The final of the E-Space trilogy is the weakest of the three stories because it is the most complicated. It pretty much shows what I find wrong with the Christopher H Bidmead era of the show. It might be nice to be have a bit of science but don’t forget it’s essentially a drama and you lose something if you get bogged down in science. The story stands out as being seeing the departure of Lalla Ward as the second Romana. The story is strange because it doesn’t seem to be set on a planet but in a void as there is a lot of blank sets apart from the TARDIS, the slave ship and the banquet hall.
The reason why I don’t like this story is that it’s dull and as it’s hard to enjoy anything when it’s dull. Several of the characters don’t have much in the way of likeable personalities about them. Rorvik should be someone that was supposed to dislike but actually I didn’t find him menacing or anything like that. The only character was Packard as played by Kenneth Cope. It’s only because I recognised him from being in the Randall and Hopkirk series. As a race the Tharil’s are too cuddly looking for my liking. Also their story didn’t actually make me care. I thought that Biroc was actually quite good but his performance gets lost in the story. As her swansong, this story is a bit of a let down because the character of Romana has been highly entertaining both as Mary Tamm and as Lalla Ward. I certainly never got the impression that they were dropping hints about a departure. Certainly nowadays a lot is made of an exit but in this story there is almost a sense that it’s been rushed because they lost track of time.
Ultimately the story suffers from a confusing plot which even after years and countless times of watching it still doesn’t make sense. The writer (Stephen Gallagher) has gone on to do quite well apparently but this isn’t one of his finest pieces of work. Visually the story is all over the place with the stuff in the banquet hall being the highlight. Graeme Story (Production Designer) should take responsibility for this because Paul Joyce (Director) did an ok job but was hampered by a lack of budget and also the material.
Warriors Gate is the embodiment of the new era in Doctor Who but it’s not quite as successful as it’s intended to be but it’s still better than Meglos. Also its time to say goodbye to K9 who after three year he stayed with Romana though it’s a debatable point as to how complicit he was in this. However Warriors Gate is getting closer towards the end of the Tom Baker era and the moment has been been prepared for.
The reason why I don’t like this story is that it’s dull and as it’s hard to enjoy anything when it’s dull. Several of the characters don’t have much in the way of likeable personalities about them. Rorvik should be someone that was supposed to dislike but actually I didn’t find him menacing or anything like that. The only character was Packard as played by Kenneth Cope. It’s only because I recognised him from being in the Randall and Hopkirk series. As a race the Tharil’s are too cuddly looking for my liking. Also their story didn’t actually make me care. I thought that Biroc was actually quite good but his performance gets lost in the story. As her swansong, this story is a bit of a let down because the character of Romana has been highly entertaining both as Mary Tamm and as Lalla Ward. I certainly never got the impression that they were dropping hints about a departure. Certainly nowadays a lot is made of an exit but in this story there is almost a sense that it’s been rushed because they lost track of time.
Ultimately the story suffers from a confusing plot which even after years and countless times of watching it still doesn’t make sense. The writer (Stephen Gallagher) has gone on to do quite well apparently but this isn’t one of his finest pieces of work. Visually the story is all over the place with the stuff in the banquet hall being the highlight. Graeme Story (Production Designer) should take responsibility for this because Paul Joyce (Director) did an ok job but was hampered by a lack of budget and also the material.
Warriors Gate is the embodiment of the new era in Doctor Who but it’s not quite as successful as it’s intended to be but it’s still better than Meglos. Also its time to say goodbye to K9 who after three year he stayed with Romana though it’s a debatable point as to how complicit he was in this. However Warriors Gate is getting closer towards the end of the Tom Baker era and the moment has been been prepared for.
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