The Sour Note (short story)


 *  was the first illustrated short story in the 1968 Doctor Who Annual. It featured the Second Doctor, Ben and Polly.

Summary
After landing on a strange planet, Ben gets an almost irresistible urge to go running, claiming that he's failing to get proper exercise in the TARDIS. The Doctor opens the doors and soon Ben is out of the nervous view of Polly.

The Doctor suggests he and Polly should get some exercise, too, so they walk briskly after their companion. Soon, however, they encounter a giant, towering, metal grasshopper. The Doctor surmises it's likely a robot, so Ben is likely not in danger of dying by contact with this robot, but he still might be somehow captured by one. The Doctor and Polly go in search of whatever is controlling the robot. They find what appears to be an underground entrance nearby, but the swift insectoid robot prevents their progress towards it.

As he studies the robot's movements, the Doctor notices a series of musical notes in the air that seem to be controlling it. He pulls out his recorder and repeats the notes. He lures the creature to the TARDIS to examine it with his instruments. When they arrive, the robot is beating down on them, and they enter the TARDIS just in time. They find Ben safely inside the TARDIS. He's been waiting there quite some time for them. Outside, the robot tries, without success, to destroy the TARDIS, until the Doctor simply dematerialises it, and the travellers speed off towards another adventure. The exasperated Doctor, well-winded from his run from the robot, advises Ben that if he'd like to run in future, he'll just have to jog twenty times around the interior of the TARDIS.

Characters

 * Second Doctor
 * Ben Jackson
 * Polly Wright
 * an insectoid robot

Continuity

 * Ben's need to get out of the TARDIS so he can run and exercise seems at odds with later notions of the almost infinite amount of space in the TARDIS. (TV: The Invasion of Time, Castrovalva (TV story) and others) However, at this time in the programme's history, it had not been posited that the TARDIS had a vast interior — merely that it was "bigger on the inside
 * The Doctor has never been to this planet before.
 * The Doctor refers to his recent regeneration as "reincarnation".
 * The Doctor unusually refers to Polly as "Poll", just as Ben often does.