Film Snail

Doctor Who: The Armageddon Factor
Doctor Who: The Armageddon Factor

5.0

Doctor Who: The Armageddon Factor

NR·1979·150m

Summary

The final segment of the Key to Time is at the heart of a devastating war between neighbouring planets Atrios and Zeos. The Fourth Doctor discovers that a sinister entity is manipulating events and the cost of obtaining the final segment may be more personal than he imagined.

Crew

Director

Michael Hayes

Script Editor

Douglas Adams

Script Editor

Anthony Read

Writer

Bob Baker

Writer

Dave Martin

Reviews

Geronimo1967

Geronimo1967

November 25, 2024

6

This final, six-part, instalment of the "Key to Time" series splits quite neatly into two stories, really. The first sees our travelling Time Lord (Tom Baker) and his colleague "Romana" (Mary Tamm) arrive on the planet of "Atrios" right in the middle of their war with the neighbouring "Zeos". Thus far it's proved a bit of a stalemate, but the "Marshal" (John Woodvine) reckons he has a plan that will prove decisive, despite the more pacifist hopes of his princess "Astra" (Lalla Ward). Meantime, though, the "Doctor" begins to wonder if someone else isn't pulling the strings here and when they stumble upon a trans-mat beam they are introduced to the maniacal "Shadow" (William Squire) who rather worryingly knows more than he should about the closing stages of their quest. The "Key to Time" theme was always a rather weakly exploited one, and this denouement didn't really catch fire either. It's all adequate storytelling but there's just too much over-acting and not enough action until the final episode when a combination of factors and some participation from "K9" (and his laser gun) livened it up a bit. I usually felt four parts did the job with these, any more and they were too strung out - and this rather proves that theory. Time for a new assistant, too, I think.

Media

Status:

Released

Original Language:

English

Budget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Keywords

time travel