The Roundheads

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Gatiss takes the Second Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie back to late 1648 for a pure historical story: they get involved with Oliver Cromwell and a plot to liberate Charles I from captivity. I'll have to say up front that this didn't completely work for me. Simon Guerrier handled this period (setting his story a year later, and the other side of the Irish Sea) far better in The Settling; Gatiss's characters talk like history lessons (apart from his rollicking sailors). In addition, the precepts of historical Who stories are somewhat violated by allowing Richard Cromwell to read a history of the Civil War (though this is dealt with) and, rather more dramatically, having Charles I's escape plan show more succeed, if only temporarily, provoking the Doctor to intervene rather un-Doctorishly to put history back on track (indeed the last few chapters have everyone acting a bit out of character). Also Gatiss seems a bit hazy about the location of the Solent, which appears in his account to be somewhere in the London suburbs.

There are some nice bits too. Ben falls in with the aforementioned rollicking sailors and goes to Amsterdam and back. Polly has an almost-romance with a young man called Whyte, which I found personally amusing. Charles I himself is moderately well-rounded as a character. So it's not awful, just not as good as it might have been. show less