7. Interrogating the Doctor.
When Crystelle One received Chloe's text just then, she suddenly recognised the huge mistake she just made. She has been assuming that only the Doctor looks like the Doctor! And now she's permitted the Master to go near Crystelle's house thinking he's the Doctor!
Quickly she instructs her Tardis to enclose the Doctor in Crystelle's lounge and place him in Judoon custody.
Then she takes the time to discuss the situation with Petrozena, who sees her job as trying her best to ensure Judoon fairness.
"We think the Master has regenerated to look like the Doctor," Crystelle One says. "Petrozena, could you interrogate him and detain him if there's any chance he's the Master? I'll look so ridiculous if it's the Doctor after all that's happened!"
"How will we know if he's the Doctor?" Petrozena asks. "How can we tell?"
"Ask him if he thinks it's right that the Master hates the Doctor. Surely, the Master will think it's right and the Doctor won't?"
"As interrogation techniques go it's flimsy," Petrozena says. "But I'll try it!"
"Throw the question in with a load of other things so it doesn't stand out," Crystelle One says. "Also ask him what's in the room on the left in Crystelle's house. If he tells you it's strictly secret, then it's the Doctor. If he has no idea, then it's the Master!"
"How will I let you know the result?" Petrozena asks. "And how should he get home?"
"The Doctor carries a communication device like this one," Crystelle One shows her messaging device the Doctor had given her. "Could you have it removed from him and use it to message me? I'll come and collect him."
Petrozena has quite a precarious job sometimes!
A short time later, the original Crystelle, Crystelle One and Chloe are sitting in Crystelle's lounge waiting for the results from Petrozena.
Crystelle One's messaging device alerts. She studies it but looks puzzled. "Inconclusive?" she says scornfully.
"I'll come with you to collect him, and I'll tell you if it's the Master or not," Chloe says confidently.
"How will you know?" asks Crystelle One.
"I'll know," Chloe assures them. "I want to take the Doctor's Tardis."
It's standing near a corner in Crystelle's lounge. Chloe leads the way, with Crystelle One following, and presses the blue Voice Control button on the Tardis Console, without which they can't hope to fly the Tardis.
"Tardis, when we arrive at the Judoon Master Palace foyer, could you identify the Doctor for me please?"
The Console monitor screen goes red. Something's wrong.
"Tardis, has the Master been tampering with you? What has he done?"
A sad mask appears on the monitor screen as tightly packed bars appear and enclose the area around the Tardis Console, trapping Chloe and Crystelle One. The bars start to converge towards the Console, threatening to crush them shortly.
Disaster! The Tardis certainly has been tampered with!
Chloe reaches for her messaging device. You have the Master with you to detain! she messages Petrozena.
A hologram appears beyond the bars. It shows the Master laughing at them. "You can't escape this! These bars will crush you!"
"Just watch me!" Chloe grasps Crystelle One as the bars are bearing down on them, soon they will touch them and start to crush them.
Chloe thinks of home and activates her Wristwatch Tardis...
Chloe knows that the Master won't be able to see her – message holograms don't work like that! It was just a recording, not a bi-directional communication. .
With relief, they arrive back in Crystelle's lounge.
"We escaped that one, but where's the Doctor?" Chloe asks.
"On board his Tardis?" Crystelle One guesses, "but it will be boobytrapped!"
"Bother!" Chloe is dismayed.
"I've an idea," Crystelle One says. "Let's use my Tardis." Relieved to have her Tardis back, she quickly presses it into service. They run to her Tardis where it's parked in the bathroom.
"Tardis, can you show me the Doctor, please," Crystelle One asks.
Two images appear on the monitor screen. One Doctor is detained in the Judoon Master Palace and the other is in chains somewhere.
"Tardis, can you show me where that Doctor is?" Crystelle One asks, pointing at the chained Doctor.
The image of the Doctor broadens to show more of the room, but keeps on broadening to show the plan of the room and then the surrounding rooms. A maze of corridors and rooms becomes ever more complex as the image slowly zooms out and keeps on zooming out! It all seems impossible for them to ever hope to reach him.
This is so obviously a lure for them to chase after the Doctor and become entrapped themselves.
Then the Master will have them all at his mercy… or so he hopes!
"We're sunk!" Crystelle One says. "We'll never get there!"
The Master has been thorough!
"Tardis, how can we get to the Doctor?" Chloe asks in despair, expecting to have to navigate the maze of corridors.
A zizzing sound is heard briefly, and the monitor screen again shows the room with the Doctor in it.
"We're there!" Chloe announces triumphantly and heads immediately for Crystelle's Tardis door.
"Be careful," Crystelle One calls out after her as she turns to follow.
The Tardis knows exactly where the Doctor is and can go there in an instant!
The Doctor is in a familiar position after he's seen the Master - chained to the floor of this room as a lure for his companions. Chloe gasps as she sees the Doctor.
