N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
Witty, exciting, inspired by a literary source, with a fabulous villain – The Androids of Tara is as-near-as-dammit perfect Doctor Who.
It begs the question why the show had never attempted a Ruritanian romance before. Take a pseudo-historical genre, set it on another planet, throw in a sci-fi element (in this case androids and electric swords) as Doctor Who often does and you have a pseudo-pseudo-historical romantic adventure. It could really only have been better if Stewart Granger had turned up.
“They always want you to go alone when you’re walking into a trap.”
The Doctor, The Androids of Tara: Part Three
It also makes you wonder why they didn’t offer David Fisher the script editor’s job – as his first two stories for the show illustrate that he absolutely nailed how to write for the Graham Williams-period Fourth Doctor. (In many ways this blend of humour and action is the template for 21st century Who as well – is this yet another way that this era of Doctor Who was ahead of its time?)
Why is The Androids of Tara so good? A cynic might say it’s just The Prisoner of Zenda with knobs on. And I suppose it is. But I’m not one to take Doctor Who to task for wearing its influences on its sleeve. The Brain of Morbius, after all, is also one of my favourite Fourth Doctor tales and there’s more than a dash of Frankenstein sprinkled into that script.
Besides, I’m a sucker for a doppelgänger story and any tale that has two Mary Tamms in it – just as great here as she has been all season – is worth your time. Indeed all three regulars are on top form with Tom Baker clearly relishing the role of being the pithy romantic hero. It’s good to see that they’ve figured out how to use K-9 too; here he’s gainfully employed fending off guards and cutting holes in walls and doors.
The script fair crackles along too, whether it’s the Doctor’s putdowns of K-9’s firepower or his castigating Zadek for standing on his chest whilst his hat’s on fire or that rather-adult nod the Count makes to his once showing Lamia ‘a certain courtesy’, there’s a degree of wit and sophistication here on a a par with anything penned by Robert Holmes and Douglas Adams. (Maybe they did give David Fisher the season seventeen script editor’s job after all?) Or perhaps I do Anthony Read a disservice – he was after all the man in charge of all three for this season!
“Next time, I shall not be so lenient!”
Count Grendel, The Androids of Tara: Part Four
But of course no discussion of The Androids of Tara is complete without mention of the Count Grendel of Gracht – for me one of Doctor Who‘s greatest villains – played with tremendous relish and verve by Peter Jeffrey. His parting riposte following that cracking sword fight is one of my all-time favourite Doctor Who lines. (Worryingly though, I’ve found myself saying it to my kids!)
Like Romana, ‘I’ll be quite sorry to leave Tara’. I do hope she and the Doctor stuck around a while after seeing off the Count. (And retrieving K-9 from the moat.)
"The villain in this story (Count Grendel of Gracht) is a very good one. One reason he is a good villain is plainly that the character himself is great."
"As well as the villain the entire story is great. I like that the setting looks like mediæval earth but it is actually on a planet called Tara and the weapons or more futuristic."
'The last scene is funny because after the Doctor calls out to K-9, he then appears in the little boat it and the Doctor had used before, floating away shouting 'Master, Master.'"
Son of UT Rating: 9/10
