The Time Monster

6 episodes
Aired between 20th May 1972 and 24th June 1972

Written by Robert Sloman
Produced by Barry Letts
Directed by Paul Bernard

Synopsis

The Doctor has a dream of the Master ruling the world via a powerful crystal.  He awakens from the nightmare in UNIT HQ distraught. Jo tries to get sense out of him but he soon comes to his senses and tells her it was just a bad dream.

On the off chance, he asks Jo to check if there's been any recent volcanic eruptions or earthquakes in the world (seeing as they were part of his nightmare).  Jo looks perplexed because she told him of one last night, taking place around a group of islands once believed to be near the fabled city of Atlantis.

The Doctor sees a connection and tells the Brigadier to put out a warning to every UNIT Team in the world.  When the Brigadier asks for a justification, the Doctor is forced to tell him it's because of a dream he had.  The Brigadier scoffs at him and refuses.  The Doctor sulks and in turn refuses to go to the Newton Institute to see the demonstration of TOMTIT (Transmission of Matter Through Interstitial Time, if you didn't know).  He also refuses to allow Jo to go to it, so the Brigadier leaves with Benton instead.

Coincidentially, the Master just so happens to have infiltrated the Newton Institute, calling himself Professor Thascalos.

He's heading up the research project on TOMTIT and is using the strange trident shaped crystal as part of it (which he assures people it's just an ordinary piece of quartz).  He even has a couple of scientists helping him: Dr Ruth Ingram and Stuart Hyde, who are both oblivious to his true identity.  Indeed, even the Director of the institute, Dr Percival doesn't know who he is, but at least he's got the sense to be wary.  Percival becomes angered at Prof. Thascalos after he does a background check on him and finds inconsistencies.  This forces The Master to hypnotise Percival and convince him to play along for the government visit coming up later that day.

Still troubled about his dream, the Doctor proactively makes a time sensor to detect disturbances in the time field, so he knows when the Master shows up.

Back at the institute, Dr Ingram, a clear feminist is restless working under Professor Thascalos' rule.  Stuart helps convince her that they can afford to give TOMTIT a trial run without him, and the set about it with a mischievous grin.  They successfully teleport a jar from one room to another, but cause a minor overload which sends a nosy and startled window cleaner falling off his ladder.

Professor Thascalos bursts into the room and rages at their impudence in using TOMTIT without his permission.

Back at UNIT HQ, the time sensor picks up on the experiment and the Doctor and Jo rush off in Bessie to find the source of the disturbance, using the car's newly fitted super-drive to get there quick.
The Government representatives arrive at the Newton Institute along with the Brigadier and his UNIT entourage.  They are a bit perplexed at finding a window cleaner lying almost dead on the ground, but leave the details of sorting him out to the Brigadier.  The Master decides it's too dicey to meet and greet the representatives himself, so he convinces Dr Ingram to do the pleasantries whilst he prepares the experiment.

The Doctor picks up on TOMTIT once again and Jo realises that the signal is coming from the Newton Institute.  They rush off to get to it.

As Dr Percival, Dr Ingram and Stuart show the visitors the TOMTIT device, Professor Thascalos turns up in a radiation suit (an effective disguise) and begins the experiment to teleport matter.  Stuart begins to panic as the power level rises and again threatens to overload.  Thascalos however yanks the power control around suddenly and yells to the sky, calling to Kronos.  He flees before the Doctor and Jo arrive.  With the help of the Doctor, Dr Ingram, shuts the machine down and they rush in to help Stuart who has unfortunately been aged by 60 years.

After a brief inquiry as to all what's happened, the Doctor works out that Stuart has been aged by a very localised passage of time which was caused by Professor Thascalos.  He also works out that Thascalos is the Greek word for none other than the Master!  They take Stuart back to his home and try to make him comfortable so he can talk.

He is clearly petrified when he wakes up and yells out the name Kronos in fear.  The Doctor recognises the name and orders Dr Ingram to go back to the lab with him whilst the Brigadier calls in Captain Yates (the Doctor tells him to bring the TARDIS down with him).

Once at the lab, the Doctor takes a look at the crystal used in the TOMTIT machine and asks Sgt. Benton to move it.  Benton cannot, which confirms the Doctors worst fears.  He explains to a confused Benton and Ingram that this crystal is stuck between two different times and therefore isn't really here at all.

He tells them that it's linked to Kronos the most powerful being of a race called the Chronovores.  They live outside of space and time and if one were to come into this world, it would mean the destruction of the entire universe.  Dr Ingram and the Doctor leave Sgt. Benton to protect the lab.

Meanwhile after being ordered by the Brigadier to evacuate the entire site by 3 o'clock, Dr Percival goes back to his study and finds the Master waiting for him.  He panics, but the Master convinces him that no one will find him.  The Master makes it clear that he just wants a place to lay low for a little while to troubleshoot the TOMTIT machine so he can get the crystal to work fully.

Once his calculations are concluded, the Master puts on a fake voice of the Brigadier and tricks Benton into leaving the lab.  He heads over to the lab but is surprised by Sgt. Benton who sneaked back inside, not actually being fooled by the fake voice.

