Battlefield (Doctor Who)
Doctor Who serial
Battlefield is the first serial of the 26th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 6 to 27 September 1989. It was the last to feature Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in the show.
In the serial, Morgaine (Jean Marsh), a sorceress from another dimension, summons the planet-devouring Destroyer (Marek Anton) in England, where she also seeks to take the sword Excalibur for herself. The plot is loosely based on Arthurian legend.
Plot
In response to a distress signal, the Seventh Doctor and Ace materialise the TARDIS near Lake Vortigern in England, where a UNIT convoy led by Brigadier Winifred Bambera is transporting a nuclear missile. At the Gore Crow hotel, they meet a young woman called Shou Yuing and a knight, Ancelyn, who addresses the Doctor as "Merlin". The Doctor shows interest in a scabbard which hangs over the mantelpiece in the hotel. The party is surrounded by an ominous group of knights led by Mordred who leaves after recognising The Doctor as "Merlin". When Mordred begins an arcane ritual, the scabbard flies across the room, stirred by the magic. A sorceress, Morgaine, then arrives on the scene through a rift in space and time.
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This entry incorporates text from “Battlefield (Doctor Who)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.