>‎"What a man will do for what he truly believes in"

With A Town Called Mercy featuring the Doctor on a romp in the Wild West, it's time to settle down his other major dabbling in the genre with The Gunfighters. Fan Mythology has long held this story to propped up in the Boot Hill of Doctor Who, the worst the show could get and the nadir of ratings. Fortunately, a lot of this mistaken mystique has now been corralled into the past where it should be!

That's not to say some of the criticism isn't jusified. Considering the show's original remit to educate, the depiction of the Clantons, Earps, and the legendary gun fight would seem unlikely to grace history lessons of the day. But, of course, never let a few facts get in the way of a good story ...

And to be honest it is an entertaining romp. Historical inaccuracies aside, the plot unfolds at a leisurely but not lethargic pace, and the gradual change in ambience from a 'comedy' into something really dark can still catch you by surprise. Laurence Payne in particular is exceptional as Johnny Ringo, portraying convincing psychopath that you really wouldn't want to encounter in real life, much like Hannibal! And those final scenes of the actual fight are played totally straight with the portrayal of the gritty reality of "playing with guns".

Mind you, some of the accents were to be desired - what is it with this genre that when you go to the "wild west" you have to put on such an approximation - after all, "The Masque of Mandragora" didn't go all Italian on us! Perhaps they shouldn't have bothered and just played it straight through in 'normal' unaccented English, it wouldn't have affected the story. Shane Rimmer can perhaps be forgiven, however, for not trying to sound too much like Scott Tracey! (He's fresh in my mind having seen him pop up in The Spy Who Loved Me just before writing this review!).

Talking about Thunderbirds we also have David Graham here playing the fated barman, Charlie. Considering he doesn't actually have much to do in the story he does come across as one of the more competent characters, and of course gets to perform a death scene in a way that Ken Dodd should take lessons from!

This is one of those adventures where the plot ambles along quite happily in spite of the TARDIS travellers being there; like "The Romans" and other historical-based tales, their actions hover more around the edges of the main 'real conspiracies' that are revealed over the course of the story, rather than being integral to the plot. Dodo and Steven are unaware that they are both to leave the show in a matter of weeks (grin), and instead display their naivety over the potential dangers they put themselves in with their wild-west antics. Dodo's innocence around Doc Holliday is a wonder to behold, and Steven's ability to continually team up with the wrong crowd is a far cry from the astronaut from the year before. Still, we did get to see the Regret and Dupont double act entering "Tombstone's Got Talent"! Meanwhile, "Doc" ambles between sitting in a dentist's, sitting in jail, and sitting in a bar, and general making Mr. Wearp's life a misery - and what a joy it is, too!

The story is also one of those rarities where the underlying soundtrack is a unique experience. Had Lynda Baron been spotted in Cardiff earlier this year rather than last year I'd have been mighty suspicious about what we'd get in A Town Called Mercy, but it would seem that we're probably safe with Gold's usual fare tonight ... of course she's prevalent throughout The Gunfighters, and could almost be classed a narrator with the way the plot is reflected in the lyrics of The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon. For some reason I used to find it quite grating a couple of decades ago, but nowadays it slots in seamlessly with the story. But please don't do it again, no matter what Barrowman pleads!

Random musings:

"I never touch alcohol" ... well maybe not in this incarnation but a couple down the line and he's swigging his wine like a goodun! Actually, we don't see the Doctor drink that often in the series, with only the Fourth coming to mind as another distinct tea-non-totaller!

If the Doctor is a practitioner of never inflicting violence unless under threat, why does he have a collection of favourite guns?

Doctor Caligari ... Doctor Who? Ho hum, we are of course into the Innes Lloyd era of the show, where Who was treated more as a title than a question (thank you Dorium for reminding us of that!) - this one is more subtle than WOTAN's proclamation in The War Machines and Doctor von Wer in The Highlanders.

One has to wonder why - even though at this point he has little control over the TARDIS - he didn't just get back in and travel somewhere else rather than risk his health in a known bacteria-rife environment!

Interesting factoid on the production notes, there was plenty of real food and drink on hand for the cast to eat during the story - lamb chops and beans, such luxury!

