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Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Re-issue) [DVD] [1978]

Tom Baker (Actor), Mary Tamm (Actor) Rated: Parental Guidance Format: DVD
4.6 out of 5 stars 761 ratings
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Format PAL
Contributor Mary Tamm, Tom Baker
Language English
Number of discs 7
Runtime 10 hours and 10 minutes

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Product description

Product Description

The Key to Time starring the much loved Tom Baker is a multi-story box set containing the six linked stories comprising Doctor Who's 16th season along with a huge array of extras contained on seven discs released September 24th priced £69.99.

In The Key to Time, the Doctor and his new companion, the elegant and sharp-witted Time Lady Romana (Mary Tamm) are dispatched by the White Guardian to recover the six segments of the Key of Time, a powerful device with the ability to stop time.The Doctors and Romans’ mission is to find the six segments before the evil Black Guardian discovers them.

Amazon.co.uk Review

Uniting six complete stories across a full series of Doctor Who in one quest, the Key To Time saga is an ambitious, sometimes too ambitious, piece of television that nonetheless has plenty within it to recommend it.

Starring Tom Baker as Doctor Who he's given a quest by the White Guardian to track down the six constituent parts of the Key to Time. Thus, each of the six stories sees the Doctor and Mary Tamm's Romana hunting down one of the segments.

In many ways showing the highs and the lows of Doctor Who in the late 1970s, the Key To Time has some very distinct highlights. The Pirate Planet, for instance, is a cracking story in its own right (written by Douglas Adams), and we're also fans of The Androids Of Tara and the story that wraps the saga up, The Armageddon Factor. Ironically, it all gets off to a low start with the tepid The Ribos Operation, while The Power Of Kroll is just silly. Even by Doctor Who standards!

Nonetheless, this is a significant and very worthy entry in the Doctor Who canon, with both Tamm and Baker on top form. There's also some cracking episodes within the Key to Time, and a real feeling of risks being taken with a long-running property. --Jon Foster

Product details

  • Is discontinued by manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
  • Rated ‏ : ‎ Parental Guidance
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 20 x 14.5 x 10 cm; 540 g
  • Audio Description: ‏ : ‎ English
  • Item model number ‏ : ‎ 5051561027543
  • Media Format ‏ : ‎ PAL
  • Run time ‏ : ‎ 10 hours and 10 minutes
  • Release date ‏ : ‎ 16 Nov. 2009
  • Actors ‏ : ‎ Tom Baker, Mary Tamm
  • Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English
  • Studio ‏ : ‎ 2 entertain
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B002TOKFNM
  • Country of origin ‏ : ‎ Czech Republic
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 7
  • Customer reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 761 ratings

