Doctor Who, season 4 continues …

The Highlanders is another one of those early Doctor Who adventures that is missing from the BBC archives.

In order to watch the serial, I’ve discovered the “Loose Cannon” reconstructed version.  This version employs the audio of the story matched against telesnap (still images), descriptive text captions, existing footage where available, and sometimes a little added pieces of CGI/animation.

The Highlanders is a story of two parts.

The first half is about the Highlands in the aftermath of Culloden Moor and introducing the characters.

The second half takes place on board a slave ship – something that looks great in the stills so must have been fantastic in live action.

It’s not immediately clear why Jamie became a companion, other than the people in charge liking Fraser Hines.  He doesn’t play a particularly big or pivotal role in the adventure.  There are other characters that would probably have made better crewmembers.  It’s kind of like when they picked Adric from a group of much better characters in Full Circle.  Still, unlike Adric, we know that Hines went on to create a much-loved character.

Patrick Trougton is clearly enjoying his character now in this story (and I can’t help but wonder if this is because he already had a friendship with Fraser Hines and so he felt more comfortable in this story).

It is quite funny to see Polly chastise Kirsty for crying at everything when, in the very next story, it’s Polly running scared at every shadow.  I can see why this wasn’t a fulfulling role for Anneke Wills.

Next time … The Underwater Menace