495 The Androids of Tara Part Four

EPISODE: The Androids of Tara Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 495
STORY NUMBER: 101
TRANSMITTED: 16 December 1978
WRITER: David Fisher
DIRECTOR: Michael Hayes
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

Romana is returned to Castle Gracht where the count intends to marry her to the Prince, kill the Prince, marry Romana, kill her and inherit the throne. The Doctor, Farah & Zadek plan an assault on Castle Gracht. Grendel has one last attempt to persuade the real Princess Strella to cooperate telling her she has become dispensable. Grendel uses the Princess' life to blackmail Romana into cooperating. Under cover of darkness the Doctor crosses the castle moat in a boat with K-9 who begins to cut their way into the castle. Romana & The Prince are taken to their wedding ceremony as the K-9 breaks through the wall, being left in the boat by the Doctor. As the wedding ceremony begins the Doctor searches the palace finding the Key To Time segment that Romana had confiscated from her. At a crucial moment the Doctor interrupts the ceremony and engages the Count in a sword duel, allowing Romana & Reynart to escape admitting Zadek, Farah & the Prince's troops to Castle Gracht. Romana saves Strella from one of the Count's guards. The sword duel takes in much of the castle, finishing on the battlements with Grendel diving in the moat to escape promising that next time he will not be so lenient. Strella is reunited with Reynart as the Doctor & Romana take their leave, suddenly remembering that poor K-9 is still stuck in the boat!

Another fab episode, albeit one with a very slow start to the sword fight. But it's a decent end to the story and of all the fourth Doctor tales I've seen so far this one has been the one that's stood out as being better then I was expecting..... which is a little odd as I recall it quite fondly from when I saw it twice as a child! The story is competent enough, there's decent acting, especially from Peter Jeffrey who's obviously having the time of his life. It's the first time I've seen it episodically for a bit and I'm guessing this is one of those that work better one episode at a time rather than watched all the way through like we tend to do with videos or DVDs.

Androids of Tara was the second story from this season, after The Pirate Planet, to be repeated during the summer of 1979, broadcast for a second time on Thursday at 6.55 from the 9th to 30th August that year. Androids of Tara was novelised by Terrance Dicks and released in April 1980. Androids of Tara was released on video in May 1995 on the same day as Stones of Blood to form the second pair of stories from the Key to Time season released, with The Ribos Operation & The Pirate Planet coming out the previous month and Power of Kroll & Armageddon Factor the next. The Key To Time season was a set of releases which came with a specially designed spine picture that ran over all six title. While there has never been a video boxset release of the Key To Time, it's only ever been available as a boxset on DVD. In October 2002 all six Key To Time stories were released in Region 1 with minimal extras & restoration to help satisfy the American demand for Tom Baker stories. The Key to Time was then released as a special edition, numbered & limited to 15,000 with brand new extras in Region 2 on the 24th September 2007, which sold out very quickly with this set commanding a premium price on eBay for quite some time. The Key to Time Box Set was reissued in a non limited edition in November 2009 and can now be had for a very reasonable price.

494 The Androids of Tara Part Three

EPISODE: The Androids of Tara Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 494
STORY NUMBER: 101
TRANSMITTED: 09 December 1978
WRITER: David Fisher
DIRECTOR: Michael Hayes
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

Strella is revealed to be an android, which the Doctor believes had been sent to kill the king. Grendel makes accusations that there may be more androids present and the rest of the ceremony is postponed. Lamia enquires of Romana as to what her stone is but refuses to return it. Lamia is ordered to prepare another android as the Doctor works to repair the Prince's android. K-9 reports he has detected Romana in Castle Gracht. A message is sent to the Doctor from Madam Lamia bargaining Romana's safety for safe passage for the Count. The Count sends an android copy of Romana to kill the Doctor, but while being copied Romana steals a tool from Madam Lamia. The Doctor & K-9 go to the arranged meeting place, Pavilion of the Summer Winds, as Romana frees herself and escapes. The Doctor meets Lamia, who brings "Romana" in but K-9 detects the android and destroys it. Lamia flees the scene but is accidentally killed by the Count's guards who open fire on the Pavilion. K-9 blasts a hole in the back allowing them to escape and meet Romana. They meet Farah, Zarak & the Android Prince at the hunting lodge where Romana tells them the the Count is holding the real Prince. Grendel comes to see them under a truce, but destroys the android prince and escapes, seizing Romana!

Escape & recapture. Hmmm, seemingly the only reason for Romana to escape is to convey the information that Grendel is holding the real Prince..... Hmmmm, didn't the Doctor and co all but know that anyway? Apart from destroying the Prince's android the plot doesn't advance much in this episode but it's all done so well. I remember the laser crossbows the guards were using as well as the electrically charged swords: the story's marriage of a medieval society with high technology worked well for me at the time and I still like it today.

Guest starring as Count Grendel of Gracht is Peter Jeffrey, formerly the Pilot in The Macra Terror. By this point he's a famous name: I caught him on TV over Christmas in the Yes Minister Christmas Special Party Games as Eric, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who leads "an active life away from the House of Commons". Simon Lack, playing Swordsmaster Zadek, was Professor Kettering in The Mind of Evil. Count Grendel's gateman/servant Till is played by Declan Mulholland, previously Clark in The Sea Devils. Declan Mulholland is best known for not appearing on screen as Jabba the Hutt in Star Wars: his role in the film was cut. The character was later shown in a completely different form in Return of the Jedi, so when the footage featuring Mullholland was reinstated into The Star Wars Special Edition, Mullholland found himself replaced by a computer generated effect. However the footage showing him has been shown in several making of features over the years! Returning for a fourth & final Doctor Who appearance is Cyril Shaps as the Archimandrite. Hos previous roles were in The Tomb of the Cybermen as John Viner,
The Ambassadors of Death as Dr. Lennox & Planet of the Spiders as Prof. Herbert Clegg. I think this his only appearance in the series where his character survives the story! There again Michael Sheard appears in the show six times and his character always gets it!

493 The Androids of Tara Part Two

EPISODE: The Androids of Tara Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 493
STORY NUMBER: 101
TRANSMITTED: 02 December 1978
WRITER: David Fisher
DIRECTOR: Michael Hayes
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

When the Doctor comes round Swordsmaster Zadek & Farrah discover the prince is missing. The Doctor proposes using the android as a substitute at the coronation and summons K-9 from the Tardis at which point he realises Romana is missing. Zadek & Farreh surmise the count is holding her. The revived Romana is taken to the cells by Count Grendel and shown his captive, Princess Stella, Romana's exact duplicate. The Princess refuses to cooperate with Grendel's plan to marry her and gain her titles & position so the Count wants to use Romana as a substitute. He imprisons her with his second prisoner, the feverishly sick Prince Reynart. The Doctor's party gain entrance to the palace via a secret passage. Madmae Lamia begins to take an interest in the crystal that Romana had taken from her. The Doctor's party's presence is detected when a guard they strunned is found. Grendel has his guards assume duties at the coronation ceremony and tries the throne out for size. The hour aproaches and the prince has not arrived, to the worry of the Archimandrite, the Taran official in charge of the ceremony. The Doctor's party are ambushed in tunnels under the palace with Zadek sending the Doctor & Android on ahead. As the bell tolls at the apointed hour the party enters the coronation chamber and finds prince, which we know is the android duplicate, on the throne to Grendel's disbelief. The Archimandrite crowns "Reynart" as King. Princess Strella arrived to make her vows but as she kneels the Doctor attacks her with the royal sceptre!

Another fun little episode with Peter Jeffrey positively twirling his moustache as the evil villain Count Grendel of Gracht. Now we get to find out why everyone was so interested in Romana: She's the exact double of the Taran Princess Strella! Here we go again....

We've had duplicates of The Doctor in The Chase, The Massacre, The Enemy of the World and the Android Invasion with his companions duplicated in this last story as well. And don't forget the "mirror universe" versions of UNIT in Inferno as well! So it's well covered grounds for Doctor Who (and it's not done doing it by any means!) but the idea of doubles is embedded in the original source for the story, The Prisoner of Zenda, so we'll let it pass. Besides it has been three years since the Android Invasion so it's about time we had another go!

