Doctor Who's First 'Season Arc' Revealed the Doctor's Name
The totally bonkers second half of The Armageddon Factor boasts a turncoat K-9, a rebellious Romana, and the show's worst-ever death scene.
Plot Summary
Before he can collect the final segment of the Key to Time, the Doctor must end an interplanetary war.
Notable for:
Final story in the Key to Time arc
First appearance of the Black Guardian
First appearance of the Randomizer
Lalla Ward’s first appearance in Doctor Who, playing Princess Astra, not Romana
Drax is a Time Lord who went to school with the Doctor — then known as Theta Sigma — 450 years ago. They were in the class of ’92.
Pete commentary:
Another Baker/Martin joint!
Love that the romance soap opera is basically on Zoom for all these folks, getting them “motivated” in the background. It would have been mubh better had it, or variations of it, been in the background constantly. “Kiss the children for me,” indeed.
Another Marshal, but a different one. Both evil – one cold and machiavellian, the other all bluster.
Is there a perception filter on the Marshal’s mirror?
First scene in the TARDIS is funny, but interesting: “where’s the planet? Oh, there it is.”
It’s a stretch that Atrios would be able to detect the TARDIS with presumably all the space junk around the planet.
Nice moment where Tom Baker reminds everyone we’re here for the sixth segment of the key to Time
The Marshal killing the guard and laying the trap for astra - we get it, you’re evil
“Another underground passage” 🤷🏻♂️
Fun that Shapp blows K-9’s whistle. Love that the Marshal basically forces him. Pity the middle managers.
Merak is shockingly open with the Doctor and Romana right off the bat: “I love her,” and telling them everything about how they’ve been trying to communicate with the Zeons.
Tom Baker is so good: “Oh, just general interest.”
Shapp’s enthusiastic delivery of, “Attack. Attack. Attack,” is hilarious.
Love the Doctor’s convo with the Marshal about developing a weapon, especially the psychological weapon, which really is a good idea (given enough time)
The end of episode 2: It’s a trap!
I love that once the Doctor and Romana are on Zeos, the Shadow is just like, “Do whatever you want, Marshal — don’t know, don’t care.”
So the Doctor just takes off the neck control device thingie? I guess it shows how powerful and cool he is, but there doesn’t seem to be a reason for it. The Shadow does know the Doctor is a Time Lord, and he’s an agent of the Black Guardian — you’d think he would have been ready for this.
The Shadow backing off from the Doctor is an interesting choice, and I like it. Making the calculated choice to not confront your enemy directly right this second, knowing there’s a lot more game to play, and that he will inevitably make a mistake to capitalize on… I get it. It seems dumb, but it works because the Doctor here isn’t a mere obstacle on the way to getting the key — the Doctor is very much the game. It would be dumb to just kill him, even though the Shadow clearly can.
Merak grabbing the tracer is a bit silly, and clearly padding to add a tiny bit of tension. They all effectively get together on Zeos anyway. I guess it shows how dedicated he is to Astra and shows how hapless he is.
Like the bit where the no-name Atrios soldier says, “Your escape… I mean your command module, sir.” It actually looks a bit better than an escape pod!
“Shapp, old chap” — lol
Did Romana use Venusian karate on Merak?
“Victory or death!” line from the Marshal is echoed in The Last Starfighter of all places. Jonathan R. Betuel was prob a Doctor Who fan.
All the R2D2 noises get a little tiresome. We get it, these are computers. Since this aired in 1979, and Star Wars was a worldwide phenomenon, there’s certainly some influence, also the fact that the computer has a name.
“No Zeons on Zeos” — chilling, but no one goes all the way with this idea for some reason, even though Shapp just said they used to trade with them. Was there a genocide? That seems to be the implication. And if so, who’s in those ships that keep attacking Atrios? (Presumably the Shadow’s forces).
Shapp getting zapped (heyo!) might be the worst “death” in Doctor Who. It’s a goofy scream, and the way his legs are splayed out at the end of it… well.
That said, I do think Davyd Harries choice to play Shapp bored is generally good. He has his own way of dealing with the madness around him — especially the Marshal — by tuning out of it. Only when he gets to Zeos does he come alive somewhat, since it’s so out of the ordinary.
Shapp radios the Marshal, but shouldn’t he be dead?
Title check from Tom Baker in episode 4. Which came first?
The Shadow telling Princess Astra to smile has some added darkness given the direction modern feminism went.
The time loop is really cool. They could have got us a little more ready for it, but I absolutely love the twist that the Doctor turns to the arc plot to get him out of the episode plot: “We have no other options, so let’s use the mega-McGuffin to get us out of this.” It’s a bit of an, “Oh yeah!” moment, and makes some kind of sense. It certainly invites a host of questions of exactly how the Key to Time works:
Since you can just sub in a piece of any material, what does this say about how the Key to Time derives its power? Clearly, there are no circuits, programming, or moving parts. Its power must come from the geometrical shapes somehow. Presumably, you could build it out of any material, but even the most durable substances would only give you a few seconds of power (they only get a few minutes here because they have 5 real segments, relying on only one fake)
Finally seen here, the tracer clearly has a command and control role in the Key, similar to the Infinity Gauntlet. Presumably that’s how the shapes can process the Doctor’s commands and harness the power for the owner.
