Derring-do and a 'summer feel' break the gothic gloom of 1970s Doctor Who...

Good news. At the time of writing this, Who Head Honcho Steven Moffat has decided to begin the campaign to move the series to an autumn slot. Hopefully, in 2012, all the stories will go out in September or October time, so long as the BBC bosses don’t start wetting their pants over doing battle with Simon The Bland Robot and his entourage of vacant karaoke wannabes.

This is great news, since A) It makes the autumn season more bearable, especially since my favourite season, summer, is dead and gone; B) It’s a refreshing antidote to rubbish like The X Factor or Strictly Come Dancing; and C) It makes more sense to have scares on dark autumn nights rather than in the bright sunshine. Really, the Silence In The Library and Satan Pit two-parters aren’t suited to being viewed on a hot summer’s night.

There are one or two exceptions to the rule though. Take The Androids Of Tara, a story that could comfortably be seen while chilling out in the garden and supping ice-cool pints of beer. It went out in the winter of 1978, which ironically didn’t suit the summery feel of the story.

And it’s holiday time for The Doctor again. Although The Doctor and K9 never made it to Harlegon 3 in The Ribos Operation, the crafty Time Lord decides to take a break from the Key To Time quest and go fishing on the planet of Tara. For a moment, it looks like he gets his wish - at least until two angry Swordsmasters turn up and recruit him for their audacious plan to get their master to the throne in one piece.

Out of the six Key To Time stories, The Androids Of Tara is easily the most laid back. Apart from the holiday and the lush countryside of Tara, ironically, the segment is found in the first ten minutes of the story. Now that’s taking cool to a whole new level.

And the traditional scares and monsters are in short supply too. There’s nothing that you could call scary in The Androids Of Tara. The only monster we get is some guy in an upright horse costume that looks as if it’s been borrowed from the local joke shop. Mercifully, the Taran beast is seen off in a couple of minutes.

So if deep, intense, scary Who is your bag, then The Androids Of Tara may not be your first port of call. Even the cliffhangers are admittedly underwhelming - Doctor passes out from drink (I’m not saying anything); Doctor whacks Romana lookalike on the head with a stick; Romana whines unconvincingly while being carted off on horseback – seriously, can’t Tamm make the effort just for once to actually try and sound scared in perilous situations?

But despite this, The Androids Of Tara is enormous fun. It takes its roots from those old swashbuckling adventure tales, and puts a slight sci-fi spin on it. In Particular, the plot takes its inspiration from Anthony Hope’s 1894 story The Prisoner Of Zenda (wherein a monarch is abducted on the eve of his coronation and an English lookalike is ensnared in a scheme to act as a political decoy). Homages are nothing new in Who, especially given that the Hinchcliffe years used to look to old books and films for inspiration. But the difference in the Williams years is that the original sources are fairy-stories and adventure tales. Steven Moffat may think that the current stories are based in fairytale lore, but Who was doing this on a regular basis in the late 70s, especially with stories like this, The Creature From The Pit and The Ribos Operation.

With that in mind, we have the traditional adventure-style characters. The kindly Prince Reynart is the epitome of the hero figure – he’s well-intentioned, brave and totally opposed to all evil. He also has his faithful servants, Farrah, the young hothead and Zadek, the grizzled old misery. Look at Tom Baker desperately trying to make Simon Lack give just a hint of a smile - it doesn’t work, but at least Lack, Paul Lavers and Neville Jason give engaging performances.

"Grendel is very much a cartoon baddie – think of a human version of Dick Dastardly, right down to the pointy ‘tache and beard and pointy chin"

Stealing the show though is, of course, Peter Jeffrey as Count Grendel. Out of the late 70s villains, Grendel is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the best. This is down to three factors. The first is his sheer persistence. Grendel is very much a cartoon baddie – think of a human version of Dick Dastardly, right down to the pointy ‘tache and beard and pointy chin. In trying to thwart the pigeon, sorry, the Prince, Grendel has so many schemes tucked away, that it’s easy to think that maybe he should just write a 500-page manual of Dastardly Plans and then live off the profits for the rest of his life. Let’s see – he drugs Reynart’s local wine (quite how and when he does this is unclear); he gets his female Lackey Lamia to devise an android of the Princess Strella to attend the Coronation; he captures both the Prince and Romana to force them into a wedding, after which he plans to kill Reynart and marry his poor old widow. Really, this man deserves a medal for persistence.

