The Awakening Part One

The one where cosplay gets a little too 'real'...

Right from the off, The Awakening sets out its stall as something a little bit different. It's also terribly familiar in some ways, but I do like how director Michael Owen Morris adds his own touch, with the galloping horses rapidly intercut with Jane Hampden's fruitless search for Ben. This juxtaposition of the ordinary with the extraordinary instantly builds a degree of tension as the viewer wonders who is coming (and coming very quickly) and how the two scenarios will meet.

It turns out that Ben is one of a bunch of men who have taken the art of cosplay far too seriously. It's all well and good dressing up in flowing wigs and cavalier finery, but the brandishing of weaponry at innocent bystanders, charging toward them on horseback, seems a little too dedicated. As we see throughout the episode, these war gaming cosplayers have taken verisimilitude a little too far...

Our adventuring heroes, meanwhile, are experiencing time distortions in the vortex on their way to visit Tegan's grandfather, Andrew Verney, at her request. It's unusual to have so many references to a companion's family in classic Who. We've already met Tegan's late Aunt Vanessa (Logopolis), and then her cousin Colin (Arc of Infinity), and now she's asked to see her Gramps. Why does she never think to visit her actual parents, who I'm guessing still live in Australia? These characters, spread over the course of three years on screen, are all related, they all know one another. Vanessa could well be Colin's mother (although he doesn't have an Aussie accent), while Andrew Verney would have to be Tegan's maternal grandfather. Verney would be Colin's grandfather too. The tricky thing is that Vanessa is Australian, and Andrew is not, so at some point the family might have moved Down Under, and Andrew's daughters married Australian men (unless the Aussie hubbies were UK-based).

Argh. Move on, Steve...

The TARDIS materialises in a crumbling church crypt, and on the scanner they spot a figure moving through the rubble, in danger of being crushed. The Doctor and Tegan rush outside to help, but Turlough - predictably, but also rather tiresomely - objects: "We can't go out there!" Turlough's been travelling with the Doctor for long enough now to know how this works. He really has not read the job description for being a companion, has he?

As the trio explores, we're treated to a stunning church set by designer Barry Newbery, one of the series' finest creatives whose earliest Doctor Who work was on the very first story (An Unearthly Child) in 1963. The Awakening would be his final contribution to the show, but he certainly goes out with a bang because the church set, boasting height and detail, is wonderful. Plus, there's a suspicious crack in the church wall...

As the Doctor, Turlough and Tegan (who hasn't bothered to change her dress in order to meet her grandfather) venture outside, they are accosted by the overzealous war gamers. It's not the best of welcomes to an English country village, but as we begin to see strange mutilated figures peeping over gravestones, and the cosplayers' insistence on not using modern devices such as telephones or torches, the folk horror vibe seeps deliciously into the Doctor Who template. This story may be about people re-enacting the English Civil War, but it's also Doctor Who trying to re-enact the Pertwee classic The Daemons. There's also a splash of The Android Invasion, with the village cross and the thatched cottages. The location filming in Dorset and Hampshire is beautiful, showing off the villages of Martin (village green), Shapwick (village cross) and Tarrant Monkton (village ford) expertly.

Mad Sir George Hutchinson and his band of merry men are celebrating the arrival of the English Civil War to the village of Little Hodcombe, on July 13th, 1643 (incidentally, also the day that the Battle of Roundway Down took place in Wiltshire, the most comprehensive Royalist victory of the conflict). Level-headed village schoolteacher Jane is appalled by the passion and zeal Sir George's men are putting into the re-enactments, even sealing off the village so that nobody may enter - and nobody may leave! In their enthusiasm for recapturing history, some of the villagers have been harmed. It's gone too far, and only Jane Hampden stands up against their marauding ways.

And then Sir George - played by the wonderful Denis Lill - says something genuinely chilling: "Something is coming to our village. Something very wonderful, and strange." Perfect dialogue for a trailer, I'd say!

