Who in Review: The Massacre Of St. Bartholomew's Eve

As my Doctor Who Real Time Marathon posts are rapidly catching up with my viewing 40 years on from transmission, I've been thinking about what I can do to expand my Blogs beyond my original remit. I'm not just a Doctor Who fan (in fact it's actually only my second favourite Sci Fi series) so there's the possibility of starting posts about the likes of Farscape, The X-Files, Defiance, Babylon 5, Star Trek, etc.

However, I want to stick to Doctor Who for the time being so I thought I'd take the opportunity to share my thoughts on my favourite stories for each Doctor so far. I know that there's a lot of this out there - for example, Brendan Jones produces videos on YouTube which appraise episodes, stories and seasons brilliantly - but I've always found my thoughts on various stories tend to be at odds with the majority of fandom, and whilst my DWRTM blog is a journal of my thoughts on individual episodes in order directly after watching them, they're somewhat limited, and put to paper directly after watching an episode so don't feature a great deal of analysis or depth beyond my immediate reaction to what I've just seen. And whilst this has had an affect on how I view a lot of the stories, they don't necessarily represent what I feel overall about a story, nor how much I like or dislike them when viewed outside my Marathon. For example, Robot is by far the worst story I've watched so far (up to the point I'm at publishing my Blog - Spoilers) but I don't hate the story as much as I did when viewed in 2014/15 and certainly didn't hate it as much before that point. It's not a story I'd put on very often, but it's a fun little runaround and inoffensive enough.

Needless-to-say, I'm not going to start with Robot. A few years ago I wrote articles for a fan page which no longer exists, so I thought this would be a good place to start. Some of the articles reviewed my favourite stories, so I figured it's time to drag them out of the cupboard and give them a dusting down and maybe some minor editing. I'm starting with the Original Doctor, obviously, who also happens to be my favourite, and my favourite story from his era which for me is...

The Massacre Of St. Bartholomew's Eve

Firstly, Season 3 is my favourite full series of Doctor Who. It's one of the most chaotic, with so much going on behind the scenes which has an impact on what was shown; it has a ridiculous number of Companions travel with the Doctor - 6 in one season (7 if you count Sara Kingdom!) and an incredible range of stories. The first half of the season is incredibly dark but mixed with some very sophisticated comedy, while the second half becomes more family-friendly with a much lighter atmosphere (this is due to the show changing Production teams very rapidly after Verity Lambert's departure - John Wiles and Donald Tosh's famously short run as Producer and Script Editor respectively giving way to Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis' very different take on the show).

Following Galaxy 4, Verity's last Production credit on Mission To The Unknown saw an upward swing in the drama which would continue to great effect under Wiles and Tosh. The Myth Makers' Trojan escapades conclude with a shockingly dark siege which leads directly into the epic Daleks' Master Plan. This leviathan of a story lasted longer than one current series of the show, to put it into perspective, and featured the very first Christmas Special halfway through. It was also the first to kill off a companion (or companions, if you count Sara Kingdom) and as the Doctor and Steven leave the Time-ravaged wastes of Kembel we reach the peak of Season 3 - The Massacre Of St. Bartholomew's Eve.

After the events of the previous week, with the conclusion of such an epic story, we start off War Of God with a rather simple idea of the Doctor and Steven arriving in 16th Century Paris where, the Doctor realises, lives a 'strange brotherhood of apothecaries' whose number include (the entirely fictitious) Charles Preslin, a man who he'd very much like to meet. We already know the Doctor is a fan of historical France, so to take him there and have a light-hearted romp after the darkness of the last few months seems a perfect remedy. But what's so wonderful about The Massacre... is that this is exactly what it doesn't do!

The first episode sets up the Doctor's plan - Steven sitting it out in a pub and the meeting with Preslin - but in the background the script is sewing the seeds of the real plot; the St Bartholomew's Day massacre, an historical event that even the most bookish schoolboy or girl would likely be largely unaware of at the time (and even less likely today). In the tavern in which the Doctor leaves Steven are a group of Hugenots (French Protestants) discussing the religious unrest of the time and subtly informing us of what's to come. It's a tavern visited by both the aide of the Abbot of Amboise (a zealous Catholic) and terrified servant Anne Chaplet. By the end of the episode, the Hugenots have learnt of a plot to repeat the massacre of Wassy a decade earlier (overheard by Anne) and the audience has seen that the Abbot looks exactly like the Doctor... or is he actually the Doctor in disguise?

