When the TARDIS crew lands in the middle of a witch hunt, it becomes their mission to prevent anymore unfair trials and sole a supernatural occurrence. The TARDIS crew is confused walking around a festive village, rather than seeing the coronation of Queen Elizabeth I. They ask a boy what's going on; he simply says they do this every Sunday. Aman arrives demanding everyone go to a ceremony for "Mistress Savage," so the crew joins in as a man in a mask resembling a plague doctor watches. The Doctor reminds them to not mess with the fundamental fabric of history, even if something's wrong, which there clearly is. Graham realizes they're in Lancashire when he notices Pendle Hill nearby, and by the river they see Mistress Savage ( telling the people of Bilehurst Cragg to prepare for a witch test. A young girl (Tilly Steele) whom Yaz noticed cries about her granny, Old Mother Twiston (Tricia Kelly), being chained to a branch overhanging a river; Yaz begs the Doctor to help, and the latter is unable to stand by and jumps in. She is too late to save her but stands up to Savage, who says they'll be punished; the Doctor says neither Twiston nor her granddaughter are likely witches, but she's certainly a murderer. The Doctor uses her psychic paper, which identifies her as "witchfinder general," and Savage invites her back to her house to talk in private. Getting Savage to agree to let Willa Twiston go, the Doctor has everyone leaves and tends to the old woman's body. As the group heads to Savage's house, she apologizes for her outburst against the Doctor and reveals she is Becka Savage, the landowner of Bilehurst Cragg. She explains that she tried to rule benevolently but faced hardships as a woman, and reveals horses are banned in Bilehurst; she had them all shot because they're "creatures of Satan." Graham whispers to the Doctor that he's went on a tour of this place and never heard of Bilehurst Cragg, and they decide to try to stop Savage from murdering anyone else. Wanting to check on Willa, Yaz leaves as the others go into Savage's house, where she offers wine and explains that they celebrate the witch trials because they're driving out an agent of Satan. Savage goes on to say they know Satan is there because of misfortunes with crops and sickness, and they're following King James's new bible to drive out those in league with Satan. The Doctor says King James would want to find another way to fix the problems, but just then the king (Alan Cumming) enters; he was the man in the mask, for drama and hiding from enemies. To the Doctor's surprise, her psychic paper tells James she's the witchfinder's assistant and he assumes Graham is the general, laughing that a woman could never be one. After some other sexist comments, James flirts with Ryan, then tells Savage he's been impressed with her work but believes she needs assistance; he stops the Doctor when she tries to say that's what they were telling her. James decides they'll start with Willa, and Savage agrees that together they'll save the town, even if it means killing everyone. Out in the woods, Yaz finds Willa burying her granny and repeating something they said before her death. Tendrils suddenly snake out of the ground toward the girl, so Yaz leaps in and hits them with a shovel. She says she wants to help, but Willa says there's no helping and runs away, while back at the house, the Doctor is annoyed about how women are being treated. They search Becka's room, finding King James's book "Daemonologie" and an ax, and Yaz bursts in to tell them about Willa; she assures the Doctor that the girl seemed afraid of what happened. A scan reveals the mud is normal, so the Doctor decides that she and Yaz will talk to Willa and examine the mud, while Graham and Ryan keep King James and Mistress Savage at the house. James introduces everyone to his "personal guardian," Alfonso (Stavros Demetraki), who guards his witch-hunting tools; Savage is in a rush to head out, but Ryan keeps James talking. The king produces a hat for Graham, explaining it belonged to his first witchfinder general, whom he had shot for betraying him. James also gives Ryan a special charm, flirting again, and shows them his "pricker," saying a witch won't bleed if her "mark" is pricked. Ryan fails to keep them in the room by suggesting they continue looking at the tools, and Graham has just as bad luck suggesting they prepare by compiling info about the villagers; Savage knows everything about the people and James knows everything about Satan. In town, the Doctor and Yaz convince Willa to talk to them before she leaves. Inside, they learn Willa's granny was a medicinal healer, and that Savage is Willa's cousin. Willa says they were a close family until Savage got married, and it was still a surprise to her, but not her granny, that Savage turned on them eventually. On the road to town, Graham tries to convince Savage that what she's doing could be wrong, but she stubbornly says innocent people have nothing to fear and her conscience is clean. At the house, Willa gives the pair tea, noting they might think she's a witch, but doesn't have any herself; she doesn't feel good. The Doctor gives her a scan with the sonic, saying she doesn't believe in Satan; Willa recalls her granny saying there's enough wonder in nature without humans making stuff up. The scan reveals nothing abnormal about Willa, and Yaz realizes the "sickness" she feels is dread as a result of the people being turned against her, like what happened to herself at school. She suggests Willa stand up to Savage, but the young woman is adamant that she'd be tried as a witch, so the Doctor says she has two options: run as far away as possible, or stand with Yaz