Real Time
The Doctor answers a summons for help from Earth. An archaeological dig on the planet Chronos has produced unexpected results, including the loss of at least two entire dig teams. The last transmission from the second team lost included an anguished warning about Cybermen. With Evelyn in tow, the Doctor joins the third expedition of the unusually advanced ruins on Chronos, and discovers a horrifying Cyberman plan to gain mastery over time travel. Will any of the other team members, including Evelyn, escape Cyber-conversion into mindless drones? Can the Doctor unravel the mystery of the unstoppable temporal shockwaves emanating from the ruins? And does team member Goddard, an expert on Cybermen assigned to the team, have too much knowledge of the silver giants – perhaps gained first-hand?
written by Gary Russell
directed by Gary Russell
music by Alistair LockCast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Maggie Stables (Evelyn), Nicholas Briggs (Professor Osborn), Robert Curbishley (President), Jane Goddard (Doctor Nicola Savage), Andrew Hair (Fantham), Richard Herring (Taylor Renchard), William Johnston (Lieutenant Krueger), Stewart Lee (Ryan Carey), Alistair Lock (Hoyer), Christopher Scott (Administrator David Isherwood), Yee Jee Tso (Doctor Reece Goddard), Mark Wright (Dean)
LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green
The Doctor and Ace have insinuated themselves into the staff of a London hospital in 2021, trying to discover what they can about a top secret project called “C Program,” which the Doctor suspects is using alien technology. The Doctor’s nasty suspicions about the origins of that technology come into sharp focus when Ace befriends a young medic nicknamed Hex in an effort to find out more about C Program, and a hulking humanoid tries to kill both of them shortly afterward. Ace lets Hex into the TARDIS, and he quickly becomes involved in the time travelers’ plans to find out what’s going on. He might even join Ace and the Doctor for more of their travels, if any of them survive the harvesting of the human race for the organs needed by an invasion force that could overrun Earth in mere weeks.
Professor Bernice Summerfield is contracted by a man named Lynton, claiming to be a representative of a mining consortium whose operations on Tysir IV have been brought to a screeching halt by an underground discovery that could be of great archaeological importance. That, and the fact that he’s a fan of Benny’s books, is what prompted him to secure her services to investigate the find. Benny warns Lynton that her appraisal can’t be bought for any price, but when she sees it for herself – with Lynton insisting that he must accompany her – she is stunned: a huge metallic structure with doors has been uncovered. Once she and Lynton figure out how to open the doors – which can only be unlocked by solving a logic puzzle – Benny realizes that the enormous chambers are a sleeping tomb of Cybermen. And only then does she realize that Lynton knew this all along. But why would he want to unleash the Cybermen?
General Karen Brett is hailed as a hero on the return from her latest campaign in humanity’s war against its own android creations, but she only reluctantly accepts the accolades. She makes a public appearance with President Levinson, whose policies and war plan she disagrees with – she feels he isn’t taking an aggressive enough stance with the androids. During the meeting, a silver-clad figure teleports into the White House, assassinates the President, promises Brett that she will become the new President, and then vanishes again. She does indeed ascend to the Presidency, but she finds that once in office, even she can’t turn the tide of the war. She discovers a deeply buried secret project, code-named Scorpius, which Levinson made every attempt to erase from existence, even to conceal it from any successors to the presidency. She’s able to find out very little, but she finds out enough – Scorpius is somehow tied to the silver giant who gunned down Levinson in cold blood, and it could change humanity’s fortunes in the war. In fact, it could change humanity forever…
Commander Liam Barnaby, the commander in chief of all Earth forces, doesn’t like being left out of the loop – but he discovers that Paul Hunt, a mysterious figure with ties to Scorpius who predicted Karen Brett’s rise to the presidency before her predecessor was assassinated, has edged him out as the President’s closest advisor. Worse yet, when Barnaby decides to dig deeper, he finds that Hunt has covered his tracks well, even ordering some of Barnaby’s own people in the military to make it difficult for anyone to investigate him. Barnaby traces Hunt’s residence to a woman named Samantha, but after he questions her about Hunt’s background, Barnaby is called to account for his investigation by President Brett herself. That confrontation leads him to the inevitable conclusion that his military career is about to be ended for him, but when Cybermen come after him, Barnaby’s life may become as short as his career. Samantha helps him, and then reveals the truth: she’s an enemy android on a deep-cover assignment, and her mission has changed. Instead of destroying humanity, she’s trying to find a way to keep humanity from destroying itself – but she and Barnaby find that it may be too late. The Cyber conversions have begun in earnest on Earth.
