Customer Reviews

Doctor Who - the Highlanders

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'The Highlanders' is a novelisation of a Doctor Who series set at an important point in the show's history. Doctor Who was in the process of reinventing itself: a new Doctor was in place and this story saw two further significant changes. It is the last of the truly historical stories, and it introduces Jamie, one of the Doctor's most popular travelling companions.

Set just after the Battle of Culloden in 1746, the Doctor, Ben and Polly emerge from the TARDIS and encounter a small group of highlanders escaping from their defeat at Culloden. The obviously English accents of the TARDIS crew result in conflict, which escalates when English soldiers arrive.

This story is one of trust and betrayal. The TARDIS crew are all fairly well-served by this story, but some of the Doctor's antics (adopting numerous disguises) seem quite light compared to the story's serious tone.

Gerry Davis was the script editor at the time this show was made, and produces a straightforward adaptation. Like many such, we don't get into the character's heads too much.

As a (more or less) straight historical, casual science fiction readers should probably leave whatever copies of this book can be found to Doctor Who enthusiasts.

The original tapes of this story have been destroyed, but the soundtrack has recently been released by BBC. It is available at Amazon's United Kingdom site.

The Highlanders was last historical Doctor Who story. It introduced Troughton's main companion for his tenure as the Doctor-Jamie McCrimmon. And it is one of the serials destroyed by the BBC. The novel is readable and Ben and Polly--particularly Polly come off well. She wasn't a very nice person-was she? And this book really brings it out. The story is fun and one can imagine Troughton having an absolute field day with this one-part bluffer, part clown, part clever plotter and adventurer. The problem, like with all of the Target books, is it really should have opened up a bit. It is 1746, the battle of Colloden has just been fought and Scotland is in turmoil. The reader should be introduced to the history and customs of the period along with having a riveting adventure. John Lucarroti did so with THE MASSACRE and it should have been done here as well. The thrill is there. The fun is there. But with just a little bit a finese--ah well. Incidentally, has anyone noticed how many of The Doctor's adventures, once he hooked up with the sailor Ben, were sea related? Interesting and fun, since it puts a companion on more familiar territory than the Doctor. Ben is a good character and, in both this adventure and the next THE UNDERWATER MENACE, he and the Doctor work quite well as a team. The book's only other problem and it is a significant one, is it's haphazard use of Jamie. Why does he really go with the Doctor back to his Tardis? And why would an eighteenth century Scotsman willingly enter a time and space machine that looks like a blue police box? A novel could have done something with this but no we can't have any imagination on the writer's part. Still, a decent read.