The Old Taran Clock On The Wall

The Old Taran Clock On The Wall

'The Androids Of Tara' and 'The Ribos Operation' are probably the two stories in Season 16 that manage to pull off best the difficult trick of world-building.

The more you can convince an audience that there is a real society going on in the background of your outer-space shenanigans, then hopefully the more likely they are to accept what's happening onscreen, sit back and enjoy themselves.

Now people decry the Taran Woodbeast as being more than a little daft, but I'm happy enough to believe that it's meant to look like that, being part-android itself and frankly it's not a million miles away from the Cybershades of 'The Next Doctor'.

But this is only a minor blip in some effortlessly impressive design work that is best summed up by the Old Taran Clock On The Wall.

This is decorated with a variety of astrological symbols, hinting that this is actually an Earth colony way into the future and I'm surprised nobody in fandom has offered scaled-down versions on their Redbubble stores.

Lisa has also pointed out that there's a similar clock at Hampton Court Palace, which had never crossed my mind before writing this piece.

The assembled nobles all have different frocks on, but they all work when brought together in the same room. Which is interesting considering how small the rack of clothes Romana goes through in the TARDIS in Part One.

Lamia's laboratory (trying saying that six times quickly) is a weird mix of computer banks and glassware from a school chemistry department, but this is all part of the story's comment that scientists and engineers are regarded as peasants. This idea was intended as a joke, but sadly strikes a bit of a chord with me today!

The crown may look like a teacosy with knobs on and the throne seems to have been borrowed from 'The Goodies', but I believe in the world being painted here.

It helps, of course, that it's not an entirely original idea, so you're not having to invent everything from scratch.

In some stories, Cyril Shaps would look absolutely ridiculous as the Archimandrite, but in context he's completely at home. And by treating the part seriously, he exudes an air of solemn authority in exactly the way that his hat doesn't.

Tara is a place I'd be very happy to see the new series visit at some point - I get the feeling this world has more than one story to tell...

(By Andrew Trowbridge)