N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
Although it’s not without its flaws, one thing I really like about Battlefield is how it handles its big revelation: at some point in his future and/or in a parallel universe, the Doctor becomes Merlin, the wizard of Arthurian legend.
“Merlin, let this be our last battlefield.”
Morgaine, Battlefield: Part Two
There’s no need for ten minutes of expository nonsense. Ancelyn recognises the Doctor as Merlin (although ‘not his aspect’, so he knows the Doctor is capable of regenerating), the Doctor is puzzled by the revelation but accepts it (sort-of) and uses it to his advantage later in the story, in which another dimension’s version of the King Arthur story collides almost-but-not-quite-literally with a UNIT missile convoy.
Like all of Doctor Who‘s best writers, Ben Aaronovitch knows that a great storyteller don’t have to explain absolute everything. It’s interesting too that Aaronovitch looks back on this story as a failure. It certainly doesn’t suffer from a failure of ambition. If anything, with it wide cast of supporting characters, it possibly is a little too ambitious to pull it all off on Doctor Who‘s meagre budget and with relatively little screen time. (Peter Jackson would’ve demanded at least three hours to tell this tale!)
“Exotic alien swords are easy to come by. Aces are rare.”
The Doctor, Battlefield: Part Four
There are other things that don’t work, of course: Mordred’s dialled-up-to-11 maniacal laughter and Bambera’s Grange Hill swearing are a bit silly and, for once, I can’t set aside my reservations about Killer Keff’s incidental music. This time it really is distracting, to the point that some of the battle scenes seem rather less swashbuckling than they ought to be.
But if it has its problems, Battlefield ultimately redeems itself with one (almost) last hurrah for the Brigadier, who comes out of retirement to put Bambera and Ace’s noses out of joint and deliver one of the all-time great naff distractions — “Good Lord, is that a space ship?” — before karate-chopping the Doctor and going off to defend the Earth one more time.