The Master uses "the oldest trick in the book" and distracts Benton, knocking him to the ground just long enough for him to make the alterations to the TOMTIT machine and activate it again, summoning an Atlantean High Priest through the crystal.

The Priest known as Krasis is very confused and tries to express his authority over the Master,

but the wily Time Lord soon gets the better of the Atlantean by summoning Kronos itself in the form of a giant avian humanoid; watching it as it devours Dr Percival.  Krasis is cowed and agrees to be the Master's slave as he watches the Master dismiss the Chronovore back into the crystal using an ancient medallion.

Sgt. Benton meanwhile recovers and flees back to the Brigadier and Doctor, warning them about what's happening.  The Brigadier, Benton and Dr Ingram rush towards the lab, but they are all caught in a pocket of slowed down time.

The Doctor (being a Time Lord) isn't affected as much and is able to pull them free.  It's clear that they can't get near the lab.  Thwarted, they return to Stuarts place, finding that he's miraculously been cured and returned to his normal age.

Back in the lab, Krasis tells the Master that the crystal he has is just part of the real thing, which lays back in Atlantis.

On cue, back in Atlantis, a young citizen known as Hippias asks Dalios, King of Atlantis, if the time of Kronos has come.  It turns out that the people of Atlantis once worshiped Kronos and flourished under his rule, but King Dalios remembers that Kronos eventually brought great destruction to the city, a fact that none but he can remember.  He warns Hippias that Kronos should never come again, and emphasises the fact by showing the young man that the crystal lies within a labyrinth guarded by a horrendous beast.

Knowing that UNIT will be responding to his threat, the Master begins to look at dealing with the incoming troops.  The Doctor uses common household items around Stuarts place to create a time flow analogue, a simple fun experiment designed to block the TOMTIT signals.

It's not long before it gets overloaded by the TOMTIT machine, but there's enough of a delay to annoy the Master.

Free of the analogue, the Master uses TOMTIT to summon a host of historical figures to deal with the UNIT convoy, including a knight on horseback, a bunch of roundhead soldiers, and a V1 Doodlebug.
The Doctor, Brigadier and Jo rush off to help Captain Yates, but stop as they hear the buzz of the V1 overhead.  The Brigadier calls up Yates as the engines cut out (signalling the bomb dropping down onto the convoy) and orders him to get out of the way.

They watch in horror as the Doodlebug explodes just beyond a copse of trees where the convoy entered.  The Doctor, Jo and the Brigadier rush over to the crater and find that the majority of the convoy are okay thanks to the Brigadier's warning.  Captain Yates is just a bit injured.

Back at the institute, Dr Ingram, Stuart and Sgt. Benton decide that disobeying orders is better than sitting around doing nothing.

With the help of UNIT, the Doctor and Jo get the TARDIS upright in the bomb crater.  They set off for the institute and dematerialise, much to the puzzlement of the local farmer who came to help them.  The Doctor uses the time sensor to home in on the Master's TARDIS and he manages to dematerialise inside it, a risky maneuver, considering that if he's off just by a fraction, he'll end up doing a "time ram", smashing them both into oblivion.  The Doctor is mildly amused when he steps outside to find the Master, because an unexpected side effect is that he's landed them in a time loop.  This means that when he steps out of the Master's TARDIS, he comes into his own TARDIS, and when he leaves through his own TARDIS, he ends up in the Master's TARDIS.

The UNIT Troops arrive at the institute and try to rush the lab, but the Master refocusses the TOMTIT machine, freezing them permanently as long as the machine is on.  He and Krasis then take the crystal with them as they go to find the full version in Atlantis.  This allows Stuart, Ruth and Benton to get into the lab to try and stop the machine.  Through their meddling, they only manage to turn Benton into a baby.

The Doctor talks to the Master over their respective scanners and tries to make him see sense, seeing as they're at an impasse.

The Master toys with him however, knowing that he can throw the Doctor's TARDIS out into the Vortex at any point.  After cutting off the sound feed, and making the Doctor talk backwards, the Master leaves the Doctor with no option but to come out and face the Master in person.

He orders Jo to stay put.  As soon as he shows himself, the Master summons Kronos who promptly scoffs the Doctor down in one!  After forcing the creature back into the crystal with his medallion, the Master laughs and ejects the Doctor's TARDIS off into the vortex, effectively sentencing Jo to death.

As the TARDIS spins in the vortex, Jo hears a host of whispers around her.  She works out it's the Doctor trying to communicate with her through the TARDIS' telepathic circuits.  He quickly directs her to use the extreme emergency lever that pulls him back out of the vortex where Kronos sent him and brings him back to the TARDIS.

Back in Atlantis, Hippias speaks out against King Dalios despite what the king has shown him, and he demands in front of the full Atlantean Council that the King calls forth Kronos to help restore their city to good health and fortune.

The Master's TARDIS dematerialises in the middle of this, and he emerges with Krasis and the crystal.  He claims to have the will of Kronos and is here to help, but Dalios is wary.  He asks the Master to come and meet with him alone.  Queen Galleia is very interested in the new arrivals.

