History Recap / DoctorWhoS16E6TheArmageddonFactor

'''Production code:''' 5F

Written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin. This six-episode serial first aired from January 20 to February 24, 1979. Following the cancellation of the next season's planned finale, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E6Shada Shada]]", and the complete removal of stories over four parts the season afterwards, this also became the last six-parter to be completed and aired during the 1963-1989 run of the show.

The Doctor and Romana do a bit of MacGyvering with the nearly-completely Key to Time, and manage to create a replica of what the final segment probably looks like. It works, a bit, and the Doctor goes into full-on AGodAmI mode when he uses the thing to create a time loop around an impending nuclear strike. While the loop slowly starts to deteriorate, he also runs into Drax -- an old academy buddy who ran away from Gallifrey, picked up a bit of Cockney (innit) and has spent a few years doing odd jobs in this war. He calls the Doctor "Theta Sigma", sending the entire fandom into a frenzy until the ''Seventh'' Doctor would finally confirm that it was just a college nickname.

Written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin. This six-episode serial first aired from January 20 to February 24, 1979. Following the cancellation of the next season's planned finale, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E6Shada "Shada"]], and the complete removal of stories over four parts the season afterwards, this also became the last six-parter to be completed and aired during the 1963-1989 run of the show.

-->''"DOCTOR, YOU SHALL DIE FOR THIS!!"''

'''Production code:''' 5

JustForFun/TheOneWith '''SATAN HIMSELF'''.

Alternatively- the one where the Doctor swore the tin off K-9.

The one with '''SATAN HIMSELF'''.

* ExpositionIntuition: At the beginning of part 6, Shap and Merac conveniently recap for us some recent events and the predicament the Doctor is in. Which is strange because these events happened on a different planet and no one present has been in communication with them.

* ForeverWar: What the Black Guardian and the Shadow want to set up between the two halves of the universe. A lesser example is with the Atrians and Zeons, who have been fighting for decades.

* AliensOfLondon: The Time Lord Drax has a Cockney accent so thick that even the (Fourth) Doctor comments on it. [[InvokedTrope He picked it up in Brixton.]]

* AliensOfLondon: The Time Lord Drax has a Cockney accent so thick that even the (Fourth) Doctor comments on it. [[InvokedTrope He picked it up in Brixton.]]

Romana, Astra ''and'' K-9 all get themselves hypnotized by the Shadow, and Drax decides that the best course of action is to shrink himself and the Doctor down to mouse size. They re-wire K-9 and sneak into the villain's base inside K-9's body. The Doctor manages to get hold of the final segment -- Princess Astra -- and complete the Key, while ending the war along the way.

* ArcNumber: Six. Astra is the sixth princess of the sixth dynasty of the sixth royal house of Atrios. She's also the sixth key fragment.

* ShoutOutToShakespeare:

Written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin. This six-episode serial first aired from January 20 to February 24, 1979.

While the Doctor demonstrates to Romana how it would look if he were to go mad with the power, the White Guardian appears on his viewscreen, congratulates him and asks for the Key. The Doctor refuses, reasoning that its power is such that no-one should possess it, and that this guy isn't the White Guardian to begin with. After all, a God of order would care about the fact that a human being like Astra would end up turned into a piece of a cosmic toy. He scatters its pieces again. The White Guardian is angry, and reveals that he is in fact the ''Black'' Guardian, who's been waiting around near the final segment for the Doctor to show up with the others. The Black Guardian threatens to kill the Doctor, who sets a randomiser on the TARDIS so that his travels will be unpredictable. Well, ''more'' unpredictable.

Written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin. This serial first aired January 20-February 24, 1979.

* InferredHolocaust: It's implied that the Atrians unknowingly managed to wipe out the Zeons very early on in the war, and that the subsequent conflict was engineered by the Shadow simply so that he wouldn't get bored waiting for the Doctor to arrive.[[invoked]]

It turns out that all is not as it seems on Zeos (which is in fact completely deserted and run by a mad computer), and that a third party has been keeping the war going for his own purposes. This bat-guy, an unbelievably LargeHam named "The Shadow", is controlling people from a distance and gets his hands on just about anyone who's important to the plot.

* NoSell: The Shadow places a RestrainingBolt on the Doctor's neck. Unlike the Marshall, however, the Doctor is able to simply pluck his off, much to the Shadow's irritation.

* BadassBoast: The Doctor gives one of these to the Shadow early in the fifth episode, revealing that he and Romana are Time Lords, in the service of the White Guardian himself. Unfortunately, this quickly turns into an OhCrap moment when the Shadow appears and reveals that not only does he know perfectly well who the Doctor is, he himself is in the direct service of the ''Black'' Guardian.

-->''"DOCTOR, YOU SHALL DIE FOR THIS!!"''

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* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Astra plays the trope completely straight.

* ShaggyDogStory: One that lasts for an entire season. The Key to Time storyline ends with the Key only being fully assembled for the last five minutes of the serial's final episode, with only a TakeOurWordForIt that the White Guardian was able to use the Key for its intended purpose while the Doctor was talking with the Black Guardian. In fact, the only thing we really see the Key used for is putting the Marshall in a time-loop.