Series 8: The Daemons

During a storm that whips through the village of Devil's End in Wiltshire, a dog gets away from its owner. He pursues it into a graveyard, only to encounter something unseen and die. The local doctor says that it was a heart attack, but Olive Hawthorne, the local witch, insists that the man died of fright. She has cast the runes, and there is evil afoot.

Near the village, an archaeological dig is excavating the infamous Devil's Hump, a Bronze Age burial mound. The dig is being covered by BBC Three. The interviewer, Alistair Fergus, speaks to the cantankerous Professor Horner, who claims that the Hump holds the treasure and tomb of a warrior chieftain, and that he plans to open the tomb at the stroke of midnight on April 30, the pagan festival of Beltane.

The television coverage is being watched by the Third Doctor and Jo at UNIT. While the Doctor scoffs at Jo's notions of the coming of the Age of Aquarius and the supernatural, he feels that something is wrong with the dig. On the television, they see Olive go to the dig to protest, warning of great evil and the coming of the horned one, but she is dismissed as a crank. The Doctor tells Jo that Olive Hawthorne is right — the dig must be stopped, and they start off to Devil's End.

Olive returns to the village, and a strong wind whips up out of nowhere. She raises her hands to dismiss it, not knowing that the local constable, PC Groom, has gone into a trance behind her and is about to strike her with a stone. The wind dies down as she chants, and PC Groom regains his senses before he lands the blow. Olive then goes to see the vicar, but he has been mysteriously replaced with a new one, Mr Magister. Magister — actually the Master — tries to assure her that her fears are unfounded, but his hypnosis fails to overcome Olive's will, and she says she will find someone who will believe her.

The Doctor and Jo, driving to Devil's End, get lost when a wind spins a signpost and points them in the wrong direction. Over at the Hump, tempers start to flare for no reason. When the Doctor and Jo stop by the village pub to get directions, one of the villagers goes and informs the Master of the Doctor's presence. The Master tells him to get dressed for the ceremony.

On the way to the Hump, the Doctor's car, Bessie, is blocked by a fallen tree. Unable to budge it, the Doctor and Jo rush to the mound on foot. The Master, dressed in ceremonial robes and with a coven of thirteen acolytes, starts a summoning ritual in the church catacombs. As his chanting grows more frenzied, the Doctor and Jo reach the mound and the Doctor rushes inside to stop Horner, but it is too late. The tomb door opens and icy gusts of wind rush out and the ground begins to shake, toppling the camera crew and even the coven in the catacombs. The Master laughs triumphantly and calls the entity's name — Azal, and the eyes of a gargoyle, Bok, flare with a reddish glow. Jo enters the mound to find Horner and the Doctor motionless, covered with frost.

Horner is dead, and the Doctor seems dead as well. The Master uses a knife to indicate a stone covered in ritual markings as the "appointed place", dismissing the coven. Back at UNIT, Captain Mike Yates and Sergeant Benton were watching the end of the broadcast as it went dead. They try to find out what's going on while attempting to contact the Brigadier, who had earlier gone for a night at the opera. Meanwhile, the village doctor discovers that the Doctor may not be entirely dead after all, but is puzzled when he hears the beating of two hearts. Jo telephones Yates, who tells her he will be there by helicopter in the morning, just as the line is cut off from the outside. The Master prays in the church as Jo watches over the still unconscious Doctor in the pub. At the dig, the ground shakes and the constable on duty sees something gigantic with heavy footsteps, and falls.

In the morning, Yates and Benton fly by helicopter to Devil's End, and see burn marks on the fields before the village that resemble enormous footprints. Once in Devil's End, Benton decides to look around the village while Yates finally manages to contact the Brigadier, who is not pleased that Yates has commandeered his helicopter, and calls for a car. Benton, looking around in the church, finds Olive trapped in a cupboard, where the Master's verger, Garvin, had locked her. Down in the cellar to hide from Garvin, she tells Benton about Magister. Garvin comes down with a rifle, and Benton tries to disarm him. In the ensuing fight, Benton falls on the marked stone and seizes up. Garvin holds both of them at gunpoint and moves them outside, just as the ground starts to shake. Garvin fires up at something gigantic, but is engulfed in a fireball. The heat wave extends even into the village, knocking Jo and Yates down, just as the Doctor awakens with a start. Olive and Benton make their way back to the pub, and the Doctor discusses the incident with Olive, who says that she saw the devil, 30 feet high and with horns. The Doctor is told of the new vicar, and realises who is behind this, as "Magister" is Latin for "Master".

