The Time Warrior (TV story)

The Time Warrior was the first story of Season 11 of Doctor Who. New monsters the Sontarans made their debut in this story, along with Elisabeth Sladen as companion Sarah Jane Smith.

Synopsis
Journalist Sarah Jane Smith is impersonating her aunt, virologist Lavinia Smith, in order to gain access to a research centre where top scientists are being held in protective custody while UNIT investigates the disappearance of a number of their colleagues. The missing scientists have been kidnapped by a Sontaran, Linx, and taken back to medieval England, where they are working under hypnosis to repair his crashed spaceship.

The Doctor follows in the TARDIS, and Sarah stows away. In return for shelter, Linx has provided a robber baron called Irongron with anachronistically advanced weapons to use in attacks on neighbouring castles.

The Doctor helps Sir Edward of Wessex to repel one such attack, then he and Sarah conspire to drug the food in Irongron's kitchens so that the weapons can be removed while the men are unconscious. Aided by one of the kidnapped scientists, Rubeish, he then sends the others back to the 20th Century using Linx's primitive time travel equipment.

Linx shoots Irongron down and gets ready to leave in his repaired ship. Hal, one of Sir Edward's archers, fires an arrow into the vulnerable probic vent at the back of his neck, killing him. The Doctor, Sarah and Hal escape just before the ship explodes, destroying the castle.

Part 1
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. 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.

Part 2
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...

Part 3
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.

Part 4
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
 * Bloodaxe - John J Carney
 * 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

Production Crew

 * Writer - Robert Holmes
 * Assistant Floor Manager - Rosemary Webb
 * Costumes - James Acheson
 * Designer - Keith Cheetham
 * Fight Arranger - Marc Boyle, Terry Walsh
 * Film Cameraman - Max Samett
 * Film Editor - William Symon
 * Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
 * Make-Up - Sandra Exelby
 * Production Assistant - Marcia Wheeler
 * Script Editor - Terrance Dicks
 * Special Sounds - Dick Mills
 * Studio Lighting - Mike Jefferies
 * Studio Sound - Tony Millier
 * Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer
 * Visual Effects - Jim Ward, Peter Pegrum
 * Producer - Barry Letts
 * Director - Alan Bromly

Story Notes

 * Working titles for this story included The Time Fugitive and The Time Survivor.
 * The original outline for the serial was submitted to the production office in the form of a "Field report from Sontaran Field Marshal Hol Mes, to Terran Cedicks".
 * 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.

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.)

Location Filming

 * Location shooting of Wessex castle and Irongron's castle was done at Peckforton Castle.

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Error

 * Bloodaxe has lots of horse trouble in episode one.
 * Irongron's gun goes off before he fires it, and surely he would notice that his Robot has a fleshy neck?
 * Nobody tells the serving wenches to leave the exploding castle.
 * 'Wessex' after the Norman conquest is an anachronism.
 * Potatoes were unknown in England until Sir Francis Drake brought them back from the Americas in the 16th Century.

Continuity

 * Sarah mistakes Styre for Linx in The Sontaran Experiment.
 * Sarah's Aunt Lavinia appears in K-9 and Company.
 * 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.
 * This is the first serial to name the Doctor's home planet as Gallifrey.
 * 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.

DVD, Video and Other Releases
DVD Releases

Released as Doctor Who: The Time Warrior. Released:
 * Region 2 3rd September 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

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

This story is due to be released in the Bred for War DVD boxset on the 5th May alongside all the classic series Sontaran stories.

Target Novelisations

 * Novelised as Doctor Who and the Time Warrior in 1986 by Terrance Dicks.