Logopolis

At the beginning of this story, the Doctor is in a bit of a pensive mood. Even though he’s been trying to get back to Gallifrey since his time on Tigella, the Doctor decides that it’s time he made some long overdue repairs to the TARDIS. After making a stop on Earth to do some research, the Doctor accidentally picks up two passengers: an airline stewardess named Tegan Jovanka and the Master. After leaving Earth, the Doctor heads to Logopolis to meet with the Monitor, who’s prowess in block-transfer computations will help the Doctor make the necessary repairs to the TARDIS. Once on Logopolis, the Doctor and Adric are reunited with Nyssa, who claims she was brought there by a friend of the Doctor. Having kept his presence hidden up to that point, the Master begins to search for the secret behind the Logopolitans’ powerful mathematics. The Master’s plot winds up putting the fate of the entire universe at risk. The situation gets bad enough that the Doctor is forced to team up with the Master. And while their short-lived partnership ultimately saves most of the universe, it ends up costing the Doctor one of his lives. The final story of the Fourth Doctor era is, honestly, a bit of a disappointment. All the timey-wimey mumbo jumbo about block-transfer computations and all-powerful mathematics is pretty boring. And the Master’s brief face turn towards the end of the story feels like it was lifted directly from Terror of the Autons.

Rating: Back in two shakes%

The Keeper of Traken

While taking in some of the sights of N-Space, the TARDIS is infiltrated by a powerful being from the planet Traken, known as the Keeper, who asks for the Doctor's help. And though the Doctor is quick to offer his assistance, the Keeper warns of great danger, an unimaginable threat that could destroy the Doctor and his companion. After arriving on Traken, the Doctor and Adric are framed for murder and sentenced to death. As they try to clear their names, a sinister foe lurks in the shadows. Spoiler alert: that sinister foe turns out to be the Master. Last seen in The Deadly Assassin, the Master tries to steal the Keeper's powers in order to secure a new body for himself. Though fairly average overall, The Keeper of Traken is notable for introducing the character Nyssa, who would go on to become one of the Doctor's companions.

 

Rating: Don't listen to me. I never do%

Warriors' Gate

While searching for a way out of E-Space, the Doctor and his companions find themselves in a seemingly empty void. It's not long before they're discovered by the crew of a cargo ship that is also stranded in the void. Instead of trying to help each other, the crew of the cargo ship kidnap Romana and attempt to use her as a replacement for their time sensitive navigator. The crew then discover the location of a mysterious gate inside the void that may reveal the way out of E-Space. Warriors' Gate starts off well enough, setting up the mystery of the void and introducing the cargo ship crew and their Tharil navigator, but it starts to lose steam in the middle of the story. The Tharils are an interesting, yet somewhat underdeveloped, part of the story. They're a race of powerful creatures with the ability to travel through time and space. In appearance, they look like a cross between the Cowardly Lion and David Bowie's character in Labyrinth. At the end of the story, Romana decides to stay behind and help the Tharils. Her exit is abrupt and unceremonious, not to mention almost identical to Leela's exit in The Invasion of Time. 

Rating: You were the noblest Romana of them all%

State of Decay

While searching for a way out of E-Space, K-9 locates a sparsely populated planet. Even though the scanners detect the presence of high technology, the population seem to be living a medieval existence. After making contact with the peasants, their mysterious lords and a small group of rebels, the Doctor begins to suspect that there might be a sinister force working behind the scenes. Matters are further complicated after it's revealed that Adric, from Alzarius, has stowed away on the TARDIS. State of Decay is a fairly decent serial. It doesn't feel particularly original but it's well executed and moves at a brisk pace.

Rating: The TARDIS is feeling a bit queasy%

Full Circle

While travelling to Gallifrey, the TARDIS passes through a Charged Vacuum Emboitment, sending the Doctor and his companions out of their own universe and into the Exo-Space-Time Continuum, aka E-Space. What does that mean exactly? That's not entirely clear yet. But what is clear is that instead of ending up on Gallifrey, the TARDIS arrives on a planet called Alzarius, where a strange phenomenon called Mistfall has begun. With the help of a brilliant young Alzarian named Adric, the Doctor begins to unpack the myths of Mistfall. Full Circle is a pretty entertaining serial. The script is good, the characters are interesting and the effects are fairly decent. The E-Space element of the plot isn't particularly well defined but the rest of the story is engaging enough that it never becomes a distraction.

