3.05 The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve
First Doctor with Steven
Follows on from Season One, Season Two, Galaxy Four, Mission to the Unknown, The Myth Makers and The Daleks' Master Plan
DOCTOR: "History sometimes gives us a terrible shock, and that is because we don't quite fully understand. Why should we? After all, we're too small to realise its final pattern. Therefore don't try and judge it from where you stand."
Overview
Following in the wake of The Daleks' Master Plan, nine out of twelve episodes of which are missing from the archives, The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (also known as The Massacre) is completely missing, all four episodes existing only as an audio recording. It is one of only three stories the other two being Marco Polo and Mission to the Unknown of which not a single frame of footage survives, not even the tiniest of clips. So, recon it is once again.
Another of the pure historicals that litter the First Doctor era, this story is significant as it marks the first occasion on which the Doctor comes through an entire adventure with only a single companion at his side a solo male companion, moreover, something that has happened only rarely in the show's history. Although a new companion, Dodo Chaplet, does come on board to join the Doctor and Steven at the very end of this story, this is not until the final scene, after the TARDIS has already moved on to a new time and place, and she plays no part in the adventure itself. It wasn't until much later that a solo female companion would become the regular pattern, this era of the show was mainly structured as an ensemble, so the break from tradition here is noteworthy and more noteworthy still as, with the Doctor absent for two episodes, Steven is required to carry the bulk of the action alone, supported by the guest characters, whose story this is.
There were two distinct types of historical in this era of the show: the straight historical and the comedy historical. The last historical adventure was The Myth Makers, which was played very much for humour, but The Massacre, in contrast, follows more in the vein of Marco Polo or The Crusade by presenting the story completely straight. This is costume drama, rather than comedy or sci fi adventure. The story also picks up a recurring theme in historical adventures of this era: the fixed nature of history and whether or not it is ever right or indeed possible to interfere with the course of events.
The plot, in a nutshell, is this: landing in 16th century Paris on the eve of a particularly bloody episode in history, the Doctor and Steven find themselves caught up in the devastating sequence of events. Still reeling from the painful losses of their recent battle against the Daleks, Steven reaches breaking point and loses faith in the Doctor.
Writer - John Lucarotti / Donald Tosh
Director - Paddy Russell
Script editor - Donald Tosh / Gerry Davies
Producer - John Wiles
Aired - 5-26 February 1966
Observations
Random thoughts while watching:
Episode one: 'War of God'
We open with the TARDIS landing in 16th century Paris, which the Doctor has no trouble identifying after overhearing a covert conversation between two locals. He is in good spirits, enthused at the prospect of meeting a famous apothecary of the time named Preslin, but Steven seems rather snippy, which isn't the best frame of mind to start a new adventure. It follows on well though from his sombre mood at the end of the last episode as does the Doctor's determined air of good humour. The Doctor likes to always look forward, not back, but Steven doesn't find it so easy to shake off the traumas of the past; neither directly mentions their recent losses at any point, but the downbeat mood follows directly on from that painful experience.
The Doctor decides that the pair should go back into the TARDIS and get changed so as to blend in with the locals. I love it when they play dress-up.
In a bar nearby, an assortment of guest characters drink and talk, expositing a bit of background about this tumultuous period in French history, with the Protestant prince having taken a Catholic bride, bringing religious tension to a fever-pitch. The characters we meet here include Nicholas Muss, the Viscount Gaston de Lerans, and Simon Duvall. Duvall, a Catholic, charges the landlord with spying on the others, who are Huguenots.
The Doctor and Steven innocently wander into this hotbed of sedition and the Doctor orders some wine his 11th self would be horrified, but the 3rd would be proud. I really love that the first thing these two do upon arriving in 16th century Paris is find a pub to have a drink together while they discuss their plans for the day so leisurely, it really sells the idea that they are travellers, tourists, not looking for any adventure but just living their lives. The Doctor intends to pay a visit to the apothecary Preslin but knows that Steven would be bored rigid, while Steven, for his part, has no intention of just hanging around the TARDIS waiting, but has to admit that he knows nothing about this period of history. He plans to just wander around seeing the sights, whereupon the Doctor starts fussing, worried that his friend will be unable to blend in and will get into trouble he's not usually this overprotective of Steven, but for the first time since the show started he is without a granddaughter or surrogate granddaughter to care for, which leaves Steven as the only available outlet for his paternal instincts. And again we remember that they just lost three friends and allies in rapid succession Katarina, Bret Vyon and Sara Kingdom were all lost in their epic battle against the Daleks so heightened concern for the remaining friend is only too understandable. Steven, however, is of the opinion that he can take care of himself, thanks all the same. They agree to meet back at the inn at nightfall and part, but not before the Doctor has handed Steven some cash with the air of a father doling out pocket money and told him not to cut himself with his sword! Steven is amused rather than riled by all this fussing. Perhaps it is something they both need just at the moment.
On his way out of the tavern, the Doctor bumps into a passer-by, who seems to recognise him and follows. Steven notices this, but instantly hits trouble when he realises he's been stuck with the bill for the wine but the coins the Doctor has given him are too large to be changed by the landlord. Nicholas Muss sees the disturbance and helps him out, bringing regular cast and guest cast together for the first time. Then Steven asks for directions to Port Saint Martin, where Preslin is supposed to live, concerned about the man he saw following the Doctor. Nicholas warns that talking about science and ideas is a dangerous thing to do in these days, and although Steven tries to brush it off, reasoning that the Doctor can look after himself, it is clear that he is worried. Nicholas invites him to drink with his friends, promising to take him to Port Saint Martin to look for the Doctor later, and despite his concern Steven complies. He wants to blend in.
The Doctor locates Preslin's shop but finds the man himself frightened, reluctant even to admit his identity. The Doctor is in good form, full of praise for Preslin's scientific ideas and offering hope in the form of tantalising hints about developments in other lands, and Preslin relaxes slightly, but stresses that one can't be too careful these days. I like how subtly the dangerous atmosphere of the time is being built up, alluded to naturally in the dialogue, just enough to convey the distinct impression that things are not right here, not because of any outside influence but simply because Paris at this time is a powder-keg of religious tension and paranoia. The Doctor has figured out the approximate time period accurately enough but does not yet know the precise date.
Back at the tavern, Gaston is less welcoming toward Steven than Nicholas, who completely accepts Steven's story that he has been travelling abroad and has no idea about the political situation in Paris at this time. Well, it's true enough. We learn here that Gaston works for Prince Henri of Navarre, who has just married the king's sister, while Nicholas works for the Admiral de Coligny all Protestants. They ask Steven where he's been travelling, and he flounders slightly, since he can hardly admit to some of the distant planets he's visited, before saying that he's been in Egypt. Again, it's true, he was in Egypt recently. He makes his excuses to leave and Nicholas heads outside with him to point him in the right direction.
No sooner has Steven stepped outside the tavern than he bumps into a young girl, who is being chased by armed guards. When they follow her into the tavern, Steven is too curious and concerned to just let it go, and follows to see what is going on. The girl has hidden and Gaston plays innocent not that he's interested in a runaway serving girl, he just enjoys baiting Catholics. The guards complain that the girl was specially chosen to serve the Abbot of Amboise but they can't find her and can't get past Gaston so give up and leave. The Huguenots then encourage Steven to stay rather than wander the streets alone. He is worried about the girl, who was clearly frightened, and when she fearfully reappears Gaston calls her over to talk. I quite like this Gaston he's every inch the nobleman, full of flair and flamboyance; in another century he'd be quite the dandy. Nicholas, in contrast, is quiet and thoughtful; I like him for the genuine friendship he offers Steven, who is a stranger to him.
The girl, Anne Chaplet, is intimidated by all these noblemen and Steven is the only one who shows any sympathy for her. Only when she begins to explain what she overheard at the Abbot's house do Nicholas and Gaston take her seriously, realising that the Catholics are plotting a massacre of Huguenots similar to one that took place in Vassy ten years earlier a massacre in which Anne's father was killed, which is why she is so afraid now.
Back at Preslin's house, Preslin tells the Doctor that the Abbot of Amboise hates all apothecaries and scientists, fearing their work on religious grounds he sees them as borderline heretics. The Doctor wonders if it would be possible for him to see the Abbot and talk to him, although what he hopes to achieve is not clear. This is the last we will see of the Doctor until the fourth episode of this story, as Hartnell took a week's holiday during production and as a result his entire sub-plot was dropped.
At the Abbot's residence, Duvall, the Captain of the Guard and a man named Colbert discuss Anne's disappearance, worried that if she repeats what she heard in the right ears, their plans might blow up in their faces. They realise that she overheard the word Vassy, enough to put every Huguenot in the city on his guard. Duvall orders the guard to trace whatever family Anne has in the city, determined that she should be found.
At the tavern with the landlord earwigging for all he's worth Nicholas arranges to hide Anne in the kitchen of Admiral de Coligny's house. Gaston hurries off to warn Navarre about the threat while Nicholas apologises to Steven for not being able to guide him around the city after all. Steven is unconcerned, as he expects the Doctor to return soon.
