Season 18, Story 7/7, Serial 5V: 4 x 25min episodes, 28th February to 21st March 1981, Writer: Christopher H. Bidmead, Director: Peter Grimwade, Producer: John Nathan Turner, Executive Producer: Barry Letts
Previously on Doctor Who...
Ready to see the Doctor fall further than he's ever fallen before? It's the end, but the moment has been prepared for!
"Events cast shadows before them, but the huger shadows creep over us unseen.
from Doctor Who: Logopolis by Christopher H. Bidmead (Target Books)
That's such a bad picture of Tom they used in the season 18 titles.
Jason McLaughlin@jangomac72 brilliant somber atmosphere in this story which is quite fitting.
Mark Walker@Mark_Walker sets up the feel that something's coming to an end.
PART ONE (28th February 1981)
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral Arm of the Galaxy, on an utterly insignificant blue-green planet, Police Constable Donald Seagrave props his bicycle up against one of the last remaining police boxes in England, on the Barnet bypass in the year 1981 to be precise, to call into his station.
The PC struggles to make out the other end of the line, but its not just the noise from the traffic making it hard to hear, there's crackle, followed by a wheezing, groaning sound, on the line.
He fails to notice as the police box behind him bulges behind him, waxing and waning in time to the wheezing as its inner dimensions warp...
Love that effect. So simple but so effective.
As he jiggles the phone in the hope of reconnecting the call, the door opens...
...and he's dragged inside. The last sounds he ever hears are the high pitched oscillation of a strange device, and gently mocking laughter.
Far away in both time and space, aboard that fantastical time and space machine known as the TARDIS, a tall man with a shock of curly hair is pacing in a crumbling stone courtyard with unevenly flagged stone slabs and pillars covered in creeping ivy.
This is the mysterious traveller in time and space, known only as the Doctor, now in his fourth incarnation.
Jason McLaughlin@jangomac72 I loved seeing more of the TARDIS as a kid.
It seems the Doctor is deep in thought about his ship's Chameleon circuit, when he's interrupted by his young travelling companion form E-Space, Adric.
The interruption is not exactly welcome. "Look, whenever you see me in this part of the TARDIS, pacing up and down like this, be a good chap and don't interrupt me, will you, unless it's terribly urgent. It's not terribly urgent, is it?"
The Doctor tells Adric that if it is terribly urgent he could always ring the Cloister Bell, a sort of communications device reserved for wild catastrophes and sudden calls to man the proverbial battle stations.
The TARDIS might not have "battle stations" but the Doctor has started to think he should be running "a tighter ship".
He says the second law of thermodynamics is taking its toll on the TARDIS. "Entropy increases... The more you put things together, the more they keep falling apart..."
It is quite nice thematically that time and decay are catching up with a long-lived incarnation.
DDG@dalekdudeguy There's quite a contrast between the 4th Doctor of season 12 and the 4th Doctor of season 18. 
MAW Holmes@MAW_H I love the mournful, melancholic air that Logopolis has, certainly in its opening episodes...Adric asks whether the TARDIS can still get them to Gallifrey.
It could, but the Doctor's had second thoughts about taking Adric for a visit. "There's bound to be an awful lot of fuss about Romana. Why she stayed in E-space, official investigations, that sort of thing."
Romana broke the cardinal rule of Gallifrey: She became involved.
The Doctor says it's better to "let a few oceans flow under a few bridges" and head off somewhere else.
Instead, he has in mind a trip to "my home from home" - Earth.
Odd that he's positively nostalgic about Earth, when a few seasons back he hated it and called it "boring."
Mark Walker@Mark_Walker he's very fickle about us pudding brains at times! Meanwhile on Earth, a young Australian air hostess, Tegan Jovanka, is on her way to her first day at work. or would be if she didn't keep forgetting things. Outside, her aunt is trying to get her stalled sports car to start.
Is this the new companion? Australian, argumentative and abrasive? Her air hostess niece isn't much better...
KeithSay@50dw50 i adored Tegan at the time, it was not until i rewatched her stories i fell out of love with her, she is much more fun with Big Finish.She might know where the exits are on a plane but Tegan's forgotten to shut her Aunt Vanessa's front door (again).
Jason McLaughlin@jangomac72 Tegan would've been great if she'd left at end of S19, just couldn't understand why she travelled with the Doctor when she moaned all the time!! I would've left her at Heathrow!!
RoTo@SquarePegShoes Are Primark bringing out a knock off copy of Tegan's uniform? I've always wanted that hat!Luckily for Aunt Vanessa, Tegan's got the knack.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Although the 'fasten seatbelt' sign is now off, we suggest that you keep your seatbelt fastened when seated. If necessary, you may move about the cabin..."
And they're off! How battered is Auntie Vanessa's sportscar? She must still be enjoying it though, as she hasn't got out yet, and you know what Aunty Vanessa always said...
Back in the Cloister room aboard the TARDIS, Adric notes that Earth is "the one with all the oceans".
The Doctor has Britain in mind specifically, where he can measure the exterior dimensions of a police box.
The 4th Doctor's burgundy coat's great but perhaps it'd be better as part of a less uniform look, maybe with a different colour scarf and trousers? But oh, the question marks on the shirt. Why, why, why?
Mark Walker@Mark_Walker JNT thought he was being clever. As he often (wrongly) did! The Doctor needs the measurements to perform some Block Transfer Computations on the TARDIS exterior in the hope of repairing the chameleon circuit.
Adric has never heard of Block Transfer Computation, which comes as no surprise to the Doctor, because the planet of its' origin, Logopolis, is a quiet little place.
They're just about to start out for Earth, when the Cloister Bell begins to ring. Looks like the Doctor jinxed them by mentioning it earlier.
Mark Walker@Mark_Walker Each time the Cloister bell goes I think I've had a text message!MAW Holmes@MAW_H Like a broken alarm clock, it doesn't ring for twenty years, and nowadays it's bonging away at the slightest thing...Jason McLaughlin@jangomac72 such a brilliant device for the story, do feel it's somewhat overused now though in the new seriesAunty Vanessa's got a flat. So's her car.
Tegan pulls into the layby on the Barnet Bypass, right near the very same police box where Police Constable Donald Seagrave fell prey to the sinister chuckler.
Just as soon as it began, the Cloister Bell stops ringing. The Doctor and Adric have missed dinner. Pondering what it means, the Doctor tells Adric it means nothing when it's not ringing. Something must have made it ring, though, unless "our old friend entropy's nibbling away at the system circuitry."
Tegan is obviously no stranger to rolling up her sleeves and getting stuck in.
The Doctor explains the Chameleon Circuit to Adric. He always meant to ask Romana to help him fix it one day, but never got round to it.
They have a wistful nosey at Romana's room for no real reason. I'm sure that won't come up again.
Tegan is incredulous at her Aunty Vanessa's preferred option of putting on a show of looking helpless so as to attract a lift, resolving to change the tyre herself and telling her Aunt that "you just don't get this sort of silly aggravation with aircraft!" I give it another season tops before she has to change a tyre on an aircraft.
In describing how the Chameleon circuit works - or should work- the Doctor is forced to admit that the TARDIS is only really his "on a finders-keepers basis", and that it was in for repairs at the time he "borrowed" it.
It's outer appearance became stuck as a Police Box in a totter's yard. "I should have waited till they'd done the chameleon conversion, but there were other pressing reasons at the time."
Judging by the BBC computer in the console, he nicked the TARDIS in the Gallifreyan equivalent of the early 80s.
In theory, he should be able to just punch in instructions and the Chameleon Circuit should change the TARDIS' outward appearance...
However, it never sticks, reverting to a rather familiar shape.
"It's very distinctive," offers Adric, charitably, but the Doctor's not so sure they should be distinctive, especially as this is how the Master hid from them on Traken.
Adric doesn't see the urgency if the Master has been disposed of, but the Cloister Bell having rung has made the Doctor wary.
