Who Reviews Warriors' Gate by Tony J Fyler

Warriors' Gate is a real ‘Love it or hate it’ Doctor Who story. It has fans, absolutely, who rave about the concepts of the void, the mirrors between universes, the time winds. It has fans who point out the serious issues it tackles in terms of slavery, torture, and the wheel of fortune, with kings and conquerors becoming powerless against creatures fundamentally lesser than themselves, and their struggle for freedom against men who despise them and other who back them out of of venal greed and lazy self-interest. It has fans even who applaud the magnificent boldness of choice of setting a story in an environment of almost pure nothing.

Then there’s me.

Me, fan, notsomuch.

The Target audiobook novelisation by the original author has been, we’re advised on the cover, extended and ‘restored’ by the author.

Let’s say this immediately – the Target audiobook novelisation is significantly better than the TV version, but not for the reasons you might expect. What really makes Warriors’ Gate on TV such an uninspiring watch is that none of the world from which the slavers and the Tharils have come really makes it to the screen.

In the extended and restored version, will we get the backstory, the depth, the characterisation we’ve always craved?

Erm…no.

With the exception of a relatively inconsequential moment in the prologue, the novelisation delivers all the flaws of the TV version, strips out the characterisation achieved by some quality actors on screen and makes the slavers a crew of nondescript insignificants who seem entirely bored to be there and appear to follow their captain’s orders more readily once it’s clear he’s gone stark raving bonkers than they ever do while he’s trying to sound sane.

So essentially, a version of Warriors’ Gate that comes in at over five hours retains both the feeling of being underwritten in terms of backstory, and underpowered in dwelling on the boring minutiae of some aspects of crew life on a slaving spaceship. Nothing is really done to expand on the pre-void life of the Tharils, no additional scope is given to their slavery by anyone remembering other slave-ships. And the whole of the actual threat in Warriors' Gate is still driven by a captain going suddenly, seemingly inexplicably and suicidally mad, giving the whole thing a sense of 'Hurry up, wait and explode in the middle of literally nowhere.'

One thing’s distinctly better though – the hurried departure of Romana and K9. It’s not by any means much better, but Romana is at least given some moments across the course of the story when we get to hear her thoughts and ponderings on Gallifrey, on her tendency to be a follower rather than a leader or an individual, and at the end, we get the Doctor’s bewilderment, his reading of her being that she’s always criticised him, always scolded him for his lack of purposeful travel. It makes for a much more believable and poignant ending of their time together than the thoroughly Tom Baker but quite cringy ‘Noblest Romana of them all’ line in the televised version, and that at least is something for which to be grateful to this audiobook version.

Overall, while Jon Culshaw’s reading is universally excellent, five hours of Warriors' Gate on audiobook delivers all the issues of the TV version, and uses its double run-time to deliver a couple of extra flaws of crew characterisation, then redeems itself somewhat by the rewriting of the Romana ending. The audiobook version is lifted somewhat both by Culshaw's uncanny Fourth Doctor and his startling impressionist abilities, replicating the vocal tones of the actors who played the slavers and the Tharils. It’s also lifted by his heroic and valiant attempt to give the storytelling some pace – an effort against which the extended and restored version of the story kicks at every possible turn.