Battlefield (Doctor Who)
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| 156 - Battlefield | |
| Doctor | Sylvester McCoy (Seventh Doctor) |
|---|---|
| Writer | Ben Aaronovitch |
| Director | Michael Kerrigan |
| Script Editor | Andrew Cartmel |
| Producer | John Nathan-Turner |
| Executive producer(s) | None |
| Production code | 7N |
| Series | Season 26 |
| Length | 4 episodes, 25 mins each |
| Transmission date | September 6–September 27, 1989 |
| Preceded by | The Greatest Show in the Galaxy |
| Followed by | Ghost Light |
Battlefield is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from September 6 to September 27, 1989.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
The Doctor and Ace face knights in armour from another dimension, and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart returns from retirement to save the world one last time.
[edit] Plot
In the TARDIS, the Seventh Doctor and Ace pick up a distress signal from Earth in the near future. The TARDIS materialises near Lake Vortigern in England. Nearby a convoy of UNIT trucks is conveying a nuclear missile, under the command of Brigadier Bambera. The TARDIS crew attempt to hitch a ride and are picked up by Peter Warmsly, an archaeologist, working on a nearby battlefield. As they drive along, they hear explosions. Unbeknownst to them, it is the noise of armoured knights arriving from outer space, directed by Morgaine, the Sunkiller, Dominator of the thirteen worlds and Battle Queen of the S'rax.
The Doctor has UNIT passes for himself and Liz Shaw which he uses to gain access to the convoy but Bambera ejects them from the site until a soldier named Zbrigniev recognises the Doctor from the time when he served under Lethbridge-Stewart. He informs Bambera that whenever the Doctor turns up "all hell breaks loose."
The Secretary General of the United Nations contacts the retired Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart to inform him that the Doctor is back. A helicopter is sent to his country home to collect him, despite his wife Doris's protests. Bambera takes the Doctor and Ace to the Gore Crow hotel. The owners are Pat Rowlinson and his blind wife Elizabeth. They meet a young woman called Shou Yuing who shares Ace's love of explosives.
In her car, Bambera is told to look out for a blue police telephone box. As she stops to examine it, she is caught in a battle between two groups of knights in armour who use both guns and swords.
Shou Yuing shows the Doctor and Ace a scabbard that Warmsly has excavated from the battlefield. Elizabeth says she can feel the scabbard's presence, and it is hot to the Doctor's touch. She says senses that it is waiting for something or possibly someone. When Warmsly arrives at the hotel, the Doctor questions him about the scabbard, and is informed that it is from the 8th century. The Doctor says that it has been waiting for longer than that, and Morgaine, psychically monitoring the conversation, adds, "...Waiting for me".
As Ace and Shou Yuing discuss Ace's blowing up of her art class at school, a knight throws a grenade at another knight causing him to be hurled through the brewery's roof. The Doctor, Ace and Shou Yuing investigate, finding the knight Ancelyn. The man awakes, seeing the Doctor and calls him Merlin. Ancelyn claims he recognises him by his aspect rather than by his face, and asks him to deny that he is the same Merlin who rides a ship of time, larger within than without. The Doctor reaches the conclusion that the Earth could be the centre of a war from another dimension. A group of knights arrives intent on killing them all…
Bambera faces down their leader Mordred. He is shocked to see "Merlin" who he believed to have been bound by his mother Morgaine. Mordred's knights retreat at the Doctor's threat of unleashing a "terrible something" on them. As Mordred begins an arcane ritual, the scabbard in the hotel flies across the room. Morgaine arrives in Avallion (her name for Earth) through a rift in space and time and using sorcery speaks directly to the Doctor, warning him not to stand against her. When the Doctor says that he cannot allow her to interfere, she then proclaims that this will be their last battlefield.
The next day Warmsly shows the Doctor where he had recovered the scabbard. They see a rune, which the Doctor deciphers as "dig hole here". When questioned how he knows that, he replies that it is his handwriting. Using a canister of Nitro-9, Ace causes a large explosion, opening up a tunnel.
Lethbridge-Stewart finally arrives in Carbury, but his helicopter is shot down by Morgaine's sorcery, and he and his pilot, a female officer named Lavel, are forced to crash land. He encounters Morgaine as her soldiers hold a remembrance ceremony for the fallen soldiers in Earth's world wars. Out of respect, Morgaine does not attack Lethbridge-Stewart, but tells him that the next time they meet she will kill him.
The Doctor and Ace enter a chamber under the lake, the entrance opening to the Doctor's voice. The Doctor tells Ace that he is not Merlin now, but that he could be in his future. They discover that it is part of an organic spaceship hidden under the lake. They also find the body of King Arthur. When Ace removes a sword from the plinth on which the body rests, a defence mechanism is activated, and a glowing, worm-like creature attacks them. Trying to escape from it, Ace enters an alcove, but it closes, trapping her and it begins to fill with water. The Doctor is attacked by the snake, knocked out whilst Ace begins to drown…
Just before Ace drowns, the Doctor recovers. He meddles with a control panel and Ace is ejected from the space ship. On the shore of the lake, Ancelyn and Warmsly are discussing the myth of the Lady of the Lake, just as Ace emerges from the water holding the sword. Ancelyn identifies it as Excalibur. The Brigadier arrives by the lake in Shou Luing's car. The Doctor is still being attacked by the creature in the spaceship, but the Brigadier gets there in time and destroys it.
