*Premise spoilers*
The start of the Third Doctor’s final season and the first story to feature Sarah Jane, not to mention the debut of one of the series’ most well-known aliens. All that is enough to make it stand out, but it also has a really fun story to boot. All in all, a definite win!
The Brigadier calls in the Third Doctor to investigate the disappearance of several prominent scientists. Of course, the Doctor is on the case, along with the ambitious young journalist Sarah Jane. When Sarah Jane pokes her nose in as the Doctor is following a very particular lead, both end up in the Middle Ages, where a stranded Sontaran warrior named Linx has been abducting people out of time in order to find a way back home.
So much to love here. Despite the presence of only one Sontaran in the whole story, our favorite murderous potato-heads already demonstrate a lot of their chief characteristics. This story introduces the basics of the warmongering clone race, including their baton gun things, their use of hypnotic slaves, their probic vent, and their confusion at a species having two genders. Linx himself is a good baddie, both cunning and callous, and pairing him up with the brutish Irongron is a fine narrative move.
An alien from an advanced species stuck in the past and stealing scientists from the future is a great premise that offers up plenty of possibilities in the story. I like how Linx wins over Irongron and his rabble with the promise of superior weapons, and even if it’s kind of crazy that he can manage time-displacement technology on his own but needs scientists from the ‘70s to get his spaceship working, I like that he’s marooned and is forced to rely on humans to get off Earth—the fact that he has so much contempt for us as a species just makes it better.
Sarah Jane is a lot of fun in her first showing. I’m a fan of stowaway-companion beginnings, intentional or otherwise, and here, I especially like that Sarah Jane spends the first part of her time in the Middle Ages separated from the Doctor, without any idea of where or when she is. Given the limited information she has, she makes a pretty reasonable conjecture about her whereabouts, and she later has an amusing undercover operation in which she tries to introduce feminism to a kitchen wench.
The Doctor’s not too shabby either. It’s a little annoying that the show felt the need to make him a little more overtly paternalistic to contrast with Sarah Jane’s feminism (after Three’s regeneration into Four, Harry had to be the one to take that hit,) but it only comes up sparingly, and the rest of the time, he’s up to his usual Doctory stuff. In this story, he’s particularly on fire with the clever plans—I love his scheme to bolster Edward’s forces, and he’s great fun impersonating a robot suit of armor.
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