And we're back with a "Part 2-B" of my REVIEW OVERVIEW of The Key to Time season.
GOING THROUGH THE CRITERIA - ON TO THE MORE SUBJECTIVE STUFF
And now we move away a bit from the slightly concrete points of The Key to Time and get into some aspects that would be more opinion-based. Basically, I can just be a pompous reviewer for a bit!
5. The Actual Central Premise
Probably the biggest gripe I have with the crux of this season is its lack of originality. A quest to find multiple parts of some great relic that, when united, becomes an object of great power has been done over and over in fantasy and sci-fi. Even back in the 70s - when Key to Time was made - it was a pretty established trope. So it does make it a bit difficult to be enthused about something that's been done to death a bit, already.
Unfortunately, I'm going to need to get a bit pedantic, here (like that's ever been an obstacle before!). The premise of going on a Quest to assemble things that will create a greater whole was done already within the context of the show, itself. Way back in the very first season, we have The Keys of Marinus. An adventure that is not only a similar idea to The Key to Time, but also uses keys as a central image. Yes, the story was done 15 years previously. We could just let it go and not see this as a bit of re-tread. But being a hardcore Doctor Who fan is about remembering everything the show has ever done from beginning to end. So it's difficult to ignore this fact.
Having said all that, a Quest Story of this nature occurs often for a reason. It's a very engaging idea that is fun to follow. So the season does gain a lot of points for that. There's quite a bit of fun to be had as we watch the Doctor and Romana find each Segment. Those bookend scenes that I talked about earlier have a very strong appeal to them. In many ways, I do still find myself really enjoying the assembling of the Key.
But we also have to acknowledge that this isn't the most creative idea in the world.
6. Quality of the Stories
From the mildly subjective to the super-opinionated! We're going to do quick reviews of each story in the season.
The Ribos Operation
Okay, we should probably get this out of the way immediately. No doubt, it will incite great fury and hatred against me. But I must confess it:
I actually think Garron and Unstoffe are a better Holmsian Double Act than Jago and Litefoot.
If I'm being totally honest, the only Holmsian Double Act I like better than them is Glitz and Dibber. I do find these guys bring a lot of charm to the story and make it quite fun. I particularly love the whole runaround that happens near the end of Part Two. It's Doctor Who doing farce but not going too far with it.
I also quite like Binro the Heretic and the whole "Tribute to Galileo" storyline that he represents. This, to me, is a great example of "good filler" in a story. Binro gets introduced during the later episodes to provide a side plot and mark some time. But I find his story quite touching and he is still legitimately useful to the central plot. So, even though he was created to help pad things out, he still works quite beautifully within the context of the narrative.
While I love the restrained humor at the end of Part Two, Part Three's beginning marks a significant moment for me in my appreciation of Tom Baker. All the little goofiness going on with the Graff Vinda-K as the episode opens feels just a bit too silly for my liking. For the first time in the show, Baker officially injects too much absurdity into the scene. The moment sticks out like a sore thumb. But things do get back under control fairly quickly and the rest of the comedy remains subtle rather than overdone.
It's odd, though. I don't seem to hear a lot of love for Ribos Operation. Whereas I find it to be quite solid. It's nothing too spectacular, I'll admit. But that's actually a great way to build a Foundation for an Umbrella Season. Start with something solid and build more and more interesting tales on top of it. In this sense, Ribos Operation is actually quite excellent.
The Pirate Planet
Time for yet more controversy:
Of his two stories that were completed, I think Pirate Planet is a better story by Douglas Adams than City of Death.
Pirate Planet is glorious. Lots of high comedy, yes. But it never quite crosses the line into the cringiness that a lot of other comedy in the season will start inducing. Instead, it's just a tonne of fun. The Captain's cursing is greatly loved. Gorgeous, colorful dialogue that I think we can't get enough of. His robot parrot is a pretty cool concept, too. It's great when K9 defeats it and brings it to the Doctor like a regular hunting dog would. All of this sounds like the show is being too ridiculous, I know. But it all works. Douglas crafts things magnificently.