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
761 global ratings

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Complete series 16 at a bargain price.
5 out of 5 stars
Complete series 16 at a bargain price.
For any fan of classic Doctor Who the key to time is a great box set to own. Firstly at £22.99 for six stories on 7 CDs in a presentation box it is is unbeatable value for money. It is the complete series 16 with arguably the most popular doctor of all time. It is the only series in Doctor Who's history where every story is linked by a common theme running through the entire 26 episodes on 6 individual stories. The CDs conveniently have a sticker on the front featuring the key to time logo go and a number to ensure you watch them in the correct order. Although I watched all the classic Doctor Who when it was first broadcast and I remember Mary tamm as Romana I don't recall any of the stories so for me it's like watching them for the very first time. Many reviewers will focus on the relative strengths weaknesses and mention their favourite episodes so I won't bother as you can check other reviews I prefer to look at the keys to time as a story in 26 chapters like any story it has highs and lows action excitement and Pathos. So far I have only watched the first two stories as it is so good I am having to rashion myself to make it last. The first five stories of four episodes each with with lots of extras and bonus material. The final story the Armageddon Factor is is over 6 episodes and comes with with another dvd packed with extras interviews and other bonus material. I would highly recommend this box set to any classic Doctor Who fan. 26 episodes for less than £1 each what's not to like.
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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Frank Cooper
    5.0 out of 5 stars Doctor who DVD
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 February 2025
    Verified Purchase
    The dvds were in a very good condition and I like doctor who dvds
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  • Greywolf
    5.0 out of 5 stars Tom Baker - 'nuff said!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 November 2021
    Verified Purchase
    For his legions of fans, any story featuring Tom Baker as the Doctor is a treat. What sets The Key To Time apart is that it a single quest that spans the whole of season 16, albeit divided into six very different story arcs. The quest is for the Key of the title, an incredibly powerful and potentially dangerous artefact that was split into six parts and spread across time and space. The Doctor and Romana, played by Mary Tamm, are tasked with locating all of the pieces. Oh yes, K9 features too. I know he has his own legion of loyal fans. The six story arcs have different writers and are of varying quality, but hey, the Doctor and Romana are in all of them, so it's all good.
    First up is The Ribos Operation which provides the set-up, features the search for the first piece of the Key, and introduces Romana, a Gallifreain Time Lady and therefore the Doctor's equal rather than the usual subservient companion. This gives their relationship a great working dynamic when handled well by the writers, in this case Doctor Who stalwart, Robert Holmes.
    The second arc, The Pirate Planet, is the most eccentric of the season, being written by Douglas Adams, he of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame. Naturally, it plays up the humour, which suits Tom Baker's playful portrayal well despite some clunky writing and dubious secondary characters.
    Having been a Druid since 1974, the third arc is the one that I most wanted to see. This is The Stones of Blood and remains, I think, the only Dr Who arc to feature Druids. The Stones of the title are a stone circle, the Nine Travellers, supposedly on Boscombe Moor in Cornwall, although the actual location used was the Rollright Stones in Oxfordshire. Featured in it are Arthurian baddie, Vivien le Fay, and a Druid cult who worship the Cailleach, described as a goddess of war but actually a Gaelic embodiment of winter. Despite the writing being a bit of a mess and the elderly Beatrix Lehmann (as Professor Rumford) clearly having trouble remembering her lines, it's still an enjoyable yarn.
    Fourth arc, The Androids of Tara, benefits from the presence of the great character actor, Peter Jeffrey, as the villainous Count Grendel. The story is essentially a medieval swash-buckling romp taking place in a high-tech society that has maintained feudalism (so a bit like 21st century England).
    Next is The Power of Kroll, which has a pretty good script, again by Robert Holmes, and a supporting cast that includes the ever-dependable Philip Madoc, but suffers from BBC budget restraints that made it impossible to achieve believable special fx. Despite its limitations, it's still quite an interesting story, one with resonances about the over-exploitation of natural resources that gives it a particular resonance as our own planet continues its inexorable race towards extinction.
    Finally we have The Armageddon Factor, which sees the Doctor and Romana landing in the midst of an inter-planetary war. This six-parter provides a sort of resolution to the Key of Time story, albeit not a particularly satisfactory one, despite Tom Baker and Mary Tamm's best efforts. Ah well.
    As said, what matters here is that it's Tom Baker's Doctor. His extraordinary inhabiting of the character makes even poorly-written episodes filmed on shockingly low budgets hugely watchable. Thanks, Tom!
    8 people found this helpful
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  • Andrew Nell
    5.0 out of 5 stars Complete series 16 at a bargain price.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 September 2019
    Verified Purchase
    For any fan of classic Doctor Who the key to time is a great box set to own. Firstly at £22.99 for six stories on 7 CDs in a presentation box it is is unbeatable value for money. It is the complete series 16 with arguably the most popular doctor of all time. It is the only series in Doctor Who's history where every story is linked by a common theme running through the entire 26 episodes on 6 individual stories. The CDs conveniently have a sticker on the front featuring the key to time logo go and a number to ensure you watch them in the correct order. Although I watched all the classic Doctor Who when it was first broadcast and I remember Mary tamm as Romana I don't recall any of the stories so for me it's like watching them for the very first time. Many reviewers will focus on the relative strengths weaknesses and mention their favourite episodes so I won't bother as you can check other reviews I prefer to look at the keys to time as a story in 26 chapters like any story it has highs and lows action excitement and Pathos. So far I have only watched the first two stories as it is so good I am having to rashion myself to make it last. The first five stories of four episodes each with with lots of extras and bonus material. The final story the Armageddon Factor is is over 6 episodes and comes with with another dvd packed with extras interviews and other bonus material. I would highly recommend this box set to any classic Doctor Who fan. 26 episodes for less than £1 each what's not to like.
    Customer image
    Andrew Nell
    5.0 out of 5 stars
    Complete series 16 at a bargain price.

