DOCTOR WHO THE REIGN OF TERROR IAN MARTER Based on the BBC television series by Dennis Spooner by arrangement with the British Broadcasting Corporation Number 119 in the Doctor Who Library A TARGET BOOK published by the Paperback Division of W. H. ALLEN & CO. PLC 1 So Near And So Far The twilit forest was hot and muggy. Not a breath of air stirred the motionless trees and the invisible creatures were ominously silent, as if they were waiting for some cataclysmic storm to erupt around them. There was an electric menace in the humid stillness and the trees hung like dormant monsters awaiting their hour to spring to life and stalk across the land in reawakened and invincible majesty. For the land was troubled. Majesty had been abolished and an unnamable terror lurked everywhere. Without warning, leaves suddenly shivered and branches creaked and swayed. In the thickly clustering undergrowth, twigs broke off and flew in all directions as the foliage whipped back and forth, and leaves were sucked in a violent swirling vortex into the air. The tall shadows were filled with a harsh grinding wail, as if some vast primitive being were in torment. A dark alien shape thrust the branches aside and flattened the mossy ground like a giant foot, growling and rumbling as it gradually solidified. Its great winking yellow eye gave a final malevolent glare and went dark. Its tormented roars subsided. The flying leaves and shattered twigs fluttered to the ground as the tortured foliage ceased its lashing struggle. The forest held its breath as if listening and watching to see what the alien intruder would do. But for a long time it did nothing at all. It was a blue-painted wooden structure, rather like a fat sentry box. On its roof was an amber-coloured beacon and around the top sat a row of frosted glass windows. Above the windows on each side was a neatly painted notice announcing that it was a: PUBLIC POLICE CALL BOX Another notice on a metal panel beside the main door explained how the public could use the telephone behind the panel to contact the emergency services. In the humid shadows the object looked completely out of place. It was also completely out of its time ... Inside the police box four people were standing around a large hexagonal console which was covered in dials, displays, gauges, buttons, levers and other highly advanced instruments. In the centre of the console, a transparent cylindrical mechanism which had been slowly spinning to and fro and rising and falling was just settling to rest, watched intently by the four onlookers. Around them, the chamber, which was about the size of a large high-ceilinged room, hummed and murmured like some giant electronic beast. Its white walls were composed of cellular panels, each with a central hole. Apart from the console in the middle, the chamber was bare except for odd items of bric-a-brac, like an ancient brass astrolabe and a rickety wooden armchair drawn up to the controls. A severe-looking old man bent over the console, frowning as he tinkered with buttons and switches. His long silver hair was brushed straight back from his lined and hollow-cheeked face and his mouth was compressed in a thin strip which turned down at the ends in a kind of grimace of permanent disapproval. His sharp grey eyes gleamed with vigilant attention, peering down his beaklike nose at the array of instruments under his bony fingers. The old man was dressed in a short black frock-coat, a white shirt with wing collar and narrow cravat tied in a large untidy bow, a striped waistcoat and baggy checked trousers slightly too short for him. With an irritable grunt he straightened up, threw back his large head and stared at his three younger companions, his nostrils flaring impatiently. 'There you are then. England. Home!' he snapped, twisting a large ring round and round on the middle finger of his right hand. A tall dark-haired woman of about twenty-eight wearing a full-skirted sleeveless dress tightly belted round her slim waist put her hand on the old man's arm. 'Doctor, we really do appreciate all you've ... ' The old man waved her aside. 'Quite, Barbara. Young Chesterton here has made your position perfectly clear . , ' he said coldly, gesturing at the young man who was standing beside her with his hand on the shoulder of a girl of sixteen with huge sad eyes. 'And now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do.' The young girl clutched anxiously at his sleeve, her lips trembling and her brown eyes glistening with tears. 'But Grandfather ... ' The Doctor shook his head firmly. 