Location work for this story was conducted in and around Leeds Castle which, confusingly, is in Kent rather than Yorkshire. It's been used over the years as a location by a number of films & TV productions as well as playing host to a number of concerts.

492 The Androids of Tara Part One

EPISODE: The Androids of Tara Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 492
STORY NUMBER: 101
TRANSMITTED: 25 November 1978
WRITER: David Fisher
DIRECTOR: Michael Hayes
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

The Tardis lands on the planet Tara searching for the fourth segment of the Key to Time. The Doctor sends Romana to complete the task while he takes a day off to go fishing. She quickly finds the fourth segment disguised as a statue and uses the tracer to transmutate it back to it's crystal form. However she is attacked by a Taran woodbeast and then saved by Count Grendel of Gracht who, interested in her and the crystal, takes her back to his castle. The Doctor is found on the river by two swordsman and accused of trespass on Prince Reynart's hunting estate. Hearing that he is a Doctor they ask him to look at their damaged android. Romana is taken to Madam Zamia, Count Grendel's surgeon/engineer to be checked out. They marvel at her and have her restrained. Grendel orders Romana disassembled but orders that her head is kept because it's "quite remarkable". Taken to a hunting lodge, the Doctor is introduced to Prince Reynart and his damaged android. Zamia & Grendel realise Romana is flesh & blood, and not an Android as they had thought. Reynart intends to use his android to prevent an assassination attempt on him at his coronation from Count Grendel. The only other contender for the throne, Princess Stella has disappeared. Grendel has Romana drugged. The Doctor demonstrates the repaired android duplicate of the prince and after it leaves the room they celebrate with a glass of wine. Soon however all collapse, drugged by their drink, as Count Grendel arrives.....

Oh that was fun. Looked nice, especially the location stuff, a decent bit of humour to the script and sets up the story with political intrigue, missing princesses and android duplicates. Been a while since I watched this story but that was good, competent stuff. I remember the swords with their electric charges vividly from when I was younger.

We saw the Doctor emerge from the Tardis in robot in a variety of costumes, and many a companion has walked into the console room wearing a new outfit but I think this is the first time we see the actual Tardis Wardrobe as Romana chooses an appropriate dress to wear on Tara. Unfortunately what she picks is hideous and the dress she's wearing at the start of the episode, reused from the Ribos Operation, is much better!

This episode aired 2 days after the fifteenth anniversary of the first episode of Doctor Who being shown.

I've never read The Prisoner of Zenda or seen any of it's many adaptations but homages to it, like this Doctor Who story, abound. I know enough to know it's something about political intrigue, a marriage and at least one double. In fact only last night I was, without any forward planning on my part, watching Futurama season 5 episode The Prisoner of Benda which also uses Zenda as inspiration and tosses in some mind swapping and the Harlem Globetrotters! Order it on DVD or Blu-ray.

491 The Stones of Blood Part Four

EPISODE: The Stones of Blood Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 491
STORY NUMBER: 100
TRANSMITTED: 18 November 1978
WRITER: David Fisher
DIRECTOR: Darrol Blake
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

The Megara intervene saving the Doctor and put him on trial, with the Doctor conducting his own defence. During the trial he coerces them to scan the mind of Vivian Fay proving that she is Cessair of Diplos, the criminal they have been hunting. They are all transported back to the stone circle, where the Doctor seizes Cessair's pendant, the source of her powers. The Megara transform her into stone before the Doctor uses the pendant, actually the third segment, to return them to their ship in Hyper Space. Bidding farewell to the Professor the Doctor, Romana & K-9 return to the Tardis to transform the segment into it's natural form and attempt to combine it with the first two.....

Some nice fun and games this episode, especially where The Doctor pulls the Judges wig from his pocket but it's not a touch on the previous ones. In fact the whole story is a bit of a game of two halves with lots of Gothic horror in the first half and a sterile space ship in the second. For me, at least, the first half is the superior of the two.

Stones of Blood was novelised in Terrance Dicks and published in March 1980. Target books are at present being turned into audiobooks but Stones of Blood, uniquely, uses a new adaptation for it's audiobook release penned by original author David Fisher in preference to the original novelization.

Stones of Blood was released on video in May 1995 on the same day as the Androids of Tara to form the second pair of stories from the Key to Time season released, with The Ribos Operation & The Pirate Planet coming out the previous month and Power of Kroll & Armageddon Factor the next. The Key To Time season was a set of releases which came with a specially designed spine picture that ran over all six title. While there has never been a video boxset release of the Key To Time, it's only ever been available as a boxset on DVD. In October 2002 all six Key To Time stories were released in Region 1 with minimal extras & restoration to help satisfy the American demand for Tom Baker stories. The Key to Time was then released as a special edition, numbered & limited to 15,000 with brand new extras in Region 2 on the 24th September 2007, which sold out very quickly with this set commanding a premium price on eBay for quite some time. The Key to Time Box Set was reissued in a non limited edition in November 2009 and can now be had for a very reasonable price.

490 The Stones of Blood Part Three

EPISODE: The Stones of Blood Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 490
STORY NUMBER: 100
TRANSMITTED: 11 November 1978
WRITER: David Fisher
DIRECTOR: Darrol Blake
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

Arriving at the stones Miss Fay attempts to ensure the Doctor's non-interference by using holding Romana hostage before disappearing. The Stone Creatures, which the Doctor identifies as Ogri, attack & kill two campers nearby absorbing their blood. The Doctor builds a machine to transport himself into Hyperspace, where he deduces Romana is being kept. He finds her but accidentally releases the Megara, justice machines who were to judge the prisoner, Cessair of Diplos, who was being taken for trial. However she has somehow escaped and the crew have been killed leaving the Megara trapped. They charge the Doctor with having broken laws by releasing them but while the argue a point of order the Doctor & Romana escape to the point he hopes Professor Rumford will transport them home from. However the waiting Professor & K-9 have been attacked by Vivian Fay and the Ogri, destroying the Doctor's device. She transports herself & the Ogri to the ship in Hyperspace where she tells the Doctor & Romana that they are trapped and she will destroy them!

There's a fabulous contrast between the stark brightly lit spaceship and the scenes on Earth. Although the spaceship model isn't one of Matt Irvine's best efforts (those are obviously microphones on the back) the shots mixing the Doctor in the ship, seen through a window with the surrounding Hyperspace are great and the musical cue that Dudley Simpson uses throughout the spaceship scenes is fab. Yes that's a Kraal android in the cell with Romana. And out old friends the Triangular/Hexagonal Wall Panels (first seen in the Mutants) and the UFO Moonbase control banks. The control screens on the ship are a bit interesting: is that the first time we've seen real, albeit primitive, computer graphics in the show? Liz was mightily amused by the silly sound effect as the Doctor powers up his "transporting to Hyperspace" gun/device which she looked at and said "it's pinky purple with a ridgey bit and a big bulbous end - it's a willy!" before insisting I put that comment in! However the Megara are a rather nice effect, far superior to a similar one seen during the previous season.

Like the previous story there's no actors involved who've been in Doctor Who before and only one of them appears later: Shirin Taylor, playing the camper here in the 100th story, later returns as a customer in Dragonfire, the 150th story. Phil would like it noted that it's easy to confuse actress Susan Engel, Vivian Fay, with BBC presenter Su Ingle, of Wildtrack & Tomorrow's World!

Behind the scenes director Darrol Blake is helming his first & only Doctor Who story. Also on debut is experienced writer David Fisher. He'd worked with Script Editor Anthony Read before on The Troubleshooters, a series that Read had Script Edited & Produced. Fisher will become the second Doctor Who author to write two consecutive stories after Chris Boucher who wrote Face of Evil & Robots of Death. Indeed as we'll see he very nearly became the first person to write two sets of consecutive stories with Nightmare of Eden & The Gamble With Time. Alas personal circumstances intervened and A Gamble of Time was passed to other hands to finish.....

