The Highlanders

"It takes a McCrimmon to play the pipes."

Writer: Gerry Davis

Format: Novel

Released: November 1984

Series: Target 90

Featuring: Second Doctor, Polly, Ben, Jamie

Synopsis

History books don't always tell the whole story. Certainly there is no record of an episode that occurred when the Scots, led by Bonnie Prince Charlie, were defeated by the English at the Battle of Culloden in 1746...

And the presence at the time of a blue police box on the Scottish moors seems to have escaped the notice of most eye-witnesses...

The Highlanders sets the record straight. And while the incidents described may not be of great interest to historians, for Jamie McCrimmon they mark the beginning of a series of extraordinary adventures.

Verdict

The Highlanders was a decent little novelisation of the televised story sharing the same name. I was intrigued before reading as to what I might expect when going through this book because the entire televised serial is sadly missing from the BBC archives and it's fair to say that I don't have the strongest memory of the Loose Canon reconstruction that was used to blog the story back in 2014. It's obviously synonymous with being the introduction of Jamie as a companion and he would stay alongside the Second Doctor right up until The War Games. I must admit that I don't actually remember Jamie featuring so prominently in the serial so that was a refreshing element of the book. It was also good to start with just the trio of the Second Doctor, Polly and Ben because we only got to see that in The Power of the Daleks so the story starting out with them as the lead characters was magnificent. Of course, I think the writer utilised the foreknowledge and Jamie's standing in Who folklore throughout the book, especially when referring to the McCrimmon clan. I thought it was fun for Polly and Ben to think they had arrived back home because of the weather, but surely they couldn't just assume that they'd landed in their own time given the fact the TARDIS travelled in time? That was a little annoying. I know it's early days for the Second Doctor in this story, but I didn't think the characterisation was overly impressive for Patrick Troughton's incarnation. It just didn't quite feel like a traditional Second Doctor writing of the lead character and that was a little off-putting. I'm not a big fan of him dressing in drag as I don't think it offered a huge amount to the adventure and he certainly seemed to be getting from place to place in quick fashion! The chapters flowed well given there were a lot of them with a consistent page count of 8-10 which is ideal for the novelisations, but I thought they could have ended in more of a cliffhanger style at least a couple of times. Polly had an outstanding story and I loved her relationship with Kirsty. They were great together and reading how she flaunted herself confidently was a delight. She was getting the upper hand of Algernon in quite wonderful style. She was right at home. Her and Ben's confusion over why the English were the enemy was amusing and I liked the idea of a story set during the Battle of Culloden and during the eighteenth century conflict between Scotland and England. The search for Bonnie Prince Charlie was good and I liked the Doctor placing Jamie in that role. The Scot's outrage when he didn't cotton onto the fact that the Doctor was on his side when accusing him and getting out of jail was great. Solictor Grey and Perkins alongside him made for a good villainous historical figures and they fitted right in with the era. The Scots being offered life, death or slavery was quite something and showed just how different times were in this era! Ben being sentenced to death managing to survive was great, but the Doctor greeting him after his swim was a little too convenient. I liked the separation from the TARDIS, but one thing I couldn't quite grasp was what exactly the Doctor and co were sticking around for. Once they were all back together, it seemed logical that they would just find the TARDIS. I never got a huge sense of the end goal and that meant the conclusion couldn't quite be as exciting as it ought to have been. There seemed to be a lack of stakes. Despite that, it was still a very enjoyable read with a great use of historical setting and a lovely little introduction for Jamie. Overall, a good story! 

Rating: 7/10