Mordred and Morgaine go to the hotel to retrieve Excalibur. Lavel tries to shoot Morgaine, but she simply catches the bullet with sorcery. Morgaine takes knowledge from Lavel's mind before turning her body to dust. She pays Mordred's drinking tab by restoring Elizabeth's sight.
Back at the hotel, UNIT troops are evacuating all civilians. Warmsly refuses to leave his site and Rowlinson his inn, but the Doctor uses hypnotic suggestion to persuade them otherwise. The Brigadier shows the Doctor some of the special ammunition developed by UNIT, including armour piercing bullets for Daleks, high explosive rounds for Yetis and gold bullets for Cybermen. The Doctor asks if they have silver bullets, a question which the Brigadier then directs to the quartermaster sergeant if they have any. The Brigadier then reveals to a delighted Doctor that he has brought along the Doctor's car Bessie.
The Doctor gives Ace a piece of chalk with instructions to draw a circle around herself to protect herself from Morgaine's sorcery. He drives off in Bessie, hoping to end the fighting between Morgaine's knights and the UNIT troops. A storm breaks outside the hotel, so Ace and Shou Yuing draw the circle around themselves and Excalibur. Night falls around the hotel as Morgaine summons a demonic creature, and then focuses her mind on Ace and Shou Yuing. Within the circle Ace and Shou Yuing start to bicker, nearly causing Ace to leave the circle and they realise they are being toyed with.
The Doctor arrives at the battlefield just as Mordred and Ancelyn are about to fight each other, commanding them to stop. He shouts "there will be no battle here!". Mordred however reveals that this battle is a ruse to lure the Doctor, and that Morgaine has summoned the Destroyer, the Devourer of Worlds.
Morgaine appears before Ace and Shou Yuing and tries to entice them to hand over Excalibur. When they refuse, she fetches the Destroyer and tells them they will be his handmaidens in Hell…
Mordred offers the Doctor a chance to save Ace if he surrenders to Morgaine's justice, but he grabs Mordred's sword with his umbrella and threatens him with decapitation. Morgaine sees through the Doctor's threats and speaks to Mordred through sorcery, and Mordred dares the Doctor to look him in the eye and kill him. The Doctor releases Mordred, but the Brigadier steps forward, levelling his service revolver at Mordred's temple. Morgaine realises that unlike the Doctor, the Brigadier is capable of killing and has done so many times.
However, Morgaine cold-heartedly ignores Mordred's pleas to save him and instead orders her knight commander to continue his attack. The Doctor and the Brigadier head back towards the hotel with a captive Mordred. Morgaine is unable to penetrate the circle whilst Ace holds Excalibur, the Destroyer, however, would be able to pierce it. The Destroyer implores Morgaine to release him from the silver chains that bind him. He wants the Earth so that he may devour it.
When the Doctor arrives, the hotel is in ruins and Morgaine and the Destroyer are gone. He uncovers Ace and Shou Yuing from the wreckage. Morgaine now has the sword, but all her soldiers are now dead. The Doctor finds an interstitial vortex in the debris through which he, the Brigadier and Ace travel to Morgaine's castle. The Destroyer reveals to Morgaine that he has allowed the Doctor access, so that she would be forced to release the chains.
On arrival, the Brigadier shoots the Destroyer but with absolutely no effect. The Destroyer retaliates with a sorcerous attack that throws the Brigadier outside the building they are in. Morgaine boasts that she could always beat Merlin at chess, but the Doctor says he is playing poker, and he has an Ace up his sleeve. Ace arrives through the vortex, cannoning into Morgaine and knocking Excalibur from her grasp.
When the Doctor refuses to give Excalibur back to Morgaine, she releases the Destroyer's bonds. In the confusion she takes Excalibur and prepares to enter the gateway back to her home dimension. Mordred arrives and accuses her of abandoning him, but they both enter the gateway.
As the Destroyer prepares to go on the rampage, the Doctor takes the Brigadier's revolver and the silver bullets. Seeing what the Doctor intends, the Brigadier knocks the Doctor out and takes the revolver and bullets himself. He returns to the castle and confronts the Destroyer, demanding that the creature get off his world. The Destroyer mocks the Brigadier, asking if Earth can do no better for its champion. The Brigadier replies coolly, "Probably. I just do the best I can," and empties the silver bullets into the Destroyer's torso.
As the castle is engulfed in flames, the Doctor finds the Brigadier's body sprawled a distance away. The Doctor at first thinks his old friend is dead, angrily letting slip that the Brigadier was supposed to die in bed. But then Lethbridge-Stewart stirs, and gets up, a bit shaken but unharmed.
