Battlefield (Doctor Who)

152 – Battlefield
Doctor Who serial
A meeting with an old friend
Cast
Doctor Sylvester McCoy (Seventh Doctor)
Companion Sophie Aldred (Ace)
Others Nicholas Courtney — Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart Angela Douglas — Doris Angela Bruce — Brigadier Winifred Bambera Robert Jezek — Sergeant Zbrigniev Dorota Rae — Flight Lieutenant Lavel Paul Tomany — Major Husak Noel Collins — Pat Rawlinson June Bland — Elizabeth Rawlinson James Ellis — Peter Warmsly Ling Tai — Shou Yuing Jean Marsh — Morgaine Christopher Bowen — Mordred Marcus Gilbert — Ancelyn Marek Anton — The Destroyer Stefan Schwartz — Knight Commander
Production
Directed by	Michael Kerrigan
Written by	Ben Aaronovitch
Script editor	Andrew Cartmel
Produced by	John Nathan-Turner
Executive producer(s)	None
Incidental music composer	Keff McCulloch
Production code	7N
Series	Season 26
Length	4 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast	6–27 September 1989
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → The Greatest Show in the Galaxy Ghost Light
List of Doctor Who serials

Battlefield

Author	Marc Platt
Cover artist	Alister Pearson
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	152
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	15 November 1990
ISBN

Battlefield is the first serial of the 26th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 6 September to 27 September 1989. It was the last to feature Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in Doctor Who, though he later reprised the role one more time on television in the Sarah Jane Adventures serial Enemy of the Bane. To date, the first episode's 3.1 million viewers remains the lowest ratings of any full episode of Doctor Who.

In response to a distress signal, the Seventh Doctor and Ace materialize the TARDIS near Lake Vortigern in England. The sound of explosions leads the TARDIS crew to Brigadier Bambera of UNIT, in charge of a nuclear missile convoy. Following the encounter, the retired Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart is informed of the Doctor's return, and a helicopter is sent to his country home to collect him.

At the Gore Crow hotel, the Doctor and Ace meet a young woman called Shou Yuing, who shares Ace's love of explosives. Meanwhile, as Bambera stops to examine a certain blue police telephone box at the side of the road, she is caught in the crossfire between two groups of armoured knights, using both swords and futuristic guns.

The Doctor shows interest in a scabbard excavated from the battlefield, which hangs over the mantlepiece in the hotel. The scabbard is hot to the Doctor's touch, and the hotel owner's blind wife, Elizabeth, says she can sense it waiting for something, or someone. Archaeologist Warmsly dates the scabbard to the 8th century, but the Doctor senses that it is far older than that, and has been waiting for something.