031 – The Highlanders | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Doctor Who serial | |||||
The Doctor and Polly encounter the Highlanders Alexander McLaren (left) and Jamie McCrimmon (right)
|
|||||
Cast | |||||
Others
|
|||||
Production | |||||
Directed by | Hugh David | ||||
Written by |
Elwyn Jones Gerry Davis |
||||
Script editor | Gerry Davis | ||||
Produced by | Innes Lloyd | ||||
Executive producer(s) | None | ||||
Incidental music composer | None | ||||
Production code | FF | ||||
Series | Season 4 | ||||
Length | 4 episodes, 25 minutes each | ||||
Episode(s) missing | All episodes | ||||
Date started | 17 December 1966 | ||||
Date ended | 7 January 1967 | ||||
Chronology | |||||
|
|||||
Author | Gerry Davis |
---|---|
Cover artist | Nick Spender |
Series |
Doctor Who book: Target novelisations |
Release number
|
90 |
Publisher | Target Books |
Publication date
|
15 November 1984 |
ISBN |
The Highlanders is the completely missing fourth serial of the fourth season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 17 December 1966 to 7 January 1967. This serial is the first appearance of Frazer Hines as companion-to-be Jamie McCrimmon. Although audio recordings, still photographs, and clips of the story exist, no episodes of this serial are known to have survived.
Following the Battle of Culloden, the British army is triumphant over the rebel forces of Bonnie Prince Charlie. When the TARDIS arrives, the Doctor, Ben and Polly encounter fleeing Scots rebels and are taken prisoner by them. They all hide in a deserted cottage with the Laird Colin McLaren, who has been badly wounded; his daughter Kirsty; his piper Jamie McCrimmon; and his son Alexander, who dies defending them from a patrol of English soldiers mopping up survivors. The patrol leader, Lt. Algernon Ffinch, is an ineffectual fop, but his Sergeant is more forceful and takes the Doctor, Jamie, Ben, and the Laird to be hanged. But Polly and Kirsty manage to slip away.
The two women hide in a cave, then an animal pit, from Lt. Ffinch, who believes the Prince to be one of them following the rumour that he fled the battlefield as a woman. Eventually Ffinch finds them, but they trick him and steal his money. Later in Inverness, the nearest major town to Culloden, they run into him again and use his previous foolishness to blackmail him.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, the Royal Commissioner of Prisons, a shady character called Grey, plots to enslave any highlanders still alive and ship them to the colonies. He makes contact with an unscrupulous sea captain called Trask who agrees to use his ship “The Annabelle” for this. Amongst the prisoners he identifies for sale are the Doctor, Jamie, Ben, and the Laird. They are taken to the prison in Inverness with many others, but the Doctor cons his way out, and overpowers Grey and his secretary Perkins to make his escape. Grey is freed by Trask, who reports that the transportation plan has begun and arranges for a number of prisoners, including Jamie, Ben and the Laird, to be transferred to the ship. The prisoners learn that they are being sold as slaves but most accept this fate, believing seven years indentured labour to be better than the gallows. Only Ben, Jamie, the Laird and one of his friends, Willie Mackay, refuse to sign. When Ben attacks Grey, Trask has him thrown into the sea at the end of a rope.