Tue 5/21 – Attack of the Cybermen 1/2

Fri 5/24 – Attack of the Cybermen 2/2

Tue 5/28 – Vengeance on Varos 1/2

Fri 5/31 – Vengeance on Varos 2/2

Tue 6/4 – The Mark of the Rani 1/2

Fri 6/7 – The Mark of the Rani 2/2

Mon 6/10 – The Two Doctors 1/3

Wed 6/12 – The Two Doctors 2/3

Fri 6/14 – The Two Doctors 3/3

Tue 6/18 – Timelash 1/2

Fri 6/21 – Timelash 2/2

Tue 6/25 – Revelation of the Daleks 1/2

Friday 6/28 – Revelation of the Daleks 2/2

SEASON 21 POLL:

Recap: The Doctor, suffering post-regenerative melodrama, has come to Titan III to meditate until he is fully himself again. He and Peri have discovered another Time Lord, Azmael, the former leader of Jaconda. Azmael serves the new ruler of Jaconda, a bug-like creature called Mestor. Azmael has kidnapped two genius twins to do some math. The Doctor was just seemingly killed in an explosion.

Episode 3:

The Doctor begins to appear, looking confuses, but disappears. Lang demands to know what’s going on and Peri shrugs him off.

Elsewhen, The Doctor appears in the console room and begins working at the controls, complaining about “hit or miss performances”.

With Peri and Lang, The Doctor appears, oddly on the opposite side of the console. He seems surprised when Peri voices that she thought he’d died in the explosion.

Lang demands to know what’s going on. They confirm that he was the only one who survived the crash. He’s unaware of what actually caused the ship to crash, however.

Peri and The Doctor explain they saved his life, and The Doctor asserts they did not abduct the twins; this causes Lang to pull his gun on him, demanding to know what he knows about them. The Doctor says they have to work together if he wants to see the twins.

The Doctor prepares to go to Jaconda.

The twins chastise Azmael for leaving behind his friend and Peri to die. The old Time Lord says they will survive.

Just then, Drak alerts him to another ship on the same course as they. Azmael says it is no concern.

Noma informs Azmael that he set the safehouse to self-destruct. Azmael is outraged and says he gave no such order. Noma agrees, saying “It is what the Lord Mestor would have wished.”

The Doctor tells Peri and Lang he’s not sure why Azmael tried to kill them. Lang says that stopping at Titan III was to put them off the scent, but The Doctor disagrees. He says that Azmael must have faced some menace that has “unhinged his mind”.

On Jaconda, a porter from the royal hatcheries is brought before Mestor. It seems that he was stealing vegetables for his family. Mestor says the punishment is death and orders the guards to stand aside. He sentences the porter to “death by embolism” and the porter is encased in a green glow that kills him.

Mestor orders the body taken away for cold storage (suggesting it could be used as food for the slaves) and gives instructions for Azmael and the twins to be taken to the laboratory when he arrives.

The TARDIS arrives on Jaconda; The Doctor, Peri and Lang exit. The Doctor is horrified to find the planet a terrible, ugly, barren place. The Doctor realises that “the giant gastropods” from Jacondan mythology are responsible for all of the devastation.

Lang says it’s nonsense. The Doctor says the area they are standing in was once a forest, but all that remains are barkless trees and slime trails. He orders them back into the TARDIS.

Azmael contacts Jaconda control, requesting permission to land. He is given permission and instructions to report to palace upon arrival.

The Doctor argues with Peri and Lang about going to the palace. He gets melodramatic again. “Self-pity is all I have left!”

Between Peri’s nagging and Lang’s gun, he agrees to take the TARDIS to the palace. They appear in the catacombs and The Doctor says he’ll accompany Lang, who protests.

“I may be behaving like a manic barometer, but don’t shrug off help when it’s offered. You can’t afford to,” he tells Lang. Lang reluctantly agrees, saying he’ll kill him if he becomes unstable again.

The twins nag Azmael, who turns on them and threatens them at becoming animal fodder.

Peri and Lang follow The Doctor, who isn’t all that sure of where he’s going, though he pretends otherwise.

Azmael takes the twins (accompanied by Drak and Noma) to the palace laboratory. They see a room full of eggs; Azmael says it’s an incubator for the future citizens of Jaconda.

The twins meet Mestor’s chamberlain, whom Azmael calls a lackey. The chamberlain leaves to inform Mestor. Noma stays, saying he has been commanded.

The Doctor shows his companions carvings in the tunnels, showing the myth of how an ancient queen offended the sun god, who sent a plague of gastropods, until the sun god changed his mind and created a drought to kill them. But The Doctor says there must have been some eggs that survive.

Several of the humanoid slugs pass by and The Doctor, Peri and Lang hide. After they pass, Lang steps out and gets suck in the slime trail. He begins using his gun to try to burn his way free.

Mestor meets the twins, instructing Azmael to inform the twins what is going on. Azmael says they need another day. Mestor agrees, saying he will give him that. Azmael demands that Mestor stay out of his thoughts. They argue, but Mestor agrees. Azmael demands that Noma is removed, leaving only Drak to observe him, and Mestor and party depart.

Azmael tells Drak that he was left there as well because they do not trust him, they think he a traitor. Drak says he is not a traitor. Azmael agrees, but says they think Drak is a friend of his.

“I would value your friendship.”

“It might cost you your life.”

“I can think of worse reasons for dying,” Drak says, and he and Azmael grasp each others’ hands in camaraderie.

Azmael then calls the twins over and shows them a map of the solar system. He explains that he once ruled Jaconda, but Mestor has usurped his rule. He asks the twins to help him provide new sources of supply, to bring two lesser planets into orbit around Jaconda, to become the larders of Jaconda.

He needs the twins’ mathematical prowess to establish the perfect balance of the planets to safely orbit Jaconda.

The Doctor complains that Lang is taking too long. He then turns on Peri blaming her and telling her not to argue with him about it being all her fault.

“I will! I’m not letting a manic-depressive, paranoid personality like you shut me up!” GO PERI!!!

After being told to calm down, The Doctor storms off without them.

The twins ask what happens if they refuse to help, Azmael says he will have to kill them.

The Doctor enters, hearing them argue. “Villain! Murderer,” he shouts at Azmael, who is delighted to see his friend still alive. The Doctor charges, shouting, “A thousand neurons on your head!” He grabs the old man, choking him, but the twins and Drak break them up.

The Doctor snaps out of his instability just then, apologising, but demanding to know why he tried to kill he and Peri. The twins and Drak explain that it was Noma. When Azmael inquires how he escaped, he says it’s not important, but wants to know what’s going on.

Lang finally gets his feet out, and he and Peri head off to find The Doctor, but they are attacked by Jacondan guards. Lang is knocked unconscious and Peri is dragged off.

Mestor praises Noma for killing Peri and The Doctor, but just then Peri is brought in. Mestor changes his praise of Noma. The guards tell Mestor about Lang and he orders them to fetch him.

Azmael asks The Doctor his opinion of his plan. The Doctor asks, “You know what will happen, don’t you?” The twins say they’ve already told him. Azmael insists risks must be taken, but The Doctor says this is doomsday. “One tiny error in your calculation, you’ll blow a small hole in the universe!”

Just then, Lang staggers in, telling him they’ve got Peri, as he collapses to the floor. The Doctor dashes to the door with the intent to rescue her, but Drak stops him. Azmael says he cannot go, for Mestor would learn of his plan. “No, Doctor, if necessary, she must die.”

The camera zooms in on The Doctor’s face, as he shouts, “Peri,”… and the credits roll.

Fun, over-the-top cliffhanger there. Me likey.

Episode 4:

Noma demands to know why Mestor doesn’t kill her, but he finds her pleasing. (This is a thing, isn’t it. First Sharaz Jek, now Mestor.) However, Mestor is concerned that they haven’t brought back her companion yet, and says he senses danger.

Drak tells The Doctor to be at peace, as he paces about manically. Noma enters with guards and they take The Doctor prisoner; Azmael says to Noma that The Doctor is their friend and will save them from Mestor, but Noma says Mestor is their friend.

The Doctor is brought before Mestor; he’s pleased to see Peri alive and is thrown to the ground before Mestor. Peri begs for them to release him.

The Doctor says he can help with Mestor’s plan, saying he has the practical knowledge to guarantee success. Mestor senses that he’s telling the truth; The Doctor is aware of Mestor reading his mind.

When Mestor asks why he resists his presence in his mind, The Doctor replies, “I’m secretive by nature. Besides, if you were to learn everything too quickly, you’d have no reason to keep me alive.” Brilliant bit, that.

The chamberlain says he is playing with him and not to be trusted. Mestor uses the green glow to cause the chamberlain great pain for daring to argue.

The twins tell Azmael that it is very disconcerting for them to be suffering their memory loss and suggest if he restored their memories, it’d be easier for them to help and they’d be grateful. He agrees and removes the discs from their wrists.

They have their memories and he sends them to work as Lang recovers. The Doctor and Peri are brought in and The Doctor tells his friend he’s agreed to help with the ridiculous plan.

The twins protest working with interruptions and Noma tells them they will do as told. They tell Noma they won’t do their best work. The Doctor and Peri jump in, suggesting if that were to happen, Mestor would be very unhappy and do the embolism ray on Noma.

Noma sends the guards out; the twins and Azmael insist that he join them.

The chamberlain tells Mestor what he’s heard of The Doctor from Azmael before, that he’s a man of great cunning. Mestor says “He’s also egocentric, wilful and quite mad.” Yeah, that pretty much sums up Six.

Mestor instructs the chamberlain to find the TARDIS.

The Doctor questions Azmael about the plan – it seems the planets will occupy the same space, but be in different time phases, one day ahead of the other. When Peri questions that Mestor can travel in time, Azmael nods, saying, “Thanks to me.”

In his throne room, Mestor laughs.

The Doctor is in a trance; Peri tries to get him to react, while Lang looks on. The Doctor suddenly responds, saying the situation is all wrong. He points out that if the planets, which are smaller, are brought closer to the to sun, their orbit would decay and they’d crash into the sun.

The Doctor says Mestor knows this would happen and though he doesn’t know why, this is the intended goal.

The chamberlain and two guards find the TARDIS. Mestor’s power is used, from afar, to open the door. They enter.

The twins have completed their calculations. The Doctor says very good, but is more interested in getting into the hatchery, as he feels the answer is in there. Azmael opens the door and he enters, followed by Peri, Lang, and Azmael.

The Doctor questions where the mucus that feeds the larvae inside is, “These eggs are dry and rubbery. Let’s see what’s inside. A laser cutter, I must have a laser cutter.”

Azmael fetches one and they use it, but nothing happens at first. But then, the larvae inside reacts. The Doctor and Azmael realise that they need much more heat than that to react, to spawn. When The Doctor asks if this room contains all the eggs, Azmael says not hardly, and shows them a huge tunnel beyond filled with eggs further than the eye can see.

Suddenly, it all falls together – the eggs are tough enough to survive the heat of an exploding sun! It seems that Mestor’s plan is to colonise the universe.

Mestor, still in his throne room, is aware of their discussion.

The Doctor says that he and Azmael must deal with Mestor. Azmael says he’s used up all his regenerations and The Doctor is likely to lose his mental focus at any time.

The twins destroy the notes from the computers, keeping the calculations in their heads.

Drak is discovered to be dead, his mind burnt out. Azmael says that means Mestor was using him to monitor their conversations and knows all that has been said.

The Doctor fetches a couple vials and sends Lang to check the corridor. Everyone slips out, Lang and Peri taking the twins to the TARDIS. Peri stops to wish The Doctor good luck before they head out.

“Nice girl. I hope I see her again,” he says to Azmael watching Peri leave.

“I’m sure you will, old friend.”

The two Time Lords head off to the throne room.

Noma receives a mental order from Mestor to find the twins, kill everyone else.

Peri and Lang seem to have gotten lost.

The Time Lords enter the throne room; The Doctor tells Mestor he knows what he’s up to. “I’m not having your sluggy eggs spread all over the universe causing havoc.” That’s such a fun line. I bet Colin loved the pomposity of his Doctor.

Mestor says he is mad, daring to threaten him. The Doctor challenges Mestor, bringing Azmael to warn him to caution. The Doctor demands that Mestor give up his plan, but the gastropod refuses. The Doctor says he brought this on and throws one of the vials at him, but Mestor is protected by some form of laser barrier/field, which destroys the vial before it can reach its target.

Peri and Lang find the right passageway, but Noma and his guards await them. The twins stand in front of Peri and Lang, knowing the Jacondans won’t fire on them. Lang uses that to fire on the guards, getting them, but being winged in the process. However, Noma is the only Jacondan left and Lang gets the drop on him before he can grab a gun.

Mestor is upset at these developments. The Doctor taunts him, “Indigestion Or is it bad news?”

There’s a great deal of banter between The Doctor and Mestor; it seems that The Doctor is intentionally trying to enrage Mestor. Again, Azmael tries to play peacemaker, telling Mestor that The Doctor is not himself.

Mestor says that does not matter, since he tried to kill him, The Doctor will cease to exist. Still, The Doctor taunts and disrespects the gastropod. Mestor says that he tires of his own existence (The Doctor quips, looking at Mestor, “I don’t blame you!”) and will take over The Doctor’s mind and body.

The Doctor laughs, “You? Take over my mind? It would be like throwing a pebble into a lake. It will sink without trace.”

Azmael insists he can do it, but The Doctor laughs, “To a Jacondan perhaps, but I am a Time Lord!”

Mestor is all but enraged (which is seemingly The Doctor’s intent), “Would you like me to demonstrate?”

“Indeed,” The Doctor replies, crossing his arms over his chest.

Mestor blasts Azmael with a green ray; Azmael speaks with Mestor’s voice. However, Azmael seems to recover himself, though he is struggling. He tells The Doctor that Mestor has over-extended himself, trying to control too much.

The Doctor says they must mind-link, but Azmael refuses, saying he will pass to The Doctor that way. He tells The Doctor to destroy Mestor’s body before he returns to it.

Obeying his friend, The Doctor throws the other vial, which strikes this time, and Mestor’s body is smoking and smouldering.

However, Azmael, speaking with Mestor’s voice again, says it is too late. “Now, we must mind link.” Azmael speaks with his voice, “Saying, no.” Both voices come out of Azmael’s mouth, and Azmael tells Mestor that he is regenerating.

The Doctor says he cannot regenerate, but Azmael says he knows that. We see the spirit of Mestor leave Azmael’s body, and the old Time Lord says he is gone.

Noma is screaming in pain as Peri, Lang and the twins watch. Noma says that Mestor is dead.

Dying in The Doctor’s arms, Azmael says that in his state, The Doctor would have been the pebble in Mestor’s lake. This was the only way. The Doctor tells him that he was the finest teacher he ever had.

“You’ve learned all I know, and much besides,” Azmael says. He takes off his ring and gives it to The Doctor, saying, “My only regret is leaving Jaconda. It gave me a good life, many great moments. One of the best, my friend, was that time by the fountain.” Aw… I’m getting choked up a little.

And those are the last words spoken by the Time Lord Azmael.

“I shall miss you, old friend. I shall, indeed,” The Doctor says softly.

Peri notices that the TARDIS door is open. After she goes to find The Doctor, Lang goes to investigate, finding the chamberlain and guards hiding behind the console. He directs them out.

The chamberlain tries to tell Lang that their planet is finished and they should use the TARDIS to leave. Lang tells him to shut up.

The Doctor surprises Peri in the tunnels.

Still, the chamberlain petitions Lang to take him away. The twins say they could pilot it, but The Doctor arrives saying he’ll handle it. He says it’s time to get the twins back to Earth, but Peri wonders who will lead the Jacondans.

“Certainly not that thing,” The Doctor says, referring to the chamberlain, “and not Azmael, either… he’s dead.” Peri says they have to help, but The Doctor says they’re capable of handling it on their own.

Lang says he’d like to stay, that he has nothing on Earth for him. The Doctor gives him Azmael’s ring and goes into the TARDIS.

Peri sends the twins in after him and she apologises to Lang for The Doctor’s behavior. He says it was nice to meet her, no matter how strange the circumstances, and then he and the chamberlain head off.

In the TARDIS, Peri chastises The Doctor for being so rude to Hugo (Lang). She asks if he’s having another one of his fits.

“You may not believe this, but I have fully stabilised.”

“Then I suggest you take a crash course in manners.”

“You seem to forget, Peri, I’m not only from another culture, but another planet. I am, in your terms, an alien. I am therefore bound to have different values and customs.”

