UUU2 - The Time Warrior 2

I mentioned how The Time Warrior is notable for the amount of debuts it contains. While it's not the first time the series has done a "pseudo-historical" (that honour would go to the 1965 story The Time Meddler), it was certainly the story that began a renaissance in the genre. That it had Robert Holmes as a writer, someone who never liked Doctor Who stories set in the past, is equally of note (given that two of his upcoming Tom Baker stories could also be classed as pseudo-historicals).

The Time Warrior also carries on Robert Holmes's humourous slant introduced in Carnival of Monsters, chiefly centered around one of Holmes's greatest double acts, Irongron and Bloodaxe. Irongron is the leader, but clearly not as intelligent as he thinks he is, but he is, at the very least, more intelligent than his admiring subordinate Bloodaxe. The lines these two spout "(Narrow hipped vixen!" "You have a merry wit, indeed, cap'n!") are the best things about this episode.

One couldn't mention The Time Warrior without acknowledging the first naming of The Doctor's home planet - Gallifrey. Robert Holmes had already introduced The Doctor's double cardiovascular system into Doctor Who lore in Spearhead From Space. Name dropping Gallifrey is just the next step in Holmes's gradual rewriting the entire history of the Time Lords.