Not long afterwards, the Doctor's TARDIS arrives in Atlantis.  Krasis calls the guards and orders the Doctor and Jo killed, but Hippias stops him and forces Krasis to send them to the King.

Alone, the Master tries to get the upper hand on Dalios by hypnotising him, but the King is far too smart to fall for such a trick.  He warns the Master that he knows he's not an emissary of Kronos and will give him a little time to come and tell him the truth.  As the Master leaves, he sees to his astonishment, the Doctor and Jo being led inside the King's chambers.

Once presented to the King, Dalios sends Jo to Galleia and speaks with the Doctor.  He quickly works out that the Doctor is a friend and he asks for his help to convince the people of Atlantis that Kronos is not a friend.

Jo is dressed in Atlantean garb and speaks with the Queen who makes it clear that she's after power.

 She dismisses Jo and meets with the Master, but Jo and Galleia's handmaiden end up eavesdropping.  The Master and Galleia form an alliance and make plans to send Hippias into the labyrinth to defeat a hideous Minotaur guarding the crystal and return it to them.  Once they have it, they plan to run the kingdom, using the King as a puppet figure.

Jo tells the handmaiden to warn the Doctor whilst she follows Hippias.

The handmaiden does as she's told, and Jo tries to call after the brave Hippias to warn him of the real intent as he enters the labyrinth, but Krasis grabs her and shoves her inside too.  She soon comes face to face with the Minotaur.

The Doctor rushes to Jo's aide, and Hippias helps to keep her safe, but gets killed when the Minotaur throws him through a glass window.

The Doctor removes his cape and uses it like a matador, forcing the Minotaur to charge him.  The Doctor spins out of the way at the last minute, causing the beast to run head first through a stone wall, knocking itself out and revealing the true crystal of Kronos.

Krasis turns up and his guards capture the Doctor and Jo, who demand to be taken to the King.  Krasis obeys and they are taken to....the Master.  He has staged a coup with the help of Galleia.  The Doctor and Jo are taken to the cells and chained up.  The Master tries to make Galleia obey him, but she exerts strong will too.

Things look bleak as Jo cannot undue the chains.  The Doctor tells her about his blackest day, when he met a hermit behind his house who showed him that no matter how bad things are, there's beauty to be found in everything.

They are interrupted when Dalios is thrown into the cell.  He is old and cannot survive the rough treatment he's been given.  He dies.

When the next day comes, Galleia calls the Council and introduces the Master as their new ruler.

The Doctor and Jo are taken to the Council on the orders of the gloating Master, who intends to summon Kronos for them all to prosper once more.  The Doctor calls him out, revealing how he had Dalios killed.  This incenses Galleia as she was adamant that the King must not be harmed.  He cannot calm her down and is forced to summon Kronos to attack them all when she orders her guards to seize him.

Chaos ensues as Kronos begins devouring everyone.  The Master rushes off towards his TARDIS with the crystal, taking Jo with him as she tries to stop him.  The Doctor manages to get away in his own TARDIS, leaving Atlantis to be destroyed by Kronos.

The Doctor contacts the Master once again, this time threatening to actually perform a time-ram.

The Master calls his bluff, and the Doctor does indeed hesitate, but Jo forces the act by diving at the Master's controls.  The TARDIS' crash and they are all immediately destroyed....sort of.  The Master and the Doctor fall unconscious.  Jo picks herself up and goes outside to find a "trippy" kind of landscape awaiting her.

She wakes up the Doctor and tells him they're in the after-life, but the Doctor tells her that Kronos transported them all at the last second as the crystal shattered and he was freed.

Kronos appears to the Doctor and Jo as a woman and thanks them for freeing "her" from the Master's slavery.  She tells them that she is so powerful, she can appear as anything she likes, and she's beyond human morality, being neither good or evil.  All she really wants is to return to her normal place outside of time.

Because they helped her, Kronos grants the Doctor and Jo their hearts desire.  They ask her what she intends to do with the Master.  She smiles and tells them that she intends to torture him for all eternity.  The Doctor asks Kronos to allow them to go back home in the TARDIS and when the Master emerges from his TARDIS and begs the Doctor to help him, he asks Kronos to let him leave with them.  The Master rushes back into his TARDIS however and escapes once more.

As they fly back to the Newton institute, Jo asks the Doctor why he let the Master live.  The Doctor says he couldn't bear the thought of leaving anyone to be tortured for all eternity.

The TARDIS dematerilises at the lab, just as the Brigadier and his men are unfrozen.  He gives an update on what's happened to the Brigadier, Dr Ingram and Stuart and explains everything's back to normal.  Indeed, it's so normal that Sgt. Benton is no longer a baby.  He stands up naked and asks what's going on!

Trivia

• The origins of this story were actually drawn from the scripts from Day of the Daleks.  They intended for the Daleks to summon up figures from history to do battle with the Doctor.  Barry Letts asked Robert Sloman to fold this bit into his story about transmitting matter

• Another element influenced by Barry Letts was the inclusion of the Doctor's back story.  As will become apparent by the end of Jon Pertwee's run, Barry Letts was deeply into the Buddhist philosophy.  He thought it would be great to add a feel of this to the Doctor, depicting him not just as an old know-it-all, but is more like a man who is to this day still learning, it just so happens that he's lived for hundreds of years.

