Season 21, Story 2/7, Serial 6M: 2 x 25 minute episodes, 19th & 20th January 1984, Writer: Eric Pringle, Director: Michael Owen Morris, Script Editor: Eric Saward, Producer: John Nathan-Turner
John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland Yay! The Awakening! This,
along with Survival, is the template for post-2005 Who.
Horsies!
John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland Good creepy opening...
Horsies and a Liver Bird!
50dw50@50dw50 Liver Birds seem to make good companions for 5, Kinda was the same. I am biased, I adore The Awakening. One of my favourite 5th Doctor stories.
And War Games! School teacher Jane Hampden is relieved to see the friendly face of Ben Wolsey...
...but furious that he and his chums are letting their historical re-enactment of the English civil war get out of hand.
It's Cassandra's dad!
I'm The Batman@MGW_007 I always think Denis Lill is good value in stuff. Great in Survivors.
Absolutely. Always lends a touch of class.
John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland "Man of the Fendahl ... I have been used! You are being used! Mankind has been used!"
Jane Hampden doesn't care for the War Games. Harsh.
Cassandra's Dad tells her she has to expect high spirits. Rentaghost was last week, mate.
Aboard the TARDIS, Tegan finds Kamelion tinkering with the TARDIS systems...
He freaks her out by speaking first with the Doctor's voice, and then with Turlough's - which she says is worse!
Kamelion directs her to the control room, and she's not sorry to leave him behind.
In the control room, Turlough's tinkering...
...all in aid of getting the TARDIS to Earth so Tegan can visit her grandad.
She might edge it for the 'classic' series, but even then she only has this chap and Auntie Vanessa, plus a dad mentioned vaguely in Castrovalva, which is really only on a par with Nyssa's Dad, Step-mum and (offscreen) dead mum.
Happy to be corrected but for the whole series overall I think it has to be Martha Jones, with Mum, Dad, Brother (who has an offscreen partner & an onscreen baby), Sister & later husband (Mickey).
The TARDIS has become very reliable of late. 
The TARDIS crew are into the story straight away, following a mysterious figure in an abandoned derelict church.
Jane wants to know what Sir George and his warbound cronies would do if a stranger wandered into the village, and he announces he's had the whole area closed off.
The Doctor marvels at some 17th century carvings of a man being chased by the devil, much to Tegan's boredom.
Ooh, mysterious smoking crack...
Jane wants to know what Sir George and his warbound cronies would do if a stranger wandered into the village, and he announces he's had the whole area closed off.
The Doctor marvels at some 17th century carvings of a man being chased by the devil, much to Tegan's boredom.
Ooh, mysterious smoking crack...
More excellent restoration on the film sequences in this one.
50dw50@50dw50 it was so nice to have some colour after all the white of the previous story
Starting with this story, Davison's got a new version of his outfit after the soaking his original one got in Warriors Of The Deep. Much prefer this version. The coat's somewhat greyer, the shirt has a green underlayer & the jumper a bolder red with a waistband.
John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland Don't forget the trousers!
Always good advice!
There's been precious little of the English civil war in Doctor Who hasn't there?
The Doctor and chums are taken up to the big house where Ben Wolsey apologizes for the disruption of the war games.
They meet Jane, but Tegan isn't in the mood and runs off...
Some bugger's nicked Tegan's handbag. She only started carrying it round this story, what bad luck!
Sir George thinks the Doctor might be an actor.
John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland Oh the dialogue is great:HUTCHINSON: Are you a member of the theatrical profession?
DOCTOR: No more than you are.
Angie Snowe@ajsnowe A perfect scene. A little precursor of a snarkier Fifth, and then the 'distraction' to make an escape. A+
"As the local magistrate, I shall find myself quite innocent!" Brilliant line.
Tegan goes in the barn...
...and has a disturbing vision of a skinny old man with long white hair.
80s BBC Studio? I hope that's not who I think it is.
Luckily Turlough arrives to get Tegan out of the fix she's in.
The Doctor's puzzled when the bag thief bowls him over...
...then vanishes up the lane with indecent haste.
50dw50@50dw50 its so lovely seeing all the strange stuff in a lovely sunny village, it always feels like real Who.
The Doctor follows the thief back into the church...
That sounds more like a football crowd.
A boy breaks through the wall...
He thinks it's 1643.
