Doctor Who and the Keys of Marinus

Doctor Who Target Books (Numerical Order) #38

by Philip Hinchcliffe

MARINUS
a remote force-shielded island set in a sea of acid, governed by
THE CONSCIENCE
the ultimate computer which rules and balances the gentle life of Marinus, guarded by
ARBITAN THE KEEPER
ruthless protector of a peace-loving race threatened by
YARTEK
Warlord of the brutal sub-human Voords, sworn enemy of Arbitan and of Marinus, who has within his grasp
THE KEYS OF MARINUS
the Conscience's vital micro-circuits, the doors of good and evil.

Can the Doctor find the hidden circuits in time? Arbitan's command was 'Find them, OR DIE!'

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Adventure, Ebooks, Media Tie In, Fantasy

128 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1980

About the author

Philip Hinchcliffe was producer of Doctor Who from 1975 to 1977. He also novelised stories.

He appeared on camera only once in the series, as one of the faces that appears in the Doctor's mental battle with Morbius.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a novelization of the fifth serial from the initial year of Doctor Who, which is also known as Doctor Who and the Sea of Death. The teleplay was written by Terry Nation, famous for creating the Daleks for Doctor Who (as well as for the shows Survivors and Blake's 7), and was broadcast in April and May of 1964. The original Doctor is accompanied by his first trio of companions, Susan Foreman (who is introduced in the book as his granddaughter, and described as petite and "chirpy" whatever that means), and her two kidnapped teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. The story is a bit of a relief from the historical adventures the four usually were thrust into, many of which grew a bit ponderous. This one sees them on the planet Marinus and they have a series of "mini-adventures" in which they secure a group of keys to restore The Conscience, an all-powerful (is there any other kind?) computer that rules the world. Hinchcliffe's writing is clear and concise, but lacks the descriptive flair of other adapters of the series, notably Terrance Dicks. He writes with a straight-forward style, but was perhaps aiming at a younger reader. It's one of the faster-paced early adventures, and the varied settings provided more for Barbara, especially, to do than usual. Ian is put on trial at one point, which, along with the segmented key-quest, are conventions that the show would return to several times in seasons to come, as Hinchcliffe obviously knew well from his viewpoint vantage fifteen years in the future. It's a fun story, and probably quicker to read than to watch.

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun bit of sci-fi as the first Doctor and company are stranded on the planet Marinus and have to rely on other forms of transport, besides the Tardi, to travel the planet and gather the keys to the computer that will help save this odd world from the dreaded Voord.

I always enjoy the First Doctor stories, as the Doctor Who formula wasn't as set as in later stories and there were more stories where the writers would try something new.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always liked The Keys of Marinus.
The TARDIS team having arrived on the planet are soon thrust into finding the full set of micro-keys that will help save the people on Marinus.

With the various locations that the TARDIS crew find themselves in makes this serial feel more like a series arc rather than just one story.

Hinchcliffe is very faithful to the original source material, he does a fine job of including everything that’s in the original six episodes to just the usual restrictive Target sized 128 pages.
It doesn’t quite have the fun romp feel of the tv show, but it’s still an enjoyable read.

[Brayden Raymond · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got through it quickly enough but I couldn't help but think that the whole story was just meh. The plot jumps around a lot and there's certainly a lot packed into it but it's lacking in overall substance, not to mention the abrupt ending. It's just trying to do too much I think.

