• The Androids of Tara REWATCH and REVIEW

    From The True Doctor@agamemnon@hello.to.NO_SPAM to rec.arts.drwho on Sat Aug 15 05:16:50 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho

    Doctor Who does The Prisoner of Zenda and sets up everything for Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon to follow, which were obviously
    influenced by them both.

    The story starts off inside the TARDIS with the Doctor losing at chess
    with K9, for the umpteenth time, with 11 moves to mate.

    The TARDIS lands on the planet Tara, where, as we learn, due to a plague
    most of the population has been replaced with androids.

    The Doctor decides to go fishing for the next 50 years while he lets
    Romana find the fourth segment of the Key to Time, which she does in
    minutes.

    Unfortunately no sooner has she transformed the fourth segment into its
    true form as a crystal she is apprehended by Count Grendel who claims
    the crystal must be registered with the authorities, namely himself, at
    his castle.

    At the same time the Doctor is apprehended by Zadek who takes him to
    Prince Reynart who is preparing to be crowned king. But in order for
    this to happen he must be at the ceremony at exactly the designated hour otherwise the crown will be passed to someone else.

    The day on Tara consists of 8 hours of daylight and 8 hours of night it
    seems. Or it could be 16 hours of each depending on how you read the
    hours on the clock.

    Because of the loophole the Prince and his courters suspect Count
    Grendel will try to stop him from getting to the coronation on time and
    has hatched a plan to use an android duplicate of himself as a decoy
    while he enters the city by another route through an underground system
    of tunnels that lead to the coronation chamber.

    The android duplicate of Reynart is faulty and the Doctor offers to fix
    it for 500 gold pieces, after turning down 1000, and so he does, after
    which he wonders where Romana is.

    Zadek won't let him leave until after the coronation in case the android develops more faults, so the Doctor calls K9 with his high pitched dog
    whistle and instructs him to find Romana and report back.

    Reynard, Zadek, Farrah his student swordsman, and the Doctor all drink
    to success but the wine has been tampered with by Count Grendel and all
    of them slump down unconscious, while Grendel abducts the Prince and
    takes him to his castle to imprison him so he can become king in his stead.

    The Doctor and the others wake up, and with the prince gone decide to
    take the android, George, to be crowed as king in the Prince's place so
    as to subvert the Count's plans.

    At the Count's castle Romana is thought to be an android and Grendel
    orders his android expert and disparaged lover Lamia to disassemble her
    to use for spare parts. Romana is discovered to be real which is a
    surprise because she looks exactly like Princess Strella who Grendel has
    also captured and imprisoned in his castle because she is second in line
    to the throne.

    Strella won't marry him so that he can claim the throne after he kills
    her soon after, so Grendel decides to get Romana to take her place.
    Romana will not agree so the Count imprisons her with the Prince who now
    has a severe shoulder injury which Romana tries to nurse.

    With the two legitimate heirs to the throne imprisoned Grendel plans to
    get the Archimandrite to offer him the crown in their absence by having
    his guards take control of the city. But the Doctor and George get to
    the throne room first and the android is crowned king to Grendel's
    surprise since he has the real Prince in his custody.

    Romana then appears in the throne room, or is it Strella, and as she approaches the throne the Doctor grabs a long rod and stabs
    Romana/Strella in the head.

    It turns out to be an android duplicate of Strella made by Lamia and
    sent by Grdenel to kill the new king as a backup plan so he can then
    claim the throne for himself, but Grendel is now exposed and flees.

    Count Grendel sill has Romana so sends his henchman Till to offer the
    Doctor the return of Romana in exchange for his freedom and safe passage
    out of the realm. The Doctor knows it's a trap but still goes.

    Lamia has now made an android duplicate of Romana and uses her to try to
    kill the Doctor but K9 who is with him detects she is fake and as the
    Doctor bends down to pet K9 the energy bolt fired from the android's
    midriff misses him.

    The Count now orders his men to fire on the Doctor when he tries to exit
    the building but Lamia is killed when she exists through the front
    entrance while the Doctor escapes by getting K9 to cut out hatch in the
    wooden building at the back.

    Roman has also escaped from her captivity and is now riding a horse, an
    animal she has never seen before, she doesn't know what fishing is
    either, and meets the Doctor along the way. They now head off to the
    Prince's house.

    Count Grendel then appears at the Prince's house under a flag of truce,
    but when he is allowed inside he throws a spear a the android duplicate
    of Reynart destroying it and flees through the window.