Time passes, and the Doctor fails to return to the tavern to meet Steven as arranged, and Steven grows more and more impatient as night falls I bet he wishes he'd taken the Doctor up on his offer to stay in the TARDIS now! When Duvall returns and questions the landlord about the girl Anne Chaplet, the landlord remembers overhearing that she was sent to the house of Admiral de Coligny and identifies Steven as being with the Huguenots when they questioned her thus bringing Steven onto the radar of the Catholic plotters. Duvall goes over to talk to Steven, who is in no mood for questions. He doesn't understand what Duvall is talking about when he mentions the curfew, but insists that he will be all right. He's been saying that all day, "I shall be all right," as if saying it can make it true, but the truth is that he's alone in a strange place whose customs and laws he doesn't understand, and the Doctor has not honoured their rendezvous, which means he has no shelter for the night. He doesn't have a TARDIS key, because companions didn't in these days, not since Susan. He is stranded and the past can be every bit as dangerous as any alien planet.
Steven is relieved to see a friendly face when Nicholas passes the tavern, and kind friendly Nicholas is immediately concerned to find him alone and without shelter with curfew approaching. Poor Steven is still trusting that the Doctor will return for him, but curfew is sounding, so Nicholas promptly invites him back to de Coligny's place and instructs the landlord to tell Steven's friend where he has gone, should he show up. Steven agrees, wearily supposing that the Doctor has been side-tracked, as is his wont.
Duvall, who was listening to all this, assumes that Steven's presence means the English are getting themselves involved in the situation here, and wonders why. Meanwhile at the Abbot's apartment, Colbert is making his excuses to the Abbot when Duvall walks in to announce that Anne is at de Coligny's house. The Abbot turns to demand that the girl be captured and brought to him at once and we see that he is the spitting image of the Doctor. Oh what a shame the footage is missing I'm sure the cliffhanger end must have been quite the shock when it was broadcast.
Episode two: 'The Sea Beggar'
At de Coligny's house next day, Nicholas and Gaston argue over their inability to convince Henri of Navarre that the Catholics are plotting against him, while Steven returns to the tavern in search of the Doctor but there is no sign of him. Back at the house, to Gaston's disbelief, Nicholas has all but convinced himself that they all jumped to conclusions over Anne's story when a crestfallen Steven returns, not knowing where else to go for help. He needs directions to Port Saint Martin to search for the Doctor there. Nicholas agrees to go with him, but before they can leave Gaston sees Roger Colbert approaching and guesses that he is looking for Anne Chaplet. He is indeed, and offers cool diplomacy as he brushes off Anne's fears as an overreaction. Gaston does an excellent job of stonewalling, all innocence.
Colbert is forced to leave empty-handed and only then does Steven who has learned at least some self-control over the course of his adventures announce that he recognised him as the man who followed the Doctor. While Nicholas wonders what the Abbot of Amboise could want with Steven's friend, Gaston looks out of the window and sees that the Abbot himself is outside with Colbert. Steven looks and is staggered to see that the man they call the Abbot is the Doctor, or looks like the Doctor. This is Hartnell's only scene in this episode, a pre-filmed insert. Steven exclaims that he must go to him and makes to rush out only for suspicious Gaston to demand to know how long he has been working for the Abbot of Amboise. Steven is thoroughly confused now and can only stammer that it looked like the Doctor, but if they are sure it is the Abbot then it can't be. He suggests that he prove his innocence by searching for the Doctor at Preslin's shop.
At the Louvre, Simon Duvall talks conspiracy with Marshall Tavannes, and mentions that Nicholas Muss is hosting an Englishman Steven, of course; how easy it is for an unwary time traveller to accidentally find himself involved in high level political intrigue, without even knowing, simply by wandering into the wrong place at the wrong time. As de Coligny himself shows up and the conversation turns to the Dutch, I find myself wondering if the children who watched this in 1966 had any hope of following the storyline. I rather like it, I enjoy the stroll through history, but the story is rather dense and dry, all politics and intrigue with very little action. Tavannes still sees Steven as evidence that de Coligny is colluding with England, but de Coligny is all innocence as far as he is concerned, Steven is merely a lost stranger who found lodging at his house for the night.
In Port Saint Martin, Steven is becoming agitated, which always brings out the worst in him he's so agitated that when he finally spots Preslin's shop, he almost knocks an old lady over in his rush to get to the door and leaves Nicholas to make his apologies for him, too busy hammering on the door to even notice what he's done. The old lady angrily grumbles that nobody lives there, which we know isn't true Preslin was there just yesterday, we saw that, but perhaps the people hereabouts are used to covering for one another, or perhaps Preslin lies so low hardly anyone even knows he's there. The woman claims that Preslin was arrested two years ago and is probably still in gaol, if he hasn't been burnt for heresy already. To Nicholas this is fairly damning evidence against Steven's story, while Steven doesn't know what to think. Nicholas suggests that Steven's friend is the Abbot of Amboise after all, which Steven begins to vehemently deny but then his confidence collapses and he can only protest that he doesn't see how he can be.
But he is no longer sure. The Doctor has disappeared. The Abbot looks just like him. Poor Steven is beginning to doubt himself now. He suggests that it is just possible that the Doctor is pretending to be the Abbot, which Nicholas finds hard to believe, but Steven can say with complete honesty that he knows nothing whatsoever about Vassy, Protestants, Catholics, or anything else anyone has been talking about since he got here. He is simply certain that if the Doctor is pretending to be the Abbot, he must have a good reason. Nicholas is no longer prepared to trust Steven and makes to take him back to the Admiral's house, but Steven pushes him over and runs for it, determined to find out the truth.
Elsewhere, Duvall and Colbert discuss the Abbot and it becomes clear that neither of them met him before yesterday, although Colbert did see him once at a meeting a long time ago he is newly appointed and has only just arrived in the city. This lends plausibility to Steven's theory that the Doctor has taken the Abbot's place Nicholas and Gaston appeared to recognise him by sight, but that could have been his Abbot's robes rather than his face. The Doctor's absence from proceedings is being used to create a mystery, which brings an interesting twist to the story; it's just a shame more isn't made of the doppelganger concept. Duvall is curious to know about the Englishman who has become attached to the Huguenots and charges Colbert with learning more about him.
The Huguenots too are curious to know more about Steven, and question Anne Chaplet closely, remembering the interest he took in her. Anne, of course, has no idea who Steven is, but defends him anyway because he was kind to her, a rare event in her troubled young life. Nicholas has now come to believe that Steven must be a Catholic spy, but Anne insists that he can't be, not least because he so genuinely knows nothing about anything. I like her. She's the lowest of the low and the gentlemen treat her as such, but she's fiery when roused and not afraid to speak her mind. So many doomed characters in this story, but it treats them all as people with minds and concerns of their own anyway. Nicholas and Gaston conclude that they know where to find Steven: with the Abbot of Amboise.
And indeed, Steven is lurking around the Abbot's house, but as a spy rather than an employee. How he found it is anyone's guess, since he doesn't know his way around, but nevertheless he is there, hanging around outside the windows listening for any information that might help him find the Doctor. Inside, the Marshall tells Colbert and Duvall that 'the Sea Beggar' is to be killed tomorrow, orders of the Queen Mother.
Colbert and Duvall don't know where the Abbot currently is this is one of numerous tiny strands left dangling from the original script, in which the Doctor played a much greater role, colluding with Preslin to impersonate the Abbot. The novelisation reverts to that original script, detailing the Doctor's shenanigans, so that the back and forth between the Abbot's actions and the Doctor's attempts at subverting them becomes clear. But none of that exists in the teleplay, because the sub-plot was written out due to Hartnell's holiday, just these occasional hints and snippets that don't seem to go anywhere because they belong to a sub-plot that no longer exists.
Steven, listening at the window, has chosen his side in all this intrigue that means nothing to him. He rushes straight back to de Coligny's house and tries to tell Gaston what he heard, sure that it must be important even if he doesn't understand someone's life is in danger, even if he doesn't know who. But Gaston won't listen to him and draws his sword to duel it out. Steven is forced to defend himself but won't fight, so Gaston disarms him and forces him to leave without hearing him out. Man, I wish we could see the action! Nicholas returns soon after and Gaston tells him that Steven was there; despite his own doubts, Nicholas is sure that Steven must have had a message, remembering that he'd said he would return if he learned anything important. He is far more open-minded than the hot-headed Gaston. If only Nicholas had been there when Steven arrived, so much might have been different.
As curfew approaches, Steven finds himself wandering the streets of Paris alone with nowhere to go but Anne has followed him. She is afraid to go back to de Coligny's house now that the Catholics know they took her in she wants to go with Steven, the first person who has ever been kind to her. Steven can only protest that he has nowhere to take her. She offers to help him find a place to go and he tries asking her who the Sea Beggar is, but she has no idea. Then Steven asks Anne to take him back to Port Saint Martin, reasoning that they can stay at Preslin's shop no one will look for them there.
Meanwhile at de Coligny's house, the Admiral tells Nicholas that he believes he has persuaded the king to declare war on Spain and that he has been given the title 'Sea Beggar'. If only Steven had been allowed to deliver his message, they would now know that the Admiral's life is in imminent danger!
Episode three: 'The Priest of Death'
It is the following morning and Anne rummages around Preslin's shop, waking Steven, who is still dismayed by his failure to get a warning to the Huguenots about the plot to kill the 'Sea Beggar'. Anne is anxious to leave Paris but Steven wants to return to the Abbot's house, hoping to find the Doctor there with more information. Anne protests that he'll be arrested, but Steven is certain now that the Doctor is posing as the Abbot and will protect him. To allay Anne's fears, he decides to snoop around the house for clothes he can use to disguise himself.