Tegan is distracted from wheel-nuts and hub-trims by the sight of an aeroplane thundering overhead.
Vanessa says she sometimes thinks Tegan should have been born with wings. Crikey, imagine Tegan with wings.
Tegan and Vanessa totally fail to notice the arrival of a 2nd Police Box.
"We've missed!" quickly becomes "What a landing!" Excellent covering, Doctor.
But they're not too far off target, so rather than get out to measure the box, which would surely be noticed by the two women trying to change a tyre outside...
...the Doctor prefers to try a nifty little trick, and materialize around it.
"The TARDIS and I are getting rather better at these short hops."
When Adric declares that the police box is "just like the TARDIS", the very thought is quickly dismissed by the Doctor: "I hope not. That could produce some unpleasant dimensional anomalies."
Now the serious business of measuring all 37 of the box's dimensions can begin!
Whilst Tegan bemoans the fact that her aunt's spare tyre is also flat...
...a ghostly figure watches them from a field across the motorway.
Isaac Dakin@IWhittakerDakin Love the shot of the watcher being in the background and then we zoom in. Thank you Grimwade! I love the Watcher, what a fantastic concept. I wish they'd do another regeneration like that.
Mark Walker@Mark_Walker I imagine at the time when the significance wasn't known it was quite creepy.The Doctor makes Adric write a bunch of nerdy facts and figures. He'll like that.
He goes on to explain that the people of Logopolis can take their measurements and convert them into a precise mathematical model to overlay onto the TARDIS, modelling space-time events through pure calculation.
This is the fabled "Block Transfer Computation", the power to create solid objects through pure mathematics; to shape reality.
All that running the universe stuff isn't really the Doctor's style, though. He just wants the Chameleon Circuit fixed, so it's on with the measurements, and up on the box's roof for Adric.
The tyre-changing isn't going well. Tegan refuses to seek the attentions of a "knight errant", preferring that they try pumping the tyre up for themselves.
Vanessa shoots down Tegan's comparisons with doing things for herself on her father's farm, which is "hardly the outback".
Vanessa thought she saw someone and tries to wave down assistance, but Tegan tells her there aren't any knights errant: "It's the 1980s!"
She's not wrong. The Watcher has disappeared.
Adric's never heard the expression "standing on their heads", which the Logopolitans don't do, although they do intone the computations. The Doctor isn't quite sure why.
The console begins to object to... something, and Adric suggests it could be a gravity bubble. Initially the Doctor is sceptical, but it turns out that's exactly what it is.
It's very localized, so the Doctor decides to investigate and check that they can safely dematerialize.
"I have a feeling I'm overlooking the obvious again. Back in two shakes."
Seeing nothing out of the ordinary - just a couple of women trying to change a tyre in a layby - the Doctor turns to go back inside.
Suddenly, though, he seems to feel a presence, and has a funny turn as he clocks the Watcher...
MAW Holmes@MAW_H Clockwatcher...? You'll soon be able to head off home, Tom...
Isaac Dakin@IWhittakerDakin Beautiful music from paddy kingsland when the doctor first sees the watcher.
Yes, I love all the music on this one, but the Watcher stuff is particularly special.
Mark Walker@Mark_Walker the bit where the Doc sees the Watcher is great - Tom says so much with just his face!
When he returns to the control room, Adric is trying to pick the lock of the other Police Box using the pin from his badge for mathematical excellence.
He manages to open the other police box without any help at all. Yeah, right.
Venturing inside, the Doctor's fears are confirmed. The Police Box they've materialized around is another TARDIS, and one that beat them to the original box, materializing around it first.
This has created what seems to be some kind of dimensional feedback loop, an infinite sequence of Russian dolled Police Boxes, TARDISes within TARDISes...
Tegan concedes that with two flats they're going to have to resort to taking a tyre to the nearest garage.
Vanessa is still pushing the knight errant option, but Tegan opts to roll with it even if she thinks garages are full of "crooks and swindlers".
Maybe it's worth seeing if the Police Box, which promises "Advice and Assistance Obtainable Immediately" and that "Officers and Cars Respond to Urgent Calls", might hold the solution.
For some reason, the sign says "Pull to Open", which must be a mistake, because when she pushes against them, the double doors open inward...
If Tegan had walked in just a moment earlier she'd have seen the other TARDIS inside fading away...
No sooner is she inside, than the doors close behind her, trapping her inside, and sealing her fate.
Inside the other TARDIS, the Doctor isn't yet ready to admit to himself that they're inside another TARDIS.
Reasoning that there must be intelligent life behind the design of the console, and instinctively recognising that this is a "ship" of some sort, Tegan tries to find the switch that will let her communicate with "the crew".
"My neem's Tegan Jovanka, what's your neem?"
Getting no reply, she decides to venture deeper into the ship when she hears the sound of the Cloister Bell ringing inside. Of course, she doesn't appreciate that the sound means that things are terribly wrong.
Vanessa notices that Tegan has been in the box for a good few minutes now, and goes to see what's up. She never makes it inside the box, though, as an unseen figure looms towards her.
Sensing the evil from the monstrous presence that lurches towards her, Vanessa tries to raise the flat tyre above her head to throw at it, but her cries are met with a mocking chuckle, and the pulsing of an electronic device that bathes her in a fearful orange glow...
The Doctor and Adric grow fearful that they may have become trapped in an infinite regression of ever darker TARDIS dimensions.
Although they can hear the Cloister Bell, it's very muffled. It's only as they near the nucleus of the gravity bubble that the Doctor is prepared to admit that the cause is indeed another TARDIS - one that arrived before they did, and lay in wait around the Police Box.
He takes a deep breath, and steps through the Police Box door...
...only to find himself outside. He's made it!
He's greeted by a Detective, heading up a group of uniformed policemen investigating the nearby, now abandoned, car. It's Tom Georgeson - nice to see he's fully recovered from being exterminated on Skaro six years ago.
Adric hears as the Detective asks if the car is the Doctor's. When he confirms that it's not, the Detective beckons him over to take a look inside the vehicle.
The Doctor's worst fears are confirmed: "So he did escape from Traken!"
Tegan's well and truly lost now.
All these corridors look the same...
The Watcher watches, as the Detective invites the Doctor down to the station.
The Doctor has bigger fish to fry, though. "He's still about, somewhere."
The presence of the shrunken corpses of Police Constable Donald Seagrave and Tegan's Aunt Vanessa identify the killer: "The Master."
PART TWO (7th March 1981)
Adric ventures out of the TARDIS, but doesn't get too close.
With the urgency of the situation inside the TARDIS now clear, the Doctor hasn't got time for a trip to the local station.
The Doctor appeals for a distraction, with zero degree of subtlety.
"Would you mind awfully if I stopped to telephone my solicitor?"
Whilst the Detective shepherds the Doctor into one side of the squad car...
...Adric draws the police away from the car with the help of an abandoned bicycle (on a hillside).
The Doctor uses Adric's little distraction to escape out of the other side of the car. Ace move.
The Doctor is well away before the filth realize Adric has pulled the wool,
The Detective can only watch as the Doctor escapes to the safety of the TARDIS.
Adric makes further use of PC Seagrave's abandoned bike to make his own escape.
They'd have had the Doctor if it wasn't for that pesky kid!
They might have made it back to the TARDIS control room, but whether the're safe is quite another matter: the other TARDIS, and the real Police Box inside it, is conspicuous by its absence.
The Cloister Bell tolls its warning.
"Battle stations?"
"Absolutely!"
"Knock knock."
"Who's there?"
"..."
"Get the key."
If they're to leave Earth, they're going to need to free up more power from somewhere.
The Doctor decides to jettison Romana's room to get away. Yeah, move on, mate.
Mark Walker@Mark_Walker all those rooms, which shall I jettison first....?
MAW Holmes@MAW_H "Now, did I clear all of my stuff out of those cupboards...?"
"Are you sure?"
"This is life; nothing's sure."