Subjected to the first stage of Cyber conversion – a deadening of the human nervous system – Commander Barnaby is on the verge of finding out for himself what the Scorpius plan entails, and what President Brett’s new allies would turn humanity into. Also captured, the android agent Samantha isn’t succumbing to the process, but she realizes she has very little time to act. Needing Barnaby’s knowledge of the Cyberman-commandeered Earth ship they’re on, Samantha has for force the human’s animal instincts to the surface as best she can, enabling him to resist the conversion process. On Earth, President Brett goes public with the latest stage of Scorpius, but sugar-coats the facts, claiming that the Cybermen now patrolling the streets of Earth’s cities are volunteers who underwent rigorous training to serve as a new breed of advanced troops. Barnaby and Samantha manage to change their ship’s course, sending it into android space and then launching themselves to safety in an escape pod. But even after Barnaby helps android troops try to retake the Earth ship (and hopefully capture a Cyberman prisoner), the head of the androids’ war effort comes to a chilling conclusion: to win the war, the androids must deprive the Cybermen of the raw material for their conversion process – and to do that, humanity must be destroyed.
Both the androids and the Cybermen, led by the recently Cyber-converted Karen Brett, race to the planet Telos as the Cybermen’s plans for Earth and humanity come to a head. But both parties are in for a surprise – something has collided with Telos, leaving not a planet but an asteroid belt. The vault of the Cybermen’s tombs, however, survived intact and could still give the Cybermen the advantage. The androids, still only reluctantly trusting Barnaby to help them, decide to lay a trap – but the Cybermen decide to advance their plans even further, resulting in a fight to the death over the spaceborne vault. And even if Barnaby, Samantha and the others survive long enough to spring their trap, there’s still the Cyber occupation of Earth to contend with…
The Doctor follows a trail of highly unusual energy emissions through Earth’s history to Brisbane, Australia in 2006. There, he meets Dr. Katherine Chambers, a woman whose life was changed forever by her last encounter with the Doctor (an encounter that won’t happen until his next regeneration). When he tells her that he’s trying to track down potentially dangerous alien technology, Dr. Chambers begins evading the Doctor’s questions, but he follows her to a surprise birthday party, badgering her with question anyway. But the guest of honor at the surprise party manages to stun the Doctor into silence: it’s Tegan, his former traveling companion, who hasn’t seen him in over 20 years. She isn’t thrilled to renew their acquaintance, since she maintains that anywhere the Doctor goes, trouble – and death – follow. But even without the Doctor, they’re already catching up with Tegan anyway.
The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Peri to Baltimore, 1984 – four months since, as far as her family and friends know, Peri disappeared without a trace at Lanzarote. Far from being a happy reunion, Peri’s arrival coincides with the apparent murder of Anthony Chambers, her best friend’s father. Peri discovers that her friends and her mother aren’t exactly overjoyed to see her. The Doctor becomes interested in Chambers’ death, and when he discovers the Cybermen are behind the incident, he wonders why they’ve targeted one man. Even when the Doctor thinks he’s close to solving the mystery, it’s putting Peri, her mother and her friends into mortal danger.
Liz Shaw looks back on her days with UNIT and the Doctor, recalling an adventure that began with the disappearance of several prominent scientists. The Doctor and the Brigadier are on the case, and Liz goes undercover to see if a suspicious dentist’s office has any connection to the disappearances. The Doctor figures out that the Cybermen are once again trying to stage a quiet takeover of the human race…and Liz herself may be the next victim of their new conversion process.