Artistically this was the first Graham Williams season that he could really call his own. The previous year had been spent picking up the pieces left by Philip Hinchliffe and trying to satisfy the "humour not horror" command from the Beeb's upper echelons. He wanted to bring some motive to the Doctor's travels and devised the concept of The Key to Time, an all powerful McGuffin in which the Time Lord had to discover in order to do nothing less than save the universe. On a more practical level, Williams also wanted to extend the programme's penchant for sophisticated comedy as an alternative to gory monsters. The result was a fairly consistent season that usually entertained but never reached any great heights and rarely plumbed any memorable nadirs.

Undoubtedly the programme was relying on Tom Baker's star performance as never before. It is almost impossible to imagine any of these six stories being nearly as good without his presence or his comedy talent. This is fine for viewers at the time but behind the scenes, Baker's ego and his passion for the programmed led him to make outrageous demands of Williams. He wanted a veto over scripts, principal casting and directors, determined that he understood the series and it's audience better than anyone. Naturally Williams refused outright and the dispute led at one point to both of them making "it's him or me" declarations to the Head of Serials. Happily the air was cleared towards the end of the season.

The season also saw the introduction of Romana as played by Mary Tamm. Looking for a contrast with Leela's savage, Williams went for the opposite stereotype, the ice maiden. Romana was unusual amongst Who girls for her undoubted glamorousness. Most companions had been fairly tomboyish, partly to appeal to children and partly to block the question of an older man travelling with a young woman. Partnering the Doctor with someone who was not only beautiful but one of his own race and in some ways his equal, brought an extra avenue of humour to the formula. His seeming lack of awareness of her attractiveness became a running theme. That slow pan up her figure when she was introduced. His surprise when K9 informs him that Romana is more likely to be noticed by the citizens of Zanak. Yet Romana herself is something of an innocent and at times she too seems unaware of the effect she has on men and possibly Vivien Fay. As so often though, the formula of the programme had reduced Romana to the standard companion type by the end of the season. One wonders if the character would have become so easy going in the next season if Lalla Ward had not taken over.

Robert Holmes' first contribution to the season was The Ribos Operation, a story that has improved with age. As with most of the season it is the comedy that makes it memorable. The Doctor's meeting with the White Guardian starts off the quest as it means to go on. Facing a blazing white light and a booming voice the Doctor asks who is it. "Do you really need to ask?" comes the reply. "Ah. Well no I suppose not," replies the Doctor. It's a scene that could belong to Life of Brian. The Doctor's complaints about assistants might as well have been Tom Baker talking about having a co-star. Once we reach Ribos the outrageous humour continues with Iain Cuthbertson blustering wideboy, the Doctor walking into a Whille E Coyote patented trap and lots of quick fire one-liners, sometimes poking fun at the programme such as the Doctor's observation that the Garron is using a Bermondsey accent or his later comment on being imprisoned for the umpteenth time. Yet amongst the silliness there is an extremely touching scene between Unstoffe and an old beggar called Binro where the former confirms that there really are other worlds in space. It's a good scene though it seems to have little to do with everything else in the story. Wintry Ribos is conjured up remarkably well with some splendidly solid looking castle sets.

If anything the humour is taken up a notch during The Pirate Planet. Or perhaps more to the point, the jokes are more obvious. Every pirate cliché is given a literal SF equivalent which sometimes works but in places, such as the robot parrot, it's just camp. The idea of the teleporting planet is a bright one and there are some wonderfully funny exchanges between the Doctor and everyone else. "Are you Mentiads? It's just that you look like Mentiads," offers the Doctor when he first meets the telepaths. "It's a plank. The idea is very simple..." explains the Captain at a cliffhanger and of course, "I save planets mostly." Douglas Adams' fertile imagination was perfect for the fourth Doctor. As with the previous story there is one great dramatic moment, the Doctor's tirade against the destruction of planets but it is much better tied in with the surrounding material. Lookwise it is well, that very typical seventies SF look.

The Doctor's only visit to Earth that year brought him up against The Stones of Blood, courtesy of David Fisher. I watched this story again recently and it has gone up in my estimation, mainly thanks to it's excellent script. Fisher's stories always had good roles for women in them and his first story, not only enhances Romana but gives us eccentric Professor Lehmann and the sophisticated Miss Fay. He also researched his Celtic mythology well. K9 makes a good partnership with the Professor in the latter episodes. Some evocative location work and effective special effects also add to the quality, with the exception of the stones themselves which are never frightening and in fact are frequently amusing. However the Megara justice machines are superb creations, the sort of quirky aliens that only Doctor Who can produce. The Doctor's verbal duels with them are certainly entertaining and allow him to think his way out or the dangers rather than use violence.

The Androids of Tara is an under-rated adventure. As with The Pirate Planet it borrows much from literature of old but so with a lot of style and wit. Count Grendel is an excellent enemy for the Doctor because Peter Jeffrey has the presence and personality to match Baker's. Buckles are swashed extremely well, Mary Tamm excels in her dual role and the Doctor delivers some more great lines, my favourite being, "Well it has been tried before!" when asked if the impersonation plan will work. The only flaw in an otherwise handsome production is the ridiculous bearlike creature that attacks Romana early on. Perhaps the adventure is not well regarded because there is not much depth to the storyline. It is just as you find it, not withstanding the odd motivation of smaller characters such as the lovelorn Lamia. In that, it copies the old romances all too well.

Sadly after four stories that were never less than well-made enjoyable hokum. the quality began to dip alarmingly. Robert Holmes' second contribution is the surprisingly corny The Power of Kroll. It begins with the dullest opening in any Who story, two men walk into a room and start chatting with its occupants. The script lacks any memorable characters and even the Doctor seems subdued. Romana suffers the indignity of a ritual sacrifice scene, courtesy of a native tribe who are so predictable you can second guess their dialogue from start to finish. Kroll is an ambitious monster and it's appearances do break the monotony but that is not what the programme should have been relying on.

The first episode of The Armageddon Factor promises much. It has satire, anger at the madness of war and some intriguing plot threads. Sadly the remaining five instalments proceed to destroy all that good work with a tedious plot filled with captures, escapes, recaptures and plenty of running up and down corridors. Maybe in it had been four episodes it would have faired better. The Shadow is a two-dimensional, uninteresting villain and aside from the Marshal, most of the characters quickly become lifeless or in the case of Drax the Time Lord geezer, simply embarrassing. Finally the Doctor assembles the Key to Time but the conclusion of the epic is a slightly confusing affair, confined to the TARDIS console room. Baker overacts for a moment. The Black Guardian tries to trick him and then the Doctor scatters the Key again after 26 weeks of work. I remember feeling disappointed when I watched it back in 1979 because I didn't grasp that the White Guardian had already used the Key before the Doctor breaks it. Even with that understanding I remain unimpressed.

Graham Williams contributed a fair bit of mythology to the programme in this season. He also broke it out of the gothic formula that was beginning to stagnate in the last season by introducing wilder, more humorous elements so on that count the Key to Time was a success. It also showed that story arcs like this rarely work in something as disparate as Doctor Who. Something I wish JNT had realised seven years later.