The Armageddon Factor: Part Six

And here it is the big one, conclusion to the story and the key to time arc serial.

Drax has shrunk the Doctor and himself, and the Doctor's makeshift 6th segment is breaking down, the Marshall and total destruction are edging ever closer. The Shadow has gotten his hands on the key to time, but the Doctor outsmarts him, halts the Marshall's attack, but then has the Black Guardian to deal with.

Sadly the Marshall has been stuck in the same scene for 3 episodes, a shame because he started so well.

The Shadow is useless, what a nincompoop he is, a stereotypical clichéd bad guy, The Black Guardian must have been short of employees. This serial would have been way better had the Shadow been well realised.

I've moaned about the humour several times, but in this episode it works very well, the funny is balanced with terror, it works! The Doctor's scene about having absolute power is fantastic, and brings a true unease.

The Black Guardian is particularly good, a true evil being and a good foe for the Doctor. But why was there no final scene from the white guardian, i've never understood that.

So the point of the last few weeks was.........

Maybe time now for a new take on the Key to time???

6/10

The Key to Time series was a mixed bag, some great ones like The Ribos Operation and some rubbish ones like The Power of Kroll, and The Armageddon Factor falls right in the middle being a story full of merits and faults that level out perfectly.

This six-part finale revolves around the planet Atrios which is at war with it's twin planet Zeos, but when the Doctor and Romana arrive on Zeos they find that it is deserted and a servant of the Black Guardian, known as the Shadow is manipulating the war to get the sixth piece of the Key to Time.

This story has a brilliantly interesting concept that really keeps you going through the dullness of episodes 3-6. This is a shame because episodes 1-2 have a strong plot with some great characters and some nice arcs, but then it turns into the kitchen sink story.

The Armageddon Factor has a narrative like a 2p machine, repeatedly adding more and more concepts trying to get something worthy out of it, but while some nice small elements emerge from the chaotic mix of plot threads, nothing substantial leaves a lasting impression.

The acting is usually very strong, especially by John Woodvine as the Marshall, and Ian Saynor as Merak, by it's Davyd Harries who gives the best performance in my opinion. He's clearly having fun and constantly finds ways to ramp up the performance to something that is truly funny and entertaining to watch, especially in episodes 3 & 4.

Lalla Ward gives a good performance as the damsel in distress Princess Astra, despite not really doing a lot, and Baker and Tamm give some of the strongest performances this season. I also like Barry Jackson as Drax who shows up for the final two episodes.

This is a story with an ridiculous amount of padding. Some examples of this are the time- loop introduced in episode 4, and the shrink ray from episode 5 which just serve to extend the story by a few more episodes.

The Armageddon Factor has it's merits, but also it's faults, and while it's not quite the finale to the season we wanted, it's entertaining enough to be worthwhile.

There's a penumbra with a dark and deathly glow, it's unable to acquire, the much sought after ammo, a double crossing fiend, with a dial that's always spleened, but the Doctor keeps his cool and status quo.

Six down, no more to go, better break it up a again, return and then re-stow.

A great arc, a deserved finale for a astonishing season.

Very underrated 6 parts, the plot is well written and the pacing is so good, the only real trouble is the shadow, I personally think the best villain of the season was the Count from Androids of Tara so the shadow is trash but dont ruined the arc, its a pretty good arc with high concepts and and the only one of the season that truly explores the key to time. So dont skip it ou watch already thinking its bad because its a solid 9 especially with memorable scenes with the Fourth Doctor, Romana and K9 being the best thing of this season overall.

This sixteenth season has not been consistently that strong, and as a result I did not approach this extended serial with high hopes. It starts well enough though, and there are plenty of nice ideas in the basic construct – a fabricated war, a 'Strangelove' computer, manipulation of characters by dark forces, and an interesting twist to the form taken by the Key of Time. All of these things are pretty good on the face of it, but the problem is that they do not come together into a satisfying whole. The serial builds quite well at first, but as it adds it becomes messy in the narrative, and it starts to lose impact at a point where it should have been building to a good finish. It has enough movement to keep things going, but when I wanted it to sharpen and get tighter, it instead became baggy and lost sight of interesting elements as it got into the mix.

The extension to 6 episodes doesn't help – as is often the case with these serials, it feels like elements are added or drawn-out just to pad out the time to fill this, rather than the story needing that time. The production values also add to the feeling of the serial being a bit 'meh'; it is mostly an ugly serial with locations that are very basic and don't have atmosphere or drama to cover for it. The performances vary; Baker, Tamm, K-9, Woodvine's Marshall, - these are all good performances, however outside of these too many are pretty basic. Perhaps this is not their fault, as the writing doesn't always gave them the best shots.

In the end, while it is a solid serial in some aspects, it has too much working against it. The set design, the messy narrative, the weaker writing at points – all of this occurs at a point where this serial should really be the 'big finish' that the whole season has built up to. I think this is why it felt weaker than it probably was, because I had wanted more from it on this basis.