    Farrah tries to fire on him but while Grendel was inside his men led by Kurster have captured Romana and she is now in Grendel's clutches on the
    back of his horse, so the Doctor pushes Farrah's crossbow down.

    They must now rescue both Romana and the Prince from Grendel's castle so
    the Doctor comes up with a plan for how to get in. The Doctor with the
    help of K9 who he places inside a boat is to enter through the water
    gate while Zadek and his men wait outside the castle's main entrance for
    the Doctor to open it.

    The Doctor gets inside but K9 has to remain behind on the boat.

    Inside the main hall the Archimandrite has been told to marry King
    Reynart who is now in poor health to Princes Strella, who Grendel plans
    to marry after he kills the King, and then take his place after he kills Strella, but Strella won't agree to any of it so the Count uses
    emotional blackmail to get Romana to stand in for her.

    The Doctor arrives and objects to the wedding vows being taken.

    Count Grendel the best swordsman on Tara challenges the Doctor to a duel
    and the Doctor accepts. In the process the front gate is opened by the
    Prince who follows the Doctor's call while he spars with Grendel.

    Great sword fight with Tom Baker demonstrating what an expert he is with
    the foil. The Doctor's face was seen all the time but Grendel wore a
    helmet so was probably played by a stunt double.

    The Doctor after feigning ignorance at the start shows that he is the
    superior swordsman and after giving Grendel a second chance, after
    letting him pick his sword back up, chases Grendel though the corridors
    to the battlements where Grendel now beaten jumps into the moat to escape.

    Reynart is reunited with Strella and they both kiss.

    The Doctor arrives and he and Romana depart after he picks up the fourth segment from Lamia's laboratory where she had been examining it.

    The Doctor wonders where K9 is.

    K9 is stranded on the boat the Doctor left him on floating in the middle
    of the moat.

    A fun and enjoyable light hearted story.

    Given they way it ended with the Count escaping the opportunity was left
    open for a sequel.

    Unlike the third series of House of the Dragon (staring 11th Doctor Matt
    Smith as Daemon Targarian), The Androids of Tara was fast paced and all
    the dialogue moved the plot along. There was no irrelevant padding
    concerning feelings and interpersonal relationships which would have
    made it totally mind numbing and boring, and which anyone with any intelligence who isn't autistic can deduce for themselves without it
    needing to be constantly signposted. HBO could have done House of the
    Dragon in just 3 series if they concentrated on moving the plot along
    and this would have also made it easier to follow who was happening.

    Today's writers are clueless and talentless hacks who don't know how to
    write anything but boring soap-opera and this degenerate has totally
    destroyed the new series of Doctor Who after it was inserted. The
    classic era demonstrates that Doctor never needed it and doesn't need it today.

    Science fiction and fantasy are about describing fascinating concepts
    ideas and how they affect society differently to how our own culture and technology affects ours. Imbeciles who try to make it reflect the modern
    world treat the audience as if they're all completely stupid and their
    work will never stand the passage of time, since no one will understand
    or remember the references to present day politics in the future in a
    story set in the middle ages which is supposed to portray life in that
    period. The writers of 50 years ago understood this. Modern writers
    don't have a clue.

    You can still watch The Androids of Tara today and understand the
    society that the story created and described because it didn't reflect
    the society of the 1970s. David Fisher even predicted that all you
    needed was a small sample of a person's voice and AI could replicate
    that voices exactly. He was half a century ahead of his time. Where is
    that forward thinking in the science fiction writing of today?

    The Androids of Tara is the second best story of the season so far after
    The Pirate Planet.

    10/10
    --
    The True Doctor https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCngrZwoS0n21IRcXpKO79Lw

    "To be woke is to be uninformed which is exactly the opposite of what it stands for." --William Shatner

    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From doctor@doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca (The Doctor) to rec.arts.drwho on Sat Aug 15 04:52:13 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho

    In article <115op7j$32nga$1@dont-email.me>,
    The True Doctor <agamemnon@hello.to.NO_SPAM> wrote:
    Doctor Who does The Prisoner of Zenda and sets up everything for Game of >Thrones and House of the Dragon to follow, which were obviously
    influenced by them both.

    The story starts off inside the TARDIS with the Doctor losing at chess
    with K9, for the umpteenth time, with 11 moves to mate.

    The TARDIS lands on the planet Tara, where, as we learn, due to a plague >most of the population has been replaced with androids.

    The Doctor decides to go fishing for the next 50 years while he lets
    Romana find the fourth segment of the Key to Time, which she does in >minutes.

