The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve

022 – The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve
Doctor Who serial
The Doctor and Steven discuss events
Cast
Doctor William Hartnell (First Doctor)
Companion Peter Purves (Steven Taylor)
Others William Hartnell — Abbot of Amboise Barry Justice — King Charles IX of France Joan Young — Catherine de' Medici Leonard Sachs — Admiral de Coligny André Morell — Marshal Tavannes Michael Bilton — Teligny Erik Chitty — Charles Preslin Eric Thompson — Gaston, Viscount de Lerans David Weston — Nicholas Muss John Tillinger — Simon Duvall Christopher Tranchell — Roger Colbert Annette Robertson — Anne Chaplet Cynthia Etherington — Old Woman Edwin Finn — Landlord Clive Cazes — Captain of the Guard Reginald Jessup — Servant Norman Claridge — Priest John Slavid — Officer Will Stampe, Ernest Smith — Men Jack Tarran, Leslie Bates — Guards Jackie Lane — Dodo Chaplet
Production
Directed by	Paddy Russell
Written by	John Lucarotti Donald Tosh
Script editor	Donald Tosh Gerry Davis
Produced by	John Wiles
Executive producer(s)	None
Incidental music composer	Stock music by Pierre Arvey
Production code	W
Series	Season 3
Length	4 episodes, 25 minutes each
Episode(s) missing	All 4 episodes
Date started	5 February 1966
Date ended	26 February 1966
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → The Daleks' Master Plan The Ark

The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve is the completely missing fourth serial of the third season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 5 to 26 February 1966. This serial marks the first appearance of Jackie Lane as companion-to-be Dodo Chaplet. Although audio recordings and still photographs of the story exist, no footage of this serial is known to have survived.

Plot

The arrival of the TARDIS in Paris, France in 1572 places its occupants, the First Doctor and Steven Taylor, in a dangerous situation. Tensions between Protestants and Catholics are at fever pitch in the city. Despite the danger, the Doctor heads off alone to visit the apothecary Charles Preslin, leaving Steven alone. Steven enters a tavern and meets Nicholas Muss, a Huguenot. When the Doctor does not return as arranged, Steven decides to spend the night at the home of his new friend. While Steven and Nicholas are wandering home, they find a frightened serving girl, Anne Chaplet. Anne is terrified because she has overheard some Catholic guards speaking of a coming religious massacre of Huguenots here in Paris. To protect her and her knowledge, Nicholas arranges for Anne to go into the service of his master, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny.

The next day, the Abbot of Amboise arrives at his Parisian residence. Convinced that Anne has discovered the threat to the Protestants, the Abbot sends his secretary Colbert to find her. Steven sees the two talking, and becomes convinced that the Abbot is the Doctor in disguise. He then tries to track down Preslin, the apothecary the Doctor went to meet, but learns he was arrested two years ago for heresy. He heads to the Abbot's house to wait for the doctor. While hidden he overhears Colbert and an assassin plotting to kill someone they call "the sea beggar" tomorrow. With night falling again, Steven heads out and finds Anne following him. They hide for the night at Preslin's empty shop, planning to search for the identity of the sea beggar. The call upon the Abbot, but are forced to flee after Steven realises that the Abbot is not the Doctor.

Anne and Steven meet back at Preslin's shop, and a little later the Doctor himself arrives. The Doctor is very insistent that he and Steven must depart the city as soon as possible. He sends Anne to her aunt’s house, warning her that she must stay there. Meanwhile, Steven and the Doctor head across the city. They make it to the TARDIS just as the curfew is falling and depart as the massacre begins. Steven is worried for Anne and his friends, and angry that the Doctor made him leave. The Doctor insists that history could not be changed. Steven cannot accept that the Doctor left Anne behind, and is so disgusted with his colleague that he determines to leave his company. When the TARDIS lands in 1966 on Wimbledon Common, Steven offers a terse goodbye and ventures outside. The Doctor is left totally alone for the first time, and reflects on the other companions that have travelled with him and then left him, and his inability to return home. A young girl mistakes the TARDIS for a Police Box and enters to report a road accident. Steven comes in too, saying that policemen are approaching, and his heart softens when the young woman introduces herself as Dorothea or Dodo Chaplet.

The Doctor, hearing Steven's warning of the approaching policemen, hurriedly dematerialises the TARDIS, not noticing until after it has left 1966 that Dodo is still aboard. Steven informs her that there's no way back, and "we could land anywhere," but Dodo seems either unworried or simply doesn't believe him. She says she is an orphan who lives with her great aunt and thus has few ties, as the TARDIS continues to hum, hurtling them toward the next great adventure.

Production

^† Episode is missing

Script editor Donald Tosh rewrote much of the script delivered by John Lucarotti. In a monograph on The Massacre, James Cooray Smith argues that the Doctor's similarity with the Abbot of Amboise was inspired by a real historical event, the impersonation in 1562 of the Abbot responsible for Marmoutier Abbey in the commune of Amboise by a man called Chastillon, who was later executed. He suggests that Lucarotti's original script (which no longer exists) involved the Doctor extensively impersonating the Abbot with the audience's connivance, whereas Tosh's preference was for the audience to be left unsure whether or not the Abbot was really the Doctor, leading to the disagreements between the two.^[3] There are conflicting accounts as to whether Lucarotti's name was removed from the credits at his request.^[4][5] Tosh is credited with co-writing the final episode, on which incoming script editor Gerry Davis was credited as script editor in his place.^[6]

According to the book Doctor Who: Companions by David J. Howe and Mark Stammers, the final episode of the serial was to have included a cameo appearance by William Russell and Jacqueline Hill reprising their roles as former companions Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. The scene had Ian and Barbara witnessing the dematerialisation of the TARDIS after Dodo enters. Although the scene was scheduled, it was not filmed.

Commercial releases

In print

The Massacre

Author	John Lucarotti
Cover artist	Tony Masero
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	122
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	June 1987 (Hardback) 19 November 1987 (Paperback)
ISBN	0-491-03423-7

John Lucarotti's 1987 novelisation of this serial for Target Books, entitled simply The Massacre, returned the story to a previous draft before both a scheduled holiday for Hartnell and technical limitations forced a number of rewrites (allowing Hartnell to not have to be present during recording of the second episode and removing the need for Hartnell to be doubled throughout the story).

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: First Doctor

• The Massacre at BBC Online
• The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve at Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel)
• The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• Doctor Who Locations – The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve