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!).

It goes on like this through the episode, with the Doctor wanting to get a closer look at Melkur as he suspects they might have met before (he knows!), but then Melkur making a point of the fact the Doctor doesn't recognise him (he doesn't know!). Melkur also says he wishes to settle old scores. "Old scores?" repeats the Doctor (he knows!).

It's not until 18 minutes into part 4 that the Doctor definitely knows it's the Master when he gets inside Melkur. The inside of the statue doesn't look a lot like a TARDIS (black roundels aside), and the Master only refers to it as his ship, not his TARDIS. But Melkur makes TARDIS noises, so I'm confused! Plus, the Master has his old TARDIS over in the corner in the form of a grandfather clock, just as he had in The Deadly Assassin (although it's not the same clock). Argh! Is there a TARDIS within a TARDIS in the form of a Melkur, or what?

Anyway, what's important is that it's the Doctor and the Master once again, but it's actually quite disappointing. The Doctor is pretty quickly rendered immobile, and there's barely any witty, threatening repartee between the two before it all goes pear-shaped. The lack of a solid confrontation between these old foes, after so many years, is sadly underwhelming. It's nice that we see the Master move about, circling the Doctor like a vulture ready to devour its prey, and Geoffrey Beevers gives a marvellously malevolent performance with the restrictions of costume and mask. His voice sells it completely.

The Master says he is nearing the end of his twelfth regeneration (by which he means his thirteenth body), but he wants to use the power of the Source to extend his life. He wants to drain every last atom of knowledge from the Doctor's brain, and then use the "husk of his body" as his own. The Master does not have high ambitions if he plans to use a second hand husk as his new body.

It's actually Adric and Nyssa who save the day, and save the Doctor's life. They're sent back to the TARDIS to wait, but actually start to construct a magnificent contraption which Adric hopes will mess up the Source's energy, causing it to ultimately consume itself, and its controller (Melkur). The side effect is that the Source will be utterly destroyed and the future of the Union of Traken will be in doubt, but Nyssa doesn't seem too bothered...

Whatever the clever orb gadget is that Adric and Nyssa construct, when plugged into the Source, it wreaks havoc and feeds back into Melkur, blowing up whatever Melkur really is (I'm not sure) and bringing on another almighty thunderstorm. As well as saving the Doctor from being literally consumed by the Master, and as well as saving the Union of Traken from being pillaged by a vengeful evil Time Lord, Adric also rescues the Doctor from being consumed by the Source by keying in the vital 3-3-7 code (well, 3-3- anyway!). Adric is a bloody hero in this story! If he hadn't bothered putting that globe thing together, it would have ended very differently indeed.

Some other observations:

• Nyssa's reaction to entering the TARDIS is disappointing. She asks rather casually how it can be bigger on the inside than the outside, and Adric explains that it's "dimensionally transcendental". Nyssa asks what that means, and Adric (rather amusingly) replies that it means it's bigger on the inside than the outside. End of. That's it. Nyssa requires nothing more. She's accepted this amazing machine, and is ready to move on. I've never been a fan of Sarah Sutton's acting skills, but she gives so very little to this scene that she might as well have stayed at home. Disappointment with Sutton's thespian abilities will be a common theme going forward I'm afraid, so if you're a Nyssa fan, get used to it!
• The fate of Proctor Neman is actually quite tragic, and one of the best sub-plots in the story. Neman has been a selfish money-grabber throughout the story, one of the few characters with an actual character! He'll follow the orders of anybody who has the most power, whether that's a bag of money or control of the Source. When we see he's inherited Kassia's flimsy choker, we realise he no longer has a choice in his treachery, and when Melkur forces the enslaved Tremas to kill Neman, it's a painfully sad end. Neman was by no means perfect - in fact, he was a minor villain - but his demise is no less tragic for that.
• The Doctor cracks three fosters' heads together to make his escape, an old trick of his demonstrating the Fourth Doctor's willingness to use violence. Soon after he's shooting fosters down with the ion bonder, like a burgundy Billy the Kid.
• Adric and Nyssa construct the globe thing on the TARDIS console, rather awkwardly. Is there no laboratory in the TARDIS, or even just a desk to work on?

After the Doctor and Adric have gone, setting off once more for Gallifrey, and everybody else has gone their separate ways, Tremas has one last question to answer. What's that grandfather clock doing over there in the corner? It proves to be his greatest mistake, as the Master creeps out of his TARDIS and consumes Tremas's body as his own. "A new body at last!" chuckles the Master, now miraculously transformed into a younger version of Anthony Ainley. His clothes regenerate too (as the Doctor's did in The Power of the Daleks), and he gains some leather gloves and a little goatee beard, just to prove he's evil. This is quite the bombshell coda, and means the Master is back in business after so many years away. When next we see him, the Master will be played not by Geoffrey Beevers, but Anthony Ainley. Interesting...

At no point is Geoffrey Beevers credited on screen as playing the Master, only Melkur, so it might well have been a surprise for some fans back in 1981. There's a tradition around the Master turning up unexpectedly (take your pick of Season 8, Frontier in Space, The Trial of a Time Lord, Utopia, Dark Water, World Enough and Time, Spyfall), and The Keeper of Traken has an understated, but effective, place in that list. The story is designed beautifully, acted well and written with an ear for the classics. It does sag in the middle, but the feeling that something more is going on is cleverly woven in by Johnny Byrne. The final revelation is satisfying, but the confrontation disappointing.

Somehow, I reckon it's not the last this Doctor will be seeing of the Master. The end of part 4, with Nyssa calling out for her father, feels more like a lead into a fifth episode than an ending as such.

First broadcast: February 21st, 1981

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The very last moment where the Master takes his new body (or Tremas's).
The Bad: The reunion and confrontation between the Master and the Doctor, after so many years, fails to meet even low expectations.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ (story average: 7.5 out of 10)

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 24

NEXT TIME: Logopolis...

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

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/2014/09/the-keeper-of-traken.html

The Keeper of Traken is available on BBC DVD as part of the New Beginnings box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Beginnings-Logopolis-Castrovalva/dp/B000LE1HLQ/