| Production Code: UUU
First Transmitted
The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
Crew
In the Middle Ages, the bandit Irongron and his aide Bloodaxe together with their rabble of criminals find the crashed spaceship of a Sontaran warrior named Lynx. The alien claims Earth for his Empire then sets about repairing his ship, offering Irongron “magic weapons” that will make him a king in return for shelter. They strike a bargain, though Irongron remains suspicious. The Doctor and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart are investigating the disappearance of several scientists from a top secret scientific research complex. They do not know Lynx has used an Osmic Projector to send himself forward eight hundred years and has kidnapped the scientists then hypnotized them into making repairs on his ship. The Projector only lets him appear in another time for a brief period. While the Doctor investigates he meets an eccentric scientist called Rubeish and a young journalist called Sarah Jane Smith, who has infiltrated the complex by masquerading as her aunt. Later that evening Rubeish disappears and the Doctor uses the data he has gathered to pilot the TARDIS back to the Middle Ages.- not realising new companion Sarah has stowed away on board Irongron is a robber baron who has stolen his castle from an absent nobleman, and relations with his neighbours are appalling. Indeed, the mild Lord Edward of Wessex has been provoked into building an alliance against him and, when this is slow in developing, sends his archer Hal on an unsuccessful mission to kill Irongron. The robber baron is in a foul mood when a captured Sarah is brought before him. His mood improves when Lynx presents him with a robot knight which is then put to the test on a captured Hal. The archer is only saved when the Doctor intervenes from afar, shooting the robot control box from Irongron’s hands. The ensuing confusion lets both Hal and Sarah flee, and they head for Wessex Castle. Meanwhile the Doctor has realised both that Sarah is in the time period and has been captured, and also that his adversary is a Sontaran. Investigating the laboratory he finds Rubeish, who has evaded the hypnotic state placed on the other scientists on account of his severe myopia. Lynx returns to the laboratory and seizes the Doctor. He knows of the Time Lords and their home planet Gallifrey (the first time it has ever been named as such). While Lynx is indisposed, Rubeish frees the Doctor, who heads away to the neighbouring castle. At Wessex Castle the Doctor shares what he knows with his new allies, and Sarah and the others begin to look on him more fondly, having previously supposed him to be in league with Irongron. The next morning the robber baron and his troops assault the castle using rifles supplied by Linx but the attack is repelled by the Doctor’s cunning. The failure further sours the relationship between Linx and Irongron, which has deteriorated since the robot knight fiasco and the point at which the robber saw the Sontaran’s true visage beneath his helmet. The Doctor now decides to lead an attack on Irongron’s castle, and he and Sarah enter dressed as friars. He makes contact with Rubeish and finds the human scientists in a state of extreme exhaustion. Linx catches the Doctor in the laboratory once more, but this time is rendered immobile when a lucky strike from Rubeish hits his probic vent – a Sontaran refuelling point on the back of their necks which is also their main weakness. Rubeish and the Doctor use the Osmic Projector to send the scientists back to the twentieth century. Sarah now inveigles herself into Irongron’s kitchen, using the opportunity to drug the food, thereby knocking out Irongron’s men. A recovered Lynx now determines his ship is repaired enough to effect a departure. Once more he encounters the Doctor, and they wrestle in combat. A crazed and half drugged Irongron arrives and accuses Linx of betraying him: the Sontaran responds by killing him. As Linx enters his spherical vessel Hal arrives and shoots him in the probic vent, and the Sontaran warrior falls dead over his controls, triggering the launch mechanism. Knowing the place is about to explode when the shuttle takes off, the Doctor hurries the last of his allies out of the castle. It explodes moments before the Doctor and Sarah depart in the TARDIS.
Analysis by Cuisle By the time with episode aired I was very definitely a confirmed, steady Doctor Who fan, with all the annuals, and posters and a huge collection of cardboard cut out characters from Weetabix packs. It was MUCH cheaper to be a fan in those days, before a TARDIS console playset cost £39.99. This episode was eagerly awaited and I don’t recall being in any way disappointed by it. Having seen it several times since, I am still not disappointed. Sarah Jane Smith, ably played by Eliabeth Sladen, came around just when I was old enough to need a strong female role model. I started putting ‘freelance journalist’ down as the job I wanted to do when I grow up, even though I wasn’t sure what ‘freelance’ or ‘journalist’ meant. She made an immediate impact on Doctor Who fans generally, as a feisty woman who would talk back to The Doctor when he was being pompous, while still having a huge affection for him. Her refusal to believe, at first, that she WAS in medieval England, and then her modern feminist rampage through the middle ages, trying to persuade serving wenches and ladies of the manor alike to be assertive was a fantastic introduction to her character. Sarah Jane took nothing lying down. Linx the Sontaran was set to become an iconic Doctor Who adversary. We never actually see in any episode, the actual great, millennia old battle between the Sontarans and Rutans, but every encounter with the potato-headed warriors tells a little more about their society in which thousands of Sontaran infants are born at once and raised in hatcheries to be warriors, trained to kill the enemies of their race. They are not evil in the usual sense of the meaning. They do what their society believes is the right thing. But that clashes with The Doctor’s view of what is right. And since the Sontarans are using time travel technology they also clash with the Time Lords themselves. For those reasons, let alone the kidnapping of Humans from their own time, The Doctor was bound to act. The medieval setting has been criticised for lack of real historical depth and reality. And that is a fair point. The idea of a Norman castle standing alone under siege in late 12th century England is implausible. News would have reached other strongholds even if the standing armies of the country WERE depleted due to the Crusades. The castle and the costumes provide a pretty backdrop and an excuse for Sarah Jane’s would-be feminist uprising, and that is all. Even so, the medieval characters were played well Irongron the robber baron was in many ways more unpleasant than Linx. The Lady Eleanor, played by June Brown, now famous as a stalwart of Eastenders, was a strong female character even without women’s lib. It really didn’t MATTER that history was being shredded by the plot. Good prevailed, bad was blown to bits in the final dénouement and that’s all it was expected to do. Critics of the time and later may complain it was too simplistic. It wasn’t. It was a well told story that looks only a little bit dated by modern comparison, mainly because the multi-part treatment with the cliffhanger endings doesn’t work any more. Incidentally, this is the first story in which the NAME of The Doctor’s
planet, Gallifrey, is mentioned.
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