489 The Stones of Blood Part Two

EPISODE: The Stones of Blood Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 489
STORY NUMBER: 100
TRANSMITTED: 04 November 1978
WRITER: David Fisher
DIRECTOR: Darrol Blake
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

The Doctor is taken to the stones for sacrifice but is saved when Professor Rumford arrives scaring the cultists away. The Doctor summons K-9 and together the two of them track her to the cliff edge where she is desperately hanging on and rescue her. On hearing her story the Doctor wonders if someone is harnessing the powers of the third segment of the Key To Time. The Doctor leaves Romana to research Vivian & Amelia's library on the stone circle and goes to visit Mr De Vries at Boscombe Hall. On his arrival he & K-9 find the inhabitants dead and are attacked by a giant mobile stone which K-9 repels. Joined by Professor Rumford the Doctor searches the house and finds a number of missing paintings of previous owners all of which are identical to Miss Fay. At the stone circle a masked woman brings another stone, which she calls an Ogri, to life with blood taken from De Vries & his wife. Romana returns to the circle and finds Miss Fay in the costume who raises her staff blasting Romana who vanishes....

Cracking episode, lots of Gothic horror overtones. Tom's obviously enjoying himself acting opposite Beatrix Lehman (Professor Rumford). Unfortunately the shots of Romana hanging over the cliff and her sitting with the Doctor afterwards aren't the greatest CSO the world has ever seen!

The episode itself is set near the sea despite my Wife's protests that the Vegetation doesn't look cliff top. That's because location filming for this story took place in Oxfordshire not that far short of the furthest distance from the sea in England! Rollright Stones stand in for the Nine Travellers with the nearby Little Rollright Quarry providing the slightly suspect cliff edge and The Manor, Little Compton providing De Vries home. Actually given how close these locations are each other and to where I live, I really must go and have a look!

488 The Stones of Blood Part One

EPISODE: The Stones of Blood Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 488
STORY NUMBER: 100
TRANSMITTED: 28 October 1978
WRITER: David Fisher
DIRECTOR: Darrol Blake
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

The Doctor & Romana are trying to assemble the first two segments of the Key To Time when they are warned by the White Guardian to beware of the Black Guardian, causing the Doctor to reveal to Romana that the White Guardian, not the Time Lord president, had sent her on the quest. On Earth the Nine Travellers, a stone circle, is being used by night by a druidic cult worshipping the Cailleach. The next morning the Doctor & Romana arrive nearby, but the Doctor berates Romana on her choice of high heeled shoes for her first visit to planet Earth. She soon regrets her decision and they stop & rest at the Nine Travellers where they meet Professor Amelia Rumford and her friend, Vivien Fay, who are surveying the stones. Discovering blood at the scene the Doctor is informed that the site is used by a cult, and goes to meet it's leader, de Vries, who lives in the nearby Boscombe Hall. De Vries drugs him and prepares to use him as a sacrifice to the Cailleach. Romana, waiting for the Doctor at the stones, hears his voice calling her and follows the sound. She is confronted by an apparition of the Doctor and pushed over a cliff edge.....

Welcome to the 100th Doctor Who story! This is the first of several major milestones for the series this season. Apparently the initial intention was that the episode would start with the Doctor celebrating his Birthday and cutting a cake as a recognition of the story's significance but the scene was vetoed. Instead we get some decent Tardis scenes between The Doctor, Romana, and the otherwise absent K-9 before ending up on Earth with Professor Amelia Rumford and Vivien Fay.....

I first watched this story as a young & innocent five year old so some of the subtext may have been beyond me. The first time we saw this story together Liz took great pleasure in pointing out how unobservant I was and that there might be more to the relationship between Professor Amelia Rumford and her "friend", Vivien Fay than I had previously noticed.....

487 The Pirate Planet Part Four

EPISODE: The Pirate Planet Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 487
STORY NUMBER: 099
TRANSMITTED: 21 October 1978
WRITER: Douglas Adams
DIRECTOR: Pennant Roberts
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

The Doctor stands in the doorway laughing, proclaiming he has discovered the secret, demonstrating a solid hologram oprojector he used to duplicate himself. He tries to turn the Nurse off but she says she has nearly achieved corporeal form. The Mentiads gain entry to the Bridge allowing Romana to get inside. Under the Nurse's instruction Mr Fibuli finishes creating the machine to block the Mentiads powers leaving them vulnerable to the guards. The Doctor identifies the Nurse as Queen Xanxia, but tells her that her new body is unstable and will never achieve full corporeal form. She takes control of the Captain and seals the Bridge. The Doctor is appalled that they intend to jump to Earth next, and engineers his escape. K-9 sets up an interference wave against the jamming machine allowing the Mentiads to try to get into the engine room. The Doctor returns to the Tardis and prevents Zanak from materialising on Earth. He directs the Mentiads to use their Psychic powers to lift a spanner, destroying equipment in the engine room and damaging the bridge, killing Mr Fibuli. The Tardis materialises in the Bridge. The Doctor explains that Calufrax is the second segment of the Key to Time. The Captain tries to kill Xanxia but she kills him, and her new body is shot by Kimus. The Doctor sends everyone away, Romana returning to the Tardis with K-9. The Doctor frees the shrunken planets inflating them inside Zanak's hollow shell flinging Calufrax into the space/time vortex to be retrieved later. He and Romana lay explosives, which the Mentiads detonate destroying the the Bridge & Time Dams.

Ah that was good. Fast moving, lots of the Doctor being very clever and a satisfying resolution to the story. The Nurse, Rosalind Lloyd, isn't even in the first episode and as the story goes on her role gets larger & develops until it's revealed she's the reincarnation of Queen Xanxia and she takes full charge. We get the Captain revealed to be just her puppet, but a puppet that's trying to rebel against his mistress. And then, right at the end, we get a nice large explosion. Fabulous stuff, one of my favourite Doctor Who stories.

The Pirate Planet is the first story we've watched not to be novelised for Target Books. Douglas Adams was keen to novelise his three stories himself and wouldn't let anyone else do them. But then he became busy, and then became famous and the fees Target books would need to pay for his services shot up waaaay beyond the budgets for the range. So Pirate Planet, City of Death & Shada went un-novelised, alongside Resurrection of the Daleks & Revelation of the Daleks, Eric Saward's two Dalek stories allegedly due to the cut of the fees demanded by Terry Nation for the use of his creations. A fan adaptation of Pirate Planet exists and can be found at The New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club.

I mentioned during the first episode of the story that Pirate Planet was the first Doctor Who story I saw all the way through aged 5 and a bit. A few days after watching it for the blog I discovered my DVD was missing, taken off the shelf by my 5 year old son Jonathan. After he remembered where he'd put it (and the Invisible Enemy & Hand of Fear) we put it on and he watched it right the way through, the first whole story he's watched!

The Pirate Planet was released on video in April 1995 on the same day as the Ribos Operation, with Stones of Blood & Androids of Tara following the next month and finally Power of Kroll & Armageddon Factor in June completing the Key To Time season, a set of releases which came with a specially designed spine picture that ran over all six title. While there has never been a video boxset release of the Key To Time, it's only ever been available as a boxset on DVD. In October 2002 all six Key To Time stories were released in Region 1 with minimal extras & restoration to help satisfy the American demand for Tom Baker stories. The Key to Time was then released as a special edition, numbered & limited to 15,000 with brand new extras in Region 2 on the 24th September 2007, which sold out very quickly with this set commanding a premium price on eBay for quite some time. The Key to Time Box Set was reissued in a non limited edition in November 2009 and can now be had for a very reasonable price.

