Classic Who: Warrior's Gate
Fourth Doctor: Warrior's Gate
Ah, now this one was very exciting! Much more the sort of thing I expected when I first heard about E-space: surreal, dream-like settings, in which the normal rules of time and space are suspended, and nothing is quite what it seems. Not that this story takes place in E-space at all, of course, but instead in a gateway between E-space, N-space and the domain of the Tharils - which, as far as I could tell, was something quite different again. But still, it was very good.
The story is detailed and complex enough to keep the attention engaged very effectively, delivering clues to and revelations about what is going on at just the right rate to keep you intrigued without getting frustrated. I liked the Gothic atmosphere of the Tharils' gateway, and the strangely detached characterisation of the Tharils themselves, which suited their isolation from the normal Universe and its non-time-sensitive inhabitants. I also thought the crew of the slave ship were well-characterised: especially the captain's desperate self-delusions about his ability to retain control of the situation and rescue his crew.
The real business of the story, though, has to be the departure of Romana - and although I thought this seemed perfectly plausible after the fact, it struck me as being portrayed in a rather rushed and abrupt fashion on screen. It does make sense that she would leave at this stage, because she's been voicing her dismay about having to go back to Gallifrey ever since the end of Meglos; so with the prospect of the TARDIS being flipped back into normal space by the slaver-ship's ill-advised backblast, she is bound to start thinking pretty hard about whether she wants to be on board or not. But this isn't mentioned at all at the point when she tells the Doctor she is leaving, or indeed anywhere in this story. It also makes sense that she would relish the prospect of helping the Tharils to rescue the rest of their enslaved people via the use of time technology, as she has a bit of a habit of eagerly rushing to do this for anyone who asks - cf. The City of Death and The Leisure Hive. But again, the fact that this is how she intends to spend her time from now on isn't revealed until after she's announced that she is leaving, and the TARDIS has already gone.
In fact, the only preparation we get for her departure is a couple of scenes in which it's demonstrated that she has now become every bit as authoritative and resourceful as the Doctor: one where she refuses to stay on TARDIS when ordered, and instead turns round and tells Adric to stay behind instead, and another in which she has already disabled the slave ship's backblast by earthing its power cable to a ladder before the Doctor has finished telling her to do so. At the moment when she suddenly states that she's leaving, then, it makes some sense, but not as much as it might - and it seems downright odd for the Doctor to effectively just go *shrug* "Sure!" after all they've been through together. Or maybe we're meant to realise that they have such empathy with one another that he already fully understands the reasons for her departure, and (unlike the viewer) doesn't need her to explain to him about how she doesn't want to go back to Gallifrey and would prefer to stay and help the Tharils? Anyway, although I would have liked him to show slightly more emotion at the point of her departure, I did appreciate the moving delivery of his response to Adric's question about whether she would be all right after she had gone: "All right? She'll be superb." That did seem like a fitting send-off, and it was absolutely right to let the final episode end with that line.
Handing over K-9 seemed a bit arbitrary, too - especially since we'd seen the Doctor collect the memory wafer he would need to fix him from one of the Gundans earlier in the story, but simply never get round to using it. But then again, change is all-too-obviously in the air. K-9 just wouldn't really have suited Peter Davison's Doctor, and if that's what's on the horizon, it seems apt that he should at least get to remain with Romana instead. And as for Adric - well, actually, he still remains surprisingly un-annoying... but my heart did sink when I saw the Doctor left with him after Romana had gone. After all that she's been to him, that's one helluva climb-down.
