 "The Armageddon Factor" is the final story of Season Sixteen and so the final chapter of the quest for The Key to Time. The first episode is also the 500th episode of the show.
This story though is renowned for introducing The Black Guardian, played by Valentine Dyall, and for the final appearance of Mary Tamm as Romana while her ultimate replacement, Lalla Ward, appears in this story in a different role as Princess Astra.
This was the final contribution of Bob Baker and Dave Martin as a writing team, though Bob Baker would later return to write solo scripts for the show. His next story being next season’s "Nightmare of Eden".
This was the last story to be script edited by Anthony Read. He would continue writing for television, including episodes of The Professionals and Sapphire & Steel, as well as writing next season’s story "The Horns of Nimon". Producer Graham Williams offered the position of Script Editor to Robert Holmes (who had already held this position during Season Twelve to Season Fifteen). When Robert Holmes turned this request down the post was then offered to and accepted by Douglas Adams who then trailed Anthony Read during the making of this story.
Douglas Adams changed this story’s name to "The Armageddon Factor", and he and Graham Williams co-wrote The Doctor’s climactic confrontation with The Black Guardian. In the original draft of the script, The Black Guardian did not appear at all. The Doctor simply decided that he did not trust The White Guardian with The Key to Time, and consequently scattered the six segments again to prevent anyone from controlling it.
Former Doctor Who Director David Maloney deputised for Graham Williams during early preparations for this story as Graham Williams was absent due to illness.
The Director allocated to this story was Michael Hayes, who had just finished work on "The Androids of Tara".
It was during the recording of this story that Mary Tamm informed Graham Williams that she would not be returning to Doctor Who.
The part of Princess Astra was played by Lalla Ward (actually the Honourable Sarah Ward) who is the daughter of the seventh Viscount Bangor. Having studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama, Lalla Ward had considerable experience on stage, television and film, including programmes such as The Duchess of Duke Street, The Professionals and Armchair Theatre. She immediately hit it off with the Doctor Who cast and crew and especially Tom Baker. Lalla Ward was subsequently cast as the second incarnation of Romana.
John Leeson also decided to make this story his last as the voice of K9, though he would return during Season Eighteen.
Cyril Luckham, who had played The White Guardian in "The Ribos Operation", was unavailable for "The Armageddon Factor" and so Valentine Dyall was cast as both The Black Guardian and The White Guardian for these sequences.
Valentine Dyall would return as The Black Guardian in the Black Guardian Trilogy, consisting of the 1983 Fifth Doctor stories "Mawdryn Undead", "Terminus" and "Enlightenment", where he attempts to force The Doctor’s new companion Vislor Turlough to kill The Doctor in revenge for depriving him of The Key to Time. The Black Guardian also appears in Virgin Book’s The Missing Adventures novel "The Well-Mannered War".
It is revealed that Drax is a Time Lord, complete with a broken TARDIS. He also studied with The Doctor. For Drax this occurred about 450 years ago.
Drax refers to The Doctor by the name ‘Theta Sigma’. Not counting aliases like John Smith, this was the first time an actual name (albeit a nickname) was attached to The Doctor. Later, in the 1988 Seventh Doctor story "The Happiness Patrol", The Doctor confirms that Theta Sigma was his old college nickname. Later, in the 2010 Eleventh Doctor story "The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang", the characters for theta and sigma are the first two sigils under River Song’s ‘Hello Sweetie’ message written to The Doctor as the oldest words in recorded history.
Drax also features in the BBC Books’ The Past Doctors Stories novels "Divided Loyalties" (in a flashback sequence to the First Doctor’s school days) and "The Quantum Archangel" (in an alternate timeline where he is working with The Master, The Rani and Mortimus to destroy Earth), as well and in "Search for The Doctor", a Make Your Own Adventure book by Dave Martin.
It is revealed that the warring planets of Atrios and Zeos are on the edge of the helical galaxy and the domain of The Shadow is situated halfway between the two. These planets are also a ‘long way from Gallifrey’. Atrios and Zeos have been waging nuclear war on each other, despite the fact that for the last five years Zeos has been uninhabited and that its warfare has been prosecuted by Mentalis, a computerised commandant built by Drax at the behest of The Shadow.
Nothing is revealed about The Shadow and his Mute helpers, beyond the fact that they are serving The Black Guardian and that The Shadow has been waiting ‘since eternity began’.
The original sixth segment was to be The Shadow’s shadow, which would have been revealed by the light of the key tracer, but this was changed to be Princess Astra herself.
The fate of Princess Astra is finally revealed in the Big Finish Productions audio story "The Chaos Pool", the third in a new series of Key to Time stories that started with "The Judgement of Isskar". They reveal that The Doctor’s use of a substitute sixth segment for The Key to Time disrupted the balance of the segments and caused them to decay, resulting in them causing significant damage to the Web of Time. "The Chaos Pool" also explains Romana’s decision to regenerate and take Princess Astra’s form in the next story "Destiny of the Daleks".
