Avast There! (short story)

Avast There! was the sixth story in the Doctor Who Annual 1976. It saw the Fourth Doctor make further improvements to his TARDIS.

Summary
The Doctor decides to demonstrate his latest piece of equipment, but as Sarah and Harry are taken prisoner by pirates, the Doctor must hurry to have it operational.

Plot
In UNIT HQ, the Fourth Doctor has developed a Oscillating Reverberator Unit to help improve his TARDIS. Just as he is putting in the final touches, John Benton pulls him away for a meeting with the Brigadier.

Upon his return, the Doctor convinces Harry and Sarah to join him in the TARDIS as he demonstrates his new gadget. Suddenly they find themselves under attack and landed aboard a galleon in space. The Doctor goes out to explore and, after seeing it is not abandoned, Sarah runs to warn him but is captured by a group of pirates waiting just outside the doors. They force both Sarah and Harry into walking the plank and they are about to jump when the TARDIS materialises at the end of the plank and they escape. The Doctor explains that he managed to fix his gadget and it allowed him to make the journey accurately.

Characters

 * Fourth Doctor
 * Sarah Jane Smith
 * Harry Sullivan
 * John Benton
 * Captain
 * Argamems

Worldbuilding

 * The Doctor installs a Oscillating Reverberator Unit in the TARDIS.
 * The Doctor claims that the Brigadier sees germ warfare around every corner, and would probably think an outbreak of the common cold was an invasion.
 * Instead of wind, like conventional sailing ships, Argamem's ships use laser beams from their planets surface to propel them.

Continuity

 * Sarah asks Harry if he would liken the apparently empty state of the galleon to an "interplanetary Mary Celeste". The ship first appeared on television in TV: The Chase.

Avast There!