Dr. Who: The Time Warrior

As regular readers will have surmised. Jon Pertwee era 'Doctor Who' is as good as it gets for me, so it's slightly painful to admit that 'The Time Warrior', the first story in Pertwee's last season as the Doctor, seems tired and sluggish, short of steam and excitement, the beginning of the end of an era.

Set in Medieval times, it introduces the squat, ugly Sontarans in the form of Major Linx, a hugely resourceful, massively arrogant, splendidly aggressive soldier who has the misfortune to get lost en route to a war and be thrown back in time and space to Merry Olde England. Before you can say 'Oi, Toadface' he's giving the natives guns and stealing scientists from the 20th century to help him repair his ship. Of course it would be better to steal scientists from, say, the 22nd or 23rd century, but it apparently doesn't work that way and I suppose if he'd done that then the Doctor wouldn't have been able to step in and sort him out.

It's not rubbish, by any means, it just seems a bit jaded - and even the marvellous, indefatigable Pertwee seems a bit out of shape and out of sorts. On the plus side, it has Dot Cotton being a Medieval Lady and heralds the arrival of Miss Sarah Jane Smith - an important character whose continuing presence would help me get over the loss of one Doctor and slowly get used to the next.