7.9: Battlefield

In which Remembrance is inverted.

Broadcast: September 1989

Watched: February 2021

Battlefield, Part One

“Whenever this Doctor turns up, all hell breaks lose.” This feels like a new approach to the character  – the idea that by being present during times of trouble he is in some way the guy who brings the storm. You get that a lot in the New Adventures, in Clive’s explanations to Rose, in the Children of Time stuff in Journey’s End, in loads of Moffat stuff... 

...but I *think* that line is the first time it actually makes it into the text. Have I forgotten any?

Anyway. Love that this is a pilot for not one but two versions of the show that never happen (the new UNIT era, the Doctor as Merlin). The thought occurs that having a throwback from a future era is also a trick that Moffat will go on to use with River Song in 2008.

Interesting how it starts with the Brig, and then keeps him away from the Doctor (for ages, as it turns out) – the show seems to assume we’ll remember him, which feels odd, as he’s been in it twice in a dozen years. I do like the new UNIT though, and the gratuitous continuity references (“Who’s Elizabeth Shaw? I don’t even look like her”). The show even nicks the Pertwee era’s near future shtick. Taking continuity and using it to do something new also feels like quite a Moffat trick. 

The guitar stings that accompany the knights feels very late 1980s. Love that Ace assumes Ancelyn is an android because this is Doctor Who so that seems more likely that “knight”.

Weird how this future has signs with kilometres and car phones but not mobiles.

I was thinking it was weird how Ace meets another girl who’s obsessed with explosives, but oh wait it’s because Shou Yuing is faking it to get into her pants isn’t it never mind nothing to explain here. Not sure I like the Doctor denying Ace a nice refreshing vodka.

The ending makes no sense – why on Earth does Bambera try to arrest the Doctor? Why does she even think she has the power of arrest? I don’t care really, it’s loads of fun, but still.

Battlefield, Part Two

I have never noticed before that Merlin is meant to be dead. Morgaine kills the Doctor off screen and the show just ignores it. That too feels very Moffat. So does the army that runs at the mention of Merlin’s name, and the door that opens when the Doctor tells it to, and the fact Morgaine uses the line “How goes the day?” which River uses in A Good Man Goes To War. I think this might be a big Moffat influence.

I have written down the words “Assumed knowledge”. I wonder what that was about? I assume there’s something in here that assumes the audience remembers a continuity thing but I can’t work out what now. Anyway.

I really like that Bambera is a bit ridiculous – it would have been easy to cast a black woman in that role and then make her perfect, but instead she’s sort of the folk memory of the Brig, sympathetic but a bit comic. Maybe that’s what the assumed knowledge was.

There are some silly bits: the Brig seeming to sense danger in his sleep (he STILL hasn’t reached the plot by the end of this episode), McCoy’s performance when Morgaine speaks to him from afar, the lights going out and everyone screaming.

On the upside: Morgaine’s respect for the dead (is she exiling Mordred or just sending him to his room? It isn’t very clear), Ancelyn and Bambera asleep on each other and the Doctor tiptoeing round so he can wake them up with an exploding crisp packet.

James Ellis oddly plays Peter Warmsley’s archaeology lecture as if he’s gone mad, rather than as if he’s baffled and playing for time.

I did not enjoy the fish puns.

McCoy has really perfected his umbrella walk by now.

Battlefield, Part Three

“Ahh. You wish to run away.” Moffat absolutely loves this story, doesn’t he.

Still enjoying this loads, but it is past the point when the script really should have told us what Morgaine is trying to achieve. There are fights happening but it isn’t an invasion... What is going on and why does it require UNIT to shoot at things? Oh hang on, the Doctor also thinks it’s stupid and it’s meant as a diversion. Still, I do feel like we should know what the bad guys are trying to achieve *before* the third cliffhanger.

Bessie! It is odd that in 1989 they decide to make a new UNIT story. The reunion scene is very nicely played. Weird that it doesn’t come til episode 3. The bit where Ace is the lady of the lake is terrific.

Another influence: Chibnall/RTD nick Ace’s silent mouthing for Martha in 42.

The modern UNIT women pull out their guns over very little don’t they. The scene where Morgaine murders Lavelle and then cures Elizabeth’s blindness is terrifyingly strange. Although from some perspectives, the Doctor’s new mind control abilities are even scarier.

Why doesn’t Shou Yuing go in her own car? Oh wait it’s still because she’s trying to bang Ace never mind. Her argument with Ace is terribly written and played.

Battlefield, Part Four

“Just between you and me Modred, I’m getting a little tired of hearing about your mother.”

Morgaine is bad ass and Mordred a little bitch. McCoy threatening to decapitate someone is pretty cool. Interesting that they consciously invert a scene from the previous year – like the Pertwee years but little other 20th century Who, Cartmel treats his era as a single text. [Jim Cooray-Smith has pointed out to me that this story systematically inverts the writer, Ben Aaronovitch’s, other story Remembrance of the Daleks: future Britain, future UNIT, the Doctor’s future coming back to haunt him, etc. Clever, that.]

The Destroyer is another thing that no one really bothers to explain.

The Doctor telling Ace she’s pleased she surrendered the sword to save her life is a lovely moment. Ace ignoring the Doctor’s warning to stay out and running into the vortex is something else nicked by the Moffat era, this time in Vincent.

McCoy’s habit of cracking jokes about timing, like Pertwee’s habit of spending half his tenure unconscious, feels under discussed. He makes two in this episode alone.

The Brigadier’s self sacrifice, the Doctor’s raging grief and the Brig waking up is brilliant. And the Doctor doffing his hat as he walks through the middle of the sword fight. And the Doctor talking Morgaine out of starting World War Three.

Mordred begs for his death, Ancelyn is willing to die with honour. Tempted to find an influence on Doctor Falls here, too.

Doris: “I’ll drive on the way back” finally, Ace gets a drink. And the Doctor cooks!

Flawed but I love it so there. Funny how little the NAs followed up on this.