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:
Suspected of the Abbot's death, Steven flees back to Preslin's shop to hide out, where he finds Anne Chaplet waiting for him.
He tells her of the events of the night before, and of the death of his friend the Doctor. In order to escape from 16th Century Paris he must find the TARDIS key. Assuming that the Doctor used this shop to change his outfit, he instructs Anne to help him search the building thoroughly.
At the Louvre, last night's events are also being discussed by Marshal Tavannes and Simon Duvall. The King has ordered an investigation into the attempt on Admiral de Coligny's life, but they hope that the death of the Abbot will help divert attention onto the actions of the Huguenots.
Tavannes orders Duvall to find Steven before nightfall. Tomorrow is the Feast of St Bartholomew and the city will be packed with revellers, under cover of which the young Englishman might escape.
The Queen Mother then summons the Marshal.
In de Coligny's house, meanwhile, Gaston and Nicholas are concerned about the protection in place for the wounded Admiral, which they discuss with Councillor Teligny. It is the King who has placed guards over the Admiral - which means that Catholics, commanded by a Catholic, are protecting their leader.
They worry that Henri of Navarre may also be in danger.
After Gaston leaves, Teligny expresses his concern that de Coligny has such a hot-headed young man in his employ.
Steven gives up hope of ever gaining access to the TARDIS, just as the Doctor appears at the shop.
Overjoyed at seeing him again, he tells him of the Abbot and his fears he had been killed.
The evening curfew sounds, and Anne mentions how easy it will be for them to slip out of Paris during tomorrow's feast day. On hearing this, the Doctor urges her to tell him the year.
On learning that it is 1572, on the eve of St Bartholomew's Day, he is horrified. He and Steven must get back to the TARDIS immediately.
He instructs Anne to go and stay with family members and keep off the streets for the next few days.
In the Louvre, the Queen Mother hands Tavannes the order - signed by her son - to massacre the Huguenot leadership of Paris.
Whilst in favour of action against them, he is concerned that the innocent may suffer along with the guilty, but they both realise that the mob will be uncontrollable. He stresses that Henri of Navarre must be spared. The deaths of ordinary citizens - no matter how many - will have little impact abroad, but the death of a prince could spark a wider conflict.
The Queen Mother reluctantly agrees then withdraws. Tavannes informs Duvall that he will be tasked with escorting Henri out of the city before dawn.
The Doctor and Steven find their way to the TARDIS blocked by the guards outside de Coligny's house. They then see soldiers appear and order the guards to withdraw, before entering the house...
The Doctor and Steven leave Paris as the slaughter of the Huguenots commences.
In the TARDIS the Doctor explains why he left the city so hurriedly, describing the events of the Massacre. Steven is furious that they did not do more to help Anne, fearing that she will almost certainly have perished as the Catholics were already hunting for her even before the events began to unfold.
The ship materialises on Wimbledon Common in 1966, and Steven storms out - despite the Doctor trying to justify his actions.
Left alone in the ship for the first time in many years, he is reminded of his recent companions, especially his granddaughter Susan. He contemplates going back to his home, then realises that this is not possible...
Nearby, a young woman named Dorothea "Dodo" Chaplet has witnessed a road accident. Spotting the Police Box she runs towards it. Steven has seen a couple of policemen also making their way towards the TARDIS and, having cooled down, goes back to warn the Doctor.
Dodo seems unfazed by the huge futuristic room in which she finds herself. The Doctor points out to Steven that she shares a surname with Anne - suggesting that she had survived the Massacre. Dodo confirms a French grandparent.
As she reminds him a great deal of Susan, and she claims to have no-one at home who will miss her, Dodo joins the Doctor and Steven on their travels...
Next episode: The Steel Sky
Data:
Written by: John Lucarotti and Donald Tosh
Recorded: Friday 11th February 1966 - Riverside Studio 1
First broadcast: 5:15pm, Saturday 26th February, 1966
Ratings: 5.8 million / AI 53
Designer: Michael Young
Director: Paddy Russell
It was originally intended that Anne Chaplet was to become the new companion but, after the concerns which arose with Katarina, it was decided that a character from history might not work terribly well. They would need even the most simple scientific developments - like the electric light - explained to them. It was also felt that to remove someone from their own time went against the programme's philosophy of the Doctor never interfering with history.
Donald Tosh was already heavily reworking John Lucarotti's scripts, and as he would no longer be story editor in February, it was agreed that he could get a co-writer credit on the latest serial's final episode.
This was due to him solely writing the end sequence which would introduce the new companion - now a modern day character.
