The Snows of Terror (The Keys of Marinus Episode 4)

The one where Vasor gets close to Barbara, and Ian gets close to Altos...

Gorgeous, operatic music accompanies the opening of The Snows of Terror, foreshadowing similar icy arias used in The Ice Warriors three years later. Ian and Barbara collapse through cold and tiredness, although Babs gets one last look at a big hairy man looming over her before she passes out completely. Is she too tired, or is the vision of masculinity before her just too much to cope with? Vasor isn't her usual type...

This is the episode of The Keys of Marinus which has always fascinated me most. It's the character of Vasor that gives me food for thought because he's a curious chap. While on the surface he might seem a very simple character to define, when you actually look at his behaviour across the 25 minutes, he becomes one of the more nuanced characters in Terry Nation's early work.

Uppermost in making Vasor such an interesting character is actor Francis de Wolff of course, who manages to pull a lot out of what Nation gives him. On the face of it, Vasor looks threatening, like a wrestler in furs. But his behaviour initially is quite kindly, rescuing Barbara and Ian from the snowy clifftop and bringing him to his hut for shelter. But the more time we - and Barbara - spend with him, the creepier he gets.

He shows Barbara how to get her blood circulating again by gently rubbing the back of her hand. Director John Gorrie has the camera linger on a close-up of this, making the viewer as uncomfortable as it must be making Barbara feel. "Most men fear me, so I have few visitors," he says, basically telling her that he is a frightening man, but also that he is something of a loner.

Once Ian has woken and gone looking for the others, Vasor encourages Barbara to eat ("We must fatten you up!") and we subsequently see the pair sitting down for a meal. Vasor obviously has an ulterior motive here, craving the company of female strangers, but also perhaps looking for a housewife figure ("Clear these things away," he tells her). And that continuous suggestion that Barbara is in a danger yet to be fully defined: "That door will keep anything out. Or in!"

Vasor looks at Barbara lasciviously, and creates an atmosphere of unsettled menace. She is visibly shaken by this man's physical, overbearing presence. "You don't kill anyone in this country," he tells her. "The cold and the wolves do that."

Of course, we soon discover his true motive: rape. I've always believed that there was a very subtle suggestion that Vasor wants his wicked way with Barbara. You could just as easily argue that he intends to kill her. But then, why would he do that? He's just admitted that there's no point killing people. Maybe he's a cannibal who craves human flesh (which is why he wants to "fatten her up")? But when he lunges toward Barbara, hands outstretched like claws, I believe he wants her physically. He's a loner, he doesn't get visitors, he has no wife. Of course he intends to rape her. This would never be broached directly in the programme, of course, but I believe it is Nation's intent.

Later in the episode we see another side to Vasor, a cowardly, superstitious side. Under pressure from a clearly pissed off Ian, he leads our heroes to the ice caves, but then exacts his revenge by cutting free the rope bridge and stranding them there. Vasor - a big, hulking, brute of a man - bends to Ian's will very easily, proving that he's more of a coward than we first thought (even Altos claims he somehow "made" Vasor rescue Ian and Barbara). He fears the demons in the ice cave and threatens to kill Susan unless the others remain with him in his hut. Quite what he hopes to achieve isn't clear. Maybe it's his fear of the approaching ice soldiers/ demons that makes him demand they stay and help him. Either way, Vasor is complex. He's a cowardly brute, a potential sex offender who believes in demons and has no trouble leaving a bunch of people to their doom just to save his own skin.

At the end he gets stabbed in the back by one of his so-called demons, a fitting demise for such a thoroughly unpleasant but complex character. Anybody who puts their unwanted paws on Babs is an enemy of Doctor Who fandom!

The rest of the episode involves the reuniting of our questing heroes, with Ian rescuing a freezing Altos from the snowstorm. Ian rubs Altos's bare legs vigorously to get the circulation going. There's not an ounce of suggestion intended by this scene, but looking at it in 2017, seeing a man lay hands on another's naked thighs, you can't help seeing the homoerotic subtext. We assume Ian isn't gay, but who knows what enjoyment the somewhat effete Altos is getting out of it?

The scenes in the ice cave revisit The Ordeal, in which Nation had Ian and Barbara cross another barely-treacherous ravine, but this time we also have what Ian believes are fearsome-looking guards to contend with. "They're certainly the stuff that make legends," he claims. Really?! Just look at them, Ian! "They certainly look frightening enough, don't they?" No, Ian, no they don't!

After Barbara turns the heating on and the ice begins to melt, the ice soldiers revive, and although their initial zombie-like fumbling is hardly scary, that one moment where an ice soldier snaps his eyes open and stares at Susan does have an unsettling quality to it. Our heroes manage to traverse the ravine thanks to Susan's really quite brave crossing along fracturing giant icicles (which are blatantly made from polystyrene), and after retrieving their travel dials and micro-keys from our old friend Vasor, zip off to their next destination, their "date with the Doctor"!

The very last scene seems oddly tacked on, however. Ian, Barbara, Susan, Altos and Sabetha disappear together from Vasor's hut, but only Ian seems to have arrived the other end. Where are the others? If they'd been with him they'd have been able to prevent Ian being clubbed over the head by a mysterious black-gloved assailant, who then steals a micro-key from a display case and sets off an alarm. Oh, and who's that unconscious on the floor? What's going on? I guess it'll all become clear next week.

First broadcast: May 2nd, 1964

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Although you have to read all the rape subtext into it, I like that it's there in the writing and performances to be considered. Francis de Wolff gives a layered performance as Vasor, who is by far the most interesting supporting character in The Keys of Marinus.
The Bad: Polystyrene ice.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

NEXT TIME: Sentence of Death...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: The Sea of Death (episode 1); The Velvet Web (episode 2); The Screaming Jungle (episode 3); Sentence of Death (episode 5); The Keys of Marinus (episode 6)

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/the-keys-of-marinus.html

The Keys of Marinus is available on DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Keys-Marinus-DVD/dp/B002ATVDHI