The Keeper of Traken Part Four

The one where the Master gets a new body at last...

It's a real rollercoaster ride trying to work out whether the Doctor knows Melkur is the Master or not. As a viewer, we were given a strong hint at the end of part 3 when the man inside Melkur turned to camera and looked pretty much like the Master the last time we saw him (The Deadly Assassin). But that was not definite, and seeing as The Deadly Assassin was over four years previous, lay viewers could be forgiven for not getting the connection.

As early as part 2, the Doctor says: "So you're the cause of all this" when he hears Melkur's voice (he knows!) but it transpires he was just referring to Melkur (he doesn't know!). In part 3 Tom Baker puts some heavy emphasis on "master plans" in reference to the Source Manipulator blueprints (he knows!), but it was just a coincidence it seems (he doesn't know!). And at the start of part 4, the Doctor warns Luvic that he should do what Melkur tells him to or "he'll make you" (he knows!), but then states that his only ambition "is to stop you, Melkur!" (he doesn't know!).

The Keeper of Traken Part Three

The one where Melkur seizes control of the Source...

Looking at it a second time, the reprise is a bit of a shambles. First of all you've got one of those awful instances where someone (usually a companion) says "Doctor, look!" and points before there's anything there to look at, ie Adric points out that the TARDIS has returned before the TARDIS returns. Then you've got Anthony Ainley's rather confused performance as he waits on tenterhooks for the right moment to embrace Sheila Ruskin (Shall I? Shan't I? Shall I? Shan't I?), and then when he does seize her, he stares into Kassia's clearly painted-on eyes before they zap him. I wouldn't normally be bothered by painted-on eyes (I was fine with it in Image of the Fendahl), but when seen as part of this series of mini-missteps, it just seems a bit primary school.

This third episode definitely suffers from Part Three Syndrome, in that there's an awful lot of running about achieving very little. It's that bit of narrative between halfway and finale that gets in the way for a writer who hasn't paced his script properly. Basically, you don't need part 3 of The Keeper of Traken, except for the cliffhanger which moves the plot towards the end game.

The Keeper of Traken Part Two

The one where Adric detects the wave loop patterns of another TARDIS...

It's an open and shut case, to be frank. The Keeper asks for the strangers to be brought forward, the Doctor asks that he tell the Consuls who he is, and the Keeper replies, rather vociferously: "Evil! Eeeee-vil! Infinite evil!" While the viewer knows that the Keeper is actually referring to Melkur peeking round the door, nobody else knows that, and so by rights, the Doctor and Adric really ought to be executed, by the apparent law of Traken.

But instead they are given a reprieve simply because the Doctor claims he is actually innocent, and that it's obvious the Keeper was under attack, perhaps from some high energy beam. The Doctor has absolutely no evidence of this at all, but still manages to persuade the Consuls to not have him killed. In actual fact, the Keeper was under no kind of attack at all, he was just rattled by the appearance of Melkur at the front door. A bit of a muddle, but at least it saves our heroes' necks.

The Keeper of Traken Part One

The one where infinite evil begins to infect a sanctum of goodness...

I firmly believe that Tom Baker and Matthew Waterhouse worked well together. I realise this overlooks the fact that Baker was a bit of a sod towards Waterhouse on set, but it does recognise that, when it comes to what ends up on screen (which is all that matters in the end), the Fourth Doctor and Adric make for a pretty good team. I'd even go so far as to say they're sweet together.

Just look at how physically close the two actors are in the early TARDIS scenes, with Tom draping his arm round Matthew's shoulder, and Matthew looking up at his mentor adoringly. Baker occasionally stands behind Waterhouse, gripping both shoulders, and the proximity between them is so close at times that you'd think they'd been working together for years.