The Dogs of Doom (Part 2)
STORYLINE
The Daleks have found a more efficient way to exterminate all life in the New Earth System. They no longer need their Werelox slaves to do their dirty work. With neutron fire they can sterilize whole planets at once. The Doctor and his friends in the New Earth system watch in horror as the Daleks destroy the system planet by planet. The Doctor decides he must take the fight to them. He takes K-9 and a Werelok named Brill who has been hypnotized to obey the Doctor with him. The TARDIS takes them aboard the main Dalek ship, but they are immediately discovered and attacked. Brill and K-9 do a good job of fending off the first was of attackers, but more follow.
The Doctor and his companions flee for their lives, but every which way they run, more Daleks are there. The only option for the Doctor is to surrender and hope for an opportunity to escape. The chatty Daleks helpfully explain their masterplan to the Doctor. They've been scouring the galaxy capturing examples of alien races. They plan to sterilize the New Earth system and use it as a breeding ground to create a massive army of new Daleks. They will use traits from the alien species they have abducted to create even more ideally evil Daleks. The Dalek leads his prisoners past cell after cell of deadly alien creatures, bragging all the way. At that point, K-9 decides it's time for a breakout, and begins releasing the alien prisoners.
The freed creatures immediately turn their fury on their Dalek captors. Their attack gives the Doctor, K-9 and Brill a chance to make a break for the TARDIS. Once in the TARDIS, the Doctor believes he has figured out how to stop the Daleks. While on their ship, the Doctor had spotted a restricted room with time travel equipment in it. He uses his TARDIS to get them past the locked door and into the correct room. Meanwhile Joe Been and Babe Roth have decided to load their hauler ship with explosives and ram it into the Dalek vessel. They believe it may be the only chance to stop the Daleks from destroying the system.
The problem is Sharon has stowed away on Joe and Babe's ship. Not wanting her to join their suicide mission, Joe shoves Sharon into a life pod, and also pushes Babe in as well. He plans on sacrificing himself alone. Seconds before his ship is about to crash into the Dalek vessel, however, the Dalek ship disappears. The Doctor has been busy appropriating the Dalek time travel equipment and turning it upon his enemies. Thanks to the Doctor's quick work, he has put the whole lot of Daleks in a time lock, unable to move, frozen in one moment of time and space. With the Dalek invasion stopped, the Doctor and Sharon leave their friends on New Earth and continue traveling in the TARDIS...
The Stolen TARDIS
STORYLINE
The Fifth Doctor and Tegan step out onto what looks like your standard-issue alien wasteland — rocky, windy, and generally giving off the vibe of a rental planet with a “No Deposits Returned” policy. They’re exploring, minding their own business, and presumably arguing about something in classic TARDIS-crew tradition.
The Doctor wanders a little way off (always a mistake), leaving the TARDIS sitting alone, unattended, and glowing invitingly like the universe’s most stealable vending machine. This is, of course, when trouble arrives — in the form of a small, desperate, somewhat frantic alien named Grom, whose survival instincts are strong but whose moral compass is… let’s call it “optional.”
Grom is being hunted by a squad of brutish alien soldiers whose job description appears to be “point weapons and shout.” He spots the TARDIS and immediately recognizes it as (1) a box, and therefore (2) something he should absolutely steal.
Because Grom subscribes to the universal law of sci-fi scavengers:
If it isn’t nailed down, it’s yours.
If it is nailed down, bring a crowbar.
Before anyone — including the audience — can say “This seems like a terrible idea,” Grom rushes inside and hits random buttons until the TARDIS dematerializes in a panic. Yes, that’s right: the TARDIS lets this small, sweaty criminal drive her. In her defense, she was probably trying to avoid getting shot by the soldiers too.
Meanwhile, the Doctor and Tegan return to find… no TARDIS. Just empty space where a Type 40 time machine used to be.
Tegan responds with the emotional restraint of a person discovering her car has been stolen for the second time this month.
The Doctor, naturally, tries to look calm and composed, but his face says, “Well, this is going to ruin my whole afternoon.”
Cut to inside the TARDIS, where Grom is frantically pleading with the ship — out loud — to take him somewhere safe. The TARDIS, being wiser than the average stolen vehicle, decides to materialize on another alien planet, presumably one where Grom will cause the least amount of permanent damage.
Unfortunately, the pursuing soldiers were apparently gifted with a tracking system more advanced than anything the Daleks have ever built, because they follow the TARDIS across space with the ease of a parent chasing a toddler who’s run off in a supermarket.
Grom flees into the wilderness, where he is immediately ambushed by a giant alien creature resembling a cross between a rhino and an incorrectly assembled Lego set. Just as it’s about to make Grom its mid-afternoon snack, the Doctor and Tegan arrive — yay! They found the trail of TARDIS-shaped chaos and followed it.
The Doctor, being a gentleman, scares off the beast using words, gestures, and the general energy of a man who once talked down the Master using cricket metaphors.
Reunited, Grom confesses everything: he stole the TARDIS, didn’t understand it, pressed random buttons, almost died multiple times, and accidentally led murderous soldiers to a new planet. Basically, he’s lived an entire season of Doctor Who in twenty minutes.
Before the group can decide what to do with Grom (ideally: something involving a very long lecture about boundaries), the soldiers arrive and immediately attempt to shoot everyone. Because of course they do.
The Doctor, Tegan, and Grom rush back to the TARDIS, pile inside, slam the doors, and the Doctor launches them into the vortex with that weary expression that says, “Can I please have ONE DAY without someone hijacking my time machine?”
The TARDIS escapes, leaving the soldiers behind, no doubt confused, angry, and filing an official complaint with their commanding officer.
Inside, Grom apologizes profusely — and insists he’s learned his lesson. The Doctor forgives him, which is very magnanimous considering Grom is the reason he’s going to be late to literally everything for the next two stories.
Tegan, on the other hand, gives Grom the patented “I am storing this in my memory forever and will bring it up whenever convenient” glare.