552 The Keeper of Traken: Part One

EPISODE: The Keeper of Traken: Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 552
STORY NUMBER: 115
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 31 January 1981
WRITER: Johnny Byrne
DIRECTOR: John Black
SCRIPT EDITOR: Christopher H. Bidmead
PRODUCER: John Nathan-Turner
RATINGS: 7.6 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - New Beginnings (The Keeper of Traken/Logopolis/Castrovalva)

"Traken Union, famous for its universal harmony. A whole empire held together by people just being terribly nice to each other."

The Doctor & Adric are visited by the all powerful but ailing Keeper of Traken, ruler of the Traken Union. He explains how the evil Melkur was attracted to their planet but stands immobile calcifying in a grove where Kassia is appointed to tend it as it dies. Years later Kassia is appointed as one of the five consuls to the Keeper and marries one of her colleagues, Tremas, who shortly after is appointed Keeper nominate with his daughter Nyssa being given Kassia's previous duty of tending the Melkur which has lasted far longer than expected. Fearing the events that will occur in the run up to and following his death the Keeper asks the Doctor to come to Traken to aid them. Kassia, grief stricken at the prospect of loosing her new husband, pours her heart out to Melkur who unexpectedly responds. The Tardis materialises in the Grove and the Doctor & Adric are quickly arrested by the Fosters who tend it, already worried due to a recent murder. The Doctor tells his story to the five consuls: Tremas, Kassia, Seron, Katura & Luvic. However he is unable to corroborate it due to Melkur making the Tardis vanish from the grove. The Keeper is summoned to verify their story but as he materialises Melkur, unseen by anyone but the keeper, enters the chamber. The Keeper proclaims that their is evil among them and vanishes as the Doctor & Adric find themselves surrounded.

Oh that's rather good. Some fabulous design work beefs up what the script provides with the Keeper, an old bearded man in a chair, playing up to the stereotypical depiction of God and typical futuristic set & costume problems being solved by the use of stone effect sets & plush period costume style clothing, taking us into an area where the BBC traditionally excels.

This looks good, in a different way to how Warriors' Gate looked good. Warrior's Gate played with flashy visuals & effects but Keeper of Traken is much more lavish & solid and credit for this needs to go to Production Designer Tony Burrough, later to be Oscar nominated for his work on Richard the Third, and costume designer Amy Roberts.

I'm not sure the Tardis has ever had a visitor while in flight before, so you imediately know that The Keeper is rather powerful and it adds weight to the rather lengthy piece of exposition he delivers to The Doctor, Adric and us, the audience, to set the story up:

DOCTOR: Hello.
KEEPER: How do you do.
DOCTOR: It's all right, Adric. The Keeper of Traken.

KEEPER: Well guessed, Doctor. The reports I hear of your intelligence are true, I see.
DOCTOR: Oh, well, it wasn't difficult to guess who'd taken possession of the Tardis. I mean, there can't be many people in the universe with the capacity of just dropping in like this.
ADRIC: Well, you could have told me.
DOCTOR: Shush. Time reveals everything, Adric. What can we do for you, Keeper?
KEEPER: Listen closely, Doctor. As you see, the passing ages have taken toll of me.
DOCTOR: Yes, yes, I know that feeling.
KEEPER: But unlike you, my time of Dissolution is near and the power entrusted to me is ebbing away.
DOCTOR: Oh, come on. It's still fairly impressive. I mean, I couldn't flit around the universe in an old chair like this.
KEEPER: I have all the minds of the Union to draw on. I am only the organising principle. It is on that count I ask you to come to Traken.
DOCTOR: Right!
KEEPER: Think carefully before you agree. There is great danger in this for you and your young friend.
DOCTOR: How so, Keeper?
KEEPER: I fear that our beloved world of Traken faces disaster.
ADRIC: Universal harmony, you said.
DOCTOR: Shush.
KEEPER: The Doctor does not exaggerate. Since the time of the Keepers, our Union has been the most harmonious the universe has ever seen. Does the boy not know of this?
DOCTOR: Oh, he's not local. E-space, wasn't it? Where's he gone?
KEEPER: How vain one can still be. I thought the whole universe knew the history of our little empire.
DOCTOR: Yes. They say the atmosphere there was so full of goodness that evil just shrivelled up and died. Maybe that's why I never went there.
KEEPER: Rumour does not exaggerate, Doctor.
ADRIC: The screen.
KEEPER: Oh, forgive me. May I borrow it for a moment?
DOCTOR: Oh please, Keeper, please.
KEEPER: Yes, we have indeed been visited by evil many times. Our compassion for these poor distorted creatures seems to attract them like moths to a flame. Sometimes they are redeemed.
KEEPER: The Fosters are the guardians of the spiritual welfare of our capital.
KEEPER: They name such creatures Melkur.
DOCTOR: Melkur?
KEEPER: Melkur. Literally a fly caught by honey. The Fosters know there's nothing to fear from these visitations.
DOCTOR: So what becomes of this Melkur?
KEEPER: It's baleful influence will not extend beyond the grove, and even here it will only produce a few weeds. Like others before it, the creature will calcify and pass harmlessly into the soil. But the demise of any living thing is painful to us.

