The Return of the Master Trilogy |
BBC The Keeper of Traken The Return of the Master Trilogy Part One |
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| Episodes | 4 |  |
| Story No# | 115 | |
| Production Code | 5T | |
| Season | 18 | |
| Dates | Jan. 31, 1981 - Feb. 21, 1981 |
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With Tom Baker, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton.
Written by Johnny Byrne. Script-edited by Christopher H. Bidmead. Directed by John Black. Produced by John-Nathan Turner. Executive Producer: Barry Letts. |
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Synopsis: An enemy of the Doctor returns as the
Empire of Traken begins to collapse.
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An excellent story to feature the return of The Master! by Cody Salis 26/5/97
I saw this story for the first time as a rerun in 1988. All of the characters were good, from John Woodnut's portrayal of the "Doomed" Seron, to the effects of Kassia being controlled by Melkur. A supprise (and excellent) ending of Tremas being killed, and his identity being taken over by the Master. Tom Baker was excellent as the Doctor, and he used his usual humor to enlighten a difficult situation when he Adric and Tremas were constantly being hounded throughout the story.
The story was good too, by having the Keeper explain (to The Doctor and Adric) how Melkur first arrived on Traken, and mystery and suspense were consistently in the story as the Doctor and Adric tried to unmask Melkur's identity. When the Doctor faced Melkur alone toward the end of the story, there was a nasty surprise as Melkur finally was identified as the Master by the Doctor. Anthony Ainley (Tremas) showed a bounty of emotion as his wife was killed and everything he knew on Traken was being destroyed by Melkur. He was the only one that believed the Doctor and Adric were honest and that Melkur was evil.
A Review by Michael Hickerson 21/11/97
For years, I've heard members of the fandom label Tom Baker's penultimate story a "classic." And, to be quite honest, I didn't understand why.
Was it because it featured the return of the Master? This plotline never thrilled me, maybe because I guessed it was him by the middle of episode two.
So, what was it?
I think I finally understand. It's Johnny Bryne's brilliant creation of the Traken community. Here we have one-off characters who have life and vibrance. We have an alien world that feels alien in their traditions and characterisitcs. We have villians drawn in shades of gray and conflict among characters. And most of all, the Master, for once, has an interesting, complex plan that involves not only his continued existence but also the Doctor's destruction. A lot of small things come together to make the overall picture worth watching. Even Melkur is well realized in his stalking around Traken when it is required.
But the part that throws this over the top is Anthony Ainley's stellar performance as Tremas. Having only seen him as the Master until this point, his work here deserves special credit. He does a fine job and makes the character of Tremas come alive.
My favorite scenes comes at the end when the Master enters his other TARDIS with his new body. I love the hands on the clock that say it is four minutes to midnight--the number of episodes Tom Baker has left in his reign as Doctor. Chilling and wonderful.
A Review by Jason A. Miller 27/12/98
"He dies, Doctor! The Keeper dies!"
Tom Baker's penultimate story is one of Doctor Who's finest-looking entries. It's certainly one of the best of the studio-bound productions. The combination of Johnny Byrne's first Doctor Who script, a small well-acted cast, Roger Limb's background score, and the pretty Orient-flavored sets make Traken a joy to watch.
For the first time since 1965, the Doctor's travelling with just a lone male companion for company -- this time, the much maligned Adric from E-Space. But in spite of 18 years of Adric-bashing in the fandom mainstream, Traken begins as one of his better stories. Tom Baker and Matthew Waterhouse's exchange of witty banter for this story's first three minutes works much better than it has a right to succeed.
The plot's fairly simple, though it's spiced up, as with all Season 18 stories, by Christopher Bidmead's keen ear for techno-babble. The Keeper of Traken is really a morality play, at heart. When Kassia (Sheila Ruskin, the story's weakest link) turns to an inanimate extraterrestrial Evil, the Melkur (Geoffrey Beevers in an array of uncomfortable looking costumes), Traken's paradise falls apart. And not merely in an array of pyrotechnics, or a display of histrionic acting. Rather, it's the minor flaws in each individual which brings paradise to its knees. Pulling the strings is the most flawed individual of them all -- for Melkur cloaks an even greater threat, the dying Master, last seen thwarted in The Deadly Assassin. (Pay special note to Anthony Ainley's first Doctor Who appearance -- though he doesn't become the Master until the story's final minute, it's all here! The over-acting! The snarled words! The incomprehensible stressing of odd syllables!) As the Master within the Melkur wields ever great power over first Kassia and then over the entire planet, characters fall prey to their own vices -- greed for money, greed for power, and in one notable case, one character's done in by his own compulsive honesty.
Traken, as with all great Who, benefits from a small cast, with many characters nuanced and richly played by a group of Who veterans -- look here for the return of Cameca from 1964's' The Aztecs, and the Duke of Forgill from Tom Baker's own Terror of the Zygons.
The story ends on one of Doctor Who's rare tragic notes -- but fortunately, to quote Melkur, this is only the beginning, and for the Return of the Master story arc, the best is yet to come.
Terribly Nice -- An Addendum 11/1/22
For me, there are three memorable things about The Keeper of Traken. First, it was a story that I experienced through the novelization first, and instantly loved the book to pieces -- more so than most other novelizations that I also loved at first read, even. Second, it was one of those stories that, when I finally saw the episode after reading the book, I was NOT disappointed (as I was, say, after watching The Claws of Axos or The Nightmare of Eden or Delta and the Bannermen or Ghost Light).
And, third and most important, The Keeper of Traken was the first story that I ever reviewed for The Doctor Who Ratings Guide.
The month was December 1998. Bill Clinton was the American President, caught up at the height of his Monica Lewinsky scandal and impeachment trial -- shades of Tremas's disgrace and demotion from Keeper-nominate, to prisoner under sentence of death, in this story. I was six months out of law school, literally starving while working two minimum-wage jobs and barely paying my rent. I was two weeks away from meeting Sara, the first great love of my life (and, thus, three and a half months away from losing her). How I had the mental energy to watch and review The Keeper of Traken while all that was going on, I have no idea.
Looking back on my review, I see two things. First, it's remarkably short -- by the time you get to this paragraph in the addendum, the word count involved in all this throat-clearing will have already exceeded the work count of the original review. And, second, it's really good. I made point after point, twenty-one years ago, that I still agree with today. Points that I barely even remember having made, back in December 1998, when I was an underweight and broke 25-year-old. Good job, Jason. But now I'm 45, married fourteen years (not to Sara), father of one, and nominally at the top of my profession. It's longer from my first review to today (23 years) than it was from my first review to the original story (17 years). With all the time that has passed, what insights can I gain from The Keeper of Traken now that I was too young and green to grasp in December 1998?
Watching it back now, on the heels of just having reread the novelization, it's clear that the televised Part One makes some mistakes. Gone is the book's scene where the Keeper names Tremas his successor on the same night as Tremas' wedding to Kassia -- this mutes Kassia's obvious motivation for turning to the evil Melkur in order to preserve her new marriage. Also lost is the scene where Melkur actually murders a Foster, although it's debatable whether the camera script (from which the novelization was adapted) is improved for revealing Melkur's powers so early, as opposed to how they are gradually unfolded in the TV Part One.
That said, the lovely scene between Tremas and Neman in the courtyard, discussing the stars and destiny and marriage, is a hugely important scene, and something rare in Doctor Who. To paraphrase Stephen Schwartz, who wrote the song "All For the Best" for the play Godspell -- an Act One duet between Jesus and Judas, before the latter betrays the former in Act Two -- if Tremas is going to be forced to kill Neman in Part Four, they have to have a song together in Part One. This scene is that song, and it provides a symmetry (and a defined character arc for Neman, a mere tertiary villain) which most other Doctor Who stories lack.
One thing I love about the script -- apart from what I said in 1998 about each character being killed because of their innate flaws, which is a terrific point -- is how well-drawn the roles of the five Consuls are (even the bit parts, Katura and Luvic). Full Circle did this too, with its four richly-portrayed Deciders. Timelash aimed for something of the sort, but failed rather gloriously. John Woodnutt as Seron is particularly regal, and I love how the actor makes sure to interact with each of his fellow castmates differently; witness how he talks to Luvic one way, and then immediately runs back to speak to Tremas quite more seriously.
And the resonance of this serial to the modern American state, my goodness. When LI Who was still an annual convention, I used to moderate a "Cliffhangers!" panel, where a co-host and I would screen various cliffhangers and discuss them. The 2016 LI Who was the weekend after Trump won the U.S. Presidential election, and the convention was positively funereal. The Part Three cliffhanger here, with Melkur scheming and cheating his way into the Keepership, was one cliffhanger that I showed, and it really spoke to how all of us felt. But the Melkur menace was cleaned up a lot more neatly for Traken in Part Four than it has been here in the States...
