"The Reign of Terror" was the eighth and final serial in the first season of "Doctor Who". Episodes 4 and 5 (out of six) are missing and have been reconstructed using off-air sound recordings and specially commissioned animations. The Doctor, his granddaughter Susan and her teachers Ian and Barbara, arrive by TARDIS just outside Paris in the year 1794. To be precise, they arrive in the days leading up to the "Thermidorian Reaction", the overthrow of Robespierre and his supporters on 27th July 1794. I won't set out the plot in full, as it is a complicated one, but it involves the Doctor and his companions becoming involved with British spies and with an anti-Robespierre counter-revolutionary faction. Ian, Barbara and Susan are arrested and held in the notorious Conciergerie Prison under sentence of death. The Doctor must use all his cunning to free them.
When I reviewed the preceding serial "The Sensorites", I pointed out that it marked something of a softening in the First Doctor's character. In some of the earlier episodes he had come across as a pompous, grumpy old curmudgeon, cowardly and selfish with an inflated opinion of himself and few moral principles. Ian and Barbara seemed to be the real heroes of the programme. In both "The Sensorites" and "The Reign of Terror", however, although the Doctor is occasionally grumpy and frequently pompous or patronising, especially to his companions, he also shows himself capable of courage, selflessness and resourcefulness. Here he disguises himself as a senior official of the revolutionary regime in order to penetrate the Conciergerie and find out where his companions are being hidden.
Like a number of other serials from that season ("An Unearthly Child", "Marco Polo" and "The Aztecs"), "The Reign of Terror" was set during the Earth's past rather than in outer space. In its early days the programme was regarded as having a mission to educate children about both science and history. Despite this, "The Reign of Terror" is not always historically accurate. The main inaccuracy is that scriptwriter Dennis Spooner seems to have confused the events of the Thermidorian Reaction with those of the Coup of 18th Brumaire (9th November 1799) when Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the Directory and made himself de facto dictator of France. We therefore see Napoleon conspiring with Paul Barras against Robespierre. Barras was indeed one of the leading lights of the Reaction, but Napoleon took no part in it. (Indeed, at the time of these events he went into hiding, fearing that he would be targeted as a protege of Robespierre's brother Augustin).
My other criticism of the series is that it moves too slowly; the story did not really need to be spread over six episodes and a shorter running-time might have been more appropriate. A similar criticism could be made of other series from the first season, especially "The Sensorites" (also six episodes) and "The Daleks" (seven). "The Aztecs", by comparison, at only four episodes is much tauter and tells its story in a more economical fashion.
Overall, however, I found this an enjoyable series. The animated sequences are well enough done that they did not affect my enjoyment of the story. Yes, the historical details are not always accurate and one could complain that the plot, with its spies, its clandestine meetings, its dungeons, its cruel and implacable revolutionaries and its innocent victims rescued from tumbrils on their way to the guillotine, owes too much to "A Tale of Two Cities" and "The Scarlet Pimpernel". And yet all these ingredients, cliches though they may be, add up to a strangely satisfying historical adventure. The series may have aimed to educate children about history, but classroom lectures are not the only method of educating them. 7/10
A goof. Apart from the historical error I mention above, a young boy tells the Doctor and his companions that they are "a few kilometres" from Paris. The metric system did not come into use in France until 1799, five years after the events of this story, and even then it was not widely accepted by the common people.
When I reviewed the preceding serial "The Sensorites", I pointed out that it marked something of a softening in the First Doctor's character. In some of the earlier episodes he had come across as a pompous, grumpy old curmudgeon, cowardly and selfish with an inflated opinion of himself and few moral principles. Ian and Barbara seemed to be the real heroes of the programme. In both "The Sensorites" and "The Reign of Terror", however, although the Doctor is occasionally grumpy and frequently pompous or patronising, especially to his companions, he also shows himself capable of courage, selflessness and resourcefulness. Here he disguises himself as a senior official of the revolutionary regime in order to penetrate the Conciergerie and find out where his companions are being hidden.
Like a number of other serials from that season ("An Unearthly Child", "Marco Polo" and "The Aztecs"), "The Reign of Terror" was set during the Earth's past rather than in outer space. In its early days the programme was regarded as having a mission to educate children about both science and history. Despite this, "The Reign of Terror" is not always historically accurate. The main inaccuracy is that scriptwriter Dennis Spooner seems to have confused the events of the Thermidorian Reaction with those of the Coup of 18th Brumaire (9th November 1799) when Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the Directory and made himself de facto dictator of France. We therefore see Napoleon conspiring with Paul Barras against Robespierre. Barras was indeed one of the leading lights of the Reaction, but Napoleon took no part in it. (Indeed, at the time of these events he went into hiding, fearing that he would be targeted as a protege of Robespierre's brother Augustin).
My other criticism of the series is that it moves too slowly; the story did not really need to be spread over six episodes and a shorter running-time might have been more appropriate. A similar criticism could be made of other series from the first season, especially "The Sensorites" (also six episodes) and "The Daleks" (seven). "The Aztecs", by comparison, at only four episodes is much tauter and tells its story in a more economical fashion.
Overall, however, I found this an enjoyable series. The animated sequences are well enough done that they did not affect my enjoyment of the story. Yes, the historical details are not always accurate and one could complain that the plot, with its spies, its clandestine meetings, its dungeons, its cruel and implacable revolutionaries and its innocent victims rescued from tumbrils on their way to the guillotine, owes too much to "A Tale of Two Cities" and "The Scarlet Pimpernel". And yet all these ingredients, cliches though they may be, add up to a strangely satisfying historical adventure. The series may have aimed to educate children about history, but classroom lectures are not the only method of educating them. 7/10
A goof. Apart from the historical error I mention above, a young boy tells the Doctor and his companions that they are "a few kilometres" from Paris. The metric system did not come into use in France until 1799, five years after the events of this story, and even then it was not widely accepted by the common people.