TEXT: First Broadcast: 08.02.64 Running Time: 25 minutes 04 seconds [SCENE_BREAK] 1: INT. TARDIS. CONSOLE ROOM (IAN, BARBARA and SUSAN look on as the DOCTOR manipulates the TARDIS controls. As he hurries round the console, there is an explosion and everyone is knocked to one side and the room is plunged into darkness. The DOCTOR is lying on the floor beside the console. IAN is in a chair. SUSAN lies across the console. The room is totally silent and still. Then, with a groan, BARBARA staggers across the room and looks round the room. With the length of Thal material still draped across her shoulders, she cautiously walks past the DOCTOR, looks over the console and finally stops in front of the chair in which IAN is unconscious.) BARBARA: (Unsure.) Mr. Chesterton... Ian Chesterton? (BARBARA looks in a puzzled way at IAN, but turns quickly, when she hears a shuffling noise from behind her. SUSAN stands up.) SUSAN: (Groggily.) I thought... (She staggers towards BARBARA.) SUSAN: I know you. (SUSAN cringes in agony and then recoils away, head in hands.) SUSAN: Ow! BARBARA: Have you hurt your head? SUSAN: (In pain.) Ow... Yes, terribly! BARBARA: Well, let me look at it. (As BARBARA moves towards SUSAN, the girl moves away from her staggering around the console.) SUSAN: Ow... Oh, my neck hurts too. (She begins to relax.) SUSAN: Oh, oh, it's going away now... Oh, that's better... I couldn't think where I was for a minute... BARBARA: Do you want to sit down? (BARBARA indicates an unoccupied chair. SUSAN looks at it and then takes another uneasy step.) SUSAN: No, it's all right. (She looks down and notices the
SUMMARY:
As they slowly recover from the shock of being thrown to the TARDIS floor,the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara all seem to be acting strangely. Unexplained events occur and suspicions are raised that an alien force may have entered the ship. The Doctor even accuses Ian and Barbara of sabotage. It gradually dawns on the travellers that what they have been experiencing is an attempt by the TARDIS itself to warn them of something. The Doctor finally realises the fast return switch he used when leaving Skaro has stuck, and the ship has been plunging back to the beginning of time and its own destruction. Once the problem - a faulty spring - is corrected, the TARDIS returns to normal and the Doctor has to make some apologies for his behaviour.