YMMV / Doctor Who S11 E1 "The Time Warrior"

• Genre Turning Point: Prior to now, most of the historical stories in Doctor Who were mostly about the Doctor and co meeting a historical figure and getting involved in real events. A big exception was "The Time Meddler", which featured an alien (the Monk) as a villain in a historical setting. After that, the series continued with pure historical episodes, without alien villains, until this serial, which deliberately forewent any major figures or events. This proved popular enough to become the precedent for later historical stories. Even when historical events and figures returned to the formula, monsters and aliens were still around the corner.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Sarah yelling, "Look at that great spider!" Guess what showed up four stories later?
• Ho Yay: This blog post makes a reasonably serious argument that Irongron and Linx's disastrous partnership is rather like a Destructive Romance, pointing out how Irongron is fascinated by Linx's face, Linx cuts Irongron off from all his other friends, that Irongron has several scenes moaning to his friends over pints about how awful Linx is, and how both are He Man Woman Haters.
• Inferred Holocaust: So, the kitchen staff got out of Irongron's castle before it exploded...right?
• Older Than They Think: When "The Sontaran Strategem" aired over three decades later, that episode's explanation of the probic vent forcing the Sontarans to always face their enemy was accused by some of being a Voodoo Shark explanation of their Achilles' Heel. In actual fact, that explanation originated in this story, albeit here there's some implication that Linx is trying to spin it as actually not being a weakness, whereas the Tenth Doctor's dialogue in "The Sontaran Strategem" seems to be trying to imply that it's a deliberate choice by Sontaran genetic engineers.
• Retroactive Recognition: Hal the archer is Boba Fett, and Lady Eleanor is Dot Cotton
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Linx the Sontaran. It's a (very good, well designed) mask... that fits under another, very good, well designed helmet.

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