Rating: This isn't Gallifrey%

Meglos

In an underground city, the people of Tigella's lives are controlled by a mysterious object called the Dodecahedron. The scientific-minded people of Tigella, called the Savants, struggle to harness the power emitted from the Dodecahedron, while the other half of the population, the Deons, worship the Dodecahedron as if it were a gift from the gods. Meanwhile, on the desolate planet of Zolfa-Thura, a shape-shifting creature called Meglos schemes to steal the Dodecahedron for its own purposes. Meglos is a decent serial that never quite crosses the line into excellence. All the elements are there: good cast, good themes, great settings. And yet, it ends up being fairly average. Most of the episodes are shorter than normal, which keeps the pacing tight but leaves the impression that there just wasn't enough material in the script. Jacqueline Hill, who played Barbara during the First Doctor era, plays Lexa, the fanatical leader of the Deons who ultimately sacrifices her own life to save Romana.

Rating: You never know who's who%

The Leisure Hive

Finding Brighton Beach a bit too dreary, the Doctor and Romana set off for a luxury resort on the planet Argolis. But, after some mysterious accidents occur, the Doctor is put on trial for murder. The Leisure Hive kicked off Tom Baker's seventh and final season as the Doctor. This season is also notable for being the beginning of John Nathan-Turner's stint as Doctor Who's lead producer, a position he would hold for the remainder of the classic series. After taking the job as producer, John Nathan-Turner made a number of controversial changes to the show. The Leisure Hive opens with a new title sequence and an updated theme song, Tom Baker's classic costume gets a monochromatic revamping and poor old K-9 gets blown up in the first five minutes. The Leisure Hive is an average story at best. The direction is a little shoddy and many scenes are frustratingly underlit.

Rating: Don't cross your bridges before they're hatched%

Shada

The Doctor and Romana are summoned to Cambridge by Professor Chronotis. The Professor, a retired Time Lord, asks the Doctor to return a book he borrowed from the Panopticon Archive on Gallifrey. The book, The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey, is actually an important artifact that contains clues to the location of Shada, the secret Time Lord prison planet. But returning the book won't be easy because, 1. the Professor accidentally loaned the book out to a colleague and 2. there are other parties who mean to get the book for themselves. Shada, famously, was never completed. A technician strike halted filming partway through and the BBC decided not to finish filming after the strike ended. Some of the footage from the serial was later used in The Five Doctors, after Tom Baker declined to appear in the special. Fans first got to see the remaining footage in 1992, when a reconstruction of the serial was released on VHS. In 2017, Shada was released on DVD with the missing scenes recreated via animation. And in 2021, the serial was updated again for the Blu-ray release. While it's fantastic that Shada was eventually released, it's not exactly a hidden treasure. Of all the Doctor Who scripts credited to Douglas Adams, Shada might be the worst one. The characters aren't particularly interesting, there aren't many jokes and the plot isn't very compelling.

Rating: You've got a lot to unlearn%

The Horns of Nimon

A transport ship hauling precious cargo to the planet Skonnos gets stuck in a gravity whirlpool. Soon enough, the TARDIS gets drawn into the same whirlpool. When the Doctor and Romana board the vessel, hoping to free everyone, they find out that the ship is carrying radioactive materials and human sacrifices to be given to a creature called the Nimon. But what is the Nimon and what is it up to on Skonnos? I wish I could tell you that it was something cool or interesting but that is not the case. The Horns of Nimon is a pretty weak serial overall. The acting isn't very good. In the Nightmare of Eden review, I praised Lewis Fiander for going big with the Professor Tryst character but in The Horns of Nimon Graham Crowden, who plays Soldeed, goes way too big. He even mugs to the camera a couple of times. Some of the background actors look bored and seem to be waiting for their scenes to end. The look of the Nimon isn't very good either. The combination of platform shoes and a large head must have made it very difficult for the actor, spoiler alert: actors, playing the Nimon to walk because everytime the Nimon moves it's in big, swaying, unbalanced steps. All of that, along with a fairly boring storyline, make The Horns of Nimon pretty forgettable.

Rating: We're up a gum tree without a paddle%

Nightmare of Eden

The Empress, an interstellar cruise liner, comes out of warp off course and collides with another ship orbiting the planet Azure. The two ships are unstably merged together. The Doctor and Romana, responding to the distress signal, attempt to separate the two ships. Their plans are soon complicated when it's discovered that someone aboard the Empress is trying to smuggle a deadly drug known as Vraxoin. Nightmare of Eden is a painfully average serial. None of the characters are all that interesting, with the exception of Professor Tryst played by Lewis Fiander. Fiander goes pretty big with his performance and it adds some much needed energy to the proceedings. The Mandrels are a well designed monster that don't come across as all that menacing. And, finally, the most interesting ideas in Nightmare of Eden seem to have been lifted from the far superior story Carnival of Monsters.