Romana's departure is obviously still a sore point, as the Doctor gets shirty when questioned. "LOOK, DO YOU WANT A QUICK DECISION OR A DEBATE?"
But he's all nonchalant a second later, when the extra boost gained from converting the mass of Romana's room into energy allows for a smooth dematerialization.
Georgeson of Dock Green is perplexed to find the Doctor and Adric aren't inside the - now actual - Police Box that's been left behind. It seems the Doctor's TARDIS has dragged the other TARDIS away, leaving the Police Box in peace.
Suddenly distracted by something on the console, the Doctor sends Adric for a tin of stripy paint.
As soon as Adric's left the room, he listens intently to a little used section of the console.
Adric doesn't make it as far as the Cloister room before the Cloister Bell simply stops ringing of its own accord. Are they really out of danger?
Adric might not have made it to the Cloister room but Tegan has - and now she can't make it out!
After what seems like hours of running around in circles, Tegan takes a breather on one of the stone benches.
She can hardly believe her eyes when the other "Police Box" materializes smack bang in the middle of the Cloister room.
Adric returns to the control room to find the Doctor numb. The message was from Nyssa of Traken: her father, Tremas, has vanished.
After seeing the familiar handiwork of the Master in the red sports car in the lay-by, it's not hard for the Doctor to deduce what has happened.
This possession is not something Time-Lords can naturally do, but with some of the powers of the Keepership of Traken still lingering, the Master has renewed himself.
It seems pretty clear that he came to Earth to lay in wait for the Doctor, knowing that the Doctor planned to fix the chameleon circuit.
But now he's given the Doctor an idea. "Can you swim?" This will not end well.
Back in the Cloister room Tegan can't quite believe that the Police Box is real. The door creaks open, ominously, as if to tempt her in, but she doesn't make her aunt's mistake.
The Doctor and Adric are either aiming for the Thames or tuning into Eastenders four years early on the time space visualizer.
In order to plunge the TARDIS to the bottom of the Thames, they have to disconnect all the console's systems.
When asked, Adric says he's ready if the Doctor is.
"Well I'd feel a lot more confident if you just said yes!"
Tegan really needs to get used to a bit of turbulence if she's going to make a go of this air hostess thing.
The Doctor thinks they've touched bottom.
Mark Walker@Mark_Walker Oo-er!
I feel I've failed if Kenneth doesn't put in an appearance at least once a tweetalong :-D
"Crazy idiot of a pilot!" You know, I'm starting to think that if Tegan ever gets to Heathrow she's not going to last 5 minutes in her air hostess job. Certainly no longer than the gap between seasons of Doctor Who anyway.
She's chilled by a sinister chuckling emanating from the Police Box.
She starts to back away...
...but the laughter seems to be coming from all around her now.
The Doctor braces for the crushing water pressure of the depths as Adric disconnects the last system that will force the TARDIS' full materialization.
But something's not right...
There's no pressure on the doors at all.
How exactly was this going to "flush out" the Master's TARDIS?
"Ah. I thought there's be a perfectly simple explanation." What, for that plan?
The TARDIS may have been pointed at the bottom of the Thames, but it's landed on a pier jutting out into the river.
Something's not right about all of this. Adric suspects the Master's interference.
And lurking on a bridge above them, beckoning, is the Watcher...
The Watcher beckons to the Doctor.
"Nothing like this has ever happened before. I've got to get to the bottom of this." The Doctor tells Adric to stay put as he answers the Watcher's summoning.
Tegan is not having much joy escaping the Cloister room. It seems the Master is really taking the piss with the TARDIS' internal dimensions now.
The Doctor braces himself for some ominous news. That premonition he had on the Barnet Bypass seems to haunt him once more.
The Doctor is eventually worn down by his counterpart's impassiveness.
Just when Tegan seems to have found her way back to the corridor outside...
...her pathway twists back to the Cloister room, driving her to despair.
She doesn't even notice as the Police Box vanishes. Maybe now that the Master has seemingly had his fill, she'll have more joy.
Well, she might have had a set back, but Tegan doesn't have it in her to give up, so she steels herself for another escape attempt.
"I've just dipped into the future. We must be prepared for the worst."
Next stop Logopolis.
Adric believes the Watcher is the new Master, and although he doesn't contradict him, the Doctor tells him not to guess. "There's enough uncertainty in the universe as it is."
Whilst Adric can help, the Watcher's warning was clear:
"A chain of circumstances that fragments the law that holds the universe together."
The TARDIS arrives on the planet of Logopolis, materializing for a moment in mid-air over a brain-hemisphere like arrangement of mudbrick dwellings, huddled around a radio telescope.
Kosmic Kris@KosmicKris the thing I love about Logopolis is that it constantly shifts location: Earth, Logopolis, Pharos Project. Gives a nice pace.
...when Tegan comes bowling into the control room.
For a moment, they all freeze!
Love that look the Doctor and Adric exchange.
The Logopolitans are dreary looking bunch, although I should cut them some slack, it does look like their brains are hanging out the back of their heads.
Led by the Monitor, they assemble on the edge of town to welcome the TARDIS.
Tegan demands answers. Loudly.
"You can take me right back where you found me, Doctor whoever you are. My aunt's waiting in the car to take me to the airport."
"Your aunt? Woman in the white hat, red sports car?"
"You've seen her?"
"Well, a little of her..."
Delicious black humour from Bidmead there.
Knowing (but not revealing) that Tegan has lost her aunt to the Master, the Doctor decides she'll just have to come along.
The Master's TARDIS leaves the Cloister room at last...
The tyre-changing isn't going well. Tegan refuses to seek the attentions of a "knight errant", preferring that they try pumping the tyre up for themselves.
Vanessa shoots down Tegan's comparisons with doing things for herself on her father's farm, which is "hardly the outback".
Vanessa thought she saw someone and tries to wave down assistance, but Tegan tells her there aren't any knights errant: "It's the 1980s!"
She's not wrong. The Watcher has disappeared.
Adric's never heard the expression "standing on their heads", which the Logopolitans don't do, although they do intone the computations. The Doctor isn't quite sure why.
The console begins to object to... something, and Adric suggests it could be a gravity bubble. Initially the Doctor is sceptical, but it turns out that's exactly what it is.
It's very localized, so the Doctor decides to investigate and check that they can safely dematerialize.
"I have a feeling I'm overlooking the obvious again. Back in two shakes."
Seeing nothing out of the ordinary - just a couple of women trying to change a tyre in a layby - the Doctor turns to go back inside.
Suddenly, though, he seems to feel a presence, and has a funny turn as he clocks the Watcher...
MAW Holmes@MAW_H Clockwatcher...? You'll soon be able to head off home, Tom...
Isaac Dakin@IWhittakerDakin Beautiful music from paddy kingsland when the doctor first sees the watcher.Mark Walker@Mark_Walker the bit where the Doc sees the Watcher is great - Tom says so much with just his face!
When he returns to the control room, Adric is trying to pick the lock of the other Police Box using the pin from his badge for mathematical excellence.
He manages to open the other police box without any help at all. Yeah, right.
Venturing inside, the Doctor's fears are confirmed. The Police Box they've materialized around is another TARDIS, and one that beat them to the original box, materializing around it first.
This has created what seems to be some kind of dimensional feedback loop, an infinite sequence of Russian dolled Police Boxes, TARDISes within TARDISes...
Tegan concedes that with two flats they're going to have to resort to taking a tyre to the nearest garage.
Vanessa is still pushing the knight errant option, but Tegan opts to roll with it even if she thinks garages are full of "crooks and swindlers".
Maybe it's worth seeing if the Police Box, which promises "Advice and Assistance Obtainable Immediately" and that "Officers and Cars Respond to Urgent Calls", might hold the solution.
For some reason, the sign says "Pull to Open", which must be a mistake, because when she pushes against them, the double doors open inward...
If Tegan had walked in just a moment earlier she'd have seen the other TARDIS inside fading away...