KASSIA: And how are you today, you poor Melkur? The Fosters have appointed me to look after you. There isn't much I can do. It must be awful being rooted to the spot like a tree. If you weren't quite so evil, you might be able to move a bit, just around the grove. Being so evil, you can't even speak. Never mind. I'll come and visit you again soon. Oh. By the way, my name's Kassia.
DOCTOR: Well, that particular evil seems to be well under control.
KEEPER: Seemed, Doctor. That was many years ago. Young Kassia is now grown up. Such was her purity of spirit that she became a consul, and the day of her marriage to Tremas has become, somehow, the turning point for Traken.

KEEPER: Now it begins. My certain knowledge of the coming Dissolution. No Keeper lasts forever, and the period of transition is always difficult. But I sensed more than that, even as I came to name Tremas as my successor.
DOCTOR: Sense what, Keeper?
KEEPER: All-pervading evil, and somehow nurtured in those three good people standing before me to receive the blessing of the Keeper. Doctor, my time is close. I need your help.
DOCTOR: Anything I can do, Keeper.
ADRIC: That goes for me, too.
DOCTOR: Shush. Well, we'll see. We'll see.
KEEPER: I am fearful even to involve the Doctor. He will face unimaginable hazard, confront power that would obliterate even a Time Lord. Even you, Doctor. Goodbye, my friend. Farewell.
ADRIC: Well, that's a funny way of going about things.
DOCTOR: Yes, isn't it. What do you make of it?
ADRIC: I don't know. But I do hope we know what we're doing.
DOCTOR: So do I. We?
ADRIC: You.

In retrospect you can make a good arguement for The Keeper himself bringing on a lot that follows by naming the newly married Tremas as his successor....

KASSIA: You listen so patiently, and who else could I speak to of my unhappiness? To be Keeper Nominate, they regard it as a great honour, but when the Keeper's Dissolution comes it will take Tremas from me forever. And I know his time will be soon. I know it will be soon.

MELKUR: Soon.
KASSIA: You spoke to me!

Alhough the Keeper could have taken into account the strength of Kassia's feelings he had no way of knowing what she was falling in league with .....

Two significant figures join us in front of the camera for the first time here:

Playing Tremas is Anthony Ainley. The son of actor Henry Ainley, the Godfather of third Doctor Jon Pertwee. By this stage in his career he was able to select work as he pleased, preferring to spend his time playing & watching cricket (he is, to the best of my knowledge, the first Doctor Who actor to have got his obituary in Wisden). His character's name is the first, but by no means the last, anagram to be associated with his time on the program.

Playing Tremas' daughter Nyssa is Sarah Sutton. The role, initially just for this story, was liked by the producer and he decided to have it expanded into that of a new companion.

The actors playing the Fosters, Traken's police force/gardeners, contain some familiar names and we'll start with those who are in all four episodes: In all four episodes as a Foster is Michael Gordon-Browne who had been in Doctor Who before as a Time Lord in Invasion of Time, a Mute in the Armagedon Factor, a Tigellan in Meglos and a Tharil in Warriors' Gate/ He would have been a Cyberman in Earthshock but for his Claustrophobuia and later returns as a Guard in Arc of Infinity. I can also see a Michael Gordon as a Xeron in The Space Museum which might be the same person. In Blake's 7 played a Laboratory Technician in Seek-Locate-Destroy and a Hi-tech Patient in Powerplay.

Mark Middler had be a member of the Pangol Army and a Rebel in State of Decay.

Pat Judge was a Passenger in Nightmare of Eden. He returns as a man with a metal detector in Resurrection of the Daleks. He also appears in Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. as a Captive and in the Dad's Army film he's a Townsman. In The Sweeney he was the Barman in Big Spender. He's in two Sean Connery James Bond film: Dr. No as Le Cercle Waiter and Thunderball as a Casino Patron. He's also in two Carry On Films: Carry On Jack as a Pirate and Carry On Cleo as a Senator.

Barney Lawrence was a Marshmen in Full Circle and a guard in State of Decay and returns as a Kinda Hostage in Kinda, the Male Android Silhouette in Earthshock, Air Steward Dave Culshaw in Timeflight, Tanha’s Bodyguard in Snakedance, a member of Striker's crew in Enlightenment, a Marine Guard in Warriors of the Deep, and a Trooper in Resurrection of the Daleks. He was in Blake's 7 as a Federation Trooper in Time Squad & Bounty, a Guard in Traitor and Zukan's Technician in Warlord.

Colin Thomas was a UNIT Soldier in Doctor Who and the Silurians, Sole in The Face of Evil, a Mentiad in The Pirate Planet, a customer in Cafe in The City of Death, a Don in Shada - is he the only persion apart from Tom Baker in all three Douglas Adams stories? He returns as a Logopolitan in Logopolis, a Gallifreyan in Arc of Infinity, an Elder in Planet of Fire and a Pallbearer in Remembrance of the Daleks.

