The Androids of Tara

Next time I will not be so lenient!

The fourth leg in the Key to Time saga is somewhat notable for having almost nothing to do with the actual Key to Time. The Doctor and Romana find the key almost immediately and then follow though on a fantasy style adventure that would not be out of place with the likes of The Princess Bride. When ranking stories in their various lists, The Androids of Tara almost always ends up near the top of Season 16, usually in a battle with The Ribos Operation for the top spot, although exceptions are to be found here and there.

Plot Summary

The TARDIS materializes on the planet Tara where the Doctor has decided to take a break and go fishing. Romana, in a fit of mild irritation, ventures off into the forest to find the fourth segment of the Key to Time. She comes across a statue and the segment is disguised as a portion of the statue. As she retrieves it, she is attacked by an ape-like creature. The creature is then driven away by a helmeted knight with an electrified sword.

The knight removes his visor and reveals himself as Count Grendel, the lord of the lands on they are found. Seeing Romana has sprained her ankle, he carries her to his horse and takes her back to his castle. Upon reaching the castle, he gives her over to his engineer, Madame Lamia, where both he and her have mistaken Romana for an android. Lamia prepares to disassemble Romana but Romana notes her ankle and upon seeing swelling, Lamia realizes that Romana is flesh and blood. Under orders from Grendel, she knocks her out with an injection.

While fishing, the Doctor falls asleep. He is woken by two men holding him with electrified swords. They are Zadek and Farrah, two soldiers serving Prince Reynart. They take the Doctor back to a cabin where the Prince is resting. Reynart appeals to the Doctor to help him fix an android double of himself. The Prince is scheduled to be crowned king tomorrow and he fears that Count Grendel might try to harm him on the way to the ceremony which if he misses, he will forfeit his right to the throne, allowing Grendel to put forth his claim.

The Doctor agrees and manages a patch job on the android. Reynart pulls out a flagon of wine to celebrate, inviting the two guards to imbibe as well. As all four drink, they pass out from the drugged wine. The door to the cabin opens and Grendel walks in. He kidnaps Reynart, leaving the other three.

Upon waking and realizing what has happened, the Doctor decides to use the android copy of Reynart to be crowned, thus thwarting Grendel's plan and buying them time to rescue him. He summons K-9 from the TARDIS and asks him if Romana has returned. When he answers negatively, Farrah informs the Doctor that if she went into the woods, she was probably captured and taken to Grendel's castle. The Doctor sends K-9 to the castle to see if Romana is there and then report back to him.

In Grendel's castle, Romana wakes and is taken into the dungeons where she is shown Princess Strella, whom Grendel intends to marry and then dispose up, putting him closer to the line of succession. Princess Strella also happens to look just like Romana, which caused Grendel's confusion earlier. She is then taken to Prince Reynart's cell where she is locked in with him to tend his wounds and the subsequent infection he is now suffering from.

The Doctor, Zadek, Farrah and the android Reynart make their way to a secret passage that leads to the castle. They knock out one of Grendel's guards stationed at the entrance and make their way in. When nearly there, they are discovered by more of Grendel's guards, forcing them to make a fighting retreat into the throne room. As the hour of crowning comes, the Archimandrite (the high priest) opens the doors to find Reynart already seated on the throne, flanked by Zadek, Farrah and the Doctor.

The Archimandrite crowns Reynart as king of Tara. Grendel hesitates but goes along with the submission to him, unwilling to expose his knowledge that this is a trick. The android Reynart gives his acceptance speech, although it jogs slightly during the speech. Princess Strella then approaches the throne and bows before Reynart. The Doctor suddenly leaps up and strikes Strella with the scepter, revealing her to be an android. At Count Grendel's insistence, the ceremony is adjourned until the following day to allow Reynart to rest and investigate the assassination attempt.

As Grendel returns to the castle, Lamia pulls Romana out of the dungeons to ask about the Key segment. Romana pretends to be unaware of it's properties but Lamia suspects she is lying. Grendel returns and orders Lamia to create a new android, but this time of Romana. He then sends his man servant to lure the Doctor into a trap by offering to return Romana at a cabin on Grendel's land. K-9 returns to confirm that Romana is being held by Grendel.

The Doctor and K-9 head to the exchange cabin after agreeing and hide themselves prior to the time of exchange. Lamia, Grendel the android Romana and several guards approach the cabin. Lamia enters and is surprised by the Doctor, who initiates the exchange earlier. She brings in the android Romana but K-9 warns the Doctor and he ducks before the android can shoot him. He maneuvers around, allowing K-9 to destroy the android. Hearing female screaming, Grendel orders his men to fire on the cabin. Lamia runs out, yelling at them to stop firing but is shot down.

Back at Grendel's castle, Romana picks the lock of her chains and frees herself. She unlocks Reynart but he is too weak to travel. He creates a ruse and knocks out the guard, allowing Romana to escape on Grendel's horse. She rides past the cabin just as K-9 finishes cutting a hole in the back, allowing the Doctor and himself to escape. The Doctor and Romana ride off while K-9 stuns the pursuing guards.

The Doctor returns to the house outside the city where he first met Reynart and the android has been taken for repairs. Shortly after arrival, Grendel appears under a flag of truce. He enters and offers the Doctor the chance to become king. The Doctor is amused but alerts Zadok to Grendel's plan. Grendel takes his spear to which his white flag is attached and throws it into the chest of the android Reynart. Grendel then flees, grabbing Romana and riding back to his castle with her.

Back at the castle, Grendel summons the Archimandrite to perform first the wedding between Reynart and Princess Strella (really Romana) and then his own to Princess Strella following Reynart's death. As the real Strella refuses to go along with it, he uses her life to threaten Romana and Reynart to agree to his plan.