The Brigadier finds himself unable to enter the village, as there is a barrier surrounding it that causes anything trying to enter to heat up and burst into flame. He contacts Yates and is briefed on the situation while the Doctor and Jo return to the dig, an act the Master seems to be able to sense. They find the constable dead and a small spaceship in the mound the same shape as the Hump. Jo tries to lift it but cannot, as the Doctor explains that it weighs 750 tons. Suddenly, Bok leaps into the tent covering the entrance to the tomb, about to attack.

The Doctor wards him off with some words in a strange language and an iron trowel. The Doctor explains to Jo that it was actually the words of a Venusian lullaby — it was the gargoyle's own superstition that drove it back.

The Master, in the meantime, hypnotises the squire, Winstanley, as Olive and the Doctor debate about whether it is magic or science that is at work here. The Brigadier discovers that the heat shield is dome shaped, centred on the church, with a radius of ten miles out and one mile high. The Doctor shows the others pictures of various horned gods and demons from Olive's occult and history book collection, and explains that the creature Olive saw was an extraterrestrial, one of the Dæmons from the planet Dæmos, 60,000 light years away, who came to Earth one hundred thousand years before. The small spaceship's actual size is 200 feet long and 30 feet across, and the heat and cold waves they have been experiencing are the result of the energy displaced when the ship shrinks or grows. The Doctor further explains that the Dæmons have influenced Earth throughout its history, becoming part of human myth, and see the planet as a giant experiment. The Master has called the Dæmon up once, and right now, it is so small as to be invisible. The third summoning, however, could signal the end of the experiment, and the world.

The Brigadier contacts Yates and says he is about to try attacking the heat shield from the air. The Doctor warns him not to, saying that it would only strengthen it, and suggests they use a diathermic energy exchanger. When UNIT technician Osgood fails to understand what the Doctor is getting at, he says he will come out and explain. When he does so, Tom Girton, one the villagers working with Master, hijacks the UNIT helicopter and uses it to attack the Doctor. The Doctor manages to swerve Bessie out of the way and the helicopter explodes against the heat shield. As the Doctor relates his instructions to Osgood, who protests that it goes against the laws of physics, the Master summons Azal again. A heat wave and an earth tremor once again sweeps through the village.

The Master tries to dismiss Azal with an iron candlestick holder, but it does not seem to work. The Master demands that Azal give him the power that is his right, but Azal warns him that he is not the Master's servant. Azal also senses the presence of another like the Master, and wants to speak to the Doctor to see if he is worthy to take over the world. Azal says on his third appearance, he will decide if Earth deserves to continue existing. If so, he will give it to the Master. Azal then vanishes in another heat wave.

After explaining the process of creating the exchanger to Osgood, the Doctor returns to the village. However, the Master's agents are at work, and he is soon captured by a mob of villagers and tied up to a maypole, about to be burned alive. Olive goes to the mob and tells them that the Doctor is a mighty wizard, and with some help from Benton's silenced Pistol and a remote controlled Bessie, convinces the mob that the Doctor does indeed have magical powers. Jo and Mike, meanwhile, have returned to the church cellar and watch, hidden, as the Master gathers his coven to summon Azal one last time. Jo tries to interrupt the ritual, but it is too late.

With another rush of heat, Azal manifests himself and Jo and Yates are taken prisoner. Outside, the Doctor explains that to the now calmer villagers that his "magic" was due to science, and so is the Master's trickery. The rituals are merely used to focus the psychokinetic energy of humans that the Master needs to summon the Dæmons. As Jo is prepared as a sacrifice to Azal, the exchanger finally works and UNIT forces go through the gap created in the heat shield, but the gap only lasts a few minutes and the exchanger soon overloads. Mike manages to escape and tell the Doctor about Jo, but Bok is guarding the entrance to the catacombs. The use of the exchanger momentarily weakens Bok and Azal, and the Doctor manages to rush by the gargoyle. He makes it down to the cellar, where the Master is expecting him.

