Terror of the Autons (TV story): Difference between revisions

The Brigadier hears the Doctor shouting for help and disconnects the phone, cutting off the signal. The Doctor tells the Brigadier that the Nestenes can put life into anything made of plastic. While examining the daffodil, the Doctor and Jo accidentally discover that it is activated by radio waves.  The daffodil sprays an asphyxiating film over Jo's nose and mouth, though the Doctor manages to pull it off in time. The daffodils are to be activated en masse by a signal from the Radio Telescope; the unexplained deaths were shortwave radio users who activated theirs prematurely.

The Master arrives at the Doctor's lab armed with his shrinking device, ready to kill him. The Doctor shows that he is holding the Master's dematerialisation circuit, which would be destroyed if he used it. Jo breaks the stalemate when she blurts out that UNIT has identified the coach bus and is planning an airstrike. The Master then alters his plan, kidnapping them and leaving them tied up in the bus to be killed in the strike. The Brigadier and Benton see this and cancel the airstrike just in time. The Doctor communicates to UNIT by tapping a Morse Code message on the bus brake pedal, while Jo impresses the Doctor with her skills at escapology.  

While the Autons hold off a UNIT force led by Yates and Benton, the Doctor and the Brigadier confront the Master at the radio telescope as he opens the signal for the Nestene invasion force. The Doctor convinces him that he'll be expendable once the Nestenes arrive, and together they reverse the radio signal, expelling the force into deep space. With the signal cut off, the Autons drop dead. The Master escapes, but without his dematerialisation circuit he is trapped on Earth. The Doctor admits to Jo and the Brigadier that since they are now both stranded, he rather looks forward to their next meeting.