A surprisingly strong historical tale! Combining drama with character and just a drop of main character development. Leading to a story that’s well worth your time.

The Doctor and Steven land in Paris, 1572. Where conflict between the Catholics and Huguenots is driving the country towards breaking point. They arrive in the calm before the storm, before they get split up.

This episode is one of the currently lost episodes in season 3. Your options for watching it are limited. Considering the ending section of this story, it would be a shame to read this. It is very performance heavy. That leaves you with either the Narrated Soundtrack, or the Loose Cannon Reconstruction. In this case, the Reconstruction is very visually solid, so I would take that route. Anyway, on to the review:

Let’s talk about our main characters first. For the Doctor and Steven, this is the story that confirms how the dynamics have changed. From the moment Katarina got shot out of an airlock a few episodes back, the pressure was put on their companionship. The Doctor’s victory speech at the end of Daleks’ Master Plan dealt the finishing blow: It’s not about the fun anymore.

In audio, we’ve continued this strain on the relationship. While the Doctor and Steven trust each other, they can’t get used to their new 2 person dynamic. Especially since they have some big moral differences and traumatic events behind them. There is a constant distance. They try to keep up a superficial relationship, but it only leads to constant insults.

It's fundamentally broken: The Doctor can’t trust that Steven keeps up with his plans and ideas, while Steven can’t trust on the Doctor to do the right thing.

Why do I bring all this up here? Because this story makes them give up. This story is Steven once again not being involved in the Doctor’s ideas. He disappears after episodes 1 and only returns in episode 4. At the same time, when he finally shows up, he immediately flees for the tardis and leaves a young woman behind. Nothing has changed.

This makes Steven give up on him and leave. Leading to the pretty famous “They’re all gone” speech. The beauty of this speech is not in the incredible vulnerability he shows, but in the fact that he still completely misses the point. It isn’t about the companions and that they couldn’t understand him. It’s about them expecting more from the Doctor, and him not willing to live up to it. He is not a hero and he doesn’t think he can be. He considers giving up and returning home, but convinces himself he can’t do that. So what does that make him? Who is the Doctor?

It's a beautiful, beautiful piece that was sorely needed. After these last few stories, the Doctor begins to look like a bad guy. Leaving people behind without a care or consideration. This speech turn the black outline into morally grey. It’s not malice, it’s fear and misunderstanding of himself. A man who always chooses the flight response when it comes to fight or flight, because he cannot bear the weight of a fight. If you start fighting, when does the fighting ever stop?

After almost 60 years, we probably start to understand. The Doctor is right. The companions couldn’t understand the massive will it takes to start a never-ending fight. How many incarnations have begged for a break? An end to the fighting? That starts here. This Doctor has gained a morality in the last two seasons. He knows good from bad, he knows there are things in the universe worth protecting. He just isn’t ready to be the protector that others want him to be.

Let’s stop right there for now. Otherwise I’ll run out of material for my character retrospective. Just know that these 10 minutes might already be the most important event that happens in this entire season. But I should probably start talking about the other 90 as well.

I’ve mentioned before that the most important part of a dramatic historical is making us care about the characters it present. This story mostly succeeds on that front. An interesting change is that, without the Doctor, Steven becomes a very central part of the drama as well. He’s not some bystander or observer of history, he’s completely engulfed between the two factions.

Other members of those factions, sadly, aren’t as interesting. Maybe it would’ve helped if we had some sliver of footage, but that’s speculation. The problem is that there are probably too many people around. We have 14 important named characters to keep track of, and that can be too many at times. Their interpersonal relations become a bit muddled at times. Still, they do have their moments. And while I can’t remember all their names, I can remember most of the personalities.

Besides that, it still wasn’t entirely clear to me how the Massacre actually came to be. For example, it was pretty clear the queen was involved, but I don’t know in what way or exactly why. I wish some of the interpersonal banter had a bit more historical meat to it, so the main event became a bit more “looming”.

But even with these small trip-ups there’s plenty to love here. The introductory scenes in the bar are great character work and know how to set the scene for the entire city of Paris. Great use of location. There are also some really memorable scenes. Especially when Steven flees from a mob, which lands even though we have no footage. The overall story also lands completely. While details might be missing here and there, the overall conflict and reasons for conflict are pretty clear. The important parts hit.

Having said that, I would have loved those details. I think they would have raised the story to a higher level. Why does the priest look like the Doctor? Where was the Doctor anyway? Where is Preslin, the man who was with the Doctor? Add to that the earlier questions about the exact nature of the massacre, and I feel like this story could have had a tad more meat on its bones. It certainly had the time to answer these questions.

Other than that, we have a new companion to talk about. Throughout the story Steven is accompanied by a girl named Anne Chaplet, who eventually gets left behind in the Massacre. She survives, however, and we meet her great great great great granddaughter Dodo Chaplet.

What’s interesting about Dodo is that we know nothing about her. We know her name and she looks like Susan. That’s it. No year, no likes, dislikes, personality, anything. You can take this 2 ways. Either it’s bad because she should’ve been presented more carefully, or she was presented this way for a reason.

Dodo is the most random way we’ve aquired a companion. She stomps into the police box and is kidnapped shortly after. The Doctor mentions how she looks like Susan and has a smile on his face. Dodo doesn’t seem to care about any of it.

I think the Doctor sees Dodo as a way to recapture his glory days. His days of a grandfatherly traveller. A way to grab towards something familiar. It does not matter who Dodo is. It only matters what she reminds him of. A potential tool for better travels. Let’s see how this turns out in the long run.

Steven’s reason for returning is less solid. He did not know about Dodo, but he joined after he saw officers heading towards the Tardis. Apparently some part of him still cares the Doctor, but details are vague. I hope future stories go into this reason for return some more. For now, we have a new party of three, consisting of 2 dysfunctional individuals, a random third person and a lot of room for moral discussions. I can’t wait to see where it goes.

“The Massacre” is, apparently, a tale of two halves. That kind of surprised me. Those last 10 minutes do a lot and are beautiful, but you can’t judge a story purely on that. Besides it stands a well crafted and well realized world with its own characters and events. Some of those characters and events could use more focus, but what’s there is still great. This makes for an overall solid adventure which could lead to all kinds of things in the future. An absolute classic.