Playing a Foster in just this episode are:

Jim Morris, who I can't find on IMDB, returns as the Station Master in Black Orchid and a Businessmen Passenger in Time Flight.

Fred Redford was in The Leisure Hive earlier this season as Visitor Loman, plays a Citizen in part of this story and returns as Male Passenger in Time Flight and in Snakedance as a Ceremonial Attendant Demon.

Donald Groves had been a Skonnan Elder in Horns of the Nimon and also plays a Citizen in part 2 of this story. He returns as an Elder in Planet of Fire. He'd been in Porridge as Trevor, Lukewarm's other half, in Men Without Women. He was in Doomwatch as a man in No Room for Error & Flight Into Yesterday.

Barry Summerford had been Invasion of the Dinosaurs as a Operation Golden Age Man, The Ark in Space as a Body in Pallet, Genesis of the Daleks as a Elite Guard, Revenge of the Cybermen as a Vogan, Terror of the Zygons as a Private Thurston, The Seeds of Doom as a UNIT Soldier, The Hand of Fear as a Security Guard, The Sun Makers as a IR Guards in Exchange Hall, The Ribos Operation as a Shrieve, The Armageddon Factor as a Guard, The Creature from the Pit as a Guard, and would have been in Shada as Nero. He was in the Doomwatchepisode Tomorrow, the Rat as a Man, Moonbase 3 as a Technician in Castor and Pollux & View of a Dead Planet and in Blake's 7 he plays a Federation Trooper in The Way Back, a Rebel in Pressure Point, a Rebel in Voice from the Past, a Customer / Gambler in Gambit, a Federation Commando in Volcano, a Monster in Dawn of the Gods and Tando in Blake, making him one of four actors to appear in the first and last episode of the series. He can also be seen in the Douglas Camfield adaption of Beau Geste as a Legionnaire.

Stuart Myers made his debut in the Silurians where he was a Plague Victim, UNIT Soldier & Technician. He then played a Unit Soldier in Ambasasdors of Death, an Axon in Claws of Axos, a Draconian in Frontier in Space, the Photographer in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Titan Base Crewman in Invisible Enemy, one of the Pangol Army in The Leisure Hive and a Foster in Keeper of Traken. He returns as a Bucaneer Oficer in Enlightenment, a Citizen/Unbeliever in Planet of Fire, a Resistance Fighter/Alphan in Trial of a Timelord 5-8 Mindwarp and a Customer/Mercenary in Dragonfire. In Blake's 7 he was a Crewman in Space Fall and in Moonbase 3 a Technician in Outsiders and Castor and Pollux. In Monty Python's Flying Circus he's a Water Rat in Spam and a Tour de France Man in Bed / Man in Computer Hamlet. He plays a briefly seen human Mos Eisley denizen in Star Wars: there's a picture on his Aveleyman entry which also lists an unnamed role in The Sweeney episode Payoff.

Tony Snell was a UNIT Soldier in Seeds of Doom, a Guard in Invasion of Time, a Levithian Guard in Ribos Operation and a a Gracht Guard in Androids of Tar. He returns as a Passenger in Time Flight. In The Prisoner he was a Party Guest in A. B. and C. and a Villager in Dance of the Dead. In Blake's 7 he's an Albian Rebel / Federation Trooper in Countdown. In The Sweeney he's a Parent in Jigsaw and in the Diamonds Are Forever he's an Assistant.

Ralph Morse was in Blake's 7: Animals as an Animal, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as a Young Scientist in the second episode, the fourth season of The Sweeney as a suspect in the opening credits and The Professionals as a SAS Officer in Lawson's Last Stand. He's in three successive Roger Moore James Bond film as a Skier in The Spy Who Loved Me, an astronaut in Moonraker and a Skier in Lift in For Your Eyes Only. Elsewhere on the big screen he is an Arborian in Flash Gordon, a Stormtrooper / Imperial Comms Officer / Rebel Soldier in The Empire Strikes Back and a Stormtrooper in Return of the Jedi.

Doug Roe was a Guard & security Guard in Seeds of Death, a Military Policeman and Prisoner in The War Games, a UNIT soldier in The Ambassadrs of Death, a globby Axon & Unit Soldier in Claws of Axos, a Technician/Guard/Citizen in Pirate Planet and a Pangol Body Part and one of the Pangol Army in The Leisure Hi e Maurice Connor had been a Guide in The Leisure Hive and a Gundan in Warriors' Gate. <-- Foster in Keeper of Traken --> In Blake's 7 he was a Space Princess Guard in Gold. In Gerry Anderson's Doppelgänger / Journey to the Far Side of the Sun he's the Suit Technician.

