Doctor Who: The Key to Time: Special Edition

Join the popular Fourth Doctor and the beautiful Romana on a 26-episode intergalactic treasure hunt for the six segments of the all-powerful Key to Time. Includes all six stories from the popular series: The Ribos Operation, The Pirate Planet, The Stones of Blood, The Androids of Tara, The Power of Kroll and The Armageddon Factor. With new slimmer packaging, this set includes over 450 minutes of bonus features as well as a special edition booklet.

This title was voted #1 on VoteDoctorWho.com.

Doctor Who is a mysterious Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation Kasterborus. A member of an advanced race of super beings with a 60-degree body temperature, two hearts and a very long life span. An amazing race with the ability to live 13 different lives and to regenerate their bodies just when they are on the brink of death, resulting in the total replacement of body mind and actor!

The Ribos Operation
The White Guardian of Time gives the Doctor the task of finding and collecting the six segments of the Key to Time. These are hidden in different parts of the universe, disguised in other shapes and forms. To help him in his quest, the Guardian allocates an assistant, newly graduated female Time Lord, Romanadvoratrelunder (Romana for short). She has a tracer device whichwill locate each segment and transmute it into its proper form. The first segment is on Ribos, a planet where the inhabitants have reached aMiddle Ages stage of development. The item for which they are searching is in the form of a large nugget of a rare and valuable mineral called Jethrick. Unfortunately, the nugget is being used by a confidence trickster from Earth who is trying to sell the planet to the exiled prince of a warlike race. When the prince becomes suspicious of the con man, the Doctor, Romana and K9 find themselves in danger. They are hunted through Ribos' underground catacombs - inhabited by savage beasts - by the prince and his men. Only by using the beasts, K9 and all his wits, is the Doctor able to escape and retrieve the vital segment.

The Pirate Planet
The Doctor and his companions are now searching for the second segment of the Key to Time, and they are heading for a planet called Calufrax. After a mysterious disturbance almost destroys the TARDIS, they discover another planet, Zanak, where Calufrax should be. Zanak's people seem to live a life of luxury and ease, but they are sternly ruled by a strange character known as the Captain. Their riches appear mysteriously, following frequent announcements of new golden ages of prosperity. The people live in fear of the Mentiads, telepathic creatures who seem to be impervious to the weapons of the Captain's guards, and who appear at the beginning of each new golden age to seize a young man or woman. While the Doctor is vainly trying to prevent one man from being taken away from them, Romana is arrested and finds herself on the Captain's bridge; his control center. There she encounters a terrifying figure - half man, half machine - presiding over an amazing array of complex technology. It seems that the Captain's machinery has broken down, and to save her life, Romana must try to repair it. She is helped by the Doctor, who has come to rescue her. K9 is left to track down the Mentiads. They quickly discover that the machinery is in fact a set of huge engines which enable the entire planet to de-materialize, jump through space, and re-materialize around another planet. The minerals and energy resources of the victim planet are extracted by automatic mining machinery to provide fuel for the Captain's vile purposes. Calufrax is now inside Zanak - and the next target is Earth. To release the people of Zanak from their pampered slavery, to save Earth, and at the same time to find the second segment, the Doctor and Romana must foil the Captain's plans and destroy his transmat engines. But to do this means braving the Captain's guards. The Doctor organizes an attack on the bridge, but is captured by the true master of Zanak, Queen Xanxia, who has been using the pillage energies to keep her original body alive. The Doctor and the Mentiads try to stop the planet's next jump through the space vortex, which would take Zanak to Earth. During the fighting the Captain attempts to revolt and is killed by Queen Xanxia. Cut off from her much needed power source, she is shot by a rebel. The Doctor soon discovers that Calufrax, now reduced to a football-sized husk, is the second segment of the Key to Time.

