The Plotters

The TARDIS lands in London in November of 1605. Upon realizing where they are Barbara and Ian want to go to the Globe Theatre, but once they have gone the Doctor takes Vicki with him to the court of King James where scholars are toiling to translate the Bible. But that's not all that's going on; despite being on separate adventures both pairs find themselves being inexorably drawn along with the events of history towards the fifth of November and the infamous Gunpowder Plot.

The Plotters was published in 1996 as one of the last few of Virgin Publishing's Missing Adventures and although it reflects the historical angle of the series well, placing it here so close after a meeting with King Richard in The Crusade (and this is not me placing it here, the back cover of the book indicates where it falls in continuity) feels a bit like royal historical overload. That's not really anyone's fault, they were just looking for it to go somewhere and could have chosen better. Given which TARDIS crew Gareth Roberts chose to work with there were not a lot of options as the televised episodes of the time did not leave a lot of space to work with.

Story wise though this is a bit of a so-so tale, following the usual formula of the crew being split off and all of them coming to the same point eventually. The Doctor does what the Doctor does best in historicals and works his was without effort into the royal court, chumming up with a King James painted as indolent and lazy as Nero in The Romans but as James was rumoured to have had a taste for the company of young boys he is of course played up to be slightly effeminate (this author, as one will see in his further works, can't really resist injecting references to homosexuality in his work whether it's appropriate to the story or not). Vicki has to disguise herself as a boy once again but inadvertently draws James' attention and an attempt at a comic situation with James flirting with her is made and dragged on right to the end of the story. Further attempts at comic relief between character duos is attempted with the two bickering scholars who are tasked with translating the Bible, and a pair of shoemakers who are caught up through Ian's adventures. Script writer Robert Holmes would make this sort of double act characters one of his main plot devices in the television scripts of the 70s and 80s, so this might be something of a homage. Barbara and Ian, on the other hand, wander a London familiar to them but not familiar (shades of Dalek Invasion of Earth) and are roughed up, knocked out, separated, kidnapped, knocked out some more and dragged, literally, through the muck of London before they are reunited with the Doctor and Vicki. There's really no development of any of our regulars here beyond what has been established in previous works, and Ian and Barbara's growing relationship is not expanded upon as it has been in other episodes and novels (although there was not much of a push for that in the days of the Virgin Publishing range; they were only in three of them as it was, and this is the last one for them - and Ian never made it to the cover once!).

Aside from King James there is also the inclusion of historical figure Guy Fawkes, made famous for his plan to blow up Parliament with a heap of gunpowder. His motivation is not really made clear, just something to do with religious nonsense but that's all it usually takes, right? In the preface Roberts makes it quite clear that he's not writing a historical drama so his take on events would not be wholly accurate and advises not to use The Plotters as any reference for making ones own study on the events of November 5 1605. I have to ask, then, why bother? There's some great opportunity here to get some real historical grit and substance, but it's pretty much abandoned for two dimensional cast and some sneaking around in London of the past. Shame, really. Shame that Guy Fawkes looks like a leprechaun on the cover, too, even if the Doctor and Vicki are done well.

The same events were picked for some reason as the basis for a Doctor Who video game called The Gunpowder Plot in which the Eleventh Doctor and Amy are caught up in the same situations, at least to some extent, and even though I was not exactly thrilled with The Plotters I would take it as canon over anything of the Eleventh Doctor any day.

NEXT EPISODE: THE DOCTOR'S TALE