It is often stated that Tosh left Doctor Who in a show of solidarity with his producer, John Wiles. This is true to an extent, but there were other factors involved. The first was that their superior was now the writer Gerald Savory, and Tosh and he did not get on since working together at Granada TV.
Tosh also learned that Wiles was to be replaced by Innes Lloyd, and realised that his plans for the series did not match with his own. The third factor was a request for extended leave on health grounds which was turned down - leading to him deciding to quit the BBC altogether to go freelance.
With Tosh writing, Bell of Doom marks the first time his replacement Gerry Davis gets a Story Editor credit on the series. He had begun working on the series just after New Year.
Chosen to play the new companion - Dorothea "Dodo" Chaplet - was Mancunian actress Jacqueline Joyce Lane. Shortly after moving to London in 1963 she had been interviewed by Verity Lambert and Waris Hussein for the role of Susan, but she decided not to proceed with an audition as it was a long-term part and she did not want to be pinned down so early in her career.
She had previously worked with Paddy Russell, and John Wiles recalled her from a stage production of one of his plays - Never Had It So Good - in which she had played a Cockney character.
The intention was that Dodo would be a working class Mancunian girl, but senior management at the BBC favoured "BBC English" - Received Pronunciation or RP - over regional dialects at this time.
Ironically, she would be replaced only a few months later by two new characters - one of whom spoke with a broad Cockney accent.
A contemporary image of the Massacre by the Huguenot artist Francois Dubois, who fled Paris just after the Massacre.
"We are to unleash the wolves of Paris. None are to be spared" (Tavannes to Simon Duvall)
After three weeks of build-up (with the drama covering three days), this episode finally sees events rush towards their fateful conclusion with the massacre of the Huguenot population of Paris, which began on the night of 23 / 24 August 1572. It was this event which actually led to the word "massacre" being coined for a mass slaughter.
As we've seen, the background was complex and has had to be simplified for a Doctor Who story. The Catholic Royal Family has ordered the deaths in order to preserve their control over the country and prevent the Protestants from gaining power.
The signal for the massacre to begin was the tolling of the bell of the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, situated a few hundred yards from the Louvre. This gave the episode its title.
Admiral de Coligny was recovering from his wounds when he was set upon and murdered in his sick-bed by a group led by the Duke de Guise - his naked corpse thrown from the chamber window onto the street below.
Councillor Teligny was one of the first victims - refusing to convert, he was killed in corridors of the Louvre itself.
The killings went on for several days, and spread to other cities in which Catholic mobs murdered Huguenot neighbours.
The actual death toll is not known. It has varied from 2000 to 10,000 in Paris alone, with perhaps 30,000 across the whole of France. The only concrete figure in the records is the 1100 bodies that were fished from the Seine, for which payment details to the boatmen exist.
The official justification for the events, given to the parliament on 26th August, was that a Protestant plot had been uncovered, intended to assassinate King Charles IX and senior Catholics, and it had been necessary to seize the initiative and make a pre-emptive strike. The mob had simply taken over and increased the bloodshed.
The young King lived only another year or so, dying of TB in 1574. The events in Paris had seriously affected his mental health. He was succeeded by his brother who became Henri III, but he in turn died without an heir.
Ironically, it was the Protestant Henri of Navarre who then succeeded to the throne of France as Henri IV. However, he converted in order to do so, supposedly claiming "Paris is worth a mass".
Catherine de Medici almost outlived her sons, all of whom became king, dying in 1589 a few months before Henri III was assassinated.
Marshal Tavannes died less than a year after the Massacre, in July 1573.
Production on Bell of Doom had got underway on Wednesday 5th January when brief insert shots of Leonard Sachs (de Coligny), Michael Bilton (Teligny) and David Weston (Nicholas Muss) were filmed, to be cut into the final massacre montage.
Then, on Friday 7th, filming took place with Jackie Lane on Windmill Road at Wimbledon Common in SW London.
Only two panels of the TARDIS prop were set up on location, as the remainder was needed in studio on that day.
During rehearsals, William Hartnell expressed concern about two lengthy speeches he had to deliver in this episode. Written by Tosh, he was keen to see them retained and delivered as he felt they summarised his own viewpoint regarding the philosophy of the series:
"My dear Steven, history sometimes gives us a terrible shock, and that is because we don't quite fully understand. Why should we? After all, we're too small to realise its final pattern. Therefore, don't try to judge it from where you stand. I was right to do what I did. Yes, that I firmly believe..."
[Steven leaves the TARDIS].
