So this episode revolves around doppelgängers. We have the fact that Romana is the spitting image of the Princess Strella of Tara, hence she is captured for nefarious purposes. We also have the titular androids, who are constructed to be living doubles of various people to perform various tasks when their original is otherwise indisposed (read: incarcerated). This is something that should be nothing new to the audience, this sort of story is relatively common (indeed much of this plot is lifted directly from the novel The Prisoner of Zenda), and it's nice to see Doctor Who take a science-fiction spin on the tale.
It's also important to note that The Prisoner of Zenda is hardly a dark piece. But the series realises that, and so we get a lighter, simpler adventure story, instead of the terrifying Hammer Horror style tale that we got with The Stones of Blood. This can be seen on location, for instance, as the sun brightly shines through the countryside portraying a far happier story than what we've previously had.
This brings me to the major point that I want to make about Graham Williams and to an extent his current script editor, Anthony Read. Both bring stories to Doctor Who. They don't necessarily have to be dark stories, or stories to send the kids scurrying off behind the sofa, instead, they just have to be well crafted stories. More often than not, these stories are fun as well, being filled with great characters, razor sharp dialogue, and can easily be remembered by the young children watching. For these reasons, I count the Graham Williams era as one of my personal favourites throughout Doctor Who and you can find no better reason to enjoy it than in The Androids of Tara.
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