There's a noticeable change in focus between the first two parts and the last two parts. The DVD production notes tell us that Bidmead heavily rewrote the script, as Byrne had gone on vacation, to reconfigure the eventual characters that became Tremas and Melkur, and to eliminate some plot points that were identical to those in Meglos. I credit the lyrical mystique of Parts One and Two to Byrne, and the more traditional run-around chase-and-escape, and lengthy science lectures of Parts Three and Four, to Bidmead. But even in the back half, which lacks some of the grandeur of the first (Woodnutt's death scene punches this story in the solar plexus, and it never really gets back to full strength without him on camera), there are so many moments to vigorously nod your heads at. Old lady Katura is clearly a Tory, and her dismissive comment about "liberal traditions", as she jumps on the execute-the-Doctor bandwagon, speaks volumes about her support for the clearly deranged Kassia in the latter's hostile takeover of the Traken government. And to think that the Doctor had almost married Katura, back when she played Cameca in The Aztecs...
Part Four is an exceptionally busy piece of work, though, and the novelization preserves a lot of clarity-adding scenes which had to be deleted from TV for timing. You can read in the book, but won't see on TV, Katura's and Luvic's shocked reactions to Melkur becoming the Keeper, and the Doctor's snappy reply; Tremas informing the Doctor just what the Ultimate Sanction is and how it works; and Neman being given a Consular ring and Kassia's old mind-control necklace. Luvic's accession to the Keepership in the end is missing some beats on TV, where the book explains better why he wound up with the job. But, even with those missing bits, Part Four still works great on TV, cheerfully carried along by Bidmead's scientific lectures, by the neat resolution of the plot through the pushing of three buttons ("Three! Three! Seven!"), and by that creepy final scene, where the letters in Tremas' name rearrange themselves...
So many more words in 2019 than in 1998, but the core point remains the same: this is one of Doctor Who's finest-looking entries. And the best is still yet to come.
A Review by Ian Cawood 29/4/01
At the time of watching, back in 1981, I remember the following feelings - after the E-space trilogy, I didn't expect the season to get any better than Warriors' Gate (remember this was only a year after Horns of Nimon). That I was proved wrong, spoke volumes for the heights that the show was hitting at this point. The story starts with almost a clean slate - Romana and K9 have gone, E-space has been left behind - back to one companion and the Doctor. So Keeper certainly doesn't feel like the penultimate story of the longest Doctor's reign - the writing is fresh with some wonderfully playful dialogue ('but what's in a name?') and some of the best set and costume design the series ever saw. Added to this is fine ensemble playing by a very experienced cast (most notably Ainley's impassioned playing of Tremas and John Woodnutt's imperious Seron). But of course, the icing on the cake is the way in which the character of Nyssa is introduced. Has there ever been a less affected, more natural first story for any character in the series? When we first see her at the wedding on the TARDIS scanner, she has her back to the viewer, and only appears in close-up when she comes to receive the Keeper's blessing - she doesn't speak, but her love for her father shines through Sarah Sutton's restrained but expressive body language. In fact, Nyssa only has one line in the whole first episode. In this way she slips into the audience's perception far more naturally than any 'introductory' story. Throughout the story, we see her as part of a wider society, therefore we know how she behaves and how she thinks in her own world - unlike most alien companions, she is not an outsider, she is quite happy to stay with her father at the end of the story, and the pathos of the character is reinforced by the audience's knowledge of this.
Her big scene only comes in episode 3, where she stands up to Kassia, in a way that no other character had yet been able to do. The indignation and anger that Sarah Sutton puts across ('This Melkur has made you mad!') impressed me so much at the time that, from that moment, I was positive that she would make one of the best companions the series had seen. The next scene, where she returns to her room, pauses, and collects the ion bonder, is well worth re-watching, just to see how Sutton's considerable screen experience enabled her to put across the character's thought process without opening her mouth - an ability that only Peter Davison shared during this period of the programme.
The plot itself suffers, to some extent, by having the Master suddenly appear - the Melkur with its silky voice was a much more menacing character - but I certainly didn't feel that at the time - I just felt total surprise - one hadn't yet got used to old villains popping up every other week . But if that wasn't enough, for the first time the Doctor really screwed up - the Master didn't just escape, he reduced the most heroic of the Traken characters to a living husk, and set in train the 'chain of circumstance' that would reduce the planet to dust - only 4 weeks after seeing the Doctor save Traken, I watched, horrified, as all that good work was undone. No wonder the hands of the Master's TARDIS are set at 5 to midnight at the end of the story. Just like Nyssa, I was left bewildered at the end of the story - the Doctor always wins doesn't he? At just the right moment, Chris Bidmead made me doubt the Doctor's ability. The stage was set for the 4th Doctor's last story, and suddenly all certainties and assumptions about the series had dissolved - what on earth was going to happen next?
Doesn't quite cut the mustard by Mike Jenkins 30/11/01
Most of the acting is good here but some is subpar. This is inconsequential however as this is not what lets the story down. Once again, it is a sign of the times. The story, like Full Circle is very much a reflection on the era to be, namely the Davison era. It all has an interesting look but there isn't quite enough plot exposition. Most of the acting is good (Sayron, Tremas Cassia), some is subpar (Katura), some is painful to watch (the Fosters, Luvic). The Mulkur is a well realised idea and Geoffrey Beeves is much better as the Master as Anthony Ainley. Although on the whole Deadly Assassin is a better story, the Master is much well better characterized here. Tom is great but the incidentals are given too many lines and while the world is intruging, I feel that this story borrows too heavily from The Time Monster and in my opinion, although Keeper of Traken is derving of a 6/10, it is much less effective than the former.
Its highlights, like many stories of the 80s are its images and concepts. The European mythology themes in this story make it enjoyable but there are stories that do this much more effectively like Planet of the Spiders and The Stones of Blood. Another problem is that for a, as Tom Baker says it "a civilization held together by people being incredibly nice to each other", they seem awfuly inclined to jump to conclusions and speculations. They seemed to co-dependent on their own false sense of security, a plot line that can wear very thin. On the positive front, the images and concepts prevail so the positive elements are able to outweigh the negative.
Sourcey! by Andrew Wixon 17/4/02
When I first saw The Keeper of Traken in 1981, it was as someone who'd grown up watching the Williams years - well, and one Hinchcliffe story. Apart from the Daleks I didn't think there were any recurring elements in DW stories, beyond the Doctor himself of course. I knew he was a Time Lord, but had no idea what that really meant. And so this story was a bit of a revelation to me. I'll never forget my surprise near the end of episode three where - Melkur vanishes to the sound of the TARDIS! Other people have TARDISes besides the Doctor? The Doctor has old enemies? Wow. Suddenly the show seemed to take place in a proper universe of its own with a proper history and background.
All this aside, The Keeper of Traken remains a classy piece of work. The production designs gels superbly to create an almost wholly plausible alien society. A rich vein of fairy tale runs through it all: from the costumes (Nyssa's in particular) to the sets, and of course the story. The way the Keeper narrates the back-story to the Doctor and Adric, a unique way of setting it all up, only adds to the effect of a fable unfolding. And the narrative itself is steeped in mythic elements - walking statues, wicked stepmothers, and above all the Master's presence as a serpent in the garden of paradise.
Sadly all this gets a bit forgotten as the story proceeds, and things revolve much more around source manipulators and other gadgetry (the Doctor's a bit too handy with that ion bonder if you ask me). But even here it works extremely well - the transition of Traken from benevolent eden to virtual police state convinces and there's never any doubt as to what's going on.
Famously, this is the story that brought the Master back as a regular story element, and it's a pretty triumphant return. Geoffrey Beevers' make-up may be a bit so-so but his vocal performance as Melkur is outstanding. The Master's scheme actually makes sense for once and justifies his machiavellian machinations. It's a shame Beevers wasn't kept on to play the rejuvenated Master, the character might just have retained some credibility. As it is, Anthony Ainley was never better in the series than he is here, as Tremas. The greatest 80s story to feature the Master may be the next one - but this runs it a close second.
A Review by Rob Matthews 3/6/02
Season 18 is often thought of as Doctor who's most thoroughly science-fictional, and Keeper of Traken - along with the earlier State of Decay - is the exception that proves the rule. It's a fun bit of quasi-mythical, good versus evil hokum, and a variation on one of the oldest stories in our culture, that of the serpent in paradise.
The story's claims to sf-hood are propped up mainly by the jargon and concept-heaviness of the preceding adventures, as well as the retroactive effect of its sequel Logopolis. It is, as it were, standing on the shoulders of Tachyonics and Charged Vacuum Emboitments, with a big pile of Heat Death sitting atop it.?But it's still made of fairy dust. Arguably more than most Doctor Who of this era, it's fantasy. I'd probably agree with Robert Smith? that all Doctor Who is magic wrapped up in rationalist-sounding terms anyway, but this story in particular could perhaps be termed a 'classical' sorta fantasy. The Keeper has 'powers' which may as well be magical for all that we understand them, and senses 'Eeevil...' the way Yoda would sense the dark side*, while the Traken Consuls can only access the source manipulator?by putting their enchanted rings together (the Source itself being an elemental power akin to the Eye of Harmony, again indistinguishable from magic**). Evil beings are drawn to Traken and calcify there, due to the air being so full of creamy goodness. The Master hides behind the Melkur (decades-old spoiler!) like the Wizard of Oz hides behind his little curtain and hologram kit.
