Doctor Who: Timelash

Timelash is the fifth serial of the 22nd season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts on BBC1 on 9 and 16 March 1985.

The TARDIS is ensnared by a Kontron tunnel (similar to a time corridor) and is drawn to its source on the planet Karfel, which the Doctor has previously visited.

Its population is now ruled by the Borad, a sadistic ruler never seen in person, only via security monitors which reveal him to be an old man. His law is enforced by blue androids; and all rebels are dealt with either by summary execution or dispatch via the Timelash – exiled down a corridor of Time and Space. At the time of the Doctor’s return, the neighbouring planet of Bandrils are posed to invade after the Borad rescinds the grain supply treaty which underpinned the relationship between the two civilisations.

Acting as a proxy for the Borad, the Maylin is the most senior of the five councillors of Karfel. When one of these fellow councillors, Mykros, actively plots with Maylin Renis to overthrow the Borad’s rule, the Maylin is executed and Mykros sentenced to exile via the Timelash. Before he can be dispatched however, Vena – Renis’ daughter and Mykros’ lover – intervenes to plead for his life. When this fails, she steals an amulet conferring the power to the new Maylin – a sycophant named Tekker – and accidentally falls into the Timelash herself.

The arrival of the TARDIS presents Maylin Tekker with an opportunity to retrieve the amulet. When the Doctor refuses to help, Tekker explains that Peri has been taken hostage to ensure his co-operation. She has been taken to a cave of Morlox, large lizards indigenous to Karfel, but is rescued by some Karfelon rebels. However, they are soon captured by guards.

To protect Peri, the Doctor follows the Timelash tunnel back to Scotland in 1885. When he arrives he finds Vena with the amulet and a young man named Herbert. All return to Karfel, where the amulet is seized and the travellers rounded up with the rebels to await sentencing. They fight back and seal the chamber doors. The Doctor retrieves two kontron crystals from the Timelash, which he uses to create a time manipulator that allows him to slip out of the Chamber.

Tekker has meanwhile fled to the Borad, and blames the setback on the last remaining loyal Counsellor, Kendron, whom the Borad executes. Tekker remains with the Borad, now revealed to be a hideous amalgam of human and Morlox. They watch on a screen as Peri is brought into a cave and strapped down while Morlox gather to feed.

A canister of the chemical Mustakozene-80 is placed nearby, which has the ability to fuse together the tissue of different species. The Borad has taken a liking to Peri and wishes to mutate her like himself. The Doctor arrives to confront Tekker and the Borad, recognising the latter as Megelen, a crazed scientist he encountered on his previous visit to Karfel and exposed to the Council for unethical experiments on Morloxes.

Megelen wishes to replicate its effects to create a partner. His plan has been to provoke a war with the Bandrils that will result in their use of warheads which will wipe out all the Karfelons – but leave the Morlox and himself alive – allowing him to repopulate the world in his own image. This revelation prompts Tekker too to rebel, but he is aged to death. The Doctor then uses a Kontron Crystal to deflect Megelen’s beam back at him, killing the mutant in his wheelchair.

Herbert helps the Doctor rescue Peri. They return to the Council Chamber where the imminent threat of a Bandril nuclear strike prompts the Doctor to take drastic action. He materialises the TARDIS in the path of the incoming warhead, risking his own life to save Karfel. He does so successfully and returns to Karfel to find Megelen returned from the dead and threatening the Council Chamber – or rather the other one was a clone of this original.

Megelen is made unbalanced by the image of himself in a boarded up mirror, revealing the reason he hid himself away, and in this state is pushed into the Timelash by the Doctor, where he may have ended up as the Loch Ness monster (The Doctor says “he may be seen from time to time”).

As they depart, the Doctor shows Peri Herbert’s calling card which gives his name as Herbert George Wells.

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