classic who: the time warrior

A new season, John Pertwee's last, and a new companion, Elizabeth Sladen's first. I've been waiting for the Sarah-Jane years; she was always my favorite, and her first go as companion is not disappointing... though the rest of the show is kind of dumb. The story goes like this: A Sontaran is having some issues with is ship and has crash-landed in the middle ages outside a pair of castles that are at war(ish). He starts kidnapping the best scientists from throughout time to help him fix his ship, and starts giving weapons to the local Saxons to get their resources. The Doctor waits for one of the scientists that UNIT has sequestered to disappear, and then follows in the Tardis, which Sarah-Jane has already wandered into. When she comes out, she's in the past and doesn't know what to think of it, and, naturally, she and the Doctor are on opposite sides of the little war between the castles.

Sarah-Jane is fun because she's feminist where Jo was willing to let men lead the way, and because she's resourceful and quick-- and because she doesn't automatically get all impressed with the Doctor. She thinks he's working for the Sontaran, and hatches a plan to kidnap him before she figures out that he's trying to fix things. I'm glad she starts off good. She didn't once twist her ankle, and she changed her clothes several times, and none of those outfits included her later-trademark ugly raincoat.

The plot, however, kind of bored me. Sontarans are always kind of meh to me, and while he wasn't that bad, the Saxon dude, whose name sounded like Iron Lung or Iron Gor depending on who said it, was just irritating, and the placement in the middle ages was only a convenience, and the acting was low even for Doctor Who.