The Thing from Outer Space (short story)
The Thing from Outer Space was a short story in the 1971 Countdown Holiday Special, a forty-eight+63-page oversized edition of the magazine. It was one of the very few bits of Doctor Who prose ever published by Polystyle in their long association with the franchise and the only Doctor Who content in the issue.
It featured the Third Doctor.
Plot
It was just before midnight on a dark wintry evening, when the blinding green flare suddenly lit up the whole of the Southern Counties of England. It lasted for ten seconds, an unearthly pulsating glow, that stopped men in their tracks and had farm animals for miles around kicking and moaning in terror. Then it vanished, and the gloom that followed, lay like a thick brooding menace over the land. At the Secret Research Station near Portsmouth, Dr Who was awoken in his sleeping quarters, by the flare like light, and pressed a button on a video screen to ask the Duty Guard Officer to find out about it and report back. The sky was pitch black and there was nothing to be seen save the lights of a frigate berthed across the harbour, and the unusual degree of activity on board. The Duty Guard Officer then informed Dr Who, that reports were coming in to say that a bright, flaming object had splashed down in Portsmouth Harbour, and that the navy were wondering if the Secret Research Centre were responsible for it. Dr Who, ordered an emergency meeting to take place in the operations room, and thereafter took a high speed lift to the control centre at the top of the ten storey block that dominated the Research Centre, where in turn, he found an excited group of officers and scientists, already assembled for the meeting. They were all crowded near to a huge window that overlooked Portsmouth Harbour, and Dr Who joined them, to see a great, glowing mass, heaving and pulsing, like some monstrous jelly fish, a creature with long tendrils protruding from its body, and a hideous frog like head. Every breath it took, it pulsated an eerie green light that beamed out across the harbour. Horrified onlookers in the operations room watched as the sailors on the frigate manned the canons and fired a steady stream of shells at the advancing monster, all of which, burst short of the huge glowing creature. The closer the creature got to the ship, the closer to the ship, their shells burst, until as the monster was almost upon them, their cannon exploded. Simultaneously, the great pulsating Thing stretched out its antennae and touched the side of the ship, resulting in the vessel becoming engulfed in a phosphorescent fire, that for a few seconds lit up the harbour. The monster then disappeared into the depths of the water.
Dr Who worked out that the Thing had created a force field that the shells had burst upon, and that it was capable of self generating energy. In conversations with a bespectacled scientist and a harassed looking Major, it is concluded that they may have seen something that can only be described as embodied solar energy. Dr Who wants to see the frigate for himself, telling Sparks, the duty communications officer, to order a launch at once, and to get the anti submarine establishment to lay on a fire fighting boat for him. He also asks that the Navy Stores people get him all the paint they can lay their hands on. Ten minutes later, Dr Who steps onto the frigate, which is now crawling with Dockyard Security Police, Naval brass, and dead crew members. The ship looked as though it had been scorched by a giant blow torch, and its electrical equipment had been fused. A stocky grim faced Navy Captain, by the name of Fenton, confirmed that the dead appeared to be have been electrocuted. A Petty Officer then interrupted as the monster returned, prompting Dr Who to make the decision that that the Thing had to be destroyed before it wiped out the whole dockyard. He thereafter outlines his plan to Captain Fenton, before they run together down the gangway of the ship to a waiting staff car on the jetty, where they tell the driver to take them to the anti-submarine establishment. Arriving at the underwater warfare building, Dr Who is delighted to see that a large fire fighting craft, that is equipped with water cannons, has already been prepared, and that the Officer In Charge Of Operations, has placed his drums of paint on the deck. Dr Who tells the Commander that he needs two brave men equipped with diving suits and breathing apparatus to accompany him and Captain Fenton on the fire fighting boat until they are near enough for the divers to go overboard. They are to be issued with portable anti-sub rocket guns. He says that the navy should have the paint ready for spraying from the fire cannons. Dr Who and Fenton then boarded the fire fighting boat, from the deck of which, they could see the glowing green mass of alien creature in the middle of the harbour.
