Tag: Romana II

The Doctor, Romana and K9 follow an urgent distress call to the planet Chloris, whose ruler, Lady Adrasta, lords over the planet’s resources and meets any challenge with a threat of war. But the greatest threat to Adrasta’s empire is her own short-sightedness in imprisoning an ambassador from another world who only wishes to open a peaceful exchange between their two worlds. The Doctor could help to start the negotiations, but he has been consigned to the pit along with the ambassador.

written by David Fisher
directed by Christopher Barry
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: Myra Frances (Lady Adrasta), Eileen Way (Karela), Geoffrey Bayldon (Organon), David Telfer (Huntsman), John Bryans (Torvin), Edward Kelsey (Edu), Tim Munro (Ainu), Tommy Wright (Guard Master), Terry Walsh (Doran), Morris Barry (Tollund), Philip Denyer, Dave Redgrave (Guards)

Broadcast from October 27 through November 17, 1979

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Two spacecraft collide in hyperspace, one of them a passenger liner loaded with vacationers. The Doctor and Romana witness it all but, as they try to lend aid, they discover that something more sinister is happening: the captain of the passenger ship was, at the time of the accident, high on a potent and addictive narcotic called vraxoin. When the proper authorities arrive to investigate, they naturally point the finger of blame at the two most recent arrivals – the Doctor, Romana and K-9. But what the Doctor finds out is more disturbing than a mere drug ring. Vraxoin itself is created only from the residue left by the death of humanoid creatures called Mandrels – and someone is transporting live Mandrels undetected, intending to kill them to create more of the drug.

written by Bob Baker
directed by Alan Bromly
music by Dudley Simpson

Guest Cast: David Daker (Rigg), Lewis Fiander (Tryst), Jennifer Lonsdale (Della), Geoffrey Bateman (Dymond), Barry Andrews (Stott), Stephen Jenn (Secker), Geoffrey Hinsliff (Fisk), Peter Craze (Costa), Pamela Ruddock (Computer voice), Richard Barnes, Sebastian Stride, Eden Phillips (Crewmen), Annette Peters, Lionel Sansby, Peter Roberts, Maggie Petersen (Passengers), Billy Gray (Wounded passenger), James Muir, Derek Suthern, David Korff, Jan Murzynowski, Robert Goodman (Mandrels)

Broadcast from November 24 through December 15, 1979

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

One of the last mighty battlecruisers of the Skonnon Empire is being used to ferry a load of young slaves from the planet Aneth, until its already overworked engines are pushed past the breaking point, stalling the ship in space. By coincidence, the TARDIS is also at a dead stop in space nearby while the Doctor disassembles the time rotor for an overhaul. But a singularity in this area of space is drawing both ships together…toward their doom. Despite his reservations about repairing a slaver’s ship, the Doctor decides to err on the side of saving lives and repairs the ship – but as soon as he does, the surviving Skonnon co-pilot ditches the TARDIS and takes off with Romana still aboard.

written by Anthony Read
directed by Kenny McBain
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Tom Baker (The Doctor), Lalla Ward (Romana), David Brierly (voice of K9), Simon Gipps-Kent (Seth), Janet Ellis (Teka), Graham Crowden (Soldeed), Michael Osborne (Sorak), Malcolm Terris (Co-pilot), Bob Hornery (Pilot), Clifford Norgate (Nimon voices), John Bailey (Sezom), Robin Sherringham, Bob Appleby, Trevor St. John Hacker (Nimon)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The Doctor and K9 find themselves in the path of a massive planetoid being pulled into the singularity, but the Doctor manages to bounce the TARDIS off of the planetoid. On Skonnos, a sycophantic leader named Soldeed begs a creature called the Nimon for more time, as Soldeed’s people continue to search for the missing slaver ship. Thanks to the Doctor’s repairs, the ship does make its way back to Skonnos, where the young slaves – and Romana – are to be handed over to the Nimon as a “tribute.” The Doctor manages to patch up the TARDIS and follow the ship to Skonnos, where he is promptly thrown into the complex of the Nimon.

