'The Witchfinders' (Story Code 11.08) by Joy Wilkinson

“Together we shall save the souls of my people from Satan, even if it means killing them all.” – Becka Savage

After setting the TARDIS for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth the First, the Doctor and her friends instead arrive in early Seventeenth-Century Lancashire. Here they find the people of Bilehurst Cragg happily enjoying a celebration, until they are all summoned to a nearby river to watch as the local landowner, Becka Savage, oversees the trial of a witch. Chained to a ducking stool made from an old tree limb, the accused woman, Old Mother Twiston, says her goodbyes to her granddaughter Willa and is then plunged into the cold waters. Breaking her own rule of non-interference, the Doctor dives into the river in an attempt to save the old lady, but is too late to save her from drowning. When Becka Savage calls for the Doctor’s arrest, the Time Lady uses her psychic paper to pull rank as the Witchfinder General; declaring an end to the witch trial, the Doctor sends the blood-thirsty villagers scurrying home. These events are watched by a mysterious man dressed in black, his face covered by a bird-like mask… Becka and her men escort the Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz to her manor house. Learning that Becka is responsible for the deaths of thirty-six people, the Doctor vows to stop her from killing anyone else. After Yaz leaves to help Willa bury her grandmother, the Doctor, Graham and Ryan learn from Becka that apparently Satan and his witches are responsible for the villagers’ sickness, the crop blights and dying livestock. Becka is convinced her work is the will of god, as written in the new King James bible – and at that moment the man in black appears, revealing himself to be none other than King James himself! Dismissing the Doctor as assistant to the real Witchfinder, Graham, the sexist king takes a shine to Ryan, who apparently looks after the team’s paperwork. The king joins forces with Becka to purify the land, starting with the grandchild of the most recent witch: Willa. In the woods, Yaz finds Becka reciting a prayer over her granny’s grave, and saves her from an attack from a tendril made of mud… Investigating the manor house, the Doctor, Graham and Ryan search Becka’s bedroom and find an empty medicine bottle, lots of hankies and an axe. When Yaz arrives with news of the mud tendril, the Doctor sets off with her to investigate, leaving Graham and Ryan to stall Becka and the king from further witch hunting. Presenting Graham with the hat of his previous Witchfinder General, King James then shows off his collection of charms, torture devices and body parts, before resolving to destroy every witch in the village by nightfall... The Doctor and Yaz visit Willa at her granny’s house, which is full of medicines and potions; after revealing that she and Becka are cousins, both raised by Old Mother Twiston, Willa agrees to take her new friends to her granny’s grave... Soldiers escort the king, Becka, Graham and Ryan through the woods on a search for witches; the king tells his new favourite, Ryan, of his difficult childhood and the many assassination attempts since becoming monarch, and how he firmly believes he is now doing god’s work. At Old Mother Twiston’s grave, the Doctor places a sample of what seems to be ordinary mud inside Becka’s medicine bottle, and is surprised when the tiny pellet comes alive and tries to break out of its glass prison. To Willa’s horror her dead grandmother rises from her grave, the corpse reanimated by mud. Deducing that this ‘not-mud’ is of alien origin, the Doctor hands over the captive sample, which is promptly consumed by the old zombie – just as more of the creatures arrive and close in on them… Hearing Willa’s scream, the king leads his party to the source of the noise, arriving in time to see the hoard of mud-zombies menacing the Doctor and her friends; the king’s protector opens fire, but is struck down by the monsters. The Doctor leads everyone in running away, then stops when she realises the creatures are not following them. While Graham, Ryan and Yaz head back to find the mud-zombies, the Doctor tries to work out the connection between the biggest witch hunt in history and the alien mud invasion; but when she realises the link is Becka, the Doctor is immediately accused of being Satan’s acolyte and arrested as a witch… Tied to a tree in the middle of the village, the Doctor receives a visit from King James, who questions her about her sonic screwdriver ‘wand’. Dismissing her accusation of deliberately stirring up hate, the king insists he is doing god’s work. The Doctor tries making the king see reason, attributing his behaviour to the loss of his mother when he was just one year old, but the monarch becomes angry and calls for a witch-ducking… Graham, Ryan and Yaz follow the mud-zombies to Becka’s manor, where the creatures grab the woman’s axe and then depart… The villagers gather at the river, where the Doctor is now chained to the ducking stool. Intrigued to see a spark when Becka touches the tree limb to which she is tied, the Doctor questions the woman about the medicine in her room; in response Becka vows to go after the Doctor’s friends, and as she calls for the ducking to begin, a muddy tear leaks from her eye. Graham Ryan and Yaz arrive just as the Doctor is plunged into the water; Becka clearly wants her enemy to drown, but the king gives way and calls for the Doctor to be released – only to find the tree limb is now empty! The Doctor appears at the river bank, having used her escapology skills to escape. The mud-zombies arrive, sending the villagers fleeing for their lives; Becka orders the monsters to stop – and to everyone’s surprise they obey. Becka reveals that she awoke the mud after cutting down Old Mother Twiston’s favourite tree, because it spoilt her view of Pendle Hill; her leg infected by an attacking mud-tendril, Becka tried to save herself by doing god’s work in slaying witches, but to no avail; she turned to Old Mother Twiston for help, but the old woman refused, so Becka had her killed to keep her secret. Breaking down in tears, Becka proclaims herself to be the witch and then succumbs to the mud, which takes over her body. Proclaiming herself as queen of the Morax, the alien creature possessing Becka reveals that she and her army were sentenced by their people for war crimes, and imprisoned inside the Pendle Hill; the queen announces her plan to fill King James with her own king and take over the everyone on the planet, and then zaps everyone into unconsciousness… When the Doctor and her friends awake, the Morax and King James have vanished. After Willa explains that Bilehurst means ‘sacred tree on a hill’, the Doctor shows her friends how the wood of the ducking stool is actually an alien bio-mech security system that kept the scrambled essences of the Morax royals and soldiers imprisoned inside the hill for billions of years – until Becka chopped it sown. Fashioning the tree limb into torches, the Doctor, Graham, Ryan, Yaz and Willa set off to rescue the king… Elsewhere, the mud-zombies hold King James against the tree stump as the queen cuts into it with her axe; this releases the Morax king, who manifests as a huge, flailing mud tendril. Graham, Ryan, Yaz and Willa arrive brandishing their flaming torches, keeping the alien king at bay long enough for the Doctor to strike the tree stump lock with her torch; this reactivates the jail system, which sucks the alien king and his soldiers out of the zombies’ bodies and back into the hill. Seizing a torch for himself, King James strikes out at the Morax queen, causing her to explode; the Doctor is furious with his actions, but the king is satisfied that he has vanquished Satan... Later on, the Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz return to the TARDIS, accompanied by King James and Willa. The king promises to erase Bilehurst from official records, and Willa decides to become a healer like her granny. Turning down the offer of becoming the king’s protector, Ryan joins his friends in the TARDIS, which baffles Will and King James by magically vanishing into thin air…


Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O'Brian), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Alan Cumming (King James), Siobhan Finneran (Becka Savage), Tilly Steele (Willa Twiston), Tricia Kelly (Old Mother Twiston), Arthur Kay (Smithy), Stavros Demetraki (Alfonso)

Directed by Sallie Aprahamian
Produced by Alex Mercer
Executive Producers Chris Chibnall and Matt Strevens
A BBC Wales production

TX (BBC 1 & BBC 1 HD):
25th November 2018 @ 6.30 pm


Notes:
*Featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz

*Due to an error, viewers in America expecting to watch ‘Kerblam!’ on Amazon Video the previous week instead got to see this episode, a week ahead of its premiere