It's been a while since I've watched "Warriors' Gate". This is an unusual story, don't you think?
Harry -
It's definitely out there, even though the foundation of it is quite simple: at a point in existence where two universes intersect, several groups of people find themselves stuck. They spend the ensuing four episodes trying to get themselves unstuck.
Sarah -
It's a lot of bother when everyone shares the same goal of getting out of there.
Harry -
"Warriors' Gate" is also known for having been a difficult production. Writer Steve Gallagher delivered to the BBC what was, in his own words: "a novel in screenplay format." Director Paul Joyce and Script Editor Christopher H. Bidmead hacked it down to mere splinters, to Gallagher's dismay. Joyce then found himself stifled by the time and budget constraints of the Beeb, which impeded the grand cinematic visions he had for the production. A frustrated Joyce was temporarily replaced, but he returned to finish the job and the conclusion of the E-Space trilogy hit TV screens in the UK in January 1981.
Sarah -
One of the amusing aspects of the making-of featurettes on so many Doctor Who DVDs is watching the directors, writers, and crew members airing their grievances thirty years on. Still, "Warriors' Gate" seems to have had more drama than your average production.
Harry -
I love how passive-aggressive everyone is on the featurettes. So many lingering grudges!
Sarah -
Really, it's kind of perfect for Doctor Who fans, as we never let go of things ourselves.
Harry -
We get an immediate taste for Joyce's big screen ambitions from the long tracking shots that open Part One. The camera drifts over a group of shaggy humanoids who lay in stasis, before pulling away and roaming through the empty, graffiti-stained corridors of a space ship. Instant atmosphere.
Sarah -
I love those establishing shots. So evocative. The ship really looks lived-in and that carries over to the crew, who all look like they've been on this ship far too long. Royce and Aldo, the lowest-ranking members of the crew, provide the comic relief as the most apathetic members of an extremely apathetic crew.
Harry -
Royce and Aldo were charmingly unenthusiastic throughout. You could tell the rest of the crew was worn out from Commander Rorvik's constant bluster. Although he presented his ship and crew as "traders" to Romana, he left out that small detail that they traded in slaves, and their cargo was the room full of Tharils in stasis -- Tharils being prized as time-sensitives who provide a valuable resource as navigators.
Sarah -
While we don't know the entire story at the beginning, the scene where the Tharil is being used for navigation is just brutal. Rorvik's lack of concern with the Tharil's well being is our first clue that these "traders" are not the good guys.
Harry -
Biroc the Tharil managed to escape and traverse the time winds right into the TARDIS. There, he warned the Doctor and friends that, basically, stuff was about to get weird. And it certainly did.
Sarah -
The opening TARDIS scene, before Biroc arrives, is interesting. Romana is still trying to avoid going back to Gallifrey, while the Doctor thinks Adric will love it. Meanwhile, the TARDIS continues to struggle against E-Space, leading to a long discussion of the I Ching, which leads to Adric tossing a coin and pressing a button. The TARDIS lands just as the time winds are sweeping in, bringing Biroc into the TARDIS.
Harry -
All season we've been having these opening scenes in the TARDIS console room where we first glimpse our friends. Usually, they've been repairing K-9, or having some down time, or puzzling over where and when they are. That's the case this time. It was a bit garbled as they jumped from one subject to another before Biroc appeared and got the story going.
The TARDIS lands and the Doctor follows Biroc into the partial ruin of an old castle. Romana follows the crew back to their trade ship. Adric and K-9 spend some time roaming the empty space in between. Did you get any "Land of Fiction" vibes during those scenes? I was half-hoping that Lemuel Gulliver might appear out of the whiteness.
Sarah -
How great would it be to see Bernard Horsfall again? I was absolutely thinking of "The Mind Robber" during these scenes.
Harry -
Bernard Horsfall, or those noisy robots.
Inside the trade ship, Romana is mistaken for another time sensitive and strapped into the navigator's chair for a spot of terror.
Sarah -
That was terrifying!
Harry -
Back in the castle, the Doctor finds the dusty remains of an ancient banquet, complete with guard robots who conveniently spell out just what's going on. So convenient! Sort of. The robot's story was a bit garbled too, and didn't really explain how certain characters could start jumping between striations of time - literally going through the looking glass to do so.
Sarah -
Don't you love it when a handy plot device turns up? The Gundan robots are certainly visually interesting, not so much on the whole sticking-to-a-clear-narritive thing. The plot was even more confusing after the Doctor got the robot to "explain" the situation.
Harry -
On the other side of the looking glass, the Doctor discovers the ghosts (?) of dead Tharils at the banquet, and discovers that they too employed slaves - humans in fact. O ho! This twist seemed to render both the traders and the Tharils no better than the other. There was no angry speech from the Doctor this time, perhaps because Rorvik and his crew were growing increasingly impatient and violent, and the intersection between the universes started contracting. Time to find a resolution, fast.
