This serial is the moment the Pertwee era went downhill in my opinion. The writing started to get bad.

This is definitely one of Robert Holmes' weakest scripts for the series. I'm not confident enough that the blatant sexism at the start is ironic, and although I personally do like Sarah Jane more than Jo (at least here—Elisabeth Sladen plays her as journalist first, which is nice next to her sycophantic predecessor), I don't get the sense that Holmes has much time for her. For all his talents as a writer, he's not fond of female characters.

Kevin Lindsay is great, and the Sontarans are a very worthy creation. But given that—amazingly—this is Pertwee's only sojourn into Earth's past (in 5 whole years! Verity Lambert must have had a fit!), it seems a shame that it's done out of necessity. There's nothing of educational merit here. None of the "historical" figures are real. The guest acting is hammy in the extreme, risible chase sequences abound, and unless I'm just being unreasonable (quite possible) Professor Rubeish does not make as much of an impact as most of Holmes' wacky characters. Jago, Hade, Sharaz-Jek...Rubeish is not fit to be considered alongside them. With no great characters (apart from Sarah and that's all down to Sladen—and Linx of course), a less-than-thrilling plot, and no historical context, the whole thing feel like a bit of a waste of time. It used to be worth watching as the best Sontaran story, but now Flux's War of the Sontarans has robbed it of even that. Not awful, just awfully disappointing.

Can't really think of any significant flaws for this one to be honest. The plot feels pretty low stakes (Irongron isn't all that threatening and the idea of giving advance weapons to a comparatively primitive society unprepared to handle them is given neither the focus nor the significance it deserves), but it's still very solidly constructed on the whole with some fantastic dialogue and a great main antagonist in Linx. One of my personal comfort food Doctor Who stories, and easily the best story of this season (not that that will be saying much ultimately).