Doctor Who “Battlefield Part 1”

Well, it has been a while since we’ve seen UNIT.  Likewise, we have never seen the Doctor somehow get sucked into Arthurian legend before.

This one is gonna be weird, isn’t it?

But hey, if it’s UNIT, maybe that means we’ll get the Brigadier back for another serial!  That’s always fun!

Wait, he’s retired and mostly puttering around his gardens while his wife (he apparently has one) does the wife-thing.

Never mind that.  The TARDIS lands in the English countryside, and a UNIT convoy goes through, transporting a nuclear missile.  That seems a step down from what UNIT usually does, but then again, I doubt anyone in UNIT is complaining much.  The Doctor is looking into more strange readings in the area, but then he and Ace catch a ride with a local archeologist to town.  Once there, they do manage to get to UNIT and see the Brigadier.

It’s a new Brigadier.  This one is a black woman who has never heard of the Doctor.  She tells him to take a hike.  Then one of her underlings who was around long enough brings up the whole “Doctor” thing, mentions the TARDIS, and she calls for the old Brigadier to come in and help out while she goes looking for the TARDIS.

Around that time, the Doctor and Ace find an inn.  The Doctor is interested in what he’s told is an 8th century scabbard but he says is much older, and Ace meets a likeminded girl her own age to chat explosives with.

Were there a lot of teenage girls in 80s Britain that were into explosives?  Asking for a friend.

So, how does this get weirder?  Well, New Brigadier finds the TARDIS…and it gets attacked by Medieval knights, some of whom are carrying ray guns instead of swords.  Some crashes and explosions get the Doctor and Ace’s attention, and they find a knight lying around.  Said knight seems to know about the TARDIS and the like, but he also calls the Doctor “Merlin”.

The Doctor does not know what that means, so it’s probably something the Doctor hasn’t done yet.

But then the New Brigadier shows up to arrest everyone.

And then some more knights with ray guns show up to kill everyone.

This is gonna get messy.  I hope the Old Brigadier can help clear things up.  I mean, the network got enough money in the budget to pay for a helicopter from the looks of things…