DOCTOR WHO:  SHADA

commentary by Judy Harris

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#35:  SHADA (6 Parts)	
NEVER AIRED
WRITTEN BY:  Douglas Adams	
DIRECTED BY:  Pennant Roberts
PRODUCER:  Graham Williams	
SCRIPT EDITOR:  Douglas Adams
		

SHADA was meant to be the last story of Tom Baker's sixth year of DOCTOR WHO, the 17th season of the series. Although production began on the show, and all the location footage was completed at Emmanuel College in Cambridge, taping of the studio portion was interrupted by a lengthy strike of the staff at the BBC.

I have a mental image of the British as a rather civilized people, who have tea breaks during the day and generally quit on time, whether the work is completed or not. In the past, this adherence to rigid departure times had resulted in some DOCTOR WHO sequences never being completed. While this occasionally caused continuity lapses in some stories, the omissions were--for the most part--covered in editing and rewriting.

However, with SHADA, so much remained to be taped it wasn't possible to edit together the material already shot. When the strike was settled, there was a backlog of programs clamoring for the available studio space, and DOCTOR WHO was low on the list of priorities.

This was the last show for producer Graham Williams and script editor Douglas Adams. The new producer, John Nathan-Turner (or JNT, as he likes to be called), apparently tried to schedule SHADA for completion the following year, but it never happened. Actually, I question how hard he tried. In Tom Baker's previous years on the show, a maximum of 6 stories were produced. In the season JNT took over, there were 7 stories, so if JNT had been willing to hold off on one of these stories, surely the studio time for SHADA could have been found. For instance, STATE OF DECAY had been postponed from the 1977 season because it clashed with the BBC's highly enjoyable version of DRACULA starring Louis Jourdan; and was replaced with HORROR OF FANG ROCK. Although STATE OF DECAY was rewritten to be the middle of a related E-space trilogy, it could probably have been bumped and replaced by SHADA.

Of course, there were also the problems of reassembling the SHADA cast, rebuilding the sets, and other contractual and scheduling woes, plus getting BBC authorization to spend the money, so the difficulties may have been insurmountable.

When preparations were being made for the 20th anniversary of DOCTOR WHO, JNT commissioned a script from Terrence Dicks entitled THE FIVE DOCTORS. Although William Hartnell was dead, Richard Hurndall--made up to look like the original Doctor--was hired, and the idea was to unite all the actors who had appeared in the title role with as many companions as possible. Apparently Tom Baker initially agreed to appear in the show, and then had second thoughts. He decided against taking part in THE FIVE DOCTORS because he had left the show too recently and it seemed painful to return and share the role with four other actors after having a proprietary interest in it for so long. So, Dicks' script was altered to incorporate some footage from SHADA to involve Tom Baker's Doctor minimally in the plot. The SHADA footage used was of the Doctor punting on the Cam with Romana. An optical effect, similar to the one used in SUPERMAN to send the villains to the Phantom Zone, came along and froze him for the remainder of the story, until the plot of THE FIVE DOCTORS played itself out, and Tom Baker's Doctor was freed from the vortex.

In addition to the departure of Graham Williams and Douglas Adams, SHADA also was the last show with David Brierley as K9. The following season John Leeson returned to the role. Brierley provided K9's voice for only 3 stories and, while his interpretation improved from the complete priggishness he conveyed in THE CREATURE FROM THE PIT, he never captured the endearing quality John Leeson brought to the role.

Back when only the first four years of the Tom Baker shows were available in the United States, and I poured longingly over synopses of his last three years, it seemed a great tragedy SHADA would forever be incomplete and unseen. However, based on the wretched stories and laughable monsters of the show's 17th season, I became cynical and decided it was just as well this story never was completed. One should rather be thankful that this work stoppage didn't occur during the Key to Time season, when it would have had more of an impact, with the Doctor having to get two Keys in a single story.

In 1987 a version of SHADA began showing up at fan conventions; it contained all of the footage that was shot, with intertitles explaining those scenes which were missing. It makes fascinating viewing because many elements which contribute mightily to the success of any drama, comedy or adventure are missing: background music; sound effects; and some special effects. The constant intercutting between scenes and subplots, so typical of DOCTOR WHO, becomes much more apparent. In particular, the contrast between reading what the Doctor is doing or saying in one of the missing scenes and actually seeing Tom Baker as the Doctor, with all the charm and personal quirks he brought to the role, is very apparent. Having had the opportunity of seeing this patched together effort has made me revise my previous opinion that the story was better off uncompleted; it seems likely it might have been the best of the 17th season, despite some major lapses in logic.

In the early 1990's SHADA was released on video with Tom Baker providing on screen first person narration of the missing sequences. The following synopsis is taken from a combination of these versions. The script is one of the three Tom Baker stories never novelized--all written by Douglas Adams--so the following may be the most complete written account available.

On Boxing Day 2019 BBC America showed the latest version where the missing sequences were replaced by animation.  The last scene showed Tom Baker, old and white haired, in his DOCTOR WHO costume, saying the line:  "I expect that one day in a few hundred years' time someone will meet me and say, is that really the Doctor? How strange. He seems such a nice old man."

