Three episodes (45 mins each)
Aired between 16th February 1985 and 2nd March 1985
Written by Robert Holmes
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Peter Moffatt
Synopsis
The Second Doctor and Jamie are travelling to Space Station Camera on the request of the Time Lords.
The station is a research facility and they have been "ordered" to have a word with Dastari, the head researcher. They materialise in the kitchen and meet one of the Androgum workers on the station - a chef called Shockeye of the Quarnsin Grig. The Androgum's are primitive, practically cannibals and Shockeye has a keen longing to taste human flesh. The Doctor and Jamie hurry away from the kitchens to meet with Dastari.
Talking to Dastari, the Doctor asks him to shut down the research that two of his colleagues - Kartz and Reimer are undertaking into time travel. The Time Lords see the dangers and believe that they are close to catastrophe, but Dastari takes the warning to mean that the Time Lords are threatened by other races getting close to mastering time travel.
The Doctor argues with him, and also decries Dastari's own research into turning another Androgum - Chessene of the Franzine Grig into a genius level being. He warns Dastari that even though her intellect has been raised, her instincts will always remain that of an Androgum.
As if in proof of the Doctor's warnings, Chessene goes to the station security and incapacitates them, allowing three approaching Sontaran battle cruisers to enter the station.
As the Doctor and Dastari's argument continue, they realise they've been drugged by the tea that Chessene served them.
Elsewhere, the Sixth Doctor is fishing, much to the dismay and boredom of Perri.
He suddenly grows faint and has a vision of himself (in his 2nd Regeneration) being put to death. He wrestles with the impossibility of it, and decides to visit his old friend, Dastari to get a second opinion, so he sets a course for Space Station Camera.
Chessene, Dastari and Shockeye in the meantime set a course for Earth. Chessene convinced Dastari to help master the Kartz-Reimer module and perfect time travel, and they are using a base of operations on Earth to do this secretly. The Sontarans have become involved as they want the secrets too. The group travel to earth and are spotted by an Englishman in the Spanish countryside of Seville, whilst he's out catching moths with a net and cyanide jar.
Oscar and his partner, Anita, mistake the Sontaran ship for some kind of top secret aircraft that's crashed and they go off to find help. They observe Chessene etc. going to a Spanish Hacienda, carrying the unconscious 2nd Doctor with them.
When they get to the station, the Doctor and Perri find that it is dark and shut down. The AI computer tries to kill them and they are forced into the guts of the station to re-wire it and find out what's going on. The Doctor gets gassed by a self defence mechanism and Perri is attacked by a humanoid figure in the darkness. She knocks him unconscious and the Doctor's time lord phisiology saves himself from a nasty time. They discover that the humanoid is Jamie. They use some acupuncture needles on him to get him to explain that the Doctor was being killed by the Sontarans.
The Sixth Doctor is rightfully perplexed, but soon gets to the bottom of it, finding that Jamie saw an illusion, designed to make whoever saw it believe that the Doctor was dead. The Doctor puts himself in a hypnotic trance and via a mind link with the 2nd Doctor, recognises the sound of bells in a Seville cathedral. Jamie, Perri and the Doctor set off for Spain.
The Doctor knows that time travel under the Kartz-Reimer project isn't working because the project is too unstable. The reason why Time Lords are fine in their TARDIS' is because they have a molecular bond with the machines called the Rassilon Impremeture. He deduces that they must have taken Dastari prisoner too in order to operate on the 2nd Doctor and isolate the symbiotic nuclei in order to make the time experiments a success.
The Doctor and co arrive and meet Oscar and Anita, who tell them what they've seen. The Doctor thanks them and asks them to lead them to the Hacienda.
They do so, and the Doctor comes up with a plan for Perri to distract the occupiers, whilst the Doctor and Jamie sneak in to rescue the 2nd Doctor.
In the basement, Dastari is planning to begin the operation when they hear the doorbell.
Chessene goes to see and notices that Perri's thoughts are on the Doctor. She invites Perri in and gets Shockeye to bring the 2nd Doctor through the foyer in a wheelchair (unconscious) to see if she reacts.
She doesn't (because she's never seen the 2nd Doctor), but she does get suspicious, so she makes her excuses and leaves. Shockeye is drooling with anticipation at eating her and Chessene agrees to let him hunt her down. He does so and knocks her out, bringing her back to the kitchens to cook.
Meanwhile, the Doctor and Jamie get to the basement. They're too late to find the 2nd Doctor, but they do see the Kartz-Reimer module. The Doctor explains to Jamie that once his time lord nuclei has been put into something called a Briode Nebuliser, the machine will work for anyone. Unfortunately, the Sontarans overhear this and capture them both. Under the threat of Jamie's death, the 6th Doctor is forced to go into the module and take a short trip, thus priming the nebuliser.
Jamie wounds Field Marshall Stike with his dirk, and the two escape, but are not able to free the 2nd Doctor.
