031 - The Highlanders

Broadcast:

17^th December 1966 - 7^th January 1967

Doctor:

Patrick Troughton

Companions:

Ben, Polly

Adversary:

British Red Coats

Written by:

Elwyn Jones, Gerry Davis

Director:

Hugh David

Music:

None

Script Editor:

Gerry Davis

Producer:

Innes Lloyd

Average Viewers:

7.05m (6.7, 6.8, 7.4, 7.3)

Summary: Englishman in the highlands of Scotland who weren't part of the British Army in 1746 must be part of the Jacobite rebellion, so falling in with the locals puts the travellers in a dangerous predicament.

The Highlanders is noted for three reason. Primarily, it is the last truly historical adventure. Although the TARDIS would land in Earth's history several more times before the show was cancelled, never again would the Doctor encounter known events or face genuine human adversaries. The closest the show would get to this once staple type of adventure would be in 1982's Black Orchid which only featured humans in a historical setting but without any history lesson to tell. Secondly, it introduces new companion Jamie who would remain with the Doctor until he was forced to regenerate at the end of War Games, making him the longest standing companion of the show's original run (Sarah Jane Smith beats him by half a series, but is outnumbered by adventures and episodes, while the Ponds are the only companions to have more adventures but with fewer series and a fraction of the episodes). Thirdly if features no music or even special sounds beyond the bagpipe music used over the title-card, though there is a moment, as in Power Of The Daleks where the Doctor plays his recorder. Additional to these, though less noticeable, it was written entirely by story editor Gerry Davis. Despite being commissioned and receiving a credit, Elwyn Jones was in fact unavailable to work on the story.

In the news at the time, matters in Rhodesia had led to a UN approved embargo, though South Africa refused to join in, Harold Wilson announced that he would now only agree to independence with a Black majority government but Ian Smith declared that Rhodesia was already a republic. Further north in East Germany, Premier Walter Ulbricht discussed negotiations about German reunification, though it would be another 22 years before it happened.. Meanwhile, closer to home millions' worth of paintings were stolen from the Dulwich Art Gallery in London. Footballers Alf Ramsey and Bobby Moore received a knighthood and OBE respectively in the Queen's New Year Honours while land and water speed record breaker Donald Campbell lost his life in his latest attempt on Coniston Water and would posthumously be awarded the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct two weeks later. Also departing this world were animation visionary Walt Disney and Jack Ruby, the man famous for killing the man who killed Kennedy - having been initially sentenced to death for Oswald's murder, a retrial had been granted but he was taken by natural causes before a date was set.

In the entertainment world, Charlie Chaplin launched his final film, A Countess from Hong Kong, major drama "The Forsyte Saga" was broadcast on BBC Two and would become the first British program to be sold to the USSR, and more importantly for children, "Trumpton" received its first of many broadcasts and was the second program to be filmed in colour for BBC One. The music charts were topped by Tom Jones's "Green, Green Grass of Home" (having reached the top the week before The Highlanders began, it would remain there for two weeks after it finished), the Doors released their eponymous album and The Jimi Hendrix Experience released "Hey Joe", their first single in the UK. Two television shows received cinematic spin-offs, Thunderbirds Are GO and Batman: The Movie, along side history based classics One Million Years B.C. and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, the latter of which starred comedy legends Buster Keaton, Roy Kinnear, Phil Silvers, Michael Crawford.

Things were not looking so humorous for the Doctor and his companions though...

Much like The Myth Makers little over a year earlier, The Highlanders opens with a scene-setting fight sequence on moorlands. This time however, it's not a sword fight in ancient Greece but muskets and pistols in 18th century Scotland, Culloden to be precise (or Frensham Common in Surrey if we are talking about the filming location!). In contrast to the alien world encountered in the last story, when Ben steps out of the TARDIS he thinks things are looking up "Where does this remind you of?" he exclaims to Polly, "We're 'ome Duchess!" still not quite grasping the fact that they are also travelling through time! Quite where he thinks they are is never stated so perhaps he is just relieved to be back on Earth because it's certainly not London. In fact there isn't a great deal of dialogue as the first episode starts and the Doctor especially seems very quiet, making the reconstruction a little difficult to follow, though there are a good number of telesnaps throughout the story. Particularly odd for someone familiar with Jamie as a companion in later stories, is the fact that Frazer Hines's accent is different for this story so it can be a bit tricky at times to pick him out. However, despite being his introductory story Jamie doesn't seem to play any major part until the very end. Sure he's there throughout the story, at least where the male Highlanders are concerned, but there is no indication that he is about to join the Doctor, making it almost as unexpected as Katarina's arrival at the end of The Myth Makers but not as tacked on.

Also unexpected is at the moment when things start to get dangerous. Being English, the travellers have effectively been captured by Highlanders while helping their injured Laird. When they are threatened, Ben hurriedly holds a pistol to the Laird's head and is encouraged by the Doctor! Though Ben's resolve is less certain, the Doctor must surely be seeing it as an empty threat aimed at saving their own lives. As if to reinforce the Doctor's usual anti-gun stance, he does have a quiet word with Ben after the point has been made and we see how dangerous the gun was when it is dropped onto the table and goes off! This also advances the slightly stalling plot by attracting the attention of British Soldiers. When they arrive, we see how sticky the situation is for the English travellers, as the Doctor feigns German nationality introducing himself as "Doktor Von Wer at your service" eliciting the query "Doctor who?". The Doctor replies with a cheeky "That's what I said", while the "Von" technically makes it "Doctor Of Who" it would have helped identify it as a German name to viewers. The point in this is that the British Government and King George II had both German and Austrian support whereas France sided with the Scottish Jacobite uprising and course, any Englishman found siding with the Scots would have been considered a deserter. However, all men are strung up to be hanged and thanks to foreign censor edits we get to see a clip of their feet as the nooses start to take the strain. As if that weren't enough of a cliffhanger, they are freed before the end of the episode as Solicitor Grey (Royal Commissioner of Prisons and the only real person seen in the story) and his secretary Perkins order their release... for their own gains however, as they intend to sell them into slavery along with any Scots who have survived the battle of Culloden. As well as this side plot, they also provide light relief in an otherwise dramatic and drudgy story, Perkins in particular seems to be presented as a fool played by comedy actor Sydney Arnold.

