The Witchfinders (TV story)

The Witchfinders
Doctor:	Thirteenth Doctor
Companion(s):	Graham, Ryan, Yaz
Featuring:	James I
Main enemy:	Morax
Main setting:	Bilehurst Cragg, early 17th century
Key crew
Writer:	Joy Wilkinson
Director:	Sallie Aprahamian
Release details
Story number:	283
Premiere broadcast:	25 November 2018
Premiere network:	BBC One
Format:	1x49 minute episode
Official trailer
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Behind the scenes video
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Doctor Who television stories
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The Witchfinders was the eighth episode of series 11 of Doctor Who.

Synopsis

Team TARDIS lands in early 17th century England in the midst of a witch trial, and despite her own non-interference policy, the Thirteenth Doctor cannot help but try and stop the killings. However, with King James growing suspicious of the Doctor and her ways, it is up to her friends to play Witchfinders and uncover the hidden mysteries behind the trials.

Plot

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Jodie Whittaker
• Graham O'Brien - Bradley Walsh
• Ryan Sinclair - Tosin Cole
• Yasmin Khan - Mandip Gill
• King James - Alan Cumming
• Becka Savage - Siobhan Finneran
• Willa Twiston - Tilly Steele
• Old Mother Twiston - Tricia Kelly
• Smithy - Arthur Kay
• Alfonso - Stavros Demetraki

Uncredited

• Mud Witch - Marina Stoimenova

Crew

to be added

References

• The Doctor tries apple bobbing.
• Yaz briefly wonders if it's Halloween upon seeing the apple bobbing.
• Bilehurst Cragg is located in the shadow of Pendle Hill.
• When King James was a baby, his father was killed. James claims that he was murdered by his mother, who was then imprisoned and beheaded. James was therefore raised by regents. He later reveals that his mother left him when he was under 1 year old, and she was made into a scapegoat.
• After getting knocked out by the Morax Queen, the Doctor says she hasn't had a hangover this strong since the Milk Wars of Keston Five.
• The Doctor compares the wood of the tree on Pendle Hill to Semtex.
• The Doctor quotes Clarke's Law to James.
• The Doctor discovers a copy of Daemonologie amongst the possessions of Becka Savage.

Story notes

• This was the first episode of Doctor Who in which the writer and director were both women, as well as the actor who stars as the Doctor.

Ratings

• 5.66 million (UK overnight)

Filming locations

• Little Woodham - Bilehurst Cragg

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

to be added

Continuity

• The Doctor has met James I before, in her first incarnation. (PROSE: The Plotters)
• The Doctor reminds her friends not to mess with history. (TV: Rosa)
• The Doctor mentions having been a "bloke", (TV: An Unearthly Child et al.) and laments that she used to command more authority. She previously noted that, as a man, she was allowed to go anywhere. (PROSE: The Good Doctor)
• James and Becca blame Satan for local troubles. The Doctor says she doesn't believe in Satan. The Tenth Doctor previously met a beast who called himself Satan, which the Doctor speculated had inspired many cultures' myths about the Devil, or the Horned Beast. (TV: The Satan Pit)
• King James notes to Ryan that people have tried to blow him up. (PROSE: The Plotters, GAME: The Gunpowder Plot)
• Ryan refers to the death of his nan and mum. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, The Tsuranga Conundrum)
• The Tenth Doctor was previously accused of witchcraft by the Sycorax leader after he used excess regeneration energy to regrow his severed hand. (TV: The Christmas Invasion) The Sixth Doctor was called a warlock by the Carrionites after he commanded the use of an incantation found in Reminiscences of the Peculiar. (AUDIO: The Carrionite Curse) The Doctor's granddaughter Susan was also accused of witchcraft — and hunted — during the Salem witch trials in 1692. (PROSE: The Witch Hunters)
• The Doctor uses her respiratory bypass system. (TV: Pyramids of Mars, Four to Doomsday, AUDIO: Return of the Krotons)
• The Doctor mentions having met Harry Houdini. (AUDIO: Smoke and Mirrors, PROSE: Houdini and the Space Cuckoos, The Great Escape, COMIC: Theatre of the Mind)
• The Doctor once again tries calling her friends "gang", "team", and "fam". (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
• The Doctor previously met another alien race that could possess corpses in her ninth incarnation. (TV: The Unquiet Dead)
• The Third Doctor and Jo Grant once discussed Clarke's Law upon the moment the Doctor made it appear Bessie could move on her own, when in reality he had wired the engine with a remote control. (TV: The Dæmons) The Seventh Doctor also once quoted Clarke's Law to Ace. (TV: Battlefield)

Home video releases

DVD releases

to be added

Blu-ray releases

to be added

Digital releases

to be added

External links

• Official The Witchfinders page on the Doctor Who website