    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 September 2019
    For any fan of classic Doctor Who the key to time is a great box set to own. Firstly at £22.99 for six stories on 7 CDs in a presentation box it is is unbeatable value for money. It is the complete series 16 with arguably the most popular doctor of all time. It is the only series in Doctor Who's history where every story is linked by a common theme running through the entire 26 episodes on 6 individual stories. The CDs conveniently have a sticker on the front featuring the key to time logo go and a number to ensure you watch them in the correct order. Although I watched all the classic Doctor Who when it was first broadcast and I remember Mary tamm as Romana I don't recall any of the stories so for me it's like watching them for the very first time. Many reviewers will focus on the relative strengths weaknesses and mention their favourite episodes so I won't bother as you can check other reviews I prefer to look at the keys to time as a story in 26 chapters like any story it has highs and lows action excitement and Pathos. So far I have only watched the first two stories as it is so good I am having to rashion myself to make it last. The first five stories of four episodes each with with lots of extras and bonus material. The final story the Armageddon Factor is is over 6 episodes and comes with with another dvd packed with extras interviews and other bonus material. I would highly recommend this box set to any classic Doctor Who fan. 26 episodes for less than £1 each what's not to like.
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    3 people found this helpful
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  • JA Fairhurst
    4.0 out of 5 stars Mostly Brilliant!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 October 2007
    Verified Purchase
    This was a once off effort from Doctor Who, particularly in the classic era. A whole series dedicated to one overarching story arc.

    The season is broken down into six stories - five with 4 episodes and the sixth and final with 6 episodes. The gift set is boosted as having seven disks, so the first panic was `Where's that seventh disk?' but fear not; the final case is a double disk set. This seventh disk contains much of the special features for the season.

    This season had the misfortune to be the one that was broadcast at the same time that a seminal science fiction movie propelled science fiction out of movie obscurity and back into a foreground it's fought to retain ever since. Star Wars showed what could be achieved with movie-like budgets, which Doctor Who could never hope to match.

    Each story has a particular style quite different from any of the others in the series.

    The six stories are, in order:
    The Ribos Operation. This story opens the season with a couple of rather unusual things it had to achieve; to introduce a new companion and set up the rest of the season. This had a great cast with Iain Cuthbertson as Garron, an interstellar con-artist who specialises in selling planets he doesn't have title to...
    There are plenty of neat lines from the Guardian's `Nothing... ever.' to the Doctor's question about refusing to take on the mission to Unstoffe's discussion with Binro the Heretic where they talked about the stars as real objects particularly as this latter was only really done as a filling scene which turned into one of those scenes that really make a production. Unstoffe's OTT discussion of the properties of scringe stone was unfortunate, shall we say?
    The new companion was a first as well; a Time Lady - Romanadvoratreludar, very quickly shortened to Romana.

    The Pirate Planet. This story sees the Doctor and Romana chasing the second key. The two time travellers trace it to the planet Calufrax, which is supposed to be a bit of a miserable place so the Doctor deploys sarcasm when they land on a planet that isn't for Romana is updating her skills and programming the TARDIS's navigation systems. But as the story goes on, the truth comes out; the planet they're actually on has the largest set of hypergenerators ever seen by the time lords. Romana thinks they only move the Bridge but the Doctor realises that the whole planet moves...
    Among the best things in this story is the gun fight between the Captain's mechanical parrot and K9. This story was written by Douglas Adams and there were plenty of Hitchhiker references to keep fans happy.