[Michel Siskoid Albert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would it have killed them to give the artist of Doctor Who and the Keys of Marinus photo reference for the Voord?! Even the Doctor Who production office was pissed off at the off-color TARDIS (for me, I thought I had Edge of Destruction AKA Inside the Spaceship in my collection, but it was this one). In any case, it's going to be difficult to save a Terry Nation picaresque (ugh), but I'll admit Philip Hinchcliffe tries his best. His era of the show is known for its Gothic horror stylings, and though he follows the action of the show very closely, his word choice gives everything an added air of menace. Bright light STABS THE EYES! That kind of thing. If he needs a verb, adjective or turn of phrase, he finds a violent or horrific one. So not an unpleasant read, but he can't get away from Nation's curt mini-plots and nonsense planet. Additions are few and mostly invisible, except for an invented moment where Ian slaps a "hysterical" Barbara. *Eyebrow raise*

[Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doctor Who and the Keys of Marinus, by Philip Hinchliffe. Target, 1980. Number 38 in the Doctor Who Library. 127 pages, paperback. Original script by Terry Nation. BBC, 1964.

This adventure features the 1st Doctor, Susan, Barbara Wright, and Ian Chesterton.

The TARDIS lands on a beach near the sea. The travelers emerge and begin to explore and soon discover that part of beach is glass. Susan finds a tidal pool, intending to dip her feet into it but loses a shoe in what is actually a pool of acid. Ian loans her his shoes so she can go back to the TARDIS to get another pair. After exchanging shoes, she manages to get turned around and finds herself exploring a the outside of a vast pyramid.

The other three travelers realize that Susan has been gone a long time and return to the TARDIS to discover that she isn’t there. Ian retrieves his shoes and they all go in search of Susan. They soon find the same pyramid. On exploration, one by one, they each fall inside at different points along the wall.

Ian confronts a creature that is attacking another man. He introduces himself as Arbitan and leads Ian to his companions. Arbitan explains that he has been under attack by the Voord, creatures like the one Ian defeated.

Arbitan explains that he is the last keeper of the Keys of the Conscience of Marinus, a great computer that gained not only intelligence but telepathic power. It controlled the minds of everyone on the planet, ridding them on violent thoughts and behaviors. Yartek, leader of the Voord, created an inoculation to that power and began trying to get access to the machine. In an attempt to keep it free of his grasp, Arbitan pulled the five Keys from the machine, keeping one on his person, and distributing the other four to various places on Marinus. He has sent agents to return them, but none has returned, including his own daughter. He asks the travelers if they will help him find the Keys. The Doctor and company politely refuse and return to the TARDIS. Only, the TARDIS is shielded from them. Arbitan tells them that they can regain the TARDIS once they have returned the four Keys. Having no option, they agree.

Arbitan gives them each a watch type device that will take them to each place where a Key is located.

Their travels take them to an illusion of luxury ruled by the Brains of Morphoton, a screaming jungle where the vegetation is taking over, a snowy landscape with warriors trapped in ice, and to the city of Millennium, with a vastly different legal system that has Ian on trial for murder.

Can the travelers overcome all of the obstacles put before them? Can they find the Keys of Marinus? Will they be able to return to the TARDIS?

The Keys of Marinus is a big adventure. It’s one hair-raising event to another. It never really slows down for long until the travelers arrive at Millennium and even then the intrigue is good enough to keep the reader turning the pages. I like Hinchcliffe’s novelization of this adventure. It’s well told and well written. Great book, highly recommend.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is so so much going on this story that 120 odd pages is a fraction of what should have been devoted to it, maybe its just a lazy novelisation but surely the author could have expanded on the story to give it a bit more umpphh!

There are some really interesting SF concepts here including societal control and altered perceptions of reality to poisonus alien worlds but not are really built on, they are introduced then in a flash they are gone. Maybe there was too many ideas thrown into the scriptwriting hat?

Its an entertaining but ultimately unsatisfying read which is a shame, the standout is the trial scene which is given just enough space, pity nearly everything else wasn't.

[Beth Maisie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good

[David Sarkies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four Adventures in One
12 November 2024

You could say that this is four adventures in one. Basically, the Doctor and his companions arrive on a planet whose seas happen to be acid (I wonder if this is a warning regarding climate change – I do know the environment was as issue way back then, and I suspect that there were concerns with regards to our carbon output would turn our seas to acid, but that is beside the point).

