Prisoners of the Lake (audio story)

Prisoners of the Lake was the first story in The Third Doctor Adventures. It was written by Justin Richards and featured the introduction of Tim Treloar as the Third Doctor as well as the Narrator, Katy Manning as Jo Grant and Richard Franklin as Captain Mike Yates.

Publisher's summary
Captain Mike Yates is investigating the disappearance of artefacts from an archaeological site deep below Dunstanton Lake. It's hardly a job for UNIT. But when the team discover a mysterious ancient structure buried deep underwater, all that changes.

When chief archaeologist Freda Mattingly ventures inside, she soon realises that her skills do not begin to equip her to deal with what she finds. As an ancient menace begins to stir the Doctor, Jo Grant and Mike Yates must dive down to the lake bed and discover the secrets hidden there. Secrets that could mean the end of all life on Earth...

Part one
Director Pennard takes Captain Yates through a walkway that leads to a building in the middle of Dunstanton Lake. Pennard made his feelings clear, by stating that no-one asked for Yates to come, but the latter replies that he was ordered because of valuable missing artefacts. The Director replies he does not think they were stolen, but catalogued incorrectly. Then, Mike tells him there was a vague report about what some divers found, and the Director replies that is because they are not sure what they have found.

Meanwhile, lead archaeologist Professor Freda Mattingly is coordinating the divers when Pennard and Yates arrive. The latter is presented to Freda, who says they have found something unlike anything that has been discovered before. She says it is a building at the bottom of the lake, and that the divers are installing an airlock in its door to get in. Freda explains that the building, or whatever it is, must be ancient, from a time when the lake was dry land.

As soon as she gets there, Freda starts to open the airlock and the entrance to the building itself. She enters the structure, and notices that the rocks are fluorescent, and that she does not need her torch. When Mattingly tries to communicate with Repford at Dive Control and he does not respond, she guesses that the rocks could be interfering with the signal and starts to make a sound record to show when she returns. She finds a blocky statue which moves and speaks, assimilating her language; it identifies itself as Defence Advocate 997 and apologises for its delay before becoming a statue once more.

The Brigadier receives Yates's report from a UNIT operative and passes it onto the Doctor, who shows no interest. Jo eventually manages to pique his interest by reading a transcript of what the statue said and they head off in Bessie to investigate, although Pennard is less than enthusiastic about them involving themselves. In the interest of maintaining a cordial relationship, Yates goes to speak with Pennard after the Doctor offends him.

The Doctor and Jo descend into the lake and Repford connects the access tunnel between the diving lift and underwater structure using the Ex-Cav suit, which briefly malfunctions but manages the task. The Doctor determines that the structure is a spaceship and that the statue is a degraded robot. His inspection is interrupted by the collapse of a wall and the death of Jeff, although he has been strangled rather than crushed. More wall collapses and another stone robot emerges, preparing to execute them.

Part two
The Doctor leads the slow-moving statue away and fights it with his Venusian aikido whilst Jo and Freda get the other archaeologists to safety. When he returns to the airlock, however, he finds Jo and Freda unaccounted for and joins the archaeologists in the safety of the airlock before contacting them with a radio. They tell him that they took a wrong turn and that he should get the archaeologists to the surface before returning for them.

Repford is having further trouble with his Ex-Cav suit and cannot get it to reattach the tunnel, so Yates send divers to complete the task. As the divers work, Jo and Freda go towards the airlock and see the statue standing there, unmoving until it detects their presence and declares that it will execute them. The Doctor, upon arriving on the surface, learns from Yates that the theft of the artefacts must be an inside job, the records having been deleted, and dives to connect the air tunnel for Jo and Freda. Repford is in the way, however, and the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to put the suit into standby.

As more oxygen is arranged to be taken down to Repford, the Doctor and Yates listen to Freda's recording and find that they cannot hear the statue despite Yates having previously been able to transcribe the conversation. The Doctor surmises that the statue's intelligence was stored on the recording but was transferred into the Ex-Cav suit when Freda rewound it.

Jo and Freda find themselves in an unexplored area and come across about thirty stone coffins with frosted glass lids with lupine aliens within. A video shows the destruction of cities and planets by the same creatures lying in the coffins. The Doctor dives into the lake and communicates with Jo and Freda, telling them to get to the airlock, but they are interrupted by the statue's roar.

Part three
to be added

Part four
to be added

Cast

 * Narrator / The Doctor - Tim Treloar
 * Jo Grant - Katy Manning
 * Mike Yates - Richard Franklin
 * Freda Mattingly - Carolyn Seymour
 * Johnny Repford / Director Pennard / Statue / The Prosecutor - Robbie Stevens
 * Chief Dastron / Lieutenant Macintyre / UNIT Operative / Archaeologist - John Banks

Continuity

 * The Third Doctor, Jo Grant, Mike Yates and UNIT previously encountered another animated stone statue at Devil's End, called Bok. (TV: The Daemons) The Weeping Angels were another race of stone statues, who became animated when they were not being observed. (TV: Blink, et al.)