The Key to Time


To be honest I was not really impressed. To be honest I am not sure Tom Baker is my favorite Doctor 
I am glad they ( The Dr Who Team ) did something different.  Change can be good for example how the Daleks are over used in Modern Who. The Key to Time and the 6 connected stories that make it up  run out of steam after the Androids of Tara

After watching a bit of classic Who for a while. One begins to see the same faces,-the same repertory of actors who the BBC hired and fired for Dr Who, ``Some Mothers do ave em'', and Fawlty Towers.
This is not bad but gets a bit boring 

The Ribos Operation  -The Doctor is given his duty by the White Guardian who is nursing a green liquid in a brandy glass What is it ? Crème de Menthe? -Absinthe?   Anyway the Doctor and his new nubile assistant  They fly to the planet of Ribos There they meet a Mummerset speaking con man. Mummerset- Fake West Country or Rural English accent that is not Yorkshire 
 There are some nice character touches round the edges of this story The two con artists meet a proto Galileo in the dungeons. The con man, talks about trying to sell Sydney Opera House..

The Pirate Planet-
There was a mesh of legal reasons why this could not be released as a target novel. It is a Douglas Adams piece- The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy writer. Is he beginning to become unfashionable?  The Captain is a classic Adams villain -grandiloquent and always threatening death.
A cybernetic proto Vogon. There are air cars with terrible special effects.

The Androids of Tara

I liked this one. I really like Tom Bakers outfit- Well done the costume department The Doctor does a swash buckler- They tried this in the Pirate episode in  New Who's season 6. It did not go down well. The Archbishop (Not the word they use) is the psychic from the hotel episode of -Some mothers do ave em. ``Mr Bedford Mr Bedford ''
 The Doctor and Romana both play themselves playing androids.

The Stones of Blood.

Who meets Celtic mythology. The episode has a nice aging female archaeologist, who perhaps has a touch of a crush on Romana. The Doctor critics the modern day druids, the people who meet at Stonehenge on midsummers day. We now know the Stonehenge builders would have been the enemies of the  great great grandparents of the druids. The space prison and judges are interesting-
Tom Baker produces a barrister wig from nowhere Which is a nice touch 

Krull
(Yes this is best forgotten- The natives have woolen caps, but no sheep)
The main bad guy is Mr Bedford from some mothers do have em. The Sons of Earth are an interesting idea. I wonder if they would turn up in new who. I suspect Rhodesia and the winds of change is in the minds of a few scriptwriters in Who, see the Mutants.

The Armageddon Factor
Too long, and two different stories that seem to have been messed together. The Bad guy, is Brother Mordred from the Knights of God. He is replaced halfway through with another evil baddy-then we have the Black Guardian take over, after a twist . It whimpers out- The season is forgotten 

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