Revisiting Old Doctor Who: The Time Warrior

[Broomstick]

The Time Warrior
(First Mr. Potato Head Sontaran, first Sarah Jane adventure, and Dr. John Smith has a busy day)

Either I'm getting lucky with the grabs off the library shelf, or there were more stand out episodes in the past than I remember. "The Time Warrior" is both the first appearance of the Sontarans and the first story with Sarah Jane Smith. I don't know if it was the first time the Doctor used the alias "John Smith", actually I suspect it wasn't, but it had an interesting parallel with his use of the same alias in "School Reunion". In fact, Sarah Jane even remarks on the coincidence before she learns the teacher John Smith is, in fact, the Doctor, her old friend of the same "name".

Initially Sarah Jane does not start as his companion and for part of the story actually acts as a sort of adversary. She represents a significant change from earlier companions in that she is very independent and rather than being a simple foil for the Doctor she takes an active role in progressing the plot, such as when she poses as a kitchen wench to drug the food for everyone in the Irongron fortress. This is not to say prior companions never took an active role - Barbara in the "Azetecs" was an integral part of the storyline, for example - but she seem to have that active role more consistently and more often than some of the other companions.

The story does suffer from two weaknesses from my viewpoint: first, the special effects are sub-par even by 1960's/early 1970's standards (let's call it the "pre-Star Wars era". The castle blowing up at the end, for example, is pretty clearly a shot of a quarry wall blowing up (that damned BBC quarry again!) rather than a building blowing up or falling down. Only after I saw the whole thing on DVD did I realize there was an option to view it with updated effects. Folks, if you get the DVD go straight to updated effects, it will be much more pleasant watching.

Second - while towards the end Irongron's men are woken up and told to flee, the women in the castle seem entirely forgotten. I'd like to think that they, too, were saved behind the scenes, offscreen, but it seemed a glaring omission to me.

Other than that, though, it was a solid story, complete with jabs at Imperialism/Colonialism (Linx claiming the Earth for the Sontaran Empire) and a sword fight between the Doctor and Linx. Also, not so much use of eye-bleeding color but more naturalistic backdrops, which made for a change of pace in regards to viewing the Third Doctor episodes.

[Lost Soal]

Just for your information, he first gives his name as Doctor John Smith at the end of Spearhead from Space when the Brig asks he name for UNIT ID. Its actually the last line of the episode.

[Bedlam]

Just for your information, he first gives his name as Doctor John Smith at the end of Spearhead from Space when the Brig asks he name for UNIT ID. Its actually the last line of the episode.

Actually it comes from earlier than that James gives him the alias in the 2nd Doctor story the wheel in space taking it from a name on a bottle of medicine.

I think (although dont quote me) that he goes by the German version of John Smith in the even earlier story the Highlanders.

[Patrick Degan]

The far better example of how Sarah progressed the plot is her organising the raid on Irongron's castle to "capture" the Doctor. Not bad for someone who's unexpectedly on her very first time trip.

Of course, the entire success of the character came down to the fact that Elisabeth Sladen played her. Jon Pertwee liked her immediately the first day on the set. She had instant presence and was sharp. I have often considered that far more than being merely the actress cast in the part, Sladen can rightfully be considered the co-creator of Sarah-Jane Smith along with writer Robert Holmes.

[mr friendly guy]

Broomstick, a few other classic Who DVDs have redone special effects. For the Time Warrior, I remember Lynx blasts now actually show a beam of energy striking out. The original was just a bright light at the source of his weapon and the target falling down.