Four epsidoes
Aired between 15th December 1973 and 5th January 1974
Written by Robert Holmes
Produced by Barry Letts
Directed by Alan Bromley
Synopsis
It's the 13th Century. A robber baron called, Irongron, along with his dim-witted captain Bloodaxe are having a late night feast, cursing and vowing to take a neighbouring castle held by the weak willed Lord Edward of Wessex.
Suddenly, a great ball of light falls from the sky and crashes into the nearby forest. Bloodaxe is terrified that it's sorcery and along with the rest of his criminal soldiers, refuse to go into the woods at night for fear of witchcraft. Irongron curses their cowardly ways but is forced to wait until dawn to see what the ball of light is.
Sure enough, at dawn, Irongron, Bloodaxe and his men ride out into the forest. They come across a crashed spaceship that is spherical. A door opens from its side and a squat, stocky figure emerges, clad in "space armour". The figure is Commander Linx, a Sontaran warrior who has been shot down during a reconnaissance mission. He claims the planet for the Sontaran Empire and looks at the prospects of repairing his ship.
He soon works out that Irongron and his cronies are too primitive to help him, but he strikes a deal. Linx agrees to provide Irongron with weapons from the stars to capture any castle if Irongron in turn allows Linx to stay in his castle to repair his ship and provide some men for menial labour. Irongron agrees.
Back in the 20th Century, the Doctor is summoned to a country house by UNIT. when he arrives, he sees a load of scientists and soldiers hanging around. He asks the Brigadier what's going on and the Brigadier tells him a load of leading boffins are being kidnapped. UNIT has been tasked with keeping the rest of them safe. The Brigadier thought the best way of doing that was to put all his eggs in one basket and keep them under lock and key at this country house. He asks the Doctor to remain present and try to get to the bottom of who's kidnapping scientists.
As the Doctor gets his TARDIS shipped in, he meets an equally eccentric and extremely short sighted scientist called Professor Rubeish.
He also meets a young woman who claims to be Lavinia Smith, a reknown scientist. This intrigues the Doctor as he's read some of Lavinia's work and knows that the girls age doesn't add up. She confesses to being Sarah Jane Smith. Lavinia is her aunt and she's a journalist. She used Lavinia's credentials (whilst her aunt is away in America) to infiltrate this country house on the hunt for an answer to the missing scientists. With a glint in his eye, the Doctor agrees not to give Sarah away, and gets on with his work.
Later that evening, Rubeish also become suspicious of Sarah, but the Doctor throws him off the scent to keep her secret. Sarah visits the Doctor as he's working on a device, getting him to explain to her that it scans for delta particles and gives an alarm, waking him up. She obviously doesn't understand it and goes to bed.
In the middle of the night, the scanner goes off, alerting the Doctor and Sarah Jane. He grabs a special flashlight and wanders around the complex when he finds that Professor Rubeish has been taken from under his nose. The flashlight picks up the spectral image of Linx on the stairway before he disappears.
The Brigadier turns up just as the Doctor is about to rush into the TARDIS. The Doctor quickly explains that the kidnapper is using a weak powered time travel device, pulling them back through time.
As the Doctor explains, Sarah Jane stows onboard the TARDIS. The Doctor rushes off and locks onto the signal, travelling back in time to the middle ages, just outside Irongron's castle. As he wanders off to explore, Sarah Jane comes out of the TARDIS, bemused at the dimensions of the blue box.
It turns out that Linx has been very busy in a short time. He's been using a device called an Osmic Projector to go forward in time and kidnap more capable people with the technical knowhow to repair his ship. Whilst he's at it, he's also been bringing back breech loading rifles for Irongron's forces to use. Irongron is very happy with the "star weapons" and can finally see a way of defeating the Lord of Wessex.
Elsewhere, Lord Edward and his lady are despairing at Irongron. They have very few men, as King Richard has taken them all to fight in the crusades. He's sent a runner out to ask other nearby lords to pool their soldiers to fight the robber-barron but that takes time. The wily Lady comes up with a plan to assassinate Irongron as he's looking over the castle ramparts, something he does every morning. They send their best archer - Hal to see to it.
As predicted, Hal sees Irongron taking a walk on the ramparts in the morning. He's about to fire when Sarah Jane taps him on the shoulder and asks where she is. She startles Hal and the shot goes wide, alerting Irongron.
Hal flees but, still believing she's in the 20th Century, Sarah Jane mistakes all these castles and smelly men for reinactors. She fights and struggles as one of Irongron's soldiers takes her into the castle.
