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Summary
The Doctor takes Ace and Benny to the village of Lifton in 1855, where young Mary Anne Wesley, a budding young paleontologist, is stirring up controversy in the village for her "unwomanly" pursuits. Mary Anne has recently discovered an unusual skeleton, and the Doctor is here to stop her from presenting it to the world; it is in fact the skeleton of an alien, and any attempt to work it into a theory of human evolution will inevitably fail and set back human science by centuries. Ace bows out of the Doctor's attempt to play God, but while walking alone on the beach she finds the remains of a human scientist, Dr Thomas Gideon. Dr Gideon himself appears to have arrived at the Wesley's home, where, much to the Doctor's surprise, he heaps scorn upon Mary Anne's discovery and drives her from the room in tears. As Benny and Reverend Wesley try to comfort her, the Doctor confronts Gideon, realising that any true human scientist would have been fascinated by the discovery. Gideon transforms into his true reptilian form and tries to kill the Doctor, but Ace arrives just in time and overpowers him. When the alien revives he identifies himself as a Surcoth, one of a race of explorers; he is here to recover the fossilised body of his ancestor, who was lost on this world millions of years ago. The Doctor is disgusted by the Surcoth's arrogant dismissal of the human races and the casual murder of Gideon, but when he turns his back the Surcoth breaks his bonds and attacks him again, for interfering in his noble mission. However, the Doctor gets the upper hand when he threatens to destroy the fossil, and forces the Surcoth to plead with him to spare it. Having taught the alien a lesson in humility, the Doctor allows him to depart, while Bernice comforts Mary Anne and takes her for a walk on the beach -- where Mary Anne finds a fossilised ichthyosaur which will secure her place in history.
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