N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
Thanks to Monty Python, I’m often tempted to yell ‘Run away! Run away!’ in a high-pitched voice whenever there’s an ineffectual siege on a mediæval castle, but The Time Warrior can’t be blamed for that: after all, it preceded the Pythons’ quest for the Holy Grail by a year or so.
Besides, I’ve always liked The Time Warrior. Watching it in context only adds to my enjoyment. You get a new villain, a new companion and a new title sequence. Even without the introduction of the Sontarans, Sarah Jane Smith and the classic diamond logo (all firsts observed by my son too), there’s Boba Fett, Dot Cotton and Harry from Boon in the supporting cast. And Kevin Lindsay remains the definitive Sontaran (sorry, Dan Starkey).
“Oh, beshrew me, but I grow fond of this fellow.”
Irongron,
The Time Warrior: Part Four
But it’s the script that does it for me.
The conceit of giving the mediæval characters ye olde worlde Shakespearean-style dialogue to convey it being set in England’s past is an inspired one and Robert Holmes seizes the opportunity to provide us with some of the choicest dialogue yet served up in Doctor Who.
At times it feels like every line of Irongron’s is quotable. By the stars, it’s worth reading a transcript of the story for his dialogue alone.
His descriptions of the Doctor as ‘a long shanked rascal with a mighty nose’ and Sarah as ‘a narrow-hipped vixen’ who ‘spits fire’ stand out amongst many wonderful lines, all delivered with relish by David Daker. Oh beshrew me if he doesn’t give one of the best guest performances ever in Doctor Who!
“What subservient poppycock. You’re still living in the Middle Ages.”
Sarah Jane Smith,
The Time Warrior: Part Four
Sarah’s initial mistrust of the Doctor is a nice touch too. In making her a journalist and a feminist, they’ve created a character who both challenges the screaming girl companion stereotype as well having a bloody good reason for asking lots of questions all of the time.
It’s telling that one of her earliest lines is to rebuke the Doctor for his patronising tone, which given the treatment Jo received during her first season, is a good way of nipping that nonsense in the bud.
In fact, the Third Doctor seems to have mellowed considerably over the years and, continuing the trend from the previous season, is a decidedly less grumpy fellow. Perhaps I’m too easy to forgive him, since the departure of Jo must have been felt keenly, but I’m willing to believe he’s only joking when he suggests that Sarah will be useful for making the coffee (unless I’ve completely misjudged the ending of The Green Death and it’s Jo’s beverage-making skills he’s going to miss).
Later, more contentiously, he implies that it’s rare for a woman to admit she is wrong, so perhaps it is that he is chauvinistic and consequently feels there is an irony in the description of women as the ‘fair sex’ when Sarah is so quick to judge his motives? To be fair to Sarah though, why would she trust him implicitly? We’ve spent ten years with him and we know he can be a devious fellow when he pleases. Why wouldn’t someone who’s just met him feel the same way?
If nothing else, it’s yet another way in which Sarah’s character is engaging from the start. The Doctor is going to have get up pretty early in the morning if he’s going to pull the wool over her eyes.
Maybe I waffle unduly about it all, but despite one or two moments when he is, as my wife puts it, ‘being an ass’ (the first of which I am going to put down as a joke), the Third Doctor is honestly on his most likeable form yet here. Perhaps it’s because he’s finally grown his hair into the immaculate coiffure he always wanted?
Finally, there can’t be many shows that have waited until their eleventh season to tell you the name of the place that the main character is from. But that’s what happens here, when the Doctor informs Linx that he’s from Gallifrey and the audience collectively goes “Ahh, that’s where!”. Actually I wonder how much of an impression this revelation made in 1973. Being a Doctor Who fan gives it huge significance, but to the wider viewing public, did it pass unnoticed?
For me though, The Time Warrior is something of a under-rated Doctor Who classic.
"This is a big story in Doctor Who because it is the first story with a Sontaran in and the first one with Sarah Jane in too."
"It is also the first time in Doctor Who history that the Doctor says he's from Gallifrey."
"And also this is the first time the classic diamond Doctor Who logo appears on TV."
Son of UT Rating: 8/10
