The Armageddon Factor: Part One (20 Jan. 1979)

The Doctor and company drop in on the planet Atrios, whose inhabitants are in an interplanetary war with their twin planet Zeos. Although Astra, Princess of Atrios, wishes for peace, the ... See full summary »

Director:

Michael Hayes

Writers:

Bob Baker (by), Dave Martin (by)

Stars:

Tom Baker, Mary Tamm, John Woodvine

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Tom Baker	...	Doctor Who
Mary Tamm	...	Romana
John Woodvine	...	Marshal
Lalla Ward	...	Princess Astra
Davyd Harries	...	Shapp
Ian Saynor	...	Merak
John Leeson	...	K9 (voice)
Ian Liston	...	'Hero'
Susan Skipper	...	'Heroine'
John Cannon	...	Guard

Storyline

The Doctor and company drop in on the planet Atrios, whose inhabitants are in an interplanetary war with their twin planet Zeos. Although Astra, Princess of Atrios, wishes for peace, the Marshal, her commander of the military, does not share her views. So, while the TARDIS is in orbit around the planet, the Marshal targets the Doctor for destruction.

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Plot Keywords:

robot dog

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 January 1979 (UK)

Filming Locations:

BBC Television Centre, Wood Lane, Shepherd's Bush, London, England, UK

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

25 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The first Doctor Who serial to feature Lalla Ward.

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Quotes

The Doctor: Whenever you go into a new situation, you must always believe the best until you find out exactly what the situation's all about, THEN believe the worst.
Romana: Ah, but what happens if it turns out NOT to be the worst after all?
The Doctor: Don't be ridiculous. It always is.

User Reviews

very good, if not really great and almost overlong, six-parter episode

The Armageddon Factor features the Doctor and Romanna coming to a planet where Princess Astra is trying to bring peace to her planet Atrios and has to contend with a conniving and war-mongering Marshall, who only wants to wage battle and some outcome with planet Zeos. But as it turns out, maybe not entirely surprisingly, there's more sinister elements- like the black guardian and his Shadow figure with the dark cloak and overtly dastardly demeanor/voice. Throughout this six-parter episode we get equal amounts of atypically (and always enjoyably) witty and British aside-type dialog and those diggs from the Doctor that show he has another motive going on nine times out of ten- usually the right one- and some wooden or terribly overwrought acting (Lalla Ward as the Princess and John Woodvine as the Marshall respectively), and a couple of shoddy special effects.

And while we get a really amusing side character with the Doctor's old school chum- bringing about his real name as Theta Sigma- and some nail-biting tension in the fifth and sixth acts, there's something about the episode that feels padded and big, despite the importance of the key and its sixth "component". Nevertheless, fans of classic Tom Baker won't be disappointed as there's many scenes that ring out as amazing and fun and and kooky (i.e. Baker's momentary power-craving with the key towards the last part) even intellectually stimulating (I liked how the Marshall is frozen in time right when he reaches his climactic glory at Zeos) and a lot of great K-9 action that only reinforces him/it as one of the great TV dogs/computers. If it's not entirely perfect the writers and actors come up with some clever moments and delicious hambone acting to suffice.