Meanwhile in the council chamber, Tavannes and de Coligny argue heatedly over foreign policy and how to deal with the upswing in civil strife. It's a long scene, but this is the upshot of it. Even King Charles finds it tedious! It does, however, successfully sell the acrimony of current politics and there are some amusing lines.
As Steven prepares to return to the Abbot's house, Anne is terrified to go with him, but also too afraid to remain at Preslin's house alone. She's like a frightened rabbit. Steven promises quite sincerely that she will be safe, that he will take care of her and make sure no harm comes to her. He will remember those words later. They agree that if anything happens and they are separated, they will meet back at Preslin's house.
In council, de Coligny argues passionately for the oft-violated rights of the Huguenots and warns the indolent king not to allow his mother to usurp too many of his powers. It is easy to see why the Catholics want to rid themselves of this man.
At the Abbot's house, Steven's ignorance of this time and religion make it difficult for him to talk his way past the priest on the door, but when the Abbot himself appears, Steven is delighted to see him, believing him to be the Doctor...although the Abbot shows no sign of recognition. Steven takes a gamble, announcing that he has brought back the girl who ran away Anne is horrified to be given away like this, but the ploy successfully gains them a private audience with the Abbot only for Tavannes to immediately interrupt. Luckily he is no longer interested in Anne and does not know Steven, simply telling them to wait outside. Steven then overhears enough of Tavannes' conversation with the Abbot to identify the Sea Beggar as de Coligny and rushes away with Anne to warn Nicholas. They get away just in time, as Colbert has seen them and rushes in to warn the Abbot and Tavannes, identifying Steven as an ally of the Huguenots. The Abbot is unworried, certain both that Steven could not have heard anything of significance and that it is too late to warn the Admiral anyway. Tavannes is prepared to hold him responsible if the plot fails. It is clear that the Abbot is on shaky ground with his so-called allies.
William Hartnell appears only as the Abbot in this episode, and because of the dropped sub-plot (and probably also because of the lost episodes, as acting nuance would add so much clarity) it is never clear, at any point, whether the Abbot is genuinely the Abbot or the Doctor in disguise.
At de Coligny's house, Nicholas is startled when Steven charges in to deliver a desperate warning of the imminent threat to the Admiral's life. Nicholas rushes away to warn him too late, as a gunman (well, an arquebus-man) is already in position to kill de Coligny as he returns home from council. Sheer luck saves de Coligny's life, as he drops a paper and bends to retrieve it just as the gun is fired Nicholas arrives moments later to find him wounded but alive.
Colbert returns to the Abbot's house to announce that the attempt has failed, and Tavannes holds the Abbot responsible, arguing that since his arrival, everything planned has gone wrong and that's the conceit of the story, because viewers cannot tell if this is the Doctor sabotaging their efforts or if it really is the Abbot. Although it has to be said, the failure of the attempted assassination really had nothing to do with either the Abbot or Steven. It was sheer dumb luck. Tavannes calls for the guards and orders the Abbot's execution as a traitor to the queen.
At the council chambers, the indignant king, who considers de Coligny a friend, calls for a full investigation into the assassination attempt but he is surrounded by poisonous voices not least that of his mother urging him to fear the Huguenots, warning that his own life may be endangered. And Charles is a weak king, easily influenced. His determination to do right by all his subjects, both Catholic and Protestant, soon starts to waver.
At de Coligny's house, the wounded admiral wonders why he was targeted, while Nicholas frets over the severity of the injury and Steven wishes he could have done more, bitterly regretting his failure to deliver the warning to Gaston last night. Nicholas holds the Abbot responsible for the whole thing, but having met the man Steven is more certain than ever that the Doctor is pretending to be the Abbot. Just then, a comrade arrives with news that the Abbot of Amboise has been murdered and the Huguenots have been blamed! That's clever way to turn it around from an enquiry into the attack on de Coligny into a witch-hunt against Huguenots for the Abbot's murder. Steven, of course, is horrified, believing that the Doctor has been killed in the Abbot's guise.
Steven rushes to the Abbot's house and is appalled to find a body that looks horribly like the Doctor, lying dead in the street surrounded by a baying crowd, whipped up to an anti-Huguenot fever-pitch. Then when Colbert, recognising him, identifies him as the man responsible, he is forced to flee for his life.
Episode 4: 'Bell of Doom'
And so we reach the final instalment of this particular adventure, which, once again, picks up the action the following morning so this is now the fourth day since the Doctor and Steven parted company. Whatever the Doctor has been up to, it's hard to imagine what he thinks Steven has been doing all this time, stranded in a place so very alien to him. It seems strangely out of character for him to abandon his friend like this, especially after being so concerned for him when they first parted; again, the novelisation does a much better job of explaining the Doctor's motivations, seeing him held against his will, unable to return to his friend, and forced to impersonate the Abbot against his better judgement.
Anne has returned to Preslin's shop, as arranged, and is fretting. At last Steven returns and she hurries to let him in, frantic. Steven has been dodging guards all night, and is tired and disheartened he believes that the Doctor is dead, which means he has both lost his friend and is stranded here, in this hostile, primitive place. I like how soft and quiet Steven's voice becomes when he is upset such a contrast to how loud he can be when angry. It occurs to him that if he could find the TARDIS key, he could at least take shelter in there, so he decides to search for the Doctor's clothes, reasoning that he'd have had to change before going to the Abbot's house and the only other place he knows the Doctor has been is here, Preslin's shop, so it's as good a place as any to search.
Tavannes and Duvall are busy covering their tracks and agree that Steven is a loose end who must be found and killed before he can testify to what he knows of their plot. At de Coligny's house, the admiral is recovering from his wound while around him his friends fret, aware that they are all in danger but with no way of knowing just how much. The house is under guard, supposedly for their protection, but it is a Catholic guard under a Catholic commander. It is now the Eve of St Bartholomew's Day.
Steven and Anne have just discovered the Doctor's walking stick in Preslin's shop when the Doctor himself walks in alive and well after all. True to form, he blames Steven for the whole mix-up, grumbling that he should have stayed at the tavern, but Steven isn't having that, angrily retorting that he did stay at the tavern it was the Doctor who failed to keep their rendezvous and therefore started the whole thing! The Doctor always tries to shuffle blame off onto someone else if he can.
The Doctor does not tell us what he has been doing all this time he certainly doesn't admit to having posed as the Abbot, and this is the primary weakness of this story. The novelisation restores the original script and gives a lot of detail about the Doctor's machinations, but here in the teleplay, adapted to accommodate Hartnell's holiday, there is none of that. We are left to presume, as Steven does, that the Abbot was the Abbot all along after all, that he simply looked like the Doctor, and we aren't told where the Doctor has been or why he failed to meet Steven as arranged. So as it stands, we are left believing he simply abandoned his friend on a whim. He simply says that he was unavoidably delayed and blithely announces that they must leave at once. When Anne mentions that tomorrow is St Bartholomew's Day, a celebration, Steven doesn't see that there's anything to celebrate with all this trouble and the Doctor chides him for getting involved. Steven angrily defends himself, and when he mentions de Coligny's name the Doctor becomes alarmed and asks Anne what year it is 1572. Only now, after all these days in Paris, does the Doctor realise the significance of the date and his anxiety to leave immediately increases. He orders Anne to go home, to her aunt's house, instructing her to avoid the guards as best she can and stay indoors all day tomorrow, with the doors and windows barred. She is terrified at the thought of going anywhere she might be recognised, but the Doctor knows it won't be safe for her to remain in the apothecary's shop. He does not offer to take her with them. Steven tries to argue, worried for Anne's safety, but the Doctor hustles him away to the TARDIS, insisting that they must leave Paris tonight. Steven doesn't understand he can't understand, he doesn't know the history of this time, doesn't know what is about to happen.
At Tavannes' place, the queen mother brings an order signed by the king, announcing that their plans for tomorrow can go ahead. She has got her way. Tavannes offers her a list of, all the enemies they wish to see dead, but she waves it away there is no need of lists. Every Huguenot will be a target, not merely a chosen few. Only Henri of Navarre will be spared, for fear of sparking an international incident. Even Tavannes is disturbed by this bloodlust.
The Doctor and Steven make it back to the TARDIS just as soldiers arrive to besiege de Coligny's house the start of a bloody slaughter. Only once the TARDIS is underway does the Doctor tell Steven about the massacre they have left behind them, a massacre in which thousands will die, and he is horrified he made friends in Paris, tried to save lives, and now this. He argues that surely there was something they could have done, but the Doctor insists that they cannot interfere with the course of history, however senseless the waste of life. Struggling to take it in, Steven asks after the friends he made the admiral, Nicholas, Anne. While the Doctor is seeing the bigger picture, lamenting it but sticking rigidly to the Time Lord code of non-interference, Steven is seeing individuals and explodes, raging that even if they couldn't prevent the massacre, they could at least have brought Anne with then, saved that one life. He doesn't mention Katarina, who they saved from the slaughter in Troy, but it has to be on his mind if Katarina could be spared, why not Anne? The Doctor tries to offer hope that Anne may have survived, but Steven isn't buying it and holds the Doctor fully responsible for her death. This is breaking point for Steven, after everything he's been through leaving Vicki behind in Troy, losing Katarina and Bret and Sara to their battle against the Daleks he just can't take any more. He angrily announces that wherever the TARDIS lands next, that's where he gets off, because if the Doctor's researches have so little regard for human life then he wants no part in it.
