The Highlanders (Doctor Who)

Following the Battle of Culloden, government forces have triumphed over the Jacobite Army of Charles Edward Stewart. When the TARDIS arrives, the Second Doctor, Ben and Polly encounter fleeing Jacobite troops and are taken prisoner by them. They hide in a deserted cottage with the badly wounded Laird Colin McLaren, along with his daughter Kirsty, his piper Jamie McCrimmon and his son Alexander, who dies defending them from a patrol of government soldiers. The patrol's leader, Lieutenant Algernon ffinch, is ineffectual, but a sergeant takes the Doctor, Jamie, Ben and the Laird to be hanged. Polly and Kirsty manage to slip away.

The duo hide from ffinch, who believes Stewart to be one of them following the rumour that he fled the battlefield. Eventually ffinch finds them, but they trick him and steal his money. Later in Inverness, they run into him again and use his previous foolishness to blackmail him.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, Grey, the Royal Commissioner of Prisons, plans to ship Jacobite prisoners of war to the American colonies and sell them into indentured servitude. He contacts sea captain Trask, who agrees to use his ship Annabelle for this purpose. Amongst the prisoners he identifies for sale are the Doctor, Jamie, Ben, and the Laird. They are taken to the prison in Inverness but the Doctor overpowers Grey to escape. Trask reports to Grey that the transportation plan has begun and arranges for a number of prisoners, including Jamie, Ben and the Laird, to be transferred to Annabelle. The prisoners learn that they are being sold into indentured servitude in the West Indies but most accept their fate. Only Ben, Jamie, the Laird and one of his friends, Willie Mackay, refuse to sign. When Ben attacks Grey, Trask has him thrown into the sea while tied to the end of a rope.

The Doctor adopts disguises to move about freely, before reuniting with Polly, Kirsty and Ben, who has swum to safety. The Doctor returns to Grey with a concocted story about Stewart, identifying him as Jamie. The ruse works, distracting Grey and Trask while Polly and Kirsty free the Jacobite prisoners and supply them with weapons for an uprising. When Grey and Trask check on Jamie, they are captured by the freed prisoners and a revolt begins. Trask is wounded and thrown overboard. Willie Mackay takes control of Annabelle and plans to sail to France, taking Kirsty and Colin.

The Doctor, Ben and Polly return to the town, using Grey as a hostage to ensure their freedom of movement, and are joined by Jamie, who has decided to help them find the TARDIS. The party loses Grey but finds ffinch, whom they force to help them return to Culloden. Grey reaches the cottage where he first met the Doctor. ffinch arrests Grey for the transportation scheme, as he has lost the paperwork thanks to the Doctor and is unable to prove the legality of his plans. Thanked by a kiss from Polly, ffinch departs. The Doctor, Ben and Polly return to the TARDIS and invite their new friend, Jamie McCrimmon, on board.

The script was commissioned from Elwyn Jones, who proved ultimately too busy to actually write it. Script editor Gerry Davis stepped in to write the serial. Jones and Davis shared on-screen credit although Jones did no work on the script.^[4] The working title for this story was Culloden;^[4] however, a few years previously the BBC had aired a docudrama titled Culloden which resulted in the changing of the name of this story.

The Highlanders was the last purely historical story until Black Orchid in 1982.^[5] Patrick Troughton encouraged the move away from historical stories, according to his son Michael, out of an interest in exploring "real science in drama" as well as a desire to further distinguish his era from that of the previous Doctor, William Hartnell.^[6]

The serial was directed by Hugh David; while he was still an actor in the early 1960s David had been considered for the role of the First Doctor, but as he was only 38 years old at the time, he was deemed to be too young by the series' original producer Verity Lambert.^[7]

The Highlanders was the first Doctor Who serial to have its videotapes wiped, which occurred on 9 March 1967, just two months after its broadcast.^[8] Only brief clips from episode 1 survive.^[9]

The Battle of Culloden scenes were filmed on location at Frensham Ponds in Surrey.^[10] Inverness Harbour was recreated by filming next to a water tank at the BBC's Ealing Studios.^[11][12]

Producer Innes Lloyd and script editor Gerry Davis were initially uncertain whether the character of Jamie would work as an ongoing character, and although Frazer Hines' contract had an option for three more serials, an ending was filmed with Jamie staying behind when the TARDIS departed. Hines' performance during shooting ultimately convinced them that the character had potential and the ending was re-shot.^[13] His popularity with the public ensured Jamie became a longtime member of the TARDIS crew.^[14]

William Dysart later appeared in The Ambassadors of Death (1970).^[15] Hannah Gordon provided the voice of Skagra's ship in the Big Finish Productions version of Shada. Peter Welch was later seen in The Android Invasion (1975). David Garth went on to play the Time Lord in Terror of the Autons (1971).

^† Episode is missing

Reviewing the serial in 2009 in the Radio Times, Mark Braxton gave the serial three stars out of five, remarking that as the last of the purely historical Doctor Who serials, The Highlanders has "little real excitement" due to it being set in the aftermath of Culloden, rather than during the battle itself. He was also mildly critical of "pantomime and cliché" in the serial, in particular Patrick Troughton's use of silly voices and unconvincing disguises.^[18]

The Highlanders

Author	Gerry Davis
Cover artist	Nick Spender
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	90
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	15 November 1984
ISBN	0-426-19676-7

A novelisation of this serial, written by Gerry Davis, was published by Target Books in August 1984.

As with all missing episodes of Doctor Who, full off-air audio recordings exist due to contemporary fan efforts. In August 2000 these were released on CD, accompanied by linking narration from Frazer Hines. A few brief video clips survive, and were released on the Lost in Time DVD set in 2004. A new unabridged reading of the novelisation of The Highlanders was released in September 2012 read by Anneke Wills (who played Polly in the original TV episodes), with original sound design.

Charles Norton, director of several animated reconstructions, noted in 2019 that an animated version of The Highlanders was considered, but due to the difficulty in animating the clothing and locations, the team instead went ahead with The Macra Terror.^[19]