The Doctor meanwhile, oblivious to Sarah's predicament, sneaks into Irongrons castle and sees Linx, confirming that a Sontaran is behind it all.
Sarah Jane is taken before Irongron who laughs at her weird manner as she rants at being manhandled.
She eventually gets the point that they're not reinactors or cosplayers, when Hal the Archer is captured. Irongron tells bloodaxe to take him away and execute him. Linx turns up with a robot knight he's made for Irongron and hypnotises Sarah, getting her to talk of the Doctor and how she came here. Linx is worried but Irongron laughs it off. He's keen to see the robot in action, so he takes it to the courtyard.
Once there, he stops Bloodaxe and equips Hal with his bow, telling him to fight the knight.
Everyone is stunned when the knight takes three arrows to the chest and still keeps advancing on the archer.
The Doctor is up on the battlements and sneaks one of the guards crossbows, shooting the control out of Irongron's hands. The Knight goes bezerk and attacks Irongron, allowing Sarah Jane and Hal to escape.
Together, they go to Wessex castle and tell Lord Edward what's happened. Sarah didn't see the crosbow shot, and has become convinced that the Doctor is in league with Linx, abducting people from the present and taking them to the past. She convinces Lord Edward to send a commando raid back to Irongron's castle to capture the Doctor. Sarah and Hal are part of it.
Meanwhile, the Doctor continues skulking around the castle, eventually finding Linx's room where all the scientists are there, brainwashed and doing manual labour. He's found by Linx whom he tries to convince to stop.
Linx is aware of the Time Lords and their home world Gallifrey, and he doesn't see the need to stop at all. He takes the Doctor prisoner, believing his repairs will be far more efficient with a Time Lord working for him. He placed the Doctor on a machine that gives him an electric shock when he doesn't do his work and leaves.
Professor Rubeish finds the Doctor after he's been shocked a couple of times . Rubeish hasn't been affected by the mind control ray because he's as blind as a bat without his glasses. He frees the Doctor and agrees to keep an eye out for him.
Now free, the Doctor leaves to find Sarah, but runs into Bloodaxe and Irongron who are coming to find Linx. He flees into the courtyard and is forced to take on multiple bandits before Irongron raises his sword, preparing to strike the killing blow.
Once again, the blade is shot out of Irongron's hand, this time by Hal the Archer.
The Doctor races up to the battlements again, setting fire to some hay to block the corridor as he goes.
His thanks to Sarah are short lived as she orders Lord Edwards men to take the Doctor captive. Together, they flee back to Wessex Castle. When they get there, Lord Edward and the Lady Wessex agree to let the Doctor live if he agrees to use his sorcery against Irongron. The Doctor points out that he was never on Irongron's side and he's more than willing to help them.
Getting fed up of all these raids, Irongron decides to use Linx's star weapons to assault Wessex castle, especially as he knows it's lightly defended. When Linx learns of the planned attack, he practically jumps for joy and asks to come along to watch the battle - Sontarans love war.
Over at Wessex castle, the Doctor and Sarah Jane work on primitive stink bombs and put dummies up on the ramparts. He explains the fact that he's a time lord and can travel anywhere in space and time, a fact that Sarah Jane is astonished by, but certainly believes.
The morning comes and Irongrons men arrive. They are flummoxed by the vast number of men on the ramparts until Linx takes one of the rifles and demostrates that they are just dummies.
Irongron orders the men to scale the walls, but as they climb the ladders, they're assaulted by the stink bombs and driven off into the woods again, believing it sorcery.
When they get back to the castle, Irongron tries to blame his men for the failure, but Linx is contemptable towards the baron.
He easily beats Irongron to the ground when he challenges him and threatens him not to interfere with the Sontaran's work or challenge him again.
Lord Edward and Lady Wessex celebrate, but the Doctor says it's only a temporary victory.
They need to sort out Irongron once and for all, and more importantly, stop Linx. He comes up with a plan to sneak back into Irongron's castle and put them to sleep with a potion, then they can disarm them and tie them up. Together, he and Sarah set off on the plan.
They enter the castle as monks and quickly set the plan up.
They go first to Linx's lab, where they see the scientists beginning to collapse from exhaustion and starvation. He tries to take them out of hypnosis but is interrupted when Linx returns. He offers to help Linx leave the planet if he'll just get rid of the scientists. Linx refuses and shoots the Doctor. Luckily, Sarah Jane jumps at Linx and stops the shot. Linx bats her aside and prepares to fire again, but is knocked unconscious when the Doctor subtly directs Rubeish to smash the Sontaran on the probic vent at the back of his neck.
