Highlanders is completely lost, which is too bad because it was the first appearance of Jamie McCrimmon, who became a very popular and long-lasting companion—a charming, muscular hero who wore a kilt, almost always. To paraphrase what actor Fraser Hines said in one of the extras somewhere: Patrick Troughton’s job was to make the complicated speeches, Fraser’s job was to get the girls to watch science-fiction, and the job of the girl in the miniskirt was to get the Dads in from the garden.
The TARDIS appears in Scotland after the Battle of Culloden in 1746, the British Army now triumphant over the rebel forces of Bonnie Prince Charlie. The Doctor, Ben, and Polly are taken prisoner by fleeing Scots. They hide in a deserted cottage with the wounded Laird Colin McLaren (Donald Bisset), his piper Jamie McCrimmon (Fraser Hines), his daughter Kirsty (Hannah Gordon), and his son Alexander (William Dysart), who dies defending them from English soldiers. The Doctor, Jamie, Ben, and the Laird are taken away to be hanged, but Polly and Kirsty slip away and hide in a cave, then in an animal pit, from the foolish and foppish Lieutenant Ffinch (Michael Elwyn). When he finds them, the girls first rob and then blackmail him.
The Royal Commissioner of Prisons, named Grey (David Garth) is shipping prisoners to the Colonies on the “Annabelle”, captained by a man named Trask (Dallas Cavell), and the Doctor’s group is included. At the prison in Inverness, the Doctor cons his way out, but the others remain imprisoned. The Doctor adopts the guises of a kitchen maid and a German man. He is reunited with Polly and Kirsty, then with Ben. The Doctor cons Grey and the girls free the prisoners and supply them with weapons. Others take “Annabelle” and sail it to France and freedom. When the time-travellers depart in the TARDIS, they invite the nervous Jamie on board.
There were no more historical stories until 1982, because Patrick Troughton was more interested in science and wanted to differentiate himself from William Hartnell.
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