The Androids of Tara (TV story)

The Androids of Tara was the fourth story in season sixteen of Doctor Who. It was part of the Key to Time story arc, and its original broadcast occurred just days after the fifteenth anniversary of the very first Doctor Who broadcast. It saw Mary Tamm take on four roles: Romana, a doppelgänger of Romana in the form of Princess Strella, and their android doubles.

The plot of Tara is a pastiche of The Prisoner of Zenda. Several of the serial's working titles paid homage to this and many of the characters are based on their counterparts in the novel. Only with the BBC's interference was the potentially copyright-infringing name "Zenda" or "Zend" dropped from the title.

Synopsis

Finding the fourth segment of the Key to Time was simple enough, but holding onto it may be another matter. The Doctor and Romana find themselves embroiled in the political games of the planet Tara, where doubles, android or otherwise, complicate the coronation of Prince Reynart.

Plot

Part 1

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Romana I finds the fourth segment of the Key to Time

The Doctor and Romana I arrive on the planet Tara in search of the fourth segment of the Key to Time and, for once, the quest is simple. While the Doctor goes fishing, Romana identifies and transforms the fourth segment alone. It was disguised as part of a statue. Her luck does not last, though. She is attacked by a Taran wood beast, and only saved by the nobleman Count Grendel of Gracht. Grendel confiscates the segment as an unregistered mineral and insists the injured Romana accompanies him to his castle. Once there, it becomes apparent that Grendel believes she is an android.

The swordsmen Zadek and Farrah have meanwhile recruited the Doctor to the party of Prince Reynart. The society of the planet Tara is a mix of the feudal and the futuristic, with a rigid social monarchical hierarchy developed alongside a skill in advanced electronics and android making, an ability endowed on the lesser orders. Centuries earlier, a plague wiped out nine tenths of the population. The workers, abandoned by the nobles at that time, began building androids to deal with labour shortages. The planet is now troubled by a struggle for the crown. Reynart is the rightful Prince, but he is facing a challenge to his rule and coronation from his cousin, Count Grendel of Gracht. The Doctor agrees to help repair an android copy of the Prince. It is to be used to help him reach his throne and crown by diverting the attention of Grendel’s men, while the real Prince slips into the coronation chamber through a back way. This plot looks plausible, but Grendel strikes first, drugging the Prince’s retinue and kidnapping Reynart himself.

Part 2

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The android king is crowned

When the Doctor and the swordsmen recover, they decide to change the original plan and crown the android Reynart instead. The party move through the tunnels beneath the royal castle to get to the throne room so that the facsimile Reynart can be crowned. If Reynart is not there at the correct moment, then he will lose his right to the throne; Grendel may be chosen under the law to claim the crown instead. The real Reynart was wounded in his capture and has been imprisoned with Romana at Castle Gracht to prevent any legitimate succession. Romana learns that she is physically identical to another of Grendel's captives - the Princess Strella.

By their elaborate ruse the Doctor and his party succeed in getting the android Prince to the throne room, and the coronation begins. However, the android Prince is damaged and it is clear the ruse will not hold for long. Strella enters the coronation room and pledges allegiance to the new King, but the Doctor suddenly rises up and with a shout of "No!" strikes at her head with the King's staff.

Part 3

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Grendel plans to kill the Doctor

The Doctor has not killed Strella, but an android duplicate, who was programmed to kill Reynart. The oath taking is delayed while other possible androids are found, and the "King" is watched over by Zadek and Farrah. When he returns to Castle Gracht, Grendel is furious, but when he finds out that the Doctor and Romana know each other he has his android maker Lamia, who is in love with him, make an android Romana programmed to kill the Doctor, the man he sees as the one who deprived him of the throne.

K9 is enlisted from the TARDIS to provide armed support and scanning intelligence that confirms that the Count has the Prince, the Princess, and Romana in his castle. Shortly afterward, Till, Grendel’s manservant, arrives at the Reynart estate and offers the Doctor a chance to collect Romana from the Pavilion of the Summer Winds, a nearby gazebo. It is, as ever, a trap. While this is happening the real Romana manages to escape from Castle Gracht and heads off to find the Doctor. She arrives at the Pavilion in the aftermath of Grendel’s attack, which has left Lamia dead, and helps the Doctor flee; but the situation is soon reversed as Grendel succeeds in destroying the Reynart android and then recapturing the errant Romana.

Part 4

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En garde!

The evil Count now wishes Romana (as Strella) to marry the real King, who will then be killed, leaving Grendel free to take her hand himself and be declared the legitimate King of Tara.

Worried by the length of time a siege would take, the Doctor resorts to other means to get his friends back from Castle Gracht. K9 is used to help them gain access to the castle by means of the moat and underground tunnels. The Doctor reaches the throne room just in time to stop the sham Reynart marriage to Romana. He then engages the Count in a deadly fight with electro-swords, defeating him and forcing the villain to jump into his own castle moat and swim for his survival.

Romana has meanwhile freed Strella and the royal party is united, with Grendel disgraced and presumably on his way to exile. It is a time of reunions: Reynart with his love Strella; and the Doctor and Romana with the fourth segment of the Key and the TARDIS - once K9 has been retrieved from a rowing boat in the middle of the moat.

