Two Episodes
Aired between 19th January 1984 and 20th January 1984
Written by Eric Pringle
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Michael Owen-Morris
Synopsis
Tegan wants the Doctor to take her to the sleepy town of Little Hodcombe where her Grandfather lives - she simply wants to visit him.
As it turns out, Little Hodcombe has a tradition of re-enacting a bloody Civil War battle that occurred there in 1643. The village regulars split into opposing sides and fight the war game over a weekend and close the village so nobody from the outside gets accidentally hurt.
There's only one person in the village, Mrs Jane Hampden, a local schoolteacher that thinks things have gone too far... well, her and Tegan's Grandfather who has mysteriously gone missing. Jane is captured by Magistrate and temporary leader of the Roundheads George Hutchinson, and forced to remain their prisoner until the wargames are concluded.
The TARDIS arrives in the right time, but because of all the re-enacting, Tegan believes they're in the wrong time. They see a mysterious figure in 17th century clothing as they emerge from an old church where they landed, but the figure goes out of sight and disappears. They're eventually caught by the Roundheads and taken to see Col Wolsey - Hutchinson's 2nd in command.
Hutchinson and Wolsey explain the situation and Tegan gets upset when she finds out her Grandfather is missing, running away to be on her own.
She gets her purse snatched by the mysterious man who rushes into a barn. When she follows him, she finds the ghost of an old man.
The rest are captured but soon escape. The Doctor goes to investigate the place and finds a young man by the name of Will who believes he's a psychic projection from the 1600's.
They go to the church and see a priest hole and begin to follow it.
Turlough goes to find Tegan and rescues her from the ghost but they're soon re-captured. Tegan is made to wear an outfit and is told she'll become the "Queen of the May".
The Doctor meanwhile finds that the priest hole leads from the church where a symbol of a creature known as the Malus resides, and leads down towards a secret entrance in Col. Wolsey's house. In the tunnels he meets Jane who found a way down from the house and together, they evade the Roundheads looking for them. They also find a small piece of metal that the Doctor identifies as Tinclavic - a material mined by the Terilleptils on the planet Raaga (see The Visitation for more). This metal is mainly used by the people of Hakol who have harnessed psychic energy. This all leads the Doctor to believe that the metal is connected to the legend of the Malus.
They go back to the church and are confronted by the evil entity as a giant stone face of the Malus appears from behind an old wall.
It summons a psychic projection of a Cavalier Solider, but the group escape and run off.
This encounter makes the Doctor think that the Malus is controlling Hutchinson to re-create the chaos of the Civil War - the period in time when it first landed on Earth and is trying to harness the psychic energy of the horrified people being slaughtered to regain its strength.
The Doctor and Jane go to Hutchinson and try to convince him to stop, telling him that the staged final battle will actually be real, but he doesn't listen and actually orders Wolsey to kill them. He leaves the room and the act to Wolsey, but he believes the Doctor and switches sides. Together, they rescue Tegan and put the May Queen clothes on a straw dummy. Wolsey takes the dummy and parades it through the streets before it's supposed to get burned at the stake - buying the rest time to escape.
When Hutchinson figures out what's going on, he orders Wolsey shot, but Will turns up with a flaming torch and provides enough of a distraction so that Wolsey can get away and they all reach the TARDIS.
Turlough meanwhile has been imprisoned with Tegan's Grandfather. They too escape and make it back to the TARDIS in time to find out that the Doctor has found a way to use the TARDIS to cut off the Malus' psychic feed.
They are attacked by ghosts in the church, but Hutchinson's men enter at the wrong time and one of them ends up getting decapitated.
Hutchinson himself turns up as the Malus desperately controls him and tries to stop the Doctor and his companions.
Will throws himself at Hutchinson and they have a fight, resulting in Hutchinson being thrown into the mouth of the Malus as it dies.
The church begins to blow up and the Doctor gets them all to safety in the TARDIS.
It turns out when the Malus is dead that Will is still with them. He was brought through in a time rift unlike the psychic projections of the rest. The Doctor promises to take him home, but at the request of Tegan, not until they've spent a few days as guests of her Grandfather, which was after all, the entire point of going to Little Hodcombe.
Trivia
- There was many a laugh in the outtakes as the horse and cart the Doctor and co. escape on ended up going through a prop of a gatehouse and demolishing it
- The reason why Will is not a psychic projection in this story is because there was a discussion about him becoming a companion (much like Jamie in The Highlanders). Ultimately, Eric Saward and John Nathan-Turner dismissed it as they thought the character would become tedious as he went to more mundane locations but would be forced to ask far too many questions
- There is a deleted scene from this story that shows Kamelion connecting to the TARDIS data banks. Tegan confronts him but he acts smarmy, like Turlough did. It was cut because the episode overran.
The Review
This is a story to be enjoyed for the feeling it provides, as opposed to the actions is displays. Like the Daemons, this is a story about an ancient, malevolent force that's been trapped in a sleepy little village. It strikes the vein of the Wicker Man and folk tales of things buried in hills.
There's a nice touch at the start where you assume it's the 1600's, but it's actually the 1980's and the sets are on the whole quite well done.
The biggest problem it has is that it's a two part episode, so everything feels rushed. The purse snatching ghost and the old man are just there- there's no real reason. There's not much character development or reasoning behind a lot of it. I guess you're just expected to take everything as said, don't question anything and just enjoy.
And that's the problem. The Malus looks amazing, but let's face it. It's inept. It summons the odd ghost but the Doctor kills it very easily. It controls Hutchinson, but he's never pro-active enough to kill anyone. Some of his men fight on his side, but as soon as the Malus is defeated, everyone's ready to say "oh don't worry that you tried to burn Tegan at the stake, I'm sure you didn't mean to".
In summary, this is a very atmospheric story with great props, but a bit lackluster in execution.
Rating
6 out of 10
Re-Watchability Factor
7 out of 10
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