Doctor Who: The Time Warrior

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The Time Warrior is the first serial of Doctor Who Season 11, originally broadcast in four episodes from 15 December 1973 to 5 January 1974. It was written by Robert Holmes and directed by Alan Bromly. It stars Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor, Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, and Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.

Investigating the disappearance of scientists, the Doctor traces a strange signal to medieval England, where the Sontaran warrior Linx supplies weapons to the warlord Irongron in exchange for stolen technology. Sarah Jane, a determined journalist who stows away in the TARDIS, must quickly adapt to castles, raids, and alien plots as she teams up with the Doctor.

Episode 1

Scientists vanish from secure labs across England, leaving half-finished experiments still warm. The Doctor tracks a strange energy “hook” that seems to pluck people out of time; intrepid journalist Sarah Jane Smith bluffs her way into UNIT’s investigation and, suspicious of this “Doctor,” slips into the TARDIS as it dematerialises. They arrive not at another lab but in thirteenth-century England, where the bandit lord Irongron occupies a stolen castle with his loyal dolt Bloodaxe.

In nearby woods, a squat, domed ship has crash-landed. Its pilot (Commander Linx of the Sontaran Galsek Army) declares the planet Sontaran property and strikes a bargain: weapons for Irongron in exchange for shelter while he repairs his spacecraft. To get parts, Linx opens a timescoop and kidnaps modern scientists, hypnotising them to build heat-weapons and machine tools in a hidden workshop. Sarah, thinking she’s stumbled into an elaborate military exercise, is captured and mistaken for a noble spy.

The Doctor scouts the castle, glimpses Linx’s potato-armoured profile, and goes cold: Sontarans are relentless soldiers bred for endless war. When Irongron test-fires an anachronistic rifle over the battlements, nearby Sir Edward of Wessex prepares for siege, and Sarah, badly briefed and very brave, decides the Doctor must be the villain arming the bandits.

Episode 2

Irongron launches his first strike using Linx’s marvels: a clanking “iron knight” stalks through Sir Edward’s hall, a crude robot testing range and terror. It buys just enough panic for raiders to breach the gate before being felled. Sarah escapes the bandits and reaches Edward’s castle, where Lady Eleanor sees sense beneath the stranger’s shock and silk.

Convinced the Doctor serves Irongron, Sarah leads a plan to abduct him; instead, the Doctor talks fast, disarms suspicion, and reveals the true architect (Commander Linx) stealing minds from the future to mend his ship. With peace made, they gather allies: Hal the archer, keen-eyed and steady, and a handful of loyal men. The Doctor demonstrates the Sontaran vulnerability to the back of the neck and sketches a strategy: free the captive scientists, wreck Linx’s workshop, and keep gunpowder and rifles out of Irongron’s hands.

Back at the bandit keep, Linx stamps his insignia on finished weapons and grows impatient with human clumsiness; Irongron, drunk on promise, boasts of conquering half of England by Michaelmas. Sarah organises Eleanor’s servants into a nimble raiding party, while the Doctor dons monkish robes and a bag of tricks. Night falls; carts creak; a kitchen door lifts. The rescue begins under torch-smoke and laughter.

Episode 3

The Doctor infiltrates Irongron’s kitchens in the habit of a wandering friar, confusing guards with patter and pepper while slipping toward Linx’s laboratory. There, modern scientists toil in trance at lathes and benches, assembling coilguns beneath tallow lamps. The Doctor jams the timescoop for precious minutes and seeds a backlash in the hypnotic signal so the captives will rouse on his cue.

Sarah, taking Eleanor’s counsel seriously, leads the castle’s women on a bold theft: they slip through stables and storerooms, seize weapon parts, and spirit them out past Bloodaxe’s bluster. Hal and a small band create diversions on the wall walk, pinning guards with arrows that split torches and shatter tankards. Linx scents interference and stalks the corridors, stun-rod hissing, his probic vent exposed in warrior contempt. Irongron blames sorcery, beats his men, and vows a dawn assault on Sir Edward before the “friar” can meddle again.

The Doctor springs his signal; the scientists blink, confused and exhausted. He hustles them toward a postern gate, then doubles back to sabotage Linx’s power feed and overload the ship’s repair cycle. Alarms racket. Irongron barges into the lab with drawn sword. Steel meets alien alloy; the bandit finally sees the “sprite” behind his miracles: and it bares its teeth.

Episode 4

Everything accelerates. At first light Irongron musters for glory; Linx, repairs nearly complete, has no more patience for pets. The Doctor rounds up the half-waking scientists, steering them toward safety while Sarah delays pursuit with kitchen smoke and collapsing screens. In the lab, Linx trains his ship’s nose toward the stars and prepares one last timescoop to replace damaged circuits.

Irongron lunges to seize the craft for himself; a contemptuous blast drops him where he stands. Bloodaxe, suddenly practical, orders the men to fall back and light the powder stores: better a ruined keep than a cursed one. Hal reaches a vantage in the rafters just as Linx lowers his helmet and starts launch sequence. Remembering the Doctor’s warning, Hal draws, breathes, and lets fly. The arrow thuds into the Sontaran’s probic vent; Linx jerks, slumps across the controls, and the ship convulses.

The Doctor snatches his scarf through a closing door, slaps a final lever to release the timescoop’s hold, and hauls Sarah clear as the TARDIS returns the scientists to their own century. Behind them, Irongron’s castle erupts in flame and falling stone. In the quiet after, Sir Edward thanks them; Lady Eleanor smiles at Sarah’s nerve. Back in the TARDIS, Sarah admits the police box travels: and decides not to miss the next landing.

Themes

As a season opener, The Time Warrior is a spry reset after the emotional weight of The Green Death: witty, economical, and full of character. Robert Holmes’ script blends castle-keep intrigue with brisk sci-fi in a way that feels lighter than Day of the Daleks yet tighter than The Time Monster, and the debut of the Sontarans arrives as confidently as the Autons did in Spearhead from Space.

With a memorable villain in Linx, a lived-in medieval world, and a sparkling introduction for Sarah Jane Smith, it lands comfortably in upper-tier Pertwee, just shy of era pinnacles like Inferno and The Dæmons but standing shoulder to shoulder with Carnival of Monsters.

Its threads stitch past to future with precision. Coming after the Doctor’s liberty in The Three Doctors, the off-Earth adventure signals a pivot away from strict UNIT confines and toward the broader canvas that culminates in Planet of the Spiders. Sarah Jane’s arrival points directly to Invasion of the Dinosaurs, The Monster of Peladon, and (beyond Pertwee) Robot, Genesis of the Daleks, and her later farewell in The Hand of Fear.

The Sontarans’ first strike here resonates through The Sontaran Experiment, The Invasion of Time, and later returns such as The Two Doctors and The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky. Even the first on-screen naming of Gallifrey lays track for The Deadly Assassin and The Invasion of Time. By closing its castle doors with history nudged back on course, The Time Warrior opens the road to a new companion era and a final reckoning for the Third Doctor.

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This is a chapter from Craig Hill’s book “Doctor Who – The Third Doctor”, chronicling every episode featuring the Third Doctor. It is available on Amazon.

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To view the list of other Doctor Who serials, please click this link

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