Dr. Who (The Early Years) - Part 71 "Dragonfirei"

It's the far future and the Doctor is interested in visiting Iceworld. A planet where one side is constantly turned away from the sun. While visiting a cafeteria on the surface, they run into Glitz and one of the cafe's waitresses, Ace. Glitz is proudly admiring a treasure map he acquired in a game of chance, but what the Doctor doesn't know is Glitz recently betrayed his rebellious crew and sold them into servitude to Kane, the planets ruler.

Kane is a cold-blooded ruler, literally. He must remain constantly cold as heat severely irritates him. He buys all those who are employed to him, so leaving his employment is impossible. While the Doctor and Glitz go off in search of the treasure, one of Kane's employees is instructed to detain the Nosferatur, Glitz's ship, after Glitz sold them rotten food. When Belaz inquires if she can have the ship, Kane orders the ship destroyed.

While waiting for the Doctor, Mel befriends Ace, the waitress in the cafe who has grown to hate her job. After dealing with a rude and irritating customer in her own style, Ace is fired. With nothing better to do, Ace brings Mel to her quarters where they learn an ice jam is causing the station problems. Ace decides to take care of the problem on her own and introduces Mel to her 'home-brew' explosive - Nitro 9. The authorities are not to happy with the explosives so chase the girls into the lower levels where they catch up with the Doctor and Glitz. When they meet the underground 'dragon', they learn that Kane is in exile and the dragon is his jailer. They also learn the dragon is holding the ultimate power to the station, in its head. However the treasure map has a hidden tracking device on it as well as a microphone and Kane hears the entire conversation. Kane now sees his opportunity to escape his prison.

In order to acquire the required power source, Kane awakes a few of the mercenaries he has put on ice. Kane finds it a twisted irony to send his most recently acquired mercenaries, Glitz's old shipmates. He then orders the mercenaries to capture the dragon below and to drive the rest of the stations inhabitants towards the Nasferatu. Kane has decided to cleanse the station of all personnel. Trying to return to his ship, Glitz is shocked to find the stations inhabitants have all gathered on his ship and are taking off. Glitz begs for them to open up but they strive to get out as soon as they can. Once clear of the station, Kane then fires on the ship, destroying it. Glitz vows revenge on Kane.

Once his staff have 'killed' the dragon and retrieved the power source, a surge kills those involved - one final trap set by the jailer. The Doctor takes the power and returns to Kane. Mel is holding the power source and refuses to give it to Kane, till he takes Ace hostage. Now with the power needed, Kane begins his retreat from the Iceworld to exact his revenge on his home planet. But the Doctor has some shocking news for him. During his 3000 year exile, his home planet has been wiped out by a super nova. Robbed of his revenge, Kane opens the heat shields of the sun and kills himself; having nothing left to live for.

Glitz seizes his opportunity and takes control of Kane's spacecraft. He has agreed to take Ace home, back to her own time and place. She revealed to Mel earlier she comes from the 20th century and was caught up in a time storm that transported her to Iceworld. Mel also has decided to take leave of the Doctor and hopes to travel with Glitz for awhile, possibly to reform him. As she heads out, she mentions to the Doctor, Ace has no where to go, as she doesn't want to go home. The Doctor agrees to take on Ace under three conditions.
1.) He is always right.
2.) He is called the Doctor, Not Professor, as Ace is prone to call him.
3.......... He will decide on the third rule at a later time.

WHO: Dorothy "Ace" McShane

PLANET OF ORIGIN: Earth, circa 1987

REASON FOR JOINING: Unwilling to return home or travel with Glitz, the Doctor offers her a ride home via "the scenic route".

 

WHO: Melanie Bush

DEPARTURE LOCATION: Iceworld, The far, far future.

REASON FOR DEPARTURE:Having grown tired of travelling with the Doctor, Mel hopes for more adventure with Glitz, and to some degree hopes to reform him.

Bonus Photo!

Dr. Who (The Early Years) - Part 68 "The Ultimate Foe"

The Valeyard had just claimed the Doctor now needs to be tried for genocide. Outraged, the Doctor again claims the matrix has been tampered with. In order to prove it's impossible, the Inquisitor brings in the keeper of the Matrix. He claims changes to the Matrix are impossible because he personally holds the key, which never leaves his side. The Doctor points out it has from time to time when maintenance is needed. Stubbornly, the keeper of the key refuses to admit such an event is possible, and those in possession of the key when not in his hands are "qualified personnel".

When the Valeyard claims the Doctor is just stalling for time, the Inquisitor asks the Doctor if he has any witnesses available that can back up his version of events. The Doctor asks how he'd have witnesses with him, any companions who could back him up are scattered across the universe and all through time. But mysteriously, two capsules arrive carrying Glitz and Melanie. It's revealed the Master has sent them along to 'help' the Doctor. He has penetrated the Matrix (just as the Doctor claimed was possible) and has been following the trial with great interest, though he is not responsible for the alterations.

The Master makes another startling statement when he calls the Valeyard the Doctor. It turns out, the Valeyard in an amalgam of all the Doctors darkest sides, coming between his 11th and 12th regenerations. He's working with the High Council to hide their corruption. They have promised the Valeyard the Doctors remaining regenerations. The Master finally admits he's only helping the Doctor for two reasons. The first is to discredit the Valeyard. The Master hopes the revelations will shock Gallifrey to it's very core. Also, he's helping the Doctor because he wants to kill the Doctor personally. While explaining all this, the Valeyard escapes into the Matrix. The Doctor takes Glitz and follows the Valeyard.

