Episode Three

Space is Shrinking

The Time Travellers pause to rest and eat while Biroc sleeps. They debate what to do next to free his people from the slave ship.

Karl suggests sneaking aboard with his stealth suit and shooting the crew in the back. Maria rejects the idea as unacceptable, though Karl insists he would only stun them.

When they check the scanner, they see the cube-shaped slave ship drifting closer. The “no-where place” itself appears to be shrinking. Romana studies the console and realises the dense mass of the Dwarf Star Alloy vessel is pulling the void inward.

Biroc’s Foresight

When Biroc awakens, he explains that he cannot enter the ship unless the doors are open: Dwarf Star Alloy is too dense for him to pass through. The same metal prevents the other Tharil slaves from escaping.

He reveals that he foresaw the Travellers’ arrival but concealed it from the crew. When the doors to the slave ship were open, he was able to project his mind into the Time Capsule and set its co-ordinates, though his body remained shackled on the Bridge. The effort nearly killed him.

The Travellers, uncertain whether the slavers still trust them, decide on a plan to infiltrate the ship. Karl activates his stealth suit, vanishing from sight.

Back to the Slave Ship

They emerge from the Capsule to find Lazlo and his silent companion waiting. Lazlo sneers that Biroc was no help after all, since they remain trapped. The Travellers agree to return to the ship with him to discuss escape. Biroc hides out of sight and Karl follows invisibly. At the ship, they discover Captain Rorvik at the Gateway with the M5 laser, preparing to blast through the mirror. The Gateway itself is now visible, not far away. Karl is able to slip aboard the ship unseen when Lazlo opens the doors.

The Tharils Released

Once aboard, Karl helps Biroc infiltrate the ship and together they begin releasing the other Tharils.

Lazlo and the Time Travellers go to the Gateway. Rorvik has the M5 aimed directly at the mirror. The Travellers warn him that firing will destroy the entire place, but he refuses to listen.

At that moment, the freed Tharils arrive. Rorvik rages and tries to block them, but the Travellers intervene, buying the slaves time to escape through the mirror.

A New Future

When the last of the Tharils has gone, Biroc summons the Travellers through the mirror, leaving Rorvik behind.

In the Timeless Corridor, Biroc thanks them for saving his people. He explains that though Tharils live long and are hard to kill, they are not immortal. Each one knows the exact time and place of their death, which cannot be avoided.

This certainty drove his people to decadence: they devoted themselves to pleasure, enslaving others to serve them until their inevitable ends. Now, seeing the destruction it has caused, Biroc vows to lead them to a different future. It will be difficult, but he believes it is the only way forward.

The Key and the Doctor

Biroc tells the Travellers he knows of their quest for the Key to Time — and that he holds the fourth segment. He leads them into a chamber piled with treasures stolen from across history. Among the hoard is the segment, taken long ago from its rightful place on Tara.

He explains that its power enabled him to do what he has done, but now it must be passed onto them.

Then he reveals more. He knows where the Doctor is. He explains that the Doctor was taken beyond time, into the plane of the Eternals. The Tharils, being one of the few races able to survive there, were tolerated — and Biroc himself was responsible for spiriting the Doctor and his companion away, at the urging of rebel Time Agents who sought to thwart the Time Lords.

The act caused chaos, unleashing temporal anomalies across creation, and Biroc admits his guilt. Helping the Travellers is his way of making amends. But first, he needed them to free his people.

Now, he leads them down the Corridor to a great doorway. Beyond lies the Plane of the Eternals. He warns that only the Key segment can protect them. He also tells Romana that she herself is an anomaly, and freeing the Doctor may destabilise her very existence. Romana does not fully understand, but accepts the danger.

The Plane of the Eternals

They step through into a vast hall with endless Grecian pillars stretching into infinity. The Eternals stand silently at first, but as soon as they sense the “Ephemerals,” they begin to close in, probing their thoughts.

They do not attack. Instead, they mutter about not wanting to give up their prize. In the centre of the hall stands a giant crystal. Within it are frozen a man and a woman: a bohemian figure with a floppy hat and long multi-coloured scarf — and Romana herself.

Arguments

Among the crowd emerges Captain Wrack, the Eternal pirate they once encountered during the space race. She calls for the Travellers’ destruction, insisting the Doctor remain imprisoned. Then Captain Striker appears, arguing that the Travellers bear the Key and must not be harmed. These Ephemerals, he insists, are far more resourceful than they appear.

An argument erupts among the Eternals. The Travellers try desperately to persuade them to release the Doctor. Some of the Eternals, however, begin harassing Romana, calling her an anomaly and shouting “Imperiatrix!” She resists their taunts as best she can, though she does start be behave strangely.

Refusal

In the end, the Eternals refuse. They demand the intruders leave. Romana steadies herself, shaken but recovering, and the Travellers withdraw.

Biroc waits for them back in the Corridor. He tells them Rorvik attempted to fire the M5 at the mirror and was destroyed, but that the Gateway has reset itself.

Guided by Biroc, they return to the whiteness outside, where the slave ship and the Time Capsule now lie side by side. Biroc steps inside the Capsule, sets its co-ordinates for escape, and then departs.

Romana engages the controls, and the Capsule dematerialises into the time stream.

End of Episode Three