The amphitheatre was filling up as the time travellers took their seats. The Doctor guided his companions to the back row.
On their way here they had seen more murals, and some banners, similarly depicting the TARDIS and various likenesses of this other Doctor. He was clearly revered by the Lemarians.
Tegan and Adric had been as surprised as Nyssa to learn that the elderly-looking man in the mural was yet another version of the very same man standing next to them.
While her friends had produced a flurry of questions for the Doctor (all of which had been deflected by his decision that they should indeed come to see this performance), Nyssa had become quiet, and had withdrawn into her thoughts.
She knew, as they all did, that the Doctor could alter his appearance and even his personality. They had seen it. He had changed in front of their eyes from a tall, curly-haired and sometimes abrasive man into the blond-haired, much more affable young Doctor with whom they now travelled. The Doctor called it "regeneration", a means by which Time Lords extended their lives.
Her friends found the Doctor"s regenerative ability fascinating and exciting. But for her it was a reminder of what had happened soon after she had first met the Doctor. Of when she had lost her father, his life and likeness stolen as part of another Time Lord"s regeneration. The way the Doctor"s people could cheat their way round death.
She brushed a tear from her eye and shook her head, steeling herself to subdue her emotions before they were noticed.
As they settled to await the performance, Adric said, "So you were here before. You saved this planet."
The Doctor shrugged. "It seems so."
Nyssa said, "You don"t remember?"
The Doctor said, "There have been quite a few planets. And it would have been a long time ago."
"You don"t recognise those lizard things in the paintings?" asked Tegan.
The Doctor said, "There have been quite a few lizard things."
"Maybe this will jog your memory," she suggested.
"Perhaps," said the Doctor. "Although it looks like it will be a minimalist show."
Nyssa considered the stage dressings. A black drape dappled with white dots presumably a starscape had been hung as a backdrop. The stage was decorated with a few stones and plants, and a further drape had been hung to obscure the far left side of the performance area.
Adric said, "How many of you have there been, Doctor?"
The Doctor hesitated before answering, "Well ... Including me, five."
"Five?!" The volume of Tegan"s reaction drew a disapproving look from a stern-faced woman in front of them.
Nyssa said, "It"s starting."
There was a flourish of music. The group of musicians who had pa.s.sed them in the street appeared to the right of the stage. They struck up a rousing overture.
Then the young man who had spoken to Nyssa strode out, centre stage, and bowed.
"Lemarians and most welcome visitors! Greetings! Prepare to be regaled with the story of how, ten years ago this very day, we the people of Lemaria were released from years of enslavement to the evil, brutal Megrati!"
At that, a figure leapt onto the stage from behind the obscuring drape, accompanied by a sting of music. He was dressed in the lurid costume of a lizard man, with clawed hands and feet and a bulbous head from which hung a forked tongue.
"That"s not very convincing," scoffed Tegan.
The lizard-man gave an exaggerated roar and reared up, showing his claws for the audience.
The Lemarians in the audience booed.
The young narrator continued, "The Megrati had come to our world professing friendship..."
A male and female Lemarian walked onstage. Seeing the Megrati they overacted looks of horror. The Megrati spread its arms in a placatory, rea.s.suring gesture. The man and woman immediately relaxed and smiled at the creature.
Nyssa doubted that events would have been anything like as straightforward as this. But she could make allowances for dramatic licence.
The narrator said grimly, "But no sooner had we taken them into our trust than they showed their true colours!"
Nyssa gave a small gasp as the Megrati swiped at the Lemarians. Although his costume claw missed them by a good two feet, they screamed and fell. The Megrati again roared and clawed towards the audience, who again booed.
"Oh, please," said Tegan.
The narrator cried, "The Megrati killed tens of thousands of Lemarians before they accepted our surrender! And what a grim, hopeless existence then awaited us... slaves of the Megrati!"
The "dead" Lemarians jumped nimbly to their feet and rushed behind the curtain. They reappeared moments later with metal collars round their necks and chains on their ankles. The male Lemarian was carrying a whip that he helpfully handed to the Megrati.
The Megrati cracked the whip and the two Lemarians wailed. "For twenty long years we suffered, and many died, under the yoke of the Megrati," said the narrator. "But then came the traveller... The Doctor!"
The drape that had been obscuring the left of the stage was dropped. Revealing the TARDIS.
The audience burst into rapturous applause.
Nyssa smiled at the Doctor, who was looking more than a little embarra.s.sed.
"At least they put some effort into that prop," he muttered. "Though it"s not quite right."
A moment later, the TARDIS door opened and a man stepped out. The audience cheered.
Nyssa considered this man, dressed as in the mural frock coat, ribbon tie and checked trousers. An obvious wig of flowing white hair finished off the costume.
The "Doctor" struck a pose, clutching his lapels and tilting his head back.
Beside her, the real Doctor shook his head. "This is a pantomime."
On stage, a young girl with thick dark hair joined the elderly-looking Doctor, who placed a protective arm around her and said, "Well, child, shall we explore this strange new world, hmm?"
The girl said, "Oh yes, let"s, Grandfather!"
Nyssa felt herself react as if from an electric shock. She turned to the Doctor and saw that Adric and Tegan were also staring at him in amazement.
The Doctor looked extremely uncomfortable. He drew breath as if he was about to explain. Then he pointed, a sudden jerk of his finger towards the side of the stage to a man carrying a tray of foodstuffs.
"Hunka burgers," said the Doctor. "All part of the experience of live drama. This will be my treat."
And with that he rushed off down the steps.
Tegan shook her head. "That"s one way to get out of a difficult conversation."
