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Doctor Who: Season Sixteen
Doctor Who: The Key to Time Collection is the only box set to contain an entire season of the classic Doctor Who series. This 6-DVD set contains all 26 half hour episodes (6 stories--five 4-parters and one 6-parter) of Season Sixteen, which ran from fall 1978 until spring '79. The entire season revolves around the Doctor's (Tom Baker) quest to find the Key to Time. He is seeking the Key at the request at the request of the White Guardian (Cyril Luckham) so he can restore the balance of the Cosmos. The Key is broken into segments, which are disguised and scattered throughout space and time. The Doctor, along with his computerized sidekick K-9 (voiced by John Leeson) and new Time Lord companion Romanadvoratrelundar (Romana for short), played by Mary Tamm, are to gather the segments and assemble for the White Guardian, and to ensure the Key does not fall into the hands of his evil counterpart, The Black Guardian (Valentine Dyall). <
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>Here's a rundown of the stories of Season Sixteen: <
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>"The Ribos Operation" A strong season opener as the White Guardian commissions the Doctor to find and assemble the Key to Time. Romana is introduced and the quest begins on Ribos, a backward, medieval world rich in jethrik, and a rare mineral, which is used for achieving warp drive. Enter the Graff Vynda-K (Paul Seed), the deposed ruler of Levithia. The Graff wants to buy Ribos for its jethrik, and to use the planet to stage his plans to reclaim Levithia. Iain Cuthbertson plays Garron, a con man out to swindle the Graff on the sale of the planet. Great start for the quest for the Key to Time. <
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>"The Pirate Planet" (4 parts) Written by "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy " author Douglas Adams, "The Pirate Planet" is very funny and very well-written. The Key's tracer locates the second segment on Calufrax, but the coordinates bring the TARDIS to Zanax, a hollowed-out world fitted with engines to trans-mat through space and materialize around other planets to plunder their resources. The shrunken husks of these planets are kept in a "trophy room." Bruce Purchase makes an excellent villain as the Captain. <
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>"The Stones of Blood" (4 parts) The 100th DW story, and the runt of the litter for Season Sixteen. The third segment of the Key is on Earth, which gives us a story with a Druidic cult, bloodsucking rocks, and an alien prisoner posing as a goddess. <
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>"The Androids of Tara" (4 parts) One of the stronger stories of the season. Great `Prisoner of Zenda ` send-up. The Doctor, Romana and K9 are caught up in a struggle for the throne of Tara. Peter Jeffrey shines as Count Jeffrey, another great villain. Michael Hayes also does a great job directing this story. <
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>"The Power of Kroll" (4 parts) The worst story of the season, which is sad, as it was written by Robert Holmes, who has turned out some of DW's greatest stories. The Doctor & company arrive on the swamp world of Delta Magna where the locals are fighting against the crew of a refinery, trying to drive them off the planet. <
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>"The Armageddon Factor" (6 parts) The search for the sixth segment of the Key to Time brings the Doctor to Atrios, a planet at war with her twin sister Zeos. This story is a strong finish to the season as the quest for the Key wraps up. <
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>My only complaint for this collector's set is the minimal bonus features: commentary tracks are included, as well as a photo gallery and the pop-up production notes and Who's who. But there are no featurettes on the making of any of these stories, no cast interviews, deleted scenes, outtakes or BBC trailers. This is a fairly good DVD set of Doctor Who stories, but the inclusion of more bonus features could have made it a GREAT set. Consider this a THREE AND A HALF STAR review. <
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Doctor Who classic series - review by: Adam Platts
This DVD collection is a classic series from the Tom Baker era, and a must-have for any Doctor Who fan (Whovian). <
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>About the Doctor: <
>Doctor Who is a science fiction television show that was filmed in the UK and was picked up and broadcast by American public television stations for a long number of years. The show is about a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who travels through space and time in a vessel known as the TARDIS, which stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. The TARDIS can go anywhere in the Universe, though the Doctor tends to favor Earth's own solar system a great deal. The TARDIS is not just a space ship, but also a time-machine, meaning the Doctor and his companions can also go forward or backward in time. <
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>Quirks about the show: <
>The television show was so long running that there was no one actor who could have remained as "the Doctor" for such a long period of time. When the show first started off it was in black and white. Tom Baker was actually the fourth version of the Doctor by the time his 1970s era came around. Whenever a new actor assumed the role, the Doctor was said to have "re-generated", meaning the old form/body passed away, being replaced by a new body. Time Lords could regenerate a dozen times, which basically meant that they had 12 lives to live. Tom Baker was a refreshing, younger person than previous versions of the Doctor; though the Doctor often said he was 700+ years old. Another quirky feature of the show is that the TARDIS was a "police call box." This was a blue box-shaped thing that basically resembled a large phone booth in appearance and size, and it was larger on the INSIDE than it was on the OUTSIDE. (I told you it was quirky.) <
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>The Key to Time Series: <
>This is the series that features Mary Tamm's version of Romana (another Time Lord who assists the Doctor). While I always prefered Lala Ward's version of Romana, Mary Tamm is great too. The Key to Time is about segments of the Key that are scattered throughout the Universe. Due to dire circumstances, the Doctor and Romana are on a mission to recover the Key so that order can be restored, and to prevent Evil from dominating Good throughout the Cosmos. The good thing about this series, and Baker's era in general, was that it explored remote and exotic corners of the Universe, stretching our imaginations for what could possibly lie out there in the dark depths of space. So the Doctor and Romana encounter many strange and interesting new creatures and civilizations along their journey. And part of the fun is allowing your own imagination to get swept up in the story. You cannot depend on the special effects to do it for you, because if you watch the show with such a critical eye then you'll just never get it. The special effects are "bad" because there was hardly any money funding this show. But that is also what makes this show and this series amazing. <
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>If you can tell me who the Master and K9 are, and what a sonic screw driver or a Dalek is, then you are a true Who fan! <
>Cheers, <
>Adam Platts

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Excellent Entertainment
This is one of the BBC's best Doctor Who releases and gives us a whole season of lively adventures. In many ways these stories represent the Tom Baker era at its peak: there are great comedic moments but they don't interfere with the drama; the plotting is first rate and there's a real sense of good writing and dialogue here. What's even more interesting is that all but one of the stories is set on earth - and even this, The Stones of Blood, hops off into hyperspace. So, get this set and you'll be immersing yourself in the wonderful universe of Tom Baker's Doctor Who - and you can't get better than that!