The Time Warrior (TV story)

The Time Warrior was the first story in the eleventh season of Doctor Who. It marked the first appearance of the Sontarans, along with Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, the Third Doctor's new companion. The story also finally revealed the name of the Doctor's home planet as Gallifrey.

It was script editor Terrance Dicks' choice for the setting of a medieval castle. This was deemed a difficult setting to write for. Holmes reversed the roles in giving Dicks the setting of a Lighthouse for 1977's Horror of Fang Rock. (DOC: Beginning the End)

Synopsis

The Doctor is called in by UNIT to investigate when scientists go missing from a top security institute. Following the kidnappings back in time to the Middle Ages, he is unaware investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith has stowed away on the TARDIS. As events unfold, the Doctor discovers a sinister alien intent on altering the future of mankind.

Plot

Episode one

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.

File:Timewarrior ep1.JPG

The star warrior arrives.

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 seven hundred years and has kidnapped the scientists then hypnotised 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 appaling. 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. When Sarah follows the Doctor to Irongron's castle, she is seized by one of his guards, while the Doctor witnesses Linx removing his helmet.

Episode two

File:Timewarrior ep2.JPG

Irongron tests Linx's weapon.

Irongron 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. There, Sarah concocts a plan to kidnap the Doctor, who she thinks is working for Irongron rather than against him.

Meanwhile the Doctor has realised both that Sarah is in the time period and has been captured. He finds Linx's lab, where the kidnapped scientists have been hypnotised except for Rubeish. He is caught by Linx, who restrains him using a head device, but Rubeish frees him when Linx leaves. The Doctor then leaves to search for Sarah, but is chased by Irongron and his men. When the Doctor stumbles, Irongron raises his axe...

Episode three

File:Timewarrior ep3.JPG

Irongron's army attacks Edward's castle.

Hal shoots the axe out of Irongron's hand, allowing him to escape. The Doctor is able to convince Sarah and Edward that he was trying to stop Linx, and agrees to help construct a defence against an attack on Wessex Castle by Irongron's men.

The next morning, the robber baron and his troops assault the castle using rifles supplied by Linx, scarcely fooled by dummies the Doctor has made to make it appear as though the castle has more soldiers than they do. As they march on forward, the Doctor unleashes smoke bombs, which scares them away. 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 offers to help Linx if he sends the scientists back home, but Linx refuses and zaps the Doctor.

Episode four

The new TARDIS team.

The Doctor isn't harmed, and Linx 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.

Cast

The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Nicholas Courtney
Linx - Kevin Lindsay
Irongron - David Daker^[1]
Bloodaxe - John J. Carney^[1]
Lord Edward of Wessex - Alan Rowe
Hal - Jeremy Bulloch
Professor Rubeish - Donald Pelmear
Eleanor - June Brown
Eric - Gordon Pitt
Meg - Sheila Fay
Sentry - Steve Brunswick

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Uncredited for Part One.

Production Crew

References

The Doctor

The Doctor uses his Venusian aikido on Irongron and Bloodaxe when he escapes Linx's lab.

Foods and beverages

Irongron has only Sour wine in his castle.

Individuals

Lavinia Smith is in America at the moment.

Planets

The Doctor (for the first time) mentions his home planet by name: Gallifrey.

Species

The Doctor refers to the Time Lords as "galactic ticket inspectors".

Sontarans

The Sontarans feed on raw energy via an energy exchanger.

The Sontarans obtain this energy through their probic vent which is also their weak spot.

Linx is a Commander of the Fifth Army Space Fleet of the Sontaran Army Space Corps.

Science

Rubeish writes in chalk on the Doctor's TARDIS.

Technology

The Doctor uses his newly-constructed rhondium sensor as both practical scientific apparatus and a kind of alarm clock.
Linx builds a Robot Knight for Irongron.

Weapons

Linx builds firearms for Irongron.

Story notes

Working titles for this story included The Fugitive, The Time Fugitive and The Time Survivor.
This story features the debut of a new opening and closing title sequence designed by Bernard Lodge and realised using a process known as 'slit scan'. The opening title sequence features for the first time the distinctive diamond-shaped logo for the series.
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.
Elisabeth Sladen is credited as Sarah Jane in Radio Times for Parts One to Three.
Bob Hoskins was offered the role of Irongron but did not accept.
Gallifrey was originally scripted as Galfrey.

