The Massacre | Doctor Who Marathon From The Beginning | A Doctor Who Story Like No Other! 

I must say I LOVE The Massacre, the LC Recon is great, but it's still a shame that we have no Episode of it in the BBC Archive.

I tend to think the Doctor was "unavoidably detained" by getting stuck in a time eddy while helping his 2nd and 3rd selves.

Apparently this story was pretty different from the author's intentions. So much so that the novelization goes pretty different from the TV version. It even has a point where the Abbot and the Doctor are put in the same room, but the person in charge has trouble telling who's the fake. And the Doctor ends up manipulating the situation in such a way that he ends up slaying the Abbot. Rather interesting if that had ended up in the TV version.

This is one story that works best as a audio only story ,especially with Peter purves narration

Criminally underrated more so because so little visual material exists...in some ways it's an intimate listening experience because of it

Hi I’m new here, actually found you via your big finish video. But was excited to see your doing a marathon and that you just happened to be a story behind me. So totally subscribed. Although this is my first journey to see all of classic who and it’s been a blast so far. I’m also a child of the wilderness years Dr who would randomly be on over here back then on PBS but like many Americans didn’t really stick til 2006 (we got series one a year behind), I also loved The Massacre for most of the same reasons you put forth, but as an American the setting was unique and fascinating as The French Religious Wars isn’t a topic that gets any coverage over here. So loved a historical curveball. But cheers and ready for the crazy ride.

Ive been going on this marathon with you (almsot caught up to you) and I've never seen the missing episodes that havent been animated before this marathon. Id also never really heard anything about the Mascare other than as the name implies, its far from light hearted. This was such an impactful episode for me, the historical parts were uniquely engaging following Steven through a story with the Doctor possibly mascarading as the Abbott (which I knew nothing about). But then the last 10 minutes of episode four had me almost near tears, the Doctor's moment alone and Steven's rage toward him were completely believable. Me and my friends always like to joke about Hartnell's insistance to mispronounce "Chesterton" but the moment that Hartnell either by mistake or intentionally goes "Chaterton...Chesterton" hit me like a ton of bricks. The Doctor was through playing games, and he was ready to givie it all up. With hindsight its obvious he was ready to go and turn himself in to the Time Lords and willingly put himself up for the very possible punishment he eventually gets in the War Games right here in this story, because he no longer sees a point in traveling if his friends can't be with him and see the beauty in the universe he does. Then in rushes Dodo, and I find a new fondness for her admittedly underwhelming character as she jumpstarts the Doctor from ending his travels right then and there. I am thoroughly impressed with this story, and am loving season 3 more than I ever thought possible.

I will be very unfashionable then. I find this one difficult to get through. Muttering in taverns and palace intrigues about an historical event few people know does not grip me. I agree that seeing Hartnell as the Abbot could make a big difference. Peter Purves is great as usual. But let’s not forget the elephant in the room - oh you did - that Dodo could be a descendent of Ann and proves she survived the massacre. Really what tosh, Donald. The only things that links them is a genetic accent problem. However those final TARDIS scenes do pull the series up and with one eye on the future let’s get back into space. Sorry for being grumpy, think I’m coming down with a cold.

This is yet another I need to watch again. I probably should give it and the myth makers their own goes because as part of season 3 marathon it was hard for me to get through some of these. I definitely felt some of the tension in this though, and I will probably settle into it more on repeat. If we could get just one part of this story it would be part 4 for me, seeing that speech from the Doctor would be chilling.

So, I’ve heard that there are people out there who have lost episodes in private collections but are basically refusing to allow the BBC to get their hands on them. Does that seem a tad selfish to you, because I find it so frustrating that there could be stuff that is just being refused to be shown to the world?