written by Anthony Read
directed by Kenny McBain
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Tom Baker (The Doctor), Lalla Ward (Romana), David Brierly (voice of K9), Simon Gipps-Kent (Seth), Janet Ellis (Teka), Graham Crowden (Soldeed), Michael Osborne (Sorak), Malcolm Terris (Co-pilot), Bob Hornery (Pilot), Clifford Norgate (Nimon voices), John Bailey (Sezom), Robin Sherringham, Bob Appleby, Trevor St. John Hacker (Nimon)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

While Seth and Teka worry about finding an exit from the maze, the Doctor and Romana are more interested in finding what is at the center of the maze, and at the heart of the Nimon’s operation. What they find there is a room full of equipment for diverting immense amounts of power to a matter transmitter. He and his friends then have to hide as the Nimon itself approaches, operating the equipment now that it has the tribute from Aneth to bring his complex up to full power. A pod appears in the transmat chamber, carrying two more Nimon, with more to come. The tributes of slaves and material from Skonnos are merely helping the Nimon’s own invasion plans, which will not benefit Skonnos in any way. Once the Nimon have left, Romana sits in the transmat pod to analyze it, and is accidentally sent to Crinoth, the Nimon’s home world.

written by Anthony Read
directed by Kenny McBain
music by Dudley Simpson

Cast: Tom Baker (The Doctor), Lalla Ward (Romana), David Brierly (voice of K9), Simon Gipps-Kent (Seth), Janet Ellis (Teka), Graham Crowden (Soldeed), Michael Osborne (Sorak), Malcolm Terris (Co-pilot), Bob Hornery (Pilot), Clifford Norgate (Nimon voices), John Bailey (Sezom), Robin Sherringham, Bob Appleby, Trevor St. John Hacker (Nimon)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A power crisis in the underground habitat of the planet Tigella revives an age-old debate between science and religion. Tigella’s scientists want to examine their power source, the otherworldly Dodecahedron, more closely to see if it can help to avert the impending crisis that would force the Tigellans back to their planet’s uninhabitable surface. But the planet’s religious faction, led by Lexa, refuses to allow anyone access to the Dodecahedron, which they claim is a sacred relic. Zastor, Tigella’s leader, comes up with an unorthodox compromise: call for the Doctor’s help. But just as the TARDIS responds to the call, another plan is set into motion: Meglos, the last surviving member of the cactus-like Zolpha-Thuran race, has enlisted the aid of Gaztak pirates to take over the physical form of a hapless human. Once Meglos has this ability, he uses it to impersonate the Doctor, go to neighboring Tigella, and steal the Dodecahedron for himself. To ensure that the real Doctor doesn’t interfere with his plan, he traps the TARDIS in a chronic hysteresis – a time loop – from which the Doctor and Romana have to devise an ingenious escape. But by the time the real Time Lords arrive, the damage is done – the Dodecahedron is missing, and the Doctor is arrested for the gravest crime possible on Tigella.

written by John Flanagan & Andrew McCulloch
directed by Terence Dudley
music by Peter Howell and Paddy Kingsland

Guest Cast: Edward Underdown (Zastor), Jacqueline Hill (Lexa), Crawford Logan (Deedrix), Colette Gleeson (Caris), Bill Fraser (Grugger), Frederick Treves (Brotadac), Simon Shaw (Tigellan Guard), Christopher Owen (Earthling)

Notes: This marks the only time that a former companion has returned to televised Doctor Who in a completely different role. Jacqueline Hill was one of the three original TARDIS travelers, Barbara Wright, in the earliest seasons of the series. Guest star Bill Fraser made himself infamous by claiming, during the publicity for Meglos, that he only took the part of General Grugger on the condition that he would get to kick K-9 onscreen. Apparently he was such a good adversary for the robot dog that he took on K-9 without the Doctor around to stop him in K-9 & Company.

Original Title: The Last Zolfa-Thuran

Broadcast from September 27 through October 18, 1980

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green