By its very nature, The Time Warrior is something of an oddity. As Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks both point out on the commentary and in the accompanying documentary (The Beginning of the End), having the Third Doctor visit a historical period was incredibly rare. In fact, the only time previous to this story that the Doctor had ventured into Earth’s past was in The Time Monster when he and Jo followed the Master back to Atlantis. There has also been a visit to the medieval-inspired planet of Peladon, but this is the first time we see the Third Doctor really get stuck in to history. Interestingly, the writers of the novels and audios have also steered clear of Pertwee-based historicals. In the novels, there is David A McIntee’s 1916 set The Wages of Sin and David Bishop’s 1952 set Amorality Tale (which, being only 20 odd years prior to the Third Doctor’s usual period only just qualifies as a historical).

Of course, this lack of history day trips is mainly down to the ‘present day Earth’ format of the Pertwee era, forced on it for budgetary reasons in the early days. What’s odd is that once the production team of Letts and Dicks started getting the Doctor away from Earth (because they had realised this limited the possible script scenarios) that it took so long for them to get him back into history. Colony in Space was the first time the Doctor took a trip away from Earth and that was in Season 8. The Time Warrior is Season 11!

And what a lot of fun it is too. Despite Robert Holmes’ reluctance to write a historical story, he produces one of his most entertaining scripts. The medieval characters are a joy, brought to life perfectly by the cast. David Daker’s Irongron and John J Carney’s Bloodaxe spit out wonderful ‘middle ages’ dialogue and have immense fun goading Linx and the Doctor and pushing around Hal the Archer and Sarah. Their polar opposites Edward and Eleanor (Alan Rowe and a simply brilliant June Brown) perform a slightly more realistic version of the King and Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland – the ineffectual, weak king accompanied by his strident, cunning and strong wife and queen. Barry Letts mentions what a shame it is that the story was not a six parter as this would have allowed the character of Eleanor to be developed more. I agree with this, although do wonder whether the actual plot of The Time Warrior would have stretched beyond the four episodes it already is (there is a fair amount of toing and froing from castle to castle). Alongside them with have Jeremy Bulloch as Hal and Sheila Fay as Meg, both of whom give great performances. I particularly like Sarah’s scenes with Meg in the castle kitchens where they discuss women’s liberation. It’s slightly heavy-handed characterisation for the new companion but is an entertaining section of script all the same.

Linx the Sontaran is a brilliant creation. The Sontaran race have, quite rightly, become Doctor Who classic monsters. Their back story of the interminable war with the Rutan allows future stories featuring them to plough a limitless furrow of story ideas. Their constant need to get the upper hand in the war allows for stories of experimentation, expansion and other audacious schemes. So iconic are they that it was only a matter of time before the new series brought them back. Kevin Lindsay performs him beautifully and it is no wonder he returns to play Styre in The Sontaran Experiment. The costume and mask are well designed.

Of course, this is also Elisabeth Sladen’s debut as Sarah Jane Smith. I was never the biggest fan of Sarah Jane, but her revival in the 21st century has opened my eyes somewhat to her greatness. The sad loss of Elisabeth last year will be keenly felt by fandom for many years to come, but it is in stories like The Time Warrior where we see why, as a character and an actress, she was so iconic. She just fits as the companion. As always a lot of the independence and fighting spirit Sarah displays in this story comes and goes depending on who is writing the script and, like all female companions, she is forced to revert to stereotype on occasion. Here, though, we get Sarah as she should always be and Elisabeth is a joy to watch.

What’s particularly striking about this story, with these disparate characters, is the richness of dialogue and the contrasts between the different characters. Linx’s alien, scientific approach to everything gives his dialogue a robust preciseness which contrasts with the florid, almost Shakesperean medieval flavoured dialogue of the native characters. Throw into this mix Sarah Jane and Professor Rubeish’s modern 70s speech patterns – including Elisabeth Sladen’s Liverpudlian ‘gerroff!’ when captured and we have a script which sparkles.

Less successful are some of the sets. After watching The King’s Demons which had a very convincing castle set which looked solid and believable, The Time Warrior suffers from flat walls and wooden ‘stone’ steps which look very stagey. There is some good set dressing (and Jim Acheson’s costuming is magnificent, particularly the medieval get up that Sarah gets to wear) but overall, the sets feel unreal and, with some wonderful location footage, this jars slightly with the rest of the production. I know it is unfair to compare serials which were broadcast 10 odd years apart, and the other way round, but this is the nature of my marathon. That said, the much earlier The Crusade, had solider looking sets than this story and that was a good 10 years previous.

Historically, the story is incredibly vague. Terrance Dicks points out on the commentary that this was deliberate. We know nothing more than it is ‘middle ages’. Many of Edward’s soldiers are away fighting a war for the king, but which king is never revealed. Irongron is described as a ‘robber baron’ but apparently Edward’s title of Wessex is an anachronism for even the vague period this is set.

Lance Parkin chooses to set this story in 1273. He acknowledges that Edward refers to interminable wars – possibly the Crusades – and that Irongron refers to Normans – possible dating it soon after the Norman invasion of 1066. However he also takes into account Sarah Jane’s comment in The Sontaran Experiment that Linx died in the 13th century. He also bases the date on a comment in The Paradise of Death that this adventure happened 800 years ago. I don’t quite get this as that would surely mean a setting for The Paradise of Death of 2073 but maybe I’m misunderstanding Lance’s reasoning.

Either way, the dating of this story is really no more placeable than ‘the Middle Ages’. Consequently, the costuming and set design are reminiscent of a ‘medieval’ story like Ivanhoe or Robin Hood and this story owes much to films like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, much as The King’s Demons did. I think the fact that this period of history is one which, for many years, was considered ‘The Dark Ages’ means we rely on television and film interpretations as our reference points, unlike periods far more well documented like the Tudors and Victorians.

A great story.