It’s fair to say that the previous episode ended on a bit of
a sombre note because it appeared to show the Doctor striking a companion. It
all becomes clear that it wasn’t the real Romana. The Princess Strella that is
in the room is revealed to be an android and the opening few minutes become a
bit mad because there is a lot of talking but I couldn’t really tell what was
going on. Something else that seems a bit odd is the moment where Lamia and Romana
are talking about the segment. This seems to be added in just to remind the us
why the Doctor and Romana are on Tara.
I like how the Doctor is advised not to make the android
King too intelligent. I thought that its was a funny moment. The humour that
has been in these three episodes (and perhaps in Fisher’s previous story) have
had a nice dose of comedy and perhaps not the obvious slapstick kind that
Douglas Adams attempted to pull off. I think that its credit to David Fisher
that he has made the good guys seem to regal and yet not at all annoying. I
think that Zadek is my favourite of this group of people but even Neville Jason
is doing well as Prince Reynart.
I haven’t commented on just how loathsome the Count is. I
always thought he was unlikeable but when its clear that he is doesn’t have any
feelings towards Lamia it makes him even more unlikeable. Lamia’s death is
quick and surprising but I suppose there wasn’t really much more that the
character could do. Peter Jeffrey is playing the role the way that it should be
played. With 20% seriousness and 80% humour and campness. I discovered on Wikipedia
that Jeffrey previous appeared in ‘The Macra Terror’. I didn’t know this and
can safely say that this is the better story for him.
The episode did a thing where it managed to keep the story
going without really doing anything. The coronation was done and Romana escaped
and then got captured again. I am still impressed with the location filming and
it becomes greater in this episode. It all feels like the location filming is a
part of the story and by that I mean that it does feel like we are in a land
where a kingdom is instead of a quarry pretending to be an alien world. It’s
perfectly reasonable to assume that this park/forest filmed wherever in the UK
(I can still refer to the UK in the same way after the events of this week) and
it still seem like an alien world.
The final scene leading up to the cliffhanger is quite good
because it seems that the Count is up to something and it ends with him
throwing a spear at the android King and running away with the real Romana. I
think that it was a good episode and I am still enjoying this adventure and the
final episode should be the perfect ending to this serial. I rate each episode
and at the moment the average for this story is 0.01 less than ‘The Stones of
Blood’. In terms of Tom Baker’s entire run of stories, it currently stands in
joint 9th place (tied with Robot).
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