The Time Warrior
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| 070 - The Time Warrior | |
|---|---|
| Doctor | Jon Pertwee (Third Doctor) |
| Writer | Robert Holmes |
| Director | Alan Bromly |
| Script editor | Terrance Dicks |
| Producer | Barry Letts |
| Executive producer(s) | None |
| Production code | UUU |
| Series | Season 11 |
| Length | 4 episodes, 25 mins each |
| Transmission date | December 15, 1973–January 5, 1974 |
| Preceded by | The Green Death |
| Followed by | Invasion of the Dinosaurs |
The Time Warrior is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from December 15, 1973 to January 5, 1974. It opened Season 11, and was the first to feature Elisabeth Sladen as the Doctor's new companion, Sarah Jane Smith.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
A Sontaran named Linx, trapped in the Middle Ages, uses crude time travel technology to kidnap scientists from the 20th Century to help repair his spacecraft.
[edit] Plot
In the Middle Ages, the bandit Irongron and his aide Bloodaxe together with their rabble of criminals find the crashed spaceship of a Sontaran warrior named Linx. The alien claims Earth for his Empire then sets about repairing his ship, offering Irongron “magic weapons” that will make him a king in return for shelter. They strike a bargain, though Irongron remains suspicious.
The Doctor and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart are investigating the disappearance of several scientists from a top secret scientific research complex. They do not know Linx has used an Osmic Projector to send himself forward eight hundred years and has kidnapped the scientists then hypnotized them into making repairs on his ship. The Projector only lets him appear in another time for a brief period. While the Doctor investigates he meets an eccentric scientist called Rubeish and a young journalist called Sarah Jane Smith, who has infiltrated the complex by masquerading as her aunt. Later that evening Rubeish disappears and the Doctor uses the data he has gathered to pilot the TARDIS back to the Middle Ages.- not realising new companion Sarah has stowed away on board
Irongron is a robber baron who has stolen his castle from an absent nobleman, and relations with his neighbours are appalling. Indeed, the mild Lord Edward of Wessex has been provoked into building an alliance against him and, when this is slow in developing, sends his archer Hal on an unsuccessful mission to kill Irongron. The robber baron is in a foul mood when a captured Sarah is brought before him. His mood improves when Linx presents him with a robot knight which is then put to the test on a captured Hal. The archer is only saved when the Doctor intervenes from afar, shooting the robot control box from Irongron’s hands. The ensuing confusion lets both Hal and Sarah flee, and they head for Wessex Castle.
Meanwhile the Doctor has realised both that Sarah is in the time period and has been captured, and also that his adversary is a Sontaran. Investigating the laboratory he finds Rubeish, who has evaded the hypnotic state placed on the other scientists on account of his severe myopia. Linx returns to the laboratory and seizes the Doctor. He knows of the Time Lords and their home planet Gallifrey (the first time it has ever been named as such). While Linx is indisposed, Rubeish frees the Doctor, who heads away to the neighbouring castle.
At Wessex Castle the Doctor shares what he knows with his new allies, and Sarah and the others begin to look on him more fondly, having previously supposed him to be in league with Irongron. The next morning the robber baron and his troops assault the castle using rifles supplied by Linx but the attack is repelled by the Doctor’s cunning. The failure further sours the relationship between Linx and Irongron, which has deteriorated since the robot knight fiasco and the point at which the robber saw the Sontaran’s true visage beneath his helmet.
The Doctor now decides to lead an attack on Irongron’s castle, and he and Sarah enter dressed as friars. He makes contact with Rubeish and finds the human scientists in a state of extreme exhaustion. Linx catches the Doctor in the laboratory once more, but this time is rendered immobile when a lucky strike from Rubeish hits his probic vent – a Sontaran refuelling point on the back of their necks which is also their main weakness. Rubeish and the Doctor use the Osmic Projector to send the scientists back to the twentieth century. Sarah now inveigles herself into Irongron’s kitchen, using the opportunity to drug the food, thereby knocking out Irongron’s men.
A recovered Linx now determines his ship is repaired enough to effect a departure. Once more he encounters the Doctor, and they wrestle in combat. A crazed and half drugged Irongron arrives and accuses Linx of betraying him: the Sontaran responds by killing him. As Linx enters his spherical vessel Hal arrives and shoots him in the probic vent, and the Sontaran warrior falls dead over his controls, triggering the launch mechanism. Knowing the place is about to explode when the shuttle takes off, the Doctor hurries the last of his allies out of the castle. It explodes moments before the Doctor and Sarah depart in the TARDIS.
