Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus (Story 5)
by John Gorrie
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DVD details
Actor: Carole Ann Ford, George Colouris, Jacqueline Hill, William Hartnell, William RussellDirector: John Gorrie
Brand: Warner Brothers
Producer: Verity Lambert
Writer: Terry Nation
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Black & White, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 145 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2010-01-05
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC Worldwide
Product features:
- On a remote island of glass surrounded by a sea of acid, there is a machine that can remove evil from the minds of an entire population the Conscience of Marinus. Fearful of its immense power falling into thewrong hands, its sole guardian has scattered the machine s operating keys across the planet. The TARDIS crew arrives to find the island underattack by the evil Voord. Marinus last line of defe
DVD Reviews of Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus (Story 5)
DVD Review: Not Quite as Good as the Sum of its Parts
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a story from the very first season of Doctor Who. Unless you are a huge fan of the first doctor, a completist, or someone interested in set design on a shoestring budget I would give this one a pass. If your local PBS station didn't show the William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton stories, and you would like to see this story, I recommend you rent or borrow this DVD.
The basic story has the Doctor and his companions, Susan, Ian and Barbara, land on the planet Marinus. They land on an island in the middle of a sea of acid and meet Arbitan, who is the Keeper of the Conscience of Marinus. Arbitan needs to reset the conscience of Marinus and requires 4 keys to work the machine. He prevents the travelers from entering the TARDIS and forces them to collect the keys which Arbitan has hidden across the planet. The TARDIS crew encounter many interesting people, situations and creatures on their travels across the planet to collect these keys.
The story sounds interesting. It was written by Terry Nation. There are some lovely performances by the regulars and a few of the guest actors. There were some very interesting bits such as the Morphoton from the second episode, the living jungle, the interesting justice system in the final segments, etc. However, these very interesting snippets never really gel into a cohesive story, and seem more like a series of vignettes.
There are some very nice things in this story: 1) It is delightful to see George Colouris in Doctor Who. 2) The Morphoton from episode 2 are quite interesting and would have made a great villain on their own. 3) Ian and Barbara are given very good roles and are equal to the Doctor in trying to work out the puzzles that confront them. 4) It's fun watching William Hartnell having a grand time playing Perry Mason in the last two episodes.
These things can't make the story hang together better. The character of Susan is either hysterical, or on the verge of hysteria for most of the story. The story also doesn't make a lot of sense. I just kept coming up with more questions than the story even tried to answer. (Who is Arbitan, and why is he in charge of the machine? Who or what are the Morphoton? Are they natives to the planet, does their influence spread far? Why didn't Arbitan do a little better job giving the travelers some clues to finding the keys, which are held in some very obscure places? Does that sea of acid spread over the entire planet?) I really wanted to like this story, but it just left me nonplussed.
As for the DVD itself, there have been other Doctor Who stories that haven't been stellar classics but the DVD had enough wonderful extras to make it worthwhile. Unfortunately, this DVD is extremely sparse on the extras. The main extra is a 9 minute interview with designer Raymond Cusick, which is wonderful. There is the obligatory option for watching the story with commentary, this was actually my favorite mode of watching the story. William Russell, Carole Ann Ford, Raymond Cusick and director John Gorrie are moderated by Clayton Hickman and it is a lively interesting discussion. There is also the option of watching the story with production notes subtitles. There is some interesting info, but it gets bogged down with some of the most boringly detailed minutiae (ex. "This scene called for 6 legal pads, 3 pencils, 2 cups, a book, and a beat up cupboard with a lock"...).
So once again, if you are new to Doctor Who and want to watch some of it's earliest episodes, don't start here. Why don't you give "An Unearthly Child", "The Daleks" or even "The Aztecs" a try if you want to see early stories from the show's first season. If you are a Doctor Who fan, but haven't seen many of the early stories, go ahead and watch it, just don't expect too much.
Description of Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus (Story 5)
On a remote island of glass surrounded by a sea of acid, there is a machine that can remove evil from the minds of an entire population ? the Conscience of Marinus. Fearful of its immense power falling into the wrong hands, its sole guardian has scattered the machine?s operating keys across the planet. The TARDIS crew arrives to find the island under attack by the evil Voord. Marinus? last line of defense ? and its only hope ? is the Conscience machine. The Doctor and his companions must undertake a deadly quest to recover the keys of Marinus.Bestsellers in DVD
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