The Monster in the Woods (short story)

The Monster in the Woods was the third short story in Tales of Terror, featuring the Third Doctor and Jo Grant

Summary
On Halloween, 1973, Ange Barnes is finishing up her little brother, Terry's David Bowie face paint, much to the chagrin of her youngest brother, Ian, who is dressed up as Frankenstein's monster. Ange herself is dressed as a vampire lady and has promised her mother that she would let them show off their costumes. As Mrs. Barnes prepares dinner for her husband, she tells her children not to bang on anyone else's doors.

Later, the children go down to the woods to meet their secret friend, a damaged Dalek that they have called "Starman". Starman invites the kids into his den where he informs them that a signal has been sent. Terry introduces Ian to Starman, and Ian calls him the "Monster in the Woods". Ange assures Starman that it's just a story that her mother told them to try and keep them out of the woods. Starman tells the kids that soon there will no longer be a monster in the woods and instructs them to bring one more item to him to make sure that the message repeats. When Ange tells him that they can bring him the item after school, Starman holds Ian hostage until they bring him what he needs.

Meanwhile, at UNIT HQ, Jo Grant is dressed as a black cat and is trying to convince the Third Doctor to join her at Miss Hawthorne's Halloween shindig, but the Time Lord is focusing on getting his TARDIS in working order, remarking that "humans do have the silliest festivals". Jo notices the Doctor looking at a particular device that she dubs the "Time Fridge", which prevents the temporal circuits from overheating. As the Doctor begins to question Jo's costume, they hear an alarm bell that warns them about erroneous time technology. The Doctor identifies it as a transmitter that's operating from a nearby town and broadcasting into the Time Vortex. Jo is disappointed that they're going out to an investigation instead of a party, but the Doctor puts on his cloak and says that it's still a trip out.

Ange and Terry are heading back to their house so they can collect the device for Starman so that they can save Ian from his clutches. Ange is especially worried for Ian's safety as he has only just started going to school. She and Terry try to make things look like they are playing a game and take a shortcut through the nearby building site. Ange reassures both herself and Terry that Ian will be okay, but Terry is worried about their mother's anger when she finds out about Ian's disappearance. When Ange tells him that Starman is their friend, Terry angrily asks her what they really know about him, calling him a monster and reaffirming that Ian is his hostage. Returning to their garden, Ange remembers the first time she and her brothers met Starman in his secret den where he was trying to repair his own body.

When Ange and Terry return home, they hear their parents arguing, which allows them to sneak past them and retrieve the 1960s tape recorder in Terry's room that was given to them by their grandmother. Despite being upset about having to give up a family heirloom, the children have no other option than to sacrifice their recordings of lost family members to save Ian.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Jo are driving to the transmission's location in Bessie, with the Doctor being especially concerned about the transmission's energy signature, but Jo has absolute faith that the Doctor will be able to deal with whoever sent the signal. The Doctor produces a homing device with a green light on it that tells him they're very close to the signal.

As Starman works on the tape recorder that Ange and Terry have delivered to him, he keeps Ian hostage. Ange eventually asks him if they can take Ian home, and Terry warns him that their mother will phone the police who will search the woods to find him, but Starman replies by saying that he will defend himself. Once the signal begins transmitting, Terry asks Starman if he has a family, to which Starman replies that he has no family and that the Daleks will come to Earth so they can conquer it. Suddenly, the signal gets intercepted by the Doctor whom Starman demands the children bring to him.

Jo and the Doctor have been wandering the streets of the estate for almost an hour and are now in a small playground. Jo is shocked to find that there is a Dalek ship nearby that was most likely travelling back from the 22nd century. Jo suggests telling the Brigadier, but the Doctor doesn't want loads of tanks and helicopters swarming the estate, then Ange and Terry show up to tell the Doctor about their little brother being held hostage by Starman. When the Doctor walks up to them asking them about their so-called friend, the children offer to take him to see Starman.

