Day 72 — March 13th 2021
The Highlanders Episodes One and Two
The Highlanders — Episode One
For a long time, The Highlanders was my Doctor Who ‘black spot’. When I did my marathon eight years ago, this was the first story to almost finish me off; I really didn’t enjoy it. It ended up, I think, being my lowest-rated story so far and it remained languishing at the bottom of my list for the rest of the run. Indeed, it got so bad that I didn’t actually watch Episode Four, choosing to listen to the Target Novel audiobook instead, in the hope that it would make it more bearable. When I finished the marathon in the summer of 2015 Episode Four was the only Doctor Who episode I’d not then experienced properly, and that remained the case until I did my Troughton audio marathon last year and finally made it through.
I still can’t claim to have experienced all of Doctor Who, though, because there’s quite a few episodes broadcast since 2015 that I’ve not seen. Maybe one day I’ll have done it all?
Imagine my surprise and delight today, then, to discover that The Highlanders is really good. Like really good. I’ll spoil you up front and tell you that I’m giving this opening episode an 8/10. I’ve found it funny and exciting in equal measure, and pretty much everything has landed for me.
I particularly enjoy the interplay between Doctor Who and his companions in the early scenes, as they lark about in history before getting caught up in the adventure. They feel like a team who’ve been together for a little while, so I’m choosing to think that there must be at least a few adventures between the end of The Power of the Daleks and this one. We get our second appearance of Doctor Who picking up a hat and suggesting that he’d like one of his own, and a lot of fun quips as they scarper from the sound of a cannon.
We also get another in the series of ‘The production team absolute intend the lead character’s name to be Doctor Who’ today;
Doctor Who: ‘A gentleman at last! Doctor von Wer, at your service.’
Sergeant: ‘Doctor who?’
Doctor Who: ‘That’s what I said.’
I’ve seen people try to argue that he doesn’t know that’s the name he’s picked in German, but I think that’s a bit of a stretch to be honest, especially as he goes on to basically repeat the joke from The Gunfighters when someone questions it. I’d forgotten that bit, but it makes me happy as someone who loves the idea that he’s called ‘Doctor Who’!
It’s noticable how much of an injection of energy Troughton gives the historical format. This is the last time we’ll be getting a ‘pure’ historical story until 1982, and while the last few haven’t always been to my taste, I think I’m going to miss them. In the Doctor Who Magazine tele-snap special they say of this story, and the end of the historical adventures in general, ‘An authority figure like the First Doctor can rub shoulders with Emperors, whereas if you stick the Second Doctor into history, all he does is muck about.’ But I don’t see that as a bad thing! Indeed, that’s one of the things I’m really enjoying in this one so far.
The other thing I’ve really enjoyed here is the interplay between Solicitor Grey and Perkins. They’re so clearly written as a comedy double act, and I think I might have missed that when I did this story before. I can’t remember what I thought when I listened to it last year, but I don’t recall genuinely laughing out loud at them as I have today. Their picnic on the edge of a battlefield is a particular highlight.
All this humour serves to disguise how bleak the story is elsewhere, too. We open with a battle, and before the episode is through we possibly* even see our hero with a noose around his neck. I don’t think you’d get away with doing that now. There’s lots of sniping about the fact that our regulars’ arrival will bring trouble for the locals in this story, and it’s hard to disagree with that given that the entire plot is set in motion by Ben accidentally firing a gun.
*I say ‘possibly’ because I can’t be entirely certain on that. The tele-snaps don’t show anything clearly enough, and while there’s photographs of the scene with nooses in the background, they’re not actually seen around Troughton’s neck. The camera script indicates that Ben, at the very least, is seen to be roped up and stood on a bench ready to be excecuted.
All in all, I’m thrilled. I went into this one really expecting the worst, and I’m hoping I’ve discovered a gem that I’ve overlooked before now.
The Highlanders — Episode Two
This is an especially good story for Polly, and really allows Anneke Wills to showcase her skill. Polly has been a bit… wet up to now. Perhaps that’s not especially fair, but she’s certainly not been written as pro-actively as Ben, who seems to get to do most of the important ‘companion’ work. Polly is usually resigned to putting on the kettle and repeating the dreaded ‘What’s that, Doctor?’
Here though, paired off with Kirsty, she really comes alive. It started in the first episode, with her throwing stones at the English soldiers, and continues here as she tempts a soldier into a trap, and then robs and teases him in a bid to escape entrapment herself. I definitely recall finding her mocking of Algernon Ffinch — repeated by her with annunciation of both ‘F’s — a little annoying, but I’m finding it quite enjoyable this time around. It feels as though they’re making the most of having a 1960s woman dropped into history, and it’s far more fun than spending four episodes with people mistaking her for a boy!
I find it hard to reconcile the character of Kirsty in this story with the images of acress Hannah Gordon that we have from production. Gordon was 25 at the time and is very clearly a grown woman, but the way she’s written here makes her seem more like a teenager. I get that they’re writing her as being a little feeble and simple because they think that’s how to showcase someone from ‘the past’, but it doesn’t quite match up in my head!
Ben also gets a chance to shine here by being paired off with Doctor Who for much of the episode. ‘Yeah, I didn’t think we’d heard the last of that…’ he groans when Doctor Who starts playing a tune on his recorder, but whereas in The Power of the Daleks he was genuinely annoyed by the activity, this time around it’s more of a jocular eye roll and a sense of ‘here we go again’. I’ve said plenty of times lately that I’m a bit sad Ben and Polly’s time in the TARDIS gets cut short almost as soon as Jamie comes along, and it’s moments like this which give me those pangs of regret. It’s also another indication, to my mind, that some time has passed for these character since the end of the last story. They’re clearly still figuring each other out, but they’re far more friendly and comfortable than before.
I think it’s telling that I’ve not made any notes about Jamie for either of these episodes. I obviously know that he’s going to be massively important over the next few years of Doctor Who, but the programme doesn’t know that yet, and I think it shows. I’ll talk a little about the timeline of Jamie joining the TARDIS crew tomorrow, because it’s something I’ve always been a little skeptical about.
Doctor Who himself continues to delight in this one, and I genuinely laughed at his shouting ‘Down with King George!’ and then admitting that he doesn’t especially agree with the sentiment, he just likes the echo it makes in their cell. This feels like the Doctor Who we have in the 21st century, who just likes larking around in time and space, and especially enjoys finding himself in historical periods he can explore and disrupt. It’s another moment that the DWM introduction for the story singles out as showing how Troughton’s Doctor Who is a poor fit for the historical, but I love it.
I also really enjoyed the entire sequence of him pretending to actually be a doctor, bamboozling Grey and Perkins. The interplay with the latter is especially funny, and I found myself honestly laughing out loud as I listened. I’m genuinely a bit gutted that we won’t be seeing Troughton in any more situations like this.
The first time I did The Highlanders one of my issues was that it felt too much like The Smugglers being remade only a ten weeks later. I can see today why I might have felt that, with the arrival of some pirates and their ship in the latter half of this episode! It’s telling that I’m enjoying them more here, though, because I get their motivations. In The Smugglers everyone was double crossing everyone else and it was hard to keep track. This time around the pirates are in league with Solicitor Grey and they’re default ‘baddies’. Nice and simple!
Another one I’ve enjoyed, and another 8/10 for me. I’m so happy to find myself enjoying the story I was most dreading from the early years of the series. There’s a part of me that thinks the episodes would usually get a seven, but because I’m so surprised by my enjoyment they’re being bumped up higher — and that’s no bad thing!