At Think Tank, which resides on a space station, 6 men sit in a circular 6-seated chair. A basketball sized sphere lies between them atop a pyramidal base. All but one--Skagra--react as if experiencing turbulence. Skagra rises and goes to a wall panel. When he touches a switch, the five others subside in their seats. Skagra motions the sphere to come to him, then leaves with it. The remaining 5 arise and stumble around. Skagra boards his scout ship, which takes off.

Tumbling through space, the TARDIS receives a message from an old friend of the Doctor's, Professor Chronotis. The Doctor heads to Earth. Meantime, Chris Parsons, a student, cycles through Cambridge.

Inside his book lined suite of rooms at St. Cedd's college, Cambridge, the Professor receives Chris and offers him tea. Chris wants to borrow some books on carbon dating. While the Professor bustles into the kitchen, Chris helps himself to some books off a shelf. He has to run off to a seminar but promises to return the books in a week. Before leaving, he can't help asking why the Professor has a police box in his room. The Professor rather absentmindedly thinks someone left it there while he was out. He settles back to read THE TIME MACHINE by H. G. Wells.

The Doctor and Romana are punting on the Cam, as the Doctor enumerates those who have made Cambridge famous. Just as they go under a bridge, the Doctor loses the punting pole. Skagra stands atop the bridge. The Doctor and Romana hear the strange babble of voices.

Returning to the physics lab, Chris discovers one of the Professor's books is written in an unreadable alphabet and the texture of the pages feels very odd.

Approaching St. Cedd's, the Doctor stops to greet Wilkin, the porter, who calls him by name and recalls the Doctor's honorary degree in 1960 as well as his previous visits in 1964, 1960 and 1955. The Doctor says he was also here in 1958, but in a different body. Wilkin smiles politely as the Doctor hands him an oar from the punt.

The Doctor and Romana enter Chronotis' rooms and, as the Professor serves tea, we learn he is also a Time Lord.

Skagra, dressed garishly all in white with matching hat and cape, strides through Cambridge carrying the sphere in a carpet bag.

Over tea of crackers and jam, the Professor tells Romana he's been at St. Cedd's 300 years, ever since he retired from Gallifrey. The Doctor asks why Chronotis has sent them a message asking them to come, but the Professor is so absentminded, he can't even remember sending the message, let alone why.

Skagra approaches St. Cedd's and demands to see Chronotis, but Wilkin tells him the Professor is busy with the Doctor. Skagra leaves.

In his lab, Chris is unable to cut the book with a razor. When he puts it under a spectographic analyzer, the machine hums and explodes, leaving the book undamaged.

The Professor suddenly remembers he did send the Doctor a message, but it was ages ago. Romana thinks the Doctor must have got the time wrong. The Doctor wants to know if the message concerned the ghostly screams he and Romana heard on the river. The Professor remembers it was about a book.

Chris tries to X-ray the book, but all that happens is that it begins to glow.

On the street, Skagra gets a lift from a man in his car. Once inside, Skagra unleashes the sphere, then conceals the motorist's body in the back of the car and drives off.

Back in Chronotis' rooms, the Doctor, Romana and the Professor all hear the strange voices again. The Professor searches his shelves for the book he accidentally brought from Gallifrey. He wants the Doctor to return it. The Doctor remarks how risky it is to take books from Gallifrey; they could be dangerous in the wrong hands.

Chris phones a fellow student, Clare Keightley, and tells her to come over to the lab right away.

The Doctor finds a Gallifreyan nursery book, which begins: "And in the great days of Rassilon five great principles were laid down."

Skagra drives into the countryside, leaves the car and walks into a field, where he suddenly disappears from sight (but, in fact, is entering his ship which is temporarily invisible).

The Professor admits the book he took is THE WORSHIPFUL AND ANCIENT LAW OF GALLIFREY. The Doctor is appalled; this book belongs in the Panopticon Archive; it dates back to the days of Rassilon; it's one of his artifacts.

Inside his ship, Skagra asks the computer for data on the Doctor. The ship displays clips from earlier shows at a very fast pace. Dismissing the Doctor as of no importance, Skagra converses with his command ship and we see a Krarg (rhymes with frog), which is faceless, man-shaped (and somewhat reminiscent of a Mandrell from NIGHTMARE OF EDEN in that it is obviously a man in a cheap monster suit). Its outer skin is made of overlapping segments, like shingles or leaves.

Back in the Professor's room, the Doctor tells Romana that each of Rassilon's artifacts was imbued with stupendous power. Romana confesses she just mouthed the words at the Time Academy induction ceremony: "I swear to protect the ancient law of Gallifrey with all my might and main. I will, to the end of my days, with justice and with honor, temper my actions and my thoughts." "Pompous lot," the Doctor replies, "all words and no actions."

Romana reminds the Doctor of Salyavin, the Doctor's boyhood hero. He was a great criminal but he had such style and flair. "A bit like me in that respect," the Doctor boasts. Salyavin was imprisoned before the Doctor was born, he can't recall where.

Salyavin was a contemporary of Chronotis, but before the Professor can say what happened to the criminal Time Lord, he remembers the book might be in the hands of a student. The Professor runs through the alphabetic trying to recall the borrower's name: "A, A, no, it doesn't begin with A. B, B..." "C?," the Doctor and Romana chime in.