Onto the Citizens:

Mary Rennie was a Kitchen Hag in The Time Warrior, a Villager in Planet of the Spiders, a Peasant & Traveller in The Masque of Mandragora and a guide in The Leisure Hive. She returns as one of the crowd in the Marketplace in Snakedance and as a Citizen/Unbeliever in Planet of Fire

Her Husband John Tucker also plays a Citizen: he had been the Double for Balan's corpse in The Dominators and an Old Time Lord in Invasion of Time. He returns as a Logopolitan in Logopolis. In Doomwatch he's the Shopkeeper in Friday's Child.

Anne Higgins was an Other in The Sunmakers and returns as a Passenger in Time Flight. In Blake's 7 she was a Passenger in Gold.

Mary Eveleigh returns as Trooper Seaton in Earthshock. She's the Woman on Stairs at Milliway's in episode 5 of the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: you can see a picture of her in that role as Watching Blake's 7 who thinks she's in also in Blake's 7 Moloch as one of the women on Sardos.

Joy Burnett had been in The Faceless Ones as an Airplane Passenger and Spearhead from Space as a Waxwork Visitor/Auton Replica. She was in the 1965 The Wednesday Play (TV Series) of Up the Junction as a Lady in pub.

David Enyon had been a Scientist in The Time Warrior, a SRS Bouncer/Officer/Audience Member in Robot, and a an Executive Grade in The Sunmaker. He returna as a Time Lord in Trial of a Time Lord: Mysterious Planet & Mindwarp, and an Orange Time Lord in Trial of a Time Lord: Terror of the Vervoids & The Ultimate Foe. He played Gold Six pilot Hol Okand in Star Wars.

Colin Cook was a Citizen in Full Circle. He returns as a Castrovalvan Man in Castrovalva

Steve Whyment is on his Doctor Who debut: he returns as a Security Guard in Logopolis, a Kinda in Kinda, Trooper Brooks in Earthshock, all three directed by Peter Grimwade, and is in the Crowd in the Marketplace in Snakedance. In Blake's 7 he was in Stardrive as a Space Rat, Warlord as a Federation Trooper and Blake as a Plantation Bounty Hunter. who's back in Snakedance as Man in Market and appears in Blake's 7 as a Space Rat in Stardrive, a Federation Trooper in Warlord and a Plantation Bounty Hunter in Blake.

Margaret Leggett & Jimmy Goldston are both making their only Doctor Who appearances.

551 Warriors' Gate: Part Four

EPISODE: Warriors' Gate: Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 551
STORY NUMBER: 114
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 24 January 1981
WRITER: Stephen Gallagher
DIRECTOR: Paul Joyce
SCRIPT EDITOR: Christopher H. Bidmead
PRODUCER: John Nathan-Turner
RATINGS: 7.8 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The E-Space Trilogy (Full Circle / State of Decay / Warrior's Gate)

"Do Nothing! It is done!"

The Doctor is held at gunpoint by Rorvik, but they are interupted by the arrival of K-9.

DOCTOR: K9! Where have you been, my dear old thing?
RORVIK: Is that yours?
K9: Mass conversion anomaly. Alert. Danger. Warning.
RORVIK: Oh, shut him up.
DOCTOR: Don't say that! He may have a point. What mass conversion anomaly?
K9: Dimensional contraction of the microcosmic system. Orders.
DOCTOR: Contraction? This could be serious.
ROMANA: It's the memory wafers, Doctor.
DOCTOR: What?
ROMANA: He's going a bit funny.
K9: Mathematical vanishing imminent. Warning.
DOCTOR: No, that's not funny. That's. What's causing it?
K9: Impossible to compute. Space time instability.
RORVIK: Time to play with your toys later, Doctor.
DOCTOR: I think not! If K9's right, and he usually is, this place is in worse shape than we thought it was.
PACKARD: You can't get worse than the back of beyond.
DOCTOR: Soon it may not even be that.
ROMANA: K9 says its dimensions are contracting.

RORVIK: Well, that's the silliest thing I've heard all day. Who's going to believe that?
PACKARD: Well
RORVIK: I thought you might. It's ridiculous. Space contracting?
ROMANA: And time.
PACKARD: At least hear him out. What's the hurry?
DOCTOR: Quite a lot. How long have we got, K9?
K9: Contraction curve exponential. Estimate on present data beyond capability of this unit.
ROMANA: So it's starting?
DOCTOR: Slowly.
ROMANA: But might collapse completely at any minute.
DOCTOR: Yes, yes, but it would need a huge mass to disturb time and space to that extent. Even the Tardis doesn't weigh that much. Neither does their ship.
ROMANA: It might. The hull is made of dwarf star alloy.
DOCTOR: What?
ROMANA: Dwarf star alloy.
DOCTOR: Dwarf star alloy? What are you playing at? Is it something to do with these?
ROMANA: They're slavers.
DOCTOR: Yes. Trading in time sensitives. And dwarf star alloy is the only material that will hold them.
RORVIK: And it's very expensive.
DOCTOR: How many more of those poor creatures have you got in that hulk of yours?
RORVIK: Poor creatures? Each one's worth a king's ransom, Doctor. You seem to understand business even less than you understand science. This wild theory about contraction.
DOCTOR: No wild theory about contraction. K9. No, K9. K9!
RORVIK: Hold it.
RORVIK: Your machine seems to know as much about it as you do. Get up!
PACKARD: So what you're saying is, the distances are getting shorter.
LANE: Like between the ship and here.
DOCTOR: Yes. As the domain contracts.
RORVIK: Shut up! He's playing for time.
DOCTOR: Playing for time? Quite the reverse.
LANE: He's right about one thing. The trip between here and the ship. Each time we've done it, it has been shorter.
DOCTOR: Yes, and if I can get back to my Tardis, I can prove it and find out exactly how much time we have left.
RORVIK: Oh, gobbledygook. We can deal with this in very short order. Get us through. Time's run out for you, Doctor.

