'The Time Warrior' Showcases the Genius of Robert Holmes

There's a reason the Sontarans haven't changed much since their first story: Doctor Who's best writer perfectly balanced their menace and humor.

Plot summary

The Doctor traces the disappearance of several scientists to a Sontaran warrior stranded in medieval England, whose alliance with a brutal warlord threatens all of history.

Notable for:

• First story to show the “time tunnel” Pertwee credits

• First story to call the episodes “parts”

• First story with Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith

• First appearance of the Sontarans, who are mentioned as being at war with the Rutans.

• The weakness of the Sontaran probic vent is introduced.

• Kevin Lindsay came up with the pronunciation of Sontaran, with the emphasis on the second syllable.

• The Doctor’s home planet, Gallifrey, is named for the first time.

• The Invasion of Time is seeded when Linx suggests Gallifrey is “lacking the morale to withstand a determined assault” and the Doctor essentially dares him to try.

• Metebelis 3 is mentioned.

• There’s some bad quality video in episode 4 on Britbox.

Pete commentary:

• Robert Holmes is in top form with his crafting of The Time Warrior. There’s a lot to do here: introduce a new companion and a new monster, craft an interesting time-travel story, and make us care about some random medieval characters.

• Holmes ticks all those boxes with style, especially with the lines he gives Irongron and Bloodaxe, turning what could have been otherwise forgettable characters into a hilarious double act. You instantly “get” Irongron, who’s unprincipled and impulsive, but not as dumb as he seems, shown when he’s testing Linx’s robot and using the Doctor for target practice.

• I love Bloodaxe’s line, “I canna read cap’n!” Bad guys are dumb — good lesson.

• The “playground scenes,” where the Doctor fights Irongon’s goons, are inadvertently hilarious in hindsight.

• I love Linx’s pathetic little flag. It’s cool that Linx is just a soldier. He defers to his commander and the intelligence he’s heard when talking to the Doctor. He has a very simple goal: to repair his ship and leave, so he’s not a big bad in a high-stakes way, but he’s nonetheless a great villain: ruthless, arrogant, utterly pitiless about the people he’s making to suffer. And it’s great that he can’t resist stirring up trouble with the locals. 

• Sarah’s introduction is handled well, and Holmes doesn’t waste the opportunity to do something structurally different by having Sarah not trust the Doctor at first. She runs from him, and then betrays him so Edward can capture him.

• The structure of the story is excellent: Where the scientists are going is no mystery at all (we’ve already seen Irongron and Linx by that point), but we’re intrigued by these characters: what does Linx want? How much damage will Irongron do? When will he and Irongron discard their alliance and fight? This is really fun to watch.

• I like the look of recognition on the Doctor’s face when he sees Linx without his helmet.

• The Doctor drinks wine, and can’t resist asking for more! The Third Doctor is clearly an oenophile.

• When Sarah suggests the Doctor should leave, and he says “I’ve got a job to do,” it’s a nice reiteration of the moral obligation the First Doctor expresses in The Smugglers. 

  

• Linx stirring up trouble between Irongron and Sir Edward just for fun is one of the best aspects of the script. There’s a whole bunch of world-building that Holmes is doing with the Sontarans: They have a vast empire, they have limited time travel, they know about the Time Lords, they live for war — all this checks out in a weird way. Sure, Doctor Who can do anything, but all this “fits” with what the show had done, and it’s easy to headcanon discrepancies with what we see later.

• They really cake on the women’s lib angle on Sarah from the start. Holmes has the Doctor suggest Sarah can make coffee, which lights a fire under her to prove herself. She has some nice lines toward the end, but they feel more cute than anything else now.

• It’s a hell of a coincidence that the temporal range limit of Linx’s equipment is right when the Doctor’s on Earth, but I’ll allow it.

• The Doctor being a practice target is great, though the firing squad goes on a little too long for it to be credible. But the Doctor’s escape via the chandelier is awesome — one of the best Pertwee stunts.

• Kind of a cheat that Linx’s blast to the Doctor at the end of episode 3 was “too brief.” What advanced warlike race would design a weapon that doesn’t kill instantly? Humans have plenty of those, and we’re super-primitive, apparently.

• It’s too bad Perwee’s chin is clearly visible when he’s pretending to be the robot.

• The Doctor comes extremely close to dying in this one! Irongron’s got him dead to rights when he discovers he’s not the robot.

