(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.