    Unfortunately no sooner has she transformed the fourth segment into its
    true form as a crystal she is apprehended by Count Grendel who claims
    the crystal must be registered with the authorities, namely himself, at
    his castle.

    At the same time the Doctor is apprehended by Zadek who takes him to
    Prince Reynart who is preparing to be crowned king. But in order for
    this to happen he must be at the ceremony at exactly the designated hour >otherwise the crown will be passed to someone else.

    The day on Tara consists of 8 hours of daylight and 8 hours of night it >seems. Or it could be 16 hours of each depending on how you read the
    hours on the clock.

    Because of the loophole the Prince and his courters suspect Count
    Grendel will try to stop him from getting to the coronation on time and
    has hatched a plan to use an android duplicate of himself as a decoy
    while he enters the city by another route through an underground system
    of tunnels that lead to the coronation chamber.

    The android duplicate of Reynart is faulty and the Doctor offers to fix
    it for 500 gold pieces, after turning down 1000, and so he does, after
    which he wonders where Romana is.

    Zadek won't let him leave until after the coronation in case the android >develops more faults, so the Doctor calls K9 with his high pitched dog >whistle and instructs him to find Romana and report back.

    Reynard, Zadek, Farrah his student swordsman, and the Doctor all drink
    to success but the wine has been tampered with by Count Grendel and all
    of them slump down unconscious, while Grendel abducts the Prince and
    takes him to his castle to imprison him so he can become king in his stead.

    The Doctor and the others wake up, and with the prince gone decide to
    take the android, George, to be crowed as king in the Prince's place so
    as to subvert the Count's plans.

    At the Count's castle Romana is thought to be an android and Grendel
    orders his android expert and disparaged lover Lamia to disassemble her
    to use for spare parts. Romana is discovered to be real which is a
    surprise because she looks exactly like Princess Strella who Grendel has >also captured and imprisoned in his castle because she is second in line
    to the throne.

    Strella won't marry him so that he can claim the throne after he kills
    her soon after, so Grendel decides to get Romana to take her place.
    Romana will not agree so the Count imprisons her with the Prince who now
    has a severe shoulder injury which Romana tries to nurse.

    With the two legitimate heirs to the throne imprisoned Grendel plans to
    get the Archimandrite to offer him the crown in their absence by having
    his guards take control of the city. But the Doctor and George get to
    the throne room first and the android is crowned king to Grendel's
    surprise since he has the real Prince in his custody.

    Romana then appears in the throne room, or is it Strella, and as she >approaches the throne the Doctor grabs a long rod and stabs
    Romana/Strella in the head.

    It turns out to be an android duplicate of Strella made by Lamia and
    sent by Grdenel to kill the new king as a backup plan so he can then
    claim the throne for himself, but Grendel is now exposed and flees.

    Count Grendel sill has Romana so sends his henchman Till to offer the
    Doctor the return of Romana in exchange for his freedom and safe passage
    out of the realm. The Doctor knows it's a trap but still goes.

    Lamia has now made an android duplicate of Romana and uses her to try to >kill the Doctor but K9 who is with him detects she is fake and as the
    Doctor bends down to pet K9 the energy bolt fired from the android's
    midriff misses him.

    The Count now orders his men to fire on the Doctor when he tries to exit
    the building but Lamia is killed when she exists through the front
    entrance while the Doctor escapes by getting K9 to cut out hatch in the >wooden building at the back.

    Roman has also escaped from her captivity and is now riding a horse, an >animal she has never seen before, she doesn't know what fishing is
    either, and meets the Doctor along the way. They now head off to the >Prince's house.

    Count Grendel then appears at the Prince's house under a flag of truce,
    but when he is allowed inside he throws a spear a the android duplicate
    of Reynart destroying it and flees through the window.

    Farrah tries to fire on him but while Grendel was inside his men led by >Kurster have captured Romana and she is now in Grendel's clutches on the >back of his horse, so the Doctor pushes Farrah's crossbow down.

    They must now rescue both Romana and the Prince from Grendel's castle so
    the Doctor comes up with a plan for how to get in. The Doctor with the
    help of K9 who he places inside a boat is to enter through the water
    gate while Zadek and his men wait outside the castle's main entrance for
    the Doctor to open it.

    The Doctor gets inside but K9 has to remain behind on the boat.

    Inside the main hall the Archimandrite has been told to marry King
    Reynart who is now in poor health to Princes Strella, who Grendel plans
    to marry after he kills the King, and then take his place after he kills >Strella, but Strella won't agree to any of it so the Count uses
    emotional blackmail to get Romana to stand in for her.

