Forging an Aliance with the Daleks

The Doctor and his companion Sarah Jane Smith are on their way to the holiday paradise of Florana when the TARDIS's power abruptly fails forcing the time-machine to materialise. The Doctor finds an oil lamp so he and Sarah can investigate outside. With no electrical power The Doctor has to open the TARDIS doors with a crank handle. On discovering it to be cold, dark and foggy The Doctor goes off to investigate further while Sarah returns to the TARDIS to change out of her bathing costume and into more suitable clothing.

Without warning The Doctor is attacked by some natives and is dragged off. He eventually manages to escape his captors and, as daylight arrives, meets a small group of humans: Weapons Officer Lieutenant Dan Galloway, Lieutenant Peter Hamilton, Captain Richard Railton, and civilian geologist Jill Tarrant. The Doctor learns that Commander Stewart, the expedition's leader, had been attacked by the native Exxilons and is badly injured. They are on the planet to get parrinium, a rare mineral which is needed to combat a disease that is sweeping the galaxy.

Meanwhile Sarah, on exiting the TARDIS again, realises that there is no sign of The Doctor. However, she soon finds The Doctor’s oil lamp and is shocked to discover that it has blood on it. While searching for The Doctor Sarah spots in the distance a magnificent city and so decides to head for it. Unfortunately Sarah is unaware that the city is sacred to the Exxilons and when she is captured by them they take her to their High Priest who sentences Sarah to be sacrificed.

Sarah Jane Smith

Elsewhere on the planet a spacecraft lands containing a squad of Daleks. With their weapons not working they agree a pact with the humans until the power is restored. They all go to a mining area but are attacked, Railton is killed and the others are captured by Exxilons and taken to their temple. The Doctor rescues Sarah but they are all placed in a cell while a Dalek negotiates with the High Priest. However, they are all unaware that back at the Dalek ship, the Daleks have successfully managed to get a new projectile weapon system to work and so are planning an attack on the Exxilon temple.

And so in the middle of the sacrificial ceremony, the Daleks attack, allowing The Doctor and Sarah to escape into a tunnel system behind the altar but they are followed by two Daleks. While in the tunnels Sarah meets Bellal, a friendly Exxilon, and The Doctor encounters one of the living roots of the city, which spits electrical energy. It attacks one of the Daleks which is destroyed. The Doctor returns to Sarah and Bellal who, along with another Exxilon, Gotal, helps them escape from the other Dalek.

The Doctor

Bellal then explains that the Exxilon race built the living city which then decided it no longer needed its creators and banished them. Since then his race has degenerated into two factions; one who worship the city and one who wish to destroy it. Bellal draws the markings which appear on the walls of the city and The Doctor recognises them from a temple in Peru on Earth.

Meanwhile back in the Exxilon’s temple Galloway makes a deal with the Daleks that the Exxilons be used to mine the parrinium as long as the Daleks wipe out a breakaway group of Exxilons for them. While the Daleks send two of their number to enter the city, Galloway and Hamilton are made to scale the city walls and place two explosive charges at the base of a beacon atop the city in the hope that by destroying the beacon this will stop the power drain.

On learning about the city The Doctor is interested in seeing it himself and so Bellal takes The Doctor and Sarah there. The Doctor tells Sarah to ensure that the humans are ready to leave the moment that the power returns. As Sarah leaves The Doctor and Bellal investigate the markings. However, two Daleks then arrive and chase The Doctor and Bellal, but The Doctor manages to open the door by tracing the symbol that is different from the others. The Daleks are left to solve the puzzle themselves. In the first anteroom, The Doctor traces a maze on the wall to open the second door. The next puzzle is a pattern on the floor. It is electrified, but The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to negotiate it. The Daleks are close behind but the bolts of electricity do no serious damage to them.

The Doctor with Jill Tarrant and Dan Galloway

The next test is of the mind forcing Bellal to threaten The Doctor. The Doctor again uses his sonic screwdriver to break the spell and they are allowed to move on. The final test is on their sanity but The Doctor and Bellal again manage to survive. They then enter the city's control room where The Doctor starts to try and re-wire the circuitry as the city starts to create two 'living' antibodies to destroy the intruders. With time running out The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to give the controlling computer a brainstorm. Luckily, just as the 'living' antibodies become active, the Daleks arrive and the creatures turn their attention on them instead. This enables The Doctor and Bellal to escape as the city starts to die.

At the top of the city Galloway and Hamilton have finally managed to climb up to the beacon and they place one of the two charges at its base. Galloway though keeps the other so that it can be used against the Daleks. The Daleks plan to leave with the parrinium as soon as the power returns and they get the sacks of what they believe to be the mineral loaded onto their ship by Galloway and Hamilton. In fact, the parrinium is on the humans' ship and the sacks that were loaded into the Dalek’s spaceship are full of nothing but earth – thanks to a plan Sarah hatched with Jill to replace the parrinium with ordinary rock.

With the beacon destroyed, and the power returning, the Daleks prepare to leave. They also prepare to fire a plague missile at the planet once they are in space to ensure that it becomes uninhabitable. Galloway, however, has hidden himself on their ship, and once it is in space, he detonates the bomb, destroying the Dalek’s spaceship and killing himself in the process.

Back on the planet The Doctor, Sarah, Bellal, Jill and Hamilton watch as the city melts away, screaming as it is destroyed. As the Exxilon city collapses, The Doctor sadly muses that the universe now has only 699 wonders.