(545) Warriors Gate - Episode 4

Today is an episode of mixed emotions because on the one hand Lalla Ward is leaving the show after 46 episodes although technically the character of Romana has been in the show for 66 episodes which would work out as the fifth longest serving companion on the show. It’s crazy to think that this is Tom Baker’s 164^th episode and there are just eight episodes left. Anyway back to today’s episode and I was kind of hoping that something would jump out at me but I have to say that this is the case. The first several minutes of the episode are taken up with a lot of talking and a lot of technical scientific terms which quite frankly I didn’t understand. This confusion does carry on for most of the episode and then with about six or seven minutes left of the episode the whole thing bursts into life and there is suddenly a lot of panic and action.

The only thing that made any sense was that Biroc says that they are basically to blame for being in the situation. Apart from that there is very little in the way of a story from this side of the episode and this episode will be remembered for Romana’s departure. Sadly Romana’s exit is a bit rushed but I liked the Doctor’s line about her being “the noblest Romana of them all”. Part of me wishes that the Doctor would have tried a bit harder in persuading Romana to stay. Lalla Ward wasn’t exactly happy with her exit One advantage of Romana departing is that Adric moves up the rankings because he was treated rather badly in this episode. It was 17 minutes before he first appeared and once he, the Doctor and Romana were in the TARDIS he was ordered to stay by Romana. At the end of the episode where its just the Doctor and Adric in the TARDIS, I think that it’s a weird combination.

As a companion, Romana has been really strong in both incarnations. I think that Lalla Ward is slightly better than Mary Tamm but I think had Tamm been in the show for slightly longer then my decision might be different. Ward gave Romana a slightly more fun sense of arrogance compared to Tamm. As an episode this story is no worse or better than the previous three but as a story I don’t think that it will be one of the classics. The next story is the penultimate one for Tom Baker and the next step in the regeneration of the show is about to take place. Sadly the final part of the E-Space trilogy isn’t quite the story that it needed to be and its perhaps the most disappointing story of the season so far.

(544) Warriors Gate - Episode 3

After wondering what was going to happen to Romana at the end of the previous episode, it must have been somewhat disappointing to see the hand wander down to the cuffs to release Romana. Or at least attempt to release her because the thing that is revealed about the Tharils in this episode is that they aren’t quite as good as we have been led to believe. This comes after Boric leads the Doctor through some sort of Alice in Wonderland setting and comes across the same banquet hall as before but this time its alive with the sound of people and music. Here humans are the slaves and the Tharils are the rulers and don’t treat the humans with a great deal of respect.

I have to say that I don’t think that this story gets the credit that it deserves in terms of special effects. People are so quick to mock the show because of ‘crappy special effects’ and other stuff but when you look at this episode and in particular the CSO used with the Doctor and Biroc in the Alice in Wonderland setting, it shows how much the show pushed the boundaries of what was possibly. Even by 2014 standards, its hard not to be impressed with what I have seen on screen. There is very little in this story that doesn’t rely on special effects of some kind and its this stuff that I find most interesting. The problem with the story is still that it’s a triumph of style over substance because narratively the story is lacking anything and I feel like Paul Joyce is doing all the work really. Ultimately when Biroc starts talking about time winds then I start to lose interest because it feels like the real science is starting to get into the story and if I want real science then I’ll watch something on BBC 4.

Adric has a slightly more productive episode than the previous one and he feels slightly more part of the team. That said I think that this is largely Romana’s episode because she seems to be everywhere and that’s not a critiscm but just an observation. It’s good to see Tom Baker being more productive than he was in the previous episode. To be honest he’s just more mobile rather than actually progressive in narrative terms.

The episode only really gets going in the final few minutes when the truth of the Tharils is revealed and I think that this is an interesting development. Frustratingly though this happens too late and the episode ends with a visually impressive cliffhanger. I say visually impressive because the shot goes from nice banquet hall to cobweb banquet hall and yet it flows really well. The episode is another one where there are good things to enjoy about this story but its still not working on me and its definelty the weakest story of the season.