Will Chandler. Oof. Seen others say he should have been a companion. Not feeling it, to be honest.
50dw50@50dw50 brilliant character, one of those great companions we never had!
John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland Absolutely. "Doctor bain't a proper name. Will Chandler be a proper name." Great stuff.
Lass Productions@21stcenturylass We love young Will Chandler here at @21stcenturylass Towers. Like Will, we're fond of that brown liquid they drink on Earth.
Will could have been an 80s Jamie McCrimmon I suppose. Big Finish should set a bunch of stories between this & Frontios as Davison & Will travel through the history of tea.
"Something very special is coming to our village. Something wonderful and strange." Is it the Antiques Roadshow?
Tegan's been elected Queen of the May in her absence. Oh dear.
The Doctor tells Tegan the skinny white haired man was a psychic projection.
Could have been worse.
The Doctor decides it's time to get some answers from the village...
...and tells Tegan and Turlough they'll be safer in the TARDIS.
This village is a brilliant location. Let's have a Stockbridge story here!
It seems that the TARDIS isn't as safe as the Doctor expected, though.
Will becomes agitated when forced to admit that "the Malus" appeared in 1643, coming from nowhere when the fighting kicked off.
Tegan and Turlough leave the non-safety of the TARDIS and head to the village, thinking the Doctor is ahead of them.
A secret passageway! They never lead the 5th Doctor into trouble, do they?
50dw50@50dw50 they seem to be obligatory in two part stories.
Just when you've started thinking it's nice to see Tegan & Turlough working as a team, they're forced to split up.
50dw50@50dw50 they should be dumped and 5 should go off with Jane and Will.
Simon Hart@Si_Hart He'd have been better off with Jane and Will as companions than Tegan and Turlough.
A school teacher and an unearthly child? That'd never work, surely...
Simon Hart@Si_Hart Ha! There's just something about Davison's Doctor that would work so well with an older female companion... Especially if she's played by an ex-Liver Bird!
Jane joins the Doctor and Will hiding under the stairs in the cellar when the war gamers hunt for her.
Willow wants Tegan to change into something a little less 6th Doctor so she can take her place as Brian May in Queen or something.
Nice little mention of the Terileptils there, I detect some decent script editing from Saward for once!
50dw50@50dw50 he rewrote the script after Pringle struggled to reduce it from 4 parts to 2, apparently.
Jane says the Malus is a mumbo jumbo myth or legend. The Doctor thinks it's all too real, and alien to boot...
John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland I actuaĺly believed that there really WAS a Malus legend.
I'm always reminded of the Malus by the Hex ride at Alton Towers with the haunted tree and its' giant carved face.
John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland Oh yes. I've been on that. Me and my friend Pete looked at eachother, and together we said Malus...
Aye aye, a crack in the wall!
There's a lot of smoke coming out of that crack. The Malus must have really bad breath.
The Doctor gets too close...
...and is engulfed by smoke as the creature roars...
50dw50@50dw50 then she screams into the cliffhanger!
I'm The Batman@MGW_007 tonight Matthew, I'm going to be.....
Willow wants Tegan to change into something a little less 6th Doctor so she can take her place as Brian May in Queen or something.
Nice little mention of the Terileptils there, I detect some decent script editing from Saward for once!
50dw50@50dw50 he rewrote the script after Pringle struggled to reduce it from 4 parts to 2, apparently.
Jane says the Malus is a mumbo jumbo myth or legend. The Doctor thinks it's all too real, and alien to boot...
John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland I actuaĺly believed that there really WAS a Malus legend.I'm always reminded of the Malus by the Hex ride at Alton Towers with the haunted tree and its' giant carved face.
John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland Oh yes. I've been on that. Me and my friend Pete looked at eachother, and together we said Malus...
Aye aye, a crack in the wall!
There's a lot of smoke coming out of that crack. The Malus must have really bad breath.
The Doctor gets too close...
...and is engulfed by smoke as the creature roars...
50dw50@50dw50 then she screams into the cliffhanger!
I'm The Batman@MGW_007 tonight Matthew, I'm going to be.....
John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland It doesn't need to happen, but it's a great cliffhanger...I'm The Batman@MGW_007 that's how they should do the regenerations!50dw50@50dw50 it would be so funny if he stepped out of the smoke as Colin Baker!
Jane's call seems to disrupt the Malus' influence and she and Will are able to pull the Doctor back.
