The Armageddon Factor

103 – The Armageddon Factor
Doctor Who serial
Cast
Doctor Tom Baker – Fourth Doctor
Companions Mary Tamm – Romana John Leeson (Voice of K9)
Others John Woodvine – The Marshal Lalla Ward – Princess Astra Davyd Harries – Shapp Ian Saynor – Merak William Squire – The Shadow Barry Jackson – Drax Valentine Dyall – The Black Guardian Ian Liston – 'Hero' Susan Skipper – 'Heroine' John Cannon, Harry Fielder – Guards Iain Armstrong – Technician Pat Gorman – Pilot
Production
Directed by	Michael Hayes
Written by	Bob Baker Dave Martin
Script editor	Anthony Read Douglas Adams (uncredited)
Produced by	Graham Williams David Maloney (uncredited)
Executive producer(s)	None
Music by	Dudley Simpson
Production code	5F
Series	Season 16
Running time	6 episodes, 25 minutes each
First broadcast	20 January – 24 February 1979
Chronology
← Preceded by The Power of Kroll Followed by → Destiny of the Daleks

The Armageddon Factor is the sixth and final serial of the 16th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 20 January to 24 February 1979. It was the last to feature Mary Tamm as Romana.

The serial is set on the planets Atrios and Zeos, and another planet in between them. In the serial, a nuclear war between Atrios and Zeos is nearing its end, but with Atrios losing. At the same time, the Shadow (William Squire), a henchman of the Black Guardian (Valentine Dyall), steals the time and space vessel the TARDIS, which contains the first five segments of the powerful Key to Time, and kidnaps Princess Astra of Atrios (Lalla Ward), who is the sixth and final segment.

Plot

The planet Atrios, ruled by Princess Astra, is losing a nuclear war with their neighbouring planet Zeos. Astra, on a tour to rally the injured troops within their safety bunker, is beguiled into seeking shelter. Soon after, while searching for the Key to Time's final segment, the Fourth Doctor and Romana arrive, encountering Astra before she is suddenly abducted. After some initial false accusations, from the leading bull-headed military Marshal, the Doctor agrees to help his increasingly weak efforts against Zeos. The Doctor and Romana discover that there is another factor in the war, when Romana notices a control device attached to the Marshal's neck, the Doctor deduces there is another planetary object between Atrios and Zeos, and a skull-shaped receiver is found behind a mirror that the Marshal seemingly uses to meditate with.

The Doctor is abducted during an attempt to transmaterialise/transmat (teleport) to Zeos, and meets with the true opponent, the "Shadow", ruling over a space station called the "Planet of Evil". However, as part of Shadow's stratagem, he releases the Doctor, hoping he will misstep in his search for the Segment. The Doctor transmats to Zeos, genuinely this time, reuniting with Romana, an Atrion officer, and K9. They all find that Zeos is deserted, its inhabitants possibly already annihilated, save for the giant supercomputer Mentalis, which is controlling the outcome of the war. K9 is able to communicate with it, and Mentalis declares the war over.

However, the Marshal seeks victory through his opponent's annihilation, and launches a single flagship offence to the planet. Mentalis detects the launch, and, unable to defend itself after surrendering, begins a self-destruct sequence set to destroy both Zeos and Atrios. The Doctor attempts to stop it, but it damages its central control after its perimeter defence is triggered. With a lack of options, the Doctor fashions an artificial stopgap Segment, and orders the Key to Time to shroud the Marshal's ship and Mentalis' systems in an imperfect deteriorating time loop.

Meanwhile, K9 is abducted by the Shadow and fitted with another control device. The Doctor's group reunites with Astra, seemingly escaped but actually a pawn of the Shadow as well. With Astra's help, the Doctor pilots the TARDIS back to the Planet of Evil. There, they are all separated. The Doctor encounters another Time Lord, Drax, whom he last met at the Gallifreyan Academy. Drax, who is under duress, was employed by The Shadow to build Mentalis, but he agrees to help the Doctor, and also frees K9. The Shadow reveals he is an agent of the Black Guardian, and demands the Key to Time, threatening to torture Romana. The Doctor leads a servant of the Shadow, known as a Mute, to his TARDIS and opens the door, but Drax misinterprets the Doctor's plan, and shrinks the Doctor and himself, using a dimensional stabiliser from Drax's own TARDIS.

The Mute returns to the Shadow with the Key, and Romana realises why the Shadow needs it: Astra herself is the final segment, and from the Key's power, she transforms in front of everyone. The Doctor and Drax smuggle themselves into the Shadow's lair inside of K9, who pretends to be under the Shadow's control. Drax again uses the stabiliser to normalise themselves. In the confusion, The Doctor snatches the partially-assembled Key and the final segment, and escapes with Romana, Drax, and K9 into the TARDIS. They return to Zeos, and, with the false Key segment and the time loop both expired, narrowly deactivate Mentalis' self-destruct, but the Doctor also realises that the Marshal is still en-route. He quickly erects a shield around Zeos with the TARDIS, to deflect the Marshal's missiles towards the Planet of Evil, destroying it and killing the Shadow.

The White Guardian appears on the TARDIS scanner screen to congratulate the Doctor on finding and assembling the Key to Time, and requests that it be sent to him. However, the Doctor, catching onto the Guardian's blatant disregard for Astra's sacrifice, realises that it is actually the Black Guardian in disguise, and orders the Key to re-disperse, restoring Astra to life. Enraged, the Black Guardian threatens to kill him. In an attempt to evade him, the Doctor fits a randomiser into the TARDIS guidance system, sending it to an unknown location in time and space, leaving the Doctor with no idea of where they are headed, and the Guardian being unable to follow.

Broadcast and reception

Episode	Title	Run time	Original air date	UK viewers (millions)
1	"Part One"	24:39	20 January 1979 (1979-01-20)	7.5
2	"Part Two"	23:56	27 January 1979 (1979-01-27)	8.8
3	"Part Three"	25:03	3 February 1979 (1979-02-03)	7.8
4	"Part Four"	25:09	10 February 1979 (1979-02-10)	8.6
5	"Part Five"	24:42	17 February 1979 (1979-02-17)	8.6
6	"Part Six"	25:09	24 February 1979 (1979-02-24)	9.6

Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping gave the serial an unfavourable review in The Discontinuity Guide (1995), describing it as "a dreary end-of-season Oh-my-God-the-money's-run-out 'spectacular'" without subtle acting. In The Television Companion (1998), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker wrote that The Armageddon Factor was "entertaining enough in itself, with some good direction by Michael Hayes and generally fine production values, but ultimately fails to tie up all the loose ends and leaves the over-arching plot strangely unresolved". They praised the Shadow but felt that the other characters were one-dimensional, and called the ending a "cop-out". In 2011, Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times stated that the serial "hugely disappoints, yet it's not an unmitigated disaster". He criticised the characterisation and much of the plot, but praised the direction and the Shadow. On the other hand, DVD Talk's Justin Felix gave the serial four out of five stars, saying that it "packs more of a wallop than the previous two stories" and had everything typical of Doctor Who. Felix also called it Mary Tamm's best performance.

Commercial releases

In print

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in June 1980.

Home media

Along with the rest of season sixteen, it was released on DVD in North America as part of the Key to Time box set in 2002, only available in Region 1. A remastered limited edition Key to Time box set was released in Region 2 in the United Kingdom on 24 September 2007. It contains more extras than the previously released US set. This remastered set was released in Region 1 on March 3, 2009.

External links

• The Armageddon Factor at BBC Online

Target novelisation

• Doctor Who and the Armageddon Factor title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database