The Armageddon Factor Part One

The one where the TARDIS lands on a planet ravaged by nuclear war...

So, here we are: the Big Finale! The sixth and final adventure in Season 16's epic quest for the Key to Time, and this is also Doctor Who's 500th episode. That's nice serendipity, that the 500th episode falls within the same series as its 100th story (The Stones of Blood), topping off a season which began in Doctor Who's 15th year. So expectations are slightly raised, as there's a lot at stake.

The episode opens with some appalling CSO, some appalling acting and some appalling music, but it soon becomes clear - thank goodness - that this is all on purpose, as we're seeing footage of a TV programme on the planet of Atrios. It looks like a soap opera (it has a soapy score and corny dialogue), probably the Atrian equivalent of Crossroads. I'm not sure if the dialogue is intentionally funny, but it's certainly laced with double entendre: "There is a greater love. Men out there, young men, are dying for it!"

The whole feel of this episode puts me in mind of two things: Season 16's own The Pirate Planet, and Star Wars. Of all the post-George Lucas Doctor Who stories, The Armageddon Factor feels the most derivative, but who can blame them for trying to hop on the space opera bandwagon? It was HUGE back in 1979, and Doctor Who already had a readymade "funny robot"!

The Armageddon Factor boasts some great sets designed by Richard McManan-Smith, including the Marshal's bridge which is reminiscent of a control deck of an Imperial spaceship in Star Wars, complete with a raised catwalk for those in charge to strut along, and sunken technical areas for operatives. The bombed out hospital set is also nicely done, all grubby and falling apart, although the polystyrene girders which fall when it's under attack don't help.

I also like the Atrian computer displays, especially the curiously lipogrammic status reports which miss out certain letters, but still make sense (eg, "BLDNG DMGE" for building damage, and "PERSL FATS" for personnel fatalities). It's a nice little detail, because the English language is bound to have mutated and changed over the centuries, perhaps by contraction or omission. It's odd that I should even spot this, as only the day before I learnt all about lipograms and Ernest Vincent Wright's novel Gadsby, which claims not to use the letter 'E' at all.

This story also has its own Carrie Fisher in the form of Lalla Ward, who is perfectly cast as a haughty space princess in flowing robes and with a puzzling hair-do. Ward excels at playing proud and condescending (I wonder why?), and hits the ground running in her scenes wrestling dialogue with John Woodvine's bombastic Marshal. These two are at loggerheads, principally because they are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to ideology. The Marshal is an implacable warmonger intent on wiping Atrios's enemy, Zeos, out of existence by whatever means, whereas Astra yearns for a more peaceful end to the endless nuclear war, hoping for amity rather than armaments.

You can tell that writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin - never known for their subtlety - are going for a very Star Wars-esque, black-and-white interpretation here. Everything is about polar opposites, good vs evil, with nothing in between. Astra and her collaborator Merak are the good guys, the Marshal and his aide Shapp are the bad guys. Even the planets of Atrios and Zeos are at opposite ends of the alphabet.

There's lots of intrigue in this episode to reel the viewer in. There's some great world-building, and already we know what Astra and Merak are up to (as both collaborators for peace, and secret lovers), and that the Marshal is under some form of mesmeric influence after we see him talking to a wall of mirrored glass. Who is on the other side, talking to him in his head?

The Doctor and Romana enter the story quite late on - about 15 minutes in - and immediately fall into the common Doctor Who trap of being mistaken for killers after they find the dead body of Astra's guard (played by the very wooden John Cannon). The Marshal takes them for homicidal Zeon spies, and wants them dead. He's also fully aware of Astra and Merak's collaboration, and arranges for the princess to be locked in a room in the radioactive K Wing, and Merak to be exposed as a traitor to the Atrian cause. He's got it all sussed.

After collapsing in her locked room prison due to rising radiation levels, Astra is spirited away by a sinister hooded figure with a skeletal face that really would put the heeby-jeebies up younger viewers. It gave me the willies, and I'm certainly not a younger viewer! The cliffhanger also sees the Doctor and Romana mournfully discover that the TARDIS is missing, after it was buried by a collapse of polystyrene girders earlier in the episode (with the door left open, I noticed). It's all very intriguing, and although certainly nothing new, the story is set for a potentially exciting space opera melodrama.

First broadcast: January 20th, 1979

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Richard McManan-Smith's sets are nicely done, and thankfully lit sympathetically by Mike Jefferies.
The Bad: Polystyrene girders.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

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

NEXT TIME: Part Two...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part Two; Part Three; Part Four; 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