The Doctor sees Biroc through the mirror:

DOCTOR: Hello, Biroc.
BIROC: Doctor. You've seen our past, you've seen our present. You were right. We abused our power. But judge whether we've not suffered enough.
DOCTOR: As you said, the weak enslave themselves.
BIROC: The time of our enslavement is over. We will be free.
DOCTOR: I wish you luck. But what about us? Have you got any ideas on that count?
BIROC: Do nothing.
DOCTOR: What?
BIROC: It is done.

Adric threatens the ship's crew with the MZ allowing the Doctor & Romana to escape to the Tardis. The MZ is fired at the gateway but just succeeds in destroying itself. Rorvik decides to use a backblast from the ship's engines to penetrate the Gateway but damage to the ship means it will take ten minutes to come to full power. The Doctor & Romana go to sabotage the ship and prevent it from using the backblast. The Doctor & Romana find their way into the ship through the damaged section where the Doctor is attacked by Rorvik.

DOCTOR: Look here, Rorvik. You've got to stop this back blast. You'll kill us all.
RORVIK: So you say, Doctor. I say it's the only way out of here.
DOCTOR: You can't blast through those mirrors. You must realise by now it just throws the energy straight back.
RORVIK: They've got to break. Everything breaks eventually.

Romana grants them a little grace by shorting the ship's power system using Biroc's chains. Crewmember Sagan attempts to crudely revive the Tharils but kills those he works on. Biroc himself rescues them from Rorvik.

DOCTOR: Biroc? What are you doing here?
BIROC: Nothing.
DOCTOR: It's all right for you.
BIROC: And for you, too. Do nothing.
DOCTOR: Do nothing?
ROMANA: Of course, Doctor. Don't you see?
DOCTOR: Yes, that's right. Do nothing, if it's the right sort of nothing.
RORVIK: Run, Doctor. Scurry off back to your blue box. You're like all the rest. Lizards when there's a man's work to be done. I'm sick of your kind. Faint-hearted, do-nothing, lily-livered deadweights. This is the end for all of you! I'm finally getting something done!

Lazlo kills Sagan and properly revives the remaining Tharils himself . The Doctor, Romana and Biroc return to the Tardis

DOCTOR: We've made it. Quick, quick, inside. What's the matter?
ROMANA: I'm not coming with you.
DOCTOR: Inside. That's an order.
ROMANA: No more orders, Doctor. Goodbye.
DOCTOR: What? What a moment to choose.
ROMANA: But it is, isn't it? A moment to choose. I've got to be my own Romana.
BIROC: And we need a Time Lord.
ROMANA: Goodbye, Doctor.
DOCTOR: No, no, no. Wait, wait. There's something else. K9. He'll be all right with you behind the mirrors.
ROMANA: I'll take care of him.
DOCTOR: I'll miss you. You were the noblest Romana of them all.

Romana, Biroc & K-9 pass through the Gateway just before the backblast comes to full power, but is just reflected back my the gateway, destroying the ship.

The Tardis dematerialises and slips through the gateway. Lazlo leads his people out of the remains of the ship and through the gateway.

The Tardis passes through the Tharil realm on it's way to N-Space as Romana promises to help Biroc free the Tharils enslaved on many other worlds.

Loved that, fabulous stuff.

Having said that it's a bit graphic with the Tharils' screams as Sagan attempts to revive them, Rorvik stepping on The Doctor's hands and Sagan's death, albeit via the same means he had been unsuccessfully attempting to use to revivive the Tharils. And as the story, in paricular this episode, has gone on Rorvik's got louder and taken less notice of anyone else as madness consumes him.

But it wraps the story up nicely: the slavers pay for what they've done with their lives, the Tharils are freed from their subjugation and Romana take up their cause, ceasing this last opportunity to avoid going home to Galifrey.

A great end to what's been a superb set of episodes. I knew Warriors's Gate was good but everytime I watch it it just gets better.