(543) Warriors Gate - Episode 2

I am going to get this out of the way from the very beginning and say that I don’t think I will like this story by the end of episode four. I base this on the fact that even after all the stuff that happened in this episode I still cant find anything to be wowed by. It’s definelty a stronger episode that yesterdays but I cant say that much has really improved overall after two episodes. This really is a story of two halves because the first half is with the Doctor and he spends most of his time in the banquet hall which whilst a very nice looking set does mean that the Doctor is restricted in what he does and spends most of it interacting with the robot guards and whilst he does well it does seem like a bit of a waste of his talents. There were glimpses of the old comedic aspect of the Doctor which I know I haven’t been a huge fan of in the past but in small doses, its very much enjoyed on my part.

Romana drives the narrative in this episode in my opinion because she is very much the leader between herself and Adric in the early stages of the episode and once she leaves the TARDIS, she becomes even more involved in the episode and she does become part of the cliffhanger because it ends with a close up of her face screaming in terror at a Tharil about to lay its hand on her face. Romana doesn’t scream very much in this show (in either incarnation) and so she must feel some danger to scream. Adric still feels like the spare part of the team and that’s a shame considering how well he was used in the previous story. He does get one great moment in the episode when he tells K9 that he is more useless than usual. Considering that Adric hasn’t had as much interaction with K9 as we have, its good that he has come to this conclusion so quickly.

There is a slight problem with the character of Rorvik because I can see that they are trying to make a sinister villain out of him but when you consider the villains that there has been in just this season alone then Rorvik doesn’t quite work and I just think that its someone trying to be more of a menace than he actually is and that is part of the problem because if you don’t believe in the threat in the story then there is no desire to be bothered about the Doctor coming in and saving the day. This was another episode which had some good moments but as I mentioned earlier, I still have bought what Stephen Gallagher is trying to sell and I don’t think that its terrible compared to stories like ‘Meglos’ and ‘The Horns of Nimon’ but out of the three stories that form this trilogy, this is definelty the weakest of the three. Note I say weakest and not worst because there is too much going on in this story and still to happen for me to consider this adventure as a rubbish contribution.

(542) Warriors Gate - Episode 1

I’ve never been a fan of this story and out of the three stories of the trilogy, I felt that this was the one that let the side down and on the evidence of the first episode there isn’t anything that would make me change my mind. This is the final story to feature Romana and K9 and whilst I am disappointed about the former, the latter is good news. To be fair to the story, the opening shot is quite good because it’s atmospheric and looks really fab. This is the second time in this season that the episode starts off with a long (ish) panning shot, the first being ‘The Leisure Hive’ but unlike that panning shot, this one isn’t as long and visually is better.

I think that one of the things that works in this stories favour is the special effects because there are many throughout the four episodes and there are a few that take place in this episode. One in particular is when Biroc is running and there is a ghost trail behind him. It might be the sort of thing that would feature in a 1980’s music video. Credit should go to Paul Joyce for doing a job and pushing the boundaries of what should be possible for 1980’s TV. Apparently his directing methods caused some problem but they don’t show on TV. It’s fair to say that this story isn’t like anything that the show has seen before.

It seems like Romana’s exit has been prepared for because there is a little scene where Romana talks about her and the Doctor going their separate ways. It wasn’t with the Doctor but it seems like they are actually taking the time to prepare for a companions exit which they haven’t done for quite sometime. It feels odd that this is the ninth episode for Adric and it’s the first time that he has a scene as a companion and gets a proper TARDIS scene with the Doctor and Romana. That said he does seem to be a bit of an outsider because the Doctor and Romana are talking to each other and Adric is standing to one side like a spare part.

The cliffhanger is quite a good one because it looks like the Doctor is about to get his head knocked off. I had trouble trying to get interested in this story. It’s wasn’t terrible by any means but I think that it’s a bit dry and I worry that the next three episodes is going to be a triumph of style over substance. Only time will tell I suppose but the omens aren’t good.