Episode 31: The Highlanders.
Companions: The 2nd Doctor, Polly Wright, Ben Jackson and Jamie McCrimmon.
Air Date: Four episodes. 17th December 1966 to 7th January 1967.
The time travellers arrive in Scotland just after the Battle of Culloden. The Second Doctor gains the trust of a small band of fleeing Jacobites by offering to tend their wounded Laird, Colin McLaren. While Polly and the Laird's daughter, Kirsty, are away fetching water, he and the others are all captured by Redcoat troops commanded by Lieutenant Algernon Ffinch.
Other than a handful of screenshots this story is also lost in time and space. The Highlanders was also the last purely historical type story until we get to the 5th Doctor tale Black Orchid. I'm pleased with that because although time travel is a good base for the show, it really is the science fiction and almost horror elements that ultimately make the show what it is for me. I assume others at the BBC felt the same way hence the change in stories.
The Highlanders introduces us to the character of Jamie McCrimmon who becomes the longest serving male companion in the show's history thus far. He is a popular character and certainly one that is fondly remembered. He is also unqiue at this time in the show as he is a character from the past rather the contemporary modern or the future, so he gives us a different pair of eyes to look through in the Doctor's travels.
As for the story itself, reading the sysnopsis makes it out as a rather tame and dare I say bland tale. Much like many of the previous historical stories that the show has produced at this time.
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