Season 16 wraps up the season long story arc The Keys Of Time with The Armageddon Factor. It's the 103rd serial and it first aired January 20 1979 and the 6 episodes ran through February 24. The first part of the serial is the 500th episode. Wow, huh, Still plenty to go, hundreds in fact. Tom Baker is still the Doctor, Mary Tamm is Romana and John Leeson voices K-9. This would be Mary's last serial and after this season John will be taking a break. The story is by Bob Baker and Dave Martin. It would be the last Doctor Who serial the men would write together. Bob would write one last serial all by himself. The Armageddon Factor was directed by Michael Hayes. In the commentary he said he wasn't too keen on working on the series but financially he couldn't turn it down. Then he wound up doing two serials in the 16th season. It's a hard show to direct, requiring a lot of energy and work with little resources and he had to do 2 back to back. Hayes would return to direct his 3rd and last serial the next season. There have been remarks by producers and writers about how hard it was to find a good director who was up to the task. Some didn't do so well and it shows. Many did it well but didn't want to do it again.
The story has the Doc and Romana stopping off at a planet that holds the last segment of The Key Of Time. The planet is in the middle of a big war with another nearby planet. The people live in tunnels far below the surface. The Queen is played by Lalla Ward and John Woodbine plays her General. Lalla would become the new companion next season. I also read that Tom and Lalla would marry in 1981 and their marriage would last less than two years.
That's the Queen in the war room. Nice outfit, huh. The other shot is Woodbine, his aid, Romana and the Doc. The Queen is part of a group that are trying to stop the war but the General is dead against it. He's been taken over by an alien called The Shadow who has another agenda. There's plenty of running about and getting captured in this 6 part serial which suffers the usual padding.
It would be the last of the 6 part serials to be broadcast. The filming of the 6 part serial Shada, that would have ended the 17th season, would be interupted by a technicians strike. The serial wasn't finished at the time but years later a fan would animate the missing material. We'll get to that in the future.
The Doc meets up with a Time Lord named Drax who helps him out with a shrinking ray. They hide in K-9 at one point. He's a trojan dog. It took me a few minutes to figure out who the actor playing Drax was. Barry Jackson would later play George the coroner in Midsomer Murders. He was in a lot of other British tv including parts in 2 Doctor Who serials in 1965. He passed away last December.
Eventually the Doctor and Romana get the last part of The Key Of Time. The secret baddy turns up to take it but the Doc isn't going to stand for that and he puts things right. The Tardis blasts off for a new adventure.
I enjoyed the story for the most part and I'm glad to see the end, nearly, of the 6 part serials. There were two commentaries that could have been cut into one. Mary Tamm appears on the 1st with Michael Hayes and John Woodbine. It's rather dull when they forget to talk which happens a lot. Mary's on the 2nd track with Tom Baker and John Leeson. That's a much more interesting track but it too has it's lulls. There's a seperate disc of extras and they were about average. Nothing too exciting.
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