One of the sequences that really helps with the overall vibe of the story is that moment of outrage that the Doctor has with the Captain when he discovers what he's doing with all the planets he mines. This, to me, is a great way to counterpoint how outlandish so much of the rest of the adventure is. A good solid chunk of drama can really take the edge off things and stop the humor from becoming overbearing. Adams seems to understand that he's not writing Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, here. That we do want to take things a bit more seriously now and then. So he gives us this wonderful scene. Fortunately, Baker decides to take the bull by the horns and really delivers some fury.
To me, Pirate Planet is the jewel in The Key to Time's tarnished crown. Truly a wondrous tale. It's only flaw may lie in where it was placed in the season. Had it been nearer to the end, there would have been a better sense of build up. Instead, a lot of the rest of the season feels like it goes downhill. Essentially, Pirate Planet is a bit too tough of an act to follow.
Stones of Blood
Stones, for me, continues to tow the line with providing solid stories. Yes, it's a bit of a step down from Pirate Planet but I still think that, for the most part, it's quite good. Which is keeping me interested in the season-long arc.
The story plays with a number of imaginative sci fi concepts. Vampire Rocks, Justice Machines and ancient alien criminals posing as gods are interesting characters to have populating the tale. Exploring Hyperspace is also quite fun.
As already mentioned, some fans complain about that fourth episode coming to a screeching halt to have a trial. But I found it to work quite nicely. Tom starts crossing the line again, though, with that goofy wig! But, otherwise, this is another story that doesn't mind getting a bit silly but doesn't go overboard with it too much. That final nod that Who makes to its Gothic Horror Element with the two campers that get attacked by an Ogri is also nicely done.
Like Ribos Operation, this is not anything too amazing. But it's keeping me engaged.
Androids of Tara
A lot of folks seem to really enjoy this one. They see it as a fun little romp full of high adventure.
I'm not particularly thrilled with it.
This time, we can only lay so much blame at Tom Baker's feet for going too hard for the laughs. The writing, itself, is a big part of the problem. There are aspects to the plot that just make no real sense. The big twist at the Part One cliffhanger, for instance. Yes, we see all four characters in the room drink the wine with the sleeping drug. But aren't there other people in the building?! Reynart is, after all, a Prince. Pretty sure he should have more bodyguards than just two shmucks.
Oh wait! He does! Earlier in the episode, the Doctor does try to slip out and there's a guard at the door that stops him. What happened to him? Went on a coffee break so that Count Grendel is able to sneak in?! Was he the only other guard there?! Seems a little unlikely. So how does Grendel get past everyone when he's only administered the sleeping draught to those four people in the room?! Suddenly, we need a fun twist at the end of the episode so all logic gets tossed out the window.
Androids of Tara is riddled with this kind of stuff. Much of the acting in the story is done tongue-in-cheek. As if imploring us to not look too hard at things and just laugh at the campiness. This doesn't really work well for me. I don't mean to sound like one of those fans that takes the show too seriously, but bad writing disguising itself with goofy jokes just doesn't really pass with me. As the story reaches its end, I'm thoroughly uninterested. All the High Farce has caused me to grow tired of it all.
That "climatic sword duel" between the Doctor and Grendel hits an incredible low point in the season. Had they gone for just a few laughs, it might have worked. But if this is supposed to be what the whole plot has been building up to, then maybe Tom shouldn't have been mugging quite so much. A lot of the fight choreography looks like it was slapped together ten minutes before they started filming. For me, the sequence sucks whatever life might still have been left in the story. The whole thing becomes just a bit unbearable. To the point where Androids of Tara probably fits somewhere in my Ten Worst Stories in the History of Doctor Who list.
I really feel it's that bad.
Power of Kroll
This is a strange one. On paper, Power of Kroll works quite nicely (so well that Holmes will re-use certain elements of it for Caves of Androzani!). The script does tell a fairly engaging narrative involving interplanetary politics and a nice allegory about what colonialism often does to indigenous people. The characters seem pretty three-dimensional, too. With several of them possessing secret motives that don't become clear until the right moment when they can create a very interesting and convincing twist in the plot.
