The Massacre (also known as The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve) is the fifth serial of the third season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by John Lucarotti and Donald Tosh, and directed by Paddy Russell, it was broadcast on BBC1 in four weekly parts from 5 to 26 February 1966. In the serial, the First Doctor (William Hartnell) and his travelling companion, Steven (Peter Purves), arrive in France in 1572, during the events leading up to the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. Steven befriends a group of Huguenots and encounters the Doctor's lookalike, the Abbot of Amboise (Hartnell).
Lucarotti wrote the serial after his previous outlines had been rejected. Tosh, the programme's script editor, significantly rewrote the scripts, leading to a co-writer credit on the fourth episode. He soon resigned, and it was his final credited work on the series. The Massacre marks the first appearance of Jackie Lane as incoming companion Dodo Chaplet. It is notable for being the first Doctor Who serial directed by a woman and the first time the lead actor (Hartnell) played a dual role. Purves was given a leading role in the serial as Hartnell was briefly on holiday. Filming took place at Riverside Studios from January to February 1966.
The Massacre received an average of 6.4 million viewers across the four episodes, dropping more with each consecutive week; it was the programme's lowest figures since the first episode in 1963. Contemporary and retrospective reviews were generally positive, with praise for the performances, direction, and script, and the serial was sold extensively overseas. Its videotapes and film prints were wiped by the BBC in the 1960s and 1970s, and it remains missing; a complete off-air audio recording survives, but it is the only serial with no known visual recordings. The story was novelised by Lucarotti, who restored much of his original drafts, and the off-air recording has been released as an audiobook.
Plot The Doctor and his companion Steven Taylor arrive in Paris, France, in 1572, where tensions between the Huguenots and Catholics are at fever pitch in the city. The Doctor heads off to visit the apothecary Charles Preslin. Steven enters a tavern and meets Nicholas Muss, a Huguenot. When the Doctor does not return as arranged, Steven decides to spend the night at Nicholas's home. En route, they find a frightened servant girl, Anne Chaplet, who is terrified after overhearing Catholic guards speaking of a coming massacre of Huguenots. To protect her, Nicholas arranges for Anne to go into the service of Admiral de Coligny.
The next day, the Abbot of Amboise sends his secretary Colbert to find Anne. Steven becomes convinced that the Abbot is the Doctor in disguise. He tries to track down Preslin but learns he was arrested two years ago for heresy. Steven overhears Colbert and an assassin plotting to kill "the sea beggar". As night falls, Steven finds Anne following him. They hide at Preslin's empty shop, planning to search for the sea beggar's identity. They call upon the Abbot but are forced to flee after Steven realises the Abbot is not the Doctor. After the Abbot is killed, Anne and Steven meet at Preslin's shop, where the Doctor arrives.
After discovering the date, the Doctor insists that he and Steven depart immediately, warning Anne to remain at her aunt's house. He and Steven reach the TARDIS and depart as the massacre begins. Worried for Anne and his friends, Steven is angry that the Doctor made him leave, but the Doctor insists that history could not be changed. When the TARDIS lands in 1966 on Wimbledon Common, Steven offers a terse goodbye and ventures outside.
The Doctor reflects on his former companions and his inability to return home. A young girl enters the TARDIS, shortly followed by Steven, whose heart softens when the young woman introduces herself as Dodo Chaplet; Steven wonders if she is Anne's descendant. The Doctor, hearing Steven's warning of approaching policemen, hurriedly dematerialises the TARDIS, not noticing that Dodo is still aboard. Steven informs her of possible danger but, with few ties to her home, she appears unworried as the TARDIS continues its flight.
Production Conception and writing On 24 February 1965, Doctor Who script editor Dennis Spooner invited John Lucarotti to submit an idea for a historical story; he had previously written the first season's Marco Polo and The Aztecs (both 1964). Interested in a historical Indian setting, Lucarotti spoke to Waris Hussein, the British-Indian director of Marco Polo, who noted there were few interesting events prior to the seventeenth century and suggested the Indian Rebellion of 1857. After speaking with producer Verity Lambert and head of serials Donald Wilson, Spooner was forced to reject the idea due to an edict that historical serials be set before 1600. Lucarotti suggested a Vikings story instead, and Spooner verbally agreed.
In early May, Spooner's successor as script editor, Donald Tosh, invited Lucarotti to submit an idea, unaware of the verbal agreement. By late May, Tosh met with Lucarotti and approved the storyline: Erik the Red's discovery of Newfoundland in 1002. On 8 June, Tosh and new producer John Wiles told Lucarotti that they wanted the series to become more menacing and mysterious; Lucarotti rewrote his storyline over ten days, speaking twice to an enthusiastic Tosh, and submitted the twelve-page outline on 22 June. Two days later, Tosh and Wiles rejected the story, considering it unsuitable and too similar to The Time Meddler (1965), which was in production. Lucarotti, supported by Wilson, tasked his agents to follow up with the production team, and Tosh agreed to discuss a new storyline. Wiles wanted the series to explore a religious conflict; Tosh suggested the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, which Wiles approved, wanting the Doctor to witness history rather than interfere. On 9 July, Tosh commissioned Lucarotti to write the four-episode The War of God, due for 17 September.