Clare arrives at the physics lab; and Chris shows her the book and the result of his tests.

The Professor reaches Y before he remembers Chris Parsons' name; he suggests the Doctor look for Chris in the physics lab. As the Doctor sets off, Chris departs the lab, leaving Clare behind with the book.

Inside his ship, Skagra has changed into the clothes of the dead motorist, whose body has been disposed of by the ship. Skagra leaves with the sphere.

The Doctor bicycles through the streets of Cambridge, his coat billowing behind him, his scarf piled in the bike's basket. He passes Chris going in the opposite direction on his bike.

The Professor has run out of milk for tea, so Romana goes into the TARDIS to get some. Skagra returns to St. Cedd's and demands from the Professor the book he took from the Panopticon Archives. When Chronotis says he doesn't know where it is, Skagra goes to his carpet bag and releases the sphere, which attaches itself to the Professor's head. The Professor falls to his knees in agony.

The Doctor arrives at the physics lab, introduces himself to Clare and examines the book.

Inside the TARDIS, Romana finds some milk, which K9 informs her has been in the stasis preserver only 30 years and is, therefore, fresh. K9 and Romana exit the TARDIS and find Chronotis supine on the floor. Chris enters. K9 says the Professor is alive, but in a deep coma. Chris and Romana introduce themselves and Romana asks for the book. Chris replies he's left it at the lab. K9 now opines the Professor has been subjected to psychoactive extraction. "Someone has stolen part of his mind," K9 elucidates, and the part that is left is totally inert. He concludes the Professor's "psychoprognosis" is uncertain. The Professor's attempts to resist the extraction have caused severe cerebral trauma and he's weakening fast. Romana sends Chris into the TARDIS for the medical kit.

When Chris returns with it, Romana puts a sort of collar around the Professor's neck, explaining it will take over the life support functions, leaving his autonomic brain free to think. Chris protests the human brain won't work that way; Romana replies the Professor isn't human.

Back at the lab, the Doctor examines the damaged spectograph and muses, "The book must have stored up vast amounts of subatomic energy and suddenly released it when the machine was activated."

Clare doesn't understand what that tells them. "Nothing," the Doctor replies; "so obviously it was meant to tell us nothing. Exactly the opposite function of a book. Therefore, it isn't a book."

Just then the results of the carbon dating test come in over the teletext, indicating the book is minus 20,000 years old. The Doctor realizes that time is running backwards over the book; the sooner it is returned to Gallifrey the better.

Skagra returns to the ship and orders the sphere to play back the Professor's most recent memories. The sphere plays back the Doctor and Romana, but their faces are obscured. Skagra orders the ship to trace the Professor's memory of the book.

The sphere plays back Chris Parsons, but he also is indistinct. Skagra notes with respect Chronotis' great mind control, but it is futile; the Professor's resistance will almost certainly prove fatal.

K9 tells Romana the Professor is rapidly deteriorating, although there are signs of minimal cerebral impulses. Romana asks K9 to amplify Chronotis' heartbeats. The Professor is beating his hearts in Gallifreyan morse, saying: "Beware the sphere. Beware Skagra. Beware Shada. The secret is in the..." K9 pronounces the Professor dead.

The Doctor cycles back with the book but is stopped by Skagra on a bridge. Skagra announces himself and demands the book. When the Doctor doesn't comply, Skagra reaches for the sphere and tells the Doctor he will take everything in his mind. "I'm not mad about your tailor," the Doctor replies. As the sphere heads toward him, the Doctor takes off on his bike. He cycles past the Cambridge Choristers singing CHATTANOOGA CHOO CHOO and around some sharp corners, during which the book falls unnoticed from the bike's basket, where it is found by Skagra.

Abandoning the bike and closely pursued by the sphere, the Doctor runs through town and turns into an alley that, unfortunately, leads to a dead end. He first tries to climb up and then wriggle under a chain link fence, just as the sphere approaches him.

Suddenly the TARDIS appears between the Doctor and the sphere. Romana opens the door and the Doctor quickly gets up and enters, shutting the door on his scarf, as the TARDIS dematerializes.

The Doctor thanks Romana for rescuing him. She explains K9 traced the sphere after it attacked and killed the Professor. The Doctor admits he's lost the book and vows to get it back.

In the Professor's sitting room, Chronotis disappears as Chris leans over him. The TARDIS rematerializes there and Chris introduces himself to the Doctor as being from Bristol Grammar School. Subsequently the Doctor always calls him Bristol.

When the Doctor hears the Professor has disappeared, he concludes he must have been in his last regeneration. He mentions Skagra threatened to steal his mind as he stole the Professor's. Chris relays the Professor's dying warnings.

The Doctor, Romana and Chris enter the TARDIS to await the sphere's activity, so K9 can again take a bearing on it.

In the physics lab, the teletext wakes Clare, who has fallen asleep waiting. Disturbed by the information on it, she rushes out.

The sphere attacks a man fishing; he falls into the water. K9 is able to get the coordinates and gives them directly to the TARDIS, which dematerializes.

