From: richard@skaro.demon.co.uk (Richard Develyn) Subject: Synopsis: Web of Fear Date: 14 Apr 93 13:31:37 GMT Introduction ------------ "Oh, it's you! I thought for one moment ... Goodness me, I must sit down for a minute. I'm glad I've met you. As a matter of fact there's omething I want to tell you. When we start out on our next adventure, Jamie, Victoria and I meet some old friends and some old enemies. Very old enemies! The Yeti as a matter of fact. Only this time they are just a little bit more frightening than first time. So I want to warn you that if your mummy and daddy are scared you just get them to hold your hand." So the 2nd Dr warned us at the end of The Enemy of the World on Saturday 27th January 1968. When Peter Bryant took over as full-time producer his first story teamed him up with director Douglas Camfield. Both men were fans of Gothic (Hammer) horror films and both wanted to make the show more frightening. In this they succeeded admirably with this highly acclaimed masterpiece of science fiction and horror. Considered by many to be the flagship story of the season, and what a season!, this tale was probably the one that most gave Dr Who its reputation for being watched by frightened children from behind the sofa. Ask any non-fan, old enough to have been around at the time when it was broadcast, what memories if any they have of the early days of Dr Who, and the chances are they'll remember "the Yeti in the Underground". It was shown only once in this country, from 3/2/68 to 9/3/68, just over 25 years ago. By 1977 all 6 episodes had been wiped / lost from the BBC archives. A few years later episode 1 was recovered within the BBC archives themselves, probably having just been returned from a TV station abroad. Since then there have been regular rumours that the complete story exists in a private collection but this has never been confirmed. The one surviving episode was shown on BSB 2 years ago. The synopsis for this lost story are not scene by scene descriptions. Rather I summarise each episode in my own words with numerous quotations in order, I hope, to both describe the plot and get across something of the atmosphere which was created. All but episode 1 are based on the soundtrack plus the excellent novelisation by Terrance Dicks. I have tried my best to figure out the events I describe but I can only guarantee accuracy with the quotations and even here I may have been misled by the occasional broad Welsh or Yorkshire accent. On a couple of occasions I have added some extra clarifying text which is based on my interpretation of the plot. Both cases are demarcated by the symbols ---0---. I hope that by the time you've finished reading these summaries you will be infected with a little of my enthusiasm for this story. Now sit back, read and enjoy: "The Web of Fear". Richard Develyn (4/93) (rad@cix.compulink.co.uk) The Web of Fear was written by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln and directed by Douglas Camfield. Episode 1 --------- In a dark corner of Julius Silverstein's private museum, Professor Travers, explorer turned scientist, gazes up at the Yeti exhibit which he brought back from Tibet (in the Abominable Snowmen) over 40 years ago, trying to imagine if it could possibly live again. His daughter Anne arrives at his side led by the museum's owner. She reminds her father that he was supposed to meet her at the airport - she's flown all the way over from the States especially to see him because of his message about some kind of trouble he's in. "Trouble? Yes, a great deal of trouble! ... That thing!" he shouts, pointing at the Yeti, but Anne only smiles. She knows, as does Julius, that the monster is not dangerous, despite its appearance. It is a robot and it supposedly can't function without a control unit, a silver sphere, inside it. One of these was brought back intact from Tibet but in all this time neither it, nor the Yeti, nor any of the other associated paraphernalia have shown the least signs of life. Now, Travers explains, he has finally succeeded in reactivating one of the spheres. Excellent news but for the fact that, soon after doing so, it disappeared! Julius *must* give him back the Yeti: with a sphere on the loose the monster could come to life at any moment! But Julius doesn't believe this story at all: "I buy the Yeti off you 30 years ago. And now: it is valuable. You try to scare me, take your Yeti back. Why? Money! You want to rob me!". He believes that the Yeti is unique and wouldn't sell it let alone give it back. Anne, knowing her father's absent minded ways, imagines that he probably mislaid the sphere somewhere at home. She leads him away from the museum to go to look for it. As Julius Silverstein angrily sees them out, the missing control unit appears at a window and smashes its way through the glass. This noise startles Julius - he goes over to investigate, half thinking that Travers is still trying to scare him into parting with his prize. As the sphere lodges within the Yeti, the creature comes to life and with a roar strikes him down dead. ---o--- Events move on: London is besieged. A choking fog appears, a creeping deadly fungus starts to fill the Underground and Yeti roam the streets above ground and tunnels below with murderous intent. London is eventually evacuated and the army move in. The fog confines military operations to the Underground and an HQ is set up at an old fortress in Goodge Street. Meanwhile, the fungus spreads throughout the Circle line, cutting off the east and west sections, and gradually closing off the north and south sections too so that Goodge Street is nearly surrounded. The northern arm has only Euston and Kings Cross free, the southern a section from Charing Cross to Liverpool Street. Then, strangely, the unrelenting advance of the fungus stops, and three weeks pass ... ---o--- All is not well in the TARDIS. At then end of the last story (The Enemy of the World) Salamander started the time-machine without first closing the doors. He was consequently sucked out and now the Dr and his two companions, Jamie and Victoria, are clinging on to anything available to prevent themselves joining him. Things look desperate for a moment until Jamie is able to reach the central console and close the TARDIS doors. They all breathe a sigh of relief, safe at last, and the Dr starts thinking about where they should go next. Jamie chides: "Let's just get our breath back first before you start tearing off anywhere. Anyway, as you know the TARDIS has a mind of it's own. You know you can't control it". The Dr indignantly sets course anyway and Victoria sighs, "Here we go again!" At HQ in Goodge Street, Corporal Lane is trying, unsuccessfully, to phone through to Holborn where a munitions supply truck was expected. Upstairs from him in a makeshift lab Captain Knight is interviewed by TV man Harold Chorley about the recent death of the operation's leader Colonel Pemberton. Knight, who's temporarily in charge until a replacement arrives, says only a few cliches about "he was certainly a brave soldier" before going down to Lane to find out what's delaying their supplies. As Knight leaves, Travers arrives, sent for by his daughter Anne, to join the scientific effort. Chorley rounds in on him but the Professor's reply is disturbingly frank: "It's more than likely we may not be able to defeat this menace. London, in fact the whole of England, might be completely wiped out!" Back in the TARDIS, Victoria emerges wearing a new, very 60's looking, frock: "I think it looks very sophisticated". "Yes, very sophisticated, Victoria", the Dr nudges Jamie, who hardly notices since he's been trying for the last 5 minutes to convince the Dr that the landing light on the central console flashed on. Victoria now also spots the same light flashing and the Dr is forced to conclude that they must indeed be landing. Looking at the scanner all they can see is stars: "Something strange has happened. We're suspended in space". They check various readings: gravity, power, control, flight, then Victoria spots a peculiar cobwebby material growing over the scanner. This substance has completely enveloped the TARDIS and thus immobilised them so the Dr must set to work on a means of escape. Having surmised that whatever's holding them there will eventually let go he puts together a small power booster which he connects to the central console. When the obstruction on the scanner clears, and the TARDIS is allowed to continue its journey, he uses the booster to shift their landing position by about half a mile from where they were being drawn to. Thus, temporarily eluding their captors, the Dr, Jamie and Victoria find themselves in a strange dark tunnel with curved ceiling and tiled walls. Grabbing a couple of torches they set out to explore. At first they are unsure of where they are, maybe a prison or the dungeons of a castle. They find stairs and go down them, reaching a platform where Victoria points out a stylised "Covent Garden" sign on the wall. With a laugh, the Dr realises that they are in fact in an