Synopsis:
Aboard the Annabelle, Solicitor Grey watches on as Trask has Ben tied up and dropped into the murky waters of the harbour...
When the rope is pulled up there is no sign of Ben, and everyone assumes he has drowned. However, he surfaces on the other side of the ship and makes his way to the quayside. Unfortunately, he is immediately confronted by a wounded Redcoat soldier, sporting a thick black moustache.
This proves to be the Doctor in another disguise. He is loading a rowing boat with weapons.
On the ship, Grey and Trask discuss their plan for the vessel to sail the next morning. Grey has ensured that his transportation scheme is legal as he has signed contracts.
Willy Mackay is upset that his own crew have all signed, whilst he, Colin McLaren and Jamie fear that they will be disposed of once out of sight of land.
Ben has been taken to the barn behind the inn where he is reunited with Polly and Kirsty. A plan is agreed amongst them. Ben will take the Doctor out to the Annabelle where he will cause a diversion. He will then pick up the women and return to the ship to distribute the weapons through a porthole into the cargo hold.
The Doctor assumes his German accent once again when he is brought before Grey. He produces the gold ring which Kirsty was carrying - the one given to McLaren by Bonnie Prince Charlie himself. He then begins bartering for the information as to where the fugitive Pretender is, claiming that he was taken captive after the recent battle but is hiding his true identity.
Kirsty is able to get the attention of her father, and she and Polly begin passing guns to him and Jamie.
The Doctor reveals that Jamie is the prisoner they are looking for, and when Trask rushes down to the hold to seize him he is attacked. The Scots prisoners begin fighting with Trask and his men, the struggle spilling out onto the deck.
Trask is knocked over the side into the sea, and soon Mackay has regained control of his ship.
It is quickly agreed that he will set sail for France, taking Colin and the other prisoners to safety there.
The Doctor will hold on to Grey as a hostage to allow them to get back to the TARDIS. Perkins, his clerk, decides to take the opportunity to free himself of his bullying master and asks to remain on the ship, acting as an interpreter for when they get to France.
The ship sets sail, disappearing into the fog which will aid their escape. Polly regrets not having said farewell to Jamie - only for the young piper to suddenly appear. He will escort them to the TARDIS.
Grey manages to escape. At the Sea Eagle Polly spots Lieutenant Ffinch, who is with his Colonel. The Doctor produces the Pretender's gold ring and claims to know where he is, so Colonel Attwood orders Ffinch to accompany the Doctor - inadvertently providing them with safe passage back to the TARDIS.
When they arrive at the old cottage where they first met Jamie and the others, they are confronted by Grey, who tries to have them arrested. He is in turn accused of being responsible for illegal slave transportation. When he tries to produce the signed contracts, he discovers that they have vanished - victims of the Doctor's sleight of hand. Ffinch has the crooked solicitor arrested.
The Doctor and his friends, meanwhile, slip off to the TARDIS.
Concerned that Jamie sacrificed his chance of freedom in France to help them, and now faces a life on the run after they have gone, the Doctor invites him to join them on their travels - so long as he teaches him how to play the bagpipes...
Next week: The Underwater Menace
Data:
Written by: Gerry Davis & Elwyn Jones
Recorded: Saturday 24th December 1966 - Riverside Studio 1
First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 7th January 1966
Ratings: 7.3 million / AI 47
Designer: Geoffrey Kirkland
Director: Hugh David
Additional cast: Guy Middleton (Colonel Attwood)
Critique:
The Highlanders is the final story in the long run of "Historical" adventures which began with a visit to the Stone Age in the very first story. (Some will argue that this ought to be Black Orchid, but I'd argue that the Davison story is less a Historical and more a literary genre piece - the country house murder mystery beloved of Agatha Christie and her ilk. The '20's setting is quite irrelevant - it could just have easily been set in the 1950's or in the present day).
The Historical stories had been an important part of the programme's educational remit from the outset, and it is notable that they alternated regularly with the futuristic ones for much of the first two years. We also have the Coal Hill schoolteachers representing History (Barbara) as well as Science (Ian).