“Your former self was polite enough.”

“At such a cost. I was on the verge of becoming neurotic.”

Peri all but shouts, “We all have to repress our feelings from time to time! I suggest you get back into the habit.”

“And I would suggest, Peri, that you wait a little before criticising my new persona. You may well find it isn’t quite as disagreeable as you think.” (I wonder if the writers were talking to the fans with this dialogue.)

“Well, I hope so,” Peri says.

The Doctor turns and walks to the door leading deeper into the TARDIS, “Whatever else happens, I AM The Doctor… whether you like it or not.” He smiles, and slowly, Peri does as well… and the final credits roll.

I am a huge fan of the Sixth Doctor and I loved this exchange. I have to believe that it was a subtle breaking of the fourth wall and the writers were talking to the viewers.

A fun serial, notably for the Peri/Doctor interactions, as well as the connection with Azmael.

I’ve read that this was voted the worst of the first 200 stories in a 2009 poll. Obviously, nobody’s ever seen The Web Planet, The Celestial Toymaker or several other really bad serials from the early days.

]]> http://classicdoctorwho2012.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/serial-136-the-twin-dilemma-2-2/feed/ 0 betterblogthanyours spoiler warning http://classicdoctorwho2012.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/serial-136-the-twin-dilemma-1-2/ http://classicdoctorwho2012.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/serial-136-the-twin-dilemma-1-2/#comments Tue, 14 May 2013 17:00:09 +0000 Terry http://classicdoctorwho2012.wordpress.com/?p=699 ]]>

I have no idea what this is about. I know I’ve seen it, I believe I’ve seen all of Colin Baker’s run. But no recollection.

Episode 1:

Twin boys with really bad haircuts and fashion play some board game that remotely looks like a backgammon board with tall triangular spires as pieces. Their father enters (and I’ve seen him before, likely in another serial, but I’m not looking the serial up yet as I don’t want to spoil it) and they ask where mother is.

“She’s busy.”

“Does that mean she isn’t talking to us?”

“No, she’s just busy.”

They demand to see her, but he says she’s gone out. They find out he’s leaving soon, too, and the guilt trip begins. We learn they’re named Romulus and Remus. (Are they gonna build Rome? Is their mother a wolf?)

They challenge their father when he says they should respect their mother just because she gave birth to them. They call her a fool. He chides them and they go back to their game, just like that.

They tell him they’re going to play equations; this upsets him and he gets melodramatic, saying their powers could change things.

In the TARDIS, the new Doctor asks Peri what she thinks, but she’s confused, saying people don’t change like that. He says it’s a rebirth, a renewal, a positive triumph.

She insists he look in the mirror; he’s positively in love with what he sees! (I love this Doctor, he’s so arrogant and full of himself – outwardly so, where most of the other incarnations are at least SOMEWHAT more subtle about it. One, Three and Ten are the ones that come closest to Six’s over the top arrogance.)

He says it’s a positive improvement over his last incarnation, going deeper into the TARDIS. She follows, arguing, saying she liked Five, that he was sweet. The Doctor scoffs, saying that says it all, as they enter a room full of clothing on racks.

“Oh, this has been a timely change.” He pauses, suddenly, as if struck by something. “Change. What change? There is no change,” he says, falling back against the clothing. “No rhyme, or time! No place for space, nothing! Nothing but the grinding engines of the universe!” He falls to his haunches, surrounded by clothing, wincing, almost cowering, “The crushing boredom of eternity!”

Then he laughs maniacally. Peri is disturbed.

The twins play a game using touchpads and screens.

The Doctor sifts through clothing. He picks up a fur coat reminiscent of Two. Then a smoking jacket much like Three wore at times. Peri is worried that he might change again.

The twins play their game. Their keypads have no writing and the screens show a language that we cannot decipher. Apparently the game ends as they turn their chairs to face each other and smile.

Suddenly a man in a robe appears in the room. One of the twins rises, “Fantastic!” The other says, “What a super trick,” also rising.

The visitor, an older man, says it’s a simple trick, but then praises their mathematics. He introduces himself as Professor Edgeworth. He says he’s there to pay respects to their father. They say it’s late for social calls.

He apologises, saying he’s come a long way. They tell him nobody is allowed there when their parents are out.

He agrees to leave, asking them to pass on a message to their father. He shakes their hands, but when he does so, he puts some form of control crystal/disc/whatsit on their wrists – and they seem to be under his control.

Under his control, they are transported away with him.

The Doctor has chosen a (delightfully) garish coat. He places cat lapel pin on. Peri ridicules him for his clothing. They debate, The Doctor comparing himself to Beau Brummel.

She says his choice in clothing is “Ugh, yuck!”

We see what appears to be a ship in space. It’s blocky and un-ship-like, though. Inside, some silver skinned, horned aliens (their hair is fluffy and bold and I would say they look like dwarves of a sort, but tall and with horns and silver skin) seem to be awaiting the so called Professor Edgeworth.

One says he’s taking too long and moves to contact Mestor, but the other says he’s coming in now. The old man and the twins appear in a transmat style booth and the twins are taken to be locked in a bunker, as directed by Edgeworth.

Edgeworth uses a device to contact Mestor. Mestory says there is no time to lose, and they must be taken to the safehouse on Titan III. He doesn’t want any connection to Jaconda.

Peri enters the console room, displaying her new outfit with a “ta-da!!!”

The Doctor looks at her and, smugly says, “Yuck!”

I do love their banter/rapport.

The Doctor says they’re going to Vesta 95; they need a holiday. He says he’d take her to the Eye of Orion but, and he seems sheepish about this, “The coordinates elude me at the moment.” He gives a nervous chuckle.

Suddenly, he stops and looks at her, asking how she came about a name like “Peri”. She says it’s a nickname. He quotes some poetry about the gate of Eden, saying a peri is a Persian fairy that was once evil, and that is what she is.

Then he says she’s an alien spy, stalking her and then grabbing her, choking her. She struggles, but he gets her down to the floor, hands on her throat. She uses her hand-mirror to catch his eye and his reflection causes him to recoil.

The father (who I recognise now – he was in GENESIS OF THE DALEKS, one of the scientists who was against Davros, but wanted to work with him if he would change his ways) comes home, finds the twins missing, and contacts the “special incidents room”.

He gives his ID, “Professor Sylvest, security clearance 941 oblique two nine”, and reports his children have been kidnapped. The security man says the Commander will call him back.

The security officer then reports to his commander, a stern woman (who also looks familiar) that the twins are missing, reported kidnapped and zanium was found on the floor. This apparently means aliens have kidnapped them. She orders a full scale search.

The Doctor recovers in the console room, asking what happened. Peri says he had another fit. She says he tried to kill her, but he says that’s absurd. He realises that she’s frightened and he says something is very wrong.

He gets melodramatic, wondering if it has come to “regenerate… yet unregenerate?” He says self-abnegation in a hellish wilderness is the only thing to fix him, for he is a danger to all – he must become a hermit, and she will be his disciple.

“Titan III is where I shall repent,” he declares, striking a button and the TARDIS is rocked vehemently.

The twins open a panel, trying to send a distress signal. Edgeworth is sleeping fitfully. The two aliens are in the cockpit, but one leaves, coming to check on the twins, who put the panel back just in time. He closes the door after checking on them.

The commander gets a report from Lang (the guy who took the call, I believe, and was sent to command the search), who reports a freighter that he cannot make voice contact with. The commander orders Elena to check it out on the computer.

Lang says the ship is emitting an irregular signal. Elena says that the ship marked XV773 “was reported missing, believed destroyed, eight months ago.”

Lang is ordered to keep on the ship. The aliens go into warp drive, saying that that class of ship was never built for warp drive, but in mid communication, Lang’s signal goes static-y.

The Doctor gets melodramatic again when they arrive on Titan III. Peri is snarky. (Not that I blame her.) She says he can’t be serious about being a hermit, but he is resolute in his decision. He says they need a cave where they can suffer together.

Peri argues they cannot go out, but the instruments say the atmosphere is breathable. Suddenly the TARDIS is rocked and The Doctor says they must investigate.

Edgeworth brings the twins and aliens to somewhere on Titan III. Mestor contacts him, saying he was careless. He tells Edgeworth that he’s destroyed five ships to protect him already. When Edgeworth says he should go back, Mestor says no, he wants to see how the Earth fleet reacts.

We see Mestor, in a room with other aliens like the ones from the ship. He sits on a throne, but appears to be different than the other aliens, almost bug like. He orders Edgeworth to artificially revive them.

Edgeworth argues, and Mestor gets mad, saying do as he commands. Edgeworth gives in. Mestor tells him to set the twins to the first equation as soon as possible, and to make sure nobody survived the ships.

The Doctor and Peri are outside, where a ship seems to have crashed (obviously one of the ships Mestor was talking about). Peri says it’s dangerous and The Doctor tells her to stay there, “This is work for heroes, not for faint-hearted girls.”

They find Lang, who was thrown from the ship, laying unconscious.

The commander is given orders from the Minister to call off the search. She unhappily follows the orders.

Back in the TARDIS, Lang wakes, murmuring about his ship, the squadron, the children. He passes out, and when Peri asks if he will live, The Doctor lays into her for having wanted to turn back before they found him. She rises to the occasion and lays into him for always giving a performance.

“I never saw anyone who loved himself so much with less reason! You’ve forgotten all about him – by time you’re done congratulating yourself, he’ll probably be dead!”

The Doctor rises, outraged, but Lang comes to (think he was feigning unconsciousness) and points a gun at The Doctor, “Murderer! You destroyed my entire command, now I’m going to kill you,”… and the credits roll.

(Guns don’t work in the TARDIS unless they forgot or changed their mind again, so this isn’t an effective cliffhanger for me.)

Episode 2:

Peri stands up for The Doctor, asking Lang to put the gun down. He says no, but then passes out. Peri takes the gun away. The Doctor is affronted that he tried to kill him and refuses to help him.

Peri says they can’t let him die. She finds an ID and says he’s a policeman. They disarm the gun and he reluctantly agrees to tend to Lang’s injuries.

The aliens report to Edgeworth that they found remains of two bodies, and they feel the others were destroyed with the ships. The human sends the aliens to check their own ship for damage.

The twins are hard at work on some equation; Edgeworth gives them a hard time for working slow and they complain about having to use pens, but he says it’s their own fault for rigging a distress beacon.

The twins throw their pens away and resist. He orders them, but they resist. He says he can force them but he doesn’t want to. They ask what it’s all about and he says it’s too soon to tell him everything, but says the new master of Jaconda requires their gifts to further his “infinite ambition”… but the professor says he cannot tell them any more.

“But I can,” Mestor’s voice booms in the room. Edgeworth, stunned, turns to look behind him. Mestor’s image appears on the wall. “Professor Edgeworth is a merciful being, he believes in the sanctity of life. I do not. Fail to obey him once more and I will have your minds removed from your bodies and use them as I wish.” Now that’s a pretty effective threat, I think.

The twin acknowledge that they understand his threat and Mestor’s image disappears.

The Doctor uses a ‘deep healing beam’ to heal Lang and says with an hour’s rest, Lang will be “right as rain… whatever that means.” The Doctor says there is something going on and he must find the evil at work and destroy it. Peri throws it in his face what he said earlier about being the threat and coming to Titan III to meditate.

The Doctor quickly jumps to brush that off as words spoken during the sickness of transition. He begins using leaps of logic that would make Sherlock Holmes’ eye twitch, and from Lang’s murmured “the children,” has suddenly deduced that children of great importance have been kidnapped by aliens, and brought there and held for ransom.

Peri says that’s absurd. She’s cynical. She activates the scanner and they see a construct, ant hill like. She points out the radiation level and he blows it off.

“What’s a little radiation sickness between friends,” she quips.

“Brave heart, Tegan,” he replies, then looks confused. “Tegan?”

“I’m… Peri?”

“Yes, of course.”

Peri continues to fret about any danger, but he assures her this is a simple recon. They depart, leaving Lang, still unconscious, there.

The twins tell Edgeworth that transmitting their equations will generate power equivalent to a small sun, but he says he knows what he’s doing. He sends them to go rest.

The Doctor quotes Longfellow as he and Peri march across the terrain. They find an entrance hatch in a rock and enter, after Peri whines some more. (She’s suddenly awfully whiny this serial. I mean… I get that she’s still frightened by his change and all, but she showed a lot more spine in the previous serials.)

The twins try to figure out their memories have been tampered with. They talk about being frightened of Mestor.

The Doctor and Peri make their way through the service tunnels. They argue some more and somehow end up switching sides – she wants to continue on, he wants to go back.

The two aliens find them. The Doctor begs for mercy, hiding behind Peri as guns are pointed at them.

Mestor tells Edgeworth that they have called off the search and he is to return at once. Edgeworth seems weak and says he must revitalise. He enters a booth to do so and is bathed in purple light. We see what is meant to be an x-ray type view of his body.

The Doctor blames Peri, telling the aliens she’s always getting him into trouble. She storms ahead, “Thanks a lot, Doc.”

“Kindly refrain from referring to me as ‘Doc’, Perpugilliam!”

Edgeworth just exits the revitalisation booth as Peri and The Doctor are brought in. He begins looking around at some of the technology in the room, saying it looks familiar. Edgeworth wants to know who they are; Noma (one of the aliens, the other is Drak) says they are spies.

The Doctor says they are pilgrims, searching for a cave for hermitage. Suddenly, The Doctor looks at Edgeworth and recognises him as his old mentor, “Azmael”. He introduces him to Peri as “my old friend and mentor, the master of Jaconda”.

Edgeworth denies knowing him. The Doctor says he’s regenerated twice since their last meeting. Grabbing the professor’s hands, he puts him on his chest, so he can feel his hearts beat. “The twin hearts that beat as one?”

“I’m a Time Lord, just as you are,” he tells the old man. Okay, I wasn’t expecting THAT. Trying to convince him, The Doctor brings up the last time they were together, and Azmael “drank like twenty giants”.

Azmael finally concedes that he must be The Doctor, but the old man is not happy to see his old friend. Edgeworth says “the old times are gone”.

The twins arrive and The Doctor sees them. Suddenly, connections are made in his head.

Lang wakes in the TARDIS, looking about. He rises from his chair and explores. “My ship… my ship.. Oh, no, no.” He sees his gun and grabs it, but sees the power pack is gone. He searches for it.

The Doctor chastises his old friend, “I see. You abduct these children, deprive them of their memories, bring them to this screaming wilderness and won’t disclose your motives? That hardly sounds in character.”

Azmael says he is in a point beyond trouble, “You can’t help me now.” While they argue, one of the aliens (Noma?) goes off and activates something – a destruct? A beacon?

Azmael says he is no longer the master of Jaconda, but will do anything he can do to save his people. He tells them they will have to stay there, and the lock has “ten million million” combinations.

The twins are ordered into the transmat; Azmael tells them that if they try to use it to follow, their atoms will be scattered.

“If it’s any consolation, Doctor, I, too, remember that evening by the fountain. Farewell.” He joins the twins and the aliens in the transmat booth and they beam away.

Peri frets that they’re stuck there forever, but The Doctor even with “ten million million” combinations, it’ll be a few days at best. He sets to the computer to sort it out.

Lang is in the wardrobe room and puts on an outfit even gaudier than The Doctor’s. And it so happens to be the one with the power pack in it! Finding it, he puts it in the gun.

Peri finds the console that the alien activated. She goes to The Doctor to show him and he reluctantly comes over. It is a self-destruct and they only have minutes to find another way out!

Lang tries to prise open the TARDIS doors.

The Doctor examines the twins’ math and declares, “Eureka, Peri! I can do it!”

Edgeworth’s ship launches.

The Doctor says he’s altered the revitalising booth to transport her back in time into the TARDIS. She goes in and he activates it, shocked that it actually worked. He has her watch to time his transmit, but her watch has stopped, and he has to guess the right time.

Peri appears in the TARDIS, while Lang points his gun at her. She either cannot see him, or is more worried that The Doctor didn’t appear. She brushes past him and opens the scanner, just in time to see the mound explode.

In a horrible bit of acting, she turns and faces the camera, supposedly crying, “Doctor, oh no, Doctor…” and the credits roll.

(Sorry about the harshness, but that was just not good at all, not very convincing or compelling.)

See you guys on Friday!

