Devesham
Devesham was an English village and the locale of the Space Defence Station.
The station's senior astronaut, Guy Crayford, tested the XK-5 space freighter when it was launched from there, but contact with it was lost. Sarah Jane Smith covered the story two years before she travelled with the Fourth Doctor.
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
The pub in the village was called Fleur-de-Lys, and when Dorothy McShane drove through the village the square contained a stone cross and an old-fashioned telephone box. (PROSE: At Childhood's End)
When the Third Doctor was being moved from RAF Weatherton to Fortress Island, the convoy planned to take the Devesham bypass. (AUDIO: Kaleidoscope)
Styggron created a replica of Devesham on Oseidon and populated it with android duplicates of the villagers and station personnel as part of the Kraals' plan to conquer Earth. Crayford, who believed Styggron to be his friend, was given control of the station. The village was used to test the techniques for the conquest and for that of other planets. Service mechanic androids patrolled the replica Devesham.
The Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith landed in Devesham Woods. They made their way to the village and, upon entering the Fleur-de-Lys, found it empty, The pair discovered small irregularities, such as the coins in the till were all minted in the same year, the telephone didn't work and the dartboard had never been used. The villagers arrived on the back of a large tradesman's pickup truck, entered the pub and, on the striking of the clock, assumed human-like activity. They were driven away again as Styggron prepared them for travel to Earth. The reproduction Devesham was destroyed with a matter dissolving bomb. The Doctor, who had been tied to the village's war memorial by Styggron's service mechanics, escaped the blast after Sarah released him.
In the real Devesham, a number of the officials at the Defence Station were replaced by androids. The Doctor was able to use the radar dishes to disable them. He reprogrammed his android duplicate which attacked Styggron, knocking him onto a contained with the virus he intended to distribute within, killing him. Therefore, Devesham was spared the Kraal invasion and the spread of the virus. (TV: The Android Invasion)
Sometime in the early to mid 21st century, the former Space Defence Station was bought by space tourism billionaire Campbell Irons. (AUDIO: The Feast of Axos)
