In this serial, the Doctor (William Hartnell) and his travelling companion Steven (Peter Purves) arrive in France in 1572, during the events leading up to the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.

The two of them become separated, leaving the Doctor's journey largely unaccounted for, while Steven is caught up in a Huguenot plot to assassinate the Catholic Queen Mother Catherine de' Medici (Joan Young).

Anne is terrified because she has overheard some Catholic guards speaking of a coming religious massacre of Huguenots here in Paris.

To protect her and her knowledge, Nicholas arranges for Anne to go into the service of his master, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny.

Steven comes in too, saying that policemen are approaching, and his heart softens when the young woman introduces herself as Dorothea or Dodo Chaplet.

The Doctor, hearing Steven's warning of the approaching policemen, hurriedly dematerialises the TARDIS, not noticing until after it has left 1966 that Dodo is still aboard.

The CDs have The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve printed on them and this is also the title announced by Peter Purves on the discs themselves.

^† Episode is missing In 2018, The Daily Telegraph ranked The Massacre at number 10 in "the 56 greatest stories and episodes", stating that it "fulfils" the programme's educational remit at the time and "pulls no punches: the story is more like a standard adult costume drama than Saturday teatime children's TV."

[6] Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times awarded it four stars out of five, writing that "the surviving soundtrack indicates – and older fan friends assure me – that The Massacre was an outstanding drama, offering novelty and grim realism."

He stated that Peter Purves "acquits himself admirably" and was "among a strong cast", but regarded Dodo as "surely one of most ineptly conceived companions".

[7] In Doctor Who: The Complete Guide, Mark Campbell awarded it nine out of ten, describing it as a "complex and engagingly downbeat historical, with Steven allowed to dominate proceedings for once".

[9] However, a fan-recorded soundtrack, with linking narration provided by Peter Purves, was released by the BBC Radio Collection on both audio CD and cassette in 1999.

[11] In the Big Finish Productions audio story, Fugitive of the Daleks, the Abbot is revealed to be the robot double of the Doctor that was first seen in the TV adventure The Chase.

A book-length study of the serial, written by James Cooray Smith, was published as part of The Black Archive series from Obverse Books in 2016.