486 The Pirate Planet Part Three

EPISODE: The Pirate Planet Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 486
STORY NUMBER: 099
TRANSMITTED: 14 October 1978
WRITER: Douglas Adams
DIRECTOR: Pennant Roberts
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

The Mentiads rescue the Doctor, Kimus & Romana and take them back to their home where Mula & K-9 await. The Captain punishes the guard responsible by killing him. The Doctor explains to the Mentiads what Zanak does. Mr Fibuli comes up with a way of neutralising the Mentiads powers using minerals found on Calufrax. The Mentiads tell The Doctor of Zanak's history and the arrival of the Captain in a spaceship crash. K-9 detects that the Captain has stepped up mining operations. The nurse, sitting in the Captain's chair, is pleased at the work he is undertaking. The Doctor & Kimus are captured trying to steel an aircar and are taken to the Bridge. Mr Fibuli traces the mineral they need to repair Zanak to Earth and make preparations to jump there & consume it bringing them, as he confirms to the Nurse, closer to achieving their objective. K-9 steals an aircar and follows the Doctor to the Bridge. The Captain confronts the Doctor and shows him his trophy room, a collection of planets mined and crushed down to small spheres. The Doctor wonders what it is for, but they are interrupted by the approach to the Bridge of the Mentiads. The Captain sends his robot parrot, Polyphaseavatron, to kill Kimus but K-9 arrives and chases it through the corridor, allowing the Doctor & Kimus to escape, sealing the Captain and his crew in the bridge. Breaking into a locked chamber they find Queen Xanxia suspended in the last few seconds of life by the energy drained from the planets Zanak has consumed. K-9 destroys Polyphaseavatron, and he & Kimus are sent to destroy the engine room. The Doctor goes to confront the Captain, enraging him when he presents him with the remains of his pet. Opening the bridge windows a plank is extended and the Doctor forced along it falling of the end to plunge to his doom 1000 feet bellow.....

How's that for a cliffhanger? The Doctor has just plunged to his death? How's he going to get out of that? Saved by someone in an aircar? Of course I've seen part 4 and I know how this is going to end... But what I had never noticed before was the Doctor finding the means in Queen Xanxia's chamber.

As we mentioned in Part 1, Douglas Adams was at the time this story was made working on the radio version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which was later followed by the Television version. Unsurprisingly a few of the cast, which is largely the same over both media, have Doctor Who connections:

Simon Jones (Seven Keys to Doomsday Stage Play) as Arthur Dent
Sandra Dickinson (Fifth Doctor Peter Davison's Wife) as Trillian
Stephen Moore (Eldane in Big Finish Production Cold Blood) as Marvin
Valentine Dyall (Black Guardian) as Deep Thought
Jack May (General Hermack, The Space Pirates) as the Head Waiter
Dave Prowse (Minotaur, Time Monster) as Hotblack Desiatro's bodyguard
Colin Jeavons (Damon, The Underwater Menace) as Max Quordlepleen
Peter Davison as The Dish of the Day
Peter Hawkins (Many Daleks) as the radio version of Frankie Mouse.
David Rowlands (Bisham in the Sunmakers) as the Hairdresser
Aubrey Roberts (Controller, Day of the Daleks) as the B Ark Captain
Geofrey Beevers (Melkur & The Master, Keeper of Traken) as Number Three

485 The Pirate Planet Part Two

EPISODE: The Pirate Planet Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 485
STORY NUMBER: 099
TRANSMITTED: 07 October 1978
WRITER: Douglas Adams
DIRECTOR: Pennant Roberts
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

The Captain rages at his crew for their failure to find the rogue telepath and has Polyphaseavatron, his pet robot parrot, kill one as an example. The Doctor comes round and decides to track the Mentiads, but when he learns of Romana's arrest he has to rescue her. Romana is taken by aircar to the bridge, Mula & K-9 seek Pralix while the Doctor & Kimus hijack the Captain's aircar to follow Romana. Mr Fibuli reports the macromat field integrator has burnt out so Zanak has only one jump left. A particular mineral will do the job instead. The Captain is enraged, as Romana is bought in. Kimus tell The Doctor about the automated mines that fill up when empty when the Captain announces a new golden age and the light in the sky change. The Captain dismisses Romana's story and becomes enraged, but is ordered to calm down by his nurse who wants to hear more of Romana's story. The Doctor leaves Kimus guarding the aircar and breaks into the bridge, arriving as Romana tells the Captain he's needed to repair the field integrator. They are taken to the engine room bellow, a vast room filled with machinery. Taking a tracer reading Romana discovers the second segment appears to be everywhere. The guards are ordered to take the Doctor & Romana back to the Tardis for some equipment but they are freed by Kimus who takes them to the mines. Using an ancient lift they travel to the workings bellow. Detecting them, the Captain orders them obliterated. Three miles bellow the surface of Zanak, The Doctor, Kimus & Romana find themselves on icy frozen ground: the surface of the planet Calufrax. Zanak is a hollow shell that moves round the galaxy mining other planets. Bandragonus 5, the home of the rare Oolian previously suffered this fate. The guards find them, and they flee into the tunnels only to be found by the Mentiads!

Great stuff again, love it. I do wonder if the props department have an off day: that's a trail of liquorice allsorts that the Doctor is scattering for the guard to follow away from the Captain's Aircar. And why we're on the subject, what's the Captain's aircar doing in the city? He's up on the Bridge which overlooks it! Oh and on the subject of the Aircars in general, the words of Jim Bowen spring to mind: "Let's have a look at what we could of won...... Oooooh, it's the speedboat!" That's what they look like, a small speedboat dressed up with a few extra bits on! Also where did the gun in the Baladon's house come from? Kimus grabs it when you're busy looking elsewhere.... ah, got it, it belongs to one of the guards that K-9 stuns at the end of the previous episode. Having hinted at the what's going on in the previous episode they come out and reveal the big secret here: Zanak's a hollow shell materialising round planets and draining them dry. A genius concept and we're not done with it yet either.....

Lots of the locations for this story are featured in this episode: Gellifelen Railway Tunnels forms the entrance to the Bridge, while the interior of Berkeley Power Station is the Bridge's engine room. The Big Pit, now home to the National Coal Museum, forms the entrance to the mines while the mine interior is portrayed by the extensive cave system that now forms The National Showcaves Centre for Wales. For the nearby locations used in other episodes of the story see http://www.doctorwholocations.net/stories/pirateplanet.

Here's what I think is a first: None of the guest cast have been in any other episode of original Doctor Who (although one spoils it slightly by later appearing in the new series!) There is a lots of Blake's 7 on people's CVs. Bruce Purchase plays The Captain was in the Blake's 7 episode The Keeper as Gola as well as playing Ali Pashar in the last two episodes of the second series of The Tripods. Andrew Robertson, here playing Mr Fibuli was in Blake's 7: Hostage as the Space Commander. Primi Townsend, Mula, was in Blake's 7: Powerplay as Zee. Finally the actor playing Praxis, David Sibley, appears in Blake's 7:Death Watch as the Commentator. Wikipedia reckons that Ralph Michael, here playing Balaton, was in Blake's 7: Assassin but neither Wikipedia's Blake's 7 episode guide, Ralph Michael's IMDB entry or the end credits of the episode itself agree with this assertion. Depending on who you believe David Warwick, playing Kimus, is either the former partner (wikipedia) or Husband (Tardis Index File) of former companion Louise Jameson. Trying to assert which is correct (I didn't, so I've credited both contradictory sources) I also discovered that David Warwick's IMDB entry and The Daily Mail also seem to disagree as to who the Father of her Children is .....

484 The Pirate Planet Part One

EPISODE: The Pirate Planet Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 484
STORY NUMBER: 099
TRANSMITTED: 30 September 1978
WRITER: Douglas Adams Yes *THAT* Douglas Adams!!!
DIRECTOR: Pennant Roberts
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

On the Bridge of the planet Zanak, Mr Fibuli reports the success of their mining operations to the Captain. He has found a new source of minerals that they need and is ordered to make preparations. The Captain speaks to the citizens and declares the dawning of a new golden age. In a cavern a group of yellow robed people observe an individual in a crowd, Pralix, having found another for their number. In the Tardis Romana is familiarising herself with the Tardis manual. The Tracer has selected Calufrax as their next destination and the location of the second segment of the Key to Time. After an argument on how to operate the Tardis the Doctor tries to land, but the Tardis suffers disruption. At the same time problems are being encountered on the planet Zanak's bridge. The Doctor believes something has jammed their materialisation, but when Romana tries the Tardis materialises smoothly. However when they examine the scanner screen they see a planet very different from the dingy planet Calufrax the Doctor is expecting. The robed group in the caves chant "Life force dying" as Pralix writhes in agony to the distress of his family: Grandfather Baladon, sister Mula and her boyfriend Kimus. The Doctor tries to speak to the local populace, but they all ignore him. Romana has better fortune as one of the citizens describes the omens to her, gives her precious gems in return for Jelly babies, and warns them to watch out for Mentiads. K-9 confirms the gems are genuine and identifies the rare stone Oolian, only found on two places, one of which Bandragonus 5 the Doctor has heard of frequently. The youngsters complain about their lack of freedom but Baladon tells them it was worse under his predecessor Queen Xanxia. The Mentiads travel to harvest Pralix and swear vengeance for the crimes of Zanak. Hearing Pralix cries the Doctor investigates. Romana is captured by guards for being a stranger and using a telescope which is forbidden, but she sends K-9 to fetch the Doctor. The Doctor speaks to his parrot, longing his freedom when what his doing is finished. The Mentiads are detected and the guards sent to find & kill the new telepath. Guards attack the Mentiads but their weapons have no effect enraging the Captain's. Mula tells the Doctor Primus goes into this sort of shock every time the Captain announces a new golden age. The Captain spots K-9 on a monitor and dispatches guards who K-9 stuns. The Mentiads arrive and, proving immune to K-9's blaster, telepathically strike the Doctor down.