The Doctor does not defend himself. It's been quite some time since he was presented as quite this aloof, standoff-ish and alien, and not since Barbara played at being a goddess in The Aztecs has he fallen out so badly with a companion over whether or not it is right or possible to interfere in the course of history. Unlike Barbara, who was familiar with Aztec history and wanted to change it deliberately, Steven has been completely rudderless throughout this story, buffeted about by a sequence of events he couldn't understand; Barbara made a rational if wrong-headed choice that brought her into conflict with the Doctor, but Steven is ruled here by his heart, wanting to save individuals rather than change the course of history, and it is hard not to take his side in the debate. The Doctor was absent from the action for almost the entire adventure, his actions and motivations remaining obscure, whereas we have been with Steven throughout, following his fears and doubts and struggles as he sought to find the right thing to do at every turn. All he wanted was to save the lives of the people he'd befriended, but even that was denied him coming in the wake of the losses experienced during the recent epic struggles against the Daleks, it is easy to understand why he can't take any more, although it is hard to see him set against the Doctor, after remaining so doggedly loyal for so long.
Sometime later, the TARDIS lands. Steven checks the readings and then prepares to leave apparently with nothing more than the clothes he stands up in. The Doctor tries now to talk him around, advising him not to judge history too severely before understanding its overall picture. It's a lovely little speech, but Steven is feeling too raw and wounded to listen. He walks out, and only then does the Doctor's proud façade crumble, with a lovely little soliloquy that offers us some much-needed insight into his point of view, a great performance from Hartnell as the Doctor tells himself that he was right, that he dare not change the course of history, but laments that none of his companions have ever understood the importance of this position, not even Susan. It is fantastic to hear all the major companions name-checked in this monologue Susan, Ian, Barbara, Vicki. Left alone for the first time in the show's history, the Doctor admits to himself that he longs to return home but he can't. Damn, I wish we could see this scene, the audio is so touching.
I really love that this story takes so much time to deal with the emotional fallout of the events of the adventure, devoting almost a third of an episode to the aftermath, which is the impact and consequences of these experiences for the characters and their relationship. This serial marks a clear break in the show's history the early seasons have been wonderfully focused on character progression and continuity, and this is the culmination of that; things will be a little more light-weight from now on, though.
Outside the TARDIS, a young girl sprints across Wimbledon Common it turns out that the Doctor has managed to land in London 1966; Ian and Barbara would never believe it! Believing the TARDIS to be a real police box, the girl dashes inside, demanding to know where the telephone is. This is Dodo, speaking with a broad northern accent, and she does not seem all that surprised to see the spacious interior of such a small box. The Doctor, startled out of his melancholy, tells her to run along, but she says that there has been an accident, a little boy has been hurt and she wants to call the police. The Doctor tells her she should call an ambulance, in fact, and tries to get her to move on, and only now does she wonder what the TARDIS is, if not a police box. Too tired and defeated to argue, the Doctor pretty much gives up and just tells her the truth: that the TARDIS is a space-time machine! Understandably, she doesn't have a clue what he is on about, so he dons his best grandfather voice to tell her again to run along. But just then Steven rushes back into the TARDIS shouting for the Doctor to take off because there are two policemen coming toward the TARDIS, thinking like Dodo that it is a real police box. Alarmed, the Doctor quickly closes the doors and takes off with Dodo still on board.
Steven then notices Dodo and becomes alarmed to realise that they have brought her with them, wondering if she even understands what just happened that they are travelling through time and space and could end up anywhere. Dodo is a down-to-earth, cheerful young girl who really doesn't seem to understand what just happened to her, but isn't terribly concerned about it anyway. Steven turns to the Doctor in dismay, wondering what he thinks he is doing, taking this young girl from her home, but the Doctor defends that he had to, with the police on their way. I think this scene, and Dodo's arrival, were intended to echo the origins of the show, when the Doctor similarly took off in a panic with Ian and Barbara on board, but it fails to sell the set-up nearly as well, not least because Dodo's reactions aren't entirely believable, while the Doctor's sudden take-off comes across less as panic and more as a random whim perhaps even a reaction to Steven's accusations about Anne. Steven seems to be the only one who cares that Dodo has just been abducted from her home and may never be able to return, but Dodo just says, quite cheerfully, that she doesn't really care if she never goes home again, explaining that her parents are dead so she lives with a great-aunt who won't care if she disappears. That's good enough for the Doctor, who admits that Dodo reminds him of his granddaughter Susan, forgetting that Steven never met Susan. Bless, he comes across as so old and lonely in this moment, seeing Susan in Dodo because he wants to see the resemblance a moment that reinforces how important his companions are to him as substitutes for the family he has lost.
Me, I just hope someone else managed to find help for the injured little boy!
Dodo introduces herself as Dorothea Chaplet, much to Steven's amazement and delight. There is no proof that Dodo is descended from or otherwise related to poor Anne, but Steven latches onto the possibility nonetheless, needing to believe that Anne might have survived somehow, and the Doctor, pleased to have him back, is content to let him hope.
Quotable Quotes
DOCTOR: You'd be surprised what I've got in my wardrobe.
DUVALL: A tavern is a place where a gentleman may refresh himself, while simpler people amuse him with their badinage.
STEVEN: The girl was clearly frightened out of her wits. We should find her.
GASTON: Nonsense. She's probably gone back to her own people.
STEVEN: But don't you want to know why she was frightened?
GASTON: No.
MUSS: Many things frighten people in Paris these days.
DE COLIGNY: You are an extraordinary man, Tavannes. You see shadows where there is no sun.
STEVEN: Listen to me!
GASTON: I'd rather listen to a pack of screaming devils!
ANNE: You were kind to me. You're the first one that ever was. Please, don't send me back there.
STEVEN: I can't take you with me. I've nowhere to go myself.
CHARLES: So, Elizabeth of England has agreed to help us?
TAVANNES: Does anyone here trust her? She breaks more promises than she keeps.
DOCTOR: Oh, my dear boy, had you stayed at the tavern all this mix-up could have been avoided.
STEVEN: I did stay at the tavern, you didn't turn up!
DOCTOR: Yes, well, I was unavoidably delayed.
TAVANNES: Thank God.
CATHERINE: God had very little to do with it. What is this?
TAVANNES: The list, Madame. When those Huguenots are killed we need have no further fear of a Protestant France.
CATHERINE: We have no need of lists, Marshall. The good people of Paris know their enemies. They will take care of them.
TAVANNES: The good people? Madame, if you rouse the mob the innocent will perish with the guilty.
CATHERINE: Innocent? Heresy can have no innocents. France will breathe of pure air after tomorrow.
TAVANNES: We are to unleash the wolves of Paris. None are to be spared.
TAVANNES: At dawn tomorrow this city will weep tears of blood.
STEVEN: Surely there was something we could have done?
DOCTOR: No, nothing. Nothing. In any case, I cannot change the course of history, you know that. The massacre continued for several days in Paris and then spread itself to other parts of France. Oh, what a senseless waste. What a terrible page of the past.
STEVEN: Did they all die?
DOCTOR: Yes, most of them. About ten thousand in Paris alone.
STEVEN: The Admiral?
DOCTOR: Yes.
STEVEN: Nicholas? You had to leave Anne Chaplet there to die.
DOCTOR: Anne Chaplet?
STEVEN: The girl! The girl who was with me! If you'd brought her with us she needn't have died. But no, you had to leave her there to be slaughtered.
DOCTOR: Well, it is possible of course she didn't die, and I was right to leave her.
STEVEN: Possible? Look, how possible? That girl was already hunted by the Catholic guards. If they killed ten thousand how did they spare her? You don't know, do you? You can't say for certain that you weren't responsible for that girl's death.
DOCTOR: I was not responsible.
STEVEN: Oh, no. You just sent her back to her aunt's house where the guards were waiting to catch her. I tell you this much, Doctor, wherever this machine of yours lands next I'm getting off. If your researches have so little regard for human life then I want no part of it.
DOCTOR: My dear Steven, history sometimes gives us a terrible shock, and that is because we don't quite fully understand. Why should we? After all, we're all too small to realise its final pattern. Therefore don't try and judge it from where you stand. I was right to do as I did. Yes. That I firmly believe.
DOCTOR: Even after all this time he cannot understand. I dare not change the course of history. [ ] Now they're all gone. All gone. None of them could understand. Not even my little Susan, or Vicki. And as for Barbara and Chatterton Chesterton they were all too impatient to get back to their own time. And now Steven. Perhaps I should go home, back to my own planet. But I can't. I can't.
DOCTOR: Well, my dear, I'm a doctor of science, and this machine is for travelling through time and relative dimensions in space.
The Verdict
Overall and taken as a whole, The Massacre is an interesting one. It is an excellent character story for Steven, who really does carry the whole thing and is allowed a powerful emotional reaction to his experiences, bringing his often thorny relationship with the Doctor to a natural head. Peter Purves does a splendid job even just with the audio, I'm right there with him, feeling Steven's fear and doubt and anxiety and anger and grief.
On the other hand, the last minute re-write to remove the Doctor's sub-plot did no favours to the story, which is significantly structurally weakened by it, and I can see that this kind of dry, weighty costume drama lacking the sparkle and polish of many previous historicals probably wouldn't have gone down well with the children watching. It's an elegant story, extremely informative about a page in history that isn't well known, but there isn't much action and we spend a lot of time with characters we don't know. It's also extremely male-heavy, in what has sadly become a continuing trend since Barbara left the show.
Still, I really enjoyed this serial anyway, character-centric as it is.
