The last season of the reign of Jon Pertwee introduced not only a brand new monster but also a new companion. However, the Doctor and his new companion, Sarah Jane Smith, find themselves in medieval times under alien attack.
Journalist Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) is impersonating her aunt, virologist Lavinia Smith, in order to gain access to a research center 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 (Kevin Lindsay), and taken back to medieval England, where they are working under hypnosis to repair his crashed spaceship.
The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) follows in the TARDIS, and Sarah stows away. In return for shelter, Linx has provided a robber baron called Irongron (David Daker) with anachronistically advanced weapons to use in attacks on neighboring castles. The Doctor helps Sir Edward of Wessex (Alan Rowe) to repel one such attack, and 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 (Donald Pealmer), and Hal (Jeremy Bulloch), an archer, the Doctor and Sarah must defeat Linx, Irongron, and get the kidnapped scientists back to their proper time.
Jon Pertwee had a great run as the Doctor and had seen the addition of color and had redefined the role for the seventies. He decided that this season would be his last and the first episode of his final season would introduce both a new villain and a beloved companion.
The Sontarans are a race that exist by cloning and are obsessed with making war. Intrepid reporter Sarah Jane Smith would be a companion to both Pertwee and Tom Baker. Both the Sontarans and Sarah Jane have made welcome returns to the new series starring David Tennant and Sarah Jane has even spun off into her own modern series (after a failed attempt at doing so with K9 in 1981). You can really see why since Sladen is a fine actress and very memorable in the role.
Her return in the new series only cemented the fact that the gal still has it after all these years. Another first is that this is the first episode that mentions Gallifrey as the name of the Doctor’s homeworld. I’ve always been a fan of Pertwee’s and consider him to be my favorite Doctor (thought I do side with the Brig and say that they’re all wonderful chaps). Time Warrior is a grand serial thanks to Sarah Jane and Linx, who makes a great villain thanks to the efforts of Kevin Lindsay (he would play Sontarans once more in the Tom Baker story the Sontaran Experiments before tragically dying of a heart attack in 1975).
Historical episodes had not been done in some time on Doctor Who because the ratings were low since the audience perceived an “education factor,” however Time Warrior succeeds from its great characters, action, and science-fiction adventure.
The Time Warrior is presented in fullscreen as it was aired on the telly. Special features include a commentary by Elisabeth Sladen, producer Barry Letts, and script editor Terrence Dicks. You also have the option to watch the episode with production notes subtitles and some of the special effects replaced with optional new CGI effects.
Next is the 30 minute “Beginning the End” which details the episode and the start of Pertwee’s final season. There’s also 1 minute of continuity announcements (think commercials), a 9-minute photo gallery, and the Dr. Who Annual (1974) and Radio Times Listings on PDF (DVD-ROM).
The time Warrior is a fine episode and the DVD does it justice. The CGI effects are welcome since the director cheaped out on some of them (although they are rather obvious). Who says historical episodes can’t be entertaining?
Doctor Who - The Time Warrior is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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