by Chad Denton
The Doctor installs the Space Time Visualizer into the TARDIS, which allows him to view anything that happens in the past before the TARDIS’ current “location” in time, and demonstrates it to Vicki, Barbara, and Ian by showing Abraham Lincoln speaking the Gettysburg Address, Shakespeare meeting Queen Elizabeth I, and a performance by the Beatles (playing “Ticket to Ride”, by the way). Soon the TARDIS lands in the desert planet of Aridius. While exploring Vicki and Ian find some seaweed and a trail of blood. They also stumble across a ring in the ground that opens up a trapdoor leading into an underground passage. Meanwhile Barbara and the Doctor see the Daleks through the STV, who just happen to be plotting their revenge for thwarting their plans for Earth. After setting out to find and warn the others, Barbara and the Doctor are caught in a sandstorm that buries the TARDIS.
The natives of Aridius help Barbara and Ian and mention that the planet once had swamps, but drastic changes in the climate made those habitats dry up, leading to the native Mire Beasts invading the Aridians’ cities. Discovering one of the aforementioned underground cities, Ian and Vicki are attacked by the Mire Beasts. An explosion set up by the Aridians to kill the Mire Beasts injures Ian. Back at the TARDIS’s site, the Daleks enslave a group of Aridians and force them to dig up the TARDIS, slaughtering them when the work is done since they are now “worthless.” However, the Daleks find that they can’t even damage the TARDIS. The Aridians detain the Doctor and Barbara, telling them that the Daleks have threatened genocide unless the Doctor and the others are handed over. Vicki is likewise captured, but they escape when a Mire Beast attacks the Aridian guarding them and meet up with a recovered Ian. Getting around a Dalek patrol, the TARDIS’ crew escape. With a head start of 12 minutes, the TARDIS flees to the Empire State Building in 1966, and then to the Mary Celeste. After the TARDIS leaves, the Daleks arrive and force the crew and passengers to abandon ship.