Who Review: The Witchfinders

A trip to see the coronation of Elizabeth I takes a wrong turn, landing the Doctor and her friends in Jacobean Lancashire. The year is 1612. They arrive in time for a village party which suddenly turns into a witch hunt. Literally. Accused of witchcraft, an elderly lady is put in the dunking chair. Unable to stop the proceedings, the Doctor tries to rescue the woman from the water but she’s too late. Becka Savage, the local witch hunter is at first incensed at the Doctor’s interference. But, passing herself off as the Witchfinder General, the Doctor gains the upper hand. For now. There’s more than witchcraft going on at Pendle Hill. When giant tendrils attack the dead woman’s granddaughter, the Doctor is determined to get to the bottom of whatever evil has brought fear to the village.

SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those that haven’t seen the episode. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!

The eighth episode of the season takes a bit of a darker turn with a story of witch trials. Fear plays a major part in the story, both fear of accusation, and fear of the unknown. Joy Wilkinson’s script makes for some of the scariest moments in this season’s set of stories so far. Of course, “scary” is relative. This isn’t on the same level as “Blink” or even “Robots of Death,” but it does the job.

I’m always wary when Doctor Who–especially the New Series–treads on “religious” ground, particularly when it’s dealing with Christian belief. The Tenth Doctor story, “The Satan Pit” and the Twelfth Doctor’s first season finale, “Death in Heaven” are examples of such stories. The former tried to remain ambiguous regarding the true nature of “The Beast,” which I can live with. The latter turned heaven and ideas of the afterlife into a scheme by Missy to overrun the world with Cybermen. That was going too far (see my review).

How did Thirteen do? Not very well, I’m afraid. Her statement that she doesn’t believe in Satan was at best culturally insensitive. Not that she had to pretend to believe in something she doesn’t, but she could have at least suggested ruling out other options. Even as a Christian who does believe in Satan, I know not every bad thing is a direct Satanic attack. Christians have long recognized our struggle against the world and the flesh, as well as the devil. Sure, this particular struggle was with the out-of-this-world, but the point stands. Also her handling of Exodus 22:18 (“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” KJV) was theologically inane. First, the New Testament is not an “update.” It’s a fulfillment. The New Testament does not invalidate Exodus 22:18. Pitting the New Testament against the Old like that is extremely naive and displayed an ignorance of Christian theology unworthy of someone who has supposedly lived as long and is supposedly as well-read as the Doctor.

The saving grace of the story (ha ha) is the fact that it is, actually, a good story with an interesting take on the “alien invasion” trope. The idea of a hill in Lancashire being used as an alien prison that is sealed by a tree is, I think, genius. When Savage damaged the tree, she allowed alien essence to infect her and revive the bodies of the dead. These aliens, the Morax, plan to take over King James and through him conquer Earth.

Alan Cumming’s King James I is, perhaps, more modern than most other dramatic interpretations. Historians today seem to agree that the king was probably homosexual. This is brought out in the story with the king’s nudge-nudge-wink-wink comments to Ryan (his “Nubian prince”). This is not majored on, however, and the king ends up playing an important part in the Morax queen’s demise. This kind of restraint is, I think, one of the things that I appreciate with this season. Chibbers could have pushed a lot of politically correct messages over the last eight weeks, what with a female Doctor, a pregnant man, and now a gay king. But so far he’s kept the focus on telling a good story with the Doctor as the hero. These other things may raise an eyebrow and speak to certain groups within Western culture, but they don’t detract from the story. And they shouldn’t.

To sum up, this was an entertaining and novel take on an old idea. While I have misgivings over how the Doctor handled the beliefs of the villagers, it was a good story. Acting and effects were all top-notch as usual. Not classic Who, but worth 45 minutes of your time.