Full disclosure of bias: Pirate Planet is the first Doctor Who story I saw right the way through and the first I saw repeated. The thing that caught my eye back then is the Captain: a cyborg space pirate, machinery replacing one side of his body and overacting in a way that only the words "Brian Blessed" will quite cover. Super work from director Pennant Roberts only showing bits of the Captain through the first scene and hiding the full reveal of him as a cyborg till towards the end of that scene. We've got something odd happening when the Tardis materialises, the Captain yearning to complete something and the mysterious Mentiads. And, after a brief mention at the start, the search for the second segment in the background.

But the writer.... Yes Douglas Adams wrote for Doctor Who. In fact he did slightly more than that as we'll discover in about 3 weeks time. Born 11 March 1952, and having studied English at St John's College, Cambridge. He'd spent some years trying to break into comedy, including a stint writing with Graham Chapman of Monty Python fame (he appears in Monty Python episodes 42 & 44 and has a writing credit on episode 45, one of only two non Pythons to be credited on the series). After a number of odd jobs while selling a few radio sketches he was commissioned to write a pilot show for Radio 4. While waiting to see if it would be taken up as a serial he sent the script to the Doctor Who office who commissioned him for a serial..... at about the same time as his radio series was commissioned. The Doctor Who scripts, even when they were edited down, were considered to be unrecordable and would have been binned but for a spirited defence by director Pennant Roberts who believed they were possible to film. He was right and the result is superb.

And the Radio Show? The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. We shall hear much more of this shortly.

483 The Ribos Operation Part Four

EPISODE: The Ribos Operation Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 483
STORY NUMBER: 098
TRANSMITTED: 23 September 1978
WRITER: Robert Holmes
DIRECTOR: George Spenton-Foster
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

The Graff goes to fetch the Seeker to assist their search and demands the Shrieve captain bring her to him. Binro volunteers to go back to search for Garron taking Unstoffe's communicator. Garron steals the tracer from Romana and uses it to find Unstoffe. The Doctor sneaks away leaving Romana with K-9. The Seeker starts making predictions of death for the Graff's party. They find Binro in the tunnels and bring him with them. Enraged at their treatment the Shrieve captain sets a cannon up at the entrance of the catacombs. The Graff's party find Garron & Unstoffe and kill Binro. A shrivenzale attacks the party and the Shrieve captain seals the catacombs with his cannon, bringing the roof down on the chamber the Graff's party is in, killing the Graff's lieutenant Shellack. Garron & Unstoffe are trapped and the Jethrik seized by the Graff. K-9 digs Garron & Unstoffe out enabling Romana to retrieve the tracer. The Graff kills the Seeker and gives his final soldier an explosive before loosing his sanity & trying to escape. The Graff detonates the device, killing himself who is carrying the explosives that have been swapped for the Jethrik by the guard is revealed to be the Doctor. The Doctor, Romana & K-9 leave the planet with the Jethrik which the Tracer transforms into the first segment of the Key To Time.

That episode is a bit Doctor-lite: he spends half the episode disguised as a guard while the Graff rants and rages with nobody else knowing what's happened to him. Romana and K-9 are pushed to one side too so essentially the final act in this little drama is played out amongst the characters that Robert Holmes has invented for the story until the Doctor performs two slights of hand, first substituting the explosives for the Jethrik and then beating conman Garron at his own game.

The Ribos Operation has never really appealed to me before, beyond doing a story set in snow - I love snowy background. This with the costumes and sets invokes a Russian Winter feel to the story, indeed Ribos is an anagram of Boris, a popular Russian name and a reference to someone from that country. This time round it worked for me, with the guest cast members' performances particularly catching my attention.

The Ribos Operation was novelised by Ian Marter in 1979. It was released on video in April 1995 on the same day as the Pirate Planet, with Stones of Blood & Androids of Tara following the next month and finally Power of Kroll & Armageddon Factor in June completing the Key To Time season, a set of releases which came with a specially designed spine picture that ran over all six title. While there has never been a video boxset release of the Key To Time, it's only ever been available as a boxset on DVD. In October 2002 all six Key To Time stories were released in Region 1 with minimal extras & restoration to help satisfy the American demand for Tom Baker stories. The Key to Time was then released as a special edition, numbered & limited to 15,000 with brand new extras in Region 2 on the 24th September 2007, which sold out very quickly with this set commanding a premium price on eBay for quite some time. The Key to Time Box Set was reissued in a non limited edition in November 2009 and can now be had for a very reasonable price.

It's Douglas Adams time tomorrow and the first story I saw all the way through on original transmission!

482 The Ribos Operation Part Three

EPISODE: The Ribos Operation Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 482
STORY NUMBER: 098
TRANSMITTED: 16 September 1978
WRITER: Robert Holmes
DIRECTOR: George Spenton-Foster
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

They are taken to the Graff's quarters as the guards survey the strong room and notice the absence of the gold, but when the Graffe notices the Jethrik is gone the guard captain denies all knowledge of it. Unstoffe attempts to contact Garron. The Doctor summons K-9 using his silent dog whistle. The guards search for Unstoffe but he is sheltered by Binro the heretic. The guards summon the seeker, a local mystic, to find the missing gold and the Graff summons his own guards. Garron tells the Doctor & Romana about his past & his methods then the history of the Graff. One of the guards is left behind with orders to the kill the prisoners at dawn. Binro tells Unstoffe of his belief that the lights in the sky are not Ice Crystals, as the people of Ribos believe, but Stars and how he was persecuted for his beliefs. Unstoffe tells him that what he believes is true delighting the old man. The Doctor repairs Garron's damaged communicator using the listening device enabling them to warn Unstoffe that the guards are coming for him, just as K-9 arrives and frees them. Unstoffe goes to hide in the catacombs with Binro. The Doctor & Romana take a tracer reading and realise that the Jethrik is the first segment. The Shrieve guards refuse to go to the catacombs for the Graff's gold, believing the Ice Gods live there. Garron, The Doctor, Romana & K-9 pursue Unstoffe into the catacombs but are cornered by the Graff and his men.

There's some lovely stuff here: the obviously bonkers Seeker and the considered bonkers, but right, Binro the heretic standing out. But I'm afraid one moment from this episode stands out for me beyond all others: The Doctor blows his silent dog whistle and out of the Tardis, into the snow, comes K-9. You see on the 16th September 1978 I was there watching and that scene is just etched into my mind. I'd got over my fear of the program, caused by the summer's repeat of the Dalek Invasion of Earth and had finally watched this program that friends and relatives were fans of. And something I saw hooked me and I kept coming back. Bar an odd gap in Power of Kroll I can remember the rest of this season really well.

So knowing this episode was coming up I rang my Mum and asked her when we got a television. She's not sure. I can remember not having one, but she can remember us having one in the run up to my second brother being born in October 1977 so I guess we'd have had it for a year and a bit by this point. The television I watched was mainly BBC: Play School, The Clangers, Ivor the Engine and You & Me stand out. I know I would have watched Scooby Doo and other Hanna Barbera cartoons. I can remember Peter Purves presenting Blue Peter which suggests I was watching that by then. On ITV the only things I can remember watching Pipkins, featuring Hartley Hare, and Rainbow. So it was really just Children's programs - I was after all 5 at the time. But from these I can remember very little particular incident. However the sequence from this episode, described above, is clear as day to me. And some things from Pirate Planet, thanks to a repeat, are even clearer.