Follows on from Season One, Season Two, Galaxy Four, Mission to the Unknown, The Myth Makers and The Daleks' Master Plan
DOCTOR: "History sometimes gives us a terrible shock, and that is because we don't quite fully understand. Why should we? After all, we're too small to realise its final pattern. Therefore don't try and judge it from where you stand."
Overview
Following in the wake of The Daleks' Master Plan, nine out of twelve episodes of which are missing from the archives, The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (also known as The Massacre) is completely missing, all four episodes existing only as an audio recording. It is one of only three stories the other two being Marco Polo and Mission to the Unknown of which not a single frame of footage survives, not even the tiniest of clips. So, recon it is once again.
Another of the pure historicals that litter the First Doctor era, this story is significant as it marks the first occasion on which the Doctor comes through an entire adventure with only a single companion at his side a solo male companion, moreover, something that has happened only rarely in the show's history. Although a new companion, Dodo Chaplet, does come on board to join the Doctor and Steven at the very end of this story, this is not until the final scene, after the TARDIS has already moved on to a new time and place, and she plays no part in the adventure itself. It wasn't until much later that a solo female companion would become the regular pattern, this era of the show was mainly structured as an ensemble, so the break from tradition here is noteworthy and more noteworthy still as, with the Doctor absent for two episodes, Steven is required to carry the bulk of the action alone, supported by the guest characters, whose story this is.
There were two distinct types of historical in this era of the show: the straight historical and the comedy historical. The last historical adventure was The Myth Makers, which was played very much for humour, but The Massacre, in contrast, follows more in the vein of Marco Polo or The Crusade by presenting the story completely straight. This is costume drama, rather than comedy or sci fi adventure. The story also picks up a recurring theme in historical adventures of this era: the fixed nature of history and whether or not it is ever right or indeed possible to interfere with the course of events.
The plot, in a nutshell, is this: landing in 16th century Paris on the eve of a particularly bloody episode in history, the Doctor and Steven find themselves caught up in the devastating sequence of events. Still reeling from the painful losses of their recent battle against the Daleks, Steven reaches breaking point and loses faith in the Doctor.
Writer - John Lucarotti / Donald Tosh
Director - Paddy Russell
Script editor - Donald Tosh / Gerry Davies
Producer - John Wiles
Aired - 5-26 February 1966
Observations
Random thoughts while watching:
Episode one: 'War of God'
We open with the TARDIS landing in 16th century Paris, which the Doctor has no trouble identifying after overhearing a covert conversation between two locals. He is in good spirits, enthused at the prospect of meeting a famous apothecary of the time named Preslin, but Steven seems rather snippy, which isn't the best frame of mind to start a new adventure. It follows on well though from his sombre mood at the end of the last episode as does the Doctor's determined air of good humour. The Doctor likes to always look forward, not back, but Steven doesn't find it so easy to shake off the traumas of the past; neither directly mentions their recent losses at any point, but the downbeat mood follows directly on from that painful experience.
The Doctor decides that the pair should go back into the TARDIS and get changed so as to blend in with the locals. I love it when they play dress-up.
In a bar nearby, an assortment of guest characters drink and talk, expositing a bit of background about this tumultuous period in French history, with the Protestant prince having taken a Catholic bride, bringing religious tension to a fever-pitch. The characters we meet here include Nicholas Muss, the Viscount Gaston de Lerans, and Simon Duvall. Duvall, a Catholic, charges the landlord with spying on the others, who are Huguenots.
The Doctor and Steven innocently wander into this hotbed of sedition and the Doctor orders some wine his 11th self would be horrified, but the 3rd would be proud. I really love that the first thing these two do upon arriving in 16th century Paris is find a pub to have a drink together while they discuss their plans for the day so leisurely, it really sells the idea that they are travellers, tourists, not looking for any adventure but just living their lives. The Doctor intends to pay a visit to the apothecary Preslin but knows that Steven would be bored rigid, while Steven, for his part, has no intention of just hanging around the TARDIS waiting, but has to admit that he knows nothing about this period of history. He plans to just wander around seeing the sights, whereupon the Doctor starts fussing, worried that his friend will be unable to blend in and will get into trouble he's not usually this overprotective of Steven, but for the first time since the show started he is without a granddaughter or surrogate granddaughter to care for, which leaves Steven as the only available outlet for his paternal instincts. And again we remember that they just lost three friends and allies in rapid succession Katarina, Bret Vyon and Sara Kingdom were all lost in their epic battle against the Daleks so heightened concern for the remaining friend is only too understandable. Steven, however, is of the opinion that he can take care of himself, thanks all the same. They agree to meet back at the inn at nightfall and part, but not before the Doctor has handed Steven some cash with the air of a father doling out pocket money and told him not to cut himself with his sword! Steven is amused rather than riled by all this fussing. Perhaps it is something they both need just at the moment.
On his way out of the tavern, the Doctor bumps into a passer-by, who seems to recognise him and follows. Steven notices this, but instantly hits trouble when he realises he's been stuck with the bill for the wine but the coins the Doctor has given him are too large to be changed by the landlord. Nicholas Muss sees the disturbance and helps him out, bringing regular cast and guest cast together for the first time. Then Steven asks for directions to Port Saint Martin, where Preslin is supposed to live, concerned about the man he saw following the Doctor. Nicholas warns that talking about science and ideas is a dangerous thing to do in these days, and although Steven tries to brush it off, reasoning that the Doctor can look after himself, it is clear that he is worried. Nicholas invites him to drink with his friends, promising to take him to Port Saint Martin to look for the Doctor later, and despite his concern Steven complies. He wants to blend in.
The Doctor locates Preslin's shop but finds the man himself frightened, reluctant even to admit his identity. The Doctor is in good form, full of praise for Preslin's scientific ideas and offering hope in the form of tantalising hints about developments in other lands, and Preslin relaxes slightly, but stresses that one can't be too careful these days. I like how subtly the dangerous atmosphere of the time is being built up, alluded to naturally in the dialogue, just enough to convey the distinct impression that things are not right here, not because of any outside influence but simply because Paris at this time is a powder-keg of religious tension and paranoia. The Doctor has figured out the approximate time period accurately enough but does not yet know the precise date.
Back at the tavern, Gaston is less welcoming toward Steven than Nicholas, who completely accepts Steven's story that he has been travelling abroad and has no idea about the political situation in Paris at this time. Well, it's true enough. We learn here that Gaston works for Prince Henri of Navarre, who has just married the king's sister, while Nicholas works for the Admiral de Coligny all Protestants. They ask Steven where he's been travelling, and he flounders slightly, since he can hardly admit to some of the distant planets he's visited, before saying that he's been in Egypt. Again, it's true, he was in Egypt recently. He makes his excuses to leave and Nicholas heads outside with him to point him in the right direction.
No sooner has Steven stepped outside the tavern than he bumps into a young girl, who is being chased by armed guards. When they follow her into the tavern, Steven is too curious and concerned to just let it go, and follows to see what is going on. The girl has hidden and Gaston plays innocent not that he's interested in a runaway serving girl, he just enjoys baiting Catholics. The guards complain that the girl was specially chosen to serve the Abbot of Amboise but they can't find her and can't get past Gaston so give up and leave. The Huguenots then encourage Steven to stay rather than wander the streets alone. He is worried about the girl, who was clearly frightened, and when she fearfully reappears Gaston calls her over to talk. I quite like this Gaston he's every inch the nobleman, full of flair and flamboyance; in another century he'd be quite the dandy. Nicholas, in contrast, is quiet and thoughtful; I like him for the genuine friendship he offers Steven, who is a stranger to him.
The girl, Anne Chaplet, is intimidated by all these noblemen and Steven is the only one who shows any sympathy for her. Only when she begins to explain what she overheard at the Abbot's house do Nicholas and Gaston take her seriously, realising that the Catholics are plotting a massacre of Huguenots similar to one that took place in Vassy ten years earlier a massacre in which Anne's father was killed, which is why she is so afraid now.
Back at Preslin's house, Preslin tells the Doctor that the Abbot of Amboise hates all apothecaries and scientists, fearing their work on religious grounds he sees them as borderline heretics. The Doctor wonders if it would be possible for him to see the Abbot and talk to him, although what he hopes to achieve is not clear. This is the last we will see of the Doctor until the fourth episode of this story, as Hartnell took a week's holiday during production and as a result his entire sub-plot was dropped.
At the Abbot's residence, Duvall, the Captain of the Guard and a man named Colbert discuss Anne's disappearance, worried that if she repeats what she heard in the right ears, their plans might blow up in their faces. They realise that she overheard the word Vassy, enough to put every Huguenot in the city on his guard. Duvall orders the guard to trace whatever family Anne has in the city, determined that she should be found.
At the tavern with the landlord earwigging for all he's worth Nicholas arranges to hide Anne in the kitchen of Admiral de Coligny's house. Gaston hurries off to warn Navarre about the threat while Nicholas apologises to Steven for not being able to guide him around the city after all. Steven is unconcerned, as he expects the Doctor to return soon.