Cast

Crew

Writer - David Fisher
Assistant Floor Manager - Rosemary Webb
Costumes - Doreen James
Designer - Valerie Warrender
Fight Arranger - Terry Walsh
Film Cameraman - John Walker
Film Editor - David Yates
Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
Make-Up - Jill Hagger
Production Assistant - Teresa-Mary Winders
Special Sounds - Dick Mills
Studio Lighting - Brian Clemett
Studio Sound - Richard Chubb
Title Music - Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Delia Derbyshire
Visual Effects - Len Hutton
Production Unit Manager - John Nathan-Turner
Script Editor - Anthony Read
Producer - Graham Williams
Director - Michael Hayes

References

The Doctor

The Doctor saw Capablanca play Alekhine at chess in 1927.
The Doctor also also met Izaak Walton, author of The Compleat Angler.
The Doctor calls fishing "art".

K9

K9 is programmed with all world chess championships since 1866.

TARDIS

There is a dress from Tahiti in the TARDIS wardrobe.

Galactic Law

After arriving on Tara the Doctor tells Romana that he is entitled to a day off, claiming that "After a journey of 400 years and 12 parsecs, I'm allowed a rest of 50 years", and attributes this to "Section 93, Paragraph 2: Laws governing Time Lords". However, Romana replies, "You just made that up."

Food and beverages

The Doctor drinks wine.

Story notes

The plot of the serial is very obviously inspired by The Prisoner of Zenda. In fact, among the working titles were The Androids of Zenda, The Androids of Zend and The Prisoners of Zend. Another working title was The Seeds of Time.
According to the DVD commentary, Mary Tamm herself designed Romana's distinctive purple outfit after the originally planned costume by Doreen James proved to be made of scratchy tweed.
Director Michael Hayes mentions on the audio commentary that Grendel's horse was played by a one eyed horse called Winston who, according to him, performed wonderfully.
Michael Hayes also recounts on the audio commentary that his 14 year old son Patrick was in the rowing boat with K9 to navigate it.
The dating of this story is not explicitly stated in the story itself. The Doctor comments that the journey to Tara was "four hundred years", implying that it is 400 years after The Stones of Blood, in 2378, a date used in A History of the Universe and aHistory. The short story, The Trials of Tara, a sequel to this story, has Grendel recruiting the Kandy Man to assist in his schemes, making this story contemporary with The Happiness Patrol.
The Doctor had been planning a holiday when first recruited by the White Guardian, a running joke being that whenever he sets off on a holiday he never gets to enjoy one.
While Doctor Who opening credits are typically ordered story title–author's name–episode number, this story's order was story title–episode number–author's name.
Mary Tamm plays four roles in this story: Romana, Princess Strella and their android doubles.
One of the chairs in Lamia's room is the same as one of the chairs at Mehendri Solon's table in The Brain of Morbius.

Ratings

Part one - 8.5 million viewers
Part two - 10.1 million viewers
Part three - 8.9 million viewers
Part four - 9.0 million viewers

Filming locations

Leeds Castle doubled for Castle Gracht, with Tom Baker's fishing rod, stuntman Terry Walsh, and the sound recordist all tumbling into the moat at various times during filming. Use of the castle was delayed as it had already been booked for a high security Middle East peace conference.
BBC Television Centre (TC6 and TC1), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

In part three when the Doctor enters the Pavillion of the Summer Winds and shuts the door, it slowly swings open again. A hand then appears from behind the set wall and pulls the door closed.
When Grendel is inspecting Romana's android duplicate, his arm crosses the line where the screen is split (to allow Mary Tamm to be in two places at once) and disappears.

Continuity

This is the fourth of six linked serials that comprise the whole of Season 16, known collectively as The Key to Time.
Grendel returns in PROSE: The Trials of Tara, set some months after this story.
The Doctor previously searched for the fourth segment of the Key to Time in Norfolk in 2011. (AUDIO: Ferril's Folly)
The Doctor and Romana would later encounter more androids in Bassett-on-Hample, Hampshire in 1929. (AUDIO: The Auntie Matter)

Home video and audio releases

DVD releases

This story was released along with The Ribos Operation, The Pirate Planet, The Stones of Blood, The Power of Kroll and The Armageddon Factor as Doctor Who: The Key to Time. This October 2002 release was only in Region 1. Extras include commentary by Tom Baker, Mary Tamm and Michael Hayes, a photo gallery and production information subtitles.

It was also released with the same stories as Doctor Who: The Key to Time, an extras-laden box set limited to 15,000 in its initial UK release on 24 September 2007, later followed by wide release in Region 1 on 3 March 2009 as The Key to Time - Special Edition.

Contents (2007/2009 version):

Commentary by Tom Baker, Mary Tamm and Michael Hayes (carried over from the 2002 set)
The Humans of Tara - Cast and crew look back at the making of The Androids of Tara, featuring interviews with actors Mary Tamm, Paul Lavers and Neville Jason, writer David Fisher, script editor Anthony Read and director Michael Hayes.
Now and Then - A short featurette comparing the locations used for The Androids of Tara as they were in 2007, with how they appeared back in 1978.
Double Trouble - A brief history of doubles in other Doctor Who stories.
Radio Times Billings - Original listings from Radio Times (DVD-ROM PC/Mac)
Coming Soon Trailer - Planet of Evil (2007 UK version only)
Photo Gallery
Production Subtitles