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Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus
Featuring six class
Doctor Who episodes, Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus is more your
father's Doctor Who than Generation X or Y. This is not to say that
these stories are bad but rather, they come from another era when our
favourite Time Lord's universe was not as defined as it is today.
Although the plot behind
The Keys of Marinus may sound a little convoluted and contrived, it's
the journey that our good Doctor will take (William Hartnell) as he
attempts to find five keys in order to power a machine called the
Conscience Machine to end the reign of the Voord, the alien invaders on
the planet Marinus.
As the story progresses,
we learn that the Doctor (Hartnell), his companion Susan (Carole Ann
Ford) and their acquaintances are forced to recover the keys by Arbitan
(George Coulouris) who is quite desperate and will go at any length for
assistance.
Although slow at the
start, the story slowly starts to build momentum and the doctor and his
friends go on a wondrous and classic Doctor Who journey as the viewer is
introduced to some strange characters such as these brain creatures
which control the population of Marinus and the nefarious Voord.
The story is quite
politically intriguing and when one of the Doctor's acquaintances is
accused of murder, the Doctor must not only save his friend but also the
planet of Marinus. From a historical point of view, it's interesting to
see how the character of Doctor Who has evolved and more specifically
the roles of his companions and acquaintances but even after almost
5-years, Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus is definitely a thoughtful and
at times powerful story.
Although Hartnell was
probably my least favourite Doctor, he has an inner charm that seems to
work as the character, even though I would probably run if I saw him in
a dark alley at night. Nonetheless, it's classic Doctor Who and best of
all, this collection features a few Spartan special features about the
making of this story which is a little lacklustre in my opinion but even
so, it's definitely better than nothing.
The only issue which I
had that cannot be changed is the video and audio quality that is
severely lacking from anything seen on TV today but considering the age,
it's still quite acceptable. |
