Battlefield (TV story)

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Synopsis

The TARDIS materialises in the English countryside near the village of Carbury, where a nuclear missile convoy under the command of UNIT Brigadier Winifred Bambera has run into difficulties. Lying on the bed of the nearby Lake Vortigern is a spaceship from another dimension containing the body of King Arthur, supposedly held in suspended animation, and his sword Excalibur.

Ancelyn, a knight from the other dimension, arrives on Earth to aid the King but is followed by his rival Mordred and the latter's mother, a powerful sorceress named Morgaine. They all recognise the Doctor as Merlin, which the Time Lord attributes to events in his own future.

A battle breaks out between UNIT and Morgaine's men. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart has come out of retirement to assist in the crisis and ends up using silver bullets to kill the Destroyer - an awesomely powerful creature unshackled by Morgaine to devour the world - although he himself is almost killed in the process.

Morgaine tries to fire the nuclear missile but is overcome by shock when the Doctor tells her that Arthur is in fact dead. She and her son are then taken prisoner by UNIT.

Plot

Part 1

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, now retired from teaching (c.f. Mawdryn Undead) as well as UNIT, is enjoying retirement with his wife Doris. UNIT may still need the gallant old soldier, though; new Brigadier Winifred Bambera and her soldiers, in a nuclear missile convoy near rural Carbury, are faced with inexplicable equipment failure and peculiar sightings of armour-clad knights. In the excitement, the UNIT convoy ignores the pair of hitchhikers nearby: the Doctor and Ace, lured to Carbury by a distress signal so powerful that it even crosses universes.

The Doctor and Ace eventually hitch a ride with archaeologist Peter Warmsly, whose team is excavating an old battlefield near Carbury--though even he is surprised to find his dig site taken over by tight-lipped UNIT soldiers. While he attempts to get an explanation, the Doctor unearths old UNIT identification (his own and Liz Shaw's) to get himself and Ace into the UNIT camp. Bambera, nonplussed, confiscates the passes and ejects the two travellers from the convoy. But one UNIT soldier, who had previously served under Lethbridge-Stewart, recalls UNIT's former scientific advisor: his eccentricity, his ability to change appearance, and his tendency to attract trouble.

Intrigued, Bambera gives the Doctor and Ace a lift to the nearby Gore Crow Hotel... and asks UNIT headquarters to recall Lethbridge-Stewart to duty. At the hotel, Ace meets a kindred spirit in Shou Yuing, while the Doctor talks to innkeeper Elizabeth Rowlinson. She is blind but psychic, and knows that the ancient scabbard over the inn's fireplace--an artifact found by Warmsly--is an object of tremendous and mysterious power.

Ace and Shou are chatting outside the hotel when they and the Doctor witness an oddly human-shaped missile crash into innkeeper Pat Rowlinson's microbrewery. It is revealed to be a knight in full armour--not an android, as Ace initially thinks--and, when his helmet is removed, he warmly greets the Doctor as "Merlin".

Part 2

The Doctor, Ace, and Shou chat with the knight, Ancelyn, who refers to the distress signal intercepted by the TARDIS as "Excalibur's call", to be the start of a final war and King Arthur's restoration to the throne. The Doctor surmises that the coming battle isn't properly part of this dimension at all, and belongs to a parallel universe--but before he can test the theory, an exasperated Brigadier Bambera enters the microbrewery and declares everyone under arrest. She is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of more extradimensional knights, including Ancelyn's sworn enemy Mordred, son of the sorceress Morgaine, who also recognizes the Doctor as Merlin. After Mordred retreats, unwilling to face the Doctor, Ancelyn and Bambera vie for dominance and the rest of the party retreats to the Gore Crow's lounge.