So from this point on my view of everything - nearly everything - will be shaped by having seen it as I was growing up. In a couple of stories this will shape my thinking somewhat and may lead to opinions that aren't what you might expect approaching something from new now or as an adult.

Binro the heretic is played by Timothy Bateson, another well known actor making his only Doctor Who appearance with a CV as long as his arm. The Seeker is played by Anne Tirard who was Locusta, the palace poisoner, in The Romans.

481 The Ribos Operation Part Two

EPISODE: The Ribos Operation Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 481
STORY NUMBER: 098
TRANSMITTED: 09 September 1978
WRITER: Robert Holmes
DIRECTOR: George Spenton-Foster
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

The Guards accidentally save the Doctor & Romana. Garron presents himself as a merchant to the guard captain and arranges for the Graff's money to be kept in the strong room with the jewels. The Doctor is intrigued by Garron and wonders if he's a crook or an agent of the Black Guardian. Garron shows the Graff the Crown Jewels, but his interest is taken by the Jethrik. Unstoffe, posing as a guard, spins the Graff a tale concerning a lost Jethrik mine and shows him a map. The Doctor & Romana overhear the conversation and conclude that Garron & Unstoffe are conducting a con. Garron tries to get a sizeable deposit from the Graff. The Doctor finds the entrance Garron & Unstoffe used to plant the gemstone and decide to lie in wait for Garron & Unstoffe. The Graff finds a bug in his room and becomes suspicious, but still gives Garron a deposit of 1 million Opecs which all concerned see safely deposited in the strong room. Come night time Unstoffe breaks back into the strong room to retrieve the money & the Jethrik. The Doctor disturbs him and is locked in the strong room, but escapes using the shaft Garron & Unstoffe used. He finds Garron, and Romana watching the conman, but all three are caught by the Graff Vynda K and ordered too be executed.

I'm rather enjoying this. This episode makes it obvious that Garron & Unstoffe are con men. Unfortunately it looks like they've been rumbled and that's put the Doctor & Romana in danger.

Playing conman Garron is famous actor Iain Cuthbertson, while his stooge Unstoffe is Nigel Plaskitt. Primary known for his work as a puppeteer on shows such as Pipkins and Spitting Image he was known for a role in a series of adverts for Vicks in the 1970s. Returning as the Shrieve guard Captain is Prentis Hancock who'd previously been in Spearhead from Space as a reporter , Planet of the Daleks as Vaber and Planet of Evil as Salamar but was best known for playing Paul Morrow in Space 1999.
Paul Seed, playing the Graff Vynda-K, is now best known as a director having helmed many productions including House of Cards. At the time Seed owned a dog which would perform a trick with a sausage, which Seed demonstrated to Tom Baker. Baker attempted to replicate the trick resulting in him getting bitten on the lip creating the wound which can be seen in this series and the location filming for the next.

HUGE episode for me tomorrow.

480 The Ribos Operation Part One

EPISODE: The Ribos Operation Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 480
STORY NUMBER: 098
TRANSMITTED: 02 September 1978
WRITER: Robert Holmes
DIRECTOR: George Spenton-Foster
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

The Doctor is planning a holiday for himself & K-9 when he is brought to the realm of the White Guardian who charges him with recovering the six segments of the all powerful Key to Time which are scattered & hidden throughout the cosmos. They are all disguised so the Doctor will be given a locator device and a new assistant, Romana. The Black Guardian will be seeking to stop the Doctor in his quest. He meets his new assistant, the Time Lady Romana, when he returns to the Tardis. The locator core guides the Tardis to the planet the first segment can be found on.

On the planet Ribos, Garron and Unstoffe break into the building holding the crown jewels with Unstoffe depositing a lump of valuable mineral Jethrik into as cabinet. Unstoffe meets the newly arrived visiting dignitary the Graff Vynda-K. Garron is attempting to sell Ribos to the Graff but the Graff is unwilling to pay the price Unstoffe is asking. The Graff discovers a reference the amount of Jethrik on the planet and becomes much more interested: The jethrik when mined would help pay for a campaign to regain his crown & homeworld. The Doctor & Romana break into the state strong room, locating the segment of the Key in the cabinet housing the crown jewels but as they try to open it Unstoffe sounds an alarm causing the Doctor & Romana to be trapped with the shrivenzale, the fierce local beast who guards the chamber.

It's a game of two halves today: the first part of the episode is 100% set up for the season giving the Doctor his quest & introducing his new companion, and the second is the start of the the first part of the quest where two sets of people in the space of an episode try to break into the strong room containing the crown jewels. Neither escape with the crown: Unstoffe leaves the Jethrik behind, immediately making you suspicious of everything involving the mineral afterwards, and the Doctor & Romana get trapped in there with the beast guarding the jewels.

After becoming producer Graham Williams had become concerned about the random nature of the Doctor's travels. He came up with the idea of The Key To Time as a quest to guide the Doctor's journey. There had been loose links between stories before, notably in the early days of the show, and more obviously in Tom Baker's first season where each story leads into the next. Here the structure is more deliberate.

In this episode Cyril Luckham plays the White Guardian, a powerful being previously unmentioned in the series. The Guardians' roles & positions in the scheme of things are never truly revealed. He'll be back in Enlightenment but before then we'll be meeting his opposite number.

With Louise Jameson's departure at the end of Invasion of Time a new companion was needed. Mary Tamm was cast as Time Lady Romanadvoratrelundar, or Romana as the Doctor eventually settles on calling her. You can make a decent argument that she is, at this early stage, a slightly better developed version of Rodan from the previous story..... We know Invasion of Time was something of a rush but I wonder if any thought was given to having that character run away with the Doctor at the end of it? Romana believes that she's been sent on her mission by the Time Lord president. Technically isn't that the Doctor? He wasn't shown to relinquish the role in Invasion of Time, though he had lost all memory of being president. The most obvious candidate for Time Lord presidency would be the chancellor, Borusa, who has risen up the ranks in the last two Time Lord stories. Sure enough when we next return to Gallifrey, he's assumed that role.

479 The Invasion of Time Part Six

EPISODE: The Invasion of Time Part Six
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 479
STORY NUMBER: 097
TRANSMITTED: 11 March 1978
WRITER: David Agnew (a.k.a. Graham Williams and Anthony Read)
DIRECTOR: Gerald Blake
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Invasion Of Time

The Doctor throws the fail safe switch on his Tardis. Kelner fetches the keys so the Sontarans can gain access but the Doctor and his friends flee into the interior. K-9 & Rodan, under hypnosis construct a weapon in the workshop. The Sontarans pursue the Doctor through the Tardis. Borusa realises the the Doctor has had Rodan build the ultimate weapon, the D-Mat gun. The Doctor takes it to the Panoptican where Stor is threatening to destroy the Galaxy. The Doctor shoots him with the D-Mat gun destroying Stor and his explosives, but in the process wiping the Doctor's memory of recent events. Leela elects to remain on Gallifrey with Andred, who she has fallen in love with and K-9 stays with her. The Doctor, alone in the Tardis, starts work on K-9 mark II.

Let's spend an episode running round the Tardis..... of course in later times we'd get some roundel laden walls and purpose built scenery to represent the Tardis interiors but here, our most extensive exploration of the Tardis interior so far, we have to make do with the disused St Anne's hospital in Redhill. Let's just say that when I read the book, a favourite in my youth, I pictured this very differently! But over the top of the scenes, all featuring brick walls, plays the Tardis interior noise helping to try to convince us that we are actually inside the time vessel still. One location, which looks like a disused swimming pool, keeps popping up time & time again but the joke here is that lots of the Tardis looks similar and that the Doctor might not be able to find his way round his own time machine. One other location is used, the swimming pool at British Oxygen, previously seen in part 1, where the Sontarans ambush the travellers, involving a stunt fall from one which demonstrates why stuntman Stuart Fell was hired. I've no idea where Stor's sudden desire to blow up the galaxy comes from, but fortunately the Doctor has a magic gun which wipe out him & the explosives.