The Stones of Blood
The third segment to the Key to Time seems to be on present-day Earth. The tracer leads the Doctor and Romana to an ancient stone circle which has a strange history, and where blood sacrifices are still carried out. The signal from the tracer comes and goes inexplicably, and it is soon apparent that things are not what they seem to be. Leaving Romana to keep an eye on the stone circle - and on Professor Emelia Rumford and her friend Vivien Fay, who are doing a survey of it - the Doctor goes to visit a pseudo-droid nearby. There he discovers the worship of an ancient Celtic goddess, Cailleach, connected with the stones. In the meantime, Romana finds herself in danger from someone she thinks is the Doctor. Before long, trouble erupts, The stones, actually creatures called Ogri, begin walking the area, bringing death and destruction, while sinister black crows keep an evil watch over everything, acting as the eyes of the goddess. But who is she? The doctor searches for and finds her. In a hyperspace vessel, trapped in another dimension above the circle, is an escaped criminal from another world, actually Vivien Fay, who has taken refuge there for the past 4000 years, protected by the segment of the Key - her necklace. Vivian is really Cessair of Diplos, and she was sent in the spacecraft with a group of justice machines, the Megara. In trying to obtain the key and return the criminal to her captors, the Doctor and Romana find themselves trapped in the perpetual limbo of hyperspace and condemned to death by the Megara justice machines. Only K9 can help, but he is on Earth with his only means of reaching the vessel smashed and useless. But the Doctor tricks the Megara into probing Vivien/Cessair who in turn change her form into that of a stone megalith allowing the Doctor to use her necklace, the third segment, to banish the Megara and to return them to the TARDIS.

The Androids of Tara
The Doctor knows the planet Tara to be a peaceful and pleasant place. So, having collected three of the segments of the Key to Time, he decides to take a rest and allow Romana to find the fourth on her own. But the planet is not as peaceful as it appears. Romana is rescued from a wild animal by a charming man who introduces himself as Count Grendel - only to find herself imprisoned in his castle and about to be "dismantled" as an android. The Doctor also finds himself involved with androids when he is taken prisoner by another group of Tarans led by Prince Reynart. The Prince is to be crowned the next day, but Count Grendel, it seems, will stop at nothing to claim the crown. To thwart any move, the Prince has an android copy of himself which he intends to use to divert Grendel, but it is broken and they need the Doctor to repair it. Soon the Doctor and Romana find themselves completely embroiled in plots and counter-plots involving not only the Prince and Count, but also the beautiful Princess Strella (who happens to be able to pass as Romana's double) and it also imprisoned in Grendel's castle. When the Count captures the real Prince, leaving the Doctor and his friends with only a badly damaged android copy, the situation looks hopeless. It takes all the Doctor's considerable ingenuity, with a little help from K9 and great deal of remarkably expert swordsmanship, to prevent disaster for all concerned.

The Power of Kroll
The fifth segment of the Key to Time is hidden somewhere on the third moon of Delta Magna. This place consists for the most part of marsh and swamp, so K9 has to stay behind in the TARDIS. The Doctor and Romana leave the ship, but soon find themselves in trouble. They are caught in the middle of a feud between the Swampies and a group of technicians. The Swampies have been given this particular moon as a kind of reservation, and they resent the intrusion of the technicians who have set up pilot plant to collect methane gas from the marsh and convert it into protein. It is then shipped back by rocket to their home planet. Romana is captured by the Swampies and the Doctor by the technicians. Each of the protagonists is very suspicious of the newcomers, and before long, Romana if being offered as a sacrifice to Kroll, the Swampies' god - a giant squid-like creature who is supposed to live in the waters. At first the Doctor and Romana try to dismiss Kroll as merely a legend created by superstition, but they soon discover that he is terrifyingly real - a savage monster nearly two miles across and hundreds of feet high. Hunted by both the Swampies and the technicians, the Doctor and Romana need every scrap of ingenuity to defeat Kroll, which they must do to find the fifth segment and to save their lives. The Doctor finds that Kroll's large size was caused by his swallowing of a holy relic of the Swampies, which is the fifth segment.

The Armageddon Factor
The final stage of their search for the segments of the Key to Time takes the Doctor and Romana to the twin planets of Atrios and Zeos. They find a full-scale interplanetary nuclear war raging. Atrios is off its orbit, and Zeos seems to have disappeared altogether. They land on Atrios and soon become involved in the war - and with the mysterious marshal in command of the Atrian forces who is intent on pursuing hostilities to their ultimate conclusion. But it soon becomes apparent that the Marshal is being controlled from somewhere else. The Doctor suspects that he and Romana have been lured into a trap, and that the Black Guardian may well be responsible for what is happening on Atrios. The final segment of the Key seems to have some connection with the Atrian royal princess, Astra. But she has been kidnapped by Zeons and taken to their planet. Doctor Who, with Romana and K9, go in search of her and find themselves trapped on Zeos. The Marshal is on his way to press home his final assault. The master computer of Zeos is programmed to destroy itself, the planet, and everything around it, if he does so. In a desperate attempt to avoid this ultimate catastrophe, the Doctor manages to rig a temporary time loop around the Marshal and the computer. He then goes in search of the Shadow, the agent of the Black Guardian who is controlling the situation from an artificial third planet. But it looks as if the Doctor and his friends are completely within the Shadow's power, and that the entire key to Time will be his. Yet help comes from an unexpected quarter when the Doctor discovers another renegade Time Lord on the Shadow's planet. Together - and with a little help from K9 - they manage to save the day.

