Doctor Who has long been my favorite show, but it’s been a couple of years since I’ve actually watched anything but the newest episodes. Before that, I was making a respectable run at getting through the original series, most of which I haven’t seen for decades. For various reasons, lately it has felt like it’s time to get back into it. 

Warrior’s Gate

Starring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor.
Companions:  Lalla Ward as Romana, Matthew Waterhouse as Adrian and John Leeson as the voice of K9

Written by Steve Gallagher.  Directed by Paul Joyce. Produced by John Nathan-Turner. Script Edited by Christopher H. Bidmead.

Format:  4 episodes, each about 25 minutes long
Originally Aired:  January 1981 (Episodes 17-20 of Season 18)

Warrior’s Gate the concluding story to the so-called E-Space Trilogy, featuring the the extended tale of how the Doctor and Adric return to the “regular” universe, but how Romana and K9 end up remaining behind. As such it’s very clearly the beginning of the end of the Fourth Doctor’s tenure on the show. The last of his main companions are gone, and the show is ready to jump the storyline that will see the show’s longest running Doctor out the door.

Spoilers Ahead!

Warrior’s Gate is perhaps best know for being a bit confusing. I remember at a convention Matthew Waterhouse (who plays Adric) being asked if he understood what was going on in the story, and he said he didn’t. Whether or not he was joking, but at the very least the reputation is at least somewhat justified. There are some odd things going on, particularly when the Doctor and Romana both find themselves encountering the same location in the world of the Tharils at different points in history, and the story moves between them quite abruptly. This is compounded by the fact that both Time Lords (and especially Romana) seem to be somewhat aware of the temporal weirdness they are experiencing, and thus nobody seems to be in need of any convenient explanations for someone to deliver. I guess this highlights why companions less capable than Romana or K9 are convenient for the show.

But having said all this I didn’t find it too confusing to enjoy. In that way, it fares a little better in my estimation than Ghost Light, which also told its story pretty obliquely, but resulted in an experience that I found more frustrating. I think part of the reason for this is that with Ghost Light, part of the problem is that there are far too many characters and story threads which aren’t developed properly, so the story feels crowded and lacking in exposition or the opportunity to reflect on what is happening.

With Warrior’s Gate, there are no such pacing problems–indeed, I’d say the slow and steady way things unfold is one of the serials’s strengths. Everything that happens is meaningful to either the story’s plot, characters or themes. The only place where things lag are in the very brief sequences of Adric wandering around the void by himself, but even that at least includes the continued use of coin-flipping to make decisions, a motif which the story uses to talk about the tension between taking action and accepting the inevitable.

The design of the story is good, including especially the look of the Tharils.

Their alien look is not tremendously ambitious, but given the limitation of the show this works in its favor. In fact, the whole serial is marked by a sense of simplicity and elegance. There are only a few actual locations (the ship, the gateway, the Tharil hall and the void itself) but each has its own feel and identity, and they stand in appropriate contrast with each other. Director Paul Joyce makes good use of each and does a solid job with the storytelling, even in those more confusing moments.

Actually, the behind the scenes story is that because of various difficulties, Paul Joyce was fired mid-production, and production assistant Graeme Harper took on the job, uncredited. Graeme Harper would go on to be a director for Doctor Who, and is in fact the only person to have ever directed both the classic series and the modern series. But then, apparently Paul Joyce’s camera scripts were unintelligible to anyone else, so ended up being rehired!

In terms of its story, one of the things I find interesting is how the story’s bad guy’s are introduced and developed. Rorvik and his crew don’t have any universal ambitions to conquer or to rule–they just seem like a bunch of guys who have gotten themselves stuck in a void. It’s clear there is something problematic going on, in terms of the way they are using their captured Tharil, but for much of the story they come across as the sort of people that the Doctor might give a stern lecture too and then help the more thoughtful among them to survive. Indeed, characters like Packard and Lane, and especially perpetual layabouts Aldo and Royce, are generally pretty likeable, at least initially.

It’s only well into the story that we get the unequivocal understanding that these guys are full-on slave-traders, and can fully grasp when they are all killed that they are not just victims of a situation, but in fact that they deserve it (dramatically anyway).

But even so, their victims, the Tharils, are also shown to have a history of conquest and slavery–it just sits long in their past. It’s a pretty complex situation which is interesting to watch.

Warrior’s Gate is also significant, of course, for being the story that farewelled both Romana and K9 from the show.

I’ve commented before that producer John Nathan-Turner was miles ahead of his predecessor, Graham Williams, at farewelling companions. I still hold to this but in rewatching Warrior’s Gate, Romana’s departure doesn’t work quite as well as I’d have liked. It’s set up fairly well, both in this story and in Full Circle, with the looming threat of being forced to return to Gallifrey, and with the broader situation of the Tharils suffering at the hands of others (and with the fact that K9 isn’t going to function anymore unless he stays behind the mirror). But when Romana actually announces she is staying behind, it it’s still abrupt–nothing had been shown to build to this moment for quite some time (several episodes, really).

So even though Tom Baker’s “All right? She’ll be superb,” is a cool line, Lalla Ward’s actual farewell scene is sadly rushed. Which is a pity, because I think she would have nailed it.

Other Thoughts

• Warrior’s Gate contains perhaps my most notable experiences of the Mandela Effect. Before rewatching the serial, I was convinced that it included a scene between Adric and K9 where they talk about how his ear sensors accomplish things via triangulation, and as a result Adric realises that he can increase their capacity if he brings them closer together. Thus, he removes one of K9’s ears and ties it to the other ear, so they are as close together as possible. In reality it’s the exact opposite. Adric realises that the sensors will be more effective if he can move them apart, so he removes an ear and steps away (amusingly, this works, but then K9 just trundles off without him!)

Anyway, the episode as it exists in reality makes a lot more sense, but I really thought I remembered the fairly ridiculous image of one of K9’s ears being tied to the other one. In either case, I think I remember the moment at all because my older brother was watching the show with me years ago, and thought the idea of using triangulation with two sensors that are only a couple of inches away from each other is ridiculous.

• Speaking of K9, he gets some fun moments in this last story, including some pretty memorable dialogue. When asked how he is feeling, he replies, “Misconception of the functional nature of this unit. I neither feel nor find it necessary to express states of efficiency or dysfunction.” Later, when spouts out this gem of a babble: “Probability computes at 0.00057 mistress. Please apply .67 error correction to this estimate. Error in error correction estimate estimated at .3705.” And finally, when he is breaking down, he has this nonsense to say: “Correction. All present and correct. King’s regulations brackets army close brackets report of the orderly sergeant tot he officer of the day. Default is martial…”

• Also, this story reveals that K9 has all the information necessary for Romana to build a TARDIS!