The Tom Baker Years Part 2: The Worst of Times Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Set on the Earth of the future, now temporarily empty of human inhabitants, 'The Sontaran Experiment' sees the newly regenerated Doctor prevent an invasion by a waiting Sontaran battle fleet. How does he do this?

Answer: He tells them their Field-Major's report is incomplete

Seriously. The Doctor beats a whole Sontaran fleet with a couple of casual threats plus this remark about paperwork. Hard to believe these war-obsessed aliens would wait to receive a report on the strengths and weaknesses of humans before invading their uninhabited planet, much less stave off their plans altogether when the report is not forthcoming. But there you are.

2. For the first Cybermen story in six years, 'Revenge of the Cybermen' was a dreary disappointment. The Cybermen are out to destroy the planet of gold, but turn tail when they discover a rocket headed their way, looking remarkably like stock footage of the NASA Saturn V rocket launch. What is the name of this planet?

Answer: Voga

Mondas and Telos are both Cyber planets, while the Cryons are another species native to Telos. Apparently, Voga is a new asteroid that has just appeared, orbiting Jupiter. Why this should have happened remains unexplained, as does the appearance of the supposedly emotionless Cyber Leader strutting around, hands on hips.

A plotless, poorly scripted story. According to the BBC website: "Revenge of the Cybermen holds the dubious distinction of having received what may well be the only one-word review in Doctor Who's critical history: 'Yeauch'."

3. 'The Brain of Morbius' is a story about a dude with a hook for a hand, a brain in green slime, a jaded scientist and a sisterhood. It's hard to remember much else, but you may recall that the sisterhood have a sacred flame, which is dying. Why?

Answer: The duct transmitting the gas for the flame is blocked

The sisterhood's elixir of life is drying up as their sacred flame dies, causing all sorts of bother for them, and leading them to suspect the Doctor of theft and threaten him with being burnt at the stake. Of course the Doctor saves them in the end, beating their 'primitive' mysticism with the power of science, and unblocking the duct.

This story has its moments, particularly when Sarah goes blind. Unfortunately, they are few and far between.

4. The Fendahleen, of 'Image of the Fendahl' fame, lie in a sad line of devastatingly destructive creatures who die at the drop of a hat when the time comes. What common household substance is used to destroy these creatures, which have purportedly ravaged whole worlds and manipulated the entire history of the Earth?

Answer: Salt

It is not really this that makes this strangely critically acclaimed story so grating to watch. The annoying gold woman and the unrelentingly annoying sarcastic comments from the story's 'hero' are infinitely worse than any bad science fiction. Still, the implausible plot does nothing to redeem this unnervingly irritating adventure.

5. 'The Sun Makers' could have been a devastating political critique, and an inspiring story of rebellion. Instead, it had Pluto, six suns and a shrinking alien. What political issue was it attempting to address?

Answer: Exploitation

An impoverished and overworked population is faced with unmanageable taxation and unwieldy bureaucracy at the hands of alien exploiters, the 'Usurians'. Another basically plotless story disproportionately acclaimed by critics. Admittedly, it has one or two enjoyable moments - notably Leela's tough words to the rough and fearful rebel group.

But its snail's pace, unlikely science, and guileless hammering of its allegorical point make it a hard slog indeed.

6. And then things went from bad to worse. Hot on the heels of 'Image of the Fendahl' and 'The Sun Makers' was 'Underworld', a story in which bad acting, bad writing and a tedious plot are surpassed in awfulness only by the 'Seers', enemies whose identities are revealed when their masks are removed half-way through the story. What do they turn out to be?

Answer: Bug-eyed robots

Described by one reviewer as "Two jumping beans with eyes!", and controlled by a mad computer, the Seers plumb the depths in 'Doctor Who' bad guys. In a season which generated more than its fair share of bad stories, this would have to be the stand-out worst. As another review at the time stated, "Underworld I thought was a terrible story, with virtually nothing to recommend it. The first episode was very tedious, and the plot in general seemed very weak. The sets were bad, the acting was bad, the script was bad... As for the last episode - oh no! Not another megalomaniac computer".

Quotes courtesy of the BBC website.

7. Remember 'The Pirate Planet'? Vanished planets, shouting man with eyepatch and rigid metal parrot. That about sums up a story made all the more disappointing by the fact that it was written by an ordinarily excellent 'Doctor Who' writer. Who was this?

Answer: Douglas Adams

Potentially quite interesting for themes of telepathic power and gravitational manipulation, unfortunately this story comes out unconvincing and lame, not a patch on 'City of Death', co-written by the same well known comic author. In the end, it is memorable mainly for its try-hard, almost-but-not-quite-funny dialogue. And, of course, the shouting man.

8. Supposedly a tale about the horrors of colonisation and the exploitation of nature, 'The Power of Kroll' is more memorable for its embarrassing title character. What is Kroll NOT?

Answer: A missile

Even more than the rest of the generally poor Key to Time series, this story seemed more designed to fill in the plot-line of obtaining the fifth segment, than actually providing any insight or entertainment. If there was anything worse than having to watch this giant octopus flail unconvincingly in the background of a split-screen image, it was watching the native "swampies" attempting to sacrifice Romana, dancing, stomping and calling out "Kroll! Kroll!". Gotta love those 'primitives'.

9. In the world where 'The Creature from the Pit' is a large green glob held captive by the Lady Adrasta, what commodity is in scarce supply?

Answer: Metals

The most interesting thing about this unlikely scenario of an inhabited planet completely deprived of any naturally-occurring metals at all, is that the green glob turns out to be a good guy, not a bad guy. Other than that, this story is largely forgettable.

10. The 'Horns of Nimon' is loosely based on the ancient tale of Theseus, the Minotaur and the labyrinth. In it, young women and men are offered up for sacrifice to a bull-headed monster which lives in a labyrinthine structure. On which world?

Answer: Skonnos

A Nimon, who lives in the labyrinth, is preparing for an invasion of Skonnos, in part by sucking the life out of the sacrificial youth from Aneth. The only thing worse than a badly written story is a badly-written story whose plot is stolen from ancient Greek mythology and plonked, undisguised and without explanation, into the midst of an alien world. If 'Underworld' established this, 'The Horns of Nimon' confirmed it. And the trick of taking names and places from the original and transposing them does nothing to enhance the appeal of these stories. (In case you are wondering, Skonnos is Knossos, Nimos is Minos and Aneth is Athens. Clever, huh?). Add to this possibly the worst monster ever created in 'Doctor Who' history, and you have the recipe for a truly awful story. Apparently, Lalla Ward's performance is admirable - but good luck to you if you can sit through enough to see it.

Source: Author Phyllis_n_Jean

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor ArleneRimmer before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Tom Baker may have been one of the most popular actors to play the Doctor, but some of his stories were truly awful. Torture yourself with the memories here.

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