The search for the fourth segment takes the Doctor and Romana to Tara. Unusually whereas it wasn’t until the last minute that they found the third segment it took 7 minutes and 45 seconds to find the fourth segment. This is the second story to come from David Fisher following his previous story. This story benefits like The Stones of Blood from some wonderful location filming which seems to have capitalised on the lovely weather.
The Doctor and Romana are in the middle of a political war between Count Grendel and Prince Reynart. Grendel has a plan and that is to kidnap the king so that when it comes to corona ting him he wont be there and that means Grendel can step up and wed Princess Strella before killing her and becoming ruler of Tara. Strella is identical to Romana and at that leads to obvious not knowing which is the real Romana and which one isn’t. There is one wonderful moment where the Doctor goes fencing with Grendel. It’s the first time since The Sea Devils in 1972 I think since we saw this. It was a surprise because I didn’t think that the fourth Doctor did that.
The acting in this was top notch yet again. Tom Baker puts in his best performance of the series so far. Mixing humour with seriousness, Baker seems to be having a ball and I thought he did well. Likewise with Mary Tamm who aside from looking very very fashionable in that purple outfit. Tamm has to double her acting as she plays Romana and Princess Strella. The character of Strella was not that different from what I could tell to Romana. I did like the scenes where Romana had to talk to in one scene to the Princess and in another to the android. Both were well directed and used the technology well. Peter Jeffrey puts in a great performance as Count Grendel. It’s not the most original character by Jeffrey pulls it off and makes it somehow a nasty character. Neville Jason also does a good job as Prince Reynart. His performance as the Prince was matched with his brief speeches as the android Prince. Both of them did well against each other which is always good. Simon Lack is someone else that I thought did a good job as Zadek, Lack had previously appeared in the Jon Pertwee story ‘The Mind of Evil’ is a dependable actor and did the job in this as a solid member of the Prince’s security team.
Another story and another memorable cliffhanger, however I don’t think for the right reasons. Episode two was quite shocking the first time I saw it. The Doctor appears to have killed or seriously harmed Romana but as we see in Episode 3, its infact an android but the thought that it was the real Romana was scary one. I also thought Episode three was quite memorable because it shows Grendel throwing a spear into the android Prince before jumping over the banister and fleeing with Romana. The filming was also impressive as Leeds Castle in Kent (??) doubles for Grendel’s castle. Unusually for Doctor Who (or at least it seems it) there is some genuine night filming. Not in a studio with the lights turned off or actual outside filming but with effects applied to create the impression of darkness but actual night time filming. This gives the story a different feel.
The Androids of Tara is a thrilling story. The story wasn’t really about the segment as that was dealt with so quickly but more about trying to survive a political war. David Fisher has written a rip roaring script with plenty of strong characters and some wonderful scenery and that one is thanks to Michael Hayes who makes full use of Leeds Castle. A top story that would have been just as good without the search for the fourth segment of the key to time. Good stuff.
The Doctor and Romana are in the middle of a political war between Count Grendel and Prince Reynart. Grendel has a plan and that is to kidnap the king so that when it comes to corona ting him he wont be there and that means Grendel can step up and wed Princess Strella before killing her and becoming ruler of Tara. Strella is identical to Romana and at that leads to obvious not knowing which is the real Romana and which one isn’t. There is one wonderful moment where the Doctor goes fencing with Grendel. It’s the first time since The Sea Devils in 1972 I think since we saw this. It was a surprise because I didn’t think that the fourth Doctor did that.
The acting in this was top notch yet again. Tom Baker puts in his best performance of the series so far. Mixing humour with seriousness, Baker seems to be having a ball and I thought he did well. Likewise with Mary Tamm who aside from looking very very fashionable in that purple outfit. Tamm has to double her acting as she plays Romana and Princess Strella. The character of Strella was not that different from what I could tell to Romana. I did like the scenes where Romana had to talk to in one scene to the Princess and in another to the android. Both were well directed and used the technology well. Peter Jeffrey puts in a great performance as Count Grendel. It’s not the most original character by Jeffrey pulls it off and makes it somehow a nasty character. Neville Jason also does a good job as Prince Reynart. His performance as the Prince was matched with his brief speeches as the android Prince. Both of them did well against each other which is always good. Simon Lack is someone else that I thought did a good job as Zadek, Lack had previously appeared in the Jon Pertwee story ‘The Mind of Evil’ is a dependable actor and did the job in this as a solid member of the Prince’s security team.
Another story and another memorable cliffhanger, however I don’t think for the right reasons. Episode two was quite shocking the first time I saw it. The Doctor appears to have killed or seriously harmed Romana but as we see in Episode 3, its infact an android but the thought that it was the real Romana was scary one. I also thought Episode three was quite memorable because it shows Grendel throwing a spear into the android Prince before jumping over the banister and fleeing with Romana. The filming was also impressive as Leeds Castle in Kent (??) doubles for Grendel’s castle. Unusually for Doctor Who (or at least it seems it) there is some genuine night filming. Not in a studio with the lights turned off or actual outside filming but with effects applied to create the impression of darkness but actual night time filming. This gives the story a different feel.
The Androids of Tara is a thrilling story. The story wasn’t really about the segment as that was dealt with so quickly but more about trying to survive a political war. David Fisher has written a rip roaring script with plenty of strong characters and some wonderful scenery and that one is thanks to Michael Hayes who makes full use of Leeds Castle. A top story that would have been just as good without the search for the fourth segment of the key to time. Good stuff.
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