Clare arrives at the Professor's rooms and finds no one there.

The TARDIS materializes in the field near Skagra's still invisible ship, in time to see the sphere disappear. "Did you just see what I didn't see?," the Doctor asks. "No," Romana replies. "Neither did I," the Doctor remarks, "watch that cowpat."

The sphere returns to Skagra and he orders it to report. It replays the Doctor's rescue by Romana in the TARDIS. Skagra asks the ship to identify the Doctor's machine. The ship replies it is a Gallifreyan time capsule - type 39 or 40 - and warns Skagra intruders are approaching.

The Doctor smacks his nose against the invisible hull. He has a conversation about the ship with K9, but unfortunately David Brierley's dialogue was not recorded, so all we can gather is that the ship is 100 meters long.

Suddenly, a red carpet appears in the field. Skagra has ordered the ship to admit his visitors. Squaring his shoulders, the Doctor enters, followed by Romana, Chris and K9. They disappear from view.

Inside, Chris is impressed by the ship's technology. "Better than an old police box," he mutters. Finding no sign of the sphere, the Doctor tries to send Romana back. Suddenly, Romana, Chris and K9 are engulfed by a cube of light and disappear.

Turning, the Doctor sees Skagra, who promises his companions won't be harmed "for the moment." As Skagra leads the Doctor down the corridor, he mentions he has a purpose for stealing the Professor's mind.

In the Professor's sitting room, Clare finds Chris' book bag. She leaves and runs into Wilkin. When she confides in him the book Chris borrowed is dangerous because it is atomically unstable and seems to be absorbing radioactivity, he sends her back to wait in the Professor's room, while he looks for Chronotis.

Skagra enters his control room, followed by the Doctor. He asks the Doctor about the book. "Which book, this book? I've read it. It's rubbish," the Doctor says dismissively. Skagra demands the Doctor read it aloud.

"I have a very boring reading voice. By the time I've gotten to the bottom of the first page, you'd be asleep; I'd escape, and where would you be?," the Doctor stalls.

Skagra insists. The Doctor seats himself and begins: "Grrrr vdd thrrr turhurgh dud dudud vvvlllll. I'm paraphrasing, of course." Skagra is not amused. "Ssh, this is a good bit," the Doctor continues; "Jjjjddddrr gr gr gr hummmmm." The Doctor looks up worriedly. "Do you realize, Skagra, this book doesn't make one bit of sense?"

Skagra can read Gallifreyan like a native; he knows the book is written in code and believes the Doctor knows the code. "Oh no, no, I'm afraid I'm very stupid. Very stupid," the Doctor replies.

Skagra gestures for the sphere, which rises and approaches the Doctor, who babbles on about how appallingly stupid he is. The sphere attacks the Doctor, who falls back into his seat with a long, agonizing cry of pain.

Romana, Chris and K9 are locked in a small room with no door. Chris deduces they arrived via matter transference. K9 can pick up no trace of the Doctor because of the room's shielding. Romana tries to adjust K9's controls, but it has no effect. "Oh, blast it!," she cries in frustration. K9 takes her literally and shoots his nose laser, which ricochets harmlessly off the walls. K9 apologizes, but now can pick up faint signals; it's the ghostly babble heard before - now with a new voice added - the Doctor's!

The Doctor lies slumped across the chair in the control room. He appears dead. He is alone.

Romana wishes aloud she could get out of the room. The cube that put her there in the first place suddenly appears and takes her away. Chris tries wishing aloud also, but nothing happens.

Romana materializes in the corridor and sees Skagra with the sphere. He announces he's taken the Doctor's mind. Grabbing Romana, he forces her off the ship with him.

Once again dressed in his white flowing outfit, Skagra opens the TARDIS' door with the Doctor's key and pushes Romana inside. At the console, with one hand on the sphere, he operates the controls with the other. The TARDIS dematerializes.

In the Professor's room, Clare looks through some drawers. She finds a key and unlocks a cabinet. Inside, behind some sports equipment, are several futuristic electronic gizmos. Accidentally pressing a hidden trigger, Clare jumps back as a control panel swings into place. She presses another button and the room shakes and a small explosion takes place, knocking her out.

Wilkin heads to the Professor's rooms, but when he opens the door, there's nothing there - just a blue haze. Wilkin does a double take.

Back on Skagra's ship, the Doctor jolts awake, still mumbling about being stupid. He calls to Skagra, but the ship tells him Skagra has gone, and asks why he's moving since he's dead.

"Ah, well, the trick on these occasions is not to resist. I just let the thing believe I was very stupid and it then didn't pull nearly hard enough. It got a copy but left me with the original intact," the Doctor explains.

He continues, "If I am dead, then I'm an ex-enemy of Skagra's" and "cannot give orders that would be any kind of threat to Skagra." The ship agrees. The Doctor asks that his companions be released and the ship complies. However, since the ship is programmed to conserve resources, it has shut down the oxygen supply in the control room. Gasping for breath, the Doctor sinks to the floor.

The cube releases K9 and Chris, who immediately set off to find the Doctor. They approach the sealed control room and, before K9 can blast it open, Chris finds a switch and they enter to find the Doctor unconscious on the floor. Slowly he revives and, noticing Romana is missing, deduces Skagra must have her, the book and a copy of his mind. K9 tells the Doctor the TARDIS is gone as well.

In the TARDIS, Romana tries to make Skagra believe the controls are booby trapped, but Skagra checks the Doctor's memory in the sphere and knows they're not. He sets the coordinates for his huge command ship and shortly thereafter the TARDIS materializes inside it. He and Romana exit the TARDIS and are greeted by some Krargs, whom Skagra calls his "servants of the new generation." He leads Romana to another room on the ship, with large gas-filled vats. A Krarg pushes a button and inside one of the vats crystals form into a new Krarg. It rises and asks Skagra to command it.

When the Doctor, Chris and K9 cannot discover or deduce where Skagra has gone, the Doctor tells the ship to take them to where he last came from. The computer agrees and, as its voice echoes around the ship, a Krarg begins to form in its generation chamber.

The ship takes off, becoming visible in the process, and informs the Doctor the trip will take 3 months. The Doctor asks if the ship can alter its circuitry. Upon hearing an affirmative response, the Doctor orders the ship to halt and reverse the polarity on its main warp feeds. He alters other programming and realigns the drive circuits. When the ship starts up again, it groans and wheezes like the TARDIS and dematerializes. The Doctor tells Chris he's constructed a primitive form of dimensional stabilizer by remote control, enabling the trip to take minutes instead of months.

On his command ship, Skagra displays on a screen the contents of the Doctor's mind: different views of Romana in the Professor's sitting room.

In Chronotis' room, Clare wakes up to find the Professor there, very much alive, wearing a nightshirt and a nightcap. He offers her tea.

Romana asks why Skagra needs the Gallifreyan book. He tells her the book is the key with which the Time Lords used to imprison their most feared criminals. Skagra realizes the Doctor's mind does not hold the key to the book's code.

Just as the Doctor is ready to bring Skagra's scout ship out of time, the newly formed Krarg bursts into the control room. K9 blasts it, but this only holds it in place. Every time K9 stops, the Krarg starts to move again. The Doctor hooks K9 up to a power cable so he doesn't run out of juice. The ship docks at Think Tank.

In his room, Chronotis introduces himself to Clare and tells her they're "standing obliquely to the time fields." He explains these rooms are his TARDIS, which he rescued from the scrap heap. When Clare fiddled with the controls, she tangled with his time field at the critical moment, reversing his death. The Professor is determined to find Skagra and get the book back, since it is the key to Shada, the ancient time prison of the Time Lords, who have been induced to forget about it. Although baffled by all this, Clare is also caught up by the Professor's fervor.

The Doctor and Chris exit Skagra's scout ship and enter Think Tank, leaving K9 behind to deal with the Krarg. Chris refuses to believe they've traveled faster than light. The Doctor appears amazed Chris understands Einstein, quantum theory, Newton. "You've got a lot to unlearn," he tells Chris.

The Doctor finds the logo of the Institute for Advanced Science Studies - Think Tank. Inside are the five men whose minds Skagra stole earlier, only now they look old; their hair, beards and nails have grown long.

In the Doctor's TARDIS, Skagra experiments with the book and discovers turning the pages causes the time column to move. He realizes time runs backwards over the book, causing the TARDIS to operate when the pages are turned. Turning to the last page will take the TARDIS to Shada.

He and Romana return to his command ship. Skagra tells Romana they are going to Shada to meet one of the most powerful criminals in history, Salyavin, the lynch pin to Skagra's plan.

At Think Tank, the Doctor tells Chris the five old men are victims of Skagra's brain drain, whose intellectual powers have been stolen, but their memory patterns might remain. Placing one of the men and Chris in the circular 6-seated chair, to allow the old man temporary access to Chris' intelligence reserves, the Doctor activates the controls. Chris slumps back while the old man opens his eyes and says, "Skagra!"

The man is A. St. John D. Caldera, the famous neurologist, one of the great intellects of his generation, as are the others: a famous psychologist, parametricist, biologist, etc. Caldera tells the Doctor that Skagra is a geneticist, cyberneticist, neurostructuralist and moral theologian. Think Tank was Skagra's idea to pool intellectual resources by electronic mind transference. Together, the scientists built the sphere which Skagra used to steal their brains. Caldera says Skagra now needs the mind of Salyavin.

The Krarg has gotten red hot from K9's blasting; it has absorbed the energy and grown stronger. When it starts to move, K9 stops firing and heads for the door.

Chris comes to, feeling marvelous, just as K9 enters, followed by the Krarg. K9 says the Krarg's power supply is at a dangerous level; he dare not blast it again. The Krarg lunges threateningly at the Doctor.

The Krarg starts to smoke. Chris pulls the Doctor out of the room and they race for Skagra's scout ship. The Krarg lumbers after them, as the Doctor fumbles with the shuttle bay door which is jammed. Finally the sonic screwdriver opens it.

With Chris and K9 also on board, the Doctor orders the ship to dematerialize. It takes off seconds before Think Tank explodes. The Doctor orders the ship to head to Skagra's home base.

