Episode #113 : Warriors' Gate

"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 dead weights. This is the end for all of you. I'm finally getting something done!"

Episode 113:   Warriors' Gate.
Companions:   4th Doctor, Adric, K9 and Romana.
Air Date:         3rd to 24th January 1981.

A strange creature forces its way into the TARDIS, steering it to a white void occupied only by the ruins of an old building and a spaceship. This empty space is a gateway to the past and future. The creature responsible for taking them there is Biroc, a member of the enslaved race known as the Tharil. The gateway offers the only exit from E-Space, but the void is contracting. Are the Fourth Doctor and his friends fated to spend eternity in E-Space?

The E Space story arc comes to an end with a whimper. The previous two stories were rather good but Warriors' Gate is such a weak story with an awkward plot that it fails to deliver even a barely interesting adventure for the time travellers.

Due to the actions of the Tharil known as Biroc both the TARDIS and an Earth vessel are brought to a strange white void between dimensions. The humans use captured Tharils to navigate their vessel through hyperspace since apparently human technology can't do it. Biroc wants to rescue his people from the ship and escape into our universe, N Space. But what does any of this have to do with a ruined building bigger on the inside, strange black and white time tracks that look like they have come from some 18th century manor house and what is with the strange black robots that tried to kill the Tharils? None of that is explained.

At the end of the story Romana and K9 stay behind in the strange realm of the Tharils as Romana does not want to go back to Gallifrey after having adventures with the Doctor. Such life would be benign after seeing everything that she has seen. The Doctor gives her K9 for company and departs with Adric back into our universe. A sad fair well. Romana was an excellent companion. Both of her.

The only other thing that really bothers me with this story is how the human crew of the space ship are presented. The captain is another crazy almost mad individual and his crew seem heartless as well. The story does feature the slavery of the Tharils true, but why do humans have to be shown as this negative type so often in science fiction? I found it somewhat uncomfortable to be fair.

Warriors' Gate is a story probably best avoided. A weak ending to the E Space trilogy.