Speaking of, how does the Key know who the owner is? What sort of security is on this thing? Can anyone within earshot command it? What other I/O does it have?
Is the default setting “Time Loop?”
Kind of an error: as the time loop widens, the countdown goes from 10-9-8 to 10-9-8-7, which makes sense, but if, as K-9 says, it’s only extending by 0.3 ms/s, you wouldn’t get a whole extra second right away.
Gotta love K-9’s trash talk: “Hostiles repulsed. Most satisfactory.”
The Shadow kidnapping everybody, petting K-9 (who calls him “master”), and loving every minute of it — gleefully letting out maniacal laughs every 2 seconds — is classic Doctor Who. I like this kind of “bad guy cements his power” thing, and I like how it’s counterbalanced by the Doctor using the Key, which seems to show he can think on his feet too.
“Repetition” is the word of the day for episodes 4 and 5, which both feature the Marshal yelling “Fire” again and again, and the Shadow proclaiming “The Key to Time is mine!” at least twice before cackling.
Unpopular opinion: Drax is great. Unexpected and bizarre as both a character and plot twist, his whole presence injects some life in what has so far been a fairly plodding script. His Brixton accent isn’t so hard, but his screw-loose personality forces Tom Baker to be louder than he usually is, expressing more irritation and anger at Drax than he does in the rest of the entire story. It doesn’t entirely work since Drax doesn’t seem to be taking much seriously, but it definitely keeps the audience on their toes.
At least K-9 speaks for fans who don’t like him, “Your silliness is noted.”
So what’s Drax’s deal? Why do the Time Lords let him do his thing? He even mentions he has a TARDIS. The Doctor’s freedom is explained, and Romana was all about the Key to Time (later recalled). The Master and the Rani are renegades. Yet it’s cool he goes around the universe like some kind of intergalactic used car salesman?
For some reason his dad-joke farewell: “Remember me… to Gallifrey” sticks with you. I also like his, “If you EVER want to get rid of that thing…” This is Glitz 1.0.
There are so many sci-fi concepts stuffed into the second half that you feel like Graham Williams is ticking things off his Doctor Who bucket list: holograms, time loop, shrink ray.
Nice cliffhanger to episode 5. The Doctor is zapped! By Drax!!!
Speaking of silliness, Merak and Shapp look like some kind of comedy double act with their bad bandages in episode 6.
K-9 is a horrible actor! His “ahem” moment is up there with they Cyberscout going, “Aahhh!” in The Five Doctors.
Although Astra suddenly embracing her destiny as the sixth segment is mildly interesting, they miss a trick by not having her actively fight it. That said, it would have been a less ambiguous ending.
Romana has some good moments of dignity in part 6 when she rants about the Guardians being too callous by letting Astra become the sixth segment. She kind of loses it, which is a good moment for the Doctor to contrast her attitude with his own sensibility.
The Doctor and Romana both name-check the “Planet of Evil.” And JNT was worried about State of Decay being too close to The Curse of Fenric?
Tom doing evil Tom is a pretty great LOL moment.
What did Pete’s family think?
Grace commented about the Marshal: “He’s good at lying.” - w/r/t getting rid of Astra
“All the beeps are unnecessary,” - on Mentalis
Grace on Merak’s impulsiveness: “He’s kinda crazy”
Grace said she liked it, but I got the sense she was being a good sport.
Four Questions to Doomsday - Pete
Why did the Randomizer take us here? Apart from visiting its origin story? The Doctor’s moment with Romana in episode 6 — her overcome with emotion about the injustice of forcing Astra to become a “component” while the Doctor cares, but carries on — echoes in Thin Ice: Bill losing it over the dead kid, and the Doctor focusing on the necessity of moving on quickly to save more lives.
What if the evil plot had succeeded? Presumably the Black Guardian isn’t quite so dumb, and fools the Doctor. Universe over? Thanos has the infinity Gauntlet! That said, how does the key work? How can the White Guardian “restore balance” but stopping time or whatever with it still in the TARDIS, but the Black Guardian can’t? Like the guys in The Discontinuity Guide observed, the events of Logopolis suggest the Doctor blew apart the key too early.
Where's the Clara splinter? She’s in charge of security for the Marshal’s skull room, deciding to take her allotted break when the Doctor shows up. Typically that place is locked up tight!
Dalek, Ogron, Professor Hayter, Viscount Banger, Fixed Point in Time, or Lady Cassandra? Professor Hayter is puffing right along in this one, but starts doing dodge’ems in his Dalek casing in part 6.
Chris commentary:
THETA SIGMA IS THE DOCTOR'S ACTUAL NAME, HOLY #$Q&^
Later retconned in Happiness Patrol
One Question to Doomsday - Chris
Where's the Clara splinter? Time Lady Clara is appearing Drax-like at opportune moments – but to Romana, off-screen, pointing at Princess Astra – "wouldn't you like to burn through a few regenerations until you look like her?"