Sarah -
The Tharils aren't the innocent victims we think they are, after all. The plot thickens.
Harry -
Eventually, everyone makes it to the banquet room for a final confrontation. Obsessed with getting through the looking glass, Rorvik and company decide to employ heavy weaponry to smash it. Adric saves the Doctor and Romana with another bluff, turning the MZ device on the traders. The idiots eventually blew themselves up as everyone else legged it back to the TARDIS.
Sarah -
I love the imagine of Adric perched about the MZ, staring down the traders. Before Rorvik kills the rest of the crew, we witness the death of Sagan at the hands of a Tharil. The final shot of his corpse nearly drove me behind the sofa -- so disturbing.
Harry -
There is a lot of horror and gore in E-Space - more than I remembered.
I'm not sure what happened with Adric and K-9 in this story. They got lumped together for a period of time, wandered around and didn't do much until right at the end. I wonder if Gallagher didn't have much use for them, or Joyce and Bidmead found themselves running long and shunted them aside. K-9's most memorable moment was when he got a bit panicky with a lot of "Danger! Alert! Warning!" shouts as the intersection continued shrinking in upon itself. Little did we know that this was his swansong.
Sarah -
Poor K-9.
How many times have we said that in this last season?
Harry -
No kidding. At least the fiends didn't blow him up.
Romana foreshadowed her own swansong earlier in the story, when she mused aloud about her and the Doctor going separate ways. As everyone returned to the TARDIS, she made her surprise announcement...
Sarah -
Overall, Romana has a good send-off. Having had her mind expanded by traveling with the Doctor, she's not content to go back to Gallifrey and sets off on her own to make the universe a better place.
Harry -
It was so sudden, yet so decisive, and totally cool. No emotional sendoff, just a calm, mature parting of two equals (despite what was going on between Lalla and Tom away from the cameras).
Sarah -
Sadly, this is exactly why JN-T decided Romana had to go. The Doctor having a companion who is an equal is a rare thing and those are the companions I always like the best. I adore both Romanas, but Lalla Ward is truly the Romana of my heart. Her parting from the Doctor is one of the most memorable moments in Doctor Who for me.
Harry -
Of course, it set up not only the best line of the story, but one of the best lines in all of Doctor Who.
Sarah -
"You were the noblest Romana of them all."
It makes me teary-eyed every time.
Harry -
According to the fine folks at Big Finish, Romana continued her adventures and eventually returned to Gallifrey to assume the Presidency. I really can't see her making a return in the new series. Most of the main companions in New Who have followed the same template: young female from contemporary Britain. And repeat. And Clara is back for another season. There have been flashes of that "team of equals" thing with Clara that the Doctor had with Romana -- to the point where Clara assumed the role of the Doctor herself a couple of times last season, in "Flatline" and "Death in Heaven." I like. Hopefully there will be more of that in the future.
Sarah -
Have you read Terrance Dicks' Blood Harvest? Apparently, Romana turns up again, still in E-Space.
Harry -
I don't think I have read that one, but it sounds fascinating!
As for K-9, he had quite a long run as a companion, although the version that joined up with the Doctor and Leela was succeeded by a second one at the end of "The Invasion of Time." Another one will be gifted to Sarah Jane Smith. Do we just assume that there is a continuity among K-9s? I don't know. Regardless, K-9 was wildly popular with the kiddies. Many adults who get asked about classic Who always go back to two things right away: the scarf, and the robot dog. I like that too. He was a very very very good dog!
Sarah -
A very good dog -- the noblest of them all!
Before we say our final farewells to Romana and K-9 and make our way out of E-Space, I wanted to ask if you thought Tom Baker look tired in this story. There were so many shots were he just looked exhausted and his hair seemed to have a will of its own. As we move into our final two Fourth Doctor stories, it really feels (in retrospect, of course) that he's just winding down in the role. It's all so bittersweet.
Harry -
It's funny because I was just looking at pictures of him in "Robot" the other day, and the physical changes between then and now are striking.
Sarah -
Best Line: "You were the noblest Romana of them all." *sob*
Favorite Moment: The Doctor and Romana's parting *sob*
Lasting Image: Romana and K-9 staying behind in E-Space
6/10
Harry -
Best Line: agreed on this one. One of the best lines ever!
Favourite Moment: the parting scene is up there, but I'll also mention those moments in the whiteness of space and time, when it seemed as if they were back in the Land of Fiction.
Lasting Image: those striking black and white backgrounds from the universe on the other side of the mirror.
8/10
Our marathon continues with Story #114: The Keeper of Traken...
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