underground station, probably in the middle of the night. "Funny, isn't it", he observes, "how we keep on landing on your earth". In order to get outside, he leads them back up the stairs to ground level. When they get to the top they can see that it isn't night-time at all, it's broad daylight, though it's unusually quiet ("In the middle of London, there should be some noise"). They can, in any case, go no further in this direction since the way out of the station is blocked by a locked grill. Leaning against this is an old tramp whom they decide to question. As Jamie taps him on the shoulder the man topples over, his face and body covered with cobwebs. His fall reveals the headline which was written on a newspaper stand next to him: "Londoners Flee - Menace Spreads!" Unable to gain exit this way, the three of them are forced back down the stairs so that they can get to another station via the underground tunnel. Victoria is not too keen to go in, Jamie is over enthusiastic - he leaps straight on to the rail track. This causes a brief panic with the Dr until he is able to confirm that the electric current on the live rail has been switched off: "You'd have been fried! Electrified! Raunched!". Cautiously, they move on down the tunnel, the Dr noting by the amount of dust on the tracks that no trains have run here for some time. After a short while they find a power cable drum seemingly abandoned in the middle of the tracks and then lights along the tunnel come on and they hear booted feet approaching. They duck into an alcove as three soldiers, Staff Sergeant Arnold, Corporal Blake and Private Weams arrive from the opposite direction, Blake and Weams unrolling a second power cable drum. Arnold picks up the first drum and the three soldiers carry on the way they were going. The Dr is puzzled as to what the army might be doing down here. He sends Jamie and Victoria to follow the soldiers while he goes to see where the power cable leads to, arranging to rendezvous back in a few minutes time. After a short while the soldiers stop as Weams thinks that he heard something. "Getting a little jumpy, aren't you Weams?". "Well, it's no wonder, is it staff?", but Arnold is unconvinced. He decides that in any case this is probably a good place to connect up the new drum so they pause to do so. This confuses Jamie and Victoria who can no longer hear the soldiers' footsteps, but they carry on anyway, even after Victoria walks into a spider's web and cries out. Now Weams is positively startled and Arnold and Blake agree. They set up an ambush and capture the two unlikely trespassers: "Well, well, well. Would you believe it: The Babes in the Wood!" Meanwhile the Dr has followed the power cable to Charing Cross station where it is connected up to a pile of crates of explosives placed on the platform. He has just begun examining the latch up when he hears a familiar beeping sound and sees, to his astonishment, a Yeti coming towards him. He quickly jumps on to the track and hides under the platform. Soon after, another Yeti arrives, this one wielding a strange kind of gun which it fires at the crates. Their work done, the two monsters lumber off and the Dr is safe to come out and examine what has happened. The explosives have been covered with brightly glowing webs. Back in the operations room, Corporal Lane is still trying to raise Holborn without success. The supply truck is 20 mins late, though, as he explains to Captain Knight, they've never had any trouble at Holborn before. Anne Travers enters the room carrying a blast recorder which she has just repaired. Knight goes over to her and offers, in a slightly patronising manner, to help her hook it up. She politely declines. A distraught Chorley comes in next protesting at Travers' lack of co-operation. He turns on Anne but she brushes him off until Knight firmly leads him away. Arnold, Blake and Weams arrive at HQ with the power cable they've been unrolling plus their two prisoners. Jamie and Victoria are left guarded while Weams and Arnold take the cable up to the operations room. Here, Knight is trying it on with Anne again: "What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?". She replies: "When I was a little girl I thought I'd like to be a scientist. So I *became* a scientist". Weams comes up with the cable which they hook up to the blast recorder and a detonator, while Arnold informs Knight about the two youngsters that they found in the tunnel. Everyone is clearly surprised by this though Anne is also concerned that there be nobody else wandering around down there before they do any demolition. Arnold goes off to check: he takes Jamie and Victoria into the common room and questions them there. Victoria starts to tell him about the Dr but Jamie, with a nudge, silences her and tells Arnold that there was only the two of them in the tunnels. The old soldier is suspicious but the companions stick to their story. When Knight pops his head around the door he's told that they were indeed alone, so he goes back upstairs to get on with the job. As Arnold explains what's going on, Jamie realises his mistake but now it's too late. Weams detonates the explosives which go off right in the Dr's face. Episode 2 --------- "OK, Weams, no sense in wasting any more time. Off you go", and the explosives at Charing Cross are blown up right next to the Dr. Too late to prevent this, Sergeant Arnold comes up from the common room and explains to Knight that there was in fact a doctor with the two youngsters who was apparently following the power cable. He suggests that he go to look for him and Knight, annoyed, agrees. Meanwhile Weams has been watching the blast recorder which has so far failed to register any blast. He can tell from the detonator that the explosives did go off so perhaps the recorder is still not working. Knight dismisses this idea since Anne has only recently fixed it, though she then points out that they didn't hear the explosion going off, which they should have even from this distance. Weams hypothesises that this doctor may have tampered with the set up and Knight, suspecting sabotage, decides that it's time to question the two youngsters himself. "You mustn't blame yourself, Jamie. After all, the Dr did tell us to be careful", but Jamie, concerned, carries on hammering on the locked common room door. Both are ignorant of what is going on down here and when Knight, Anne and Chorley arrive they start showering them with questions. Knight tells them that he has sent some men to look for the Dr but that they should be answering questions not asking them. Chorley takes on the role of inquisitor, his tone unpleasant: "How did you get into the tunnel? Or, let me put it another way, where did you break in?". Victoria tries to explain that they were actually, somehow, brought here but Chorley is incredulous. Knight's about to take over questioning when a soldier comes to inform him that Lane has finally got through to Holborn. There's some sort of trouble there, possibly the Yeti (Jamie and Victoria's ears prick up at the mention of these monsters). Knight and Chorley go to find out more but Anne hangs back outside the common room door to eavesdrop on the youngsters' conversation. In the operations room, screams and gunfire can be heard coming from the radio then everything goes disturbingly quiet. Lane is fairly sure that the supply truck arrived so Knight takes him and a few other soldiers to try to recover what they can. As Chorley is a little nervous at everybody leaving the Captain asks him, contemptuously, to come along to "report some action first hand". Chorley declines the offer, making some feeble excuse about not wanting to get in the way. After listening to their conversation about the Yeti in Tibet, Anne tells her father up in the lab about their detailed knowledge of what's going on. They know that the monsters are robots and that they need control spheres to function, facts which were never divulged to the general public. She takes him over to the common room in time to hear Jamie really give the game away: "If the Yeti are in London then the Intelligence is here too ... It must have been the Intelligence that got hold of us in space and it must have brought us here. (Why?) Revenge perhaps". Travers bursts in on them, gruffly demanding explanations until Victoria recognises him from their previous encounter and, laughing, reminds him of who they are. As realisation dawns, Travers collapses on a chair: "But it can't be! Why, that was over 40 years ago!" Jamie hasn't cottoned on yet so Victoria reminds him about the explorer that they met in Tibet: "So it is ... You got old (Eh!) Oh, we're very pleased to see you". "The time machine", gasps Travers, "it was all true then". Travers takes Jamie off to swap stories while Victoria is left to explain everything to a bewildered Anne. Meanwhile Arnold's group have arrived back from Charing Cross where they saw that the explosives detonated but somehow didn't explode. There is no sign of the webbing that covered them or of the Dr whom they now suspect. When Arnold tries