The Doctor devises a plan to get into the castle and open the doors from the inside for Reynart's men. He and K-9 take a boat across the moat to a passageway under the castle. The passage is baracaded by a heavy door but K-9 cuts an opening for the Doctor. The Doctor sneaks in but leave K-9 to guard the boat in case they need a hasty escape.

The Doctor enters the main hall and stops the wedding before it finishes. Angered by the Doctor's interference, Grendel challenges the Doctor to single combat, going so far as to give him a sword for a proper fight. The Doctor toys with him a bit but soon has Grendel on his heels. He tells Reynart to open the gates and he does, allowing Zadok and his men to pour through the main gate.

Grendel's captain of the guard heads down to the dungeons to kill Princess Strella but Romana follows him and she and Strella knock him out before he can attack him. As the castle falls, Grendel and the Doctor fight on the rooftop. Realizing the battle is lost, Grendel retreats and dives off the battlements, into the moat and swims away.

A victorious Reynart offers the Doctor control of all of Grendel's lands but he declines. He collects Romana and then the Key segment from Lamia's lab. They then spy K-9 adrift on the boat in the middle of the moat. They move to collect him and depart the planet.

Analysis

I don't know that I could rate this one as high as The Ribos Operation, but this is a fun story to watch. While the androids and electric swords and crossbows officially push this over to science fiction, it's much more of a romantic epic in the lines of The Man in the Iron Mask and the like.

The Doctor is quite fun here. He's jokey but not over-the-top to the point of silliness. He has good lines and trades wit with both friends and foes alike. But he also has a few moments of seriousness that emphasize the danger to those involved. It's a good adventuring Doctor.

Romana is pretty good in this one and Mary Tamm actually gets a lot of extra work playing Princess Strella and two androids. She doesn't do much as Strella and the acting for an android is to play nearly dead, but it is still a lot of screen time. I rather enjoyed the beginning how she is off to shove it in the Doctor's face as to what their business is. She also has a good amount of spunk while still showing how green she is in the ways of the universe. Her attempting to get Grendel's horse to move is quite funny and you can tell that she is much more comfortable with something like K-9 than an actual animal.

Unquestionably, the star of the show is Count Grendel. He is mustache twirl-y but not so over-the-top as to become farcical. He also shows an odd dichotomy for both being a cheating asshole (such as promising not to shoot the Doctor and then ordering his men to shoot him) but also being a strict observer of the rules. Grendel clearly has the power to seize the throne by force or at least threaten the other nobles into supporting his claim, but he instead chooses to through a more complicated plan involving androids and murder just to ensure he has legal standing.

For all his mustache twirling, it was nice to see him be fairly competent. He successfully captures Reynart, successfully destroys the Reynart android and could have killed the Doctor to seal the wedding plan if he had not chosen to indulge in sport and a bit of chivalry. What's more, he is actually a very good swordsman and could have bested anyone else who challenged him, making his pretense of chivalry with the Doctor a lot less bluster than it would have been with other villains. Despite his being a bastard, in the end, there is a part of me that is happy to see him swim away, the odd taunt still on his lips.

The sword fight at the end was actually really well done. It's starts with a touch of silliness from the Doctor and a clear bit of irritation from Grendel. But it escalates quickly. What's even more interesting is that there is no music for the first part of the fight. It's just the open clash of the blades that fill the hall. It's not until Grendel is disarmed by the Doctor and he takes on a "this is serious tone" that we start getting some background music for their fight. What's more, the focus then begins to shift to the other aspects with Reynart retraining the manservant and opening the gate as well as Romana tracking down the captain of the guard in the dungeons. I only wish the middle portion of the fight in the passageway to the roof had been better lit. There is a nice play of shadow but Grendel gets the Doctor off-balance before he runs off and I would have liked to see that better rather that have the Doctor just be consumed by one area of darkness and then shown to be on the ground.

Most of the rest of the cast was also decent, though they didn't have that much to contribute. Reynart was probably the strongest of the lower tier, managing to pull off a man who did seem truly suited to be king. Lamia was probably the weakest as she was a little too emotionally stunted for my taste. I think she was going for bored indifference, but it came across as more stiff than anything else. Even her death seemed like weak acting, as though she couldn't show emotion even then. It just didn't play that well.

There were some nice little touches made in the production. I found the clock with extra hours a nice addition and there was a good diversity among the clothing of the nobles, giving it a strong period vibe. There was also a nice blend of exterior and interior shooting, including some clear night shots which gave the story an added layer of depth and realism that I enjoyed.

I also enjoyed how this story used K-9 as a true member of the crew though it did expose one reason why he isn't used that often. The Doctor clearly needed him to get out of the one trap and to breach the castle in another. But in the escape from the cottage trap, K-9 mows down four or five of Grendel's guards and that does remind the audience just how overpowered he is. K-9 could easily have been used to destroy the entire garrison of Grendel's castle single-handedly should the Doctor have wanted to blast his way through, but keeping him to the boat as a trusted sentry, actually makes sense and was a way to keep him from doing something like that. It's smart use, even if it does highlight other problems.

It did slow down in a couple of points and when the Doctor and Grendel were not directly involved, it bogged down a bit, but this story still moved along fairly well and is well worth watching for Count Grendel alone. I will say that I think you have to be in the right mood for it as the structure and tone is much closer to The Princess Bride rather than any traditional Doctor Who. But I think most folks would be happy to sit down with this story most of the time. I know I would and could easily have some fun with it at any time.

Overall personal score: