The Highlanders (TV story)

"You suffer from headaches...?"

- The Doctor

The Highlanders was the fourth story of Season 4 of Doctor Who. The story was the last of the 'pure historical' genre of Doctor Who television stories which had been a regular feature of the show since its inception. It also marked the first appearance of Frazer Hines as companion Jamie McCrimmon.

Plot
The time travellers arrive in Scotland just after battle of Culloden. The Doctor gains the trust of a small band of fleeing Highlanders by offering to tend their wounded Laird, Colin McLaren; but while Polly and the Laird's daughter, Kirsty, are away fetching water, he and the others are all captured by Redcoat troops under the command of Lieutenant Algernon Ffinch.

Grey, a crooked solicitor who sells prisoners for transportation to slavery in the West Indies, then secures the group into his custody. Polly and Kirsty blackmail Ffinch into helping, and the Doctor eventually wins the day by smuggling arms to the Highlanders, who are being held on board a stolen ship, the Annabelle.

Grey and the ship's unscrupulous captain, Trask, are overpowered and the vessel returned to its rightful owner, MacKay, who agrees to take the Scots to safety in France.

The Doctor, Polly and Ben return to the TARDIS, where they are joined on their travels by the young piper Jamie McCrimmon.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
 * Ben Jackson - Michael Craze
 * Polly - Anneke Wills
 * Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines
 * Alexander McLaren - William Dysart
 * The Laird - Donald Bisset
 * Kirsty McLaren - Hannah Gordon
 * Lieutenant Algernon Ffinch - Michael Elwyn
 * Sergeant - Peter Welch
 * Grey - David Garth
 * Perkins - Sydney Arnold
 * Sentry - Tom Bowman
 * Trask - Dallas Cavell
 * Mollie - Barbara Bruce
 * Willie Mackay - Andrew Downie
 * Sailor - Peter Diamond
 * Colonel Attwood - Guy Middleton

Crew

 * Assistant Floor Manager - Nicholas John
 * Costumes - Sandra Reid
 * Designer - Geoffrey Kirkland
 * Fight Arranger - Peter Diamond
 * Make-Up - Gillian James
 * Producer - Innes Lloyd
 * Production Assistant - Fiona Cumming
 * Script Editor - Gerry Davis
 * Special Sounds - Brian Hodgson
 * Studio Lighting - George Summers, Ken McGregor
 * Studio Sound - Larry Goodson
 * Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer

Story Notes

 * This story had the working title of Culloden.
 * The next "pure historical" serial, Black Orchid, would not be broadcast until 1982. Though Black Orchid is sometimes referred to as an historical serial, but while it takes place in the 1920s, actual historical events do not play into the plot of the latter story.

Ratings

 * Episode 1 - 6.7 million viewers
 * Episode 2 - 6.8 million viewers
 * Episode 3 - 7.4 million viewers
 * Episode 4 - 7.3 million viewers

Myths
to be added

Filming Locations

 * Frensham Ponds, Frensham, Surrey
 * Ealing Television Film Studios
 * Riverside Studio 1, Hammersmith, London

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors
Ffinch threatens his men with 300 lashes apiece (In the book, Davis alters it to a less terminal six.)

''The Jacobite rebellion is erroneously presented as an Anglo-Scottish conflict, rather than the attempt to restore the Stuart dynasty as it actually was. ''

Continuity
to be added

Timeline

 * This story occurs after The Feast
 * This story occurs before The Underwater Menace

Audio release

 * Released by the BBC Radio Collection in August 2000, narrated by Frazer Hines.
 * Re-released as part of the the Adventures in History box set released in August 2003 (with same content).

Novelisation

 * Main article: The Highlanders (novelisation)