Then we've got Leela's departure. Louise Jameson had given plenty of notice but right up until the end producer Graham Williams had hoped she could be persuaded to stay. He then had to hurriedly write her leaving and paired her off with Andred when surely it would make more sense for her to claim leadership of the Outsiders or fall in love with one of them and build that up through the show. Apparently K-9 leaves here too because they were getting a better prop for next season that looked slightly different.... well I can't tell the difference. Anyway.... Louise Jameson goes on to star in Tenko and Bergerac. Along the way she does some prison visiting which is how she meets Leslie Grantham and encourages him into the acting profession. He later appears in Doctor Who in Resurrection of the Daleks then joins the initial cast of Eastenders, as "Dirty Den" Watts, a program Louise Jameson herself takes part in many years later.

My honest opinion of Invasion of Time is that what we get on screen is horribly flawed but there's nothing wrong with it that another run or so past a script editor (which they didn't have time for) especially to telegraph and to come up with a better explanation for Leela's departure, longer in the studio (prevented by strike action), a bit more cash and a few changes of cast wouldn't fix. It all looked and felt very different when I read the book...

Invasion of Time was novelised by Terrance Dicks in 1980. It marks the end of 11 consecutive stories which were adapted into books by Terrance Dicks. It was released on video in March 2000 and on DVD in May 2008. It was also included in the Doctor Who : Bred for War Boxset which collects The Invasion Of Time with the other three Sontaran stories: The Time Warrior, The Sontaran Experiment & The Two Doctors. Bred for War was released on 5th May 2008 to tie in with their return in the fourth series of the new Doctor Who.

This marks the end of the Fifteenth season of Doctor Who. During the summer of 1978 two stories were repeated: from the 13th July to 3rd August The Invisible Enemy was broadcast followed by the Sunmakers on 10th to 31st August. The chances are that this broadcast of the Sun Makers provides my memory of the Doctor & K-9 conferring in a tunnel. Also shown during this summer on Saturday 24 June was a repeat of the Dalek Invasion of Earth movie. M'learned colleagues at Roobarb's DVD Forum have furnished me with Dalek Invasion of Earth movie repeat dates in the 1970s (19 Aug 1972, Thu 27 Jun 1974 [replacing rained off Wimbledon] & Sat 24 Jun 1978). Given that I was born in 1973 this is the only showing I could have seen giving rise to my fear of the Daleks. I vividly recall as they moved around London & blew up a shed and as a huge ball chased a companion down a shaft..... and turning the TV over between these incidents but keep having to turn back for a peak! Despite this experience when Doctor Who returned in the autumn of 1978 I would, after a few weeks scared the Daleks might show up at any second, be persuaded to watch....

478 The Invasion of Time Part Five

EPISODE: The Invasion of Time Part Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 478
STORY NUMBER: 097
TRANSMITTED: 04 March 1978
WRITER: David Agnew (a.k.a. Graham Williams and Anthony Read)
DIRECTOR: Gerald Blake
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Invasion Of Time

Commander Stor tells the Doctor that they used the Vardans to invade. The Doctor conceals his identity and they start to search the capital for him. Borusa, who has been monitoring events, has the Sontarans attacked with a sonic weapon and the Doctor flees to his rooms. Kelner co-operates with the Sontarans just as he did with the Vardans. Borusa meets them in the Doctor's office as they arrive and they escape through a secret passage to Borusa's office where the Doctor obtains from him the Great Key of Rassilon, which has been entrusted to Time Lord chancellors for generations to prevent presidents from holding absolute power. They take refuge in the Tardis. Rodan helps the Doctor use the Tardis to patch the hole in Gallifrey's shields. Kelner remotely manipulates the stabiliser banks of the Doctor’s TARDIS to try and destroy the resistance force within by hurling them to the heart of a Black Star.

A bit of running around and not much else. Kelner's an annoying so and so isn't he? Falls quickly in with one set of invaders and then when their gone transfers his allegiance to the next. And this man is in charge of the Time Lords security and defence?

If you're thinking the name Rodan sounds familiar then it is: it's the name of one of the monsters in the Godzilla films.

This episode inadvertently sheds some light on the background to the events of the Deadly Assassin. The location of the Great Key, an enormously powerful artefact here actually shaped like a key, has been unknown to Time Lord Presidents, but in the custody of Chancellors. So, by implication, no Chancellor can serve as president. Yet that is precisely what Goth wants in Deadly Assassin. So whgy does the president not appoint him Chancellor? I assume that there's some cover-up reasoning, known only to the president, that keeps Chancellors from that office. Ironically the events of Deadly Assassin will eventually lead to a Time Lord Chancellor serving as president and, as Rassilon feared, becoming a power mad despot. Thankfully, as we will see, the great key is no longer an issue by then.

Powerful Keys may well have been on producer Graham Williams' mind at this point as he would have been preparing for the next season. Is the Great Key here a prototype for the Key To Time which we're about to see hunted for?

I know little of Derek Deadman, playing Sontaran commander Stor, beyond what his Wikipedia entry tells us. But one of his underlings is stuntman Stuart Fell who was in both The Curse of Peladon & The Monster of Peladon as Alpha Centauri, Planet of the Spiders as a tramp, The Ark in Space as a Wirrn, The Android Invasion as a Kraal, The Brain of Morbius as Morbius Monster & The Masque of Mandragora as an entertainer. He'll be back in the State of Decay as Roga and tomorrow we'll see why he was cast.

477 The Invasion of Time Part Four

EPISODE: The Invasion of Time Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 477
STORY NUMBER: 097
TRANSMITTED: 25 February 1978
WRITER: David Agnew (a.k.a. Graham Williams and Anthony Read)
DIRECTOR: Gerald Blake
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Invasion Of Time

K-9 stuns Andred and when he recovers the Doctor tells him he's trying to get the Vardans to materialise so he can trace their planet then time loop it. He believes the Matrix has been invaded. Kelner tells the Vardans that the Doctor has been behaving oddly, but they have suspected him for some time. Beyond the capital Leela is training the Outsiders in the use of weapons. The Doctor decides to dismantle the forcefield to force the Vardans to materialise. With the forcefield down the Vardans assume the humanoid physical form. The Outsiders enter the citadel and begin to attack. K-9 & Andred await the Doctor in his office and once he is inside the Vardans deduce that the Doctor has betrayed them. K-9 is given access to the Matrix as Leela & the Outsiders arrive and using it's power to send the Vardans back to their own planet. The Doctor is delighted at having beaten them but as they celebrate four Sontaran warriors appear in the Pantoptican!

A cavalcade of smut and unintentional innuendo from "if you cannot pull of a simple palace revolution what can you pull off?" through to trying to work out what that Vardan is up to under the bacofoil as it sits it the chair. We laughed our way through it.... well apart from when we weren't despairing at the actual appearance of the Vardans. Rippling Bacofoil or humans in drab uniform? Worst Monster *EVER*. Thankfully the entire shimmery monster thing will be done a bit better when they try it next year.

The Outsiders came is filmed at Beachfields Quarry in Redhill, previously a location in planet of the Daleks.

Anyway they're gone now and in their place we have our old friends the Sontarans. Having been advised by Robert Holmes to structure a six parter as Four and Two, similar to how Holmes had Robert Banks-Stewart structure Seeds of Doom, Graham Williams and Anthony Read use Holmes' own creations to finish the serial off and in the process neatly bookend the season which opened with their eternal foes, the Rutans, in Horror of Fang Rock.

476 The Invasion of Time Part Three

EPISODE: The Invasion of Time Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 476
STORY NUMBER: 097
TRANSMITTED: 18 February 1978
WRITER: David Agnew (a.k.a. Graham Williams and Anthony Read)
DIRECTOR: Gerald Blake
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Invasion Of Time

The shimmering alien invaders, named as Vardans, take control as the Doctor enquires as to if the redecorations of his office have been finished. The Vardans order the Doctor to find the great key. Finding the lead panelling in place in his rooms the Doctor is finally able to talk with Borusa his old teacher and confides in his plans. He tells him of the Vardans' plans and how the lead in the room shields them from their telepathic abilities. Andred catches Leela & Rodan escaping from the citadel, but rather than turn them in he helps them escape. In the Wilderness beyond the citadel Leela & Rodan are quickly captured by a tribe of outsiders who have rejected Time Lord society. Kelner sets a bodyguard over the Doctor with orders to report everything the Doctor does to him. The Doctor, Chancellor Borusa & Castellan Kelner meet with the Vardans, but Borusa refuses to obey them and is placed under house arrest. Kelner is ordered to crush any resistance and to produce a list of troublemakers. The troublemakers are expelled from the citadel. The Doctor is ordered to dismantle the shields surrounding Gallifrey. Andred decides the Doctor has betrayed them and follows him to the Tardis. K-9 is connected to the Matrix as Andred arrives and pulls a gun on the Doctor.

