The Masters of Luxor (audio story)

 was the seventh story release in the third series of The Lost Stories, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was adapted by Nigel Robinson, from the original script by Anthony Coburn, narrated by Carole Ann Ford and William Russell and featured the First Doctor, Susan, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright.

Publisher's summary
The TARDIS is drawn to a mysterious signal emanating from a seemingly dead world. Trapped within a crystalline structure, the Doctor and his friends inadvertently wake a vast army of robots that have lain dormant for many, many years. Waiting...for the Masters of Luxor.

The Cannibal Flower (1)
Thanks to his recent adjustments to the ship, the Doctor is now ready to bring Ian and Barbara home, to Susan's regret. But just as he is inserting the coordinates, the TARDIS is taken hold by an unknown force, causing it to shake and shiver; the travellers are all tossed to the ground and the Doctor hits his head against the console.

When they regain knowledge, the quartet sees on the scanner that the TARDIS has landed on a seemingly dead world. The only other thing there aside from them is a gigantic pyramid-shaped metallic structure, hanging in the sky. The Doctor brings the TARDIS closer to it, but as it approaches, the structure opens and attracts the ship inside it, while the power of the TARDIS starts diminishing. Ian and Susan go out to explore where they got to, while the Doctor and Barbara remain inside the ship, in an attempt to save it.

In the dome, Ian and Susan find themselves in a large banquet hall, complete with a table where all sorts of food and drinks are disposed, three buttons and two gongs. Susan argues that they are landed into an outpost of some advanced civilization, and that food has been prepared for eventual travellers arriving there. She goes out in the adjacent gallery while Ian presses a button: suddenly, gigantic humanoid robots appear in front of Susan, but remain still.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Barbara's attempts to save the ship prove unsuccessful, and eventually the TARDIS dies completely, only retaining its dimensional trascendentalism. The Doctor only manages to discover a signal in the circuits of the ship, proving that they had been recalled here by the machine they are inside now; Barbara then guesses that this same machine is feeding on the TARDIS' power, just like a cannibal flower. Upon hearing the news, Ian decides to act so they finally meet their new "masters", and Susan prepares to eat one of the dishes at the table, hoping it's not poisoned.

The Mockery of a Man (2)
The food is not poisoned, and the travellers eat and drink until they are satiated, which seems to calm the anxiety of everyone but Barbara. She still feels this place is evil, ill-disposed towards them, of which the Doctor berates her, blaming mankind's instinctual adversion for anything different. All of this, argues the Doctor, has been made by a human-like, technologically advanced civilization, therefore they cannot conclude they are dealing with an evil intelligence. Upon the Doctor's insistence, Ian presses first the second and then the third button, thus calling other robots into the room, whose appearance is much more humanlike. They salute the travellers as "the Masters of Luxor", repeatedly asking if they served them well.

After unsuccesfully attempting to inform them of their mistake, the travellers have the robots bring them through a lift to the highest floors of the pyramid. As they go, a distract Barbara notices the robot are looking more and more human, and suspects they are actually men turned into machines, bringing Ian to ask the Doctor whether it would be possible. They enter into a reception room, a lounge, where other robots welcome them and lead them to a room with baths and new clothing. After they finished refreshing, they are finally approached by Proto, a robot which can finally talk. He doesn't believe their story that they are not the "Masters of Luxor", and instead informs them they have to remain here, as their prisoners, and be presented to someone called "the Perfect One"; he also lets it slip that the robots killed the Masters of Luxor.

Left alone, the travellers escape from the lounge by opening a window and climbing down to the balcony of the next floor, although Ian suspects it to be too easy for them. Wandering about, they enter into what appears to be an operating theatre, complete with two chairs. To the first, the robots attach another man, and to the other, a young man, seemingly perfect in his body, sits; they are both lighted by the robots and the other man disappears in a flash of light, leaving only the young man. The travellers are brought to the young man, who is revealed as the Perfect One: a robot built by the same robots in an attempt to create the perfect machine, similar in everything to their creators, the Masters of Luxor. They perfected the robots (their creation) to the point they became coscient, and decided to overthrow them, kill them and then build the Perfect One as a symbol of their rebellion. However, the Perfect One still lacks life (when there is no power in the station, he just dies like everything else), and that's what he asks from the travellers: their life.

A Light on the Dead Planet (3)
to be added

Tabon of Luxor (4)
to be added

An Infinity of Surprises (5)
to be added

The Flower Blooms (6)
to be added

Cast

 * Ian Chesterton - William Russell
 * Susan Foreman - Carole Ann Ford
 * The Perfect One / Tabon / Mark Ones / Derivitrons - Joseph Kloska

Continuity

 * Barbara mentions seeing the Emerald Sea on the planet Fragrance (AUDIO: The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance) and meeting Alexander the Great in Babylon in 323 BC. (AUDIO: Farewell, Great Macedon)