and the Doctor against Savage to make her home safe again. Willa seems interested, and the Doctor picks up a vial to use for the mud, while out in the woods James tells Ryan it's only a matter of time before his trustworthy assistant Alfonso betrays him. After some prodding, he reveals he has trust issues because his father was murdered by his mother, who was then imprisoned and beheaded. He was then raised by regents, but one was assassinated, another died in battle, and the third died in mysterious circumstances. Along with this, he has faced numerous kidnapping and murder attempts, so he feels it is a miracle he's still alive; Ryan suggests he get back to London, but he says God will keep him safe. The Doctor is confused to find the mud in the woods is completely normal, and Willa tells Yaz the thing she was chanting before was a prayer for her grandmother, which they decide to finish. Suddenly, the mud the Doctor has in her bottle starts flitting around, and she realizes it's like not mud or even actually sentient; Willa's granny is suddenly standing behind her, and she realizes the mud has reanimated her corpse. The possessed granny deamds the Doctor's vial of mud, and devours it when she hands it over, noticing her hands bubbling and not wanting the mud to fill her. The Doctor asks a bunch of questions, including if it's the only creature; she gets a quick answer when numerous women appear behind her. Ryan and the others hear Willa scream and James is determined to help, against Ryan's wishes; they arrive and accuse Willa of being a witch, but the Doctor immediately protests. James tells Alfonso to shoot the women, who respond by repeating Willa and her granny's chant, sending out a blast that kills the assistant. The group retreats but realizes the women aren't following; Ryan surprises James by wanting to go back and found out what's going on, and he, Graham, and Ryan leave while the Doctor stays with Willa to keep her safe. James asks what the creatures were, and though Savage says it was the work of Satan, the Doctor tells them it was something alien beyond their understanding. Since the creatures killed Alfonso rather than taking him, the Doctor suggests they might only go for dead things, but Willa reminds her that she was attacked before, as well. The Doctor can't believe that the situation would truly be both a witch hunt and an alien invasion; she realizes they could be related and asks Savage what she knows, pointing out her bedside ax. Savage turns things around on the Doctor, claiming this all happened when she showed up with her "wand," and James joins in that this threat did fall from the heavens, like her "lord," Lucifer. Willa stands up for the Doctor, and James keeps the Doctor silent when she tries to question Savage again; Willa finally gives in and points out the Doctor's name is strange, and James connects it to a "necromancer and has her taken away." Elsewhere, Graham picks up the women's trail, while James questions the Doctor, wanting to know everything about witchcraft; she points out that true knowledge has to be earned. She offers to trade him knowledge about anything he wants in exchange for her "wand," and he again brings up his title and supposed position as Satan's greatest foe. She retorts that he's hiding behind his title, and he counters that she seems to do the same. Graham succeeds in tracking the women, and as he doesn't know how to deal with them, the group decides they can only follow. Asking who James truly is behind his mask, the Doctor points out his garter has a phrase about being against evil, despite how he kills, scapegoats, and causes hate. He claims there is no evil in him, but she reveals her knowledge of his past,pointing out his mother was scapegoated; he says he didn't see her when he could have since she abandoned him. She tells him he can't keep hurting people rather than facing up to the darkness inside himself, saying she knows these things because everyone is the same in wanting security and assurance; she offers to show him everything if he'll stop being afraid of what he doesn't understand. He seems to consider letting her go, then declares there's only one way he can truly know who she is: he summons the villagers for a witch test. Meanwhile, the others are confused as the women have led them back to Savage's house and to her bedroom; they realize the women are after her, which is why she has the ax. The women return from the room with said ax and march out of the house, while in the village the Doctor is led to the river. Taking off her coat, the Doctor compares Savage to the boy Yaz talked about before, pointing the finger so negative attention won't be on her. She asks why this is, and is simply told about how the ducking stool was made to silence women who talk too much, and the Doctor counters that talking's great, and in a moment like this could allow her to help. Savage touches the stool, and to the Doctor's surprise, there is a spark; she asks why it reacted, and Savage tells her to keep quiet, otherwise she'll duck Willa as well. The Doctor's last request is for a hanky; Savage says she doesn't have one, and the Doctor points out she had plenty along with medicine in her room. She asks what that was all for, and Willa silences her again, saying that she's going after the rest of the TARDIS crew next. With the crew heading to the river with the women, and the Doctor facing death by ducking, time is running out until they uncover what's truly going on in the town. This episode is a good look at how humanity has had similar issues throughout time, with how the Doctor tries to point out to James that he can't just be afraid of what he doesn't understand.
