The one where the Second Doctor and the Sixth Doctor team up, Jamie proves he’s still the MVP, and the Sontarans crash a perfectly good Spanish cooking show.
Short Synopsis
The Doctor and Peri arrive in Spain and promptly bump into the Second Doctor and Jamie, who are entangled in a plot involving time experiments, cannibalistic aliens, and Sontarans with terrible plans. Chaos ensues, and everyone eats a suspicious amount of food.
Extended Storyline
The story kicks off with the Second Doctor and Jamie on a mission for the Time Lords — yes, the same Time Lords who once exiled him to Earth and stole his TARDIS. Apparently, they now trust him enough to send him on errands, which proves they’ve either mellowed out or completely lost the plot.
The mission goes sideways (as it always does), and the Second Doctor is captured by Chessene, a member of the Androgum race. The Androgums are basically gourmet cannibals: obsessed with fine dining, but their idea of a delicacy is “whatever living thing happens to be nearby.” Chessene, though, is cleverer than the average foodie, and she’s plotting to enhance her own intelligence with Gallifreyan tech. Because why just eat your enemies when you can outthink them, too?
Meanwhile, the Sixth Doctor and Peri are having their own adventure. By “adventure,” I mean the Doctor is insulting Peri’s intelligence and wardrobe while wandering through Spain in his technicolor nightmare coat. They stumble upon the Second Doctor’s predicament, leading to the crossover no one realized they needed: Colin Baker and Patrick Troughton on screen together, with enough clashing personalities to power the TARDIS for a year.
Jamie, bless him, proves he hasn’t lost his knack for survival. Even decades after his original run, he’s still charging headfirst into danger with a dirk and a healthy dose of Scottish stubbornness. He and Peri form a sort of odd-couple duo: Jamie protects her from alien nasties, while she wonders why she signed up for all this.
The plot, as with many multi-Doctor stories, is less about coherence and more about watching Doctors snark at each other. The Androgums want to turn time travel into a galactic buffet, the Sontarans want to… well, honestly, it’s not clear what the Sontarans want. They show up, stomp around, and bark orders in their potato-shaped glory, but mostly they serve as hired muscle for Chessene’s schemes.
There’s also a disturbing culinary subplot: Shockeye, another Androgum, develops an appetite for human flesh. His obsession with Peri as the main course is played with all the subtlety of a Monty Python sketch gone wrong. Watching him chase people through Spanish kitchens with cleavers is equal parts absurd and unsettling.
The Doctors eventually cross paths, leading to the inevitable snark-off. The Second Doctor is all whimsy and quick-thinking, while the Sixth is loud, brash, and dressed like a circus tent. Jamie’s bemused reactions to meeting “an older Doctor” add some of the story’s best comic beats, especially since he never really seems surprised by anything anymore.
In the climax, Chessene gains temporary godlike powers thanks to stolen Gallifreyan knowledge, only to prove that gluttony and ambition don’t mix well. The Sontarans, predictably, get blown up, because they always do. The Androgums’ plans fall apart, and the Doctors part ways — with the Second returning to his own timeline, presumably to complain to the Time Lords about his working conditions.
The Sixth Doctor and Peri, meanwhile, take their leave after a final round of banter. Peri looks like she’s about to strangle him with his own coat, and the Doctor muses about vegetarianism, clearly scarred by the whole cannibal subplot. Whether he actually sticks to it is another matter.