Ep. 26 The Keys of Marinus

As a countdown to the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who I and my wife will be watching an episode a day until we are caught up to whatever the Beeb has planned. This is a record of my initial reaction to each day's episode published with minimal editing and crappy synopsis.

"Machines can make laws, but they cannot preserve justice."

   This wasn't my favorite serial.  The script is both ambitious and frequently lazy.  The production team pulled their hair out trying to keep up with the weekly demands.
    The episode finishes up Ian's murder trial and leaves the resolution of the Voord for the final ten minutes or so.  Given the poor quality of the Voord as villains it's was probably a good choice to limit them to an episode and a half of screen time.
    Barbara shines in the first half.  It's her idea to question Aydan's wife and she's the one who catches said wife when she misspeaks. 
    Ian gets to play smart guy in the second half, giving Yartek (disguised as Arbitan, POORLY disguised as Arbitan) the fake key that Barbara found a few episodes back.  When Yartek puts the fake key into the Machine there's an explosion and the Voord are eliminated as threats.
   There are some things that I liked about the Voord.  Most Doctor Who baddies have some sort of gun or energy blast of some sort; the Voord are close in killers using sharp knives and hand-to-hand techniques.  It does make a nice change.
    Their origin is also interesting.  From some perspectives they could be played up as freedom fighters resisting the tyranny of the Consciousness Machine.  They were played as one note baddies, but that doesn't have to be the case.
    But then the Voord go out and trip over their own flippers.  Literally.
    I will give some praise to Katharine Scholfield in the role of Sabetha.  There is a scene where her young paramour Altos is being threatened by the Voord leader Yartek.  Sabetha claims that he is only a servant and not worthy of any attention since he knows nothing.  Scholfield says her lines with a fair bit of subtlety and a lot of conviction.  In a serial where the guest acting has been pretty bad, she and Robin Phillips (Altos) have put in credible performances. 

Next up: The Temple of Evil