Battlefield (TV story)

Synopsis
The TARDIS materialises in the English countryside near the village of Carbury, where a nuclear missile convoy under the command of UNIT Brigadier Winifred Bambera has run into difficulties. Lying on the bed of the nearby Lake Vortigern is a spaceship from another dimension containing the body of King Arthur, supposedly held in suspended animation, and his sword Excalibur.

Ancelyn, a knight from the other dimension, arrives on Earth to aid the King but is followed by his rival Mordred and the latter's mother, a powerful sorceress named Morgaine. They all recognise the Doctor as Merlin, which the Time Lord attributes to events in his own future.

A battle breaks out between UNIT and Morgaine's men. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart has come out of retirement to assist in the crisis and ends up using silver bullets to kill the Destroyer - an awesomely powerful creature unshackled by Morgaine to devour the world - although he himself is almost killed in the process.

Morgaine tries to fire the nuclear missile but is overcome by shock when the Doctor tells her that Arthur is in fact dead. She and her son are then taken prisoner by UNIT.

Part 1
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, now retired from teaching (c.f. Mawdryn Undead) as well as UNIT, is enjoying retirement with his wife Doris. UNIT may still need the gallant old soldier, though; new Brigadier Winifred Bambera and her soldiers, in a nuclear missile convoy near rural Carbury, are faced with inexplicable equipment failure and peculiar sightings of armour-clad knights. In the excitement, the UNIT convoy ignores the pair of hitchhikers nearby: the Doctor and Ace, lured to Carbury by a distress signal so powerful that it even crosses universes.

The Doctor and Ace eventually hitch a ride with archaeologist Peter Warmsly, whose team is excavating an old battlefield near Carbury--though even he is surprised to find his dig site taken over by tight-lipped UNIT soldiers. While he attempts to get an explanation, the Doctor unearths old UNIT identification (his own and Liz Shaw's) to get himself and Ace into the UNIT camp. Bambera, nonplussed, confiscates the passes and ejects the two travellers from the convoy. But one UNIT soldier, who had previously served under Lethbridge-Stewart, recalls UNIT's former scientific advisor: his eccentricity, his ability to change appearance, and his tendency to attract trouble.

Intrigued, Bambera gives the Doctor and Ace a lift to the nearby Gore Crow Hotel... and asks UNIT headquarters to recall Lethbridge-Stewart to duty. At the hotel, Ace meets a kindred spirit in Shou Yuing, while the Doctor talks to innkeeper Elizabeth Rowlinson. She is blind but psychic, and knows that the ancient scabbard over the inn's fireplace--an artifact found by Warmsly--is an object of tremendous and mysterious power.

Ace and Shou are chatting outside the hotel when they and the Doctor witness an oddly human-shaped missile crash into innkeeper Pat Rowlinson's microbrewery. It is revealed to be a knight in full armour--not an android, as Ace initially thinks--and, when his helmet is removed, he warmly greets the Doctor as "Merlin".

Part 2
The Doctor, Ace, and Shou chat with the knight, Ancelyn, who refers to the distress signal intercepted by the TARDIS as "Excalibur's call", to be the start of a final war and King Arthur's restoration to the throne. The Doctor surmises that the coming battle isn't properly part of this dimension at all, and belongs to a parallel universe--but before he can test the theory, an exasperated Brigadier Bambera enters the microbrewery and declares everyone under arrest. She is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of more extradimensional knights, including Ancelyn's sworn enemy Mordred, son of the sorceress Morgaine, who also recognizes the Doctor as Merlin. After Mordred retreats, unwilling to face the Doctor, Ancelyn and Bambera vie for dominance and the rest of the party retreats to the Gore Crow's lounge.

Mordred, with the help of a sword he calls "brother to Excalibur", begins a strange ritual intended to link his home dimension to present-day Carbury and allow Morgaine to cross over. As he roars in triumph at the ritual's success, the scabbard on the wall of the Gore Crow's lounge breaks free and sails across the room--towards the lake--before implanting itself in a wall distressingly close to Warmsly. The Doctor realises what is happening, but cannot stop it... Morgaine crosses over, and the hotel is plunged into darkness.

Morgaine and Mordred discuss their plans for battle; Morgaine, seeing a helicopter approach, demonstrates her power by bringing it down. The helicopter, which is bringing Lethbridge-Stewart to Carbury, manages to land, and Lethbridge-Stewart sets off in search of the Doctor.

Warmsly shows the Doctor and Ace the Carbury dig, and points out a mysterious inscription. The Doctor recognizes his own handwriting instructing him to dig a hole, which he asks Ace to do with some well-placed explosives. At the bottom is an 8th century tunnel... made of cement. The Doctor and Ace investigate, having left Warmsly to guard them.

At the end of the tunnel is a strange room. Ace and the Doctor look in vain for some way out, until the Doctor simply commands the door to open, and it obeys. As they proceed to the next rooms, the Doctor explains that Merlin must have built the rooms--spaceship, it now appears--that they are in... and he is Merlin, or will be.

