Four to Doomsday (TV story)

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We've got to get out of this ship!Tegan Jovanka


Synopsis

The TARDIS arrives on board a huge spaceship where the Doctor and his companions encounter the frog-like Urbankans and a population of human androids. The androids are drawn from four different ethnic groups - Greek (led by Bigon), Chinese (led by Lin Futu), Mayan (led by Villagra) and Aboriginal Australian (led by Kurkutji) - and perform regular displays of dance and other rituals termed 'recreationals'.

The Urbankans' leader, Monarch, aided by his ministers Persuasion and Enlightenment, is engaged in a complex scheme to plunder from Earth the raw materials needed to enable him to travel back in time and thereby confirm his belief in his own status as the universe's divine creator.

Monarch has a poison that he intends to use to conquer humanity so that Earth can be repopulated with his androids. The Doctor, however, throws a canister of the poison at Monarch, causing him to shrink away to virtually nothing.

Plot

Part One

The Doctor tries to return Tegan to Heathrow Airport but the TARDIS lands on a technologically advanced ship. The Doctor goes out to investigate and discovers a Monoptican surveying them. The Doctor returns to the TARDIS and emerges along with Adric, Nyssa and Tegan. All four have to wear helmets in order to breathe. The Doctor addresses the Monoptican hoping whoever is using it for suveillance will know they are friendly. The Doctor questions the Monoptican on their location. A door opens shortly afterwords and, recognising this as a friendly gesture, the Doctor goes through it followed by Tegan. Nyssa and Adric stay in the room to operate some machinery there. Tegan and the Doctor eventually find themselves on the bridge of the ship and come face to face with the Monarch and his two associates Enlightenment and Persuasion. The Monarch is interested in The Doctor and Tegan's knowledge of current and past Earth culture. The Monarch then reveals their ship is bound for Earth. Tegan draws a picture of male and female uniforms at Heathrow for Enlightenment. Tegan and The Doctor then leave the bridge and meet up with Nyssa and Adric. Nyssa claims she saw a humanoid man. The Doctor doubts this until the man emerges and asks them to follow; he is dressed in a Greek toga. They are led to a dining chamber at are seated at a rectangular table. They are then joined by an Aborigine (Kurkutji) a Mayan (Villagra) and a Chinese mandarin (Lin Futu). They are all representatives of there respective cultures with the Greek man (Bigon) representing ancient Greece. The last guests to join them are Enlightenment and Persuasion who have seemingly transformed into the humans Tegan sketched.

Part Two

Tegan is terrified by this evidence of the Urbankans' almost magical technology, but Adric is fascinated. Enlightenment and Persuasion explain that their system's star, Inokshi, is an irregular variable and that they were forced to evacuate their homeworld; all three billion Urbankans are on board this one ship, which the Doctor finds hard to believe. Bigon shows the Doctor and his companions to their guest quarters, where he tells them that a hundred generations have passed since he was "rescued" from Earth; the Doctor assumes that they're on a generational ship, and that Bigon's ancestors were taken from ancient Athens. Before Bigon can say more, Monarch summons him away, unwilling to let the Doctor know too much too soon. The Doctor deactivates the monopticon in his quarters so he can speak with his companions privately. Tegan just wants to get away, but the Doctor is unwilling to leave just yet. The Urbankans have visited Earth at least four times in the past and now seem to be coming to stay -- but how can three billion Urbankans possibly co-exist on the same planet as the human race?

Monarch is amused by the Doctor's intelligence, and decides to arrange a "recreational" which will divert the Doctor's attention while Monarch tries to learn more about him through Nyssa and Adric. Monarch then chastises Bigon for telling the Doctor too much, but Bigon refuses to lie; as a philosopher he has been devoted to the truth for over two thousand years. And he and Monarch both know that if the Doctor learns of Monarch's plans before Monarch is ready, then he will oppose them...

