Doctor Who Re-Watch: Warriors’ Gate resolves the E-Space trilogy with a very surreal story
By James Aggas
The final story of the E-Space trilogy, Warrior’s Gate, is perhaps one of the strangest stories from Season Eighteen, if not from Tom Baker’s whole run on Doctor Who.
Over two decades since I first watched it on VHS, and I’m still not entirely sure what to make of Warrior’s Gate. It’s a very strange story, one where not all the questions are answered. What is the Gateway, really? How does it work? How did everyone all end up in this place in the first place? It almost feels like there’s a chunk of the story missing, at times.
What makes the story even more interesting and increases the surrealism is that it feels like a clash between hard science-fiction and fairy tale. For example, scenes of Rorvik and his crew definitely feel like the former, while the Gateway itself, with its ancient architecture and mirrors that act as portals to other places and even other times, feels deeply of the latter.
In fact, re-watching it now, it reminds me of It Takes You Away. That considerably more recent story adds more explanations and is less sci-fi than Warriors’ Gate, but the idea of mirrors linking to strange other worlds is definitely something shared between the two. This mix of sci-fi and fairy tale is a strange one, but it does make the story stand out, and I like it quite a bit. Particularly how it plays with time.
The Tharils were particularly well fleshed-out and well realized.
(Photo credit: Doctor Who/BBC.
Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)
The Tharils
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I also love how fleshed out the Tharils feel as a race. Initially, they seem to be the classic oppressed alien race in a Doctor Who story. But an interesting twist is that they used to ran an oppressive empire themselves, and even admit that they abused their power. They still don’t deserve the treatment they get from Rorvik and his crew, but it’s nice to have an alien with an unclean history, as it were. It just makes them feel that much more believable and fleshed out.
So there are some things that I really like about Warrior’s Gate. But there are also some things that I don’t like as much. For instance, I’m not sure Rorvik works well as a villain. He doesn’t particularly stand out as one of the more interesting antagonists of the series, and is a little bland. The rest of the crew are pretty good though, especially Aldo and Royce. Those two are a great double act, at least.
A rushed exit?
Romana and K9 leave in this story too. While the explanation given is still far more satisfying than what many companions got back in the Classic Series, (i.e. suddenly falling in love with a complete stranger and getting married,) it still feels a little rushed.
Romana had been a great companion to the Doctor for almost three seasons (two in Lalla Ward’s case), and it would’ve been nice for her to receive a more emotionally satisfying sendoff.
But while Warrior’s Gate is the weakest of the E-Space trilogy, it’s still an enjoyable story in its own way. It’s not quite for everyone as the previous two stories were, (especially State of Decay, which gets so many essential Doctor Who elements right,) but it’s an intriguing and fascinating watch, at least.
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Are you a fan of Warriors’ Gate? What did you make of the story when you first saw it? Do you think it was a satisfying conclusion to the E-Space trilogy? Let us know in the comments below.
