Production Code: 6Y
First Transmitted
1 - 09/03/1985 17:20
2 - 16/03/1985 17:20
Plot
On the planet Karfel a high ranking official, Maylin Tekker, uses threats against Peri to force the Doctor to go to Earth and bring back a young woman called Vena who, while holding a precious amulet, has accidentally fallen into the Timelash - a time tunnel through which the planet's tyrannical ruler the Borad banishes all rebels. The Doctor also inadvertently brings back Herbert, a man from the 19th Century, who stows away aboard the TARDIS.
The Borad was once a Karfelon scientist but accidentally sprayed himself with an unstable compound called mustakozene-80 while experimenting on a Morlox - a savage underground reptilian creature - and consequently became half-Karfelon, half-Morlox.
The Borad plans to bring about the deaths of all the Karfelons by provoking a war with their neighbours, the Bandrils, and repopulate the planet with creatures such as himself, starting with Peri. The Doctor uses a kontron time crystal to defeat a clone of the Borad and makes peace with the Bandrils. He then defeats the real Borad by banishing him through the Timelash to 12th Century Scotland.
Episode Endings
Tekker tricks the Doctor into parting with the amulet and orders an android to throw the Time Lord into the Timelash. The android grasps the Doctor's neck and pushes him forward.
The danger over, the Doctor and Peri enter the TARDIS to take Herbert home. Herbert is still outside and the Doctor calls for him to hurry up. He shows Peri Herbert's calling card, which identifies him as H G Wells, the famous novelist.
Roots
H.G. Wells finally gets a story of his own. Direct references include The Time Machine (the Morlox, Vena), War of the Worlds (the Bandril/Karfel war), The Invisible Man (the Doctor experiments with crystals) and The Island of Doctor Moreau (transformation of men into animals).
'To be perfectly frank, Herbert' was Colin Baker's nod to the Dune creator.
The android's line 'Yes indeed she was' is in the same pitch as the communication music in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Dialogue Triumphs
Herbert : "Avaunt thee, foul fanged fiend."
The Doctor : "I can assure you I'm not that long in the tooth, and neat blood brings me out in a rash."
Herbert : "Back from where you came, spirit of the glass."
The Doctor : "Not just yet, if you don't mind."
Tekker : "The stories I've heard about you. The great Doctor, all knowing and all powerful. You're about as powerful as a burnt out android."
The Doctor : "The waves of time wash us all clean."
Dialogue Disasters
Tekker : "Save your breath for the Timelash, Doctor. Most people depart with a scream."
The Borad : "Choose your next words carefully, Doctor. They could be your last."
Continuity
The Kontron tunnel from Karfel leads to Earth (and the Highlands of Scotland, near Inverness) in the 12th Century.
Bendalypse warheads are gas weapons that will kill anything with a central nervous system (but not the reptilian Morlox). Mustakozene 80 is a chemical producing mutation on contact with human skin. The TARDIS has colour coded seat belts.
Location
Karfel; Scotland, 1885.
Links
When the Doctor tells Peri that the Kontron tunnel is a 'time corridor in space' she asks 'Didn't the Daleks have one of those?', a reference to Resurrection of the Daleks. [However, she wasn't around at the time, and in Revelation of the Daleks she doesn't recognise a Dalek by its appearance, indicating that the Doctor may have told her a tiny detail of a previous adventure but neglected to describe what the main adversary actually looked like.] Peri also recognises a photograph of Jo Grant [clearly the Doctor's had his snaps out at some stage].
Untelevised
Timelash is the sequel to an untelevised third Doctor/Jo Grant story. On that occasion, the Doctor visited Karfel where he saved the planet from some unspecified disaster and reported the scientist Magellan to the presidium for unethical experiments on the Morlox creatures. (There is also a suggestion that he may have had more than one companion, Tekker saying 'Just the two of you this time?' [Was he taking Yates or Benton for a spin?].)
Trivia
A major source of inspiration for this story were the works of novelist H G Wells.
Paul Darrow, better known as Avon in Blake's 7, plays Tekker.
Denis Cary plays the face of the Borad. Cary had previously played Professor Chronotis in the abandoned season seventeen story Shada and the Keeper in season eighteen's The Keeper of Traken.
A mural of the third Doctor's face is revealed behind a section of wall panelling in the Timelash control room; this painting, supposedly a legacy of a previous visit by the Doctor to the planet Karfel, was actually the work of American fan artist Gail Bennett.
Technobabble
The Doctor tells Peri 'You don't seem to realise the effect that time particles colliding within a multi-dimensional implosion field can have'.
Goofs
In the power room, Maylin Renis, whilst adjusting some control dials, pulls one of them off and hurriedly replaces it.
The Timelash is full of tinsel.
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor - Colin Baker
Peri - Nicola Bryant
Android - Dean Hollingsworth
Aram - Christine Kavanagh
Bandril Ambassador - Martin Gower
Borad - Robert Ashby
Brunner - Peter Robert Scott
Gazak - Steven Mackintosh
Guardolier - James Richardson
Herbert - David Chandler
Katz - Tracy Louise Ward
Kendron - David Ashton
Maylin Renis - Neil Hallett
Mykros - Eric Deacon
Old Man - Denis Carey
Sezon - Dickon Ashworth
Tekker - Paul Darrow
Tyheer - Martin Gower
Vena - Jeananne Crowley
Crew
Director - Pennant Roberts
Timelash