* - Probably not the only Star Wars reference I'm going to make. Brace
yourselves.
** - probably the only Arthur C Clarke reference I'm going to make,
since that quote is the only bit of his work I've read.
This is a story that works better in its particular context - within such an eclectic season, and as the penultimate story of the Baker era - than it probably would have had it been plonked at any other point in the Baker years. Interestingly, the theme of a devious usurper taking control an apparent utopia may well reflect what a lot of fans felt about the show's development at the time; As soon as the next story, Tom Baker - the Doctor for many - would be usurped by a different man, and a sense of gloominess would rapidly replace the bohemian charm of the Baker years. When the Melkur takes up the Keepership the Doctor angrily comments that "I know he's not everything you hoped for but I'm afraid you're rather stuck with him now". The thoughts of a Tom Baker fan watching Castrovalva?
Well, maybe I'm reading too much into it. But from a script editor and producer's point of view it's an unusual choice of story, with an abiding anxiety that any change, unless closely monitored, will be for the worse.
(Wasn't it around this time that Thatcher got in? Hmm...)
The story is simplistic but effective. Simplistic because you never really believe the Traken Union could have been so 'terribly nice' for so long. There'll never be such a thing as a utopia and it's hard to believe in here. Attempting to make it convincing, the story appeals to our twentieth century prejudices and tendencies towards cockeyed nostalgia - the planet appears to be stuck in a sort of permanent 'good old days', a highly-advanced society that nevertheless appears pre-industrial and vaguely agrarian - lots of people tending gardens and making cod-Shakespearean comments; "If I were to labour for a thousand nights and a thousand days?I should not have laboured as hard as this simile is laboured". Girls have puffy sleeves and the men have big beards. I've seen this setup referred to as 'spiritual', but I think we tend to assume that of anything that combines being simplistic and mild with having a lot of flowers about the place. Our anxieties about the drawbacks of scientific progress make a naive pastoral existence seem idyllic, even though in reality most of us wouldn't be able to stick it. Traken has its cake and eats it by being super-advanced, super-civilised and yet also 'back to nature'.
The story's a dressed-up Garden of Eden myth, and myths are entertaining and satisfying when you enjoy them for their creativity and for their evidencing the human desire to make sense of experience. Which is why I say this story is effective. We know that this huge and lovely empire of niceness is the kind of world we all strive for, and we also know that it's been put on the screen so we can watch its downfall.
And this variation on the old myth works because it's genuinely frightening, because there's an inbuilt pessimisim and anxiety in all fictions of this sort in the latter half of the twentieth century. The sense that an idyllic existence can be destroyed by an act of personal greed is replaced by the far more terrifying fear that normal, everyday existence can be destroyed by somebody else's act of cruelty - not simply on the level of one individual harming another, but instead, of a state harming or killing its citizens. The difference between the 'pure evil' of myths and religions - or, in Who, The Curse of Fenric -, and the real, proven evil of fascism, is that the former is a hypothetical obscenity, and the latter a real one. What makes The Keeper of Traken properly scary (as opposed to 'Argh! It's an ugly monster!' scary) is the idea that an apparently fair and compassionate society can be so easily infiltrated by such an evil. Look at that appalling situation in France with LePen. Imagine waking up to that the day after the election and effectively being able to do nothing better than say 'I know it's not what you were hoping for but I'm afraid you're rather stuck with him now". The Star Wars prequel trilogy reminds me of this aspect of Keeper of Traken - an insidious presence quietly manipulating misguided acolytes from somewhere over in the corner until its opportunity to take total control arrives.
(come to think of it, creepy monklike hoods seem quite de rigeur for manipulative evil types - the Master wears one too, as he did in The Deadly Assassin)
Speaking of the Master, he too works very well for this story. As near a correlative of an age-old evil as the show can produce, he's a malevolent presence from what must have felt to many almost like the pre-history of the 'Tom Baker show', the Pertwee years. As a bad guy he has gravitas here (though he quickly lost it again with the ensuing overuse of Anthony Ainley). I read a criticism, probably by David J Howe, that there's a continuity error in the Master seeming less emaciated here than in The Deadly Assassin. Actually, it was made clear at the end of that story that he was beginning to regenerate. If anything he doesn't look healthy enough in Keeper of Traken. But, if we're being that fussy, we can assume his actions in the earlier story helped put a bit of flesh on his bones.
As a companion-introduction story it's quite poor. Nyssa's likeable but shows no real potential as a long-running character. And she doesn't even go off with the Doctor and Adric at the end, instead she's shoved rather clumsily into Logopolis. I don't know whether or not it was planned during the making of Keeper of Traken to turn her into a companion - it certainly doesn't come across that way. For one thing, you'd think they'd have filmed an insert for Logopolis while the fabulous sets were still standing. Admittedly, the murder of her father and the destruction of her planet are what ultimately push her into the TARDIS, and neither of those have yet happened here. That bereavement and her status as a kind of refugee should have led to plenty of interesting character development later. But didn't. Anyway. The surprise ending of this story is certainly one of the show's most memorable, topping the whole thing off with a sense of impending doom that's informed by our knowledge of Tom's imminent departure. This is really what makes the story a success. It has a standard happy ending, but then a moment of creepy dissonance which reveals an underlying pessimism. There's a cumulative effect to the drama of this season, a phased but rapid upheaval, and it makes for a more satisfying story arc than the Key to Time or Trial of a Time Lord seasons. For good or bad, you can't really watch Keeper of Traken without its neighbouring stories. If nothing else that demonstrates the sense of fluidity and urgency JNT initially brought to the show.
A well crafted Eden by Tim Roll-Pickering 27/11/02
The story opens with effective narration from the Keeper as he brings the Doctor and Adric up to speed on events but this is perhaps forgivable since it means that the story can thus take a more relaxed pace than others and focus on character development rather than explaining the back story. The Keeper of Traken draws heavily on Biblical stories, telling the tale of an Eden that comes under threat from a very deadly serpent in the garden. The plot is simple but exceptionally rewarding for the viewer due to the twists it offers along the way, as well as making the surprise element a bonus to the story rather than the only thing going for it. Drawing also upon medieval influences for the structure of Traken society the result is a strong debut script from Johnny Byrne.
This story sees both the debut of Nyssa and the restoration of the Master as an active and viable foe. The former is ably played by Sarah Sutton but doesn't immediately stand out as being likely to become a companion, especially since at this stage she is left behind on Traken at the end of the tale. The Master's return adds to the sense of foreclosure as the season comes to a close and by this time the original viewers would have known that Tom Baker's departure was imminent as well. The Master's presence in the story is well concealed in the first couple of episodes, but by the end of Part Three it becomes clear that Melkur is a TARDIS whilst the Master has now been shown in a shot. For the fans who can remember the Master's appearance in The Deadly Assassin this is a clear revelation, but it's not until the final part that the dialogue actually confirms this. It makes sense that the Master is finally given a more active form to revitalise the character for future stories. Anthony Ainley gives a good performance as Tremas, making the character extremely likeable and sympathetic after he is brought down by a wife who initially sought only to save him. It is thus a real sad moment when he is absorbed by the Master. The final scene is too brief and so only gives a few hints as to how strong the character will be against the Doctor.
The rest of the cast are competent, with the honours going to Margot van der Burgh as Kassia. The only weak performance comes from Robin Soans as Luvic and makes one wonder how the character ever became a Consul and just how safe Traken is when Luvic becomes Keeper at the end. Denis Carey appears as the old Keeper and gives a dignified performance that conveys a true sense of power despite his withered physical form.
On the production side the design work is good, especially since the story is shot completely in the studio. Each set feels natural and the result is a realistic feeling medieval palace environment. John Black's direction is good and there are some nice little touches, such as the use of two monitor screens with slightly different angle shots inside Melkur which is a detail that many would have overlooked. The result is an enjoyable story that both tells a tale in its own right as well as re-establishing a major character for future stories. This is Tom Baker's penultimate story but his Doctor doesn't feel like he has quite hit the end of the road yet. All in all an enjoyable tale in its own right. 8/10
A Review by Stuart Gutteridge 2/3/04
The Keeper Of Traken is something of a mixed bag;it has both a fairytale quality (the concept of a society where people are nice to each other) and the feel of a theatre production, due largely to the stilted dialogue and indeed some of the acting; the worst culprit being Sheila Ruskin`s Kassia. Geoffrey Beevers is relatively enjoyable if slightly OTT; his voice drips with malicious glee. Anthony Ainley gives one of his best performances as Tremas, as he is somewhat understated and restrained. Sarah Sutton isn`t too noticeable largely because Nyssa as of yet doesn`t play a central role in the action (that comes in in Logopolis), she does convey the closeness to her father, and her quiet reserve adequately well however.
