Rating: 
Summary: There's good and bad
Review: It's great to see Doctor Who coming to DVD, but as with all DVDs being made, those who master them should put in the best effort possible to make them look and sound great. We should expect no less. Compared to the other Dr Who DVDs on the market, "The Key to Time" series is of lower quality because they weren't given the same amount of attention during the remastering. The video, while sharp and vibrant, suffers from occasional black horizontal 'video lines' that blip on once in a while. These could easily have been cleaned up and are annoying to watch when they do appear. Fortunately, they don't happen often (2-5 times an episode are they really noticable and bothersome.) Second, there's audible hiss in the background. With modern clean-up procedures, this could have been reduced or completely eliminated. The hiss bothers me much more than the video lines because the sound is constant. And other BBC Video releases in America such as "Are You Being Served?" do come across rather well in terms of the audio. Okay, negative points aside let's now dwell on the positives. The audio commentaries and informational text are probably the most informative they've ever been and are alone worth the price of the set. The video itself is vibrant with color not being overly saturated and is quite sharp. Video lines aside, the sharpness and saturation match that of other released Dr Who stories. And, again, the video lines are not frequent. Just annoying for when they do crop up. It could be worse... But this is the Key to Time on DVD. It's been released, and that's how it is. We have to accept it, warts and all. I still say it's worth the purchase. The good does outweigh the bad. I just wish those doing the mastering would be more conscientious as they had done with previous Dr Who releases on DVD.
Rating: 
Summary: Great shows, not-so good comentary(I don't use it anyway)
Review: Like I have said probably a million times on reviews of these shows(season 16,17,18) I was brought up on this period of Dr. Who and it is what I think of when I think of "Doctor Who", some of you think of Patric Troughton and the hot tempored Jamie in 1967, or Jon Pertwee with cute'n brainless Katy Manning in 1972, I think of The wise and odd, curley haired floppy coated guy with the scarf, Romana(both of them), and K9 1978-81(though he started in 1974 I started watching the 16th season on PBS as a child)
The acting is excellent in these Key To Time stories, and it is important to have guest stars. Pirate Planet is very underrated and actually very interesting to watch(not to mention funny). Stones of Blood is kind of bland, but gets interesting on the ship in Hyperspace. I have already got a recording of Androids of Tara that I recorded on PBS in 1988, I have watched it so many times that I'm sick of it(I can't give you an accurate reveiw on it.) Ribos Operation is the best because of Paul Seed's excellent performance and a few others Like Iain Kulbertson as Garrion, and Benro the Heritic(I am too lazy to go find his name). Power of Kroll is ok, not as bad as people keep saying, it at least is filmed on location and better than the overrated Sly McCoy or Colin Baker. Armegeddon Factor is my second choice, for it's many different locations, humor, and The Shadow. Lalla Ward makes her first appearence in Dr. Who.
What I don't like is the commentary. I don't usually listen to commentary from DVD's except once. I liked Bruce Purchase and Pennant Roberts in Pirate planet and found it interesting, but the others were merely Mary Tamm(stuck on herself like most actresses) and the every flakey Tom Baker, who I would hold a high opinion for except for that fatal flaw he has of his dislike of americans, I can't abide by those comments, Tom! Others included John Woodvine(the Marshal) and Micheal Hays who could've been interesting if Mary Tamm would've stopped talking about how pretty she was compaired to Lalla and let the Director speak. The actors are good at acting, but nothing else.
These shows are good and you couldn't ask for more, but turn off the commentary(and those pop ups are only good once.)
I buy DVD's for the quality of the video/sound(which these have dispite some people's opinion), and more importantly becasue they last(unlike tapes) everything else is fluff.
Rating: 
Summary: The BEST
Review: Not much needs to be said. These are the best episodes of the Tom Baker year. Without them I would never have become a Docotor Who Fanantic.
Rating:
Summary: At Last Region Free
Review: Now at last I can see this wonderful collection, now I have hacked my DVD player!
And was it worth it- Yes. The key to Time collection is a complete season of Doctor Who Starring one of the best Doctors Tom Baker. This series was a first (and a last!) departure for the series in having the whole series as a inter linked story, each disc describing the good Doctors search for the key to time. Starring also the beautiful Mary Tamm as Romana and plenty of K9.