    The Doctor arrives and objects to the wedding vows being taken.

    Count Grendel the best swordsman on Tara challenges the Doctor to a duel
    and the Doctor accepts. In the process the front gate is opened by the >Prince who follows the Doctor's call while he spars with Grendel.

    Great sword fight with Tom Baker demonstrating what an expert he is with
    the foil. The Doctor's face was seen all the time but Grendel wore a
    helmet so was probably played by a stunt double.

    The Doctor after feigning ignorance at the start shows that he is the >superior swordsman and after giving Grendel a second chance, after
    letting him pick his sword back up, chases Grendel though the corridors
    to the battlements where Grendel now beaten jumps into the moat to escape.

    Reynart is reunited with Strella and they both kiss.

    The Doctor arrives and he and Romana depart after he picks up the fourth >segment from Lamia's laboratory where she had been examining it.

    The Doctor wonders where K9 is.

    K9 is stranded on the boat the Doctor left him on floating in the middle
    of the moat.

    A fun and enjoyable light hearted story.

    Given they way it ended with the Count escaping the opportunity was left >open for a sequel.

    Unlike the third series of House of the Dragon (staring 11th Doctor Matt >Smith as Daemon Targarian), The Androids of Tara was fast paced and all
    the dialogue moved the plot along. There was no irrelevant padding >concerning feelings and interpersonal relationships which would have
    made it totally mind numbing and boring, and which anyone with any >intelligence who isn't autistic can deduce for themselves without it
    needing to be constantly signposted. HBO could have done House of the
    Dragon in just 3 series if they concentrated on moving the plot along
    and this would have also made it easier to follow who was happening.

    Today's writers are clueless and talentless hacks who don't know how to >write anything but boring soap-opera and this degenerate has totally >destroyed the new series of Doctor Who after it was inserted. The
    classic era demonstrates that Doctor never needed it and doesn't need it >today.

    Science fiction and fantasy are about describing fascinating concepts
    ideas and how they affect society differently to how our own culture and >technology affects ours. Imbeciles who try to make it reflect the modern >world treat the audience as if they're all completely stupid and their
    work will never stand the passage of time, since no one will understand
    or remember the references to present day politics in the future in a
    story set in the middle ages which is supposed to portray life in that >period. The writers of 50 years ago understood this. Modern writers
    don't have a clue.

    You can still watch The Androids of Tara today and understand the
    society that the story created and described because it didn't reflect
    the society of the 1970s. David Fisher even predicted that all you
    needed was a small sample of a person's voice and AI could replicate
    that voices exactly. He was half a century ahead of his time. Where is
    that forward thinking in the science fiction writing of today?

    The Androids of Tara is the second best story of the season so far after
    The Pirate Planet.

    10/10


    Average 9.5/10

    This may have not been an original Key to Time script.

    --
    The True Doctor https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCngrZwoS0n21IRcXpKO79Lw

    "To be woke is to be uninformed which is exactly the opposite of what it >stands for." --William Shatner

    --
    Member - Liberal International This is doctor@nk.ca Ici doctor@nk.ca
    Yahweh, King & country!Never Satan President Republic!Beware AntiChrist rising! Look at Psalms 14 and 53 on Atheism ; 31 years in the ISP business!
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From The True Doctor@agamemnon@hello.to.NO_SPAM to rec.arts.drwho on Sun Aug 16 15:48:55 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho

    On 15/08/2026 05:52, The Doctor wrote:
    In article <115op7j$32nga$1@dont-email.me>,
    The True Doctor <agamemnon@hello.to.NO_SPAM> wrote:
    Doctor Who does The Prisoner of Zenda and sets up everything for Game of
    Thrones and House of the Dragon to follow, which were obviously
    influenced by them both.

    The story starts off inside the TARDIS with the Doctor losing at chess
    with K9, for the umpteenth time, with 11 moves to mate.

    The TARDIS lands on the planet Tara, where, as we learn, due to a plague
    most of the population has been replaced with androids.

    The Doctor decides to go fishing for the next 50 years while he lets
    Romana find the fourth segment of the Key to Time, which she does in
    minutes.

    Unfortunately no sooner has she transformed the fourth segment into its
    true form as a crystal she is apprehended by Count Grendel who claims
    the crystal must be registered with the authorities, namely himself, at
    his castle.

    At the same time the Doctor is apprehended by Zadek who takes him to
    Prince Reynart who is preparing to be crowned king. But in order for
    this to happen he must be at the ceremony at exactly the designated hour
    otherwise the crown will be passed to someone else.

