The Highlanders

The TARDIS arrives in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden, the British army triumphant over the rebel forces of Bonnie Prince Charlie. They are entangled in the ‘mopping up’ operation by the redcoats, where the brave highlanders must choose between death and slavery. This story is hardly the most historically accurate one the programme has made, but it must be remembered that this was broadcast only two years after Peter Watkins’s ground-breaking Culloden, the definitive television exploration of that event. The Highlanders simply gets on with telling a good story, and succeeds admirably.

There is an undercurrent of brutality in the story- characters are threatened with hanging and drowning and the sense of horror at the fact that defeat is only the beginning. However, there is a great deal of humour in the story, especially where the Doctor is concerned. Here, the Doctor dons all manner of disguises and silly voices- a German doctor (Doktor von Wer, no less!) who is fond of bizarre astrological and holistic remedies, a Redcoat and an aged Scottish crone. In fact, he spends more time pretending to be someone else than he does as himself. However, it is notable that it is his new-found fondness for headgear (‘I would like a hat like that!’) that gets them all into trouble. He also seems to have a new-found violent streak- witness his subduing of Grey, with the great quip ‘I've never seen a silent lawyer before’. Fortunately, these are played for laughs.

The guest characters are very memorable, especially David Garth as the loathsome Solicitor Grey, who refers to the Scottish prisoners as ‘Highland cattle’. Michael Elwyn puts in a funny, but sympathetic performance as the foppish Lt Algernon Ffinch ('...with two "f"s!') a man who illustrates the perils of ‘buying a commission’, but proves to be honourable in the end. I must also mention Dallas Cavell as Captain Trask, who seems to have wandered in from The Smugglers!

Ben and Polly are also on fantastic form- in fact Polly has never been better than here, where she schemes and uses her feminine wiles on the hapless Ffinch. However, this story contributed something very important to the legacy of Doctor Who- Jamie McCrimmon. Surprisingly, he doesn’t take centre stage at any point here, but is still engagingly played by Frazer Hines throughout.

The Highlanders marks the end of another era in Doctor Who, that of the pure historical. There would be trips to the past after this, but there would always be an alien or monster waiting there. Whatever the motivation behind this decision, it is a real shame- all of them are well worth watching/ listening to, and some rank as among the finest examples of 1960s television. They were also very varied in tone, from the doom-laden Massacre to the farcical Myth Makers. The Highlanders is a very entertaining story to end this era.

Next: The Underwater Menace