User Reviews

The TARDIS materialises in Paris in the year 1572 and the Doctor decides to visit the famous apothecary Charles Preslin. Steven, meanwhile, is befriended by a group of Huguenots from the household of the Protestant Admiral de Coligny. Having rescued a young serving girl, Anne Chaplet, from some pursuing guards, the Huguenots gain their first inkling of a heinous plan being hatched at the command of the Catholic Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici.

Review of four parts -

And yet again, it's one of those historical "chillaxing" stories! But this time, Steven has "departed". It was a great "departure", the scene after that proved that the Doctor cannot travel alone, he remarked about Susan, Ian, Barbara, Vicki, Sara and most importantly, Katarina.

Yeah, it was a great story. I've actually learned something about this, I never knew about the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. Wow, it was indeed a great massacre. The Setting was well done, I think I'm done with this review already, don't know what to talk about next.

8/10.

After the recent horrific events with the Daleks, and the deaths of Sara and Katarina, The Doctor and Steven land in Paris, Sixteenth Century. They separate and go in search of Scientist Charles Preslin. Steven goes into a Public House and is shown hospitality by the locals, a group of Huguenots. A young woman 'Anne Chaplet' dashes in , plainly fearful, she's sheltered. The Doctor meets up with Preslin, who explains the trouble facing the Huguenots from the regime led by The Abbot of Amboise. Back in the Public House Anne explains the conversation she's overheard, talk of an attack, similar to one which occurred earlier in Vassy, where a group of Huguenots were massacred by Catholics. The authorities are naturally fearful of Anne's knowledge and whom she may tell, word gets back to The Abbot, who appears in the same image as The Doctor.

Regarded by many as the greatest of all Historical adventures, it certainly works as a historical, it's quite factual, and the natural material is very bleak and tragic. 1572 was indeed an awful time for the Huguenots (Catholics.)

I'm not always super keen on the historicals, but The Massacre is exceptional, it is outstandingly well acted, the dialogue is very slick and effortless, the setting is believable and naturally horrific. The later Gunfighters would prove to be a less successful attempt, the next strong historical serial would be The Highlanders.

A brilliant start to this fantastic adventure. 10/10

(A Review Of All Four Episodes)

For fans, the fact that so much of 1960s Doctor Who is missing is a sad fact. Those of us who are fans of the classic series each have stories that we very much want to see: Marco Polo, The Evil Of The Daleks, Fury From The Deep and so forth. Yet for me, sitting here in the late summer of 2015, there is one story more than any other missing story that I really want to see. It's a story that we have so little left of: The Massacre aka The Massacre Of Saint Bartholomew's Eve.

Doctor Who began in 1963 as a semi-educational science fiction series that was meant to bounce back and forth between the more science fiction heavy stories and the more educational historical stories. By the time The Massacre aired in February 1966, that formula had about run its course. The success of the various Dalek stories and stories like The Web Planet in the ratings had all but guaranteed that the historical stories, with their lower ratings and audience appreciation figures, would soon be a thing of the past. Behind the scenes changes with producers and script editors coming and going were guaranteeing that as well, especially with this story where the writer all but took his name off of it due to changes made to get into production.

Yet looking (or rather listening to the story), those cracks are hard to see (hear). Script wise, despite what appears to be heavy re-writing done by script editor Donald Tosh, the script is arguably the strongest story of the Hartnell era. It doesn't really fit into the established historical story formula that John Lucarotti himself had established in stories like The Aztecs less than two years earlier in that it isn't about trying to get back into the TARDIS. What starts as a simple arrival and a brief stopover turns into something else entirely as Peter Purves' Steven Taylor finds himself lost and alone in 1572 Paris in the midst of political and religious turmoil.

What makes the story even more remarkable is the Doctor isn't really the lead character in the story. That role is handed over to Steven Taylor, a character who started out as an effectively thick and comic character when first introduced. In this story and the one before it, both character and performer came into their own. Purves is utterly believable as a man lost in time, an "innocent abroad" who wanders into a dangerous situation that he knows little about and that could potentially be fatal at any moment. The story, and Purves' performance, seem to remind us that traveling with the Doctor is a dangerous affair and the Doctor might not always be there to save you.

All round, the performances of the story seem pretty solid. Purves might be the lead but hes surrounded by a strong cast. There's William Hartnell playing a duel role as the Doctor in the book-ending episodes and the Abbot of Amboise. While Hartnell's Abbot isn't as different a performance as Patrick Troughton's in Enemy Of The World, there's still a sinister quality to it as it lacks all the charm and mannerisms of the First Doctor. There's none of the giggles, "hmm" or "my boy" to be heard here. We might not be able to see it but with the audio alone there's a notable difference in the performance that makes it all the more painful that we can't see it.

Then there's the supporting cast which is almost a Who's Who of Britain's top character talent of the time. There's Andre Morrel, perhaps the definitive screen version of Nigel Kneale's Professor Bernard Quatermass, playing Marshal Tavannes who brings a sense of authority and respect to the role and never let's it be an outright villain but the sense of someone who is respectable but somehow still sinister. There's Leonard Sachs as Admiral de Coligny who is the opposite of Tavannes: a respectable man seeking to do the right thing and who will be at the heart of the tragedy that will ultimately unfold. There's also strong supporting performances from Eric Thompson, Joan Young and Annette Robertson with the latter becoming the emotional focal point on which the lengthy and moving final scene of the story revolves around.

Looking back on it, The Massacre is admittedly a hard story to judge. It's a historical story which means that a lot of the story's appeal, at least on a visual level, would be its sets and costumes. Time in this regard has not been kind to the story as all four episodes of the story have been lost to us. Nor do we have telesnaps or a wealth of behind the scenes images as is the case with stories like Marco Polo. Perhaps that let's us give it qualities it never had but let's not forget that costume drama has always been a forte of the BBC. Paddy Russell who directed this story has also been good at getting strong performances from her actors and the stellar cast of this story seems likely to have delivered just that. Maybe one day we'll know for certain.

Whatever the case, in many respects this was the last great historical story of the series. There would be a few others before The Highlanders saw out the sub-genre that would only be resurrected with the proliferation of spin-off media in the Wilderness Years, that much is true. Yet none would take themselves as seriously or bring forth the kind of acting talent that The Massacre would. The Massacre and its four episodes marked the end of an era for the series and the historical stories of its early years. Something that makes it even more of a shame that we can't watch it today and see what, I suspect, would have been a glorious costume drama.