• Not sure why, but the team decided to redesign the roundels on the console room.  Apparently, everyone hated it, so they changed it again by the start of the next story.

• Oh, and the Star Wars connection continues.  The guy who played the Minotaur was none other than David Prowse, a.k.a. Darth Vader himself!  As with Star Wars, he wasn't allowed to speak because of his thick Bristol Accent.  This would be a factor that would plague him for most of his acting life, with him getting a voice over to even do the Green Cross Code adverts

What worked

• The fact that it didn't shy away from doing another wibbly wobbly story about time

• It's nice to see the UNIT family again this season

• The interplay between the Doctor and the Master is quite novel

• The Doctor's revelations around his life and his planet which is still unnamed at this time

What didn't work

• The costumes

• The fact that the Master summons people who instantly know to attack the UNIT trucks

• Every bit of Stuart's dialogue  

• A substantial proportion of everyone else's dialogue

• Kronos' bird form appearance 

• The time flow analogue

Overall Feelings

Do you know, from the first time I watched the Time Monster, I knew there was something about it that made it below average.  I put it down to the incredibly cheesy dialogue of Stuart, Ruth and the Atlanteans, coupled with the failure of the Kronos' costume.  As I researched this story and re-watched it however, more and more things came to my attention.

You don't have to look far for the bonkers plot discrepancies such as why the roundheads decided to attack the UNIT convoy at all, and indeed, why they couldn't hit them from a few yards away; or why the Master never thought to himself "hang on, I'm going to summon a Chronovore in Atlantis....Atlantis, and I'm assuming everything will turn out perfectly fine."

What isn't quite as obvious until you actually think about it, is that this story is very much a waste of time.  What I mean by this is that there's numerous examples of scenes where the story is simply stalled and there's pointless bits added just to make the episode the right length.  An actual documented one is the inclusion of the time flow analogue, but there's more - the arguments and backwards talking shenanigans between the Doctor and the Master, there's the schmoozing of Dalios and Galleia, there's the window cleaner bit; there's the stuart growing old and young again for no reason; there's the....well, you get the point.

When you know a lot of the Time Monster is superfluous to the story, watching it becomes tedious and very much a chore.  But watch it I did.  One positive surprise I came away with was  how brutal everything gets at the end.  I couldn't remember Hippias actually getting killed, nor the amount of on screen deaths caused by Kronos.  But even these things just aren't enough to brighten what is overall, a very dull story.

Rating

4 out of 10

Rewatchability Factor

2 out of 10

Watch this if you liked...

• The Myth Makers

• The Underwater Menace

• Father's Day (Doctor Who Series 1)

• The Fires of Pompeii (Doctor Who Series 4)

Consulting the Matrix

Did Dr Ingram do anything for women's lib in this story?

The Mutants

6 episodes
Aired between 8th April 1972 and 13th May 1972

Written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin
Produced by Barry Letts
Directed by Christopher Barry


Synopsis

On Solos, a polluted and ruined world, a ragged old man runs through the desolated forest and say's it's,.. *cue Monty Python's Flying Circus Music*

Well...not exactly.  He actually, runs away, fearing for his life as a rather large fellow and two slimmer ones, dressed in black and silver with strange funnel-like gas masks, run after him shouting "Mutt!"

The old man is killed and shown to be partially mutated.  The fat controller, a.k.a the Marshall tells his subordinates: Stubbs and Cotton to log the death, more evidence of Mutt's.

On Earth, the Doctor is working on an inertia dampener for Bessie whilst Jo watches him, bored out of her mind.

Her mood soon picks up though when the Time Lord's send the Doctor a mysterious black sphere that he says contains some kind of message that cannot be accessed except by the person for whom it's meant.

The Doctor warns Jo to stay behind, saying that it must be some kind of emergency but Jo rushes in as the TARDIS is about to take off for the pre-determined coordinates of the Time Lord's choosing.

They arrive in the storage cupboard of a "skybase", a space station orbiting the planet Solos during the 31st century, right at the end of the Earth Empire's reign.

At the same time, Solonian's, native to the planet below, also arrive for some kind of upcoming speech on colonial independence that the human occupiers (termed "Overlords" by the Solonian's) are about to give.

It seems that the Earth men's presence is not wanted, seeing as how they've turned up and mined the crap out of the planet, turning it into a horrible place and ruining their atmosphere to boot, in their vain efforts to make it less toxic to human life.  A lot of the Solonian's are against the Overlord's presence, these are led by a young man called Ky.  He is opposed by a warrior of the Solonians who became a liaison to the earth men known as Varan.  Ky believes the Mutts are still people, even if their presence is caused by the humans, whereas Varan believes them to be a plague on their people and should be wiped out.

Elsewhere on the Skybase, the Marshall meets with the Administrator of Solos who explains that their superiors on Earth have made it clear they intend to pull back the colonies to consolidate their hold on inner planets.  As a result, Solos will be given back to the natives and the Marshall will be out of a job.