to report to Knight he is informed, by Weams, of the captain's sortie to Holborn 20 minutes ago. Jamie and Travers arrive, keen on news about the Dr. "He weren't killed in the explosion", Arnold explains, "for the simple reason that there weren't no explosion ... Somebody'd tampered with it and my guess is that it's this Dr fellow". Travers wont hear of this, "he's the one man that can help us". Jamie wonders if maybe the Yeti got him but Arnold says otherwise, with a certainty that puzzles the highlander. Anyway, Jamie wants to go and look for him in case he's lying somewhere injured. He tells the sergeant that he might know where the Dr could be, thinking of their planned rendezvous point, and the two of them go to search for him together. Anne is finding Victoria's explanations a little hard to swallow. Chorley goes over to them and, still suspecting the Dr, tries to find out what information Anne has managed to get out of his companion. "Nothing that you can print", comes the short reply. Chorley is exasperated: "Oh, for goodness sake, why is everybody being so evasive! Why wont anybody answer any questions?" Anne doesn't trust the TV man: "Perhaps they're afraid you'll interpret them in your own inimitable style ... You have a reputation for distorting the truth. You take reality and you make it into a comic strip. In short, Mr Chorley, you are a sensationalist!" As he starts to snap back Anne warns him: "I have a very quick temper and very long claws!" Chorley quietens down though he insists that his journalistic style has a large following and that he intends to find out the *facts* when they get out of here. For a start, after Arnold's report, it now seems clear that the Dr sabotaged the demolition job. Knight's party are able to salvage some crates of ammunition from Holborn but they run into two Yeti on the way back. Bullets have little effect on these creatures so Knight builds a barricade using the crates of explosives and calls Lane and his men to fall back behind it. The captain's plan is to allow the Yeti to draw up level with the ammunition and then to blow it up, and them, by firing into it. Jamie and Arnold meet up with them as the Yeti advance. However when the monsters reach the barricade they use their web guns on the crates so that the explosion is dampened and does not harm them. Strangely, though, instead of closing in for the kill, the creatures stand still as if waiting for some signal. Nevertheless, the soldiers are now trapped. Lane wonders if they could make a run for it but Jamie cautions against this since clearly the Yeti are still switched on. Hearing this knowledgeable reply makes Knight suspicious of Jamie but Arnold explains: "The professor's vouched for him. I understand he knows a good deal about these robots". After a while the two Yeti begin a loud, quick, beeping sound. Then they turn around and disappear into the darkness, releasing their relieved, but puzzled, prisoners. Though Jamie would like to follow them, Knight doesn't want to push his luck, so they carry on back towards HQ. Back in the lab, Anne's got Victoria making tea to try to keep her mind off things, especially the fact that Jamie and the Dr are now both gone. "Those two are all that child's got in the world", her father explains. Victoria, laden with a tray of tea, pauses outside the door to do a little eavesdropping of her own. This is unfortunate as Anne picks this moment to voice her doubts: "Have you ever seen this TARDIS? ... It all sounds a bit far-fetched. You know, I think the Dr's at the back of all this ... On the two occasions when you've encountered the Yeti you've also come across the Dr ... It's obvious, he controls them". Travers is about to refute this when Victoria, who's heard enough, comes in. She quickly gives them their tea and then leaves, supposedly, to go to lie down. This prompts Anne to wonder if she'd heard them but her father doesn't think so. "In any case, what you say is nonsense. I saw the Dr defeat those robots and save Detsen monastery. Now he wouldn't do that if he was in league with them, now would he?" Anne agrees but Victoria is now convinced that the Dr is still suspected so she goes off into the tunnels to try to find and warn him. Meanwhile in the control room, Weams and Blake are chatting about their current predicament and the Yeti. Weams is incredulous: "Tibet? Tibet? You're joking!" "That's where old Travers says they come from. He reckons they're Abominable Snowmen." "Yeah, well he's off his chump, aint he. How'd they get here in the first place?" "Come through the post, didn't they". The various theories continue: Outer Space ... Foreign Power ... Bacteriological Warfare ... Robot Army ... "Stone me ... We aint got much of a chance if we come up against that lot have we. Not with the funny old crowd we've got down here with us". But something alarming now catches Weams' eye. Hanging on the wall is a map of the underground with lights on each station indicating whether that area is free from the web, and some of those lights are beginning to blink off. "Oh crikey, that's what comes of talking about it. It's that fungus stuff, it's moving again!" Up in the lab, Travers is struggling with a soldering iron. "It's my hands", he explains to Anne, "can't control them. Getting old, that's my trouble". He's a worried man, feels responsible for all that's happening, and wishes that the Dr would turn up to help them out. Instead Blake comes in and tells him about the fungus moving for the first time in 3 weeks. Alarmed, they all go off to the control room to look at the wall chart, Chorley noting triumphantly the coincidence with the appearance of the Dr. He goes on to accuse Jamie and Victoria of being spies, especially since both of them have now disappeared! Meanwhile in the underground tunnels, as Knight and his party move back towards HQ they hear the singular sound of a Welsh tenor, singing at the top of his voice, coming towards them. As the man appears, a look of relief crosses his face: "Well, there's a sight for sore eyes!" "Are you stark raving mad!?!" "Ah, well, I always sing when I'm scared see ... 601 Evans ... Not one of your lot ... Trying to get out ... Driver on the ammo truck to Holborn. Got jumped we did ... Couldn't get past them hairy creatures, see. Been wandering for hours. Lost, I was. Tried one way but there seemed to be some sort of cobweb moving down the tunnel ... Sounds daft, I know, but it seemed to be following a Yeti that had a kind of pointed glass thing in its hands". Everybody is worried at the fact that the fungus is moving again but Jamie recognises, he thinks, the pyramid which forms the centre of the Intelligence like he saw in Tibet. He tries to explain to the others that if this is destroyed it will put the Intelligence out of action too, but nobody believes him and they carry on back to HQ. Jamie refuses to go with them - he intends to carry on searching for the Dr plus have a go at the pyramid if he sees it. Evans volunteers to go with him though, as he tells Jamie later, "First chance I get - I'm skipping". He takes him to Cannon Street, aiming to go along the Circle line to the Monument then Tower Hill and then out through the District Line. In the control room, Travers, Anne, Chorley, Blake and Weams watch as the wall chart shows them the northern gap in the fungus close off - first Euston, then King's Cross. Should the southern gap close too their HQ at Goodge Street will be surrounded, a fact which does not fail to alarm Chorley. The TV man wants to evacuate but Travers insists that this decision must come from the Captain. Moments later, Knight and his party arrive, just in time to see the southern section closing from the west (Charing Cross and Temple) and east (Liverpool Street). Despite Chorley's protests, Knight decides that they will stay, and anyway it looks like it's too late: the fungus has reached Cannon Street and Tower Hill. Only The Monument is left - the last gap in the Circle line! Precisely the station where Jamie and Evans now find themselves. Their way forward is blocked by fungus, and their retreat by fungus led by a Yeti. They try to escape into the station itself but a Yeti appears from here too and now they're trapped from all sides! Episode 3 --------- "We've had it, boyo. We can't go on and we can't go back". Things do look pretty grim until Jamie notices that the Yeti blocking their way into the station is carrying a familiar glass-like pyramid. He urges Evans to shoot at it and the Welshman, after a number of misses, succeeds and the pyramid shatters. The fungus, however, still looks very much alive and the Yeti, though stunned, haven't exploded in the spectacular manner they did in Tibet. It seems that this is not going to be the way to defeat the Intelligence this time though they are now able to dodge the Yeti and escape into the main part of the station. ---o--- Their way out onto the street is blocked by a locked grill, like all the stations in the underground, and in any case wandering around in the fog outside is too dangerous. Jamie