Recap: The Doctor and Peri find themselves on a war over a life-extended drug. A madman leading androids and working with gun-runners is facing off against the army. The Doctor and Peri are suffering some poisoning and slowly dying, unless they can get the antidote – the milk of a queen bat! Our heroes have been split up, The Doctor hiding behind a rock as a reptillian humanoid monster attacks the gun-runners.

Episode 3:

The monster walks into the mass of gun-runners, impervious to their bullets. It begins killing them. The Doctor runs off.

The real Salateen and Peri arrive at General Chellak’s bunker. He tells Chellak the truth about the android spying on him. The general is, obviously, horrified.

The gun-runners fleeing from the monster encounter Sharaz Jek, who had expected they would try to follow him. He describes the creature as a “magma creature”. As they banter/threaten each other, The Doctor shows up.

Salateen suggests using the android Salateen to feed Sharaz Jek disinformation.

The Doctor tries to play off Jek’s question how he got past the android and Jek strikes him for it. (Jek sounds like Jeremy Irons is playing him. He’s not, but his voice is almost a Dead Ringer. See what I did there?)

Jek pays the gun-runners, and when they say the suppliers won’t be happy, he offers them eight kilos for the next SUCCESSFUL shipment.

Jek’s androids grab The Doctor and begin pulling his arms out, after the Time Lord says he doesn’t know where Peri is. Still, The Doctor answers that he doesn’t know, but does let Jek know that Salateen escaped, too.

The gun-runners take The Doctor with them, saying their boss will want to have a go at him.

Android Salateen is conferring with Chellak; in the general’s quarters, Salateen administers some medicine to her, but the android hears her gasp. The android senses them in there (though whether he identifies them is uncertain.)

The general threatens Peri with death, saying treating with the enemy is punishable by death. Chellak says that Jek went through a lot of trouble to save them, so they must be associated with them. She protests and Salateen somewhat stands up for her.

The Doctor collapses, his legs going numb; he says it must be stage three. Stotz asks what he’s talking about and when The Doctor tells him, Stotz laughs, but says he’ll last long enough for questioning.

Salateen gives one of the coded buckles to the general. They discuss making them en masse. When discussing taking care of the android, Salateen reveals that Jek has tapped into all the vid signals between Major and Minor.

The gun-runner ship takes off. The men go to bunk down/relax and Stotz reports in to his boss, but first he blindfolds The Doctor. That done, Stotz gets on the vid and checks in with… wait for it… wait for it… Morgus!

Stotz brags that he forced Jek to agree to a higher price. Morgus is in the process of praising his work when he notices the blindfolded Time Lord and instructs Stotz to remove the blindfold.

The Doctor says he thought he recognised the voice. Morgus is confused… he gets paranoid, suspecting Chellak received orders to fake the execution.

For some reason, Morgus keeps turning behind him, talking to the camera, voicing his paranoia out loud. It really breaks the scene for me, it’s so out of place.

He orders Stotz to put his ship into orbit until he can sort things out. This makes the gun-runner quite unhappy.

Chellak tells A-Salateen he has a special treat for him – he’s going to send him on a recon mission to where he claims that he thinks Jek’s base is.

The Doctor begins working at his bonds on the gun-runners’ ship.

A-Salateen separates from his men and reports to Jek.

Chellak reports to Morgus on vid that he’s readying to attack Jek’s base. Morgus says he will report the news to the President for him.

The Doctor frees himself.

Peri is quite ill in the general’s quarters. Jek slips in and kidnaps her.

The Doctor changes the course of the ship.

Morgus tells the President of a rumour of an assassination attempt on him. Morgus suggests the President cancel all public appearances. He offers him the use of his private lift, but shoves the President into the empty lift shaft.

Morgus tells his assistant that he is going to Minor to broker peace with Jek.

Peri is brought into Jek’s base by his androids. Jek queues up a video feed of A-Salateen and his men. Jek then administers a potion to Peri. When she wakes, she asks about The Doctor and Jek tells her he went to Major. When she says he wouldn’t have left her, Jek is honest and says he was taken there against his will.

Jek ends up going on a rant and a rage about how his life has fallen, how he blames it all on Morgus. Peri is frightened, but she tries to be brave. Jek is obviously mad and obsessed with Peri, too.

He kneels behind her, stroking her hair, saying they can think of the future.

Chellak and the real Salateen discover that Peri is gone.

Peri tells Jek about the army using the belt-plates; he reveals that he’s changed the recognition code so their belt-plates won’t work.

On the ship, The Doctor fights weariness. Outside the door to the cockpit, Stotz demands he let them in. The Doctor tells them to find something firm to hang on to as his manual landings are a bit rusty. The gun-runners start cutting through the door.

There’s a tense back and forth between the looming closer Androzani Minor and the laser cutter making its way through the door. They get it open and Stotz threatens to shoot The Doctor, but he says that’s not much of a threat as he’s dying anyways.

The Doctor makes a speech about how he owes it to his friend to find a cure as he got her into this… and the credits roll as the planet looms ever so close.

Nice cliffhanger, good and tense.

Episode 4:

The ship makes a rough landing. Everyone is thrown to the floor, and The Doctor slips out the cockpit and out of the ship. They give chase, firing at him.

After he escapes, Stotz reports back to Morgus, who is en route to Minor on a ship of his own. This has Stotz realising that something is quite wrong.

Chellak, the real Salateen and their men march through the caves; Salateen has a little difficulty recalling which way to go, but settles on left. They take that route and are confronted by an android. Salateen is shocked when the android opens fire on him.

The gun-runners pursue The Doctor, firing upon him as he runs. They’re as bad as Stormtroopers.

The Doctor crests a rise and takes a tumble. Two gun-runners are about to fire on him when suddenly the surface erupts in mud-bursts. The gun-runners dash off, leaving The Doctor for dead. He gets up and runs off.

Chellak radios for back-up but there’s no response. Mud-bursts start shaking the tunnels.

Jek is worried that Chellak’s men will overcome his androids.

The Doctor says there’s no time to get oxygen, he has to find Peri.

Peri wakes, startled by the mud-bursts. Jek tells her she’s safe there. He then dashes off, rambling about repairing the androids, holding Chellak off. He runs out, grabbing and gun, and shortly encounters Chellak, who opens fire on Jek and then pursues the rebel when he runs off.

Krelper returns to the ship to find Stotz talking to Morgus; he’s shocked to see such a dignified personage there, but Stotz says, “Even if he does (recognise you), Krelper won’t say anything.” Morgus tells Stotz he wants to speak privately. Morgus tells him that the suspects others may be onto him; he says there’s a possibility that only the President suspected him.

He tells Stotz that the President is dead and he’ll know in hours if anyone else shared the Presidents’ suspicions. He wants Stotz to lead him to Jek’s private stash of Spectrox.

They plan to make the raid during the Army’s attack on Jek.

The Doctor narrows escapes a massive mud-burst.

Jek arrives, pursued by Chellak, and grabs Peri and tries to run off, but the general catches him and they grapple. In the fracas, Jek’s faceplate is removed and the general shrieks in horror.

Taking advantage, Jek shoves Chellak out of his base, locking the door and leaving the general to the mercy of the mud-bursts. Jek goes to Peri to console her but she sees his face and screams, sending Jek crawling away, howling in misery.

Morgus contacts Krau Timman, his assistant, and is upset to see her sitting at his desk. She speaks to him with great insolence. She tells him he’s washed up – the Praesidium has issued warrants for his arrest on seventeen counts. She tells him that she’s their star witness.

She says that she is now the chairman and chief director of the Sirius Conglomerate. She gloats, telling him all his assets have been seized, including his secret accounts.

Morgus kills the communication and turns to the gun-runners, ordering them to get ready to raid Jek. They turn against him, saying they already have two kilos of Spectrox.

Stotz says that he’ll go along with him, though, as he has a few scores to settle with Jek. Before they leave, Stotz kills Krelper and the other remaining gun-runner.

The Doctor staggers and falls on an android body, but gets up and moves on.

Stotz tells Morgus that things are going to be different. He says they’re equals now. Morgus agrees.

Jek carries Peri, pacing back and forth, saying she’s beautiful. The Doctor shows up and takes her from him. Jek says she’s dying. They set her down and The Doctor uses the celery to get her to revive, albeit briefly.

Jek says there’s no hope of reaching the queen bats, as there’s no oxygen that deep. The Doctor asks him to show him the route so he can fetch the milk. Jek does so and gives him a single oxygen cylinder.

Morgus and Stotz come across the dead soldiers on their way to Jek’s storage.

Jek attends to Peri, putting wet cloths on her head.

The Doctor moves about in an area so dark and misty you can’t see anything. He comes across a magma creature that is dead, but no idea how.

Morgus and Stotz hear machinery running and follow the sound.

The Doctor is in a labyrinth of caves. He finds one of the dormant queen bats and gets the milk. He seems to drop some of it.

Morgus and Stotz find Jek tending to Peri. They demand the Spectrox. Jek takes off his faceplate, revealing his face, which really isn’t that horrible. He attacks Morgus, choking him, but Stotz fires on Jek. Jek is wounded but continues to fight with Morgus.

Android Salateen arrives and shoots Stotz, killing him. Jek kills Morgus and staggers to Salateen, “Salateen… hold me…” he says, falling into his arms. They both remain motionless as The Doctor arrives and grabs Peri, rushing off.

He takes her back to the TARDIS, getting in and dematerialising just as the mud-bursts explode where the TARDIS had been sitting.

In the TARDIS, he feeds Peri the milk from the bat. Just as she finishes drinking it, he gasps and lets her down, crawling away, gasping, “Is this death?”

He lays down (oh, yeah, epic moment here, folks) on his back. Peri sits up, asking what has happened. She puts his head on her knee, asking him about the bat’s milk. He says there was only enough for her. She asks what she can do.

And one of the most epic sequences of the show, ever, begins:

“Too late Peri, going soon. Time to say goodbye.”

“Don’t give up, you can’t leave me now!”

“I might regenerate… I don’t know.” Peri moves away and he lays his head back on the floor of the TARDIS again. “Feels…. different this time.”

The camera takes a position above him, his head centered. His body and face take a fuzzy quality as Tegan’s face appears to him, saying, “What was it you always told me, Doctor? Brave heart, you’ll survive.” Her visage begins circling around his head.

Turlough appears next, “You must survive. Too many of your enemies would delight in your death, Doctor.”

Kamelion appears and says, “Turlough speaks the truth.” Nyssa’s voice adds, “You’re needed, you mustn’t die.” Both of them circle about with the others. They repeat theirselves, spinning about.

Adric appears, saying only, “You KNOW that, Doctor.”

The Doctor responds to only one, saying merely, “Adric?”

Then, evil laughter is heard. The Master’s face fills the area, “No, my dear Doctor, you must die! Die, Doctor! Die, Doctor!” He laughs as his face fills the screen…

Everything gets wavy, a loud roaring…

And then The Sixth Doctor sits up.

Peri looks over, “Doctor?”

“You were expecting someone else?”

“I…I…I…”

“That’s three Is in one breath… makes you sound a rather egotistical young lady.”

“What’s happened?”

“Change, my dear… and it seems on a moment too soon.”

The camera zooms in on his face… and the credits roll.

YES! THE SIXTH DOCTOR!!!! WOOO HOOOO!!!!

Awww, yeah.

A fun, exciting, even complex serial. Seriously, one of the best, ever.

]]> http://classicdoctorwho2012.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/serial-135-caves-of-androzani-2-2/feed/ 0 betterblogthanyours spoiler warning http://classicdoctorwho2012.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/serial-135-the-caves-of-androzani-1-2/ http://classicdoctorwho2012.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/serial-135-the-caves-of-androzani-1-2/#comments Wed, 08 May 2013 17:00:49 +0000 Terry http://classicdoctorwho2012.wordpress.com/?p=695 ]]>

Oh, wow. We’re here already. Wow. Let’s do it!

Episode 1:

A space scene opens the episode; we see a couple planets.

The TARDIS appears and we get a voiceover of The Doctor and Peri discussing Adrozani Minor, which seems to be a desert wasteland. They exit the TARDIS.

Peri finds coloured glass, which The Doctor says is fused silica, a sign that a spacecraft landed there, likely from the twin planet of Androzani Major. But why?

The Doctor sees tracks that leave the area and come back. This piques his curiosity and he heads off, Peri doubting the wisdom of following, but doing so anyways. They discuss the planet and its twin and his previous visit to Major.

Some men in a cave seem to be surveying. Two walk off, leaving one behind. The solitary man is attacked by a creature. The other two, hearing his screams, fire their guns and run back to him.

In the cave system, Peri slips down a slip area. The Doctor climbs down to pull her out. Peri has stepped into something that causes her leg to sting.

She asks about the celery stalk; he explains that he’s allergic to certain gases and the celery will turn purple in its presence.

Soldiers sit about a cave, bantering and trading insults. They detect someone approaching and hide, fearing the army. It turns out to be The Doctor and Peri, who poke about, finding bombs and gas carbine weapons. The Doctor finds the dice the men were rolling and hide, but are quickly apprehended as a large group of men in the grey/multicoloured outfits that the surveyors had appear. (As opposed to the soldiers who ran off.)

The apprehension of “two gun-runners” is reported to a base. Captain Rones is the one in charge of the group that apprehended The Doctor and Peri. The general at the base discusses someone named Sharaz Jek, saying they hope he doesn’t get his hands on gas weapons.

The General’s aide, Salateen (who is played by Robert Glenister, who is most well known for playing Ash in Hustle, and also happens to be the brother of Philip “Gene Mother-loving Hunt” Glenister!!!), has anticipated the General giving order to prep/check out the gas suits, which is already being done.

Elsewhere, a woman in blue named Krau reports to someone that General Chellak has captured two gun-runners. The man demands to see Chellak on vision immediately and Krau leaves to arrange this.

The soldiers (gun runners) plan to cut off the men taking away their weapons.

Chellak asks Salateen about the monster attack on Blue level. That’s five men so far. Just then The Doctor and Peri are brought in. The general informs them

that “anyone caught supplying arms to the android rebels faces execution.” Peri stammers and stutters at this, protesting that they weren’t supplying arms.

The general says if they cooperate, he’ll offer clemency. He wants to know all the details of how the weapons are brought in. The Doctor stands up to the general, saying Peri is complaining of pains in her leg and he’s not feeling well either.

The general receives a signal saying Trau Morgus wants to speak to him. He orders the prisoners placed in a side room.

Morgus sends a man on a mysterious errand, saying to be sure not to be seen. The man, a tall blonde in black, departs, and then Morgus activates the video link to speak to Chellak. He orders the prisoners brought forward, but Chellak argues. Morgus chastises the general for not doing well in his operation at all.

They argue.

A man in another place dressed in a body suit and mask seems to be tapping into both video feeds and is eavesdropping. He sees Peri and murmurs, “Beautiful…”

Seeing The Doctor and Peri, Morgus orders them gotten rid of. He changes tack with the general, complimenting him and says they must be executed. The general argues, but Morgus seems to outrank him.

The gun-runners put on gas masks and then attack a group of army men, using gas weapons.

Chellak says he believes The Doctor and Peri might be innocent, but he doesn’t have any chance of appealing the order. Salateen enters, reporting that Captain Rones’ men are under gas attack in the Narrows. The general orders the men to ready to march.

Salateen asks if they’ve heard of “death under the red cloth” and explains the tradition. They’re placed in detention.

Morgus and Krau converse in an elevator, talking about the execution. Morgus wishes it could be public. When they reach Morgus’ office, she tells him the President is coming at five. Morgus orders ten centimeters of spectrox to be taken from his private stock, saying in these difficult time, no more could be expected.

Chellak and his men arrive to find the whole patrol dead. He orders his men to clear the area and get the stretcher crew down there.

In detention, The Doctor contemplates something unusual about Salateen, while Peri is upset about being sentenced to death. The Doctor remarks that Morgus was quite interested in them until he saw them, then was dismissive.

Peri’s rash seems to be blistering; The Doctor has some on his hand from the fungus.

The man in the body suit takes a device out (he wears one glove, one hand ungloved.) We get a montage of him touching things and then ordering some men to report to him and then him laughing and doing other stuff. All the while, watching video of the Army men. And laughing and stuff.

Peri is surprised to learn that The Doctor doesn’t know everything when he ponders about spectrox. She says he won’t have to worry long as they seem to be ready.

Morgus hands the President a vial of spectrox. The President thanks him. Apparently it keeps them alive longer – the President is 84, but seems a man of fifty.

