Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror

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. He held out his hand and then abruptly
changed the gesture into a cursory wave. 'If you two are going then
you might as well go,' he said curtly, frowning at the small circuit
panel he was still holding.

After a moment's hesitation Ian strode
over to the Doctor. 'I think it might be advisable if you came with
us,' he suggested with a knowing look.

The Time Lord glanced up sharply. 'I
shall do no such thing! I refuse to leave the TARDIS.'

Ian smiled indulgently. 'Doctor, you've
taken us "home'-' once before,' he said sarcastically.

Barbara joined them. 'Yes, and we
bumped straight into Marco Polo!' she added.

'So what makes you think you've
succeeded this time?' Ian demanded.

The Doctor banged the circuitry down on
the console in exasperation. 'Young man, I've had quite enough of
your impertinent insinuations that I am not in complete control of
the TARDIS,' he declared acidly. 'I admit that it has developed the
odd minor fault once or twice in the past. However ... '

Ian realised that he would have to
change his tactics if he was going to get anywhere. He put his arm
round the Doctor's narrow shoulders. 'Of course you're in complete
control, Doctor,' he said flatteringly. 'We know that you could
revisit Earth any time you like.'

The Doctor nodded, somewhat pacified.
'Of course, quite a straightforward matter,' he agreed.

'But you may not find the time,' Ian
went on smoothly. 'After all, your important research must be
completed, mustn't it? So it's quite possible we shall never meet
again.' At first Barbara had been taken aback by Ian's peculiar
behaviour, but she quickly saw what he was up to. With a winning
smile she straightened the Doctor's cravat, brushed the dust off his
lapels and nodded her agreement.

'So don't you think we should part
under more friendly, circumstances?' Ian suggested. 'Say over a drink
or something?'

The Doctor stood flanked by the two
smiling teachers, glancing hesitantly from one to the other and
pursing his thin lips thoughtfully as he considered Ian's proposal.
'Why not?' he eventually responded. 'Yes, perhaps Susan and I will
come with you. After all, an hour or two here and there won't come
amiss, will it?'

Barbara glanced ruefully at Ian. 'Here
and there ... ?' she whispered behind the Doctor's back, recalling
the Time Lord's previous attempts to return them to their proper
place and time in his Time And Relative Dimensions in Space machine.

The Doctor grinned at them. 'Susan?
Susan, bring me my stick!' he called with sudden cheerful enthusiasm.

Susan came running into the chamber
through the internal door, hastily wiping her eyes with a
handkerchief. 'Yes, Grandfather?' she cried hopefully.

'Fetch my stick, child,' the Doctor
ordered briskly. 'I have decided that we should see Ian and Barbara
safely home before we depart from the galaxy.'

Susan clapped her hands in delight and
hurried to bring the Doctor's silver-knobbed walking stick.

Barbara touched Ian's arm. 'Good work,
she murured apprehensively. 'But are we really home at last?'

Ian gave a hollow laugh and shrugged.
'We'll soon find out,' he muttered stoically.

The Doctor locked the door of the
TARDIS, pocketed the key and strode across the gloomy forest clearing
swinging his stick and gazing keenly around as he sniffed the hot
muggy air with a critical frown. With his body temperature of just
sixty degrees Fahrenheit, the Time Lord knew that he was going to
find Earth uncomfortably warm as usual. Still, he could not help
having a soft spot for these infuriating humans, and he was as
curious as they were to discover exactly where the police box had
landed them this time.