The Savages

The TARDIS lands on an apparently idyllic planet in the far future that is inhabited by the advanced Elders and the barbaric Savages. At first the Elders welcome The Doctor, greeting him as "The Traveller from Beyond Time" and revealing they have admired his exploits from afar and predicted that he would soon be arriving to their world.

However, The Doctor becomes suspicious of the Elders' seemingly perfect civilisation, but it is Dodo who first discovers what the terrible secret that the Elders are hiding: the apparently civilised Elders maintain their advanced society by draining off, and transferring to themselves, the life-force of the defenceless Savages.

Using advanced weapons the Elders capture the savages, entrapping them and forcing them back to the city. Once the life force of the helpless savages has been collected the near dead savages are then returned to the outside to recover so that the process can start all over again.

The Doctor with a City Guard

Outraged at this exploitation, The Doctor tries to stop the Elders and persuade them of the wrong they are doing by building a civilisation on such immoral grounds – but he is seemingly helpless to prevent what is going on. Worse still, it seems that Jano, is eager to gain the life energy, and so the intelligence, of one person in particular: The Doctor.

And so The Doctor finds himself subjected to the energy transfer process and his life force channelled into Jano. Meanwhile, Steven Taylor and Dodo have ventured outside the city and have made contact with the savage – they soon learn that the savages were once a highly skilled and artistic race, but over the centuries the energy transfer process has stymied their creativity and ability.

Steven and Dodo with a City Guard

So as to escape from one of the Elder guards, Steven and Dodo hide in a deep cave system where the savages live. There they find themselves trapped. Steven though manages to overpower the guard by using the mirror Dodo was given when they first arrived to reflect the light beam from the guard’s gun.

They return to the city and find a weak but determined Doctor, and help him escape. Back at the caves The Doctor soon recovers from his ordeal and it is then that he realises that the Elders must be forced, not persuaded, to treat the Savages as equals. And so the time travellers help the Savages fight back against the Elder guards.

On returning to the city they find that Jano’s plan has backfired and that The Doctor's personality has in fact taken over Jano, imbuing him with The Doctor’s mannerisms, outlook and morality. These two identities have caused a personality crisis and have made him realise the wrong that he and the Elders have been doing.

The Elders

And so assisted by The Doctor, Steven and Dodo they destroy the technology underpinning the Elder’s society. The end of the technology means the end of the oppression, and so the Elders begin to talk of how a new society, with the Savages, can be built together.

The Doctor then surprises Steven by convincing him to remain behind as a mediator. When both sides agree to accept Steven's decision, he decides to stay. The Doctor and a saddened Dodo therefore bid their friend goodbye and depart in the TARDIS leaving him to his new life as the leader of the newly united Elders and Savages.