While inside the Matrix, the Valeyard tries to kill the Doctor but the Master gives the Doctor refuge. He continues to relate why he's helping. He admits that the Valeyard, without the good qualities of the Doctor that holds him back, is the ultimate foe. Additionally, he wants to steal the Gallifreyan secrets and bribes Glitz into helping him. Glitz is able to persuade the secrets from Mr. Poppelwick, via use of a gun.

Meanwhile, the Doctor escapes from the Valeyard and finds Mel in the Matrix, she coaxes him out to the trial room where the Inquisitor sentences the Doctor to death. The Doctor agrees to the verdict and heads back to the Matrix. But this is all a ruse, another fabrication of the Valeyards. In the real trial room, the Inquisitor tells Mel they are helpless and cannot interfere. Mel disagrees and steals the Matrix key and runs in to warn the Doctor. But the Doctor knows it was a ruse and was pretending to give up his life to get close to the Valeyard. Once they meet him, they find out he's wired the monitor in the trial room to explode, hoping to kill the Inquisitor and the Timelords in the trial room. Mel runs off to warn the courtroom.

Struggling to save the courtroom, the Doctor narrowly averts the disaster, though a surge still destroys the courtroom monitor and takes out the Valeyard. Meanwhile, the Master tries to install the Gallifreyan data into his Tardis, but it's not authentic and it traps both him and Glitz. Back in the courtroom, the Inquisitor offers her thanks to the Doctor and once again suggests him for the Presidency, to which the Doctor politely declines. He's also delighted to find out, one of the fabrications of the Matrix was the death of Peri. It turns out she's living as a Queen with King Yrcanos. The courtroom clears and the last persons to leave is the keeper of the Matrix key, but it turns out to be the Valeyard in disguise.

WHO: The Doctor (6th)

DEPARTURE LOCATION: Last seen in the Timelord Courtroom.

REASON FOR DEPARTURE: Little is known (in the televised) series as to why the Doctor regenerates. It's possible an explosion in the Tardis as a result of a strong tractor beam can be the culprit.

Dr. Who (The Early Years) - Part 65 "The Mysterious Planet"

Drawn by an unknown force, the Doctor's Tardis is brought to a station in space. Oddly, he no longer has Peri with him. Seeing the only door available to him, he walks into a courtroom. The High Council of Gallifrey is putting the Doctor on trial once again at the behest of the Valeyard, a character bent on finding the Doctor guilty of serious crimes of intervening in other planets affairs. The Doctor claims that as President of Gallifrey, he can't be put on trial. He's then informed because he refused to return to Gallifrey, he was deposed. Reluctantly, the Doctor sits down, allowing the trial to continue.

The Valeyard is utilizing the Matrix to illustrate the point of how the Doctor willingly gets over involved in the affairs of others. Using a visualizer in the courtroom, we see the Doctor and Peri materialize on a mysterious planet. The Doctor says the planet is named Ravalox and was to have been destroyed by a fireball, but it's evidently not true. To add further mystery, it's the same size and angle as the Earth. As they continue to investigate, they are being watched by a pair of rouges who want to kill the Doctor, claiming they hate 'competitors'. The man in charge is Sabalom Glitz, a mercenary.

As the matrix continues to follow Glitz and his companion, it bleeps out phrases of their speech to which the Doctor cries fowl. The Inquisitor allows the edited version for now, turning back to the visualizer. The Doctor and Peri have split up when they discover an abandoned "Marble Arch" underground station, which seems to confirm to the Doctor this is actually the planet Earth. As he continues to investigate Peri is captured by a local tribe who have also captured Sabalom Glitz and partner. Meanwhile, the Doctor is captured by the underground dwellers who think he's stealing water. After being stoned, he manages to escape and is also captured by the outside tribe. But there is an 'immortal' living below who wants the Doctor recaptured so he sends a L1 robot to recapture him. While the Doctor is captured, Peri and Glitz are able to escape.

While underground, the Doctor meets Drathro, a robot designed to help maintain order in the facility, but has gone a little mental. And when the Doctor tries to tell it, a faulty black light converter needs to be shut down before there is a cosmos shattering explosion, Drathro refuses to let him do so, realizing that means it will cease to function.

After destroying the L1 robot, Katryca, leads the rest of her tribe into the underground station to steal the secrets within. They believe the service robot was in fact the immortal. Before too long, she realizes her mistake when she storms into Drathro's lair where he kills her by electrocution. Drathro orders everyone else outside to awate being 'culled'. They obediently do as they are told. This gives the Doctor one last chance to disable the converter, but still fails to do so.

Trying once more, this time with Glitz' help, the Doctor is able to stop the catastrophe. Glitz has tricked Drathro into thinking he can support it with black light from his ship. Realistically though, Glitz was trying to steal away the secrets Drathro was carrying. When the Doctor averts most of the explosion, Drathro is destroyed, taking the secrets Glitz so desperately wanted. The crisis is averted, and back in the courtroom, the Doctor gleefully says he's won the case because he averted the destruction of the universe. But the Valeyard contents his meddling possible initiated it and has one more case to show the court.



Bonus Photo: The Valeyard

Who is the Valeyard, and why is he so determined to see the Doctors demise?