A Journey Of A Thousand Eons...: 24. The Snows of Terror (The Keys of Marinus, Episode Four)

They say a hero is defined by his villain.  I say this because this episode--the halfway point of this serial--is made by the villain of the piece.

His name is Vasor, played by Francis De Wolff, and he is glorious in his self-centered misanthropy.  Before the half hour is up, we will have seen him commit attempted murder, lie outright solely for profit....and attempt to rape Barbara.  His delightfully evil antics--wrecking a rope bridge so the group can’t return; hiding a bag of raw meat in the furs he sells to Ian so the Stock Footage Wolves will come after and eat him; tying up Altos so he will die of exposure to the extreme cold of this place--are the lifeblood of this story because when you strip his influence away, there’s not much here.

Vasor comes into Ian and Barbara’s lives when he takes them into his hut.  When asked, he tells Ian of a stranger who broke into his abode demanding he help him look for his friends.  Ian goes off in search of this stranger--as well as Susan and Sabetha--and has to exchange his travel dial for furs to protect him from the cold.  It is outside that Ian finds the tied-up Altos and the bag of meat, and learns that the remaining members of their crew is in a cave in the mountains.  Ian forces Vasor to lead them to the cave and discovers a chamber where the third micro-key is secreted in a solid block of ice....protected by three figures wielding elaborate weaponry.

There is a puzzle aspect of this segment like the segment before it, but it’s rather simple.  And I found the figures, unlike those of the Voord, neither alien or scary, as for the second time in the row we’re presented with medieval knights in armor (albeit in this case, rather comically too-big armor ).  But I was so entertained at Vasor’s misbehavior that I was willing to forgive the flaws and lack of continuity (Behold the automatically reassembling rope bridge!).  And I was more than willing to forgive the nature of those guardians when they come for Vasor as the crew blinks out.

Even though Barbara does stand up to Vasor’s lusty attentions, at one point getting ready to bean him with a poker, Ian is the Action Star here.  Altos and Sabetha don’t do much and Susan...Susan gets to turn the knob on a steam pipe.  There’s still lots of Susan sobbing and fretting and crying that gets on my nerves, and I’m beginning to wonder what our temporary companions--the first of many throughout the series’ history--are actually contributing.  Surely someone other than Sabetha could have kept hold of those micro-keys?

I liked this segment better than the last, and all of that is due to Francis De Wolff.  He shows up in another role in a later Hartnell serial, ‘The Myth Makers,’ and I cannot see what he’ll be up to next.