"Be careful," the Doctor calls out. "Run back inside your Tardis!"
But it's too late! Chloe feels strong snaking tendrils pulling her down towards the floor. Chains appear and in only a very short time she is in chains, too. .
Crystelle One slams the Tardis door shut. Just in time as some tendrils have started to head her way, too. .
She stands with her back to the door panting. Her heart is racing. Surely she's getting too old for this! .
What should she do?
She briefly summarises their predicament. "The Doctor is trapped in a room somewhere in his own Tardis that has been recently re-designed by the Master to be unreachable. He is chained down and has been joined by Chloe who is now similarly trapped. And I'm the only one left to do anything! Help!"
She walks slowly to her Tardis Console where she touches the Console while thinking what to do.
"Thank you, Tardis," she says absentmindedly, "for being so faithful to us." She's very grateful for her faithful friend on whom she relies so much.
The Tardis Console monitor goes red. What does this mean?
"What's happening?" Crystelle One asks, suddenly concerned.
Some letters in a crackled typeface appear on the monitor and jerkily drift together as if a fight was happening between two opposing parts of the Tardis, one trying to tell her something without the other part knowing. "Infect..." it starts to say as the other letters encircle the word.
Her own Tardis is being infected by the Master's game! "Quickly," Crystelle One says, "Resist! Resist the infection! Please!"
Maybe her encouragement helps. Gradually the screen loses its red colour. Crystelle One is relieved.
"How can we rescue the Doctor and Chloe?" she asks.
It's meant to be a rhetorical question with no expectation that the Tardis might answer it.
However, the Tardis zizzes and the Doctor and Chloe both appear in her Tardis Console room where their chains fall off. The Tardis has simply enclosed them! .
Chloe leaps up and helps the Doctor up. .
"Let's get out of here!" Chloe says urgently.
"What about the Doctor's Tardis?" Crystelle One asks Chloe. "How can we restore the Doctor's Tardis?"
Again, her Tardis zizzes unexpectedly. .
The Doctor's Tardis Console appears in Crystelle's Tardis Console room as her own Tardis has enclosed it. Lightning flashes are seen bouncing between the two Tardis consoles. The three of them stand well back, huddled in a corner, the Doctor stands protecting his rescuers.
Ten seconds seems like an eternity before the Doctor's Tardis Console disappears from their view.
Crystelle's Tardis Console monitor simply shows the words Re-programming complete. Pleasantly succinct. .
Later, in Crystelle's lounge, they celebrate their success.
The Doctor has inspected his Tardis and found it to be as good as new and has accepted that it's a good idea for Crystelle One to retain her Tardis. .
The Gallifreyan Authorities may take a different view, but the Doctor knows he hasn't always agreed with them!
And maybe, just maybe, the Doctor feels the need to regenerate? .
But then Petrozena contacts Crystelle One.
"I have some terrible news. I'm so embarrassed!"
She decides to impart the less terrible news first. She can hardly face the worse news.
"When you confirmed that I was detaining the Master, I released Trelim. We had been holding him as collateral against finding the Master."
"That's not so bad," Crystelle One says comfortingly. .
"No but there's far worse!" Petrozena says frustratedly. "The Judoon required paperwork to detain the Master. They're the worst for completing paperwork, but they can be sticklers when it suits them; and they wouldn't wait! They just saw the Doctor, not the Master regenerated to look like the Doctor. They released the Master, and I could do nothing about it!"
The Master is free again!
THE END
The previous episode in this series is called "The Master Escapes" (ref. 35).
The next episode in this series is called "The Master's Revenge!"
I hope to add further episodes soon.
Sparse References.
Reference 9 Episode Gallifrey Exhumed in this series,
where Crystelle had the task of copying the entire Gallifreyan Library in difficult circumstances (ref. TV series 12, The Timeless Children).
Reference 12 Episode Crystelle Growth in this series,
where Crystelle enlists a DNA biologist, Devyon, to re-develop a primitive form of regeneration from Gallifreyan Library information,
where Crystelle acquired her Tardis (storeroom rescue).
Reference 13 Episode Crystelle Lattice in this series,
where Crystelle used a Cloning Machine for the first time.
Reference 29 Episode The Wristwatch Tardis in this series,
where Chloe built her Wristwatch Tardis, as she likes to call it.
Reference 32 Episode The Lady with Secrets in this series,
where Chloe had worked in a Tardis factory to try to discover what would be necessary for her to register her Wristwatch Tardis,
where Chloe had a hurried departure from Gallifrey.
Reference 34 Episode Implosion in this series,
where Trelim helps the Master and Crystelle first meets him.
Reference 35 Episode The Master Escapes in this series,
where the Master's full escape is documented,
where Crystelle One bypassed Gallifreyan security recently,
where Crystelle meets Trelim for a second time,
where a tense background for the Library chips became necessary.
At points in the story where there is humour, an additional full stop is added. .
ANOTHER END
