Season 3, Episode 4 | 4 parts | First broadcast: 5–26 February 1966 | Writer: John Lucarotti (Donald Tosh, uncredited) | Director: Paddy Russell
Cast
- William Hartnell as the Doctor (also as the Abbot of Amboise)
- Peter Purves as Steven Taylor
- Jackie Lane as Dodo Chaplet
Summary
The TARDIS arrives in Paris in August 1572, days before the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, where Steven is horrified to find the Doctor apparently in league with the Catholic authorities as the sinister Abbot of Amboise. Left alone and increasingly desperate as the city descends into religious violence, Steven must decide whether to trust his missing friend at all, before the Doctor returns and departs with a new companion, the contemporary Londoner Dodo Chaplet.
Interesting Facts
- William Hartnell plays a dual role in this story, appearing as both the Doctor and his physical double, the Abbot of Amboise, the first time a lead actor took on two parts in the series.
- No episodes of this serial survive in the BBC archive; along with Marco Polo, it is one of only two complete stories lost entirely, with no surviving footage from any source.
- This story ends with the Doctor delivering an unusually reflective, melancholy monologue alone in the TARDIS about the companions he has lost.
- It introduces Dodo Chaplet, who joins the TARDIS crew in the story’s final scene after mistaking the ship for a real police box.
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