[edit] Cast
- Doctor Who — Jon Pertwee
- Sarah Jane Smith — Elisabeth Sladen
- Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart — Nicholas Courtney
- Commander Linx — Kevin Lindsay
- Irongron — David Daker
- Bloodaxe — John J. Carney
- Edward of Wessex — Alan Rowe
- Lady Eleanor — June Brown
- Hal the Archer — Jeremy Bulloch
- Professor Rubeish — Donald Pelmear
- Meg — Sheila Fay
- Eric — Gordon Pitt
- Sentry — Steve Brunswick
- Dudley Long played the Robot Knight.
[edit] Continuity
- The Sontarans would reappear in the Fourth Doctor serials The Sontaran Experiment and The Invasion of Time, as well as the Sixth Doctor serial The Two Doctors. They have also appeared in the spin-off videos, Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans, Do You Have A License To Save This Planet? and a Jim'll Fix It special A Fix with Sontarans.
- The Doctor's home planet, Gallifrey, is referred to by name for the first time (although in Robert Holmes's first draft it was known as "Galfrey").
[edit] Production
- Working titles for this story included The Time Fugitive and The Time Survivor.
- Beginning with this story, individual episodes are listed as Part One, Two, etc. This replaced the previous system of calling them Episode One, Two, etc. established in 1966 with The Savages.
- Location shooting of Wessex castle and Irongron's castle was done at Peckforton Castle [1].
- This serial introduced the diamond-shaped Doctor Who series logo that would become best identified with the Tom Baker era; this new logo would be used until 1980.
[edit] In print
| Doctor Who book | |
 |
|
| Doctor Who and the Time Warrior | |
|---|---|
| Series | Target novelisations |
| Release number | 65 |
| Writer | Terrance Dicks and Robert Holmes (uncredited) |
| Cover artist | Roy Knipe |
| ISBN | 0 426 20023 3 |
| Release date | 29 June 1978 |
| Preceded by | Doctor Who and the Tomb of the Cybermen |
| Followed by | Death to the Daleks |
A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in June 1978. Dicks initially commissioned Robert Holmes to novelise his story, but Holmes wrote only the book's prologue, and sent it to Dicks as a "Field report from Sontaran Field Marshal Hol Mes, to Terran Cedicks" with a note telling him to finish the rest himself. Holmes was not credited for his contribution.[1][2]
[edit] Broadcast and VHS release
- This story came out on VHS in an omnibus format in 1989. It has yet to receive a full episodic release in any format.
[edit] References
- ^ Molesworth, Richard (Producer), Broster, Steve (Producer and Director). The Sontaran Experiment ("Made for War" documentary) [DVD]. London, England: BBC Video/2 entertain. Retrieved on 2007-03-29. Scene occurs at 8:05–9:35.
- ^ Neal, Tim. Doctor Who and the Time Warrior. On Target. University of Leeds. Retrieved on 2007-03-29.
[edit] External links
- The Time Warrior episode guide on the BBC website
- The Time Warrior at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
- The Time Warrior at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
[edit] Reviews
- The Time Warrior reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
- The Time Warrior reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
[edit] Target novelisation
- Doctor Who and the Time Warrior reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
- On Target — Doctor Who and the Time Warrior
| UNIT television stories | |
|---|---|
| Second Doctor: | (The Web of Fear) • The Invasion |
| Third Doctor: | Spearhead from Space • Doctor Who and the Silurians • The Ambassadors of Death • Inferno • Terror of the Autons • The Mind of Evil • The Claws of Axos • The Dæmons • Day of the Daleks • The Time Monster • The Three Doctors • The Green Death • Invasion of the Dinosaurs • Planet of the Spiders |
| Fourth Doctor: | Robot • Terror of the Zygons • The Android Invasion |
| Seventh Doctor: | Battlefield |
| Tenth Doctor: | The Christmas Invasion |
| Minor appearances: | The Time Warrior • The Seeds of Doom • The Five Doctors • Aliens of London/World War Three |
| See also: | UNIT dating controversy |
| Sontaran television stories | |
|---|---|
| Third Doctor: | The Time Warrior |
| Fourth Doctor: | The Sontaran Experiment • The Invasion of Time |
| Sixth Doctor: | The Two Doctors |
| Other: | Shakedown • A Fix with Sontarans |
| See also: | Rutan Host |