Despite the bickering, all the Solonians are herded into a decontamination chamber, except for Varan who is taken to the Marshall's office.  He's not permitted to take his bodyguard with him.  As Varan leaves, one of the human guards notices the bodyguard is hiding his hand.  When he calls him on it, the bodyguard attacks him, revealing his deformed and mutated fist.

Varan meets with the Marshall, who asks him to supply a loyal volunteer from his people to assassinate the Administrator.  Varan agrees and goes to find one, coming back a short time later with his own Son.  The Marshall gives him a pass to the upcoming conference and smirks to himself as they leave.

Growing impatient, the Doctor and Jo break out of the storage cupboard with the message and take a look around the station.  They can't find anyone, so decide to open another storage cupboard, alerting security to the fact.  They wait for someone to arrive, but get a surprise when the first person on the scene is the mutated Solonian bodyguard.  The guard attacks them and they're forced to rush into the storage room and blockade the door.

They encounter the real security - Stubbs and Cotton who end up shooting the Mutt dead and taking them before the Marshall.

The Administrator and Marshall interrogate the Doctor about where he's come from and what's in the strange sphere.  The Doctor tries to tell them that they've come from earth to deliver a message.  When he refuses to open the sphere (because he can't), the Marshall tries to shoot it open, naturally failing.  The Marshall tries to pass the Doctor and Jo off as saboteurs, but the Doctor chastises him, telling him that if they were saboteurs, the sphere would have been a bomb and they'd all be dead by now.  The Marshall and Administrator head off to the conference and keep Jo and the Doctor prisoner (watched over by Stubbs) whilst they address the Solonians.

The Marshall and Administrator head to the conference room, where the Marshall slips some kind of primitive cross bow to Varan's son.  The event is broadcast throughout the whole of the Skybase and down to Solos.  The Doctor uses this and Jo's barrage of questions to Stubbs as a distraction in order to get behind him and knock him out.  They take the message and rush off to find its recipient.

The Marshall begins the conference, detailing the reasons and history to the Earth Empire's involvement with Solos, all the while being heckled by Ky and his cronies.  The Administrator tries to get Ky and the Solonians to listen to him long enough to officially hand back the planet to them, but the arguments erupt into chaos.  Amidst the confusion, Varan's son shoots the Administrator with a dart, killing him.  The Marshall calls for Ky's arrest, saying he killed the Administrator.

Having no choice, Ky flees the conference room, narrowly avoiding hitting the Doctor on the way out.  The sphere begins to open, telling the Doctor that Ky is the recipient.  He and Jo rush off after Ky along with all the Overlord guards.

A desperate Ky grabs hold of Jo as a prisoner and drags her to the teleporter, taking her down to Solos just as the Marshall orders his men to open fire on them.

Once down on Solos, Ky and Jo flee out of the teleport station and onto the planets surface, evading fire from the lone guard down there.  It isn't long before Jo begins to choke and suffocate, a side effect of Solos' atmosphere which is poisonous during daylight hours.

Ky helps her to hide as they are pursued by guards and manages to overpower one of them, stealing their oxygen mask for Jo.

Meanwhile, on the Skybase, the Marshall has taken full advantage of the Administrator's death and seizes control of the entire Solos operation.  He strikes a bargain with the Doctor: he will recover Jo and bring her back alive, if the Doctor works with Jaeger, the Marshall's Germanic scientist to open the Time Lord's sphere.  The Doctor agrees but Jaeger is annoyed to be pulled away from his work trying to find a way to terraform Solos' poisonous atmosphere.

Once that's dealt with, the Marshall summons Varan's son to his office and kills him to cover up the conspiracy.  Varan walks in on the Marshall, catching him red handed and vows to take his revenge.  He is forced to flee as the Marshall calls for his guards and he hides onboard the Skybase.  The Marshall uses Varan as a scapegoat, denouncing him as a mutt and responsible for the assassinations.  He orders Varan found and killed.

Ignorant of the manhunt, the Doctor and Jaeger work together to form a crude particle reversal device that momentarily turns the Time Lord message sphere inside out before it overloads.  Jaeger is fascinated and realises that he could use the principle to transform the atmosphere.

Back on Solos, Ky takes Jo to some sacred caves where he tells her about the Overlord's arrival 500 years ago and their effective enslavement of his people to strip mine the thesium resources (a radioactive mineral).

Jo gets frightened by one of the Mutt creatures and Ky drives it away using a flaming torch but he clearly pity's the thing, saying they were once like him.

Stubbs is pulled away from guarding the Doctor to find and kill Varan.  The Doctor goes with him and they eventually find the warrior hiding within the station's greenhouse.  The Doctor convinces Stubbs not to kill Varan when he tells them both of the Marshall's treachery.  Together, the Doctor and Stubbs lie to the Marshall that Varan has been killed.  the Marshall says Jo is safe and sound and will be brought to the Doctor once he's finished helping Jaeger.  Little do they know that Cotton has also been forced to lie when he finds out from the Marshall that they haven't even captured Jo yet.