This is also probably Adric`s best story; he doesn`t seem too annoying here, and interacts with Nyssa well. Indeed Matthew Waterhouse seem`s to be playing student to Tom Baker`s Doctor; who himself gives possibly the last glimpse of his trademark humour ("this type`s not really my forte" springs to mind). Great performances aside The Keeper Of Traken is average at best, memorable largely for the return of the Master.
Good and Evil by Mike Morris 1/8/04
There are some stories, according to received wisdom, that you either love or hate. Of course, I'm not quite sure where received wisdom comes from, who received it in the first place, and how true or relevant it is. I'm sure that plenty of the stories that fans "either love or hate" are looked at with indifference by a whole bunch of people. One thing this website shows is that for pretty much any story, as soon as one person says how much they adore it someone else will tear it down. And a good job too. Received wisdom is bunk.
As for The Keeper of Traken, though, that's different; it's the opposite to the "love or hate" type. I don't think I've ever read a wholly negative review of it; although I'm sure one will appear now, just to show me. Still, it's a rare case of a story that most of us like. And lo, Received Wisdom looked upon it and saw that it was good. Good; not, repeat not, great. When we have those silly best-story-ever discussions, The Keeper of Traken will not generally appear. Just as nobody seems to dislike it, it's nobody's favourite either. If there's one word that could sum it up, it's "solid".
This, really, is fair enough, and I largely agree. I think it's, you know, good. Not great. However, what's interesting about it is that it's very, very close to being an absolute all-time no-holds-barred stonking masterpiece. It is possibly one of the most interesting, complex and multilayered scripts ever. It's got a (largely) strong cast, some subtly appropriate direction, and (mostly) beautiful design. All that and those last minute jolts, with You Know Who's reappearance and a shock ending. Cor blimey, that's quite a list.
However, if you look at the story in depth, you'll see that it's not quite as "solid" as you think. Some of the key elements of this tale are fumbled extremely badly. There's a very weak performance in the story's central role, and many subtleties of the supporting characters are lost. If this were a stageplay - and really, it's as close as you can get to one - you'd look upon it as a meritorious but stodgy interpretation of an excellent script. The fact that it is still a resounding success, and one of the better stories in a very strong season, says something about the script itself.
Back to that stageplay point. The Keeper of Traken is hugely stylised, with the kind of dialogue that we like referring to as "Shakespearean". I always find that a hugely irritating phrase, but it's appropriate here because of the immensely theatrical script. It's not just the dialogue, though; the entire setup uses the kind of tricks that Shakespeare was so good at to establish the Traken society. As in a lot of Shakespeare plays we're introduced to a drama that takes place among the society's elders, or in this case, Consuls. There are a lot references to the Traken's society; the people being unsettled at the Keeper's passing, the rumours that the Melkur has been redeemed, and the use of Consular Privilege, which all help the feeling of a complex civilisation with rules, customs and political sensitivities. It's clever, the way that the society is effectively distilled down to a few sets like that, and it's successful enough to make Traken feel real and important. Essentially, this is a standard story of someone trying to take over a planet (well all right, it's the "Traken Union" so maybe there's more than one planet), but it feels bigger than that, somehow. In the same way, the Source feels like more than just a big 9V battery; it really comes across as an awesome and complex thing, and when Melkur starts outlining his plans for conquest in Part Four it seems genuinely frightening. Traken may well be the best-evoked society in the programme's televised run.
John Black reacts to this stagy script by shooting it in a suitably stagy way. There are an awful lot of long scenes without cuts on largely static cameras, and simply assembled shots. That initially suggests that the direction is lazy, but that's not at all true. Black's work here is extremely appropriate given the nature of the script, and tellingly it's very different from his direction on Four To Doomsday - suggesting that he modified his style to suit the story, a pleasing modesty that a lot of directors don't display. The design is simply wonderful, with even the corridor sets being reworked as angled, arched vaults. The main chamber feels suitably impressive, and the Grove is gorgeous. Black may not bother with cutting, panning, close-ups and all that fancy-dan malarkey, but he knows how to get the best out of his sets all right. The first shot of Kassia and Melkur, the creature silhouetted and the moon visible in the background... it's really very impressive indeed. Even if the Source looks a bit like a doily, and the Keeper's bald cap is worse than crap.
While he gets to grips beautifully with the political backdrop to the
story, though, the director fails to really establish the character drama
in any way. It doesn't help that Sheila Ruskin, in the pivotal role of
Kassia, is simply not good enough. This story should, really, have been
her tragedy; the descent of a good woman into evil, motivated by love.
However Ruskin plays Kassia throughout as a grade A nutcase, and while she
handles a few scenes well the performance is hugely uneven. There's some
obviously crap bits, such as where she faints, but really she's just too
aggressive throughout. Just look at the wedding scene when she's teased by
the crowd; her delivery of "I'm sure it does not become us to mock Melkur"
is delivered far too frantically, when we should really have seen her
uneasily laughing it off.
The rest of the consuls aren't really evoked as they could be either.
The apparently stupid Luvic's discovery that there is, in fact, "such
greatness in me" isn't emphasised properly; and Seron, in particular,
doesn't shine as he should. My theory is that, as scripted, we're supposed
to be suspicious of Seron's motivations, to suspect that perhaps he
himself is allied with Melkur. His actions tend to be devious, such as the
way that he stops Tremas sharing his suspicions rather suspect. He
frequently seems to be on to Kassia, but doesn't confront her. When he
volunteers to enter rapport, Kassia mutters "that is not intended," which
Seron seizes on; "Intended, Kassia? By whom?" A moment later he then
agrees to her keeping vigil for him, noting that "under your zealous eye
we can be sure that justice will be done." As played, that scene just
comes across like Seron is being a bit obtuse, agreeing for someone he
suspects to have such power over him. But imagine if we'd been kept
guessing; if he'd delivered that line ironically, with a hidden meaning
hanging there, and the audience is left wondering whether he wants to
flush Kassia out or whether he's working to the same ends as her. Imagine
if we thought he might not survive Rapport. Imagine how shocking it would
be that, the moment we know for certain that Seron's a good guy, he's
slain... would have been great, wouldn't it? Kassia sobbing, asking Seron
to forgive her, Seron softly imploring her to "reject this evil", and then
Kassia losing that dreadful battle with herself and destroying the man who
could have saved her. Seron's death could have been one of the very
greatest scenes ever, if they'd got it right. Oh, for what might have
been.
Let's not forget, though, that it's still good. The story's good. The
Doctor and Adric work surprisingly well in this, and Nyssa's good fun,
even if it's obvious that she was never conceived as a companion. It's
littered with good jokes; "This type's not really my forte", "It's
magnificent. Magnificent. I mean, it's a shame about that chap having to
sit for a thousand years in that chair, but it is magnificent", and Adric
responding to the Doctor's "what can't be cured must be endured" with
"That's the silliest thing you've ever said." It's also littered with
excellent dramatic scenes, such as Tom Baker's dark mutter to Neman that
"He'll destroy you too, just as he destroyed Kassia", and that brilliant
ironic delivery of "Well, when this thing has taken over the entire
Source, you'll have the consolation of knowing you kept your honour
intact". It's also got what I like to call a mini-great; an incidental
little scene that somehow lingers in my memory, a bit like the "I simply
don't do that sort of thing" in Meglos. It's when
Tremas mutters to the Doctor that "The man's too fond of money to be
trusted," and the Doctor replies "really?" It's not overdone, but the
Doctor sounds intrigued at this, as if it had just never occurred to him
that someone might be fond of money. I love that bit.
All those good bits and the Master too. This is a story that uses him
marvellously. Melkur itself is a great villain - visually it manages to be
surprisingly impressive, and it's voiced wonderfully - and the knowledge
that there's something nasty and ugly inside the clinical exterior makes
it even more frightening (you know, a metaphor for the human psyche and
all that). That it should be the Master makes perfect sense. Tom
underplays these scenes admirably, and the painted teeth notwithstanding,
the Master's make-up job looks wonderful. Quite why he's got two TARDISes
is a bit of a mystery, although I like the fan theory that the Melkur-ship
is Goth's. The Master as a serpent in paradise gives him a real
malevolence, and he's all the better for being used sparingly. His
absorption of Tremas is a wonderful jolt to close the story. Those last
couple of episodes are actually quite disappointing, with a lot of running
up and down corridors, being locked up and escaping, and the twin assault
on Melkur being a bit opaque - the sanction programmes are never explained
in the script. But the revelation of the Master overshadows all of that
and, at the conclusion, you don't remember the corridor chases; you
remember "A new body, at last!" Great stuff.
