The Keys of Marinus
Joe Siegler
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The Keys of Marinus
This Story: Season 1, Story 5. Production Code E
Overall: Story 5, Episodes 21-26
Airdates: 11 Apr 1964 to 16 May 1964
Credits: Written by Terry Nation. Directed by John Gorrie.
Episode Titles
- The Sea of Death
- The Velvet Web
- The Screaming Jungle
- The Snows of Terror
- Sentence of Death
- The Keys of Marinus
Notes
- The overall working title for the story was “Planet Marinus”.
- Hartnell was on vacation when they made Episodes 3 & 4.
- The Tardis in the opening and closing moments of this story was a toy – not the usual on stage prop – and it shows.
- Ian is still wearing the outfit given to him by Marco Polo in the prior story.
- On 16 Sep 2026, I moved the social media posts from Twitter to BlueSky. The original Twitter posts are still available, and can be seen with the following links: [ Ep1 | Ep2 | Ep3 | Ep4 | Ep5 | Ep6 ]
Links
[ Wikipedia | Tardis Data Core | SPS Historium | Amazon US DVD | Amazon UK DVD | My earlier 2012 review ]
#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 21 - "The Sea of Death" (1/6 - Serial E, Story 5) - 11 Apr 1964This story (Keys of Marinus) always took a lot of grief, but I thought it was a perfect distillation of the core concept of #DoctorWho. Multiple areas of travel within the same story. This ep shows the limits of
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) September 16, 2026 at 2:30 PM
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budgets in the 60's - it suffers from bad special effects. It shows the crew mostly exploring the area, rather the same as the first Dalek episode. This ep contains something I call the "Worst Special Effect ever". It's Ian fighting a Voord who falls down a shaft to his death. It's obviously a toy.
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) September 16, 2026 at 2:30 PM
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Here's the bad special effect I spoke of, so you can revel in its glory. :)
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) September 16, 2026 at 2:30 PM
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#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 22 - "The Velvet Web" (2/6 - Serial E, Story 5) - 18 Apr 1964.The Doctor, Ian, & Susan catch up with Barbara. The first location they are in is a decadent place, but it turns out to be a mental trap that they barely escape (liked this bit). The key is found and they move on.
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) September 16, 2026 at 2:30 PM
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#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 23 - "The Screaming Jungle" (3/6 - Serial E, Story 5) - 25 Apr 1964. #DoctorWhoThis is the first of the "vacation" episodes. The Doctor is missing from the story, because William Hartnell was on vacation this week. They made 40+ episodes a year then. This ep is mostly Ian and
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) September 16, 2026 at 2:30 PM
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Barbara. She gets captured more than once this ep. The key is hidden in a section of jungle in various booby traps they need to escape from. This ep had some great concepts on paper, but 60's production values let it down. The first screenshot here is a good example of that. Still, I liked it.
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) September 16, 2026 at 2:30 PM
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#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 24 - "The Snows of Terror" (4/6 - Serial E, Story 5) - 2 May 1964. #DoctorWhoIan & Barbara are rescued from a freezing location by Vasor. He seems kind, but isn't - there's overtones of rape here. He had been taking the keys. Ian eventually saves everyone and they defeat him.
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) September 16, 2026 at 2:30 PM
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#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 25 - "Sentence of Death" (5/6 - Serial E, Story 5) - 9 May 1964. #DoctorWhoThe crew go forward to the final key, which was a locked artifact. Ian is charged with murder of a guard and the entire episode is basically a change in dynamic for the story in general as it's set in
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) September 16, 2026 at 2:30 PM
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a courtroom, and not adventure like it was to this point. William Hartnell returns to the story here as well. It's quite a different dynamic based on the feel of the proper four episodes. Liked the thematic changes we got here - certainly not boring. Trial actually rolls into the next/final episode.
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) September 16, 2026 at 2:30 PM
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#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 26 - "The Keys of Marinus" (6/6 - Serial E, Story 5) - 16 May 1964. #DoctorWhoSusan is captured at end of last episode, and Ian is set to be executed. Barbara figures out who actually killed the person who caused Ian to be charged, and he is released. With all the keys, the
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) September 16, 2026 at 2:30 PM
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Tardis crew return to Arbitan, except he's been killed. The Voord attempt to take the keys and gain control of Marinus, but fail when given a fake key by Ian. As I said before this was a great distillation of what Doctor Who as a base concept is - in one story. Always felt this should get more love.
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) September 16, 2026 at 2:30 PM
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