They talk of the war, of Sharaz Jek, of the danger to the flow of spectrox. The President says that the mood of the people is becoming ugly. The President points out that Morgus is benefiting from the war as the price of spectrox has risen dramatically. Morgus insists his conglomerate “is contributing handsomely to the cost of operations on Androzani Minor.”

The President points out that his conglomerate owns the planet, so that is to be expected. Morgus realises that the Praesidium is considering offering Sharaz Jek an armistice, ending the war, and this alarms him greatly.

The President says not immediately, but if the stalemate continues…

Krau arrives to tell Morgus that the execution is ready.

Salateen and men enter, to escort the Time Lord and human to their execution. The masked man (who has a multi-patterned mask of black and white, and seems to have one false eye) laughs, watching on his video screen.

The President, watching with Morgus, is disgusted that the prisoners are being given the honor of the red cloth execution. “In my day, we’d have filithy swine like that shot in the back,” he says.

Robed in red, Peri and The Doctor stand there. The Doctor states to Chellak that they’re innocent and this is a mockery of justice. Peri tells him to get on with it.

Their hoods are pulled down. The firing squad readies… aims… and fires… and the credits roll.

WOW. GREAT CLIFFHANGER!!!! Sure, you know they’re not gonna die, but still, that is awesome.

Episode 2:

The weapons are fired, The Doctor and Peri recoil and go limp. Chellak orders his men to stand down and check their weapons.

Morgus turns off the video, saying “Whatever his defects as a commander, Chellak brings a certain style to these things.” Yeah, he’s a right prick. The President says that the execution was too hasty, they should have been interrogated.

They begin bantering about the poor and unhappy. It seems Morgus is arranging things so he lays people off, they get in trouble for not having a job and can be shipped off to the east to work in labour camps, which he happens to have factories at.

We see The Doctor and Peri brought before the man in the body suit. The Doctor presumes that he is Sharaz Jek, who replies that he is “what remains of him” and insists they sit down and retire.

Chellak realises that the executed prisoners are androids. He and Salateen discuss the genius of Jek. Chellak says that it cannot get out that he had two androids executed, it would be the end of his career. Salateen says that only they and Ensign Cass know, and he could be sent off on a “deep penetration” mission, as “very few survive” those.

Jek asks if they’re from Earth; The Doctor says no, Peri says yes. The Doctor says they travel a lot. Jek says he was a doctor once, before the study of androids took over his life.

When The Doctor asks if they can leave, but Jek says they must stay. He gets touchy-feely with Peri, who flinches in disgust.

The gun-runners tells Stotz, their boss, they want out. There’s an argument. Stotz lets the man speaking for the others know that this won’t be put up with and next time, he’ll kill him.

Jek says he could never let them go – Peri’s beauty and The Doctor’s intellect are sorely needed. The Doctor mocks him, and Jek threatens him, saying he will break him to his will, or kill him. Jek tells them that Peri will live forever, that spectrox will keep away the ravages of time.

They try to argue, telling him that the army will beat him, but he says he has the spectrox and the resources to last five years and the people will not wait that long for their precious spectrox. He tells them he wants only the head of Morgus and he will give all the spectrox they want.

Krau reports a disaster at the copper mine; this is the place that Morgus sent his operative to in the last episode on a mysterious mission. The mine has been completely destroyed by an explosion. Morgus says this will solve their problem of over-production and raise the price of copper.

The Doctor and Peri discuss that Jek is completely mad. While they talk, they see the real Salateen – apparently The Doctor has already determined that the one attending Chellak is an android. The Doctor complains of a cramp and Salateen determines they touched a spectrox nest – the sticky ball she stepped into and he helped her free of earlier.

Salateen laughs, saying they’re dying. “Jek thought he had companions for life and you’re dying!” (He was worried now they were there, Jek wouldn’t need him around any more.) He tells them that cramps are the second stage – a rash is the first, “then finally, slow paralysis of the thoracic spinal nerve, then TDP.” (Thermal death point.)

The raw spectrox is deadly to humans, which is why there are androids, they’re used to harvest it. Salateen says that there is a cure – you need the milk from a queen bat, but all of them have gone into the deeps to die.

He tells them of the creature that attacks the people (must be the one that we saw in the beginning) that lives down in the deeps; that, and the lack of oxygen are why Salateen says they’ll never get their cure.

Stotz contacts Jek, wanting payment. Jek says he doesn’t pay for undelivered goods, but Stotz threatens not to do any more work if they’re not paid for this one. Jek arranges to meet him in a mine shaft.

Salateen tells The Doctor they’ll be dead in less than two days. When the Time Lord heads towards the door to leave, Salateen tells them that without a belt plate, the android on duty will kill him on sight. Even Jek wears one. While The Doctor speculates on how it works, Jek enters, overhearing him. They begin bantering about the android Salateen’s perfection.

We see a scene of Chellak and Salateen talking; again, Salateen has anticipated Chellak’s orders, saying he’s already started the process of checking the mud barriers.

Peri wonders why Jek wears the hood. He freaks out, shouting at her, saying even he cannot bear to see himself. He begins ranting about once being comely and now living along androids. He blames it all on Morgus. Jek built the android workforce for Morgus, but says that Morgus planned his death – he was caught in a mud surge that scalded his body.

Now he lives to get revenge on Morgus. (Yep, he’s rather mad.)

After Jek leaves, Salateen says that Jek had been supplied by Morgus with faulty detection equipment so he was caught unawares by the mud burst.

The Doctor says it’s time to leave, but Peri argues about the android outside.

Stotz and his men arrive at the meet with Jek, who is accompanied by two androids. The two men argue – Jek doesn’t want to pay, Stotz says his men did all the work and took the risk and it’s not their fault that the supplies were grabbed.

The Doctor wonders if the android will know if he’s not human. He says he has no alternative but to try. He steps out, the android scans him and determines that he’s not human, so The Doctor is free to disable the android.

The Doctor finds a belt plate and gives it to Peri. Salateen says they can’t go down to find a queen bat, there’s no oxygen. The Doctor says they have oxygenators on the TARDIS.

Jek offers Stotz two kilos, but the gun-runner wants the agreed upon five kilos. The androids with Jek and the gun-runners have their guns pointed at each other. Stotz says the boss won’t like it. Jek leaves, saying he has to fetch the spectrox.

Stotz tells his men that the spectrox is nearby, just waiting for them to take and they have the belt buckles to protect them from the androids.

An android fires; Peri knocks The Doctor down, trying to save him, and he takes a blow on the head. Salateen hides behind Peri, using her as a shield so he can destroy the android. The major then drags Peri off.

The Doctor recovers, calling out for Peri, but Salateen is hiding, his gun pointed at Peri to keep her quiet.

Jek returns to find that “she has been taken from me” and throws a hissy fit, slamming his fists down on tables and the like.

The Doctor wanders the caves, looking for Peri. Hearing the gun-runners approaching, he hides from them. As they argue which way to go, the monster attacks. The men open fire.

The monster is a dragon/lizard-headed humanoid creature with a heavily armoured body. The gun-runners’ guns seem to have no effect.

The Doctor hides behind a rock next to where the creature stands, roaring, getting closer to him… and the credits roll.

This cliffhanger felt a little flat to me. But after that last one, it’s no wonder.

See you Friday! 

Episode 3:

The Doctor demands that K-Master stop it, but he refuses.

Turlough, Malkon and Peri rush towards the temple.

K-Master orders that The Doctor is added to those being forced towards the fire.

Turlough sends Malkon into the temple, telling him to keep them occupied; Turlough takes Peri with him and they go off in another direction – he has a plan!

Malkon enters, ordering the sacrifice to stop. Everyone stops. K-Master yells, demanding the burning proceed. He demands to know who the boy is, and The Doctor jumps at the chance, “Don’t you know, this is Malkon, chosen one of the Sarns!”

He tells the others that he’s no Outsider, he doesn’t even know the chosen one or understand their laws.

Turlough and Peri go to the machinery in the caves. He begins messing with the controls, saying he hopes to snuff the sacrificial flame.

K-Master tells Timanov that if the burning does not go forward, there will be no gifts and he will call down the wrath of Logar upon them. The Elder says that Malkon is over-ruled and to continue the burning. Malkon leaps forward, trying to stop it, and is shot for his troubles!

As K-Master points to The Doctor and says, “To the fire with the unbeliever,” the flames in the pit go away. Timanov says that Logar is upset that his chosen one has been struck down, shouting and turning to face K-Master as he says (shouts) this. (Lots of shouting in this serial, what what?)

Turlough and Peri view the temple and see that Turlough snuffed the fire.

The Doctor checks on Malkon; the boy is not dead, but he tells the others with him to play along as if he were. They cover Malkon with a shirt, but the boy does tell The Doctor that The Master is in fact Kamelion.

The Doctor turns and walks over to K-Master, saying life must be complicated for him. K-Master doesn’t quite grasp his statement and questions it. “Not only are you a phony Outsider, you’re not even the real Master! You’re just a machine.” He begins to force his will on K-Master.

K-Master turns to Timanov demanding that he kill The Doctor, but the Elder says there must be a sign. As they watch, K-Master changes into K-S-Howard.

Peri and Turlough watch this transpire on the video display in the cave as well. Peri gives Turlough the comparator from the TARDIS and she and Turlough rush off to help.

The Doctor continues to force his will, hoping to force Kamelion to his true form. In his TARDIS, The Master struggles to assert his will. He tells K-S-Howard to use the cave to shield him from The Doctor’s mind. K-S-Howard orders The Doctor taken to the cave.

Peri and Turlough watch as The Doctor and other unbelievers are put in the cave. This allows Kamelion to return to K-Master form, and The Master has control again. He picks up one of the Sarn rifles and aims it at The Doctor.

Peri rushes in, appealing to Kamelion, saying he’s supposed to be The Doctor’s friend. K-Master turns, gloating that he’s grown stronger and her mind has no effect on her. Timanov demands there be no other killing except for by fire, as only that is acceptable to Logar.

The Master orders that K-Master take Peri with him and to leave The Doctor to die in the cataclysm.

Timanov demands to know where the gifts from Logar are. K-Master says they’re hidden in safe keeping, at the ruins, and then leaves, dragging Peri behind him. Timanov and his followers, well, they follow.

The Doctor deduces that the residue in the cave must be what prevented him for forcing Kamelion to revert.

Turlough slips in then, and opens the door keeping The Doctor and unbelievers in the flame chamber. He tells them that he rerouted the flow. They check on Malkon, who is unconscious but alive. Turlough tells The Doctor that he suspects that Malkon is his brother.

At the ruins, K-Master (grabbing Peri by her wrist), leads Timanov and the faithful. He points out his overturned TARDIS, covered by rubble, saying it is a wonderful gift and they just need to remove the rubble. Timanov looks like an eight year old boy at Christmas morning.

Turlough explains that the last Trion ship crashed and Malkon was the only survivor. He says the ship “must have been the ship my father was on,” though how he deduced that isn’t remotely clear. He tells The Doctor that he knows his brother would have been the only infant on the ship.

The Doctor asks Amyand if he knows of the ruins; he says he does and will lead him there. Turlough gets up to go with them and the Time Lord wonders why he doesn’t want to stay with Malkon. Turlough says he could be useful there and shows him the brand on his arm.

“Does everyone on Trion have this mark,” The Doctor asks.

“No, you have to be very special,” Turlough replies.

K-Master watches with glee as they uncover the M-TARDIS. Timanov and the others realise it is just a pillar of stone. Peri tries to warn the Elder that K-Master is about to “pull a bunk”.

K-Master promises that “This is a day of reckoning for us all.”

The Doctor and Turlough follow Amyand through some tunnels; the Time Lord says there must be some reason why The Master is using Kamelion as his pawn, that something has happened. Turlough wonders if he’s having another regeneration crisis, but The Doctor doesn’t think so, saying The Master’s current body should last for a few years yet.

The M-TARDIS is lifted upright. Peri calls out, telling them not to let him enter, but he pushes her in and follows, stopping to turn to Timanov and snipe, “Gullible idiot,” before closing the door.

A moment later, The Doctor, Turlough and Amyand arrive.

In the M-TARDIS, Peri exclaims, “It’s just like The Doctor’s,” and it is, though the colour scheme is different. K-Master says the M-TARDIS is, “Infinitely superior, as I am to that galactic philanthropist.”

Turlough shows Timanov his mark of Logar, saying he is the new chosen one and orders him to let The Doctor into the D-TARDIS. Turlough does a great job of bluffing and Timanov gives in when Turlough brings up the murder of Malkon.

Even though Turlough has given The Doctor the comparator back, The Doctor realises that the temporal stabiliser has been removed too.

The M-TARDIS disappears, much to Turlough’s dismay and everyone else’s surprise.

The Doctor realises that the M-TARDIS is still on Sarn.

Peri and K-Master exit the M-TARDIS, finding themselves in a control room that K-Master says is “in the heart of the volcano.” She stands up to him and he shows her the TCE, threatening her with it. To demonstrate, he uses it on some nearby hanging safety suits (for dealing with extreme fire/temperature, obviously.) He shrinks two of the three suits and says if she misbehaves, that will be her fate.

The Doctor asks Amyand what Logar looks like.

Turlough confronts the elders, saying that perhaps he will choose new elders, including a chief elder who would be more faithful to the new chosen one. Timanov says this is a time of crisis, they must not change things. Turlough insist they obey him in all things, and Timanov says they will be guided by him.

Using the TARDIS computer, The Doctor creates a mockup on the screen, with Amyand’s help, trying to generate a visual of Logar. It seems to be a man in a spacesuit.

In the heart of the volcano, K-Master creates a quake. Turlough orders everyone into the TARDIS. The Doctor puts the visual of Logar on the screen and the elders genuflect. Turlough insists that The Doctor is a friend of Logar.

The Doctor asks Timanov if he’d ever seen Logar; the chief elder says he did once, on the summit of the fire mountain, when he was just a boy. Logar spoke to him, beckoned him to inhale the gases. He said it was intoxicating, invigorated. He said his body and mind felt stronger and fitter.

The Doctor wonders if that’s what The Master is after.

The D-TARDIS detects the Peri and K-Master in the heart of the volcano.

K-Master tinkers with things until the column of flame in the mountain turns blue.

The elders leave the D-TARDIS to gaze upon the change of the mountain. They see a great plume of blue fire. Timanov says the blue flame has not been seen in many generations. It is a sign of mercy from Logar to heal the sick.

The Doctor confronts Turlough, demanding to know what interest the Trions have here, but Turlough says he doesn’t know. The Doctor asks if this was a planet abandoned by the Trions, what was his father doing there? Turlough doesn’t answer, and The Doctor says if he’s holding back anything that will help The Master, their friendship is at an end.

In the heart, the flame turns from blue to yellow again. K-Master is delighted, saying they control the nusmismaton gas, a rare force in the universe. He says when the surge comes again, he will be ready to “absorb it’s infinite transforming power”.

Peri flips some random switches on a console and shoves K-Master from behind, knocking him down. She rushes off into a tunnel and hides. K-Master dashes past her and she slips back into the M-TARDIS, closing the door.

In the sacrificial chamber, The Doctor examines the residue, realising there are trace elements of numismaton gas. He says this would be very useful for “a Time Lord who cannot regenerate.” He still wonders why The Master needs it in such quantities.

Sorasta arrives to inform them that Malkon is much worse. Turlough demands that The Doctor take his brother to the TARDIS, but The Doctor refuses, saying he must get back to the bunker to control the flow.

Peri is in the M-TARDIS and regards the “control box” she saw earlier. It’s the size of a crate, about knee high. K-Master is banging on the door outside, but cannot get it, so she decides to open the control box.

She opens it up, revealing a miniaturised Master inside! He looks up, “You escaped from my slave, but you will obey me… or die!”

And the credits roll.

I didn’t remotely remember that part until just before she opened it. That was unexpected and cool and quite the cliffhanger.

Episode 4:

As she recoils in disgust, Peri knocks over the control box. Outside, K-Master falls down and reverts to K-S-Howard.

Little Master scampers and runs from Peri.

The Doctor realises that the gases can be used to save Malkon and opens the gas valves and instructs Sorasta to have Malkon brought to the Hall of Fire. (Oh, I like that name. The Hall of Fire, like the Hall of Justice from Super-Friends? The possibilities are endless…)

When Timanov gives Turlough an amulet, Turlough says he’s seen one of them before. Just then the fire in the chamber comes back. The Doctor, entering and seeing this, proclaims, “Excellent!” Amyand says that flame will burn, not heal, but The Doctor says the residue has to burn off first.

The Doctor sees the amulet; Turlough says it’is a “coded circuit release key” and he knows the lock it opens.

