The Tardis lands on an island on the planet of Marinus . The time travellers meet Arbitan who is the keeper of the Conscience Of Marinus a sophisticated computer that controls the planet . Arbitan tells the time travellers that the Voord a race from outside the computers influence are tyring to infiltrate the island and the only way they can be controlled is if the computer is upgraded but this is not possible without the five keys scattered across the planet . The Tardis crew agree to find the keys but shortly after they depart the Voord arrive and murder Arbitan
Two things are noticeable watching this story today . One is that it seems directly influenced by Tolkien and the other is how painfully over ambitious it is . LORD OF THE RINGS wasn't the mega success it was known for until the hippy era so congratulations to the underatted Terry Nation for making a Tolkieinesque quest story before it became fashionable . However he might have to lose a mark down to having the ambition that Peter Jackson has but having the budget of 37 pence . Always a bad idea to write mega million dollar screenplays when you're financed by the BBC
In his defence Nation had to write the script in a hurry to replace a script by Malcolm Hulke called The Hidden Planet . One however can't help thinking why Verity Lambert and script editor David Whittaker didn't insist on something a little bit more low key , a sort of More Low Keys of Marinus ( Groan ) . The problem is the episodic nature means you're going to have to build different sets and costumes for each episode you probably won't have the budget to do many or any of them justice , a fact often reflected on screen with laughable model work . The entire story also fails to hang together as a coherent story if the episodes are watched all in one go
Not to be too negative it's always good to watch this unique era of the show as the companions Ian and Barbara who forever remain very human characters that we can believe take centre stage . The other positive is that being so episodic if you don't like one episode then a entirely different genre type episode will be around the corner very soon . It's also interesting to see Nation come up with an idea of an Island being surrounded by highly corrosive acid which is a plot he used later in the 1978 BLAKES 7 episode Orac . It's also an aquatic planet which is no doubt why it's called Marinus
Two things are noticeable watching this story today . One is that it seems directly influenced by Tolkien and the other is how painfully over ambitious it is . LORD OF THE RINGS wasn't the mega success it was known for until the hippy era so congratulations to the underatted Terry Nation for making a Tolkieinesque quest story before it became fashionable . However he might have to lose a mark down to having the ambition that Peter Jackson has but having the budget of 37 pence . Always a bad idea to write mega million dollar screenplays when you're financed by the BBC
In his defence Nation had to write the script in a hurry to replace a script by Malcolm Hulke called The Hidden Planet . One however can't help thinking why Verity Lambert and script editor David Whittaker didn't insist on something a little bit more low key , a sort of More Low Keys of Marinus ( Groan ) . The problem is the episodic nature means you're going to have to build different sets and costumes for each episode you probably won't have the budget to do many or any of them justice , a fact often reflected on screen with laughable model work . The entire story also fails to hang together as a coherent story if the episodes are watched all in one go
Not to be too negative it's always good to watch this unique era of the show as the companions Ian and Barbara who forever remain very human characters that we can believe take centre stage . The other positive is that being so episodic if you don't like one episode then a entirely different genre type episode will be around the corner very soon . It's also interesting to see Nation come up with an idea of an Island being surrounded by highly corrosive acid which is a plot he used later in the 1978 BLAKES 7 episode Orac . It's also an aquatic planet which is no doubt why it's called Marinus