In which the TARDIS brings the Doctor and her companions to Lancashire in the early years of the 17th Century. Graham recognises their surroundings as the Pendle Hill area, having once visited it with Grace. He is aware of its history regarding a notorious witchcraft trial of 1612.
The persecution of witches is very much an on-going concern for Becka Savage, lady of the manor of the village of Bilehurst Cragg. They witness an old woman known as Old Mother Twiston being ducked in a nearby lake, chained to a log, with her granddaughter Willa forced to look on.
The Doctor's psychic paper reveals her to be Witchfinder General, so Becka invites her and her friends back to the manor to discuss the issue.
It is clear that she is obsessed with stamping out witchcraft in the district. She even had her carriage horses shot when she thought them possessed by the Devil. Natural events like the weather are blamed on sorcery, and 35 women have so far been killed.
Yaz is sent back to the village to speak with Willa.
A masked man, dressed in black, has been observing them since they arrived.
Becka cites the new King James Bible as justification for her actions - pointing out the line "suffer not a witch to live". The Doctor tries to steer her more towards the New Testament and "Love thy neighbour", but to no avail. When she states that the King would have something to say to Becka about her interpretation of his authorised Bible, the figure in black appears and unmasks - revealing himself to be King Kames. On hearing of the witchcraft activity in the region, and having a personal obsession with the issue of his own, he had travelled here incognito to observe what was going on for himself.
The psychic paper fails to work properly this time, and the Doctor becomes only the Witchfinder General's assistant, and so Graham has to take on the more senior role.
Becka and the King agree that they will rid the village of the Devil - even if it means killing every single inhabitant.
Yaz comes across Willa in the woods, performing some kind of ceremony to honour her grandmother.
She is shocked to see a root-like tendril emerge from the mud and attempt to seize the girl. Yaz rescues her, hacking off part of the root which appears to be composed of mud.
She returns to the manor and joins the Doctor, Graham and Ryan. In order to keep him out of the way whilst she looks around, the Doctor has the men engage with the King. The mud on the tendril appears to be perfectly harmless.
As he is a Witchfinder General, the King has his servant Alfonso give Graham a large black hat as a mark of his status. However, it with Ryan that the monarch is most interested.
Yaz takes the Doctor to meet Willa. She reveals that Becka is actually a cousin, so was related to the dead Mother Twiston.
The Doctor wishes to know more about what attacked Willa and they go into the woods, close to where the old woman has been buried. The mud in the Doctor's sample suddenly becomes active, and they are horrified to see the old woman crawl from her grave, covered in mud. More dead women appear in a similar state. The King arrives with Alfonso and declares Willa to be a witch - despite the creatures seeming to attack her as much as anyone else. They kill Alfonso.
The Doctor orders her companions to follow the creatures.
After seeing her brandish her sonic screwdriver and due to all the strange things that have happened since she arrived, Becka accuses the Doctor of being a witch. The gullible King accepts this and she finds herself arrested.
She is able to escape unharmed, however. The creatures turn up with the axe. Willa reveals that "Bilehurst" means "sacred tree hill". It transpires that Becka took the axe to a tree which grew atop the hill because it spoiled her view. However, this tree acted as a plug, sealing in an alien species called the Morax who had been imprisoned for war crimes here in ancient times. Their bodies have decomposed but they continue to exist in the mud and are using dead bodies buried in the ground as hosts. Becka herself will become host to their Queen, but it is the King they really want, as a body for their still imprisoned monarch.
Fire can be used to keep the creatures at bay, whilst the Doctor reactivates the prison - sucking the Morax out of their host bodies and back into the ground. The Queen refuses to comply, and King James destroys her with a blazing torch, made from the wood of the tree.
Ryan is offered a court position by the King, replacing Alfonso, but he declines. Willa will follow in her grandmother's footsteps as a healer, whilst the King decides to erase all memory of what happened here from the records.
James is left dumbstruck as he sees the TARDIS dematerialise, whilst Willa merely smiles...
The Witchfinders was written by Joy Wilkinson and first broadcast on Sunday 25th November 2018.
It's the second celebrity-historical of the season, featuring as it does King James VI and I.
