The Highlanders (TV story)

The Highlanders
Doctor:	[[doctor::Second Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Ben Jackson Polly Jamie McCrimmon (Introduction)
Main enemy:	Solicitor Grey
Main setting:	Scotland, 1746 (April)
Key crew
Writers:	Elwyn Jones and Gerry Davis
Director:	Hugh David
Producer:	Innes Lloyd
Release details
Story number:	31
Release number:	Season 4
Premiere broadcast:	17th December 1966 - 7th January 1967
Format:	4 25-minute Episodes
Production code:	FF

The Highlanders was the fourth story of Season 4 of Doctor Who. The story was the last of the 'pure historical' genre of Doctor Who television stories which had been a regular feature of the show since its inception. It also marked the first appearance of Frazer Hines as companion Jamie McCrimmon.

Synopsis

The time travellers arrive in Scotland in the aftermath of the battle of Culloden. The Doctor gains the trust of a small band of fleeing Highlanders by offering to tend their wounded Laird, Colin McLaren; but while Polly and the Laird's daughter, Kirsty, are away fetching water, he and the others are all captured by Redcoat troops under the command of Lieutenant Algernon ffinch.

Grey, a crooked solicitor who sells prisoners for transportation to slavery in the West Indies, then secures the group into his custody. Polly and Kirsty blackmail ffinch into helping, and the Doctor eventually wins the day by smuggling arms to the Highlanders, who are being held on board a stolen ship, the Annabelle.

Grey and the ship's unscrupulous captain, Trask, are overpowered and the vessel returned to its rightful owner, MacKay, who agrees to take the Scots to safety in France.

The Doctor, Polly and Ben return to the TARDIS, where they are joined on their travels by the young piper Jamie McCrimmon.

Plot

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
• Ben Jackson - Michael Craze
• Polly - Anneke Wills
• Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines
• Alexander McLaren - William Dysart
• The Laird - Donald Bisset
• Kirsty McLaren - Hannah Gordon
• Lieutenant Algernon Ffinch - Michael Elwyn
• Sergeant - Peter Welch
• Solicitor Grey - David Garth
• Perkins - Sydney Arnold
• Sentry - Tom Bowman
• Trask - Dallas Cavell
• Mollie - Barbara Bruce
• Willie Mackay - Andrew Downie
• Sailor - Peter Diamond
• Colonel Attwood - Guy Middleton

Crew

• Assistant Floor Manager - Nicholas John
• Costumes - Sandra Reid
• Designer - Geoffrey Kirkland
• Fight Arranger - Peter Diamond
• Make-Up - Gillian James
• Producer - Innes Lloyd
• Production Assistant - Fiona Cumming
• Script Editor - Gerry Davis
• Special Sounds - Brian Hodgson
• Studio Lighting - George Summers, Ken McGregor
• Studio Sound - Larry Goodson
• Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
• Title Music - Ron Grainer

References

to be added

Story Notes

• This story had the working title of; Culloden.

Ratings

• Episode 1 - 6.7 million viewers
• Episode 2 - 6.8 million viewers
• Episode 3 - 7.4 million viewers
• Episode 4 - 7.3 million viewers

Myths

to be added

Filming Locations

• Frensham Ponds, Frensham, Surrey
• Ealing Television Film Studios
• Riverside Studio 1, Hammersmith, London

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

to be added

Continuity

to be added

DVD, Video and Other Releases

Audio release

• Released by the BBC Radio Collection in August 2000, narrated by Frazer Hines.
• Re-released as part of the the Adventures in History box set released in August 2003 (with same content).

Novelisation

Main article: The Highlanders (novelisation)

• Novelised as The Highlanders by Gerry Davis in 1984.

See also

to be added

External Links

• Official BBC Episode Guide for The Highlanders
• Official BBC The Highlanders photonovel
• Outpost Gallifrey Episode Guide: The Highlanders
• Doctor Who Reference Guide: Detailed Synopsis - The Highlanders
• A Brief History of Time (Travel) entry for The Highlanders
• The Highlanders transcripts
• The Locations Guide to Doctor Who - The Highlanders