Written by Terry Nation | Directed by John Gorrie | Produced by Verity Lambert | Original air date 05/16/64
Sabetha wants to tell Tarron, the chief investigator, about Susan, but Barbara is unsure if he's in on the kidnapping, so they resolve not to. She also doesn't want to worry the Doctor, so she leaves him out of it as well, hoping that he can come up with some sort of solution to save Ian. They decide to go talk to Kala, to see if she saw anyone her late husband met with often, in the hopes that she may have some idea who is involved. She starts crying while they're there, and says she misses her husband and is ashamed to have to live with his crime for the rest of her life. She says, "You must have been sick with worry since you spoke to Susan, but I just can't help you, I know nothing," which is odd since no one told her Susan had been kidnapped. No one notices this mistake at first, and they leave. Kala stops crying as soon as the door closes, and she goes to her closet where Susan is tied up to taunt her. In the hallway, Barbara realizes Kala couldn't have known about Susan, and they go back, just as Kala is about to kill Susan on the orders of her co-conspirator.
You'll have to excuse me for reading more into a Terry Nation script than I probably should, but Kala and Aydan fascinate me. They are truly a messed up couple - Aydan slaps Kala for speaking to him in a way he doesn't like, suggesting ongoing spousal abuse. They conspire with the prosecutor to steal the micro-key, apparently to sell it, meaning they're unhappy with their current financial situation - perhaps they blame that for the problems they clearly have with their marriage? When Aydan is about to confess in the courtroom, we find out that Kala is the one that killed him (while she's being interrogated later). Before she's caught, though, the prosecutor says he's going to pick up the key and "collect" Kala - suggesting perhaps killing Aydan and leaving with the prosecutor was the plan all along? It wouldn't be that much of a stretch, since Aydan keeps abusing her, so she's wanted to leave for a while. Aydan seems like a huge wuss (as spousal abusers usually are), so I doubt he even wanted to steal the micro-key in the first place - I bet Kala pushed him to do it, so she could eventually leave and/or kill him. We may only be with these characters for an episode and a half, but I feel like there's more there than what we see.
Before all that, though, the Doctor is clearly upset, sitting and ruminating on his loss. The prosecutor congratulates him on a good defense, and the Doctor mindlessly, sadly, thanks him and says he didn't do as well as the prosecution. Barbara then calls Tarron and informs him that Kala killed Aydan, and he brings her in for questioning. She tells Tarron that she was working with Ian, meaning even her confession isn't enough to save Ian (which she must know, meaning at this point she's just angling to get Ian killed out of spite for having been caught. What a fascinating character). Susan says she overheard Kala's phone call with her co-conspirator, saying that he'd come get the key before coming and getting Kala. The Doctor realizes he can set a trap for the last criminal, saying they can catch him when he comes to get the key. I remember thinking, but Doctor, we don't know where the key is yet, how will you set this trap? Turns out the Doctor knew all along, that it was in the murder weapon. He didn't tell anyone since the information wasn't useful until that moment, apparently (why they didn't scan the murder weapon when looking for the key is beyond me. Detectives on Marinus are morons, I guess). When the prosecutor shows up to collect the murder weapon, they catch him, and all is forgiven (apparently the prosecutor isn't as vindictive as Kala, as he could have said he was in league with Ian too, but doesn't). The Doctor says the people of Milennius should read Pyrrho, and adopt his skepticism to improve their legal system. Ian expresses surprise that the Doctor has read Pyrrho, but the Doctor claims not to have read his work, he met the man, apparently. I love when the Doctor drops names, especially this early on in his travels. He's probably lying about it because his statement is all the evidence we have that he met the man, though we do know that he traveled a bit before An Unearthly Child (there are some super, super boring Big Finish* stories set before it, none of which detail this supposed meeting).
