As I undertake an entire Doctor Who marathon, including one or two spin-offs and related media, I'll post a short review of each serial as I finish it. Please comment if you like any of my reviews.

Sunday, 14 September 2008

The Keys of Marinus

The Keys of Marinus is one of the strangest serials. Basically, the Doctor and his companions undertake a quest to find keys situated in different areas on the planet of Marinus. Because of the nature of the story, it is split up into what I think of as 'mini-stories' where one or two episodes are set in a specific place before the characters move to somewhere completely unrelated. There are some clever ideas such as when Ian is convicted of murder and the legal system is based around the concept of 'guilty-until-proven-innocent'. This is very entertaining whodunnit and would be great to watch on it's own, let alone as part of this serial.

There are also some incredibly cheesy and boring moments like the ending, which is nothing but anticlimactic and feels rushed compared to the entire epic. The alien Voords are nothing special and definitely not one of the great monsters you'll remember. Luckily though, most of the story doesn't involve them, and when they do appear, they do so sparingly which is a blessing.

'The Keys of Marinus' is one of my favourite early serials because it isn't afraid of being different and it certainly makes for a great piece of thought provoking entertainment.

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