The Massacre

Dear Gary—

I don’t really have much to say about this next missing story, The Massacre. These historicals can be hit or miss; in this case it’s a miss. The story itself is interesting and well done, but it doesn’t have much to do with Doctor Who. It’s as if it were written as a straight drama and someone decided to add a few TARDIS scenes and insert the Doctor and Steven (mostly Steven) here and there to make it into a Doctor Who serial.

The Doctor is MIA for most of The Massacre, although William Hartnell does inexplicably play a look-alike in the character of the Abbot, and Steven just ping pongs around the streets of Paris to serve as witness to events unfolding in 1572 France on the eve of the St Bartholomew Massacre. “Oh what a senseless waste,” to borrow the words of the Doctor.

This four part story seems to exist solely to set up the final 10 minutes or so in which the Doctor and Steven quarrel over what has taken place during their brief stop in this “terrible page from the past.” Steven is outraged that the Doctor has left the young French girl Anne Chaplet to her fate. “You can’t say for certain that you weren’t responsible for that girl’s death,” he argues.  However, the Doctor “dare not change the course of history.”

This scene reminds me of the Doctor and Donna in The Fires of Pompeii during the David Tenant era. Donna wins that argument and the Doctor does save one family. In our story The Massacre, however, the Doctor sends Anne back to her aunt’s house and most certain slaughter.

“If your researches have so little regard for human life, then I want no part of it,” Steven announces as he prepares to leave the TARDIS for good.

“My dear Steven,” the Doctor answers, “history sometimes gives us a terrible shock; and that is because we don’t quite truly understand. Why should we? After all, we’re all too small to realize its final pattern. Therefore don’t try and judge it from where you stand. I was right to do as I did. Yes, that I firmly believe.”

But Steven does not understand and he storms out of the TARDIS and out of the Doctor’s life, not caring where they have landed.

The Doctor, alone with his thoughts, consoles himself that, “at least I have taught him to take some precautions.” Steven did check the scanner before leaving after all.

And now the Doctor is abandoned by all. “Now they’ve all gone . . . all gone. None of them could understand; not even my little Susan . . . or Vicki. And as for Barbara and Chesterton . . . Chesterton . . .they were all too impatient to get back to their own time. And now Steven.”

The entirety of the 3 ½ episodes leading up to this scene can be forgiven for these final moments that provide such insight into the Doctor and the burden of time travel.

“Perhaps I should go home; back to my own planet,” the Doctor muses. “But I can’t.”

We are left to wonder about this fascinating admission—“But I can’t”—for just when the Doctor is at his lowest Dodo bursts into the TARDIS like a breath of fresh air.

I never had a clear picture of Dodo before, Gary. For the longest time my only exposure to her was in the one surviving episode of The Celestial Toymaker. It has only been in the past few years that I have seen the few existing complete stories that she appears in, and this is my first viewing of her arrival onto the scene, and I have to say that I am beginning to like her. 

Steven follows closely behind Dodo into the TARDIS, being pursued by two policemen. Both the Doctor and Steven stare intently at Dodo, played by the same actress who had been Anne Chaplet. The Doctor notices a resemblance; however he decides that “she looks rather like Susan.” But when Dodo states that her full name is Dorothea Chaplet, they both have to wonder if she couldn’t be a descendent of the Anne they have just left behind. After all, her grandfather, Dodo tells them, was French.

Again the Doctor irresponsibly takes off in the TARDIS with a stranger on board. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, he deliberately kidnapped Barbara and Ian, and he took off with no thought despite the presence of Katarina on board, so this is not out of character for him. Luckily for him, Dodo doesn’t seem to mind.

 In fact, I have to wonder if Dodo isn’t just a little dodo. She bursts into the TARDIS looking for the phone to report a terrible accident involving a child, and she doesn’t seem particularly alarmed by what she finds inside. If anything, she is annoyed that there is no phone and the Doctor isn’t a policeman. When Steven tells her they travel through time and space she decides that’s fine with her. She doesn’t have anyone to go back to; might as well tag along.

And off they fly, the three of them; all is forgotten—the accident, Anne, and the quarreling. Let us take a lesson from them and forget this “terrible page from the past” and look forward to our next adventure.

Until then, Gary, as ever . . .