That latter conundrum is one of the story's highlights. On the Doctor's previous visit to France (transmitted less than 18 months earlier) the Doctor had indeed disguised himself as a government official in order to access places he'd otherwise be denied. Whatever he discusses with Preslin, the audience isn't party to, likewise where the Doctor has gone by the end of the first episode (only that a boy led him there safely on Preslin's instructions). You're therefore unsure as to whether this is the Doctor or a doppelgänger (unless you're already familiar with the plot). The audience in 1966 would certainly have been unsure for at the very least the first three weeks. It also shows how good an actor Hartnell actually was, the Abbot being remarkably different than the characterisation of the Doctor.

Another remarkable aspect of The Massacre... is that it is very much Steven's story. He takes centre stage, investigating, acting and reacting to the situation he finds himself in. Completely in the dark regarding the history of the time, he is the perfect character by which the audience learns about the historical events - as he learns about them, so do we. This fulfils the educational side of the programme's original remit so much better than almost every other historical story - everyone knows about the fall of the Aztec civilisation, the burning of Rome, the fall of Troy (at least to some extent) but this is taking an obscure piece of History and being informative whilst entertaining. With the others, we know the outcome; with The Massacre... we don't. Not only this, but the way in which Steven learns about what's going on is also believable. Left in a tavern frequented by Hugenots, once the Doctor has departed it's entirely understandable that he befriends those there, witnesses the surreptitious actions of those spying on the Hugenots and is implicated himself. It's also entirely fitting that, upon overhearing talk of a repeat of Wassy, Anne, the daughter of a Hugenot slaughtered there a decade earlier, should flee and seek sanctuary in a public place where she would find other Hugenots. And it both fits and develops Steven's character when he insists his new friends take care of her.

Another interesting aspect of this story is the fact that each episode covers a day leading up to the massacre. The Doctor and Steven arrive on August 20th 1572 and leave as the massacre begins at dawn on the 24th. Each episode ends at night and starts again the following morning. It's an interesting format which adds to the feeling that something is being counted down to.

Perhaps the most striking thing about The Massacre Of St. Bartholomew's Eve is its conclusion. The coldness of Catherine de Medici as she discusses the slaughter of thousands of Hugenots at the mercy of a Catholic mob is shocking enough, but also implies that Anne, who the Doctor has sent back to her Aunt's saying she'll be safe there, will be anything but: 

Marshall Tavannes: "Madame, if you rouse the mob the innocent will perish with the guilty."

Catherine de Medici: "Innocent? Heresy can have no innocents. France will breathe a purer air after tomorrow... (and having ensured Prince Henri of Navarre, a royal Protestant, escapes the slaughter) ...If one Hugenot life escapes me tomorrow, we may both regret this act of mercy".

It's entirely appropriate, then, that Steven vents his horror and anger in the following TARDIS scene upon learning that his new friends were all slaughtered, and that Anne (who the Doctor barely recalls) was probably amongst them. His departure from the TARDIS is one of the show's most beautifully written and emotionally charged. The Doctor's subsequent eulogy is even more heart-rending as he remembers his previous companions, left alone for the first time in the series, and contemplates returning to his own planet only to conclude that he can't. It's arguably the greatest scene in the show up to that point, perhaps even since, and you wonder what the audience at the time made of what they were watching. It all feels like the end of an era (which, behind the scenes, it technically was), a season finale but on an unprecedented low.

Until Dodo arrives. The introduction of the young lass from Yorkshire (at least, for now) lightens the mood, gives a reason for Steven's return (warning the Doctor of two Policemen approaching the TARDIS, doubtless for the same reason Dodo ran in) and allows the Doctor to mollify Steven's anger over leaving Anne by suggesting that Dodo is her descendant. It has more a feel of the episodes to come, but is a welcome respite from the doom-laden episodes of the previous months and allows the story at least a suggested happy ending. I, personally, don't for a minute believe Dorothea Chaplet was descended from Anne, but given that the TARDIS has stated herself that she always takes the Doctor to where he's most needed, it's possible she followed Anne's timeline to Wimbledon Common in 1966 so that her (surprisingly open-minded) great-great-great-whatever-granddaughter could wander in.

At the start, I stated that Season 3 is my favourite series of Doctor Who. The Massacre Of St. Bartholomew's Eve, for the reasons above and more, is the highlight of that season and is, without a doubt, my favourite story in the show's long history. Should the videotapes ever be recovered, I doubt that will change. Despite being rewritten by Donald Tosh from John Lucarotti's original scripts (or possible because of this) it's the programme's finest example of an Historical adventure; dramatic, interesting, informative and emotionally charged, brilliantly acted and, judging from the few remaining photographs, exhibiting some gorgeous production values.