Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...
Day 375: The Time Warrior, Episode One
Dear diary,
It always surprised me that the Sontarans were considered to be such a major Doctor Who monster, considering that they only appear in four stories from the ‘classic’ era. They don’t even turn up until Season Eleven – almost half way through the series’ original run. Even recently, they didn’t join the Big Finish stable until very late into the audio’s run. And yet, they’re always grouped up there with Who’s ‘Second String’ monsters (not as popular as the Daleks or the Cybermen, but fondly remembered all the same, like the Ice Warriors).
It has to be said, though, that we get off to a great start here with Lynx. Kevin Lindsay turns in a great performance that manages to be captivating even when he’s hidden away under a helmet for almost the full running time of today’s episode – and when we do get a look at his face in the closing seconds, it’s filled with character. They’ve clearly been taking lessons from the Draconians last season.
People often sing the praises of Lynx the Sontaran – he’s one of the few characters that breaks out from the generic ‘monster’ role – and I’m starting to understand why. If he keeps up such a strong performance for the rest of the serial, then we’re in for a treat. It’s a great introduction to him, too. The first six-and-a-half minutes focus on the adventures of Irongron and this ‘Star Warrior’ before we even catch sight of the Doctor and the present day. It’s not even a brief introduction to the setting and the time period – at least a few days pass (though the implication seems to be longer) during which the two characters are forced into an unlikely alliance. We’ve the beginnings of a great Holmes double act here, and of particular highlight is both characters chiming in to say that if they didn’t need the other… It’s great fun.
A less unlikely alliance here is the Doctor and Sarah Jane. Oh, sure, forty year’s hindsight and all that, but they’re already made for each other the very first time they meet. They spark off each other, and they’re both as intrigued by the other. There’s a hint in the dialogue that you could read either way – is the Doctor annoyed by Sarah Jane, or is he simply teasing her? It’s clear from the direction Pertwee has taken it that he’s having a lot of fun with Sarah around, and even his musing about how she wound up in the middle ages is played with the same kind of interest the Eleventh Doctor takes in Clara.
That said… Sarah finding her way back in time raises two points for me. For a start, why does he find it odd that she should be there, when he’s just followed the trail of a disappearing professor to the same location? Secondly… just where does Sarah hide in the TARDIS so that the Doctor can’t see her? I know it’s supposed to be near infinite in there, but the Pertwee TARDIS has always seemed to be little more than the console room (it’s even where he keeps an emergency pop out bed just a few stories back), and she finds her way back out again pretty quickly, so she doesn’t seem to have gotten herself into a Tegan situation where she’s wandering the corridors for hours!
I love that the two of them are stuck back in time together – it’s a great way for them to bond. I know that Invasion of the Dinosaurs begins with them returning to their rightful time, so I’m assuming that they’ll be spending the rest of this story running around castles and courtyards!
Thankfully, we’ve got the Brigadier keeping an eye on things in the present, in a lovely surprise appearance from Nick Courtney. I didn’t know he was in this story, so seeing him come round the corner with the Doctor raised an instant smile from me. It helps to ease that transition from Jo leaving, because the rest of the team is clearly still carrying on. I wondered – briefly – if we’d get mention of Jo’s travels (the Brig does refer back to the Doctor’s jaunt to Metebilis III, after all), but I’m rather hoping now that we don’t. Now she’s arrived, I’d love the focus to be squarely on Sarah Jane – there’s a new girl in the Doctor’s life!
