The Witch Trial

The Doctor is attempting to take her three travelling companions to 1559, so as to see the coronation of Queen Elizabeth I, but the TARDIS takes them to the 17th century instead. The Doctor, Graham O'Brien, Ryan Sinclair and Yasmin Khan are initially unaware of this as the TARDIS withholds the exact temporal location from them. Graham though is convinced that The Doctor has missed the mark again.

As they enter a village they notice a party being held and they join in with the fun – The Doctor spying a tub full of apples and bobs for one. Thinking the villagers are celebrating Halloween they discover that the party is just because it is a Sunday. Suddenly the villagers are called to attend a meeting of some sort. The Doctor and her three travelling companions decide to follow the villagers to investigate. They soon discover that they have arrived in 1612 Lancashire at a pace called Bilehurst Cragg near Pendle Hill and that the meeting is to witness the dunking in a river of an old woman, called Mother Twiston, who has been accused of being a witch. Despite The Doctor previously insisting that they should not interfere with events that take place in the past, she is outraged when, after the old woman shares some parting words with her granddaughter across the river, is dunked into the river by Becka Savage, the landowner, who is condemning her as being a witch.

Without any warning The Doctor tosses her coat to Graham and jumps into the river to save the old woman from drowning. Though she manages to pull the woman out of the water, the shock and lack of air was too much for Mother Twiston who dies in The Doctor’s arms. Frustrated at what has just occurred The Doctor accuses Becka of being a murderer. When Becka demands to know who she is The Doctor produces her psychic paper from her coat, that she retrieves from Graham, which displays her title of authority as being Witch Finder General. To prevent any further witch trials The Doctor persuades Becka to leave Mother Twiston’s granddaughter, Willa, alone when it becomes apparent that Willa is about to be accused of also being a witch due to her being related to Mother Twiston.

A Concerned Doctor

Having defused the situation Becka invites The Doctor and her travelling companions to the manor house, so they may discuss how to deal with the witches. As they walk Becka reveals that they are walking because she no longer has a carriage due to having had all the horses shot because she believed they were possessed by the devil. The Doctor gets Yasmin to return to the village and talk with Willa to find out more about what's been going on in Bilehurst Cragg. As Yasmin makes her way back to the village the group are unaware that a masked figure is watching them from the trees.

Inside Becka's manor, The Doctor, Graham and Ryan discover that Becka has become paranoid about witches when she lists several natural things that have gone wrong and that she has so far successfully killed 35 witches. This makes The Doctor and her companions disgusted with Becka as she is clearly using this to explain the terrible conditions of the land. When Becka claims that she is following the guidance that she has read in King James' new bible which says ‘suffer not a witch to live’, The Doctor says that King James would have something to say about her methods. At that moment, the masked man enters the room and on removing his mask he reveals himself to be King James I. The King states that that he travels incognito due to his numerous enemies and has travelled to Bilehurst Cragg after hearing rumours of Becka's heroic efforts to drive the devil out of her estate. With the arrival of the King, The Doctor quickly loses control of the situation. She again brandishes the psychic paper to pass herself as a witch finder general but, due to the King's sexism, he instead reads it as The Doctor being a witch finder assistant, making him think Graham is in charge. Despite this The Doctor still attempts to dissuade the King and Becka against carrying out more senseless murders. But they ignore The Doctor’s pleas vowing that by the end of the day, they will have driven the devil out of the area, even if it means killing everyone in it.

Becka Savage

Meanwhile, Yasmin finds Willa in a nearby wood burying her grandmother. She watches from a distance while Willa carries out some kind of ceremony when she sees a tendril reach out of the ground and attempt to grab Willa. Yasmin grabs a nearby shovel and smashes the tendril reducing it to shreds. Before Yasmin can talk to Willa the scared girl runs away. Yasmin decides to return to The Doctor and finds her snooping around Becka's bedroom, which surprisingly has a large axe in it. She tells The Doctor about the tendril attack. The Doctor scans the mud that came from it with her sonic screwdriver but finds nothing untoward – it is just plain mud. The Doctor decides to go with Yasmin to talk with Willa, tasking Graham and Ryan with keeping King James occupied while she is busy. The Doctor and Yasmin find Willa preparing to leave her home. Willa tells them that she intends to get as far away from Bilehurst Cragg before the villagers kill her next. The Doctor manages to persuade a very reluctant Willa to talk to her slowly gaining more of her trust. The more that Willa reveals about her grandmother the more The Doctor feels that she would have loved to meet Mother Twiston as the woman was clearly wiser than most in this era. They ask Willa about Becka, whom Willa reveals to be her cousin - she simply got lucky and married into a life of privilege. The Doctor explains that they need to find out more about the tendril in order to find out what is happening.

