I don't get the low rating on this one. For me it's by far the best story in season 16. No part of it drags as a six parter can sometimes do. It's very much like a sci-fi movie. A warmongering commander, a princess, a dark cult led by the Shadow who also answers to far superior evil being. We get another time lord too. Fun and easy watch.

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

"THE ARMAGEDDON FACTOR: A DULL AND MESSY CONCLUSION"

As the grand finale to The Key to Time arc, The Armageddon Factor should have delivered an epic and satisfying conclusion. Instead, it is a sluggish, confused mess that overstays its welcome. Writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin—veterans of the show—deliver their final script, but rather than going out on a high note, they produce one of their weakest efforts.

The story begins with some promise, depicting two planets locked in a devastating nuclear war. The bleak atmosphere and sense of desperation feel more tangible than in many similar Doctor Who stories, even surpassing the usual Dalek-led war plots penned by Terry Nation. Unfortunately, this promising setup is squandered almost immediately, as the narrative quickly becomes muddled, repetitive, and painfully slow.

A STORY THAT LOSES ITS WAY

The biggest flaw of The Armageddon Factor is its incoherent structure. The first two episodes set up the conflict well enough, but once the introduction of the Mentalis computer shifts the story, the pacing grinds to a halt. The Mentalis subplot drags on far too long, offering little in terms of excitement or meaningful plot development.

Then, from Part 5 onward, the focus completely changes, introducing the Shadow and the Black Guardian. Any remaining momentum is buried under endless scenes of running back and forth—lots of running back and forth. The final two episodes lack tension, feel repetitive, and make little effort to maintain engagement. The last-minute introduction of a miniaturisation gimmick is not only nonsensical but feels like a desperate attempt to pad out an already overlong story.

Worst of all is the ending. The final showdown in the Shadow’s lair is embarrassingly cheesy, and the resolution to the Key to Time arc is a frustrating cop-out. After six serials and 26 weeks, the Doctor simply scatters the pieces of the Key back across the universe, rendering the entire quest pointless. While the overarching arc was never particularly strong, this conclusion undermines everything the Doctor and Romana have worked towards, making the entire season feel like a waste of time.

FLAT CHARACTERS AND UNEVEN PERFORMANCES

The uninspired writing is not helped by the lacklustre characters. John Woodvine’s Marshal is an over-the-top, aggressive figure who does little for the first half of the story. His right-hand man, Shapp, starts out as bland but becomes unexpectedly amusing thanks to Davyd Harries’s comedic performance.

Then there's Ian Saynor as Merak, Astra’s lover, who is utterly forgettable. His character exists solely to yell Astra’s name repeatedly and contribute nothing of value. Astra herself—played by future Romana actress Lalla Ward—is underwhelming. Her tragic fate should be powerful, but the surrounding events drain it of any emotional impact.

The acting across the board is disappointingly stiff. Many of the cast deliver their lines at an unnatural pace, making conversations feel stilted and robotic. This, combined with the already lifeless script, makes much of the serial a chore to sit through.

LACKLUSTRE VILLAINS

If the supporting cast is weak, the villains are even worse. William Squire plays the Shadow, a cloaked figure who looks like the offspring of Voldemort and an orc. He spends most of his time standing around, making ominous noises, and ultimately achieves very little. His henchmen, resembling cheap knock-offs of Fantastic Four’s Doctor Doom, are equally ineffective.

And then there’s Drax. Played by Barry Jackson, this Gallifreyan tech expert is bafflingly out of place. Meant to be comic relief, he is instead irritating, useless to the plot, and a poor representation of the Doctor’s race. His inclusion drags the story down even further, making him one of the most unnecessary characters Doctor Who has ever produced.

VISUAL WEAKNESSES AND DIRECTIONAL STRUGGLES

Visually, The Armageddon Factor is far from impressive. The caves in the later episodes look particularly bad, and the spaceship featured early on is unremarkable at best. Michael Hayes, who had directed The Androids of Tara earlier in the season, struggles to maintain coherence amid the chaotic script. With so many narrative threads going nowhere, even a skilled director would have found it difficult to salvage this story.

