History Recap / DoctorWhoS1E8TheReignOfTerror

* {{Bookends}}: In the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild opening story]] of Season One, Susan revealed that the Reign of Terror is the Doctor's favourite period in history. In the season finale, they actually visit it.
* CallBack: Susan again tells us that [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild the Reign of Terror is the Doctor's favourite period in the history of Earth]].

* {{Bookends}}: In the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild opening story]] of Season One, Susan revealed that the French Revolution is the Doctor's favourite period in history. In the season finale, they actually visit it.

** Susan, who previously was shown to be easily scared but able to endure fear when she was forced to (see "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild An Unearthly Child]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks The Daleks]]" and "The Sensorites") refuses to attempt to escape from a prison cell where she has been told she will be guillotined tomorrow, because there are rats in the cell that she is scared of. Even if that was a sensible priority for fear (even {{Phobia}}s in the real world do not override known threats to life), this means she remains in the cell ''with'' the rats...

* Bookends: In the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild opening story]] of Season One, Susan revealed that the French Revolution is the Doctor's favourite period in history. In the season finale, they actually visit it.

** M. Léon Colbert
** The physician, too.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Robespierre, UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte.

* ReignOfTerror

* FakeShemp: The Doctor is played by a stand-in for the location shots of Paris. According to Carole Anne Ford, the man actually tailed Creator/WilliamHartnell to try and emulate him, much to the actor's annoyance.

Written by Dennis Spooner. This serial first aired August 8, 1964.

* TheXOfY

* BattleDiscretionShot: The Doctor convinces the leader of the [[PressGanged press gang he's in]] that they're digging up gold coins. While the man scrabbles on the floor, back turned to the Doctor, the Doctor slowly takes a shovel from another of the gang members and readies it. We cut to the face of the man whose shovel the Doctor took as he looks on in confusion, before suddenly wincing in sympathetic agony. This was probably done because having the Doctor kill someone with a spade on screen would not be possible to [[PlayedForLaughs Play For Laughs]] - he's allowed to kill people on screen at dramatic moments, though.

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: None of the guest cast have accents. Most egregiously is the jailer, who is clearly from Oop'North

The DVD release reconstructed the episodes with off-air recordings of the original soundtracks and new animated visuals.

* ChangedMyJumper: The Doctor goes out of his way to obtain a député's (member of parliament) outfit as part of a bluff, attempting to trade his own clothes for one. He insists his clothes are more than high enough quality to swap, but the clothes merchant is incredibly confused by the style of them, calling them worthless and admitting he assumed they were cheap fancy dress. He does eventually get a fabulous outfit complete with a feathery hat and spends the rest of the episode wearing it and ordering people about — a comment by Susan implies that this may be because he has a ForeignCultureFetish for the French Revolution.

* {{Rotoscoping}}: Used in some scenes of the animated episodes 4 and 5 on the DVD release.

* StockEpisodeTitles: 10 uses. Justified, in that this episode is about, well, [[UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution the Reign of Terror]].

While Barbara and Susan are rescued en route the the guillotine, (after Barbara refuses to do [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar you-know-what]] with the jailor in exchange for their safety), Ian is trapped in a cell with a dying member of LaResistance. He promises to honour the man's last wish to relay a message, and spends a few more hours locked up with a corpse before successfully stealing a key and escaping.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: After the companions have been captured, one guard basically offers Barbara freedom in exchange for sex. For his troubles, he gets a slap to the face.

* ReverseMole: Stirling.

** M. Colbert

* FailedASpotCheck: The physician does not notice Susan's BizarreAlienBiology. YMMV, but considering that he sells she and Barbara out, maybe he wasn't giving her his full attention?...

* ChangedMyJumper: The Doctor goes out of his way to obtain a député's (member of parliament) outfit as part of a bluff, attempting to trade his own clothes for one. He insists his clothes are more than high enough quality to swap, but the clothes merchant is incredibly confused by the style of them, calling them worthless and admitting he assumed they were cheap fancy dress. He does eventually get a fabulous gendarme outfit complete with a feathery hat and spends the rest of the episode wearing it and ordering people about — a comment by Susan implies that this may be because he has a ForeignCultureFetish for the French Revolution.

* ChangedMyJumper: The Doctor goes out of his way to obtain a policeman's outfit as part of a bluff, attempting to trade his own clothes for one. He insists his clothes are more than high enough quality to swap, but the clothes merchant is incredibly confused by the style of them, calling them worthless and admitting he assumed they were cheap fancy dress. He does eventually get a fabulous gendarme outfit complete with a feathery hat and spends the rest of the episode wearing it and ordering people about — a comment by Susan implies that this may be because he has a ForeignCultureFetish for the French Revolution.