The early success of the Daleks obviously led to a re-engineering of the programme as a Sci-Fi adventure series, though it took some time for this to work through, with the Historicals appearing less frequently.
In many ways these adventures in the past had proven the more experimental ones - despite the fact that the inclusion of real events would normally restrict the story-telling. Donald Cotton and Dennis Spooner saw them as an opportunity to do some comedy - usually of the blackest sort as it was often followed by mass slaughter. Donald Tosh, meanwhile, took the opportunity to cover more obscure historical events, such as the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre.
Latterly, Gerry Davis had been concentrating on historical fiction as the backdrop to the non-Sci-Fi adventures. Both The Smugglers and The Highlanders look to the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, as well as the likes of Sir Walter Scott and Russell Thorndike. The historical period is key to the stories, but no real life historical figures are necessary to tell them.
The Historicals were certainly a good thing for production budgets, as the BBC had all the sets, props and costumes readily to hand for any chosen period - so why were they discontinued?
Feedback from the audience was certainly a factor. Radio Times did get the letters from people claiming that the more fantastical science fiction episodes weren't for them, but more came in claiming that the stories set in history were boring and could they have more Daleks, please.
One criticism is that the Historicals looked cheap. Despite all that knowledge and the visual trappings, Doctor Who's trips into the past could not compete with the big drama productions set in the same eras.
The prestigious TV adaptations of Dickens, Scott or Stevenson showed up the limitations of the Doctor Who versions.
Ironically, the axe fell on these stories just as the programme was escaping the studio and getting out and about on location more regularly - going as far afield as Cornwall for The Smugglers.
Another factor is the personalities of the people making the series. Davis seems to have been happy to have carried on the history-based stories, but it is clear that Innes Lloyd was less happy with them. He would become involved in some hugely popular and - that word again - prestigious adaptations of classic novels, so perhaps it was that sense of cheapness which annoyed him.
The Gunfighters has to take some of the blame. It used to be argued that it got the lowest ever viewing figures and this is why the Historicals were scrapped, but we now know that it was the audience appreciation figures - how much people actually enjoyed it - that were the problem.
Patrick Troughton made his views clear in issue 78 of Doctor Who Monthly: "I didn't like going back in time. They weren't my favourite ones".
Lloyd and Davis had been especially happy with The Tenth Planet, from both a narrative and production point of view, and decided that this would act as a template for the series moving forward.
The Highlanders is also best known for the introduction of Jamie, played by Frazer Hines, as a companion. The more you tell a misremembered story, the more that this version of events becomes fact in your head. I saw Hines being interviewed just last year, and he was still repeating the story of how he was asked to stay on due to the positive public response to Jamie. If you've been paying attention to the synopses to these Episodes posts you will have noticed that Jamie does very little in the story beyond the opening instalment. He would have figured more prominently in this final episode, whether he was going to be kept on or not. The dates don't add up either. Hines and the regulars were recalled to Frensham Ponds in Surrey to film a revised ending to the episode before the first one had been broadcast.
If there is any one reason for Hines being made a regular on the series, it's the relationship between Patrick Troughton and Shaun Sutton - Lloyd's boss. Liking Hines anyway, and hearing good things about him from Troughton as well, Sutton surely then advised the producer and script editor to take him on. There certainly isn't any narrative reason to take on a third companion, so soon after a new actor has taken on the lead role. We will see that his arrival wasn't prepared for in any way, as Hines is either rationed some of Michael Craze's lines, or side-lined entirely in the plot, such as when bedridden for two-thirds of The Moonbase.
The original departure scene was filmed on Monday 14th November at Frensham, alongside all of the material for Episode One, plus the cliff-hanger resolution at the start of the second instalment. It was at the end of the filming week when Hines got the call from Lloyd enquiring if he would be interested in staying on. Troughton, Craze and Anneke Wills lost out on a day off to join Hines back at the location on Monday 21st November to film the revised scene, where Jamie now enters the TARDIS.
The following Monday a writer's guide was issued for the new character, which categorically states that Jamie should be seen as the "Young Hero" of any story. His superstition and belief in the supernatural, as a means to accept alien concepts, was stressed, as was his lack of knowledge of modern inventions.