The Doctor and his companions set off to explore the ship, but Adric and Nyssa are separated from the Doctor and Tegan and decide to explore on their own. The Doctor and Tegan are guided to a performance hall, where Persuasion observes them as they watch a demonstration of folk dancing and music from each of the cultures represented on the ship. Two gladiators arrive in the hall and begin fighting, and under cover of pretending to explain the fight, Bigon arranges to meet the Doctor back in his quarters and speak privately with him. The Doctor distracts Persuasion while Bigon slips away. Moments later, one of the gladiators drives a sword straight through the other's chest, and Tegan rushes from the hall in shock, followed by the Doctor.

Adric and Nyssa, exploring the ship, find an arboretum filled with Earth plant life and small Earth frogs. Exploring further, they find a room full of Greek scholars working on banks of computers, but none of the humans they've met apart from the four Representatives will speak to them. Nyssa notices that the silent humans all have metal implants on their hands. They explore further and find the "Mobiliary", what appears to be a type of surgery -- and the dead Greek soldier from the recreational walks in under his own power and is instantly healed by a glowing cabinet. Monarch decides that Nyssa and Adric have seen enough and orders that they be brought to him immediately.

Bigon tries to calm the distraught Tegan, telling her that all is not as it appears. The Doctor wants to know how the Urbankans have extended organic life spans, but Bigon informs him that they haven't -- and opens up a panel in his chest to reveal that he is in fact an android...

Part Three:

The Doctor becomes suspicious of Monarch and soon learns that the Urbankan does not plan on peaceful co-existence: instead, he has developed a toxin to wipe out humanity, and this will be unleashed before the Urbankans disembark. He also finds out that the humans aboard are not descendents of the original abductees, but are the original people taken from Earth and converted into androids like the three Urbankans walking around on board. The four leaders of the peoples have been given additional circuits to help them reason, but this facility can be taken away, as Bigon learns when he crosses Monarch once too often. He explained to the Doctor that Monarch strip-mined and destroyed Urbanka in a quest for minerals to improve the ship, and now plans to do the same to Earth. Monarch believes that if he can move the ship faster than the speed of light, he can pilot it back to the beginning of time and discover himself as God. Adric is restrained as, on Persuasion's orders, the Doctor is forced to his knees and one of the Greek androids raises a sword to decapitate him...

Part Four:

Adric, nevertheless, is rather taken with Monarch, and tensions between him and the Doctor become very strained. It takes the truth to break the alien’s hold over the boy. The Doctor now sets about over-throwing Monarch and, with the help of the human androids led by a restored Bigon, a revolution is put into effect.Enlightenment and Persuasion are de-circuited, while Monarch himself is exposed to the deadly toxin and killed.It seems he was a product of the weak “flesh time” after all, having never, as the Doctor suspected, been fully converted into an android. The humanoid androids decide to pilot the vessel to a new home on a new world, while the TARDIS crew departs. Back in the console room, Nyssa suddenly collapses to the floor in a dead faint...

Cast

Crew

References

Story Notes

  • This was the first Fifth Doctor story to be filmed.
  • Working title for this story was Days of Wrath.
  • Nyssa's sudden fainting spell at the end of the story was a throwback to the style of serial transition often employed during the First Doctor era (for example, when the Doctor suddenly cries out in pain at the end of The Celestial Toymaker, which leads into The Gunfighters in which it is revealed a toothache as the culprit). In this case, the reason for Nyssa's sudden collapse is revealed at the start of Kinda.

Ratings

  • Part 1 - 8.4 million viewers
  • Part 2 - 8.8 million viewers
  • Part 3 - 8.9 million viewers
  • Part 4 - 9.4 million viewers

Myths

to be added

Filming Locations

Production errors

  • In part one the doors of the TARDIS are pushed shut from behind, ostensibly by a member of the crew, as Peter Davison didn't shut them all the way.

Continuity

  • DW: Human Nature also demonstrates the Doctor's amazing abilities with a cricket ball.
  • The Doctor previous displayed an ability to survive exposure to a vacuum in space in DW: Nightmare of Eden.

DVD and Video Releases

Region 2 cover
PAL -
  • Region 4 TBA
PAL -
  • Region 1 TBA
NTSC -

Notes:

Novelisation

Four to Doomsday novel.jpg
Main article: Four to Doomsday (novelisation)


External Links

Template:Season 19

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