How many similarities between The Keys of Marinus and The Key to Time can you think of?


Here are several for a kickoff:


In the first episode an elder chap (Arbitan/White Guardian) sends the Doctor on a mission to recover key-thingies hidden in distant places which when joined together will help bring about order and harmony... then the chap isn't seen again in the story.

Our heroes are given a device to direct them to the right places (travel dials/Romana's thingyfinder).

A chaotic force (the Voord/Black Guardian) opposes the elder chap and tries without success to impersonate him in the last episode.

A story takes place in an icy environment (Snows of Terror/Ribos).

We see a land of happiness and prosperity which is not what it seems (Morphoton/Calufrax).

In that land there are telepaths (Morpho brain-snails/Mentiads).

A justice machine can serve as an electronic judge and jury (Conscience of Marinus/Megara).

Someone (Sabetha/Cessair of Diplos) is found to be wearing one of the key-thingies around her neck.

There is some connection or other to robot doubles (Edmund Warwick/Androids of Tara).

The Doctor acts as a barrister in a big trial scene (Millennius/the prison ship).

A death sentence is pronounced and then avoided (Millennius/prison ship and Delta Magna).

The big thingy (Conscience of Marinus/Key to Time) that all the key-thingies fit into is destroyed in the end to keep the chaotic force from controlling it.


What else? There must be more.

So, as I can't afford The Key to Time boxset, I might as well buy The Keys of Marinus?

Thanks for the heads up

You should buy it regardless; The Keys of Marinus is a great story!

Thanks Ting, and I always love watching Hartnell stories regardless of quality. I even like The Web Planet, and don't really know why folk seem to hate it

The Keys of Marinus really feels like it is being made up as they go along. It's good fun, but utter nonsense.

I don't know about that. The stuff with Barbara and the mountain man is pretty harrowing, i think.

Yes. It's the charm of the thing and its problem. The writer couldn't sustain a single story so did a portmanteu.

Very enjoyable. but the plot scenario is rubbish.

Well, apart from the scene of rape threat, it was fun.

I did find that jarring and not taken lightly. But it was a brief and arguably ambiguous element of a multi episode story.

The only other thing I can think of is the statue thing in part three of Marinus and the statue at the beginning of The Androids Of Tara. Tenuous, but thought it worth a mention....


ZAAAAAAAARRRRRRBBBBBBBBIIIIIII!

*Camera wobbles*

*In steps Mexican speaking Menoptera*

*Falls asleep*


:sleep::sleep::sleep::sleep::sleep::sleep:

Have you not seen The Daleks or The Dalek Invasion of Earth?

I think the deadline was the problem. Nation didn't have time to develop a long story so he did it in short bits.

You know, he Keys of Marinus never did pump my nads enough for me to want to see it, based on this thread, I think I might get it!

Yes, I have. I didn't mean that he was incapable of doing so. I meant he didn't manage to do so here. I worded it badly. What Coal Hill said.

It's inexpensive enough to have a go.

I'm going though all Doctor Who at the moment. I'm on The Keys Of Marinus now. I think it's not that bad a story though it does suffer from The Doctor being absent for two episodes. Even in New Who, I'm not that keen on Doctor-Lite episodes so that is a bit of a dampener on an otherwise good story.

Given that the show was on air for 44 weeks of the year, I think it's only fair that Billy was alloweed the odd week in Bournemouth during filming.

Are you listening to the missing stories too? You're missing such treats if you're leaving them out.

I'll second that.

I absolutely agree with your post, Tony, I always have accepted that Hartnell and Troughton and others needed a holiday on such a long running show throughout the years. I personally just don't like Doctor-Lite episodes, it always seems strange when the lead character isn't in an episode. it's happened in other shows I watch as well and I don't that either!


Yes, I am!

I've just finished watched the Marco Polo colourised telesnaps and though I'm still not that keen on this story it's helped improve my enjoyment of it no end.

Most of the missing stories bar a couple I have in telesnaps anyway on the loose cannon reconstructions so yes, I will be listening or watching every single episode without fail or it just wouldn't seem complete otherwise.

Well, that brings up an interesting point: is the Doctor actually the lead character in the Hartnell stories? I would say not, at least in the early ones. He may be (sort of) the title character, but it's very definitely an ensemble cast, with Ian and Barbara in particular very much on an equal footing with the Doctor as far as screen time is concerned. I would say that Ian is really the male lead in many, if not most, early stories.

It is an interesting point. I think Ian was really like some of the later Doctors in a way, being an action figure who could lead the action if The Doctor wasn't in a certain episode. After Ian left, then it fell to successive male companions to fill the void though the female ones played their part in those Doctor-Lite episodes as well.

I recently watched through the whole Ben & Polly era thanks to Loose Cannon. Really appreciating the two of them a lot more now.

Yeah, it's the good thing about the telesnaps, gives you a better understanding of the episodes involved rather than listening to the audio's. I liked Ben and Polly too, though I do wish they'd been given a better story to go out on rather than being pushed aside like they were for the majority of The Faceless Ones.

But at least they got to film a departure scene unlike their predecessor.

Was going to say that's another Key to Time similarity. Unsatisfying companion exit. (but then I remembered It's supposed to be about similarities to Marinus. and the companion didn't leave in Key, just the actress. so its a rubbish observation.)