I grew up on Tom Baker the 4th Doctor Who’s show on PBS, and always enjoyed it, and loved the theme. I hadn’t really thought about it in years until the new 2005 Doctor Who series with Christopher Eccleston as the 9th Doctor, and have once again got the fiend for more of the Doctor, and there was no better doctor than Tom Baker who was the doctor from 1974-1981. This series was one storyline for the entire season, which was not at all the norm for Doctor Who and this is the start of one of the Doctor’s biggest adventures ever.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Tom Baker returns as The Doctor who was planning on going on a vacation with his robotic companion K9 (John Leeson), but he was intercepted by the White Guardian (Cyril Luckham) who has chosen the Doctor to go on a mission to save the universe by finding the six segments of the key of time, which can be hidden as anything in any size or shape but can be detected with a detector, and must be kept from the Black Guardian who will use them to destroy the universe instead of restore balance to the universe.

The Doctor is given a new companion Romana (Mary Tamm) who has recently graduated from the Time Lord Academy at the top of her class, and as she says has a “negative empathy” with the doctor, meaning they don’t get along very well. The travel to the planet Ribos which has 32 year long winters and fall in with 2 con-men Garron (Ian Cuthbertson) and Unstoffe (Nigel Plaskitt) who are attempting to illegally sell this class 3 underdeveloped planet to the evil emperor Graff Vynda-K (Paul Seed), and the 2 conmen end up having a piece of the most powerful substance in the universe which is in fact the first piece of the Time Key. Unstoffe is saved by Binro the HEretic (Timothy Batseson) who believed that the stars were suns, and died for Unstoffe who told him he was right. And with K-9’s help the doctor and Romana are able to get the key, kill Graff Vynda-K and leave Garron and Unstoffe (though they have Vynda-K’s ship so…) and return the Key to it’s original form.

Sure the show is cheesy as hell, and actors don’t do the best jobs with their lines, and the monsters are worse than total cheese, but this show is wonderful and is worth watching just for Tom Baker alone.