The Androids of Tara is the fourth serial of the 16th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 25 November to 16 December 1978.
She is attacked by a native Taran bear and saved by Count Grendel, who takes Romana to his castle on the pretext of treating her injured ankle.
Grendel, coming under a flag of truce to secretly offer the crown to the Doctor, destroys the Reynart android and recaptures Romana.
[1] Mary Tamm designed Romana's distinctive purple outfit after the originally planned costume proved unsuitable.
This is Cyril Shaps's fourth and final appearance in Doctor Who, the others being The Tomb of the Cybermen (1967), The Ambassadors of Death (1970) and Planet of the Spiders (1974).
In their book The Discontinuity Guide (1995), Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping described The Androids of Tara as "Wonderful, Doctor Who as heroic romance, with plenty of swashbuckling, wit and colour."
[7] DVD Talk's Justin Felix agreed, writing that "its whimsical nature makes this episode feel more like an excursion than an advancement of the season's storyline" and described the story as "a competent albeit standard runaround".
[8] In 2011, Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times praised the acting and direction, but stated that it "strays too far into the 'adventure serial' territory" and lacked a sense of "real urgency or jeopardy".
[9] In an interview in autumn 2009, Mary Tamm considered this to be her favourite Doctor Who story as she liked the setting of Leeds Castle [in Kent], her costume, her fellow actors, and that she could play "three" parts - Romana, an android, and Princess Strella.
This serial, along with the rest of season sixteen, was released in North America as part of the Key to Time box set.