They begin to tie Linx up and the Doctor sends Sarah off to the kitchens to spike the meal with a sleeping potion whilst he tries to bring the scientists out of hypnosis. He's interrupted once again with Bloodaxe demanding that Linx goes to the main hall.
Once up and running, the Doctor leaves Rubeish to send everyone back to the present using the Osmic Projector whilst he slows Irongron down. He dons the robot knight outfit and goes to the main hall, trying to pass himself off as the robot and tells Irongron that Linx sent him. Irongron decides to test the robot's abilities again, and begins fighting "it".
The Doctor bests Irongron but is forced to fight him and Bloodaxe. He ultimately reveals himself when they threaten to smash the robots head off. He's captured.
Irongron goes to the lab and unties a now recovered Linx. He tells Linx of the Doctor's capture and brings him to the great hall. Now out of his armour, the Doctor is forced to stand at one end of the room whilst Irongron lines up four of his men with rifles at the other end. They all fire, trying to hit the Doctor but their aim is terrible and the Doctor dodges very well.
Luckily, Sarah uses the clattering noises upstairs as a chance to spike the meal anyway and sneak out whilst everyone is distracted. She goes upstairs and swings a chandalier to the Doctor who uses it to sweep past the men and lock the door to the hall, thus allowing him to get Sarah and escape.
They go back to Lord Edward and give it time for the potion to take effect.
Back down in Irongron's castle, Linx announces that he's almost ready to leave. Irongron challenges him again, saying he can go when Irongron allows it.
Linx warns him not to stop him and he walks off, leaving Irongron and his men to eat and drink their meals.
The Doctor, Sarah and this time Hal the archer go back to the castle. The Doctor brings with him a metal fan from the TARDIS. He sets Hal on with collecting all of the men's weapons whilst he finishes sending the scientists back.
Sure enough, the Doctor gets to the lab and finds the last handful left to die whilst the Sontaran ship re-charges for the flight. With Sarah to help, they begin to send the last of the scientists through as Linx arrives to enter his ship. The Doctor tells Sarah to carry on the process whilst he keeps Linx busy.
When Hal gets to the main chamber, he's stopped by a drowsy Irongron, who believes Linx has betrayed him. He staggers off towards the lab.
Linx tries to shoot the Doctor, but his guns bream is reflected by the metal fan.
He opts instead for hand to hand combat, but didn't count on the Doctor's Venusian Akido. Regardless of this, the Doctor is beaten up until Sarah sends Professor Rubeish back and goes to help him. At that point, Irongron staggers inside and challenges Linx, and is promptly shot to death. Luckily for Sarah, Linx doesn't see the female as a threat, so goes into his ship and begins the take off procedure.
Hal the Archer recovers to the sound of the ship powering up. He wakes Bloodaxe and tells him to get his men out of the castle. Bloodaxe and the rest flee whilst Hal races to the lab. He enters just as the Sontaran is closing the door to his ship. He quickly fires an arrow, hitting Linx directly in the probic vent, killing him instantly.
The Doctor recovers and says that the ship is going to self destruct. Together, they race out of the castle as it is destroyed in the blast.
They thank Hal, and both go to leave. Hal says that the Doctor is "truly a great magician". The Doctor smiles and says he's not one at all, but Sarah quips "I'm not so sure about that".
They go back to Lord Edward and give it time for the potion to take effect.
Back down in Irongron's castle, Linx announces that he's almost ready to leave. Irongron challenges him again, saying he can go when Irongron allows it.
Linx warns him not to stop him and he walks off, leaving Irongron and his men to eat and drink their meals.
The Doctor, Sarah and this time Hal the archer go back to the castle. The Doctor brings with him a metal fan from the TARDIS. He sets Hal on with collecting all of the men's weapons whilst he finishes sending the scientists back.
Sure enough, the Doctor gets to the lab and finds the last handful left to die whilst the Sontaran ship re-charges for the flight. With Sarah to help, they begin to send the last of the scientists through as Linx arrives to enter his ship. The Doctor tells Sarah to carry on the process whilst he keeps Linx busy.
When Hal gets to the main chamber, he's stopped by a drowsy Irongron, who believes Linx has betrayed him. He staggers off towards the lab.
Linx tries to shoot the Doctor, but his guns bream is reflected by the metal fan.
He opts instead for hand to hand combat, but didn't count on the Doctor's Venusian Akido. Regardless of this, the Doctor is beaten up until Sarah sends Professor Rubeish back and goes to help him. At that point, Irongron staggers inside and challenges Linx, and is promptly shot to death. Luckily for Sarah, Linx doesn't see the female as a threat, so goes into his ship and begins the take off procedure.