Jaeger suggests using massive rocket strikes (by exploding in the atmosphere and releasing ionisation crytals to convert the atmosphere) on the planet, transforming the atmosphere but killing the Solonian's as a side effect.  The Doctor is appalled at the idea and reluctantly agrees to help Jaeger use particle reversal to achieve the result.  Once the Doctor starts to work on this, Cotton comes to see him and tells him the Marshall lied about Jo.  Cotton agrees to work with Stubbs and the Doctor to try and find a way to get Varan and the Doctor off of Skybase.

The Doctor tricks Jaeger and stuns him by overloading the base's power.

He rushes off with the Time Lord Sphere to the teleporter, only to be attacked by Varan himself.

The Doctor struggles into the teleporter with Varan and they go down to the planet.  The Doctor's forced to use his Venusian Karate on Varan until the warrior agrees to help him.  Together they set off onto Solos, the Doctor being fine without a mask because it's night.

The Marshall is furious with Jaeger and the seemingly incompetent Cotton.  He orders Jaeger to go back to the original plan and prepare to bombard the planet with missiles.  The Marshall then yells at Stubbs and Cotton some more and sends them down to Solos with a bunch of other soldiers and head to the sacred caves where he proposes to gas them out into the open.

Speaking of the caves, Ky and Jo are herded deeper inside when a bunch of the Mutts become agitated and try to attack them.  Ky leaves Jo in a corner and valiantly fends them off with fire.

The Doctor hears the struggle and forces Varan to go with him to find Ky and deliver the message.  They find Ky but soon discover that Jo has run off deeper into the caves.

Jo has indeed run off and she finds a cavern of sparkling light and strange sounds that drive her to the ground.  As she falls unconscious, she sees a strange man in a radiation suit approaching her.

The Doctor although concerned about Jo, takes a minute to give Ky his message. The sphere opens and it turns out that it contains a bunch of ancient stone tablets written in old Solonian, a language that no one can speak anymore (because the Overlords forbade it).

Varan becomes annoyed, saying that words are not weapons.  He intends to go back to his people and raise an army to fight the Overlords.  The Doctor lets him go and he and Ky search for Jo.

The Marhsall arrives on Solos with Stubbs, Cotton and the rest of his men.  He sends the incompetent pair into the caves to find the Doctor.  Once they've left however, he plants some plastic explosives on the entrance and orders the rest of his men to gas it.

Varan gets back to his village and finds its deserted except for an old man half transformed into a Mutt.  Varan orders him to find his people.

Once the old man calls for the village to return, Varan discovers that he himself is transforming into a Mutt and hears a call in his mind to go to the sacred caves.  He fights the call and says he will die with glory.

Stubbs, Cotton, the Doctor, Ky and Jo all meet up in the caves where Jo tells them that she was saved by the strange man just as the gas begins to flow towards them.  The man in the radiation suit turns up again and beckons them to follow.  They do and he takes them to his base, a lead lined scientists lab deep in the caves.  It turns out the man is Professor Sondergaard, an Overlord scientist that went missing years ago.

Sondergaard explains that he has been studying the Solonians and their planet for a long long time.  He says he rescued Jo because she walked into a cavern intensely high with radiation.

Outside the caves, the Marshall orders his men to blow up all the cave entrances and return to base.  Once back at the Skybase, he orders Jaeger to begin the atmospheric bombardment.

Back in the caves, Ky opens the message sphere again and allows Sondergaard (who has studied the ancient language) to see the tablets.  He reckons they're like a rossetta stone or the book of genesis and could explain much.

Before he can decipher them however, the place begins to fall apart thanks to the missiles.  The Doctor says he and Sondergaard must remain in the caves to work out the meaning of the tablets, whilst Jo, Cotton, Stubbs and Ky make it out to Varan's village.  Jo argues but reluctantly agrees and they head off.

It's not long before Sondergaard and the Doctor establish that the tablets show a kind of Solonian calendar, depicting the seasons of the planet.  Sondergaard at first argues saying that Solos has no seasons in the 500 years the Overlords have been here.  The Doctor helps him to realise that it's possible Solos' seasons last 500 years apiece.  They're on the cusp of Solonian summer.  They also work out that one of the symbols refers to radiation - the cave of lights.  Together they set off for the cave.

Jo and the rest arrive at the village to find a much transformed Varan and a handful of his half mutated warriors.  They vow to go to the Skybase despite their low numbers and kill the Marshall and the Overlords.  They plan to use Jo, Ky, Stubbs and Cotton as meat shields to help achieve this.

Once at the cave of light, the Doctor and Sondergaard find the radiation stronger than they anticipated.  It overwhelms the Professor, but the Doctor strives on, finding a skeleton sat in the centre on a thrown of light holding some kind of glowing gem.  He retrieves the gem and rescues Sondergaard, taking him back to the lab.  Once back there, they hypothesise that the chamber uses thesium radiation from the crystal to transform the Solonians.  They think that the Mutts aren't actually mutations, but are in fact a natural phase of Solonian evolution, brought on prematurely by Jaegers atmospheric experiments.  They find that Sondergaard's equipment is too primative to analyse the gem properly.  With little choice, they set off for the Skybase.