So, overall, if the majority is agreed I will concur, of course. This
is a very good story, but not a great. Given that some huge elements of it
are completely muffed up, the fact that it remains so memorable tells you
just how good the original scripts were. It's a pipedream, but I can't
help but wish that those scripts might be re-interpreted someday, remade,
and the story's theme of innocence ripped apart made clear on a human as
well as political level.
Oh well, we'll take what we can get. It remains worth your time. It's
significantly better than the norm. It's got a lot of staying power. And a
villain who is so often badly-used is used brilliantly. Oh, and it's a
great kick into the Logopolis/Castrovalva pairing. That can't be bad, can it? So yes,
it's highly recommended.
"Oh no Kassia... it is only beginning!" by Joe Ford
16/8/04
As much as we all love season seventeen (oh come on, it's hardly
OFFENSIVE), I am certain many people will agree that season eighteen came
as a breath of fresh air. Not only did it re-invigorate the show's look,
being the first season in three years to look as though it had any serious
money lavished upon it but it also provided a lifeline for Tom Baker's
fourth Doctor, a further direction for his character to go in proving his
longevity is all down to natural evolution. The show (and the era) had
rarely looked better and for Tom it was surely one of his most successful
years. Not bad for his finale really. If it hadn't been for JNT and
company the fourth Doctor would probably have vanished from our screens,
tired and forgotten. Instead he got to go out on top of his game and
proving there are still facets to his characters we still have to learn.
The Keeper of Traken epitomises everything season eighteen does
well. Budgetwise it looks very impressive with some huge and detailed sets
and a fantastic design for the Melkur creature. It is a powerhouse of a
likable SF ideas, the Keeper, the Source, Universal Harmony, etc, that all
bubble away quite nicely while a almost poetic good vs. evil plot takes
place. There are some terrific actors jotted about, John Woodnutt, Anthony
Ainley, Sarah Sutton who beef up the story by playing it deadly straight
and selling the material one hundred percent. Incidentally it takes what
is a potentially catastrophic Doctor/companion partnership (the fourth
Doctor and Adric) and makes it work really well.
I can remember vividly standing in Forbidden Planet in London and
listening to two girls taking the piss out of this story whilst flicking
through a copy of The Legend. It was the usual Star
Trek: Voyager loving mooses, those who cannot accept science fiction if it
hasn't been made on a million dollars and had all the storytelling juices
sucked out of it by years and years of repetitive tales. Listening to them
bicker and dribble on about "the Mystic statue" and "the jelly baby man"
made me hunger for a good challenge and when I heard one of them mention
how she hated Andromeda but watched it because one of the guys was "fit"
(an innit word I loathe) I realised I was wasting my time. The Keeper
of Traken is clearly meant to be watched by a half intelligent
creature and it was wasted on these two evolutionary throwbacks. The story
is clever, involving and not for your average television viewer.
There is a very gentle atmosphere to the story that would make it
unwatchable to any male who was brought up on films like Lock, Stock and
two Smoking Barrels. But it is that very passive mood that I find so
delicious, a delicate culture, drowned in niceness and brought to the
verge of chaos by a malevolent force. The scenes involving the regular
affairs of Traken are a joy to watch, the society is set up vividly
through the marriage of Tremas and Kassia, the gentle ribbing, the jokes,
the supernatural but comforting visit from the Keeper, it all seems very
natural and unforced. You would think a story set on a planet where
everybody is nice would be a dull chore to watch but even these early
scenes are perfectly watchable. It is fascinating to see that even though
all events are geared to make it appear the Doctor and Adric are evil
spies on Traken, Tremas and Seron still wish to aid them, such is their
generosity of spirit on the planet.
I love the look of the story, a planet that is lavished with technology
but enjoys a splash of gothic architecture. There is an intriguing mixture
of old and new, the dungeons are drab and vast, the source chamber is
painted in a variety of gorgeous rainbow colours, the Grove is clearly a
studio but the bird sound FX, soothing lighting and clever shots all help
to convince you this is outside. There is no real attempt to hide its
studio limitations and instead the director and designer decide to dress
everything up lavishly so it pleases because it is all filmed inside. I
like that. The lighting is especially good, suggesting when it is day and
night and even dawn. It adds colour and atmosphere and pushes the story
along without having to tell us what the time is.
A real aspect that JNT was trying hard to push into the show was the
idea of the family. He started with the TARDIS crew, Daddy Who, Mommy
Romana, Little Adric and pet K.9. He went to push the idea even further
next year, having entire scenes driving home the point that the TARDIS
crew is a family, albeit a dysfunctional one and allowing us to become
close to the regulars as they slowly adjust to living together. In my
opinion it was far more successful this year and by introducing secondary
characters who have relations we can see them reacting against you get a
far more believable idea of who they are, Pangol and his mother Mena in The Leisure Hive, Adric and his brother Varsh in Full Circle, Ivo and his son Karl in State of Decay and Tegan and her aunty Vanessa in Logopolis. Rather cleverly then, writer Johnny Byrne (or
perhaps it was the work of Christopher H Bidmead who has claimed in
interviews that he re-wrote every script he accepted) stages The Keeper
of Traken around the family unit of Tremas, his new wife Kassia and
his daughter Nyssa. Given that Kassia has made a pact with the devil it
becomes inevitable that this idyllic family we have been introduced to
will soon be destroyed and there is a little that is more disturbing than
watching loving relationships turn to poison.
Tremas is a staggering believable character despite a staggeringly
unbelievable beard. Played by (at this point) the unknown Anthony Ainley
the character comes alive in unexpected ways. Its wonderful to see how
eager he is to speak to the Doctor when he realises he is another
scientist, he practically leaps into his arms! His protection of Nyssa is
sweet and how he tries to protect his wife despite the list of crimes she
is building up is heartbreaking until she tries to frame him for those
very same crimes. Seeing Tremas and Kassia kiss and cuddle in those early
scenes leaves you distraught when suddenly she is framing her husband for
all sorts of crimes. He is a gentle, intelligent, likable man and there
aren't many of those in Doctor Who so kudos to Ainley for making him so.
Rob suggests in his review that Nyssa does not make
enough of an impression for Nyssa to be potential companion material but I
would have to disagree. Nyssa rocks in this story, she is a very
reassuring presence, helping out the Doctor and Adric when everyone else
has turned their backs on them and not above picking up a weapon and
shooting men down in her cause. Her scenes with Adric are nice because it
gives Adric somebody his own age to bounce back from, suggestions of a
romance between them are scarce and an opportunity was missed here. Nyssa
looks gorgeous; Sarah Sutton is one hell of a babe and even when she is
only in the background there is something about how she plays her
character that makes me pay attention. Her "He is no traitor! Nether are
the strangers, this Melkur has made you mad!" scene is powerful stuff.
Kassia is probably the weakest link of the family and yet the most
important and Sheila Ruskin's rather overdone portrayal does threaten to
tip the story into melodrama on the odd occasion. I suppose it is
appropriate for the villain of the piece to shout and stomp and be a bit
nasty but when it is blatantly obvious that Kassia is the evil force
behind Melkur it does make some of the characters appear naive. Still,
throughout Ruskin concentrates on the fact that Kassia loves her husband
and is doing her evil deeds for his good, it makes her a more sympathetic
character than you would imagine. Her conversations with the silky voiced
Melkur are quite chilling, watching how he slowly manipulates her into
bringing down the Traken union.
Even the less important characters; the shy and cherubic Luvic, the
aristocratic and icy Katura, the money mad Neman... they are all pulled
off well by some strong, well chosen actors. The society is cleverly built
around scientific concepts like the Source but it is the characters that
make it come alive and this bunch of politicians are realistic enough to
make the whole grandiose idea of Traken work.
The grace of the story extends to the mock Elizabethan costumes and
ethereal music, Roger Limb providing a debut score that would impress
enough to secure him regular bookings for the next three years. Even when
he is writing music for evil doings there is a still an element of beauty
to it.
But what of the Master, my least favourite of the recurring villains?
After his emaciated and spectacular return to form in The
Deadly Assassin he returns to plague the Doctor's life but
intriguingly revenge is not his sole motive this time. Byrne starts a
trend of Master stories now where his motivation would be survival, at any
cost. Although having a weak villain, one close to death would appear to
make him seem more pathetic, it in fact has the reverse affect, reminding
me of a line the third Doctor said to the Master in The
Daemons ("I've got nothing to lose so you better watch it!"). This
Master will do anything, ANYTHING to ensure his survival and if the
universe gets swept aside to ensure that fate then so be it. I find that
bloody scary. Its what made him more interesting in Survival and the TV Movie and
(less so) Planet of Fire. It's surprising to see how
effective and vicious the guy can be when his existence is threatened.