Mordred, with the help of a sword he calls "brother to Excalibur", begins a strange ritual intended to link his home dimension to present-day Carbury and allow Morgaine to cross over. As he roars in triumph at the ritual's success, the scabbard on the wall of the Gore Crow's lounge breaks free and sails across the room--towards the lake--before implanting itself in a wall distressingly close to Warmsly. The Doctor realises what is happening, but cannot stop it... Morgaine crosses over, and the hotel is plunged into darkness.

Morgaine and Mordred discuss their plans for battle; Morgaine, seeing a helicopter approach, demonstrates her power by bringing it down. The helicopter, which is bringing Lethbridge-Stewart to Carbury, manages to land, and Lethbridge-Stewart sets off in search of the Doctor.

Warmsly shows the Doctor and Ace the Carbury dig, and points out a mysterious inscription. The Doctor recognizes his own handwriting instructing him to dig a hole, which he asks Ace to do with some well-placed explosives. At the bottom is an 8th century tunnel... made of cement. The Doctor and Ace investigate, having left Warmsly to guard them.

At the end of the tunnel is a strange room. Ace and the Doctor look in vain for some way out, until the Doctor simply commands the door to open, and it obeys. As they proceed to the next rooms, the Doctor explains that Merlin must have built the rooms--spaceship, it now appears--that they are in... and he is Merlin, or will be.

In the topmost level of the spaceship is Arthur, in suspended animation, and Excalibur. Ace accidentally draws Excalibur, which triggers an automated defense system that traps Ace in an airtight chamber rapidly filling with water, and renders the Doctor helpless as she watches...

Part 3

As the two wander near Lake Vortigern, Warmsly quotes Tennyson's "Morte d'Arthur" to Ancelyn... when, to his astonishment, a hand appears from the lake brandishing Excalibur. It proves to be Ace, whom the Doctor managed to free from the spaceship below the lake. She emerges wet but none the worse for the wear, and is joined by Warmsly, Ancelyn, Bambera, and--arriving with Shou in her car, which he has commandeered, Lethbridge-Stewart.

The Doctor continues to fight the spaceship's defense system, but it is only stopped when Lethbridge-Stewart, who has entered through the tunnel, intervenes. Reunited, the friends leave by the tunnel and rejoin the others at the dig.

Meanwhile, Morgaine has sent Mordred and his knights after the Doctor and the others, with orders to take Excalibur and kill any who resist. The Rowlinsons are terrified by Morgaine's cavalier killing of a UNIT soldier, but grateful--if bewildered--when she restores Elizabeth's sight.

The party splits up for the ride back to the hotel: Bambera and Ancelyn in Shou's car; the Doctor, Ace, Shou, and Warmsly in his. Mordred's knights set up an ambush in the woods between the hotel and the dig, but ultimately attack the wrong car; the others make it back to the hotel safely, with Excalibur. There they find that all locals are being evacuated--Shou and Ace slip away unnoticed, while Warmsly and the Rowlinsons protest but ultimately agree to evacuate.

A UNIT patrol sent to find Bambera and Ancelyn reports that the two soldiers escaped the knights and are at large in the woods. The news, though welcome, does not entirely cheer the Doctor, who points out that Mordred and his knights are also at large... and that nothing stands between them and the now-unguarded missile convoy by the lake. They must return to the convoy immediately. Fortunately, Lethbridge-Stewart thought to bring along transportation: Bessie, the Doctor's car from his UNIT days. He and the Doctor depart, leaving Ace and Shou behind with Excalibur and instructions on avoiding Morgaine's sorcery.

Morgaine leaps at her chance to snatch Excalibur from the hands of its young guardians, summoning the Destroyer to help her, but Ace remembers the Doctor's warning and draws a protective circle of chalk. Much to her surprise, it seems to work... until Morgaine tries a more subtle psychological attack, and sets Ace and Shou fighting, trying to draw one or both out of the circle.

At the dig, the ancient battlefield has become a modern one, as UNIT troops face off against Mordred and his knights, and Mordred himself is confronted by Ancelyn--but as they prepare to fight, the Doctor intervenes and declares that there will be no more bloodshed. But Mordred smugly announces that the battle was only a diversion for his mother Morgaine's attempt at Excalibur... and that Ace and Shou stand no chance against Morgaine and the Destroyer.

