Review of the Complete Story:
Being a big fan of the Jon Pertwee era, I was looking forward to watching this cheap but earnest attempt at a period-set adventure, which from the box offered scary alien warriors, plenty of sword-swinging action and a race-against-time plot. Unfortunately, the resulting adventure, while short, is not one of the Doctor's best and verges on the point of boredom at several moments.
The lack of budget is all too evident here, with minimal use of special effects. We can be thankful for this as those effects that do exist are pretty much hopeless - the melting of a sword by a laser is achieved with a sparkler, a spaceship is a glowing blob in the sky, etc. Where the episode succeeds is in recreating a medieval atmosphere, with location shooting in a real castle (instead of those wobbly sets we all remember) and detailed costumes, weaponry and use of ancient language, even if it does look like one of the cast members has come out of Robin Hood.
The story to this one doesn't really seem to go anywhere after the initial set-up. Lots of talk goes on about impending warfare but aside from a couple of wobbly ladders, this never happens. Instead the low-rent antics take place mainly inside a couple of rooms and are limited to a sword-fight, a swing across a chandelier and a couple of arrow shootings, with Jon Pertwee's stuntman doing all the hard work.
Pertwee himself is on form as the Doctor, this time favouring a horrendous pea-green smoking jacket as his choice of costume, and the episode marks the first appearance of new companion Sarah Jane (Elizabeth Sladen), a nosy reporter who sneaks inside the Tardis and finds herself in the middle of a life-or-death struggle. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart makes a small but welcome cameo appearance, although he doesn't take part in the proceedings.
The foes this time around are led by the exceptionally ugly Linx, who wears a natty suit of silver armour and whose hot-blooded personality makes him a baddie to be reckoned with. It goes without saying that he's the best thing in the movie. The only other monsters are a couple of suits of armour, supposedly robotic animations, but these don't do much and look a little clunky. The various medieval soldiers have a strong (if over-literal) script to play with, and the cast is littered with familiar faces, including June Brown (alias Dot Cotton in Eastenders). Not one of the greatest adventures in Doctor Who's history, but fairly engaging in a few places and the different setting might make it of interest to series fans.