'Now, now, Susan. Say your goodbyes to Ian and Barbara. We must leave immediately,' he insisted. Susan turned to Barbara and hugged her like a child embracing its mother. In her white shirt, gymslip style dress and white ankle socks she suddenly looked vulnerable and lost, despite the hints of a maturity beyond her years in the pale round face framed with short dark hair. Catching Barbara's pleading glance, Ian Chesterton stepped in front of the Doctor as the old man moved round the console muttering mysteriously to himself about coordinate tolerances and quantum conjugation vectors. 'Doctor, do you always have to be in such a tearing hurry?' he protested resentfully. Ian was a little older than Barbara Wright. His cheerful, regular features and neatly parted black hair gave him an air of honest reliability and he had often been described as 'open-faced'. In his dark round-necked sweater and flannels he appeared exactly what he was - a schoolteacher like Barbara. The Doctor ignored him for a moment and fiddled with his instruments. 'Time enough has been wasted already in bringing you back to Earth, Chesterton,' he eventually retorted, 'I have the Universe to explore.' Ian made as if to argue and then shrugged helplessly at Barbara. Susan clung to Barbara, her Joan of Arc features filled with desperation. 'Barbara, must you leave us?' she implored. Unseen by the others, the Doctor's face betrayed the hope that Ian and Barbara would change their minds, and he listened intently to the ensuing conversation while pretending to examine a faulty circuit panel. Barbara smiled sadly. 'Susan, Ian and I have had some terrific adventures with you and your grandfather, but you always knew that we intended to return home to Earth in the end, didn't you?' she said quietly. Susan bit her lip miserably. 'Yes, I know, but ... but it just won't be the same without you.' Barbara put her hands on the girl's shoulders. 'I know it's hard to say goodbye, Susan, especially after everything we've been through together,' she said gently, 'but one day you'll understand why Ian and I must leave you now.' 'But Barbara, the TARDIS can bring you back to Earth at anytime.' Ian came over and put his arm affectionately round Susan's waist. 'The longer we stay together the harder it will become to say goodbye,' he explained kindly. Susan stared at each of them in turn. 'Oh well, if you both insist on going back to your dreary old routine at Coal Hill School ... ' she retorted petulantly. Shaking his head despondently, the Doctor deftly removed a small circuit panel from underneath the console and studied it closely, still eavesdropping intently. Susan impulsively kissed Barbara and Ian and then ran out of the control chamber through one of the internal doors, leaving the two schoolteachers face to face and utterly disheartened. After a few moments the Doctor turned round suddenly and bumped into them. 'Oh, still here, are we?' he snapped irritably, peering at the circuits. Ian Chesterton smiled sourly. 'Yes, Doctor, we're still waiting for you to carry out the routine checks.' The old man waved the circuit panel dismissively in Ian's face. 'That will be quite unnecessary, Chesterton.' Ian glanced wryly at Barbara. 'Will it, Doctor? Are you quite certain you know where we are?' 'And when we are?' Barbara added pointedly. The Time Lord's mouth turned down even more as he squinted imperiously along his nose at the sceptical humans. His high, domed forehead wrinkled in a contemptuous frown. 'Certain? Of course I'm certain!' he rapped indignantly. The other two stared doubtfully at the quietly humming control console and then back at the Doctor. 'Very well, see for yourselves ... ' he cried testily, leaning over and flicking a switch. A monitor screen suspended above the console flashed into life. When the static had cleared, they saw the dark outline of huge trees silhouetted against the evening sky. 'There. Are you satisfied now?' Barbara Wright gazed at the eerie scene on the monitor and her face relaxed into its customary expression of mild superiority. 'Well, I suppose it could be Earth,' she granted reluctantly. The Doctor sighed with exasperation. 'Then I'll give you a telephoto view ... ' he muttered, adjusting the controls so that the monitor zoomed through the foliage to reveal vast fields under a huge lowering sky. 'It's a pity it's so dark,' Ian commented, screwing up his eyes at the scene above their heads. 'There's no sign of any buildings or anything.' Barbara suddenly looked a little happier. 'It reminds me of a holiday I once spent in Somerset.' The Doctor switched off the scanner. 'Then I expect that it is Somerset, young woman.' He touched another switch and a door-shaped portion of the chamber wall swung smoothly open with a quiet hiss.