Winter is Coming
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Should the pure historical stories come back to Doctor Who?

By James Aggas

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In the age of fast paced stories and CGI, is it possible for Doctor Who to feature any pure historical stories, without any monsters?

When reviewing The Fires of Pompeii last week, it was hard not to notice something. As cool as the Pyrovile looked, it was the historical tragedy of Pompeii that was far more interesting.

Not just the tragedy itself, but how the Doctor and Donna faced such a terrible day. There was a lot of interesting drama fueled by Donna wanting to change a moment that couldn’t be changed. This drama was so good to watch, in fact, that it’s enough to make you wonder if the episode would’ve been better served without a “monster of the week” storyline.

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Once upon a time, pure historical stories were very common in Doctor Who. In fact, in the First Doctor’s era, they were as common as the more science-fiction based stories. One story would be set in a historical period, with no monsters. The next would be set in the far future or another world. Then another would be a historical again. So it was a regular pattern for the show back then.

Of course, this was a long time ago, and almost exclusive to the First Doctor’s era. In fact, the Second Doctor only got one pure historical, The Highlanders, before they were phased out completely. And the only other Doctor to have had a pure historical on television was the Fifth Doctor with Black Orchid. So if this type of story was too dated for Classic Series Doctors, why should it be brought back now?

How it can be done

In an era focused on telling faster paced stories, now might be a more appropriate time to bring the pure historical back.

In the original series, stories would be told in serial format across several weeks. Perhaps it was thought that telling a pure historical story was difficult for the younger audiences, who had to wait weeks to see new monsters.

However, in the era when many stories don’t last longer than a week, this wouldn’t be a problem. And they wouldn’t even need to be that common, either. Just one or two episodes a series that focused on purely historical situations, with no monsters or aliens, would be enough to give the audiences something different. And at the same time, it also gives general audiences plenty of the monster stories they crave.

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The expanded universe

The expanded universe has even shown how it could be done. Especially the audio series The Companion Chronicles – one hour stories told by companions that are a mix of drama and narration. Because this series has told historical stories in fresh and interesting ways. One key way they’ve done this is by making the historical aspect more personal.

For example, in Resistance, along with trying to survive in World War Two, Polly also meets a member of her family thought long dead.

In another example, Jamie arrives in a key moment in English history in The Glorious Revolution. A moment so important, in fact, that it directly caused the rebellion he was fighting for when he first met the Doctor. Unsurprisingly, because this is such a huge moment for him and everyone he knows, it’s a moment he wants to change.

So there are ways that the pure historical story could come back on television. If they are rich with drama, and explore the Doctor’s and companions’s reactions in a deep way, they could add something really fresh to the series.

Next: Serpent in the Silver Mask review (Fifth Doctor audio)

What do you think? Should purely historical stories ever come back? Or do you think that the format is too dated for the series now? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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