No sooner is she inside, than the doors close behind her, trapping her inside, and sealing her fate.
Inside the other TARDIS, the Doctor isn't yet ready to admit to himself that they're inside another TARDIS.
Reasoning that there must be intelligent life behind the design of the console, and instinctively recognising that this is a "ship" of some sort, Tegan tries to find the switch that will let her communicate with "the crew".
"My neem's Tegan Jovanka, what's your neem?"
Getting no reply, she decides to venture deeper into the ship when she hears the sound of the Cloister Bell ringing inside. Of course, she doesn't appreciate that the sound means that things are terribly wrong.
Vanessa notices that Tegan has been in the box for a good few minutes now, and goes to see what's up. She never makes it inside the box, though, as an unseen figure looms towards her.
Sensing the evil from the monstrous presence that lurches towards her, Vanessa tries to raise the flat tyre above her head to throw at it, but her cries are met with a mocking chuckle, and the pulsing of an electronic device that bathes her in a fearful orange glow...
The Doctor and Adric grow fearful that they may have become trapped in an infinite regression of ever darker TARDIS dimensions.
Although they can hear the Cloister Bell, it's very muffled. It's only as they near the nucleus of the gravity bubble that the Doctor is prepared to admit that the cause is indeed another TARDIS - one that arrived before they did, and lay in wait around the Police Box.
He takes a deep breath, and steps through the Police Box door...
...only to find himself outside. He's made it!
He's greeted by a Detective, heading up a group of uniformed policemen investigating the nearby, now abandoned, car. It's Tom Georgeson - nice to see he's fully recovered from being exterminated on Skaro six years ago.
Adric hears as the Detective asks if the car is the Doctor's. When he confirms that it's not, the Detective beckons him over to take a look inside the vehicle.
The Doctor's worst fears are confirmed: "So he did escape from Traken!"
Tegan's well and truly lost now.
All these corridors look the same...
The Watcher watches, as the Detective invites the Doctor down to the station.
The Doctor has bigger fish to fry, though. "He's still about, somewhere."
The presence of the shrunken corpses of Police Constable Donald Seagrave and Tegan's Aunt Vanessa identify the killer: "The Master."
PART TWO (7th March 1981)
Adric ventures out of the TARDIS, but doesn't get too close.
With the urgency of the situation inside the TARDIS now clear, the Doctor hasn't got time for a trip to the local station.
The Doctor appeals for a distraction, with zero degree of subtlety.
"Would you mind awfully if I stopped to telephone my solicitor?"
...Adric draws the police away from the car with the help of an abandoned bicycle (on a hillside).
The Doctor uses Adric's little distraction to escape out of the other side of the car. Ace move.
The Doctor is well away before the filth realize Adric has pulled the wool,
The Detective can only watch as the Doctor escapes to the safety of the TARDIS.
Adric makes further use of PC Seagrave's abandoned bike to make his own escape.
They'd have had the Doctor if it wasn't for that pesky kid!
They might have made it back to the TARDIS control room, but whether the're safe is quite another matter: the other TARDIS, and the real Police Box inside it, is conspicuous by its absence.
The Cloister Bell tolls its warning.
"Battle stations?"
"Absolutely!"
"Knock knock."
"Who's there?"
"..."
"Get the key."
Adric frets about the Cloister Bell, but the Doctor has to choose between emergencies, as the TARDIS won't dematerialize.
If they're to leave Earth, they're going to need to free up more power from somewhere.
The Doctor decides to jettison Romana's room to get away. Yeah, move on, mate.
Mark Walker@Mark_Walker all those rooms, which shall I jettison first....?MAW Holmes@MAW_H "Now, did I clear all of my stuff out of those cupboards...?""Are you sure?"
"This is life; nothing's sure."
Romana's departure is obviously still a sore point, as the Doctor gets shirty when questioned. "LOOK, DO YOU WANT A QUICK DECISION OR A DEBATE?"
But he's all nonchalant a second later, when the extra boost gained from converting the mass of Romana's room into energy allows for a smooth dematerialization.
Georgeson of Dock Green is perplexed to find the Doctor and Adric aren't inside the - now actual - Police Box that's been left behind. It seems the Doctor's TARDIS has dragged the other TARDIS away, leaving the Police Box in peace.
Suddenly distracted by something on the console, the Doctor sends Adric for a tin of stripy paint.
As soon as Adric's left the room, he listens intently to a little used section of the console.
Adric doesn't make it as far as the Cloister room before the Cloister Bell simply stops ringing of its own accord. Are they really out of danger?
Adric might not have made it to the Cloister room but Tegan has - and now she can't make it out!
After what seems like hours of running around in circles, Tegan takes a breather on one of the stone benches.
She can hardly believe her eyes when the other "Police Box" materializes smack bang in the middle of the Cloister room.
Adric returns to the control room to find the Doctor numb. The message was from Nyssa of Traken: her father, Tremas, has vanished.
This possession is not something Time-Lords can naturally do, but with some of the powers of the Keepership of Traken still lingering, the Master has renewed himself.
It seems pretty clear that he came to Earth to lay in wait for the Doctor, knowing that the Doctor planned to fix the chameleon circuit.
Looks like the trip to Logopolis is off. "They're a retiring people. They like a quiet life. There's no telling what a creature like that would do on Logopolis."
When Adric asks if it's possible that the Master could have read the Doctor's mind, his reply is that "Well, he's a Time Lord! In many ways, we have the same mind..."
"How do we flush him out?" Adric and his toilet humour. Typical teenager.
But now he's given the Doctor an idea. "Can you swim?" This will not end well.
Back in the Cloister room Tegan can't quite believe that the Police Box is real. The door creaks open, ominously, as if to tempt her in, but she doesn't make her aunt's mistake.
The Doctor and Adric are either aiming for the Thames or tuning into Eastenders four years early on the time space visualizer.
In order to plunge the TARDIS to the bottom of the Thames, they have to disconnect all the console's systems.
The Doctor supervises, while Adric folds back the Omega configuration, halts the exponential cross-field, closes the pathways to conditional states seven to seventeen, and ends the main and auxiliary drives. Phwoar, pure Bidmead techno jargon FILTH.
When asked, Adric says he's ready if the Doctor is.
"Well I'd feel a lot more confident if you just said yes!"
Tegan really needs to get used to a bit of turbulence if she's going to make a go of this air hostess thing.
The Doctor's hoping for a gentle splash down, so it should come as no surprise that they're flung to the floor with a thud.
The Doctor thinks they've touched bottom.
Mark Walker@Mark_Walker Oo-er!
I feel I've failed if Kenneth doesn't put in an appearance at least once a tweetalong :-D
"Crazy idiot of a pilot!" You know, I'm starting to think that if Tegan ever gets to Heathrow she's not going to last 5 minutes in her air hostess job. Certainly no longer than the gap between seasons of Doctor Who anyway.
She's chilled by a sinister chuckling emanating from the Police Box.
She starts to back away...
...but the laughter seems to be coming from all around her now.
The Doctor braces for the crushing water pressure of the depths as Adric disconnects the last system that will force the TARDIS' full materialization.
But something's not right...
There's no pressure on the doors at all.
How exactly was this going to "flush out" the Master's TARDIS?
"Ah. I thought there's be a perfectly simple explanation." What, for that plan?
The TARDIS may have been pointed at the bottom of the Thames, but it's landed on a pier jutting out into the river.
Something's not right about all of this. Adric suspects the Master's interference.
"Nothing like this has ever happened before. I've got to get to the bottom of this." The Doctor tells Adric to stay put as he answers the Watcher's summoning.
Tegan is not having much joy escaping the Cloister room. It seems the Master is really taking the piss with the TARDIS' internal dimensions now.
The Doctor braces himself for some ominous news. That premonition he had on the Barnet Bypass seems to haunt him once more.
Adric can only watch helplessly from below as the Doctor seems to put a case to the Watcher, to no avail.
The Doctor is eventually worn down by his counterpart's impassiveness.
