Mawdryn Undead

The Brig is back!

A story which plays a lot with time, Peter Grimwade was given a second chance and despite the story being complicated, he makes a much better fist of his second tale than his first. We see the return of the Brigadier after it seems like forever, which is nice, even though he was originally supposed to be in UNIT in the early 1980s (Sarah Jane once said she was from the 1980s) and yet in 1977 he looks a good 10-15 years older than when we last saw him. So if I was only interested in Doctor Who cannon I would have to give this story a big fail, but I’m kinder than that.

It is another loopy story with some nice touches in the scenes mirroring each other in 1983 and 1977. The idea of two Brigadiers, the way when they touch the day is saved, the build up is excellent. We have a new companion too in Turlough, the return of the Black Guardian, we have a lot in this one, and for the most part it works.

Strange that they wanted to go back to three companions, or indeed a male companion. Turlough seems very old for school, but is perfectly pitched by Mark Strickson and is clearly no Adric-replacement. Then we have the great David Collings (previously appeared in ‘Revenge of the Cybermen’ and ‘Robots of Death’, another great piece of casting, as Mawdryn, a member of a race who cannot die stuck on a space ship going nowhere. I really like most of the elements, and for the most part they come together pretty well.

David Collings must have felt he was still on the Sandminer from ‘Robots of Death’, the space ship was decked out in Art-Deco and didn’t look too bad. Ok, the exterior was very poor and unbelievable but you can forgive that by choosing the new CGI effects on the DVD menu. They are a good idea because the 80s effects used are seriously distracting and garish, especially the pattern behind the Black Guardian, played by the returning Valentine Dyall. Apparently he didn’t know what was going on for much of the production, and I can see that but he is perfectly cast in a sadly two-dimensional villain. They might as well have used the Master, but I’m glad they didn’t. Does the Black Guardian storyline add a lot to the rest of the story? I don’t think so to be fair, it would have worked just as well without him.

David Collings as Mawdryn.

Mark Strickson, Valentine Dyall and those 80s special effects!

It is a little slow in places, there does seem to be an awful lot of shots of people wandering around the space ship watching the automatic lights pop on and off. I think a trick was missed too. Nyssa and Tegan find a man they think is the Doctor (it’s Mawdryn) burned in the capsule, and take him back on board the TARDIS. He says he is the Doctor and is regenerating. But then we see the Doctor in a different time zone conversing with the Brigadier. A great scene by the way – flashbacks to earlier adventures featured, which is rare. BUT what if the audience DIDN’T know either? Maybe we have a new Doctor? With spaghetti on his head….

Probably wouldn’t have worked but I think it’s a nice idea. This story is not perfect, but it is a nice idea. The aliens move around brilliantly in there strange foam costumes like Daleks – they don’t appear to have feet. I liked that. The design was pretty good too even with the spaghetti. It’s very timey-wimey, but in a good way, and if you over look the cannon-stuff, the plot holds together very well.

The original plan was to bring back Ian Chesterton, which I would have loved to see (instead of the Brigadier), but when he proved unavailable the script was altered to suit Nicholas Courtney returning as the Brigadier, and it worked very well. The Brig is a classic Who character after all.

All in all, it’s fun but could do with a bit of a snip here and there. And definitely opt for the new CGI effects on your DVD.

7/10

The Armageddon Factor

Shapp and the Marshall.

‘The Armageddon Factor’, or ‘How not to resolve 25 episodes of build up’, is a pretty disappointing end to the Key to Time. I’m not sure where to start really. It’s just a very poor, slow story. It has some good ideas, written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, but the breadth of scale of the story – two planets at war with a third between them playing them off against each other – was too much for the production team to realise effectively.

Romana and the Doctor with the awful Merack.

Hence we get three planets which look a lot like each other, full of endless boring corridors underground. Worse than that, it’s all done as a sort of pantomime. So I put a lot of blame on the director, Michael Hayes, rather than the writers. With such a limited lot of sets allowed, it was hard for them to write a lot of action and remember that it was a six-parter, a lot of episodes to fill. It’s completely studio-bound, which suggests money-saving, and maybe it could have done with location shooting. It’s just rather dull and boring. The design does effectively convey a sense of claustrophobia, especially on Atrios, but by the time we hit Zeos and it’s just slightly differently coloured corridors, it’s getting very old.

The Doctor and the Zeon master-computer.

I like elements, of course. K-9 has a good gig in this one as he communicates with the Zeon master computer. There’s the character of Drax, a cockney-accented Time Lord who builds things. The Marshall (John Woodvine) is an interesting take on your megalomaniac, but after the first two or three episodes he’s stuck in a time loop. We are introduced to the wonderful Lalla Ward, playing the Princess Astra but soon to play Romana, and the besotted and annoying Merack (Ian Saynor) who quite frankly I couldn’t stand.

Then there’s Shapp – played by David Harries, the Marshall’s right hand man. He doesn’t appear to take it seriously and spends most of his time hamming it up.

Tom Baker and Mary Tamm eye of the completed Key to Time.

Valentine Dyall.

Normally it would anger me but to be honest the story is so dull I rather appreciated his attempts at levity. The only other character of note (yes, it’s not a lot for a six-part story) is ‘the Shadow’ (William Squire). Dear god. Talk about one-dimensional villains that look stupid and pretty much useless. One of the worst villains in Doctor Who. He is working for the Black Guardian, played by the supreme Valentine Dyall, an amazing voice actor who featured in the occasional episode of ‘The Goons’.

Lalla Ward as Astra.

On the positive side, the idea of Astra being the sixth segment is a good one, and the Key to Time serves a purpose (creating the time loop) in this story. Tom Baker is great at some points, but then in episode six he goes a bit off the boil pretending to be crazy. With less than ten minutes to go the Black Guardian turns up, the Doctor reveals him, and so destroys the tracer splitting the segments up again and returning Astra to Atrios. 26 episodes and he just says ‘you know what, don’t really want this thing’.

The lamest villain of them all - The Shadow.

And thus ends the Key to Time. Four excellent, top-notch stories, followed by a clunker and finally a rather dull and unsatisfying ending. Perhaps Anthony Read needed to work closer with Baker and Martin. Resolve the search for the sixth segment in four episodes, then a separate 2 to wrap the season up. ‘The Armageddon Factor’ would have been a far better story told in four parts, they could have still used the sets or shot outside for the conclusion. Seemed strange not to involve the White Guardian in the end too.

I felt a bit confused too, it was not always clear which planet the Doctor was on. It wasn’t clear what had happened on Zeos – was everyone there dead and only the computer was left to fight the war. Or was life on Zeos going on fine on the surface and they had little to no knowledge of the war?

It was an ending of sorts. Disappointing though, very disappointing.

3.5/10