Birth of a Renegade (short story)



This short prose (reveals Susan Foreman's origin) in the Doctor Who 20th Anniversary Special followed the success of the BBC's Doctor Who 10th Anniversary Special from the publisher of the weekly Radio Times listing magazine.

Summary
Tegan is not happy when the Doctor decides to answer a distress call from Sector 19, in the spiral of Alpha 4, a remote area on the fringe of a supernova. Arriving near to the source of the signal, the Doctor is disturbed to find it is coming from an enormous battle cruiser. The cruiser appears both undamaged and unlike other battleships doesn’t carry any identifying insignia or identification. The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are even more alarmed when they discover that the Tardis is actually being drawn to the cruiser by a tractor beam that is somehow using the Tardis’ own power against it.

The Doctor working under the console, shuts off the Tardis’s power for a moment, with enough energy left to dematerialise when the break in power releases the Tardis from the tractor beam. Then very soon the Tardis materialises safely onboard the battle cruiser where having explored the vast craft in near total darkness - bar the minuscule light from the Doctors pen torch, the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are blinded and disorientated when a door opens and disorientates that with a bright light. A moment after their confusion they find they are prisoners of three Cybermen who appear to be assisting the Master.

The Master, with his working chameleon circuit, reveals that the battle cruiser is his Tardis (the cruiser being to the Cybermens liking). The Master’s plan is to bring the Time Lords to their knees, not by war but by “securing power by legally exploiting the constitution!” As they are marched through the Tardis corridors, the Master talks of Gallifrey’s past. He recounts a time, the final corrupt days of Lord President Pundat the Third. The Master remembers the Doctor as crusty, eccentric man, one of the finest Tardis engineers ever.

The Master remembers more than the Doctor who is realising he has had selective memories wiped – just as the Master had told him. The Master goes on to explain that students revolted against Pundat the Third but were ruthlessly put down. The students, wanted to replace Pundats rule (Rule by the Lord Presidents choice) with Rassilon’s Law that made the successor a descendent of Lord Rassilon himself.

The students had tried to recruit the Doctor, but being indecisive at the time he had decided to side with the status quo, the constitution, and Lord Pundat. When Pundat died of stress shortly after the revolt, his chosen successor was the evil Lord Slann. The students having found the last of Lord Rassilon’s descendents Lady Larn, a seven-year old child adopted by Councillor Brolin, decided to plan a second coup. But in trying to convert the Doctor, the students are inadvertently overhead. The Doctor, innocent of the student’s revolt, was too highly respected to be terminated like the other students, so instead it was decided to wipe parts of his memory.

It was a time of the bloodiest reprisals on Gallifrey against the students and the Doctor had decided to leave in a Tardis, taking with him, hidden onboard, Susan (or rather lady Larn!) Because the Doctor had had a memory wipe even if he had believed ‘Susan’, she too was another fugitive from Gallifrey.

The Master (Tegan rightly guessed), had been behind both student uprisings, and believing the students to be ready for the second, he assassinated Lord President Slann. But the students weren’t ready and the Master fled.

Once more in time, Gallifrey is leader-less and politically unstable, the people are crying out for leadership, for a descendent of Rassilon. The Master plans to return with his army of Cybermen (to whom he has promised the knowledge of Time travel), and rule with Susan. But the Master realises that Doctor his biggest adversary must be disposed of first.

When Susan is reunited with the Doctor she refuses to help the Master, defending the Doctor from the Master and his Tissue Compression Eliminator. As the Cybermen move to separate the Doctor and Susan, the Doctor launches himself at the Master knocking the Eliminator from his hand, Susan fires the Eliminator as the Cybermen close in. The Master tells the Cybermen not to shoot in case Susan is killed. In the stalemate the Doctor leads his companions back to the Tardis. With the Master’s exposed roundels in the corridor draining the energy to maintain the vast battle cruiser, Susan stops and fires the Eliminator. The damage makes the Masters Tardis ‘unstable and causes it to break up’. The Doctor, Tegan, Turlough and Susan just make the safety of the Doctor’s Tardis before it is too late the Doctor set the co-ordinates to return Susan home. Outside, the Master is consumed by hate as the walls around him collapse and his Tardis disintegrates.

Characters

 * Fifth Doctor
 * Tegan Jovanka
 * Turlough
 * Susan Foreman
 * The Master
 * Cybermen

Continuity

 * This story occurs after The Visitation when the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver was destroyed by a Terileptil.
 * TARDIS is spelt ‘Tardis’ throughout this story.
 * The Master is once more using his Tissue Compression Eliminator used to leave behind his shrunken corpse calling card.
 * The Master, being responsible for the assassination of Lord President Slann, is meant to predate his murder of the Lord President in The Deadly Assassin.
 * When the Doctor asks if Lady Larn escaped the student uprising the Master replies “…Even you must know they do not kill children on Gallifrey” – they allowed her to escape.
 * The Doctor’s reflection, that although he travels with ‘companions’ he doesn’t know them very well, would seem to be a thought echoed in the series with more back story and insight into the Doctors current and future companions. Developed over the next few years (most notably with the Seventh Doctor and Ace’s relationship), and a central theme of the new series companions.

Timeline

 * This story takes place after PDA: Deep Blue
 * This story takes place before DW: The Awakening

External link
The BBC's official Radio Times website with an increasing amount of Doctor Who content including archive material