“THE TIME WARRIOR” – Season 11, Serial 1, Story 70 – Written by Robert Holmes; Directed by Alan Bromly – It’s new Companion time! With Jo Grant off honeymooning in the Amazon, Sarah Jane Smith enters the world of the Doctor, the TARDIS, and UNIT. Sarah doesn’t get invited into the TARDIS for this time adventure, but stows away. Sarah’s not the only now classic element that makes a debut here, as we’ve also got the first appearance of the Sontarans and the first mention of Gallifrey. It’s also a bit sad, too. Because The Final Season Of Pertwee Starts Here.
When I get the hankering to watch old school DOCTOR WHO, I hanker for a serial like THE TIME WARRIOR.
WARRIOR is a perfect DOCTOR WHO meal: written by the great Bob Holmes, produced by the great Barry Letts, script edited by the great Terrance Dicks, and starring the great Jon Pertwee and Elisabeth Sladen, THE TIME WARRIOR is also historically important, giving us the debuts of Sarah Jane Smith and the Sontarans, and the first mention of Gallifrey. It’s got a wicked premise, as the Doctor and Sarah Jane travel back to medieval England to not only encounter locals like Irongrom and Bloodaxe, but a stranded interstellar warrior. And if all of that wasn’t enough, we’ve got Boba Fett playing Robin Hood.
A note on Boba Fett – or, more accurately, a note on Jeremy Bulloch, the actor who plays Boba Fett in Star Wars and Hal the Archer here. I’ve got his autograph sitting on the kitchen counter. Now, I don’t believe in collecting autographs; I explain this in greater detail right here, but basically, I’d rather exchange a few words with someone interesting rather than get their signature on a piece of paper. Now, if autographs are your thing, that’s cool. I don’t knock the practice, it’s just not for me.
Getting an autograph as a gift is a different story, however. I think if someone is willing to meet someone in order to get something for you then that’s a very thoughtful gift, and that’s how I managed to get Jeremy Bulloch’s autograph. My sister, who is not a sci-fi fan in the least, went to a convention in order to get me “Boba Fett’s” autograph. She succeeded: “To Mark,” Bulloch signed on a picture of his character, “You’re next. Jeremy Bulloch. ‘Boba Fett’.”
I bring this up because I love thinking of the interconnections of these disconnected events. I can watch TIME WARRIOR and see Bulloch playing Hal the Archer. At the time of the filming of this serial in May of 1973, I was two months old. At the time of its airing, it was December of that year. I was having my first Christmas, about which I remember nothing. A few years later Bulloch becomes Boba Fett and these movies have as much impact on my childhood as Tolkien, Burgess, and Scooby Doo. And then one day in 2006 or ’07 or ’08 he’s in Michigan, signing autographs at a convention and my sister pays some money to get his autograph and now it sits in my apartment.
Time. The interconnectedness of disconnected events.
A woman has an aunt who’s a scientist. The aunt goes on vacation and her niece impersonates her because the niece is a reporter looking for a story. She ends getting sleeping quarters in the same room where an old man who travels through time and space in a what looks like a blue police box has a desk. They each use fake names that end in Smith. He knows she’s not who she says but he doesn’t say anything. At a critical moment, she steps inside his police box.
And they have each other, as we have our story.
THE TIME WARRIOR is not one of the all-time great serials, but it is a highly enjoyable one. I think what makes it work is that it’s incredibly absurd and yet everyone is totally committed to their role. Key to this are the performances of David Daker as Irongron and John J. Carney as Bloodaxe. These are ridiculous characters with ridiculous names, yet Daker and Carney play them absolutely honestly. They might grouse and grumble but they stay focused on their goal. When the spaceman arrives, they take it relatively in stride, making a treaty with him that will allow him to complete the repairs on his damaged spacecraft and them to get his “space weapons.”
Kevin Lindsay as Linx is the first Sontaran in DOCTOR WHO history as he’s fantastic, too. Stuck on this backwards planet, Linx brings scientists from the 20th century back through time to fix his spaceship. Supremely arrogant, Linx and Irongrom have great chemistry together. Watching Irongrom trying to retain his position of power over Linx provides some hilarious moments.
The real selling point of the serial is seeing the Doctor and Sarah Jane interact for the first time. Sarah is much more headstrong than Jo but the Doctor seems taken with her right from the start. He’s figured out she’s not who she says she is, but he’s not going to turn her in. He doesn’t make giving her a hard time, telling her she can stay because they need someone to make the coffee. Sarah Jane wigs on this, just as the Doctor expected, one presumes.
When they end up in the past, Sarah Jane doesn’t believe what she’s experiencing at first, of course, because who would? She conveys a wonderful sense of being both afraid and angry, fearful and headstrong with Irongrom and Linx. When she escapes and ends up in the court of Edward of Essex, she takes charge. What’s most interesting is that she clearly doesn’t trust the Doctor, telling them that she believes the Doctor is working for Irongrom. This mistake is quickly corrected and we watch them start to work together as the serial unfolds.
THE TIME WARRIOR is just a lot of fun to watch. Robert Holmes has done a great job giving everyone something to do and a unique personality trait. In a serial full of great performances, Donald Pelmear’s Professor Rubeish stands out as a bit of comedy who seems to drift in and out of the plot. Clocking in at 4 parts, THE TIME WARRIOR works from start to finish.
‘Sontaran’ was meant to be pronounced far differently than what we got. It seems that Lindsay decided to pronounce it the way we all now do. The director tried to tell him otherwise, but Lindsay declared, ‘I should know how to pronounce it, it’s my planet!’ It is a rather fun story, and done well under the budget constrictions. There’s also a rumour that a different actress was going to be the Doctor’s companion, but Pertwee decided she was too tall!