I suspect the little gibbering noise he makes by way of an "ouch" is meant to be cute, but it's almost sick-makingly irritating. He gets booted by Rorvik and hurled by Packard. 9 after three years of whining and whirring.It's clear the production staff were fed up to the back teeth with K Script editor Christopher H Bidmead believed "the drama of producing it was so much greater than the drama that actually hit the screen", and Gallagher himself lamented some of the questionable science introduced by the rewrite. It's no surprise to learn of Warriors' Gate's difficult gestation. Clifford Rose, instantly recognisable to contemporary audiences as über-Nazi Kessler in The Secret Army, is very one-note as grumpy old sod Rorvik, while Kenneth Cope, also a familiar face as the ghost in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), provides perky comedy as Packard, but isn't given enough to do. The Tharils are not just the mane attraction of the story, thanks to Pauline Cox's wonderful make-up they're a believably flawed and likeable species, unlike most of the humanoids. Its super-density is a little difficult to believe, when we see the Doctor pocketing a lump, and a ship made of the stuff is turned into a skeleton by a few fireworks. His 2011 adventure Day of the Moon features dwarf-star alloy, the adamantine substance that effectively imprisons the Tharils.
The story certainly seems to have left a mark on Steven Moffat, and not just with its celebration of complexity. But this is a very warped wonderland, on a par with season six's The Mind Robber, with whom Warriors' Gate shares a minimalist aesthetic and an intellectual revelry. "It's like talking to a Cheshire cat," says the Doctor of our leonine lead. And the static, black-and-white world behind the mirror has a brave and beautiful innovation, even if the banqueting-hall scenes now look as dated as a Visage video.īut Gallagher was also impressed by the work of American authors Joe Haldeman and Alfred Bester, not to mention Lewis Carroll.
Its visual influences are a firecracker blend of many things, including Belle et la Bête and Orphée - a Molotov Cocteau, if you will. Warriors' Gate is a steam-powered ideas factory, with its temporal schisms and its reflections on life and death, freedom and captivity, sin and redemption. Anyway, there's something rather fun about not knowing what's going on, even into a story's latter stages. Watched carefully, this four-parter is actually perfectly followable and has sound logical integrity.
But Steve Gallagher, already an established genre writer for radio in the early 80s, attempted something different, and the story stands out to this day for doing just that. And on the face of it, yes, it is a perplexing potpourri, treading in the footsteps of other outlandish entertainments such as Sapphire and Steel and The Prisoner. That's certainly the case with Warriors' Gate, which has an ill-deserved reputation for being wilfully cryptic and abstruse. When it does, it seems to bemuse as many fans as it amuses… RT Review by Mark Braxton For a science-fiction series, Doctor Who doesn't actually "do" sci-fi all that often - not hardcore, head-scratching, literary sci-fi. 9 - John Leeson Adric - Matthew Waterhouse Rorvik - Clifford Rose Packard - Kenneth Cope Lane - David Kincaid Aldo - Freddie Earlle Royce - Harry Waters Biroc - David Weston Sagan - Vincent Pickering Lazlo - Jeremy Gittins Gundan - Robert VowlesĬrew Writer - Steve Gallagher Designer - Graeme Story Incidental music - Peter Howell Script editor - Christopher H Bidmead Executive producer - Barry Letts Producer - John Nathan-Turner Director - Paul Joyce.Production Black-and-white photography: September 1980 at Powis Castle, Powys Studio recording: September 1980 in TC6, October 1980 in TC1Ĭast Doctor Who - Tom Baker Romana - Lalla Ward Voice of K First transmissions Part 1 - Saturday 3 January 1981 Part 2 - Saturday 10 January 1981 Part 3 - Saturday 17 January 1981 Part 4 - Saturday 24 January 1981
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