Warriors' Gate Part Four

The one where the back-blast bounces back and destroys everything...

It takes a solid five minutes of screen time for the Doctor to make the point that they're all in danger, and that they're all in this together. A somewhat panicked K-9 reveals that time and space are both contracting around them, and the dimensions of the Gateway are being affected by a huge mass disturbing its stability. It turns out that the huge mass is Rorvik's spaceship, the hull of which is made of the extremely dense dwarf star alloy.

Nothing really happens in this closing episode until Adric rocks up almost eight minutes in and threatens Rorvik and his pals with the MZ. The whole MZ routine plays out really strangely, because at no point do you see Rorvik and his men in the same shot/ context as the MZ. The camera shots and moves try to sell the fact that the Doctor is aiming the MZ at Rorvik's men as they all edge closer to the exit, but you don't see that happening, you just see the two shots edited together. Were they even in the same studio on the same day when it was shot? It's indicative of how haphazard the editing of Warriors' Gate feels.

Back in the TARDIS, Adric suggests they just scarper, which is a sensible thing to ask, if somewhat selfish (I don't mind this selfish streak Adric has, at least it's consistent). But the Doctor and Romana being the goody-two-shoes that they are, they cannot leave until they have freed the enslaved Tharils on Rorvik's ship. I like the fact Adric is learning what life aboard the TARDIS is like. He stowed aboard looking for a better life of adventure with the Doctor, but with those travels comes responsibility, and it's only right that Adric should learn that.

There's some lovely model work, particularly shots of Rorvik's ship looming over the TARDIS, or the Gateway. It's rather a pity to see them blown up at the end!

Rorvik's now getting so desperate that he is going to use the power of the MZ laser (and we still don't know what it stands for) to blast his way through the mirrors. But as Romana memorably points out: "The back-blast will bounce back and destroy everything!" For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, demonstrated in microcosm when Rorvik kicked the mirror earlier in the story. If he tries to drive a dwarf star alloy spaceship through the mirrors, the result will be catastrophic. Rorvik is a pretty nasty piece of work in this episode, demanding that the remaining Tharil slaves are broken out and revived to act as a navigator. The fact their rapid revivification might well kill them matters little to him, as long as he can get one out of the entire cargo. He's not a very astute slaver if he's content to murder his entire cargo; he's not going to be paid a penny!

Mute Lazlo reappears to help his fellow Tharils revive in a more agreeable way, which begs the question of why Biroc couldn't have done the same episodes ago. He was free half way through part 1 and could quite easily have gone back to help his fellow lion men instead of wandering around looking into the middle distance for the rest of the story. However, the demise of nasty old Sagan is handled well, with a horror film shot of him falling backwards over the trolley, his agonised face staring upside down into camera.

The solution to stopping Rorvik blowing up the Gateway is for the Doctor to short out the ship's warp motors. It's not a very clever or high-minded solution, which is a shame after having so much scientific and philosophical jargon laced throughout the story. In the end, the Doctor doesn't even succeed in shorting the motors (there's quite a violent little tussle between him and Rorvik in which the Doctor's scarf becomes his worst enemy, and an orange plastic clipboard does not). Biroc tells the Doctor to "do nothing. If it's the right sort of nothing", which sounds fabulously philosophical, but what does it mean? Doing nothing means things blow up, people die, battles are lost. I suppose it's alluding to the power of chance hinted at by the I Ching/ coin-tossing of part 1, but it's a slender strand to follow.

Clifford Rose, who has been consistently average throughout this story (as if he was only doing it for the money) is particularly bad in his final scene, over-acting to a tremendous degree. Rorvik is supposed to be unravelling. He feels he's finally achieving something after three and a half episodes of inaction and failure, but Rose plays it way over the top, like Yosemite Sam, with a final cackle that sounds terribly forced. I actually find it a little embarrassing to watch. This is not a man who's gently become unravelled. This is a man who just can't play it.

