Here we are at the last Historical. (Alright, “Black
Orchid” has a Historical setting without Science Fiction elements, so if you
want to call it a Historical, then feel free. It isn’t linked to either a
specific real figure, or a specific real life Historical event – but then you
could say the same about “The Smugglers” as well. But for all intents and
purposes, The Highlanders does represent the end of an era)
Bearing in mind what we saw with “The
Smugglers” and the post-Culloden setting, I expect this will also draw on
fictional sources, in this case things like ‘Kidnapped’ and ‘Rob Roy . It’s a 4
parter, so at least there should be a minimum of padding. I’ll be interested to
see just how much Fraser Hines’ Jamie McCrimmon features. He’s going to go on
to do a mammoth stint of no fewer than 21 stories, including this one and
1985’s “The Two Doctors”, and not including a brief cameo in “The Five Doctors”,
where he is, after all, only a phantom.
No episodes are known to exist of this story,
and to be honest the first two seasons of Patrick Troughton are going to be
very much a case of death by recon, since of 75 episodes, 45 are missing.
Compare this with Hartnell’s first two seasons, where only 11 episodes are
missing, 7 of which all belong to the lost classic “Marco Polo”. All in all
just over 30 Hartnell episodes are missing, compared with a total of 28 missing
from Troughton’s first season alone.
Oh, one more thing. I have to say that I do
hope that we’re not going into shortbread tin Scotland territory with this. I’m
not Scottish myself, but I’m certainly of Scottish descent, and still have a
sizeable number of Scottish relatives. In my experience real Scots can get
quite annoyed with this rather stereotypical all bagpipes, kilts and haggis
representation of Scotland. Case in point. My Mastermind final was filmed a few
months after the death of Magnus Magnusson in 2007, and so as a tribute the
final was filmed in Glasgow Caledonian University, which had been very dear to
his heart, and of which University he had been the Rector. The final was due to
be filmed later in the afternoon, so I had arranged to meet my cousin Margaret
from Gourock for lunch, and then she’d be my guest for the final. I met her at
the bus station, and as we were walking along Buchanan St. we saw a chap in
full tartan get up, kilt and all, busking on the bagpipes. Margaret, it’s fair
to say, was scathing – I think her exact words were, “Honestly! Making a
spectacle of himself!” Joking, I replied that she ought to be proud, as he was
presenting the passers by with a chance to enjoy real Scottish heritage. She
sniffed, and replied that there was no way he’d be Scottish if he was doing
something like that. Intrigued, I went up to him and asked. She was right – he
was from Prague! And on that note, let’s go and watch the show.
After
Watching
Having watched “The Highlanders” now I think
I’m not unhappy that the Historicals have come to an end. This one just didn’t
work for me, and I have to say that I wasn’t unhappy that it was only 4 parts
long.
In synopsis then, the TARDIS lands on Culloden
Moor shortly after the battle has wound to its bloody conclusion. The Doctor,
Ben and Polly are captured by Alexander and Jamie – watch out for him – and
taken to a cottage where their wounded laird, Colin Maclaren, and his daughter
Kirsty, played by Hannah Gordon, are in hiding. Hannah Gordon was a well known
actress of the 70s and 80s. I remember her appearing on a Morecambe and Wise
show once . (Ernie – Hallo Miss Gordon, I watch all your shows. Eric – Hallo
Miss Gordon, I drink all your gin.)I wonder how many actors and actresses who
appeared in Doctor Who were also guests on Morecambe and Wise? Answers on a
postcard, please. Back to “The Highlanders”, Alexander is killed when they are
captured by a party of redcoats and the men are taken away to be hanged. Yes,
the obligatory splitting up of the crew happens here as well.
The plot then revolves around the plan of a
corrupt solicitor, Gray, to capture all the Jacobite prisoners, and ship them
off as slaves to the North American colonies. The Doctor, Kirsty and Polly
conspire to arm the rebels on the ship, who then set sail for France, allowing
the Doctor and companions to make their way back to the TARDIS, after another
encounter with slimy Solicitor Gray. Jamie decides to escort them back to the
TARDIS, and since he has missed his ferry to France, the Doctor invites him to
join the crew.
What’s so bad about this Historical, then?