Outside, UNIT troops start firing at Bok, who can disintegrate objects and people with a wave of his hand, but he is also bulletproof. Even a bazooka does not work, as the pieces of the gargoyle reform almost instantly. Inside the church, the Master makes his case to the Dæmon, that he will rule the Earth experiment's people for their own good. The Doctor argues that Man should be given a chance to grow up. Azal finally decides to give his power to the Master, and fires electricity at the Doctor to kill him. However, Jo, steps in front of the Doctor, asking Azal to kill her instead. This act of self-sacrifice does not make sense to Azal, and the confusion sends him into an agony. He shouts for all of them to leave as he is dying. Bok reverts to his stone form, and as everyone runs out of the church, it blows up. The Master tries to escape in Bessie, but the Doctor's remote control brings the car back, and the Master is taken into custody, to be put in maximum security.

Olive Hawthorne hears the sound of bird songs and the smell of flowers once again, as the Earth is reborn each May Day. Olive takes Benton to dance around the maypole with the rest of the townsfolk, while Yates and the Brigadier go off to the pub for a drink. The Doctor and Jo join the dance, as the May Day celebrations continue and the Doctor remarks to Jo that perhaps there is magic in the world after all.

Cast
Doctor Jon Pertwee (Third Doctor)
Companion Katy Manning (Jo Grant)
Guest stars
Nicholas Courtney — Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Richard Franklin — Captain Mike Yates
John Levene — Sergeant Benton
Roger Delgado — The Master
Stephen Thorne — Azal
Stanley Mason — Bok
Damaris Hayman — Miss Hawthorne
Robin Wentworth — Prof. Horner
David Simeon — Alastair Fergus
Alec Linstead — Sgt Osgood
Rollo Gamble — Winstanley
Don McKillop — Bert the Landlord
John Joyce — Garvin
Jon Croft — Tom Girton
Matthew Corbett — Jones
James Snell — Harry
Christopher Wray — PC Groom
Eric Hillyard — Dr Reeves
John Owens — Thorpe
Gerald Taylor — Baker's Man
The Headington Quarry Men — Morris Dancers

Production
Writer "Guy Leopold" (Barry Letts and Robert Sloman)
Director Christopher Barry
Script editor Terrance Dicks
Producer Barry Letts
Executive producer(s) None
Production code JJJ
Series Season 8
Length 5 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast May 22–June 19, 1971

source: wikipedia

Series 8: Colony in Space

Three Time Lords meet at an observatory and discuss the theft of confidential files relating to "the Doomsday Weapon." They begrudgingly realise that only one man can help them — and the Doctor, accompanied by Jo, is temporarily released from his exile and sent in the TARDIS to the desert planet of Uxarieus in the twenty fifth century. There he finds an outpost of human colonists living as farmers. The colony is not a success — the land seems unusually poor and recently they are being besieged by representatives of rapacious mining corporations, and more recently, ferocious reptiles. The colony's governor, Robert Ashe, makes them welcome, and explains the colonists fled a year ago to the planet to escape the overcrowding and pollution on Earth.

Two colonists die in a reptile attack that night, and the next morning a man named Norton arrives at the settlement, claiming that he is from another colony that was wiped out by the reptiles. While the Doctor is investigating the dome of the dead colonists he is surprised by a mining robot controlled by Caldwell, a mineralogist for the IMC. Caldwell invites the Doctor to talk to his bosses and hear their side of the story. His superior, Dent, is a ruthless mining engineer, who has been using the mining robot to scare and now kill the colonists - something which Caldwell finds repellent. Dent knows the planet is rich in rare minerals and wants it for IMC and his greedy troops agree that this should be done at any cost.

The original inhabitants of the planet, known to the colonists as primitives, have a truce with the colonists - but this is tested when Norton kills the colony's scientist and blames it on a primitive, whom he insists are hostile. The Doctor meanwhile returns to the central dome of the colonists, having evaded an IMC attempt to kill him, and explains to Ashe that the miners are behind the deaths. An Adjudicator from Earth is sent for to deal with the complex claims over the planet - and when he arrives it turns out to be the Master. In this alias he determines that the mining company's claim to the planet is stronger.

The Doctor and Jo have meanwhile ventured to the primitive city. From images on cave walls they interpret it was once home to an advanced civilization that degraded over time. In the heart of the city, in a room filled with massive machines and a glowing hatch, they encounter a diminutive alien known as the Guardian. It warns them that intruding into the city is punishable by death, and lets them go, but warns them not to return.

The Master's adjudication is heard by a returning Doctor and Jo. Still in the Adjudicator's guise he tells Ashe that an appeal will fail unless there are special circumstances, such as historical interest and is intrigued when Ashe tells him about the primitive city. By this ploy he finds out more about the planet and the primitive city while Ashe is drawn away from the Doctor, who begins to lose his credibility with the colonists. The Master then manipulates the Doctor into accompanying him to the primitive city.

