I would like a hat like that! The Doctor, Polly and Ben arrive in 18th century Scotland and the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden. Falling in with a small group of survivors, they soon find themselves at the mercy of English soldiers and slave traders.
Listen to the narrated soundtrack of this story in the official BBC release:
Rate and review below:
Can anybody confirm or deny the rumour/garbled fact I hold in my brain chest that getting this one animated is a long shot because of the difficult of rendering tartan?
I think that this story is kind of uninteresting and one of the worst stories in the Second Doctors era. It is a shame that Jamie donāt get a better first story.
I think itās probably getting animated sooner or later, but theyāre holding off on it because of the different settings and characters that make it more difficult to animate on their given budget.
I might make this my first recon I watch; TV club feels like a good excuse for that
I would not start with this. Do something like Marco Polo first. It takes some time to get used to recons and it is easier to start with a good one.
Fully agree with @Tian. This isnāt the strongest story and the recon isnāt the best one either, so I wouldnāt make this my first one.
Are there any shorter ones you recommend? I do wanna watch Marco Polo but I donāt wanna start with a 7 parter 
Maybe start with The Crusade that only has 2 missing episodes. I think that it is a fun story as well.
The Crusade is a good one, and has only two of its four episodes missing. I also love The Savages personally.
Itās great that we got Jamie out of this one, but yeah, this was the one that I strongly remember fights that consisted of repeatedly showing the same two or three pictures over and over. Not a great reconā¦
Did the audio of this a few weeks back and despite it being set in my home country I really didnāt like it. Polly was terribly mischaracterised too.
James Robert McCrimmon <33333
I actually barely remember this story so Iāll be back with a real comment later but how can you not love that guy
This was the reason that fans believed but I think its been debunked by people in the know.
Iām on the ādonāt start with this oneā train too. Iād actually suggest you make your first recon something more sci-fi than historical just because historicals can be a bit dry and recon only compounds that.
So, I rewatched this story, and no, I still donāt find it particularly exciting. A Doctor playing dress up is fun, and thereās Trask and Grey and Ffinch being mildly interesting. The recon is sadly one of the less exciting ones, so this one is a bit of a chore. Itās really only iconic for being the last pure historical until Black Orchid and for introducing Jamie (no, bit that one, the other one!).
5/10
The Highlanders is more important than good. It marks the farewell of the pure historical and the introduction of Jamie McCrimmon, while showcasing Patrick Troughtonās emerging brilliance as a playfully deceptive Doctor. The story itself is thin, repetitive, and tonally inconsistentāleaning more on farce than the drama its setting deserves. While the Doctorās disguises and comedic turns shine, the lack of visual material and a dragging pace make it difficult to recommend as anything other than a historical curiosity. Fun in patches, but very much a story lost to timeāboth literally and figuratively.
Youāre welcome to read my full review below (spoilers hidden):
I actually really like this one! I thought comedy-wise it had a lot to offer, and I just love me some good silly 2! There are a few things that hold it back, but at the End of the Day, you will be hard-pressed finding me a Pure Historical that I donāt like to some degree. Wrote a short Review on it, feel free to read it to hear my Reasoning:
This is a rather boring story. Maybe itās the recon, but itās just a lot of nothingness. Itās a tough one to get through either way. Even the audio version is rather āmehā.
2.5/5