The Holy Terror
The Doctor and Frobisher are in deep trouble. The TARDIS has “gone on strike,” and the Doctor is forced to surrender control to the ship itself. It brings them to a castle whose occupants live by a bizarre set of rituals: their king isn’t just a monarch, but a living god to be worshipped by his subjects. However, whenever the king dies, the religion built around him is declared false, a select number of subjects are executed for heresy, the rest of the heretics much formally change their religion to follow the new god (the incoming king), and the bible must be rewritten from scratch. But by sheer bad luck, the arrival of the TARDIS is hailed as a miracle, as it occurs on the coronation/ ascension day of the new god-king – a timid man who doesn’t want the position at all. To avoid his fate, the new ruler abdicates and declares Frobisher to be the new god – and since Frobisher is a talking penguin who emerged from a “blue temple” which appeared out of thin air, most of the people have no qualms about worshipping him. To his credit, the well-meaning whifferdill tries to instill a sense of free choice upon his subjects, introducing them to concepts such as democracy and mercy. But deep within the castle, something else is brewing – a devastating evil which some think will be the new messiah. But its true destiny is to murder every last person in the kingdom until it finds one man – and there is nothing the Doctor or Frobisher can do to stop it.
written by Robert Shearman
directed by Nicholas Pegg
music by Russell StoneCast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Robert Jezek (Frobisher), Dan Hogarth (Sejanus), Sam Kelly (Tacitus), Roberta Taylor (Berengaria), Helen Punt (Livilla), Peter Guiness (Childeric), Stefan Atkinson (Pepin), Peter Sowerbutts (Clovis), Bruce Mann (Arnulf)
LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green