and Evans instead use the escalator link to get to Bank tube station on the Central line. To the east, now, is Liverpool Street, invaded by the fungus, so they go west towards St Pauls. ---o--- Victoria is creeping around the tunnels, in the dark, on her own, looking for the Dr. She gingerly calls out to him and nearly leaps out of her skin when a crisp military voice replies: "One moment!". To her incredible good fortune she has, in fact, found the Dr, though he is in the company of a certain Colonel Lethbridge Stewart. The latter, having only just found the Dr himself, is a little bemused by this turn of events: "Well, before you begin this rapturous re-union, there are one or two questions I'd like answered. For a start, is there anyone else down here playing hide-and-seek?" Victoria starts to explain about the HQ at Goodge Street, the presence of Travers and his daughter, and the fact that Jamie has gone out looking for the Dr. She also, foolishly, tells of her belief that Anne suspects the Dr of being behind all this trouble. This raises the Colonel's suspicions, which were high already, and he marches them both back off to HQ. "Well, that's that. The whole of the Circle line gone. We're completely hemmed in!", Anne puts it in a nutshell. As this latest development is sinking in Knight is informed of the return of Victoria with the Dr and this mysterious Colonel. He goes to the common room to meet them while Anne goes to fetch her father. Chorley is now getting very panicky about their predicament and pleads for there to be some way they could escape. Maybe through one of the other underground lines which run at a different depth to the Circle. Not possible, Arnold explains patiently, since the fungus extends through the ground at all levels. It really does look as if they're stuck here. Meanwhile Jamie and Evans reach St Pauls. Jamie, still worried about pursuit from the Yeti, is trying to hurry them along. Evans, however, stops to buy a bar of chocolate: "All this walking!", he complains, "shouldn't be down here at all, really. *Driver*, that's what I am". The Dr explains to Victoria a little of what happened to him since they parted company just outside Covent Garden: "I was just knocked out by the explosion a bit, that's all ... When I came to, there was no sign of the Yeti, so I wandered around for a bit and then as I was on my way back to you he suddenly popped out of nowhere", referring to the Colonel. When Knight arrives, Lethbridge-Stewart introduces himself as the man sent to take over from the late Colonel Pemberton ("Sorry about him. Very fine soldier"). HQ was not forewarned because of difficulties with communications. After checking over his papers Knight, satisfied, passes command over, asking him how he got here. "Holborn. Ammunition party. Got badly beaten up. All men dead I'm afraid ... (Knight explains about Evans) ... It all got a bit confused. Driven into a side-tunnel myself. After that, got a bit lost, and then found this Dr". But the Dr is vouched for by Professor Travers who has just come through the door. Both he and the Dr are delighted at their re-union and Travers quickly whisks him off to the lab to help with the scientific effort. The Colonel hardly gets a word in: "It would seem that the professor is in charge down here, Captain!" Over in the lab with Victoria and Anne they all swap stories, the Dr clearing up that business about being under suspicion himself. It is clear that the Intelligence brought him here, what he can't understand is why. Furthermore, what brought the Intelligence back again? Travers provides an answer for this: "Well, that was my wretched curiosity, I'm afraid. You see, when I came back from Tibet I brought quite a bit of stuff with me. You know: broken Yeti, bits of control spheres and things like it. The monks were only too glad to see the back of it ... Then my dear fellow, one of the control spheres was intact. So naturally I wanted to find out how it worked (Dr: Oh dear!). I fiddled with the thing on and off for years and then one day ... " "Don't tell me, it just disappeared", the Dr cuts in. "Presumably, once the sphere started working, the Intelligence just homed on it". Before more explanations can continue, Knight comes to ask them all to attend a briefing which the Colonel has decided would be the best way to be put in the picture. Though the concept amuses Anne ("we're not in the army yet, Captain") they all agree it's a good idea. Back in the tunnels, Jamie and Evans are now approaching Chancery Lane, the next stop along the Central line, between St Paul's and Holborn. After Holborn comes Tottenham Court Road which is one station, on the Northern line, from Goodge Street. This is the route Jamie wants to take but Evans has other ideas. He hopes that Holborn will now be free of Yeti so that he can find his lorry and make his escape. He has no wish to go back to HQ: "I'd be more of a hindrance, I would. Anyway, I'm not supposed to be down here. *Driver* - I am". When they reach Holborn, the two of them part company, Jamie somewhat disgusted by the Welshman's lack of loyalty or courage. In the common room the briefing is in full swing with Knight recalling the events of the past weeks with the aid of a slide projector. First came the mist, appearing in patches around central London. Not poisonous, Travers explains, but anybody who goes in just doesn't come out. By the 6th the mist had spread to include South Kensington tube station, i.e. much of the city within the Circle line. People were evacuated and the area was cordoned off. On the 7th the fungus appeared in the underground and the Yeti were first spotted on the 9th (when a slide showing a Yeti is put up the Dr notices their change of appearance: "a sort of Mark 2" - they look more ferocious than they did in Tibet). The mist seemed to be covering ground which linked together the various patches of fungus in the underground. Now that all the Circle line is invaded it is likely that the mist has covered the entire area within it. Attempts to disperse the mist have failed: "We've tried chemicals, flame throwers, explosives, all to no avail". The Colonel sums it up: "That's why we're dependant on you three coming up with the answers. If you fail, London's finished, England itself perhaps". Anne explains what she and her father have been trying to do all this time: they are working on a device to jam transmissions to the Yeti though, unfortunately, they need more equipment to finish the job. Knight reports on military operations: their main problem is lack of communications. The fog absorbs all radio waves and the Yeti destroy telephone lines as soon as they are laid. Before he can go into details Chorley bursts in, excited because he has discovered that there is a door to the surface from here which would allow a helicopter to rescue them. But the Colonel thinks otherwise: "Always assuming we could make contact with the outside world, which we can't, how do you imagine they would find us in that mist?" Chorley's panic is turning to anger, "I resent your tone", he spits out, "You seem to forget that I am here as a representative of the press and as such ...". "And as such, Mr Chorley, you are no more than a passenger." But the TV man will not be put off: he goes over to Weams in the operations room to try to elicit more information. He asks about tall buildings which might stick out over the fog - the Post Office Tower, Weams suggests. But as the private goes to the wall chart to explain where this monument is the fungus can be seen moving once again and so he has to run off to report to the Colonel. Jamie, on his own now, makes his way cautiously along the Central line. After a short while he stops and ducks into an alcove, certain that he heard someone or something following him. His pursuer turns out to be the Welshman again. Having found that the way out of Holborn was locked and, feeling rather frightened anyway, Evans decided that his best bet was to be back with Jamie. The operations room is now full of people watching the fungus slowly take over more and more stations: Queensway, Lancaster Gate, Strand and Chancery Lane all go in half an hour. At this rate they've probably only got a couple of hours left, a fact which is making Chorley quite hysterical. The Colonel deals with him: "Ah, Mr Chorley. You'd like to help wouldn't you ... Yes, of course you would. Now look, I tell you what I want you to do. We shall all be rushing about a bit so what I want you to do is to *wait* in the common room. Act as a sort of liaison officer. You could do that, couldn't you ... Yes, of course you could. Off you go. We'll all report progress to you personally ... Corporal Blake, see that Mr Chorley has everything he needs: desk, comfortable chair, pens and paper and so on. Off you go", and Chorley, placated, leaves. "Right, that's enough diplomacy for one day. Now let's get down to some practical soldiering!" The Dr suggests they seal themselves in by blowing up the tunnel nearby. Arnold confirms that they have just about enough explosives for the