Varan has gone with his men to the Skybase too, taking control of the planet side teleporter and beaming onboard the station just as reports are coming in of an Earth Empire investigator due to arrive shortly.

The Marshall orders Jaeger to ensure the countdown for the missile launch goes ahead, and takes a bunch of his goons to deal with Varan.  They get into a fight and Varan's forces are defeated.  The Marshall personally kills Varan but in doing so, blows a hole out the side of the station and almost sucks everyone out into space!

Luckily, they all manage to get out of the room and seal it off, but are ultimately taken prisoner by the Marshall and shackled to the railing in his office where he gloats to have them killed via firing squad.

The soldiers take aim but the executions are interrupted by Jaeger himself, who is furious because the Marshall's men didn't check the missiles like he wanted them to.  Now, the whole lot of them have landed on the surface before detonation, causing untold damage to the landscape via the ionization crystals and leaving Solos as nothing more but a corrupted barren desert.

Jo and Stubbs take the opportunity to sow doubt in the Marshall's mind, warning him that even if he kills them, all the remaining soldiers are fed up and one of them will spill the beans to the Investigator when he arrives, and that she and the Doctor are the Investigator's recon party, so there's also the threat of him being at large.

On Solos, the Doctor and Sondergaard make their way to the teleport station but are held up by the missile bombardment.  The Doctor realises that the ionization crystals are already beginning to poison the plant life and Sondergaard is weak and cannot make the journey.  He urges the Doctor to take the crystal and go ahead whilst he returns to the caves.

Taking Jo's words to heart, the Marshall goes down to Solos with a group of soldiers and tries to track down the Doctor and capture him.  After a protracted chase around Solos and on the Skybase itself, he manages to do just that.  He blackmails the Doctor to help Jaeger once more in order to keep Jo safe.

The Doctor agrees and perfects a way with Jaegers help of using the teleport beam to reverse the particles of the affected areas of Solos.

As they are working on this, Jo uses her escapology training and slips out of her cuffs, freeing Ky, Cotton and Stubbs and rushing through the Skybase to send a message to the Investigator, warning him about all that's been going on.

They manage to get the message out there whilst Stubbs and Ky hold the Marshall's soldier's off, but Stubbs is shot and killed in the process.  The remaining fugitives try to make it back down to Solos, but find that the teleporter doesn't work and are captured again.

Sondergaard goes back to the caves and finds that the Mutts can understand him.  He convinces them that he can help them with the use of the crystal and he leads them out into the Solonian night back towards the teleport station.

Having used the teleporter to return the planet to a state it was in before the rocket attacks, the Doctor is then coerced by the Marshall to lie to the Investigator and corroborate his cover story.  Once he has the Doctor's agreement, he sends Jo, Cotton and Ky into the hanger refueling bay, where they will be destroyed once the thesium radiation floods the bay as the station refuels the recently docked Investigator's ship.

The Marshall and the Doctor meet with the Investigator and his entourage and begin to explain away the accusations of slaughtering thousands.

Jo, Ky and Cotton just manage to escape the refueling chamber by slipping inside the fuel pipe of the Investigator's ship.  They rush into the hearing and allow the Doctor to denounce Jaeger and the Marshall as murderers and the Mutts are a natural process of evolution.  The Investigator asks for proof of this, but the Doctor says he can't prove it because the tablets are down on Solos.

It looks like all might be saved when Sondergaard turns up and backs up the story, but everyone freaks out when he's followed shortly after by a Mutt.  The Marshall grabs a gun and kills the creature before Sondergaard can prove that it's harmless.  The Investigator is sufficiently spooked and allows the Marshall to arm his men once more and deal with the Mutts.  The Doctor, Jo and Sondergaard flee and lock themselves in Jaeger's lab whilst the Marshall orders Ky and Cotton to be thrown back into the refueling bay, knowing that the thesium radiation there will kill them.

The Doctor and Sondergaard take the chance to use particle reversal to analyse the gem and confirm that it is used as a catalyst to transform the Solonians.  Before they can use the knowledge, the Marshall breaks in and captures them again.  He sends Jo and Sondergaard to the refueling bay, whilst he forces the Doctor to transform the atmosphere once again.

It just so happens that Jo and Sondergaard really wanted to go the refueling bay anyway, because the Solonians need thesium radiation to change (which is why they're called to the cavern of light on Solos).  Sondergaard gives Ky the crystal and they all watch him begin to change into a Mutt really quickly.

The Doctor is forced to use the teleporter equipment once more to work on particle reversal.  The Investigator storms in and argues with the Marshall, furious at his own men being disarmed by the Marshall's and his ship refused permission to leave.  The Doctor uses the quick distraction to switch wires around and prepares to use the device.

The Marshall laughs and lays out his plan to force the Investigator to live on the newly terraformed Solos as a slave under his command.  It's quite clear that the Marshall has just crossed over to stark raving madness.

Luckily, Ky transforms again in a flash of light, becoming some kind of spectral rainbow being.  He thanks Sondergaard and phases through the wall, moving through the complex.