And then Romana leaves. It's that abrupt. "I'm not coming with you." The fact Romana's been thinking of leaving was hinted at in part 1 when she suggested to Adric that she and the Doctor might go different ways, but the decision still comes out of the blue (especially for the Doctor, bless him). This farewell scene has never worked for me. I know some fans like it, but I honestly cannot understand why. It's so rushed and sudden, and nobody seems particularly moved or bothered by it. I know they're Time Lords and have different feelings to humans, but I'd prefer there to have been some kind of emotional impact. As it is, Romana says she's going, the Doctor accepts it, donates K-9 to her, and leaves. No regrets, no tears, no hugs, no thank yous, just "I'm going", "OK, bye."

There's a nicer scene in the TARDIS at the end where Adric asks if Romana will be alright, and the Doctor wistfully replies: "Alright? She'll be superb!" That's a better send-off, I just wish that kind of sentiment was in the actual farewell scene. Poor Adric doesn't get to say goodbye to Romana or K-9, the Doctor doesn't get to say goodbye to K-9, and Romana doesn't take anything with her from the TARDIS. She literally has just the cullotes she's standing in (and a robot dog).

And as Romana, K-9 and Biroc wander off through their photographic world, we learn that K-9 has the plans to duplicate an entire TARDIS! Hold on, what?! How? If a little robot dog can build a time machine, then he's been much more valuable an asset throughout his three years with the Doctor than anyone realised! The destiny Romana has chosen is a somewhat limited one after all the adventures she's had, but at least she doesn't have to go back to Gallifrey, something she was dreading. She will give the Tharils time technology in exchange for freedom to travel anywhere in E-Space using the Gateway, her mission to free as many enslaved Tharils on myriad worlds as possible.

It's a noble departure for a character who started out as very different to the way she ended up. Two different actors, three different seasons, plenty of space to develop. While I still prefer Mary Tamm's take on the Time Lady, Lalla Ward brought her own unique self-approving personality to the role. Some might say there's an innate smugness to Romana II, which is something that prevents me from fully falling in love with her. But there's no denying Lalla Ward was very special in the role, and her relationship with Tom Baker brought a spark to the characters' on-screen repartee.

It's also farewell to K-9. Again, after three and a half years aboard the TARDIS, it's rather abrupt. No sorry goodbye between master and dog, he's just shoved into Romana's arms as an empty prop casing. Such a shame. Imagine a tiny moment between the Doctor and K-9, where the Doctor kneels down and pats him on the head and tells him to be a "good dog", and K-9 replies: "Affirmative, master". Just that would have been infinitely better. The Doctor wouldn't see K-9 again until School Reunion (but not this K-9). After all they've been through, the Fourth Doctor and K-9 don't get to say goodbye.

And we leave the Doctor travelling with a precocious boy from E-Space, the third time he's travelled with a lone male companion in the classic series (and the last). The First Doctor and Steven travelled alone together in The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, and the Second Doctor and Jamie were a brief pairing in The Evil of the Daleks and The Wheel in Space. It'll be interesting to see how the Baker/ Waterhouse dynamic plays out.

I just cannot connect with Warriors' Gate. It looks lovely, and I know it is very different to most else in the entire canon. I'm grateful when the production team tries something new, whether it fails (The Web Planet) or not (The Mind Robber). But Warriors' Gate comes over as far too clever for its own good to me. It's a good story marred by shovelfuls of jargon and gobbledygook, and it's paced and edited abominably. I don't think I've ever known a Doctor Who story so haphazardly edited, especially part 3. I can't warm to Warriors' Gate, but I can see why other people like it.

First broadcast: January 24th, 1981

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: I love the uncompromising way Sagan's death is shot.
The Bad: Clifford Rose's final speech is embarrassing, and the abrupt departure of Romana and K-9 leaves me feeling cheated.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆ (story average: 5 out of 10)

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 24

NEXT TIME: The Keeper of Traken...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Two; Part Three

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: https://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/09/warriors-gate.html

Warriors' Gate is available on BBC DVD as part of the E-Space Trilogy box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Space-Trilogy-Warriors/dp/B001MWRTUY