Today is Tom Baker’s 129th episode as the Doctor
which puts him in second place behind William Hartnell who is on 133 so by the
end of this story he will be just one episode behind him. I know that I enjoyed
the Key to Time (most of it anyway) buts it nice that the show has returned to
just randomly going to different places. This story is credited to David Agnew
who previously wrote ‘Invasion of Time’ but this is a Douglas Adams script and
after being left a bit disappointed with ‘The Pirate Planet’, I wonder just
what to expect over the next four episodes. There is something quite special
about this story and its that this is the first story to have been filmed
abroad. That’s the real Eifel Tower and those are real French people walking
around a real Paris. It’s weird that its taken nearly 16 years for the show to
go out of the United Kingdom and whilst its not uncommon for the show to
venture away from our green and pleasant lands with the most recent episode
(Kill the Moon) being filmed in Lanzarote but back in 1979 this must have felt
like a holiday for the viewers.
The first shot is a very impressive model which sees the
camera pan across a rather grim and baron landscape before focusing on a spider
like ship. Scaroth’s mask is probably a bit silly compared to todays standards
but in context it looks fine. Count Scarlioni is played by Julian Glover and is
someone that throws money around like its funny money so is instantly
unlikeable. He is messing around with time so there is a nice mystery as to how
he is linked with Scaroth. As well as having money is a slave driver because
Kerensky is doing all the donkey work and doesn’t get to go out and have a
life.
The opening shot in Paris is beautiful. Very rarely would I
describe something in Doctor Who as beautiful but I cant help it. When the
Doctor and Romana end up on the train it looks weird to think of a couple that
could fly through time and space end up on public transport. The whole sequence
of them travelling through Paris is fascinating because I am one of those
people who like to watch old programs and see how the transportation or
something similar looked when filmed in the ‘modern’ day. Even when the action
moves to a studio, it still feels like we are still in Paris even though it’s a
BBC studio in wet London.
The episode ends with Scarlioni removing his mask to show
that he is in fact Scaroth and its only ruined by the slight moment where the
mask appears to be pulled up when the face mask is pulled off. Apart from that
the revelation is quite good and ends of a good note. I have really enjoyed
this episode after being slightly disappointed with the Dalek story and thought
that this episode had everything that I would want from an episode and after
several episodes which haven’t quite had that effect on me I am just relieved
to get that fanboy feel from an episode.
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