The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: The Keeper Of Traken
The Keeper Of Traken: Part One (31/01/21)
Previously, on Traken:
The Empire of Traken is a world held together by people being 'terribly nice to one another'. It has an atmosphere which calcifies anything evil which approaches the planet and ends up in its Groves. The Groves are tended by Fosters, sort-of-lawkeepers, and the evil - known as Melkur - are tended to by the local children. The most recent one has been tended to by a 'sensitive' called Kassia who, years later, has become one of the ruling class of Consuls and has married one of her fellow Consuls, Tremas, a widower with a teenage (?) daughter. The question mark is because Trakens appear to be quite long-lived - as is shown by their leader, the Keeper, around which this episode revolves. He's ancient and massively powerful - he just appeared in the TARDIS to request the Doctor's help after drawing him to Traken without his knowledge. He knows his time is up and has chosen Tremas as his successor (a bit mean considering he's just married Kassia - and he announced it at their wedding, too, the git!) but feels something is going awry. He's right, obviously, because not only has the Melkur creature now communicated with Kassia as she revealed her sadness at Tremas being taken from her by the Keeper's decision, but it's left the Grove, killing a Foster and infiltrating the Keeper's sanctum (having drawn suspicion on the Doctor and Adric by making the TARDIS vanish!).
This was a really great episode; sumptuously designed in contrast to the minimalism of 'Warriors' Gate'. Astonishingly, the Doctor and Adric work wonderfully well together now Romana and K9 are gone. Matthew Waterhouse is suddenly quite charming in the role having been sidelined while Lalla was around!
Most of the episode was given over to setting up this faux-fairytale society which bridges superstition and science, Tremas being the local scientist and Kassia quite the opposite. It's clearly a world of class divides, but also one of peace; a peace which the Melkur seems to have spent years waiting to shatter. It's a nice idea, and one which hasn't been seen before in the series. It's really nice to see the production team experimenting with different styles and ideas. After a rather shaky start, they seem to be confidently finding their feet!
The Keeper Of Traken: Part Two (07/02/21)
After a very promising start, this story has already started to go pear-shaped. Firstly, having sensed the Melkur's presence at the same time as the Consuls asking about the Doctor, the Keeper's declaration that "the Sanctum (had) been invaded" by "Evil, infinite evil!", realistically the Fosters should have shot the Doctor and Adric dead as soon as Kassia ordered it. But they didn't. And after a lot of waffle and technobabble, augmented by some horrible overacting by Sheila Ruskin as Kassia, her husband Tremas has taken the Doctor and Adric into his care seemingly only because the Doctor says he's a scientist like Tremas.
Kassia has spent the episode running around hiding bodies and covering up for the Melkur, who in turn has given her a cardboard collar that controls her mind and gives her ridiculous-looking, fake red eyes painted on her eyelids which recall the rubbish painted-on eyes Wanda Ventham had in 'Image Of The Fendahl', only shitter.
The Doctor went looking for the TARDIS with Tremas, leaving Adric with Tremas' daughter, Nyssa, who helped him gain access to the Grove to find the Doctor after he worked out that the readings Tremas has picked up wherever the Melkur has been look like they come from a TARDIS, and not a Type 40.
There was some low level politics where Consul Seron underwent 'Rapport' with the Keeper to determine if he was acting against the Union. He was found innocent, but Kassia (who was taking vigil) killed him with her silly eyes then, when the Doctor, Adric and Tremas turned up, denounced them as Melkur's minions. They were then captured in the Grove, but have got the TARDIS back with some convenient machine.
This is the second civilisation this series to have their world run by an all-powerful object in an underground room, but at least this one looks fancy. It's just a shame that the dialogue consists of melodrama and incoherent waffle about technology. Somewhere there's a decent idea at the heart of this story, but this week's episode did its best to completely hide that fact. It's a shame because this season had been going so well!
The Keeper Of Traken: Part Three (14/02/21)
That wasn't bad. An improvement on last week! It very much seems, as I sort of guessed last week, that the Master has returned. He looks a bit different to last time - his face is all makeup instead of a hideous mask - but he's wearing his rotten cloak and in a TARDIS.
The Doctor, Adric and Tremas (whose name is an anagram of Master for no readily apparent reason since it's Kassia who's been helping the renegade Time Lord) were locked up. Then Nyssa adapted an ion bonder, shot a couple of Fosters, and freed them. The Melkur/Master wasn't too chuffed that Kassia hadn't killed the Doctor when she had the chance and tortured her a bit. He then told her she should be the next Keeper, a bit daft since she was only helping the Master in the first place to prevent Tremas from becoming Keeper. This way they're still separated, but she ends up sat in a chair for a thousand years. If she'd shown envy or ambition then this would have made more sense, but other than being a bit mean to Nyssa in some sort of random 'wicked stepmother' analogy, she so far has come across as as much a victim as anyone, albeit a more zealous character.