In The Sarah Jane Adventures spin-off story "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith", The Trickster is heard stating how The Doctor once held The Key to Time, (Although The Doctor only finally gets to hold the complete Key in "The Chaos Pool" as it remains on a table when completely assembled in this story). It is also implied that The Shadow is a member of the Pantheon of Discord.
The Doctor is heard to mention Troy which he previously visited in the 1965 First Doctor story "The Myth Makers".
The Doctor has been shrunk before. In the 1964 First Doctor story "Planet of Giants" and in the 1973 Third Doctor story "Carnival of Monsters". A clone of The Doctor was also injected into the Fourth Doctor in the 1977 story "The Invisible Enemy".
K9 suffers the indignity of being called ‘a tin dog’. This happens again in the 2006 Tenth Doctor story "School Reunion".
This story contains a number of errors. Namely: In episode two, after the TARDIS has left, it can be seen behind Romana just after K9 begins blasting a door; in episode four, when K9 exits the transmat, he has got the new left panel he gains in episode five; Romana somehow forgets that she has already been told (in "The Stones of Blood") that it wasn’t the President who sent her on the mission; Princess Astra is heard to say that she is ‘the sixth princess of the sixth dynasty of the sixth royal house of Atrios’ when it should be ‘the sixth house of the sixth dynasty’; In episode four Merak expounds on how only The Doctor and Romana can get into the TARDIS, despite the fact that he shouldn’t even know what the TARDIS is and then in episode six he talks knowledgably of the sixth segment having been told nothing about it.
At the end of this story The Doctor makes a false sixth segment and, after scattering The Key to Time, he fits a randomiser to the TARDIS guidance systems to avoid the wrath of The Black Guardian. This randomiser would remain installed until the 1980 story "The Leisure Hive".
This was the last 6-episode story to be broadcast (next season’s "Shada" would have been the last but due to industrial action at the BBC it remains incomplete and unaired). From here on stories would be a maximum of four episodes in length, with the sole exception being the 1986 The Trial of a Time Lord season of stories, which, although actually being a linked three 4-part and one 2-part stories, was broadcast as a 14-part story. The 1985 story "The Two Doctors" along with the 2007 story arc "Utopia", "The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords" (which some fans consider to be one complete story) were both roughly the same length as a 6-part story but were broadcast in three parts as their respective season’s episodes were 45 minutes in length.
The original broadcast of the fifth episode was interrupted by a break in transmission for several minutes (the break occurring at the point where The Doctor is being escorted to the TARDIS by the Mute). Music was played and a caption slide was displayed until the fault was rectified. When transmission restarted, there was a repeat of the action immediately prior to the break; the videotape having been slightly rewound. A reconstruction of the break can be found as a bonus item on this story’s re-mastered DVD release.
A novelisation of this story, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in June 1980. Terrance Dicks though accidentally has the Marshall introduce himself as the warlord of Zeos.
Several clips of scene performances, outtakes and gag reel footage not intended for broadcast have been circulated from this story, including two sequences videotaped during rehearsal (as evidenced by the fact Mary Tamm is not in full costume, is wearing her off-screen glasses and has her hair in curlers). In one scene, Mary Tamm and Tom Baker jokingly pretend to move in for a kiss after delivering a line, and in another widely circulated clip, The Doctor replies to a negative comment from K9, ‘You never f---- know the answer when it’s important!’. The production crew are heard laughing at both of these outtakes.
It was also during production of this story that Tom Baker, Mary Tamm and John Leeson filmed a brief one-minute gag scene that was not intended to be part of the televised story. Dubbed "Doug Who?" it was recorded for the BBC staff Christmas party. The scene begins with The Doctor and Romana sitting on the floor by the TARDIS console, apparently kissing off screen, and then acting tipsy as they share a bottle of vodka with K9, who is asked to sing a few bars of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". The Doctor then asks K9 what he wants for Christmas in which K9 replies and then asks The Doctor for what his desire is, to which The Doctor looks into the camera and then leers at Romana, who leers back before the two actors and the production crew break into laughter.
To date, the rehearsal outtakes have not been commercially released, though they are widely available on video-posting websites. "Doug Who?" (re-titled "Merry Christmas Doctor Who") has though been included as a bonus feature in the Key to Time DVD box set released in 2007.
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The Firsts:
David Maloney' first involvement in the show as Producer (all-be-it uncredited).
Douglas Adams' first involvement in the show as Script Editor (all-be-it uncredited).
The first appearance of the Black Guardian.
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(Position = 111 out of 159)
(Position = 168 out of 200)
(Position = 204 out of 241)