Ratings

Part 1 - 8.7 million viewers
Part 2 - 7.0 million viewers
Part 3 - 6.6 million viewers
Part 4 - 10.6 million viewers

Myths

There was another actress cast before Elisabeth Sladen. (There was another companion, played by a different actress, originally intended to appear in this story. Sarah was a completely fresh character, and Sladen the first choice to play her, after the production team had second thoughts. This myth was believed by Sladen herself, according to an interview in DWMS Holiday 1992.)
Potatoes were unknown in England until Sir Francis Drake brought them back from the Americas in the 16th Century but they are referred to in this story. (This is a common mis-conception, no potatoes featured in this story, they are however referenced in the novelisation of this story).

Filming locations

Location shooting of Wessex castle and Irongron's castle was done at Peckforton Castle.
BBC Television Centre (TC1 and TC6), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

Irongron's gun goes off before he fires it.
Wessex after the Norman conquest is an anachronism.

Continuity

Sarah mistakes Styre for Linx in DW: The Sontaran Experiment.
Sarah's Aunt Lavinia appears in KAC: A Girl's Best Friend.
The Sontarans would reappear in DW: The Sontaran Experiment, DW: The Invasion of Time, DW: The Two Doctors, DW: The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky, DW: The Pandorica Opens and DW: A Good Man Goes to War.
Sontarans have also appeared in the spin-off RP: Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans and the Mindgame Trilogy.

Also the spoof BBV: Do You Have a Licence to Save this Planet? and a Jim'll Fix It special A Fix with Sontarans.

Linx is later mentioned in BFA: Castle of Fear, BFA: Heroes of Sontar and MA: Lords of the Storm.
The Third Doctor's knowledge of the Sontarans and their war with the Rutans does not come from meeting Linx. He has fairly intimate knowledge of the species already.
Similarly, Linx has prior knowledge of both Gallifrey and the Time Lords. In fact his opinion of the Time Lords — "a race of great technical achievement, but lacking the morale to withstand a determined assault" — makes the Third Doctor invite him to "put that theory to the test". This would seem to prefigure the eventual Sontaran invasion of Gallifrey. (DW: The Invasion of Time)
The Rutans would appear on-screen for the first and only time in DW: Horror of Fang Rock.
The Third Doctor is shown here to quite enjoy alcohol. After initially turning down a fresh glass of wine, he reconsiders and goes for another round. Other incarnations in similar situations have generally opted for non-alcoholic beverages — as, for example, the Seventh Doctor in DW: Battlefield or the Tenth Doctor in DW: The Unicorn and the Wasp. However, the Ninth Doctor took what was likely sherry or port with Harriet Jones and Rose Tyler in the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street (DW: World War Three) and the First Doctor appeared to be enjoying wine with Nero (DW: The Romans). The Eleventh Doctor also drank wine with Craig, but disliked it a great deal and actually spat it out. (DW: The Lodger)
In the first episode, the Doctor is shown to use his newly-constructed rhondium sensor as a kind of "alarm clock" to alert him when the particles became present and a disappearance was imminent. The Tenth Doctor later used a redesigned rhondium sensor in DW: Planet of the Dead.
After encountering a Rutan in Stockbridge in 1199, the Fifth Doctor theorises that Linx may have been tracking him. (BFA: Castle of Fear)

Timeline

This story takes place after ST: The Juror's Story
this story takes place before ST: Interesting Times

Home video and audio releases

DVD releases

Released as Doctor Who: The Time Warrior. Released: Region 2 3 September 2007 and Region 4 3 October 2007

Contents:

- Commentary by Elisabeth Sladen, Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks
- Beginning the End - The cast and crew of The Time Warrior look back on the making of this story, in this newly produced documentary. Featuring Elisabeth Sladen, Donald Pelmear, Jeremy Bulloch, Barry Letts, Terrance Dicks and Keith Cheatham.
- CGI Effects - Choose to watch the story with some of the original effects replaced by 16 new CGI sequences.
- Continuity Compilation - A selection of off-air continuity announcements for the original BBC transmissions of The Time Warrior.
- Doctor Who annual 1974 (DVD-ROM PC/Mac)
- Radio Times Billings - Original listings from Radio Times (DVD-ROM PC/Mac)
- Photo Gallery
- Production Subtitles
- Easter Eggs - Short featurette detailing various "firsts" introduced by this serial, including the first appearance of Sarah Jane, first appearance of a Sontaran, first use of the slit-scan title sequence, and others. To access this hidden feature, select the Doctor Who logo in the upper left corner of the main menu.

The DVD Release was also the first time the serial was available complete and uncut.

Notes:

Editing for DVD release completed by Doctor Who Restoration Team. Unfortunately, during re-mastering, credits for David Daker (Irongron) and John J. Carney (Bloodaxe) were omitted from the closing titles of Part One by mistake.

Boxset release

This story was released in the Bred for War DVD boxset on 5 May alongside all the classic series Sontaran stories. The DVD is the same as the one sold separately. Released 8 July in Australia.