Anyway, the planet is being invaded by the Voord who want to control a vast computer called the Consciousness of Marinus, and to prevent them from doing so they must find four of the five keys that have been hidden across the planet. As such, they end up going to four different places – including a jungle where the plants grow incredibly fast, a frozen world where they have to deal with some guy who has been sending people off to their deaths, a city where everybody has been hypnotised to believe they live in luxury, and the final place where Ian has been accused of murder and he has to prove his innocence.

Yeah, this guilty until proven innocent is an interesting thing since ideally our world we are innocent until proven guilty. Sure, that may be the case, but the reality is that our legal system is based on so many prejudices that sometimes you wonder if that is the case. This is particularly true when it comes to Law and Order politicians who push for mass incarceration, and tweak the laws so that criminals are locked up, ironically with other criminals, which basically ends up being a breeding ground for more criminals.

Well, there is also the illusionary city, which you could also say that is relevant is well, considering that we live in a world of mass media, which is notorious for spreading misinformation. Like, okay, that has always been the case, but since we have made it possible for anybody to access media, and since the almighty God that is the algorithm will continue to feed us more and more of what it thinks we want to watch, it is nearly impossible to escape it. Oh, and the fact that it takes more effort to combat misinformation than it does to spread it, means that we are trapped in such an illusion. Oh, and like the city, those who try to expose the truth are silenced as well.

These stories are quite interesting, though it seemed to be an odd finish (which I don’t want to give too much away). Like, it made me wonder what the whole purpose of it was, except that the idea was that the machine controlled the thoughts of the inhabitants of the planet, and they needed the keys to power it up because, well, it was turned off. Still, it was a fun book, and it does make me want to start watching these episodes again (and interestingly there are some people that apparently have seen all of them).

[Mikes Dw Reviews · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've always had a 50/50 relationship with this story. On one hand the idea is great and love the location hopping. But on the other hand, it doesn't explore or is able to fully realise the idea. It's also full of annoying Terry nation problems. Sadly they are still in this book. Which is a shame as I do feel some expansion could really help this story. I feel staying in one location and really exploring and learning about how each side of the planet/civilaton works compared to the others and why they are all different, could be really interesting. For the final court room scenes your never gonna make that story interesting as it just isn't. But it's a great way to show how the dr is starting to care for his companions. I also feel the voord, despite being the main villians, get barley any scene or background to them. A chapter or two would of been excellent as in the end they talk about how long they've been planning to take over the machine, but as we've barely seen anything of them, it feels pointless.

The book itself is a nice enough and faithful read but I did find it a little hard to want to continue it as it has no expansion or depth. Which is a shame as I feel this is one of those stories that could really benefit from it. Also the cover is awful. Wrong tardis and it's boring. The story has so many different locations to choose from and yet they chose that as a cover? Baffling. So if you like the orginal I think you'll like this, if you think the story is meh or just okay you don't need to read this one. But I hope it gets a re release with a better cover and some more expansion someday.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm watching Doctor Who from the beginning, reading the novelisations as I go, and to be honest they're just not very good. Which is a particular shame for this story, as I found the episodes of "The Keys of Marinus" to be really enjoyable (certainly more so than the horribly tedious "Marco Polo", which preceded it). But as with the other novelisations, this is very short and very thin. Like the others, it does get points for pacing - there's no room for the slightest waffle - but I struggle to see the point of going to all the effort of novelisation if it's just going to be a flat copy. Admittedly, there do exist some very minor changes here, however, and one of them is deeply annoying. There's just no reason to add a scene of Ian slapping Barbara across the face, as he certainly doesn't in the episode (and never would). If Hinchcliffe was going to change anything about the original, he would have done far better to paper over that plot hole of Ian, Barbara, and Altos leaving their transporter devices behind in the snow hut when they went looking for the third key. Ridiculously stupid.

