Rate and Discuss: The Highlanders

[Rob McCow]

Hoots Mon! It's wee Doctor McWho's most Scottish Adventure of all yon time!

The Doctor, Ben and Polly arrive in Scotland in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden, befriending the Jacobites and fleeing the King's Men.

Will Polly and her friend Kirsty win over Lieutenant Algernon Ffinch? Will the Doctor and Ben be sold into slavery by sinister Solicitor Grey? Will the rebels escape? And who was that terrible Piper?

What do you think of The Highlanders?

Remind yourself at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hig...rs_(Doctor_Who)
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Highlanders_(TV_story)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/class...e/highlanders/

[Rob McCow]

Whoops, kind of botched the poll!

Anyway, I gave this one a seven. It's probably pretty damn good, but the fact that it hasn't imprinted itself on fandom's minds and isn't as well regarded as The Myth Makers or Marco Polo might say something. It also killed off historical stories for pretty much the whole rest of Doctor Who's run!

Not to say it's bad though. There's some good comedy, there seems to have been location shooting and it introduced 'popular' companion Jamie McCrimmon. It's just not that memorable.

[Larry]

but the fact that it hasn't imprinted itself on fandom's minds and isn't as well regarded as The Myth Makers or Marco Polo might say something..

and yet if we were ever to see it in full we might actually like it - the fact it's completely missing certainly dosen't help it's cause and it's always going to be the poor relations of missing episodes compared to Power, Fury and Web of Fear. From what I've seen of the telesnaps it dose look to be a bit of a dull story but having said that it's one where I'd be more than happy if an episode was ever recovered.

[J.R. Southall]

You know, I've given it an 8 even though I'm aware it's far from being the best story ever made ... just because I enjoyed both the book and the recon I saw so much. I'll 'go with' any story that keeps me entertained (yes, I gave The Curse of the Black Spot 8/10 too), and I just have this feeling that if I were ever able to actually watch this story properly, I'd just get thoroughly immersed in it. I guess I have a thing for the later, less stringent historical stories, and it's a toss-up for me which out of this and The Smugglers I miss the most.

[Larry]

obviously The Highlanders is never going to be on anybodies list for most wanted return of a missing episode but I actually would love to see Ep4 found as it would be lovely to see Jamie, joining the Doctor.

[J.R. Southall]

obviously The Highlanders is never going to be on anybodies list for most wanted return of a missing episode.

I refer you to my post in the 'Which Story would you most like to see returned?' thread!

(N.B. I don't mention The Highlanders by name, but it is the 'other' historical...)

[Andrew Curnow]

The very first hardback WH Allen I bought, as opposed to paperback Target, was The Highlanders, and I loved it! Back then I knew nothing about the story (apart from the obvious) so it was really very exciting to read.

Now that the telesnaps have turned up, it looks rather jolly too and there's a definite 'rompiness' to it that appeals to me. So rather like The Smugglers, I think it's a somewhat undemanding, but very entertaining, story that would be a joy to watch.

Plus, Troughton in a frock!

[Anthony Williams]

There's nothing wrong with this story, per se. But it's never going to rank among my favourites. Part of the problem is that it's just not particularly memorable. In fact, the only thing I really remember it is that Jamie came on board the TARDIS at the end...

And I think it says a lot that this was the story that pretty much killed off the pure historicals. This one only gets 5/10 from me!

[SiHart]

I want to like this story as I remember rather enjoying the novelisation back in the day, but I found the audio, even with the narration difficult to keep track of. So my memories of it are rather confused.

Also, I find Polly rather unbearable in this, with her all people from the past are terribly stupid attitude towards Kirsty. It seemed to be something coming from the writer rather than from the character and it's not a great viewpoint.