The Armageddon Factor (1979) Review

"Make it so, Number One!"

The Armageddon Factor is drawn out and tiresome, but contains enough interesting concepts to support itself to the very end.

WRITTEN BY

Bob Baker and Dave Martin, who are infamous on this marathon for their intelligent, but awfully executed stories. They're also the creators of K-9.

PLOT

The Black Guardian prepares a trap for the Doctor at the final segment of the Key To Time, hidden in the midst of long-running war between rival planets Atrios and Zeos. With the help of his friends, old and new, the Doctor has to prevent the warmongering Marshal from destroying the solar system in fury whilst engaged in a battle of wits with the Black Guardian's own agent...

ANALYSIS

The story starts out well enough, with a semi-satirical "war between two worlds" scenario that Doctor Who has pulled off successfully many times in the past, insane commander and all. However, that whole plot takes a backseat in a few episodes for a runaround(and is then completely halted when the Marshal is trapped in a time loop) on Zeos. Now, I've never really talked about Doctor Who's famous corridors, but if there's one story that feels like it's just people walking around in endlessly recurring tunnels, it's this one. 

After the truth behind the Atrios-Zeos war is discovered, practically half of the story is spent on the Doctor trying to delay the Shadow from getting his hands on the Key and the Shadow trying to manipulate him with parlour tricks in return. And that means a lot of back and forth through corridors, trying to do this and that. Needless to say, it gets old fast. The elements of a good story are there, it just sort of gets stuck.

CHARACTERS

Tom Baker does his "That's something. Isn't it something?" comedy shtick, which is nice, if slightly out of place in a Bob Baker & Dave Martin story. 

Mary Tamm had an unfortunately limited role as Romana, spending most of the time in the Shadow's captivity and/or announcing things to the Doctor. There were a few glimpses of the old banter(though with less friction, obviously), but she was really underused.

On the other hand, K-9 gets an enormous role and stars in multiple subplots(all of them unnecessary, but you can never have enough K-9). John Leeson gets to stretch himself a bit here.

John Woodvine is great as the mad Marshal, so determined to win the war against Atrios that he makes an almost literal deal with the devil. He's likable and very slightly buffoonish, but also steely, capable and with a grandiose feel about him. 

Davyd Harries portrays Shapp(great name), the Marshal's assistant who somehow turns into a recurring comedy slapstick routine from something like Yes, Minister.

Lalla Ward has an... interesting debut. To give her credit, Princess Astra starts out as an interesting character, but after she becomes hypnotised, the character never really recovers(since after we find out that she's the sixth segment, she sort of becomes hypnotised into accepting it without argument) and her performance becomes bland, through no fault of her own.

She is accompanied by her lover(I am not used to that word in Doctor Who) Merak, played by Ian Saynor, who is one of those endless boring heroic male leads that the classic series loves. I can still remember that really awful one in The Enemy Of The World. Same deal here, except he almost goes crazy looking for Astra, which was sort of entertaining in a dark way.

I don't get who invented Drax or why(Douglas Adams had a hand in writing the final episodes), but even though his Cockney Time Lord is just more filler, he's another one of those concepts that liven the episodes up a bit and he works really well with Tom Baker. He also supplies a hilarious cliffhanger to Episode 5(the only time that a cliffhanger has been used for comedy rather than suspense).

Despite the bad writing that forces the Shadow to turn into a cackling loon, William Squire portrays this villain with menace and he is supplied with an awesome electronically gargled voice. Even without Valentine Dyall, this guy would be a terrific villain. He's almost like the Black Guardian's Darth Vader in that way. I also like the way he mirrors the Doctor, who is the White Guardian's agent and the differences in the way they search for the segments of the Key To Time.

Finally, Valentine Dyall is terrific as the Black Guardian, albeit somewhat underused. I really wish the Black Guardian had been more of a presence during the season. He should've made an appereance in each story a la the Master in season 8, to really give the quest some urgency and have his defeat be meaningful. Not to mention, it would better explain the Doctor's decision to rely on the randomiser at the end.

NOTES

*Speaking of the randomiser, that's a great way to harken back to the 1960s TARDIS rule, in which the ship always landed at random, without any actual piloting from the Doctor(the First Doctor even memorably fell asleep once during flight). Perhaps that will return an element of danger to TARDIS travel, since they can't control it now out of fear of the Black Guardian. Once they take off, they can't go back.

*The entire segment of K-9 almost being roasted is both pointless(magnets wouldn't trap K-9) and is way too anticlimactic... much of Episode 2 is basically K-9 rolling towards a furnace on a conveyor belt until the Doctor rushes in at the last minute and gets him out again, somehow without burning alive.

*I am astounded that the transmat name is still going strong. By that, I mean that they haven't replaced it with the more generic "transporter" or "teleporter". I suppose the increased focus on continuity is a sign of things to come as we edge ever closer to the JNT era...

*Did the White Guardian fix the univese when the Doctor briefly froze it with his made-up sixth segment? They left the whole point of the mission kind of unclear...

*Is it just me or is the dimensional stabilizer becoming the Tom Baker-era version of the Time Vector Generator(see: The Wheel In Space and The Ambassadors Of Death)?

*Although it essentially freezes the story as well, I love the use of the time loop in this story. Timey-wimey in classic Doctor Who is so rare.

*I don't care what anyone says, the Doctor's real name is Theta Sigma. It's pretty clear here. There. Done. 

BEST QUOTE

Let me transcribe this wonderful tribute to the show's beginnings here...

Romana: So where are we going?
The Doctor: Going? I don't know.
Romana: You have absolutely no sense of responsibility whatsoever!
The Doctor: What?
Romana: You're capricious, arrogant, self-opinionated, irrational, and you don't even know where we're going!
The Doctor: Exactly!

CONCLUSION

It's bloated, messy and disappointing, but receives considerable boost from all of the gimmicks in it, most notably the brilliant arc that it concludes.


Season 16 is one of the most enjoyable I've ever gone through. I loved the quest idea and I think they pulled it off wonderfully. Not perfectly, of course, but it was a great adventure with a lot of variety and imagination. Half of the stories were classics, the other half perfectly fine viewing as well. 

However, it wouldn't be nearly as good as it was without the presence of the ravishing(as Tom Baker says) Mary Tamm as Romana I, truly one of the best companions in the show's history. You know, people talk a lot about feminist icons and how this girl and that girl were the start of the revolution. 
For me, the best example of the feminist companion was Mary Tamm's Romana, someone who didn't explicitly require the Doctor, but benefitted hugely from his guidance. Though the two of them didn't always get along or act friendly to one another, they never crossed a line or treated each other with downright hostility(sorry, I can't help, but measure other companions with Clara to show off just how much better people they are). Suffice to say, Lalla Ward has huge shoes to fill...