"Doctor Who" The Armageddon Factor: Part 1 (1979)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Michael Hayes

Writers:

Bob Baker (writer)
Dave Martin (writer)

TV Series:

"Doctor Who" (1963)

Original Air Date:

20 January 1979 (Season 16, Episode 21)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

The Doctor and company drop in on the planet Atrios, who's inhabitants are in an interplanetary war with the planet Zeos...

Plot Keywords:

Robot Dog | Time Lord | Alien | Renegade | Companion

Cast

Tom Baker	...	Doctor Who
Mary Tamm	...	Romana
John Leeson	...	K9 (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Cannon	...	Guard
Davyd Harries	...	Shapp
Ian Liston	...	Hero
Ian Saynor	...	Merak
Susan Skipper	...	Heroine
Lalla Ward	...	Princess Astra
John Woodvine	...	The Marshal

Runtime:

USA:25 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Not Rated (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

BBC Television Centre, Wood Lane, Shepherd's Bush, London, England, UK

Trivia:

The first Doctor Who serial to feature Lalla Ward.

Quotes:

The Doctor: Hence, this new device. It's called a randomizer, and it's fitted to the guidance systems and operates under a very complex scientific principle called pot luck. No one knows where we're going, not even the Black Guardian.

very good, if not really great and almost overlong, six-parter episode

The Armageddon Factor features the Doctor and Romanna coming to a planet where Princess Astra is trying to bring peace to her planet Atrios and has to contend with a conniving and war-mongering Marshall, who only wants to wage battle and some outcome with planet Zeos. But as it turns out, maybe not entirely surprisingly, there's more sinister elements- like the black guardian and his Shadow figure with the dark cloak and overtly dastardly demeanor/voice. Throughout this six-parter episode we get equal amounts of atypically (and always enjoyably) witty and British aside-type dialog and those diggs from the Doctor that show he has another motive going on nine times out of ten- usually the right one- and some wooden or terribly overwrought acting (Lalla Ward as the Princess and John Woodvine as the Marshall respectively), and a couple of shoddy special effects.

And while we get a really amusing side character with the Doctor's old school chum- bringing about his real name as Theta Sigma- and some nail-biting tension in the fifth and sixth acts, there's something about the episode that feels padded and big, despite the importance of the key and its sixth "component". Nevertheless, fans of classic Tom Baker won't be disappointed as there's many scenes that ring out as amazing and fun and and kooky (i.e. Baker's momentary power-craving with the key towards the last part) even intellectually stimulating (I liked how the Marshall is frozen in time right when he reaches his climactic glory at Zeos) and a lot of great K-9 action that only reinforces him/it as one of the great TV dogs/computers. If it's not entirely perfect the writers and actors come up with some clever moments and delicious hambone acting to suffice.