    The day on Tara consists of 8 hours of daylight and 8 hours of night it
    seems. Or it could be 16 hours of each depending on how you read the
    hours on the clock.

    Because of the loophole the Prince and his courters suspect Count
    Grendel will try to stop him from getting to the coronation on time and
    has hatched a plan to use an android duplicate of himself as a decoy
    while he enters the city by another route through an underground system
    of tunnels that lead to the coronation chamber.

    The android duplicate of Reynart is faulty and the Doctor offers to fix
    it for 500 gold pieces, after turning down 1000, and so he does, after
    which he wonders where Romana is.

    Zadek won't let him leave until after the coronation in case the android
    develops more faults, so the Doctor calls K9 with his high pitched dog
    whistle and instructs him to find Romana and report back.

    Reynard, Zadek, Farrah his student swordsman, and the Doctor all drink
    to success but the wine has been tampered with by Count Grendel and all
    of them slump down unconscious, while Grendel abducts the Prince and
    takes him to his castle to imprison him so he can become king in his stead. >>
    The Doctor and the others wake up, and with the prince gone decide to
    take the android, George, to be crowed as king in the Prince's place so
    as to subvert the Count's plans.

    At the Count's castle Romana is thought to be an android and Grendel
    orders his android expert and disparaged lover Lamia to disassemble her
    to use for spare parts. Romana is discovered to be real which is a
    surprise because she looks exactly like Princess Strella who Grendel has
    also captured and imprisoned in his castle because she is second in line
    to the throne.

    Strella won't marry him so that he can claim the throne after he kills
    her soon after, so Grendel decides to get Romana to take her place.
    Romana will not agree so the Count imprisons her with the Prince who now
    has a severe shoulder injury which Romana tries to nurse.

    With the two legitimate heirs to the throne imprisoned Grendel plans to
    get the Archimandrite to offer him the crown in their absence by having
    his guards take control of the city. But the Doctor and George get to
    the throne room first and the android is crowned king to Grendel's
    surprise since he has the real Prince in his custody.

    Romana then appears in the throne room, or is it Strella, and as she
    approaches the throne the Doctor grabs a long rod and stabs
    Romana/Strella in the head.

    It turns out to be an android duplicate of Strella made by Lamia and
    sent by Grdenel to kill the new king as a backup plan so he can then
    claim the throne for himself, but Grendel is now exposed and flees.

    Count Grendel sill has Romana so sends his henchman Till to offer the
    Doctor the return of Romana in exchange for his freedom and safe passage
    out of the realm. The Doctor knows it's a trap but still goes.

    Lamia has now made an android duplicate of Romana and uses her to try to
    kill the Doctor but K9 who is with him detects she is fake and as the
    Doctor bends down to pet K9 the energy bolt fired from the android's
    midriff misses him.

    The Count now orders his men to fire on the Doctor when he tries to exit
    the building but Lamia is killed when she exists through the front
    entrance while the Doctor escapes by getting K9 to cut out hatch in the
    wooden building at the back.

    Roman has also escaped from her captivity and is now riding a horse, an
    animal she has never seen before, she doesn't know what fishing is
    either, and meets the Doctor along the way. They now head off to the
    Prince's house.

    Count Grendel then appears at the Prince's house under a flag of truce,
    but when he is allowed inside he throws a spear a the android duplicate
    of Reynart destroying it and flees through the window.

    Farrah tries to fire on him but while Grendel was inside his men led by
    Kurster have captured Romana and she is now in Grendel's clutches on the
    back of his horse, so the Doctor pushes Farrah's crossbow down.

    They must now rescue both Romana and the Prince from Grendel's castle so
    the Doctor comes up with a plan for how to get in. The Doctor with the
    help of K9 who he places inside a boat is to enter through the water
    gate while Zadek and his men wait outside the castle's main entrance for
    the Doctor to open it.

    The Doctor gets inside but K9 has to remain behind on the boat.

    Inside the main hall the Archimandrite has been told to marry King
    Reynart who is now in poor health to Princes Strella, who Grendel plans
    to marry after he kills the King, and then take his place after he kills
    Strella, but Strella won't agree to any of it so the Count uses
    emotional blackmail to get Romana to stand in for her.

    The Doctor arrives and objects to the wedding vows being taken.

    Count Grendel the best swordsman on Tara challenges the Doctor to a duel
    and the Doctor accepts. In the process the front gate is opened by the
    Prince who follows the Doctor's call while he spars with Grendel.