Just when Tegan seems to have found her way back to the corridor outside...
...her pathway twists back to the Cloister room, driving her to despair.
She doesn't even notice as the Police Box vanishes. Maybe now that the Master has seemingly had his fill, she'll have more joy.
Well, she might have had a set back, but Tegan doesn't have it in her to give up, so she steels herself for another escape attempt.
Returning to the TARDIS, Adric wants answers almost as much as the Doctor doesn't want to give them. He isn't prepared to reveal the Watcher's true identity, but despite what he said earlier, their next destination is Logopolis after all.
"I've just dipped into the future. We must be prepared for the worst."
Next stop Logopolis.
Adric believes the Watcher is the new Master, and although he doesn't contradict him, the Doctor tells him not to guess. "There's enough uncertainty in the universe as it is."
Whilst Adric can help, the Watcher's warning was clear:
"A chain of circumstances that fragments the law that holds the universe together."
The TARDIS arrives on the planet of Logopolis, materializing for a moment in mid-air over a brain-hemisphere like arrangement of mudbrick dwellings, huddled around a radio telescope.
Kosmic Kris@KosmicKris the thing I love about Logopolis is that it constantly shifts location: Earth, Logopolis, Pharos Project. Gives a nice pace.
The Doctor is just in the process of telling Adric he's dumped...
...when Tegan comes bowling into the control room.
For a moment, they all freeze!
But then: "I demand to see whoever's in charge of this ship!"
Love that look the Doctor and Adric exchange.
The Logopolitans are dreary looking bunch, although I should cut them some slack, it does look like their brains are hanging out the back of their heads.
Led by the Monitor, they assemble on the edge of town to welcome the TARDIS.
Tegan demands answers. Loudly.
"Who is she? Where did she come from? What are we going to do with her?"
"You can take me right back where you found me, Doctor whoever you are. My aunt's waiting in the car to take me to the airport."
"Your aunt? Woman in the white hat, red sports car?"
"You've seen her?"
"Well, a little of her..."
Delicious black humour from Bidmead there.
Knowing (but not revealing) that Tegan has lost her aunt to the Master, the Doctor decides she'll just have to come along.
The Master's TARDIS leaves the Cloister room at last...
...reappearing outside. Unwittingly, the Doctor has brought the Master to Logopolis. All part of his plan? Did the Logopolitans perhaps have some defence against TARDISes; is that why the Doctor's had to hover above the town before being allowed to land? Has the Doctor's TARDIS been used as a Trojan horse?
The Doctor casts off his sombre mood to give his old friend the Monitor one of his most beaming smiles.
The Monitor welcomes the Doctor back. Is there a tale to be told about their first meeting, or was it one of those rare occasions when the Doctor visited a planet without bringing death and destruction in his wake?
I've never really noticed that crossed-arms greeting the Doctor & Adric return to the Logopolitans. "Logopolis forever!"
Having greeted the Monitor, the Doctor takes his life in his hands when he tells Tegan to shut her yap.
The Doctor can't help querying the new antenna, but the Monitor brushes this off. "Occasionally our researches require what is sometimes called technology. But for the most part, our computations are enough."
The Doctor is eager to get his TARDIS fixed, telling the Monitor that it's now urgent.
RoTo@SquarePegShoes It always confused me that Monitor looked like Anthony Ainley. Very distracting!
DDG@dalekdudeguy *tries to resist joke about the monitor looking like Noel Edmonds*
I kind of wondered if he was supposed to be like a certain Season 18 Executive Producer, or a certain Season 18 Script Editor...
When the Doctor and Adric start to muse as to why there are computers on Logopolis, the Monitor presses for the dimensions that he needs for his calculations.
The Master's TARDIS changes again.
And then he's on the move.
The Monitor begins to chant the Police Box measurements in a strange computer language. "Keree gorok gorok, keree gorok per denesta zel octa zarel gorok gorok keree..." Yeah, that's what I was going to say.
The measurements reach the streets, where the Logopolitans begin to compose it into computer code.
Once the code is compiled, the Block Transfer Computation to repair the Chameleon Circuit can be operated.
The muttering of the computing Logopolitans fills the air.
The Monitor explains that "Block transfer computation is a complex discipline, way beyond the capabilities of simple machines."
The Logopolitans' manipulation of numbers directly changes the physical world so would denature a computer, preventing it from being able to carry out the necessary computations.
"It requires all the subtleties of the living mind."
Out in the streets, the sinister form of the Master's TARDIS has appeared behind one of the Logopolitan mathematicians calculating the code for the Doctor's Chameleon circuit.
The Master chuckle-shrinks the unsuspecting mathematician.
Tegan still wants answers, but the Doctor has more pressing matters to attend to and delegates that pleasure to Adric.
Adric gets her back up immediately by telling her that it's not the Doctor's fault she wandered aboard the TARDIS. Tegan points out that it's not her fault the TARDIS was disguised as a Police Box! 1-1 there, I reckon.
The Calculations are complete and the Doctor has the code for inputting into the TARDIS' computer.
It's in that moment that the deja vu clawing at the back of his mind comes into focus. The layout of the Central Registry is modelled on the Pharos Project - on Earth!
The Monitor comes clean that they've been using some computer back up to carry out the donkey work for the calculations that must be undertaken by living minds, but fudges why exactly that would even be needed.
It's not just things like the Doctor's Chameleon Circuit that they can model through Block Transfer Computation - they can model any space-time event in the universe. "Structure is the essence of matter, and the essence of structure is mathematics."
They head off to the TARDIS, with Tegan explaining to Adric that "Pharos" is ancient Greek for "Lighthouse." She'll be translating ancient aborigine dialects next.
The Doctor asks the Monitor to look after Adric and Tegan. "What lies ahead is for me, not for them. I hate farewells."
Tegan panics when the only man that can get her back to Heathrow Airport darts into the Police Box and slams the door in her face.
The Doctor gets to work, entering the computer code that he hopes will restore the TARDIS' Chameleon Circuit.
The Monitor tells silky white lies to keep up charade the Doctor requested. "I must confess, I misled the Doctor in order to have the pleasure of your company while he engages in this mundane task."
The Doctor casts off his sombre mood to give his old friend the Monitor one of his most beaming smiles.
The Monitor welcomes the Doctor back. Is there a tale to be told about their first meeting, or was it one of those rare occasions when the Doctor visited a planet without bringing death and destruction in his wake?
I've never really noticed that crossed-arms greeting the Doctor & Adric return to the Logopolitans. "Logopolis forever!"
Having greeted the Monitor, the Doctor takes his life in his hands when he tells Tegan to shut her yap.
The Doctor can't help querying the new antenna, but the Monitor brushes this off. "Occasionally our researches require what is sometimes called technology. But for the most part, our computations are enough."
The Doctor is eager to get his TARDIS fixed, telling the Monitor that it's now urgent.
He's given pause for thought by a vaguely familiar emblem at the Central Registry office.
RoTo@SquarePegShoes It always confused me that Monitor looked like Anthony Ainley. Very distracting! DDG@dalekdudeguy *tries to resist joke about the monitor looking like Noel Edmonds* I kind of wondered if he was supposed to be like a certain Season 18 Executive Producer, or a certain Season 18 Script Editor...
When the Doctor and Adric start to muse as to why there are computers on Logopolis, the Monitor presses for the dimensions that he needs for his calculations.
The Master's TARDIS changes again.
And then he's on the move.
The Monitor begins to chant the Police Box measurements in a strange computer language. "Keree gorok gorok, keree gorok per denesta zel octa zarel gorok gorok keree..." Yeah, that's what I was going to say.
The measurements reach the streets, where the Logopolitans begin to compose it into computer code.
Once the code is compiled, the Block Transfer Computation to repair the Chameleon Circuit can be operated.
The muttering of the computing Logopolitans fills the air.
The Monitor explains that "Block transfer computation is a complex discipline, way beyond the capabilities of simple machines."
