Master of the Blackhole (short story)

Master of the Blackhole was short story published in TV Comic Annual 1978.

Summary
The Doctor awakes from a sleep and feels that something is in the TARDIS with him, noting a drop in temperature. He searches his surroundings before checking the console. While he set the TARDIS for Earth in the 20th century, he has impossibly drifted into the vast black regions of the outer universe, meaning he'd have to have been sleeping for a month.

To draw whatever he's up against out, he decides to use the Timeloop, a small refinement he recently added to the TARDIS. In theory, the ship would be looped through two time dimensions, a kind of suspended animation; however, it is uncertain if the navigational circuits could break the cycle. Taking a chance, he activates the device. The ships fades from the black void and reappears, and the air around the Doctor becomes freezing while a tall, monstrous apparition materialises before him. He is a servant of the Master of the Blackhole, who demands the Doctor's ship and his utter obedience. The Doctor tells him that, unfortunately, they are doomed to be together in a suspended state of timelessness. The vapourous monster says nothing is beyond the Master. The Doctor checks the astro-chart and sees the TARDIS is drawing close and fast into a black hole.

With the interior frosting over, the Doctor remembers the laser torch in his pocket, and slumps to the floor, the monster thinking he's asleep from having his body heat drained. He fires the laser at the monster and it disappears in a blanket of mist. But the TARDIS spins in an uncontrollable spiral, plunging into the black pit of reverse matter.

He wakes up, wondering if he's become the apparition, and finds he's seated in the TARDIS with a plate. It was just a bad dream from eating strong cheese in space.

Characters

 * Fourth Doctor
 * The apparition

Continuity

 * The Doctor is using the secondary console room. (TV: The Masque of Mandragora)
 * He wonders if the TARDIS is any longer under the influence of the Time Lords and if he's been put into a situation by them. (TV: The Brain of Morbius, PROSE: A Device of Death, AUDIO: The King of Sontar)
 * The Doctor is an "ex-Time Lord". (TV: Pyramids of Mars)