• The story is really engaging early on, but it starts to peter out in episode 4. There’s a lot of repetition, with the characters running back and forth between castles and Linx’s lair and Irongron’s big hall. There’s not quite enough mood in any particular setting for it to rise to greatness.

What did Pete’s family think?

• Grace’s favorite character was Rubiesh. She loved the medieval setting and said she wished more stories were set in it. She agreed the earlier episodes were more engaging. She asked at one point if the Doctor “turns invisible” when he leans against a wall (fair question). She liked that Linx was a “chill” villain.

Four Questions to Doomsday - Pete

1. Why did the Randomizer take us here? It really wants to fill in that Metebelis 3 bingo card.

2. What if the evil plot had succeeded? So many evil plots! Let’s star with Linx’s — perhaps Hal’s aim isn’t as true and he misses the probic vent. Linx takes off, deliberately destroying the castle. Honestly I don’t know if much else changes since he has so little 

3. Where's the Clara splinter? She’s a serving wench, ensuring all her fellow wenches leave the castle before it blows.

4. Dalek, Ogron, Professor Hayter, Viscount Banger, Fixed Point in Time, Lady Cassandra, or Zarbi? Very solid Dalek! If it didn’t run out of energy in the second half, this would be banger — a master class from Robert Holmes in world-building, who’s a master of it by now.

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Chris commentary:

• This looks very Blackadder now. "Tis a cunning plan, Captain" 

• My very first Who! Photo of me on my dad's lap on Dec 12 1973, 3 days before episode 1. Not even a month old and they're introducing Sarah Jane (Lis Sladen also from Liverpool, her accent came out in rehearsal) 

• History corner: this is probably set during King John's reign? Irongron is an Anglo-Saxon holdout who can make "nothing of their Norman scribbles." But Sarah says 13th century? "Early years of the middle ages," the Doctor said. I thought the TARDIS gave a precise year readout? Wasn't she bang on target? Anyway, that wasn't a thing with the chicken leg

• Your target is a Probic Vent, about two feet above the main ventilation shaft … 

• Ruebish – he comes across as sweet thanks to the acting, but if you read his dialogue, he's a misogynistic asshole (even more so in deleted dialogue about womens' brains)  

• Sarah refuses to make the coffee so the Doctor has to make it himself. But does he? He sleeps in the next scene, so either his coffee is very weak or decaf or he forgot. This has anti-coffee Clara's fingerprints all over it. 

• LOL at those ceiling-free bedrooms where you can clearly hear everything … 

• Linx = best Sontaran ever? Best mask, at least? Discuss … 

• The Brig says "oh my giddy aunt." Is he missing Troughton? 

• Sarah looks for the nearest telephone. DIDN'T SHE READ THE SIGN on the door? 

• Holmes' original script outline was a lot more Vietnam, with reference to earthlings as "gooks" … written in the form of a report from Sontaran Hol Mes to Terren Cedicks

• Lots of great insults in here … longshanks with mighty nose … narrow hipped vixen

• Lis Sladen is great, but Sarah's character is kind of all over the place here. Well done her for making the clunky "as if it's the Middle Ages" line work. And I love her "could murder a cup of tea."

• Doctor Who grows up! Not just mention of Gallifrey and explanation of the Time Lords and new intro and logo. But also Rubeish pointing out what we've all wondered about companions, and Linx talking about sex as an "inefficient system … you should change it". You can see why Moffat says he's always trying to be Holmes. It's getting New Who meta in here! 

• Bob Hoskins could have been Irongron! But would that have worked with all the cod-Shakespeare cheesiness around him? Better a good blood curdling "WHAAAAAAT" 

Four Questions to Doomsday - Chris

1. Why did the Randomizer take us here? It's coming up to Doctor Who's birthday and mine … "look at that great spider!" 

2. What if the evil plot had succeeded? It kind of did! And destroyed the serving women in the castle, which Sarah doesn't seem to notice? Linx gets away and … 

3. Where's the Clara splinter? Providing the Doctor with saltpeter, very hard to get in those days. Also Time Lady Clara is covering up the main expanse of the TARDIS when SJS gets into it because … her brain isn't ready yet? 

4. Dalek, Ogron, Professor Hayter, Viscount Banger, Fixed Point in Time, Lady Cassandra, or Zarbi? Starting to wonder if "Zarbi" should have been a "Professor Rubeish . …" but no, it's a Dalek-Zarbi hybrid! Lovely Holmesian stuff but also a lot of it is pretty laughable now (especially post-Blackadder)