In the Professor's room/time capsule, Clare tries to help Chronotis repair his TARDIS, which is jammed between two irrational time interfaces. If he does manage to get unjammed, the Professor will just have to be careful or else he will cease to exist again.

Because he needs help repairing an interfacial resonator, the Professor makes a hard decision. Telling an uncomprehending Clare that what he's about to do he will never do again and she is to tell no one about it, he stares into her eyes; his own eyes begin to glow. Suddenly Clare knows the name and purpose of the piece of equipment she's holding--a conceptual geometer relay.

Skagra's scout ship, with the Doctor, Chris and K9, lands on his command ship. Romana turns around, sees the Doctor, and asks how he got there. "These kind people brought me," he replies, stepping aside to reveal several Krargs.

Skagra is surprised to see the Doctor and asks how he survived the sphere. "It only looks for what it expects to find. I made it look for the wrong things. We Time Lords have highly trained minds," the Doctor responds.

The Doctor suspects Skagra wants to take over the universe, but he denies it. The Doctor applauds this, as "It's a troublesome place, difficult to administer, and as a piece of real estate it's worthless, because by definition there'd be no one to sell it to."

Skagra says his goal, with the aid of the sphere, is to make the whole of creation merge into one single mind; or, as he puts it, "the universe shall be me!"

Skagra orders his Krargs to lock everyone up, but the Doctor, Chris and K9 manage to elude them. Skagra, Romana and some Krargs enter the Doctor's TARDIS, while other Krargs pursue the fugitives with orders to kill.

Doubling back down a corridor, the Doctor spots a door that wasn't there before. Pushing it open, the Doctor, K9 and Chris find themselves in the Professor's room. Chronotis offers them tea, while the Krargs try unsuccessfully to break in.

Glossing over his recent death and the presence of his room/time capsule, Chronotis says: with the Doctor's TARDIS and the book, Skagra can get to Shada, whose existence the Doctor has forgotten. The Doctor realizes Salyavin is on Shada; he had the power to project his mind into other minds.

Using the Gallifreyan book, Skagra sends the TARDIS to Shada.

Over tea, the Doctor says, "With Skagra's mind and Salyavin's in the sphere, Skagra will be omnipotent." His mind would be immortal; it would spread like a disease.

The Professor explains he arrived at Skagra's command ship by following the TARDIS' space-time track, so now they can follow it and Skagra to Shada.

I'm sorry to say Shada is a miniature which looks like a blue potato with the skin partially peeled back. A glass dome covers part of it. Up close, it is in an advanced state of disrepair, with cobwebs all over.

The Doctor's TARDIS arrives and Skagra goes directly to the records console. The listing on Salyavin reads: "Mind crimes - Section 7/; Sentence in perpetuity; Cabinet 9; Chamber 7.

The Professor's time capsule arrives on Shada. The Doctor, Professor and K9 set off, leaving Chris and Clare behind.

On his way to Salyavin's cell, Skagra looks into some other chambers and sees a Dalek, a Cyberman and a Zygon. (These were different in the animation).  Passing over these, he operates the controls which release some other prisoners.

Back in the Professor's time capsule, Clare tells Chris about the Professor sort of walking into her mind so she would understand his damaged mechanism and help repair it.

Just as Skagra is about to release Salyavin, the Doctor arrives, trailed by K9 and Chronotis. But it is too late; Skagra presses the button to release Salyavin. The door opens, but behind it is a dummy. Skagra cries, "Where is Salyavin?" "I escaped centuries ago," the Professor replies.

From what Clare has told him, Chris has concluded Chronotis is Salyavin. They leave the Professor's time capsule to warn the Doctor.

Chronotis admits he's Salyavin. He tried to prevent anyone coming to Shada to discover he'd escaped because he wants to forget the stupidities of his past and his hateful power, which he's suppressed for years, except when covering his tracks.

Skagra motions the sphere toward Chronotis, but K9 blasts it to pieces. Each fragment reforms into a smaller sphere, one of which attacks Chronotis, who slumps to the floor. The spheres rise and unite, discharging powerfully. Then they separate and each settles on one of the freed prisoners. Skagra smiles; the prisoners all smile. Skagra turns to the Doctor; and so do the others. As the Doctor backs away, Chris rushes toward him. One of the spheres attacks Chris and takes his mind. All the prisoners and Chris advance toward the Doctor.

The Doctor calls for help from K9, who stuns one of the prisoners. A Krarg then approaches, but the Doctor tells K9 not to fire at it. The Krarg picks K9 up and throws him past the Doctor. In the confusion, Romana breaks free and rushes away with the Doctor, stopping to gather K9. They race back to the Professor's time capsule, picking up Clare on the way, followed by a Krarg.

Inside, Romana reminds the Doctor that his mind is in the sphere along with Skagra's and Salyavin's. The Doctor pins a medal on Romana and they salute each other left handedly.

Skagra leads his zombies back to the Doctor's TARDIS, picking up the Krargs outside the Professor's time capsule. The Doctor's TARDIS dematerializes as Skagra heads back to his command ship so he can send each of his zombie mind duplicates off in the scout ships to begin his great mind revolution.

