Battlefield (Doctor Who)

Synopsis

Plot

The Doctor has UNIT passes for himself and Liz Shaw which he uses to gain access to the convoy but Bambera ejects them from the site until a soldier named Zbrigniev recognises the Doctor from the time when he served under Lethbridge Stewart. He informs Bambera that whenever the Doctor turns up "all hell breaks loose."

The Secretary General of the United Nations contacts the retired Alistair Lethbridge Stewart to inform him that the Doctor is back. A helicopter is sent to his country home to collect him.

Bambera takes the Doctor and Ace to the Gore Crow hotel. The owners are Pat Rowlinson and his blind wife Elizabeth. They meet a young woman called Shou Luing who shares Ace's love of explosives.

In her car, Bambera is told to look out for a blue police telephone box. As she stops to examine it, she is caught in a battle between two groups of knights in armour who use both guns and swords.

Shou Luing shows the Doctor and Ace a scabbard that Warmsly has excavated from the battlefield. Elizabeth says she can feel the scabbard's presence, and it is hot to the Doctor's touch. She says senses that it is waiting for something or possibly someone. When Warmsly arrives at the hotel, the Doctor questions him about the scabbard, and is informed that it is from the 8th Century
The Doctor says that it has been waiting for longer than that. Morgaine is shown saying "waiting for me".

As Ace and Shou Luing discuss Ace's blowing up of her art class at school, a knight throws a grenade at another knight causing him to be hurled through the brewery's roof.

The Doctor Ace and Shou Luing investigate and they find the knight Ancelyn. The man awakes and seeing the Doctor appears to recognise him and names him as Merlin. He recognises him by his aspect rather than by face, and asks is he not the Merlin who rides a ship of time, larger within than without. The Doctor reaches the conclusion that the Earth could be the centre of war from another dimension.

A group of knights arrives intent on killing them all, but Bambera faces down their leader Mordred. He is shocked to see "Merlin" who he believed to be bound by his mother Morgaine. Mordred's knights retreat at the Doctor's threat of unleashing a "terrible something" on them.

As Mordred begins an arcane ritual, the scabbard in the hotel flies across the room. Morgaine arrives, through a rift in space and time from Avallion. Using sorcery she speaks directly to the Doctor, issuing a challenge to Merlin not to stand against her. When the Doctor says that he cannot allow her to interfere, she declares "let this be our last battlefield!"

The next day Warmsly shows the Doctor where he had recovered the scabbard. They see a rune, which the Doctor deciphers as "dig hole here". When questioned how he knows that, he replies that it is his handwriting. Using nitro nine, Ace causes a large explosion opening up a tunnel.

Lethbridge Stewart finally arrives in Carbury, but his helicopter is shot down by Morgaine's sorcery, and he and his pilot Lavel are forced to crash land. He encounters Morgaine as her soldiers hold a remembrance ceremony for the fallen soldiers in Earth's world wars. She informs him that should she meet him again she would kill him.

The Doctor and Ace enter a chamber under the lake, the door opens to the Doctor's voice. The Doctor tells Ace that he is not Merlin, but that he could be in his future. They discover that it is part of an organic spaceship hidden under the lake. They also find the body of King Arthur. When Ace removes a sword from the plinth on which the body rests, a defence mechanism is activated, and a glowing, worm-like creature attacks them. Trying to escape from it, Ace enters an alcove, but it closes trapping her and begins to fill with water. Before she drowns, the Doctor meddles with a control panel and Ace is ejected from the space ship. On the shore of the lake, Ancelyn and Warmsly are discussing the myth of the lady of the lake, just as Ace emerges from the water holding the sword. Ancelyn identifies it as Excalibur. The Brigadier arrives by the lake in Shou Luing's car. The Doctor is still being attacked by the creature in the spaceship, but the Brigadier gets there in time and destroys it.

Mordred and Morgaine go to the hotel to retrieve Excalibur. Lavel tries to shoot Morgaine, but she simply catches the bullet with sorcery. Morgaine takes knowledge from Lavel's mind before annihilating her body to dust. She pays Mordred's drinking tab by restoring Elizabeth's sight.

Back at the hotel, UNIT troops are evacuating all civilians. The Doctor uses hypnotic suggestion to make Warmsly and Rowlinson leave too. The Brigadier shows the Doctor some of the special ammunition developed by UNIT, including armour piercing bullets for Daleks, high explosive rounds for Yetis and gold bullets for Cybermen, but the Doctor asks if they have silver bullets. The Brigadier asks the quartermaster sergeant if they have any. The Brigadier then reveals to a delighted Doctor that he has brought along the Doctor's car Bessie.

