5 out of 5

Director: John Gorrie

My main nit thus far with the DW serials has been that they give themselves a bit too much room.  Even something that’s pulling from a pretty standard story, like Marco Polo, would be stronger by fixing some pacing issues, and those serials that are already pretty great (like The Dead Planet) would be nigh unstoppable if tightened up.  I don’t want to view ‘Keys’ as a turning point without experiencing the rest of this season… or this doctor’s episodes… or the 50 year series… so let’s just isolate it and say that it highlights everything I’ve enjoyed thus far and trims the fat as a matter of need, the over-arcing plot’s structure requiring the episodes to each have little standalone stories.

Our mind-of-its-own TARDIS sets our crew down on a small island ‘with a glass beach, surrounded by an acid sea’ (hyuck, that’s from wiki) and we get a nice model shot of some odd little submersible things approaching the island at the same time.  By ‘nice’ I mean its indicative of a lot of effects work to come.  Charming; serves its purpose.  There’s a seemingly abandoned structure to explore, and then there’re moving walls and Egyptian-demon looking guys called the Voord who are all about trying to stab everyone.  Doc and team rescue / are rescued by Arbitan, who explains that the Voord are forever after a machine called ‘The Conscience,’ which began as a machine for keeping the peace but later developed into what was essentially a mind control tool.  Been there, and I won’t be buying a toaster anytime soon, thank you.  Arbitan tasks our leads with retrieving four keys which are scattered about the planet which will reactivate the machine – which has now been upgraded to regain the peace – when used with the fifth key which is in Arby’s possession.  The convincing factor is a force field preventing entrance back in the TARDIS.  Get me my keys first, says Arbitan, and to help with making this convenient, here are some watches which are programmed to transport you through space to the locations of the keys.  (Or relatively.)

Thus we can view the serial’s structure as and beginning and ending episode of a framing sequence, and four individual tales where we’re finding the keys.  The Voord outfits are really exciting, and each key-fetching story is unique enough to stand on its own.  Part one is the most sci-fi and Terry Nation-esque, the team zapping into a land where everything ‘looks’ perfect… unless you snap out of the hypnosis and realize its all, essentially a dream.  I’m a fan of any tale that gives Babs the lead, and there’s also some good, chuckly performances from Ian and the Doctor, who have to pretend they’re looking at splendor when they marvel a chipped coffee cup.  The second part has a puzzle-solving vibe to it, as the team must deal with false keys and a code which points to the location of the real key; smartly, to balance the writing, the team has decided to split up by this point, the doctor jumping to the last key.  This keeps the running around of parts two and three without having to account for Hartnell’s age, the latter of which is our ‘action’ section, battling for the key in an arctic cave.  Alas, we still have to account for Susan’s screaming this whole time (who is… apparently telepathic, according to wiki..?), excepting our last bit, a trial procedural (!) during which Ian is accused or murder, having transported into a room with a dead body and the missing machine key.  This bit gives Hartnell’s boastful old man routine time to shine, as he observes proceedings in order to represent Ian in trial, and does some awesomely sprightly re-enactments in order to figure out what’s what.  Since this isn’t a section of the planet with mysterious things to scream at, the focus isn’t on Susan, who remains pleasantly quiet.  (I don’t hate the girl, but we’re agreed that her role is pretty empty.)

Any of these pieces could’ve been fluffed up to a 2 or 3 part serial if desired.  It’s great that the creatives tried to shake things up through this change in structure and narrative compression, and the shuffling about of characters gave most of the team some effective screentime.  The first serial thus far that I’ve been engaged for each part, and more evidence of how the creativity can shine through cheap sets and effects and make them work.