The Key Of Time story arc continues with this week's story The Androids Of Tara. It's the 16th series of Doctor Who and the 101st serial. The 4 part story aired from November 25 to December 16 1978. Tom Baker is the Doctor, Mary Tamm is Romana and John Leeson is K-9. The story is by David Fisher and the direction is by Michael Hayes.
Romana catches the Doc and K-9 playing chess and chives him back into hunting for the Key Of Time segments. Romana guides the ship to the planet Tara where the Doc goes fishing. Romana finds the piece right away but since it's Doctor Who a goofy monster comes running out of the bushes to complicate things. Romana is saved by Count Grendel who's the villain of the piece. The Doctor falls in with the man who would be King, Prince Reynart, and his pals. The extras tell me that the story is based on The Prisoner Of Zenda but I didn't notice that when I watched it. I've seen the movie but not for ages and if I read the book as a youth I have forgotten.
Romana is stuck in the evil Count's house and it turns out he's got Princess Strella locked up too. He's got this plan to kill the Prince, marry the Princess and then kill her so he can be king. Part of his plan is to make an android of the Princess. Did I mention that the Princess and Romana are exact doubles for each other. With the Android for the Prince on top of that, there's plenty of mistaken identity political intrigue going on. Peter Jeffrey plays the Count and he's a darn good villian. I've seen him in many good films and tv programs over the years.
There's plenty of running around outdoors and near the castle. The scenery is all rather pleasant. The setting is Leeds Castle which is a pretty nice spot. They filmed there for a week before returning to the studio. The effects are about average but the sets are a bit above average. The costumes are nice and colorful and so is the lighting. All in all an enjoyable story and presentation.
There's a commentary with Michael Hayes, Tom Baker and Mary Tamm. It's not one of the more exciting ones. They forget to talk a fair bit after the first episode. There's a making of for the episode which was ok. The short on Leeds Castle with plenty of then and now comparisons was good. There's a short on doubles in the Doctor Who series. There's been a good number of them, as you can imagine. There some nice photos, an info track and the Radio times PDF. I didn't see an Easter Egg on this DVD. Many of them have one.
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