This was the last story to feature individual episode titles up to Aliens of London/World War Three, which in some ways is a shame as it meant a clear end to the concept of a continuously evolving adventure. Sadly, however, this story a candidate for fandom to argue endlessly over what it should really be called :)

Having threatened Susan with a jolly good smacked bottom, he actually does the business with Dodo - albeit light-heartedly with the poster Holliday just gave him (grin).

And finally, so what exactly happened to the Doctor's tooth after Halliday extracted it? I wonder if it has disappeared into obscurity only to return next year as a major plot point for the 50th Anniversary as Time-Lord DNA is recovered in an unexpected place...

Conclusion

In conclusion this story is not half bad at all, and certainly didn't warrant all the 'hatred' it accrued over the years. Historically accurate it ain't, but then the multitude of films out of Hollywood don't exactly tell the true story, either.

No one can argue with the sheer brilliance of the Daleks. Considering their immense success, one can’t blame their creator Terry Nation for reusing them time and again – often, as Terrance Dicks famously pointed out, in exactly the same type of story. “The Keys of Marinus”, however, is a very rare example of a Dalek-free Nation serial. Whilst I’m a huge fan of the pepper pots from Skaro, I have to say that at present I actually rate this story higher than the original Dalek serial. Admittedly, I’ve seen “The Daleks” far too many times to be able to enjoy it very much anymore, but even so “The Keys of Marinus” is a much faster and more varied serial than Nation’s first.

While “The Daleks” played a couple of tried and tested sci-fi / fantasy gimmicks superbly (the post-apocalyptic society, the bug-eyed monster etc.), “The Keys of Marinus” takes on another time-honoured format – the quest. A machine called the Conscience rules Marinus. In essence, it gets inside people’s heads and stops them committing crime. Artiban, the Keeper of the Conscience, manipulates the TARDIS crew into helping him collect the keys that make the Conscience function. Using watch-shaped dials to travel about the planet, the six episodes of this serial see our travellers voyage to every corner of the planet Marinus in a Lord of the Rings style fantasy adventure. As I mentioned, this makes for a wonderfully fast-paced, imaginative and enthralling adventure, but on the other hand it must have broken the bank to produce! As all six episodes have a different alien setting, new sets will have had to have been designed and produced weekly. This takes its toll at times, for example, when we have some very poorly realised ‘giant brains’ ruling the city of Morphoton, but generally speaking the production team managed to pull off another minor miracle producing this rather lavish six-parter with the time and money that they had. In the third episode, Darius’s jungle is very well realised – particularly the idol. The fourth episode’s ice-bound wilderness is far less visually impressive, and even in terms of the story its probably the worst episode of the six - a fact highlighted by the absence of the show’s leading man for the second week in a row! William Hartnell’s return in the fifth episode, “Sentence of Death,” is well worth the wait though as he takes the task upon himself of defending Ian against a murder charge. The Doctor makes one hell of a advocate!

I think the thing I found most refreshing about “The Keys of Marinus” though is its sheer ambition. Marinus is presented as a planet like Earth, inhabited not just by one culture or even two but by a massive melting pot of humanoids, giant brains, frozen Knights, killer jungles and bureaucrats! Seas of acid, sands of glass… sheer poetry! The story’s scope certainly has to be respected. Moreover, it is one of a handful of Hartnell serials that truly deserves the individual episode titles as each episode is literally its own self-contained little story, and can be either enjoyed as such or as part of the larger ‘quest’ story arc. We even have two makeshift companions along for the journey, Altos (Robin Phillips) and the lovely Sabetha (Katharine Schofield) who inject just that extra little bit of something we need now that after four stories we are getting quite comfortable with the regulars, who incidentally are all in fine form. I have to give Nation credit for the story’s quite shocking climax too – especially with older serials I can normally tell exactly what is going to happen next but “The Keys of Marinus” really surprised me. It’s also a very satisfying ending – after watching the first episode I did think that ‘mind control’ wouldn’t be the Doctor’s ideal solution to crime…

"The Keys of Marinus" presents us with a classic story that almost matches the new series format all by itself. By which I mean that you have a number of individually titled, self-contained episodes that are part of a larger story, and the episodes barely have time to scratch the surface of the characters and background presented to us before they are over and rush us along to the next situation. 

Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit admittedly, but it is true that what we are presented with on Marinus is a series of brief vignettes of life on this planet which we never get to see in great detail. A number of reviewers have remarked on the fact that it's rare to get a sci-fi planet that isn't one monolithic culture, and that it's refreshing to see a departure from that with Marinus which features different climates and different cultures. I agree, it is a nice change, though nothing we see on Marinus seems terribly alien, apart from some weirdness with the plants, and of course the brain creatures. Almost any of the locales could be on Earth rather than an alien planet, with the exception of the acid sea, but the variety is still appreciated. 

If I were putting the eight stories that make up Doctor Who's first season in order of first to last place, "The Keys of Marinus" would be second from last, just ahead of "The Sensorites" and just barely behind "The Edge of Destruction". I say that because the other stories are quite good rather than because Marinus is deficient. True, it has some cliches and plot issues, but on the whole it's a good solid, entertaining story of the quest variety. Every one of the regulars gets something to do, though Ian and Barbara are most prominently featured of course. 

The framing sequence that sets up the quest and introduces us to the conscience machine that pacifies the population ought to be more interesting than it ultimately is. The idea of thought control and loss of free will versus peace and a lack of violence should raise questions about trading freedom for safety, but the idea is never really explored. Arbitan, who is willing to curtail free will in order to pacify Marinus, is perfectly in character to deny the Doctor and companions the choice to exercise their free will in refusing to help him recover the keys. He comes across as desperate and rather sympathetic though, despite his actions. Incidentally, the scene where the Doctor is angry about being blackmailed into searching for the keys, then suddenly cheers up and becomes complimentary when he examines the travel dial is pretty amusing, and indicative of what make the Doctor happy - cool high tech toys! So off they go to retrieve said keys, while Arbitan is murdered by one of the Voord. 

The Voord are people in wetsuits, with weird headpieces. At least the fact that they look like wetsuits is because they actually are, though it seems as though the Voord would abandon them once they reached dry land. The one man submarine looks good, and the idea of acid seeping in and dissolving the one Voord who is killed crossing the sea is pretty horrible if you think about it. Most acid just burns, which would be bad enough. This stuff destroys Susan's shoe and dissolves people to nothing... nasty. 

The various locales are all nicely presented, and we don't stay long enough for them to become boring, with the possible exception of the trial in Millenius. The brain creatures are creepy things, being brains with eye stalks and weird voices. Barbara's point of view where she can see the true state of the city is a nice idea, though as always it's easy to tell when one of the regulars is thought-controlled, because they just don't respond as they normally would. 

Altos and Sabitha are picked up at this point in the story. It's enjoyable that once again the TARDIS crew make friends and allies on their trip across Marinus, so they're not so alone in their quest. Altos is pretty creepy while under mind-control, but becomes quite dependable company when freed. The same is true of Sabitha, whom Susan befriends. 

The jungle setting reminds me in retrospect of the Krynoid and its control of plant life, although there is of course an entirely different explanation for the hostile plants. The spikes that descend on Barbara wobble alarmingly, but grin and suspend your disbelief and just enjoy it. The snowy plains are genuinely chilling in their sense of isolation and danger. That episode is well portrayed by all involved, and it's only let down by the narrow (and probably very shallow) crevasse in the ice caves. A good jump would clear it! Vasor's unstated intentions towards Barbara are certainly disturbing. I did get a laugh out of the title "The Snows of Terror". : Ooooh, scary snow! 

Up to this point the story has moved along at a brisk pace, but things slow down with the murder mystery in the city of Millenius, where the Doctor finally comes back into the picture. It's a compliment to the other regulars that the Doctor isn't missed much during the middle episodes of the story, so good are Ian, Barbara and Susan. But the Doctor's return is welcome, as is his relatively new sense of loyalty to his companions, and his attempts to defend Ian. The trial scenes are typical courtroom drama, but the nodding judges who never speak are pretty funny. The situation is solved with an old cliche (the murderer is tricked into a slip of the tongue) which is a shame, but we move on from here back to the pyramid and the confrontation with the Voord. 

One thing that "The Keys of Marinus" does well is convey a sense of a time and distance having been covered. Like Marco Polo, you get the feeling that the characters have spent days or weeks in their journey all over Marinus, though in story terms it's probably less than a week. In the end, though I've enjoyed the story I'm ready for it to end and ready to move on to the next adventure. The story contains some unexplored ideas and cliches, but is saved in many ways by the ever-likeable regular cast, and is carried along by the sense of adventure. 7 out of 10.

