Day 53 — February 22nd 2021
War of God and The Sea Beggar
During my debate on titles for Galaxy 4 I mentioned that this story had seen its title changed over the last few years. When I first got into Doctor Who, and specifically into fandom, I remember being told distinctly that this story was always to be referred to as The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve, and that it was the longest story title in Doctor Who. Indeed, for years when designing my own DVD covers and CD covers, I would make sure I dutifully squeezed the full title on there — it was my placeholder when checking I’d left enough room for the story titles on a new template.
In recent years, though, the thinking seems to have reversed. Now it’s generally known simply as The Massacre — a much more sensible title, I think, and one which works better for fitting onto any new templates!
The Target novel goes with The Massacre, but the CD release is something of an oddity. The cover and spine give the title as The Massacre, but the discs in the original release use The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve, and so does Peter Purves’ in the narration for each of the episodes. The later CD release — the version I have — features just The Massacre on the disc artwork, but obviously the narration hasn’t been changed. The vinyl pressing uses the same soundtrack and narration, so it’s The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve while listening along there, too.
Paperwork from the 60s ascribes lots of slightly different titles to this story, so I don’t think that’s really much use when trying to come up with something definitive. Certainly some documents use ‘Saint’ as opposed to be ‘St’, and the majority of paperwork commits ‘Eve’ all together, going for The Massacre of St Bartholomew instead.
Personally, I reckon The Massacre is the better title. It’s less unwieldily than the full version, and it’s been pointed out before that the title doesn’t actually reflect the actual events anyway. What’s the general consensus among my readers?
War of God (The Massacre — Episode One)
Like The Myth Makers, this is a story with a good reputation which I just didn’t care for when I did my last marathon. Indeed, I’ve one friend for whom this is their favourite Hartnell story of them all. I don’t remember very much about my feelings last time around, but I know that I quoted Steven in this first episode to sum them up — ‘I wish I understood what was going on!’
So I went into this one with a bit of trepidation. It could turn out to be a Romans, where a story I previously wasn’t all that fussed on suddenly turned out to be right up my street, or it could be a Myth Makers and still be a story that just wasn’t for me. I’m very pleased to say that — so far, at least — it’s the former. I’ve really enjoyed this episode.
And I’m surprised that I struggled to follow it so much the first time around, because it actually does a good job of setting the scene and putting all of the pieces into place. One of my complaints about The Reign of Terror was that I was unfamiliar with the smaller details of French history, and I felt that there was no attempt to ease the viewer in — you were just expected to know. That’s less the case here; although I don’t feel as though I know exactly where we are or why, there’s enough background sketched in for me to follow along.
Take for example Preslin, who Doctor Who is so keen to go off and meet. I’ve said before in this blog that the names our hero drops in these early years often seem a bit obscure for historical celebrities, and I’d initially written down today that I didn’t know who Preslin was, or why he was important. But the script teases the information out when Doctor Who first meets the man;
Preslin: He was merely a mixer of herbs and unguents.
Doctor Who: Yes, perhaps to you, but he was a man who searched deeply in nature. I didn’t think he was a faint heart.
Preslin: No, but cautious.
Doctor Who: I see. Yes. He also discovered, small creatures which, if attacking humanity, could cause a very serious illness.
Preslin: You know of Preslin?
Doctor Who: Yes. In science, news travels. Yes. And there’s a man in Germany at the moment, who’s working on optics, trying to make a machine which will enable Preslin to see these small creatures. He calls them germs. So now, doesn’t this encourage you to continue with your theories, Monsieur Preslin?
Preslin: Yes, I, I am Charles Preslin. Forgive me, but in these days one has to be careful.
Doctor Who: Of course, of course, my dear fellow. But I’m extremely curious about your work, Monsieur Preslin.
By the end of this exchange I know enough about the man to grasp why Doctor Who would want to meet him and what makes him important. And that’s all I need! I’m also surprised to discover after the fact that Preslin isn’t actually an historical celebrity at all — he exists only within the world of Doctor Who! Safe to say that made me feel better about now knowing who he was initially…!
The same is true for the situation between the Catholics and the Huguenots, with their perils given plenty of set up throughout the episode. I’ll confess that it’s occasionally difficult to keep track of exactly who’s who in the guest cast, but it’s not a problem enough to distract me from the story at hand.