Well, nothing actually bad as such. For me, I think that the problem is that it
comes just a week or so after I watched “The Power of the Daleks” and there
really is no comparison between these two stories. Alright, maybe I shouldn’t
be comparing a Historical with that great story, but even if I just compare it
with the Hartnell Historicals for me it comes up a little short. Let’s look at
just a couple of aspects of comparison.
The story itself. In some of the best
Historicals, those which are not primarily played for laughs like “The
Romans” there is an underlying moral
dimension to the story. In fact, in “The Aztecs” the moral issue of human
sacrifice is foregrounded. Now, “The Highlanders” isn’t primarily played for
laughs. However it is difficult to see a real moral dimension to the story.
Now, I wouldn’t mind if the story was deliberately going out of its way to
present the Jacobites as brave, doomed tragic freedom fighters, giving their
all in a just cause, and I wouldn’t have minded if the story had presented them
as evil traitors to the rightful king. This story does neither. Now, if it was
presenting some overview of the Jacobite conflict and saying – well, that’s
some of what happened, make your own mind up about it, then that’s actually not
a bad way of presenting Historical drama. But it doesn’t do that. I said before
watching it that I hoped that we weren’t going to be presented with the
traditional ‘shortbread tin’ view of Scotland, and to be fair, we haven’t. But
then we haven’t been presented with much of a view of Scotland immediately
after Culloden at all. This story could have been set in another time, and
another place, maybe after another conflict, and minimal changes would have
needed to have been made.
The Hartnell Historical this most closely
resembles for me, is “The Smugglers”. That’s hardly surprising since it
features the same two companions, Ben and Polly, and was made by the same team
of Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis. “The Smugglers”, though, is not pinned to any
specific historical event, which maybe gave more freedom to include the Boys’
Own Adventure serial elements, which worked so much better in that serial. Some
of these elements are there in “The Highlanders”, but it all feels a little
more uneasy. Trask, the commander of the ship in which the Jacobites are to be
shipped to the Colonies is obviously a pirate, but whereas that added colour
and texture to “The Smugglers”, with the understated performances of the rest
of the cast here, Dallas Cavell’s performance, seemingly modelled on Robert
Newton’s Long John Silver, was so far over the top that it just felt out of
place here. David Garth’s Solicitor Gray is appropriately cold and amoral, but
had he been leavened with just a little touch of humour he would have been all
the better and more convincing.
The script for me is the problem. It’s not that
it’s bad, it’s that it is not good. Not in any way good. What lighter moments
there are seem to come from nothing more than Patrick Troughton putting on an
accent as Doktor Von Wer (I’m sure you already know but that’s a sort of German
translation of Doctor Who), or dressing up as an old crone, and as a cockney
redcoat (why do the words Shane Ritchie come into my head as I type that?). The
scenes with Lieutenant Algernon Ffinch in the pub and in the last episode have
at least a tiny bit of charm – what a minx that Polly is, eh! – and it is quite
sweet the way that he comes to the aid of a damsel in distress at the end to
enable the Doctor and companions to escape from Gray. But these are just small
moments of light in amongst a lot of fairly grey scripting and acting.
There’s little concession made to the immediate
post-Culloden setting – there’s no hint of atrocities being carried out by the
remarkably restrained redcoats for example. In fact it only really comes into
play at all in the revelation that Kirsty’s father gave her a ring which Bonnie
Prince Charlie (who incidentally was named after three sheepdogs) gave him, and
only because this is used at one stage to further the plot. There’s a lot of
rather lumpen dialogue between Gray and Trask, Gray and his clerk Perkins, Gray
and anybody else who’ll listen, and this was a bore, I’m afraid. On the other
hand in episode 4, the fight between the newly armed Jacobites and Trask’s men
on the ship seems to go on forever. I’ll be honest, I find that sort of thing
rather tedious even when it’s live action. In a recon it’s awful.
I am willing to accept that the lacklustre
script and story were a consequence of Gerry Davis having to write the scripts
himself, and maybe they were done at fairly short notice. I’ve checked in the
Television Companion, but all it says is that the writer who was commissioned
to script the story, Elwyn Jones, carried out no work on it, which is how
script editor Davis was able to receive a credit for the story along with
Jones. Well, whatever the case, “The Highlanders” introduced Jamie McCrimmon,
and we can forgive it a lot for that at least.
What
Have We Learned?
Jamie
McCrimmon is a piper, but he only has his chanter with him
Polly
is perfectly adept at using her womanly wiles when needs be
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