Season 16, Episode 4 | 4 parts | First broadcast: 25 November – 16 December 1978 | Writer: David Fisher | Director: Michael Hayes
Cast
- Tom Baker as the Doctor
- Mary Tamm as Romana / Princess Strella
- John Leeson as the voice of K9
- Peter Jeffrey as Count Grendel
- Neville Jason as Prince Reynart
Summary
Pausing his search for the Key to Time’s fourth segment on the pleasant, medieval-styled world of Tara, the Doctor finds Romana caught up in a swashbuckling plot of royal succession, disguise and android doubles engineered by the scheming Count Grendel to seize the throne for himself. With an uncanny resemblance between Romana and the kingdom’s true princess exploited by both sides, the Doctor must outwit Grendel’s plots of duels, kidnapping and android substitution before the crown, and the segment hidden within it, are lost.
Interesting Facts
- The story is a deliberate homage to Anthony Hope’s swashbuckling novel The Prisoner of Zenda, transplanted into a Doctor Who setting.
- Mary Tamm took on a dual role, playing both Romana and the visually identical Princess Strella.
- Its lush countryside location filming gave the story an unusually opulent, fairy-tale visual style compared to much of the season.
- Count Grendel, played with theatrical relish by Peter Jeffrey, is often ranked among the more charismatic one-off villains of the Tom Baker era.
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