The fire turns purple, which The Doctor proclaims to be “pure Numismaton gas,” and to demonstrate it being safe, he steps into it. (ooooh… now those possibilities…)

Turlough grabs Malkon’s body and carries it into the gas/fire.

Peri chases the mini Master. She has a sneezing fit, which allows him to escape. High drama, that.

The other sick and infirm accompany The Doctor and Turlough in the chamber and they are all restored. When they exit, the fire becomes regular fire again (oh, how convenient). Timanov is elated.

Suddenly, there are quakes; Turlough insists that Timanov bring everyone there.

The Doctor asks Amyand to take him to the seismic control center. Turlough says they won’t need to use the TARDIS to escape, though, if he can activate the communication relay on his father’s crashed ship. If so, the Custodians of Trion can send a rescue ship.

The Doctor questions why Turlough was concerned earlier about the Custodians; he says that the Misos Triangle is the mark of prisoners, and that Sarn was a prison planet for very special prisoners. Amyand asks if his people are prisoners, too, but Turlough says they are the remnants of the indigenous population. (Lots of facts thrown about with no way of knowing how they know this for certain.)

Mini-Master hides under the M-TARDIS control console. He threatens her, she gets tough. He operates the doors and she slips out. Seeing K-S-Howard still laying, writhing, she quips, “Pleasant dreams,” as she walks by.

The Doctor confronts Turlough, wanting to know how his family became prisoners; Turlough says there was a civil war, in which his mother died. His father was on the wrong side and when the war was over, Turlough was sent to Earth, his younger brother and father to Sarn. He tells The Doctor that the Trions have spies/agents on many planets (and lists off a bunch.)

Mini-Master crawls about inside the wires and such.

Amyand is upset at learning that his people’s beliefs were based on aliens using their planet as a prison. The Doctor says with a leader like him, his people will go far.

Peri is back in the rocky terrain. The mountain seems to be generating a lot of smoke/steam and there’s great rumblings.

The Doctor and Amyand are alarmed by the increasing instability and hurry to their destination.

Turlough and a Sarn search the Trion ship for the communication relay. The ship begins to shake as quaking increases.

The Doctor and Amyand are trapped between various small eruptions and unstable areas. Peri sees them and calls out to them. The follow her to their destination.

Turlough gets the communication unit operating, but there’s interference. However, they reach a Trion who demands to know their name, rank, etc.

“My name is Vislor Turlough, junior ensign commander,” and he gives his ID code which I’m not going to keep pausing to get just right. He reluctantly gives the last digits, as they obviously identify him as a traitor/prisoner/rebel.

Mini-Master gets back in his control box and tries to awaken Kamelion.

The Doctor tries to reverse the chaos The Master has started.

Turlough says they’re sending a ship, but he’s almost fearful. The Sarn with him tries to console him. Turlough quips as long as they don’t send him back to “the worst place in the universe – English public school”, and makes a brave face and tries to laugh it off.

The Doctor says he should have the eruption held back for a while and then leads Peri and Amyand into the M-TARDIS. Peri shows them the control box. The Doctor takes the dimensional stabiliser from the M-TARDIS and then they upright the control box.

Mini-Master stares up at them. The Doctor taunts him. They banter. It seems he was making a new TCE when this happened. Kamelion had felt The Master’s pain and led them to him to help.

K-S-Howard gets up to his feet, turning into K-Master. K-Master enters and orders them out of the M-TARDIS, threatening with the TCE. They leave.

The Doctor says The Master is going to move his TARDIS into the flames to be cured by the gas. He’s in the process of giving Amyand something to give to Turlough (the stabiliser, I’m guessing) when Peri points out they’re trapped in there, as there are flames outside the entrance.

The Doctor finds the sole safety suit from the Trion geologists (the one out of three that The Master did not shrink to intimidate Peri earlier) and tells Amyand it’s his “turn to play Logar”.

Turlough tells Sorasta that she needs to take her people to the ruins; she asks why and he tells her that is where the rescue ship will land.

Logar, I mean Amyand, exits through the flames.

The Doctor tinkers with things to give Kamelion a heart attack. The M-TARDIS disappears, then appears in the flames there. K-Master steps out with the control box and sets it down, in the flames. K-Master points the TCE at The Doctor, who is standing by the controls.

The Doctor says he won’t risk shooting and damaging the controls. The Doctor (quietly to Peri) says he hopes K-Master will walk out of flames, and the robot does so. They activate the trap and K-Master goes down, reverting to K-S-Howard again.

K-S-Howard apologises and asks The Doctor to destroy him. Peri and The Doctdor exchange a look as Kamelion takes on his true form. She walks back and The Doctor uses the TCE on the robot.

Turlough asks Timanov to go with them. The Elder says he wants to stay, to die there. Logar enters just then, demanding they all rise, and removes his helmet to reveal Amyand.

Timanov says that Logar is everywhere, that he cares for the faithful. Amyand says, “Perhaps that’s why he sent a spaceship, he wants you to live,” and offers his hand, but the Elder turns his back. Amyand departs.

Seeing the Trion ship (wow, that was fast) on a monitor, Peri proclaims that to be “a REAL spaceship.” The Doctor gives her a look as if to say, “You’re lucky the actress playing you signed a contract, or I’d throw you in the fire for that.” He tells her that it won’t do them any good, the TARDIS is their only way out.

Turlough puts in the stabiliser in the D-TARDIS. A Trion officer walks in as Turlough sets a time delay take off. They exchange (un)pleasantries as they exit.

The flame turns purple again. The Master rises up out of the box, resuming his natural size.

The D-TARDIS appears in the control room. The Doctor sends Peri in.

The Master gives a haunting diatribe, “I shall come from this fire a thousand times stronger to hound you to the borders of the universe,” and begins laughing. Suddenly the flame turns yellow. The Master begs and threatens, and is saying, “Won’t you show mercy to even your own – “ when suddenly his words are cut off and he screams, apparently burnt up by the fire.

(A tease about their relationship… ooooh.)

The Doctor watches, horrified, then enters his TARDIS and leaves as the control instruments begin to explode.

In the TARDIS, Peri asks if he’s okay. He says, “Yes, of course, I’m all right,” but he’s obviously not.

The people of Sarn are boarding the ship. The Trion captain says they must hurry and board. Turlough asks if he’s under arrest, but he learns that former political prisoners are no longer persecuted on Trion, that he’s welcome to return.

Just then, the TARDIS appears. The final call for boarding is sounded. Turlough urges Malkon to go on with the captain as The Doctor and Peri exit.

Turlough tells The Doctor that his exile has been rescinded. Turlough is reluctant to leave The Doctor’s side, but he says it’s time to go home. They shake hands.

Turlough regards Peri and says, “Look after him, won’t you? He gets into the most terrible trouble.” And with that, he turns and walks away… one of my most favourite companions of all has left.

Peri seems confused. The Doctor says he must get her home, but she doesn’t seem thrilled about that. They enter the TARDIS. She says she wanted to travel, that she has three months of vacation before school. The Doctor all but reluctantly agrees, “All right, why not,” he says with a smile.

Flipping a toggle, the TARDIS lurches and they both grab the console. The Doctor looks across the console at her, “Welcome aboard, Peri,”… and the final credits roll.

Sad to see Turlough go. Apparently Mark Strickson left because of the show’s format – 4 x 25 m episodes didn’t allow for enough character development for the companions. When he later found out that the following year, the show went to 2 x 45 m episodes per serial, he regretted leaving. I would have much liked to have seen Turlough and The Sixth Doctor together…

I recall some parts of this, enough to look forward to it.

Episode 1:

On the planet Sarn, two men cross a hilly region; they’re dressed in khaki coloured clothing, loose and covering little. One collapses, but says he’s afraid to go on. The other says he’s afraid, too, but the others are depending on them.

In a citadel, two other men walk, talking about the times when unbelievers were sent to the fires. There’s a very Arabian feel to things here, as one (seemingly the elder/more important) seems more a Sheik, dressed in flowing white, as opposed to the cargo shorts and boots and loose top of the other (which was similar to the two men in the hilly area.)

The Sheik says that sending “the occasional free-thinker to the flames” is a good thing, as it “encourages faith in our traditions.” Wow.

Okay, I was wrong, the Sheik dude seems to be the advisor to the younger man, who says he could never order a burning. Sheik dude says when the time comes, he will have the strength. “It can be a rewarding experience for those consumed in the flames. Unbelievers are such unhappy souls.” WOW. Yikes.

Timanov is the advisor, Malkon is the young man he’s advising. Timanov warns Malkon that they must appear to be strong, they must be loyal, that Logar (their god, apparently a fire god) is testing them.

The two men continue their climb; again, the younger complains – his feet are hot, he can’t breathe. His name is Roskal; Amyand, the other, jokes that Timanov says that Logar is benevolent and perhaps when they crest the mountain and find him, he’ll be waiting with a cool drink and new shoes.

They complete the climb, to find nothing inside the area atop the mountain. Amyand proclaims, “Logar is a myth!” They both laugh.

On Earth, we see some items being brought up from beneath the water; a man in the boat chastises the divers for being careless. He sorts through the basket, finding a metallic object, seemingly modern.

There’s a strange logo on that he nor his assistant recognise. They set it aside, saying they have to worry about getting the statue first.

Timanov and Malkon stand on a balcony set into the mountain, observing a grandiose vista. Timanov (guess he’s a high priest or something along those lines) praises Logar for it. Malkon asks why he’s trying to destroy the planet and Timanov basically says who are we to understand the god?

Malkon is “the chosen one”, we learn. Malkon wishes he has Timanov’s faith. On Malkon’s arm is a double down-pointed triangle, which Timanov says is the sign of Logar, and that is why he is the chosen one.

It’s worth noting that’s the same symbol from the object the Earthers found.

Malkon is having doubts; Timanov is getting frustrated with him. He all but yells at the youth, saying he was found on the slopes of the mountain, but before he can give us the exposition, Malkon cuts him off, talking of the strange dreams and memories he has. Timanov becomes gentler, softer, saying he forgets how young Malkon is sometimes.

Another man watches Roskal and Amyand return from the mountain through a telescope.

In the TARDIS, The Doctor reflects on the Daleks as Turlough listens. His companion warns him of being obsessed and depressed.

Suddenly, Kamelion’s screams and they run off. They find him connected to the TARDIS through a console in the hallway wall. Turlough is sent back to the console to… I’m not sure what, but to make things better? Kamelion says something about “contact”.

Turlough reports they’re getting a distress signal.

Kamelion apologises to The Doctor, saying he was confused. The Doctor returns to the console chamber just after Turlough tears out some wires. The Doctor sees the damage and asks what he’s done. Turlough says he thought the random emissions were interfering with Kamelion.

The Doctor then asks why he reset the coordinates, but Turlough says he didn’t; they realise that Kamelion was hooked up to the TARDIS and must have set them to the signal.

A young woman (who will soon be introduced as Perpugilliam “Call me Peri” Brown) greets the boat as it comes back and sees the statue of Eros being unloaded. She chats up the assistant to the boat, Howard – seems he’s her stepfather.

She tells Howard she’s going to Morocco with some “really nice English guys” and he chastises her, saying she’s got to use the summer for her college studies. She says he can’t tell her what to do. He brings up money… she gets emotional, and insists she’s made up her mind. She asks that they don’t argue, and he gives in, on the caveat that she get her return ticket to New York back, and he’ll advance her some money.

The Doctor says Kamelion denies hearing any coordinates in the signal. Turlough says the signal stopped before he could get a location fix. The Doctor has a hand-held tracker in case it starts up again; I guess Turlough intentionally stopped pulled the wires to stop the signal reception because he knew something about it?

Howard and Peri go to the boat, but he says he left his wallet in the hotel. She says he could send her the money in Morocco and he agrees. She sees the modern metallic object and picks it up, wondering what it is.

The TARDIS arrives on the beach.

Howard leaves Peri on the boat, apparently intending to strand her so she misses her connection to Morocco. She throws a fit (rightfully so, I suppose.)

On Sarn, Malkon addresses a gathering of citizens; he brings up the smoke from the mountain and the quaking of the ground, saying these are signs of a “time of fire”. (Uh oh, that sounds bad.) Logar is testing them, he says, but a woman steps up and says Logar is testing their common sense.

Malkon and Timanov argue that they stay, the woman says they need to flee the sea of fire that is to come. (I’m with her.) Timanov says that if they pass the test, the “outsider” will come, and there will be gifts and food.

Suddenly, Amyand and Roskal arrive to say Logar is a lie, a myth. He tells them they climbed the mountain, though Timanov says it is death to do so.

On Earth, the professor is haranguing his workers. The Doctor and Turlough arrive and the professor and Howard engage in conversation with him. After the Earthers walk off, The Doctor says they’ll have to take two readings to triangulate the source of the signal.

Turlough volunteers to go back to the TARDIS, as The Doctor has the hand held unit.

Peri sits on the boat, flipping through her passport. She puts it, her wallet, and the object with the mark of Logar in front of her. “Could be platinum,” she says out loud.

Back at the TARDIS, Kamelion tells Turlough not to interfere, that he must find the point of contact, “I must obey!” Turlough says that he’s not going to take the TARDIS anywhere, that he’s not going to receive any more messages from Trion, “You’re finished, Kamelion!”

Turlough induces some feedback, which causes Kamelion to scream and go limp.

Peri, in a binki (hubba hubba), takes a plastic bag with her items, and jumps into the water. On the TARDIS scanner, Turlough sees her flailing and thrashing in the water. Cursing, “Earthlings,” he rushes out to save her.

The Doctor sits at a cafe, having a beverage, when his beeper goes off. He slams down some alien coins on the table and dashes off, much to the dismay of his waiter.

The woman challenges Timanov, saying it’s his last chance; if he cannot produce a sign from Logar, it is he “who will burn on the sacrificial altar”. Timanov screams, “Logar! A sign!!!” Suddenly, behind them, the fires burst high in an alcove (a fireplace of sorts?) Timanov kneels, “Thanks you,” as the others watch.

Turlough brings Peri into a room in the TARDIS, putting her in a bed. In her bag, he sees the double triangle symboled metallic object. Tearing it out of the bag, he grabs her, demanding to know where she found it. She babbles something about needing the money and seems to drift to sleep.

Turlough raises his shirt, where we see he has a mark on his arm matching the object as well, just like Malkon!!!

The Doctor runs towards the TARDIS. He comes inside, just as Turlough is taking a data core out of the object. He pulls out the beeper, which leads him to the object Turlough has. Turlough says he found it on the shore.

In her sleep, Peri moans, begging Howard not to be mad at her, not to leave her. Nearby, in the hall, we see Kamelion start to change, picking up on her dreams, apparently. He transforms into Howard, though wearing a black suit and tie, and sits up. He looks over at the connection to the TARDIS port in the hallway and has a rather unsettling grin.

Peri wakes up, wondering where she is. She sees the object is gone from her plastic bag.

The Doctor plugs the data core into the TARDIS console, and there’s a spark and smoke. Suddenly, the doors close and the TARDIS is in motion. KamelionHoward enters, saying they meet again. Peri enters, too, and The Doctor learns that Turlough saved her.

As the ground quakes and rubble falls, Timanov pontificates, saying that the spirit of the mountain calls for the death of the unbelievers.

Peri says she wants to go back to the hotel, but learns they’re not on Earth.

Malkon is pressed to decide, but a man runs in; having seen the TARDIS, he believes that the Outsider has come.

The Doctor and Turlough exit to investigate where they have arrived; K-Howard and Peri watch. She obviously doesn’t believe they’re no longer on Earth, and thinks that K-Howard is her stepfather. K-Howard starts saying, “The TARDIS is mine,” and he closes the doors and flips some toggles.

Peri asks what he’s doing. He crows, “The TARDIS is mine, contact has been made!” She screams as his visage shimmers, revealing the laughing form of The Master.

“Who are you,” she demands to know. And, in response, The Master repeats the very first lines his character ever said on the show (albeit as played by Roger Delgado, not Anthony Ainley), “I am The Master. And you will obey me,”… and the credits roll.

Now THAT is a cliffhanger, folks. That’s how it is done.

Episode 2:

In the temple, Malkon orders that the unbelievers be released, that the arrival of the Outsider shows Logar’s desire for lenience. Timanov insists there must be a sacrifice, but Malkon is resolute.

Peri tries to escape the TARDIS, but K-Master stops her. However, during the struggle, Kamelion frees himself of The Master’s control and reverts to his natural form, asking her for help.

