Doctor Who/Recap/S1/E08 The Reign of Terror
Death, always death! Do you think I want this carnage?—Robespierre
For the last story of Season One, we're back in history land with this adventure in Revolutionary France. It's 1794 during the eponymous Reign of Terror, and the TARDIS crew get themselves involved in a Scarlet Pimpernel-style escape committee saving aristocrats from the guillotine. The Doctor ends up fast-talking Robespierre while Ian and Barbara bump into a young artillery officer by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Eventually, however, they make it back to the TARDIS and, with the show's future uncertain, the first season signed off with the following dialogue:
Ian Chesterton : "What are we going to see and learn next, Doctor?"
The Doctor : "Well, unlike the old adage, my boy, our destiny is in the stars, so let's go and search for it..."
Watch episodes 1-3 and 6, along with reconstructions[1] of episodes 4 and 5 here. The BBC has announced a DVD release with episodes 4 and 5 animated.
Tropes
- Bavarian Fire Drill: The Doctor, of course, with enough plumes in his hat to overshadow all of Broadway.
- Genre Savvy: Stirling, as regards Napoleon.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: After the companions have been captured, one guard basically offers Barbara freedom in exchange for sex. For his troubles, he gets a slap to the face.
- Historical Domain Character: Robespierre, Napoleon Bonaparte.
- Ignored Epiphany: Robespierre has one in Episode 4.
- Missing Episode: Episodes 4 and 5.
- The Mole:
- M. Colbert
- The physician, too.
- Nice Hat
- Reign of Terror/The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized
- Reverse Mole: Stirling
- Shut UP, Hannibal: One of the men come to arrest Robespierre shoots Robespierre in the jaw when he tries a Hannibal Lecture.
- Stock Episode Titles: 10 uses. Justified, in that this episode is about, well, the Reign of Terror.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Robespierre
- The X of Y