The Ribos Operation

Director - George Spenton-Foster
Assistant Floor Manager - Richard Cox
Costumes - June Hudson
Designer - Ken Ledsham
Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
Make-Up - Christine Walmesley-Cotham
Producer - Graham Williams
Production Assistant - Jane Shirley
Production Unit Manager - John Nathan-Turner
Script Editor - Anthony Read
Special Sounds - Dick Mills
Studio Lighting - Jim Purdie
Studio Sound - Richard Chubb Title Music - Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Delia Derbyshire
Visual Effects - Dave Havard
Writer - Robert Holmes

The Pirate Planet

Director - Pennant Roberts
Assistant Floor Manager - Ruth Mayorcas
Costumes - L Rowland Warne
Designer - John Pusey
Film Cameraman - Elmer Cossey
Film Editor - John Dunstan
Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
Make-Up - Janis Gould
Producer - Graham Williams
Production Assistant - Michael Owen Morris
Production Unit Manager - John Nathan-Turner
Script Editor - Anthony Read
Special Sounds - Dick Mills
Studio Lighting - Mike Jefferies
Studio Sound - Mike Jones
Title Music - Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Delia Derbyshire
Visual Effects - Colin Mapson
Writer - Douglas Adams

The Stones of Blood

Director - Darrol Blake
Assistant Floor Manager - Carol Scott
Assistant Floor Manager - Nigel Taylor
Costumes - Rupert Jarvis
Designer - John Stout
Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
Make-Up - Ann Briggs
OB Cameraman - Trevor Wimlett
OB Cameraman - Mike Windsor
Producer - Graham Williams
Production Assistant - Carolyn Montagu
Production Unit Manager - John Nathan-Turner
Script Editor - Anthony Read
Special Sounds - Liz Parker
Studio Lighting - Warwick Fielding
Studio Sound - Richard Chubb
Title Music - Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Delia Derbyshire
Visual Effects - Mat Irvine
Writer - David Fisher

The Androids of Tara

Director - Michael Hayes
Assistant Floor Manager - Rosemary Webb
Costumes - Doreen James
Designer - Valerie Warrender
Fight Arranger - Terry Walsh
Film Cameraman - John Walker
Film Editor - David Yates
Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
Make-Up - Jill Hagger
Producer - Graham Williams
Production Assistant - Teresa-Mary Winders
Production Unit Manager - John Nathan-Turner
Script Editor - Anthony Read
Special Sounds - Dick Mills
Studio Lighting - Brian Clemett
Studio Sound - Richard Chubb
Title Music - Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Delia Derbyshire
Visual Effects - Len Hutton
Writer - David Fisher

The Power of Kroll

Director - Norman Stewart
Assistant Floor Manager - Chris Moss
Costumes - Colin Lavers
Designer - Don Giles
Film Cameraman - Martin Patmore
Film Editor - Michael Goldsmith
Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
Make-Up - Kezia Dewinne
Producer - Graham Williams
Production Assistant - Kate Nemet
Production Unit Manager - John Nathan-Turner
Script Editor - Anthony Read
Special Sounds - Dick Mills
Studio Lighting - Warwick Fielding
Studio Sound - Richard Chubb
Title Music - Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Delia Derbyshire
Visual Effects - Tony Harding
Writer - Robert Holmes

The Armageddon Factor

Director - Michael Hayes
Assistant Floor Manager - Steve Goldie
Assistant Floor Manager - Rosemary Padvaiskas
Costumes - Michael Burdle
Designer - Richard McManan-Smith
Make-Up - Ann Briggs
Producer - Graham Williams
Production Assistant - Ann Aronsohn
Production Unit Manager - John Nathan-Turner
Script Editor - Anthony Read
Script Editor - Douglas Adams uncredited
Special Sounds - Dick Mills
Studio Lighting - Mike Jefferies
Studio Sound - Richard Chubb
Title Music - Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Delia Derbyshire
Visual Effects - John Horton
Writer - Bob Baker
Writer - Dave Martin