N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
Before watching it again, I could remember absolutely nothing about The Keys of Marinus. I couldn’t remember how many times I’d seen it (so that most probably means only once) or even when I’d last watched it. I don’t own the late 90’s VHS release and my DVD copy was unviewed. Thanks to the WhoGold guide I knew it had been shown on UK Gold in 1994, so that seemed the most likely date for me to have seen it, but being so long ago this felt like a new story to me.
Indeed, I have quite a few of these memory blind spots, especially amongst the Hartnell and Troughton stories – they were one of the prime motivators for my wanting to start this marathon – so I was quite looking forward to seeing this story again.
I’d love to say that it all came flooding back to me as I watched the episodes again. But it didn’t. In fact my first reaction was ‘What’s happened to Hartnell’s wig!’ – for it seems much shorter in this story. The other thing that’s noticeable is that the Doctor isn’t even in the third and fourth episodes at all, marking this as the first time one of the regulars is absent (and also making those Tenth Doctor-lite episodes seem positively chock-full of the Doctor).
Oddly though, the whispering death of The Screaming Jungle and The Snows of Terror, where I dread to think what Vasor had planned for Barbara, were my favourite episodes of the serial. One thing is certain: Terry Nation really did love his B-movie tropes: the episodic narrative, the trek through arduous terrain, the bug-eyed brain monsters …
“We’re better off keeping this story to ourselves.”
Tarron, The Keys of Marinus
When Hartnell returns in Sentence of Death, it’s seems from his performance that the holiday has done him good as he’s very sprightly in the investigation and courtroom scenes.
I have to say though, after the high standard set by the first four stories, ultimately this serial feels a little uninvolving. I certainly don’t fault the ambition of trying to do a ‘quest’ story, but it wouldn’t surprise me, should I get round to watching it again in another twenty years or so, if I’m struggling again to remember the detail.