This is especially poignant for a person like James, who says he wants to learn about everything possible and is desperate to learn about witches. He's looking for knowledge, but at the same time is so afraid of betrayal and what he doesn't yet understand that his quest is being hindered. Just like with Willa, it seems like he's wanting to do something good, but is so convinced that Satan is at work and afraid of what this could mean that he does terrible things. Speaking of Willa, it's sad to see that she gives in to the mob mentality infecting the town, but makes the most sense to give us more of a story and make her more believable. People tend to believe that, under any kind of pressured situation where they could make a potentially selfish choice, they'll always make the upright decision. I've found this is often just talk, however, as you don't truly know how you would react, especially when you consider what's happening: Will is a young girl who's now all alone, because these trials have taken her grandmother, and she'll be taken next unless she simply says the Doctor, who is still mostly a stranger, is a witch, throwing her under the bus. Obviously it can be seen as selfish for her to do this, since the Doctor has been trying to help her, but at the same time she's just a scared girl and this person is admittedly strange. With hunts are of course a great time to go back to as well, since people were being accused of witchcraft for everything under the sun, and there was seemingly no way to prove innocence. Savage's favorite method of testing is the well-known ducking, where dying means you were innocent and not dying means you are a witch. Obviously either way, an innocent person is going to be murdered, because you're incredibly unlikely to survive the chains wrapping you to the tree limb, and even if you did, you'd then be executed another way. I've seen this topic tackled before with Fairly Oddparents, when Timmy Turner went back to the founding of Dimmsdale, when Crocker lookalike Alden Bitterroot was a famed witch hunter. When Timmy is suspected, they put him through this test, and when he survives, admittedly free of the chains through magic, Bitteroot says he must be a witch, only for Timmy to point out the alternative that he could just be a kid who can swim. Alan Cumming is a lot of fun to watch this episode as King James, admittedly partially because I'm already a fan of his. I had a feeling they might go for a typical aspect about old kings that they were often more interested in their male companions, and was glad they did so. Referring to Ryan as a "Nubian prince" got a laugh out of me, and it was funny seeing how Ryan was obviously uncomfortable throughout the episode but didn't want to offend the king. I was actually interested to see if this was a true characteristic for King James, and read that while James sexuality came under question before, he had plenty of men rumored to be lovers of his, and at later points in life had men he showed to be with publicly. A member of the LGBTQ community himself, Cumming handles the role with grace and his tremendous acting chops, showing the king both for this characteristic as well as his hidden pain. While the episode could have just had him merely showing off his sexuality and his irrational fear about witches, we get depthin revealing heis afraid of betrayal and the unknown because of the terrible experiences he's had in his life. Along with the deaths of those who cared for him, James was kidnapped multiple times, and according to the site I linked before, he was constantly influenced by those around him and made poor political choices. With this in mind and considering his unpopularity, it's understandable why he'd be afraid to trust people and more willing to buy something like witchcraft. Amidst his dramatic tendencies, we get some quiet moments of true emotion from James as he struggles to decide what is right, especially when the Doctor tries to prove she's not a witch. A lot of this can also be said for Savage, who does seem to truly believe that witchcraft is to blame for everything happening in the town, and wants to "save" the villagers. Since she has "Daemonologie" in her room, it's obvious she's been influenced by James's words, which essentially means she was in a situation of the blind leading the blind. This is the first episode that outright has the Doctor facing difficulties due to her sex, since James is told she's the witchfinder general, yet his own old ideals about women get him to see her as the witchfinder's assistant when he looks at the psychic paper. People might complain, since it was assumed the show would focus on the Doctor's gender, but it realistically has to come up at some point, and this episode is the perfect time. Where better to have the first female Doctor to confront this issue than a point in time where any strange woman was immediately labeled a witch? Combining this with her alien oddities, like her sonic screwdriver, the Doctor is bound to face some extra difficulties in her endeavors. I found this episode to be a lot of fun to watch, giving the Doctor quite a puzzling situation to deal with and plenty of informative historical aspects. One thing I was glad with during the 12th Doctor's time, and have talked about for this season, is how the show got back to being an educational program able to teach history to kids. While I'd heard of King James before, mainly because of the King James bible, I didn't know too much about him, and thanks to both this episode and the sites I looked at later wondering about the show's accuracy, I learned quite a few things about him. With this in mind, I'm glad the writers decided to have the Doctor tackle this situation, and it was a fun way to learn about one of England's kings.
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