The Time Warrior

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070 –The Time Warrior
Doctor Who serial
Sarah Jane Smith discovers that attitudes in the Middle Ages were somewhat different
Cast
Doctor	Jon Pertwee (Third Doctor)
Companion	Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith)
Guest stars
Nicholas Courtney — Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart Kevin Lindsay — Linx David Daker — Irongron John J. Carney — Bloodaxe Alan Rowe — Edward of Wessex June Brown — Lady Eleanor Jeremy Bulloch — Hal Donald Pelmear — Professor Rubeish Sheila Fay — Meg Gordon Pitt — Eric Steve Brunswick — Sentry
Production
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 minutes each
Originally broadcast	December 15, 1973–January 5, 1974
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → The Green Death 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. This serial introduced Elisabeth Sladen as new companion Sarah Jane Smith. It also marked the debut of the Sontarans.

Contents 1 Plot 1.1 Synopsis 1.2 Continuity 2 Production 3 Commercial releases 3.1 On VHS 3.2 On DVD 3.3 Digital download 3.4 In print 4 References 5 External links 5.1 Reviews 5.2 Target novelisation

[edit] Plot

[edit] Synopsis

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 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 she 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 invites 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, Bloodaxe awakes and rises the remaining men and tells them to flee, while 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] Continuity

• This episode marks a number of firsts: the first appearance of both Sarah Jane Smith and the Sontarans; the first mention of the name Gallifrey, in reference to the Doctor's home planet; and the first appearance of several actors who would later reappear in other stories, including Kevin Lindsay and David Daker. It also marks the first appearance of a new opening credits sequence and a new diamond-shaped logo.

• Sarah Jane states her age as 23. Given later statements in the spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, Sarah Jane was born in 1951, thereby retroactively suggesting that this story is set near the time of original transmission.

• In the Target novelization of The Time Warrior, a prologue written by Robert Holmes, contains 10 pages involving Lynx at war with a group of Rutan Fighters. Pages 9 & 16 gives the full name of the Sontaran, Jingo Lynx. The Sontaran home planet is named Sontara on pages 10, 11, 15 & 16. It also suggests that the Earth had never been surveyed, which would eventually happen in the following Sontaran story The Sontaran Experiment.

• 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 (the Third Doctor's familiarity with the race would resolve with his second incarnation's encounter with them in that serial), and the Tenth Doctor story "The Sontaran Strategem"/"The Poison Sky". They have also appeared in several episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures; a Jim'll Fix It special, A Fix with Sontarans; and spin-off videos, Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans, Do You Have A License To Save This Planet?, and Mindgame.

• The events of this episode and The Sontaran Experiment are referenced in the The Sarah Jane Adventures serial, Eye of the Gorgon.

[edit] Production

Serial details by episode:

Episode	Broadcast date	Run time	Viewership (in millions)	Archive
"Episode 1"	15 December 1973	24:15	8.7	PAL 2" colour videotape
"Episode 2"	22 December 1973	24:10	7.0	PAL 2" colour videotape
"Episode 3"	29 December 1973	23:30	6.6	PAL 2" colour videotape
"Episode 4"	5 January 1974	24:57	10.6	PAL 2" colour videotape
[1][2][3]

• Working titles for this story included The Time Fugitive and The Time Survivor.
• The original outline for the serial was humorously submitted to the production office in the form of a "Field report from Sontaran Field Marshal Hol Mes, to Terran Cedicks".
• Location shooting of both Wessex Castle and Irongron's castle was done at Peckforton Castle, in Cheshire, utilising different views.
• This story introduces a new opening sequence that includes a slit-scan "time tunnel" effect. It also introduces a new, diamond-shaped logo which, like the time tunnel sequence, remains in use until 1980.
• Beginning with this story, individual episodes are listed as Part One, Two etc. This replaces the previous system of calling them Episode One, Two, etc., as established in 1966 with The Savages.

Doctor Who book
Doctor Who and the Time Warrior
Series	Target novelisations
Release number	65
Writer	Terrance Dicks and Robert Holmes (uncredited)
Publisher	Target Books
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

[edit] Commercial releases

[edit] On VHS

In 1989, the story was released in an omnibus format. This version omits a slightly extended scene of Smith's capture from the beginning of episode two.

This story was one of three VHS compilations that were never re-released in episodic form, the other two being The Seeds of Death and The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

[edit] On DVD

The Time Warrior was released on region 2 DVD on 3 September 2007, commercially available in its original episodic format for the first time.^[4] Among the special features on the disc is the option to view the serial with CGI effects replacing the originals, for example the descent of 'Irongron's Star' (Lynx's ship) seen through a window, and an entirely new shot of the big explosion of the castle at the end.

• The DVD commentary is provided by script editor Terrance Dicks, producer Barry Letts, and actress Elisabeth Sladen.
• The Time Warrior DVD is also available as part of the Bred for War boxset along stories The Sontaran Experiment, The Invasion of Time and The Two Doctors (all previously or subsequently released separately, too)

[edit] Digital download

Along with a few other selected serials of the Second and Third Doctor's runs, this serial has been offered for sale on the iTunes Store as of August 2008.

[edit] In print

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in June 1978. Robert Holmes was initially commissioned to novelise his own story, but wrote only the book's prologue, sending it to Dicks with a note telling him to finish the rest himself. Holmes was not credited for his contribution. An un-abridged reading of the Target novel was released by BBC audio on CD in February 2009. It is read by Jeremy Bulloch who played Hal the archer in the TV story.^[5][6]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Time Warrior at bbc.co.uk
• 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

v • d • e Doctor Who season 11 serials The Time Warrior • Invasion of the Dinosaurs • Death to the Daleks • The Monster of Peladon • Planet of the Spiders

v • d • e Doctor Who : UNIT television stories Second Doctor 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 Ninth Doctor "Aliens of London" / "World War Three" Tenth Doctor "The Christmas Invasion" • "The Sontaran Stratagem" / "The Poison Sky" • "Turn Left" • "The Stolen Earth" / "Journey's End" • "Planet of the Dead" Torchwood "Fragments" • Children of Earth The Sarah Jane Adventures Enemy of the Bane Minor appearances Colony in Space • The Time Warrior • The Seeds of Doom • The Five Doctors • "The Sound of Drums" / "Last of the Time Lords" See also Dimensions in Time • Wartime • Downtime • Auton • Auton 2: Sentinel • Auton 3 • History of UNIT • List of UNIT personnel • UNIT dating controversy

v • d • e Sontaran television stories Third Doctor The Time Warrior Fourth Doctor The Sontaran Experiment • The Invasion of Time Sixth Doctor The Two Doctors Tenth Doctor "The Sontaran Stratagem" / "The Poison Sky" The Sarah Jane Adventures The Last Sontaran • Enemy of the Bane Minor appearance Logopolis Other A Fix with Sontarans • Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans See also Rutan Host