Day 23: The Keys of Marinus - The Screaming Jungle

The Screaming Jungle is a very historic episode in Doctor Who. It’s the first time that William Hartnell doesn’t appear at all. He was on holiday so it means that it’s the three regulars with Altos and Sabetha who are moving the story forward.  When we get back to Susan, the ‘screaming’ has stopped yet Susan looks like she is having a nervous breakdown. It falls to Barbara to do her teacher role and calm Susan down. Ian is still wearing his outfit from Marco Polo, I know that this isn’t a fashion review but it would be nice if Ian could have got a change of clothes somehow.

Barbara shows signs of rebelling or at least her desire to rebel with the Dresden china line. I thought this was a nice moment as it’s the first time since The Expedition way back in The Daleks that Barbara entertains the thought of defying Ian. It’s a shame that it never goes beyond this. Susan is really annoying in this episode. It’s worst when part of the foliage just touches Susan’s leg and she cries like its about to kill her. A total over reaction in my opinion. Thankfully she’s not in the episode very much as she gets to jump ahead. It takes them less than six minutes to find the micro-key or what we think is the key. It seems like the idea to include the fake key was something to keep the story going until the end of the episode.

By the ten minute mark, Atos, Sabetha and Susan have all jumped on ahead whilst Ian tries to find the real key and Barbara. It doesn’t take long to find Barbara as she saves Ian from almost being decapitated. With it being just Ian and Barbara, it means that they get most of the action and there’s a nice bit where Barbara is about to be killed whilst Ian is trapped. Then we meet a figure who has set the traps and has hidden the real micro-key. He gives them a code which they must try and figure out what it means and how it will lead them to the micro-key. After searching for ages and with the forest starting to attack them they finally find it.

When Barbara is climbing to grab the key there are two human hands and it’s like a big arrow is drawing the viewers’ attention to the hands. Not sure whether it was intentional but it seems like a bit of an odd thing.

Performance wise, everyone does quite well. Susan seems to have gone backwards in recent episodes and it feels like an awfully long time ago since ‘Inside the Spaceship’. It’s a shame for Carole Ann Ford and its easy to understand why she became frustrated with the role and didn’t last long in the show. It seems like her character is somewhat poorly written for and yet Barbara and Ian are given the stronger things to do. I think the fact that William Hartnell isn’t in this episode means that William Russell and Jacqueline Hill get to take centre stage and thrive under it.

The cliffhanger was marginally better except that it replaced screaming with snow. It must be really cold as it doesn’t take Barbara or Ian to feel the effects of the snow.  It was an ok episode which picked up once it was just Ian and Barbara. The thing about this episode is that there isn’t a lot of moment geographically speaking. Credit to Terry Nation for managing to make 25 minutes fly with not a lot happening.

Day 22: The Keys of Marinus - The Velvet Web

The reprise is slightly different with Ian’s reaction to the blood having being slightly less than it was at the cliffhanger and the Doctor’s reaction being non-existent. The background which looked like garden furniture was there purely to disguise what was behind it which was a posh looking lounge. When they do reunite with Barbara, she is living quite the lifestyle with servants and she gets to live like a queen. Everything seems to be going well but it’s the old adage of life in that if it’s too good to be true then it usually is and Ian is naturally mistrusting of all the hospitality. Everyone else is quite willing to ask for their biggest wish. Even when Susan wants an expensive dress it’s no problem and The Doctor wants a brand new laboratory and new instruments. Everything seems to be going well until they sleep when some strange rock is put on their foreheads. Except the one placed on Barbara’s head falls off and she is the only one that hears the incredible sound that follows.

When she does wake up there is the extraordinary moment when Barbara sees that the room they are in isn’t as nice as when we saw it but its all decaying with the nice gown made for Susan is just a rag. We are now in the situation where its Barbara versus the rest of the regulars and when she is hiding from Altos she breaks down and cries. There is a strange thing when Altos is looking around for Barbara but doesn’t see her when she couldn’t be more obvious if she were waving her arms in the air. That said it doesn’t really diminish her performance and it’s the first time in several episodes where I feel like she’s been given something solid to do.

Altos is the first most significant supporting cast member of the episode. There is something quite creepy about him from the very first moment that we meet him. Robin Phillips is quite good as Altos and when the alien influence has gone he is a character that is good to have around and his involvement the rest of the story is a good thing. We get to meet Sabetha who is Arbitan’s daughter. She is the one that puts the rocks on the regulars heads but were not meant to feel anything bad towards her as she is under the influence of the brain creatures. It’s a good performance from Katherine Schofield.