    Great sword fight with Tom Baker demonstrating what an expert he is with
    the foil. The Doctor's face was seen all the time but Grendel wore a
    helmet so was probably played by a stunt double.

    The Doctor after feigning ignorance at the start shows that he is the
    superior swordsman and after giving Grendel a second chance, after
    letting him pick his sword back up, chases Grendel though the corridors
    to the battlements where Grendel now beaten jumps into the moat to escape. >>
    Reynart is reunited with Strella and they both kiss.

    The Doctor arrives and he and Romana depart after he picks up the fourth
    segment from Lamia's laboratory where she had been examining it.

    The Doctor wonders where K9 is.

    K9 is stranded on the boat the Doctor left him on floating in the middle
    of the moat.

    A fun and enjoyable light hearted story.

    Given they way it ended with the Count escaping the opportunity was left
    open for a sequel.

    Unlike the third series of House of the Dragon (staring 11th Doctor Matt
    Smith as Daemon Targarian), The Androids of Tara was fast paced and all
    the dialogue moved the plot along. There was no irrelevant padding
    concerning feelings and interpersonal relationships which would have
    made it totally mind numbing and boring, and which anyone with any
    intelligence who isn't autistic can deduce for themselves without it
    needing to be constantly signposted. HBO could have done House of the
    Dragon in just 3 series if they concentrated on moving the plot along
    and this would have also made it easier to follow who was happening.

    Today's writers are clueless and talentless hacks who don't know how to
    write anything but boring soap-opera and this degenerate has totally
    destroyed the new series of Doctor Who after it was inserted. The
    classic era demonstrates that Doctor never needed it and doesn't need it
    today.

    Science fiction and fantasy are about describing fascinating concepts
    ideas and how they affect society differently to how our own culture and
    technology affects ours. Imbeciles who try to make it reflect the modern
    world treat the audience as if they're all completely stupid and their
    work will never stand the passage of time, since no one will understand
    or remember the references to present day politics in the future in a
    story set in the middle ages which is supposed to portray life in that
    period. The writers of 50 years ago understood this. Modern writers
    don't have a clue.

    You can still watch The Androids of Tara today and understand the
    society that the story created and described because it didn't reflect
    the society of the 1970s. David Fisher even predicted that all you
    needed was a small sample of a person's voice and AI could replicate
    that voices exactly. He was half a century ahead of his time. Where is
    that forward thinking in the science fiction writing of today?

    The Androids of Tara is the second best story of the season so far after
    The Pirate Planet.

    10/10


    Average 9.5/10

    This may have not been an original Key to Time script.


    I was thinking it has similar vibes to The Masque of Mandragora and
    George R R Martin copied Lamia for House of the Dragon. You know the one
    I mean, whatshername Reinira's advisor and spurned lesbian lover.
    --
    The True Doctor https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCngrZwoS0n21IRcXpKO79Lw

    "To be woke is to be uninformed which is exactly the opposite of what it stands for." --William Shatner
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From doctor@doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca (The Doctor) to rec.arts.drwho on Sun Aug 16 18:36:48 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho

    In article <115sikn$8fgj$1@dont-email.me>,
    The True Doctor <agamemnon@hello.to.NO_SPAM> wrote:
    On 15/08/2026 05:52, The Doctor wrote:
    In article <115op7j$32nga$1@dont-email.me>,
    The True Doctor <agamemnon@hello.to.NO_SPAM> wrote:
    Doctor Who does The Prisoner of Zenda and sets up everything for Game of >>> Thrones and House of the Dragon to follow, which were obviously
    influenced by them both.

    The story starts off inside the TARDIS with the Doctor losing at chess
    with K9, for the umpteenth time, with 11 moves to mate.

    The TARDIS lands on the planet Tara, where, as we learn, due to a plague >>> most of the population has been replaced with androids.

    The Doctor decides to go fishing for the next 50 years while he lets
    Romana find the fourth segment of the Key to Time, which she does in
    minutes.

    Unfortunately no sooner has she transformed the fourth segment into its
    true form as a crystal she is apprehended by Count Grendel who claims
    the crystal must be registered with the authorities, namely himself, at
    his castle.

    At the same time the Doctor is apprehended by Zadek who takes him to
    Prince Reynart who is preparing to be crowned king. But in order for
    this to happen he must be at the ceremony at exactly the designated hour >>> otherwise the crown will be passed to someone else.

    The day on Tara consists of 8 hours of daylight and 8 hours of night it
    seems. Or it could be 16 hours of each depending on how you read the
    hours on the clock.

