(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.