NB: This episode no longer exists in the archives, nor is there a full set of telesnaps. Representative images are therefore used to illustrate it.
Synopsis:
The next morning, Steven returns to the inn - only to be informed by the landlord that the Doctor has not been back there.
In the household of the Admiral de Coligny, Gaston and Nicholas are concerned that Henri of Navarre is taking no precautions against the attack they believe is about to come from the Catholics. He has just married into the Catholic Royal Family after all, so feels secure.
The mention of Vassy. overheard by Anne Chaplet, has convinced Gaston that another massacre is being planned.
As they wonder where their new English friend has got to, Steven arrives. He had looked for the Doctor back at the TARDIS to no avail, and now wishes to get directions to Port Saint Martin to seek him at Preslin's premises.
Roger Colbert, of the Abbot of Amboise's household, arrives in search of Anne. He is dismissive of what Anne heard, claiming she misinterpreted talk of Vassy and became hysterical due to her personal connection to the events there ten years before.
Gaston and Muss pretend that Anne is someone else, and so Colbert departs empty handed.
Steven mentions that he thought he saw Colbert follow the Doctor from the inn yesterday - causing the two young Huguenots to become suspicious as to why one of the Abbot's men would be interested in a friend of Steven's.
Looking out of the window, they see Colbert speaking to an elderly cleric in the street - and Steven is shocked to see that it appears to be the Doctor. His new friends inform him that this is the hated Abbot, however.
As their suspicions towards Steven grow, he asks them to come with him to Preslin's shop so that they can meet the Doctor for themselves.
Despite fearing a trap, Nicholas agrees to accompany Steven, but Gaston will alert the Admiral if he fails to return.
In an ante-chamber of the royal palace of the Louvre, the situation with Anne is being discussed by Marshal Gaspar Tavannes and Simon Duvall. The Marshal does not think that the girl can say anything which puts their plans at risk, and he is scathing of the Abbot for allowing the situation to have arisen in the first place. It is confirmed that a man named Bondot has been hired for an important mission.
Tavannes is concerned to hear of the presence of an Englishman at de Coligny's house, and instructs Duvall to find out more about him.
The Admiral arrives and Tavannes tries to learn from him if he has had any contact with England recently. de Coligny is more interested in pursuing an alliance with the Dutch - nicknamed "the sea beggars" - to launch a war against Spain.
At Port Saint Martin, Steven has failed to find the Doctor, and an elderly neighbour claims that Preslin hasn't used his shop for two years. She thinks he was arrested and executed as a heretic.
As far as Nicholas is concerned, the man who Steven claims is his friend is indeed their enemy, the Abbot of Amboise.
Steven is forced to run off.
Suspicions are also growing at the Abbot's house, as Duvall and Colbert discuss Steven's interest in their master. "Bondot" is actually an alias which has been given to an assassin named Maurevert. He is to kill someone codenamed "Sea Beggar".
At de Coligny's house, Steven is now thought to be a Catholic spy, and Anne is questioned as to how much she knows about him since it was he who brought her into the inn. They are starting to doubt her story as well. She insists that what she overheard is true.
Gaston and Nicholas realise that the place to find Steven will be at the Abbot's house, so set off to find him.
Steven has indeed gone there, but to spy on the Doctor and find out why he is pretending to be the Abbot.
The cleric is not present, but he witnesses a meeting between Tavannes, Duvall and Colbert. From this he hears of the assassination plot against "the Sea Beggar" following a Council meeting, on the orders of the Queen Mother herself. The Marshal gives responsibility for arranging this to the Abbot, and the young men are to inform him on his return.
Steven rushes back to the Admiral's house to warn Nicholas. Only Gaston is present, and he refuses to believe him. He chases him off.
Curfew is fast approaching. Steven wants to go back and speak to Nicholas who might be more willing to listen to him. He comes across Anne in the street, who has left the house as she fears the Abbot's men will soon find her there.
Steven suggests they go to Preslin's empty shop and sit out the curfew there.
Nicholas visits the Admiral in his office and learns that he has made progress with the young King, who seems to be leaning towards his plans for war against Spain.
The King has noted his desire to see an alliance with the Dutch and has given him a nickname.
de Coligny informs his young friend that he will be proud to bear that name - "the Sea Beggar"...
Next episode: Priest of Death
Written by: John Lucarotti
Recorded: Friday 28th January 1966 - Riverside Studio1
First broadcast: 5:15pm, Saturday 12th February 1966
Ratings: 6 million / AI 52
Designer: Michael Young
Director: Paddy Russell
Additional cast: Andre Morell (Marshal Tavannes), Leonard Sachs (Admiral de Coligny)
The history of the period is further elaborated upon. France and Spain had been allies and rivals over the centuries, despite their common Catholic bond. Economic rivalry could be strong enough to overrule even religious ties, however.
Admiral Gaspard de Coligny (b.1519) was the leading French Protestant politician, and was suspected by many of being responsible for the 1563 assassination of the Duke de Guise, a leading Catholic nobleman and the person responsible for the massacre of a Huguenot congregation at Vassy.