    Because of the loophole the Prince and his courters suspect Count
    Grendel will try to stop him from getting to the coronation on time and
    has hatched a plan to use an android duplicate of himself as a decoy
    while he enters the city by another route through an underground system
    of tunnels that lead to the coronation chamber.

    The android duplicate of Reynart is faulty and the Doctor offers to fix
    it for 500 gold pieces, after turning down 1000, and so he does, after
    which he wonders where Romana is.

    Zadek won't let him leave until after the coronation in case the android >>> develops more faults, so the Doctor calls K9 with his high pitched dog
    whistle and instructs him to find Romana and report back.

    Reynard, Zadek, Farrah his student swordsman, and the Doctor all drink
    to success but the wine has been tampered with by Count Grendel and all
    of them slump down unconscious, while Grendel abducts the Prince and
    takes him to his castle to imprison him so he can become king in his stead. >>>
    The Doctor and the others wake up, and with the prince gone decide to
    take the android, George, to be crowed as king in the Prince's place so
    as to subvert the Count's plans.

    At the Count's castle Romana is thought to be an android and Grendel
    orders his android expert and disparaged lover Lamia to disassemble her
    to use for spare parts. Romana is discovered to be real which is a
    surprise because she looks exactly like Princess Strella who Grendel has >>> also captured and imprisoned in his castle because she is second in line >>> to the throne.

    Strella won't marry him so that he can claim the throne after he kills
    her soon after, so Grendel decides to get Romana to take her place.
    Romana will not agree so the Count imprisons her with the Prince who now >>> has a severe shoulder injury which Romana tries to nurse.

    With the two legitimate heirs to the throne imprisoned Grendel plans to
    get the Archimandrite to offer him the crown in their absence by having
    his guards take control of the city. But the Doctor and George get to
    the throne room first and the android is crowned king to Grendel's
    surprise since he has the real Prince in his custody.

    Romana then appears in the throne room, or is it Strella, and as she
    approaches the throne the Doctor grabs a long rod and stabs
    Romana/Strella in the head.

    It turns out to be an android duplicate of Strella made by Lamia and
    sent by Grdenel to kill the new king as a backup plan so he can then
    claim the throne for himself, but Grendel is now exposed and flees.

    Count Grendel sill has Romana so sends his henchman Till to offer the
    Doctor the return of Romana in exchange for his freedom and safe passage >>> out of the realm. The Doctor knows it's a trap but still goes.

    Lamia has now made an android duplicate of Romana and uses her to try to >>> kill the Doctor but K9 who is with him detects she is fake and as the
    Doctor bends down to pet K9 the energy bolt fired from the android's
    midriff misses him.

    The Count now orders his men to fire on the Doctor when he tries to exit >>> the building but Lamia is killed when she exists through the front
    entrance while the Doctor escapes by getting K9 to cut out hatch in the
    wooden building at the back.

    Roman has also escaped from her captivity and is now riding a horse, an
    animal she has never seen before, she doesn't know what fishing is
    either, and meets the Doctor along the way. They now head off to the
    Prince's house.

    Count Grendel then appears at the Prince's house under a flag of truce,
    but when he is allowed inside he throws a spear a the android duplicate
    of Reynart destroying it and flees through the window.

    Farrah tries to fire on him but while Grendel was inside his men led by
    Kurster have captured Romana and she is now in Grendel's clutches on the >>> back of his horse, so the Doctor pushes Farrah's crossbow down.

    They must now rescue both Romana and the Prince from Grendel's castle so >>> the Doctor comes up with a plan for how to get in. The Doctor with the
    help of K9 who he places inside a boat is to enter through the water
    gate while Zadek and his men wait outside the castle's main entrance for >>> the Doctor to open it.

    The Doctor gets inside but K9 has to remain behind on the boat.

    Inside the main hall the Archimandrite has been told to marry King
    Reynart who is now in poor health to Princes Strella, who Grendel plans
    to marry after he kills the King, and then take his place after he kills >>> Strella, but Strella won't agree to any of it so the Count uses
    emotional blackmail to get Romana to stand in for her.

    The Doctor arrives and objects to the wedding vows being taken.

    Count Grendel the best swordsman on Tara challenges the Doctor to a duel >>> and the Doctor accepts. In the process the front gate is opened by the
    Prince who follows the Doctor's call while he spars with Grendel.

    Great sword fight with Tom Baker demonstrating what an expert he is with >>> the foil. The Doctor's face was seen all the time but Grendel wore a
    helmet so was probably played by a stunt double.