Hal the Archer recovers to the sound of the ship powering up. He wakes Bloodaxe and tells him to get his men out of the castle. Bloodaxe and the rest flee whilst Hal races to the lab. He enters just as the Sontaran is closing the door to his ship. He quickly fires an arrow, hitting Linx directly in the probic vent, killing him instantly.
The Doctor recovers and says that the ship is going to self destruct. Together, they race out of the castle as it is destroyed in the blast.
They thank Hal, and both go to leave. Hal says that the Doctor is "truly a great magician". The Doctor smiles and says he's not one at all, but Sarah quips "I'm not so sure about that".
Trivia
As they were filming The Green Death, they got hold of Lis Sladen. She auditioned normally, and was in no way head hunted, but Barry Letts seemed to see something in her that none of the other hopefuls gave. He introduced her to Jon Pertwee without her knowing that she'd even be a long term companion, and Jon gave the thumbs up behind her back. She was to be a worthy replacement for Katy Manning.
This was especially good, considering that it was around this time that the crew heard of Roger Delgado's death. Jon was feeling very down, especially considering that Katy was as close to him as anyone and she was moving on. Likewise, Barry and Terrence were just beginning to film their pilot for Moonbase 3, so didn't have a lot of time for Doctor Who.
Robert Holmes wasn't a happy soul either. He'd never wanted to do a historical piece. He got annoyed enough by ten year old anorak types pointing out plot holes in his stories, he didn't need ten year olds and historical boffins doing the same! Regardless of this, Terence Dicks was adamant he wanted a historical story, and heavily convinced Holmes to do it.
It came to filming and Barry was anxious (or curious) about how Alan Bromley was going to handle the special effects such as the destruction of the castle, and the flight of the spaceship. They'd done a magnificent job of blowing up the church on the Daemons, so Barry wanted to give Bromley some advice. The veteren director however reassured him that everything was in hand. What noone thought of however. was Alan Bromley liked the simplest was possible to do anything. Why go overbudget when a tenis ball on a string would do the trick? The end result was literally what we got. The castle explosion was actually stock footage of a detonation in a quarry.
What worked?
- It's got to be said, Irongron's dialogue is just magical!
- It's nice to see the Third Doctor being jovial and sarcastic for a change
- The look of Linx is also great. For some unknown reason, it goes steadily worse over the next few Sontaran stories
- In fact, most of the acting in this is exceptional
- You can tell that this story has been thought through. There's a good explanation for why the Sontaran's are like they are, and why they have a probic vent on their neck
- The bit where Rubeish says it's his strong will that stopped him being hypnotized - classic!
What didn't work?
- The special effects
- The robot knight
- Sarah's feminist rant in the kitchen - surely she knows it's likely to get her killed
- All the in and out of the lab and Irongron's castle all the time
Overall Feelings
This story is the stuff that great Doctor Who comprises of. It's not original, after all, The Time Meddler is all about an alien that provides futuristic weapons to the middle ages. But it does it in an interesting way with interesting characters.
Irongron is brought to life by David Daker, to the point where we can see that he's playground-bullied his way through life to get what he's got - we can imagine how things were long before we came into the picture, with Bloodaxe hanging stupidly on his every word. Instead of a bumbling carry-on villain doing things because it's fun, we get a mighty warrior from the stars who's race and customs are well thought through.
Even Sarah Jane Smith's entrance is a refreshing one, with her being more proactive than Jo ever was, and her reactions, although drawn out a little bit too long, are most likely the reactions that many of us would have to suddenly finding everyone in Robin Hood gettup.
Stellar cast, brill acting, fantastic costumes. This is what the BBC was great at and they delivered it well here. So why isn't it a 10? Because it's personally, a little bit tedious in places. The Japes are funny, but with Rubeish it's non-stop. If I had to hear Irongron call Linx a Toad one more time, I'd have thrown something at the TV, and then there's the obligatory feminist rant towards women whom she's trying to remain inconspicuous with.
Rating
9 3/4 out of 10
Rewatchability Factor
7 out of 10
Watch this if you liked...
- The Time Meddler
- The Sontaran Experiment
- The Invasion of Time
- The Two Doctors
- The Sontaran Strategem (Doctor Who, Series 4)
- The Poison Sky (Doctor Who, Series 4)
Consulting the Matrix
So, do you think the female slaves ever got out of the castle before it blew up?
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