Doctor Who/Recap/S4/E04 The Highlanders

"The Doctor: Down with King George! Jamie: So you are for the Prince after all. The Doctor: No, I just like hearing the echo!"

The last "pure" historical story for twenty years, in which Doctor and companions are thrust into the midst of historical events without any additional sci-fi plot.

Landing in 18th century Scotland in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden, the new Doctor, Polly and Ben encounter a small group of highlanders escaping from the battle. While Polly is off fetching water, the others are captured by a British lieutenant, Algernon Ffinch. Ffinch's men pass them off to crooked solicitor Grey, who is selling captured highland clansmen into slavery in the West Indies.

Polly manages to blackmail Ffinch into helping, and the Doctor manages to get arms to the imprisoned highlanders on a ship awaiting transport. They take over the ship and sail to safety in France while the travellers leave, accompanied by a new companion, clan piper Jamie McCrimmon.

Watch it here

Tropes

 * Blackmail: Polly maintains a degree of control over Lieutenant Ffinch by threatening to tell everyone how she and Kirsty tricked and robbed him.
 * Disguised in Drag: The Doctor goes through several disguises as he avoids the Redcoats, including dressing as an old washer-woman. Polly tells him that he makes a good granny.
 * Herr Doktor: The Doctor pretends to be German
 * La Résistance
 * MacGuffin: Charles Edward's ring. Keeping it safe drives the first half or so of the plot...whatever happened to it again?
 * Missing Episode: The only surviving footage comes from censor clips, and all of those come from the first episode.
 * Talk Like a Pirate: Trask sports a classic pirate accent.
 * This Is My Name on Foreign: "Doktor von Wer"