Searching for the fourth segment of The Key To Time the Doctor and Romana land on the Planet Tara where Romana finds herself kidnapped and held prisoner by Count Grendal
After the previous traditional tale The Stones Of Blood we're back in the territory of the show paying homage/ripping off another source . This time it's THE PRISONER OF ZENDA . There's nothing wrong with paying homage to other films/books/TV shows and the previous regime under Hinchcliffe and Holmes quite happily ripped off Nigel Kneale , Mary Shelley amongst other pulp horror and sci-fi . The problem with taking the premise of Anthony Hope's 1894 novel is that it doesn't lend itself to science fiction and for much of the running time you don't really get the feeling you're watching DOCTOR WHO , more like something resembling dumbed down historical hokum featuring a plot involving dopplegangers and impostors
Of course the other train of thought is DOCTOR WHO can be exactly what ever it wants to be . It can be anything and for four Saturdays in the Autumn of 1978 it has earned the right to be historical adventure devoid of scary monsters creeping about an alien hinterland . Fair enough but it was the suspense laden atmosphere and horror elements that got this audience member addicted to the show in the first place and a Taran bear and political intrigue isn't really going to grab a child audience . Watching it as an adult it's nothing more than a runaround , dialogue driven and the very prolific actor Peter Jeffrey does manage to bring a slightly colourful turn as Count Grendal but like so many late 1970s Doctor Who it's mediocre for the most part and rather forgettable