Doctor Who: The Smugglers (1966)

The last but one historical serial, squeezed between The War Machines (which was a template that later led to the UNIT era) and The Tenth Planet (which introed the Cybermen and exited Hartnell), this is a rip-roaring, bloodthirsty swashbuckler - not very serious, but a great deal of fun. With new companions Ben and Polly just strayed into the TARDIS (taking the usual episode to catch up with the fact that, yes, they've been spirited off in time and space), the Doctor turns up in Cornwall in the late 17th Century and scraps of Jamaica Inn, Treasure Island, Peter Pan, Dr Syn and Fury at Smuggler's Bay.

A piratical old churchwarden (Terence de Marney) is murdered and a hook-handed pirate (Michael Godfrey) is around with his vicious crew – including the especially sadistic Cherub (George A Cooper) – looking for 'Captain Avery's treasure', which is hidden in some caves. The rhyme which provides the key to locate the hoard was passed on to the Doctor by the dying man. Ben and Polly persuade a dimwitted local that the Doctor is a warlock, and a prissy squire (Paul Whitsun-Jones) is mixed up in smuggling but eager to get into the even more lucrative treasure-hunting business. There's a lot of thigh-slapping, and running about on locations we can't see any more (except in home movie footage and some violent censored snips from Australia).
KIM NEWMAN

First published in this form here.

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