Classic Capitology hits the wayback button as hard as she’ll go with this weeks (pure) addition of screen caps from The Keys of Marinus. Terry Nation had only two non-Dalek stories in his Doctor Who resume. The Keys of Marinus was one of these with The Android Invasion being the other. The opinion here is that, given the scope of his career, Terry Nation was a hack writer, though a gifted one, quite adept at filling his stories with crowd pleasing action/adventure tropes. The Daleks certainly has its share of this and The Keys of Marinus followed suit.
Whereas The Daleks was a single story, The Keys of Marinus is the economy pack with the retrieval of the Keys being a framework for a set of four (more or less) single stories leading to a climax in the sixth and final installment. If that sounds familiar it should as Tom Baker’s fifth season is the much beloved ‘Key to Time’ season. One episode arctic survivalist, one episode deepest, darkest jungle, one episode mystery/trial, and one episode trippy creepy.
Sandwiched between much better loved and remembered historicals Marco Polo and The Aztecs, The Keys of Marinus is an easy story to overlook. But any story which features George Coulouris (who was in Citizen Kane)–alas for only one episode–is worth your attention.
The best news about The Keys of Marinus is that it’s a lot like the weather, if you don’t particularly like it, just wait for about 25 minutes. It’ll change.
Modern Recap-itulation makes a miraculous recovery next week. And after something old this time, next week it’s all new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new.