This isn't just the end of the story, it's the end of the road for two of our supporting characters. K-9 had been an annoyance to new producer John Nathan-Turner from day one and had quickly decided it had to go. Technically problems with the prop had caused delays to shooting but K-9 was a much loved part of Doctor Who at this time and a campaign in the papers had failed to save him. As a sop to viewers it was announced that K-9 would be starring in a pilot for his own television series....

Also leaving was Romana actress Lalla Ward who, feeling that the show was moving away from a family audience, had decided to move on. Throughout her time as Romana she'd been engaged in an on/off romance with Tom Baker, and shortly after she left the show the two were married for a brief time. In 1992 she married biologist Richard Dawkins, having been introduced by their mutual acquaintance former Doctor Who script editor Douglas Adams.

There are two actors appearing as Tharils in just this episode: Mark Arden & Stephen Frost, collctively known as The Oblivion Boys. They've both made many television appearances since, such as in The Young Ones & Black Adder, and starred in Lazarus & Dingwall, which features Jeremy Gittins, who plays Lazlo in this story, in three episodes.

Warriors' Gate was adapted as a Target Novel by Stephen Gallagher under his nom du plume John Lydecker in 1982. The E-Space Trilogy, containing Full Circle, State of Decay & Warriors' Gate, was released on video in 1997 and on DVD on 26th January 2009.

Doctor Who Season 18, including Warrior's Gate, was released on Blu-Ray on 18th March 2019.

550 Warriors' Gate: Part Three

EPISODE: Warriors' Gate: Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 550
STORY NUMBER: 114
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 17 January 1981
WRITER: Stephen Gallagher
DIRECTOR: Paul Joyce
SCRIPT EDITOR: Christopher H. Bidmead
PRODUCER: John Nathan-Turner
RATINGS: 8.3 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The E-Space Trilogy (Full Circle / State of Decay / Warrior's Gate)

"Alert. Danger. Warning. Present mass anomaly increasing. Dimensional contraction of microcosmic system. Orders. Urgent request for orders. Imminent danger of mathematical vanishing. Orders. Mass conversion anomaly. This microcosm subject to imminent dimensional instability. Alarm. Warning. Danger!"

Romana's bonds are loosened by the Tharil, Lazlo, that has been hideously disfigured, but he hides from the searching Aldo & Royce. Beyond the mirror Biroc explains to the Doctor he has passed through the Gateway, healing the Doctor's hand and restoring the Gundan's memory wafer that the Doctor is carrying. K-9 too would be restored but because he is not living matter would need to remain there. Returning to the ship to fetch the MZ cannon, Lane & Packard discover that the distance between it and the gateway appears to be shortening. The Doctor walks through the Tharils' palace and is guided by a female Tharil to an earlier version of the banqueting room.

Romana escapes, and finds Adric. Examining the damage to the Hull she discovers that it's made from super dense dwarf star alloy. She is recaptured but the crewman guarding her is slain by Lazlo who takes her to the gateway passing through the mirror and healing Lazlo's horrific injuries. The Doctor sits at the Tharil feast, discussing with Biroc how the Tharils have enslaved the humans. The feast is interrupted by the Gundan robots, come to slay the Tharils and suddenly the Doctor and Romana find themselves at the later version of the banqueting room and in the hands of Rorvik & his crew.

Plotwise that's slightly confusing as time and locations jump around. But visually it's absolutely stunning again.

Just when you're getting used to the existing setup director Paul Joyce pulls a new trick by showing the Tharil domain as black & white.

This was done using still photographs shot at Powis Castle with the Doctor, Romana & Tharils as the only colour walking through them with (for the time) near seamless CSO.

I'd never spotted before that the two lengths of the garden path were the same photo flipped!

The Doctor genuinely looks like he's walking down the path receding into the distance. Biroc does one better by walking down to the end of the path and passing behind the bush. In the shot above the Doctor walks through the gatew

All this from a program that just 3 years ago did The Invisible Enemy and Underworld both of which feature some very dodgy CSO.

And all along there's a hint that something's really not right....

LANE: We can't be sure of anything in this place. These readings don't make sense. How can it be a shorter distance coming back than going?
PACKARD: Is that what it says?
LANE: All the machinery is packing up. It's bad luck having that girl on board, that's what it is.
K9: Reference order quote vanish unquote. To vanish, to cease to exist, to become zero. Present environment fulfils this condition. This unit awaits next order.
PACKARD: There's our bad luck.

The crew feel the walk to the ship is getting shorter which is emphasised by a panning shot placing the freighter, the Tardis and the Gateway all close together when previously they'd been separate.

K9: Orders, master. Orders.
LANE: This thing's getting heavier.
PACKARD: I don't know. We made that trip back fast enough.
K9: Mass instability anomaly. Further data required.
LANE: Yeah, seemed like that to me too. Not as far coming back as it was going out.
K9: Imminent decision necessary. Microcosm universe system unbalanced and contracting.

Things are also getting heavier....

ROYCE: When was the last time we had this out?
ALDO: Oh, the Tharil hunt on Shapeer.
ROYCE: Either we're getting old or this is getting heavier.
ALDO: Bit of both, I reckon.

