Maude stood awkwardly in the doorway of the TARDIS, unsure of what to do. On one hand, she really should be going home. It was getting late, and soon it would be too light to see. Of course, this was the one day when she hadn't bothered to bring her sunshades with her. She was confident that she could smell her way back to town, but being able to see would make things so much easier. Still, she wasn't sure it would be polite to leave so soon after those hooligans had damaged the alien's spacecraft. They seemed terribly upset about it. The poor dears had forgotten how to speak Bekkish!

Susan winced as the Doctor uttered a particularly foul curse. She'd never seen him so angry before. She wasn't particularly pleased, either. The ship was their only link to their own planet. To have someone just waltz right in and start tearing it apart was an incredible violation. Grandfather had every right to be livid, but going off like this wouldn't get the translation circuit back any faster. If anything, he was frightening everyone else in the room.

She looked over at Ian and Barbara who had backed away, expressions frozen in shock. They looked ready to run. The Doctor, oblivious to this, strode toward them.

"Well don't just stand there like a bunch of addled...! That little thief is out there somewhere with the translation circuit and I need all of you to help get it back! What's this, hmm?" As soon as the Doctor had started towards them, Ian had pulled Barbara behind him and raised his fists, ready to fight. "Don't you threaten me, Chesterton!"

"Grandfather, stop!" shouted Susan, throwing herself between them. "They don't understand you!" She urged him to step back.

"Hmm? Oh. Oh, yes...yes, of course. The circuit. " Some of his anger seemed to ebb. "This won't do, now will it? Hmm... Didn't you learn a few Earth languages one time?"

"Yes, but only Mandarin and Spanish." she replied. It had seemed like a good idea, as they were the most spoken languages on Earth...in the year 2000. "I think they only speak English."

"Try them anyway. We must be able to communicate with each other."

Susan turned to her friends, who eyed her warily. "你會說普通話嗎?" No response. "¿Hablan español?" Still nothing. They just stared at her as if she'd grown a second head; as if she were suddenly a stranger to them.

The Doctor abruptly turned and strode back to the console in frustration. She hurried after him.

Barbara said something that would have gotten her sacked on the spot if she'd still been at Coal Hill.

"I don't know," replied Ian, "One second there's possums rioting, the next everyone else is babbling nonsense!" They clung to each other as they watched the Doctor and Susan speaking softly to each other. Something had definitely upset the old man. "The only thing I actually understood out of all that was my own name. Did you hear it?"

"Yes."

"Could this have something to do with that thing the possum stole off the console?"

"It's possible. That last thing Susan said to us just then- it sounded like Spanish. I think she was asking us if we spoke it."

Ian looked at her sceptically, "You're not telling me they don't speak English?" Barbara shrugged. "But... Well, they've always spoken perfect English before!"

"What if that was a device that allowed them to speak it? Oh, Ian, I know it sounds impossible, but what else could it be?"

"Well, I- I don't know." He said thoughtfully. "What if they're just having a laugh?" Barbara gave him a Look.

"It's affected Maude, too. You heard her squeaking!" She said. Suddenly, things started to make more sense as her brain digested this information. "It's some sort of translating device. It must be, Ian. Have you noticed that everywhere we've gone, everybody speaks English? Even the aliens. Even the aliens who've never seen humans before. Even in ancient Mexico, everyone spoke modern English!"

Ian was slowly starting to come to the same conclusion. "All right, I can accept that the TARDIS is making it so we can understand people everywhere we go, but wouldn't it also have to translate us so other people can... That's what it does, doesn't it? But how could it possibly know what languages..." He paused, rubbing the back of his head.

"That strange feeling," said Barbara, "when that box was disconnected. The TARDIS has been putting other languages inside our minds." They looked at each other, unsure how to feel about that. "We need to find that box."

Susan grasped the Doctor's hands. "Grandfather, please!" she said, interrupting his muttered diatribe, "I know you're upset, but you must calm down! You're worrying Ian and Barbara." She nodded at the two, still huddled together on the other side of the room. "If we're going to fix this, we need to focus."