job which still leaves the problem of the Yeti's coccooning tactics. The Dr's idea, however, is to use a trolley which they roll into place from a distance and then detonate remotely - before the Yeti can get to it. They have a luggage trolley which could be made suitable for the job, by changing it's wheel gauge, and Travers and the Dr can set up a detonator. Lethbridge-Stewart agrees with the plan and preparations get under way. However, while this happens, someone, treacherously, unbars the main doors to the fortress! Up in the lab Anne spots Victoria looking at a pile of Yeti-related objects on the workbench. Amongst them are some small Yeti models, the ones that Padmasambvha used to control the robots in Tibet. When the Dr arrives and sees them he double-checks with Anne that they really aren't working. Anne confirms though at the same time noting that one of the four models is missing. (The fourth model is in fact lying next to the explosives room door. It begins to give out a faint beeping. Meanwhile, the main doors to the fortress open and a full-size Yeti enters, then another one carrying a web-gun.) Travers comes into the lab next, carrying the detonator which he and the Dr have put together: it has a 60 second fuse though it will also go off if anyone touches it. Finally Arnold reports that the trolley has now been altered so that it will run on the underground rail tracks. Everything seems ready for the Dr's plan to be put to action. However. On his way over Arnold noticed that the main doors to the fortress were open. Blake now comes in, perplexed, having found the padlock to the explosives room door, broken, lying on the floor next to a small model Yeti. The Dr fears the worst. They quickly go over to the explosives room but it's too late: all their ammunition has been covered with webbing! The Colonel decides that their only chance is to get to Holborn to try to retrieve the explosives stored there, though the Dr thinks it's likely this supply will have been dealt with in the same way. When Arnold arrives to report that there is definitely no Yeti in the fortress now, the Colonel orders Knight and his men off to Holborn, intending to follow on with Arnold later. He leaves four men to make sure the civilians are safe, though the Dr has his own observations about safety: "Someone here is in league with the Yeti - maybe even controlling them ... The main door didn't open by itself, did it? It may be one of us." "Me perhaps", the Colonel adds. "Perhaps." "Or even you." Over in the common room, Chorley has beguiled Victoria into telling him all about the TARDIS. It could get them all out of here only the Dr wouldn't leave without Jamie and in any case they wont be able to reach it if they blow up the tunnel as planned. Chorley's eyes narrow as he forms a plan of his own - he runs out just as the Dr comes in. The Dr, suspicious, finds out from Victoria what's been going on: "You didn't tell him about the TARDIS, did you?". His fears seem confirmed when they discover that Chorley has locked them in. At last, after their long journey, Jamie and Evans arrive back at HQ. They've just seen Knight's party on the way to Holborn and now Chorley rushes past them. As they get in they hear a loud knocking coming from the common room and so go over and release the Dr and Victoria. The Dr, anxious that a servant of the Intelligence could get hold of the TARDIS, grabs all three of them and runs off after Chorley. The Colonel and Arnold leave soon after to catch up with Knight and his party; Anne and her father are left alone in the lab. Suddenly they hear a terrible scream coming from the operations room and Travers goes over to investigate. When he gets there he sees Weams lying on the ground, his neck broken, a small model Yeti beeping beside him. As Travers bends over him a large shadow falls across them. Horrified he sees a Yeti looming over him and barely has time to scream before the monster strikes him down. Episode 4 --------- "What - Good Lord. (roar) Anne! The Yeti! Aaaaaarrgh...". Anne runs in just in time to see him dealt a blow by the Yeti. She screams but the monster strikes her down too, though not unconscious - she sees her father dragged away. Meanwhile, the Dr, Jamie, Evans and Victoria are chasing after Chorley whom the Dr believes is after the TARDIS. When they get to Covent Garden they see that the fungus has got there before them; Chorley is nowhere to be seen but in any case they are forced to abandon their pursuit. The Dr decides to take a small sample of the fungus with him for analysis. He uses Evans' tobacco tin, having first disposed of the tobacco within it (to Evans' dismay). The fungus seems to resent this intrusion and starts to glow and shriek angrily so they all beat a hasty retreat. The Colonel and Arnold quickly catch up with Knight and his men who are now travelling back towards them since they found Holborn already invaded by the fungus. Knight suggests that they try re-approaching the station from the Piccadilly line since Holborn is on a junction of the Central and Piccadilly and the fungus might only be present on the former. The Colonel agrees so they double back towards Tottenham Court Road, intending to get on the Piccadilly line at Leicester Square. Arnold goes along first as a sort of scout and meets up with the Dr's party coming back from Covent Garden. They inform him that this route is also blocked off so it seems that there is no way through to Holborn after all. The Sergeant goes back to report to the Colonel while the others return to HQ - the Dr keen to show Travers the fungus sample he has taken. When they get there, though, the place is in disarray. They find Anne, still alive but distraught, explaining how her father was kidnapped. The Dr wonders about why didn't they just kill him: "Unless they had a use for him ...". "I'm afraid young Weams has had it sir, like the other poor devils outside", Arnold's report almost sticks in his throat. He takes Evans off to clear up the bodies while the Dr explains to the Colonel and Captain Knight how the Yeti got in while they were out chasing Chorley. They didn't destroy the place, "They came for something and they got it." Corporal Blake calls them over to the operations room - the fungus is moving again. "It's like a spider's web", he remarks. "Yes, we're the flies all right", the Dr muses, "but where is the spider?". The Colonel wonders if perhaps Travers was the traitor in their midst, given that he's now disappeared. The Dr favours Chorley, though he notes "Whoever is in league with the Intelligence could still be amongst us here". "A fact of which I am uncomfortably aware", the Colonel agrees. "Tell me Dr, this Intelligence, exactly what is it?" "Well, I wish I could give you a precise answer. Perhaps the best way to describe is a sort of formless shapeless thing, floating about in space like a cloud of mist, only with a mind and will." "What's it after? What's it want?" "I wish I knew. The only thing I know for sure is that it brought me here", and the Dr goes on to explain about the TARDIS and how they landed at Covent Garden. Knight can't bring himself to believe all this but the Colonel is more open minded and starts thinking along the same lines as Chorley, i.e. the TARDIS could be used to get them all out of here. But escape is not on the Dr's mind. He wishes to continue Travers' work in trying to defeat the Intelligence and so he goes off to find Anne. The Colonel, however, decides that he will rescue this police-box from the fungus. As he explains to a bewildered Knight: "The army has failed to defeat this menace. Now the Dr thinks he might succeed. Personally, I doubt it. But if we stay here we're as good as dead. Therefore I do not intend leaving any escape route unexplored however screwy you may think it." The Dr finds Anne in the common room pleading with Jamie and Victoria that they should try to search for her father. But, as the Dr explains: "The soldiers could comb these tunnels for a fortnight and still never find him. I'm afraid your father's been taken by the Intelligence. The only way that we can save him is by finding the central control source." Furthermore, it is more than likely that Travers was kidnapped because he was getting close to success on the work they were doing. The Dr persuades Anne that they should continue with this. She agrees and together they go up to the lab. "My word, this is a splendid piece of work", the Dr, praises a small box-like device, "this should control the sphere all right but will it over-ride the commands issued by the Intelligence, I wonder?" Anne admits that it wont, they didn't have enough time to sort that out, but the Dr believes the two of them could finish the job if only they could get hold of the right components. Evans arrives, sent by Arnold, to hand over a small model Yeti which was found next to Weams' body. "But this is what brought the Yeti to the explosives store", the Dr is horrified. "It's obviously been reprogrammed as a homing device and you've given it to me!" "You don't think I had