The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (1966)

The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve (or The Massacre) has the dubious honour of introducing Dodo Chaplet. John Lucarotti has written this story and he seems to like doing historical stories having written ‘Marco Polo’ (1964) and ‘The Aztecs’ (1964). This is probably his weakest offering and sadly would be his last though he did contribute a script in 1975 that would go on to become ‘The Ark in Space’. This must have been quite a departure from the last story which was the epic ‘The Daleks Master Plan’.

The story sees William Hartnell not just play the Doctor but the Abbot of Amboise. I found the Abbot to be quite enjoyable and it must have been refreshing for Hartnell to be able to do this. The two characters never meet which is a shame but as far as the viewer/listener is concerned the Doctor disappears during the first episode and he doesn’t return until half way through episode four and its only Hartnell as the Abbot that we see. As a result its Steven that leads the story so in many ways it’s the first companion chronicle, 41 years before Frostfire. It at the end of the story that Dodo is introduced into the series and thus begins the era of irritation.

It’s not entirely Jackie Lane’s fault because there is nothing about the character that is likeable. She starts of as a cockney but by the time she leaves in ‘The War Machines’ her voice is poshier. The character was judged to be a failure by the producers but I think the mistake was not introducing the character earlier on in the story. Peter Purves does a fantastic job in this story which isnt the first time that I have written that about the character. I think his reaction to Dodo’s abrupt entrance was shared by the audience especially as it came after another fine speech from Hartnell. It concluded with his realisation that he should head back ‘home’ before dopey Dodo comes in.

The Massacre is an ok story in an otherwise poor season. As there are no telesnaps or clips that still exist, we only have the audio to base any opinion on. I think that audio has advantages but not in this case. I think that in this case it would have been better to see it when it aired in 1966.