And is this Tom's last story? A six parter? By rights it should be, and that would make sense of them having revealed the Master to be behind it all half way through, but it would have been better to have had his reveal at the cliffhanger (and to state absolutely that it's him for anyone who's forgotten what he looked like four years ago) rather than what we got - Kassia made Keeper then seemingly destroyed as the Melkur took her place. The plot does seem a little unsure of itself. I mean, this is a society based around the Keeper preventing evil on the planet, yet we have corruptible and greedy Fosters, and little argument when they're instructed to kill the Doctor, Adric, Tremas and Nyssa. In fact, they weren't instructed to kill Tremas and Nyssa but were about to do it anyway!
I'll have to see how this pans out. It seems a very odd story to conclude the series with, and even odder to write Tom out in. I can only assume the Master is going to use the Keeper's powers to attack Gallifrey and conquer the universe or something. They have, after all, been talking about returning to Gallifrey all season!
The Keeper Of Traken: Part Four (21/02/21)
Well, that wasn't bad; an improvement on last week (again), but there was still a hell of a lot of technobabble and I'm not entirely sure what happened, plus the ending seemed a bit rushed. No, not rushed - sudden.
The Doctor sent Adric to the TARDIS with Nyssa where they built a contraption out of circuits and a big, white globe to interfere with and destroy the Source. The Melkur, actually the Master's TARDIS, became Keeper but needed to adjust. Everyone was confined to their quarters until the Master sent Proctor Neman and a couple of Fosters to get the Source's blueprints from Tremas. The Doctor overpowered them (in a very silly scene) and he and Tremas returned to the Council Chamber where the Master took control of them both and made Tremas execute Neman. He then took the Doctor into his TARDIS (somehow) and they chatted about the Master's library for some reason.
Meanwhile, Adric and Nyssa hooked their device to the Source which made the Melkur blow up. The Doctor escaped by jumping through a panel (?) and the Master escaped in his old TARDIS which was parked in the Melkur's console room. The Doctor and Adric then entered some numbers into the base of the Keeper's throne chamber which cancelled the effects of Adric's device, Luvic took the place of the Keeper, and the Doctor and Adric buggered off, leaving Tremas to have his body taken over by the Master (in quite a decent cliffhanger) and Nyssa, subsequently, an orphan.
There was quite a nice little scene near the end with the Doctor and Adric in the TARDIS; I think they work quite well together, and it's quite novel to have the Doctor travelling with just a male companion. I don't think we've had that on the show since 'The Massacre Of St. Bartholomew's Eve'!
It was all a bit confusing, though, I'm not convinced by Geoffrey Beevers' interpretation of the Master, and it does feel like this could have been a better six parter with more jeopardy. It also means we get a final four part story to see Tom off, and that makes this the longest series since the 60s! I'm guessing that it will be a final face-off with the Master since he survived and got a new body. I guess I'll have to wait and see.
I can see why some people find this story dull, but I've always rather liked it. Sure, there's a few too many lashings of C. Hamiltion Bidmead 'science' weighing it down, but it's quite a jolly picnic really. Anthony Ainley is better as Tremas than he is in most of his stories as the Master (the writing and/or directors' fault), and the most astonishing thing of all is that suddenly Matthew Waterhouse can act... for the most part. He's never better than in this story, which not coincidentally is the only one in which he's not being spurned by both the star of the show and a female lead. That said, even Tom Baker seems to be getting on with him alright - or at least the Doctor is getting on alright with Adric.
ReplyDeleteI've never been a fan of this story - I guess the awkward mix of science and fairytale doesn't quite work for me - but (as you could probably tell), after the first episode I actually thought I was going to have another 'The Space Museum' moment where a story that hadn't ever really impressed me was suddenly incredibly good and fun to watch. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case and I think that you're right that the main problem is down to the curse of Chris B. Far too many scenes with the Doctor, Tremas or Seron, Adric or Nyssa going on about random technological shit that went right over my head. I followed Nyssa's explanation that she'd upped the dose on the Ion Bonder to knock out the Fosters, but all throughout Parts 2-4 were conversations where the characters may have just as well have been saying that they needed to magnify the flange-wibbler in order to extrapose the floodle emissions (and I just thought I made up 'extrapose' but according to my spellcheck it's actually a word!).
DeleteI really want to like this story. It's got a really nice idea at its heart, the society is beautifully conceived and realised, it reintroduces the Master, the fact that he's defeated but ultimately comes back and basically murders Nyssa's dad is wonderfully grotesque and shocking, and it looks like no other serial before or since. But beyond the first episode the dialogue and character motivations become convoluted, contrived and confusing. I like the story more than I did, but it's still one of the weakest stories of this season, possibly on a par with 'Meglos' because, even though 'Meglos' doesn't look quite so nice and Tigellan society isn't remotely as rounded as Traken, you at least don't feel like everyone's speaking a different language.
Also, I struggled with Sheila Ruskin's sudden decision after Part One to up the melodrama to 11 and pretend she was in a particularly badly directed Shakespeare play. Her performance is very much at odds with every other actor (bar perhaps Geoffrey Beevers). And Matthew Waterhouse really is quite good! The scenes in the TARDIS with Tom are actually really charming and it feels a huge shame that he didn't get more of this during his time on the show.