The Logopolitans' manipulation of numbers directly changes the physical world so would denature a computer, preventing it from being able to carry out the necessary computations.
"It requires all the subtleties of the living mind."
Out in the streets, the sinister form of the Master's TARDIS has appeared behind one of the Logopolitan mathematicians calculating the code for the Doctor's Chameleon circuit.
The Master chuckle-shrinks the unsuspecting mathematician.
Tegan still wants answers, but the Doctor has more pressing matters to attend to and delegates that pleasure to Adric.
Adric gets her back up immediately by telling her that it's not the Doctor's fault she wandered aboard the TARDIS. Tegan points out that it's not her fault the TARDIS was disguised as a Police Box! 1-1 there, I reckon.
The Calculations are complete and the Doctor has the code for inputting into the TARDIS' computer.
It's in that moment that the deja vu clawing at the back of his mind comes into focus. The layout of the Central Registry is modelled on the Pharos Project - on Earth!
The Monitor comes clean that they've been using some computer back up to carry out the donkey work for the calculations that must be undertaken by living minds, but fudges why exactly that would even be needed.
It's not just things like the Doctor's Chameleon Circuit that they can model through Block Transfer Computation - they can model any space-time event in the universe. "Structure is the essence of matter, and the essence of structure is mathematics."
They head off to the TARDIS, with Tegan explaining to Adric that "Pharos" is ancient Greek for "Lighthouse." She'll be translating ancient aborigine dialects next.
The Monitor tells the Doctor that the project on Earth is attempting to make contact with alien life.
The Doctor asks the Monitor to look after Adric and Tegan. "What lies ahead is for me, not for them. I hate farewells."
Tegan panics when the only man that can get her back to Heathrow Airport darts into the Police Box and slams the door in her face.
The Monitor tells silky white lies to keep up charade the Doctor requested. "I must confess, I misled the Doctor in order to have the pleasure of your company while he engages in this mundane task."
He assures them that there's "very little" that could go wrong. Inadvertently prophetic words.
While the Monitor offers them more of Logopolis, Tegan can't help speaking her mind: "I'd prefer to see a lot less of it!"
Adric is distracted, though, by a familiar voice calling his name...
It's Nyssa of Traken!
Nyssa says that "a friend of the Doctor's" brought her here.
"Who's Nyssa?" how jealous does Tegan sound!
But something is wrong with the TARDIS, as it begins to glow a sickly blue...
The ghostly Watcher is lurking again. Could he be responsible...?
Before their very eyes, the TARDIS starts to shrink, with the Doctor inside!
The Monitor suggests that the "transfer instability" may only be temporary, but the TARDIS is getting smaller, and smaller.
It's brown trousers time for Adric: "But the Doctor's in there!"
Going, going...
End of Part 2!
Kosmic Kris@KosmicKris Easy to forget just how scary this was to a 10 yr old :) we'd never really seen the TARDIS physically attacked like this! PART THREE (14th March 1981)
Thankfully, the shrinkage seems to eventually stop, with the TARDIS reduced to less than a metre tall.
Shrinking the TARDIS seems to have given Tom a massive hangover. Too many
Stick to sex on the beach, Tom.
Mark Walker@Mark_Walker 2 Kenneth's in one Tweetalong! Isaac Dakin@IWhittakerDakin The monitor seems to care more about the honour of logopolis then he does the doctor being shrunk! The Monitor orders the mini-TARDIS to be carried to the central register.
As the Doctor's friends follow the procession of Logopolitans, they fail to notice a sniggering figure in one of the alcoves.
Always thought Ainley started out well in this then went downhill in later stories, but already he's chuckling at the slightest provocation. He thinks his "cut you down to size" line is ball-bouncingly funny. Those dolls he leaves behind *are* quite laughable, to be fair.
The Doctor seems to think that dematerializing the TARDIS might alleviate his predicament but it's all he can do to crane his head to get a view of the scanner screen.
As the TARDIS internal dimensions continue to collapse, Tegan and Nyssa try to mouth reassurances at him.
Not sure they're exactly inspiring him with confidence.
The Monitor says that if they can identify the error in the dimensioning routine they should be able to reverse the effects.
If Adric can read out the code as printed, the Monitor can check the external registers.
When Tegan tells Adric there's work to be done, his response is to the point: "We're doing it!"
Adric begins to read out the code. "A Zero. Zero A. Four A. Nine Two. Two C.
The error doesn't appear to be in the registers. They'll have to take to the streets.
Nyssa speculates that the sonic projectors being arranged around the TARDIS are creating a stasis field to stabilize the dimensions.
It seems to be working...
The Doctor isn't in pain any more, at least.
As the Monitor walks the streets, and Adric does some wrong lines.
Tegan thinks the Logopolitans are exploited, but Nyssa says they're scientists, dedicated to their work. She's seen that look of concentration on her father's face many a time.
Finally, Adric and the Monitor seem to have identified the error.
Whilst Tegan is less than optimistic, Nyssa reassures her that the sonic projectors are buying the time the Monitor needs to reverse the Doctor's predicament.
"They've arrested the dimension spiral. Things are looking up!"
The Master has murdered a load of Cosmopolitans
What Adric calls "murder," the Monitor rather oddly deems "sabotage."
"Interfering with the working of Logopolis. The most dangerous crime in the universe." Bit over the top, surely?
The Doctor refuses to be beaten. He can correct the error in the sub routine, but he'll need a little more help from outside.
As he returns to the Central Registry, Adric discovers that the Watcher is on Logopolis.
The Monitor urges him to make haste to the Registry.
With the corrections made to the coding, Tegan holds up the amended section for the Doctor to see.
Nyssa spots Adric slipping away and challenges him. Don't ask why, but Adric's got it into his head that the Watcher is the Master.
At first, Adric intends to go alone but Nyssa won't take no for an answer. "I must know what's happened to my father."
Tom's finished with the
"I'm an ignorant old Doctor, and I've made a mistake."
Help can only come from One Direction, now. I wouldn't be counting on those Cowell-pats for anything, Doctor.
Adric shows Nyssa "the mark of the Master", and tells her that the villain is still at large somewhere on Logopolis.
The Watcher passes by at the junction behind them, unseen perhaps, but Adric feels like someone's walked over his grave nonetheless.
The Monitor assures Tegan that the TARDIS, and the Doctor inside it, will be restored very soon. While they wait, she has a question.
"Back home in Brisbane, we call that a sweatshop." Okay, not so much a question as an accusation.
As Adric and Nyssa continue their search, the young Trakenite hears a familiar voice calling her name.
Despite looking *very* different, Nyssa calls the Master "father" straight away. Surprisingly, he finds this terribly amusing.
Maybe Tremas changed his style radically every other week and this is nothing special.
Tegan has some reservations about the Logopolitan number crunchers and the Working Time Regulations. "We are a people driven not by individual need but by mathematical necessity. The language of the numbers is as much as we need." Not sure that would fly with HMRC.
The Monitor's got his sums right now and the TARDIS grows back to its normal size.
Nyssa reckons the Master is daddy cool, but he says all of Logopolis is high.
He gives her some suspicious looking bling.
"You ain't seen me, right?"
The Doctor emerges from the restored TARDIS, grateful to the Monitor for saving him from being crushed inside his faithful timeship.
"I can't thank you enough. You too, Tegan."
So the chameleon circuit's fixed then, is it? No, didn't think so.
When the Doctor asks where the others are, Tegan cheerfully announces that they've gone to look for the Master.
The Doctor is horrified at the risk Adric has taken. "There've been enough unnecessary deaths as it is." The Monitor nods along. "The murder of innocent Logoplitans."
The Doctor can't hide the truth from Tegan any longer. "And the murder of innocent Earth people."
The horrible truth dawns on Tegan. "Aunty Vanessa?" Wonder if she remembers his "a little of her" crack at this moment.
"I'm so sorry, Tegan, so sorry," says the Doctor, seemingly in a hurry to move her away.
