2 out of 5

Directed by: Paddy Russell

I was pleased at how pleasantly this historical serial was turning out… before it completely plummets in it second half into the type of heavy exposition that tends to slow these eps down.

Doc and Steven emerge into 1572 Paris, which interests the Doc in visiting a scientist of the time with whom he’d be interested to speak, leaving Steve at a tavern to wait it out.  This is probably the most organic ‘split’ the show has used – one character willfully leaving, the other actually obeying and staying behind – that it automatically couches the serial in a bit more of a mature setting than the general whimsy.  Steven also plays it straight, claiming – to those at the tavern – to be an Englishman unaware of the Parisian politics, which gives the writers an easy way to update us without it seeming shoved into the plot.  We then cut between Doc’s conversations with the scientist and Steven getting friendly with some new Huguenot mates.  The trouble begins when the Doctor doesn’t return, as expected, before curfew, and the episode ends with the silly but fun cliffhanger revealing that the Abbot of Amboise – a religious zealot of the era, helping to whip up the Catholic / Protestant frenzy – looks exactly like the Doctor.  Now it’s important to note that we’re shown the Doctor in his conversation, then a moment later we’re shown the Abbot.  There can really be no confusion on the behalf of the viewer that they are two separate characters.

Part 2 has Steven getting himself into trouble with his friends when his story of being a travelin’ man starts to seem thinner and thinner, and, when spotting the Abbot and proclaiming him to be the Doc, suddenly he is assumed to be a Catholic sympathizer.  This makes it difficult for the Huguenots to listen when Steven tries to tell them about the rumblings he’s overheard about pre-Bartholomew’s Massacre troubles.

All of this is pretty entertaining (even reconstructed) and I appreciated that they were letting us learn the history as things unfolded.  But, uh, strike that when it gets to the latter half.  Suddenly we’re all talking heads, non-Doc and Steven talking heads, and even though we know the Abbot and the Doctor are not the same, suddenly it seems like we’re supposed to be as confused as Steven on the matter.  Hartnell was away for episode 2, explaining his absence there, but keeping him out (as the Doctor) in episode 3 and most of 4 is puzzling, and makes his sudden return at the episodes conclusion – moments before shit hits the fan – a sloppy “oh, I was in the closet the whole time, whoops” wrap-up that undoes the grace with which they initially parted our leads.  And then the equally ridiculous coda where they pick up new companion Dodo…

I believe we’re getting to the end of these historical eps, which I look forward to.  Most of them are derailed because of a need to suddenly stuff it with education, and ‘Bartholomew’s Eve’ is a pretty perfect 50/50 example of that.