The one where the Industrial Revolution meets Time Lord drama, the Master gets third billing in his own evil plot, and miners end up as unwilling participants in a particularly aggressive landscaping project.
Short Synopsis
The Doctor and Peri land in 19th-century England, where the Master is trying to manipulate history (again), and the Rani is stealing brain chemicals to fuel her experiments. The result? Miners go berserk, people get turned into trees, and the Doctor has to referee a Time Lord turf war.
Extended Storyline
The adventure begins in a quaint 19th-century mining town, where the locals have started behaving strangely. By “strangely,” we mean “violent, confused, and very easy to manipulate” — which, to be fair, describes about 80% of Doctor Who extras.
Enter the Rani: a brand-new villainess and former classmate of the Doctor. Unlike the Master, who wants to take over the universe with elaborate death traps and monologues, the Rani just wants to steal people’s brain chemicals to keep her experiments running. She doesn’t care about ruling Earth — she’s only here for the serotonin, dopamine, and presumably a dash of adrenaline. Basically, she’s running a dodgy black-market pharmacy.
The Doctor and Peri arrive just in time to stumble into her schemes. Peri, dressed in an outfit that looks suspiciously unsuitable for a coal mine, immediately gets herself noticed, while the Doctor does his usual trick of wandering around pretending to be in charge until someone takes him seriously.
Things escalate when the Master arrives. He’s also got his eye on the Industrial Revolution, but in true Master fashion, he hasn’t thought it through beyond “mwa-ha-ha, history shall tremble.” He tries to rope the Rani into his plot, but she’s not interested in his endless speeches or failed world domination schemes. She’s busy turning miners into trees with her chemical experiments. Yes, actual trees. Imagine working a long shift underground, only to clock out and discover you’ve grown bark.
The rest of the story is a chaotic tug-of-war between three Time Lords. The Master wants to rewrite history, the Rani wants to collect brain juice for her lab rats, and the Doctor just wants everyone to stop being ridiculous. Along the way, Peri provides commentary and barely avoids being turned into compost.
In one of the more memorable sequences, the Doctor discovers the Rani’s TARDIS, which she has equipped with a collection of preserved dinosaur embryos. Why? Because she can, apparently. This isn’t just mad science; it’s extramad science. The set design makes it look like she’s been hoarding leftover props from Jurassic Park: The Stage Musical.
Eventually, the Doctor tricks both the Master and the Rani into their own downfall — literally. He sabotages the Rani’s TARDIS, and the two villains end up trapped inside as it goes haywire, shrinking them down and presumably bouncing them around like action figures in a washing machine. The Doctor, Peri, and the miners are left staring at the wreckage, wondering how the Industrial Revolution got hijacked by cosmic squabbles.
The Doctor and Peri depart, leaving the Rani’s mark on history: a bunch of confused miners, a forest of unlucky tree-people, and a reminder that sometimes Time Lord drama is worse than coal dust.