Here is Geoffrey Beevers' one shot at being the Master on TV and he
does a fair job. There is a feeling that he has rejuvenated since Assassin but he still has an element of bitter hatred
for the Doctor that always lingers. He looks a mess; his body scarred
beyond recognition and it helps to buy into the fact that he is dying and
desperate. And true to form he is still trying to position himself in the
seat of power even when trying to save his life, by becoming the Keeper of
Traken he gets to control people at a whim and immediately sets about
getting off on it when he is given access to the Source.
It is rather brave to refuse to reveal who he is until episode four.
This is the work of JNT, tactician extraordinaire and well aware that
revealing his identity too soon might gut the story of its powerful
ending. During Hinchcliffe and Letts eras this would be inconceivable but
JNT knows how to manipulate and effectively gives The Keeper of
Traken one of the best ever endings to a Doctor Who story, up
there with Vengeance on Varos and Caves of Androzani. He is building for the future and
the Master creeping from his TARDIS and stealing Tremas' body provides a
brilliant twist here and a suave and Delgado-ish Master for the future.
Strange how close that future turned out to be...
Matthew Waterhouse is squat, awkward and squeaky voiced and despite all
these faults he manages to make quite an impression mostly because next to
the LARGER THAN LIFE Tom Baker he can't be anything but subdued so he
doesn't bother to try and dominate any scenes. Those early TARDIS scenes
show two friends, one wise and all knowing and one willing to learn and
their chemistry works that way. The Doctor showing Adric N-Space could
have been a running theme, his wide-eyed pupil act offers a likable Adric
and not the irritating prick of next year. It was only when the stupid
fifth Doctor put Adric in charge in Castrovalva that
he started getting a big head and acting all high and mighty that he
became unbearable.
"What can't be cured must be endured!" says the Doctor during their
escape from the penal wing. "They say evil just shrivelled up and died!
Perhaps that's why I never went there!" he points out in episode one.
How cool is the Doctor in this story, outwardly looking quite tired but
still full of adventuring spirit and willing to fight evil as ever? Tom
gives such an understated yet hypnotic performance here, he isn't trying
to take over like he did in the last two years and instead the story, the
ideas, etc seem as important as his Doctor. This humility he has gained
adds a whole new dimension to his character, instead of having him forced
in your face you are given the choice whether to watch him or not such is
his role in the background of the story. Tom's presence is unmistakable
but this witty AND sombre version makes him glow on screen.
The story gathers momentum superbly, after a slow moving first episode
events soon pick up with the Doctor and friends on the run, locked up and
Melkur finally gaining access to the Source. The cliffhanger to episode
three is especially good, defying all our expectations by having the worst
thing that could possibly happen... well happen.
The Keeper of Traken deserves its strong reputation, it is a
terrific set of scripts and the production is given a little extra polish
that makes it shine bright, even next to the surrounding season eighteen
powerhouses. In my eyes this is the last really good Tom Baker story.
A Review by Brian May
30/1/06
Before Andrew Cartmel, another producer had a "master plan" for
Doctor Who: John Nathan-Turner. Out with the pantomime silliness of
season 17, in with hard sci-fi, a more stylish visual approach and a more
serious mood. In fact, a sweeping change throughout. Much of this was
realised over the course of season 18 - by The Keeper of Traken it
was nearly complete: Romana and K9 had departed, leaving Tom Baker as the
only link to the recent past. But he would have one story left, and this
one sets up his departure.
The design is wonderful: the grove is superb; you know it's a set, but
it's a damn good one. The night scenes are even more spectacular, actually
looking like they've been shot outside. The costumes are also excellent.
The framed narrative in part one is remarkable and unique in the programme
at this point. It's an excellent means of exposition: the Keeper informing
the Doctor and Adric of the state of affairs on Traken is an obvious
info-dump for the viewers, but it's achieved in an oh-so-clever way. The
direction is divine: my favourite example is the image of the wedding
being watched on the TARDIS scanner; the camera slowly zooms in until
we're no longer in the Doctor's craft, but we're actually there at the
festivities. It's seamless and elegant. The simulated storm in episode
three is great, and the Melkur is quite frightening, especially as it
walks through the night, eyes glowing. It was one of my childhood
Who fears; the scene when it looks inside the sanctum, and the
Keeper is the only one to see it, I remember as particularly scary. John
Black's Doctor Who debut is an impressive one indeed.
It's not only easy on the eyes, but also on the ears. The music is
wonderful, with several numbers you can truly describe as gorgeous. The
accompaniment to the wedding (the scene when people are leaving) is one of
my favourite pieces from the programme. Kassia's theme - which later
becomes Nyssa's - is quiet and gentle as it is haunting, with an
underlying tinge of sadness that is appropriate given the story's tragic
legacy upon the two women. The rest, although very much a product of the
"synthesisers are us" BBC Radiophonic Workshop, is nicely atmospheric.
Dudley Simpson isn't missed... yet.
Johnny Byrne delivers a delightful script. The ideas of the Keeper, the
source, the universal harmony and the like are all very interesting. It's
not really science fiction but more a fantasy, with many Jacobean and
Shakespearean influences in the dialogue (as well as the costumes and
design). It's a fascinating tale of a serpent in paradise; a seemingly
utopian haven stripped away layer by layer to reveal the evil at the core.
Not just the external influence of Melkur but the corruption inherent in
its own people. The story's not perfect; the resolution is very rushed and
relies on a simple act of sabotage, but overall it's wistful, lyrical and
full of nice ideas. It's slowly paced, but the direction and
characterisations make this tolerable. Only an impatient action buff would
have cause to complain.
John Nathan-Turner's mission to rein in Tom Baker's performance from
the exuberances of recent years was also successful, from the very start
of season 18. Here Baker continues in this vein, with a very subdued,
restrained penultimate appearance. He's quite a grumpy old man, especially
in his early scenes with Adric. Elsewhere he's a calm and almost laidback
figure. There's a hint of melancholy, as if the actor realises this is the
beginning of the end of his long run as the Doctor. There are some fine
performances to match him: Roland Oliver (Neman), Margot Van der Burgh
(Katura), John Woodnutt (Seron), Anthony Ainley (Tremas) and Geoffrey
Beevers (Melkur) are all excellent.
On the not so good side is Sarah Sutton, whose debut as Nyssa doesn't
set the world on fire. The character and performance aren't enough to
warrant her to return as a companion, but Nathan-Turner thought otherwise
- and, to Sutton's credit, she improved considerably. Matthew Waterhouse
has always copped a lot from fans, and I'm going to have to concur. He's
not atrocious, but he's quite dull. To be fair, he has some moments,
mainly with the Doctor in the TARDIS, but for the most part he puts in a
fairly insipid performance. The scenes with him and Nyssa are quite
boring, as you'd expect. Sheila Ruskin as Kassia is - and I'm using the
most diplomatic word I can think of - varied. She's very good as the young
girl tending to Melkur, and she's marvellous at the wedding. But more
often than not she overacts - or simply acts badly - or both (her "Before
your eyes!" moment is dreadful). For such a key character, Ruskin's uneven
performance is a disappointment.
This story marks the return of the Master, not seen since 1976 - he's
still the hate-filled, decaying cadaver we saw in The
Deadly Assassin. There are plenty of hints thrown in for the astute,
but his turn to camera just before the end of part three is startling and
dramatic, even if you're clued up to his identity. Even though the Master
became more pantomime afterwards, here he's handled quite well, coming
across as a foe to be reckoned with. What's more a surprise, of course, is
his takeover of Tremas at the end. The anagrammed name is the original -
and best and most justifiable - of the Master clues that prevailed in this
era. Tremas's murder is one of the most unexpected and dramatic twists
we've seen in Doctor Who - it's a jolt for the viewer who was
expecting another happy closure. It's the most downbeat ending since Doctor Who and the Silurians - although the grandfather
clock being set at four minutes to midnight is a macabrely stylish touch.
This is evidence of another aspect of the master plan: the dramatic. At
times depressing, at times shocking and chilling, but always effective.
It's a welcome change from flippancy and hijinks (not bad things in
themselves, but tiresome when a show overloads on them). It's part of the
new direction that John Nathan-Turner deserves praise for. Of course, not
everything he touched turned to gold and later things were often for the
worse, but at this juncture the changes instigated in season 18 are the
boost Doctor Who needed. The Keeper of Traken is a wonderful
representation of this. It also happens to be a wonderful story.
8.5/10
"A new body at last" by Jonathan Middleton
4/6/06
The Keeper of Traken is arguably one of the best stories of Tom
Baker's era. It is a superbly written, well acted, well directed and well
designed and is one of the primary reasons why season 18 is one of the
best in the programme's history.
The regulars for the most part handle themselves well in this story.