So.... the Vardans. Hardly in the episode and when they are they're a sheet of bacofoil jiggling around like it needs the toilet (thank you Liz). Not the world's most successful monster are they? But we know they're powerful telepathic superbeings: the Doctor's told us so. Liz is with me watching this and we both collapsed in fits of giggles as the Doctor opens his coat and says "do you know what this is?" to the guard? It's the Sash of Rassilon but the dialogue immediately makes you think the Doctor is indecently exposing himself!

Is this the first appearance of the longer version of the end theme on a Tom Baker episode? I think so, it's the first time we've heard the middle bit for a while.

One of the main problems I have with this story is the presence of Christopher Tranchell as Andred. Not because it's a bad performance, though it isn't the greatest, more because I associate him with presenting Play School when I was younger. It'd be like the new series having Justin Fletcher as the chief Time Lord guard in the new series! Tranchell had previously appeared as Roger Colbert in The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve and Jenkins in The Faceless Ones. He later finds himself being given the cold shoulder by the BBC for his left wing political leanings. John Arnatt becomes the second person to play Borusa after Angus MacKay portrayed him in the Deadly Assassin. Milton Johns, playing Castellan Kelner, is putting in the sort of performance that wouldn't be out of place on one of the many sitcom appearances on his CV. He'd worked on Doctor Who twice before as Benik in The Enemy of the World and Guy Crayford in The Android Invasion, both directed by Barry Letts. Charles Morgan, as Gold Usher, is the sole actor in this story to have appeared director Gerald Blake's previous Doctor Who: he was Songsten in The Abominable Snowmen. A thought: imagine how different the serial would have been if Blake had also recalled Norman Jones, Khrisong in The Abominable Snowmen, instead of the similarly named Milton Johns and have him play Kelner instead?

Two more of the Time Lord actors have even earlier Doctor Who form appearing in Hartnell stories: Dennis Edwards, Lord Gomer, was a Centurion in The Romans while Reginald Jessup, Lord Savar, was the Servant in The Massacre while one of the Vardans, Tom Kelly we've seen much more recently as different Guards in both the The Face of Evil & The Sun Makers.

Finally getting a major part in a Doctor Who story is regular supporting artist & stuntman Max Faulkner, playing outsider leader Nesbin. He'd previously been in The Ambassadors of Death as a UNIT soldier, The Monster of Peladon as a miner, Planet of the Spiders as a Guard Captain, Genesis of the Daleks as a Thal Guard & The Android Invasion as Corporal Adams as well as fight arranging Hand of Fear. This is his final credited Doctor Who appearance. His fellow Outsider Presta is played by Gay Smith who, according to Wikipedia, is now a famous race-horse trainer in Australia!

475 The Invasion of Time Part Two

EPISODE: The Invasion of Time Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 475
STORY NUMBER: 097
TRANSMITTED: 11 February 1978
WRITER: David Agnew (a.k.a. Graham Williams and Anthony Read)
DIRECTOR: Gerald Blake
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Invasion Of Time

The Doctor is taken away for medical attention as the Time Lords argue if the Matrix has rejected him. The Doctor orders that Leela is to be cast out the citadel but she escapes. Borusa questions the Doctor's odd actions. She follows the Doctor as he walks through the capital and returns to the Tardis to confer with K-9 where they plot an Invasion. Leela meets Rodan who is in charge of Space Traffic control. Castelan Kelner detects the Doctors absence from the rooms where he's been resting but he has returned via the same secret passage he left through by the time Kelner & Borusa arrive. Kelner is ordered to find Leela and Borusa to summon the council. Rodan detects an alien fleet approaching Gallifrey and has the transduction barriers raised. However K-9 has been sent to destroy them and they fail. As the Doctor addresses the council he introduces them to their new masters as 3 shining alien forms appear.

Some very erratic behaviour by the Doctor in this episode and a lot of filling in time with the sneaking out of the rooms, journeying to the Tardis and back again. I know this episode was written in a hurry so I'm not surprised to see some of the usual tricks being pulled out the bag to eat up time. Then at the end we have the shock as K-9 destroys Gallifrey's defences and the Doctor surrenders his own people to alien beings..... Rodan is frequently credited as being the first female Time Lord, none having been seen in War Games, Three Doctors & Deadly Assassin. This does conveniently forget Susan, the Doctor's grand daughter!

At the time this program was made Britain was going through a period of industrial unrest and militant unionism in the workplace. At the BBC a regular bone of contention was the Play School clock: Props said it belonged to them, the Electricians said it was their responsibility. Any hint of a disagreement elsewhere and this was used to bring the unions out on strike. In the run up to this story being made the near annual BBC strike occurred and as a result the need to get the BBC's Christmas programs recorded resulted in the number of studio sessions this story would need being cut from three to one. Director Gerald Blake, returning to the program for the first time since 1967's The Abominable Snowman, shot the Tardis, Panoptican and Alien war room scenes here. Two of these, as I mentioned yesterday, don't look quite right: The Tardis is dark & cramped and the Panoptican very echoey. The team then decamped to the disused St Anne's hospital in Redhill where much of the rest of the "studio" work was done, including the Gallifrey corridor scenes and the Tardis interior work for episodes 5 & 6.

This would not be the last time strikes would effect Doctor Who: come back for more of the same to a lesser or, more frequently, greater degree on The Armageddon Factor, Shada, Enlightenment, King's Demons & Resurrection of the Daleks. One of these will end up being cancelled half way through while another is a remake of a story cancelled by strikes in a previous season.

474 The Invasion of Time Part One

EPISODE: The Invasion of Time Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 474
STORY NUMBER: 097
TRANSMITTED: 04 February 1978
WRITER: David Agnew
DIRECTOR: Gerald Blake
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Invasion Of Time

Leela & K-9 remain locked in the Tardis while the Doctor is outside in a spaceship conferring with a race of alien beings signing an agreement with them. The Tardis materialises on Gallifrey where the Doctor visits Chancellor Borusa and claims the presidency of the High Council of the Time Lords. The Doctor has the Castelan redecorate his rooms in Earth style, with the panels made of lead. Leela is taken to find clothes in preparation for the Doctor's inauguration where he will be introduced to the Matrix and take control of it. He is presented with the Sash & Rod of Rassilon, and charged to seek the Great Key. The coronet that connects him to the Matrix is placed on his head but the Doctor collapses in agony.

Ah, back to Gallifrey again. The Doctor's up to something here but at this stage we're not really sure what. It's a bit non committal on the identity of the aliens he's conferring with and who are watching him. We get to see the Tardis bath room for the first time in this episode but a couple of the other rooms are slightly odd, noticeably the darkened console room and the echoey landing area where the footsteps can be heard.

So who is this David Agnew who is writing this episode? Well he's not writer David Weir who was scheduled to write serial 4Z. An old friend of script editor Anthony Read, who had script edited & produced Weir's The Troubleshooters scripts. (Weir goes on to write the English translations of The Water Margin and Monkey). Weir came up with a script called, depending on who you talk to, either "The Killer Cats of Geng Singh" or "The Killers of the Dark". However when the production team received the script they discovered there were certain elements that would be difficult to film: a Wembley stadium sized arena is the one that's usually quoted. So at a late stage Weir's scripts were binned and Script Editor Anthony Read and producer Graham Williams locked themselves away and produced The Invasion of Time, sticking out under a regular BBC Pseudonym, David Agnew. This wouldn't be the last time that Williams, as Doctor Who producer, would help to put a script out under the Agnew name. The next time however he would have a rather more famous collaborator....

So we have a script ready to go. What could go wrong? Join us tomorrow as we talk about the Play School Clock!