📝VERDICT: 5/10

A tedious and overlong mess, The Armageddon Factor squanders its promising premise, drags its feet with endless repetition, and delivers one of the weakest conclusions to a Doctor Who story arc. With uninspired characters, lacklustre villains, and a nonsensical ending, this is an unsatisfying finale to The Key to Time season—one that most fans will be in no hurry to revisit.

The last Dave Martin script! Feels like a milestone given that with Bob Baker he made a whopping 8 serials - few writers on Who have had more screen time. Perhaps apt then that this really *feels* like a series finale in the modern sense, wrapping up our journey with the key to time. Their first script, The Claws of Axos, still stands as by far their best unfortunately, but this story is one of their better ones. Merac’s psychedelic experience at the hand of Lalla Ward’s character nicely calls back to Claws. Baker and Martin often have those cool, very visual, druggy looking scenes.

An interesting revelation comes in part 3, when the twin planet that the army has been locked in a war with is in fact home to only one entity - an emotionless robot that has been running the whole show on behalf of a shadowy master. There are some neat concepts at the heart of the story but sometimes in the process of getting to those points you have to sit through some fairly workmanlike, serviceable but not particularly exciting plotting.

The time loops in this story are a great idea - but you spend probably 2 minutes of running time watching the same loops again and again. That countdown gets dull. Drax, the time lord who spent many years in Brixton reveals Douglas Adams as the script editor - it’s a fantastic idea but I do wish his character had been bedded in a bit better with more time on screen.

I love that K-9 gets his hero moment with Drax and The Doctor jumping out of him at the end in their miniaturised form. Lovely to see Lalla Ward with K-9 - pointing towards an exciting new era.

I’m not sure the whole “key to time” thing adds up to much in the end. It was disbanded as quickly as it's pulled together but was a good mcguffin to tie the series together. About as meaningful as “bad wolf” anyway. This series was not quite as good as Tom’s first three but was a huge step up from season 15.

A fine story, perfectly enjoyable but nothing special.

I think the thing I enjoyed the most about this serial was how often it made me think of a much better Star Trek episode that pulled off the concept of fighting an endless war against a secret machine much better in a third of the time.

I've been waiting for a sentient segment of the key since the very beginning, and I was a little disappointed by how little they seemed to do with the concept. She sacrifices herself willingly and the Doctor and Romana are barely forced to grapple with the implications before everything resets.

The shrinking was clearly added to pad the runtime but I enjoyed Drax and learning a bit more about the Doctor's history.

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Power of Kroll

That was, interesting, to say the least. I'm noticing that a lot of these 6-part finales just feel all over the place and that is something this story suffers from quite heavily. It's still a fun ending to the Key to Time but I can see why it's not the most popular story. I genuinely think by this point, there is no place for 6-part stories anymore, this could have easily been done in 4.

It's got a good setting, in the middle of a war. Unfortunately, compared to every other story of this season, the world doesn't feel fleshed out whatsoever, despite being 6 parts long, this is the least worldbuilding in this season. The first three parts to this story are very dull and nothing much is progressed in them. It starts to pick up in pace by part 4 but then we just get a new kind of dull in the form of running back and forth while nothing worthwhile happens. I did enjoy the character of Drax, even if I thought he was a strange addition towards the end of an already very cluttered story. When he miniaturises the Doctor, it feels so forced, like it only happened to pad out the story a bit longer.

I think the ending is a bit silly, what with scattering the pieces back so it can be done all over again later. The acting is all right from the main cast, but all of the supporting cast, bar Barry Jackson's Drax are really dull and uninteresting, even Lalla Ward as Princess Astra is dull. It's unfortunate that one of my favourite seasons so far has to end in such a mediocre way. Still though, it didn't bore me, which is something I find really important in Doctor Who.

Next Story: The Auntie Matter

Season review: 8/10

I really liked this season on the whole, I think it was full of rich storytelling and vibrant settings, it had a cosy format, similar to that of the overarching series arcs of New Who and I enjoyed the pairing of the Doctor and Romana I. It would honestly be a 10 if it weren't for The Power of Kroll and The Armageddon Factor being upsettingly mediocre.