Only a year before, a new companion - Katarina - had been hastily written out because of the very things which were being put across as positive character traits for Jamie.
Joining the cast for rehearsals on Tuesday 20th December was actor Guy Middleton, who had been a big star either side of the war, tending to play the sort of dodgy charmer roles which Terry-Thomas would soon make his own. A couple of films of his which are repeated on TV often are the supernatural drama The Halfway House (1944) and the comedy Laughter In Paradise (1951).
He's underused here, with a single scene and only a couple of lines.
A couple of amendments were made to the script late in the day, some to reflect the change of plans for Jamie. Ben fights a duel with Trask, whereas the villain had originally only fought with Jamie. Another scene set in a boathouse with the regulars in hiding was added when the episode was found to be under-running.
The sequence in the barn as the rescue plan is made saw a number of ad-libs from the cast. Referring to his new disguise, Hannah Gordon's Kirsty told the Doctor that he had made a good granny, whilst he had reprised his "I would like a hat like that" line, after seeing Ben cover his face with a Tam O'Shanter bonnet.
The fight scenes on the deck of the Annabelle were all recorded in studio, under the supervision of Peter Diamond. At one point he accidentally struck Hines on the forehead, leaving a small scar at the eyebrow.
I'm sure viewers at the time were satisfied with the conclusion to the main plotline, but in hindsight there are a couple of worries. Trask is simply knocked overboard, and we've no way of knowing if he simply swam ashore and ran off. It is a fact that sailors in times past did not learn to swim, and drowning was the biggest cause of death for them, but something more conclusive might have satisfied better for Trask.
Likewise Grey. His only crime has actually been to try to profit by his official job as Commissioner for dealing with the Jacobites, so is he really going to suffer too harshly for being found out? He might simply get a slap on the wrist, but nothing more serious. We do know that a number of Jacobites were transported to the West Indies to work in the plantations though, not being African, were generally given roles like supervisor or overseer to perform.
The cast and crew joined a Christmas party after recording, and would then have a week's holiday before assembling for rehearsals on The Underwater Menace. Troughton was already concerned about the punishing schedule of the programme. However, having lost a week at the beginning of his tenure whilst his character was still being developed - which reduced the time between recording and broadcast to a fortnight - this festive holiday would see the series going out on Saturday evening just one week after production.
- The Historicals end with reasonable ratings - more than 7 million and 66th place in the Top 100 programmes for the week. The appreciation figure hasn't moved more than a single point between first and last episode, making this one of the most consistently enjoyed stories of the classic era.
- Wednesday 21st December saw Craze and Wills step out of rehearsals to make a guest appearance on children's variety series Crackerjack. This week they were staging a panto based on Alice in Wonderland, and host Leslie Crowther and his regular sidekick Peter Glaze dressed as the Second and First Doctors to sing Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys. Glaze had featured as the City Administrator in The Sensorites, and it is widely believed that Brian Wilson was influenced by the original Doctor Who theme when he lived in London for a time.
- The Scotsman newspaper reviewed the serial on 9th January, highlighting how, stylistically, it had resembled Culloden - the acclaimed drama-documentary filmed by Peter Watkins and shown in December 1964. Script editor and director would have been pleased as this had been one of their inspirations.
- Radio Times published a letter from a viewer who felt that the story had presented events as too much of an England v. Scotland conflict. This isn't actually all that evident on screen. Yes, some Scots are presented as victims who have to be helped by the Doctor and his companions, emerging, like Jamie, as heroic figures - but the villainous Grey is also a Scot.
- The Highlanders is believed to be the earliest victim of the great archive purge, as far as its studio video tapes are concerned. These were wiped less than a month after recording. 16mm film copies had been made for overseas sales. Hong Kong, Singapore, Uganda and Zambia all bought the story at the end of the decade. Copies were known to exist in 1974, after which it disappears.
- All that remains of the story now are some very brief clips courtesy of the Australian censors, plus a film offcut of the TARDIS location scene - which features Production Assistant (and future director) Fiona Cumming announcing the take number. This last item is held by a private collector but can be seen on the Lost in Time DVD set, along with the censor clips.
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