The situation between colonists and miners has meanwhile reached flashpoint with a pitched battle between them. Dent and his forces triumph and he stages a false trial of Ashe and Winton, the most rebellious of the colonists, sentencing them to death but commuting the sentence if all the colonists agree to leave the planet in their damaged old colony ship which first brought them to Uxarieus.

Inside the city, the Master tells the Doctor that the primitives were once an advanced civilization. Before their civilization fell apart, they built a super-weapon that was never used - and he wants to claim this weapon for himself. The room with the machinery in the city is the heart of a weapon; so powerful that the Crab Nebula was created during a test firing. The Doctor rejects the Master's overture to help him rule the galaxy using the weapon, stating that absolute power is evil and corrupting. The Guardian appears, demanding an explanation for the intrusion. The Master explains that he's come to restore their civilization to its former glory. The Doctor argues against him, and the Guardian recalls that the weapon led his race to decay, and its radiation is ruining the planet. It instructs the Doctor to activate the self-destruct, which he does. The city begins to crumble, and the Guardian tells them they must leave before it is too late. While the Doctor and the Master flee the decaying city, they find Caldwell and Jo, and the four get out before the city explodes.

The colonists' ship has meanwhile exploded on take-off as Ashe predicted it would. However, the colony leader was the only one to die. He piloted the ship alone to save his people. Winton and the colonists now emerge from hiding and kill or overpower the IMC men, with Caldwell having switched sides to support the colonists. Amid the confusion, the Master manages to make his escape.

With the battle over, the Doctor explains that the radiation from the weapon was what was killing their crops but this limiting factor has now been removed. He and Jo return to the TARDIS, which returns to UNIT Headquarters mere seconds after it left. Having accomplished what the Time Lords intended, the Doctor is once again trapped on Earth.

Cast
Doctor Jon Pertwee (Third Doctor)
Companion Katy Manning (Jo Grant)
Guest stars
Nicholas Courtney — Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Roger Delgado — The Master
Graham Leaman, Peter Forbes-Robertson, John Baker — Time Lords
John Ringham — Ashe
Helen Worth — Mary Ashe
David Webb — Leeson
Sheila Grant — Jane Leeson
John Tordoff — Alec Leeson
Nicholas Pennell — Winton
John Line — Martin
Mitzi Webster — Mrs Martin
Roy Skelton — Norton
Pat Gorman — Colonist
Morris Perry — Captain Dent
Bernard Kay — Caldwell
John Herrington — Holden
Tony Caunter — Morgan
Stanley McGeagh — Allen
Pat Gorman — Long
John Scott Martin — Robot
Pat Gorman — Primitive/Voice
Roy Heymann — Alien Priest
Norman Atkyns — The Guardian

Production
Writer Malcolm Hulke
Director Michael E. Briant
Script editor Terrance Dicks
Producer Barry Letts
Executive producer(s) None
Production code HHH
Series Season 8
Length 6 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast April 10–May 15, 1971

source: wikipedia

Series 8: The Claws of Axos

The Axons land on Earth, desperately in need of fuel. They propose to exchange the miracle substance they call Axonite for some much needed energy. Axonite is a "thinking" molecule that can replicate any substance... or so they claim. As it turns out, the ship is a single organism called Axos whose purpose is to feed itself by draining all energy through the Axonite (which is just a part of itself), including the energy of every life form on Earth. The deception about the Axonite's beneficial properties was to facilitate the distribution of Axonite across the globe.

Meanwhile, the Master, who was captured by Axos and used his knowledge of Earth as a bargaining chip for his life and freedom, escapes Axos and makes his way to the Doctor's TARDIS — his own having been seized by Axos. He plans to repair it to escape from Earth.

Axos itself becomes interested in the Doctor's knowledge of time travel. It now plans to broaden its feeding base by travelling through time as well as space. The Doctor, realising this, plans to trick Axos into linking up its drive unit to his TARDIS so that he can send Axos into a perpetual time loop. After tricking the Master into completing the repairs on his TARDIS, the Doctor does just that. This results in every part of Axos dematerialising from Earth, including the Axon automatons and the Axonite.

At the end, with the Master having escaped in his own TARDIS during the confusion aboard Axos, the Doctor returns to Earth, but not of his own volition. Apparently, the Time Lords have programmed the TARDIS to always return to Earth, like some "galactic yo-yo".

