Remember “The Smugglers” a couple of
stories ago? How it was serviceable, but ultimately unremarkable? Welcome to
its thematic cousin, “The Highlanders.” Patrick Troughton’s second story would
end up becoming the last purely historical story (all together now!) until
“Black Orchid” with Peter Davison. If the historical stories were to have
continued down the path set out by “The Smugglers” and now “The Highlanders”
then it’s probably a good idea they were stopped. “The Highlanders” also isn’t
a bad story, but it feels like it’s all been done before.
Let’s start with the elephant in the
room – yes this is Frazer Hines’ first story as Jamie McCrimmon. There are some
good moments for Jamie, but nothing throughout the story would have made me
think “Ah, this is the newest companion!” I know they weren’t sure about adding
him and two versions of the end were shot, one with Jamie leaving and one with
him staying. I’m glad he stayed on as
Jamie does become one of my favorite companions later on, but his first story
doesn’t give him the introduction he deserves.
Patrick Troughton is still finding his
footing as the Doctor. Much has been said of the Doctor’s affinity for
disguises in this story, and personally, I’m glad that particular
characterization wasn’t continued. It’s fine once in a while, but the Doctor
here has at least three distinct disguises that he uses for long stretches of
time. His “Doctor von Wer” hangs around for far too long. Troughton also seems
to really enjoy the more unpleasant aspects he can hide behind while in
disguise. Doctor von Wer has moments of violence and temper that just made me
uncomfortable.
There are no surviving episodes of “The
Highlanders” which may also have been part of my difficulty with the story. It
doesn’t necessarily work well as a recon – swordfights don’t translate well to
audio only. There are some scenes which appear to have been either cut for some
reason, or unfilmed from the beginning. The Doctor at one point brings a cache
of weapons to help the rebels, but it’s never shown where or how he got them. I
may have missed it, but I don’t think I did. It’s just a very obvious gap in
the storytelling.
I’ve had a hard time writing this
entry. I watched the story and started writing it up a couple of weeks ago, but
nothing about it excited me. The plot was routine, and the characterizations
inconsistent. I know that Troughton was still figuring out how to play the
Doctor, but I didn’t really care for his experiments in this story. Even Polly,
who I tend to like, called Kirsty a “stupid peasant”. I mean, really. I still
feel it’s not a bad story, but one that is not served well by only being
available in audio. There are going to be a lot of recons during the Troughton
era, and I know already that some of them are quite good. I don’t think “The
Highlanders” translates well, and I feel that part of the problem is with the
story itself. Purely historical stories are being put to rest after this one,
and it isn’t hard to see why. I’ll forgive a LOT in a Doctor Who story, but
this one doesn’t even seem to try, and that’s where, in the end, it lets me
down.
"The Highlanders" novelization cover, courtesy The TARDIS Data Core at tardis.wikia.com
No comments:
Post a Comment