Settings: The Reign of Terror

With the stories still alternating in theme, we turn to another pure historical for what became (but was not originally planned to be) the first season finale. While two of the original episodes no longer survive in their original form, animations have been made from the soundtracks and are now widely available, so it’s likely that these are the oldest “missing” episodes that have been widely viewed in some form. Fan opinion is largely consistent in rating the serial as middling to weak despite it being set in a dramatic and significant period in history so it’s worth seeing if other options present themselves.

Where & When

The story takes place in, and just outside, Paris during the eponymous Reign of Terror. For the first time in a historical story, we can place the date exactly because it includes a known event from real-world history. Specifically, it takes place over a six-day period concluding on 28th July 1794.

Settings: The Aztecs

The first season of Doctor Who alternated between science fiction stories on alien worlds and ‘pure’ historicals in Earth’s past, with the exception of the one story written at the last minute to fill a gap. This may not have been wholly intentional, but it is the pattern we have and means that serial number six is once again historical. Moreover, it maintains the exotic feel of its predecessor, Marco Polo, by not being set in the European history that we in the West tend to study most in school. It’s a very popular story with old-time fans, often stated to be the best of all the Hartnell serials, but tends to score as only decent-to-middling with younger fans, perhaps because of the over-the-top nature of the villain and the use of white actors as non-white characters. Neither of which are a problem in a game based on the story.

Where & When

The story takes place in Mexico, during the time of the Aztec Empire. While the exact date is impossible to pin down the Empire only lasted a hundred years, which narrows down the possibilities. Since the tomb in the story is dated to the 1430s and its architect’s son is still alive, the mid-15th century seems the most likely timeframe.

Settings: Cathay

The fourth serial is arguably the first of the Hartnell ‘pure historicals’; stories set in the then-past that contain no science fiction elements beyond the presence of the time travellers. This, of course, assumes that you don’t consider 100,000 BC separately from the first episode, although, if you want to be really nitpicky, “prehistory” also isn’t quite the same thing as “history”, either. At least as significantly, it’s the first “missing story”, with only the soundtrack surviving in its original form. Fortunately, that’s enough for us to be able to experience it in some limited way, and certainly sufficient for what I’m doing here. 

Where & When

The story is set in 1289, earlier than most modern series historical settings, although not remarkably so. It involves an epic journey, taking the protagonists from the Pamir Mountains, through the Gobi Desert, and across China to eventually reach Beijing. It refers to China by the name that Marco Polo used for it historically and that was standard in Europe at the time – Cathay.

Settings: 100,000 BC

Although An Unearthly Child is marketed as a single story, and was produced and directed as such, it involves two quite different settings and there’s a notable change in tone between the first episode and the subsequent three. Those three episodes give us our first exotic setting to explore, even if it’s one that we wouldn’t normally associate with a science fiction show. For that reason, I’ll treat it separately from the first episode here, and I’ll likely do something similar for other stories that spend significant time in more than one setting, such as The Chase. 

Where & When

Based solely on internal evidence, there is no way to date the setting of the story much more precisely than ‘the Stone Age’. This is a vast stretch of time, perhaps 99% of the whole of human history, depending on your definition. However, we know that the writer envisaged the date as 100,000 BC and that that was even the title used in some early BBC publicity in the days before the serials had onscreen titles. The geographical location is even vaguer, and, again based solely on the story as televised, we can’t even be confident it’s on Earth, since the DW universe has many alien races physically indistinguishable from humans. However, it’s clear that that’s not the intent, so “somewhere on Earth, approximately, 100,000 BC” it is.