Rating: Of course we should interfere%

The Creature from the Pit

After Romana reinstalls an emergency transceiver that the Doctor had deemed 'a bore,' the TARDIS makes an abrupt landing on the planet Chloris. The Doctor quickly takes interest in an enormous metallic eggshell lying in the middle of a dense jungle. Before he can reach any conclusions about the eggshell, the Doctor and Romana are arrested by the local authority and sentenced to death. Their lives are temporarily spared by the Lady Adrasta, who takes an interest in the Doctor's theories about the mysterious metallic eggshell. But the Lady Adrasta's benevolence is only out of self-interest as the Doctor and Romana soon learn that there's a terrible secret on Chloris and it's at the bottom of a deep, dark pit. There might be a lot to like about The Creature from the Pit but it's far from perfect. It definitely could have been a better serial if it weren't for two major flaws. First, the story really runs out of steam in the last episode. And second, the titular creature looks terrible. It's supposed to be an impressively large, amorphous green blob but the end result looks more like an inflatable Halloween costume with laughably phallic limbs.

Rating: He's only a little dog, you know%

City of Death

The Doctor and Romana are having a lovely time in Paris when a time slip alerts them to a dangerous plot about to unfold. An alien, masquerading as an aristocrat, has been stealing and selling rare historical artifacts in order to fund his experiments in time travel. And he's about to go for his biggest score yet, the Mona Lisa. City of Death might be Douglas Adams' most beloved contribution to Doctor Who. While he wasn't the sole writer on the serial, his fingerprints are all over it. It's filled with clever ideas and witty dialogue. It's well cast too, with Julian Glover playing the aristocrat/alien and Tom Chadbon playing Duggan, the Inspector who never met a problem he couldn't solve with violence.

Rating: Well, you're a beautiful woman, probably%

Destiny of the Daleks

Destiny of the Daleks begins with a bit of housekeeping. First we find out that K9 has laryngitis, which is both meant to excuse his absence from the rest of the serial and explain away the fact that a different actor will be performing his lines. Then we find out that Romana has regenerated. Mary Tamm, who had portrayed Romana during the Key to Time season, had chosen not to continue on with the show and was replaced by Lalla Ward. Lalla had played Princess Astra during The Armageddon Factor, which required a little bit of business up front to explain why Romana had changed and why she looked like someone we'd already seen elsewhere. And finally, we get a reminder that the Doctor installed a randomizer in the TARDIS at the end of the Key to Time season, so that he could avoid being followed by the Black Guardian. The randomizer is a fun return to form for the show as the first two Doctors never knew where they were going. The Fourth Doctor and his newly regenerated companion end up on Skaro, the Dalek homeworld. They soon encounter a group of robots called the Movellans, sworn enemies of the Daleks. Together, though for different reasons, the Doctor, Romana and the Movellans try to stop the Daleks from finding and reviving Davros, the creator of the Daleks.

Rating: My condolences to you%

The Armageddon Factor

The quest for the final segment of the Key to Time brings the Doctor and his companions to Atrios. They soon discover that Atrios and its twin planet Zeos are in the midst of a nuclear war. On Atrios, the war is lead by the fanatical Marshal while, behind the scenes, Princess Astra attempts to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Meanwhile, on a mysterious third planet, the Shadow conspires to prolong the war and steal the Key to Time. The Armageddon Factor is a decent story overall but it runs out of steam in the final episode. The conclusion to the Key to Time arc is pretty lackluster and feels a little rushed. The Armageddon Factor has plenty of interesting characters throughout though, including a Time Lord named Drax who shows up out of nowhere in the fifth episode.

Rating: Peace%

The Power of Kroll

Tensions are already running high when the Doctor and Romana arrive on the third moon of Delta Magna. The local tribe, referred to as the Swampies, are at war with the crew of a large scale methane refinery. Things are further complicated when the Swampies deity, Kroll, emerges from the depths and begins to consume anything that moves. The Power of Kroll is a decent serial with fairly decent effects. However, the look of the Swampies, actors painted green wearing "tribal" garb and painted cornrow wigs, is ridiculous. There's no real denying it. As far as the plot goes, it isn't anything particularly groundbreaking. We've seen similar, and slightly better, versions of this story in serials like Doctor Who and the Silurians and Terror of the Zygons.