Part 4

Mordred offers the Doctor a trade--the girls' lives for Excalibur--but the Doctor, outraged, threatens to decapitate him unless Morgaine surrenders herself. But Mordred calls the Doctor's bluff; he knows, he says, of Merlin's distaste for taking life. He is proved right, but Lethbridge-Stewart appears out of the woods, gun ready, and declares that he has no such compunctions. The two old friends force Mordred into their car and head back to the Gore Crow Hotel.


Cast

Crew

References

McCoy becomes only the third Doctor to use Bessie on screen
  • UNIT appears in this story.
  • The Brigadier is married to Doris Lethbridge-Stewart and has been replaced by Winifred Bambera.
  • The Doctor uses Bessie again, and the license plate now reads "WHO 7".
  • The Brigadier talks of how UNIT has been busy, acquiring bullets that would go through a Dalek, and other bullets for Yetis and robots, including gold-tipped bullets for Cybermen
  • The Doctor and Ace use passes that he thought he would never need again. Her pass belonged to Liz Shaw.
  • The Doctor cries out 'Yeti, Autons, Daleks, Cybermen, Silurians' when trying to show Bambera that he was indeed a member of UNIT.
  • The Doctor from Morgaine's reality was called Merlin; there is some implication that the Doctor is Merlin (or will be).
  • Just as companion Rose Tyler did not appreciate the implication that she was "the latest" companion (in DW:School Reunion), Ace bristles when Lethbridge-Stewart refers to her as such.

Story Notes

  • This story had the working title of; Storm Over Avallion.
  • Jean Marsh previously played Joanna in The Crusade and Sara Kingdom in The Daleks' Master Plan.
  • This is the last appearance of the Brigadier and of UNIT in the classic series.
  • After the remembrance ceremony in Part 2 Morgaine (played by Jean Marsh) says that she will kill the Brigadier next time they meet. 2000 years later, during "The Daleks' Master Plan", Sara Kingdom, played by Jean Marsh, kills Bret Vyon, played by Nicholas Courtney.

Ratings

  • Part 1 - 3.1 million viewers
  • Part 2 - 3.9 million viewers
  • Part 3 - 3.6 million viewers
  • Part 4 - 4.0 million viewers

Myths

  • The incidental music for this story was originally to have been provided by the rock group Hawkwind. (It wasn't.)

Filming Locations

Lake Vortigern, Carbury.

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

  • When Morgaine strikes Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's helicopter, the smoke box used for this effect can clearly be seen attached to the back of the left landing skid.
  • Although this takes place some time after 1989 when it was broadcast, it would appear to take place prior to 2009 (he has been knighted by the time of DW:The Poison Sky) or 2010 (the approximate timeframe of a scheduled appearance by a much older Brigadier in The Sarah Jane Adventures). This causes a continuity issues as Battlefield makes reference to there being a king on the throne, suggesting that Queen Elizabeth II has either died or abdicated by this time. Yet she is still on the throne in the timeframe of the Doctor Who revival and The Sarah Jane Adventures (per Voyage of the Damned). An attempt to reconcile this eventuality was attempted years prior to the revival when the Virgin New Adventures series established that at some point the Brigadier has his youth restored to him. It remains to be seen, however, if televised continuity will follow suit.

Continuity

  • Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart last appeared on screen in The Five Doctors.
  • Doris was first mentioned in Planet of the Spiders.
  • The Seventh Doctor meets Lethrbidge-Stewart for the 'first time' (from the Brigadier's perspective) in NA: No Future (and then wipes his memory of the event so he could meet him for the first time in this story).

DVD and Video Releases

This story has been confirmed for DVD release on November 17th 2008.

Novelisation

Battlefield novel.jpg
Main article: Battlefield (novelisation)

External Links

Template:Season 26

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