"Steven... Even after all this time, he cannot understand. I dare not change the course of history. Well, at least I taught him to take some precautions; he did remember to look at the scanner before opening the doors. And now they've all gone. All gone. None of them could understand. Not even my little Susan. Or Vicki. And as for Barbera and Chatterton - Chesterton - they were all too impatient to get back to their own time. And now, Steven.
Perhaps I should go home. Back to my own planet. But I can't... I can't...".
As expected, Hartnell attempted to get the lines reduced but Tosh showered him with praise for the way he had delivered the dialogue at the readthrough, playing on the actor's ego to make him insist on keeping the speeches.
The action cuts away from Paris at the crucial moment of the guards arriving to ensure the death of de Coligny. The actual massacre itself is illustrated with sound effects and contemporary prints and woodcuts, such as that by Francois Dubois above. From the filming schedule, we know that images of certain cast members was intercut with these.
Only a single recording break was scheduled, to allow Hartnell and Purves to change into their regular costumes and appear on the TARDIS set for the closing section, where they are joined by Lane for the first time.
The attempts to justify Dodo's arrival are odd, to say the least. It is implied that, because she shares a surname and has a French forebear, she provides proof that Anne survived the events of Paris in August 1572. However, surnames are traditionally passed down the male line - so Anne must have married someone of the exact same name as herself for this to have worked. Unfortunately, Dodo's presence is likely to be merely coincidental, and Anne did indeed perish in the Massacre. Perhaps if Lane had played both roles this might have worked better.
The other oddities about the scene are Dodo's apparent nonchalance of seeing the TARDIS interior inside a police box - she actually asks where the phone is - and Steven's concern about the policemen approaching. He ought to know that the ship cannot be opened by anyone other than the Doctor, so why is he rushing back to warn him?
Likewise, the Doctor dematerialises in a hurry when he knows that there's no risk, and he hasn't given Dodo much chance to explain herself.
John Lucarotti's original version of the story involved the Doctor much more - though this would have destroyed the mystery which Tosh created around the true nature of the Abbot. Lucarotti's version would have shown that the two couldn't possibly be the same person.
Tosh tells his story through Steven and temporary companion character Anne. Interestingly, he adopts a pyramid of characters on both sides of the religious divide.
On the Huguenot side we have their leader Admiral de Coligny, an older man in a position of authority who is based on a real historical figure. Below him are Nicholas Muss and Gaston Lerans - one a firebrand and the other a more reasonable individual.
Opposing them we have Marshal Tavannes - the mature, historical, authority figure - who has beneath him Simon Duvall and Roger Colbert. Again, each of the young men represents a different level of extremism for their particular religious cause. Colbert is the firebrand to Duvall's more moderate character.
It's a useful means of showing two sides of a situation, and the differing opinions within each side - the intention being that the audience will see that this as a complex scenario, with shades of grey.
Donald Tosh, who passed a way in December 2019, did not work on the series again, though he did submit a story idea for Patrick Troughton's Doctor - "The Rosicrucians / Rose Mariners" - which was not taken up. The background came from his keen interest in history, and he would eventually work for the National Trust as custodian - or castellan - of St Mawes castle in Cornwall.
He made a cameo appearance in 2013's An Adventure in Space And Time, alongside Jean Marsh and Anneke Wills, as a guest at Verity Lambert's leaving party.
- The ratings remain low, but don't fall any further. The appreciation figure actually bounces back to over 50.
- It was originally hoped that William Russell and Jaqueline Hill might provide cameos in this episode as Ian and Barbara. They would have been seen walking across the Common when they heard the TARDIS, arriving just too late to see it. The sequence was dropped as the actors were unavailable on the planned filming dates.
- Two future directors make an appearance behind the scenes on this story - Gerry Mill (Production Assistant) and Fiona Cumming (Assistant Floor Manager). He will direct The Faceless Ones for the following season, and she will be responsible for four Peter Davison stories.
- The Doctor's soliloquy from this episode was recreated by David Bradley in An Adventure In Space And Time. However, here they use it to illustrate Hartnell's inability to recall lines. He is in a bad mood having a dislike to a male director or production assistant who doesn't know how to manipulate the TARDIS controls. In reality it was one of Hartnell's finest moments on the series - not one of his worst.
- Surprisingly, even contemporary woodcuts were deemed too disturbing for some members of the audience, according to the TV critic of The Listener magazine.
- The videotapes of all four episodes of The Massacre were destroyed in August 1967, with film copies sold to Australia, New Zealand, Barbados, Zambia, Sierra Leone and Singapore. The Australian recording was known to have been destroyed in 1976.
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