Written by Ben Aaronovitch
Directed by Michael Kerrigan

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television series that has been around on and off since 1963. The main character is just known as “The Doctor” and is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. This means he travels through time to various places. One of his favorite places to visit is Earth. Typically, he has a companion traveling with him, usually female, sometimes male, sometimes one of each. He travels in a time machine known as a TARDIS, which is disguised as a British Police booth. 

A Time Lord can regenerate if fatally wounded, which has accounted for all the different actors who have played The Doctor throughout the years. In this story-arc, the Doctor is portrayed by Sylvester McCoy. Sophie Aldred is Ace, his current traveling companion.

After intercepting a distress call originating from Earth, the Doctor and Ace find themselves in the village of Carbury. They find themselves in the middle of a UNIT convoy transporting nuclear missiles.  Upon hearing that the Doctor has returned and had an encounter with UNIT, the retired Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (portrayed by Nicholas Courtney) is summoned.  All of them soon find themselves in the middle of a battle being fought by armor-clad knights from another dimension.  This brings in Mordred, Morgaine, Merlin, and other familiar figures from Arthurian legends.

I had always dismissed the last years of the original run of Doctor Who.  I don’t think I saw any episodes once Peri entered the picture, as it just didn’t seem to be the same.  Watching these story-arcs on DVD with Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor, this is the first time that I am seeing them.  The truth is, they aren’t nearly as bad as I expected them to be, and in many cases, they are quite good.  Battlefield is one that is pretty good.

What works really well here is the story, which combines the regular series characters we’re familiar with into one of Earth’s legends and comes up with a science fiction angle.  Here, it’s the legend of King Arthur and Excalibur that’s explained using warriors from another dimension that have come back to fight the battle once more.  It’s exciting and familiar at the same time.  Add in the UNIT angle with nuclear missiles, and there’s a nice degree of suspense about what could happen.

I enjoyed McCoy as the Doctor a lot more than I expected to in this story-arc.  The more I’ve seen of him, the more I believe he was unfairly maligned for “killing the series”.  He certainly was darker and had an edge to him that wasn’t present in other versions of the Doctor, but at the same time, he had a moral code he stood by.  It was easy to tell when he was worked up about something, but there never seemed to be a risk that he would descend into lashing out at his enemies and slaughtering them, no matter how much they directly threatened those he cared about.

Sophie Aldred is also terrific as Ace.  She gets a pal here to play off of and does so quite well.  Shou Yuing (portrayed by Ling Tai) is a young woman much like herself who has an affinity for explosives.  It really gives Ace much more depth to see her with a friend on an even playing field rather than just with the Doctor and those trying to cultivate her into being more than what she seemed to be stuck with for her future when she was first brought on board.  She and Shou Yuing have a good relationship as two unconventional females, and it works quite well for the character.

Battlefield was originally supposed to be the swan song for Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, but writer Ben Aaronovitch couldn’t bring himself to follow through on that in the end.  I wish he had been brought back alongside the more recent incarnations of the Doctor, but his last series appearance came with Elisabeth Sladen in The Sarah Jane Adventures.  It was rumored that the Brigadier would finally meet the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant, in another episode of that series having to do with Sarah Jane’s wedding, but that never happened due to Courtney’s illness.  In retrospect, would it have been better to kill him off in Battlefield?  Maybe.  Courtney was fantastic here and really brought the Brigadier back as a hero in so many ways.  I thoroughly enjoyed his performance here, and the writer gave him a role with true meat to it rather than just a cursory appearance for the sake of having his name here to draw more ratings.

Battlefield is also available as a feature-length cut. Listening to the commentary and other special features, it’s stated that this originally was just about three parts, possibly running a little long, when it was decided to make it four episodes long, and additional story elements were added.  The feature-length cut more resembles what the original story was intended to be.

The special features on Doctor Who DVDs have always made these worth purchasing rather than just viewing the story-arcs online.  Battlefield is no exception.  There’s a great commentary track, perhaps the last one Courtney ever recorded for the series.  There are featurettes on the production, including one that details how filming in a water tank went awry while Sophie Aldred was still in it.  If you’ve enjoyed watching the variances in the title sequence over the years, it’s worth noting that, in addition to the title sequence, the music score for the episodes seems to have 1980’s new wave elements to it.  It really captures the flavor of the era this was filmed in.

If you’re like me and haven’t given the Sylvester McCoy era of Doctor Who a fair shot before, I urge you to take a look at Battlefield.  It’s got terrific story elements combined with a great cast, including an old favorite.  It goes a long way to making the argument that McCoy was unfairly maligned for the series’ demise.


SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Commentary with Sophie Aldred, Nicholas Courtney, Angela Bruce, Writer Ben Aaronovitch, and Script Editor Andrew Cartmel.
• Info Text
• Storm Over Avallion ~ making “Battlefield”
• Past and Future King
• Watertank
• Studio Recording
• From Kingdom to Queen