One of the oddest Doctor Who adventures, and some of the oddest performances in the history of the series, much of this story seems to be happening at random. Indeed, once the cause of the whole sorry affair is revealed (a broken spring, of all things), it all becomes even more baffling.

Carole Ann Ford continues to play Susan in a state of constant near-hysteria, making her probably the most grating of all the companions. If there’s overacting to be done, you can be sure Susan will be making the most of the opportunity. Every smallest problem sends her into a nervous breakdown; the rest of the time she insists on talking in that early 1960s Audrey Hepburn affectation that was so popular at the time.

So why does our bipolar friend attack Ian with scissors? Who knows. We’re led to believe she’s been possessed or is under some kind of mind control. Actually, it just turns out she’s a nut. Though it does lead to a genuinely creepy moment when Ian returns to the room to attend to the apparently unconscious girl, only to find her bolt-upright brandishing a pair of scissors.

The normally excellent William Russell is pretty disjointed in the first half – also apparently possessed, but it seems that he just forgot to act. His line readings are very odd... he appears to be attempting Beckett towards the start or something. Grumpy old Barbara holds it all together nicely though, and Bill Hartnell is at his unpleasant best.

It’s nice to see the character development of the Doctor, and you do get a real sense that he learns and changes and grows as a person from his interaction with his human companions. There’s a real feeling that this is the Doctor fresh from the stuffy insular world of Gallifrey.

This is a baffling but entertaining two-parter that opens with the main cast apparently waking up from a night of heavy marijuana usage and doesn't become much more lucid from that point on. As a side note, considering the problems this Doctor has remembering what he’s supposed to be saying, it’s little wonder he’s written the names of the controls on the console in felt tip pen.

This is a strange little pair of episodes. I wasn't very impressed when I first saw them, because frankly I had no clue what was going on. Even now that I understand it, the story still feels like improvisation, where David Whitaker just started writing strange dialogue for the characters and ran with it without knowing where he would end up. All of this is not to say that the story doesn't have merit, because it does, and I certainly like it now more than I did then. As a character piece it's fairly strong, however it's still not a very satisfying story. 

I suppose the main purposes of the story are to flesh out the characters and to show us more about the TARDIS, and it manages to do both. With no cavemen or Daleks to steal the show, it's left to the four regulars to carry both episodes on a few small sets, and they manage this fairly well. The normally safe haven of the TARDIS has become a dark and uncertain environment, which is in itself an unusual event. We have four good actors playing four great characters in a mysterious situation, which means it ought to be exciting, but it somehow never really is. On the other hand, it is interesting to a certain degree, mainly due to the strange behavior of Susan and Ian. Susan's convulsive stabbing of the couch with a pair of scissors is pretty disturbing. 

A quick examination of the plot is warranted here. The ship leaves Skaro, headed back to Earth. Along the way it crashes, knocking everyone unconscious. This evidently causes some strange side effects, such as pain, or temporary amnesia. Some time is spent trying to figure out what has happened, and the suggestion is put forth that something has gotten inside the ship, possibly hiding in one of the passengers. What has actually happened is that the fast return switch has stuck, and the TARDIS is trying to prevent its own destruction, hence the odd behavior it causes Ian to engage in, or the melted clock it produces. In the end, after a trying experience, the crew are closer together and the Doctor is less hostile and more open than he was. 

It's sound enough I suppose, but the idea of an intruder being aboard is never conveyed very well, and the fast return switch explanation doesn't really hold up to scrutiny. If it's stuck, it's malfunctioned, and should have registered on the fault locator. It's an attempt at a clever ending that doesn't quite hold up.

Where the story does hold up well is in character development. By bringing the Doctor and Barbara to a catharsis of sorts, and by putting the Doctor clearly in the wrong, and by having him realize it, the crew is finally able to have it out and settle their differences, and emerge from the experience as friends rather than reluctant travelling companions. The Doctor eats a little humble pie and becomes much more accommodating to his travelling companions, leading the way later to friendship and camaraderie rather than antagonism. 

I think "The Edge of Destruction" has more value in context of the season as a whole rather than as a story in its own right. It holds up on its own, and I'm glad it still exists, but it works far better as a bridge between "The Daleks" and "Marco Polo", allowing our characters to resolve some differences and form friendships before moving on to future adventures. While it's a decent little story, it falls short of the surrounding episodes. 7 out of 10.