(For those unfamiliar with the Stuarts, Scotland had already seen five Kings named James before this one - the son of Mary Queen of Scots - came along. On Queen Elizabeth's death in 1603 he was invited to become ruler of both kingdoms - making him the sixth King James of Scotland, but only the first of England).
This is the first story in which the Doctor's new gender plays a crucial part, as the main historical inspiration is the witchcraft persecutions of the 16th and 17th Centuries. These were predominantly aimed at women (though around one third of those accused of witchcraft in Scandinavia were men).
Those who were unmarried - spinsters or widows who had declined to remarry - and those who practised midwifery and medicine were particular targets.
Those who healed could easily be accused of harming.
The Pendle Hill witch trial was a particularly notorious incident in these events. It all began when a traveller claimed that he had been cursed by a member of a local family. He had became lame immediately after having an argument with her. Another woman of the family had been suspected of being a witch for many years, but this incident led to the whole family coming under official scrutiny. Eventually, twelve people - some from a neighbouring family - were arrested and accused of ten deaths attributed to their sorcery.
What made this incident so notorious was that the most damning evidence came from a member of the family - a young girl. Only one of the accused was acquitted. The rest either died in prison at Lancaster or were hung. (Witches in England were invariably hung, despite what certain horror movies usually claim. Burning was a little more common in Scotland and on the continent).
King James is synonymous with Witchcraft following an incident when he was sailing back from Denmark with his new Queen. The ship was almost wrecked in a fierce storm, and it was alleged that a coven of Berwickshire witches had summoned it to attack him. He became obsessed with witchcraft and was responsible for a book - Daemonologie (1597) - which set out the dangers of witches and what should be done to counter the problem.
Culturally, the inspirations are very much the Horror genre - in particular what is known as "Folk-Horror". In particular we have to look to 1971's The Blood on Satan's Claw, aka The Devil's Skin (which featured Wendy Padbury and Anthony Ainley), and Witchfinder General, aka The Conqueror Worm (1968). The Wicker Man is often cited as the third of a Folk-Horror Trilogy. (You'll also see our very own The Daemons referenced when it comes to discussions of Folk-Horror).
The notion of an ancient evil being unleashed by someone tampering with the landscape - Becka cutting down the tree - is reminiscent of the works of M.R. James.
Hammer Horror is certainly a visual inspiration. The Morax emerging from their graves is reminiscent of scenes from Plague of the Zombies (1966).
1981's The Evil Dead may also be seen as an inspiration - with its deadly tree roots, witchcraft and possessed corpses.
The impressive guest cast is led by Siobhan Finneran as Becka Savage. Despite appearing in a number of soap operas, she's probably best known as the long-suffering Janice Garvey in ITV comedy drama Benidorm.
More internationally known is Alan Cumming, who portrays King James. The Scottish actor was on the radar for a role in the series for some time but was never available, working as he does in film, TV and on stage on both sides of the Atlantic.
Willa is played by Tilly Steele, and Old Mother Twiston by Tricia Kelly.
Overall, one of the better entries of the season. A more conventional Doctor Who pseudo-historical which is darker than other instalments - nicely times for Hallowe'en. It would be nice to see King James make a return - the Gunpowder Plot hasn't been done on TV yet...
Things you might like to know:
- Graham says that he and Grace did the Pendle Hill Witch Trail. This is a 45 mile route from Lancaster running east to Barrowford, which lies in the shadow of the Hill.
- "Daemonologie" was a working title for the story.
- One of the filming locations was the 17th Century living museum at Little Woodham in Hampshire.
- Some of the location filming took place during the infamous "Beast from the East" weather event of Spring 2018.
- Transmitting so close to Hallowe'en, the story opens with a discussion about apple-bobbing, which the Doctor is keen to do.
- A mix-up at Amazon Prime saw this episode uploaded for subscribers to view three days before its intended BBC One debut.
- It's only the second story ever to have been both written and directed by a woman - the first being Enlightenment.
- The Doctor uses her respiratory bypass system to survive the ducking - first mentioned in Pyramids of Mars. Meeting Harry Houdini also helped - first mentioned in Planet of the Spiders.
- Aliens making use of dead bodies to act as hosts has been seen before - in The Unquiet Dead.
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