Doctor Who Marathon - Catch up, Caves & Keys

It has been a week or so since my last update, and in that time I have watched the five remaining episodes of Marco Polo and the six episodes of The Keys of Marinus.

Marco Polo - The story seemed to be dragging on by the end and I felt that the realisation that Tegana was the villain, by Marco Polo was drawn out seemingly endlessly. Tegana finally got his comeuppance and the Doctor and his team get their TARDIS back. The story could have been cut down by a few episodes and still worked as well. Being a historical piece I found the information about the origin of the word assassin interesting, but much preferred the earlier Dalek story to compare the longest stories I've currently watched.

The Keys of Marinus - This story is my favourite of the ones I have watched so far, at least the first four episodes are. The pace at which the story moves forward and the initial construction, of having to find four keys spread across a planet, means that each of the opening episodes could almost be taken as a separate adventure. The court proceedings that take up a majority of the final two episodes turn into a bit of a 'who'dunnit (pardon the pun) and is resolved due to a mis-speak by the guilty party. Having the murderer revealed due to her making mention of the conversation set up by Susan's kidnapper was a clever touch. This story doesn't hang around with getting started and the multiple locations, made it feel closer to the 'new who' stories that I am used to watching.

Caves - Of the five stories I've watched, four of them have included a cave of some sort. An Unearthly Child had the cave of skulls, The Daleks had the cave travelled through by Ian and Barbara on the way to the city, Marco Polo had the cave of five hundred eyes and The Keys of Marinus had the ice cave. I appreciate it may have been down to financial constraints and the reusing of sets would be cost effective, I just found it interesting that four very different stories, two historical Earth pieces, and two futuristic planets would all have need for a cave. Maybe caves were all the rage in the sixties?

Birthday - It was my birthday last Friday (18/01), and I received some Doctor Who DVD's to aid this marathon. I got The Keys of Marinus, The Aztecs, The Sensorites, Planet of Giants and The Dalek Invasion of Earth. This should keep me going for the next couple of weeks, although I may have to invest in The Reign of Terror that has recently been released with two episodes recreated through animation.

Anywho, until the next time...

        

26 of 790 episodes watched