Doctor Who: The Key to Time (The Ribos Operation, The Pirate Planet, The Stones of Blood, The Androids of Tara, The Power of Kroll, and The Armageddon Factor)

Sure, we all love the fourth doctor, but this compilation of DVDs is below par, marketed entirely to take advantage of fans. It's not the stories -- these stories are far superior to the BBC release in Great Britain of, say, the pedestrian The Three Doctors, Vengeance on Varos and the upcoming Seeds of Doom. The flaw here is in the cleanup. The American distributor wants to make quick money with the more popular (at least here) Tom Baker stories, so it seems they've rushed these into the market without the benefit of The Doctor Who Restoration Team's absolutely superior work. On all other Doctor Who DVDs, this team of volunteers has spent countless hours working wonders cleaning up natty negatives, creating vibrant video, and collecting a ton of delicious extras. Please buy the other DVDs first to support their work and show the BBC that we want the real thing. What those guys do is beyond compare -- check out the fun CGI graphics for The Ark in Space, or the amazing before/after restoration of The Tomb of the Cybermen, and you'll see that this boxed set shortchanges us.

My favorite season of the doctor with my favorite companion, the first Romana (Mary Tamm), though I liked Lala Ward as the second Romana as well. The special effects are cheesy, Tom Baker is wonderful and even K-9 is funny. The bad guys range from great to not so great but who cares? This is the classic Dr. Who (Tom Baker) at the height of his whimsical, 'non sequiturial' powers and unmatched till Christopher Eccleston's doctor. Even the commentary is pretty good, though Tom Baker and Mary Tamm do not narrate on all the episodes. A classic!

When an actor such as Tom Baker stays with a show like Dr. Who for seven years, it's inevitable that the show will undergo a few changes and the biggest changes were the different producers. Phillip Hinchcliffe produced Bakers first three seasons, the best of the entire history of the show, in my opinion, which focused on the gothic horror elements of sci-fi and was top notch. John Nathan Turner produced Baker's last year, featuring a slightly more sedate and possibly more tired Doctor as he neared his regeneration into Peter Davison's version (also, Baker was in ill health for a stretch during the final season which accounted for his changed physical appearance). But Baker's 4th thru 6th seasons were helmed by Graham Williams, who had the unenviable task of veering away from the popular, scary and brilliant Hinchcliffe stories and had to go in a more slapstick, dumbed-down direction for the kids. Well, he succeeded. There are some nice elements in some of the different Key to time adventures and it was a bold move to do an entire season under the umbrella of one idea---the quest for the six segments to the key to time. I think I may have liked it even more if I hadn't been so used to the magnificent Hinchcliffe era shows. Williams era had a lot of silliness and of course, K9. It also featured some of the very lamest Who such as "Horns of Nimon". All in all, the Key to time is a good addition to the DVDs although I would have voted for many more early Hinchcliffe/Baker episodes to come ouot before these.