The Massacre


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BOOK DETAILS

Pages 144
ISBN 0-426-20297-X
Publication Date 19 November 1987

SYNOPSIS

1987 Target Books edition

The TARDIS lands in Paris on 19 August 1572. Driven by scientific curiosity, The Doctor leaves Steven to meet and exchange views with the apothecary, Charles Preslin.

Before he disappears, he warns Steven to stay out of ‘mischief, religion and politics.’ But in sixteenth-century Paris it is impossible to remain a mere observer, and Steven soon finds himself involved with a group of Huguenots.

The Protestant minority of France is being threatened by the Catholic hierarchy, and danger stalks the Paris streets. As Steven tries to find his way back to the TARDIS he discovers that one of the main persecutors of the Huguenots appears to be – The Doctor.

1992 Target Books edition

ON THE THRONE SAT THE DEADLY ABBOT OF AMBOISE. STEVEN STARED AT HIM IN HORROR. ‘THAT’S – THE DOCTOR!’

The TARDIS lands in Paris on 19 August 1572 and the Doctor, driven by scientific curiosity, leaves Steven in order to meet and exchange views with the apothecary Charles Preslin.

Ignoring The Doctor’s warning to stay out of trouble, Steven finds himself caught up with a group of Huguenots, whose very existence is threatened by the Catholic hierarchy. As Steven tries to find his way back to the TARDIS, he is horrified to find the greatest persecutorof the Huguenots is actually none other then The Doctor himself…

First broadcast in 1966, this story is the only one to feature William Hartnell playing a characterother then The Doctor himself. It also introduced the characterof Dodo Chaplet, who was to accompany The Doctoron his next five adventures

NOTES

CHAPTER TITLES


  • Prologue

  1. The Roman Bridge Auberge
  2. Echoes of Wassy
  3. The Apothecary
  4. Double Trouble
  5. The Proposition
  6. Beds for a Night
  7. Admiral de Coligny
  8. The Escape
  9. A Change of Clothes
  10. The Hotel Lutèce
  11. The Royal Audience
  12. Burnt at the Stake
  13. The Phoenix
  14. Talk of War
  15. Face to Face
  16. A Rescue
  17. Good Company All


  • Epilogue

DEVIATIONS FROM THE TELEVISED STORY

  • Lucarotti adds a prologue and epilogue in which The Doctor is being asked to explain his actions in sixteenth century France to a group of Time Lords.
  • The final scene on the televised story is where The Doctor and Steven have travelled forward to 20th century England and have been mistaken for a real Police Box by Dodo Chaplet (possible relative of Anne Chaplet). This scene is absent from the novel.
  • Due to several behind-the-scenes changes at the time this story was made, the final televised version bore very little resemblance to the scripts that John Lucarotti had submitted. The novelisation is thus an adaption of Lucarotti’s scripts, rather than of the televised serial (which was largely written by Donald Tosh, the then-story or). William Hartnell’s double role as The Doctor and as the Abbot of Amboise is a key centerpiece to the book, where it was suggested only minimally on (Hartnell only having three speaking scenes as the Abbot) and the book’s ending is much more gentle and optimistic than the version.
  • The characterof Charles de Teligny is not in the novel.
  • Simon Duval is killed in the novel.
  • Henri III is mentioned.
  • In the novelisation, The Doctor is present, and could be argued is partly responsible, for the slaying of the Abbot of Amboise. The Abbot is considerably more antagonistic in the novelisation and a direct threat to both The Doctor and Steven, believing them to be agents of either the Huguenots or Satanic powers.
  • The Doctor and Steven depart Paris on sobering, but nevertheless, s ofter terms than in the televised story. It is mentioned that The Doctor dispatched the Chaplets north to safety and Preslin to Germany where he could further his study of germinology by meeting the scientist who invented the microscope.
  • The final scene of the televised story wherein The Doctor and Steven have travelled forward to twentieth-century England and been mistaken for a real Police Box by Dodo Chaplet is absent from the novelisation. However, both Dodo and her possible relation to a rescued Anne Chaplet are mentioned in the epilogue.

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