The Doctor gives Ace a piece of chalk with instructions to draw a circle as protection from Morgaine's sorcery. He drives off in Bessie to attempt to end the fighting between Morgaine's knights and the UNIT troops. A storm breaks outside the hotel, so Ace and Shou Luing draw the circle around themselves and Excalibur. Night falls around the hotel as Morgaine summons a demonic creature. Within the circle Ace and Shou Luing start to bicker nearly causing Ace to leave the circle and they realise they are being toyed with.

The Doctor arrives at the battlefield just as Mordred and Ancelyn are about to fight each other, commanding them to stop. He shouts "there will be no battle here!". Mordred however reveals that this battle is a ruse to lure the Doctor, and that Morgaine has summoned the Destroyer, the devourer of worlds.

Morgaine appears before Ace and Shou Luing and tries to entice them to hand over Excalibur. When they refuse, she fetches the Destroyer warning them they will be his "hand maidens in hell." Mordred offers the Doctor a chance to save Ace if he surrenders to Morgaine's justice, but he grabs Mordred's sword with his umbrella and threatens him with decapitation. Morgaine sees through the Doctor's threats and speaks to Mordred with sorcery. He says to the Doctor "you will not kill, come then, look me in the eye, end my life". The Doctor releases him, but the Brigadier points his gun at Mordred's head with the words "try me!". Morgaine says of the Brigadier "beware this man... he is steeped in blood."

Morgaine cold heartedly ignores Mordred's pleas to save him and instead orders her knight commander to continue his attack. The Doctor and the Brigadier head back towards the hotel with a captive Mordred. Morgaine is unable to penetrate the circle whilst Ace holds Excalibur, the Destroyer however would be able to pierce it. He implores Morgaine to release him from the silver chains that bind him. He wants the Earth so that he may devour it.

When the Doctor arrives, the hotel is in ruins, Morgaine and the Destroyer are gone. He uncovers Ace and Shou Luing from the wreckage. Morgaine now has the sword, but all her soldiers are now dead. The Doctor finds an interstitial vortex through which he, the Brigadier and Ace travel to Morgaine's castle. The Destroyer reveals to Morgaine that he has allowed the Doctor access, so that she would be forced to release the chains.

On arrival, the Brigadier shoots the Destroyer but with absolutely no effect. The Destroyer retaliates with a sorcerous attack that throws the Brigadier outside. Morgaine boasts that she could always beat Merlin at chess, but the Doctor says he is playing poker. Ace arrives through the vortex, the Doctor's "Ace up his sleeve". She cannons into Morgaine knocking Excalibur from her grasp.

When the Doctor refuses to give Excalibur back to Morgaine, she releases the Destroyer's bonds. In the confusion she takes Excalibur and prepares to enter the Gateway to her home dimension. Mordred arrives and argues with her but they both enter the gateway.

As the Destroyer prepares to go on the rampage, the Doctor takes the Brigadier's gun and the silver bullets. On seeing the Doctor's plan, the Brigadier distracts the Doctor and takes the gun and bullets himself. He returns to the castle, and confronting the Destroyer he proclaims "Get off my world!" and then fires three silver bullets into the beast's torso. As the castle is engulfed in flames, the Doctor finds him safe and well.

Back at the missile convoy Morgaine and Mordred appear and attempt to detonate the nuclear war head. Morgaine takes the control codes from Bambera by sorcery.

In the underwater spaceship, Ace restores Excalibur to the stone, reactivating the ship's power. The Doctor finds a message from himself in Arthur's helmet. It says that Arthur died in the final battle, and warns him about Morgaine and the nuclear missile. He arrives back at the convoy as the count down reaches 60 seconds. He argues with her, and convinces her that the use of the weapon would not be an honourable thing to do.She stops the countdown, but asks the Doctor to allow her to fight Arthur in single combat.
He informs her that Arthur is dead and she realises her fight has been futile, her foe dead for over a thousand years.

The Doctor prevents Mordred killing Ancelyn and asks Bambera to lock up Mordred and his mother.

Back at the Brigadier's house, Doris gets her revenge on Lethbridge Stewart by going out with Ace, Shou Luing and Bambera for a drive in Bessie leaving him to do the gardening and to prepare supper.

Notes