Cast
Doctor Jon Pertwee (Third Doctor)
Companion Katy Manning (Jo Grant)
Guest stars
Nicholas Courtney — Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Richard Franklin — Captain Mike Yates
John Levene — Sergeant Benton
Roger Delgado — The Master
Fernanda Marlowe — Corporal Bell
Peter Bathurst — Chinn
Paul Grist — Bill Filer
Donald Hewlett — George Hardiman
David Savile — Winser
Tim Pigott-Smith — Captain Harker
Kenneth Benda — The Minister
Derek Ware — Pigbin Josh
Michael Walker, David G. March — Radar Operators
Royston Farrell — Technician
Bernard Holley, Patricia Gordino, John Hicks, Debbie Lee London — Axons

Production
Writer Bob Baker
Dave Martin
Director Michael Ferguson
Script editor Terrance Dicks
Producer Barry Letts
Executive producer(s) None
Production code GGG
Series Season 8
Length 4 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast March 13–April 3, 1971

source; wikipedia

Series 8: The Mind of Evil

The Third Doctor and Jo visit the remote Stangmoor Prison to examine a new method of “curing” criminality, whereby the negative impulses are removed from the brain using the Keller Machine to enact the Keller Process. Professor Kettering, who is managing the delivery of the Process at the behest of the absent Emil Keller, reconditions a number of inmates including Barnham, a hardened criminal who is reverted to a more innocent and childlike state by the Process. The Doctor’s suspicions about the Keller Machine are heightened following a string of deaths, including that of Kettering himself, which seem to occur when the Machine is operated. Each death seems to be triggered by visions of personal phobias – and the Doctor is seemingly threatened by an inferno when he gets too close to it.

Meanwhile, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and the troops of UNIT are handling the security arrangements for the first World Peace Conference. Captain Chin Lee of the Chinese delegation, whose delegation leader is dead, is behaving strangely in an attempt to heighten tension in relations with the United States. It emerges that her actions are done under the influence of the Master. She uses the transmitted power of the Keller Machine in her plans against the American delegate, Senator Alcott, who barely survives her attack. Captain Chin Lee is deconditioned by the Doctor, and tells him that Emil Keller is indeed the Master, whom the Doctor had previously trapped on Earth by stealing the dematerialisation circuit of his TARDIS.

Back at Stangmoor a riot has broken out and resulted in a dangerous criminal who was next in line for the Keller Process, Harry Mailer, seizing control of the prison. Jo is briefly taken hostage, but she enables the guards to retake the prison. The Master, who had heard of the Stangmoor riot by eavesdropping on UNIT, arrives and meets Mailer, to whom he supplies enough small bombs for Mailer and his prisoners to retake control of the prison. The Doctor returns to the prison to be captured by the Master, who sets the Keller Machine loose on the mind of his old foe, weakening the Doctor considerably. The Master is losing control of the Keller Machine, which contains a dangerous alien Mind Parasite, and forces the Doctor to help him contain its power. This done, the Doctor is imprisoned once more.

The Master has come to Stangmoor to engage the prisoners as a private army, and uses them to hijack a UNIT convoy transporting a deadly Thunderbolt missile nearby. The stolen missile is then pointed at the Peace Conference and Captain Mike Yates, who was detailed with leading the convoy, is taken prisoner by the criminals. Left in the dark, the Brigadier decides the Thunderbolt missile must be in Stangmoor and comes to the rescue in a ”Trojan Horse” style assault. UNIT troops take control of the prison, killing Mailer and the other leading rioters. A freed Yates makes contact to tell the UNIT that the Thunderbolt is being kept in an abandoned hangar nearby.

The Keller Machine is growing stronger and breaks free of the temporary restraints placed on it by the Doctor. The Doctor contacts the Master, who has gone to the hangar with the missile, and offers to return his dematerialisation circuit in exchange for the missile. The Master agrees to this proposition on the guarantee he alone will come. The Doctor has worked out that Barnham, having been subjected to the Keller Machine once and having no evil in his mind anymore, is immune to its growing power and uses the prisoner as a shield in transporting the Machine to the hangar for his showdown with his enemy. In the ensuing fight the Thunderbolt is triggered and the Machine destroyed, but the wider devastation from the missile is minimal. The Master uses the chaos to escape with the dematerialisation circuit, killing Barnham in the process. He contacts the Doctor by telephone to taunt him that he is now free while the Doctor remains trapped in his exile on Earth.

