😑50% = Underwhelming! = Skippable!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time! This time: we finish the Key to Time quest with old Time Lord buddies, nuclear conflicts, and a familiar-looking princess.

STORY:

The Armageddon Factor is somewhat of a painful adventure to sit through. There are so many things that could potentially work, yet so many things go wrong.

It starts okay, depicting two planets in a nuclear war with each other. This story effectively conveys the sense of being in the midst of a devastating war, surpassing the majority of similar stories earlier in the show, including most Dalek stories written by Terry Nation.

But the atmosphere barely saves the overall feel of this adventure—it's boring, it's forgettable, and, quite frankly, it's not very interesting. The most enduring problem throughout the entire serial is that it's very messy, as it writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin didn't know what they wanted to do with it. This is their final contribution to Doctor Who, and probably one of their weakest.

The middle section, which introduces the Mentalis computer and slightly twists the story, welcomes us after the dull beginning. But even here, the action is mostly at a stalemate, and the story goes on without significant plot development. The entire Mentalis sequence goes on for a bit too long.

Then, starting from Part 5, the story shifts focus. Now, it's all about the Shadow and the Black Guardian. Oh, and there's a lot of running back and forth. And I mean a lot.

The final two episodes lack any real tension or sense of danger; they're tedious and filled with scenes of people walking and running. It's mostly rinse-and-repeat and gets very boring by the end. To add insult to injury, the dragged-out ending forgets the plot points introduced at the beginning of the story and introduces a new plot gimmick of miniaturisation, which is unnecessary and makes no sense. In The Invisible Enemy, it made sense, but here, it's merely a gimmick to prolong the story.

The worst part, however, is truly the ending. The final showdown in the Shadow's lair is incredibly cheesy and stupid, and the minor twist at the very end just feels like a cop-out. Oh, and the conclusion to the Key to Time arc—the Doctor scattering the pieces of the key back across the universe—just nullifies everything he and Romana have done for the last 26 weeks, thus making the entire quest useless. Sure, the overarching story arc is quite loose, to begin with, but this ending to it is just stupid.

POPULATION:

The acting and characters don't make matters any better. The Marshal is an overly aggressive character doing nothing for two and a half episodes, played by a shaky John Woodvine. His right-hand man is Shapp, a guy who looks and sounds exactly like Varys from Game of Thrones, and who starts out as a paper-thin and bland character but becomes quite enjoyable by Part 3. Davyd Harris plays him with a comedic touch

Next, we have Ian Saynor's forgettable portrayal of Merak, the "hero" of the story, who is Astra's lover and hopeless medicine man.

This is a weak debut for fan-favourite Lalla Ward, and the love story between her and Merak is terrible. Astra is hopeless throughout the story, and Merak does nothing but scream for her whenever he gets the chance. Astra's fate is, in theory, dark and moody, but the surrounding events just make it bland.

All of these actors share the same problem: they deliver their lines with unusual haste, so it feels very unrealistic. Most of them also sound stale and emotionless throughout the entire adventure, so you can't help but hope it's over soon.

Still, it gets worse. Under heavy makeup, William Squire portrays The Shadow, who resembles the love child of Voldemort and an orc, merely standing around and emitting ominous sounds. He is just as useless as his name, and he barely gets anything done. His henchmen look like cheap versions of Dr. Doom from the Fantastic Four comics, and they aren't any better.

However, we also have Drax. No, not the beefy and funny guy from Guardians of the Galaxy, but a tech whizz from Gallifrey, played by Barry Jackson. All my respect to him, but how could anyone think Drax was a good idea? He is annoying, completely useless to the story, and not a very good representation of someone of the Doctor's race, either. To me, he is one of the worst characters Doctor Who has ever spat out. Absolutely horrible.

PRODUCTION:

The caves in the final two episodes look horrifyingly bad, and the spaceship in the first episode is not particularly good either.

The messy script that Baker and Martin produced makes it nearly impossible for director Michael Hayes to maintain some sort of order.

ATMOSPHERE:

The Armageddon Factor feels like a story that was a bit too ambitious for its time. It's two episodes too long, it hasn't enough material to stay fresh, and it never really utilises its core ideas to a full extent. It's a disappointing end to the season and a story I won't revisit any time soon.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

The Armageddon Factor is too long, too boring, and too devoid of energy to serve as a satisfying conclusion to the Key to Time arc.