The Two Doctors (TV story): Difference between revisions

The [[Second Doctor ]]and [[Jamie McCrimmon]] land [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]] on [[Space Station Chimera]] in the [[Third Zone]], on a mission for the [[Time Lords]], who have also installed a teleport control on the TARDIS that grants them dual control for the occasion. The Doctor explains to Jamie that the station is a research facility and they are here to have a discreet word with [[Dastari]], the Head of Projects. The TARDIS materialises in the station kitchen, where they meet [[Shockeye]], the station cook. [[File:How dare you.jpg|left|thumb|[[Shockeye of the Quawncing Grig|Shockeye]] berates the [[Second Doctor]] for landing in his kitchen.]]Shockeye is an [[Androgum]], a member of a primitive, emotionally and ethically bestial humanoid race which acts as the station's workforce. He is confrontational until the Doctor reveals he is a Time Lord. Suddenly deferential, Shockeye eyes Jamie hungrily and offers to buy him from the Doctor as the main ingredient for a meal. The Doctor, shocked, refuses, and takes Jamie away to see Dastari. As they leave, however, they hear the sound of the TARDIS dematerialising. This is observed by [[Chessene]], an Androgum technologically augmented to mega-genius levels. Chessene has plans of her own, involving someone named [[Stike]] who will be arriving in force soon, once Shockeye's poisoned meal to the scientists takes effect. She has also taken possession of the [[Kartz-Reimer module]].

The Doctor speaks to Dastari in his office, telling him that the Time Lords want the time experiments of [[Kartz]] and Reimer stopped. The Time Lords have an official policy of neutrality, and so have sent the exiled Doctor to maintain deniability. Dastari introduces Chessene, but the Doctor is sceptical as to whether such augmentation can change Chessene's essential Androgum nature, and he considers such tampering dangerous. Meanwhile, three [[Sontaran]] battlecruisers appear near the station, on an intercept course. Before the station's defences can be activated, Chessene incapacitates the technician on post and opens the docking bays. Back in the office, the Doctor warns that the distortions from the Kartz-Reimer experiments are on the verge of threatening the fabric of time, but Dastari refuses to order them to cease, accusing the Time Lords of not wanting another race to discover the secrets of [[time travel]]. As the argument grows more heated, Dastari grows faint and falls into a drugged stupor. Energy weapons fire begins to sound in the corridors and the Doctor orders Jamie to run as a Sontaran levels a gun at the Doctor.

Somewhere and somewhen else, the [[Sixth Doctor]] is [[fishing]] while [[Peri Brown|Peri]] finishes dressing herself after swimming in the lake. The Doctor packs up his fishing pole, chair and umbrella and tells her its time to leave. After returning to the TARDIS for their next destination, Peri is startled as the Sixth Doctor sways and collapses — just as, back on the station, Jamie spies the Second Doctor in a glass chamber, writhing in agony as a Sontaran manipulates controls. In his TARDIS, the Sixth Doctor awakens, somehow having had a vision of himself in his second incarnation being put to death. He realise this is impossible, since he is still alive, but he is also concerned that he may have died in the past and only exists now as a temporal anomaly. He decides to go and consult his old friend Dastari to see if he can enlist his help.

The TARDIS materialises on the station, but everything is dark, and the smell of decay and death is everywhere. The station computer demands the Doctor leave, and when he refuses, tries to kill him and Peri by depressurising the passageway. The Doctor, however, opens a hatch and drags his unconscious companion through to another section. In Dastari's office, the Doctor discovers the scientist's day journal and the Time Lords' objections to the Kartz-Reimer experiments, but refuses to believe his people are responsible for the massacre. Peri suggests someone is trying to frame the Time Lords to drive a wedge between them and the Third Zone governments. They leave the office to enter the service ducts, work their way to the control centre and try to deactivate the computer before it kills them.

On Earth, Chessene, Shockeye and a Sontaran, Major [[Varl]], take possession of a [[Spanish]] hacienda by killing its aged owner, Doña [[Arana]]. Varl sets up a homing beacon for the Sontaran ship, while Chessene absorbs the knowledge of the old woman's mind, discovering that they are in [[Andalucia]], just outside the city of [[Seville]]. Varl announces that Group Marshal [[Stike]] of the [[Ninth Sontaran Battle Fleet]] is in descent orbit. Meanwhile, two people, [[Oscar Botcherby]] and [[Anita (The Two Doctors)|Anita]], are approaching the grounds. Oscar, an ex-English stage actor who is managing a restaurant in the city, is here to catch [[moth]]s, armed with a net and a [[cyanide]] killing jar in his backpack. He and Anita see the Sontaran ship zoom overhead, and observe through binoculars Dastari and another Sontaran carrying an unconscious Second Doctor towards the hacienda. Anita pulls Oscar along, thinking they are victims of an [[aeroplane]] crash and need help.

Down in the bowels of the station, the Sixth Doctor tries to disconnect the main circuit. Suddenly, Peri is attacked by a humanoid in rags, and when her cries distract the Doctor, he is hit by a gas trap and falls unconscious, becoming entangled in the wires.