Doctor Who Season 16: It's time for a quest...

While the early seasons of Doctor Who presented the stories as a continuous adventure, the various storylines weren’t connected together. One adventure would end, they’d retreat to the Tardis and then the next one would start. After a while, even that slight tissue was dropped.

For his second season, Graham Williams decided to craft the first fully connected season in the show’s history. He actually wanted to do the The Key to Time storyline in his first season, but there wasn’t time to assemble it in time. Season two, however, would bring the concept to life.

It ends up being an uneven season, with some terrific adventures along the way (including Douglas Adams’ first contribution to the show) and the likes of The Power of Kroll, which doesn’t have much going for it except for a giant-mega-squid-thing (coming this fall on the Syfy channel).

The Ribos Operation

We start with an adventure from an old friend, as Robert Holmes returns with a typical script, loaded with scoundrels and grifters. First off, we need to make some introductions. Solo Tom Baker is taken to meet the White Guardian, who gives him a task conveniently broken into six parts. He needs to the find the fabled Key to Time, which can return balance to the universe. He also gets a new companion, Romana, played in the first season by Mary Tamm.

In what is going to be a familiar sight during the season, Ribos is a mixture of a technologically advanced society with lots of touches of the Middle Ages tossed in. The story features low-life grifters (in other words, perfect Holmes characters) and a certain jewel that may just be… the first segment to the Key to Time.

The Pirate Planet

Or, “that episode Douglas Adams wrote.” The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was still bubbling up through BBC Radio when Adams got the commission, and you can see the various influences throughout in this script. There’s a touch of the Vogan’s, as the planet in question is actually a shell that travels the universe and destroying the worlds beneath it. There are ineffectual revolutionaries, even more ineffectual bad guys and plenty of jokes along the way. Tom Baker really seems to be thrilled by the material, and has an absolutely brilliant scene when the planet-killing scheme is revealed. His abject horror at the situation feels and sounds absolutely real. The special effects don’t always do the series any favors, but it certainly is one of the most ambitious series of the season – and still a lot of fun watch (even with the bad mecha-parrot flying around).

The Stones of Blood

Episodes during the Graham Williams’ years set on contemporary earth are rare (just one per season), and I tend to get this one confused with the superior Image of the Fendahl from the previous season. This does have some striking and startling bits of horror – well, as much as you can get with mobile stones (of blood, I imagine). The series takes a strange left turn at the end as we end up in a trans-dimensional prison ship officiated by a couple of overbearing and by-the-book flashing lights/police officers.

The Androids of Tara

Hey, it’s the Prisoner of Zenda – in space! Well, not exactly space, just another planet with a mix of advanced and primitive technology. There’s a bit of daring do and the cast looks like they are having plenty of fun, but the acting and effects are pretty uneven and the whole show is a bit flat.

The Power of Kroll

It’s been a few weeks since I watched this particular episode. The only things that have stuck with me through that time is: just how impressively and unbelievably massive the Kroll squid thing (also a segment, of course) is; and all the green-skinned natives chanting “Kroll! Kroll! Kroll!” over and over again. The plot is kind of like the Jon Pertwee episode The Mutants, just without the poorly deployed moral message.

The Armageddon Factor

Budgets always got squeezed at the end of classic Who seasons, and – as was typical through the later 1970s – the final serial was a six parter. The low budget hurts this space adventure, though it isn’t without its delights. The main one is Lalla Ward, who plays a princess here before taking on the role of Romana in the following season. The plot involves warring planets and supercomputers – a bit like the original Star Trek episode “A Taste of Armageddon” – that finally gets us to the final segment. The Black Guardian, hinted at before, makes an appearance, but the Doctor susses him out and all is saved, though the Key to the Time is dispersed, making the past 26 episodes a bit pointless. Still, there was some fun along the way.

Fun is not a word often used when discussing season 17, as we will find out next time.