    The Doctor after feigning ignorance at the start shows that he is the
    superior swordsman and after giving Grendel a second chance, after
    letting him pick his sword back up, chases Grendel though the corridors
    to the battlements where Grendel now beaten jumps into the moat to escape. >>>
    Reynart is reunited with Strella and they both kiss.

    The Doctor arrives and he and Romana depart after he picks up the fourth >>> segment from Lamia's laboratory where she had been examining it.

    The Doctor wonders where K9 is.

    K9 is stranded on the boat the Doctor left him on floating in the middle >>> of the moat.

    A fun and enjoyable light hearted story.

    Given they way it ended with the Count escaping the opportunity was left >>> open for a sequel.

    Unlike the third series of House of the Dragon (staring 11th Doctor Matt >>> Smith as Daemon Targarian), The Androids of Tara was fast paced and all
    the dialogue moved the plot along. There was no irrelevant padding
    concerning feelings and interpersonal relationships which would have
    made it totally mind numbing and boring, and which anyone with any
    intelligence who isn't autistic can deduce for themselves without it
    needing to be constantly signposted. HBO could have done House of the
    Dragon in just 3 series if they concentrated on moving the plot along
    and this would have also made it easier to follow who was happening.

    Today's writers are clueless and talentless hacks who don't know how to
    write anything but boring soap-opera and this degenerate has totally
    destroyed the new series of Doctor Who after it was inserted. The
    classic era demonstrates that Doctor never needed it and doesn't need it >>> today.

    Science fiction and fantasy are about describing fascinating concepts
    ideas and how they affect society differently to how our own culture and >>> technology affects ours. Imbeciles who try to make it reflect the modern >>> world treat the audience as if they're all completely stupid and their
    work will never stand the passage of time, since no one will understand
    or remember the references to present day politics in the future in a
    story set in the middle ages which is supposed to portray life in that
    period. The writers of 50 years ago understood this. Modern writers
    don't have a clue.

    You can still watch The Androids of Tara today and understand the
    society that the story created and described because it didn't reflect
    the society of the 1970s. David Fisher even predicted that all you
    needed was a small sample of a person's voice and AI could replicate
    that voices exactly. He was half a century ahead of his time. Where is
    that forward thinking in the science fiction writing of today?

    The Androids of Tara is the second best story of the season so far after >>> The Pirate Planet.

    10/10


    Average 9.5/10

    This may have not been an original Key to Time script.


    I was thinking it has similar vibes to The Masque of Mandragora and
    George R R Martin copied Lamia for House of the Dragon. You know the one
    I mean, whatshername Reinira's advisor and spurned lesbian lover.


    Got you I think.

    --
    The True Doctor https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCngrZwoS0n21IRcXpKO79Lw

    "To be woke is to be uninformed which is exactly the opposite of what it >stands for." --William Shatner
    --
    Member - Liberal International This is doctor@nk.ca Ici doctor@nk.ca
    Yahweh, King & country!Never Satan President Republic!Beware AntiChrist rising! Look at Psalms 14 and 53 on Atheism ; 31 years in the ISP business!
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  • From Blueshirt@blueshirt@indigo.news to rec.arts.drwho on Mon Aug 17 09:16:10 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho

    The True Doctor wrote:

    I was thinking it wo has similar vibes to The Masque of
    Mandragora and George R R Martin copied Lamia for House of
    the Dragon.

    You know the one I mean, whatshername Reinira's advisor and
    spurned lesbian lover.

    I was hoping Rhaenyra would chop her head off, or something...

    Now that she's escaped, she'll be back.

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  • From doctor@doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca (The Doctor) to rec.arts.drwho on Mon Aug 17 14:31:08 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho

    In article <xn0ptmkfw2j57de004@post.eweka.nl>,
    Blueshirt <blueshirt@indigo.news> wrote:
    The True Doctor wrote:

    I was thinking it wo has similar vibes to The Masque of
    Mandragora and George R R Martin copied Lamia for House of
    the Dragon.

    You know the one I mean, whatshername Reinira's advisor and
    spurned lesbian lover.

    I was hoping Rhaenyra would chop her head off, or something...

    Now that she's escaped, she'll be back.


    To haunt you?
    --
    Member - Liberal International This is doctor@nk.ca Ici doctor@nk.ca
    Yahweh, King & country!Never Satan President Republic!Beware AntiChrist rising! Look at Psalms 14 and 53 on Atheism ; 31 years in the ISP business!
    --- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2