Dr Who asks Fenton if he has any idea what the creature is, and the captain surmises that it is some form of alien life that's intruded into our dimension of time and space, and that the energy it uses must be pretty incredible, like concentrated lightening. Dr Who nods his agreement adding that our universe occasionally throws up rebels from its depths, and concluded that, the Thing was obviously a cosmic freak that had broken the normal laws of nature and become totally destructive in our Earthly environment. It evidently needed some kind of cosmic energy to sustain it, and that its pulsating was a kind of breathing. Ten minutes later, all preparations had been completed and they had been joined by the divers, with Dr Who telling them that the creature has a surface force field, so it will have to be approached from underneath, where the force-field probably won't operate. If it is taken by surprise Dr Who hopes the distraction will enable him to get close enough for him to kill the Thing. The fire fighting boat then headed out into the middle of the harbour toward the glowing monster. Giving the orders to man the fire cannons, Dr Who also bid the divers overboard, as the boat travelled at 30 knots around and around the nightmare horror of green fire, with its evil eyes fixed on the fire fighting boat, and its antennae snaking out to clutch its prey. As the boat swept in a great foaming ark round the monstrous glowing predator, there was a sudden violent eruption from beneath the creature and a piercing shriek of agony shrilled out, with its tail being scolded. Great jets of liquid spurted out of the fire fighting cannons, spraying the wounded creature, with a never-ending stream of thick black fluid, as the force-field around it went down. Suddenly a tremendous flash filled the night sky and a great seething cauldron of savage green flame boiled up and towered into the night, thereafter heading toward the boat, as a second explosion saw the Thing disappear beneath the then stillness of the harbour waters. Dr Who then explained that the resin in the paint had turned the creature's energy back on itself, and had suffocated it. He did however concede that it was a great loss to science, and pondered on just what it would have meant to have found out what it was that had intruded into their world. Fenton concludes by telling Dr Who that he has other mysteries to solve...
Characters
- Third Doctor
- Captain Fenton
Worldbuilding
to be added
Notes
- In this story, the Doctor is the leader of an organisation based in Portsmouth that is similar to UNIT but is not identified as such.
- "The Secret Research Centre", implies that this secret organisation does research of a highly classified nature, and are not known to the general public, however as the Navy wanted to know if they were responsible for whatever splashed down in the harbour, it would appear they are known to them at least, and, have authority over them. The organisation which appears to be headed by Dr Who, must deal with the science of extra-terrestrial creatures and the possibilities of dimensions other than our own, as it is Fenton, not Dr Who that theorises about the Thing being some form of alien life that's intruded into our dimension of time and space. It also implies Fenton is part of the secret organisation.
- The Thing is described as "a great glowing mass, heaving and pulsing like some monstrous jelly fish." It has long tendrils protruding from its body and a hideous frog-like head.
- Captain Fenton surmises that the Thing is "... an alien life form that intruded into our dimension of time and space." Dr Who then goes on to say that it is "... obviously a cosmic freak, which has broken the normal laws of nature and become totally destructive in our Earthly environment." The Thing needs some kind of cosmic energy to sustain it, and its breathing is defined as an eerie green pulsating light. It is capable of self generating its own surface force field.
- "The Thing From Outer Space" was released in the summer of 1971, and set in Portsmouth. By October of 1971, the BBC were already filming The Sea Devils, with its locations including the Fraser Gunnery Range at HMS St George in Portsmouth, HMS Reclaim, a diving training vessel based at Portsmouth, and No Man's Land Fort in the Solent, a sea fort near to Portsmouth.
- The Secret Research Centre is said to be based NEAR Portsmouth. However it is close enough to the harbour for Dr Who to be able to see the frigate from the window of his sleeping quarters. The Operations Room, at top of the ten storey, Control Centre within the Research Centre itself, has windows that overlook the centre of Portsmouth Harbour, where the Thing is situated. The Dockyard mentioned could be Portsmouth's Historical Dockyard, or more likely because of its view of the middle of the harbour, the dock known as the Continental Ferry Port. This would seem to indicate that The Secret Research Centre is based on Whale Island, a small island in Portsmouth Harbour, that is home to a navy base and indeed HMS Excellent. The dockyard reference could therefore merely refer to the port area on Whale Island itself. The Underwater Warfare Building could refer to the island's Maritime Warfare School. The Anti-Submarine Establishment, relates to the real life Anti-Submarine Experimental Establishment, which existed from 1940-1947. It was renamed the Underwater Detection Establishment in 1947 and officially closed in 1960. The organisation was thereafter incorporated into the Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment, which remained operational until 1995. This is included here, as the author of "The Thing From Outer Space", must have based the story on his knowledge of these facts.
Continuity
The Secret Research Establishment in The Sea Devils, could be a slightly amended name for the Secret Research Station.