Cast
Doctor Jon Pertwee (Third Doctor)
Companion Katy Manning (Jo Grant)
Guest stars
Nicholas Courtney — Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Richard Franklin — Captain Mike Yates
John Levene — Sergeant Benton
Roger Delgado — The Master
Fernanda Marlowe — Corporal Bell
Patrick Godfrey — Major Cosworth
Simon Lack — Kettering
Pik-Sen Lim — Chin Lee
Kristopher Kum — Fu Peng
Tommy Duggan — Senator Alcott
Raymond Westwell — Prison Governor
Michael Sheard — Dr Summers
Roy Purcell — Chief Prison Officer Powers
Eric Mason — Senior Prison Officer Green
Dave Carter, Bill Matthews, Barry Wade, Martin Gordon, Tony Jenkins[1] — Prison Officers
Clive Scott — Linwood
Neil McCarthy — Barnham
William Marlowe — Mailer
Hayden Jones — Vosper
David Calderisi — Charlie
Johnny Barrs — Fuller
Matthew Walters — Main Gates Prisoner

Production
Writer Don Houghton
Director Timothy Combe
Script editor Terrance Dicks
Producer Barry Letts
Executive producer(s) None
Production code FFF
Series Season 8
Length 6 episodes, 25 minutes each (mostly exists in black and white)
Originally broadcast January 30–March 6, 1971

source: wikipedia

Series 8: Terror of the Autons

At a circus, a lorry materialises out of thin air with the distinctive sound of a TARDIS. The occupant is a thin, bearded man dressed in a black suit who introduces himself as the Master to the circus owner, Rossini (though his real name is Russell), and hypnotises him. Subsequently, the Master and Russell break into the National Space Museum and steal a translucent plastic polyhedron, one of the energy units used by the Nestene Consciousness in their attempted invasion of Earth. The Master then takes the energy unit to a radio telescope facility, killing the technician on duty with a weapon that shrinks the victim, leaving a twisted, doll-sized body. The Master then hooks up the energy unit to the radio telescope and sends a signal into space.

At UNIT headquarters, the Doctor meets his new assistant, a young, enthusiastic but slightly scatter-brained trainee named Josephine Grant. Dismayed at first that he is not getting a scientist to replace Liz Shaw, who has returned to Cambridge, he reluctantly accepts her when he hasn't the heart to tell her otherwise. Reports of the theft of the Nestene unit and sabotage at the radio telescope facility lead the Doctor, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and Jo to investigate. At the facility, the Doctor encounters a fellow Time Lord who warns him that his old enemy, the Master, is here and will try to kill him. The Master, in the meantime, has hypnotised Farrel, the young manager of a plastics factory. Under the name of Colonel Masters, he takes over the factory's production to build Autons. McDermott, Farrel's assistant, gets suspicious of Masters and calls up Farrel's father, the owner of the factory.

Jo, investigating Farrel's factory, is discovered by the Master who wipes her memory of meeting him and sends her back to UNIT. When the chained-up box that used to contain the unit is brought to UNIT headquarters, Jo offers to open it. The Doctor realizes that Jo has been hypnotised and that the box contains a bomb.

The Doctor manages to throw the open and smoking box out the window, where it explodes in the river. Jo falls into a catatonic state from which the Doctor revives her, but she is unable to remember where she met the Master. At the factory, McDermott confronts the Master, and is killed by a plastic chair that swallows him up and suffocates him. The elder Farrel arrives, threatening to retake the factory, but his will is strong enough to resist the Master's hypnotism. The Master sends the elder Farrel home with a plastic doll of a troll, which comes to life when placed next to the radiator and strangles him.

Searching for Phillips, the other scientist missing from the facility, the Doctor visits Rossini's circus. He is captured by Rossini just as he is about to open the Master's TARDIS and tied up. He is freed by Jo, who had followed the Doctor there against orders. Phillips, also under the Master's influence, tries to kill Jo and the Doctor with a grenade. The Doctor urges Phillips to resist, and he is killed while trying to throw the explosive away. The Doctor enters the horsebox and removes something from it, only to be attacked by Rossini and his men. Seemingly rescued by a police car, the Doctor gets suspicious and unmasks them as Autons.