[Jazza1971 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been reading the Target books every now and then in story order, and my latest dip in brings me here, to Marinus and the 5th novelisation so far. And yet again we get a telling of how Barbara and Ian came to be travelling in the TARDIS. This is the fourth time in five novels. First we had "An Unearthly Child", which is fair enough as that is when it all began, then Whitaker's re-imagening of how it all began in "The Daleks" who can be forgiven as his was the first novel published back in the 60s and I suppose he didn't want it to seem like it was beginning mid story.
However, why this book and Edge of Destruction felt the need to recap the story isn't so clear. They were both published well into the run of collection, so it was pretty much established what the show and the range was about. Surely we didn't need yet another going over of the reason why they are in the books at all. I suspect these recaps have been added to bump up the page count!
Philip Hinchcliffe does an otherwise straightforward retelling of the Marinus tale.

[Gareth · Rating 5 out of 5]

From historical we jump to futuristic sci fi here, and I really enjoy this story. Getting into territory where while I have watched the TV episodes, I haven't watched them often compared to others.
It is one impacted by the cast starting to take holidays, as such a long schedule of filming compared to today, but it is interwoven nicely into the plot.
Here due to the nature of the story we get to have sort of mini plots going on, as we go from differing places on the world of Marinus, with different issues / complications for the Doctor and his Companions to face.
We get to meet a varied cast of other characters as well, some more reputable than others, but all interesting I think.
I enjoyed all the various plots, plus the overarching plot, and all round a really good story for me :)

[Keith Tooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Doctor Who And The Keys Of Marinus’ by Phillip Hinchcliffe is the story of the fifth Doctor Who television serial with the first Doctor William Hartnell and with his assistants Susan, Ian and Barbara. The story centres around a quest for the Tardis crew to find and return some microchip keys from all around a world to prevent the evil Voord causing destruction.

This book was originally written in 1980 and is now out of print therefore I listened to it as a audiobook on Apple Audiobooks. The book stayed very faithful to the television serial and was a well written book and was an enjoyable listen. The audiobook was narrated by Jamie Glover who narrated the story well and he really brought the story to life. A really enjoyable book if you are a fan of Doctor Who.

[Justin Partridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been on a real First/Second Doctor kick with all the news and teases of the new Big Finish First/Second Doctor ranges so I thought I should go ahead and wrap this and I’m really glad I did.

I totally understand why people love this serial now. The Voord are such a great monster and it’s basically like five different genre riffs (quest narrative, a race against time, courtroom drama, murder mystery, and also sci-fi) stacked on top of one another. Plus everybody gets a lot to do which is nice to see this early in DW’s history.

Great fun. I’m very excited to see the serial now. Even more so than I already was.

[Pete · Rating 2 out of 5]

Doctor Who and the Keys of Marinus (1980) by Phillip Hinchcliffe is the novelisation of the fifth story of the first season of Doctor Who.

Ian, Barbara and Susan accompany the Doctor to Marinus where they find a remote island with glass beaches and an acid ocean surrounding a building.

There they are asked to find the Keys of Marinus by Arbitan. This will enable Arbitan to reactive a powerful mind controlling computer. So they set off to a mind controlled city, an ominous jungle and another city.

It’s a bit of a strange story. It’s not too bad a read.

[Jeff Granger · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been a while since I watched the episode, so I don't recall what, if anything, was changed, but it ends up being four mini-adventures wrapped in a overall quest. Taken by itself, the characters seem to jump from misadventure to misadventure without much plot in between. They travel all over the planet on their quest for the keys and in about five pages at the end, the story gets wrapped up. I understand the producers had to cut corners because of money, but an author is under no such constraints. Unfortunately the restrictions from the TV show carry over into the book.

[Ivana Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a nice adaptation, though there are a few continuity mistakes I've never noticed in the televised show -for one, the old man in the forest takes Barbara's travel dial and never gives it back yet she still uses it to leave a short time later. More interestingly, Hinchcliffe had the opportunity to explain the more obvious mistake in the show ( the trapper having the Doctor's ring ) but decided not to, which is a pity.