A darkness creeps over him as he confers with the Monitor. "The Master's already at work on Logopolis."
"I'm going to stop him if it's the last thing I do." Careful what you wish for...
Nyssa rejoins Adric, who's decided it's about time they got back to the Doctor.
En route, her new bangle suddenly pinches, but when Adric tries to examine it, it gives him a shock.
RoTo@SquarePegShoes Its no Pandora is it?Nyssa's arm seems to jerk into action as if it had a mind of its own, but she's only concerned that her father's gift hasn't been damaged.
Much to their surprise, the recovered Doctor strides past.
With the TARDIS restored, the sonic projectors are no longer needed.
No longer needed by the Logopolitans, that is. The Master has other ideas.
It's not long before the air is filled with that same sickening buzz that was the last sound Tegan's Aunt Vanessa heard.
The Master has his own plans.
He attaches a device of his own, and the projectors begin to give out a low pulsing hum, a sound cancelling wave.
The human calculators of Logopolis suddenly stop chanting their numbers and sit bolt upright, in total silence.
When the Doctor, Nyssa and Adric spot the Watcher once again, Nyssa exclaims that that's the man that brought her here from Traken.
Adric reminds the Doctor that he said they had to be prepared for the worst, and he is. As to why...
"Because he's here."
The Master dispenses with his disguise, and wheels a sonic projector into the Central Registry.
The Master has it in his power to bring Logopolis to a complete halt.
The Doctor is still wondering why the Logopolitans recreated the Pharos Project when Nyssa notices something odd...
The streets have suddenly gone terribly quiet.
The Doctor was vain enough to think it was just him the Master was after, but Logopolis has been his target all along. (Perhaps even since before Traken?)
The Master to Logopolis: You're not singing anymore.
The Monitor grows agitated as the silence continues. The Master wants to discuss the future in peace and quiet, but the Monitor warns "There will be no future. You are eroding structure, generating entropy."
When the Master dismisses this as Project Fear, but the Monitor knows what he's talking about.
The Master is holding the whole planet to ransom to discover the nature of the Logopolis' secrets.
The Monitor refuses. "No one must know. That has been our firm decision."
As we saw on Traken, the Master is prepared to wait as long as it takes. "Patience is a particular virtue of mine."
When the Doctor, Adric and Nyssa arrive, the young Trakenite calls out for father.
"That's not your father. Tremas is dead, murdered by him, the Master."
The penny finally drops for Nyssa.
The penny finally drops for Nyssa.
"You killed my father?"
"But his body remains useful."
"You killed my father?"
"But his body remains useful."
The Master rubs the Doctor's nose in his victory. "Without it I could not have conquered Logopolis."
"This isn't conquest, it's devastation." This is a very different vibe from Pertwee/Delgado; Tom gives off waves of black hearted hatred.
The Master thinks the Monitor is exaggerating Logopolis' importance when he insists it's the keystone of the universe. "If you destroy Logopolis, you unravel the whole causal nexus."
Adric makes a dive for the sonic projector, but the Master's device doesn't just control the projector, but also the device on Nyssa's arm.
He uses his remote control Nyssa to begin strangling Adric.
This, he says demonstrates that cause and effect are very much still in force.
Mark Walker@Mark_Walker I'd like a remote control Nyssa! Tegan tries to wrest the control device from him but he brushes her off.
The Master asks that Tegan replace the projector that Adric moved.
When she tells him she wouldn't take orders from him if he were the last man in the universe, he's happy to just wait and see who wins in the struggle between Nyssa and Adric. Doesn't look like much of a contest, to be honest.
She concedes, though, at the Doctor's urging.
With the screen back in place, the Master releases Nyssa's grip on Adric's neck.
The Master still isn't buying the Doctor's gloomy predictions about the fate of the universe.
The Master reckons the effect is temporary, and he can simply un-mute Logopolis.
Of course, he's wrong.
The Master runs outside, with the others following.
The Monitor declares Logopolis dead.
The silence is deafening.
The Master hunts through the streets, but the Logopolitans he silenced have all turned to dust.
The Master only thinks of himself, as usual, cursing the Logopolitans for denying him his prize.
Logopolis is disintegrating, and with it the universe! Nothing is solid now, Entropy has taken over.
The Master thinks the Monitor has done this deliberately to spite him. Yeah, it's always all about you, isn't it?
He decides to set his remote control Nyssa onto the Monitor to throttle the truth out of him.
But Entropy is nibbling away at his systems.
The bracelet begins to break up, enough for Nyssa to snap it off.
Cheap tat.
With the news that the universe long ago passed the point of no return, the Master prepares to abandon Logopolis...
The Monitor begins to reveal the truth. The secret work was indeed to hold the very universe together. "The universe long ago passed the point of total collapse."
The Logopolitans created voids into other universes to give the build up of Entropy somewhere to go. On of these of course, was the Charged Vacuum Emboitment that the TARDIS fell through into E-Space.
With Logopolis crashing about their ears, the gang rush to safety at the edge of town.
When they make it, the Doctor proposes that they pool their resources. The very idea amuses the Master, not least because there'll be no question of the Doctor ever returning to Gallifrey if he goes through with it.
A grim pragmatism has taken over, as the Doctor doesn't even question the morality behind the monstrous alliance he's proposing. This is what they're doing now. "If we don't cooperate, there'll be no question of Gallifrey. As Time Lords, you and I have special responsibilities."
Naturally enough Nyssa objects.
The trio are perplexed when the TARDIS materializes, having followed them from the Central Register. In the hubbub, the Monitor quietly slips away to continue the work...
Adric wants to help, but the Doctor's having none of it. "My friend in there will look after you. I'm collaborating with the Master. Now go on."
Great cliffhanger. Doing a deal with the devil to save the universe.
"Together?"
"One last hope."
End of part 3, and Tom's final cliffhanger, forced into an alliance with his nemesis to save the universe from total annihilation!
PART FOUR (21st March 1981)
The Doctor flinches at the Master's touch, barely even able to look at the villain.
They realize that the Monitor has returned to the Central Register.
At the last minute, Tegan dives out of the TARDIS to stay on Logopolis with the Doctor.
Now the TARDIS has gone without her there's no turning back.
The fragile Time Lord alliance has at least lasted as far as the Central Registry.
Sure enough, they find the Monitor desperately working to download the programme they've been working on. "This is the programme we were developing to take the burden from our own shoulders. A series of data statements to keep the Charged Vacuum Emboitments open of their own accord."
There's a complete printout of the code they need.
Tegan narrowly avoids being crushed by falling rocks as Logopolis crumbles.
Having done all he can, the Monitor moves to the antenna controls to aim it at the nearest CVE.
Tegan arrives, and tells the Doctor she's sticking with him as he's the only insurance she's got.
The Master has a plan: "One: we withdraw to a position of temporary security. Two: we reconfigure our two TARDISes into time cone inverters. Three: we create a stable safe zone by applying temporal inversion isometry to as much of space-time as we can isolate." Obvious, when you think about it.
It's not just the technology and the local architecture that's disintegrating. The Monitor just crumbles under pressure...
They can only watch in horror as the Entropy reduces the Monitor to his constituent atoms.
The Master crowns the Doctor the king of Logopolis and does a runner.
The Doctor realizes, though, that the Master's plan will work, and even marvels at his former friend's "brilliant mind."
Tegan points out that it'll be a waste of "two more brilliant minds" if they don't get a shift on. Rates herself, doesn't she!
The Master makes it back to his TARDIS...
...but is buried under falling rubble before he can make it inside.
It seems that the Doctor's luck is finally turning: the computer's parts utilize bubble memory, meaning that the information they need is stored in the circuit boards. They can just connect them up to another radio telescope to finish the job.
Tegan isn't too optimistic (better get used to that) but she's overlooking something obvious. The Doctor isn't, and knows exactly where there's another radio telescope just like the Logopolitan one...
The Pharos Project - on Earth!
Best news Tegan's had all day!
