Ep. 105 Priest of Death

"No, Admiral, please! Talk of it some other time. War is so tedious. Move to matters closer to us."

   This story is getting a split review from  Ang and myself.  She isn't into this one, while I am enjoying it immensely.  I'm a little bit of a history buff and this is the sort of story that really appeals to me.  The story is also dialog driven.  That's not to say that there isn't any action, but the action plays second fiddle to the plot, unlike Masterplan where the action was almost all that was going on.
   This story does have a large cast of characters.  Since this is a missing story, I've been listening to the CD while following along with an on-line transcript.  This helps keep the characters separate in my head.  Angela has other things that she needs to be working on, so she doesn't have that advantage.  Subsequently, she isn't sure who is on which side in the Catholic/Huguenot conflict that is being played out.
   This is probably the most obscure historical event that Doctor Who has covered in one of their true historicals.  At least from an American perspective.  With all of the other historicals, I had at least some idea of what was happening, historically speaking, before watching.  Even The Smugglers, which will be coming up in season four, is something that I knew something about, thanks to movies like Jamaica Inn.
   There also is fairly little Hartnell in this one.  He's playing a dual role, but is hardly in the story.  At least through this, the third episode.  Peter Purves is really given a chance to shine.  The writers are setting up something wonderful for him next episode, that I'm trying not to divulge early.
   We're also starting to get to the end of the Hartnell run.  There are less than 30 episodes to go.  We'll be into Troughton by Christmas.
   Season three is the worst represented run of Hartnell.  Season one is missing some episodes, and complete stories, but there is still a lot there to be seen.  Season two was only missing two episodes, both from The Crusade.  So far into Season three, we've only had three episodes on video out of about two dozen.  The rest of the run improves in terms of the number of episodes that exist.  Tonight, we'll finish up The Massacre on audio, tomorrow we'll begin the Ark on DVD.

Next up: Bell of Doom