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26 Episodes 1978 - 1979
Episode 1
25 mins
The Doctor is chosen for a quest by The White Guardian to go in search for the six segments to the Key to Time, that have been scattered and sent throughout the time/space continuum. With the Key to Time, The White Guardian will restore balance to the universe. Joined by a young time lady named Romana, The Doctor, Romana and K-9 Mark 2 begin their quest and arrive at their first destination, The medieval Russian like world Ribos, where a conman named Garron bids to sell Ribos to a exiled tyrant known as Graff Vynda K, where Unstoffe, Garron's assistant uncovers Garron's scheme and is unaware he is in possession of the first segment of the Key to Time.
Episode 2
25 mins
The Doctor and Romana investigate Garron's activities but this results in the Graff believing they are working together.
Episode 3
25 mins
The Graff takes the Doctor, Romana and Garron prisoner and then sets about trying to track down Unstoffe and the jethryk.

Episode 4
25 mins
The Doctor returns to the city to keep an eye on the Graff, leaving Romana, K9 and Garron to search for Unstoffe and the first segment.However, Garron double crosses them and steals the tracer.
Episode 5
25 mins
In seeking the second segment of the Key to Time, the TARDIS heads for an icy world but lands on a populated planet that shouldn't be there.
Episode 6
26 mins
Mentiads take Pralix while the Captain's guards take Romana. With Mula and K9 set off for the Mentiads, Kimus and the Doctor commandeer an aircar to visit the bloodthirsty Captain's stronghold (a.k.a. The Bridge) to rescue Romana. There, she and the Doctor reunite, discovering enormous but damaged transportation engines that reveal to the Doctor a crime monstrous in scope. As the Captain sends guards to kill the Doctor for entering forbidden territory, the Mentiads target him, too.

Episode 7
26 mins
With the Doctor providing both leadership and knowledge, the Mentiads finally become a viable problem the planet-murdering Captain can no longer dismiss. Having recaptured the Doctor, the Captain shares his trophy room with him, displaying every planet he's plundered and subsequently reduced to roughly 12-inch spheres. While the Doctor can't deny it as a remarkable feat of astro-gravitational engineering, it doesn't fit the Captain's daring-do profile. The secret seems to lie in a locked chamber with a crone purposefully caught and held in the last few seconds of her life - the legendary, tyrannical but nearly expired Queen Xanxia.

Episode 8
25 mins
Romana leads the Mentiad assault of the Bridge just as Mr. Fibuli broadcasts his psychic interference transmitter, nullifying their telepathic powers. Queen Xanxia targets Earth for the next jump in order to gather rare minerals and reach full corporeal status, but the Doctor jumps the TARDIS in her way, initiating a battle to see who's power gives out first.

Episode 9
24 mins
On Earth to collect the third segment to the Key to Time, the Doctor and Romana encounter modern day druids in Cornwall making blood sacrifices to Cailleach, the goddess of war and magic, at a megalithic circle known as The Nine Travelers. The Tracer says the third segment is there, then says it isn't, which is very odd.

Episode 10
24 mins
The Doctor and Romana's lives have already been imperiled. Now megalithic creatures from planet Ogros begin to attack under the directives of a mysterious master. Investigating the history of the area, Romana notices that for centuries only women have owned the land and nearby manor and wonders if there's any significance to this.

Episode 11
24 mins
Assisted by Prof. Rumford and K-9, the Doctor builds a projector by which to enter hyperspace and rescue the kidnapped Romana, all of them all the while trying to avoid the bloodsucking Ogri stalking them.

Episode 12
23 mins
Aboard a hyperspace prison ship, two justice machines called the Megara, known for swift verdicts and harsh punishments, arrest the Doctor for breaking an infraction, with trial and execution to be carried out immediately.

Episode 13
25 mins
When Romana goes fishing for the fourth segment to the Key to Time, the Doctor just goes fishing. While on the planet of Tara, both are taken in (somewhat against their will) by two factions, both trying to achieve the throne of Tara. While Romana is mistaken for an android by Count Grendel, the Doctor and the Prince are drugged after the Doctor agrees to help repair his android.