The Doctor and Romana work the controls of the Professor's time capsule, jamming the Doctor's TARDIS and enveloping it in a forcefield. The graphics for this sequence are the opening credit time tunnel in psychedelic colors, with the Doctor's police box TARDIS on one side of the screen and the Professor's ivy-covered room on the other.

The Doctor tells Romana to switch off the vortex shields in a small area behind the tea trolley - "just a little bit of timelessness and spacelessness," he wheedles. Romana achieves this, with difficulty. The Doctor squares his shoulders, saying, "Now this is a little trick I learned from a space time mystic in the Quontox." The Doctor steps into the vortex and disappears in midword.

In the vortex the Doctor spins wildly, screaming silently in pain. Slowly he locates his TARDIS and makes his way to it. The force field is fading fast; K9 detects a malfunction in the subneutronic circuits of the Professor's time capsule.

The Doctor manages to get part of his arm through his TARDIS. Exhausted, he starts to slide backward. The Professor's controls short out. "It's broken," K9 pronounces. The Doctor spins away into the vortex, apparently lost in infinity. Skagra and his zombies fight to regain control of the TARDIS.

The Doctor comes to. He's in the TARDIS! In an equipment room, to be exact. He begins to rummage through the devices on the shelves.

The Doctor's TARDIS materializes on Skagra's command ship and everyone exits. In the equipment room, the Doctor feverishly builds a helmet from the materials at hand. Because one of the components works only when in contact with the metal table top, the Doctor lasers a piece of the table off.

K9 has repaired Chronotis' time capsule.

The Doctor finishes the helmet, which now has a piece of table on top of it. "With that on my head, they'll all be paralyzed laughing at me," he decides.

Just as Skagra is about to send his mind duplicates out in the scout ships, the Professor's time capsule materializes. Skagra and the prisoners line up around its door. As K9 emerges, demanding Skagra's surrender, the Doctor exits from his TARDIS.

The Doctor presses a button on his helmet. He looks at Skagra and smiles. All the zombies look at Skagra and smile. Skagra makes an immense mental effort and regains control of the prisoners. But the Doctor's brain is in the sphere, magnified by the helmet, and he gets control back. Skagra and the Doctor struggle mentally for a bit, until Skagra summons a Krarg, distracting the Doctor, who loses control of the zombies. The Doctor calls to K9 to fire on the Krarg and redoubles his efforts to take back the mind control.

Skagra and the Doctor each seem to control half the prisoners, who begin to grapple with each other. The Krarg K9 is blasting is now heated up and the Doctor maneuvers Skagra toward it, but Skagra orders it away. It returns to its generation chamber, falls into a vat and dissolves. However, more Krargs appear, keeping K9 very busy indeed.

Romana emerges from the Professor's time capsule and, seeing the dissolved Krarg, tips over the vats of gas, ripping out the main feed pipe and pulling out the wires. And none too soon, as the Doctor is being backed by Skagra toward the burning Krargs.

Romana summons Clare and tells her what to do with the wire. The Doctor orders K9 to stop firing at the Krargs to reduce the heat. As the Krargs head toward the Doctor, Clare and Romana plunge the wires into the gas, causing sparks; the Krargs begin to dissolve.

Skagra's concentration falters just long enough for the Doctor to regain control of the zombies, who turn and advance on Skagra. Skagra rushes to his scout ship, ordering it to take off instantly. Instead, the cube of light surrounds him and puts him in the cell where he previously kept Romana, Chris and K9 prisoner. The Doctor has reprogrammed the ship, which now refuses to obey Skagra. He falls to his knees, pounding the floor.

Chris, Chronotis and the exprisoners lie about unconscious. The Doctor has some of the spheres open in front of him, examining their works. It will take him a few hours, but he'll be able to restore everyone's mind.

Then the Doctor plans to return the prisoners to Shada. "Let the Time Lords sort it out. I'm not going to play judge and jury. It was only forgotten about because Salyavin made us forget. He didn't want his escape discovered. That must be why he stole the book when he left Gallifrey."

Back in St. Cedd's, Wilkin tries to explain to a skeptical policeman the Professor's rooms have been stolen. The constable knocks on Chronotis' door and the Doctor calls, "Come in." The Professor is serving tea (and aspirin to Chris) as the Doctor reads aloud. The policeman spots the TARDIS and asks where the Professor got it. "It's mine," the Doctor says, rising. He and Romana wave goodbye, promising to keep the Professor's secret. The TARDIS dematerializes as the Professor tries to press a cup of tea on the astounded constable.

Back in the TARDIS, Romana wonders how Skagra knew so much about the Time Lords. "My metabolic analysis reveals that he was from the planet Dronid," K9 states.

"Ah, there's your answer," the Doctor explains, "remember your history. There was a schism in the College of Cardinals; the rival President set up shop on Dronid. They forced him to come back by totally ignoring him."

Romana can't get over that nice old Professor Chronotis is really the supercriminal Salyavin. The Doctor says, "The Time Lords overreact to everything. Look at the way they treat me. I expect that one day in a few hundred years' time someone will meet me and say, is that really the Doctor? How strange. He seems such a nice old man."

