WHO Triple Play

Took out three more (sort of) DOCTOR WHO tapes from my library.

"The Androids of Tara" I mostly liked. It's a Tom Baker episode in the middle of the season where he and the original Romana (who I like better than the replacement Romana) were sent to find the pieces of the Key of Time, or some such. Kind of a goofy story that involves a medievel world which for some reason has some high tech like life-like androids, and a princess who is convieniently a dead-ringer for Romana. Some fun stuff. K-9 has a big role in this one, and I still haven't decided what I think of him. On one hand, funny sometimes, and played off Tom Baker well. On the other hand, a freaking robot dog?

"Mawdryn Undead", a Peter Davison episode, was a bit of wasted potential, with the return of the Brigadier, which should have led to a much more entertaining story, but didn't. Massively disjointed storyline, several scenes seemed missing, so I wonder if it was originally written for more than four episodes. And this episode featured the introduction of the one thing DOCTOR WHO needs less than a robot dog, a sullen teenage boy as a new companion, Turlough (one that the other companions didn't seem to care much about, as part of the disjointed nature of the story is that they're constantly forgetting Turlough was supposed to be around). And set up as a traitor by the horribly overacting Black Guardian as well. I didn't watch too much of the Davison DW originally, but I remember seeing the beginnings of a few when they were showing complete serials on weekend afternoons on the local PBS station and finding the companions kind of lame. I do think Davison seems good, but didn't have the material to work with.

The third one I got kind of confused me for a minute. It's called "The Curse of Fatal Death", which I almost didn't reserve because the title sounded so dumb. Then I picked it up and the cover lists Rowan Atkinson as the Doctor, and I wondered if I somehow missed that in my knowledge of DW chronology. Of course checking the back revealed that it was a parody special done for charity. Anyway, best thing I can say is that the money went to a good cause. There were a few amusing jokes, a lot more misses. The "making of" documentary was more entertaining, especially the fans who lent their expertise in making the TARDIS sets and the Daleks (which they'd made for a fan film project). Also on the tape are three parodies from various UK sketch comedy shows, none of which are brilliant but are generally better than "Fatal Death". Shorter, at least.