The Doctor and Jo visit Stangmoor Prison. There they observe George Barnham, a prisoner, put through a process that is supposed to clear his mind of all evil impulses. He is hooked up to a device called a Keller machine. Something goes wrong during the procedure and Barnham, screams.
The Doctor, Jo, and the other observers file out of the room. One man stays behind. Not long after that he is found dead with marks from rats all over his face and neck. Professor Kettering, who was operating the machine, doesn't understand. Dr. Summers, who works in the prison, examines the man but doesn't understand how it happened.
The Brigadier is busy organizing security for the World Peace Conference when Captain Chin Lee, one of the Chinese delegates, insists on talking to him. She reports that a valuable document has been stolen from a Chinese general. The Brigadier promises that the matter will be investigated. Captain Lee leaves, walks across the street into a park, pulls out a document and lights it on fire.
Doctor Summers conducts an autopsy on Arthur Linwood, the deceased man, and reports that according to his medical records he was deathly afraid of rats. Professor Kettering refuses to believe that the machine had anything to do with Linwood’s death. Kettering is found dead later in the episode from what looks like drowning. There were no rats near Linwood when he died and there was nowhere for Kettering to drown when he died.
The Brigadier gets a call from Captain Lee. She reports that the General is dead. When the Brigadier goes to see her he does a little investigating and with some help from one of his troops, Corporal Bell, and discovers that Captain Lee didn’t call him as soon as she found the body, even though that’s what she claims to have done.
The episode ends with the Doctor investigating the Keller machine. It turns on by itself. It starts to immediately have an effect on him. He grabs his head in agony as the episode ends.
Thoughts
Toby Hadoke (moderator), Barry Letts (producer), Terrance Dicks (script editor), Pik Sen Lim (Captain Chin Lee), Fernanda Marlowe (Corporal Bell), and Timothy Combe (director) are on the commentary track.
Dr. Summers was played by Michael Sheard who was in several classic Doctor stories including two that I have watched in the past few years, The Invisible Enemy and Remembrance of the Daleks. He played a different character in every story that he was in.
There’s no sign of the Master just yet but I know he’s in this story.
This is a decent start to this story. I’ve never seen this one before but I have to admit that I had my doubts going in. The title seems a bit bland.
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