Season 4, Episode 1 | 4 parts | First broadcast: 10 September – 1 October 1966 | Writer: Brian Hayles | Director: Julia Smith
Cast
- William Hartnell as the Doctor
- Anneke Wills as Polly
- Michael Craze as Ben Jackson
- Michael Godfrey as Captain Pike
- Paul Whitsun-Jones as the Squire
Summary
The Doctor’s new companions, Ben and Polly, arrive with him aboard the TARDIS on the coast of seventeenth-century Cornwall, where a local churchwarden’s cryptic rhyme leads them into a search for the hidden treasure of the pirate Captain Avery. Their investigation draws them into a dangerous conflict between a ruthless band of smugglers led by the local squire and the murderous pirate crew of Captain Pike, who will stop at nothing to claim the treasure for themselves.
Interesting Facts
- This serial is the first full story for companions Ben and Polly, and the last Doctor Who story produced under the same production block as Season 3 before being held over to open Season 4.
- No episodes of this serial are known to survive in the BBC archive; it exists only through audio recordings and photographs.
- It was one of writer Brian Hayles’s earliest scripts for the series, following on from his work on The Celestial Toymaker.
- The story continues the “pure historical” tradition of the early Hartnell era, one of the last such stories before the format was phased out entirely.
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