One of the most interesting parts of the set up here is Doctor Who travelling with Steven alone. We don’t get a lot of that in Doctor Who — off the top of my head the only other story where he travels with a man and no female companion is The Keeper of Traken, and as Nyssa is present throughout, even that’s debateable. It’s a nice dynamic, and there’s something oddly magical about the shots of the two drinking in the tavern. It’s almost a shame that they’re split up so early in the episode, and I know they’re kept apart for most of the story, as this is a dynamic I’d love to explore more. There’s no real indication that they’ve just come directly from The Daleks’ Master Plan (although Steven does tell the Huguenots he’s been away in Egypt), so I like to imagine they’ve shared several adventures alone together. I’m sure Big Finish have done at least a few adventures in this gap, so that’s maybe something for me to investigate further.
We’ve also got — big cheer! — another TARDIS mystery in this episode! The narration describes the TARDIS as making an unusually discreet landing, and while we hear the usual sound, and the script describes a boy stopping to listen, there’s no indication as to whether we actually see the TARDIS prop or not.
It’s described as arriving behind a fence — Steven is worried that someone will find it, which seems unusual for him — but I want to know if we see the prop sticking out over the fence or not! There’s very few photographs from The Massacre, and it’s a victim of the era for which Tele-snaps were abandoned, so we’re not likely to find out unless the episode shows up.
I’m going to imagine that we do see the top of the box, simply because it amuses me. Come back tomorrow where I’ll have a lot to say on the subject of the TARDIS props…!
A solid start, and I’m really pleased about that. 8/10.
The Sea Beggar (The Massacre — Episode Two)
The big central mystery to The Massacre is whether the Abbot of Amboise just looks like Doctor Who, or if he is Doctor Who in disguise for some reason. I don’t feel like we’ve been given enough information yet for me to make my mind up, but for now I’m leaning towards him just looking like our hero, because I’m not sure why Doctor Who would be going undercover like this.
Something that’s impressed me, though, is how fleeting Hartnell’s apperances are in the role. We get a cliffhanger featuring him in War of God, and here he’s only seen from an upstairs window and we don’t even hear him speak. Presumably Hartnell has gone off on holiday this week, but it’s one of those rare occasions where that actually works in favour of the story, because it allows the mystery to brew a little longer.
It also feels like they’re using the idea of Doctor Who possibly having a double for great effect — often when these things happen it’s merely coincidence with little bearing on the plot, but this feels like it could actually be dangerous for Steven. When his Huguenot friends turn on him because he’s so sure the Abbot is really his friend you genuinely fear for him.
Hartnell being away also means there’s plenty of room for Peter Purves to take centre stage. It’s the first time we’ve only had one regular cast member on hand — during previous holidays there’s always been at least two and usually even three companions to carry the story in Doctor Who’s absence. Not every companion could carry a story as well as Steven does here, and it’s testament to how brilliant Purves is that he’s given the opportunity.
The other mystery we have for The Massacre is just what Hartnell looked like as the Abbot. As I’ve already mentioned, there’s not a great deal of photographs in existence for the story, and none showing the costume for the Abbot. I don’t think it’s even a case where there’s believed to be an image in private hands somewhere — it simply doesn’t seem to exist. There’s a great deal of interest in finding out exactly what outfit he wore for the part, but while I’d love to know I don’t think this particular mystery grabs me as much as the one about the TARDIS in War of God. I guess I’m more of a Police Box fan than I am a fan of robes!
The general opinion seems to be that Hartnell wore plain white robes in the role, and I think I’m right in saying that fans who saw the story on broadcast remembered it that way. The cover of the soundtrack goes for black robes, while the Target novel goes for brown ones, though neither looks particularly exciting. We’ve been to Mass most Sundays so far this year, and there’s been some pretty elaborate robes on display there, so I like to imagine the Abbot in something more like those. Green, probably. With gold detailing.
It’s perhaps an odd place to discuss it — given that Doctor Who possibly doesn’t appear in this particular episode at all — but I reckon The Massacre might be home to my favourite look for Hartnell’s incarnation. We only have a couple of relatively poor quality shots of the full ensemble, but I think Doctor Who looks brilliant with the cloak, the hat, and the plain black walking stick.
There’s something about this particular combination of costume elements that just feels right to me. I’ve made the argument already in this marathon that we should consider a cloak to be a more important aspect of the First Doctor Who’s costume than we ever do, and while I wouldn’t suggest the hat should always make an appearance, I’d love to see this Doctor rendered this way more often!
I’m continuing to enjoy this one, with a 7/10.