Escaping from the vehicle, the Doctor and Jo hide as the Brigadier and Captain Mike Yates arrive. A firefight breaks out between them and the Autons from which they manage to escape in the Brigadier's car. Back at UNIT, the Doctor fits the dematerialisation circuit he "borrowed" from the Master's TARDIS and tries to take off, but only manages to produce a lot of smoke. His frustration turns into amusement, however, when he realizes that without the circuit, the Master is now trapped on Earth as well.

Meanwhile, Autons appearing like men dressed with big plastic heads hand out plastic daffodils to the public. Soon deaths from asphyxiation, shock and heart failure are being reported across the country. The only connection is between the first two victims - McDermott and the elder Farrel. Interviewing Mrs Farrel, Jo and the Doctor discover the elder Farrel's concerns about "Colonel Masters". The Master, meanwhile, has infiltrated UNIT headquarters disguised as a telephone technician and installs a long, plastic telephone cable in the Doctor's laboratory. The Doctor brings the troll doll back to UNIT to examine it, but it is simply solid plastic. While the Brigadier and the Doctor are at the factory, the doll comes to life due to its proximity to a Bunsen burner and attacks Jo, until Yates shoots it. At the now empty factory, the Brigadier and Doctor discover that Farrel has chartered a bus. They also find a plastic daffodil and an Auton, proving the connection between the factory and the Master.

Back at UNIT, Yates tells Doctor about the doll, but using heat on the daffodil fails to activate any sinister function. The telephone rings, and it is the Master, who bids the Doctor goodbye. The Master sends an electronic signal across, animating the telephone cable which then tries to strangle the Doctor.

Luckily the Brigadier hears the Doctor's cries for help and disconnects the cable. The Brigadier calls out an airstrike on the Auton bus. As the Doctor tries to decode the Nestene instructions imprinted in the plastic flower, a radio signal from a walkie-talkie accidentally activates it. The daffodil sprays a plastic film over Jo's face, nearly suffocating her until the Doctor removes the film with a spray. The plastic quickly dissolves soon after, explaining why it was not found at the sites of the deaths.

The Master arrives at UNIT to retrieve his dematerialisation circuit, threatening to kill Jo if he does not hand it over. Jo, trying to convince the Doctor not to, foolishly blurts out that the airstrike has been confirmed. With this revelation, the Master decides to bring Jo and the Doctor to the Auton bus parked in a quarry. The Brigadier has no choice but to abort the airstrike, and the bus drives off to the radio telescope. Farrel, regaining his wits at last, tries to crash the bus in a field, and the Doctor and Jo escape. UNIT troops engage the Autons while the Doctor and Jo pursue the Master into the facility's control room where the Master is opening the radio frequency for the Nestene invasion force to come through. However, the Doctor convinces the Master that the Nestenes will not distinguish between ally or foe once they arrive. Together, they close the channel for the invasion, driving the Nestenes back to wherever they were coming from and causing the Autons to collapse. While the Doctor and the Brigadier catch their breath, the Master vanishes.

At the bus, the Master emerges, apparently surrendering, but when he pulls out a pistol, Yates shoots him. The Doctor peels back the disguise on the corpse to reveal that it is Farrel made up look like the Master, as the real Master drives off in the bus. However, with the dematerialisation circuit in the Doctor's hands, the Master is still trapped on Earth. The Doctor remarks to Jo that he looks forward to their next encounter.

Cast
Doctor Jon Pertwee (Third Doctor)
Companion Katy Manning (Jo Grant)
Guest stars
Nicholas Courtney — Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Richard Franklin — Captain Mike Yates
John Levene — Sergeant Benton
Roger Delgado — The Master
David Garth — Time Lord
Michael Wisher — Rex Farrel
Stephen Jack — Farrel Snr.
Barbara Leake — Mrs Farrel
Harry Towb — McDermott
Christopher Burgess — Professor Phillips
Frank Mills — Radio Telescope Director
Andrew Staines — Goodge
Dermot Tuohy — Brownrose
John Baskcomb — Rossini
Roy Stewart — Strong Man
Dave Carter — Museum Attendant
Bill McGuirk — Policeman
Pat Gorman — Auton Leader
Terry Walsh — Auton Policeman
Haydn Jones — Auton Voice

Production
Writer Robert Holmes
Director Barry Letts (uncredited)
Script editor Terrance Dicks
Producer Barry Letts
Executive producer(s) None
Production code EEE
Series Season 8
Length 4 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast January 2–January 23, 1971

source: wikipedia