Doctor Who (TV Series) The Androids of Tara: Part One (1978) User Reviews

A nice chilled out start that feels like a Summer's evening

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 17 August 2015]

The Doctor and Romana are on the hunt for the forth segment, and land on the Planet Tara. The Doctor decides he needs a day off and leaves Romana to her own devices, where she lands up being rescued and subsequently kidnapped by Count Grendel and placed in mortal danger.

Androids of Tara is visually appealing, the settings are really nice and tranquil, Leeds Castle in particular looks fabulous. The costumes are a triumph (maybe not the hats)

The Doctor has a very funny scene with K-9 playing Chess, it's very sweet, and a bit of escape from Romana's seriousness, they are starting to seem like an old married couple, there's a definite ease between them, and her character gleefully bosses him around.

After the previous serial 'Stones of Blood,' it felt like the show was back on track, a harder edged story harked back to the Hinchcliffe days, but not to be, Tara started slowly and didn't feel like Doctor Who. It feels more like a Play for today.

It was an interesting take, to seemingly solve the mystery within the first few minutes, it felt like they did it to remove the shackles of the key to time formula, it has felt on occasion that a lot of time is used up running around searching for it.

Peter Jeffrey is clearly enjoying his time and makes Grendal a truly believable villain, he has the face of a rogue for sure, and plays the role brilliantly, it's subtle.

Part 1 overall 7/10, a fun start, with some quality production values. It's starting to remind me of a film i've seen.........

Double Trouble

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 8/10 · 10 December 2019]

Review of all 4 episodes:

Another quest in the 'Key to Time' arc with The Doctor, Romana and K-9 travelling to Tara to find the next segment of the key. Tara is an interesting mixture of medieval and technological and amongst the 'Knights of the Round Table' atmosphere there are laser swords and androids which look and act like their human counterparts. It is a fun setting and an enjoyable romp throughout.

Peter Jeffrey as Count Grendel is a fine guest lead character and the other support characters are good. I always find it slightly annoying when there are hugely coincidental lookalikes and here we have a Romana lookalike Princess Strella which added to android copies makes for a slightly unconvincing aspect to the story but it is entertainingly done.

There is plenty of fun adventure, amusing humour, enjoyable interactions and sparkling lead performances from Tom Baker and Mary Tamm. Part 3 is the best with some joyous witty dialogue and action. The final episode is slightly less high quality with the story slightly unravelling in my opinion but even then there is loads of fun including a lengthy and impressive sword duel that keeps it at a good level.

My ratings: Parts 1 & 2 - 8/10, Part 3 - 8.5/10, Part 4 - 7.5/10. Overall 8/10.

The prisoner of Zenda plus a dog

[buystuffrnh · 6/10 · 13 January 2022]

The prisoner of Zenda plus a dog. By far the weakest instalment of the key to time series. Should have been a lot better really no excuse. Poor writing poor directing but some adequate performances.

The Androids of Zenda

[JamesHitchcock · 14 July 2016]

The Doctor, Romana and K9, in search of the fourth segment of the Key to Time, arrive on the planet Tara, an Earth-like world whose landscape bears a striking resemblance to Kent. (Which is probably because the serial was filmed in the grounds of Leeds Castle). Tara is a strange place. Although the inhabitants possess some advanced technology, their society is a mediaeval-style feudal monarchy, dominated by a hierarchical aristocracy and powerful religious orders.

The Doctor and his companions find themselves in the middle of a situation which could be straight from the pages of Anthony Hope's "The Prisoner of Zenda". (Which is probably because the story is a direct if unacknowledged plagiarism of Hope's novel). On the eve of his coronation Prince Reynart, the rightful heir to the Taran throne, is drugged and kidnapped by his ruthlessly ambitious cousin, Count Grendel of Gracht, who plans to seize the crown for himself. If Reynart fails to attend the coronation ceremony he will forfeit his right to succeed. The solution his supporters come up with is to substitute for Reynart not a human double (as in the novel) but an android one, android making being a skill for which the planet is famed. In a nod to Hope's story, however, Romana turns out to be the exact double of Reynart's fiancée, the Princess Strella. (Which is probably because both roles are played by the same actress, Mary Tamm. This development struck me as rather unlikely, given that the Taran Strella and the Gallifreyan Romana are not natives of the same planet or even members of the same species).

