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| ==Summary== | | ==Summary== |
| While shopping in Soho, Jo is confronted by three blobby Kobolds: Numbers Two, Forty, and Forty-Two. The [[Kobold]]s demand that she tell them all about [[the Doctor]]’s [[TARDIS]], but Jo finds that she is having difficulty communicating -- and slowly comes to realise that she can no longer use any vowels other than “o” and sometimes “y”. At [[UNIT]] HQ, [[the Doctor]] and Sergeant Osgood find that they have the same problem. Osgood is temporarily in charge, and when he tries to contact the rest of the world, he discovers that the problem is widespread. [[The Doctor]], realising who is responsible, takes Osgood to one of his homes away from home to work in peace on a device that will solve the problem; however, he has difficulty communicating with Osgood, and when he storms into the [[TARDIS]] in a fit of irritation, he finds that all of the English language’s vowels have returned to him. Meanwhile, the [[Kobold]]s reveal to Jo that the [[TARDIS]] once materialised briefly on their homeworld, Procyon Two; the three Kobolds who have come to [[Earth]] are survivors of the religious wars that ensued.
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| The [[Kobold]]s force Jo to lead them to the Doctor’s hut, where they force their way into the TARDIS -- and in its shock upon seeing the interior, Kobold Forty-Two uses a word with a vowel other than “o,” and thus develops the ability to speak with other vowels. Unfortunately, Osgood then completes his work on the Doctor’s proton box and carries it inside the [[TARDIS]], where it explodes, killing the other two [[Kobold]]s. Forty-Two attempts to seize control of the [[TARDIS]], but when the Doctor tells Jo to distract it, Jo points out all of the roundels on the [[TARDIS]] walls, and Forty-Two, realising that he’s now surrounded by “o”s, regresses mentally and physically into a simpler life form. [[The Doctor]] explains to Jo and Osgood that the TARDIS translation circuits do not in fact translate alien languages within the minds of the travellers; in a typical piece of [[Time Lord]] arrogance, they actually reach out and alter the aliens’ language to English. When [[the Doctor]] briefly materialised on Procyon Two during one of his failed attempts to escape his exile, the process began but was interrupted, leaving the Kobolds stuck with only the vowels “o” and “y”. When the [[Kobold]]s arrived on [[Earth]], the [[TARDIS]] was reminded of its unfinished business, but unfortunately spread the effect over the entire [[Earth]] until the [[Kobold]]s had gone.
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| ==Characters== | | ==Characters== |
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| ==Continuity== | | ==Continuity== |
| While trying to determine who is responsible for these events, the Doctor name-checks the Zygons, Ssorg, and K’to. The Kobolds claim to have encountered Ky of Solos and Lytton while searching for the Doctor. The Doctor’s croft may be the hut depicted in the TV Action series of comics.
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| ==External Links== | | ==External Links== |
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| | {{prose stub}} |
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| [[Category:Third Doctor short stories]] | | [[Category:Third Doctor short stories]] |
