The Highlanders

It's 1746 and the TARDIS brings the Doctor, Ben and Polly to Culloden, Scotland, as the British forces have routed the forces of Prince Charlie and are in pursuit. The time travellers are captured by a band of Scots, among them a young piper named Jamie McCrimmon, but they in turn are captured by the British and taken to Inverness. Polly and a girl named Kirsty evade capture but face perilous odds if they are to rescue their friends from death or expulsion.

The Doctor is still a bit erratic following his regeneration as Patrick Troughton is still moulding him into the character he will play for the next three years, and as such he is still trying out a few different angles. The recorder he used previously in Power of the Daleks is still on hand but this time it thankfully doesn't supplement actual speech as it did before (and I have to remind myself that as far as the viewing public was concerned, that all just happened last week, whereas I have enjoyed five supplementary adventures between the stories) but he does show this interest in hats. This too, shall fall by the wayside. It's not like the Doctor didn't have hats before, and he shall again, but it was / will be something that he just wears, not makes a big deal about. Well, not until Matt Smith and his moronic fetish for a fez. But there's another second Doctor trait which shows up here: his penchant for disguises. In The Highlanders he disguises himself as an old beggar and then later on as an old woman, lending not just a bit of comedy to some scenes but a bit of cleverness to his character, blending in where he must. He goes so far as to adopt a rough German accent and passes himself off as a medical doctor, even if his methods of diagnosis for a headache include hitting someone on the head.

There's still more change in the air with this episode, the Doctor being the biggest, but there is the matter of content: The Highlanders is the last purely historical episode of the series until sometime in 1982. Moving away from the historical adventures is in keeping with the more science heavier edge the series was starting to take on, and any other forays into the past would have some element of that to it, be it alien invasions or more meddling as in The Time Meddler. 

And then there's the TARDIS family itself; it's just been the three of them since Dodo's abrupt departure in The War Machines but the character of Jamie as played by Fraser Hines resonated so well with the audience that he was made a regular and added to the crew at the end of the fourth episode. The decision was made after Jamie's original farewell scene was shot and the hasty rewrite was re-shot but his presence, although ultimately to become the longest serving of all companions (and that's before Big Finish would recruit him for their line of audios), would complicate things for the writers for the next few episodes. Not only were rewrites of the next stories required to accomodate this new character but there was also the same danger as with Katarina joining the TARDIS crew: a historical figure might not grasp the nuances of time travel (let alone modern speech) and be a burden to write for. They managed to find a way though, probably because Jamie's "modern" world was only 200 years before the series' contemporary production era and he would arguably have a lot more experience with things like doors and keys. And more importantly, whereas Katarina, had she stayed, would require protection by Steven and the Doctor, Jamie is a brawler and could look after himself  - and his companions - in the face of danger. But the "crowded TARDIS" syndrome would mean there would not be enough material to go around and character development might slow down somewhat with lines being doled out to actors without them actually meaning anything to them.

I first came across this adventure in the form of a Target novel back in the mid 80s when the line was being reinvigorated by older episodes adapted for page by the original writers, so in this case I read the novel version by Gerry Davis. I remember being tremendously taken by the story as I was not entirely familiar with these early days of the series given they were not all available to watch on TV, and when I finished it I could say I knew where this Jamie guy came from now. Davis paid a lot of attention to detail to recreate the tale in print, and to this day there are still no episodes of it around to watch, so imagination is going to fill in all the blanks until one day they are found (rumours suggest they have been they are just not ready to let us have them yet). Meanwhile, though, the BBC Radio Collection have released the audio of the story, even if the sound quality is a bit poor. Better than nothing at all, one would think.

Maybe one day.

NEXT EPISODE: THE UNDERWATER MENACE