The Highlanders (Doctor Who)

The Highlanders is the completely missing fourth serial of the fourth season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 17 December 1966 to 7 January 1967. In this serial, the Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and his travelling companions Ben (Michael Craze) and Polly (Anneke Wills) arrive in the Scottish Highlands in 1746, just after the Battle of Culloden. They gain the trust of the Jacobites, but their friendliness gets them into serious trouble with government troops led by Lieutenant Algernon Ffinch (Michael Elwyn). This serial is the first appearance of Frazer Hines as companion to be Jamie McCrimmon. Although audio recordings, still photographs, and clips of the story exist, no episodes of this serial are known to have survived.

Following the Battle of Culloden, government forces have triumphed over the Jacobite Army of Charles Edward Stewart. When the TARDIS arrives, the Second Doctor, Ben and Polly encounter fleeing Jacobite troops and are taken prisoner by them. They hide in a deserted cottage with the Laird Colin McLaren, who has been badly wounded, along with his daughter Kirsty, his piper Jamie McCrimmon and his son Alexander, who dies defending them from a patrol of government soldiers conducting mopping up operations. The patrol's leader, Lieutenant Algernon Ffinch, is an ineffectual fop, but a sergeant from the patrol is more forceful and takes the Doctor, Jamie, Ben and the Laird to be hanged. Polly and Kirsty manage to slip away. They hide in a cave, then an animal pit, from Ffinch, who believes Stewart to be one of them following the rumour that he fled the battlefield as a woman. Eventually Ffinch finds them, but they trick him and steal his money. Later in Inverness, the nearest major town to Culloden, they run into him again and use his previous foolishness to blackmail him. Elsewhere on the battlefield, Grey, the shady Royal Commissioner of Prisons, plans to ship Jacobite prisoners of war to the American colonies and sell them into indentured servitude. He contacts an unscrupulous sea captain called Trask who agrees to use his ship Annabelle for this purpose. Amongst the prisoners he identifies for sale are the Doctor, Jamie, Ben, and the Laird. They are taken to the prison in Inverness but the Doctor cons his way out, and overpowers Grey and his secretary Perkins to escape. Grey is freed by Trask, who reports that the transportation plan has begun and arranges for a number of prisoners, including Jamie, Ben and the Laird, to be transferred to Annabelle. The prisoners learn that they are being sold into indentured servitude in the West Indies but most accept this fate, believing seven years of indentured labour to be better than being executed. Only Ben, Jamie, the Laird and one of his friends, Willie Mackay, refuse to sign. When Ben attacks Grey, Trask has him thrown into the sea while tied to the end of a rope. The Doctor adopts the guises of both a kitchen maid and a German man, and uses these identities to move about freely. He is reunited with Polly, Kirsty and Ben, who has swum to safety. The Doctor returns to Grey, with a concocted story about Stewart, claiming to know his whereabouts. He identifies Stewart as Jamie. The ruse works, distracting Grey and Trask while Polly and Kirsty free the Jacobite prisoners and supply them with weapons for an uprising. When Grey and Trask check on Jamie they are captured by the freed prisoners and a revolt begins. Trask flees, is wounded and thrown overboard. Willie Mackay takes control of Annabelle and plans to sail her to freedom in France, accepting Perkins as a volunteer for this journey along with Kirsty and Colin. The Doctor, Ben and Polly return to the town, using Grey as a hostage to ensure their freedom of movement, and are joined by Jamie, who has decided to stay and help them find the TARDIS. The party loses Grey but finds Ffinch, whom they forcibly use to help them return to Culloden. Grey reaches the cottage where he first met the Doctor, and brings with him a patrol of soldiers. Ffinch arrests Grey for the transportation scheme, as he has lost the paperwork thanks to the Doctor and is unable to prove the legality of his plans. Thanked by a kiss from Polly, Ffinch departs. The Doctor, Ben and Polly return to the TARDIS and invite their new friend, Jamie McCrimmon, on board. He nervously accepts.

William Dysart later appeared in The Ambassadors of Death (1970). Hannah Gordon provided the voice of Skagra's ship in the Big Finish Productions version of Shada. Peter Welch was later seen in The Android Invasion (1975). David Garth went on to play the Time Lord in Terror of the Autons (1971).

A novelisation of this serial, written by Gerry Davis, was published by Target Books in August 1984.

As with all missing episodes of Doctor Who, full off air audio recordings exist due to contemporary fan efforts. In August 2000 these were released on CD, accompanied by linking narration from Frazer Hines. A few brief video clips survive, and were released on the Lost in Time DVD set in 2004. A new unabridged reading of the novelisation of The Highlanders was released in September 2012 read by Anneke Wills (who played Polly in the original TV episodes), with original sound design. Charles Norton, director of several animated reconstructions, noted in 2019 that an animated version of The Highlanders was considered, but due to the difficulty in animating the clothing and locations, the team instead went ahead with The Macra Terror.