Nyssa turned to Adric, who had travelled with the Doctor the longest as he liked to remind her and Tegan. "Did you know he had family?"
Adric shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "I suppose it never came up," he said.
Nyssa returned her gaze to the stage, where the "Doctor" was leaving his granddaughter to confront the Megrati, who was dominating the two Lemarians with his whip.
"You, sir, will desist from this monstrous behaviour!"
And with that he s.n.a.t.c.hed the whip from the Megrati"s hand and threw it aside.
The audience gave a collective gasp.
Adric said, "He"s a bit different."
Tegan said, "I didn"t like him at first, but he"s growing on me."
The stage Doctor was now breaking off the chains of the Lemarian slaves and berating the Megrati.
Tegan laughed. "I think I would have liked this old Doctor. You tell "im, Doc!" Then her smile fell. She looked to be considering her words. She said, "When he changed, from curly hair to our one... For the longest time, I thought it was kind of creepy."
"I felt the same," said Adric. "I"d got to know him. That other him. I liked him. When he regenerated, it took me a long time to accept that he was... well, him. The Doctor."
Nyssa said, "I wonder if he knows what effect it has on others. He"s a Time Lord. To him regeneration is natural. Maybe he forgets what it"s like for those of us who only ever have one face, and one body."
Tegan shook her head. "If it"s weird for us, it must be worse for him. Imagine what it must be like: losing almost everything that made you who you were, and suddenly being someone new."
On stage, the Megrati was walking off with its head hung low while several Lemarians jeered at it. Models of s.p.a.ce saucers on strings appeared from over the backdrop, swung from side to side, then flew off out of sight in an apparent depiction of the Megrati hordes leaving the planet.
"I think I do remember something about this," said a voice behind them.
The Doctor climbed over the back of their seats a little awkwardly with four greasy blue somethings in buns in his hands. As he took his seat he went on, "It was over very quickly. There was already a resistance faction among the people. I just gave them a helping hand. The Lemarians were brave, and in the end they succeeded. They drove out the Megrati."
"In their s.p.a.cecraft on strings," Tegan laughed.
The Doctor smiled. "You"re meant to use your imagination."
"Although," said Adric, "they"ve done a good job with that TARDIS prop. Except for that funny thing on the doors, the white circle."
The Doctor explained, "That"s a St John ambulance symbol, the TARDIS had one of those at the time. But you"re right." He paused and leaned forward, staring at the blue box. "In fact, it"s a very good copy..."
Tegan said, "Has anyone else noticed his voice? Is it just me, or does he sound Scottish?"
"What"s Scottish?" asked Nyssa.
The Doctor turned his attention to the actor, who was now retreating to the TARDIS and saying, "Perhaps I"ll return in a hundred years and see how your world is flourishing. So you"d better get on with rebuilding it, hadn"t you, hmm? You"re safe now from the Megrati..."
The actor paused. He turned his head to the sky, as though looking for something, then turned back to his audience. "You have my word."
The audience applauded and cheered, and it seemed the play was over. The "Doctor" took a bow, and the other cast members joined him on the stage. As they enjoyed the adulation, the "Doctor" beamed at the audience, his eyes picking over the seats. But when his eyes found the seats where the time travellers were sitting, he did an odd thing.
He smiled.
Nyssa thought for a moment he was smiling directly at her. But then she caught a movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to look at the Doctor.
He was smiling, too. And now he lifted his Panama hat, doffing it towards the man on stage.
Then a terrible thunder shook the seats underneath them. Part of the stage fell forward, nearly crushing the actors. There were cries of terror from the audience and from the surrounding streets.
"An earthquake!" yelled Tegan.
"If we"re lucky," said the Doctor. "No, don"t run. We"re safer here, I think."
Adric pointed into the sky. "Look!"
Nyssa had seen many types of s.p.a.cecraft during her travels with the Doctor. She had even seen warships. But she had seen nothing like the enormous craft descending from the sky above; hundreds of metal darts, each more than three miles long and bristling with weapons. So huge, even though the ships were a hundred or more miles above them.
Nyssa recognised them as full-size versions of what the audience had just seen hanging on strings as part of the performance. The audience recognised them, too, and stared in dumb-founded horror.
The Megrati had returned.
The gun ports on the Megrati ships turned downwards, ready to fire.
Nyssa said nervously, "Are you sure we shouldn"t run?"
The Doctor said, "I doubt there"s time."
Then, a reddish yellow ball of energy materialised on stage. When it faded, in its place was a Megrati. Not some man in a rubber suit, but the real thing. Green scales rippled over a muscly, eight-foot frame. Saliva dripped from its oversized, chipped fangs. In one hand it held a whip. In the other a large and threatening blaster.
The crowd reacted in terror.
"Who summons me?!" cried the Megrati.
And now the crowd looked bemused.
The Megrati snarled in frustration. "Before you die, before we take our revenge on you, I will know, who summoned the Grand Megrati!"
The stage Doctor placed himself in front of the Megrati and said, "That was me. I detected your invasion fleet when it was still twelve pa.r.s.ecs from here. I sent you that invitation not a summons because I thought you and I should have a chat when you arrived. Then I came here, thought I"d join the party while I waited."
The Megrati looked this strange figure up and down. "Who are you?"
"Oh, how soon you lot forget. Have a guess."
The Megrati uttered a roaring laugh. Then the roar became a snarl, and it raised its whip hand.
The stage Doctor"s hand shot out and gripped the Megrati"s wrist. The alien brought its blaster up, but the Doctor kicked out and the weapon flew from its hand.
The Megrati snarled, "Who are you?"