In the forest, Ian asks Starman what will happen if his siblings fail to find the Doctor, but Starman tells him that the Doctor has been found. The Doctor almost immediately starts mocking the Dalek who is now stuck in 1973 just like him. Starman tells the Doctor that he knows about his exile to Earth and that his enemies rejoiced, the tells him that his message has been sent into the time vortex to summon the Dalek fleet and that he will stop them if the Doctor helps him as they would come to Earth to try and kill him. The Doctor demands that Starman lets Ian go, to which Starman obliges. The Doctor notices that Starman's arms are just kitchen implements and that his chest cavity has been badly damaged, then asks Jo and the children to help him carry the Dalek to his car so that he can take his enemy back to UNIT HQ to help him.

The Doctor and Jo push Starman through the dark woods while the children carry the radiogram. Starman warns them that he will destroy them if they attempt to stop his message from being sent. Once they reach Bessie, the Doctor loads Starman onto the back seat along with the radiogram. After Starman tells the children to be grateful that they have survived their encounter with him, the Doctor places his cloak over the Dalek's dome before telling the children to return to their parents. As the Doctor and Jo begin to make their way back to UNIT HQ, the Doctor explains to Jo that he can learn a lot from a damaged Dalek, causing Jo to realize that the Doctor is after Starman's time travel codes.

It is morning when the Doctor and Jo arrive at UNIT HQ with the Dalek. Wanting to avoid the UNIT soldiers seeing them with a Dalek, the Doctor drives round the back of the complex. As the Doctor and Jo begin to carry Starman into the building, Jo suggests getting Mike Yates or Sergeant Benton to help, only to be refused by the Doctor. The Dalek senses the Doctor's TARDIS while he is being brought into the lab. While the Doctor examines the Dalek, he tells him to inform the Dalek fleet that there is nothing for them to find in 1973, to which the Dalek replies by laughing.

The Doctor then begins to interrogate the Dalek so he can find out how long he has been on Earth. The Dalek says that he crash landed in the woods 60 years ago, only to stop laughing when the Doctor says that he has gone half mad from being injured and trapped on Earth and that the other Daleks will likely exterminate him. The Dalek replies that they will be grateful to him for bringing them to the Doctor's location, but the Doctor replies that the Dalek has lived among humans for so long that he has started developing a conscience.

The Doctor tells the Dalek to halt the message and then he will save his life, to which the Dalek obliges before saying that the signal was intended to capture the Doctor's attention. After the Doctor asks for the time travel codes, the Dalek says that he is merely a trooper who knows little about time travel before saying that his only logical function now is to destroy the Doctor.

Just then, the Dalek activate his self-destruct mechanism with the intention of destroying the whole of UNIT HQ with the Doctor and Jo still inside of it. The Doctor holds up the time fridge device that Jo saw him working on the previous night and reverses the polarity of its neutron flow before throwing it into the Dalek's casing. When Jo asks what it will do, the Doctor says that it will melt the Dalek's heart due to the intense heat it will be gaining.

Sorrowful, the Doctor looks on as the Dalek begins to die, with his death cries attracting the attention of several UNIT personnel, including the Brigadier who congratulates the Doctor for stopping the Dalek. The Doctor is sad that they are now unable to learn much from the Dalek now that he is dead, only for Jo to remind him that he was going to blow up UNIT HQ. The Brigadier tells the Doctor that the Daleks are all monsters, to which the Doctor sadly replies that the Dalek they encountered was developing a conscience but forced him to destroy him.

Characters

 * Third Doctor
 * Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart
 * Jo Grant
 * Dalek
 * Ange Barnes
 * Terry Barnes
 * Ian Barnes
 * Mrs Barnes
 * Mr Barnes

Worldbuilding

 * The Doctor wants the Dalek time-codes as he is still trapped on Earth.
 * The Dalek claims it is a "lowly trooper" and does not know the Dalek time-codes, which the Doctor wants for his TARDIS.
 * The Dalek claims to broadcast a message to the Dalek Fleet in the Time Vortex. The Doctor says they would not be interested in coming to 1973.

Continuity

 * Jo looks forward to attending a Halloween party in Devil's End, and to reminiscing with Olive Hawthorne about their previous adventures. (TV: The Daemons)
 * The Doctor suspects that the Dalek may have escaped from "all the mischief" the Daleks caused in the 22nd century. (TV: Day of the Daleks)
 * UNIT are using Doc Dantalion's manor house as their headquarters (TV: The Three Doctors, PROSE: Where the Heart Is).
 * The Dalek is able to self-destruct. (TV: Dalek)