Time passes, and the Doctor fails to return to the tavern to meet Steven as arranged, and Steven grows more and more impatient as night falls I bet he wishes he'd taken the Doctor up on his offer to stay in the TARDIS now! When Duvall returns and questions the landlord about the girl Anne Chaplet, the landlord remembers overhearing that she was sent to the house of Admiral de Coligny and identifies Steven as being with the Huguenots when they questioned her thus bringing Steven onto the radar of the Catholic plotters. Duvall goes over to talk to Steven, who is in no mood for questions. He doesn't understand what Duvall is talking about when he mentions the curfew, but insists that he will be all right. He's been saying that all day, "I shall be all right," as if saying it can make it true, but the truth is that he's alone in a strange place whose customs and laws he doesn't understand, and the Doctor has not honoured their rendezvous, which means he has no shelter for the night. He doesn't have a TARDIS key, because companions didn't in these days, not since Susan. He is stranded and the past can be every bit as dangerous as any alien planet.
Steven is relieved to see a friendly face when Nicholas passes the tavern, and kind friendly Nicholas is immediately concerned to find him alone and without shelter with curfew approaching. Poor Steven is still trusting that the Doctor will return for him, but curfew is sounding, so Nicholas promptly invites him back to de Coligny's place and instructs the landlord to tell Steven's friend where he has gone, should he show up. Steven agrees, wearily supposing that the Doctor has been side-tracked, as is his wont.
Duvall, who was listening to all this, assumes that Steven's presence means the English are getting themselves involved in the situation here, and wonders why. Meanwhile at the Abbot's apartment, Colbert is making his excuses to the Abbot when Duvall walks in to announce that Anne is at de Coligny's house. The Abbot turns to demand that the girl be captured and brought to him at once and we see that he is the spitting image of the Doctor. Oh what a shame the footage is missing I'm sure the cliffhanger end must have been quite the shock when it was broadcast.
Episode two: 'The Sea Beggar'
At de Coligny's house next day, Nicholas and Gaston argue over their inability to convince Henri of Navarre that the Catholics are plotting against him, while Steven returns to the tavern in search of the Doctor but there is no sign of him. Back at the house, to Gaston's disbelief, Nicholas has all but convinced himself that they all jumped to conclusions over Anne's story when a crestfallen Steven returns, not knowing where else to go for help. He needs directions to Port Saint Martin to search for the Doctor there. Nicholas agrees to go with him, but before they can leave Gaston sees Roger Colbert approaching and guesses that he is looking for Anne Chaplet. He is indeed, and offers cool diplomacy as he brushes off Anne's fears as an overreaction. Gaston does an excellent job of stonewalling, all innocence.
Colbert is forced to leave empty-handed and only then does Steven who has learned at least some self-control over the course of his adventures announce that he recognised him as the man who followed the Doctor. While Nicholas wonders what the Abbot of Amboise could want with Steven's friend, Gaston looks out of the window and sees that the Abbot himself is outside with Colbert. Steven looks and is staggered to see that the man they call the Abbot is the Doctor, or looks like the Doctor. This is Hartnell's only scene in this episode, a pre-filmed insert. Steven exclaims that he must go to him and makes to rush out only for suspicious Gaston to demand to know how long he has been working for the Abbot of Amboise. Steven is thoroughly confused now and can only stammer that it looked like the Doctor, but if they are sure it is the Abbot then it can't be. He suggests that he prove his innocence by searching for the Doctor at Preslin's shop.
At the Louvre, Simon Duvall talks conspiracy with Marshall Tavannes, and mentions that Nicholas Muss is hosting an Englishman Steven, of course; how easy it is for an unwary time traveller to accidentally find himself involved in high level political intrigue, without even knowing, simply by wandering into the wrong place at the wrong time. As de Coligny himself shows up and the conversation turns to the Dutch, I find myself wondering if the children who watched this in 1966 had any hope of following the storyline. I rather like it, I enjoy the stroll through history, but the story is rather dense and dry, all politics and intrigue with very little action. Tavannes still sees Steven as evidence that de Coligny is colluding with England, but de Coligny is all innocence as far as he is concerned, Steven is merely a lost stranger who found lodging at his house for the night.
In Port Saint Martin, Steven is becoming agitated, which always brings out the worst in him he's so agitated that when he finally spots Preslin's shop, he almost knocks an old lady over in his rush to get to the door and leaves Nicholas to make his apologies for him, too busy hammering on the door to even notice what he's done. The old lady angrily grumbles that nobody lives there, which we know isn't true Preslin was there just yesterday, we saw that, but perhaps the people hereabouts are used to covering for one another, or perhaps Preslin lies so low hardly anyone even knows he's there. The woman claims that Preslin was arrested two years ago and is probably still in gaol, if he hasn't been burnt for heresy already. To Nicholas this is fairly damning evidence against Steven's story, while Steven doesn't know what to think. Nicholas suggests that Steven's friend is the Abbot of Amboise after all, which Steven begins to vehemently deny but then his confidence collapses and he can only protest that he doesn't see how he can be.
But he is no longer sure. The Doctor has disappeared. The Abbot looks just like him. Poor Steven is beginning to doubt himself now. He suggests that it is just possible that the Doctor is pretending to be the Abbot, which Nicholas finds hard to believe, but Steven can say with complete honesty that he knows nothing whatsoever about Vassy, Protestants, Catholics, or anything else anyone has been talking about since he got here. He is simply certain that if the Doctor is pretending to be the Abbot, he must have a good reason. Nicholas is no longer prepared to trust Steven and makes to take him back to the Admiral's house, but Steven pushes him over and runs for it, determined to find out the truth.
Elsewhere, Duvall and Colbert discuss the Abbot and it becomes clear that neither of them met him before yesterday, although Colbert did see him once at a meeting a long time ago he is newly appointed and has only just arrived in the city. This lends plausibility to Steven's theory that the Doctor has taken the Abbot's place Nicholas and Gaston appeared to recognise him by sight, but that could have been his Abbot's robes rather than his face. The Doctor's absence from proceedings is being used to create a mystery, which brings an interesting twist to the story; it's just a shame more isn't made of the doppelganger concept. Duvall is curious to know about the Englishman who has become attached to the Huguenots and charges Colbert with learning more about him.
The Huguenots too are curious to know more about Steven, and question Anne Chaplet closely, remembering the interest he took in her. Anne, of course, has no idea who Steven is, but defends him anyway because he was kind to her, a rare event in her troubled young life. Nicholas has now come to believe that Steven must be a Catholic spy, but Anne insists that he can't be, not least because he so genuinely knows nothing about anything. I like her. She's the lowest of the low and the gentlemen treat her as such, but she's fiery when roused and not afraid to speak her mind. So many doomed characters in this story, but it treats them all as people with minds and concerns of their own anyway. Nicholas and Gaston conclude that they know where to find Steven: with the Abbot of Amboise.
And indeed, Steven is lurking around the Abbot's house, but as a spy rather than an employee. How he found it is anyone's guess, since he doesn't know his way around, but nevertheless he is there, hanging around outside the windows listening for any information that might help him find the Doctor. Inside, the Marshall tells Colbert and Duvall that 'the Sea Beggar' is to be killed tomorrow, orders of the Queen Mother.
Colbert and Duvall don't know where the Abbot currently is this is one of numerous tiny strands left dangling from the original script, in which the Doctor played a much greater role, colluding with Preslin to impersonate the Abbot. The novelisation reverts to that original script, detailing the Doctor's shenanigans, so that the back and forth between the Abbot's actions and the Doctor's attempts at subverting them becomes clear. But none of that exists in the teleplay, because the sub-plot was written out due to Hartnell's holiday, just these occasional hints and snippets that don't seem to go anywhere because they belong to a sub-plot that no longer exists.
Steven, listening at the window, has chosen his side in all this intrigue that means nothing to him. He rushes straight back to de Coligny's house and tries to tell Gaston what he heard, sure that it must be important even if he doesn't understand someone's life is in danger, even if he doesn't know who. But Gaston won't listen to him and draws his sword to duel it out. Steven is forced to defend himself but won't fight, so Gaston disarms him and forces him to leave without hearing him out. Man, I wish we could see the action! Nicholas returns soon after and Gaston tells him that Steven was there; despite his own doubts, Nicholas is sure that Steven must have had a message, remembering that he'd said he would return if he learned anything important. He is far more open-minded than the hot-headed Gaston. If only Nicholas had been there when Steven arrived, so much might have been different.
As curfew approaches, Steven finds himself wandering the streets of Paris alone with nowhere to go but Anne has followed him. She is afraid to go back to de Coligny's house now that the Catholics know they took her in she wants to go with Steven, the first person who has ever been kind to her. Steven can only protest that he has nowhere to take her. She offers to help him find a place to go and he tries asking her who the Sea Beggar is, but she has no idea. Then Steven asks Anne to take him back to Port Saint Martin, reasoning that they can stay at Preslin's shop no one will look for them there.
Meanwhile at de Coligny's house, the Admiral tells Nicholas that he believes he has persuaded the king to declare war on Spain and that he has been given the title 'Sea Beggar'. If only Steven had been allowed to deliver his message, they would now know that the Admiral's life is in imminent danger!
Episode three: 'The Priest of Death'
It is the following morning and Anne rummages around Preslin's shop, waking Steven, who is still dismayed by his failure to get a warning to the Huguenots about the plot to kill the 'Sea Beggar'. Anne is anxious to leave Paris but Steven wants to return to the Abbot's house, hoping to find the Doctor there with more information. Anne protests that he'll be arrested, but Steven is certain now that the Doctor is posing as the Abbot and will protect him. To allay Anne's fears, he decides to snoop around the house for clothes he can use to disguise himself.
