#Doctor who key to time movie#
#Doctor who key to time series#

We could, for the first time, confirm that the cast fluffed the lines, that the Mute kicks up a piece of the carpet outside the TARDIS in The Armageddon Factor, and that a shot of the Swampies running through the reeds is used twice in The Power of Kroll.īack to the story. These became more noticeable in Season 16, not least because video recorders were widely available with the advent of VHS and Betamax (the latter were early examples of the Zygma Experiments: they led humanity up a technological cul-de-sac). On screen, the Key to Time is sometimes called the Key of Time, presumably because actors and scriptwriters make the occasional slip. ‘Ever.’ Delivered in a civilised tone, the threat is chilling. ‘Nothing? You mean, nothing will happen to me?’ replies the Doctor, surprised. What, asks the Doctor, will happen if I refuse the quest? ‘Nothing,’ replies the White Guardian, pleasantly. The Guardian sips green brandy and explains quietly about the end of order in the universe. Instead of a Greek god whose rippling naked torso rivals even William Shatner’s, the Doctor chats to a convivial cove, the White Guardian (Cyril Luckham).

#Doctor who key to time series#

The opening scenes of Ribos are rather like those of the Star Trek: The Original Series episode, Who Mourns for Adonais? – space traveller(s) encounter god. The TARDIS is stopped mid-flight in Episode One of The Ribos Operation: when the Doctor demands to know who’s responsible, a kindly voice says, ‘Do you really need to ask?’ The Doctor muses it could be ‘Only a Guardian…’ So, time to introduce some new Guardians. Who, mused Williams, could send the Doctor on the quest? Not the Time Lords, perhaps, whose use of the Doctor as an unofficial agent had been done to death, and who had lost something of their status as wise guardians of the universe in The Deadly Assassin.

There are – guess what – six segments of the key because one segment is found in each story. The Doctor is sent on a mission to find the missing segments of the Key to Time.

Season 15 was all over the place in quality, with classics Image of the Fendahl and The Sun Makers sandwiched between less, um, successful stories like The Invisible Enemy, Underworld, and that work of desperation, The Invasion of Time.ĭetermined to avoid such wild changes of tone and quality in Season 16, Williams opted for the strictest running theme yet seen in Doctor Who.

#Doctor who key to time movie#

Williams had also had his hands full with firefighting: scripts falling though (‘ The Vampire Mutations’ had to be junked in deference to the BBC’s TV movie of Dracula) a new script editor taking over mid-season, and a directive from on high to cut back the violence in favour of humour. He had intended do the Key to Time story arc in Season 15, but it wasn’t possible – perhaps because the scripts had been already commissioned when he was selected to replace Philip Hinchcliffe at short notice. This seems a bit strange when the premise had served the series well for the previous 13 years, but showrunners sometimes have strange ideas. Williams found it hard to believe that a fault in the TARDIS’ navigation circuits would cause the Doctor to land in trouble every few weeks. Season 16 was, of course, Graham Williams’ attempt to impose some order on the Doctor Who universe: in storytelling, in production, and in curbing the excesses of his increasingly erratic star.