Lucarotti submitted his scripts on 20 July, approved by Tosh the following day. By early August, Tosh requested second drafts; Lucarotti submitted the first two episodes on 28 September and the third and fourth on 6 and 8 October. Tosh formally approved the drafts on 15 November and paid Lucarotti in full, but subsequently made several edits; he was familiar with the subject matter and identified some mistakes, wanting to adhere to documented history and not misrepresent Gaspard de Coligny. He spent two days researching the period at the British Museum, followed by two weeks rewriting the scripts; Lucarotti asked for his name to be removed due to the extensive rewrites, though his agent dissuaded him. By late 1965, the serial was known as The Massacre of St Bartholomew, with the first episode titled "War of God"; the camera scripts were titled The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve.
Paddy Russell was assigned the serial's director on 26 November—the first woman to direct Doctor Who. She enjoyed the scripts and was apprehensive about working with lead actor William Hartnell but found him cooperative, acting as a sort of mediator between him and Wiles, with whom he was having disagreements. The serial's design work was originally assigned to Gwen Evans, then to Michael Young; neither had worked on the series before, and Young did not return. Though he remained during production of the following serial, The Massacre was Tosh's final credited work on Doctor Who, and he resigned from the BBC to work freelance; he had been unhappy with the series, partly due to his strained relationship with head of serials Gerald Savory, and discovered the vision of Wiles's incoming replacement, Innes Lloyd, differed from his own. In January 1966, Tosh handed over to his replacement, Gerry Davis, whose first credit was The Massacres fourth episode; Tosh was credited as co-writer due to his significant rewrites. Lucarotti considered Tosh the serial's author.
Casting and characters Hartnell had been interested in portraying a character besides the Doctor, suggesting a storyline in which he played the character's evil son; the idea went unused but Wiles was interested in similar experiments, leading to Hartnell's dual role as the Doctor and the Abbot of Amboise in The Massacre. The Abbot is a fictional character named after the 1560 Amboise conspiracy, a failed plot against François, Duke of Guise; the duke's assassination three years later was partly attributed by some to de Coligny. Tosh rewrote the scripts so Hartnell largely played one character in each episode, avoiding costume and make-up changes, and to account for Hartnell's holiday during filming of the second episode. Hartnell was credited solely as the Abbot in the second and third episodes, making them the only ones in the show's history in which the Doctor does not receive top billing. Russell occasionally told Hartnell when his performance as the Abbot leaned too heavily into the Doctor's mannerisms. Hartnell was concerned about the length of the Doctor's soliloquy in the final episode, but agreed to keep the full version after Tosh praised his performance during rehearsals; Tosh, who wrote the speech, considered it his "final signature on the programme" and wanted it to convey the show's "fundamental principles".
The Massacre had to introduce a new companion, following the loss of three in the two preceding serials. The first candidate was Anne Chaplet, a servant girl destined for death before being saved by Steven. Tosh and Wiles felt altering established history violated the series's principles and were cautious of introducing a historical companion after difficulties writing for Katarina. The script was rewritten to introduce Anne's descendant, Dodo, as the new companion, with similar character traits, indicating that Anne survived. Jackie Lane was cast as Dodo in early December 1965, contracted for thirteen episodes on 29 December (with an option for an additional twelve by May 1966). Years earlier, Lane had rejected Lambert's offer to audition for Susan Foreman, the show's first companion. Wiles had seen Lane's 1961 performance in the play Never Had It So Good and thought Dodo could use a working-class Mancunian accent. He wanted the character to change her hair in each serial, but Lane had her hair cut short before filming.
The Massacre is the first Doctor Who story to only feature a male companion—one of four in the show's original 26-year run. Steven was given a leading role as a result of Hartnell's holiday, which Tosh partly considered an apology to actor Peter Purves for the character's weaker role in Galaxy 4 (1965). André Morell was cast as Marshal Tavannes in December 1965; he was subsequently offered a role in the film Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966) but his contract prevented him from partaking. Russell cast her friend Cynthia Etherington as the old woman in the second episode and former BBC employee Marguerite Young as both a Parisian extra and dog-walker in the last two episodes. Roy Denton was cast as "1st Man" but fell ill during rehearsals, replaced by Will Stampe after the third day; Denton remained credited in Radio Times, which had already gone to press. Of the serial's fifteen speaking characters, six are fictional (including the Doctor, Steven, and Dodo), while seven are real historical figures and two are based on real history; none of the latter nine talk to the Doctor, and only two appear in the same scene as him—an intentional choice to avoid implications of historical interference. Purves felt the high calibre of the guest cast indicated the shifting tone towards the television industry at the time.
Filming