The Doctor prepares to use the teleporter device but the Marshall orders Jaeger to do it instead, insisting that he doesn't trust the Doctor.  The Doctor allows him to and watches as the device overloads and blows up, ruining the Marshalls chance at changing Solos.  The Marshall becomes furious and prepares to kill the Doctor, but pauses in terror as Ky phases through the wall and zaps him into oblivion.

In  the aftermath, Sondergaard decides to stay on Solos and help Ky transform the rest of the Solonians.  Cotton will take over the running of Skybase to ensure everything goes smoothly and then will return to Earth.  The Investigator assumes that the Doctor and Jo will return with him so they can better explain what they were actually doing there.  The Doctor excuses himself and Jo, insisting that she was feeling a bit faint,

They jauntily head back to the storage cupboard and break into it using the Sonic Screwdriver, leaving in the TARDIS as the alarms go off reporting a malfunction once again.

Trivia

• Not a lot of non-Doctor Who fans know this, but two of the main actors in this story would go on to star in George Lucas' epic trilogy.  Canadian Actor, Garrick Hagon played Ky.  He would go on to play Luke Skywalker's infamous friend, Biggs Darklighter in Star Wars, getting most of his scenes deleted and cut from the story to this day.

• The other actor, John Hollis, played Sondergaard.  He would go on to star in the Empire Strike's Back as the cyborg assistant to Lando Calrissian: Lobot.

• This is the second successive Doctor Who story with surreal music seeing as Dudley simpson was still unavailable.  Although this soundtrack is definitely weird, it's barely remembered and you'll have a hard time finding it available anywhere.

• The strike actions that were still going on in the country made filming the cave scenes difficult.  Indeed, at one point, the crew had neglected to look at the scheduled power cut times and begun filming the caves, only to be plunged suddenly into total darkness! 

• The crew also took the opportunity to draw some of the ancient Solonian markings on the cave wall.  Problem is, they didn't get permission and ended up getting into hot water 

What worked

• The Mutts looked good, again in comparison to the Curse of Peladon

• The music is downright weird and experimental.  I like it, but see what didn't work for something around that 

• The fact that there's two teleporters; one for Solonians and one for Overlords

• The guns were Guns decent too, actually doing something real rather than having naff special effects put in on top of them

• The Skybase shot in different phases of the Solonian day worked too.  

• The fact that Solos has 500 year seasons gives the impression of a truly alien world

• The use of soil giving off a poisonous gas in daylight is also a really cool idea

What didn't work

• Let's address the obvious and go with - Cotton's accent, although truth be told, I kind of liked it

• How many times do you need to capture the Doctor before you realise it's probably just better to kill him

• The music is just as trippy as the last story, but it's so sporadic and low key that I struggle to remember a single bit of it 

• What was that fight scene between Varan and the Marshall over his dead son?!

• Stubbs looks positively overjoyed at the prospect of killing Varan.  No wonder Varan decides to randomly attack the Doctor, knowing he's the guy who saved his life!

• How is particle reversal going to help transform Solos anyway?  Won't it just turn everyone on the surface inside out?

• Okay, so a hole is blown out of the space ship, and there's not even a breeze affecting Jo etc. (okay they were trying to act like there was)  Then, they just head outside and shut the (already open) door and act like it's all fine

• Why does Jo refer to Sondergaard as a creature?  Hasn't she seen a man in a radiation suit before?

Overall Feelings

Alright, so it doesn't take a genius to understand that this story is about Apartheid.  The Solonians are Africans or Indians and the Overlords are the morally bankrupt English autocrats coming to take advantage of the country, ruining an entire culture forever.  I like that idea, I like it even more because it's set in space.

The concept of a five hundred year season is also interesting, as is the fact that the Solonian's are evolving and are mistook for mutating.  Chris Barry had a lot of great material to work with here.  His choice of execution can be most adequately summed up by his decision to cast Rick James as Cotton.  Before you go off on me for being racist, I want to point out that personally, I like Cotton.  I like the fact that his skin colour and accent make the delivery of his lines more quirky and shows diversity.  But....is he a good actor?  Did he deliver his lines with pathos and was he adequately convincing?  Just look at the dialogue in the refueling bay to see.

And it's not just Cotton I have a problem with.  Both Cotton and Stubbs are the most inept soldiers ever.  Fair enough, they're meant to be.  But the Marshall repeatedly calls on them for the most vital duties like they're the only two elite soldiers on the base!  This repeated display of ineptitude carries throughout the story and really just brings the action down - they rush into caves and panic that poison gas is there, even when they are holding onto gas masks.  They're so bad that I shook my head in disbelief when Cotton is ultimately chosen to become the next Marshall.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, overall, the story has many, many great concepts that are poorly executed to the point of being cringeworthy.  Coming off the back of such iconic stories, this is a real let down.

Rating

5 out of 10

Good ideas, okay music, terrible execution

Rewatchability Factor

2 out of 10

Not one scene is worth a watch beyond the first time

Watch this if you liked...

• The Daleks

• The Space Pirates

• Colony in Space

• Frontier in Space

• Planet of the Ood (Doctor Who, Series 4)

Consulting the Matrix

What did you think of Cotton?