Day 279 — October 6th 2021
The Keeper of Traken Parts Three and Four
The Keeper of Traken — Part Three
I think I’m right in saying that Nyssa wasn’t originally supposed to be a companion, but that John Nathan-Turner was so impressed with both the character and Sarah Sutton that he decided to keep her on. Hence her being left behind here before returning in the next story. I’ve always thought that was a slightly odd decision as there’s nothing particularly special about the character that makes her seem like good companion material.
But then this episode comes along and I can absolutely see why she stands out. This is a great episode for Nyssa, which allows her to be proactive and resourceful. The key thing is that she manages to build a THING which can stun the guards and she uses it to get hold of the key and release Doctor Who from jail. It’s a great sequence, and in a moment like this I can absolutely see why you might want someone like her aboard the TARDIS. Unfortunately, I think this is probably the last time she ever gets quite such good material.
This episode has continued to hold my attention, but I’ll admit that it’s starting the wear on me a little, to the stage where I’m finding fault for no particular reason. The big one today is that I’m struggling to get my head around the layout of the palace. All the sets look fantastic, and it feels like a totally cohesive world, but Are we supposed to be inside a walled palace in the middle of a city? A castle atop a hill? I’ve swapped my opinion between both of these options at points in this episode, and I think it needs a model shot in there somewhere to help set the scene a little. It’s an area where having so many varied and impressive sets is working against the story — because I’m desperate to know more about how they all fit together.
There’s a moment in this one which manages to be both quite good and also a bit rubbish — the storm which batters Traken as the Keeper dies. It’s a great idea, and I think it plays into the mythology they’ve built up nicely. Katura says ‘with the Source out of control, nature, they say, reverts to destructive chaos,’ earlier in the story and it’s nice to see that put into practice here. It also means that I’ve spotted the windows in the Sanctum for the first time, because they’re lit up as lightning strikes outside. It’s a shame they’ve not made more of these in the earlier episodes; I think they could do something really striking with these sets if lit carefully with sunlight streaming through the windows.
Sadly the storm is also perhaps the most pathetic attempt to represent one in a TV studio ever. It boils down to a couple of fans and some flashing lights, and it doesn’t look convincing for a second. When Tom Baker is forced to pretend the wind is so strong it keeps him from reaching the TARDIS it actually verges on the embarrassing. It’s always a shame when a production has been so strong to see it brought down by something like this.
6/10
The Keeper of Traken — Part Four
There are times when I wish I were going into these stories blind. For me, when I think of The Keeper of Traken it synonymous in my mind with the return of the Master. I know that happens here, and it gets filed away as one of those ‘facts’ in the back of my mind. It means that the revelation that Melkur is actually a TARDIS and the Master is stowed away inside falls totally flat — there’s no surprise in there for me.
And that’s a real shame because I think it’d work quite well if I didn’t know it were coming. They build up the mystery carefully across the first three episodes, revealing that there’s something inside the creature, and seeding in the ideas that whoever it is has an old score to settle with Doctor Who. When they reveal the Master, looking like he did when we last saw him years ago (although better, I think) it should be a proper sucker-punch moment, and I think it’s spoiled by knowing the twist in advance.
I was also surprised by just how recognisable Geoffrey Beevers’ voice was to me from Big Finish. I don’t think I’ve heard him in any of their plays outside the Jago and Litefoot range, but as soon as he started getting proper dialogue to say in Part Three I found the voice unsettlingly familiar. I think that actually works in the story’s favour, as it becomes another tease before the big reveal. And it has to be said; Beevers is very good, isn’t he? The voice is silky and menacing, and I’d quite happily have kept him on as the new Master, rather than having him possess Anthony Ainley at the end.
That said, Ainley is very good in this one, too! I’ve come to think of him as a bit rubbish over the years, playing a pantomime version of the Master who pops up now and then to chortle at Doctor Who, but it’s clouded me from remembering that he’s actually a pretty decent performer. Maybe it helps that Tremas is written as a proper character rather than… well, a pantomime villain. It’s all very well my criticising him for the way he plays the Master, but he can only work with what he’s given after all.
He gets some great material in this final episode. The scene in which the Master hypnotises Tremas and forces him to kill the guard before turning the weapon on himself is genuinely unsettling, and having Doctor Who standing there possessed and unable to intervene only raises the stakes. It’s the best moment of the story, and I think probably the highlight of the season for me.
Someone who’s less well-served by this episode is Nyssa, and just after I spent Part Three commenting on the great material she’d been given! Nyssa has 28 lines in this episode. Of those, 16 are phrased as questions. Seriously there’s a whole scene in the TARDIS where her entire dialogue is comprised of questions directed at Adric. ‘What’s that?’, ‘What does this do?’, ‘Will that work?’. I expected the quality of material she was given to drop off, but not this quickly…!
There’s one other thing which has bothered me about this episode, though, and that’s trying to keep track of exactly what the Melkur is. The implication earlier in the story is that Melkur is the Master’s TARDIS. When Adric does some tests in Part Two, he realises that it bears the same signature as Doctor Who’s own TARDIS. But then it stars walking around and firing bolts from its eyes, and that seems unusual.
This episode only complicates the question. Whenever the Melkur arrives or departs it does so with the traditional TARDIS sound effect, but the previous Keeper was able to appear and vanish at will, implying that it’s a function of the Source. So why would it need to materialise like a TARDIS now? When Doctor Who steps inside the Source chamber with Melkur he finds himself inside a TARDIS (complete with one of the panelled walls from the Season 14 TARDIS). But how did he get there? To make matters worse, when the plan goes awry the Master makes his escape… via a grandfather clock inside the Melkur which is also shown to be a TARDIS! Does he have two?!
7/10
