The False Guardian (audio story)

Arriving on a desolate world that the Doctor finds somehow familiar, the TARDIS crew discover that something is wrong with time. The inhabitants of an unusual complex are experimenting at the command of their enigmatic director... somebody who has quite a strong grudge against the Doctor.

Facing an old foe who was presumed dead, the travellers are soon trapped in a diabolical scheme. But is it just the tip of the iceberg?

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Part one[[edit] | [edit source]]

Having been distracted by her adventures, Ann returns to her mission to find out who the Sinestrans were working with and what they might be planning and looks through the TARDIS's databanks with K9. The Doctor allows her to program coordinates and walks her through dematerialisation, but they experience vortex disturbance and land in the path of a chronon wave front from which the TARDIS flees without its crew. K9 detects signs of habitation and the three of them shelter in a garden inside a force field which the Doctor breaches with his sonic screwdriver.

The Doctor, Ann and K9 encounter the Varga-infected Mac Foley in pain and losing his mind. Despite Ann's protestations, the Doctor leads them away from Foley and they are forced to run when Varga plants approach. They are cornered at an electrified durolinium fence and K9 tries to hold the Varga plants back as drones arrive, sent by Deputy Director Brox to investigate the breach at the force field. At Brox's command, the drones destroy the Varga plants and fly the Doctor, Ann and K9 over the fence to the facility, only for a man tell them to prepare to die. He informs them that they are on Kembel and claims that he is Mavic Chen, Guardian of the Solar System.

Part two[[edit] | [edit source]]

Chen, whom the Doctor knows to be an impostor given his appearance and the fact that the real Chen is dead, is escorted away by Brox and Dr Elmore for treatment. The facility, Brox explains, is a clinic for rest and rehabilitation and the Doctor requests rooms for himself, Ann and K9 to avoid punishment, a request which is granted thanks to him being High President of Gallifrey. By claiming that she is his head of security, Ann, uncharacteristically irritated by the Doctor's apparent lack of interest in their investigation, is given permission to search the clinic to ensure his safety. Meanwhile, the Doctor learns that Chen is Nigel Colloon, a financier who suffered a breakdown, and that the clinic's director is on his way to Kembel.

K9 checks on Ann at the Doctor's command and finds her rendered inert by a sweet-smelling gas, after which he observes the facility drones as they kill a vicious creature. Unbeknownst to him, Brox released the gas to freeze the clinic's guests so that the escaped creature could be killed and its body discreetly removed. Once everybody unfreezes, Ann examines the buttons of an elevator to work out its code and descends to the lower levels of the clinic where she finds a secure containment ward. Elmore is alerted to this, locks the ward and sends a drone whilst he and Brox meet with the newly-arrived director. He introduces the Doctor to the director: Zephon, whose father, Zephon, had his career ruined thanks to the Doctor. For this, Zephon attacks the Doctor.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Uncredited[[edit] | [edit source]]

Zephon - Jon Culshaw^[1]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Ann worked with Sergeant Oliver, who was in charge of the police station's archive.
The garden includes geraniums, which are difficult to grow off of Earth. They were Charles Dickens's favourite flower.
The Horticulture Monks of Sheldon designed the clinic's gardens.