Outside the TARDIS, The Doctor and Turlough see the double triangle mark again; Turlough says that it is the “Misos Triangle”, and means that there are people from Trion (his home planet) there.

As they walk off, talking, The Master’s TARDIS appears.

The man who saw The Doctor’s TARDIS arrive talks with Timanov, describing its arrival. Timanov says every visitation is different. The man suggests that perhaps another chosen one has been sent, since “the boy is weak”. Something elates Timanov, but he doesn’t explain.

Kamelion explains why he looked like Howard, what happened. She asks if he is a robot. He is about to send her out to find The Doctor when he transforms, this time into Howard, but with silver skin.

In his TARDIS, The Master watches The Doctor, saying how predictable he is.

K-S-Howard gives something to Peri, saying to tell The Doctor about The Master. The Master asserts his control over Kamelion, who becomes K-Master. The Master summons Kamelion to him to release him.

K-Master departs The Doctor’s TARDIS (from now on, we’ll use D-TARDIS for his and M-TARDIS for The Master’s) and asserts that she will come with him or die. AS they exit, there are more quakes. The M-TARDIS is tipped over, and a block hits K-Master, who goes down. Peri runs off.

A bunch of the Sarnites gather at some machinery; they comment how the dials are going crazy and wonder if the machine is controlling the mountain.

Peri runs across the rocky terrain.

The Doctor and Turlough wander about; The Doctor doesn’t think anyone is alive, but Turlough feels otherwise.

K-Master recovers, checking his head (for blood? For an injury? He’s a robot!!) He tries to upright the M-TARDIS, but cannot. The Master orders him to bring the D-TARDIS inside his.

Timanov and Malkon argue; the priest says that Sarn was once great but is on the verge of extinction because they lost sight of the good that is Logar. He yells again, then gets quiet, saying the heretics must be executed.

In the D-TARDIS, K-Master realises a part is missing (the part that K-S-Howard gave her, obviously.)

Peri looks about, seeing Turlough and The Doctor in the distance. She calls out to them, but they don’t hear her.

K-Master is in pursuit of Peri. She sees him and runs off. He laughs and follows.

The Doctor asks why Turlough has never mentioned his homeworld, suspecting that he is/was in some trouble there. Before Turlough can answer (or avoid answering), they are met and brought to Amyand and Sorasta (the woman who challenged Timanov earlier.)

Introductions are made. When they say they’re not from Logar, they are welcomed. They are brought into their lair; Turlough questions why they didn’t get help from Trion, but this raises suspicions. The Doctor downplays things for the time being.

K-Master catches up with Peri, demanding the component that was removed. Peri finds herself stuck between The Master and a cliff. She threatens to throw it off the cliff.

“You will obey me, I am The Master!”

“So what? I’m Perpugillian Brown and I can shout just as loud as you can!”

I’ve always loved that line.

Changing tack, choosing tact, The Master tells her that if she destroys the component, she’ll be trapped on Sarn when it explodes.

Showing brains as well as spunk, she appeals to Kamelion to resist. K-Master struggles. The Master asserts himself, who becomes K-S-Howard. Peri says she’s his friend and he turns away, struggling. Peri slips away, as K-S-Howard staggers about.

The Doctor informs the Sarnites that the tunnels they use as shortcuts will direct the lava from the volcano at them and suggests they move before it erupts. He offers the use of his ship to leave.

The Doctor determines that the machinery is used to tap the volcano to generate power. The Sarnites accept his offer. They quickly deduce that The Doctor and Turlough as the “messengers from Logar” that Timanov is searching for.

Out of breath from searching, Timanov takes a break, while his associate looks about. They see K-S-Howard staggering towards them, and take him to the be Outsider.

Peri makes her way down a treacherous slope, sliding down a bit (in shorts, on rocks, that had to hurt.)

As Timanov and his crony watch, they see K-S-Howard become K-Master and genuflect before him. They greet him and he demands to know who they are; Timanov is shocked, but says he is the Chief Elder of the Sarns, “I’ve been keeping the faith.”

The Sarnite heretics invade the temple, bringing The Doctor and Turlough with them. Amyand speaks to them, saying they brought two Outsiders, and bring for The Doctor and Turlough. Amyand tells the people that they are not messengers from Logar, but just people, like them.

Sorasta brings Malkon, who asks if they have proof of what they claim. The Doctor greets him, who welcomes then. The Doctor says that the spirit of mountain is fire that will pour down on the village. He says he can’t save their planet but he can take them to safety.

Meanwhile, Turlough has been inspecting equipment in the temple – he realises the items are from a Trion spacecraft and asks where they came from. Malkon says they are gifts from Logar.

Turlough wants to know where the crew from Trion are, but Amyand says Malkon speaks the truth, that Timanov has always said the objects are gifts from Logar.

The Doctor says one of them is a transceiver unit, and suggests they can use it to contact Trion. Turlough says that will ruin everything. This confuses The Doctor, but his companion demands of Malkon where the Misos Triangle pendant he wears comes from. Malkon says it is but one such thing a chosen one has.

The Doctor tries to interject, but Turlough is obsessed with finding out more. He tells The Doctor he suspects the equipment came from his father’s ship.

Peri, overwrought, sits down in the rocks, asking for help. She looks about, hopelessly.

Malkon shows Turlough the mark on his arm, saying it is that which makes him a chosen one. Turlough asks, but when Malkon says they cannot as it is in the forbidden zone, he then orders him to take him to the spot where he was found.

Malkon replies, “No one can order a chosen one!”

Turlough lifts his sleeve, showing he bears the same mark, “Except another chosen one.”

“Where did you get that?”

“Probably the same place as you – Trion. It’s a unique custom they have.”

The Doctor works on the transceiver. Timanov arrives, demanding for the arrest of all unbelievers. Timanov says the Outsider has ordered that The Doctor be sent to the fire. There’s a struggle and a man is shot.

K-Master arrives; The Doctor seeing his arch-nemesis, is not delighted.

Turlough and Malkon are in the wreckage of the Trion spacecraft. Peri finds them there. She tells Turlough about Kamelion turning into The Master and Turlough drags her out, saying they must tell The Doctor.

K-Master demands that the heretics be burned; Sorasta says only Malkon can order a burning. The heretics struggle with the guards. The Doctor demands he stop it, but K-Master is enjoying it far too much. The Doctor stands, helpless, as the heretics are dragged to the fire chamber… and the credits roll.

A decent cliffhanger, that. And a good one to end this post on. See you in a few!

]]> http://classicdoctorwho2012.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/serial-134-planet-of-fire-1-2/feed/ 0 betterblogthanyours spoiler warning http://classicdoctorwho2012.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/serial-133-resurrection-of-the-daleks-2-2/ http://classicdoctorwho2012.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/serial-133-resurrection-of-the-daleks-2-2/#comments Wed, 01 May 2013 17:00:37 +0000 Terry http://classicdoctorwho2012.wordpress.com/?p=685 ]]>  

Recap: Trapped in a time corridor, the TARDIS is taken to London, 1984. There, they encounter some Daleks. Elsewhere/when, a Supreme Dalek and Daleks and humanoid servants of the Daleks free Davros from cyrogenic suspension on a prison space station. They need his aid to get revenge for losing the war with the Movellans.

The Doctor has just arrived on the Dalek ship and found that a man he thought an ally is actually a Dalek agent!!

Episode 3:

Daleks and troops arrive, demanding that The Doctor be exterminated. Lytton shows up, saying he must be duplicated first. The Daleks confirm this with the Supreme Dalek, and the Time Lord is led away.

Lytton and Stein discuss the impulsiveness of the Daleks. There’s a great bit here.

Lytton: “They’ll kill anybody, even if they need them.”

Stein: “How much longer until it’s your time?”

Turlough and the remainding prison crew find the self destruct controls.

The woman tending to Tegan hopes to knock out the duplicated colonel, but he doesn’t want any tea. After he leaves, she (still haven’t named her that I’ve caught, at least) and Tegan try to uncover one of the cannisters in the dirt (what the builders thought were bombs.)

At the duplication chamber, The Doctor sees the bodies of several of the military men from Earth.

Duplicated colonel tells his fellow duplicated soldiers that the girls know. One of them says the Daleks will tell them what to do.

The Daleks are instructing Davros that he must complete his research quickly; he demands a sample of the virus and two Daleks for experimentation. They argue this last part, but then leave to consult the Supreme Dalek.

The Supreme Dalek informs Lytton that the self destruct chamber has been invaded by the hostiles. He argues, but the Supreme Dalek demands he obey.

Stein warns The Doctor to be careful how he acts with the Daleks. The Time Lord says they need his brainwaves intact.

Tegan and the scientist lady put one of the cannisters under the blanket Tegan was sleeping in.

Turlough gets Mercer to agree to come and check out the time corridor, to see if it could be used to escape the destruction of the station once it’s initiated.

Stein lets it slip that Davros is there.

The duplicated colonel tells Tegan that she’ll be transferred to the Dalek ship.

Davros’ pet engineer uses the mind-control device on another humanoid.

Lytton and his troopers approach the self-destruct chamber. The prison crew gets the door shut just in time. Lytton has his men take out the outside camera.

Strapped down, The Doctor taunts the Daleks. It comes about that Stein is a duplicate, and apparently all the humanoids serving them are.

Turlough and Mercer make their way to the corridor, but find the way guarded. Mercer insists they go back.

Tegan slips off, leaving the chick behind; they use the cannister to make her bed look like she’s still sleeping there, but the scientist has to stay to make it seem convincing.

A Dalek trooper shows up at Davros’ laboratory; he prepares to add the trooper to his personal army.

The Doctor tries to find out how the duplication process works, but Stein refuses to tell him. They show him pre-duplicated Turlough and Tegan. The Daleks reveal their plan is to send him to Gallifrey to assassinate the High Council!!! Yes, folks, it’s the lead up to the Time War!

When they find the Dalek troopers outside the chamber, Mercer frets. Turlough points out that if the Daleks are trying to stop the self-destruct, then Davros must still be on board. “You may not be able to help your friends, but you can still kill him,” Turlough points out.

Two Daleks enter Davros’ laboratory, to “assist” in the research – to provide living tissue. When they open their casings, the mind-control device is used on them and they are now his servants.

The Supreme Dalek orders a sample of the Movellan virus to be transferred from Earth.

Scientist lady watches as one of the cannisters is beamed away. The sound causes her to collapse, covering her ears.

The Daleks leave Stein to oversee the duplication of The Doctor. Stein seems to have a moment of self-struggle/doubt.

The cylinder appears in the time corridor booth.

Tegan is in the street, but the two bobbies follow her – so I guess they’re not the soldiers.

Mercer and Turlough determine that Davros is using Dr. Styles’ lab.

Dr. Styles gets the self-destruct console unlocked. “Why am I so excited, this is the last thing I will do.”

Two more Dalek troopers are added to Davros’ cabal.

Duplicated colonel discovers Tegan’s escape.

The bobbies approach Tegan; at first she’s happy to see them, but then sees the guns they bear and runs from them. She sees a man by the river using a metal detector. The bobbies shoot him and she screams, “No!”

The Doctor tries to get Stein to recall his childhood, growing up. This seems to break the Dalek control, but there’s conflict. The control wins out and Stein continues the process.

Tegan is prisoner of the bobbies.

The Dalek Troopers gain access and shoot Dr. Styles and her associates just as they were going to activate the self-destruct.

Turlough convinces Mercer they need to get back to Earth, there’s nothing they can do there.

A Dalek blames Lytton for almost letting the space station be destroyed; despite Lytton pointing out that they won, they stopped them, the Dalek says it is going to report this to the Supreme Dalek. (I’m gonna tell on you!!!)

Tegan is brought back to the warehouse. The scientist lady is shot when she tries to run away. Tegan is dragged to the time corridor.

On a monitor near The Doctor, we see wavy images of his companions, starting with the current, then working back. Tegan, Turlough, Nyssa, Adric, Romana II, K-9, Romana I, Harry, Sarah Jane; then the Fourth Doctor is seen. Then Jo, the Brig, Liz Shaw, and others. The Third Doctor is shown.

The Doctor pleads for Stein to resist; the conditioning seems to be dominant.

Davros is informed that The Doctor has been taken prisoner and demands he be brought to him at once. He goes into a rant about exterminating The Doctor and creating a new race of Daleks with he as their leader… and the credits roll.

A good cliffhanger. (Oh, apparently the reason this was done as two longer episodes originally was because of rescheduling for the 1984 Winter Olympics.)

Episode 4:

Tegan appears in the time corridor booth on the Dalek ship. She steps out, sees the TARDIS (but doesn’t dash to hide in there?) Suddenly, Mercer and Turlough show up. She tells him The Doctor is there, pointing out the TARDIS.

On the screen, we see Zoe, Victoria, Jamie, The Second Doctor, Steven, and others. The Doctor cries out in pain and so does Stein. He shuts off the machine and releases The Doctor.

Davros sends his pet Daleks to secure the TARDIS.

The Doctor and Stein take the troopers posted outside the duplication chamber prisoner. Stein says he could turn on The Doctor at any time, if the conditioning reasserts itself.

Tegan and Turlough and Mercer unite with The Doctor.

The Supreme Dalek and Lytton are aware of The Doctor’s escape. Lytton calls his special guards.

Seeing that they’re being watched by a camera, The Doctor destroys the duplication device before they flee back to the TARDIS. Once there, Tegan asks where they’re going. When The Doctor says they’re going to Earth, Turlough, AMAZINGLY says, “Best news all day.” (Sure, I get the context of why he’s saying it, but considering he complains every time they end up on Earth, it’s ironic.)

Stein tells them about the virus; Tegan realises that’s what must be in the cylinders back at the warehouse, and Stein confirms that.

Before they can leave, The Doctor says he must kill Davros. “Davros created the Daleks, he must not be allowed to save them.”

Stein and Mercer insist they accompany him. He gives the companions orders to wait as long as they can but if they are attacked, to leave at once.

Davros and his pet engineer see The Doctor being escorted by Stein and Mercer; Davros wonders if that’s The Doctor, and his pet engineer says that the Daleks wouldn’t assign Stein to escort just anyone.

Lytton is informed by the Supreme Dalek that Davros has gained control of two Daleks. He is ordered to exterminate them and destroy Davros, who has been deemed “unreliable”.

Davros greets The Doctor. He promises the Time Lord that he will suffer tenfold for what he experienced. The same old conversation between the two ensues.

Mercer hands his gun to The Doctor, much to Davros’ dismay. The Doctor tells him, in a haunting speech, “Until I walked through that door, I foolishly hoped you’d changed enough for me to not have to do this. I’m not here as your prisoner, Davros… but your executioner.”

Davros pleas, saying he had planned to recreate the Daleks, and this time he would not make them totally ruthless. This brings The Doctor to lower the gun. Still, it seems Davros only wants this to make them stronger. He offers The Doctor the chance to join him as the head of the new Dalek army.

Stein and Mercer go out to deal with approaching troopers; The Doctor raises the gun at Davros once more.

In the TARDIS, the companions see that The Doctor preset the controls. They slip into the time corridor once more.

Davros calls The Doctor, “Soft, like all Time Lords, you prepare to stand by and watch.”

Mercer shoots the two troopers when Stein’s attempt to bluff them seems to be failing. They argue, and Stein struggles with his conditioning. More troopers show up and Mercer begins firing. Both Stein and Mercer are shot.

The Doctor, hearing the fight, goes out. Stein, who is still alive, tells him to stay back. While they argue, the door to the laboratory closes, locking The Doctor out.

Over the comm link, the Supreme Taco, I mean Dalek, berates Lytton. He says that he has sent Daleks to destroy Davros, and Lytton must go to Earth to destroy Davros’ pet Daleks.

Stein walks down the hall, struggling with his conditioning.

In the warehouse, Tegan and Turlough slip out of the TARDIS. Turlough argues they’re being there. Tegan says the virus is the only effective weapon they have.

Davros gives one of his pet troopers the virus to use on the Daleks on the ship.

The duplicated soldiers engage in combat with Davros’ Daleks and pet troopers. The Daleks win.

Tegan and Turlough are in the sick bay. They get a cylinder and head back to the TARDIS.

Stein makes it to the self-destruct chamber but sees guards.

Lytton’s troopers reach the warehouse and a firefight begins.

The Supreme Dalek sends more Daleks to destroy everyone, including Lytton and his troopers. The Doctor watches them depart, then grabs some metal boxes from a cubbyhole in the wall. (From the same one that Stein took the gun he turned on The Doctor when they first arrived, I think. I’m guessing these are explosives.)

