C16S04 The androids of Tara

Synopsis

It seems that the search for the fourth segment of the Key to Time will prove simple when Romana locates it on the planet Tara.  But in a land where nothing is as it first appears, the Doctor and his companion quickly find themselves embroiled in a deadly game of kidnap, deceit and counterplot.

It is not long before the Doctor himself is locking swords with the dastardly Cound Grendel of Gracht, the finest bladesman in the kingdom, who has sinister plans for Romana...

Cover notes

Traditionally in Doctor Who, duplicates or doubles herald the first wave of an alien masterplan for global domination.  In The Androids of Tara however, the scale is considerably less grand.  This is a tale of Count Grendel's personal greed and struggle for power, where android duplicates are merely convenient tools in a political game played by ancient laws and customs.  There are no huge battles here, no massed armies ready to do bloody battle, no aliens poised to overrun the planet.  This is a battle of wits, one-on-one, where double-think (literally) will win the day rather than brute strength.  That Romana herself is Princess Strella's double is an added twist to draw the time travellers into the action, and inevitably, the Doctor is forced to abandon his fishing and go head-to-head with Grendel.

As in The Stones of Blood, the search for the Key to Time itself is marginal to the plot.  Unashamedly borrowing its story from Anthony Hope's classic novel The Prisoner of Zenda, this adventure benefits from a richness of design and extensive location work that one would expect from a traditional period piece.  An artful fusion of costume drama and sci-fi, The Androids of Tara is a fine example of the BBC drama department playing to its strengths.

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