For the sake of those who can't get to conventions and have never seen this story, here's a list of what was taped and what wasn't:

Taped:

Think Tank - exterior model and interior sets

Skagra's scout ship - exterior model and prison cell

Cambridge - exteriors showing bicycle scenes, Doctor and Skagra chase; punting on the Cam, the field beside Skagra's invisible ship

Chronotis' room/time capsule - exterior model and interior

Skagra's command ship - exterior model

Sphere playback sequences

Shada - model only

Not taped:

Skagra's scout ship - interior

TARDIS - interior

Physics lab

Car - interior

Skagra's command ship - interior

Shada (except for model)

Sphere in flight

Krargs' generation chambers (on scout ship and command ship)

In addition, K9's voice in the field outside Skagra's invisible ship and the "babble of ghostly voices" representing the minds in the sphere were not recorded. The familiar noises accompanying the de- and re-materialization of the TARDIS are also missing; and there is no sound in the early Think Tank scene where Skagra steals the minds of the 5 scientists.

As the story exists only in its fragmentary state, it's unkind to apply the usual rules of criticism to it, but it does seem poorly constructed in several places. As we find out at the very end, Skagra comes from a rival group of Time Lords on the planet Dronid; he knows all about Gallifrey, yet he doesn't travel in a TARDIS, which seems strange.

There doesn't seem to be any reason for Skagra to kill the motorist; he obviously got to Cambridge from the field by walking, so the only reason the motorist is killed is to give Skagra a car to get him back to his scout ship faster. Likewise, there is even less reason to kill the fisherman; this scene seems inserted so that K9 could trace the sphere and so discover Skagra's whereabouts.

Clare Keightley (pronounced Keetly) is an awful nosy parker. Not only does she open the professor's drawers and cabinets for no good reason; she pushes buttons on very dodgy looking machines that most prudent people wouldn't touch.

Once Skagra discovers turning the pages of the book near the time column of the TARDIS will take him to Shada, why does he go back to his command ship? There seems no reason except to pad out the story to six parts. Why does he never take Romana's mind? Why does he need her at all, since he has access to the Doctor's mind to control the TARDIS?

Why does the Doctor abandon the 5 brain drained scientists, allowing them to be blown up on Think Tank? He never spares them a moment's regret. We later learn the mind snatching is reversible, so if they had lived, he could have restored their intellect.

Apparently Chronotis is not at the end of his regeneration cycle; instead of being regenerated into a new body, he returns in his old persona but with new clothes. And why did he admit to being Salyavin when he could so easily have kept quiet about it? Why didn't Skagra already know this from having a copy of the Professor's mind in the sphere? Why did Skagra have to take another copy of the Professor's mind after he discovered he was Salyavin?

Once Skagra has achieved his aim of acquiring Salyavin's ability to put his own mind into other people's, why does he need to return to his command ship to send his mind duplicates out on scout ships? Why not just continue to use the TARDIS? Again, the answer seems to be to pad out the story to 6 parts.

Although 5 of the 6 parts of the story are meant to end in cliffhangers, it's difficult to understand what the threat was at the end of part 1, as we get a glimpse of a Krarg which is nowhere near the Doctor or any of his friends. Also, the Doctor's suffering from lack of oxygen at the end of part 3 is not particularly upsetting, as he has previously exhibited a capability to do without air in TERROR OF THE ZYGONS and the more recent NIGHTMARE OF EDEN.

The bicycling sequences are a nice surprise. When I read about these, I envisioned something like the repetitive scenes of the Doctor, Romana and sometimes Duggan running along Paris streets, which padded CITY OF DEATH. Instead these were brief and pertinent, and in the case of the Doctor and Chris passing each other, funny.

On the other hand, although the sequence of the mind battle with Skagra was not taped, it sounds rather dull and long.

Although there is some humor in the sequences which were taped, they don't seem the usual type of Douglas Adams' cerebral, verbal jokes. There is the running joke of the Professor forever offering tea; and the mild humor of his asking how many lumps his guests want, and then asking if they also want sugar. There is, of course, the passing but obvious reference to the BBC, as the Professor runs through the alphabet trying to recall Chris Parsons' name; and the limp non sequitur of the Doctor's comment on Skagra's clothes on the bridge. It's a shame the sequence of the Doctor reading from THE WORSHIPFUL AND ANCIENT LAW OF GALLIFREY was not taped, as it sounds quite funny.

Douglas Adams recycled Professor Urban Chronotis, the Regius Professor of Chronology, and his time machine/room at St. Cedd's in his 1987 book DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY, which also contains Wilkin, the unflappable porter with the prodigious memory; plus elements from his CITY OF DEATH story, in that a space ship crashes on Earth billions of years ago and a ghostly survivor hovers around Earth hoping to use a time machine to go back in time to prevent the crash, which also might have simultaneously created life on Earth.

Dennis Carey, who plays Professor Chronotis, also plays the Keeper in the future Tom Baker story THE KEEPER OF TRAKEN; and the Old Man whom everyone believes is the Borad in the Colin Baker story TIMELASH.

Derek Pollitt, who plays Caldera, played a Time Lord in the Troughton story THE WAR GAMES.

James Coombes, who provides the Krargs Voice, plays Paroli in the Davison story WARRIORS OF THE DEEP.