Though to be fair on Aldo & Royce it does have Adric & Romana hiding on it when they move it!

Meanwhile Romana's got concerns about the ship:

ROMANA: That's funny.
ADRIC: What is it?
ROMANA: Those warp motors are huge. Three times what they need for a ship this size.

ROMANA: Wait here.
ADRIC: Romana?
ROMANA: It's dwarf star alloy. The whole hull's made of it.
ADRIC: Dwarf star alloy?
ROMANA: Dwarf star molecules are compacted under enormous gravitational force. That's why the alloy's so heavy.
ADRIC: No wonder they need big motors.
K9: Alert. Danger. Warning. Present mass anomaly increasing. Dimensional contraction of microcosmic system. Orders.
ROMANA: Shush!
K9: Urgent request for orders. Imminent danger of mathematical vanishing. Orders. Mass conversion anomaly. This microcosm subject to imminent dimensional instability.
ROMANA: Shush, K9.
K9: Alarm. Warning. Danger.
ROMANA: Stop him.
ADRIC: Quiet!

It almost sounds like the damaged K-9 is shouting jibberish which is being ignored!

But the journey between ship and gateway seems to be getting shorter and shorter....

SAGAN: They're here.
RORVIK: That was quick.
LANE: Very odd. Seemed no distance at all this time.

And on the other side of the gateway The Doctor starts to get some answers:

DOCTOR: K9! If we can get him through the mirror, will it repair him?
BIROC: You have in your pocket a memory wafer you took from the Gundan.
DOCTOR: What? That's right. Yes, I have. Look. Look.
BIROC: K9 will be restored in the same way.
DOCTOR: Then we must get him here.
BIROC: That will happen. But your hand is living matter and will remain healed when you return to the other side of the mirror.
DOCTOR: So K9 can only be revived on this side of the mirror?
BIROC: Where he must stay.
DOCTOR: No, don't go. Don't go, please. Where is this place? Where have you brought us?
BIROC: You are where you were.
DOCTOR: What? The gateway still? But that's nowhere.
BIROC: For the Tharils and those with us, it opens onto a whole universe.
DOCTOR: I see. I see. E-Space. That's right. Yes, for you people it's a jumping off point for E-space, but for non-time sensitives, Biroc. Biroc, I understand. Biroc? He's gone again. It's like talking to a Cheshire cat.

The Gundam in the previous episode was talking about a feast

DOCTOR: Poor things. Hardly any better off than K9. Ah ha. Memory wafer.
GUNDAN: No Tharil shall outlive the day of the feast.

GUNDAN: We are Gundan. We exist to kill. Slaves made the Gundan to kill the brutes who rule.
DOCTOR: What particular brutes did you have in mind?
GUNDAN: The Gundan were sent where no slaves could go. We faced the time winds and we lived. They had only the gateway to flee for safety.

And now we get to see the feast....

DOCTOR: My goodness. You live like kings.
BIROC: We are kings.
DOCTOR: Such variety. Where did it all come from?
BIROC: The universe is our garden.
DOCTOR: Ah. So this is what it was all like.
BIROC: At the height of our empire, before the Tharils became the slaves of men.
DOCTOR: I notice you don't do too badly for staff. This garden of yours, the universe. How do you manage it?
BIROC: We use our power for those who travel on the time winds. The vastness of space is no obstacle. Everything is ours.
DOCTOR: Including her?
BIROC: They're only people.
DOCTOR: So you're the masters the Gundan spoke of? The enslavers.
BIROC: The weak enslave themselves, Doctor. You and I know that.
DOCTOR: Yes, yes. This is no way to run an empire!

.... an indeed it's interuption by the arrival of the Gundan

As director Paul Joyce deploys his final trick showing then becoming now as the banqueting room transforms from it's earlier version with the Tharils' feasting to the later one with Rorvik's crew having lunch with even the two different meals providing a neat contrast between the two times.

with the Gundan's axe embedded in he table providing one of the few constants......

..... and an echom of our earlir view of the scene as the food disapeared off the plate:

Stunning stuff!

All along there's some interesting comparisons, with The Doctor & Romana both being accompanied by their Tharils, Biroc and Lazlo respectiovely:

And at one point both are led by a Tharil, Romana by Lazlo and The Doctor by the female Tharil. !

What happens the female Tharil guiding the Doctor? And where does she come from? She just appears from nowhere in the episode and then vanishes! Because she doesn't speak she doesn't get a credit, and she wasn't listed as an extra on IMDB the first time I blogged this story so it wasn't until I acquired a copy of the DWAS Doctor Who Production Guide that I discovered she was played by Erika Spotswood who appears to have gone on to sing in the band Ruby Blue.

Bar the Doctor's companion Romana, the only other female character is the Servant the Tharil knocks to the floor. She's played by Marianne Lawrence. Not a great story for female characters: both the female charactersd appear in this episode only and neither gets a line!

