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Romanadvoratrelunder (Romana)Mary Tamm |
A Few Thoughts on Romana #1 by John Riordan 7/7/97
Romana Mark I was a character of great potential. She started out as haughty and arrogant, so far so good. But she then became more and more placid and bland; apparently this was Graham Williams' idea of character development. My own might have been to emphasize her greater humility and understanding of the Doctor's ways. I especially lament this waste because I am the most physically attracted to Mary Tamm out of all the show's female regulars.
A Review by Stuart Gutteridge 12/1/04
The first incarnation of Romana is markedly different to most of the companions that went before in that she is intellectually on a par with the Doctor. Like her predecessors however, she is often out of her depth and indeed never chose to join the TARDIS but was merely appointed in aiding the quest for the key to time. This is perhaps why she is initially very much the ice maiden; this and possibly coming from Gallifrey too. However she quickly settles into her role as an adventurer, but this doesn`t prevent the Doctor (and initially K-9) from mocking her. It has been argued that Mary Tamm doesn`t bring a great deal to the role, but she seems to have made a living out of playing the more "grander" characters so it seems hard to imagine anyone else in the role.
GREATEST MOMENT: The Androids Of Tara simply because of the dual nature of the plot, which allows for Romana to do more.
Margot Leadbetter joins the crew of the TARDIS by Steve Cassidy 22/10/04
After the departure of the savage Leela in 1977/8 the Who production team sat down around the table to come up with a replacement. What we need is someone who is utterly opposite to Leela they thought. We need a nice bit of friction in the TARDIS - we need someone who would truly get up the Doctor's nose.
Let's make a list? Any suggestions?
Female obviously.... (nods from around the male table), someone a lot younger? (oh yes, definitely, but that's not hard considering he's 750 years old) Tom's Doctor is a man-of-the-people, how about an upper class filly? (good... good, getting better And a terrible snob to boot? (producer rubs hands with glee). She has much better qualifications then him, definitely the school goody-two shoes swot (Aha, cries the producer, now we are getting somewhere).
But I need something that will cap it all. Something that will drive him mad.
"I know!" cries someone from down the end of the table.
"Lets give her the sense of humour of a Dalek."
And that was it, thus was created Romanadvoratrelundar - the 'ice queen' companion.
I'm going to stick my neck out and say I like Mary Tamm's Romana very much. I know the general conceived opinion is that she improved under the tenure of Lalla Ward, but I think for those of us who watched The Key To Time season the first time around she remains the original and the most interesting. Maybe it's because of the look of Mary Tamm - those arched eyebrows, that mass of black hair and those cheekbones - not to mention the deep home counties' voice - or maybe it's because I just found the character intriguing. Afterwards, once the character of Romana had elected to stay with K-9 in E-space they brought in such awful companions so from the vantage of nearly thirty years we can look back on the original Romana and perhaps she should get more credit after all.
Of course, she was designed to irritate the Doctor and hence the audience. We have all met a Romana before, we sit in a job, bumbling along quietly in our own little world, then assigned to the desk next to us is a super Oxford grad, with a master's in molecular physics who looks down at our poxy degree from Stratford poly. She sniffs condescendingly on her first day "Oh, you have been here ten years, oh you must like the place then...". Or does that just happen to me?
And that is what struck me about Romana whilst watching The Ribos Operation - she reminds the Doctor of his age. She is the new generation catching up and is not being impressed by the old. You can imagine she is a "star" at the Time Lord academy on Gallifrey - the 'A' grade student put in a TARDIS with a Time Lord who never saw the point of academia. She is a 'girl', and I do use the world 'girl' as opposed to woman, who has been given an opportunity by the Time Lords to prove herself and instead has been paired to a renegade that her soaring academic career never prepared her for. The whole point of Romana is that she didn't fit in. That's the thing I found interesting about the Key to Time Season which will always, despite a couple of bumps, be my favourite. It's the learning curve that Romana finds herself under from superior intellectual 'ice queen' in The Ribos Operation to the relaxed 'up for it' equal partner of The Armageddon Factor. It's one hell of a transition and doesn't happen overnight. The defrosting of the 'ice queen' takes about four adventures.
An important factor in any companion is the chemistry with Tom Baker. Maybe Baker was just relieved after his year with Louise Jameson to have another companion (rumours were that the pair didn't get on on set) that he gives his all with her. Delicious is the only word I have to describe for the famous "all right then call me Fred" scene arriving in Shur in The Ribos Operaton. The pair simply spark off each other. The directorial briefing to the actors before shooting must have been very clever for we get the relationship straight away. And I have to mention that sweeping toe-to-head shot as he first glimpses his new companion. That white costume with tiara and plunging neckline has to be one of the best female costumes ever created for Doctor Who. Also worth mentioning is the red dress in The Stones of Blood and the purple satin suit in Androids of Tara. The Who wardrobe mistresses must have had a field day with Mary Tamm.
It all starts with The Ribos Operation. Probably her best one. This elegant patrician lady suddenly finds herself on an planet looking like an Eisenstein movie in the midst of a intergalactic fraud. And to make matters worse there is a unhinged maniacal warlord after her elegant swan neck. What I found interesting about Romana at this stage is her sense of wonder at the worlds and peoples out there. She is impatient, yes - she wants to find the key to time and get away hence her snapping at Garron and the Doctor during 'the Sydney Harbour' anecdote. But at the same time is astounded at the shrivenzale and her eyes light up at the sight of the Ribos crown jewels. She is the ultimate 'ice queen' but still incredibly naive and eager to learn. The character's parameters are quickly defined in her first adventure.
