Redgrove

Episode One: New Frontiers

Featuring the Redgrove Doctor, Tara Watson, Professor Alan Ryder and Laura Neasden

Earth, 1972.

At the Delcorp Research Centre, something was happening. Professor Mark Delaware watched the strange capsule in front of him shimmer with a purple glow. This was his life's work and now he was ready to test it out.
"You ready, Jason?" he asked Jason Morak, who was dressed in a slim grey spacesuit with a helmet that partially hid his face from view. Jason gave him a thumbs up in response and entered the capsule, the door sliding neatly into place as the power came on with a whirr. Mark walked over to where his assistant, Janet Dowry, was sat, with a microphone in front of her.
"Jason, this is Janet. It is now one minute to launch time. Do you wish to abort? Please give us confirmation if that is the case." she said into the microphone, before waiting for the response.
No response came.
"Thirty seconds to launch. Activating dimensional engines." Janet spoke into the microphone, with the sound of the dimensional engines being a quiet thrum. Mark gave the signal and Janet pressed the launch button on the control console in front of her, saying, "Launch time is now."
And the capsule vanished.

The capsule rematerialised on a desolate world which was comprised of grey rock and some areas of green sludge which bubbled and popped every now and again. The capsule door opened and Jason emerged, staring at his new environment in astonishment.
"It worked." he muttered, "It really worked."
He walked over to the pool of green sludge that was nearby and gazed at it, startled. In order to investigate it further, he decided to take off his glove and touch it.

Suddenly, the sludge crawled up his arm and covered his entire body. He groaned in pain as the entire pool slithered back into the pod and the door slammed shut. Jason struggled back towards it, but the pod dematerialised before he could reach it.

The pod rematerialised at the Delcorp Research Centre and the door opened, revealing the large pool of green sludge. It bubbled out, towards Mark and Janet. He took out a pistol and aimed it at the sludge.
"Janet, I want you to make a call right now." he demanded, firing at the sludge and backing away.
"To who, sir?" she wondered, backing towards the telephone.
"Redgrove!"

At Redgrove HQ, Alan was sat at his desk, examining an Auton sphere that had recently fallen to Earth. He was dressed in a white lab coat, blue shirt and red tie, along with some jeans and smart brown shoes.
"What secrets do you have?" he said to it, as Tara casually strolled in.
"Alan, we've just had a phone call from the Delcorp Research Centre." Tara updated him, "Apparently their dimension pod has returned from a parallel universe filled with green goo that hunts."
He raised his eyebrows at her.
"I'm sorry, what?" he asked, thinking she was joking.
"Green goo from another universe has come back and is attacking. Now, get your equipment and go."

Tara and Alan sped towards the centre in the green Redgrove jeep, watching the Doctor's TARDIS rush towards the centre above them. Six hours ago, the Doctor had vanished, apparently saying he needed to do a mission for the Time Lords. But now he had returned and was answering the call.
"Thank goodness." Tara said, waving at the TARDIS. No wave came back.

They eventually arrived at the centre and the Doctor greeted them: he was dressed in a green jacket, beige waistcoat and necktie, white shirt and had short black hair on his head.
"So, what are we dealing with?" he asked, glancing at the pod in the lab.
"Green goo, mysterious pod and another dimension." Tara explained, "Or as I like to now call it, Friday."
The Doctor grinned, walking into the lab with Tara and Alan, who was taking his equipment with him.

In the lab, the sludge had already slushed all over one victim and began to convert it into some sort of ape-like creature, with long brown hair and sharp fangs. The Doctor recognised the creature instantly.
"It's a Primord." he said, edging towards it carefully.
"What's a Primord?" Tara wondered, taking a pistol from a nearby desk.
"A monster, created by that green sludge. A few years ago there was a drilling project that unearthed a vast amount of that sludge which had been buried under the Earth's crust. They called it the Inferno project. Thankfully I stopped it with my old team, but this dimensional pod must have travelled to a version of Earth where the Inferno project destroyed all life on this planet."
"One of us needs to go in that pod and return all the sludge then."
Tara and Alan both looked at the Doctor and he raised his eyebrows at them.
"Why do you want me to go?" he asked them, "I'm supposed to be in charge."
"And I'm supposed to be second in command. You're a Time Lord for goodness sake. We can't regenerate." Tara said, gesturing towards a nearby spacesuit. The Doctor reluctantly walked over to the spacesuit and started to put it on, whilst Tara and Alan investigated the Primord.

The Primord suddenly rose up, growling loudly, and rushed to attack Tara and Alan. She fired at the creature, making it fall to the floor, dead. The green sludge splashed as the corpse fell into the puddle, before unleashing one last groan of pain.
"Doctor, you got that spacesuit on?" Tara yelled across the room. The Doctor, now dressed in his spacesuit, gave her a thumbs up as he entered the pod. She then activated the controls and the pod dematerialised.

The pod rematerialised on the same desolate world that it had done so before and the Doctor stepped out, wielding his sonic screwdriver. He noticed the monster in front of him: it was a Primord, but with blackened skin and evil blood-red eyes.
"You, human!" it roared, "Come for me?!"
"I'm not human. What has happened here?" the Doctor asked, looking around.
"I became Primord. Primord fluid came to Earth. I lost."
"I see. The pod's a one seater though. We can't both go back."
"You stay here. I have family. I have home."
"You do not know what you've become. You're a monster."
The Primord launched at the Doctor, both of them falling to the ground.

Laura had now arrived at the centre, with a rocket launcher and two pistols. She headed straight into the centre and joined her two colleagues.
"Sorry for being late," she explained, "I had to deal with a pair of rogue Ogrons and a very ill Weevil."
"In that case, I'll give you a sit rep: the Doctor's gone to another dimension and evil gunk that makes you turn into a hairy monkey has come from that same dimension." Alan explained, "But we can neutralise it very easily."
"How?"
"Fire extinguishers."
Laura grinned eagerly.

The Doctor had managed to stun the Primord temporarily but had ended up in the pool of green sludge and was slowly sinking into it. He frantically tried to scrabble out of it but failed to do so. As time passed, he slowly lost consciousness as his body sank, the green liquid bubbling every now and again.

Having made the green sludge form a crusty white substance, Lauren, Tara and Alan were very bored. The Doctor still hadn't returned and there was no sign of any other extraordinary events.

Suddenly, there was a sudden rush from outside and the team dashed out to take a look. The sleek silver pod was hurtling towards the centre, with the burnt remnants of a Primord clinging to the side of it.
"That's the pod!" Alan exclaimed in amazement, "Meaning that the Doctor's inside it..."
"Should I blast it?" Laura asked Tara, glancing at the rocket launcher she had brought.
"No. We need to find the Doctor and see what's happened." Tara instructed, "For now, hide in the jeep."

The pod crashed into the nearby meadow, rolling towards a small stream. Thankfully it stopped a few metres away, the remnants of the Primord rolling into the river. Tara, Laura and Alan arrived five minutes later, with a laser scalpel. Alan used the scalpel to slice open the pod, to reveal the Doctor: he looked exactly like a Primord, with black hair and emerald green eyes. The Doctor stumbled out, collapsing to the floor. The team stared at their leader in shock.
"What do we do now?" Alan asked Tara, gazing at the body.
"I don't know." she replied.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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