THE STORY
The Time Lords send the Second Doctor and Jamie to investigate unauthorised time travel experiments being carried out on space station J7 in the Third Zone. Dastari, the head of projects has been conducting augmentations on the Androgums, a race of primitive beings, expanding their intellectual capacity. His subjects include Chessene, the chief chatelaine, who has allied herself with Group Marshall Stike of the Ninth Sontaran Battle Group. The Sontarans want the secret of time travel, the Rassilon Imprimature, which exists in the genetic structure of every Time Lord. They invade the station, killing nearly everyone on board and take the Doctor, Chessene, Dastari and Shockeye, the station's ever-hungry Androgum chef to Earth, imprisoning the Time Lord in a hacienda close to the city of Seville.The Sixth Doctor and Peri arrive on the station and find it badly damaged. They discover Jamie and follow the trail to Earth. Meanwhile, the Second Doctor is imprinted by Dastari with genes taken from Shockeye, as Chessene decides she no longer needs the aid of the Sontarans and wishes to create a race of Androgums capable of time travel. The Sixth Doctor rescues his former self and kills Shockeye, while Chessene betrays the Sontarans and destroys them. She reverts to her original, bestial, nature and kills Dastari before attempting to use the time travel device. The Doctor has sabotaged the machine and the Androgum is distegrated. The two Doctors say goodbye to one another and go their seperate ways.
CAST:
The Doctor (Colin Baker), Peri (Nicola Bryant), The Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Jamie (Frazer Hines), Shockeye (John Stratton), Chessene (Jacqueline Pearce), Dastari (Laurence Payne), Dona Arana (Aimee Delamain), Oscar (James Saxon),Anita (Carmen Gomez), Varl (Tim Raynham), Technician (Nicholas Fawcett), Stike (Clinton Greyn), Computer Voice (Laurence Payne), Scientist (Fernando Monast), Jay McGrath (Dead Androgum).
FACTS:
The opening moments of the
first episode, featuring the Second Doctor and Jamie, are in black and white.
The Sontarans make a reappearance in their fourth story, after a gap of seven years.
The Earth-bound sections of the story were originally to have been set in New Orleans, in the
USA, but the idea was abandoned when it was found to be too expensive.
OTHER FORMATS:
The Sixth Doctor Novelisations
Back to the Sixth Doctor Programme Guide
Forward to 'Timelash'.