The status of this story as MIA is a crying shame, since it is such a good one. "Marco Polo" contains the first seven of the missing 108 episodes. We have no censor clips, and no telesnaps for episode 4, though thankfully we have the other six episodes worth, as well as lots of other photographs. Thank goodness for fans and their reel-to-reel tape recorders, so we can at least hear the stories we would otherwise not be able to experience. 

"Marco Polo" is an excellent story that is easily worth the seven episode allotment it was given. If all you care for is the quick pace of modern Doctor Who, you'll be bored stiff with the leisurely pace of stories like this one. But you'd be missing out, because the pace and length of the story manage to create the successful illusion of weeks of traveling. The longer amount of time allows Ian, Barbara, Susan and the Doctor time to get to know the people they meet and form friendships to a greater degree than they did in "The Daleks". The story is full of excellent acting, and music that really evokes a certain mood. "Marco Polo" possesses a charm that few other Doctor Who stories can match. The structure of the story reminds me of "The Lord of the Rings" in some ways. The plot takes place over the course of a long journey, with events along that journey advancing the plot and developing the characters. There's even a map to allow the audience to visualize the sequence and placement. We also have Marco Polo as a narrator, detailing events, which is almost unique in Doctor Who. 

This is very much a character driven story. The Doctor and his companions want to repair the TARDIS and move on. Marco Polo wants to return home to Venice but cannot, and thus he steals the TARDIS to try and buy his way home. The warlord Tegana, the emissary of peace, is secretly planning to assassinate Kublai Khan. All of these characters and motivations, overt and secret come into constant conflict with the others and drive the plot. This makes a "journey from point a to point b" plot wonderfully complex and interesting. 

Friendships play a large part in events as well, and with the lengthy time span covered by this story, there's plenty of time to make those friendships develop naturally. Susan and Ping Cho become friends rather quickly. Both are about the same age, and both are far from home, a topic they discuss on more than one occasion. I think both are glad to have someone to relate to. Ian and Marco also become friends, because despite his theft of the TARDIS, Marco is at heart a decent man. His friendship with Ian is strained by Tegana's lies, but when Marco says at one point that he thinks he knows something of Ian's character, it rings true. Ian has all the fundamental conversations with Marco, including the wonderful scene where they discuss the time traveling capabilities of the TARDIS, which Marco cannot accept until the very end after Tegana has been exposed. 

The Doctor also forms a friendship with Kublai Khan, which seems to begin mainly because both are old men in pain. "Old age is a burden that must be borne with dignity." The backgammon game in which the Doctor wins half of Asia and then loses the TARDIS is a wonderfully funny scene. 

As the title character, Marco Polo, played by Mark Eden, is someone who is likable from the start. He's courteous to the four travelers, and he's admirably open-minded. His travels in Cathay have allowed him to see remarkable things. He accepts that the TARDIS is a "caravan" that moves "through the air". This soon becomes a problem since he wants to return to his home in Venice, and hopes to in effect bribe the Khan he serves with the gift of the TARDIS. As an aside, if there's a pattern developing in these early episodes of Doctor Who, it is the separation of the crew from the TARDIS in one way or another. In "An Unearthly Child" the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan are cut off by being imprisoned in the cave of skulls. In "The Daleks" they have access, but the missing fluid link prevents them from leaving Skaro. Now in "Marco Polo", the Venetian traveler takes the TARDIS away from them, and refuses them entry. He suffers from a guilty conscience because of this, and offers to take them home, having no idea just how far away home is for the four travelers. 

Then there is the warlord Tegana. Tegana is one of the most calm and calculating villains in early Doctor Who. He is superbly acted by Darren Nesbitt. Tegana is calm and rational, rarely losing his temper. He takes full advantage of Marco's trust in him, and capitalizes on just about any mistake that the Doctor and crew make. He very nearly accomplishes his goal of killing Kublai Khan, and almost steals the TARDIS as well, since he too believes it to be a powerful "thing of magic". Listening to the soundtrack may deny me the visuals, but it allows Mr. Nesbitt's wonderful line delivery to be enjoyed without distraction. 

I could go on and on, such is my enthusiasm, but I'll stop here. Do yourself a favor and get the CDs. Get the Loose Cannon recon, and watch the cut down version on the Beginning box set. Overall, another very solid story. This one comes close to being flawless. 9.5 out of 10.