A recurrent theme throughout the 15th to 17th centuries was the conflict between the Catholic and the Protestant branches of Christianity.  It was an underlying theme in The Marian Conspiracy, The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve, The Gunpowder Plot, The Church and the Crown, The Settling and The Glorious Revolution.


Christianity, much like any real life religions, has tended to be steered clear of by the television series.  It is a sensitive area and however the production team approached it, someone somewhere would probably find offence.  It is common knowledge that The Face of Evil was originally going to be titled The Day God Went Mad until the production team thought better of it.  For much of the classic series run the National Viewers and Listeners Association, an ostensibly Christian organistion, was snapping at their heels over violence and inappropriate concepts for children.  Now is not the time or place for a discussion of the rights or wrongs of the NVLA but, as a Christian myself, let me just say that their views on television’s various ‘crimes’ are pretty far removed from most ‘normal’ Christian viewpoints.  We’re not all that narrow-minded for a start!

But, understandably, the series, both classic and new, has steered clear of featuring religion outside of alien or futuristic cults which owe far more to historical religious practices than modern day theology.  The exception to this are stories featuring the historical religious practices themselves such as human sacrifice in The Aztecs, holy war in The Crusade or religious persecution in The Massacre.  These are far enough removed from modern sensibilities that they may as well be an alien or futuristic society.Interestingly, the new series touched upon Islam in The God Complex (the production teams clearly being more confident putting ‘God’ into the story title now than they were in 1977) but this is a rare example.But in the audios, where historical stories are far more abundant than on TV, many authors have chosen periods where conflict between aspects of Christianity has caused political and civil unrest.


On television, the only story to examine tension between the Catholics and Protestants is, of course, The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve.  As I commented in my original review of this story, this period of history is – as far as a UK education is concerned – pretty obscure.  I doubt many ‘normal’ people in the UK have any knowledge of this period and most fans knowledge is confined to what we see/hear in the story itself.  Here it is the Catholics who are most definitely portrayed as the villains of the piece.  Catherine de Medici, the Catholic Queen Mother is the villain, there is no doubt and Admiral de Coligny is a good Protestant man marked for assassination by the treacherous Catholics.  To be fair, this interpretation of events is understandable seeing as the Protestants (or rather Hugenuots) were massacred and, however one views the responsibility of the Catholics for this atrocity, it is still an evil act perpetrated in the name of religion.
The Big Finish audios that have touched on this tension between Catholics and Protestants have been far more balanced in their portrayal of the two sides.

The first story in my marathon to touch on this divide was The Marian Conspiracy (although The Council of Nicaea had already featured the tensions arising from a split in the theology of different Christians).  In The Marian Conspiracy, we see Mary I portrayed as much less of a villain than Catherine de Medici, despite her desire to see Protestants burn for their heretical ways.  Mary is shown to be a reasonable woman who simply believes wholeheartedly that she is right.  The Doctor’s attempts to convince her otherwise do seem to fall on deaf ears but it isn’t portrayed as villainy, merely devout conviction.  The Protestants, for their part, aren’t portrayed as a particularly nice bunch, with the Reverend Smith, for example coming across as rather oily and unlikeable.  But again, their motivations are made clear – the Reverend’s marriage to Sarah (the Queen’s lady in waiting) has been declared illegal with the accession of Mary to the throne simply because this monarch has different views about the clergy to her predecessor, Edward.


The Church and the Crown went to great lengths to portray history a little more realistically than the Musketeer films it took as its inspiration, although mainly in its characterisation of Cardinal Richelieu.  For the traditional moustache-twirling villainy of the Cardinal familiar from the films to be replaced by a far more level-headed, but like Mary, devoutly committed to his beliefs, version gives an interesting slant to the audio which even the Doctor and Peri comment on.


In The Settling we find the devoutly Protestant Oliver Cromwell attacking Catholic communities in Ireland.  Again, Cromwell is not portrayed as an out and out villain, although I would argue he is more ‘villainous’ than Mary I or Cardinal Richelieu are.  He is more than happy for the massacre of innocents in God’s cause and becomes increasingly angry at the way Hex ultimately betrays him by fighting with the Irish.

The Glorious Revolution has the divide as a backdrop and motivation to the historical events occurring in the story – namely the replacement of Catholic King James II with Protestant William and Mary.  Very little is made of the religious motivations as the story is far more concerned with Jamie McCrimmon’s attempt to change history – although it does of course lead into Jamie’s own personal history and the reasons for his involvement in the Battle of Culloden – which itself was fuelled by the desire to replace the Protestant Hanover monarchy with the Catholic Stuarts.

The Gunpowder Plot is of course based around its eponymous event which saw the plotters desire the death of Catholic King James I.  The religious motivations however take a back seat in this computer adventure game.
I can fully understand why Doctor Who, certainly as a TV series, shies away from dwelling too much on religion but it is good that the series’ many other outlets are a little freer to explore more sensitive subjects.  The best story to examine the Catholic/Protestant tensions I feel is The Marian Conspiracy where it is central to the plot but its underlying presence across the other historical stories creates an interesting theme.