Meanwhile in the council chamber, Tavannes and de Coligny argue heatedly over foreign policy and how to deal with the upswing in civil strife. It's a long scene, but this is the upshot of it. Even King Charles finds it tedious! It does, however, successfully sell the acrimony of current politics and there are some amusing lines.
As Steven prepares to return to the Abbot's house, Anne is terrified to go with him, but also too afraid to remain at Preslin's house alone. She's like a frightened rabbit. Steven promises quite sincerely that she will be safe, that he will take care of her and make sure no harm comes to her. He will remember those words later. They agree that if anything happens and they are separated, they will meet back at Preslin's house.
In council, de Coligny argues passionately for the oft-violated rights of the Huguenots and warns the indolent king not to allow his mother to usurp too many of his powers. It is easy to see why the Catholics want to rid themselves of this man.
At the Abbot's house, Steven's ignorance of this time and religion make it difficult for him to talk his way past the priest on the door, but when the Abbot himself appears, Steven is delighted to see him, believing him to be the Doctor...although the Abbot shows no sign of recognition. Steven takes a gamble, announcing that he has brought back the girl who ran away Anne is horrified to be given away like this, but the ploy successfully gains them a private audience with the Abbot only for Tavannes to immediately interrupt. Luckily he is no longer interested in Anne and does not know Steven, simply telling them to wait outside. Steven then overhears enough of Tavannes' conversation with the Abbot to identify the Sea Beggar as de Coligny and rushes away with Anne to warn Nicholas. They get away just in time, as Colbert has seen them and rushes in to warn the Abbot and Tavannes, identifying Steven as an ally of the Huguenots. The Abbot is unworried, certain both that Steven could not have heard anything of significance and that it is too late to warn the Admiral anyway. Tavannes is prepared to hold him responsible if the plot fails. It is clear that the Abbot is on shaky ground with his so-called allies.
William Hartnell appears only as the Abbot in this episode, and because of the dropped sub-plot (and probably also because of the lost episodes, as acting nuance would add so much clarity) it is never clear, at any point, whether the Abbot is genuinely the Abbot or the Doctor in disguise.
At de Coligny's house, Nicholas is startled when Steven charges in to deliver a desperate warning of the imminent threat to the Admiral's life. Nicholas rushes away to warn him too late, as a gunman (well, an arquebus-man) is already in position to kill de Coligny as he returns home from council. Sheer luck saves de Coligny's life, as he drops a paper and bends to retrieve it just as the gun is fired Nicholas arrives moments later to find him wounded but alive.
Colbert returns to the Abbot's house to announce that the attempt has failed, and Tavannes holds the Abbot responsible, arguing that since his arrival, everything planned has gone wrong and that's the conceit of the story, because viewers cannot tell if this is the Doctor sabotaging their efforts or if it really is the Abbot. Although it has to be said, the failure of the attempted assassination really had nothing to do with either the Abbot or Steven. It was sheer dumb luck. Tavannes calls for the guards and orders the Abbot's execution as a traitor to the queen.
At the council chambers, the indignant king, who considers de Coligny a friend, calls for a full investigation into the assassination attempt but he is surrounded by poisonous voices not least that of his mother urging him to fear the Huguenots, warning that his own life may be endangered. And Charles is a weak king, easily influenced. His determination to do right by all his subjects, both Catholic and Protestant, soon starts to waver.
At de Coligny's house, the wounded admiral wonders why he was targeted, while Nicholas frets over the severity of the injury and Steven wishes he could have done more, bitterly regretting his failure to deliver the warning to Gaston last night. Nicholas holds the Abbot responsible for the whole thing, but having met the man Steven is more certain than ever that the Doctor is pretending to be the Abbot. Just then, a comrade arrives with news that the Abbot of Amboise has been murdered and the Huguenots have been blamed! That's clever way to turn it around from an enquiry into the attack on de Coligny into a witch-hunt against Huguenots for the Abbot's murder. Steven, of course, is horrified, believing that the Doctor has been killed in the Abbot's guise.
Steven rushes to the Abbot's house and is appalled to find a body that looks horribly like the Doctor, lying dead in the street surrounded by a baying crowd, whipped up to an anti-Huguenot fever-pitch. Then when Colbert, recognising him, identifies him as the man responsible, he is forced to flee for his life.
Episode 4: 'Bell of Doom'
And so we reach the final instalment of this particular adventure, which, once again, picks up the action the following morning so this is now the fourth day since the Doctor and Steven parted company. Whatever the Doctor has been up to, it's hard to imagine what he thinks Steven has been doing all this time, stranded in a place so very alien to him. It seems strangely out of character for him to abandon his friend like this, especially after being so concerned for him when they first parted; again, the novelisation does a much better job of explaining the Doctor's motivations, seeing him held against his will, unable to return to his friend, and forced to impersonate the Abbot against his better judgement.
Anne has returned to Preslin's shop, as arranged, and is fretting. At last Steven returns and she hurries to let him in, frantic. Steven has been dodging guards all night, and is tired and disheartened he believes that the Doctor is dead, which means he has both lost his friend and is stranded here, in this hostile, primitive place. I like how soft and quiet Steven's voice becomes when he is upset such a contrast to how loud he can be when angry. It occurs to him that if he could find the TARDIS key, he could at least take shelter in there, so he decides to search for the Doctor's clothes, reasoning that he'd have had to change before going to the Abbot's house and the only other place he knows the Doctor has been is here, Preslin's shop, so it's as good a place as any to search.
Tavannes and Duvall are busy covering their tracks and agree that Steven is a loose end who must be found and killed before he can testify to what he knows of their plot. At de Coligny's house, the admiral is recovering from his wound while around him his friends fret, aware that they are all in danger but with no way of knowing just how much. The house is under guard, supposedly for their protection, but it is a Catholic guard under a Catholic commander. It is now the Eve of St Bartholomew's Day.
Steven and Anne have just discovered the Doctor's walking stick in Preslin's shop when the Doctor himself walks in alive and well after all. True to form, he blames Steven for the whole mix-up, grumbling that he should have stayed at the tavern, but Steven isn't having that, angrily retorting that he did stay at the tavern it was the Doctor who failed to keep their rendezvous and therefore started the whole thing! The Doctor always tries to shuffle blame off onto someone else if he can.
The Doctor does not tell us what he has been doing all this time he certainly doesn't admit to having posed as the Abbot, and this is the primary weakness of this story. The novelisation restores the original script and gives a lot of detail about the Doctor's machinations, but here in the teleplay, adapted to accommodate Hartnell's holiday, there is none of that. We are left to presume, as Steven does, that the Abbot was the Abbot all along after all, that he simply looked like the Doctor, and we aren't told where the Doctor has been or why he failed to meet Steven as arranged. So as it stands, we are left believing he simply abandoned his friend on a whim. He simply says that he was unavoidably delayed and blithely announces that they must leave at once. When Anne mentions that tomorrow is St Bartholomew's Day, a celebration, Steven doesn't see that there's anything to celebrate with all this trouble and the Doctor chides him for getting involved. Steven angrily defends himself, and when he mentions de Coligny's name the Doctor becomes alarmed and asks Anne what year it is 1572. Only now, after all these days in Paris, does the Doctor realise the significance of the date and his anxiety to leave immediately increases. He orders Anne to go home, to her aunt's house, instructing her to avoid the guards as best she can and stay indoors all day tomorrow, with the doors and windows barred. She is terrified at the thought of going anywhere she might be recognised, but the Doctor knows it won't be safe for her to remain in the apothecary's shop. He does not offer to take her with them. Steven tries to argue, worried for Anne's safety, but the Doctor hustles him away to the TARDIS, insisting that they must leave Paris tonight. Steven doesn't understand he can't understand, he doesn't know the history of this time, doesn't know what is about to happen.
At Tavannes' place, the queen mother brings an order signed by the king, announcing that their plans for tomorrow can go ahead. She has got her way. Tavannes offers her a list of, all the enemies they wish to see dead, but she waves it away there is no need of lists. Every Huguenot will be a target, not merely a chosen few. Only Henri of Navarre will be spared, for fear of sparking an international incident. Even Tavannes is disturbed by this bloodlust.
The Doctor and Steven make it back to the TARDIS just as soldiers arrive to besiege de Coligny's house the start of a bloody slaughter. Only once the TARDIS is underway does the Doctor tell Steven about the massacre they have left behind them, a massacre in which thousands will die, and he is horrified he made friends in Paris, tried to save lives, and now this. He argues that surely there was something they could have done, but the Doctor insists that they cannot interfere with the course of history, however senseless the waste of life. Struggling to take it in, Steven asks after the friends he made the admiral, Nicholas, Anne. While the Doctor is seeing the bigger picture, lamenting it but sticking rigidly to the Time Lord code of non-interference, Steven is seeing individuals and explodes, raging that even if they couldn't prevent the massacre, they could at least have brought Anne with then, saved that one life. He doesn't mention Katarina, who they saved from the slaughter in Troy, but it has to be on his mind if Katarina could be spared, why not Anne? The Doctor tries to offer hope that Anne may have survived, but Steven isn't buying it and holds the Doctor fully responsible for her death. This is breaking point for Steven, after everything he's been through leaving Vicki behind in Troy, losing Katarina and Bret and Sara to their battle against the Daleks he just can't take any more. He angrily announces that wherever the TARDIS lands next, that's where he gets off, because if the Doctor's researches have so little regard for human life then he wants no part in it.