anything to do with these Yeti, do you?", Evans says flabbergasted, but Anne goes on to notice that the other two Yeti models have also disappeared. "Oh Don't look at me! I didn't want to come down here in the first place. I Shouldn't be down here at all really. *Driver*, I am, see. You better have this before you say I nicked it", he hands over his tobacco tin, "and I'll have the tin back when you've finished with it!". He leaves, looking rather hurt, and the Dr wonders, as he dismantles the Yeti model, if maybe his suspicions were ill-founded. He soon changes his mind, however, when he goes to inspect his fungus sample but finds that the tin is empty. Meanwhile the Colonel sets out his plan for his attempt to rescue the TARDIS. Arnold is to take two men, Lane and Evans, and their modified luggage trolley to try to get through via the tunnels by wheeling the trolley through the fungus like a sort of punt. The Colonel will take the remaining men over the surface, via Neal Street, to gain entry to Covent Garden at street level. They will then meet up with Arnold's party, put the TARDIS on the trolley, and quickly return to HQ. Captain Knight is to remain behind to look after the civilians. As Arnold gets his group together for his part of the plan, Evans starts rattling on: "Course, me, I shouldn't be doing this you know, Staff. I'm not officially on the staff down there, you see. What I am really is a *driver*. "But the sergeant will have none of this: "Don't try to come the old soldier with me lad (Who me?) Yes you. And when we get in the tunnels, don't you try to skive off 'cos if you do I'll have you for breakfast, d'you understand!" As the three of them set off, the Colonel and his men get out onto the surface and begin their cautious trek through the mist-shrouded London streets: "So far so good. If we don't see any Yeti we should make Covent Garden in about 10 minutes." Back in the lab, Knight has joined the Dr, Jamie, Victoria and Anne Travers. They are unable to question Evans about the missing fungus because he's with Arnold now so the Dr concentrates on the sphere-controlling device that Anne and her father have been working on. He is still short of certain components which he will have to get from the surface so he persuades Knight to escort him up there: "There's no mist directly above us here; we'll have to risk the Yeti." Arnold, Lane and Evans reach the edge of the fungus just outside Covent Garden. The tunnel gradient is shallow here so they shouldn't have too much difficulty pushing themselves through. The Sergeant asks for a volunteer to go with him (Evans: "Volunteer - that's a dirty word that is") and Lane reluctantly agrees but only after Arnold has just about offered to go by himself. They wear respirators to protect themselves and tie a rope to the trolley which Evans slowly plays out as they move up the tunnel. As soon as the trolley enters the fungus it begins to glow and shriek angrily and they've barely been out of sight a few moments when Evans hears them screaming. He quickly pulls the trolley back only to see Lane spread-eagled across it, his respirator torn off and his face covered with webbing. There is no sign of the Staff Sergeant. Up on the surface as the Colonel and his men near Covent Garden they are ambushed by three Yeti. The army opens fire but bullets are of little use and soon the fight starts turning into a massacre. The sounds of screams and gunfire can be heard by Knight and the Dr busy plundering an electrical store nearby. Just as the Dr finds his last component a Yeti finds them. Knight tries to defend himself but, like the Colonel and his men, finds firing at it no use. He perishes under a single savage blow. The monster turns on the Dr next and bears him down, with its arm raised so as to deal with him in similar fashion. But then, as if having a sudden change of mind, the Yeti lowers its arm gently to its side. Even its roaring has stopped so that only the familiar beeping sound can be heard. The creature turns and leaves the shop, leaving the Dr puzzled but relieved. Strangely, after the Yeti has gone, the Dr can still hear beeping. Searching for the source of this noise he finds, in Captain Knight's pocket, one of the missing Yeti models. The Dr returns to HQ where Evans has just been explaining what happened to him. He dismantles the model found on Knight - it is clear that somebody planted this in the captain's pocket, the question is what happened to the other one? Evans is on the defensive again: "Don't you try and pin this on me, boyo! Strikes me anything goes wrong around here and I'm always the one to get the blame!" The Colonel arrives, now, looking pale and shaken, the only one to survive from his overland party. "Gone ... All of them ... Hopeless. Can't fight them. Seems indestructible ... You were right Dr when you said they were formless, shapeless ..." But the Dr can hear a beeping sound again - clearly the other Yeti model is in here somewhere! The Colonel recognises this sound too, he's been hearing it on and off for some time. Sure enough, when he empties his pockets they find the little homing device, but too late. A full sized Yeti breaks through the door! Episode 5 --------- "Listen everyone (beep,beep,beep) It's the other Yeti model, it's here. It's somewhere in this room!" When the Colonel looks through his pockets he finds the missing model but just as the door to the lab is broken open by the full sized version. The Yeti, however, does not come in; instead, it makes way for a rather glazed looking Professor Travers: "I AM THE INTELLIGENCE", he declares, his tone strangely alien. "I SPEAK TO YOU THROUGH THIS MAN'S VOICE BECAUSE THE TIME HAS COME FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND MY PURPOSE ... YOU DEFEATED ME IN TIBET, DR. NOW YOU HAVE FALLEN INTO THE TRAP THAT I HAVE SO CAREFULLY PREPARED FOR YOU." "Oh, I see, so that's why you brought me here: revenge!" "OH NO REVENGE IS A VERY HUMAN EMOTION, MY PURPOSE FOR YOU IS FAR MORE INTERESTING ... THROUGH TIME AND SPACE I HAVE OBSERVED YOU, DR. YOUR MIND SURPASSES THAT OF ALL OTHER CREATURES." The Dr is impatient: "What do you want?" "YOU! YOUR MIND WILL BE INVALUABLE TO ME. THEREFORE I HAVE INVENTED A MACHINE THAT WILL DRAIN ALL PAST KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE FROM YOUR MIND." Victoria: "But you'll kill him!" "NO, HE WILL SURVIVE, HIS MIND UNHARMED, ONLY EMPTY AS A NEWBORN CHILD'S." "And if I refuse?" "THEN I SHALL HAVE TO SEEK THE HELP OF LESSER MORTALS, LIKE YOUR COMPANIONS HERE AND MANY MANY OTHERS ... THE DR MUST SUBMIT WILLINGLY ... THEN THE OTHERS WILL GO FREE." Anne: "And my father too?" "AH, HIM TOO. I'M ONLY USING THIS BODY TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOU ... I HAVE MANY OTHER HUMAN HANDS AT MY COMMAND." The Dr sees his opportunity: "And who are they?" "ALWAYS QUESTIONING! EVEN NOW YOU'RE SEEKING TO DESTROY ME. I SEE I SHALL HAVE TO GUIDE YOUR THOUGHTS". With a sudden lunge the Professor grabs Victoria. When Jamie tries to rescue her a Yeti intervenes. "CO-OPERATE AND THE CHILD WILL BE UNHARMED. YOU HAVE 20 MINUTES TO MAKE UP YOUR MIND", and Victoria is dragged away. Jamie's upset about this kidnap and tries to follow but a Yeti is left outside the door to prevent this. "Victoria is quite safe", the Dr reassures him. "The Intelligence knows that if it harms her I wont co-operate." Evans can see an obvious answer to their problem: "Stop me if I got it wrong, sir, but if this Intelligence thing here gets the Dr, will he leave us all alone ... Well, sir, why don't we just let it have him. Then we can all go home!" Although this suggestion isn't very popular, the Dr promises that he will give himself up if he can't come up with a solution. As he explains to Jamie, "when it's all over, you'll just both have to look after me, that's all ... if what the Intelligence says is true my mind will be like that of a child. You'll have to look after me until I grow up." When Evans hears the Yeti outside their door go it seems as though they are going to be allowed their freedom after all. Still, the Colonel takes him and Jamie to look through the fortress just to make sure. Jamie believes that the Yeti was left behind as a rearguard so they will probably encounter it again if they try to follow the Professor through the tunnels. The highlander is keen to do something so he persuades the Colonel to try an overland sortie again, this time to cut them off at one of the other stations. Evans is left behind as guard. When they get to the outside door, however, they find the fungus ready to invade. They run back and close a fire door on it as it starts to pours through. Anne, who is losing heart, is persuaded by the Dr that they must carry on with their work, especially now they have all the components that they need. She sets to on the control box while the Dr gets busy with one of the Yeti's control spheres: "Strange, it's not picking up", the Dr shakes it a bit, "the Intelligence must be transmitting. I wonder why it's not working." He thumps it on the table and the control