The Doctor notes the similarity between the Malus and the carved face of the devil on the church pulpit.
The studio footage looks quite washed out compared to the film work.
Frightened off by the Malus, Will does a runner, leaving the Doctor and Jane to face the psychic projection of a ghostly cavalier.
Turlough is still at large...
...or rather was.
After the psychic cavalier gives them a bad case of wind...
...The Doctor and Jane retreat back up the secret passage.
I'm convinced Turlough spends more time locked up than not during his run. I think he likes it.
He meets Tegan's grandad, Andrew Verney, who was locked up after discovering the Malus in the church.
Will's still running for the hills.
Under protest Tegan dresses as the May Queen, much to Sir George's delight.
The Doctor and Jane emerge from the passage and urge Sir George to end the war games.
"You speak treason!"
"Fluently!"
John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland Perfect Doctor Who dialogue.Wolsey wobbles when the Doctor's confrontation of Sir George shows him to be delusional and under the Malus' influence.
Hard to believe this was filmed in Britain - the weather is stunning! Just look at those blue skies!
The Malus anticipates the horror set to befall the May Queen...
The Doctor catches up with Will, and the two have a ringside seat as the Queen of the May arrives.
The Doctor brazenly marches up to Sir George and is captured. What's he up to?
Sir George is furious to find his Tegan dolly is more Dapol than Character Options.
Will gets stuck in, causing Sir George to fall from his horse when he scares it with a flaming torch.
That was the Doctor's plan; disperse the villagers, starving the Malus of the psychic hubub, and rescue Wolsey from the lion's den.
Turlough smashes his way out of the barn. Why didn't Verney think of that?
I'm The Batman@MGW_007 always amuses me when Turlough doesn't take his tie off with all that running around and stuff.The Doctor's party arrive back at the church...
...where, after the cameras have stopped rolling, Mr. Horsey decides to total the lychgate.
With the Malus getting a bit ranty...
...the Doctor ushers everyone to safety.
And yet again we've got the world and his wife in the TARDIS.
John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland Don't have problem with that at all. Where else are they safe?
True, but it's become such a cliche this far into the era.
John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland I think in Black Orchid, it was lazy (but kind of funny) but the other times it sort of makes sense...
Now the Malus creature projects itself into the TARDIS.
Isolated by the TARDIS interior dimensions, the Malus creature starts to die...
...so it summons its' last line of defence by giving Denis Lill a headache.
Isolated by the TARDIS interior dimensions, the Malus creature starts to die...
...so it summons its' last line of defence by giving Denis Lill a headache.
Turlough and Verney arrive, and set about ending the siege of the TARDIS...
The Malus brings forth more psychic projections...
...ones capable of deadly force.
The Doctor tries to get Sir George to think back before the hate and aggression of the Malus' influence but to no avail.
Will is the hero, pushing Sir George into the Malus' waiting jaws.
The Malus dies...
The TARDIS gets them out of the collapsing church in the nick of time.
Doctor Who 2, Churches in English Villages 0.
Not as convincing as in the Daemons, sadly.
With the war games finally over, peace is made in the TARDIS.
Turlough's gagging for a brew, but Will's never heard of tea, the heathen.
"A noxious infusion of oriental leaves containing a high percentage of toxic acid."
"Sounds an evil brew.""Personally I rather like it."
Simon Hart@Si_Hart Such a brilliant ending! Perfect Doctor Who!John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland Just PERFECT. Let's all hail THE AWAKENINGVery modern, as many have pointed out - the pace on that first episode at least is very much that of 21st century Doctor Who.
John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland Some fans say its too much like The Daemons 'cos its set in an English village and there's a church. THEY ARE WRONG.Dead wrong. There are superficial similarities but they're very different animals.
TTFN! K.
Coming Soon... Spearhead from Space
I am SO happy to see that there was another Kamelion scene! Such a shame JNT squandered the potential of this character. i found this restored scene on YouTube (i don't have this story on DVD; the BBC's releases of classic Who are just so expensive and clumsy, though lots of the work by the Doctor Who Restoration Team is wonderful). The scene is clumsy, because Kamelion is clumsy (as his creator was dead)... but any little bit of reminder that Kamelion is still with the TARDIS crew is welcome! (Er... or just makes his absence even more conspicuous... sigh)
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