Day 255 — September 12th 2021
The Armageddon Factor Parts Three and Four
The Armageddon Factor — Part Three
The thing I’ve found most interesting about this episode is that it’s very clear that it was produced after Star Wars. There’s a handful of moments in here which feel like they’re definitely inspired by elements of that original film — the shots of the Commander on the bridge of his ship, with the camera positioned behind him and the vista of stars beyond, for example. Forty years later it just looks like the kind of shot you might expect to find in any science fiction film, but it’s telling that we’ve never seen anything quite like this in Doctor Who before. Compare it with a similar shot from Star Wars and I think the inspiration is obvious;
And then there’s K9 having a conversation with another computer brain which consists entirely of bleeps and bloops. It feels so much like this has only come around as a result of the writers, director or both having been taken by R2D2, even if it seems obvious in hindsight. I’m sure I remember a story about Graham Williams and Tom Baker specifically going out to see what all the hype was about when Star Wars came out, and looking at the dates they seem to add up; the film was released in the UK just after Christmas 1977, and the original outline for this story had been submitted about a week earlier. Revisions were made from January onwards.
I should point out here that I’m not criticising the episode for wearing its inspiration so clearly on its sleeve. Doctor Who — especially during Baker’s run — has always been inspired from other places, and it feels somewhat fitting that it would riff on the imagery of one of the biggest films of all time. I think it’s fair to say that it’s a movie which changed the public’s expectation of what Sci-fi looked like, and this is the first example of Doctor Who responding to that.
Outside of that, it’s nice to finally have an episode where the Key to Time plays such an important role. It’s been a bit of a macguffin so far, only being important at the beginning of a story to bring our heroes in and again at the end when they collect the next piece. Here we’re introduced to a new villain — the Shadow — who’s plan revolves around getting his hands on the artefact. It finally feels like the device has become important, after a whole season of just sort of existing.
The Shadow is a decent enough threat, and the design is brilliant, with the upper half of his face resembling a skull. I can’t decide if it’s meant to be a mask or his actual features, but either way it looks pretty scary to me. The scene in which he threatens Astra is especially watchable, and I’m impressed because I went into this story thinking of him as being a bit naff. As well as that sequence, I love his confrontation with Doctor Who. Tom Baker seems to have really returned to form as this season has worn on — he feels far more engaged than in the latter half of the last season, and with his hair cut shorter he’s looking more like himself again too. Baker and Martin continue to write some brilliant dialogue here, making the character just the right balance of threatening and aloof.
The Shadow: ‘Open the Tardis. Bring me the pieces.’
Doctor Who: ‘Certainly. Interested in timepieces, are you? Chronostatics, horogenesis, that sort of thing?’
The Shadow: ‘You are not dealing with a fool, Doctor.’
Doctor Who: ‘Oh yes, I am. I’m sorry to disillusion you, whoever you are. And you tried breaking and entry into my Tardis, didn’t you, and failed. Covered with automatic defence mechanisms. Very clever, really.’
Overall I think I’m going with another 7/10 here.
The Armageddon Factor — Part Four
This is — technically — the last six parter in Old Testament Doctor Who. Shada doesn’t count because it was never broadcast (I’ll be watching whichever version of it is on BritBox in about a fortnight, but it’s on there as a single two-hour feature, so I’m doing it all in one day) and The Two Doctors is the length of a six parter but was broadcast as three double-length episodes, so that doesn’t really fit either. I can’t say I’m sorry to see the back of this format for stories. The six parters generally feel like they go on that bit too long, and there’s rarely enough of interest going on to hold my attention throughout. That’s not always the case (my top rated story in this marathon so far remains The Power of the Daleks, after all) but it’s certainly true more often than not.
It’s definitely the case with this story. I’m still enjoying it well enough, but this episode is about as average as they come. It feels like not a lot has happened (although when I think about the events we’ve actually seen quite a lot going on) and my interest in the story is beginning to wane. I really enjoyed all the political machinations of the opening two episodes, and the stakes being raised by the reveal of the Zeon computer in Part Three held my interest, but we’re reaching a stage now where my attention is being stretched a little thin.
That’s not to say that there’s not things in this episode to enjoy. I find myself really liking the character of Shapp, who provides some great comic relief. I made a note of that while watching Part Three, but it’s in this episode where he really gets to shine, undercutting Doctor Who doing all the serious and broody stuff with some serious comedy. There’s points in this episode where Davyd Harries probably goes a bit broad with the role, but somehow it works.
The moment he’s shot by one of the Shadow’s guards and does an extravagant collapse backwards into the Transmat Capsule — complete with legs flying up in the air — is the perfect example… but it’s also my favourite moment of the episode! Hah! Oh, I wound it back and watched it happen again because it made me proper laugh. I think it was so unexpected, and while the stakes are being raised across the board it was a very welcome spot of humour.
The other area in which this episode excels is the direction, which continues to be brilliant. There’s been incidents in tha last couple of episodes where the direction has felt like it’s shifted down a gear and become a little less impressive. Still very good, but not as noteworthy as in the opening episode. Here, though, we’re right back to having some really beautiful, and carefully considered shots. Take the moment Doctor Who and Romana ‘complete’ the Key to Time using a makeshift sixth segment. It could be a terribly flat scene, taking place entirely inside the TARDIS which is still a slightly tatty set at this stage. It’s been shot largely from below, however, looking up at Doctor Who and Romana (and the Key to Time) through a glass table, which makes it far more visually interesting than I’d have expected.
In spite of these little saving graces, this is the weakest episode of the story so far, and I’m dropping to a 5/10.
