The Keeper of Traken

"This Melkur has made you mad!"

Writer: Johnny Byrne
Format: TV
Broadcast: 31st January - 21st February 1981
Season: 18.06

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Adric, Nyssa

Synopsis

Traken - a planet ruled by the all powerful Keeper, who rules for a thousand years and ensures that his subjects live a life of tranquility and harmony, free from the forces of evil and corruption. But the Keeper is dying... Summoned by the ailing Keeper, the Doctor and Adric discover that all is not well on Traken. An evil presence threatens the future of the planet. An evil that knows all about the Doctor...

Verdict

The Keeper of Traken is an absolutely wonderful story and holds a special place in my heart as it was actually the first ever serial from the Classic era of Doctor Who that I had watched. At that time, around seven years ago now, I hadn't been a fan for an awful long time but I was ready to delve into the old stuff and I was absolutely thrilled with what I watched. It was simply magnificent and they do say there's nothing quite like your first. There aren't many stories that I'd put above this one as not only is it special to me personally, but it's just superb from start to finish. Traken is a magnificent setting and having a planet that is prided upon being a place of universal harmony is always good because you just know that when the Doctor turns up, that harmony won't last much longer. Quite surprisingly though, he didn't play any part in that occurring and was actually summoned to the planet by the Keeper of Traken himself. The way he just popped into the TARDIS for a chat demonstrated how much power he possessed but his time was wearing thin and things weren't quite the same down on the planet. Seeing Kassia briefly tend to the strange Melkur in the grove when she was young was good as the Doctor would join up with events where she was much older. We witnessed her marriage to Tremas but from there on their relationship wouldn't exactly be a happy one. Over the years it seemed that she had become obsessed by the Melkur and later in the story she would actually be possessed. She did genuinely seem to love Tremas as she tried warning him to not look into her eyes but that message was in vain. I'm not afraid to say that I'm not a fan of Adric but I actually thought this was one of his better stories for the character himself. His intelligence was clearly visible and I liked his relationship with Nyssa very much. Having Nyssa appear in a story prior to officially becoming companion was an interesting move but I think it's great that we got a whole lot of backstory surrounding her upbringing and family. That was pretty rare for companions so I really liked that. The return to N-Space was quite subtly mentioned with barely a reference to Full Circle. The Melkur looked very good and the suspense being built around the revelation of it actually being a TARDIS was terrific. The occupant of that TARDIS wasn't revealed until late in part three which is quite some time and we only really had a brief conversation between the Doctor and the Master which again was an interesting move. Still in his emaciated form following The Deadly Assassin, I loved how the Master would try to utilise the Source on Traken to prevent death. He'd ran out of regenerations as we already know and things were getting very desperate. But this plan was actually fantastic and very nearly paid off. Although it wasn't successful, Tremas touching the Master's TARDIS meant that he would at least get a new body. The anagram hiding the eventual identity of Tremas was brilliantly subtle. Tom Baker was excellent as always and I just loved some of his comments, particularly where he said he never listens to himself. I thought the cliffhangers were very good with parts one and three really standing out to me. I really don't have anything negative to say about the story to be honest. The setting was brilliant, the plot excellent and the guest cast were all fantastic! It's just one of the stories I could never get bored watching and I'm absolutely certain that it will remain one of my absolute favourites for years to come. Overall, personally special to me and just a joy to watch. 

Rating: 10/10