Day 12 — January 12th 2021
The Screaming Jungle and The Snows of Terror
The Screaming Jungle (The Keys of Marinus — Episode Three)
I’ve got this one down in my head as being the worst instalment of The Keys of Marinus, with a vague recollection from my last marathon that this was the one I despaired at. Truth be told, my over-riding memory of this episode is Susan screaming a lot and being beyond annoying. But while that’s certainly true for a little while, Susan gets written out about ten minutes in, and we spend the rest of the day in the company of just Ian and Barbara from our core team (do we think Carole Ann Ford got to go home early?)!
It’s a shame to see Susan being so useless for the short time she is in the serial today, because she was so well served as a character in Marco Polo. There’s not even a great deal of explanation for why she reacts so badly to the ‘screams’ of the jungle. In retrospect we can say that it’s because she’s telepathic, and can hear the plans crying out, but that’s me reasoning it after the fact. On screen it comes across as more than a little odd.
That’s me complaining for the sake of it, though, because I’ve really enjoyed this episode. I know! I surprised myself! Maybe it’s because I went in expecting the worst, or maybe it’s because the first episode of the serial lowered my expectations so far that almost anything would surprise me after that.
The sets here look fantastic — there’s some great shots that show the distance our heroes have to walk through some dense jungle to reach the creepy statue at the end, and they’re the polar opposite to scenes in The Sea of Death. There, it felt like people were tripping over each other, and there wasn’t room in the studio for all the sets. Here you get a genuine sense of distance, and it works really well as a result.
Then there’s the living jungle itself. Plants that are ‘more animal than vegetable’ will become something of a staple for Terry Nation from here on out, but it works surprisingly well on this occasion, and there’s a genuine sense of tension and menace to them. Even when you’ve got a stagehand dangling vines into the back of shot it works surprisingly well, and I found myself properly gripped.
Just one other thought for today; I love Catweazle greeting Barbara by asking ‘Are you a Voord?’. I might start doing that to people in my day-to-day life.
A surprising 7/10.
The Snows of Terror (The Keys of Marinus — Episode Four)
‘These must be the demons that Vasar talked about,’ muses Ian, as they gaze upon the four frozen knights at the heart of the mountain. ‘Well they’re certainly the stuff that make legends…’
And he’s right — the sequence of the knights coming to life and attacking our heroes left a lasting impression on future Doctor Who Peter Davison, who would have been 13 when this episode aired. He recalled the sequence as an early television memory in at least one interview or commentary… but try as I might I can’t remember which one! I’ve spent ages hunting around today trying to find the exact quote and I’m drawing a blank, finding instead just lots of references to him saying it, rather than him saying it himself! If anyone happens to know where he said it, if you could let me know that would be fab.
It’s a fantastic image, although a shame that budget limitations prevented the original idea of having the knights entombed in the ice alongside the key. I suppose that would make more sense of them coming to life as the ice melts, though…!
Years and years ago I found a piece of artwork by Daryl Joyce which depicted the original idea of the scene, and it really gives some indication of just how beautiful and haunting the concept could be.
I don’t have an awful lot to say about the sexual predator who dominates the first half of the story, threatening to take Barbara by force, and sending Ian out in the hopes that he’ll die. It should be a really chilling scenario, with a proper human villain, but it just feels a little out of place for me in this story. I wonder if it would sit better within the world of Marco Polo?
Something to note about today’s two episodes is that Hartnell is absent from them both, in the first of a revolving-door policy which will see all our regulars take a two-week holiday across the course of four consecutive stories. In many ways, Hartnell’s absence makes a fair amount of sense — skipping ahead to locate another key while the rest of the cast go in search of the two se see today. That said, it seems strange that he refuses to take Susan, preferring to go on alone (especially given that Susan is largely absent from half of each episode today!), and if I remember correctly when they catch up with him tomorrow he’s not actually done very much while he’s been away!
It’s telling, though, that you don’t feel his absence in these episodes at all. The programme here is still something of an ensemble, and you can remove a quarter of it — even Doctor Who himself — and the show still works. I don’t think that would be the case ten years later.
6/10