Back at the missile convoy, Morgaine and Mordred appear and attempt to detonate the nuclear missile. Morgaine takes the control codes from Bambera by sorcery. In the underwater spaceship, Ace restores Excalibur to the stone, reactivating the ship's power. The Doctor finds a message from himself in Arthur's helmet. It says that Arthur died in the final battle, and warns him about Morgaine and the nuclear missile. He arrives back at the convoy as the count down reaches 60 seconds.
The Doctor confronts Morgaine with her, telling her that the consequences of using a nuclear weapon are unlike any kind of war she is used to, and convinces her that to use it would not be an honourable thing to do. She stops the countdown, but asks the Doctor to allow her to fight Arthur in single combat. He informs her that Arthur is dead and she realises her fight has been futile, her foe and lover dead for over a thousand years. The Doctor prevents Mordred from killing Ancelyn and asks Bambera to lock up Mordred and Morgaine.
Back at the Brigadier's house, Doris gets her own back on Lethbridge-Stewart by going for a drive in Bessie with Ace, Shou Yuing and Bambera, leaving him and the other men to do the gardening and prepare supper.
[edit] Cast
- The Doctor — Sylvester McCoy
- Ace — Sophie Aldred
- Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart — Nicholas Courtney
- Doris — Angela Douglas
- Brigadier Winifred Bambera — Angela Bruce
- Sergeant Zbrigniev — Robert Jezek
- Flight Lieutenant Lavel — Dorota Rae
- Major Husak — Paul Tomany
- Pat Rawlinson — Noel Collins
- Elizabeth Rawlinson — June Bland
- Peter Warmsly — James Ellis
- Shou Yuing — Ling Tai
- Morgaine — Jean Marsh
- Mordred — Christopher Bowen
- Ancelyn — Marcus Gilbert
- The Destroyer — Marek Anton
- Knight Commander — Stefan Schwartz
[edit] In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by Marc Platt, was published by Target Books in July 1991.[1] It was the last novelisation of a televised Doctor Who serial to be published in the traditional "short paperback" format Target had been using since 1973. After one more novelisation based upon the untelevised The Pescatons, all remaining novelisations would be published in paperback editions with greater page counts and a different format.
[edit] Trivia
- Working titles for this story included Nightfall and Storm Over Avallion. An early version of the script was to have included the death of Lethbridge-Stewart.[2]
- Bessie appears for the first time since The Five Doctors. UNIT itself would not appear again on television until the 2005 series episode Aliens of London.
- Morgaine is played by Jean Marsh, who had once played companion Sara Kingdom in The Daleks' Master Plan (and Princess Joanna in The Crusade). She was also once married to Third Doctor actor, Jon Pertwee. James Ellis, best remembered for his role as Lynch in Z Cars, plays archaeologist Peter Warmsly. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who.
- The Doctor refers to one of Clarke's three laws — telling Ace that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, adding that the reverse is also true. Game designer Dave Lebling wrote in the 1986 interactive fiction game Trinity, "Any sufficiently arcane magic is indistinguishable from technology."
- The Doctor uses Clarke's Law to explain the existence of a transdimensional spaceship that was grown, not built. In the 2006 episode the Impossible Planet, the Doctor says that TARDISes are grown and not built, making it impossible for him to make a new one when his is lost.
- During recording of the sequence where Ace is trapped in the water tank, the tank cracked, causing Sophie Aldred to sustain minor cuts to her hands and creating a major hazard as water flooded out onto the studio floor. The moment when the tank first cracked can be seen in Part Three as the Doctor struggles with the controls and Ace is lifted clear of the water.
- It is implied that Merlin is, or will be, a future regeneration of the Doctor. It is also possible that Merlin is an alternate Doctor from the same parallel universe that Morgaine and the rest of the knights are from.
- This story marks the last appearance of the TARDIS console room in the classic series. The set itself which had been in use since The Invisible Enemy had been destroyed in between seasons so a cheap mock-up was used here.[citation needed] The lighting in this scene is very low to disguise this, although the console itself survived and was used.
- The Doctor mentions that they are several years in Ace's future. In this future, England has a King and a £5 coin is in common circulation.
[edit] References
- ^ Platt, Marc (1991). Battlefield. ISBN 0-426-20350-X.
- ^ Battlefield at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
[edit] External links
- Battlefield episode guide on the BBC website
- Battlefield at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- Battlefield at Outpost Gallifrey
[edit] Reviews
- Battlefield reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
- Battlefield reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
[edit] Target novelisation
| UNIT television stories |
|---|
| Second Doctor: (The Web of Fear) | The Invasion |
| Third Doctor: Spearhead from Space | Doctor Who and the Silurians | The Ambassadors of Death | Inferno | Terror of the Autons | The Mind of Evil | The Claws of Axos | The Dæmons | Day of the Daleks | The Time Monster | The Three Doctors | The Green Death | Invasion of the Dinosaurs | Planet of the Spiders |
| Fourth Doctor: Robot | Terror of the Zygons | The Android Invasion |
| Seventh Doctor: Battlefield |
| Tenth Doctor: The Christmas Invasion |
| Minor Appearances: The Time Warrior | The Seeds of Doom | The Five Doctors | Aliens of London/World War Three |
| See also: UNIT dating controversy |
