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The Armageddon Factor Format Reviewed: DVD Review At the end of the accliamed Key to Time series comes The Armageddon Factor.The end of the season was always likely to have a dramatic conclusion, and in the era of the late 1970's, this drama is laden with disco era effects and spangly costumes. These often actually don't look to out of place in a science-fiction setting, but seem to look slightly dated sometimes in retrospect. Either way, The Armageddon Factor is a story that rounds out the theme-linked season of the Key to Time. The TARDIS arrives on Altrios at the end of a bombing raid by near neighbours Zeos. The Marshal of Altrios is being manipulated by an external force, and The Doctor is separated from Romana after chasing K9, and travels to Zeos but ends up on a third planet, between the two. This third planet is hidden and is the one attacking both worlds, controlled by a figure called the Shadow, who is working for the Black Guardian trying to find the final segment of the Key to Time. The Shadow has Princess Astra of Altrios imprisoned to try to find the final segment, but she cannot help. The Doctor then discovers that a battle computer on Zeos is what is keeping the battle alive, and he has to jury rig a time loop with a temporary final segment to hold the Marshal of Altrios from destroying Zeos. Realising that Princess Astra is the final segment, The Doctor converts her and smuggles it onto the TARDIS where the White Guardian tries to take control of the complete key. Realising a deception, the White Guardian changes into his true form of the Black Guardian, and The Doctor disperses the key in time and space to keep it from him. Knowing the wrath of the Black Guardian, The Doctor fits a randomiser to the TARDIS controls so his destinations will be secret not allowing the Black Guardian to follow. All previous stories in the Key to Time season were of four episodes, and the finale was left carrying six. This is a significant increase, about fifty or so minutes of footage so unless there is a significant amount more story to tell here, this adventure was always going to include som padding. Whilst there is more story to tell, being the finale of a plot linked season it has to wrap up all of the threads from the previous stories. Unsurprisingly then, there is some padding here, especially the part with Barry Jackson, that was very misleading as to its importance when considered in context with the remainder of the story. The time loop is the other main area where the story is elongated to fit the time required, but elsewhere the adventure stands up for itself. A main cast choice here is future regular Lalla Ward, here playing Princess Astra. She does a fine job, surely marking her out as the next companion for The Doctor. In Mary Tamm's final appearance as Romana, she again does a sterling job, giving the kind of performance she was renowned for. Tom Baker is slightly over the top as The Doctor here, but is fine generally. The guest cast sees some good performances, notably from Valentine Dyall as the Black Guardian, and John Woodvine as the Marshal of Altrios who really does play his role well in an understated way. This is contrasted with the massively camp Davyd Harries as Shapp, who has possibly the campest death scene in television history. Elsewhere, William Squire could perhaps have been more forceful as The Shadow, and Barry Jackson as Drax does well, but is largely a pointless character. One of the main things that can be said of this story, in contrast to the the previous one, The Power of Kroll, is that it is fun. There is some obvious overacting, some padding and someconfused scripting, but the story does build excitement throughout. Whether or not this is because it is the culmination of an excellent concept of a theme linked series, I do not know. I think s alot of it has to do with the speed at which the story flows, more akin to modern production methods than those of the 1970's. This fun and dramatic tension emphasises what Doctor Who was about at this time, and this story is therefore a good example of the era. Overall, The Armageddon Factor is a good fun story that barrells along at a good pace. The story is not without it's issues, there is padding and some overacting, but there is fun and dramatic tension built throughout, and this really makes a fitting finale for the excellent concept of a theme linked season of stories. Rating:  |