Special Weapons (short story)

Special Weapons was the ninth short story in the Short Trips anthology More Short Trips. It was written by Paul Leonard. It featured the Seventh Doctor and Melanie Bush.

Summary
The TARDIS viewscreen shows blackness. The Doctor decides he has to stop "them".

Outside, it's dark and cold. The Doctor and Mel are in Pax Lucis. Searchlights come on, and there is gunfire.

Oliver and Ellen are in the field when the German planes come. Ellen is hit, and Oliver stays with her until she dies. Then he runs.

Mel and the Doctor separate. He surrenders to German soldiers, and she hides. She makes for the TARDIS, but it is guarded.

Lieutenant Herz brings the Doctor to his commanding officer, Luther. Franz wants to kill the Doctor but Luther will interrogate him first. The Doctor discovers that the Germans are using a lightwanderer to create a barrier around Pax Lucis. They will use it to destroy England, though the scientist Gruber thinks it will destroy everything.

Mel runs into Oliver. At first he thinks she's a German spy but then thinks she's crazy. She wants to rescue the Doctor. They approach the church, where the Germans are stationed and where the Doctor is being held. They run into a German sentry, who thinks they are local children and tells them to go home. They hear a shot from the vicarage, and Mel thinks the Doctor has been killed. They go to Oliver's home, where his mother thinks the vicar will find help. Mel tells her the vicar has been killed. Mel and Oliver decide to go for help.

The Germans use torture to interrogate the Doctor. Luther sends Franz away and talks with the Doctor. The Doctor tries to convince him that life is better than death.

Mel and Oliver find the barrier around the village. They head for a quarry to find a way out through the barrier. They find an old railway tunnel, but it is blocked. Then they find sticks of dynamite.

Luther wants the Doctor to see the machine they will use, but Herz cannot understand why Luther won't just kill the Doctor. Herz relieves Luther of command, and Franz shoots Luther.

Mel and Oliver make it to the church, and set up the explosives. However, the explosives don't reach the church, and then Mel and Oliver are captured by a German soldier and brought into the church. Inside, Luther has understood what the Doctor was trying to tell him, and, though inured, tries to get to the machine to disconnect the lightwanderer. Suddenly, the explosives detonate, distracting the guards. Luther throws himself on the machine, freeing the lightwanderer and removing the barrier. The lightwanderer kills the surviving Germans.

Oliver decides, to Mel's dismay, that he is going to join the army next year to kill Germans.

Characters

 * Seventh Doctor
 * Mel
 * Luther
 * Oliver
 * Franz
 * Lieutenant Herz
 * Gruber
 * Oliver's mother
 * Lightwanderer

Continuity

 * Mel doesn't want Oliver to die the way Pex did. (TV: Paradise Towers)
 * Gruber doesn't care that his invention will destroy the world, just as Zaroff didn't care that raising Atlantis would destroy the world. (TV: The Underwater Menace)