Episode 14
24 mins
Discovering that they've all been drugged, the Doctor tries to escape and passes out just as he opens the door, envisioning the evil Count Grendel as he loses consciousness. When he awakes, he is, once again, at the tip of a blade, and his life threatened by those who believe he is behind all of it, while the Count has kidnapped Prince Reynart. Meanwhile, back at Count Grendel's castle, Romana finds herself an exact double for Princess Strella, whom the Count plans to marry once he ascends to the throne so he can claim her land for his own (once he kills her, too).
Episode 15
24 mins
The Doctor kills the android princess, Count Grendel finds his plans foiled and can not find an opening to kill the new king (especially since the King's head bodyguard now suspects him of treachery against the King). So he offers Romana up in exchange to the Doctor for his own safety. But the Count has built another android programmed to kill the Doctor once it hears the Doctor's voice. Meanwhile, the real Romana escapes Grendel's castle and tries to ride for help.
Episode 16
25 mins
There's a bit of battle the Doctor has to fight, with Count Grendel, and all of his swordsmith might, the sabres flash and dash, the footwork is a smash, all fall one, one takes a fall, then takes a flight. Four down, two to go, the pieces of puzzle have a majority don't you know.
Episode 17
23 mins
The TARDIS arrives at it's next destination, one of the moons of "Delta Magna", where the Doctor and Romana go in search of the fifth segment of the Key to Time. They discover the native tribal Swampies worships Kroll, a gigantic squid as a god, only to find Kroll has accidentally swallowed the fifth segment. Romana is chosen by the Swampies for sacrifice and the Doctor sets out to save a local refinery from being attacked by Kroll.
Episode 18
24 mins
The Doctor rescues Romana from the Swampies but is horrified to hear that Kroll has awoken.
Episode 19
22 mins
The Doctor, Romana and Rohm-Dutt are sentenced to death by the Swampies while the refinery crew try to work out a way to destroy Kroll.

Episode 20
22 mins
The Doctor races to stop Thawn from destroying the Swampie settlement and then works to destroy Kroll once and for all.
Episode 21
25 mins
The Doctor and company drop in on the planet Atrios, whose inhabitants are in an interplanetary war with their twin planet Zeos. Although Astra, Princess of Atrios, wishes for peace, the Marshal, her commander of the military, does not share her views. So, while the TARDIS is in orbit around the planet, the Marshal targets the Doctor for destruction.
Episode 22
24 mins
In an effort to escape the Marshal, the Doctor finds the TARDIS buried under rubble, and figures that he may have stumbled across the missing princess, who has now been abducted by someone else. But he does find a new ally in her love, who believes that the Doctor did not have anything to do with her disappearance.
Episode 23
25 mins
The Shadow kidnaps the Doctor and tries to secure the Key to Time, while the Marshal prepares for an all-out assault against Zeos. Meanwhile, the Doctor's companions try to locate the missing TARDIS.
Episode 24
25 mins
The Shadow, with time on his side, waits for circumstances to force the Doctor into opening his TARDIS, helped along by fitting a mind control device on Princess Astra to turn her against her allies. Meanwhile, Mentalis, the war computer, means to have its final say in dealing with Atrios.
Episode 25
25 mins
The Shadow, now with control of K-9, awaits the arrival of the Doctor and company in the cave where he took control of the princess. Meanwhile, Princess Astra joins Romana and the Doctor in the TARDIS, where he had locked the Marshal in a continual time loop just before attacking Astrios. Returning to the cave where Princess Astra was held captive, K-9 pursues the Doctor, while Astra captures Romana.

Episode 26
25 mins
The Doctor, having met another Time Lord named Drax in the caves, teams up with him to try and defeat the Shadow, but Drax shrinks him instead of his Mute captor then turns the shrinking ray on himself, allowing the Shadow to claim the Key to Time. Meanwhile, everyone finds out that Princess Astra, herself, is the sixth and final segment of the Key to Time. And once it is assembled, nothing stands between the Shadow and absolute power of the Universe...except the Doctor!
