A lot of Doctor Who stories wear their inspirations on their sleeves - as my regular "Inspirations" posts have already amply demonstrated. Just think of all the classic horror movies and Gothic novels which Robert Holmes "homaged".
The problem with The Androids of Tara - the second story from the pen of writer David Fisher - is that the source is too apparent...
He has pretty much transplanted the bulk of the plot of the classic novel The Prisoner of Zenda into a Doctor Who setting. Anthony Hope's novel, first published in 1894, has been adapted for the large and small screens on many occasions, the best known being the 1937 movie version starring Ronald Colman.
Not only has Fisher plundered the plot, but he even employs parallel characters, like Zadek replacing Captain Zapt, or Count Grendel replacing Duke Michael.
The Key to Time is at its least relevant here. Not only can the Doctor not be bothered to go look for it, regardless of the threat from both the Black and the White Guardian, but Romana finds it a couple of minutes into Part One, then everyone forgets about it until the last three minutes of Part Four.
Clearly Fisher wasn't all that interested in the arc, and paid the Key only lip service. We saw similar with his previous story for this season.
The one everyone talks about - the Taran Wood Beast. It resembles a man in a furry suit wearing a papier mache mask so much that some fans have theorised that it is supposed to be a man in a furry suit wearing a papier mache mask...
Basically, Count Grendel gets some lackey to dress up so he can go hunt them.
Grendel has a large complement of men, but the heir to the throne of Tara appears to have just Zadek and Farrah to call upon. Where is his army? Even in their attack on the castle at the end, he seems to have only a handful of men.
Why base himself, practically unguarded, in a remote lodge which seems to be easily accessible by Grendel?
The TARDIS has costumes for different planets - but fashions change over time. Why would the outfit necessarily match the time-zone in which the TARDIS might arrive, as here? The presence of the outfit suggests that the Doctor must have visited Tara before - but there's no evidence on screen that he recognises it. The other option is that all TARDISes come already equipped with outfits for different planets - but again that doesn't explain them fitting the correct time-zone.
K-9's blaster comes from everywhere apart from where it's meant to come from.
Tom Baker clearly gets impatient waiting for the VFX to cut through the wall, so punches the piece out. It may also be in character, but I think we can see Tom's infamous irritability bleeding into the performance.
When Madam Lamia is shot, the guard just happens to hit her right in the middle of the amulet she hangs round her neck - just where a VFX man might hide a small explosive charge...
With Mary Tamm playing four roles - Romana, Strella, android Romana and android Strella - the split-screen work has to be up to scratch. It is - mostly - but we see Grendel's arm disappear in the scene in Lamia's workshop where the android Romana is first unveiled.
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