The Doctor does not defend himself. It's been quite some time since he was presented as quite this aloof, standoff-ish and alien, and not since Barbara played at being a goddess in The Aztecs has he fallen out so badly with a companion over whether or not it is right or possible to interfere in the course of history. Unlike Barbara, who was familiar with Aztec history and wanted to change it deliberately, Steven has been completely rudderless throughout this story, buffeted about by a sequence of events he couldn't understand; Barbara made a rational if wrong-headed choice that brought her into conflict with the Doctor, but Steven is ruled here by his heart, wanting to save individuals rather than change the course of history, and it is hard not to take his side in the debate. The Doctor was absent from the action for almost the entire adventure, his actions and motivations remaining obscure, whereas we have been with Steven throughout, following his fears and doubts and struggles as he sought to find the right thing to do at every turn. All he wanted was to save the lives of the people he'd befriended, but even that was denied him coming in the wake of the losses experienced during the recent epic struggles against the Daleks, it is easy to understand why he can't take any more, although it is hard to see him set against the Doctor, after remaining so doggedly loyal for so long.
Sometime later, the TARDIS lands. Steven checks the readings and then prepares to leave apparently with nothing more than the clothes he stands up in. The Doctor tries now to talk him around, advising him not to judge history too severely before understanding its overall picture. It's a lovely little speech, but Steven is feeling too raw and wounded to listen. He walks out, and only then does the Doctor's proud façade crumble, with a lovely little soliloquy that offers us some much-needed insight into his point of view, a great performance from Hartnell as the Doctor tells himself that he was right, that he dare not change the course of history, but laments that none of his companions have ever understood the importance of this position, not even Susan. It is fantastic to hear all the major companions name-checked in this monologue Susan, Ian, Barbara, Vicki. Left alone for the first time in the show's history, the Doctor admits to himself that he longs to return home but he can't. Damn, I wish we could see this scene, the audio is so touching.
I really love that this story takes so much time to deal with the emotional fallout of the events of the adventure, devoting almost a third of an episode to the aftermath, which is the impact and consequences of these experiences for the characters and their relationship. This serial marks a clear break in the show's history the early seasons have been wonderfully focused on character progression and continuity, and this is the culmination of that; things will be a little more light-weight from now on, though.
Outside the TARDIS, a young girl sprints across Wimbledon Common it turns out that the Doctor has managed to land in London 1966; Ian and Barbara would never believe it! Believing the TARDIS to be a real police box, the girl dashes inside, demanding to know where the telephone is. This is Dodo, speaking with a broad northern accent, and she does not seem all that surprised to see the spacious interior of such a small box. The Doctor, startled out of his melancholy, tells her to run along, but she says that there has been an accident, a little boy has been hurt and she wants to call the police. The Doctor tells her she should call an ambulance, in fact, and tries to get her to move on, and only now does she wonder what the TARDIS is, if not a police box. Too tired and defeated to argue, the Doctor pretty much gives up and just tells her the truth: that the TARDIS is a space-time machine! Understandably, she doesn't have a clue what he is on about, so he dons his best grandfather voice to tell her again to run along. But just then Steven rushes back into the TARDIS shouting for the Doctor to take off because there are two policemen coming toward the TARDIS, thinking like Dodo that it is a real police box. Alarmed, the Doctor quickly closes the doors and takes off with Dodo still on board.
Steven then notices Dodo and becomes alarmed to realise that they have brought her with them, wondering if she even understands what just happened that they are travelling through time and space and could end up anywhere. Dodo is a down-to-earth, cheerful young girl who really doesn't seem to understand what just happened to her, but isn't terribly concerned about it anyway. Steven turns to the Doctor in dismay, wondering what he thinks he is doing, taking this young girl from her home, but the Doctor defends that he had to, with the police on their way. I think this scene, and Dodo's arrival, were intended to echo the origins of the show, when the Doctor similarly took off in a panic with Ian and Barbara on board, but it fails to sell the set-up nearly as well, not least because Dodo's reactions aren't entirely believable, while the Doctor's sudden take-off comes across less as panic and more as a random whim perhaps even a reaction to Steven's accusations about Anne. Steven seems to be the only one who cares that Dodo has just been abducted from her home and may never be able to return, but Dodo just says, quite cheerfully, that she doesn't really care if she never goes home again, explaining that her parents are dead so she lives with a great-aunt who won't care if she disappears. That's good enough for the Doctor, who admits that Dodo reminds him of his granddaughter Susan, forgetting that Steven never met Susan. Bless, he comes across as so old and lonely in this moment, seeing Susan in Dodo because he wants to see the resemblance a moment that reinforces how important his companions are to him as substitutes for the family he has lost.
Me, I just hope someone else managed to find help for the injured little boy!
Dodo introduces herself as Dorothea Chaplet, much to Steven's amazement and delight. There is no proof that Dodo is descended from or otherwise related to poor Anne, but Steven latches onto the possibility nonetheless, needing to believe that Anne might have survived somehow, and the Doctor, pleased to have him back, is content to let him hope.
Quotable Quotes
DOCTOR: You'd be surprised what I've got in my wardrobe.
DUVALL: A tavern is a place where a gentleman may refresh himself, while simpler people amuse him with their badinage.
STEVEN: The girl was clearly frightened out of her wits. We should find her.
GASTON: Nonsense. She's probably gone back to her own people.
STEVEN: But don't you want to know why she was frightened?
GASTON: No.
MUSS: Many things frighten people in Paris these days.
DE COLIGNY: You are an extraordinary man, Tavannes. You see shadows where there is no sun.
STEVEN: Listen to me!
GASTON: I'd rather listen to a pack of screaming devils!
ANNE: You were kind to me. You're the first one that ever was. Please, don't send me back there.
STEVEN: I can't take you with me. I've nowhere to go myself.
CHARLES: So, Elizabeth of England has agreed to help us?
TAVANNES: Does anyone here trust her? She breaks more promises than she keeps.
DOCTOR: Oh, my dear boy, had you stayed at the tavern all this mix-up could have been avoided.
STEVEN: I did stay at the tavern, you didn't turn up!
DOCTOR: Yes, well, I was unavoidably delayed.
TAVANNES: Thank God.
CATHERINE: God had very little to do with it. What is this?
TAVANNES: The list, Madame. When those Huguenots are killed we need have no further fear of a Protestant France.
CATHERINE: We have no need of lists, Marshall. The good people of Paris know their enemies. They will take care of them.
TAVANNES: The good people? Madame, if you rouse the mob the innocent will perish with the guilty.
CATHERINE: Innocent? Heresy can have no innocents. France will breathe of pure air after tomorrow.
TAVANNES: We are to unleash the wolves of Paris. None are to be spared.
TAVANNES: At dawn tomorrow this city will weep tears of blood.
STEVEN: Surely there was something we could have done?
DOCTOR: No, nothing. Nothing. In any case, I cannot change the course of history, you know that. The massacre continued for several days in Paris and then spread itself to other parts of France. Oh, what a senseless waste. What a terrible page of the past.
STEVEN: Did they all die?
DOCTOR: Yes, most of them. About ten thousand in Paris alone.
STEVEN: The Admiral?
DOCTOR: Yes.
STEVEN: Nicholas? You had to leave Anne Chaplet there to die.
DOCTOR: Anne Chaplet?
STEVEN: The girl! The girl who was with me! If you'd brought her with us she needn't have died. But no, you had to leave her there to be slaughtered.
DOCTOR: Well, it is possible of course she didn't die, and I was right to leave her.
STEVEN: Possible? Look, how possible? That girl was already hunted by the Catholic guards. If they killed ten thousand how did they spare her? You don't know, do you? You can't say for certain that you weren't responsible for that girl's death.
DOCTOR: I was not responsible.
STEVEN: Oh, no. You just sent her back to her aunt's house where the guards were waiting to catch her. I tell you this much, Doctor, wherever this machine of yours lands next I'm getting off. If your researches have so little regard for human life then I want no part of it.
DOCTOR: My dear Steven, history sometimes gives us a terrible shock, and that is because we don't quite fully understand. Why should we? After all, we're all too small to realise its final pattern. Therefore don't try and judge it from where you stand. I was right to do as I did. Yes. That I firmly believe.
DOCTOR: Even after all this time he cannot understand. I dare not change the course of history. [ ] Now they're all gone. All gone. None of them could understand. Not even my little Susan, or Vicki. And as for Barbara and Chatterton Chesterton they were all too impatient to get back to their own time. And now Steven. Perhaps I should go home, back to my own planet. But I can't. I can't.
DOCTOR: Well, my dear, I'm a doctor of science, and this machine is for travelling through time and relative dimensions in space.
The Verdict
Overall and taken as a whole, The Massacre is an interesting one. It is an excellent character story for Steven, who really does carry the whole thing and is allowed a powerful emotional reaction to his experiences, bringing his often thorny relationship with the Doctor to a natural head. Peter Purves does a splendid job even just with the audio, I'm right there with him, feeling Steven's fear and doubt and anxiety and anger and grief.
On the other hand, the last minute re-write to remove the Doctor's sub-plot did no favours to the story, which is significantly structurally weakened by it, and I can see that this kind of dry, weighty costume drama lacking the sparkle and polish of many previous historicals probably wouldn't have gone down well with the children watching. It's an elegant story, extremely informative about a page in history that isn't well known, but there isn't much action and we spend a lot of time with characters we don't know. It's also extremely male-heavy, in what has sadly become a continuing trend since Barbara left the show.
Still, I really enjoyed this serial anyway, character-centric as it is.