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| Episode | Air Date | Runtime |
|---|---|---|
| Episode One | 12/30/72 | 24 min. 39 sec. |
| Episode Two | 01/06/73 | 24 min. 18 sec. |
| Episode Three | 01/13/73 | 24 min. 22 sec. |
| Episode Four | 01/20/73 | 25 min. 07 sec. |
| Country | Language | Color |
| United Kingdom | English | Color |
EPISODE ONE
Gamewarden Arthur Otlis finds a cosmic ray research monitoring device, attached to a weather balloon, landed at the Minsbridge Wildlife Sanctuary. Seeing a message on the box, he has his wife contact Dr Tyler of Wessex University. Tyler arrives by Land Rover and sees Ollis in the distance — but a crackle of energy causes the warden to vanish.
Tyler goes to UNIT and explains Ollis' disappearance to the Third Doctor, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and Jo Grant; he goes on to tell them that his work has detected faster-than-light 'space lightning' aimed at Earth. Alone in the lab with the box, Tyler vanishes and a strange organism enters the drains. Having detected the presence of anti-matter at the sanctuary, the Doctor and Jo return to UNIT HQ where the organism causes Bessie to vanish; soon, it forms itself into gell creatures which attack the building. The Doctor realises that he is being hunted. Trapped in his lab, the Doctor ushers Jo and Sergeant Benton into the safety of his immobilised TARDIS where, reluctantly, he sends a distress call to the Time Lords.
The Time Lords are in danger themselves; all their cosmic energy is being drained away into a black hole — a universe of anti-matter. Unable to send anyone to help the Doctor, the President decides to transgress the First Law of Time by sending the Doctor's former self to his aid. The Second Doctor appears in the TARDIS, but the pair clash rather than work together. Seeing this, the President has the Doctor's first incarnation appear on the TARDIS scanner; he tells his two successors that they must cross the time bridge created by the organism. The Second Doctor deactivates the TARDIS force field to let the Doctor out. Jo runs after him as the organism flares at them both...
EPISODE TWO
The organism becomes less violent, allowing the Second Doctor and Benton to leave the TARDIS; meeting them, the Brigadier assumes that the Doctor has managed to reverse his appearance again. The Second Doctor sets up equipment to pacify the organism, but when Benton is left in charge it gets out of control again, once more trapping the Second Doctor and Benton in the TARDIS, albeit now with the Brigadier. The Second Doctor seems more concerned with the fact that he has lost his recorder than with the killer organism outside.
The First Doctor's transportation unit has become trapped in a time eddy. Meanwhile, the Third Doctor and Jo awaken on a barren world in the anti-mafler universe, where they find that Bessie and all the other things attacked by the organism have also been transported into the black hole. Watched by a cautious Ollis, the pair meet up with Dr Tyler moments before they are captured by the gell creatures. Another figure watches on, delighted to have a Time Lord within his grasp. The Doctor, Jo and Tyler are held captive in the corridors of a bizarre palace.
The First Doctor appears on the TARDIS scanner and instructs the Second to turn off the force field holding the organism at bay. Outside UNIT HO, UNIT troops watch in amazement as the entire building vanishes — shooting through the black hole...
EPISODE THREE
The Doctor, Jo and Tyler are ushered into the presence of a robed and masked figure, Omega, whom the Doctor recognises from the legends of the Time Lords. Tyler and Jo are held in a doorless room while the Doctor confronts the stellar engineer who, thousands of years ago, detonated the star which gave the Time Lords the power they needed to master time travel. Omega had been assumed killed in the supernova that followed; in fact, he was flung into the anti-matter universe where he has survived by sheer will and his control over singularity. The organism, the light beam and the world are products of his will. Believing himself abandoned by the Time Lords, he seeks
revenge on the universe by draining its energy.
Insisting that he is still in England, the Brigadier leaves the relocated
UNIT HO and encounters Ollis. Meanwhile, Benton and the Second Doctor are captured by the gell creatures and brought before Omega, who deduces his identity. Both Doctors are imprisoned with Jo, Tyler and Benton. Combining their wills, the Doctors are able to think up a door to escape the room: while the Doctors make for the singularity chamber, the others leave the palace and meet up with the
Brigadier and Ollis. Attacked by the gell creatures, they head for UNIT HO.
The Time Lords' situation is now critical. The Doctors gaze upon the column of smoke which is singularity, but invoke the wrath of Omega. The Third Doctor finds himself catapulted into a black void, where he struggles with a strange creature as the robed figure declares: "Those who oppose the will of Omega shall not live! Destroy him!"
EPISODE FOUR
Omega is merciful and the Doctor is saved; he returns to the reality of the palace. Omega now reveals the task he has for the two Time Lords: he wishes to leave the anti-matter universe in the light beam, and needs them to take over mental control of it to allow him to depart. The Doctors are forced to agree, and prepare by removing Omega's mask. This reveals that the corrosive light beam has already destroyed Omega's body — only his will exists. Disturbed, Omega goes berserk, allowing the Doctors to escape and make their hazardous way back to join their friends at UNIT HO.
Trapped in the TARDIS once again, the group are again addressed by the First Doctor via the scanner; after a telepathic conference, the Doctors realise that they can give Omega his freedom by using the forcefield generator from the TARDIS into which the Second Doctor's recorder has fallen. They contact Omega, who allows the Doctor to pilot the TARDIS to the singularity chamber. Omega agrees to the Doctors' deal, sending Tyler, Ollis, Benton, Jo and the Brigadier home via the light beam; the Doctors, however, must stay to share Omega's exile. The Doctors goad Omega into seizing the recorder, causing his annihilation; they run for the TARDIS.
The black hole goes supernova, providing the Time Lords with the energy they need. Jo's party arrive back in a restored UNIT HQ on Earth moments before the TARDIS appears with the Doctors inside; the recorder was still unconverted matter which caused an explosion when it came into contact with anti-matter. The First Doctor appears on the scanner to say that the situation is resolved; he returns to his time zone with the Second Doctor. A new TARDIS dematerialisation circuit appears in the control room, and Jo watches as the Doctor starts on his repairs to renew his travels.
Doctor Who and the Three Doctors  |  | |
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