During all of this, Polly has been separated from her fellow travellers by being sent with 'wench' Kirsty (Played by Hannah Gordon) to find water. However, we learn that they are not altogether safe as the British Army are on the look out for Bonnie Prince Charlie as he is trying to escape dressed as a woman... As far as Polly is concerned though, her only danger is that of slipping up culturally when she causes confusion by asking for matches, talking about fillings and thinking Kirsty's wheat-biscuits are dog-biscuits! She does fall foul of the first cliffhanger though. Having become separated from Kirsty she falls into an animal trap and finds herself confronted in the dark by a dagger... the resolve is somewhat disappointing at the start of the second episode, but I'll not spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet!

The second episode sees the plot start to pick up pace, but rather than being through fast action, it is through time jumps. We suddenly discover that the Doctor and all the other men have been taken to Inverness (with what appears to have been a rare caption) and are imprisoned in a dank cell which appears to be tidally flooded. As the locals start to feel uneasy about the Doctor's medical credentials and therefore worry about his true identity, he starts to recite astrology to explain why they hadn't used blood letting to help the laird - it is Jamie who raises this query and Ben gets confused and starts mentioning germs, which Jamie assumes relates to 'German'! It's a nice educational scene that also helps establish Jamie's naivety and slightly dubious powers of reason within his limited understanding. It is followed by the Doctor playing his recorder to attract the guards before convincing them to release him as he is a German ally with valuable information. As with the previous story, the Doctor seems to be working on his own at this point and his intentions and ideas aren't really explained - quite a contrast to the First Doctor's manner. He also shows a flash of violence as he bangs Perkins's head on his desk to convince him that he has a headache! There is a hint of the First Doctor's attack on the road workers' foreman in The Reign Of Terror but rather than being out of desperation to get away, this time it is a blatant act of thuggery to advance his plans and get Perkins to close his eyes. Following his escape, there is a delightful twist as the Doctor steels some clothes off a washing line to disguise himself as a woman - much like Prince Charles was reported to be doing in the previous episode. This won't be the Doctor's only time dressed as a woman (I'm specifically thinking of a Third Doctor story, which might be The Mind Of Evil) and it won't be his last disguise in this story either.

Having been absent for much of the second episode, Kirsty and Polly are suddenly seen to have arrived in Inverness themselves as the Doctor bumps into them in the third episode. Polly has taken the lead and disguised herself and Kirsty, making reference to not dressing as a boy this time (as she was last time she was in the past in The Smugglers). On Perkins's arrival, the Doctor again turns bully brandishing a pistol (which he later reveals to Polly isn't loaded) and threatening him with more headaches. In fact, the whole story begins to pick up in the third episode and by the conclusions leaves a sense of poorly balanced writing as further time jumps are used to fit everything in because the first two episodes were too drawn out. While this may have been a deliberate attempt to set the scene gently and allow the history lesson to settle before ramping up the adventure to a climax, I'm not sure it worked particularly well. I had been looking forward to watching the recon of The Highlanders despite it being a historical story, not least because it was Jamie's origin. It started OK but wasn't doing anything particularly interesting and Jamie's relatively sidelined nature didn't bode well, it looked like another 'not too dull Historical' but it really picked up and by the end it had done everything it needed to be regarded as 'one of the better Historicals' but still had those niggly time jumps and the odd pacing. Given it's relatively quiet nature in the early episodes and lack of music throughout, I'm sure it would benefit from being seen in its original form. There is a sword fight in the final episode which sounds particularly good, though sounds alone can be deceiving, it is a real contrast to much of the story.

Finally, Jamie sets out with the regulars to guide them back to the TARDIS rather than setting sail for France with his fellow Highlanders and this alone is the reason he joins them on their travels. Very little is made of it at this stage and the final approach to the TARDIS is practically silent. There is some good action and dialogue that I haven't mentioned as well though. The Doctor acquires a whole barrow load of weapons completely unseen by the viewer and when greeted with "You must have robbed the Dukes arsenal!" he replies "Yes, something like that..." quite coyly and we're really not sure how he did it. Similarly, when Ben escapes from the slave ship he says he used an old Houdini trick "well, almost". These are both further examples of advancing the plot with a jump and avoiding difficult filming. Similarly, Polly explains that she has been telling Ffinch about Grey's activities (in illegal slave trade) on their way back to the TARDIS, again allowing the time to be jumped over whilst avoiding repetitive exposition but still telling the audience what fate lies ahead for the rogue official. Quite surprisingly, though within the context of the character's developed relationship, Polly even gives Ffinch a kiss before she enters the TARDIS.

Ultimately, although it has its flaws and falls towards the lower end of historicals in terms of viewing figures, The Highlanders concludes the genre on a high with, as you can see, an increase in viewers as it progressed rather than the usual drop. Sadly, its flaws do drag the score down to 58%, though not a bad score for a historical it is below average.

Other points worth noting are the Doctor's interest in different types of hat, his continued aloofness and apparent disinterest until it's time to snap into action, and numerous dubious and wavering accents - not so bad as to put you off, but noticeable.