Despite the supposed Time Lord prohibition against interfering in the affairs of other planets, the Doctor decides to come to Reynart's assistance and to foil the plans of the evil Grendel. This was the second occasion during Season 16 that he had tangled with the intergalactic aristocracy; in "The Ribos Operation" he had come up against the equally villainous Graff Vinda-K. We learn that the Doctor is a keen swordsman, something which comes in useful on Tara, where the nobility are partial to fighting duels with "electro-swords". (Another piece of plagiarism, in this case from the "light sabres" of "Star Wars", a film which had come out the previous year). We also learn that the Fourth Doctor's recreations include fishing, something also indulged in by the Sixth Doctor, and chess; Izaak Walton and the chess grandmasters Capablanca and Alekhine are added to his long list of celebrity friends from the Earth's past. (Others include Shakespeare, Nelson and Leonardo da Vinci).

Mary Tamm was to leave the series after only one season, saying that she was not happy with the way in which her character was being developed. This serial is a good example of what she meant. In her first serial, "The Ribos Operation", Romana, who is supposed to be the Doctor's intellectual or even his superior, was portrayed as a strong-minded, independent young woman who could think and act for herself. Here she seems more like a damsel in distress whose main function is to get herself kidnapped by the bad guys and then wait to be rescued by the Doctor and K9.

The serial has its good points- Peter Jeffery makes an effective villain as Grendel- but on the whole I felt that Hope's plot did not really lend itself to a science-fiction treatment. Although the novel, first published in the 1890s, had an ostensibly contemporary setting, his fictitious Kingdom of Ruritania has always struck me as a rather feudal, backward-looking place even by the standards of late nineteenth century Europe. If he had set it in the Middle Ages he might have had to change a few details but could still have kept the same basic plot. The Kings, Princes, Princesses, Counts, swordsmen and peasants of this story seem a bit out of place in a society with such futuristic capabilities.

Ta Ra Ra Boom Dee Ay...

[Xstal · 7/10 · 10 July 2022]

There's a beast who seems to have a case of rabies, hides in the bushes and the fauna and the large trees, a monkey crossed with a tiger (Sabre Toothed), could be called a shallow Miger (Siger), quite unstable, and very difficult to appease (and never to be seen again oddly enough).

Has Some Positive Points But Is It Doctor Who ?

[Theo Robertson · 5/10 · 12 January 2014]

Searching for the fourth segment of The Key To Time the Doctor and Romana land on the Planet Tara where Romana finds herself kidnapped and held prisoner by Count Grendal

After the previous traditional tale The Stones Of Blood we're back in the territory of the show paying homage/ripping off another source . This time it's THE PRISONER OF ZENDA . There's nothing wrong with paying homage to other films/books/TV shows and the previous regime under Hinchcliffe and Holmes quite happily ripped off Nigel Kneale , Mary Shelley amongst other pulp horror and sci-fi . The problem with taking the premise of Anthony Hope's 1894 novel is that it doesn't lend itself to science fiction and for much of the running time you don't really get the feeling you're watching DOCTOR WHO , more like something resembling dumbed down historical hokum featuring a plot involving dopplegangers and impostors

Of course the other train of thought is DOCTOR WHO can be exactly what ever it wants to be . It can be anything and for four Saturdays in the Autumn of 1978 it has earned the right to be historical adventure devoid of scary monsters creeping about an alien hinterland . Fair enough but it was the suspense laden atmosphere and horror elements that got this audience member addicted to the show in the first place and a Taran bear and political intrigue isn't really going to grab a child audience . Watching it as an adult it's nothing more than a runaround , dialogue driven and the very prolific actor Peter Jeffrey does manage to bring a slightly colourful turn as Count Grendal but like so many late 1970s Doctor Who it's mediocre for the most part and rather forgettable

Dullish costume drama

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 22 March 2015]

Review of the Complete Story:

The problem with THE ANDROIDS OF TARA, a Tom Baker-era Who adventure, is that it's not really Dr Who. Sure, there's the inclusion of K9 for comic relief and a few robotic elements to the script, but for the most part this is a silly costume drama done on a budget which really saps authenticity from the final result. Some have said that this story rips off THE PRISONER OF ZENDA, although as I'm not familiar with that book I can't say.

In any case, it should be a heck of a lot better than it actually is. The Doctor and Romana end up on a medieval planet, where there's some conspiracy involved with replacing the current king with an android version. It's all hokum, of course, with the scripting particularly weak, a back-and-forth succession of characters being captured and freed, and so forth.

Tom Baker is having fun here, and Mary Tamm has undeniable charm. I'm a fan of K9 too, despite the silliness of his concept, and the guest star this time around is Peter Jeffrey, a guy who can be relied upon to deliver some entertaining acting. But I wish the android elements of the story had been played up more, instead of the endless political intrigue; that way it may have risen above average.