Doctor Who #71: And Warriors Gate

Doctor Who and Warriors' Gate is definitely one of the more complex Doctor Who stories. The Doctor, Romana and the strange leonine time dwellers all float around here, and the former two are not that sure what is going on, at least for most of it. A difficult choice is also made by Romana at the end of the story. A bit more Sapphire and Steel this one, I suppose you could say.

Warriors' Gate is probably the most complex Doctor Who episode made, yet it seemed purposefully crafted to withhold information the viewer needs to understand what's going on. Fortunately, the novelization (actually written by Steve Gallagher) shows his original intent for the story, and ties up all the ambiguous dangling ends. The void is a neutral ground where all future alternative possibilities are "in a state of rest". It is a interchange where time-sensitives can travel to any place and time. Biroc brought both the TARDIS and the privateer to the void, being able to sense the deterministic events that would inevitably follow. This is why the Doctor and Romana where told at tense moments to simply "do nothing", as the events would play out according to the Tharil's selected initial conditions. The shrinking of the void reduced the permutations of outcomes, making the emancipation possibility even clearer to the Tharil rank'n file.If you liked the episode, track down the book.

The TARDIS is still travelling in E-Space, and the Doctor is trying to find the way back to normal space by what Romana considers to be unorthodox methods. After a random jump, the TARDIS is entered by an alien being who sets some coordinates and vanishes. They find themselves at zero coordinates, a place that looks initially like a featureless void. But there is another ship trapped here, and a gateway between universes, if only they can work out how to use it. And the remnants of a war that just won't end...Very stylish visually on TV, this story doesn't immediately translate that well to the written medium. However, Steve Gallagher (the original author, here writing under the pseudonym John Lydecker) adds additional material to help bridge the translation problem.If you didn't understand the original TV serial (which was pretty short on explanation), this may help.