Doctor Who Discussion: The Witchfinders

We really need to return to reviews of this season. We have the standard historical with SF episode this week, but it features a couple of new elements. The Doctor encounters difficulties because she’s now a woman, and King James wanders unaccompanied across the country, acting like Matthew Hopkins. Alan Cumming gives a great performance, but James’s presence, as depicted in this episode, makes little sense, his historical interest in witches (and alleged homosexuality) notwithstanding.

4 replies on “Doctor Who Discussion: The Witchfinders”

  1. Definitely King James’s presence seemed off. His presence does explain why nobody had heard of that particular village at the start, though. The whole story would have worked just as well with the *real* Witchfinder General showing up instead of James.

    It was a nice lampshade on the Doctor’s magic wand, though.

  2. I did not have any context for who King James was other than the best selling novel he translated. I was fascinated by that character in this episode, and surprised to find out how historically accurate it was supposed to be, even if it was implausible.

  3. I too was surprised to see King James show up, and it did seem a tad out of place in the beginning, but Alan Cummings absolutely nailed it. A few minutes in and I really wasn’t bothered.

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