We get to see the alien menace that has cause the Doctor, Ian and Barbara to be brainwashed. They are small things and it’s quite hard to believe how they could ever accomplish whatever it was that they wanted to do. Jacqueline Hill has to hit the tubes with the aliens but only hits one yet the rest of the aliens die.

Ian having his hands round Barbara’s throat isn’t a sight I thought I would have seen. It does show just how much the power that these alien threats have over the regulars. William Russell gets to do a bit of emotionless acting as he lures Barbara to the weird creatures. It’s great to see William Russell and William Hartnell are pretending to see a wonderful laboratory but are in fact are seeing an empty room and the Doctor picks up a manky mug having to pretend that it’s a wonderful piece of scientific equipment.

The cliffhanger was a little bit weak because it didn’t have the same sort of drama to what we had at the end of the previous episode. Susan being scared is hardly a big incentive to tune into the next episode. As an episode it felt like a mini episode that was distracting us from the main story and trying to pass the time until we get to the central plot. It’s not that this episode is mediocre but all this episode seems to achieve is to introduce Sabetha and Altos and also explaining why we won’t be seeing much of the Doctor in the next episode.

Day 21: The Keys of Marinus - The Sea of Death

After spending seven episodes, it’s time to go and do something different. After a pure historical the show needed to go into space and it seems that they decided to go to Terry Nation to write this six part story due to his success of the Daleks story. The story opens up with a nice model shot of the island. The interaction between the regulars is very calming which is in contrast to the beginning of the series. There’s a nice line from Barbara about colour television which was funny as the story was filmed and broadcast in monochrome. This scene is also the start of several ‘Hartnellisms’ that became part of his time on the show.  When they leave the TARDIS they discover

Susan sees the sea and instantly want to go for a swim. Despite being told not to by the Doctor, she decides that she is going to go for a paddle in a small bit of water but she was stopped before she could put a toe in. Her reaction to the shoe dissolving in the acid water was a slight over reaction. After a good run of episodes where she was well written for and put in some good performances it seems like she taken a step back. However just when I started to despair, she redeems herself and her performances for the rest of the episode are better.

The mysterious figure shows an interest in the TARDIS which his hand gliding over the lock. The mystery is made easier somewhat when we actually get to see ‘him’.  It turns out that they are called the Voord and are intruders to the island. One of them has already perished by a tear in their suit and a leak of acid into the tube that they travel in. It’s not the greatest enemy in the history of television because they seem to be killed fairly easily.

We are introduced to the conscience of Marinus, it’s a powerful thing and has the potential to cause problems. The Voords are interested. There’s a nice bit of exposition from Arbitan. We then learn what the course of the next five episodes would be about. The conscience is controlled by 5 keys and Arbitan wants the regulars to go and find the keys for him but they decline. Instead of just letting them leave, Arbitan puts a force field around the TARDIS. There’s a nice bit of acting from the regulars which requires all the regulars being exact in how wide the force field is.

When they realise that they don’t have any other choice but to help Arbitan on his way, the regulars find that they don’t have to go in those tube. There’s a neat trick of getting the regulars from one set to another and that’s by a wrist watch and they all stand in front of a black cloth so that a bit of special effects can be done. It is quite good and must have seemed like cutting edge in 1964. After all disappearing Arbitan is killed by one of the Voords which is a bit of an odd thing because its okay if you watch this story in one go or as I am doing watching over six days because I will remember this but back in 1964 would people remember this six weeks after it had happened? I doubt it.

There are problems with this episode. There is a shot when Ian says look and we get to see the city is a little bit of dodgy editing because it doesn’t gel together very well.  Then some of the set designs aren’t as good as they could have been. In ‘The Daleks’ it was clear that some of the backgrounds were cloths but it was hidden quite well. Here it’s quite obvious that the actors couldn’t walk any futher on or they would walk through the cloth. There is also a moment where the Voord falls into the acid but it’s not very convincing as it looks like a cardboard cut-out.  Then there is the small matter of the cliffhanger scene. The Doctor, Susan and Ian arrive but they are standing in front of a bit of garden furniture. The cliffhanger is quite good because there is a wrist watch that belonged to Barbara but not Barbara and the comment from Ian that it has blood on it is meant to strike some concern and in 1964 it must have done but here in 2013 it doesn’t have the same effect.

The opening episode of this story is enjoyable. Yes there are problems with this story and some plot holes that you could drive a bus through but I still think there is a lot to like in this episode and it’s nice to know what the point of the story is so early on. So you can sit back and enjoy the rest of the story.

