The Twin Dilemma (TV story)

Synopsis

A race of giant gastropods has taken over the planet Jaconda. Their leader, Mestor, now intends to cause an enormous explosion in order to spread his people's eggs throughout the galaxy, and he kidnaps juvenile twin geniuses from Earth to work out the necessary mathematical equations. Space fighters led by Lieutenant Hugo Lang are dispatched to get the twins back, but they come under attack and Lang is the sole survivor when his ship crashes on the asteroid Titan 3.

A newly regenerated Doctor and Peri become involved and help Jaconda's elderly former ruler Professor Edgeworth, who is really a Time Lord named Azmael, to defeat Mestor and free the planet's bird-like indigenous people from the gastropods' reign of terror. Azmael, however, sacrifices his life in the process.

Plot: The Doctor behaves very strangely after his traumatic regeneration. He tries to strangle Peri, and wants to live like a hermit, but The Doctor inadvertently becomes involved in solving a crime, and must prevent destruction to the planet Tittan 3. The danger over, The Doctor tells Peri he is The Doctor, whether she likes it or not!

"Im the Doctor- whether you like it or not!"

The Doctor- a Time Lord- has regenerated. Can he recover in time to solve a crime!?

Cast

Crew

References

Fiesta 95 is a holiday planet.

Story Notes

New opening and closing title sequences make their debut a more colourful version than the previous one, incorporating Colin Baker's face rather than Peter Davison's designed by Sid Sutton and Terry Handley.
The cat badge worn by the Doctor in his lapel for this story was hand-made and painted by Suzie Trevor, and purchased for the programme from a specialist badge shop in central London.
Fabian was originally envisaged as a male character, and the Jocondan Chamberlain as a female one.
The Doctor attempting to strangle Peri marks the first time on television that the Doctor has intentionally attacked a companion (discounting the accidental death of Sara Kingdom).