The Art of... The Massacre

The novelisation of The Massacre - which uses the simplified version of the title - was written by its nominal author, John Lucarotti. I say nominal, since we know that it was heavily rewritten by Donald Tosh. Lucarotti takes the opportunity to tell the story he originally envisaged.

Against a backdrop of medieval houses, we have the TARDIS appearing to be burnt on a pyre, which is something you certainly never saw in the televised story. Instead of the Doctor we have his doppelganger, the Abbot of Amboise (or is it the Doctor in disguise...?). Again, the Doctor never dons clerical robes in the TV version of the story. There's very little visual evidence for the story, but fans who saw it at the time have stated that the Abbot dressed in white or cream.

Amongst his many changes Lucarotti added a prologue and epilogue to the story, in which the Doctor discusses these events with the Time Lords, and it's implied that he has retired from travelling at this point.

The artist denied visual references is Tony Masero, and it was published in November 1987.

A reprint with a new cover by Alister Pearson followed in October 1992. We have character portraits - Charles IX, Catherine de Medici and Steven - and Notre Dame Cathedral to set the scene. The double portrait of Hartnell hints at the look-alike subplot.

The soundtrack, narrated by Peter Purves, was issued in 1999 - one of the very first from the BBC Radio Collection. Again we have the double Hartnell, though you can see one is wearing dark robes. The Catholic Queen Mother is present again on the photomontage cover, with the narrator. Despite playing more significant roles, de Coligny and Tavannes don't get a look-in. Whilst it says The Massacre on the cover, the discs themselves have the full "The Massacre of Saint Bartholomew's Eve".

This was issued on vinyl courtesy of Demon Records in June 2020. It was supposed to be released to tie in with Record Store Day in April, but was delayed. It's a superbly atmospheric cover, depicting violent events on the nocturnal streets of Paris - which make the story look a lot more exciting than it was. The serial is mainly comprised of lengthy scenes of people plotting in wood-panelled rooms, with the titular Massacre taking place off screen.

(Unfortunately, the Tricolore wasn't adopted as French flag until 1794. At this point in history it should have been a dark blue flag with three golden fleur-de-lis).

An audiobook of Lucarotti's novel was released in June 2015, using Masero's artwork. The wider image allows for more detail of the background buildings, so it's a bit more apparent that the burning of the TARDIS is taking place in a town square.

And finally, as a missing story with no DVD release, the moviedb site used a colourful photomontage image to illustrate this story in the style of a DVD cover. This one adds Anne Chaplet to the mix.

As a fairly obscure, talky historical, I suspect that The Massacre isn't terribly high on the list for any animated  release, which is a pity.