Day 20: Marco Polo - Assassin at Peking

The final part of this epic sees the all the loose plot strands neatly tied up. The story has to tie things up but also keep things going for 25 minutes. The Doctor has to play chess to win the TARDIS. It seems really odd to see the Doctor willing to sit down and do this. It’s probably only now that the show could we get the Doctor being so calm and not so crotchety. William Hartnell really does seem to have settled down in the role. It’s not something that I’ve really noticed before but over the last 20 episodes, William Hartnell has gone from being the harsh and rude person in An Unearthly Child to being the calm (ish) figure we got over the course of these seven episodes.

As good as Mark Eden has been over the last seven episodes. It’s been a tad bit frustrating with him not really deciding whether he’s a good guy or a bad guy. One moment he’s refusing to let the Doctor and anyone else  inside the TARDIS and then helping them escape at the very end. It’s a very conflicted performance but at times I have quite liked Marco Polo. Martin Miller was very good in this episode just as he had been in the little that he was on screen in the previous episode. As the mighty Kublai Khan he was a character that at first seems like a very superior person and very serious but when we meet him he’s quite a humorous character. Derren Nesbitt goes out on a high as Tegana. You could say in this episode he got the point of his character (bad joke). However as I have mentioned in the previous episodes, I really liked the character and thought that he was a good villain. He’s been the most consistant character in the entire story. Zienia Merton is also worthy of a mention as she has done well with what hasn’t been the greatest role in the story. This was a good episode for her but it would have been nice to see the goodbye moment between Susan and Ping-Cho.

One thing that I have been impressed with over the course of the last seven episodes is the directing. Judging by the telesnaps this was another superbly directed episode and Waris Hussein has kept up his great track record. Some of the shots in this episode are very impressive and its hard to believe that this was achieved on a BBC budget. After seven weeks of what has at times been a pedestrian story, I’m glad that it has ended in a rather good manner. It was a solid ending to what was a really strong episode. It’s also going to be good to see something on DVD now after spending the last week having to listen to this story and look at the telesnaps which has helped but it can never replace the ability to enjoy a story by looking at it.

Day 19: Marco Polo - Mighty Kublai Khan

The penultimate episode of what has felt like an epic picks up when the regulars  go from all but Susan being in the TARDIS to them all being out of there. Most people would be frustrated with this scenario but to be honest it means that we get to spend more time in company of Marco Polo, Ping-Cho and also Ping-Cho. However the main problem with the episode is that it feels like its going through the motions. The early part of this episode does feel like a lot of just standing around and its only when Ian has to go and find the TARDIS that things feel like they are progressing. After weeks of talking about him, we finally get to meet the Mighty Kublai Khan and after weeks of talking about him we get to see him (via telesnaps) in the flesh and his outfit is what stands out in my mind. It’s clear that the budget mostly went on this costume alone but its highly impressive. It’s also a good performance from Martin Miller who as Khan is arguably the most eccentric member of the supporting cast.

The regulars have all been fairly consistent in recent episodes and the good run of form continues here. It’s difficult to say who is the best because they all have a good episode but I thought that Ian’s description of what the caravan can do and that their desire to get home isn’t just a question of geography but also time and for Ian the events of Marco Polo happened over seven hundred years in his past. Ian’s attempt to try and defend and shield Ping-Cho from Polo’s predictable rage is quite chivalrous but it’s all in vain.

The cliffhanger is another corker. It features Tegana who  just has to say “come” and he manages to make it sound menacing. That makes two in a row now for good cliffhangers and I think that it’s more to do with that I think that Derren Nesbitt is fantastic as Tegana and I keep going on about him so I wont carry on here. The writing from John Lucarotti has been fairly good here and it’s a below par episode from Waris Hussein which isn’t something that I say very often as his level of work is usually quite high.

‘Mighty Kublai Khan’ isn’t as strong as the previous episode but it’s still a good one. As the story starts to reach its finale, I must say that  overall the episode has impressed me more than it had done in recent years.

Marco Polo: Rider from Shang-Tu

The cliffhanger saw Ian about to attack a guard who it turns out had already been killed. The story very quickly moves on to the bandits that are meant to be attacking soon.  After they come and are quickly disbanded then the action sees Marco Polo and his band of merry (and not so merry) men and women travel to Cheng-Tu.  Judging by the telesnaps Cheng-Ting looks another nice place. The sets have on the whole been impressive and that is what makes the fact that this story only exits on audio so depressing because if this were to be on DVD or VHS then it would probably rank as one of the all time greats in Doctor Who. Barry Newberry has to be complemented on what he has achieved. Daphne Dare also deserves praise because even in the black and white pictures, her designs come off as the sort you would see on movies.

