The latest instalment of Obverse Books’ The Black Archive range looks at the much-loved Third Doctor serial which introduced Sarah Jane Smith, plus one of the fiercest races in the universe: the Sontarans!
Yep, it’s The Time Warrior, and you may think you know it all already – surely there’s nothing new to learn about a story which aired in 1973- 74. Well, you’d be wrong, my friend. Because this Archive is written by historian, Matthew Kilburn, one of the few people to have had access to The Time Warrior‘s rehearsal script!
Here’s the synopsis:

Matthew Kilburn looks at the Third Doctor story, the first of Jon Pertwee’s final season and the story that introduced both the character of Sarah Jane Smith and the Sontarans.

Making extensive use of a rarely seen rehearsal script for The Time Warrior, this Black Archive looks at how the US involvement in Vietnam combined with author Robert Holmes’s experience of the Second World War in Burma and consciousness of Britain’s imperial decline to create Doctor Who’s first Sontaran, Linx.

It also explores how the serial’s medievalism invoked a shared cultural memory of Gothic and Romantic literature and cinema to launch not only one of the series’ most enduring alien races but also one of its best-loved heroines, Sarah Jane Smith.

You can read a sample of the book over at the Obverse website.
The Black Archive #24: The Time Warrior is out now, as a paperback or eBook.