Witches, Alien army trapped and using the bodies of the dead to escape. . . .
In the past historical episodes into the past this series, the Doctor and her friends have been careful to not interfere with history but with this episode it is quite the opposite. The Doctor and her friends get involved in the history of the town where this episode is set and sort the timeline out afterwards but obviously their interfering all works out in the end and nothing is changed.
As suggested in the title, this episode is all about witches and the witch trails that took place. We see the method that was used which was known as dunking, where the accused 'witch' was tied up and dunked into water. If the person floated, they were guilty of being a witch and if they sunk, they were innocent; either way the person died. Obviously as the Doctor is now a woman it was interesting and humorous to watch her frustration as she is a woman in a male dominated society and in the end gets tried as a witch herself!
Finally, after weeks we get to have a monster who is actually an alien and this week, we meet the Morax. These creatures have been imprisoned in Earth and have the ability to possess living and dead. Imprisoned is the Morax army with their king and queen. The Queen is the first to be released when Becka Savage (the landowner of the town Bilehurst Cragg) chopped down a tree which happened to be the lock to the prison. Becka Savage got infected by the Queen and only near the end do we see the results of the infection and we see the true form of the Morax Queen.
Along with the Morax King and Queen; we also meet King James I played by Alan Cumming. James I, considered himself to be intellectual and an expert on witchcraft. In the 16th Century a new theory was developed based on Christian theology; this was that the witch made a pact with the devil and didn’t act alone. This theory is mentioned throughout the episode as it is the reasoning to why they hunt as they believed they were surrounded by evil which is the Devil and they are convinced if they get rid of witches then the evil and Devil will leave them alone. In this episode, the first dunking we watch is of a woman who was a healer as she created medicines however authorities in the 16th Century believed even healing was a result of a pact with the Devil. Some people found Alan Cumming's portrayal of the King a bit over the top; yet others have enjoyed this character and found him amusing. There is a lot of layers to this character as he can be over the top but throughout everything there is a big sense of fear with this character. He is scared about his life as people keep trying to kill him and he fears witches but with everything there is a sense of authority with him too as he is the King.
Along with all of this, 'The Witchfinders' is the first episode that really addresses the Doctors new gender. Back when this episode was set women were seen as lesser and no one listened to them; you can feel the Doctor's frustration in this episode as no one will listen to her especially the King won't until the very end when she proves herself. As a result of all of this, we get to see a more vulnerable Doctor who has to be smart to find a way to solve everything and stop more people from being accused a witch.
The build up to the threat took a while in this episode and in the end, it didn’t take much to stop the threat and put all the escaped Morax back into their prison. We get to see the Doctor struggle as she struggles to make an impact as she is a woman and finally gets accused of being a witch. This episode is a fun history and mystery episode with an alien threat instead of human threat like over historical episodes from this series.