A Dalek stops and exterminates Davros’ trooper and medic who had the virus.

Lytton’s men are shot; Lytton feigns death.

Stein shoots the guards then enters the self-destruct chamber.

Davros’ Daleks and troopers search for the TARDIS. They are attacked by the loyal Daleks.

The Supreme Dalek sees Stein and sends Daleks to stop him.

Davros’ Daleks argue with the loyal Daleks over who is traitors or not. They begin shooting each other. As they fight, The Doctor appears in the warehouse via time corridor. He hides behind crates, placing the explosives on the Daleks when he can, destroying several.

Lytton stops feigning death and shoots at The Doctor, who dashes off. He enters the TARDIS and finds Tegan and Turlough and the cylinder.

Davros checks on his escape hatch. Because, you know, that would have been put in the prison med lab. He then shatters one of the small ‘eggs’ with the virus in it.

A moment later, the door to the med lab is shattered. Two Daleks enter, telling him they are there to exterminate him, but before they can, the virus kills them.

The Doctor activates the canister, which begins smoking. He takes it out of the TARDIS and sets it down. A trooper takes a shot at him, but he dashes back in to the TARDIS.

Lytton and a trooper watch as the Daleks begin to die from the virus. “They’re dying, and so are you,” he says, shooting the trooper with him. He then slips out the door.

Stein finishes his work on the self-destruct console, “Done… must rest.” He sits down, seemingly struggling with himself.

Davros proclaims, “The Daleks are dead. Long live the new Daleks!” Suddenly he begins shaking. “What? This cannot be. I am not a Dalek, I cannot die,” he protests, smoke pouring out of his chassis.

In the TARDIS, The Doctor and companions watch as the Daleks die. Tegan is horrified by the scene and turns away from it. The Doctor shuts off the image, saying Earth is safe from the Daleks, at least until they develop a cure for the virus.

However, the Supreme Dalek appears on the scanner, saying he has not won. He tells The Doctor that he does not need to invade, that he has duplicates placed throughout the planet and soon the collapse of Earth society will happen.

The Doctor says the duplicates are not stable, but the Supreme Dalek says that they cannot fail, their destiny is to rule.

Daleks enter the self-destruct chamber and shoot Stein, but he leaps forward onto the console, activating the explosion; the space station explodes, destroying the Dalek ship as well.

Seeing this, The Doctor seems to feel Earth is safe. When Tegan asks if Davros was the one who destroyed the space station, The Doctor suggests that perhaps it was Stein, who “finally decided what side he was on.”

Lytton, dressed as a cop again, meets the two bobbies. They salute him and fall in line and the three men walk off. (I always liked that ambiguous ending there.)

The Doctor assures the companions that the duplicates are unstable and will eventually break free of Dalek control. Turlough suggests alerting the Earth authorities and The Doctor agrees, saying, “Come along,” to Tegan.

“I’m not coming with you,” she replies, not following. The Doctor stops, turns around and comes back, followed by Turlough.

“I beg your pardon?”

“I’m tired,” she says.

“What’s the matter,” he asks, softly, perhaps the most gentle he’s ever been with her.

Emotions wracking her, she answers, “A lot of good people have died today. I’m sick of it.”

“You think I wanted it this way?”

“No. It’s just that I don’t think I can go on.”

“You want to stay on Earth.”

She relates what her aunt Vanessa said about when you stopped enjoying something, to give it up. The Doctor tries to protest but she cuts him off. “It’s stopped being fun, Doctor.” She shakes hands with both of them, “I’ll miss you both.”

As she runs off, The Doctor begs her not to leave, not like this. She turns around, still moving away, “I must, I’m sorry,” she says, then turns and slips away.

This scene has always struck a chord with me. As a teenager, I was very fond of Tegan (she’s hot, yo) and this one always wrenched my heart a little. Still does.

The Doctor looks at Turlough, “It’s… strange. I left Gallifrey for similar reasons. I’d grown tired of the lifestyle. It seems I must mend my ways.” He and Turlough enter the TARDIS and depart (sure hope they’re going to alert the authorities about the duplicates still…)

As the TARDIS fades, Tegan returns, and sees that it’s gone. “Brave heart, Tegan,” she says out loud. After a pause, “I will miss you,”… and the final credits roll.

Great serial. Wow. Loved it, love it still. Wow.

As such, we’re doing the ‘spoiler warning’ a bit earlier than usual. I’m not sure where it will fall, as I haven’t started watching the episode yet. Likely the ‘halfway’ point, more or less.

Geronimo!

Episode 1:

An urban setting, lots of cross walks from the upper levels. Very cyberpunky feel, dirty streets, water on the asphalt. A man stands in a doorway, rolling a cigarette when a group of people dash from one of the buildings, pursued by men in police uniforms. The ones fleeing are dressed in alien or futuristic dress, as opposed to the man in the street.

The policemen shoot down most of the fleeing people, as well as the man in the street. One of them activates a device and the fallen bodies and himself disappear, leaving two policemen behind.

Two of the escapees watch from afar and slip off.

In space, a ship moves through the stars. Inside, the policeman appears in a transmat-style booth, with the bodies. He starts chastising the crew, complaining that they never should have escaped the warehouse and the use of machine pistols was a bad choice.

One of the crew (obviously in futuristic garb) tells him the machine pistols are standard issue, as he helps him get out of his police gear. The man says that nothing anachronistic are to be taken to Earth, but the “police man” says that next time to use stun lasers, as they slaughtered valuable property. He warns that if mistakes are made again, the next execution squad could be coming for him.

In the TARDIS, The Doctor bangs on the console with his fist. I love that. No matter how advanced technology gets, the humanoid’s first response to it is physical force.

He flips some switches, bangs some more. Turlough is slammed against the wall and Tegan sees to him. The Doctor says there’s a time corridor and they cannot get free from it.

The two escapees move through the area; they’re apparently looking for the time corridor, much to the dismay of one of them, who argues he’s a quartermaster and not combat trained.

In the TARDIS, the cloisterbell sounds!

The two escapees – Galloway and Stein find where the corridor should be, but it’s not. Stein (the quartermaster) is scared and wants to leave. Suddenly, they hear a crunching noise.

Galloway sends Stein back to the stairs, telling him to flee. A guard (in futuristic uniform) steps out and shoots Galloway, then disappears. Stein sadly says Galloway’s name as he slips off.

Back on the ship, the former-police man orders all men to battle stations. He’s wearing a funky hat and the futuristic uniform now.

The TARDIS stabilises, at least for the moment.

We see a space station, and then inside. A woman in white walks around, followed by a man in green. Apparently it’s a prison station. They enter the medical station, the man complaining all the while about the state of things – the morale is appalling, the place is dirty, doors have to be kicked to open.

When the med staff lady says she doesn’t complain as she needs a good recommendation form the captain, the man suggests that if Control knew of the morale of the station, the captain wouldn’t be in charge. She points out it’s been tried before, usually by newly transferred crew like him.

Turlough tells The Doctor that they’re traveling parallel to the corridor – towards

20^th century Earth!

Stein watches as a lorry (is a van a lorry, too?) pulls up and men in camou gear get out. The van departs quickly after they disembark.

On the prison station, the new man is on watch duty. One of his fellows, a pretty lady, teases him, saying new arrivals don’t usually get assigned to the tedium of watch duty so quickly – he says he complained about the station defenses and this was the punishment.

Suddenly, the sensors pick up the arrival of a ship coming out of warp drive – a rather rare occasion, as the usually only see supply ships. (Then how do the prisoners arrive? Or was she being clever, counting the inmates as supplies?)

The new guy wants to inform the captain, but she says let the fighters check it out first, it could be anything and it’ll be good practice for them. He’s obviously horrified but seems to go along.

The TARDIS materialises near the Thames in London. The Doctor says they seem to be in 1984. He heads out, determined to find the time corridor.

The ship approaching the prison is a battlecruiser. The watch officer (new guy) instructs her to go to red alert and inform the captain. They detect they’re being scanned.

The Doctor waxes poetic about the state of the buildings – this is the same area where the runners were gunned down, so it’s brick buildings, all very cool and atmospheric. Tegan isn’t impressed. Turlough is silent and follows the other two as they banter.

Explosions rock the prison station. Engineering reports damage to the generators. Orders are given to open fire, but the laser cannon doesn’t have enough power.

The doctor lady shows up, saying the captain is dead, along with half the crew. The new guy seems to be in charge of everything now and starts barking orders. The doctor complains about “more killing” but the new guy tells her to direct her bile at the enemy.

The battlecruiser is docking at airlock three. Before he departs with the troops to fight there, new guy gives the girl a key card/pass card of some sort and says, “Should we be boarded, destroy the prisoner.” Oh. So there’s only one prisoner?

OOOOOOHHHHHHHHH! I know who it is now.

The Doctor and companions run into Stein. He tells them soldiers are coming and collapses. He recovers and asks for their help. The Doctor can’t resist at this point.

The prison crew scramble to take defensive measures; a blast shield is lowering but too slowly and they rush to help pull it down.

Stein asks for anything to eat, multiple times. The Doctor and Tegan try to find out who is in charge of the time corridor (he doesn’t know) and where he’s from (Earth.) Turlough is keeping look-out. (Good man!)

The Doctor tells him to relax, but still doesn’t give him any food. I’m surprised Stein doesn’t grab the celery stalk. The four of them enter the warehouse and Stein tells them the corridor is on the next level (up.)

On the prison ‘bridge’, they watch the others ready the defenses. The girl (never did get her name or most of the crew names) uses the key card that new guy/watch officer/guy in charge gave her to open up a panel revealing a… BIG RED BUTTON!!!

At the blast shield, the crew waits behind cover. NG/WO/GIC tells everyone to wait until he gives the order. The blast shield shatters like a cracker and OH MY GOD – DALEKS come through!!! I had NO IDEA!!! (Tee hee)

Four Daleks and a group of humanoids enter. A firefight begins, and several of the crew go down. NG/WO/GIC detonates some explosives, killing the lead two Daleks and the other Daleks screech to withdraw and regroup.

On the battlecruiser (the yet unnamed in story but I know it so I’m using it here) Lytton (the guy who was a police officer) complains and tells a black Dalek (Supreme Dalek? I forget the title, but one of the higher ranking ones) that he said this would happen. Another Dalek yells at him to show the Supreme Dalek (yes, that’s it) more respect. Lytton says their tactics won’t work, but his will.

The Supreme Dalek says if his plan fails, he will be exterminated.

Stein, The Doctor and companions poke around. They can’t find Galloway’s body, but they do find bullets, recently fired. Suddenly, Turlough seems to have disappeared.

Nearby, military men (the camou guys from the van?) stop and one of them says he heard voices.

The doctor tries to rush into the airlock, saying they should take the battle to them. Because that’s what doctors do… I guess. NG has to restrain her, physically, from being stupid.

Just then, one of the Daleks’ humanoid soldiers runs in, drops a cannister of gas that has debilitating effects on the corpses. The crew retreats, even though they have gas masks, I guess that’s not enough.

On the bridge, NG arrives, giving the order to destroy the prisoner. The girl presses the red button, but it’s not working – like many things on this prison. She runs off, telling another crew member to come with her.

The Doctor calls out for Turlough, but they only find the soldiers and a woman – it is the group from the van/lorry.

The woman and crewman go to a door and key it. It doesn’t open until she kicks it.

The Daleks take the bridge.

On the battleship, the Supreme Dalek orders for The Doctor to be brought to them – apparently they were aware (or even intended) his arrival.

Turlough is on the Dalek ship. He watches as a Dalek enters the booth – so it’s not a transmat booth, but a time corridor booth!

The woman and crewman struggle to open a console panel. We see “the prisoner” in a chamber filled with smoke/haze, but it is obviously, painfully so, Davros! Eeeeek!

The Doctor and Stein try to convince them about the time corridor; the military guy tries to pretend he doesn’t believe them, but it’s obvious they know something. The Doctor presses to know what they know. The colonel sends a man to inform HQ.

The woman is working on the control panel they finally opened, priming the explosives. She keeps wondering what that smell is, and when the crewman with her turns around, we see his facial features and finger are melting/being eaten away/something.

She yells for him to stay away, but he staggers to her, moaning, “Help me.” She shoots him. (Wow, that’s brutal. I mean… I dunno.) However, her shots alert Lytton and his men (who are wearing really cool helmets with Dalek eye stalks on them.)

They enter; she shoots one, but Lytton shoots her (of course he does; this show is all about the leaders doing all the shooting.) They disarm the explosives and Lytton gives the order, “Release Davros.”

Davros is released.

The soldier sent to contact HQ returns, saying they can’t reach them. Tegan, even though she wasn’t moving (she’s hiding behind some crates) makes a noise and is found out. The Doctor says she’s a friend.

The Dalek appears in the time corridor. The Doctor tells everyone to take cover and the Dalek approaches, yelling “Exterminate” over and again… and the credits roll. (Oh, look, the recording I have has it broken into four separate episodes… who knew?)

Great cliffhanger, given that we already knew from the title that it was about the Daleks.

Episode 2:

The Doctor instructs the soldiers to aim for the eyepiece and the Dalek’s vision is impaired. They swarm the Dalek and push it out the second story window, where it collapses and explodes. However, in the fracas, Tegan is knocked down and her head has taken a blow and she seems unconscious.

The Supreme Dalek orders the warehouse end of the time corridor to be sealed, saying they will deal with The Doctor in due course.

The medical doctor on the prison complains to NG. He says there’s only four of them, what can they do? She suggests using the station’s self-destruct system. (She’s a bit of a over the top badass/borderline lunatic.)

Turlough hides from some Daleks on the ship. He finds bodies from the prison, the crew corpses that were affected by the gas.

Davros slowly responds to reanimation.

In the warehouse, the soldiers brew some tea. Tegan is “sleeping naturally”. The military men explain that they were called in by builders (okay, but this area is already built…) who found what they thought to be bombs. The Doctor asks if they’ve identified the objects, but the woman with the soldiers says they’ve not even managed to scratch them yet.

Davros demands to know why his Daleks use humanoid troops. He learns that the war with the Movellans is over, though casualties were high for the Daleks – the Daleks lost the war with the Movellans. This revelation all but sends Davros into a hissy fit.

Turlough exits the room with the corpses and finds himself in a room with a large medical bed.

The colonel gets ready to head off to speak to the Minister of Defense. The Doctor wants to go with him but the colonel says he’s the only one who knows about the Daleks and must stay there.

The remnants of the Dalek defeated on Earth has been collected in one of the areas the soldiers inhabit. Apparently the creature survived the explosion of its chassis unit, as we hear it gurgling and see motion in the pile of Dalek rubble.

The Supreme Dalek and his attendant Dalek see Turlough on their scanner. The Supreme Dalek says they will use him as bait for a trap and for now he can roam the ship freely.

Dr. Styles (the looney/badass) and Mercer (NG) and the other two survivors ambush some Dalek servitor troopers and take their uniforms.

The Earth soldier posted by the Dalek rubble hears the gurgling and sees something.

Tegan has awoken. When The Doctor wants to go to his ship, the soldiers say no. Their argument stops when they hear the screams of the soldier who was posted over the Dalek rubble. By time they get there, the Dalek is gone and the soldier is dead.

Davros says because of possible faults in his lifesupport after 90 years of cryogenic suspension, he must stay close to the cryogenic chamber, in case he has to be frozen again. Lytton argues and Davros has another conniption.

The Supreme Dalek, monitoring the conversation between Davros and Lytton says that they need Davros and he must believe that they still serve him. He orders an engineer to go to Davros to attend to his life support system issues.

Stein whines that searching for the Dalek is a waste of time. He’s a whiny fuck.

In the street, the Colonel tries using a public phone, but the line’s been cut. He sees two bobbies and asks to use their radio. The bobby reluctantly hands it over but it seems to be dead. The other bobby points a gun with a silencer at him.

Turlough continues to slink about the ship.

The Dalek is hiding under some canvas.

Lytton tells Davros about the Dalek-Movellan war. He recaps the two armies being locked at an impasse, each having a battle computer the par of the other. This was all covered the last time we saw Davros, but he’s fascinated at the concept nonetheless. (Maybe 90 years in cryo removed that from his memory, or maybe he’s not fully revived in his brain. I could buy either explanation.)

It turns out that the Movellans won by creating a virus that specifically attacks the Daleks.