In the topmost level of the spaceship is Arthur, in suspended animation, and Excalibur. Ace accidentally draws Excalibur, which triggers an automated defense system that traps Ace in an airtight chamber rapidly filling with water, and renders the Doctor helpless as she watches...

Part 3
As the two wander near Lake Vortigern, Warmsly quotes Tennyson's "Morte d'Arthur" to Ancelyn... when, to his astonishment, a hand appears from the lake brandishing Excalibur. It proves to be Ace, whom the Doctor managed to free from the spaceship below the lake. She emerges wet but none the worse for the wear, and is joined by Warmsly, Ancelyn, Bambera, and--arriving with Shou in her car, which he has commandeered, Lethbridge-Stewart.

The Doctor continues to fight the spaceship's defense system, but it is only stopped when Lethbridge-Stewart, who has entered through the tunnel, intervenes. Reunited, the friends leave by the tunnel and rejoin the others at the dig.

Meanwhile, Morgaine has sent Mordred and his knights after the Doctor and the others, with orders to take Excalibur.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
 * Ace - Sophie Aldred
 * Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart - Nicholas Courtney
 * Morgaine - Jean Marsh
 * Brigadier Winifred Bambera - Angela Bruce
 * Mordred - Christopher Bowen
 * Ancelyn - Marcus Gilbert
 * Doris Lethbridge-Stewart - Angela Douglas
 * Shou Yuing - Ling Tai
 * Peter Warmsly - James Ellis
 * Pat Rowlinson - Noel Collins
 * Elizabeth Rowlinson - June Bland
 * Sergeant Zbrigniev - Robert Jezek
 * Flight Lieutenant Lavel - Dorota Rae
 * Knight Commander - Stefan Schwartz
 * Major Husak - Paul Tomany
 * The Destroyer - Marek Anton

Crew

 * Assistant Floor Managers - Matthew Purves, Julian Herne
 * Costumes - Anushia Nieradzik
 * Designer - Martin Collins
 * Incidental Music - Keff McCulloch
 * Make-Up - Juliette Mayer
 * OB Cameramen - Paul Harding, Alan Jessop
 * Producer - John Nathan-Turner
 * Production Assistant - Rosemary Parsons
 * Production Associate - June Collins
 * Script Editor - Andrew Cartmel
 * Special Sounds - Dick Mills
 * Stunt Arranger - Alf Joint
 * Theme Arrangement - Keff McCulloch
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer
 * Visual Effects - Dave Bezkorowajny

Story Notes

 * This story had the working title of; Storm Over Avallion.
 * Jean Marsh previously played Joanna in The Crusade and Sara Kingdom in The Daleks' Master Plan.
 * This is the last appearance of the Brigadier and of UNIT in the classic series.
 * After the remembrance ceremony in Part 2 Morgaine (played by Jean Marsh) says that she will kill the Brigadier next time they meet. 2000 years later, during "The Daleks' Master Plan", Sara Kingdom, played by Jean Marsh, kills Bret Vyon, played by Nicholas Courtney.

Ratings

 * Part 1 - 3.1 million viewers
 * Part 2 - 3.9 million viewers
 * Part 3 - 3.6 million viewers
 * Part 4 - 4.0 million viewers

Myths

 * The incidental music for this story was originally to have been provided by the rock group Hawkwind. (It wasn't.)

Filming Locations
Lake Vortigern, Carbury.

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * When Morgaine strikes Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's helicopter, the smoke box used for this effect can clearly be seen attached to the back of the left landing skid.
 * Although this takes place some time after 1989 when it was broadcast, it would appear to take place prior to 2009 (he has been knighted by the time of DW:The Poison Sky) or 2010 (the approximate timeframe of a scheduled appearance by a much older Brigadier in The Sarah Jane Adventures). This causes a continuity issues as Battlefield makes reference to there being a king on the throne, suggesting that Queen Elizabeth II has either died or abdicated by this time. Yet she is still on the throne in the timeframe of the Doctor Who revival and The Sarah Jane Adventures (per Voyage of the Damned). An attempt to reconcile this eventuality was attempted years prior to the revival when the Virgin New Adventures series established that at some point the Brigadier has his youth restored to him. It remains to be seen, however, if televised continuity will follow suit.

Continuity

 * Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart last appeared on screen in The Five Doctors.
 * Doris was first mentioned in Planet of the Spiders.
 * The Seventh Doctor meets Lethrbidge-Stewart for the 'first time' (from the Brigadier's perspective) in NA: No Future (and then wipes his memory of the event so he could meet him for the first time in this story).


 * Bambera reappears in NA: Head Games''.
 * Alistair Lethbridge Stewart reappears after this story in NA: Happy Endings (where his memory is restored) and EDA: The Shadows of Avalon.

DVD and Video Releases
This story has been confirmed for DVD release on November 17th 2008.

Novelisation

 * Main article: Battlefield (novelisation)


 * Novelised as Battlefield in 1991 by Marc Platt.