Here we are again, with yet another fine example of how good the historical stories can be. The Smugglers is set in 17th century coastal England, with a small town caught between a churchwarden with a secret, a pirate captain and his bloodthirsty crew, and a clueless squire. There is no need for aliens or monsters to create drama, there are plenty of human monsters to be found. In fact, what little actual footage remains of this story only still exist because it was manually edited out of prints in circulation for foreign broadcast -- footage that was cut for being too violent, and then survived in a file while the rest of the print was lost.

Let's talk about that.

The Smugglers - Episodes 1 & 2

The thrust of the story is that the TARDIS materializes inside a seaside cave, near a small English town in the 17th century. Much like The Time Meddler, the TARDIS soon becomes inaccessible due to the tide. Upon their initial arrival, Ben does not believe that they have traveled in time. He insists he needs to walk into town and catch a bus back to London, and the Doctor indulges him in this fruitless task. Along the way they meet  a churchwarden who is initially very paranoid of the strangers (and who also mistakes Polly for a young man, on account of her wearing trousers.) Soon enough the group gains the churchwarden's trust, and he sends them on to the local inn to spend the night until the tide goes out again. In the process, he imparts a secret sequence of code words to the Doctor. Shortly after the group leaves, the churchwarden is murdered by a pirate who has been lurking nearby. It turns out the churchwarden was formerly a pirate himself, before finding God and leaving behind his piratical ways. Apparently he took some treasure with him, and Captain Pike of the ship Black Albatross wants it back.

From there the drama flows nicely. The Doctor is kidnapped by the pirates, and Ben and Polly are falsely arrested for the murder of the churchwarden. At one point they manage an escape when Polly gets the idea to exploit the superstitions of the young man guarding them. She builds a straw doll and pretends it is cursed, while Ben terrifies the poor boy with tales of what will happen to him if they are not freed.

There is some other drama surrounding a local innkeeper, who attempts to set up some illegal trade with the pirates, as well as the local squire (lawman) who is both pompous and dumb and dirt. Toss in a secret series of tunnels and caves that lead from a hidden door in the church basement right down to the cave on the beach where the TARDIS sits, and you have everything necessary for danger and skullduggery.

If the ship Black Albatross sounds familiar, you might be remembering it from the Eleventh Doctor story The Curse of the Black Spot. That episode was written as a kind-of prequel to The Smugglers, explaining what happened to Captain Avery who is mentioned several times in this story.

Another interesting thing: The Smugglers has no incidental music whatsoever. There are the usual opening and closing credit sequences with the title theme, but other than that no music appears whatsoever. It is the only story in the entirety of Doctor Who to have only dialogue and ambient noise. I have to say, it suits the story well.

STATS:

Doctor(s): First
Companion(s): Ben Jackson, Polly Wright
Episode(s): The Smugglers - Episodes 1 & 2
Steps Walked: 6,812 today, 439,990 total
Distance Walked:  3.39 miles today, 206.05 miles total
Weight: 288.30 lbs (five day moving average), net change -19.00 lbs