The actor playing Biroc, David Weston , has appeared in Doctor Who before: he was Nicholas Muss in The Massacre. He'd been in UFO as Phil Mitchell in Survival and The Dalotek Affair, played Number 300 in The Tomorrow People story The Vanishing Earthand was in By the Sword Divided as Captain Bush in Escape. Early on in his career he was in An Age of Kings, the BBC adaptation of William Shakespeare's history plays appearing in Henry VI Part 4: The Morning's War. He's gone on to appear in most of the plays on sdtage and has written about the plays in general in Covering Shakespeare while Covering McKellan covers his experiences understidying for Ian McKellen in King Lear. You can hear David Weston interviewed in Who's Round #33

Jeremy Gittins, who plays Lazlo was a semi regular as the vicar in Keeping Up Appearances. Blackadder Goes Forth as Private Tipplewick in Corporal Punishment, and appears in 3 episodes of Lazarus & Dingwall as Gary Bateman alongside Mark Arden & Stephen Frost, who we'll see as two more Tharils in the next episode!

There are several other Tharils round the table, most of whom are barely seen! Laurie Goode was a Mutant in The Mutants, a guard in the Time Monster, a Time Lord in The Invasion of Time, a Bandit in The Creature from the Pit, a Tigellan in Meglos and a Peasant in State of Decay. He returns as one of Striker & Wrack's deck crews in Enlightenment, a Colonist in Frontios, a worker in Trial of a Timelord: Mysterious Planet and a British Unit Trooper in Battlefield. He's in Blake's 7 as a Hi-tech Patient in Powerplay, and Star Cops as a Dealer in Little Green Men and Other Martians. He was a Looter in the Survivors episode The Chosen, the Jogger in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a Pirate Rat in the The Box of Delights episode In Darkest Cellars Underneath and appears twice in The Sweeney as Laurie in Queen's Pawn and the Supermarket Manager in Trojan Bus.

James Muir who had previously been a UNIT Soldier in The Time Monster, a UNIT Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Muto in Genesis of the Daleks, a UNIT Soldier in Terror of the Zygons, a Brother in The Masque of Mandragora, a Death Attendant in The Sun Makers, a Technician in The Pirate Planet, a Druid in The Stones of Blood, a Louvre Detective in City of Death, a Mandrel in Nightmare of Eden, then would have been the Man Fishing and a Krarg in Shada, after which he was seen as a Foamasi in The Leisure Hive and a Gaztak in Meglos. He returns as the Police Driver in Black Orchid, a Policeman in Time Flight and an RAF Driver in Rememberance of the Daleks. He'd been in Blake's 7 as a Federation Trooper in Seek-Locate-Destroy, a Phibian in Orac, a Rebel in Pressure Point, a Monster in Dawn of the Gods, a Link in Rescue, a Helot in Traitor, a Pirate Guard in Assassin & a Federation Trooper in Blake. He was the Vl'Hurg Leader i episode 4 of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and was a technician in Moonbase 3: Castor and Pollux. He was in The Professionals as a Police Man in Stakeout

Joe Santo was a Resistance Men in The War Games, a UNIT Soldier in The Ambassadors of Death, the Exit guard in the Mutants and a Skonnan Guard in Horns of the Nimon. He later plays an Alphan Servant in Trial of a Timelord: Mindwarp. He was in Doomwatch as a Man in The Islanders, In the Dark, High Mountain & Enquiry, Moonbase 3 as José in View of a Dead Planet, Blake's 7 as a Scavenger in Deliverance and Fawlty Towers as the Laundry Van Driver's Mate in The Kipper and the Corpse.

Carl Bohen was in Doomwatch Michael Gordon Browne had been in Doctor Who before as a Time Lord in Invasion of Time, a Mute in the Armagedon Factor and a Tigellan in Meglos He returns as a Foster in Keeper of Traken. He then would have been a Cyberman in Earthshock but for his Claustrophobuia and later returns as a Guard in Arc of Infinity. I can also see a Michael Gordon as a Xeron in The Space Museum which might be the same person. In Blake's 7 played a Laboratory Technician in Seek-Locate-Destroy and a Hi-tech Patient in Powerplay.

The ranks of the Gundan are also boosted this episode:

Brian Moorehead was an extra in Robot, a Guard in State of Decay, and returns as a Dinner Guest in Snakedance. He's in Blake's 7 as a Hooded Figure in Cygnus Alpha and a Federation Officer in Trial. He was previously in Quatermass II as the 1st Guard in The Mark and a Paratrooper in The Destroyer.

Maurice Connor had been a Guide in The Leisure Hive and returns as a Foster in Keeper of Traken. He was also in Blake's 7 as a Space Princess Guard in Gold and appears in Gerry Anderson's Doppelgänger / Journey to the Far Side of the Sun as a Suit Technician. Several of the actors and props from this later reappear in UFO.

They are joined by John Blackman, Chris Michelle and Tony Pryor, all of whom aren't on iMDB and don't reappear in Doctor Who.