    The Stones of Blood. The one story in this season that was set on earth, with a suitably scary horror story. The duo are brought to the location of an ancient stone circle where the detector is adamant the third segment could be found. Only it isn't there. A pair apparently normal women are surveying the stones and invite Romana and the Doctor back to their cottage but the Doctor reckons a visit to the local druids would be more productive but we've all seen the Hammer Horror films and true to form, he's soon wrapped up in the stone circle with the druids about to sacrifice him. Here we get one of the coolest enemies in the Ogri - three silicone based life forms who's favourite tipple is haemoglobin - we get to see the Ogri attack a couple of campers who are quickly reduced to ash and skeleton.

    The Androids of Tara. This is the Doctor's visit to Zenda; except that the duplicate Prince is an android, this follows the story of `The Prisoner of Zenda' with incredible fidelity (we will so totally forget about the Taran bear creature thing). Mary Tamm gets to play three parts in this; Romana, of course, the Taran princess and a killer android commissioned by count Grendel, all of which she manages to give their own personalities (not too literally in the case of the android).
    In this story it isn't actually locating the fourth element that causes problems but subsidiary elements and it must rate as one of the lowest body counts in the history of Who. Tom Baker really plays the Doctor at the top of his powers as he hides his abilities behind his affable fool face.

    The Power of Kroll. Less said about this one the better - the search moves on to the swamps of the third moon of Delta Magna and we lose K9 as a character - far too muddy for him so John Leeson, who voices him gets some on screen time for a change. The fifth segment has mutated some of the local wildlife from a relatively normal sized squid, right up to a mega sized creature that is probably the most derided creature in the history of Who. Apart from the search for the segment, this is a fairly standard base under siege type story.

    The Armageddon Factor. This is the last story in the sequence and we are taken to the twin worlds of Atrios and Zeos which have been fighting an interstellar war for either a very long time or the last five years. Either way, things are desperate with Zeos totally depopulated though we are not given any particular reason why, and Atrios near to collapse (Zeos has a computer that is prosecuting the war with mechanical efficiency). There's quite a bit of good stuff in this as everyone is manipulated by the mysterious Shadow and its minions. The Doctor decides to create a false sixth segment as the real sixth segment is found to be the Princess Astra. It's also when we learn he has doubts as to which Guardian sent him on this mission...
    John Woodvine has a great part as the Marshal of Atrios and plays a neat Churchillian role. Valantine Dyal is revealed as the Black Guardian, a role he was born to play. After refusing to hand over the `completed' key to Time, the Doctor and Romana use a randomiser circuit to escape the Black Guardian's wrath.

    The individual episodes have some special features dealing specifically with things on those disks.
    7 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Lex
    5.0 out of 5 stars This is mainly a review for the shipment, but I will also talk about the product.
    Reviewed in Canada on 20 November 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Shipment:

    So, I bought this using Amazon Prime at around 6pm on November 11, and somehow, I don't even know how this is possible, when I went to the mailbox the next day, around 4pm, there it was sitting there. I literally looked at the package and had no idea what it could be. (Did I order something and completely forget about?) When I opened it and discovered it was the package I purchased less the 24 hours ago I was even more shocked. This was the fastest I've ever received a package and just had to comment on it! So thanks alot, Amazon, you've out done yourself. I don't know even know how you managed this, but just wow. :p

    Product:

    Doctor Who in it's 16th series added the first season arc to the show, with The Key to Time.
    Now, I've seen all these serials ago years ago, but I remember not liking this series much, and thinking the serials were kind of weak and that the season mostly offered the same kind of stuff for all of it. From revisiting the first three serials I can see where I was coming, but I also think I was too harsh. Seeing Mary Tamm as Romana is a great, I really enjoyed her and it's a shame she only did the one series. There's lots of K9 fun, and although the production values hold this series back, and the serials do kind of have the same feel--I would have liked more tonal differences between the episodes, but I do enjoy it. I can't say it's better then Tom's earlier seasons on the show, but this one is interesting and from what I've revisited I think I was too harsh, Stones of Blood I especially liked. Not pumped to get to the Power of Krull, though. I remember that one being pretty dreadful..
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  • ernstlx
    5.0 out of 5 stars May the 4th be with you!
    Reviewed in Germany on 6 February 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Das ist die Staffel mit Tom Baker, dem unerreichten 4. Doktor und der kongenialen Mary Tamm als (erneut aufgezwungene) Begleiterein Romana. Da mögen die Geschichten noch so albern sein, was ich nicht finde - der Doktor und seine Gefährten (Romana und K-9) überstrahlen ohnehin alles.

    Auf fernen Planeten geht es ab durch alle Genres. "The Ribos Operation" ist eine klassische Gaunerkomödie, "The Pirate Planet" einfach Douglas Adams - eine Gesellschaft, die auf Kosten anderer in Wohlstand lebt, ohne sich dessen bewusst zu sein, ohne sich dafür zu interessieren ... und das noch wirklich witzig. "The Stones Of Blood" ist ein "Miss Marple"-Krimi und "The Androids Of Tara" eine Verwechslungskomödie" im Ritterkostüm. "The Power Of Kroll" hat wieder einen ernsthafteren Hintergrund, denn es geht um kolonialistische Ausbeutung und gewissenloses Gewinnstreben.

    Zuletzt muss die "Gralssuche" dann irgendwie abgeschlossen werden, aber das schlimmste an "The Armageddon Factor" ist, dass es die letzte Geschichte mit Mary Tamm ist.

    Unbedingt zu empfehlen, für Fans absolute Pflicht!
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  • KIKI
    5.0 out of 5 stars Chasse aux trésors .
    Reviewed in France on 30 November 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Ce superbe coffret de 6 épisodes de la série classique "Docteur Who "est un must pour tous les fans .
    Il s'agit de l'intégralité de la saison 16 :
    le "Docteur " voit ses plans de vacances contrariés par le "White guardian"(sorte de toute puissance de l'Univers et par là même un peu "le Boss "du Docteur )qui lui confie la mission de retrouver les six morceaux de la clef du temps pour éviter la destruction de l'univers !
    Dans l'ombre ,le "Black guardian" fera tout pour récupérer, à son profit, cette fameuse clef.
    Dans sa mission, le Docteur reçoit l'aide d'une femme seigneur du temps Romana (une" petite jeune" de 140 ans fraichement diplomée de l'académie des seigneurs du temps )et de K9 son chien robot (super ordinateur) .
    1/"The Ribbos operation ":Sur une planète en perpétuel hiver, Le Docteur et ses compagnons essayent de voler le segment de la clef hélas ils ne sont pas les seuls à le convoiter !
    2/The pirate planet : Le deuxième segment est localisé sur une planète qui a disparue !Le Docteur doit d'abord élucider ce mystère .
    3/The stones of blood : 3 ème destination pour nos héros un cercle de pierres en Cournouailles !Mais les apparences ne sont elles pas trompeuses ?
    4/The androids of Tara : Le Docteur (qui n'a plus envie de poursuivre la quête et veut juste buller !)et Romana arrivent sur une planète savoureux mélange de moyen âge et de haute technologie .
    5/The power of Kroll : Nos héros débarquent sur une planète alors qu'une guerre des clans et des espèces fait rage .
    6/The Armagedon factor :Fin de la chasse aux 6 segments de clef en pleine guerre entre 2 peuples .
    Des 6 épisodes je pense que le meilleur est "The pirate planet "(très bonne histoire ,très bonne interprétation )le plus mauvais est sans aucun doute" The power of Kroll "(pas très convainquante cette histoire de pieuvre géante ).
    Le duo Docteur/ Romana est souvent très drôle .
    La confrontation entre un Docteur râleur et Mlle" Je sais tout "est hilarante !
    Un article à acheter sans hésiter .
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  • Yeaton_one
    5.0 out of 5 stars Nice collection
    Reviewed in the United States on 20 June 2011
    Verified Purchase
    I believe there are people intent on getting every Doctor Who story created in the 20th century, and these people will buy this no matter what I say, and there are those would not care to see a television space opera from the 1970s, and these people will not buy this. I can think of three kinds of people who might be interested in my comments: someone wondering if this collection is good way to get a sense of what Dr. Who was in its golden age of the late 1970s, a casual Who won't buy everything, but is looking for a good buy, and finally someone curious about the early career of novelist Douglas Adams. I believe that some people from all three categories would be very happy with this boxed set.