This is an essential addition to any collection and if you live in UK wel worth the trouble of hacking your player. The boxed set represents good value as it will save pounds (dollars) over buying them seperately. Extras are a little sparse on US versions compared with other who discs on region 2, with just talk overs and picture galleries, but still the restoration of the episodes as ever is very well done!
Rating:
Summary: lost in space, i don't think so
Review: super tom at his best, 10/10
Rating:
Summary: Quantity over Quality
Review: Sure, we all love the fourth doctor, but this compilation of DVDs is below par, marketed entirely to take advantage of fans. It's not the stories -- these stories are far superior to the BBC release in Great Britain of, say, the pedestrian The Three Doctors, Vengeance on Varos and the upcoming Seeds of Doom. The flaw here is in the cleanup. The American distributor wants to make quick money with the more popular (at least here) Tom Baker stories, so it seems they've rushed these into the market without the benefit of The Doctor Who Restoration Team's absolutely superior work. On all other Doctor Who DVDs, this team of volunteers has spent countless hours working wonders cleaning up natty negatives, creating vibrant video, and collecting a ton of delicious extras. Please buy the other DVDs first to support their work and show the BBC that we want the real thing. What those guys do is beyond compare -- check out the fun CGI graphics for The Ark in Space, or the amazing before/after restoration of The Tomb of the Cybermen, and you'll see that this boxed set shortchanges us.
Rating:
Summary: An Ambitious Box Set Release: Includes Full DVD Descriptions
Review: The BBC has gone all out with this Dr. Who DVD set of Season 16 "The Key To Time". The great thing about these DVDs is that they all have commentary and Tom Baker himself has done commentary on half of them. This is great compared to other show DVD releases. How many Star Trek Episodes or Movies have commentary by any of the actual stars of the show? (NONE) Here's a description of the stories and extras you'll get in this package... The Ribos Operations- A pretty good Robert Holms Story about greed for a valuable mineral set in a medieval type culture.
Commentary by Tom Baker and Mary Tamm(Romana). Text commentaries/trivia and photo galleries. The Pirate Planet- This is the Gem of season 16. One fo the great Douglas Adams Dr. Whos. It's about a planet that continuously experiences economic boons whose native's never bother to question why. The Doctor must face the extremely loud and boisterous Captain to find the answers. Wonderfully humorous dialogue and one of the few Whos that can hold the interest of non fans.
Commentary by Director Pennant Roberts and Bruce Purchase (the Captain) Text commentaries/trivia and photo galleries plus several minutes of additional footage from the location shoots. The Stones Of Blood- Another excellent story (from a dialogue perspective at least). Satan worshippers pray to giant stones which can move across the countryside sucking the life out of people. There's even a decent slasher film type scene with a couple camping in the woods.
Commentary by Mary Tamm and director Darrol Blake Text commentaries/trivia and photo galleries. The Androids of Tara- A swashbuckling adventure about an alien civilization who's garb look medieval but who also employ android technology. Kind of silly but kind of fun.
Commentary by Tom Baker, Mary Tamm and director Michael Hayes Text commentaries/trivia and photo galleries. The Power of Kroll- The worst one of the season. Laugh as the green painted swampies worship the giant latex Squid. Be warned... at any moment the giant rubber tentacle could come and drag someone away! Kind of like the gong show.
Commentary Tom Baker and John Leeson (K9) Text commentaries/trivia and photo galleries. The Armageddon Factor- The final battle for the Key To Time. Can the Doctor defeat the mysterious Shadow? I always found the Shadow to be incredibly scary although it doesn't make up for the fact that they could've probably cut a half hour out of this.
Commentary by Mary Tamm, director Michael Hayes and John Woodvine (the Marshal). Text commentaries/trivia and photo galleries.
Rating:
Summary: More hours of pleasure than I can calculate
Review: The Dvd's have commentary, some with Tom Baker! That is endless enjoyment. Then you have the text commentary, fanstastic. The only thing I find missing is easter eggs. :( I hope they remember when comming out with future dvd's what fun those are to have.
Rating:
Summary: More hours of pleasure than I can calculate
Review: The Dvd's have commentary, some with Tom Baker! That is endless enjoyment. Then you have the text commentary, fanstastic. The only thing I find missing is easter eggs. :( I hope they remember when comming out with future dvd's what fun those are to have.
Rating:
Summary: The Key to Time is the Key to Doctor Who.
Review: The Key to Time - The Complete Adventure is the best example of Tom Baker's acting performance. It's the best of.... and can't be duplicated... no matter what the format... DVD of otherwise.
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