Production Code: E
First Transmitted
The Sea of Death - 11/04/1964 17:30
The Velvet Web - 18/04/1964 17:30
The Screaming Jungle - 25/04/1964 17:30
The Snows of Terror - 02/05/1964 17:30
Sentence of Death - 09/05/1964 17:15
The Keys of Marinus - 16/05/1964 17:15
Plot
The TARDIS arrives on the planet Marinus on an island of glass surrounded by a sea of acid. The travellers are forced by the elderly Arbitan to retrieve four of the five operating keys to a machine called the Conscience of Marinus, of which he is the keeper. These have been hidden in different locations around the planet to prevent them falling into the hands of the evil Yartek and his Voord warriors, who plan to seize the machine and use its originally benevolent mind-influencing power for their own sinister purposes.
Now the machine has been modified to overcome the Voords and can be reactivated, so the keys must be recovered. In their quest, the travellers - transported from place to place by Arbitan's wristwatch-like travel dials - have adventures in the city of Morphoton; in a building besieged by ambulatory plants; with a lecherous and murderous trapper; and in the city of Millennius where Ian is falsely accused of murder and discovers that the legal rule is 'guilty until proven innocent'.
The keys are eventually retrieved and the travellers return to the island. Arbitan has been killed by Yartek, who apparently tricks Ian into handing over the final key. Ian, however, passes a fake key instead and when Yartek tries to use it the machine explodes, killing him and the Voords.
Episode Endings
The Doctor, Susan and Ian arrive at the location of the first key shortly after Barbara, but find that she is nowhere to be seen. Ian sees her travel dial on the floor - there is blood on it.
Susan moves on to the second location before the others and finds herself in a jungle. She covers her ears in pain as an unearthly screaming sound echoes round.
Ian and Barbara turn their travel dials and arrive in a freezing cold environment. Barbara is paralysed by the cold and Ian tells her that they must move or they won't stand a chance.
Arriving in the city of Millennius, Ian finds a body on the floor of a museum-like room. He sees the final key in one of the cases but is knocked unconscious before he can get it. His unknown assailant places Ian's hand on a ceremonial mace before taking the key from the cabinet himself, which causes alarm bells to ring.
While investigating all the possibilities to try and clear Ian of the murder of Eprin, Barbara receives a telephone call. It is Susan, who explains that she has been kidnapped and will be killed if the Doctor reveals the location of the final key.
Having said their farewells to thier freinds Altos and Sabetha, the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara leave in the TARDIS.
Roots
Courtroom drama.
30s serials.
Quest epics.
Celtic myth.
Fireball XL5 'The Hypnotic Sphere'.
the Labours of Hercules.
Dialogue Triumphs
The Doctor : "I don't believe that man was made to be controlled by machines. Machines can make laws but they cannot preserve justice. Only human beings can do that."
Dialogue Disasters
"It's Barbara's travel dial: there's blood on it."
Continuity
Barbara implies that the scanner shows monochrome images (due to a fault). The Doctor talks about overcoming a problem with the TARDIS's 'time mechanism' [referring to either his lack of control or to his ignorance of their location when landed].
Marinus is a planet with a range of climatic zones (tropical jungles and snowy wastes) [and a large population of humanoids who live in various autonomous groups or nations]. The technology of Marinus reached its peak 2000 years previously with the construction of the Conscience, which influenced thoughts throughout the planet.
700 years after the invention of the Conscience, Yartek and his Voord followers found a way to resist the machine. Key microcircuits were hidden around the planet. 1300 years later Arbitan improved the Conscience so that, if the keys were returned to it, the Voords would be powerless. (Both 'Voords' and 'Voord' seem to be acceptable plural forms, although the former predominates.) [We know nothing of the Voords, except Yartek's long lifespan.]
Location
Several regions of Marinus.
Links
Ian is still wearing his Marco Polo costume.
Untelevised
Susan says she has heard the noise made by the 'screaming jungle' before [see The Sensorites]. The Doctor has met Pyrrho, the founder of scepticism.
Trivia
The Voords wear clichéd but surprisingly effective wet-suit costumes, with cleverly-designed rubber masks bearing - except in Yartek's case - antennae of various different shapes.
There is a surprisingly adult scene in which the burly trapper Vasor tries to rape Barbara.
The Doctor does not appear in either the third or the fourth episode as William Hartnell was on holiday in the weeks when they were recorded.
The TARDIS arrives and leaves without the engine sound being heard outside the ship.
Darrius, the friend of Arbitan's whom the travellers meet in The Screaming Jungle, is never referred to by name in the story's dialogue; his name is given only in the closing credits.
Myth
Yartek's people are called the Voord. (Although 'Voord' is used as the plural of their name on a couple of occasions, 'Voords' is used more often and is the spelling that appears on the closing credits of the relevant episodes.)
Technobabble
Darrius has found a way of accelerating nature's 'tempo of destruction'. The bottle containing the key is labelled De³O² [DrivEl dioxide?].
Goofs
The radiation counter is on the opposite side of the console from its location in The Daleks.
After the Doctor vanishes into the pyramid, to the right of the screen a studio technician's leg moves out of shot.
Just after Susan falls through the pyramid wall, William Russell and Jacqueline Hill enter for their next scene.
After Ian falls through you can see Hill sneaking through the background.
The Voord that falls to his death is a cardboard cut-out.
When establishing the extent of the force-field around the TARDIS Carole Ann Ford walks in front of William Russell (and thus into the 'barrier'), despite the extravagant miming of the latter.
Although only seconds ahead of the others, when Barbara arrives at Morphoton she has time to discuss her taste in fabrics and meet the ostensible leader, Altos.
The shadow of the camera appears to pass over Susan's sleeping form in episode two.
At the end of this episode Barbara fails to break the domes of the Morpho brain creatures.
Why is Ian so ready to barter his travel dial - his only life-line back to the TARDIS - for a piece of fur from Vasor?
Sabetha slips when running from the ice soldiers.
The Voord following Sabetha in episode six trips over his own flippers.
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor - William Hartnell
Barbara Wright - Jacqueline Hill
Ian Chesterton - William Russell
Susan Foreman - Carole Ann Ford
Altos - Robin Phillips
Arbitan - George Colouris
Aydan - Martin Cort
Darrius - Edmund Warwick
Eyesen - Donald Pickering
First Judge - Alan James
Guard - Alan James
Ice Soldier - Michael Allaby
Ice Soldier - Alan James
Ice Soldier - Peter Stenson
Ice Soldier - Anthony Verner
Kala - Fiona Walker
Larn - Michael Allaby
Sabetha - Katharine Schofield
Second Judge - Peter Stenson
Senior Judge - Raf de la Torre
Tarron - Henley Thomas
Vasor - Francis de Wolff
Voice of Morpho - Heron Carvic
Voord - Martin Cort
Voord - Peter Stenson
Voord - Gordon Wales
Warrior - Martin Cort
Yartek - Stephen Dartnell
Crew
Director - John Gorrie
The Keys of Marinus