Warriors' Gate

"Nowhere to go and no way of getting there."

Writer: Steve Gallagher
Format: TV
Broadcast: 3rd-24th January 1981
Series: 18.05

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Romana II, Adric, K9

Synopsis

Still lost in E-Space, the TARDIS is hijacked by a time-sensitive creature. It brings the Doctor, Romana, Adric and K-9 to a crumbling ruin in a lonely white void, where another ship is also stranded and in trouble. Will the TARDIS and its crew ever escape this strange otherworld? The answer lies inside the Gateway, but as the Doctor is about to discover, not everyone wants to go home...

Verdict

Warriors' Gate was a great serial and a very good way to conclude what has been a terrific E-Space trilogy. A venture into an alternative universe would always be interesting and things didn't disappoint with the three tales that I have recently blogged. Sadly, I won't be continuing with the rest of Season 18 despite the next serial being one of my all time favourites but for now it's been terrific to watch three consecutive stories with the same Doctor. Tom Baker was on stellar form once again as the Fourth Doctor and he never seems to fail with his quirkiness and eccentricity but plays it perfectly with the level of seriousness you would expect of the character. Romana was also terrific once again and this proved to be quite a fitting finale for the companion I (probably) consider to be my favourite. I thought her departure was a little hasty and I perhaps would have liked for her and the Doctor to get a longer goodbye but with E-Space collapsing, it didn't seem like that was possible which was good for this story specifically. Adric was decent once again despite not doing too much and I often forget how un-annoying he was during his time with the Fourth Doctor. Biroc was a fantastic character and I thought his development throughout the story was actually quite spectacular. He started off as merely being enslaved to navigate but ended up being with Romana and K9 as they set off on a mission to free the rest of the Tharils from the planets on which they were enslaved. I liked the concept of the Gateway and hearing of its history was very good. The relationship the Doctor and Biroc garnered was good and I thought the usage of time winds and particularly both sides of the mirrors was very good. I quite enjoyed how the Doctor kept appearing in random places, not often of his own volition. Rorvik made a good villain and he and his crew's complete disregard for the Thorvils was actually quite atrocious. They couldn't care less that they were living and just hoped to use them to get back to N-Space. The concept of zero coordinates was very clever and something I really liked but the prospect of going home for Romana wasn't appealing. Once the Doctor couldn't prevent Rorvik from committing total disaster, her decision to remain in E-Space was hasty and quite saddening. She would obviously be wonderful along with K9 though. The Doctor acknowledging that was lovely to hear and I thought it was good and quite right that he and Romana stayed and helped the Thorvils from being enslaved. Adric didn't quite want that at the start but he came around and seemed to understand. Overall, a fantastic little serial!

Rating: 8/10