At Mother Twiston's burial site, The Doctor examines a piece of the tendril, which is made of mud. However, as The Doctor examines the bit of mud in the bottle, it becomes active. At the same time, behind her, Mother Twiston suddenly appears out of her grave covered in mud. The Doctor wonders if the creature wants the sample piece of mud in the bottle. The creature absorbs the mud. As The Doctor ponders if the creature is a single consciousness or one of many, more possessed muddy corpses appear. Willa thinks they are witches, but The Doctor tells her that they are not.

Meanwhile Graham and Ryan are conversing with the King but are unsuccessful in stopping him from instigating another witch hunt. They try to talk him out of it but the King is very determined and leaves promptly. Both reluctantly join the King and Becka on the hunt. As they enter the wood they hear a scream. The King's group then arrive and witness the muddy corpses rising from the ground. Becka declares Willa a witch despite the obvious fact the mud creatures are being hostile towards her. The Doctor brandishes her sonic screwdriver, but the King orders Alfonso to kill the witches. Despite The Doctor's pleas to stay away, the creature that was Mother Twiston unleashes a shockwave that kills Alfonso. The Doctor orders everyone to run.

King James

When they are a safe distance away The Doctor instructs her companions to go back and follow the creatures to see what they are doing. When they have departed The Doctor tries to question Becka, as she believes that she is hiding something, but instead finds herself being accused of being a witch. The King asks Willa if she believes The Doctor of being a witch. Out of fear, Willa states it was odd her friends call her ‘The Doctor’. The King believes that the name comes from the necromancer Dr. Dee, telling his men to seize The Doctor so she can be tried as a witch.

Elsewhere in the wood, Graham, Ryan and Yasmin follow the mud creatures to Becka's manor. There they watch them enter Beka’s bedroom and take the axe that they discovered earlier. They then follow the creatures as they leave the manor but loose track of them as they re-enter the woods. They then hear a bell ringing and realise that another witch is going to be tried. They all come to the deduction that this could very well be The Doctor herself as she would have put a stop to another senseless murder, and so rush towards the river. There the discover The Doctor chained to the tree stump attempting to reason with King James before she is dunked into the river. When The Doctor emerges from the water a few feet away, King James declares that this means that The Doctor is a powerful witch. However, The Doctor replies by saying that she is just very good at holding her breath and learned how to escape from chains from Houdini. The Doctor then confronts Becka again just as the corpses arrive. Becka reveals that she was infected by an alien entity while chopping down a tree on a nearby hill because it blocked her view. However, when doing so a tendril stabbed her leg, infecting it. Believing it to be witchcraft seeking vengeance, Becka started killing the women in the village in the hope of receiving divine protection. However, with the infection becoming worse Becka approached Mother Twiston to cut off her leg, but when she refused, Becka used the witch trials as an excuse to kill Mother Twiston so as to keep her secret.

During this revelation, mud trickles down from Becka's eyes and she starts to wither in pain. As Becka begins leaking more mud, the mud creatures surround her as the alien entity takes over her body completely. The King thinks that the devil is possessing her but as the alien entity fully takes over Becka's body it reveals itself as the queen of the war criminal race known as the Morax. The Doctor learns from the Morax Queen that Becka, when she chopped the tree down, inadvertently damaged an alien prison system, disguised as the tree, that was designed to imprison the Morax. Learning that the Morax intend to have their king possess King James before conquering Earth, The Doctor uses her sonic screwdriver on the tree to save King James and reactivate the prison. While the other Morax are forced out of their host bodies, the Morax Queen refuses to leave Becka's body and so King James kills them both when he stabs the Morax Queen with a burning branch that was being used as a torch.

The following day King James declares, that as he owes his life to The Doctor, he promises that the recent events will all be erased from the records and to keep all that has happened a secret. He and Willa then watch in surprise as The Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yasmin enter the TARDIS. The TARDIS then dematerialises, leaving the King confused and Willa smiling.