    Doctor Who in the 1970s was quite a phenomenon. Viewers had a strong empathy with shows star played by Tom Baker and the show getting the highest ratings it would every see despite a pitiful special effects budget. the show featured a space hero called The Doctor who travelled through space and time in a police box. The doctor came from a race beings called Time Lords, and was usually accompanied by woman who served as a portable damsel in distress, and sometimes and additional companion. In the late 1970's the extra companion was a robot dog named K-9. The show was presented in a serial format in which a story was spread out over a number of episodes, and different stories were quite different. If you are not familiar with the show, then I imagine you would say, "That's weird". Indeed, it is weird, and there has never been anything quite like it, but it is a very popular weird show, and you might enjoy it for the same reason that many other people enjoy it. So, if you want a sense of what the show was like then you would want to watch a number of stories in order. In general, buying multiple stories costs a fair amount, and this is the only collection of 6 20th century Doctor Who stories that I am aware of, and on the whole it costs a lot less than individual episodes. They let us buy season 16 as a single set because put together the season was an epic quest, to find the six segments of the keys to time, and in many ways the over all story is better than any of the six parts. The version is special edition. Every episode has at least one commentary by cast and crew (14 of 26 episodes have two commentaries), and every episode has subtitled production notes. I thought some of the commentary was quite interesting. There is a documentary about the producer Graham Williams who was the main creative force behind the whole idea of making a season of Doctor Who a quest, and the context of how he got put in charge of that show. There are special documentaries about the making of 5 out of six of the stories in the collection--that does mean that there was story that they really did not want to discuss the production of. Beyond that the additions are a bit thrown in but a couple of the throw ins are very entertaining. There are old videos of Tom Baker reading scary stories, and he is very good at it. Tom Baker is usually very funny when playing Doctor Who, but he seems very good at doing a serious reading of a scary story. The best story in the set was written by Saki. Another interesting snippet is an old comedy piece called "Weird Science" which pokes fun at the science in season 16 of Doctor Who. On the whole, the extras are very good.

    If you have seen a fair amount of 20th century Doctor Who and are wondering if this video collection is your thing, then you would want to know more about each story. It seems that for many of these stories feelings about the quality differ wildly, and there are five stories than many people feel might be the best in collection, and one story that most people seem not to like because of the really bad special effects. So, my personal feelings on any of the episodes are not the point, and I will try to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each story.

    The first story--the Ribos Operation-- begins was a being claiming to be "The White Guardian" telling the doctor to find the six segments of key to time which have the power to "restore the balance of the universe." He also tells the doctor that there is a "Black Guardian" who would like to use key to time for evil. The Doctor is shown to be familiar with the concept of guardians so the Manichean mythology that underlies the story is to be taken at face value. The Guardian claiming to be white uses threat of death to get the Doctor to fulfill the quest, and he uses deception to get Romona--another Time Lord--to act as the doctor's assistant. This means that the claiming to be embodiment of good has no qualms about using force and lies to get his way. In any event, in the first story, the Doctor, Romona and K-9 go to a backward medieval looking planet to find the first segment of the key to time, but encounter a strange scuffle involving a pair of criminal who want to sell the backward planet to a deposed monarch. The medieval setting works well with the quest for a segment concept, and the story is humerus, well timed and fun. Romona--played by Mary Tam--has been thrown in with the doctor and there is a lot friction between the two, but this works well.

