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Trivia / Doctor Who S11 E1 "The Time Warrior"

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  • Deleted Scene: Hal originally had an introductory scene that featured the archer flirting with a serving girl named Mary, and explained that he had accompanied Sir Edward on one of the Crusades, helping him return home after falling sick in the Holy Land. The loss of this sequence resulted in the omission of all of Mary's dialogue from the finished serial and, as a result, actress Jacqueline Stanbury would no longer be listed in the credits.
  • First Appearance: Of Sarah Jane Smith and the Sontarans. It also marks the first time that the Doctor's home planet, Gallifrey, is referred to by name. Though the name was mentioned in a TV Action magazine issue several months earlier.
  • Money, Dear Boy: Robert Holmes claimed he took on the assignment, despite disliking historical stories, because he needed the money.
  • The Other Marty: April Walker was originally cast as Sarah Jane Smith. However, when Jon Pertwee showed his dissatisfaction of her casting (according to him, her stature was too strong to fit the role of a Doctor Who companion), then-producer Barry Letts recast Elisabeth Sladen in the role with Pertwee's approval.
  • Wag the Director: During shooting, Kevin Lindsay insisted on pronouncing "Sontaran" by stressing the second syllable ("son-TAR-an") rather than using Robert Holmes' envisioned pronunciation, which stressed the first syllable ("SON-tar-an"). When director Alan Bromly attempted to correct Lindsay's pronunciation, the latter shot back with "Well, I think it's 'son-TAR-an', and since I'm from the place, I should know." Bromly backed down, and the "son-TAR-an" pronunciation would become the canon one.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • Barry Letts wanted Bob Hoskins to play Irongron. He was unavailable, but he did recommend David Daker.
    • In the original script, it was the Doctor who killed Linx by shooting an arrow into his probic vent.
    • According to the trivia subtitles on the DVD, a cut line from the sequence where Linx interrogates Sarah Jane would have had her specify that she came from the year 1974, which would've lined up with the later serial "Mawdryn Undead" placing the UNIT era contemporaneously to its airdates. The subtitles claim that this would've avoided the UNIT dating controversy altogether, though in actuality it would've started the controversy almost a decade sooner, conflicting with a background detail dating "The Invasion" to 1978.
    • The original script contained a full scale battle scene of knights in armour attacking the castle. Terrance Dicks realised that this was way beyond the show's budget, so he changed it to the Doctor repelling invaders with smoke bombs.
    • There were talks about retaining Hal as a second companion and Barry Letts approached Jeremy Bulloch to enquire about his schedule, but nothing came of it.
  • Working Title: The Fugitive, The Time Fugitive and The Time Survivor.
  • Writer Revolt: Robert Holmes hated the idea of writing a historical story, as he found them "whimsical and twee", in part because of how many of them involved the Doctor coincidentally meeting famous historical figures, so he came up with a story about an alien in the Middle Ages with no connection to anyone noteworthy whatsoever. Ironically, he would write two more historical stories for Doctor Who during his career, "Pyramids of Mars" and "The Talons of Weng-Chiang", albeit with a Gothic Horror angle in those cases.
  • You Look Familiar: Jeremy Bulloch (Hal) was also in "The Space Museum".

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