Season 14, Episode 1 | 4 parts | First broadcast: 4–25 September 1976 | Writer: Louis Marks | Director: Rodney Bennett
Cast
- Tom Baker as the Doctor
- Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith
- Jon Laurimore as Count Federico
- Norman Jones as Hieronymous
Summary
After a strange energy force follows the TARDIS into the vortex, the Doctor and Sarah Jane arrive in Renaissance Italy in the city-state of San Martino, where the malevolent Mandragora Helix has taken root among a cult of superstitious astrologers. As the treacherous Count Federico schemes to usurp the throne with the cult’s help, the Doctor must prevent the Helix energy from using humanity’s dawning age of science and reason as a foothold to spread its influence across the stars.
Interesting Facts
- The serial’s lavish Italian Renaissance setting was achieved largely through location filming at Portmeirion in Wales, the same village later famous as the setting of The Prisoner.
- It thematically contrasts the emerging rationalism of the Renaissance with ancient superstition, a recurring interest of script editor Robert Holmes during this period.
- The story features one of the more elaborate uses of secondary TARDIS console room sets seen in the classic series up to that point.
- Its serpent-like Mandragora energy effect was achieved through animated lighting techniques considered ambitious for the show’s effects budget at the time.
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