The Keeper Of Traken (1981) Review

You so fine...

The Keeper Of Traken is a solid, if slightly forgettable tale, but sets the stage brilliantly for the Fourth Doctor's grand finale.

WRITTEN BY

Johnny Byrne, prolific sci-fi writer. He doesn't particularly impress me, but I don't mind seeing another story from his pen.

PLOT

The Keeper Of Traken materialises inside the Doctor's TARDIS and asks for his help in defeating a great evil threatening the Traken Union. 
After travelling there however, he and Adric quickly run into trouble when the Counsels there misunderstand the Keeper's words and at the insistence of Kassia(who is manipulated by the mysterious Melkur, who has a hidden past with the Doctor) turn against them.

ANALYSIS

I was on edge this entire story, and not in the slightest because of what I was seeing. All I wanted to see was the Doctor and the Master(hell yeah!!) reunited at last. And boy, did they take their time to bring my favourite villain back into the fold. 

Nevertheless, the drama of Traken itself was not without merit. I enjoyed the power struggle between the various different Counsels(puppeteered by the Doctor and the Master later on), and there were parts of Traken mythology that were quite interesting, like the Keeper and the legend of Melkur.

But despite the actors doing a fine job, the story's backbone and primary reason for existence is that end twist, so let's get into that right now...

CHARACTERS

Geoffrey Beevers, who's since gone on to an illustrious career as the "Big Finish classic Master", has his one and only TV appereance here, and gives a terrific performance. I've really only known two types of Masters: the high-and-mighty(Delgado, Pratt, Jacobi) and the loony(Roberts, Simm, Gomez). But Beevers is something else... he epitomises the Master's deviousness. 
And even though he's technically supposed to be the same incarnation as Pratt, he feels completely different. Pratt's Master was obsessed with revenge and hatred against everything, whereas Beevers' Master is very gentle and almost gleeful, as if the Master had time to cool off since the events of The Deadly Assassin and rediscovered his mojo, only with a much more sadistic bent.
It's only a huge shame that he gets so little screentime. The Master isn't revealed until episode four. It's like Derek Jacobi all over again.

Anthony Ainley is surprisingly good in the thankless role of Tremas, the Consul who basically spends the entire story running after the Doctor. Though his costume and make-up look a bit ridiculous, he carries himself with dignity throughout the entire story and you genuinely feel for the character's plight, especially at the very end of the story.

Sarah Sutton is introduced as future companion Nyssa... and doesn't make much of an impact. She's nice, and seems to get on well with Adric, but she's not exactly a knock-out either. I'll be interested to see how she reunites with the Doctor and Adric in the next story, since they leave her behind on Traken at the end.

Speaking of the Doctor and Adric, Tom Baker and Matthew Waterhouse turn out to be quite a decent pairing. Without Romana or K-9 in the way, the two seem to bond much better and there's a sort of Dumbledore-Harry feel to them which I really like. 

Denis Carey, whom I adored so much in Shada, plays the eponymous Keeper, but is unfortunately a rather boring character. All he does is draw the TARDIS to Traken and die in a way that turns the Consuls against the Doctor and Adric. He's basically a non-walking plot device, sadly.

Sheila Ruskin does a decent job as Kassia, although I'm a bit confused over whether or not she was supposed to be a sympathetic character(some scenes play out like she is, others don't).

I rather liked John Woodnutt(who has appeared in several Doctor Who stories before as well) as Consul Seron. He's old and witty, and seems to be the most intelligent of the Consuls. Naturally, he's the one to die.

Margot van der Burgh plays Consul Katura, who is sort of like Maggie Smith if she wasn't smart. Far more notably, Burgh appeared way back in The Aztecs as William Hartnell's love interest. Lots of old guest stars in this story.

And finally, Robin Soans as Luvic, who, despite him being a bad guy, I found really likable. All he wants is to have a nice life working for whoever is in charge. I can relate to that.

NOTES

*As always, gently pushing two guards together so their heads meet is enough to completely knock them out.

*How did the Doctor escape the Master's TARDIS by jumping through a glass wall?

*Why does the Master's TARDIS look like a grandfather clock? Is his chameleon circuit broken too?

*How exactly does the Master take over Tremas' body?

*Was there ever an actual Melkur statue that the Master replaced to win Kassia's trust? How long was he manipulating her, exactly? The flashback at the beginning shows that she cared for the statue since she was young, after all. 

*And how did the Master even come up with this plan? I mean, he couldn't exactly walk around looking like he does now and talk to people to learn about their weaknesses. Did he just decide to hang around in the courtyard until somebody showed up that he could use?

*I must say, featuring a TARDIS that can walk around and is armed is quite clever. 

*Why doesn't the Doctor always use a stunner? I know he hates guns and all, but surely a stunner wouldn't be a bad thing to have as a last resource.

*It seems ridiculously easy for the Doctor to move about despite him being a fugitive. It's also ridiculously easy to kill Consuls and get away with it. And just when I finished writing that, I realised it could be explained away by Traken not really needing security until now... huh.

CONTINUITY ADVISOR

1) The re-appereance of the Master, who still looks mostly like he did in The Deadly Assassin and travels inside a grandfather clock TARDIS, just like in that story.

2) Once the Master takes hold of Tremas, his body transforms into one that clearly resembles Roger Delgado's incarnation.

3) The Master mentions that he's nearing the end of his twelfth regeneration. Both the '12 regenerations' rule and the Master's attempts to override it were established in The Deadly Assassin.

4) As this is the first story after the E-space trilogy, brief mention is made of those events.

BEST QUOTE

ADRIC: "As for your handwriting..."
DOCTOR: "What about my handwriting?!"
ADRIC: "... it's wonderful."
(The best part is that Waterhouse acts innocently, like he's in love with the Doctor's writing and completely not in on the joke)

CONCLUSION

A pretty drab runaround with some good ideas and fine acting, mostly elevated by Geoffrey Beevers and the inclusion of the iconic villain.