As we enter the latter half of the story, the action moves towards the meeting of Kublai Kahan in Cheng-Ting. The circuit that the Doctor has been spending an eternity working on is now fixed so the drama moves to trying to get back into the TARDIS as soon as possible. It seems that they’ve forgotten what Marco Polo has got planned.

This episode really gets going once they get to Cheng-Tu as we are introduced to some new characters which is what is needed after five episodes. Wang-Lo sounds like a comedy character and comes across as such. He’s played brilliantly by Gabor Baraker and what puts the icing on the cake is the way that the Doctor reacts to his news that he has had the TARDIS moved. William Hartnell had a nice comedy moment after encountering Wang-Lo, doing a rather funny impression. The relationship between Ping-Cho and Susan is put on show again when they are examining the fish in Cheng-Ting, trying to figure out which person looks like which fish. It’s made even more enjoyable to witness after Ping-Cho gives Susan the key that Marco Polo doesn’t want them to have.

Tegana continues to impress me and the way that he sees the TARDIS as his way of getting what he wants. I’ve gone on about how much I like Derren Nesbitt’s portrayl of the character so I wont carry on with him but I think that I find Mark Eden’s Marco Polo to be less grating that I have recently.

The cliffhanger was quite a good one. After wanting the regulars to get into the TARDIS they finally do but it was never going to be that straightforward because Susan gets left behind and cause by Tegana. The plot idea of having them so close to escaping and yet so far is something that is used in The Daleks when they are about to get away before they realise that the fluid link is in the Dalek city.

It’s certainly a lot more enjoyable than the previous episode. It’s not a coincidence that its because Waris Hussein is back in the directors chair as he does have a way of moving the story along at a quicker pace than John Crockett did. The whole episode just had a better vibe to it than the previous episode. The final two episodes should get the story back on track.

 

Marco Polo: The Wall of Lies

No telesnaps exist of this episode which is a shame.  I have enjoyed going through the episodes being able to look at the telesnaps. This is because Waris Hussein isn’t directing it and so didn’t order any telesnaps to be taken. After Susan shrieks about the eyes in the painting its quickly rubbished by the Doctor. It’s the only time really that Susan gets treated like a child and it’s a theme of the episode where the elder and more responsible people don’t trust those closest to them.

There is also the resolvement of the more important part of the cliffhanger and that was the peril facing Barbara and despite a few moments of stalling Ian picks the moment where the Mongol Malik is about to kill Barbara. I believe that’s what they call a close shave. The next part of the story is about trying to prove that Tegana had gone to the cave of five hundred eyes. That’s basically what the whole episode is about. After all the excitement from the previous episode, it’s somewhat a shame that things slow down. There isn’t much moving around in this episode though we do get some narration from Marco Polo which is always good.

I am still a massive fan of Tegana. He continues to be a great character and well played by Derren Nesbitt. Susan and Ping-Cho’s relationship  is something that has grown on me in recent episodes and its going to be really sad when they have to go their separate ways. Carole Ann Ford and Zienia Merton have a good on screen relationship and it’s the most consistent that Susan has been since the show started. William Russell and Jacqueline Hill are both on good form but neither has a spectacular episode though Russell does get to do a bit of life saving at the beginning when he saves Barbara’s life. William Hartnell was given a slightly better episode but not by much really. My enjoyment of the Marco Polo character is starting to slip a bit. Marco Polo is unwilling to believe that Tegana is lieing. What’s quite fun is knowing that Tegana is working against Polo and if he gets his own way then Polo wont see it coming. I think its fun because Polo deserves it really.

The cliffhanger is ok because as Ian is about to jump the guard he discovers that the guard is in fact dead. The question undeniably will killed him.  Sadly as we don’t have any telesnaps its difficult to see how this would have looked so going on what we hear its fair to say that whilst its not the greatest cliffhanger in the history of Doctor (so far), its better than some that we have had. It’s fair to say that The Wall of Lies is another episode of people talking and not a lot else happening. After the atmospheric episode going into the caves, it’s a shame that we get something that doesn’t have much in the way of energy. There is enough to keep your interest but I suspect that the directing would need to be spectacular to work visually and I think with Waris Hussein in the directors chair then its might have worked so we’ll never know what John Crockett would have done with it. Onto the next episode.