Tegan and Turlough manage to escape Sir George's clutches. Tegan has her bag snatched by a fashion-conscious serf, while Turlough does what Turlough always seems to do in Doctor Who stories: not much. As a character, he shows so much potential (and you can tell Mark Strickson is desperate to show it), but the writers never seem to know what to do with him, which is such a shame. The companions are reunited, and chased through the deserted streets of Little Hodcombe by war gamers. At the first sign of trouble, Turlough's terrible advice is for them to "split up", and they go their separate ways. Tegan is captured instantly, naturally, but I fear this may mean Turlough will just end up running about aimlessly for the rest of the story...

Tegan is instructed to put on the costume of the Little Hodcombe Queen of the May, a traditional figure dating back centuries who signifies purity and is a personification of Springtime. For once, this period outfit does not suit Janet Fielding, and its echoes of purity certainly don't suit Tegan Jovanka! Interestingly, in some instances the Queen of the May was joined by a male companion - the May King, Garland King, or Jack in the Green - which could have given Turlough a bit more involvement in the story. Mind you, seeing Strickson dressed as a walking tree might have been more comical than creepy!

Meanwhile, the Doctor - now played so confidently by Peter Davison, who really has found his stride in the part - has some spooky experiences in the church, where he's deafened by the sound of savage warfare, an echo from the past, and then meets a young urchin who bursts out of the wall.

Will Chandler ("That be a name!") is played charmingly by Keith Jayne, who I remember so strongly in the part of Stig of the Dump in Thames TV's 1981 adaptation. Jayne develops an instant rapport with Davison, and it's clear that Will perfectly fills the gap left by the late Adric in the Doctor's life. I like the scene where the Doctor takes Will to the graveyard to prove he is in the future, a gentle moment between two people who have obviously connected instantly. It's one of those cases where you think the guest character should have stayed on as a regular companion, although imagining a scruffy 17th century urchin in Lanzarote is a bit of a stretch (and you know they'd have kept him dressed in rags for every story!).

Psychic projections are being sent forwards in time from 1643 to 1984, and the Doctor very quickly, and rather too easily, deduces what's behind it all after happening across a lump of squashy metal. It is tinclavic, a metal mined by the Terileptils on Raaga for the people of Hakol (a nice little link back to The Visitation). We never get to see the Hakolians on TV, but they do turn up in the BBC novel The Hollow Men. From this intriguing discovery, the Doctor works out that the time distortions are being caused by a psychic force harnessed by the people of Hakol, who have sent a reconnaissance probe to Earth containing what Will calls the Malus. Pomologists will instantly imagine a giant crab apple whizzing through space.

The cliffhanger is a mixed bag. It's wonderful in the way it's staged and brought to a crescendo, with the crack in the church wall crumbling and widening to reveal a giant stone face in the billowing fog, its rictus grin and glowing green eyes telling us this ain't nothing good. The Doctor clutches his head and disappears into the murk. Unfortunately, Polly James manages to ruin the moment entirely by over-egging her Big Moment, screaming "Doc-toooooooooor!" for an entire five seconds until the end titles crash in. Five seconds doesn't sound very long, but it comes across as ridiculously melodramatic. I can only guess that director Michael Owen Morris wanted James's scream to melt seamlessly into the closing theme, but he takes rather too long to do it. The result is that Jane Hampden sounds utterly demented.

All in all, though, this is a wonderful episode, full of spooky moments, intriguing motives, and gorgeous location work. After the dregs of Warriors of the Deep, I feel Doctor Who has soared to a refreshing high.

First broadcast: January 19th, 1984

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: It all looks so good, from Michael Owen Morris's location filming to Barry Newbery's wonderful sets.
The Bad: Polly James's "Doc-tooooooooor!"
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

NEXT TIME: Part Two...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part Two

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site.

The Awakening is available as part of the Earth Story BBC DVD box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Earth-Gunfighters-Awakening/dp/B004T9DSTI