Honestly, I should really love this one. And so should the rest of Fandom.
For the most part, we don't. Robert Holmes delivers well but everything we see onscreen feels very flat and largely uninteresting. The biggest problem stems from the fact that I don't really connect with any of these characters. It's not the fault of the actual actors, though. Particularly since many of them are "veterans" who have done guest turns in the show before and have given very memorable performances when they did.
The real flaw, I think, lies in the direction. Admittedly, directing for a show like Who can be very challenging. You've got to get a lot "in the can" in a short period of time. But Kroll really feels like it was just churned out with little or no thought towards making a real impact on the audience. We needed a fifth story in the Saga so one got shlocked together. Even though it was written well.
By this point, I'm also very tired of the whole "finding the Segment in the last two minutes of the story" format. Which is too bad since this particular Reveal is one of the most clever ones.
A horribly wasted potential
The Armageddon Factor
Fans have made a very interesting point about the farcical soap opera presented in the opening scene of this story (Wow! Rob Tymec agreeing with Fan Opinion - who is really writing this blog, right now?!). They highlight the fact that if the footage had been set against a very dark and gritty story it would have worked excellently. Instead, we get something akin to one spoof introducing another. Which feels just a little too spoofy for my tastes. And, apparently, for quite a bit of the rest of Fandom.
At first, it does almost look like we might get the juxtaposition we wanted. The first episode of Factor is pretty grim. There's just a bit of a Genesis of the Daleks vibe going on where the show is, once more, making an anti-war statement. It does this quite a bit in the 70s but I don't seem to mind it much. The actor playing the Marshall - a character who is clearly unhinged and is meant to be a satire on the Military Mentality - gives us a fairly straight performance. Which is odd, really. He's the one character who could have been a bit campier and it would have been acceptable. Instead, just about everyone else decides to chew up the scenery. Particularly as we get to those middle episodes. A sincere effort seems to be made to create some dramatic intensity at the beginning of the story. Things even get back on track a bit as we reach the end. But, dear Lord, are those middle parts awful! An embarrassing mess of actors doing their best to outdo each other with silly faces and hammy acting.
The "love story" is a great example of this. The relationship between Princess Astra and Merak could have been a very compelling subplot. But Ian Saynor gets so damned melodramatic as he's searching for his lost love that I think we'd all be happier if that weird pit thing that he falls into had been a fatal trap.
Like Androids of Tara, there's also some stuff in the plot that doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense. The peril K9 falls into during Episode Two, sort of, baffles me. Are we really expected to believe that Atrios is just rigged with special devices that can specifically hypnotize knee-high automatons? It's another one of those sequences that needed a bit more explanation. Perhaps the Zeons did invent knee-high automatons for a bit that infiltrated Atrios and a defense system was devised against them. A quick sentence or two in the dialogue to explain this could have gotten the whole thing to seem a bit more rational.
Of course, as I've already mentioned, the entire conclusion of the story has a similar problem. Which really leaves me very unsatisfied about the whole thing. But now we're starting to get into a review of the overall season. So I'll stop, here.
THE FINAL VERDICT?
If you bothered to read my introductory entry, (What's that? You didn't but now you think you should? https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/03/review-overview-which-is-best-umbrella.html), you may recall that I said I would write a review of my impressions of the entire season. I will actually do that, but not here. After we review each Umbrella Season, there will be a final entry where I rank them against each other. That seems to be the best place to also include my Final Verdict. So, you'll learn about my ultimate feelings on The Key to Time, there. I know I haven't been entirely kind to this saga in certain places but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to completely destroy it in some Huge Review of Mass Vitriol.
Sometimes, the Whole makes up for the sins of the Parts.
Well, that wraps things up for The Key to Time. Hope you didn't find these entries too lengthy - there's a lot to get through. Trial of a Time Lord and Flux are shorter seasons, so I won't blather on as much.
Hopefully...
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