Fearing another Time Lord's interference, Chessene insists on Dastari turning the 2nd Doctor into an Androgum with the intention of using him to double cross the Sontarans and taking the Kartz-Reimer module for themselves. They knock Shockeye out, just as he's about to start carving up Perri.
Little does she know that the Sontarans have primed the module and intend to leave in it as soon as they get word from high command.
As everyone's distracted, the 6th Doctor and Jamie manage to get Perri away. The Doctor explains that the Sontarans won't get far because he's taken the briode nebuliser.
Dastari lures Stike and his officer into the cellar and locks them in with some coronic acid, a substance lethal to Sontarans, then gets on with the operation on the Doctor.
Stike survives this but is wounded. He tries to get into the module but ends up bleeding profusely as it fails. He staggers to his craft but forgets that he ordered it set to self destruct and it blows him up.
Meanwhile, the Doctor and Shockeye revive and go on a jaunt into town to find some food.
The various parties realise they've gone and all go to try and find them, playing cat and mouse all over Seville.
After and incredibly large meal at Oscar's restaurant, Shockeye and the Doctor are stuffed. Oscar asks Shockeye to pay the bill, but shockeye, insulted that he won't take foreign (alien) currency, stabs Oscar to death. He leaves the 2nd Doctor and goes, just in time for the 6th Doctor, Perri and Jamie to find him.
Fortunately, the Doctor returns to normal, but they're captured again by Chessene and Dastari and taken back to the Hacienda.
Back there, they give Shockeye permission to eat Jamie, and force Perri to use the module again once the nebuliser has been replaced.
Satisfied, they lock them all up in chains and prepare to leave. The Doctor's confer and it's revealed that the nebuliser has only a thin membrane, enough for just a trip by Perri. If they use it again, it won't work.
Together, they manage to get the key to their shackles and free themselves. The 6th Doctor confronts Shockeye just in time, but is injured in the process and forced to run with Shockeye in pursuit.
As they go out of the Hacienda, Chessene sees the blood on the floor and is compelled to taste it, revealing to Dastari that no matter how much she's augmented, she will always be an Androgum.
He changes his mind and frees the 2nd Doctor, but is killed by Chessene in the process. She tries to kill the Doctor and Perri, but Jamie comes to their rescue disarming her with a thrown knife.
Elsewhere, the Doctor uses Oscar's Cyanide jar to kill Shockeye.
Chessene flees into the module, but as predicted, it doesn't work and it kills her.
The 2nd Doctor uses a remote control to summon his TARDIS and he and Jamie go off on their next adventure, leaving the 6th Doctor and Perri to return to their TARDIS and swear off meat forever.
Trivia
- As with the City of Death and Planet of Fire, this was another big idea from John Nathan-Turner to have an annual trip out. Originally it was meant to be set in New Orleans, a place that had gathered much recognition as a fan base and source of great american Dr Who conventions, but they couldn't make it work in the budget so had to choose somewhere more local - i.e. Spain
- This is the first appearance of the Doctor's multi-coloured umbrella if you don't count the press publicity shots.
- The TARDIS console of the 2nd doctors was actually the one from the fourth / fifth doctors era, they didn't have the budget to re-create the 1960's one
- The reason why Patrick Troughton was involved is because he and Frazer Hines had such a great time on the Five Doctors. In fact, this very story was largely based on the concept that Robert Holmes worked up for that story (although for his five Doctors story, it was the Cybermen who wanted the Doctor's DNA).
- Robert Holmes didn't really like the Sontaran's, but JNT insisted that they were put into the script
- The girder work on the space station set was actually part of the set for Top of the Pops
The Review
I have fond memories of this story, with the impeccable Patrick Troughton reprising his role and being as snarky as ever, and the presence of the threatening if a little comedic Shockeye, this was one story I was sort of looking forwards to re-watching.
The reality is that this is far more clunky than I remember. The tropes of it are still pretty good, and some of the acting is pretty decent, but it's spoiled by an unnecessarily complicated plot, over-riffing on the let's eat humans schtick, fairly bad costumes, and some pretty over the top acting from others.
Still, this is one of the most brutal stories ever produced in Doctor Who, and the sight of Field Marshall Stike emerging from the module, covered in blood and having his face implode is something that sticks with you. And that's the thing. Nothing in here is good enough to be celebrated as a whole, it's more the little things that happen that are cause for remembrance. For example, as much as it was a pointless waste of time, Patrick Troughton's performance as an Androgum is pretty entertaining, as is Shockeye in small doses.
This is one of the poorest stories to come from Robert Holmes (yes, I said it), but even on his bad days, it is one that give people cause to think, with vegetarianism undertones and a no holds barred two and fro between captivity and freedom, this story has little gems in it, but not perhaps something to be celebrated beyond that.
Rating
7 out of 10
Re-Watchability Factor
6 out of 10
Watch this if you liked...
