Out of the Green Mist (short story)

Out of the Green Mist was a short story published in Doctor Who Annual 1974. It featured the Third Doctor, Jo Grant and the Brigadier.

Summary
Jo returns to UNIT HQ from a day out and finds the sentry at the gate lying unconscious. Looking up at the laboratory window she sees a green glow. As she passes through the building she sees the Brigadier, Captain Slade and a corporal lying asleep. She reaches the laboratory and enters. The Doctor breaks off from a conversation with a glowing green mist and tells her to get out. The mist replies but the Doctor warns it to leave Jo alone. Jo races to the Doctor's side and bumps him away from the cloud which screeches and then vanishes. The Doctor tells her that he was working on a gadget that connected him to an alternative universe. The green cloud was an alien from that dimension. The Doctor mourns his broken contact with the alien and the loss of a chance to learn from it. Jo is just encouraging him to use his equipment to re-establish the link when the Master enters. He says that he has overheard this most interesting conversation. He decides he wants the Doctor's machine for himself fires a pistol at the Doctor. The bullet stops six inches from the Doctor's face and falls to the floor. A green mist appears in the room and says that the entity the Doctor was speaking to before was as evil as the Master. The creature speaks of the beauty and mysteries of the Universe while keeping the Master frozen. The Doctor asks Jo to recalibrate his machine and then steps into the mist. He vanishes.

The Brigadier enters with some men. They lead away the Master and the Brigadier tells Jo that the Master's men (who deployed sleeping gas) have all been rounded up. Five minutes later, the Doctor returns. He is stupefied after years of learning about the wonders of existence and astonished that only five minutes has passed on Earth. When Jo asks him what he saw he tells her that it is all fading like a wonderful dream.

Characters

 * Third Doctor
 * Jo Grant
 * Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart

Continuity
to be added