[Adrian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Five stories in one here, unfortunately they're all bobbins. I can see why it would be exciting to switch things up each week, but as a book (and also as a tv episode but that's another story) everything is too rushed and simplistic. Nothing stands out as being much worse than anything else, but it's all just a bit of old nonsense.

[Ian Banks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have very fond memories of this book: the multiple adventures and situations faced by our heroes made this a book I revisited quite a bit as a youngster. I’m pleased that the Suck Fairy hasn’t been by in the intervening years. Hinchcliffe’s strong writing only seems hampered by the word limit imposed by the publisher and the paucity of the original story.

[Nathan Edgy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Keys of Marinus competently tells the story of the Series 1 serial it is based on.

It reads a little lazier than some of the other Target Novelisations as this very much matter of fairly replicates the script.

It was an enjoyable read as a Doctor Who fan, but it could easily have been fleshed out a little more.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

60th Anniversary re-read of this story. Fun, easy read. The story is a typical quest, where keys are hidden in different locations around the world. Read as a teen in the 80’s but when saw serial on tv for first time as an adult think that 60’s low-budgets tv make this a better read. Next up, The Aztecs.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5
Fairly straightforwardly retells The Keys of Marinus. Which is fine, because I like The Keys of Marinus, and this is a decent read on its own terms, but it's probably not going to be one of those novelisations that really sticks with me.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this adaptation. It is far superior to the episodes on which it is based. Probably my favourite first doctor adventure.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Isnt one of my favourite episodes but the book is very well written.

[josephsbookcorner · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Julian White · Rating 2 out of 5]

pdf; 139 pages

Not a particularly good script from which to produce a novelisation - Hinchcliffe does his best to ring some life into the lacklustre original.

[Nobi Nobes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good adventure!

[Rosie]

in places this is more well constructed than the serial and it does its best to imbue the setting with some grandeur which the budget wouldn't stretch to in 1964, but unfortunately it does it without most of the charm of the characters remaining intact. what is UP with that scene in the velvet web chapter???

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arriving on the island of Marinus, the first Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Susan are reluctantly enlisted to seek out four of the five computer keys of Marinus that will restore the Conscience of Marinus.

In the lore of classic Doctor Who, The Keys of Marinus is a story that worked better when the episodes were produced each week instead of in filming blocks for an entire serial. Each episode features a different location and adventure as the TARDIS crew transports across the planet, looking for the keys.

The script feels like writer Terry Nation is trying out a few of the tropes that he will revisit time and again over the course of his career. We've got hostile plant life, a well-placed chasm, and even more of Nation's favorite things to include in a script. As a quest storyline, it holds up well enough with the team not spending too much time in each location, thus allowing the story to gather and keep some momentum.

That's not to say it's necessarily a classic of its era. "Marinus" is good and it certainly as a few moments. But overall, this one isn't the strongest of the first season of Doctor Who.

What's odd about this novelization is that it comes from fourth Doctor era producer Phillip Hinchcliffe. Hinchcliffe has little or no connection to the era and while he does a nice job of adapting the original scripts to the printed page, the novel doesn't go much beyond that. There are little hints about Sabetha and Altos falling in love and Hinchcliffe tries to make the Voord a bit more threatening and scary.

This is another one that I skipped in my initial collection of Target novels, probably due to it having one of the more generic covers in the range. Or it could be my younger self found this one a tad on the dull side, even with the quest throughline driving the story.

The audiobook is up to the usual standards I've come to expect from the BBC audio range. I won't say this is the best sample of the audio range, but it works well enough. Narrator Jamie Glover's work is good though it's not quite the stand-out of the range. There were moments I kept wishing William Russell had found time to be lured from retirement to perform one last Target book for our listening pleasure.