Rating: Oh look, it's coming this way%

The Androids of Tara

After arriving on Tara, the Doctor decides to take the day off and do some fishing, leaving Romana to find the next segment of the Key to Time on her own. To her credit, she manages to find the segment pretty quickly. Soon after, she meets Count Grendel of Gracht, possibly the most devious man on Tara, kickstarting a back and forth battle for control over the entire planet. The Androids of Tara is an average serial. The setting is odd, aside from the presence of lifelike androids and some electrified weaponry, it's an entirely medieval world. With a few minor adjustments, The Androids of Tara could easily have been a historical story from the show's early years. The Doctor is in fine form here, throwing out plenty of witty remarks but, otherwise, it's a fairly forgettable story.

Rating: My hat's on fire%

The Stones of Blood

The Stones of Blood starts simply enough, the Doctor and Romana's search for the third segment of the Key to Time takes them to the English countryside. There they discover some strange goings-on involving a group of modern-day Druids and a stone circle. Soon after, the absurdities begin to pile on top of one another. There's an alien impersonating a Celtic goddess, a trio of bloodsucking stone monoliths, a spaceship stuck in hyperspace and a trial lorded over by a pair of justice machines. It all sounds a little disjointed, and in some ways it is, but it ends up being a fairly decent story. It's also the first story in a while to include some horror elements, with the killer stone slabs stalking and killing some unsuspecting campers.

Rating: Anyone for tennis?%

The Pirate Planet

The Doctor and Romana trace the second segment of the Key to Time to the cold, uninhabited planet Calufrax. Only, when they arrive, they find that the TARDIS has actually materialized on the planet Zanak. Zanak, a populated world teeming with advanced technology and an overabundance of precious gems, appears to be lorded over by the tyrannical and partially mechanical Captain. But Zanak also holds a dark secret and only by teaming up with the Mentiads, a mysterious group with psychic powers, will the Doctor and his companions be able to uncover the mystery of Zanak and find the next piece of the Key to Time. The Pirate Planet is probably most famous for being the first contribution to Doctor Who by Douglas Adams. Adams would go on to write two more stories for Doctor Who as well as being the script supervisor for the show's following season. There is some overlap, both in concepts and characters, between Adams' work on Doctor Who and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which is hardly surprising given that he was working on both around the same time.

Rating: Don't panic%

The Ribos Operation

The Doctor and his new K9 unit are all set to go on holiday when they are interrupted by the White Guardian. The Doctor reluctantly agrees to take on the task of recovering the six segments of the Key to Time. With each segment having been scattered throughout the universe and disguised to hide its true form. To aid in his quest, the Doctor is paired up with the young Time Lord (Time Lady? Lady Time Lord?) Romana. Their search for the first segment takes them to the planet Ribos. There they encounter con artists, war criminals, psychics, heretics and blood-thirsty monsters. The Ribos Operation feels a lot like one of the Third Doctor's adventures on Peladon, combining courtly intrigue with crumbling caverns in the best possible ways. The sets, the costumes, the characters and the script are all top notch. The Ribos Operation is a real breath of fresh air after some of the stale stories from the previous season.

Rating: It's either Romana or Fred%

The Invasion of Time

The Doctor returns to Gallifrey, under mysterious circumstances, to claim the Presidency of the Council of Time Lords. Right away, Leela senses that something is wrong. The Doctor is acting strange. Stranger than usual, at least. After his induction, the Doctor appears to betray the Time Lords by helping the Vardans invade Gallifrey. While everyone else believes the Doctor to be a traitor, Leela remains convinced that the Doctor's actions are only part of a bigger plan. After the Vardans are defeated, it's revealed that they were merely pawns working under the direction of the Sontarans and the invasion of Gallifrey has only just begun. The Invasion of Time is a fairly middle of the road serial hampered by some poor lighting and production design. There are several scenes in the TARDIS control room that are lit in a weird magic hour style that makes no sense given the location. Most of the scenes on Gallifrey are very dark, possibly to cover for the lackluster sets. The serial ends with Leela and K9 staying behind on Gallifrey, ending their travels with the Doctor. Though, in a weird moment that breaks the fourth wall, the Doctor reveals a large cardboard box in the TARDIS containing another K9 unit.

Rating: Never heard of it%