“The Armageddon Factor” is the sixth adventure of the sixteenth season, known by the global title “The Key to Time”, which aired in 1979. It follows “The Power of Kroll” and it’s a six parts adventure written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin and directed by Michael Hayes.

The story

The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana (Mary Tamm) arrive on the planet Atrios in search of the sixth and final segment of the Key to Time. Unfortunately Atrios is at war with the neighbour planet Zeos making the search very dangerous.

Princess Astra disappears under mysterious circumstances, the Doctor and Romana are accused of being Zeos spies and of kidnapping her so K-9 must intervene to save them from summary execution. The leader of Atrios’s armies however seems to be under the control of the Shadow, a servant of the Black Guardian of Time.

Extras

Note. The adventure “The Armageddon Factor” was published in a single DVD or in a box-set that includes the entire season “The Key to Time” in different editions. This review refers to the edition published in 2009 in a box-set, available on Amazon UK, Amazon USA and Amazon Canada.

This DVD contains a great amount of extras as there’s a specific DVD for them. There are typical contents such as continuity announcements for this adventure, a PDF file with the Radio Times Billings, production subtitles, a gallery of pictures from this adventure and the announcement of the DVDs to be published shortly.

There are comments in the adventure alternative audio track by protagonist Mary Tamm, actor John Woodvine and director Michael Hayes. In a second alternative audio track there are comments by protagonists Tom Baker and Mary Tamm and actor John Leeson.

Defining Shadows. A documentary on the production of this adventure with several interviews with cast and crew.

Alternative / Extended Scenes. An extended version of one of the scenes in black and white.

Directing Who. Michael Hayes talks about his experience as a director in “Doctor Who”.

Rogue Time Lords. The story of the various Time Lords appeared in “Doctor Who” with interviews with various actors and writers who worked on the show.

Pebble Mill at One. An interview with Tom Baker from 1978.

Radiophonic Feature. An interview from the time with Dick Mills and Brian Hodgson showing a little music and sound effects from “Doctor Who”.

The New Sound of Music. Another interview with Dick Mills on creating sound effects for “Doctor Who”.

Merry Christmas, Doctor Who. A Christmas sketch recorded on the set of “The Armageddon Factor”.

Late Night Story. Five fantasy-horror stories each one about 15 minutes long read by Tom Baker. If you like the genre and / or you’re a Tom Baker fan this is a nice treat.

[ad name=”AmazonDVDDoctorWho468″]

“The Armageddon Factor” marks the debut in “Doctor Who” by Lalla Ward, who here plays Princess Astra. Mary Tamm had announced her intention to leave the series because she had seen no possibility of development for Romana. Actually the character of the Time Lady had taken a step back during the season. Introduced to be at the same level as the Doctor, initially she had the opportunity to show that she was more than a normal assistant but during the season she had become little more than a damsel in distress.

Eventually Lalla Ward became the second incarnation of Romana but apparently no one thought of how to handle her regeneration, which eventually was shown in a comic way at the beginning of the next adventure.

In “The Armageddon Factor” Lalla Ward plays the princess of the planet Atrios, at war with the neighbour planet Zeos. The inspiration is obviously from the Cold War, with nuclear proliferation which in that case led two superpowers to open war.

The devastation has forced the survivors to take refuge in the underground, from where the actions of war start. For this reason the story takes place in underground rooms and corridors and that allowed the production of sets at a very low cost. This is an important fact given that “The Armageddon Factor” is the last adventure of the season and at that point typically in the production of “Doctor Who” classic series they had run out of budget and more than ever they had to complete the production with anything they could find.

This solution might work well if the story focused on the interplanetary war and the intervention of the Shadow, a servant of the Black Guardian of Time who wants to get his hands on the Key to Time on behalf of his master. Unfortunately, partly due to the fact that “The Armageddon Factor” is composed of six parts, the plot gets pretty convoluted and instead of developing the positive elements others get added which lower the tension.

The Time Lord Drax, a prisoner in the base of the Shadow, could be an interesting character in an adventure with a comic tone, in “The Armageddon Factor” he’s really out of place. Unfortunately in this adventure the characters are a sore spot, being far from those seen in most of the other adventures of the season.

“The Armageddon Factor” was written almost entirely by Bob Baker and Dave Martin but the ending is the work of Douglas Adams and was revealed at the last minute to try to keep it secret.

The ending contains a great moment of “Doctor Who” with a moral dilemma. The Key to Time gives absolute control over time but who, wonders the Doctor, has the right to have such control? Who wouldn’t end up abusing that power? Tom Baker is good at playing those moments bringing out their moral strength when there’s the danger of falling into moralism.

The judgments given by fans to “The Armageddon Factor” depend on which elements made the greates impression. Personally, I tried to keep in mind both the positive and negative ones and overall I find that the result is sufficient.

Thus ends the great epic of the sixteenth season. On average the quality is really good, it’s a shame that it started with great stories but then failed to maintain the same level in the last adventures. The project was ambitious, to succeed in full it would’ve needeed a better job on the latest adventures and especially a more decent budget to allow higher production values.

The DVDs contain extras which are abundant and interesting for the fans. That’s one of the reasons why the box set released in 2009 is perhaps the best produced for the “Doctor Who” classic series so I recommend buying it.