The Armageddon Factor Part Four

The one where the Doctor stops the entire Universe...

So because Mentalis thinks it's already won the war between Zeos and Atrios, it's not bothered any more about self-preservation and is content to allow the Marshal to obliterate Zeos, and itself with it. What's the use of a war computer that just goes into hibernation after the war? It's not a very clever computer: it's good for just one thing, and then it's about as useful as a blunt cheese grater.

Even less clever is Mentalis activating its self-destruct mechanism, which means that despite having saved Zeos from the war with Atrios, it's doubly content to allow Zeos to go to Hell after the fact, it's job now done. It's happy to let the Marshal blow it to smithereens, and just as happy to blow it up itself when it self-destructs. Mentalis is bloody mental!

Luckily, the Doctor has a cunning plan, which involves sending Shapp back to Atrios to try and stop the Marshal opening fire on Zeos, and sending Merak back to Atrios to tend to his dying patients, which is where he should have been all along instead of mooning around corridors shouting "Astra!" like a simpering teenager. Merak really is a drip, and I'm glad when Astra - possessed by the Shadow's less than subtle control device - pushes him down some kind of CSO well. He cuts his forehead open in the process (I'm not sure how, seeing as there are no surfaces to speak of) and twists his leg. Bring back Susan Foreman, all is forgiven!

Shapp is getting increasingly more annoying as this story progresses too. I'm really no fan at all of Davyd Harries' boggle-eyed comical performance. He started off OK, just blending into the background as John Woodvine's aide, but by part 4 he's become some kind of comedy sidekick to the Doctor, and doing it really poorly. The scene where he is in a shoot-out with the Shadow's men and falls backwards like Worzel Gummidge is utterly embarrassing, and I cannot wait for this character to be written out. Maybe this is the last we'll see of him? I hope so.

The Doctor and Romana race back to the TARDIS, with K-9 having no chance of keeping up, but lo and behold, when we see them reach the police box, there K-9 is, already ahead of them! Miraculous! Of course, the Doctor going into the TARDIS should be a massive own goal, as the Shadow - if he had his wits about him - should be watching and waiting so that he can gain access to the Key to Time within. It's the reason the Doctor didn't go into the TARDIS in part 3 (he didn't want to let the Shadow in), so to see him happily pop in now is a little disappointing, as is the fact the Shadow's nowhere to be seen. He's forgotten! They've all forgotten!

Inside the TARDIS the Doctor cooks up a fake sixth segment of the Key to Time, made out of chronodyne (aka polystyrene). His twelfth self would use chronodyne again to defeat the Skovox Blitzer in The Caretaker, but in spin-off fiction subtle damage from the chronodyne segment apparently causes Romana to regenerate (in the next story). With his ersatz Key to Time the Doctor stops the Universe to prevent the Marshal from blowing up Zeos and Atrios with it. I always thought the Eleventh Doctor rebooting the Universe was crackers, but stopping it is equally as crazy!

Poor John Woodvine has been reduced to a scattering of workaday lines like "Faster! Faster!", trapped inside a looping scrap of footage in which he says "Fire!" over and over. It's unrewarding work for Woodvine, who deserves better, and particularly unrewarding to watch (although not quite as tedious as the chronic hysteresis bunkum in Meglos).

The possessed Astra joins the Doctor and Romana for the final few minutes of the episode, and it all goes timey-wimey weird as my fan brain starts to see the two Romanas as companions to the Doctor (which is absolutely ace). You can feel the attraction between Tom Baker and Lalla Ward almost instantly, in that first scene where the Doctor and Romana meet Merak and Astra. The Doctor tries to send Astra away, but the way Ward delivers the line "I'd feel safer with you" - breathy, almost flirty - is quite eye-opening. Later, when the three of them are inside the TARDIS (and what an exhilarating fanboy dream that is, to see Baker, Ward and Tamm in the same shot!), Tom gets very up close and personal over Lalla's shoulder, and you can feel the heat starting to flicker.

As the episode ends with the Shadow boasting maniacally as he pets his new robotic dog slave K-9, my mind wanders into a parallel dimension where the Fourth Doctor travels through time and space righting wrongs and fighting evils with the two Romanas and K-9 by his side. I'd bloody love that!

First broadcast: February 10th, 1979

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: I love seeing Tom Baker, Mary Tamm and Lalla Ward together in the TARDIS!
The Bad: I can't abide Davyd Harries as Shapp.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 18

NEXT TIME: Part Five...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Two; Part Three; Part Five; Part Six

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: https://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-armageddon-factor.html

The Armageddon Factor is available on BBC DVD as part of the Key to Time box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Key-Time-Re-issue/dp/B002TOKFNM