The Highlanders (1966/1967) Review

"Verararreea but dantraree..."
What I saw and heard during most of this reconstruction.

The Highlanders is the worst serial I've had to endure so far. Besides being a weak story already that barely utilizes the cast, the reconstruction I watched was barely tolerable. Four episodes of mumbling and tumbling about in Scotland. Oh yeah, and they botched Jamie's introduction.

The TARDIS crew shows up right after a battle in the Highlands and comes across four Scot survivors whom they decide to help out. Polly and a Scottish girl get separated and spend most of their time hiking whilst Doktor Von Wer and Ben get embroiled in a plot to smuggle Scottish slaves to the plantations.
And Jamie's in it too.

Patrick Troughton is still in his unstable period and it's hard to get a grip on the character. Currently, all we have is "goofball who refuses to talk about anything". And the fact that he only talks in comedic sentences means there's absolutely no involvement with his character(okay, Dr. Von Wer was hilarious).

Frazer Hines debuts as Jamie McCrimmon, a piper guy who joins the TARDIS crew at the end. I am disappointed.

Polly has a surprisingly great role here, seducing a Redcoat to help the crew out a few times. It's quite different from what you usually see DW companions do. She's like the 1960s Rose or Amy.

Ben... well, we have Jamie now, don't we? Sorry Ben.

NOTES

*Killer line of the week: "Why do you wear the short skirts of a bairn? You're a grown woman." from the Scotch girl to Polly.

*Some of the characters here are far too silly. Both Perkins and Algernon follow what they're told with no real need. They HAVE the chance and the motive to arrest the heroes, but no...

*I love how the Doctor takes a nap in the middle of the story.

*More recorder antics!

*That's the second time that the Doctor has canonically been called "Doctor Who" in-show, even though it's in German this time around.

*Rather than a smuggling story overtaken by a pirate story, this is a highlander story overtaken by a smuggling story overtaken by a pirate story. Shouldn't this be called "The Pirates II"?

*I only know 2/3 of what the characters said because I read the transcript afterwards. It was that bad quality.

*Doctor to Polly: "Oh, you saucy girl." LOL

*Why does Grey complain about the corked wine? Isn't wine supposed to be corked?

*This is the second time the Doctor deliberately goes to rescue the guest stars after saving reuniting with his companions. I guess I should stop counting at this point.

CONCLUSION

It was a dull affair with possibly-good production values I couldn't even see, characters who were, for the most part just plain "evil"(Perkins excluded - he was actually a rather decent chap) and absolutely nothing to latch onto. Hartnell was always attention-grabbing whereas Troughton usually does his stuff in the background. Only one made his recons worth watching as a result(not a criticism, just a fact).