They warp back to what I call Good Model Island (so named such because I'm fond of the model work the production team did on it), and we see Altos tied up. Yartek, who helpfully explains who he is here, says he's killed Arbitan and wants Altos to give him the last key to the machine. Altos won't tell him, so he has Sabetha brought in. The Voord escorting her literally trips over his own feet on the way in, almost falling. Poor Voord, in only two episodes of the entire series, tripping over your own flipper feet, getting dissolved in your fish torpedoes because of a tear in your suit, and so on. You're so charming for being so incompetent! Anyway, Yartek plays Altos and Sabetha off each other, and they won't give up the key but want to protect each other because they're clearly in love. Altos tells Yartek the Doctor has the last key, so Yartek decides to set a trap for the Doctor.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group has arrived in the building, and they're trying to find each other. Ian whips his head around a corner and scares the crap out of the Doctor, who yells at him for it, "Oh, you drive me around the bend! I don't know what's going on!" and he mutters as they continue down the corridor. The TARDIS force field has been lifted, apparently, as the Doctor has checked it, so they can leave at any time. Ian and Susan go to find Arbitan while the Doctor and Barbara go to find Altos and Sabetha, since the Voord are still in the building, they discover, when they have to overpower one.
Ian and Susan go to the main room and talk to who they think is Arbitan, but is clearly just Yartek wearing his robe (note the giant Voord headpiece poking through the hood). Yartek, trying to act like Arbitan, lets slip that he doesn't know Altos, which tips Ian off that the person he's talking to isn't Arbitan since Arbitan sent Altos to find the keys originally. Ian leaves the fake key that Barbara found in "The Screaming Jungle" and they go to find the Doctor. They all meet up in the cell with Altos and Sabetha and free them, but Altos explains that when Yartek puts the fake key in the machine, that it'll blow up, likely taking the building with it. That then happens as they escape.
At the TARDIS, we get a mostly boring scene in which every character says goodbye to one another (streeeeetch that screen time out, Terry! Do it!), but thankfully, the Doctor also condemns Arbitans machine when saying goodbye to Sabetha. At least there's that - there's no way the Doctor, in any incarnation, would be okay with a machine controlling the people of an entire planet. It's too little too late, but it's something. We get one last shot of the model island as the TARDIS disappears (still, frustratingly, without the wheezing, groaning sound), and we cut to credits.
Look, I understand that The Keys of Marinus is a bit ropey, with plenty of goofy bad effects and actors tripping over themselves, but I just find the whole thing charming. Kala is an interesting character as I noted above, and Vasor, the brutal mountain hermit, is a terrifying enemy in a way no one has been so far (though Darrius, Arbitan's friend who lives in the Screaming Jungle, is an idiot. Can't win them all, I guess), and I'll always have room in my heart for brains in jars. I'll say it - I think the Keys of Marinus is an underappreciated episode from Doctor Who's first season. I had more fun watching it than Marco Polo, which I realize is probably Doctor Who fandom blasphemy, but it's the truth (though the big disadvantage is not being able to see Marco Polo. I can only imagine how dreadful Keys of Marinus would be if it were missing). Tomorrow is the beginning of the Aztecs, the supposed best story from the first season of Doctor Who. While I may not agree with that, I do quite like the serial.
*I like Big Finish, quite a bit, actually, but they do not do well in the space before An Unearthly Child. According to their story "The Beginning," which is supposed to be when the Doctor and Susan initially leave Gallifrey, the TARDIS they steal is being decommissioned by a man named Quadrigger Stoyn, and he's taken with them when they leave since he's in the ship. They go through a terribly generic adventure and end up leaving Stoyn behind, to be encountered again later by the Second Doctor. We're not told any reason why the Doctor left Gallifrey which is understandable, but implausible considering they literally leave it for the first time right at the beginning, and neither the Doctor or Susan comment on why, not even so much as a "I wonder if mom and dad will be okay." I understand that this release was part of the 50th anniversary year, but I wish they'd have left well enough alone, as it is quite a let down for the Doctor's first trip in the TARDIS. Sorry, Marc Platt, I like your Seventh Doctor work much better.
"Doctor Who" puns so far: 2 | Tomorrow: "The Temple of Evil"
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