LEGION OF IMPOSSIBILITIES

Saturday 11th April 1964 - Doctor Who - The Sea of Death

 "Yes, and all our knowledge culminated in the manufacture of this. At the time, it was called the Conscience of Marinus. Marinus, that is the name of our planet. At first, this machine was simply a judge and jury that was never wrong, and unfair. And then we added to it, improved on it, made it more and more sophisticated so that finally it became possible to radiate its power and influence the minds of men throughout the planet. They no longer had to decide what was wrong or right. The machine decided for them."

"Who stabbed the Voord?" rather than "What's happened to Barbara?" is what I was asking at the end of this episode. This is our second alien planet adventure after Skaro and Marinus, a planet with an acid sea, and beaches of glass with crystalline rocks makes an engaging setting, though eerily similar to the start of The Dead Planet. As does the immense, foreboding building at the centre of the island. (I'm going to say that the miniatures used in this episode look rubbish and then pass quickly on.)

The Voord are the series second alien race and very different from the robot-like daleks. arrive at the island in a sea of acid in torpedo-like vehicles. They are human-like, clad in acid-proof diving suits with large helmets sporting an antenna. In this episode we don't see they out of the diving suits so we have no idea whether they are human or - as I suspect - insect-like creatures. Though Arbitan does refer to Yartek, the leader of the Voords as a man. Although they travel together in a group to the island, the Voord split up and try to gain access to the building. We find out later it's because they want access to the "Conscience" a machine at the heart of the building that, when working, controls the minds of everyone on Marinus.

Was it the ostensibly peaceful Arbitan who killed the Voord? Doesn't he pretend NOT to see Susan when he's weirdly wandering the corridors.

There's the usual splitting up, getting lost/captured and being held captive. The travellers encounter the monk-like Arbitan who shows them the Conscience and implores them to begin a quest on his behalf to recover the missing parts of the Conscience so it can operate once more. (Sounds like a video game to me.) When the travellers refuse, Arbitan traps the TARDIS inside a force field and demands that they undertake the quest in order to be allowed to leave Marinus. It's interesting that regaining access to the TARDIS becomes dominant in this adventure. Very much like Marco Polo. (I wonder how many "future" early adventures will do the same?) I'm not sure I trust Arbtan and - yes, of course - his mention of a missing daughter presumably is to set up a meeting in a future episode,

Arbitan provides the travellers with a wrist-worn portable transmat (though just referred to an a "device" onscreen) and the cepisode's cliffhanger comes when Barbara travels using the device and, when the others appear, has disappeared.

I guess that by the time The Keys of Marinus was written and went into production, the BBC knew that they had a hit show on their hands and wanted to re-capture some of the excitement of the Doctor's encounter with the daleks. I enjoyed this (with the caveat that much of my enjoyment with the episode came from it not being a reconsctruction from telesnaps.)

So... who did stab that Voord?

Next episode: The Velvet Web.