    The next story occupies an unusual place in the history of television because it is the first television script written by Douglas Adams who would go on to become best selling novelist. It came out at about the same time as the radio script version "Hitchhikers Guide to Galaxy." The basic story involves a pirate who is able to make the outer shell of his planet materialize around another planet The captain in this story called "Pirate Planet" has a robot parrot that is adept at killing for its captain. The Doctor Romona and K-9 must not only find the second segment of the key, but stop the captain before he materialize his planet around the earth and kills the whole of the human race. The pirate idea fits into the quest idea well, and it is filled Adam's sense of humor.

    The third story is called "Stones of Blood" which puts the doctor in conflict with a group of witches in 20th century England. Of course, as usual in Doctor Who stories, what gives these witches their power is an alien intelligence. I found the way the story resolved a bit anticlimactic, but I have learned that a number of people found it satisfying.

    The fourth story is "The Androids of Tara" which is a well mannered and elegant version of the "Prisoner of Zenda." The story is complicated by technology that permits androids to impersonate people, and by special electronics in the crossbow bolts and swords that the characters fight with. The story plays very little emphasis on main theme of the book, namely that a person forced to impersonate a king because necessity might actually make better king than the king. So, the story becomes a drama centered on action and sword fights.

    The fifth story called "The Power of Kroll", is the one that might really be a bad idea, but had some positive points. According to the write up that accompanies the DVD collection, the writer Robert Holmes was told to create the largest monster that had ever been in a Doctor Who story, and part of the difficulty with the story is that with special effects budget you could not create a building sized monster that was believable. Another problem is that the natives who worship Kroll are green skinned people who wear nothing but loin clothes and capes. I know exactly why the writer chose to have them wear loin clothes and capes, that was what Aztecs wore before the Spanish came, and these natives think Romona should be honored by their plans to sacrifice her to Kroll. In effect, these are alien Aztecs. The humans are intent on driving these natives off their land so that they can produce more methane fuel, so there is fairly interesting political situation because while the natives are portrayed as far from noble savages the civilized humans are in many ways more savage than the natives. The author of this script was Robert Holmes who created a number of good scripts for doctor who, including the "Ribos Operation" and his scripts are usually interesting even when they do not really work. As a story, this one really does not work because people wearing green make up all over their bodies worshiping something that looks like a cheap model of a plastic squid does not work, but it does make a fifth part of the great mythic quest, so it can be enjoyed in the context of the larger story.

    "The Armageddon Factory" is the last story so it has a great deal to do: it must be centered on large enough stakes to qualify as a dramatic climax, and it has to create an adequate resolution to underlying plot of the whole season. To fulfill the first requirement, it makes the final story about preventing the "Black Guardian" from turning the whole universe into a great war. Obviously, in the climax a great quest the hero would do things like rescue a princess from near certain doom. Resolving the conflict of the entire season is a bit trickery because it is implicit in the whole season that the Doctor will have to decide what he does when he has the key to time which grants its holder god like powers. I am not giving away the answer because people who want a spoiler can find the answer on many web-cites, and some people do not want the answer. Lets just say that I was happy with the way that things were resolved, but some people found the whole thing anti-climactic.

    Interestingly Douglas Adams who wrote the second story was given the job or writing the conclusion where the Doctor faces the big decision, even though other people were the writers of "the Armageddon Factor." Adams was in fact about to be promoted to script writer. For this reason, I think that the collection might be interesting to Douglas Adams fans, even though I doubt that Adams fans are usually who fans.

    Taking into account all of the extras, I think the collection is pretty good.
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  • Paul Reardon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
    Reviewed in Australia on 1 April 2021
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