"I suppose you're right, child." he said. She could tell that he was still cross, but the worst of it was over and he was becoming more reasonable. "No sense in letting emotions get the better of us, eh?" He patted her shoulder, "Let's see now...of course we must go and find the possum that has the translation circuit. Did you see which one it was?"

"The one with the black patch of fur just here."

"Hmm. Our best chance is to split up and search for her. The problem will be communicating this to the others."

"Have we got a spare circuit?"

"Goodness, child! If we had a spare, we wouldn't need to go gallivanting through the woods looking for the other."

"But even if we did, we shouldn't leave that kind of technology lying around on an underdeveloped planet." Susan pointed out.

He chuckled. "Right you are, my dear! You have been paying attention, haven't you?" He looked out the door. The forest was lightening quickly. "We can't waste any more time. That little thief could be anywhere. We shall simply have to try explaining things to the others as best we can."

The Doctor motioned for everyone to come up to the console. Maude climbed right up and sat on the time rotor. Ian and Barbara hesitated slightly, but walked over anyway. "The translation circuit has been stolen." he said, "I need you three to help find the possum who took it."

"I think he's trying to ask us to go look for it." said Ian. The Doctor pointed at both of them, then the spot again, speaking in that strange language of his, but more slowly this time. He hesitated for a moment, then looked at Susan imploringly. She complied and did a passable imitation of a possum. "Okay, we're supposed to go after the possum that took the circuit. That's what you're saying, yes?"

"This isn't working. He hasn't the slightest idea." muttered the Doctor. Susan wondered if pad and paper would help. She quickly ran to the next room and found enough blank notebooks and pencils for everyone and passed them around.

Ian hastily scribbled out Do you want us to go get that possum for you? and held it up for the others to see. The Doctor scoffed, wrote down his own message, and held it up. It was an indecipherable series of intricate lines and circles. Seeing Ian's confusion, Barbara said, "I think that's Doctor-ese for 'No, no, Chatterton! The translation circuit translates writing as well, you fool!'"

The Doctor flipped to a new page in his notebook. "Oh, for goodness...it's a simple instruction: Go find that possum! Must I spell it out?" He drew a picture of the translation circuit and pointed at it. "This! We need this!" He flipped to another page and quickly sketched a possum. "Find this!"

"A possum." said Ian. "That's what you want, right? You want us to go find that possum." He pointed at the drawing for emphasis.

"Possum!" Susan piped up in accented English. It didn't help as much as she'd hoped. Ian flipped a page in his notebook and began drawing. He held up a rough sketch of two stick figures in a stick forest, holding a ball of fur.

"Do you want us to find the blasted thing or not?" he asked, annoyed.

"Ian, let's just go search for it." said Barbara wearily.

"What's that he's drawn, Susan? No, no, no! We're looking for the possum that stole the circuit! Do pay attention, dear boy! A possum!" For emphasis, he pointed at Maude who was patiently drawing something on her paper. Ian threw down his notebook in frustration and walked to the other side of the room.

"You," he pointed, "want us," he pointed again, "to go find," he exaggerated his movements as he pointedly looked under the cushions of the chaise lounge, "that possum!" He performed what he thought was an impression of a North American marsupial.

"Stop playing around, for goodness' sake!" the Doctor stormed over and yanked the cushion out of Ian's hands. As their conversation devolved into a shouting match, Barbara pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. After a few seconds of listening to their argument, she felt a tug on her elbow.

It was Susan. "Barbara." she said with her odd accent. She pointed at Barbara, then at herself, and held her hand just over her eyes in a 'searching' gesture. Next, she held up the picture, said "Possum!", and pointed out the open door. Barbara smiled and nodded her agreement. The two of them had started to leave when Maude ran in front of them, waving her notebook. She'd drawn a picture of herself shielding her eyes from the sun, looking sad. She pointed at the second picture, where she'd drawn herself some sunglasses and was looking quite content. She tapped the scribbled sunglasses and pointed at herself. Susan dug around in her pocket and found a real pair for Maude.

The three of them walked briskly out into the forest.