Davros begins ranting about being a supreme being and he will not be abused by his children. He’s fucking nuts, yo. Seems moreso each time we see him.

Turlough makes his way onto the prison station.

Davros says he will work on the space station and nowhere else. Lytton says he will see what can be arranged. After he leaves, Davros pulls out what appears to be a weapon and seems to be ready to use it on the engineer working on his systems.

The Supreme Dalek tells Lytton to do everything that Davros wants, for the time being. Suddenly, he hears the engineer scream.

The engineer seems to be under some sort of mind-control of Davros’. Lytton arrives and asks what happened and Davros says nothing – the engineer says he hurt his hand.

The Doctor and a soldier see a canvas moving. They flip it up, only to find a kitty cat! KITTY!!! While they banter about the kitty, the Dalek attacks another soldier, but they pull it off him and shoot him with a machine gun.

The Doctor says he needs to get back to the Dalek ship. Stein says he doesn’t want to go back there, but the Time Lord says he needs his help.

Turlough is caught by the four prison crew survivors (wearing the Dalek trooper armour. Hmm. Surley the eyestalks on the helmets are cameras, wouldn’t the Daleks know something was up by now?)

Tegan sees the soldier brought it, asking what is happening.

The Doctor and Stein head to the TARDIS. They’re followed by the two bobbies.

Davros goes on about how bored he was – he was conscious the entire ninety years he was frozen. He says he will gain revenge on Earth, but first he must deal with “a meddling Time Lord”. Lytton tells him that The Doctor’s “capture is imminent.”

Mercer roughs up Turlough and Dr. Styles complains. Suddenly she’s not all rough, razor tough and nasty? Turlough explains he’s from Earth, through a time corridor.

The wounded soldier from the Dalek attack staggers out of the med bay. When the soldier in charge tries to stop him, he shoves him down on Tegan.

The Daleks prepare to activate the time corridor.

The commanding soldier dude pokes about the warehouse, trying to find staggery wounded soldier dude. Sgt Calder is the name of the one in charge now that the colonel is out (and dead, but they don’t know that yet. Well, I presume he’s dead, he could be a prisoner, I suppose.)

Calder calls out for the wounded lad. Not by name, just “Lad”. Calder sees four Daleks appear. He opens fire as they close in on him.

Tegan and the woman with the military men hear the gunfire and try to leave. However, the colonel arrives, saying there’s no need to worry and to return to the med bay. He’s accompanied by two tall soldiers (whom I think were the bobbies) and another soldier.

Lytton tells Davros that his laboratory is ready. Davros says he will need the assistance of a chemist and Kiston, the engineer. Two Daleks arrive as a protective escort. Davros seems a bit nervous.

“I am very difficult to kill; you should already know that,” he says, leaving the cryo chamber.

Tegan points out that the colonel gave The Doctor his gun belt, but is wearing one. She insists that he’s not the real colonel. The colonel hears Tegan and the other girl (this serial is bad at naming people) whispering and demands to know what’s going on. They start asking questions – where’s the ambulance for Tegan, where’s the reinforcements. When the other woman says they should take Tegan away now, he says the warehouse is under martial law and they’ll be shot if they try to leave.

In the TARDIS, The Doctor and Stein are caught in the corridor. Everything turns on its side and they fall and slide.

The Supreme Dalek gives the order to prepare the “duplication room” for The Doctor.

The TARDIS appears in the ship, next to the time corridor booth. The Doctor and Stein exit, calling out for Turlough. Stein walks over and picks up a gun as The Doctor disarms a Dalek trooper who rushes in.

Stein points the gun at The Doctor and says they won’t be leaving. “I didn’t quite tell you the truth, Doctor. I serve the Daleks, I’m a Dalek agent,” he says, as the Time Lord’s eyes go wide… and the credits roll.

Holy shit, I did not remember that or see that coming!!! GREAT cliffhanger.

See you guys in a couple days!

Recap: In the far, far, far future, the TARDIS lands on a colony planet with one of the last groups of humanity. In a meteorite storm, the TARDIS is apparently destroyed. Overcoming suspicions (more or less), The Doctor and his companions end up going underground and encountering creatures that Turlough has some recollection of – insectoids called Tractators.

Episode 3:

Seeing The Doctor in danger, Tegan throws down one of the chemical lamps, causing a bright flash, scaring off the Tractators! Tegan and Norna run off, while The Doctor lingers to hold off the bugs.

Brazen and the guards with him finally break out of the medical center. Brazen gives a rousing speech, saying retrograde behavior is in full swing. Seeing the looters, he gives them a minute to clear out.

Tegan and Norna reunite with Range and Turlough; Tegan goes back for The Doctor, and Range follows, leaving Norna to stay with the nearly comatose Turlough.

The Doctor encounters two Tractators; he hides behind a big bumpy ball (egg?) and they move it with their purple nimbus power, but he uses the momentum to take them out. He runs off and sees Tegan, but is caught in the purple nimbus again, saying it’s a form of gravity beam.

When Range shows up, The Doctor yells at him to get everyone back to the research center. The Doctor and Tegan are dragged off by the beam.

Range returns to Norna and Turlough, where the boy has started ranting about the Tractators once infected his home world – Range suspects it’s an ancestral memory.

Brazen and crew enter the ship. He catches Cockerill looting, who says it’s all over, that Frontios is doomed, that Plantagenet was eaten by the earth.

The Doctor throws their other lamp as they are dragged close to the Tractators; again, the explosion helps them escape.

Brazen has Cockerill arrested.

As they head back to the research room, Norna finds a map with Revere’s writing. Range and Norna start debating about Revere’s secrecy and the unaccountable deaths.

Surprisingly, Brazen releases Cockerill with a few days’ food, saying he doesn’t have what it takes to survive. To prove his point, Retrogrades attack Cockerill for his food; Brazen and his men refuse to help.

Turlough seems to be recollecting his ancestral memory, but there’s a block of some sort. Range and Norna encourage him to break through the block, but it’s too much for him and he collapses again.

Brazen is awaiting Range, Norna and Turlough at the research room, arresting them for Range’s seditious files.

Cockerill calls out to the retrogrades as the earth grabs him, starts pulling him in.

The Doctor says Turlough should be able to help fill them in about the creatures. He and Tegan come across several Tractators using their gravity beam to pull someone (Cockerill) down. The creature sees The Doctor and Tegan and is distracted when they run off. As a result, Cockerill is freed and the retrogrades think he is special for “outliving the hunger of the earth”.

Range is questioned by a woman we’ve not seen before, who seems to be a judge. When he starts to justify his records, the deputy (woman) dismisses knowing about the myths.

Brazen accuses him of collecting the records to breed sedition. When Range asks if Plantagenet accuses him of this, the deputy says it is so, but Range demands to know where he is. When she says nothing, he tells them Tegan told him what happened to Plantagenet.

Turlough responds to the phrase “eaten by the earth”, and starts rambling about the Tractators pulling them down in their times of weakness. Brazen questions him, wanting to hear all about it.

The Doctor and Tegan wander the tunnels. The Doctor says the Tractators are highly intelligent and are carving out a warren of tunnels.

We see a group of Tractators; one speaks, saying they must bring The Doctor to them and orders for “the machine” to be sent out. There’s a man (Revere? Plantagenet? Sitting in a cage shaped like a sphere.

Brazen demands to know what the Tractators are up to, what their goals are. He argues with Range and Norna whose fault it is that things have gone so poorly.

Brazen admits he has seen someone pulled into the earth and leads them elsewhere to show them something.

Tegan says she wants to be back in the TARDIS, but The Doctor says it’s probably scattered in pieces.

Brazen shows Range and Norna (and Turlough, but he’s still mostly out of it) where Revere had been sucked into the earth. He tells them the body in the state funeral wasn’t Revere’s (and apparently the face was obscured.)

Turlough, suddenly coherent, says that Revere may still be alive – the Tractators need living bodies and minds.

In the gathering place, the talking Tractator talks to the man in the sphere cage. It says, “The work of excavation is our task. Beneath the soil we can expand and populate all of Frontios.” It asks Plantagenet if he understands; the young man says they will not reach their goals.

The Tractator (leader?) says that is not their goal, only a first step. It tells Plantagenet that this is not a war, but a “cooperation”. That seems ominous.

When Plantagenet says they will never cooperate with them, the Tractator says they already do. They use a human mind to drive their excavation machine, but that mind is soon to be burnt out – and Plantagenet will replace it.

The Doctor and Tegan hear the sound of the excavation machine, getting closer. They turn back, trying to avoid it.

Brazen’s men head down into the tunnels. Brazen wants to take Turlough, but Range insists he go instead, as the boy isn’t ready. Brazen reluctantly agrees.

The Doctor pulls Tegan aside, trying to avoid Tractators. But they hear the machine approaching from behind.

Turlough goes down into the tunnels after the rest of the party, leaving Norna behind to man the research room/center. After he’s gone, we see Retrogrades sneaking up on her.

The Doctor and Tegan choose to face the Tractators rather than the excavation machine; they head forward, finding the large number amassed in the chamber with Plantagenet. They try to turn back, but find their way barred by the approaching excavation machine – a huge machine that has the body of Revere in it… and the credits roll.

Not a smashing cliffhanger, because it was obvious that was what the Tractator was talking about when taunting Plantagenet, but well, there you have it.

Episode 4:

The Tractator leader speaks to them, saying it is rare that two specimens have come from the surface undamaged. It seems they know of The Doctor, “at least by reputation”. The leader introduces itself as “The Gravis”.

The retrogrades approach Norna; she struggles with one, who overpowers her.

The Gravis says The Doctor will never leave Frontios, never return to Gallifrey; Tegan says that’s likely, “considering the state of the TARDIS”. The Gravis is alarmed/excited at hearing they have a TARDIS – you know, companions need to learn to shut the hell up sometimes.

The Doctor tries to play off Tegan, realising he can use the promise of a TARDIS, of travel, as a negotiating chip. The Gravis says it would like to see the TARDIS.

A guard enters the research room and grabs some food, but doesn’t seen Norna and the retrograde.

The Doctor assures the Gravis that he was not sent by Gallifrey, as they have a policy of non-intervention. Tegan complains, saying he’s telling the Gravis to “carry on, as is,” and The Doctor says the Tractators were there first – obviously, he’s playing for time, but Tegan can’t seem to realise that (they never do.)

Cockerill rescues Norna from the retrograde, assisted by another retrograde. When she questions what he’s doing with the retrogrades when he’s an Orderly, he says he’s retired.

The Doctor seems to be playing Tegan off as a “serving machine”, saying they’re perfectly reliable on Gallifrey, but perhaps the humidity here is affecting her. She’s encased in the purple nimbus. Gravis says she will be kept there, while he and The Doctor wander off.

The retrogrades take weapons and food in the research room. Norna argues, saying this isn’t the way to do it. The other retrogrades says the earth returned him, he’s the man to save the planet.

Revere is removed from the excavation machine, and The Doctor says he seems to be dead enough. The Gravis shows him the replacement – Plantagenet.

Range, Brazen and party hide as Turlough staggers through, catching up. Range chastises him, saying he was supposed to be with Norna, and goes back to be with his daughter. Brazen has Turlough show him the way. (Not sure why he knows the way…)

The Doctor plays for time before Plantagenet is placed in the machine. It comes about that the bombardments are caused by the Tractators – it also is revealed that they were the cause for the colony ship to crash in the first place!

Range is captured by a Tractator.

Plantagenet is being wired in to the machine. The Doctor gets a chance and whispers to Plantagenet saying he’s still a friend and when the time comes be ready to act.

Turlough is spotted by a Tractator and is nimbused and pulled to it. Brazen tries to hold on, but cannot.

Range is seen escaping his captor.

Tegan, freed when the Tractator grabbed Turlough starts bitching. Because that’s what she does. (I had a serious crush on her when I was a teenager; now she’s still nice to look at but DAMN is she annoying most of the time.) Brazen’s men attack the Tractator while Tegan harps for them to come help The Doctor.

The Gravis wants to show The Doctor how they make the walls smooth. He’s just showing off for the Time Lord, apparently. The Doctor confesses why they needed such a fine polish, but guesses it is more of the gravitational engineering – they’re wave guides, to focus their forces.

Gravis begins spouting off the plan, but just then Brazen and the others show up. The Doctor moves to free Plantagenet, and when the Gravis moves to stop him, The Doctor causes a jolt of energy to leap from the excavation machine, hitting the Gravis. He staggers and falls, and the others seem incapable of doing anything while he’s stunned.

The Doctor frees Plantagenet, but the machine’s coils keep reaching for someone. Turlough seems as if he’s going to willingly place himself in it, but when The Doctor and Brazen struggle with him, Brazen ends up falling into the machine.

The Gravis is recovering and Brazen orders them to go without him before it’s too late.

Back at the research room, Cockerill and his retrogrades have taken guards prisoner (Brazen’s? I’m not sure) – he gives them a speech, saying he never wanted to be a “second Plantagenet”, but he has no choice. This is a new Frontios, he says. Norna says that Plantagenet is still alive. She tells them the guards when down to save him. (Ok, apparently not Brazen’s men – at least not the ones he took into the tunnels.)

Just then, Range arrives, saying Frontios is doomed.

In the caverns, Turlough says he remembers everything. The Doctor blows him off, “All in good time, Turlough.” Um, no, it seems to me that this is a good time.

Turlough says he knows what they are; Plantagenet says he knows what they’re up to. They rush off, hearing the excavation machine seemingly gone mad.

At seeing the wrecked excavation machine, the Gravis swears vengeance against The Doctor for disrupting his plans.

Finding non-Tractator tunnels, The Doctor and party rest. Turlough and Plantagenet explain that the Tractators turn planets into ‘ships’, driving them through the universe. (Hey, like Mondas!) The Doctor says that will allow them to spread their infestation, that “nowhere in the Universe will be safe from them”.

It comes out that there’s a second excavation machine, all they need is a driver. Suddenly, the guard (orderly) posted watch screams as he is grabbed and dragged off. Everyone dashes off, except Tegan, who had gone to help the orderly before being called back by The Doctor.

She finds parts of the TARDIS all about in the caverns. When she calls out to The Doctor, she finds the Gravis and his Tractators have caught up with her. He says he’s found his new driver.

Tegan backs up against a wall that has part of the TARDIS wall and, at the last moment, opens it and slips in, finding The Doctor, Turlough and Plantagenet waiting.

Turlough has revealed that the Gravis is the true threat – without him, the others are simple animals. They have to find a way to isolate the Gravis from the other Tractators.

The Doctor fiddles about with parts, even though he says the TARDIS is not operational. Then he tells them to hide. When they have, he slips out to speak to the Gravis, pretending to offer a deal – he’ll leave everything for the Gravis and take his TARDIS and leave.

The Gravis is again excited and wants to see the TARDIS. The Doctor hems and haws, saying it’s not all there, it’s been dispersed to maximize “the packing efficiency of, er… the real time envelope.” Yep, he’s making it up as he goes along.

The Gravis goes inside, praising the power of travel. The Doctor tricks the Gravis into reassembling the TARDIS, getting the Tractator to use his gravity powers to do so. When the TARDIS is completed, however, the Gravis and the Tractators are cut off from each other, and the Gravis has collapsed.

The Doctor says he’s harmless now, so long as they keep him isolated from the other Tractators, and they’ll find an uninhabited planet to drop him off on.

A bit later, Plantagenet and Range walk, discussing The Doctor taking the Gravis on board. Range says it’s quite harmless. They meet up with Norna and Turlough, the latter of whom is still carrying the hat rack.

The TARDIS appears, and The Doctor and Tegan depart, saying the Gravis is safely deposited on the uninhabited planet of Kolkrokron. (Okay, anyone else wanting a nuWho serial set on that planet now?)

The Doctor gives them the hat rack as a farewell token. Plantagenet accepts and asks them to stay for a while. The Doctor says he cannot, he’s already overstepped many Time Lord rules and tells them not to mention it. Tegan assures them he means it, literally.

Turlough confirms this and he and Tegan enter the TARDIS to depart. Inside, The Doctor reminds them that if the Time Lords ever find out, there will be hell to pay.

Tegan and Turlough say that the engines are moving too fast, and The Doctor says something is pulling them to the middle of the universe. When Tegan asks what, the Time Lord says, “I don’t know, but I think we’re about to find out,”… and the final credits roll.

Ooooh, a cliffhanger ending for the serial, that’s fun!

A neat story. Lots of clumsy bits in the writing, but that’s indicative of the original show. All in all, a decent serial all around.

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