Baker who, by the end of the season, had improved from those diabolical
performances from most of the stories form the Williams era, here with
some discipline put on him he puts in an excellent performance showing
that whilst he didn't (probably) like those measures, he does realise that
they're for the good of him and allows him to harken back to the
performances of his first 3 years. Matthew Waterhouse puts in arguably his
best performance in the whole of his tenure. He clearly likes working
alongside Baker (not that he didn't like working with Davison) and unlike
some of the later stories isn't characterised as an annoying brat, more of
an artful-dodger character who should have been written a bit like Vila of
Blake's 7 as a bit of comic relief. Then he would have been a good
companion but it's a good performance.
Sarah Sutton again puts in a good performance as Nyssa. Nyssa is a
companion I quite like who was a bit boring and Sutton did have this
annoying habit of delivering certain lines woodenly and could have done
with bit more development in some quarters. She's good here and maybe it
would have been better if she'd gone off with the Doctor in this one
instead of being shoehorned into Logopolis. The late
Anthony Ainley, who I think was grossly underrated as the Master, puts in
a superb performance as Tremas, making him a truly likeable character and
a good friend and a pseudo-companion making what happens to him at then
end truly shocking. Geoffrey Beevers, whose silky voice as Melkur makes
him a superb villain, is someone who is utterly ruthless and sadistic as
Melkur. His manipulation of Kassia is pure sadism and they are also
well-played scenes, largely down to Beevers as the Master. He is quite
good and benefiting some good make-up but there are times when he goes
into ham-mode as the Master which end up undermining the character.
Shelia Ruskin's performance is another matter, although there are some
scenes where she does and can act, like the bit where she breaks down in
part 3. Half the time you've got her acting like a grade A nutcase and
going into full-on ham-mode, such as the "before your eyes" bit in part 2.
The thing is, Kassia's representing what the story's all about; that is, a
good person motivated to do bad things not out of greed, vanity, hate or
selfishness, but love; that, despite the fairytale setting, attempts to
put shades of grey on Kassia's actions... but because of Ruskin's
performance the story fails in that aspect. Not that I'm saying it's
overrated mind you. Denis Carey put in a dignified performance as the
Keeper and manages to seem wizened and old and also a guy nearing the end
of his prime. Interestingly parallels can be drawn with the keeper and Tom
Baker both nearing the end of their prime: they're old and are respected
by the people.
The recently deceased John Woodnutt puts in his usual performance
helping make Seron a dignified character that clearly is a wise and
respected consul. Margot Van Der Burgh also helps make Katura a dignified
character but the role is little more than a supporting role. Robin Soans
puts in a competent performance as Luvic, but like Katura is little more
than a supporting role. Roland Oliver puts in a good performance as Neman,
making him the sort of person who will gladly side with anyone, providing
there's money involved. There's a brilliant scene in part 4 where Neman
enters the sanctum and Melkur makes him give the gun to Tremas and is
shot; the look on Oliver's face is a superb expression, making him realise
just what he's gotten himself into.
John Black's direction is very theatrical. He clearly focuses on the
actors so therefore there's less to be discussed here but mention must go
to Melkur coming down to Traken, the pullback shot from the wedding, the
cliff-hanger to part 2, the revelation of the Master, the cliff-hanger to
part 3 and the end where Tremas is possessed by the Master.
Tony Burroughs's set design is superb. Many of the sets are well lit
and deigned. Whilst the story is studio bound, particularly mention must
go to the grove, the sanctum, the service vaults and the Melkur; whilst
probably not designed by him, it's a superb design benefiting form a weird
head design although it isn't too good when it moves around. The reason
why the sets are so good is a lot of detail clearly went into them: they
look like they're made out of stone not wood and don't wobble at all and
look good.
Roger Limb's musical score is also very good, making good use of Traken
to compose a gentle oriental score. Whilst all the scenes with Melkur are
scored in such a way that they make him sound evil and menacing, the only
duff bit is the music to part one where it comes as across as really loud.
Whilst not bad, its loudness speaks for itself.
Amy Roberts' costumes aren't very good; the Fosters' grey uniforms are
weak and the coats unnecessary. The baggy sleeves are also unnecessary
although a clear distinction is given between age groups such as in part 1
where Kassia is wearing a similar dress to Nyssa.
< One of the criticisms about this is some of the plot holes such as:
How come the Fosters are armed in the very next scene after the matter is
being discussed? In fact when the motion is put forward it's daylight but
in the next scene it's night. If Traken is a paradise why then is the
death penalty in force for almost every crime? Well I don't know really
maybe because the production team wanted to add more drama to the scenes.
Why is Neman in power when he's corrupt and money hungry? The point of
Neman is demonstrated that even in an idyllic society there's corruption.
In fact you could take Traken as an allegory for the U.S.A., which on the
surface pretends to be a paradise but is sadly corrupt. The death
penalty's in force and it isn't very nice in places. If Kassia's trying to
save Tremas then why does she insist he be executed? Well, through that
bracelet Melkur is controlling Kassia so he's trying to force the blame on
Tremas. Why does Kassia continue to insist Melkur is evil? Well, I believe
that in part one a scene was cut where Melkur says the Keeper is summoning
strangers and she wants her to blame them. That's why Kassia says that bit
about failing Melkur and the strangers still live. If the Master has been
waiting all this time then isn't the Doctor's arrival a bit coincidental?
The Keeper summoned the Doctor; the Master took advantage of the
situation.
So then, despite some flaws, this is a very good story. I'll give it an
8/10 then. It could have been better in places.
A Review by Finn Clark
22/3/11
The Keeper of Traken should be rubbish, shouldn't it? It's from
the writer who gave us Arc of Infinity and Warriors of the Deep, one of which is generally reviled
as an atrocity against television and the other of which is Warriors of the Deep. Nonertheless Keeper of
Traken seems reasonably popular, so the obvious question would seem to
be to ask what Johnny Byrne did right this time. Is it just down to the
script editor being Christopher Bidmead instead of Eric Saward?
The answer is simple. He made a pig's ear of this one too. Johnny
Byrne's three scripts for Doctor Who are all useless, with Warriors of the Deep ironically being the best of them.
The difference in terms of the broadcast episodes is that his two Davison
stories were production failures, while Traken is a beautifully realised
world based on pre-Raphaelite paintings in which everyone wears velvet
fairy dresses and all the fanboys in the audience don't need to get
embarrassed. We're so bloody shallow.
Seriously, though, just look at this thing. Underneath the utopian
hippy sales pitch, what we've got is basically another Troughton-era
runaround that's full of officious idiots. The authorities still want to
kill the Doctor right through into episode four, although admittedly by
that point it's been taken out of their hands. The TARDIS having vanished
is seen as proof that the Doctor's lying, but no one notices its return.
Would you want to be governed by these people? The Consuls are a bunch of
clucking old hens, their security chief is openly bribable and no one has
even a scrap of respect for the intelligence of the general population.
The Consuls hide crucial information even from each other on the grounds
of superstition and irrationality. Is this a democracy? I think not. "That
is not lawful." "My father and the other Consuls decide what is lawful..."
Johnny Byrne claims to have originally written this for a medieval
monastic setting and it shows. It's like the Robert Holmes vision of
Gallifrey, but without the self-awareness that the people in charge of
utopia are a bit rubbish. These are people who want to kill the Doctor on
the assumption that he's the Keeper's "infinite evil", never noticing that
he's unaffected by Traken's calcifying anti-evil field.
Meanwhile, the Doctor and Adric are hardly used any better, spending
almost the whole story getting captured and escaping. Tom spends a full
episode doing nothing but shooting people and bashing heads together. His
big confrontation with Geoffrey Beevers should have been iconic, but yet
again he doesn't do anything and instead simply runs away when given his
cue by something technobabbly. Mind you, even the Master's motivation
isn't entirely clear. Does he want the Doctor dead or doesn't he? You can
tell it was a rush job cut-and-pasting him into the script on JNT's
request, as for instance when he'll sometimes be calling the Doctor "Time
Lord", but at other times just using his name.
The truth is that Johnny Byrne isn't interested in good guys. His
Doctor Who stories are populated by: (a) villains, (b) cardboard
cutouts and (c) pre-existing characters who'd been defined long before
Byrne came along. His goodies will be dull, but his villains are
surprisingly rich. Kassia, Omega and the Silurians all have powerful
motivations for their actions and are arguably more sympathetic than the
heroes. You'll also have stooges, security chiefs and so on. As for the
plotting, there you'll have four empty episodes of placeholder runarounds,
but capped with a cool ending. Johnny Byrne's stories all have a brutal
twist in the tail. Davison guns down Davison, the humans and reptiles
pointlessly die and here on Traken you've got the fate of Tremas. This is
perhaps the least memorable of the three since it's so tacked on and
arbitrary, but it's also one of Doctor Who's most evil endings of
all time. "Father, where are you?" Bloody hell. Brrrr.
