The first serial of classic Who’s final season, “Battlefield” is an entertaining story. Though it’s certainly not without its hokey moments, it has a fun premise, good character interactions, and some well-placed nostalgia bait. Works for me!
When the Seventh Doctor and Ace follow a powerful distress signal to an archeological dig site in a small English village, they’re met by knights and sorcerers from a parallel universe. Combining Arthurian legends with sci-fi tech, rival factions led by Ancelyn and Mordred search for King Arthur (rumored to be in suspended animation) and Excalibur. Our heroes have their work cut out for them, and they need some help from an old friend: Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
First things first: Brigadier! It’s a little funny how warm his legacy is, in both his later appearances in the classic series and the references made to him in new Who. Here’s a character who spent a lot of his main tenure on the show not seeing eye to eye with the Doctor, and the two of them were often exasperated with each other. But as he’s brought back to guest-star on episodes in the Five and Seven eras, and when we’re given loving callbacks to him in the new series, the picture painted of him is much rosier. Here, he’s the beloved old friend who comes riding in to lend a hand, and Brigadier Bambera, the current head of UNIT, isn’t shown to measure up in comparison.
But I guess nostalgia works and absence makes the heart grow fonder, because I’m nothing but happy to see him. Because it’s his special return in the show’s final season, he gets multiple big moments to shine, but the Doctor and Ace still get to contribute, too. For the Doctor, we see some evidence of timey-wimey action before timey-wimey even existed—does that make it timey-wimey squared?—and if the Arthurian myths originate in the other universe, it appears that the Doctor may be Merlin. Meanwhile, Ace gets to wield Excalibur, and she holds off a baddie at a critical juncture because she was paying attention to something the Doctor told her earlier! I like when Ace’s resourcefulness and determination extend beyond Nitro-9 and baseball bats.
Even if the quality can vary from story to story, I’ve always liked it when Who plays with the idea of myths/legends/supernatural creatures having sci-fi origins. In the case of Ancelyn and co., it works pretty well and makes for a fun watch. I also really enjoy Shou, a young woman in the village that Ace befriends. The two of them make a good team and bring a nice dynamic to the screen together. And the Brigadier’s appearance isn’t the only bit of continuity delight for fans—there’s also a Liz Shaw reference! All the love to my girl Liz.
I do need to mention that the story includes a blind psychic. I get that the whole “blind seer” thing isn’t out of place for the myths that they’re working with, but it’s still dumb.
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