As the story shows, de Coligny came to have some influence over the King, who wished to rebel against his domineering mother and be his own man.
de Coligny's opposite number on the Royal Council is the Marshal of France, Gaspard de Saulx, sieur de Tavannes (b.1509). He was the senior military commander of the country, and a devout Catholic.
He opposed efforts by Catherine de Medici to moderate the persecution of the Huguenots, and she frequently had to censure him.
What's missing from The Massacre is the House of Guise. The old Duke was ten years dead, but his relatives held positions of power and influence at court, and played a significant role in the events of St Bartholomew's Day 1572. One of the family was the Cardinal of Lorraine. In the Doctor Who story, he is said to be the superior of the fictitious Abbot of Amboise, but in reality was a key conspirator along with his nephews, the new Duke of Guise and that of Aumale.
One of the problems which media versions of this story encounter is the potential for sectarian bias. When Marlowe wrote his play (see below), it was very much a piece of anti-Catholic propaganda for an Elizabethan audience.
It is very easy to view the story simply as Huguenots = nice, Catholics = nasty. This is why it's important to delve into the historical backdrop to these events, identify villains and heroes on both sides, and investigate motivating factors.
The Massacre itself can never be justified, but it does need to be understood in context.
As a case in point, just consider the Admiral. Generally, within Doctor Who, War is always wrong. The Doctor fights to prevent it, or strives to bring it to an end where it's already underway. The Doctor just spent 12 weeks trying to stop the Daleks from embarking upon one.
However, de Coligny is defined by his efforts to start a war. It's what gets him killed and is directly responsible for imminent events, because disposing of him will trigger a backlash against the Catholic majority. As far as they are concerned, it's simply kill them before they kill you.
He wants to ignite a conflict between old allies (France and Spain), using a non-Catholic foreign power (the Netherlands). It's clearly implied that this conflict could spread further - as everyone seems concerned about Englishman Steven's presence. The Papal States would have had something to say on this, so we might inevitably had seen a Europe-wide conflict rapidly develop.
And yet the writer has de Coligny aligned with the "heroes" of the story, in that they're the young people whom the Doctor's young companion befriends.
There is some semblance of balance between the religious factions on show - an older leader, each with a pair of younger disciples, one level-headed and other more of a firebrand.
William Hartnell was on holiday the week this episode was recorded. The Doctor does not feature, and Hartnell only appears in a short sequence which was pre-filmed at Ealing on Thursday 6th January.
The absence of the star led to Peter Purves citing this as one of his favourite stories, as Steven was given the lion's share of the action.
Donald Tosh actually claimed that he wrote such a strong part for Purves in these middle episodes as an apology for giving him such a poor role in Galaxy 4.
In taking on the role of Marshal Tavannes, Andre Morell had to turn down a part in the second Peter Cushing / Dalek movie, which began filming at Shepperton at the end of January. It would be interesting to know if he had been considered for the role of Wyler, which went to Andrew Keir. It was Keir who took on Morell's role in the third Quatermass film.
Paddy Russell hired an old friend - Cynthia Etherington - to play the old woman who tells Steven and Nicholas about Preslin's disappearance.
She planned the evening's recording to run through without any recording breaks.
Whilst the ratings for War of God had been consistent with the previous week, The Sea Beggar sees the beginning of a slide in viewing figures which will persevere for years.
Apart from a single episode of The Sensorites and the recent Feast of Steven, every Doctor Who episode had been in the Top 50 programmes for the week. This episode only just managed to creep into the Top 100.
No one factor is to blame. The series was already three years old, so the novelty was wearing off, despite the flexibility of the format. The decision to mount a single three month story probably led to "Dalek-fatigue", as a number of newspaper critics attested.
The Massacre itself must also play a part. It's a fairly static, wordy story - low on action - with lengthy scenes of men arguing politics in wood-panelled rooms, which might start to look a bit samey. We have a period of history which most viewers would have little knowledge of, and - being set in another country - not a great deal of interest in. The action picks up in the third and fourth instalments, but it appears that this was too late for a couple of million viewers.
- The audience numbers may plummet by a quarter this week, but the appreciation score remains consistent with the opening instalment and still over 50.
- On screen, William Hartnell is only credited as the Abbot on this episode and the next - though still as "Dr Who" in Radio Times throughout the serial.
- Andre Morell played the third TV incarnation of Professor Bernard Quatermass, in 1953's Quatermass and the Pit, as well as portraying O'Brien in 1984 - both productions on which Paddy Russell worked with Rudolph Cartier. Despite being a regular player with Hammer (Plague of the Zombies, She, The Mummy's Shroud etc), he wasn't asked to reprise the role in their 1967 film version. My personal favourite of all the actors to portray Quatermass, he made for a superb Tiberius in The Caesars as well.
- Leonard Sachs was best known as the alliterative master of ceremonies, in full-blooded period character, on the BBC's Music Hall variety show The Good Old days. He would return to Doctor Who in 1983 to play the third iteration of Borusa in Arc of Infinity.
- Last week we mentioned La Reine Margot - the novel by Alexandre Dumas which has been filmed on a few occasions, most recently in 1994. Another version of the story you might wish to check out is the 1593 play by Christopher Marlowe - The Massacre at Paris. This was based on an earlier work - The Tragedy of the Guise.
