3. The very next Trip.
The Doctor lands the Tardis with Alyssa.
"I think we've been diverted. Oh, fun!" His dry, but apparently cheerful demeanour belies a foreboding of difficulty and troubles. Any of quite a number of his enemies might have forced this diversion. "Earth, Brazil, a thousand years ago. It should be thick jungle out there!"
They step out of the Tardis and see a desert of barrenness. .
The Tardis door immediately slams shut behind them. Alyssa is alerted to a danger of being shut out, and darts to the door, but it won't open! She desperately pulls at the door handle.
The Doctor is calmer. "If whoever drew us here is going to get me, then they're going to get me!" A sudden calming stoicism seems to take over. He finds he has to face uncertainty in a way that reduces uncertainty! .
Alyssa is alarmed. Surely the Doctor isn't going to give up that easily? She turns from the Tardis door towards the Doctor.
"Something is going on here," the Doctor says, still calmly. "Look at the ground under my shoes! There's grass, muddy wet grass, but only just around here, around the Tardis! Much further away and it's dry desert."
"Oh, yes," Alyssa says, checking his observation. "But what does that mean?" She imagines they're standing in an oasis, a small pool or the remnants of it, in the middle of a desert. She expects the Doctor to confirm this.
"It means there's something going on. Shenanigans!" Three oddities - the diversion, the Tardis door and the odd desert - indicate to the Doctor that there's more happening here.
"Or a perception filter?" Alyssa has some recent experience of these (ref. 58).
"Hmm, yes. Maybe," the Doctor acknowledges that one of the three oddities might be caused by a perception filter. "As long as whoever is doing this is happy for us to just see a desert. But maybe something will impinge on it, and we'll see something else." He wonders what the next thing will be.
"How might that happen?" Alyssa asks.
The Doctor steps forwards and claps his hands loudly, just once. An echo can be heard, though there's nothing visible to return the echo.
The perception filters drop. The desert is replaced with a jungle. They're in a small clearing surrounded by thick trees, bushes and tall grasses.
A large tiger-like creature walks out of the trees into the clearing where they are, possibly attracted by the sound. .
"There's a tiger, Doctor!" Alyssa's alarmed. Stuck outside the Tardis with no means of defence, she feels very threatened! . She again urgently re-tries the door handle with no better response. She glances upwards, hoping to be able to climb up onto the top of the Tardis, but it seems too difficult for her. .
"No. Locally it's known as a MegaTooth!" The Doctor seems more concerned in identifying their doom rather than preventing it. .
"That sounds worse!" .
"It is worse! Later it will be called a Liger, much bigger than a tiger!" .
The MegaTooth prowls around them, assessing them, then starts to approach fast and prepares to leap towards them. Alyssa grabs at the Doctor's arm to try to pull him behind the Tardis, but he stands, ready to deflect the MegaTooth when it lands on him. .
"I used to know aikido. I wonder if I can still do the moves?" .
Alyssa feels dread. Is the Doctor really proposing to only possibly rediscover some rusty old skill? .
The MegaTooth leaps and the Doctor times his sudden squat position ready to deflect it landing on him. A well-timed arm movement deflects it, flipping it for a poor landing and disorientating it. Alyssa knows that won't last long but feels helpless to assist the Doctor.
A single arrow zizzes and the MegaTooth drops dead, still scudding across the ground before it can recover itself and leap on them again.
The Doctor swiftly turns towards where the arrow came from. A man beckons to them to follow him.
"What?" Alyssa asks. "Is it safe?" .
"No! Come on!" .
"We're not following him without a good reason!" Alyssa says as they run to follow the man. .
"Yes, we are! Look, even you ... are following him!" .
"Why?"
"Because we have nowhere else to go!" The Doctor affirms irritably as they run. "The Tardis door is locked, so we can't get in! And ... this is our best lead!" .
The Village.
Shortly, they arrive at a small, tented village.
"I must report to our leader," the rescuer says. "Please follow me!"
"This will be interesting," the Doctor says quietly to Alyssa. "I didn't even have to ask to be taken to their leader!" .
They enter the leader's tent. Burly bodyguards are on either side of a smaller man on an ornate seat.
"I found these two in the clearing!" the rescuer says.
"Bring them to me!" A crisp, almost impatient, voice replies.
The Doctor and Alyssa step forwards and stand before the chief.
"These are troubled times!" the Chief says. He has plenty to do but unexpected newcomers must be dealt with.
"Times are always troubled!" the Doctor replies stoically, as if there was a protocol to be satisfied. .
"True. But there are reports of crested metal men on our borders." He's keen to assert the troublesome moment just now to see how they react! .
The Doctor raises an eyebrow. "Metal men, you say?" he asks urgently, approaching the chief closer.
A bodyguard steps up and pushes the Doctor back before returning to be beside the chief.
"Sorry, but did you just say metal men?"
"We had heavy casualties."
"I'm sorry to hear that." the Doctor says, trying to contain his interest and concern. "How far away? And when?"
"At noon today, five miles away," the chief confirms.
"They can be here in two hours from then!" the Doctor says. "What time is it now?"
He glances at his wristwatch. "Only an hour away!"
Alyssa quails. They have only one hour to live! One of the strongest enemies there is against a mere few easily defeated tribesmen with no sophisticated weaponry to resist such an enemy! . She recognises that the Crested metal men aren't the normal Cybermen, they're solely the creation of the Master (ref. TV episode The Timeless Children). They can regenerate! .
"What can we do, Doctor?" Alyssa asks.
"So, you're a doctor? I have a further tribal weakness," the chief says. "My daughter is heavily pregnant. Will you take care of her? She's about to deliver. All my people will be busy!" .
The Doctor considers objecting on the grounds that he isn't that sort of doctor but thinks better of it. It isn't the first time he's been asked to help deliver a baby (ref. 49)! . And at least they're accepted into the tribe this way.
Alyssa's appalled. Not only have they all too little time to prepare, but they'll be busy, too! .
The Doctor sees her concernedness. "At least we'll have a distraction!" .
Was that meant to be a positive? Alyssa wonders! . It sounds like they'll have a mild anaesthetic of distraction when they die! .
It seems they've been dropped in the middle of a difficult situation.
The Master had planned for the Doctor to arrive when his CyberMaster troops were there to greet him, but they were delayed by the outlying tribesmen, and a sloppy landing! .