![]() ![]() And even K-9 gets a proper heroic rescue scene that really moves the plot along. There are plenty of opportunities, too, for Romana to come face to face with things that are completely outside her experience, but quite normal for the Doctor - giving him the chance to get his own back for her initial dismissal of him, and of course the two of them to start settling together onto an even keel. The setting is interesting and nicely presented (a vaguely Russian-looking medieval-type society), the script moves effectively between comic and serious moments, and the pacing is generally good - although I did feel things got a bit stuck in a rut in episodes 3 and 4 for a while. It's pretty decent stuff, with some nicely fleshed-out guest characters - a con-merchant who sells planets he doesn't own to gullible wealthy nobles, his nice-but-dim assistant, the over-blown (and marvellously named) Graff Vynda-K, a witch who has visions and a lonely old man who has been shunned for suggesting that Ribos might one of many planets, orbiting around their respective stars. The story itself takes them to the ice-planet of Ribos, where Romana gets to wear a big furry Boney-M style hood - presumably to indicate her general ice-maidenly demeanour at this stage in the season. Also, she prompts one of the best pieces of TARDIS!love ever, when the Doctor finds out that she (or the White Guardian, really) has put a hole in his TARDIS console to receive the Tracer that will help them find the Key - and actually leans over and kisses the hole better: Since they share the same background, too, she's a great device for giving us glimpses into Time Lord society, and the Doctor's backstory in particular, which other companions could not - like details of Time Lord education system, and the Doctor's less-than-brilliant academic record. She really throws his character into sharp relief, and of course watching her deconstruct him, undermine him and generally bring him down a peg or two makes us as viewers love him all the more. And of course she does, given that she's written as his perfect foil - equally pompous and self-assured, but with greater academic prowess in the place of his life experience. ) I think Sarah Jane remains securely my favourite Four companion, but after a season's worth of her, Romana certainly comes in as a very close second. But it's slightly worrying that the White Guardian is so blatantly presented as a member of the ex-patriate British governing classes (white linen-suited and sipping a cocktail as he lounges in a high-backed wicker chair), while within the terms of the story itself I would have appreciated a little more background on just why the Doctor is so ready to trust the Guardian and take on his commission in the first place.Īnyway, back in the TARDIS, the new girl is waiting - and Tom Baker's heart-felt 'Ohhhhh, Mary!' on the commentary track as the camera pans slowly up her body from her pointed boots to her arched eye-brows says it all. (I especially loved his protestations at the prospect of being given a new 'assistant' (as it was back then) for the job). Of course it's always fun to get glimpses into the mysterious forces that govern the Whoniverse at a level above the Time Lords, and always fun to put the Doctor in the presence of someone to whom he defers like a slightly naughty school-boy. ![]() We begin in a desert, where the Doctor has been summoned to meet the mysterious White Guardian, and be charged with the task of assembling the six parts of the Key to Time. ![]() This is the story which opens the season, and as such it has two jobs to do which the subsequent stories don't: establish the overall plot-line involving the Key that will run through the season, and introduce the delectable Romanadvoratrelundar. Now that I've worked my way through not only its six stories, but a solid selection of its myriad extra features, it's time to review it - as a season, and as a set. and the start of this season, so it wasn't too much of a problem, and it has meant another six stories viewed (mainly) in their original broadcast order. It meant jumping forwards a little - but what with one thing and another there are actually only four stories I haven't seen between Robots. The enticingly-packaged Key to Time box-set was already waiting in reserve. When the current season of New Who started up, however, they went into temporary hiatus, leaving me hanging at The Robots of Death. Strange_complexFor most of this year so far, I've been working my way more-or-less sequentially through the Tom Baker era, largely thanks to UKTV Drama.
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