Adric gets panicky as he and Nyssa spy on the Watcher disconnects the TARDIS's entire co-ordinate sub-system, because this will take them out of space and time altogether.
They're so negative.
The Doctor does the Master a good turn and lifts a giant lump of polystyrene off him. Shame, looks like he was having a nice kip there.
Why exactly *does* the Watcher take the TARDIS out of time here?
At least they're safe for the time being. Not that time is being, if they really are hovering outside it.
It's the middle of the night at the Pharos Project.
A solitary technician is on duty, conducting along to some music he's listening to on his cassette player/recorder. Quite advanced for a personal device in 1981, but I suppose he's a tech-head.
As he shuffles off to the coffee machine, the Master's TARDIS arrives - exactly when and where intended, which gives the Doctor massive TARDIS envy.
They hide behind the Master's unnoticed TARDIS as the oblivious technician returns to his work station without even glancing at the corner of the room.
As the Master raises a sinister looking device in the technician's direction, the Doctor snatches it off him indignantly...
The Doctor approaches the technician but can't be heard above the music. It's lucky he glances over his shoulder when he does, though...
...because the Master's run out of patience and decided to shoot him after all.
The Doctor is only able to save the technician by flinging his wheel-mounted chair out of the way with such force that the man is knocked out when he hits the wall.
The Master is as sympathetic as you'd expect, being far more interested in his swanky recording device.
"Never mind. I feel we've been spared a very difficult conversation." He's got a point, to be fair. I mean imagine trying to explain this script to that poor sod, Block Transfer Computations and all that.
Adric and Nyssa take a turn around the Cloister Room.
The Watcher wants a word with Adric now.
Probably about personal hygiene. The Watcher's very clean. Adric, on the other hand has being wearing those jim jams for four adventures in a row, now.
The Doctor and the Master fiddle through the night...
Adric hasn't rumbled who the Watcher really is yet...
...but has noticed that he seems to have knowledge of the future.
Adric has been tasked with piloting the TARDIS to the Pharos Project on Earth. "It always looks so easy when the Doctor does it.
Whilst Adric works, Nyssa focuses the scanner on her homeworld, and is horrified to see nearby planets vanishing as the Entropy field generated by the Master's vandalism of Logopolis.
Soon enough, Traken itself has bitten the cosmic dust.
Kosmic Kris@KosmicKris I thought this was a very clever way to explain what was happening. "I...I can't see Traken" was delivered brilliantly. 
"The Master killed my father, my step-mother, and now the world I grew up in." This time, it's personal.
Tim@parks8472 Nyssa: The Revenge!It's daybreak at the Pharos project, and security change shifts...
The Master is ready to give up, but the Doctor is prepared to go back to square one, and feed the programme into the computer's core.
Adric brings the TARDIS back into time and space. Why exactly did the Watcher take them out again?
They arrive a short distance from the satellite dish.
The Doctor told Adric that the people of Earth are using the radio telescope to beam out a repeated invitation to potential alien visitors.
Nyssa reasons that they ought to be pleased to see them in that case!
Adric and Nyssa set off but almost immediately find themselves having to avoid a security patrol.
With the programme now running, the dish must now be repositioned to face the nearest CVE, but they can't hop over in the Master's TARDIS because his lightspeed overdrive is forming a vital part of their lashed up computer programmer.
Adric and Nyssa are on their way.
The Master is ready to do what needs to be done, and having sighted the Watcher in his TARDIS, the Doctor knows what that means.
Adric and Nyssa pause by a shed to watch the security control disappear out of sight.
The Doctor, the Master and Tegan are also on their way.
The friends are not far off being reunited, but Adric and Nyssa are unable to help the Doctor from where they are.
The guards are alerted by the sound of the Doctor angrily chucking away the Master's TCE...
Adric and Nyssa can only watch as the Doctor's scarf nearly gives the game away.
When Adric and Nyssa provide a distraction, Tegan steps out to join them.
One tug of the scarf later and the Doctor and Master are away.
The Watcher is on his way to the dish; all the pieces are falling into place...
As the Doctor races ahead, the Master hangs back, looking for his TCE.
Having found it, he doesn't seem to be in any hurry to catch up with the Doctor.
The Doctor begins a fateful climb.
In fact the Master has returned to the research station, nicking the technician's recording device on his way to the TARDIS he claimed was out of action.
When the Doctor makes it to the top...
He finds the programme already set up and running...
...and the Master waiting for him.
The Master taps in the necessary co-ordinates...
...and the dish begins to move to face the constellation of Cassiopeia, where the nearest CVE resides.
The Doctor pointedly returns the "Lightspeed Overdrive", which the Master promptly tosses out the window.
As if he would have given the Doctor his real Lightspeed Overdrive.
The Master insists that the "honour" of making the connection that will save the universe by funnelling the Entropy field into an alternate universe should go to the Doctor.
Which presumably means they're sentencing a whole other universe to (heat) death.
"Peoples of the universe, please attend carefully..."
20% off lightspeed overdrives for the next half hour!
Having seen the dish make an unscheduled rotation, the guards have no trouble in guessing where their fugitives are, and leave Adric, Tegan & Nyssa where they are.
Surprisingly, the Master has been up to no good all along, and just when it seemed he'd saved the universe...
The Master looks so wrong with his gloves off.
Of course, he's gone bonkers...
The Doctor is forced to listen, as the Master's blackmail message plays out across the universe in full:
"Peoples of the universe, please attend carefully. The message that follows is vital to the future of you all. The choice for you all is simple. A continued existence under my guidance, or total annihilation."
"It's mine, the CVE. It's all mine!"
"Only while that cable holds." The Doctor takes off to put a spanner in his works.
The Master makes to follow, but the Doctor is one step ahead, having set up his scarf to trip him. The Doctor's young companions peer up at struggle taking place on the antenna walkway.
The Master escapes back to the controls.
He begins to tilt the dish.
Watch out, there's a freezeframe of the Master behind you!
To make matters worse, the guards are on their way up the ladder.
Can the Doctor disconnect the cable in time...? It's a long way down.
He inches towards the junction box, all the while clinging on for dear life.
Through sheer force of will, he makes it.
The Master can only watch as the Doctor swings wildly at the cable with a wrench.
Desperate, the Doctor begins to tug at the cable with both hands, much to the Master's amusement.
In the nick of time, and a shower of sparks, the cable pulls free.
The Doctor's companions are powerless to do anything but watch in horror as his life almost literally hangs by a thread.
He clings to the disconnected cable...
These clip sequences of the 4th Doctor's many enemies and companions are the equivalent of that last half hour of The End of Time Part Two.
As the Security Guards race up the ladder, he *almost* makes it...
...but after one last desperate attempt to cling on, he loses his grip.
That's quite some fall - although judging by the companions'varying reactions he must fall up and down at varying speeds as he goes...
The Master escapes. That's the last we'll see of him, I bet.
Here we go...
Love the music here. Superb soundtrack from Paddy Kingsland throughout.
As his friends crowd around his broken body...
...the Doctor barely even seems able to acknowledge them.
He remembers his fellow travellers...
Looking up at Adric, the Doctor uses the last of his energy to reassure the young Alzarian. "It's the end, but the moment has been prepared for..."
"He was the Doctor all the time!"
They watch as the form of the Watcher is absorbed into the Doctor, to begin his next life.
What a brilliant, eerie, special regeneration.
And it's farewell tom and hello non-blond Davison! His hair obviously continues regenerating for the next few minutes.
Isaac Dakin@IWhittakerDakin and by Castrovalva he seems to have his boots replaced with shoes!DDG@dalekdudeguy This was very sad when I first watched it. I had no idea that the Doctor regenerated at the end.Kosmic Kris@KosmicKris the Watcher was beautifully ambiguous as well - so many questions and no need to answer them. A wonderful story that made a devastating impact on me as a 10 yr old :) Great tweetalong :)TTFN! K.
Coming Soon: The Edge of Destruction
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