The second factor is that Grendel’s full of amusing one-liners: “And now my dear Reynart, I shall be attending your Coronation – it’s a pity you shall miss it!”; “Never rush your pleasures, my dear Reynart!”. And most notably of all, “Next time, I shall not be so lenient!” Add in to that the third factor, Peter Jeffrey’s hugely enjoyable performance, and you get a villain that’s both boo-hiss and deeply amusing. It’s a shame that Grendel never returned to the show, given that he lives to fight another day after swimming off to pastures new.

"Lois Baxter gives a nicely understated performance as Lamia, which contrasts well with Jeffrey’s amusingly hammy turn"

Interestingly, Grendel doesn’t get killed in mortal combat. In fact, the only death is poor old Madame Lamia, who gets accidentally shot by a futuristic crossbow. It’s a nice touch to give her a bit of motivation for being such a dedicated servant. She does this because she is in lurve with the Count, even if it’s unrequited. “That is better than nothing,” she shrugs to Romana at one point, after being taken to task for her co-conspiracy against Reynart. Lois Baxter gives a nicely understated performance as Lamia, which contrasts well with Jeffrey’s amusingly hammy turn.

If there was a story tailor-made for the more humorous side of the fourth Doctor, then The Androids Of Tara is it. Tom Baker is on commanding form, whether he’s quietly negotiating with Lamia at the Pavilion Of The Summer Winds, playing chess with K9, or proving remarkably adept with a sword. That sword fight is all the more impressive since it looks like Baker is performing the duel without a stuntman (there’s a wince-inducing spot where he nearly has his eye out – look at the bit in which grunting slave Till whacks him in the stomach and he just misses Grendel’s sword. Even the man himself looks shaken up).

And even Mary Tamm is just about starting to make an impression - even if, as I said, she can’t do 'scared' acting at all. She seems to be relaxing a lot more, and enjoys a good rapport with Tom’s Doctor. Even her Strella isn’t too bad, and there’s just about enough subtlety there to differentiate between the Princess and Romana.

"This is a well-made and well-written adventure that is both hugely witty and engaging"

The production itself looks lovely. This is Michael Hayes’ first directing task for Who, and overall, he does a superb job. The location work is beautifully filmed – the initial silent pursuit of Romana is well handled, as is the horseback chase in part three. It’s easy to see why Hayes was brought back for the following season’s City Of Death, since both he and film cameraman John Walker add a cinematic flavour to both stories. They have a real eye for arty camera angles and great depth too.

Even the interior filming is decent enough. There are one or two wobbles such as plastic goblets which clatter to the floor or a slightly wonky clock in part two, but overall, the direction is of a very high standard. The aforementioned sword fight and the build up to the Coronation are good set pieces (the Coronation scenes are frequently interspersed with The Doctor and his friends trying to make the throne room, so as to ramp up the tension a bit).

Only one or two grumbles. The poor performance of Martin Matthews as Kurster. Inexplicably, Kurster’s plan to kill Strella is to stand on the spot going “Heh. Heh. Heh.” Then there’s the very obvious Reynart dummy which is impaled with a whacking great spear at the end of Part Three. And why have they pinched Tim Brooke Taylor’s throne from The Goodies?

But otherwise this is a well-made and well-written adventure that is both hugely witty and engaging. It’s probably David Fisher’s best script out of his four, and for once, it comes together as a seamless whole rather than a three-parter and a tacked-on last part. Loads of great lines to be had too, including The Doctor’s angry comment to K9 about the hamster and the blunt penknife, as well as his wisecrack to his faithful mutt’s claim that he is familiar with boats: “You old sea dog, you”.

The Androids Of Tara may not be to everyone’s taste, but as a piece of escapist fantasy, it ticks all the boxes.

And I want a replica of The Archimandrite’s hat.

John Bensalhia limbered up for this mammoth task with a full four-series review of Blake's 7, and writes professionally and recreationally all over the web. Check out his portfolio of work at Wordprofectors.

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