories we even see him operating it on his own. Nyssa, too, is an alien character completely at home with advanced technology. They make a curious contrast to the less advanced human companions the Doctor more often takes around with him.
The Traken Union, we are told, is famous for its universal harmony. "A whole empire held together by...well, by people just being terribly nice to each other," according to the Doctor. This is meant to be a wonderful thing. It sounds dreadfully boring to me. What we see of it reinforces that first impression!
The Keeper of Traken is able to take control of the Tardis and even to materialise on it briefly. That's some impressive power! It's also a fairly novel way of providing exposition and yanking the Doctor off-course into an unexpected adventure, I suppose.
The Keeper of Traken has heard of the Doctor, who is apparently famed for his intelligence. He's come a long, long way since his reclusive first incarnation, who liked to keep himself to himself!
It amuses me that the Keeper seems somewhat miffed that Adric has never heard of the Traken Union, although he acknowledges his own vanity in assuming that the whole universe had heard the history of their empire. The Doctor brushes it off by saying that Adric isn't local. I'd wager any amount that there are plenty of worlds out there, even in this universe, where they have also never heard of Traken. Earth, for one!
I get a little confused over the origins of the Melkur statue, which apparently turned up on the planet from somewhere out in space, was too evil to survive in Traken's atmosphere of universal harmony, and was instantly calcified. The Keeper says that they have had many such visitations, the same thing happened to each of them, and Melkur is the name used for them all, yet we only ever see or hear of the one. Maybe the others have all long since disintegrated and this is the only one they currently have? It isn't completely clear.
I'm amused by the dusty old handwritten books the Doctor produces for him and Adric to leaf through in search of any reference to Traken - his old time logs, he says, before he stopped bothering to keep them. Adric finds them about as confusing to read as one might expect!
Kassia is an odd character. We are told that she was made consul because of her purity of spirit, but what we are shown is that she is mostly an object of ridicule because of her lifelong devotion to the Melkur statue, having been made responsible for tending it when she was a mere child. She's terribly inconsistent and comes across as more than a little unbalanced, which begs the question of why anyone thought she would be a suitable consul in the first place. She and Tremas are presented to us as a devoted newlywed couple, and her desire not to lose her new husband to his imminent Keepership is offered as her main motivation for her traitorous actions...but Tremas doesn't seem that bothered to be rid of her, by the end of the story! Given how hysterical and murderous she turns out to be, I can't say I blame him. My word but Sheila Ruskin doesn't half over-act!
While everyone does tend to be terribly nice most of the time, I don't actually see all that much evidence of harmony among the consuls of Traken. Rather, they spend a lot of time disagreeing with one another in this story! I'm glad, though, to know that universal harmony doesn't mean they can't think for themselves. Every Traken character we meet has a very distinct personality.
I especially like Proctor Neman and his fondness for bribes, because it tickles me to know that even amid the universal harmony of the Traken Union, government officials are not above petty corruption.
Tremas is a lovely character - I love the way he strikes up such an instant rapport with the Doctor, bonding as fellow scientists, and that he so willingly sticks his neck out to save the Doctor and Adric's lives - but whenever I watch this story I am always acutely aware that he is wearing a face that the Master will very shortly take from him. Hindsight may be a wonderful thing, but foreknowledge can have a huge impact on one's appreciation of a show and character!
It does tickle me rather that while the Doctor is struggling to unlock one side of a double gate, Adric just strolls over and pushes the other side open. Because it isn't actually locked. The Doctor doesn't get the wind taken out of his sails like that often enough!
It isn't ever explained why the Melkur statue that turns out to be the Master's Tardis regains the ability to move when its evil nature is supposed to keep it eternally trapped and destroyed by the universal harmony of Traken. I can hypothesize that it happens because the Keeper's power is weakening as his death approaches, time of transition and all - we are certainly told that this has been causing difficult weather conditions, so it is the most likely explanation. But we aren't actually told.
The complacence of the Traken people reminds me of the Time Lords and Gallifrey - set in their ways, unchanging, for thousands of years, stale and stagnant. That's the trouble with that universal harmony of theirs - they don't seem to have anything left to strive for, so they just stagnate as they are and nothing ever really changes. Boring!
Man, the Keeper doesn't half land the Doctor and Adric in it! He hijacked the Tardis to bring them to Traken and talked them into investigating his forebodings of doom - then when they are brought before him in the midst of a group of very suspicious consuls, he starts yelling about the sanctum being invaded by evil! Because he has seen the Melkur lurking behind them, sure, so he had a reason, but he could have avoided a hell of a lot of trouble for everyone - not to mention several unnecessary deaths - if he'd made himself clear instead of screaming hysterically and then disappearing!
Kassia seems upset when she sees Nyssa tending to Melkur in her place - but it isn't clear if she's upset because she wants to protect her stepdaughter or because she doesn't want her own standing with Melkur to be usurped.
Adric and Nyssa strike up quite a nice little friendship over the course of this story - bonding over science, just as the Doctor and Tremas did. Since Nyssa seems to be the only young person on the whole of Traken, I suppose it's hardly surprising that she should feel drawn to another teenager when one comes along!
There's a heck of a lot more technobabble in this era of Doctor Who than we get in the re-booted show today!
I like that Adric is so good at picking locks. It's a very useful skill for a companion to have! He makes a lot of valuable contributions to this story - researches important discoveries, has useful ideas that impress the Doctor, successfully sabotages the Source to break the Master's link with it. It's just such a shame about the acting.
Okay, so the Doctor, Adric and Tremas are captured in the grove before they can reach the safety of the Tardis. The Foster who captured them is right there. Yet Kassia promptly turns and gloats to Melkur, who responds aloud to her. The Foster should have heard and raised the alarm! Idiots.
