“Warriors’ Gate” is an adventure of the eighteenth season, the third of the mini-arc known by the global title “The E-Space Trilogy”, which aired in 1981. It follows “State of Decay” and it’s a four parts adventure written by Steve Gallagher and directed by Paul Joyce.
The story
The Tardis is driven at the boundaries between universes. The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker), Romana II (Lalla Ward) and Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) look for an exit from the E-Space but get involved in the conflict between the crew of a spaceship also remained stuck in that strange place and the Tharils, a leonine species with a unique time sensitivity.
Extras
This DVD contains a good amount of extras. There are typical contents such as BBC continuity, a PDF file with the Radio Times Billings, production subtitles, a gallery of pictures from this adventure and the announcement of the DVDs to be published shortly.
There are comments in the adventure alternative audio track by protagonist Lalla Ward, actor John Leeson, director Paul Joyce, script editor Christopher H. Bidmead and set / special effect designer Mat Irvine.
The Dreaming. A documentary on the production of this adventure with interviews with cast and crew. The particularly interesting part is in director Paul Joyce’s memories of the problems, technical and others, he encountered in shooting “Warriors’ Gate”.
The Boy With The Golden Star. Matthew Waterhouse talks about his experience in “Doctor Who”.
Lalla’s Wardrobe. Lalla Ward recounts the choices of the costumes worn by Romana II. It’s probably an extra interesting to female fans.
Extended and Deleted Scenes. Some deleted scenes from the second episode of “Warriors’ Gate”.
Isolated Score. The option to see this adventure with music by Paddy Kingsland in an isolated audio track.
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“Warriors’ Gate” is the final adventure of the mini-arc “The E-Space Trilogy” and marks the departure of Romana and K-9. The Time Lady had already expressed her displeasure at the prospect of returning to Gallifrey at the beginning of the trilogy: staying in E-Space she finds a purpose and the Doctor leaves K-9 with her.
The farewell scene is brief and abrupt, perhaps too much, but producer John Nathan-Turner didn’t want a long farewell scene soap opera style and at the end of this adventure there was little time anyway because it’s very complex and its production was really complicated.
Author Stephen Gallagher wrote “Warriors’ Gate” taking as inspiration the Australian aborigines’ concept of the Dreamtime and Jean Cocteau’s surrealist movies. Director Paul Joyce was enthusiast of the script though he had to change some elements to translate it into images.
The biggest problem was caused by the fact that Paul Joyce wanted to produce an adventure that looked like a feature film. Productive efforts reached levels unseen in “Doctor Who” leading to delays in the work schedule. This led to clashes between Joyce and producer John Nathan-Turner and discontent among BBC executives.
At one point Paul Joyce was relieved from his task and production assistant Graeme Harper directed some scenes. However Joyce was so deeply involved in the production of “Warriors’ Gate” that it was ultimately decided to entrust the direction to him again until the end of the shooting.
Despite all these difficulties the result was extraordinary. The story is sophisticated and rich in elements, so much that it made a reputation for being incomprehensible at the first vision. Actually “Warriors’ Gate” only requires more attention than normal “Doctor Who” adventures. The advantage is that it’s possible to watch it several times discovering each time some new details.
It would be possible to write an entire essay to explain all the elements of this story but there would be the risk of overanalyzing it. In my opinion, to appreciate “Warriors’ Gate” the best thing is to let yourself get carried by the winds of time as eventually the base of the story is quite dream-like.
Despite the limited budget “Warriors’ Gate” is an adventure very beautiful from a visual point of view as well. Director Paul Joyce’s project was really ambitious and despite the considerable difficulties for once the special effects turned out very well. They aren’t perfect but in an adventure of this kind imperfections give a further tone of surrealism, which is good.
In “Warriors’ Gate” the characters are excellent as well and the personality of each of the spaceship’s human crew members is well-defined. The Tharils aren’t as well developed individually, rather the interaction between past and present allows you to gradually discover the history of their species throughout the adventure.
In all of this the Doctor and his companions are little more than spectators. They’re in fact involved in the plot however for them the right thing to do is do nothing. It’s only at the end that Romana realizes that the time has come for her to act with the decision to remain in E-Space, instead the Doctor is essentially a witness and eventually he returns to his universe with Adric.
Despite the high-level final result, director Paul Joyce was never considered for another “Doctor Who” adventure but “Warriors’ Gate” will always be a tribute to his skills and efforts. It’s one of the most visionary stories of the entire show and definitely a classic.
The box set “The E-Space Trilogy” – available on Amazon UK
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