So, its time for another review on the blog and I figured I would do another Doctor Who story and this is a new review of a story I've not covered before, which is the penultimate story from the Tom Baker era, The Keeper of Traken.
So, this story is one that I've never been that keen on in the past although it is well regarded by fans but I thought I would give it another go. So, let's find out how TKOT is after 43 years.
And the usual warning is coming...
PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!
STORY
So, the story follows the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and his companion, Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) who are intercepted on their travels in the TARDIS by the elderly keeper of the planet Traken (played by Denis Carey). The Keeper warns the Doctor that although he is set to transfer his powers to one of the council on Traken named Trimas (Anthony Ainley) he senses a great evil, which he wants the Doctor's help with.
On arriving at Traken, the Doctor and Adric find a statue called Melkur, which is an evil creature that has become calcified, which is the source of the evil that the Keeper referred. However, as the mysterious Melkur statue kills two guards, the Doctor and Adric are soon blamed but Tremas comes to their defence. However, it is soon apparent that Tremas's wife, Kassia (Sheila Ruskin) is a worshipper of Melkur and is prepared to do its evil bidding but it is soon revealed that inside the statue is an old enemy of the Doctor's, who has revenge on his mind...
THOUGHTS (SPOILER AHEAD!!!)
Although I wasn't a big fan of The Keeper of Traken when I first viewed it, I quite enjoyed it this time around, even if it does still have some issues. The story itself does have a fairly intriguing concept, with the Doctor having to pit his wits against a malevolent statue that houses one of his oldest foes, the Master. The story also nicely introduces a new character in Nyssa, who is the daughter of Tremas and she would in the next story join the TARDIS crew on a long term basis well into the Peter Davison era. So, while its not one of my favourite stories from the Baker era, there is still enough here to commend it.
PERFORMANCES
As for the performances in the story, starting with Tom Baker, he is great here as usual and adds a nice layer of sadness to personality here given that his faithful companion, Romana (Lalla Ward) departed in the previous story, Warrior's Gate even if it is somewhat glossed over. Tom also has som nice moments in the story where he shows his usual mix of cheerfulness and seriousness all rolled into one, even if this isn't a top tier serial, Tom is always watchable no matter what. However given this was he penultimate story, Tom naturally by then was keen to leave shown given the annoying changes at the hands of the then new producer, John Nathan-Turner.
Matthew Waterhouse on the other is the weak link in the chain here (as he usually was!) as the somehwat petulant teenage mathematical genius, Adric. Waterhouse doen't have too many memorable moments in the story in all honesty although still does share a couple of nice moments with Sarah Sutton, playing Nyssa.
Anthony Ainley is also excellent in his role as Tremas, the friendly Consul member of Traken named Tremas and this would be his first and only appearance as this character in the series, as he would later go on to play the Master himself for the remainder of the JNT era. Ainley actually gives a more restrained performance as Tremas before he would start really hamming it up as the Master during the Davison era.
Sheila Ruskin is also very good in her role as Kassia, Tremas's wife, who is drawn to the statue of Melkur and secretly serves it but is really being manipulated by the Master himself, who is concealed within the statue itself.
Denis Carey also is excellent in his role as the aged Keeper, who warns the Doctor against the evil on Traken, which he wants him to investigate. Carey himself appeared previously on the show in the incompleted serial in Baker's previous season, Shada as Professor Chronotis and Timelash, from the Colin Baker era.
John Woodnutt is once again excellent in his role as Seron, one of the Consul members of Traken, who debates on the killings at the hands of Melkur. Woodnutt himself previously appeared in a couple of stories most notably in Spearhead from Space, Jon Pertwee's debut and also in Tom Baker story, Terror of the Zygons. Also rather curiously, Woodnutt adopts a Scottish accent again for this role like he did in the Terror of the Zygons, which is interesting!
Sarah Sutton also makes a good debut in her role as future regular companion, Nyssa, who is the daughter of Tremas, who fatefully later on (SPOILER!) will lose her father at the hands of the Master. Sarah also looks rather cute in her outfit with her queenly crown it has to be said and she actually manages a decent rapport with Matthew Waterhouse.
And last of all is Geoffrey Beevers, who is pretty good in his role as the Master, who still takes a rather emaciated and disfigured appearance similar to how he looked in The Deadly Assassin with his cloak and hood. Beevers also makes good use of a creepy voice in his depiction of the Master, which is also distorted behind the statue of Melkur. Beevers himself was credited as Melkur during the story to avoid giving away from the twist that it was the Master.
DIRECTOR
As for the director, John Black, does a pretty decent job here as the story's pacing is relatively swift at just four episodes and for the most part it doesn't really lag. Black would then go on to direct a couple more Doctor Who stories, Four to Doomsday in the Davison era as well as the spin-off episode, K9 & Company that featured Elisabeth Sladen also as Sarah-Jane Smith.
MUSIC
Moving onto the music, the score is by Roger Limb and its overall a pretty good one and its most memorable part is Nyssa's theme, which is very good and has a nice, jaunty feel to it, which is at odds to the rest of the score's tone. Limb often provided some excellent electronic scores during the JNT era and this was actually his first for the show, with the bulk of the rest being in the Peter Davison era and lastly Revelation of the Daleks in the Colin Bakera era.
FLAWS (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)
As for flaws, yes The Keeper of Traken isn't perfect.
For starters, I still feel this isn't exactly one of my favourite stories from the Baker era even though I did enjoy it a bit more this time round, I tend to think its just a bit overrated. And compared to Tom's more solid finale in the following story, Logopolis, TKOT just somehow doesn't quite do it for me as its characters are definitely a mixed bag. I also felt the story does lag a bit early on in the first episode before the Doctor and Adric even get to Traken.
Another issue I had was to do with how the Doctor didn't twig sooner that the Master was behind the statue of Melkur as he dropped enough hints that he was an old enemy to him. However, the Doctor just keeps guessing who it is up until the moment where he finally meets him although I kind of appreciate this was an attempt to disguise the Master being in the story itself.
I also felt that the story's climax was a bit silly where the Doctor is forced to punch in the code to shutdown the servo that powers the source of the keeper's power. This is silly because as far as I remember, the Doctor has to punch in three digits but when you look at how he hits the numbers on the panel, he appears to miss the final one quite badly!
And last of all, I found it a bit strange as to just how does the Master manage to take over Tremas's body to regenerate? I mean he basically just merges into Tremas and bingo becomes the Master, but we've not really seen anything like that before in the show, so its weird to think the Master has such transformative powers at his fingertips, but I guess he does here.
So, that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So, to sum up, the Keeper of Traken is for the most part quite an enjoyable story with some good performances from Tom Baker and the supporting cast, particularly Anthony Ainley as Tremas, Geoffrey Beevers as the Master and Sheila Ruskin as Kassia as well as Sarah Sutton in her debut as future regular companion, Nyssa. Its not perfect of course with some pacing issues early on and some plot niggles as well basically being a bit overrrated in my humble opinion. However that aside, The Keeper of Traken is still a decent Doctor Who story and worth a look.
So, I will rate it:
7 out of 10
So, that's it for this one and I will be back hopefully with an updated review of Tom Baker's final story, Logopolis.
So, until then, its bye for now!
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