Well, the set dressers certainly went all out to give that cell the look of a traditional dungeon - there's even straw on the floor! You'd think an ultra-civilised society such as Traken would have progressed beyond straw on the floor of its prison cells, however infrequently they are used.
Nyssa is a really cool, strong character in this story. I mean, she'd be a hell of a lot cooler if she lost the fairy dress, but just look at her go: she's intelligent, educated, pro-active, resourceful and a very cool head in a crisis. She turns an ion-bonder into a stun gun and stages a jail break - she single-handledly busts her father, the Doctor and Adric out of their straw-strewn dungeon! That's awesome! And she does it all without so much as batting an eyelid, like it's all in a day's work. Yet she's a child of Traken, which has enjoyed a thousand years of total harmony - she can't have ever known such turmoil in her life! What a shame she wasn't allowed to stay this pro-active when she joined the Tardis as a companion.
The Doctor shoots several Fosters in this story! I mean, he shoots them with Nyssa's ion-bonder stun gun, sure, so he's only stunning them rather than killing them, but it still comes as a bit of a shock to see him firing a weapon, no matter what the crisis.
I like that the Doctor takes a pretty hard line with Tremas when he suddenly starts equivocating about showing an outsider the plans for the Source. The Doctor is right - this is the greatest crisis Traken has ever faced and Tremas has already chosen his side; half measures now aren't going to help anyone. It's a nice scene because the Doctor and Tremas have become such good friends, but the Doctor doesn't let that friendship cloud his judgement; when Tremas is wrong and hindering his efforts to save Traken, the Doctor won't hold back from telling him so.
The Doctor must get so fed up of suspicious people resisting his efforts to help them.
To short-circuit the security systems, we are told, the Doctor has to calculate an integer key based on just one out of five components. Tremas protests that the calculation will take thousands of years. The Doctor manages it in a matter of seconds. Clever the Doctor might be, but the thousands of years thing was kind of an exaggeration, no?
Okay, so Melkur destroys the blueprints for the Source manipulator. I hope someone else has a copy stashed away someplace, 'cause if that sucker breaks down at some point in the future (what future?), they're going to be really screwed without those plans!
Nyssa and Adric are both so very clever and capable. They work really well together when the plot allows it. But they do share too many skill sets to work well as a permanent Tardis team, which is probably part of the reason Nyssa fades into the background so much once she becomes a regular companion. Companion groups function best if they all have different skills and resources to offer. Then again, though, Nyssa remains sidelined even after Adric's death.
It takes the Doctor an awfully long time to figure out that Melkur is the Master - but then again, he's only got that statue to go on until very late in the day.
I think it's kind of cool that it's timid, insecure little Luvic who ultimately becomes the new Keeper of Traken, after he'd so nervously demurred at the thought of being nominated earlier, protesting that he didn't have such greatness in him. When it actually comes to the crunch, all his hang-ups just melt away and he doesn't even stop to think, never mind panic, he just does what he has to do to save his people and steps into the breach. That's the stuff heroes are made of - the little heroes, who never know what they are capable of until they are tested.
The end of the story is terribly rushed. There's barely time for the Doctor and Adric to so much as say goodbye, they just go dashing off. What's the rush? The Doctor is assuming that everything is okay now, that the Master has been properly destroyed this time, but he doesn't check and he doesn't wait for even as long as a minute to find out. He just assumes and goes dashing off. And it turns out that he is wrong, the Master has survived and is still on Traken undetected, and terrible things happen as a result.
Hindsight is an absolute killer for this story. I mean, there's Tremas, who is such a lovely, kindly, loyal and brave character, whose every moment is poignant because we know he is not only going to die but have his body stolen by the Master. And then, the biggest kick of all, there's the fact that everything everyone goes through in this story is ultimately completely futile. They put so much effort into saving Traken and its people from the Master, and then by the end of the very next story, Logopolis, Traken has been completely obliterated anyway. Bummer!
Quotable Quotes
DOCTOR: "Adric, I give you a privileged insight into the mystery of time, yes?"
ADRIC: "Yes."
DOCTOR: "Open your mind to adventures beyond imagining, yes?"
ADRIC: "Yes."
DOCTOR: "And you criticise my logic?"
ADRIC: "No. No, I'm just saying that a lot of the time you don't really make sense."
DOCTOR: "Ah. Ah. Oh, you've noticed that, have you? Well, I mean, anyone can talk sense. As long as that's understood, you and I are going to get on splendidly."
DOCTOR: "I thought so."
ADRIC: "Thought what?"
DOCTOR: "I thought you might appreciate it if I gave you the impression I knew what was happening."
DOCTOR: "They say the atmosphere there was so full of goodness that evil just shrivelled up and died. Maybe that's why I never went there."
DOCTOR: "It's probably the usual misunderstanding. We keep running into this sort of thing."
KASSIA: "This evil must be stamped out."
DOCTOR: "Quite! And Adric and I are willing to stamp with the best of them, but let's stamp with some justice and precision."
DOCTOR: "What can't be cured must be endured."
ADRIC: "That's the silliest thing you ever said."
DOCTOR: "Yes, yes, don't listen to me. I never do."
NYSSA: "But why is it so much bigger inside than it is outside?"
ADRIC: "Oh, the Doctor told me that was because it was dimensionally transcendental."
NYSSA: "What does that mean?"
ADRIC: "It means it was bigger inside than outside."
DOCTOR: "It [the Tardis] badly needs an overhaul."
ADRIC: "Then why don't you?"
DOCTOR: "Well, it involves an awful lot of recalculation, and this type's not really my forte."
The Verdict
Overall, this is a strong, well-written story with engaging character interaction, let down slightly by some weak acting and overly theatrical production.