The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough

In the village of Little Hodcombe in 1984, schoolteacher Jane Hampden is being tormented by Colonel Ben Woolsey, Captain Joseph Willow and their leader, Sir George Hutchinson, who are on horseback and dressed as roundheads. Sir George Hutchinson has organised a series of war games to celebrate the English Civil War, which came to the village on 13th July 1643. Jane Hampden though wants him to stop the games but he refuses.

Meanwhile the TARDIS arrives in the crypt of a nearby disused church after experiencing some time distortion and an energy field. The Doctor and his companions, Tegan Jovanka and Vislor Turlough, check the scanner and they observe that the crypt is full of broken masonry, and as they watch, more falls from the ceiling. The Doctor then spots a fleeing figure and dashes out to help, but he is too late as the figure has now vanished. The Doctor and his companions therefore leave the church to investigate, unaware of the smoke that starts to billow from a crack in a wall.

The three travellers are soon captured and taken to Sir George Hutchinson. Tegan explains that they have come to this village to see her grandfather, Andrew Verney. When informed that her grandfather is missing she runs off in disgust. The Doctor follows but loses her as she has become trapped in a barn in which she sees the ghost of an old man.

Outside the Church

Returning to the church, The Doctor meets Will Chandler who breaks through the wall. He has been hidden in a priest hole and believes the year to be 1643. They are joined by The Doctor’s two companions (Tegan having been rescued from the barn by Turlough). While The Doctor and Will Chandler investigate the church, Tegan and Turlough wait in the TARDIS, where they see a sparkly projection on one of the walls. They go to tell The Doctor but are re-captured. Turlough is locked in an outbuilding with Andrew Verney while Tegan is forced to change into a May Queen costume by Joseph Willow.

While investigate the church The Doctor finds a secret passage that leads back to Ben Woolsey’s living room under a slab marked with a picture of a creature that Will Chandler identifies as the Malus. The Doctor and Will Chandler meet Jane Hampden coming the other way through the passage - she was locked in the house by Joseph Willow and found the passage’s other end by accident. They avoid Sir George Hutchinson, who has followed Jane Hampden down the passage, and The Doctor finds a small ball of metal with which the man has been playing. The Doctor recognises it is tinclavic, a metal mined by the Terileptils on the planet Raaga for the almost exclusive use of the people of Hakol, a planet in the star system Rifta, where psychic energy is a force to be harnessed.

The Doctor is Arrested

Returning to the church, The Doctor and Jane Hampden are astonished when a massive alien face pushes its way through the crack on the wall, roaring and spewing smoke. They manage to escape from the psychic projection of a cavalier, and head back to the house via the tunnel. The Doctor realises that the Malus in the church was found by Andrew Verney and then exploited by Sir George Hutchinson. The psychic energy released by the war games will feed the Malus. Having realised the danger they are all in The Doctor and Jane Hampden again try to persuade Sir George Hutchinson to stop the games, as the final battle will be for real. But he refuses to listen to them. Ben Woolsey however, joins forces with The Doctor.

Tegan, dressed as the Queen of the May, is taken in a horse-drawn cart towards the village green, where she is to be burned. When the cart arrives, however, a straw dummy has been put in her place by Ben Woolsey. Sir George Hutchinson is furious, but Will Chandler causes a distraction which allows The Doctor, Jane Hampden, Ben Woolsey, Tegan and Will Chandler himself to get back to the church, where they enter the TARDIS. The Doctor locks the signal conversion unit on the frequency of the psychic energy feeding the Malus, hoping to be able to direct it. Ben Willow and a trooper try in vain to break their way into the TARDIS, and Turlough and Andrew Verney knock them unconscious with lumps of masonry. The Doctor succeeds in blocking the energy, and the projection of the Malus in the TARDIS dies.

The Doctor and his friends all return to the main church, where they are confronted by three roundhead projections. The trooper in the crypt recovers but is beheaded by the roundheads when he enters the church. Sir George Hutchinson has been summoned by the Malus and now arrives, brandishing two pistols. Ben Woolsey tries to reason with him but he will not listen. The Malus also summons Joseph Willow and, in the confusion, Will Chandler pushes Sir George Hutchinson into the Malus’s face, killing him.

Sir George Hutchinson

The Malus then goes wild as it attempts to fulfil its program and starts to destroy the church in its death throes. To escape, Will Chandler, Joseph Willow, Jane Hampden, Ben Woolsey, Tegan, Andrew Verney, The Doctor and Turlough all manage to enter the TARDIS. As the TARDIS dematerialises from the church it is consumed in a huge explosion and the Malus is finally destroyed.

Safely in the TARDIS, and with threat of the Malus gone, The Doctor promises to drop the villagers off home and return Will Chandler to his own time. Tegan however, objects and suggests staying to spend some time in Little Hodcombe to allow her some time to visit her grandfather. The Doctor is initially disgruntled but he is persuaded to stay for a while for a rest.