unit begins to beep. The Dr is delighted, "it's homing", he explains as it rolls along the table, "fairly strongly". Just then Jamie and the Colonel come in and the sphere makes a sudden bid for freedom. The Dr dives and catches it as Jamie quickly closes the door. The Colonel explains about the fungus' invasion, he's beginning to lose heart too: "This sphere of yours, exactly how's it going to help us?" "Well, this sphere itself it wont ... but it will help us to test the control box". Jamie is unimpressed, "Is that all! (Dr: All?) You mean to say you've wasted all this time just ..." The Dr is indignant: "Wasting? We haven't been wasting our time!", but the Colonel and Jamie disagree. Anne tries to prevent a squabble, "if you left us alone we'd get along a lot quicker!", and so the two fighting men leave them to it. The Dr gets back to work tinkering with the sphere, even giggling a little as he watches it roll around the table. Jamie and the Colonel go back to the operations room to have a look at the latest progress of the fungus. When they get there they find Evans, who had been hiding behind the door, now feebly pointing his rifle at them: "Been working it out, I have, see. Come to the conclusion one of you two must be working for this Intelligence ... He told us he'd had another pair of hands working for him. Well I know it's not me, see. So it must be one of you two." Jamie still believes the culprit's Chorley while the Colonel has clearly had enough of the Welshman: "I don't know what you're talking about Evans and quite frankly I don't care!" But Evans is insubordinate now and decides he will stay in his hiding position while Jamie and the Colonel go off into the tunnels. Travers has dragged Victoria over to where the Intelligence has its main set-up at Piccadilly station. When they get there the Intelligence speaks to them out of the public address system: it instructs Travers to release Victoria and releases the professor from its possession. When Travers comes to he can remember nothing of what's been happening to him and in fact wants to get back to work with the Dr. Even after Victoria has explained recent events to him he still tries, futilely, to make a run for it. Help is at hand, however, in the unlikely form of Staff Sergeant Arnold, who turns up hiding under the platform. Having verified that Victoria and Travers are unharmed he sneaks away, as bid, to inform the Dr of where the two prisoners are being held. Soon after he's gone two Yeti come over and escort them away into the main part of the station. Back in the lab it's time to test out the control box with the reactivated sphere. The Dr switches the box on and off, chasing the sphere around the lab, until eventually when he's a couple of feet away from it it stops. Success! but only at close range. Now the Dr must re-program his sphere so that it will obeys his verbal commands. Unfortunately they have only 12 minutes left. Jamie and the Colonel are trying to pick up Victoria's trail along the underground tunnels. They haven't met anything for a while and Jamie is beginning to wonder if maybe the Colonel is indeed working for the Intelligence and therefore leading him away from her. His suspicions don't develop as he finds Victoria's hanky on the tracks and realises that they must be on the right route. A little way further they meet Arnold coming towards them. They are quite surprised to see him, since they'd given him up for lost, though he's got a bad cut on his head now and is a little dazed: "I were pushing the trolley through the fungus and I blacked out. I thought I were falling. When I come to, sir, I were in the tunnels. Where's the Dr, sir? I met the professor and the girl back there ... Yeti guarding them but I promised to tell the Dr." This seems like a sensible suggestion so the three of them head back. Over in HQ a control sphere rolls purposefully out of the lab. It goes down the corridor, around a corner and into the operations room, startling the Welshman inside. He jumps up on the table and starts aiming at the thing with his rifle until the Dr appears to prevent this. He commands the sphere to stop by speaking into a small microphone and it obeys, though Evans is still a little nervous: "Is that thing on our side then?". "Were you scared?", the Dr teases. "Me, no. Just got up here to get a better aim, that's all." The Dr demonstrates his voice control (Stop, move to the left, etc.) though Evans is not particularly impressed ("Make a smashing toy that"). When they tell him what they're going to do with it Evans is aghast: "Inside a Yeti! (yes, certainly, will you help us?) You must be joking! Go near one of them things? I may be stupid but I'm not daft!", so the Dr and Anne must go Yeti hunting on their own. Shortly after this, Jamie, the Colonel and Arnold arrive, the latter giving Evans another shock "B-b-b-b-but you-you-you-you-you ...". "Stop bleating like a Welsh baa-lamb, Evans!", Arnold barks out. Evans explains that the Dr and Anne have in fact gone to Warren Street to find a Yeti and, with that station's light beginning to flicker on the fungus-invasion board, Jamie and the Colonel go running off after them. Arnold is left with Evans so that he can have his head bandaged. The Dr and Anne are well aware where the fungus is since they're standing quite close to it now waiting for a Yeti to arrive. One finally does and, though Anne loses her nerve as it murderously closes in on them, the Dr is able to deactivate it with their control box. He then prises open the flap at its chest and replaces its control sphere with the one that he's modified. The Yeti now responds to his commands, "With my reprogrammed sphere and your control box we should be able to work him at quite a distance ... Now we've got a chance, Anne!" Evans finishes off Arnold's bandage with pride, "I reckon I ought to have been a doctor. Real professional, that is." Arnold is not quite so impressed but anyway orders him to put back the first aid kit into the lab. Soon after he's gone the Sergeant hears him shout and, going over to investigate, finds Evans almost paralysed with fear. Looking into the lab he can see why: the walls of the room are buckling as if under tremendous pressure, cracks are appearing and the fungus can be seen seeping through. HQ has finally been invaded! Episode 6 --------- "Staff! Staff!". "What is it Evans? ... Come on, Evans, out with it!" but Evans isreduced to a terrified stutter and can only point into the lab. When the Sergeant looks in he sees the walls of that room give way under pressure from the invading fungus, large cracks appear as the fungus pours through. They run back and close the main doors of the fortress to try, at least, to keep it out of the tunnels. It is clear to Arnold that they must go and warn the others but Evans refuses to go with him, even after the Sergeant gives him a straight order. "Now look lad you're scared - that's understandable. But you've been in the army long enough to know that orders is orders. There's four people out there. If we don't warn them, they're for the chop!" "So? Four of them taking the chop. There's no reason to make it six, is there?" The Sergeant tries to force Evans to go with him but the Welshman runs off: "Not on your Nellie! Cheerio Staff". "Right Evans, I'll get you for this!" The Dr, Anne and their friendly Yeti pause on the way back to HQ; the Dr's been doing some thinking and has decided that it would be a good idea to keep their monstrous ally secret until they know more about who else is working for the Intelligence. He instructs their Yeti thus: "You are to remain here for 90 seconds and then resume acting on orders from the Intelligence until you are told otherwise. Is that understood? (Roar!). Right, switch off, for 90 seconds, starting from now". Hurrying back to HQ they run into Jamie and the Colonel come to warn them about the proximity of the fungus. The Colonel also tells of Arnold's reappearance and Victoria and Travers' captivity at Piccadilly station while the Dr, in turn, falsely reports that their control box experiments have failed. He explains that more work is needed on it back at the lab, though their time, the 20 minutes the Intelligence gave them, is nearly up. Meanwhile back at Warren Street the modified Yeti comes to life as the Intelligence resumes control. Two more Yeti join it, striding out of the fungus, and the three of them begin to move up the tunnels towards the group of humans. The Dr's party next meets up with Arnold, bearer of bad news: "The fungus, its swamped HQ!". As they digest this latest development the three Yeti from Warren Street arrive and round them all up. Once captured, they are marched off towards Piccadilly Station, though Arnold hasn't given up the fight yet. As they're being herded along he gets the Colonel to stage a diversion (by running into the Dr!) and then slips away unnoticed. Evans, having escaped the wrath of Sergeant Arnold, now succeeds in dodging past one Yeti only to run straight into another one: "(Roar!) Oh, er, hello. If you're looking for