Review of The Androids of Tara (#101)
DVD Release Date: 01 Mar 09
Original Air Date: 25 Nov – 16 Dec 1978
Doctors/Companions: Four, Romana I, K-9
Stars: Tom Baker, Mary Tamm, John Leeson
Preceding Story: The Stones of Blood (Four, Romana I)
Succeeding Story: The Power of Kroll (Four, Romana I)

When I decided on the next stories for the Bad Reputation™ series that I posted about last week, the four lowest-ranking Fourth Doctor selections in my spreadsheet surprised me. None of them struck me as particularly “bad,” and a couple I’d even go so far as to say I’m fond of.

Adding to the “hmm” factor, the first three of them were from the same season: The Key to Time (TKtT). So what gives?

The best I can figure is that when left to my own devices, I’ve already picked out both some of the very best and some of the very worst stories to talk about, leaving most of the “mid-range” adventures still in the queue. Even so, I don’t think I’d have predicted that The Androids of Tara, the fourth segment of TKtT, would fall in the bottom 15%. Yet in io9’s Best-to-Worst rankings, it came in at #217 of 254.

So why the poor ranking? My best guess is that there simply isn’t anything to make The Androids of Tara stand out from a crowded field. The plot is trope-y and predictable, with a villain so mustache-twirly that his final line is literally, “I’m a Gracht! We never surrender!” (followed by a dive into the water to escape).

As a result, there is little actual tension in waiting to see whether or not Prince Reynart and those loyal to the crown will outmatch Count Grendel of Gracht and his lackeys in their blatant power grab. There are a few twists and turns, but not many of them go so far that a viewer familiar with the genre couldn’t anticipate the results.

On the positive side, though, the fact that Taran technology is advanced enough to create realistic androids that can, with the proper programming, stand in for a human and fool most of the onlookers makes for some more interesting work for a couple of the actors. (And who doesn’t love a good doppelgänger?)

Mary Tamm, the fantastic—original!—Romana, actually gets to play four distinct characters: Romana, android Romana, Princess Strella, and the android princess. To her credit, they truly are distinguishable, particularly the two non-mechanical characters. Unfortunately, despite Romana’s obvious competence, the writers once again “damsel” her, leaving the Doctor with most of the agency in the story. At one point she literally yells “Doctor, help me!” as she’s being carried away on horseback by the bad guys. No wonder Mary decided to quit the show.

Meanwhile, I’m of two minds regarding both the Doctor and Grendel, the main antagonist. Grendel is one of those love-to-hate characters, whose open misogyny grates even more in 2019 than it would’ve upon airing forty years ago. But he also gets lines like, “I had everything arranged before this girl and her friend interfered,” in the same tone as a cartoon villain would’ve said, “I’d have gotten away with it, too, if not for these meddling kids and their dog!”

Yet the Doctor isn’t much better. While Baker isn’t as over-the-top as he is in the instances when he most irritates me, he’s rude and dismissive—as usual—to both Romana and K-9. For example, as K-9 is doing as he’s been asked and cutting through a barrier as quietly as possible, the Doctor berates him with, “Do hurry up! A hamster with a blunt penknife would do it quicker!”

It’s moments like these that make me wish K-9 would push the Doctor into the water saying, “Then do it yourself!” and go find some local androids who would treat him better. They probably couldn’t dream of a more loyal companion.

Perhaps my favorite part of the story, though, regards the segment of Key to Time that the Doctor and Romana are meant to be collecting. After all, the segment is the MacGuffin nominal point of the adventure. So where has it been hiding this entire time? In literal plain sight.

Within the first eight minutes of the 100-minute serial (including opening credits), Romana’s found and converted it. After it’s confiscated from her, it remains safely out of reach until the final eleven minutes (in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment where the Doctor snags it back). It’s this unique approach, making the segment a complete background concern, that really sets The Androids of Tara apart from the rest of the season.

So does this fourth installment of TKtT deserve its reputation? If all one remembers is the caricature of villainy or the trope-heavy plot, perhaps. But I find more to recommend it than not—particularly Mary Tamm’s varied performances—and wouldn’t hesitate to show it to a new fan.