This story bored me. Seriously, the biggest difference between this and
Byrne's other stories is the set design, although it's worth acknowledging
that the acting is less horrible here too. In fairness, it's possible to
argue that the imperfections in Traken society are deliberate from the
writers and the reason why the Master could take over. Bidmead and Byrne
loved these kinds of subtleties. They're both into these themes and
Bidmead's stories in particular kept returning to the motif of a society
with a secret. It adds another layer to the iconography of the story,
which is what makes the story special. (However, if Bidmead was
deliberately trying to make a point about useless and indecisive leaders,
he'd already done so better and more entertainingly in Full Circle.) It's also true that you can see the joins
in at least two places where this story was visibly being wrenched in a
new direction by Bidmead or JNT, while Byrne wasn't happy about at least
some of the changes (e.g. changing the setting from the medieval monks).
What I object to about the Consuls' stupidity isn't thematic so much as
nuts-and-bolts plotting. It's dull to pack your story with suspicious
authority figures who keep trying to have the Doctor executed instead of
going after the real danger. I'll accept any defence of the story's
themes, but don't try to tell me that the plotting isn't shoddy. You could
cut-and-paste this story into Season Five without blinking, or indeed map
its cast on to any other Johnny Byrne story.
(a) Leader, theoretically powerful but in practice useless = Keeper,
President Borusa, Commander Vorshak
(b) Security chief and nothing but an annoyance = Neman, Commander
Maxil, Preston
(c) Token good guy who helps the Doctor and displays no personality
traits = Tremas, Damon, Bulic
(d) Pertwee-era baddie coming back to life after millennia = the
Master, Omega, the Silurians and Sea Devils
(e) Traitor secretly working for the enemy = Kassia, Hedin, Nilson &
Solow
(f) Other people on the council who serve no purpose in the story
except to talk about what everyone should do next, instead of actually
doing something = where do I begin?
Okay, that's the case for the prosecution. Now for the defence.
First, second and third, the design. It looks amazing. Look at that
corridor in episode three, for instance. How many corridors in Doctor
Who have felt this real? You've got all these wonderful influences, as
if they'd gone back to the late 19th century and found Tony Burroughs
among all the Art Noveau and pre-Raphaelites. The Melkur's based on a 1913
statue by Umberto Boccioni. The costumes are beautiful, the music is
perfect and it really feels as if you've been transported to a fairy-tale
realm.
Then you've got the ideas. This story may be shoddily constructed, but
it's also playing with some of Doctor Who's most iconic concepts.
There's never been another realm like Traken, simple and purely good.
There's something mythic in particular about the way in which evil is
being regarded as a natural force like gravity or radiation. It's fairy
tale logic, on a par with Red Riding Hood and the wolf, but it makes
intuitive sense and gives the story an otherworldly aura that's unique.
It's basically the devil tempting Eve in the garden... and what makes it
so horrible is that it's Kassia's love and compassion that doomed her. If
the people of Traken hadn't been so kind-hearted even towards those who
would destroy them, then the Melkur would have been turned into gravel and
half the universe might not have been destroyed in Logopolis.
Apparently Johnny Byrne wrote this story to explore eschatology. This
was millennial fever, twenty years early. The world itself goes into
trauma as the Keeper dies, which on screen is mostly realised as nasty
weather but is the kind of thing that could also include things like crop
failures, earthquakes and statues coming to life. To all intents and
purposes, it's the death of God. This is a heady cocktail of concepts more
usually associated with myth and religion, so it's no surprise that it'll
have a fierce grab on our imaginations. Together with the other two
stories in this regeneration trilogy, it's easy to imagine Keeper of
Traken being cited as someone's idea of ultimate Doctor Who,
which is no small achievement.
Structurally, it's still poor, though. Tremas is disappointingly bland,
giving Anthony Ainley little to work with beyond his being a husband and
father. He follows the Doctor around and says lots of technobabble. That's
it, really, although I liked the scene where he has to choose to break his
vow concerning the blueprints of the Source. Even Tremas and Kassia's
impending marriage was added in by Bidmead, by the way. Originally they
were just the leaders of their respective political factions. I do like
Ainley, but he's crying out for better material. I suppose it's a shock
for a Doctor Who fan to see him underacting, though.
Of the other actors, Sheila Ruskin is uneven but sometimes good as
Kassia. I'd have loved to see them bring in a truly great actress to tear
our hearts out, but Ruskin's not bad. I also thought she looked a bit like
Jamie Lee Curtis. Meanwhile, Geoffrey Beevers can be a bit obvious in his
choices, but I liked him in episode four. "Yes, death. I had not
forgotten." Tom Baker seems to be feeling sidelined, which is
understandable, but what's most interesting is his relationship with
Adric. The 4th Doctor is again being a mentor and educator, but completely
unlike how he was with Leela. "Put your hands up. Like this." Matthew
Waterhouse is clearly hero-worshipping Tom and loves it when he's
dominant. Ahem. The lad's not actually doing much wrong, although on the
other hand you couldn't possibly call him good and there's a unique kind
of horror in seeing him playing opposite Sarah Sutton.
Oh yes, Nyssa. She's... um, she has an ion bonder. Sutton's less
incompetent than Waterhouse, but somehow her lack of screen presence makes
him look like Sir Laurence Olivier.
In fairness, the story is at its most evocative when it's important,
i.e. at the start and the end. There's something spooky about the Melkur
just standing there at the beginning, while the scene of Tremas shooting
Neman in part four is downright chilling. This is also one of those 1980s
Master stories where he's still iconic and menacing, instead of just being
silly. However, even though it's the middle episodes that are most
obviously treading water, the story never really recovers enough to climb
above its own technobabble. Look at that finale. The big climax involves
typing 337 into a keyboard.
Despite all that, though, the story somehow feels poetic and
fantastical. It lives in the memory. On one level it's rubbish, but on
another I still love it anyway. "If you weren't so evil, you could move
around."
A New Body... by Noe Geric
15/3/22
I don't know what C. Bidmead thought when he asked for every writer to put some hard-science stuff in every story of Season 18, but I think it's quite the worst idea you could have for a show about imagination and travel. OK, historicals episodes are here to teach history to young readers, but hard SF isn't what makes me dream every night. I think Season 18 might be my least favorite of the Tom Baker era. Between long shot of the beach, Adric, and stories like Meglos, I don't know which is the worst. I'm not a big fan of the stories in the first half. I rather think it goes crescendo with The Leisure Hive and Meglos being dull and Logopolis being excellent. But what about The Keeper of Traken?
The idea of a planet where everyone is nice to everyone, even evil people, is not incredibly original, but it's nice. The planet of Traken's civilization gets some explanation; we know more about the habitants and their lifestyle all along and there's some plot there that manages to be quite entertaining. But then Chris Bidmead arrives with his big ball of science and throws it like he was playing bowling with the story, and everything falls apart. Except to complicate things, I don't understand what is the purpose of all that technobabble. The Source and all this get such complicated explanations that you'll miss them if you're not fully concentrating.
And it's just the science that spoils the whole story, in my eyes. The sets are of course just studios, but I really likes the whole atmosphere. I've got this feeling the action takes place in a (cheap) version of Harry Potter's magic school. The costumes are some nice pieces of fantasy (and not just sheet of paper thrown on the actors like for Timelash) and even the weird gadgets used are looking good. I just think Adric should changes his clothes, he'll stay in them his whole run, and it's perhaps the worst companion costume ever (perhaps he has the same outfit in five exemplary versions?)
As for characterization, Tom Baker has been in the role for long enough that he doesn't need to speak for people to know he is the Doctor. He tries his best to be synchronized with Adric's poor acting. The young boy becomes worse the more I see him. I had nothing against Matthew Waterhouse before, but now he really looks like an amateur. He gets some nice scenes with Nyssa, but that's all. And it's perhaps Sarah Sutton best performance in the entire series. Not too over the top, not too shy (even if she doesn't get anything to do in the first episode).
The return of the Master was kept a surprise, and it's quite an interesting idea. I just wish we could have more of this decaying Time Lord on TV before he became Anthony Ainley. His plan isn't too complicated, and the mystery of his identity managed to be kept for two whole episodes! The Melkur could've been another effective menace if the stone he is made of didn't look so false. I feel like he is just the Master cosplaying! Some of the other characters are memorable, but most of them are blank politicians. Tremas, Nyssa, the evil stepmother, the guardian and the Melkur are the only ones that stand out.
In the end, except for the boring science that adds nothing, and the terribly fake wind scene, The Keeper of Traken remains a favorite of mine. It's not excellent, but it's decent enough to stay in my memory. The whole atmosphere is quite fantastical, and some of the characters are memorable. Anthony Ainley delivers a better performance than when he is the Master, and Tom Baker is on top form, ready for his finale adventure.
It's good, but don't show it to a fan who never saw an episode of Tom Baker before; it isn't representative of its era. I like to see it on my shelf; it's one of these episodes I love to rewatch again and again, even if it isn't perfect. I would give a 7/10.