your friend, he went that way. (the other Yeti comes back) Look, you don't want me! I'm not one of them, see. *Driver* that's what I am. Shouldn't be down here at all really. (the two Yeti pick him up between them) Hey, steady on! Oh, going for a walk are we? There's lovely." Travers and Victoria are led into the ticket hall at Piccadilly station. Here is set up the mind-draining machine: a contraption which links the Intelligence, in the form of a large pyramid, to a circlet hanging over chair. Travers is keen to investigate but a Yeti warns him off while Victoria thinks she sees a shadow move out of the corner of her eye - maybe the Intelligence in corporeal form! But the shadow disappears and the Intelligence speaks to them again over the loudspeakers: "I AM SORRY NOT TO BE HERE TO WELLCOME YOU PERSONALLY, BUT I'M SURE YOU WILL NOT BE OFFENDED. AFTER ALL, THE GUEST OF HONOUR IS THE DR. HE, I AM SURE, WILL CO-OPERATE AS I ADVISE YOU TO DO. ANY ATTEMPT TO INTERFERE WOULD BE POINTLESS. MY YETI CAN DESTROY YOU SO EASILY!" The guest of honour is currently sitting cross-legged on the platform at Piccadilly station practising a few bars of "Over the Sea to Skye" on his recorder; while the Colonel paces up and down waiting for the Yeti to make their next move. Jamie, sitting next to the Dr, has just been told about the friendly Yeti. Of course the Dr has lost track now of which one the friendly one is, but in any case he sets Jamie up with the little microphone to get him to continuously call it over: "You'll soon know if you haven't got the right one, wont you!", he says with a chuckle. When the Yeti move the humans along they miss Jamie hiding inside a large sand-bin. Arnold, having got away from the main group, runs into Chorley! The TV man's frightened out of his wits: "Oh thank heavens I've found you. I've been wandering down here by myself for ages!" "Well, well, well. Quite forgotten about you here Mr Chorley." "I tried to get out over the surface", he explains, his voice weak and punctuated by short frightened gasps, "but the Yeti everywhere ... And then this fungus and fog all around you see - it's hopeless! I tried to get back to HQ ... all the stations are locked you see. I couldn't get back in. And all the time I kept seeing more Yeti, and they were closing in on me!". He calms down a little as he recalls recent events: "And then at last I found I could get into Piccadilly but, when I got down there, there was this machine, and that professor, and the girl. And more Yeti! I just ran away." Arnold is sympathetic to Chorley's fears, but then he adds suspiciously: "There's just one thing that puzzles me though, sir ... How you managed to exist all this time, why didn't the Yetis get you?". Chorley starts to protest but the sergeant is firm: "I think perhaps you'd better come along with me, don't you sir." Over in Piccadilly station, Anne sidles up to the Dr and suggests he uses their control box to immobilise the Yeti and escape. The Dr, however, now wishes to meet the Intelligence face to face. This prospect is worrying the Colonel: "I don't really know how to say this but: Miss Travers and Victoria to think of and ... Of course the decision must be yours, yours alone. But the Intelligence did promise to release Travers and Victoria (Dr: Do you believe that?) Well why not?" "Hello, we've got company", Anne points out, as two Yeti come over with Evans dangling between them. "Where the devil have you been?", the Colonel asks him angrily. "Didn't Staff Arnold tell you, sir?" "Yes. Sounded very like desertion to me." "Desertion? Me? Oh, good heavens no. I thought I'd try a single handed and desperate attempt to rescue Professor Travers and the girl." It is fortunate for Evans that Arnold is not around to deny this and the Colonel is distracted from questioning him further by two Yeti who come over for the Dr. As the Dr's led away he shouts instructions back to them: "When the Yeti come for you, don't struggle. Whatever you do, don't resist them." A few minutes later the three humans are moved away via a different exit from the platform. They arrive at the ticket hall to be re-united with Travers and Victoria. The Dr is taken into the main part of the station, up stairs to where another Yeti waits with a strange helmet in its hands. Before it's put on his head the Dr operates the control box in his pocket and all the Yeti around him freeze. He now takes the helmet from the Yeti, opens it up and starts fiddling around inside. A few seconds later he returns it and re-activates the monsters - they continue as if nothing had happened. Jamie speaks quietly into the microphone the Dr gave him: "Yeti, come towards me. I'm standing beside the platform at Piccadilly station. Yeti, wherever you are come towards me. (A Yeti arrives) Come towards me ... that's it. Right now, raise your right arm (it doesn't). Raise your right arm (it still doesn't). Oh, what's the use! (Roar!)" Over in the ticket hall the Dr is led in with a strange helmet on his head. Despite Victoria's obvious concern he reassures them all that he is perfectly ok and everything is under control: "Now listen everyone. Don't do anything foolish. I am perfectly all right." "YES. HE IS PERFECTLY ALLRIGHT. THANK YOU DR FOR BEING SO CO-OPERATIVE. (Colonel: Why don't you show yourself! Who are you?) PATIENCE!", the Intelligence hisses as Chorley is also brought in, "YOU WILL KNOW SOON ENOUGH!". Everyone turns on the TV man but Chorley is hysterical: "It isn't me! It isn't me, don't you understand! I'm not the Intelligence. The Intelligence is him!", he screams, pointing at Arnold. "NO", comes the voice of the Intelligence out of the Sergeant's lips, "MERELY ARNOLD'S LIFELESS BODY IN WHICH I HAVE CONCEALED MYSELF. BUT LET US TO WORK. THERE WILL BE TIME FOR DISCUSSION LATER. IN FACT, ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD". As Jamie is now led in the Intelligence has him seized by a Yeti. "I MUST ENSURE YOUR COMPLETE CO-OPERATION, DR. SHOULD YOU PROVE AT ALL UNHELPFUL YOUR YOUNG FRIEND'S NECK WILL BE BROKEN." "You gave your word that no-one would be harmed. I refuse to submit until you release Jamie!" "ALL RIGHT. RELEASE THE BOY. BUT AT THE FIRST SIGN OF TROUBLE FROM YOU ... (the Dr assures him he will not resist) GOOD, INTO THE MACHINE, DR (the Dr sits in the chair and the circlet is fastened to the helmet on his head). SOON YOUR MIND WILL BE ABSORBED BY THE GREAT INTELLIGENCE. YOU SHOULD BE VERY PROUD, DR. YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE PAST WILL HELP TO SHAPE THE FUTURE OF THIS PLANET ... SUBMISSION IS ESSENTIAL ... SHOULD YOU OFFER ANY OPPOSITION, EITHER PHYSICAL OR MENTAL, I SHALL BE FORCED TO PUNISH YOU, OR RATHER YOUR FRIENDS." "PREPARE FOR A GREAT DARKNESS TO CLOUD YOUR MIND!" "Attack now! Attack the Yeti!", Jamie shouts into his microphone. Pandemonium ensues. The friendly Yeti attacks the one guarding the Dr and then, under Jamie's instructions, goes for Arnold. Other Yeti join in the fray while Evans, in a rare spot of bravery, drags a furiously protesting Dr from his seat: "No! You don't understand, you'll ruin everything ... No, no, leave me be! You don't understand, I've got to stay here!", but Jamie just thinks the Dr's a bit delirious. He snatches the helmet from his head and hurls it at the pyramid the Dr was connected to. The pyramid explodes, the Intelligence's link with earth is cut off, and the Yeti are dormant once again. As everyone recovers, coughing and spluttering, from the dust kicked up by the explosion, Evans voices their, or most of their, relief. But the Dr is furious, "You blithering Welsh imbecile! Why can't you do as you're told. (Jamie: Hey just a minute, Dr ...) You're just as bad! I told you to leave it to me, now you've gone and ruined everything! ... I had crossed the wires on that helmet thing. The Intelligence wouldn't have drained me, I would have drained the Intelligence! As it is, all we got was a crossed circuit." Victoria: "You mean all we've done is cut off it's contact with earth, it's still out there in space somewhere flying around?". "Precisely. Look", the Dr points at the crumpled lifeless body of Arnold. The Staff Sergeant was not the Intelligence, just some poor soul who got taken over. "I've failed", he declares despondently, but Travers, Anne and the Colonel disagree: "Nonsense man ... You were marvellous ... A great victory ... You were a hero and you know it." The Dr warms a little to this praise but then Chorley rounds in on him: "You have to face facts old man, by tomorrow morning you're going to be a household word". His enthusiasm continues: interviews, newspaper articles, appearances on television, but of course the Dr will have none of this. He quickly gathers Jamie and Victoria and starts off towards Covent Garden, barely pausing to say the good-bye. It's not long before they're lost again: "All these tunnels look the same to me", complains Victoria, and Jamie also reports that he's rather lost his bearings. The Dr's keen to hurry them along though, "Who knows, they might suddenly start the trains again!"