The Doctor and Steven arrive in Paris but the Doctor soon disappears leaving Steven to navigate a foreign land on the brink of disaster alone. Is the Doctor posing as the Abbot of Amboise or is something more sinister afoot?
All episodes of this story are missing but the soundtrack is available from the BBC as well as unofficial fan reconstructions.
Rate and review below:
RIP Anne Chaplet.
One of the best fan theory head canons I’ve heard is that Anne Chaplet and Steven “got together” 
on the night they hid together, making Steven Dodo’s Great-great-great-great-grandfather 
While it’s nice to have a Steven-centric story, this one is forgettable to me. I watched it 6 months ago and can barely remember it.
3/5.
5.0 Perfect/Fav
4.5 Excellent/Fav
4.0 Very Good
3.5 Good
3.0 Fine/Average
2.5 Meh
2.0 Bad
1.0 Very Bad
Steven plays hero in a shockingly well constructed historical thriller that is one of the most adult-orientated and serious of this era.
A bleak character drama that actually works incredibly well.
It’s status as a missing episode and the nature of the subject matter can make the middle parts drag but it’s still surprisingly emotional and the Doctor’s monologue in the final part might just be my favourite First Doctor moment in the show.
8/10
One I’ve always struggled with, especially as audio-only as everyone sounds very similar and I lose track of who is who and who is allied with who.
I had originally rated this a 4/10 but bumped it up to a 6/10, because this isn’t a bad serial by anu means. It’s dark and serious, it has great performances, it allows Steven to shine shortly before he leaves the show and the production values are top notch.
But it’s very talky, very slow and has a very empty plot and too many characters. So apart from the Doctor (who’s barely in it), Steven, Anne Chapelet (poor girl) and the Abbott, the characters remain pretty forgettable.
It being entirely missing definitely doesn’t help.
In short, here are my main pros and cons:
I think this is an excellent story. Love all the intrigue, scheming, Steven taking charge. Just an intense historical thriller of a story. The end bits with Steven chewing out the Doctor and nearly leaving is excellent. I can understand that it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, especially as a missing story. I’m to the point that an episode being missing has nearly no effect on my enjoyment of a story, aka “insane” so that helps.
I am honestly surprised and kinda sad seeing how middle of the road a lot of people rate this one 
For me this is one of the best Hartnell Stories, one of the best Historical and one of the best Showcase for a Companion. While i always enjoyed Steven already (he is superb in Time Meddler, Daleks Masterplan, solid in Myth Makers and ehhh in Galaxy 4) this is the one where he really makes a mark on the Show. This is easily his finest hour. In general, this one feels unique, one might even make a point of calling this the very first doctor-lite Story at its core. While I can definitely see the flaws, for me there is so much good in it, even if it suffers from being basically the most destroyed serial there ever was (barely any production pictures, no telesnaps, one of the poor audio recordings and so on).
Following Steven in this one is brilliant, especially for how dark and morbid it can get, Purves really can show off here. Hartnell as well is great here, both as the Doctor and as the Abbott, it’s a great shame we can’t see it, but even his voice is very distinct which works so well. Having it being kinda ambiguous at the start if he is or isn’t the Doctor works great and of course that final Monologue with Hartnell at the end is superb and his best Performance in the Role. Ann Chaplet works really well here too, and the Actress does the best with the Material she is given. And from what we can see the Costume are top notch as it was always the case with the Historicals.
I honestly must say it being so dialogue heavy is great, because unlike some other Stories, it works much better with solely the Audio, while I would love it being recovered, as with any missing Episode, stories such Smugglers and Myth Makers do suffer slightly more from being missing due some of their Action. As for the Pace, while I do I agree it’s pretty slow, for me, it’s very effective, while the chosen historical Moment for me is one that I haven’t tipped my toes into before I saw the Story, just from the Title alone, it works for me pretty well. It being so slow kinda makes you dread, and I think the last Episode gets enhances because of it, since when the Doctor returns it’s so hectic, there is no “But i can’t say Goodbye”, just “We must leave NOW!” For me, this slower Pace builds a dreading Tension that gets solved greatly at the end of the Story with Steven getting angry with the Doctor about Ann’s possible Death. It works especially great with the knowledge of the previous Story, and even some EU Stories add more to that Moment.
One of the very best for me.
I love this one. One of my favourite stories of the Hartnell years, the 60s, the classic series, the whole show.
Love it.
It’s really clever in making Steven feel so stranded by not only removing him from the Doctor but also, seemingly, from Doctor Who itself.
Love it.
One I always look forward to and when I see being discussed while I’m currently in the mid 70s on a marathon makes me look forward to starting all over again when I reach the end so I can reach The Massacre again.
Love it.
Listened for the first time via soundtrack release. I thought it was a poignant meditation on the nature of evil, and although it might have been a little confusing in spots, I enjoyed it. Made me wish that I did a better job remembering my high school European history class, though!
You mean your entire knowledge of history isn’t just Doctor Who?
I thought this was better the first time I saw it. Don’t know why but it did not grab me that much this time. It is nice with a Steven centric episode and he do a great job. Don’t know why but the whole The Doctor almost looks like someone else did not grab me this time. Maybe next time I will like it again.
First thoughts while rewatching: what’s Andred doing here?
Tbh, I don’t really like this one. I think it’s mainly due to it being missing, I struggle to keep my attention on reconstructions on a good day and I’m especially tired and unfocused today. The doctor’s speech at the end is good
The fun thing is that I hadn’t noticed that Andred’s actor shows up in this one until my recent rewatch! My first thought was also what the heck he is doing here 
I knew he was in The Faceless Ones, but didn’t know he was in this one.