The real baptism by fire is The Pirate Planet. For the first time she finds herself staring death in the face as the TARDIS battles with the Captain's materialising planet in episode four - and it scares her. But never once does she waver, despite all the death and destruction around her she enters into the Doctors spirit of it all being a big game - the Captain and the Doctor trying to outmatch each other at every opportunity. Her technical expertise becomes an asset to the Doctor, and despite the 'one-up-manship' shown at the beginning when they think they are materialising on Calufrax, the pair seem to bond strongly much to both their surprises. She finally begins to understand what the fuss is about this particular Doctor, and begins to enjoy herself. And Mary Tamm is exceptionally good at reeling off the technobabble, almost as if it is second nature.
The Stones of Blood is the definitive Romana adventure with the definitive Romana moment. This occurs with the first episode with the high heels escapade. Romana's ego and shortsightedness is ladled on with a trowel as she hobbles around the fields of Somerset/Devon after disregarding the Doctor's advice about suitable footwear. The premise being that she hadn't quite learnt the practical nature of journeying with the Doctor yet. Once this has finished she is off and running. It is she who pieces together the clues about the 'Five Travellers', it is she who gathers the evidence against Vivien Fay. She could have quite easily have carried the adventure on her own. Her mind races just as fast as the Doctor's, and finally she looks like a Time Lord. We start to care about her. The cliffhanger to episode two where she is pushed off a seacliff is the best she is given.
With Androids of Tara we have Romana at her most haughty. This is perfect for David Fisher, the writer, as the plot is a Prisoner of Zenda pastiche and he can use Romana's almost royal manners in the storyline. What I found interesting is what happens in the first episode. Her rather childish exasperation with the Doctor going off fishing means she goes off on her own and this gets her into trouble when she runs into the wicked Count Grendel. Her mannered formality in fending off the Count is utterly ineffectual, and while Leela would have been out with the knife before the Count had moved against her, Romana finds herself abducted by the charming count in almost no time at all. For all her pretensions, the audience realises she isn't the most streetwise of companions.
In the Power of Kroll she is not so memorable - mainly because the character of Romana is overwhelmed by all the green "swampies" and rubber octopi around her. Yet ironically, this is where the beginnings of the real thaw occur. There is no doubt that she isn't impressed to find herself on a mucky swamp planet. On the moon of Delta Magna she has to squelch and get her immaculately coiffed hands dirty. I think she acquits herself very well and the verbal interplay between her and Glyn Owen's Rohm Dutt is enjoyable. But what is this in the last scene? As they slosh back to the TARDIS she starts to laugh at the Doctor's jokes? Not even the mighty Sarah Jane did that...
And finally in the The Armaggeddon Factor we have the fully formed Time Lady. Tamm's rapport with Baker is now nothing less then exceptional and the character itself is totally comfortable with the miscreant time lord. But, more importantly, he trusts her. She has gone from an egotistical graduate to a fully integrated member of the TARDIS team who the Doctor opens up to. Where a few adventures ago she would have baulked at the Doctor's ways of doing things now she knows that he is doing the right thing. They are now a partnership. It also features a scene that proves how far the new Romana has come and by that I mean her torture scene by the Shadow. It's not pleasant to watch Romana writhe in pain as the electrons pulse through her body but not for a moment does she break. She pleads with the Doctor to ignore her, not to give in to the Shadow's demands. Her breathless "I'm not afraid to die..." is Romana at her most courageous. In her final adventure in the Mary Tamm incarnation she becomes a heroine.
Mary Tamm's reaction to the role has not always endeared herself to Who fans. Nowadays she attends the odd convention and she has sat down with Tom Baker to do the commentaries for the American DVDs of The Key to Time. But it wasn't always so and she has been a little bit disparaging about the programme and the role she played. She said she left because they promised her that her character would be a female Doctor, ironically that is exactly what Lalla Ward's character became. If only Mary had stayed another two seasons. And I think the following seasons would have been good for her. The Creature From The Pit was almost designed for Mary Tamm's Romana and I would have loved to see her in The Leisure Hive or State of Decay. Unfortunately the literary Romana I one has been mauled by several writers. They seemed to have only concentrated on her arrogant side making her into a kind of Margot Leadbetter aboard the TARDIS. Unlike Leela, Romana I doesn't seem to be a writerproof companion. The Shadow of Weng-Chiang and Heart of TARDIS seem to miss her character completely.
As I probably mentioned she is one of my favourites. The seventies companions had a little bit of magic about them - this one is a fairytale princess who finds herself on a journey of discovery with a goggle-eyed middle-aged delinquent. The actress and character fitted the TARDIS like a glove and her chemistry with Tom Baker is worth all the work both actors put into it. I always thought it was a shame Mary Tamm only did one season. She played a fascinating, infuriating, three-dimensional character who was the real driving force for the Key to Time season. Soon we would have the JNT era with only a few reasonable companions and a lot of groaners. Mary Tamm's Romana is to be savoured and enjoyed. She was the original, and in my opinion the best, and the programme was infinitely richer for her snooty presence.
Oh, they don't make snobs like her anymore. Shame really...