Vicki decides that the only way that the Doctor could have gotten out of his cell was via a secret door. Steven is skeptical, but is soon proven wrong by the puckish orphan.
I have to say that Vicki has really had a chance to bloom in this one. Going from three companions down to two is probably the main cause; more than three people in the TARDIS and someone becomes the third wheel.
I suspect that the script was originally written with Ian and Barbara instead of Steven so Vicki has ended up inheriting some of Barbara's lines.
They follow the secret passage down into the earth and travel well away from the monastery.
The Monk treats Eldred's wounds with penicillin and wishes that a blood transfusion were possible. He's reluctant to keep the injured man there, but relents in the end.
He heads back to check on Steven and Vicki whom he left wandering about the place when the villagers arrived at his door. He sees no sign of them, nor of the Doctor. He does a few things that would have been clever had the Doctor been hiding in the room so I have to give him full points for effort, but since the room is empty he ends up scratching his head.
Vicki and Steven come to the end of the tunnel and discover that the Doctor is not waiting for them. They decide to check back at the TARDIS.
Meanwhile, the Doctor has made it back to the village and meets up with Edith. She seems to have recovered nicely. She tells him about his friends coming into the village and being sent to the monastery. She also warns him about the Viking scouts that her husband and his men fought off. He tells her of a great Viking fleet that will land in Umbria. He assures her that King Harold will be victorious and then (turned away from her) fall to William.
The two surviving Vikings decide that the best way to save their skins is to hide out in the monastery until the main fleet lands.
The Doctor beats them to the monastery. He manages to trick the Monk into thinking that he has a Winchester '73 pressed against his spinal column instead of a stick that he picked up in the woods. The Monk soon figures out that he's not under the threat of being blasted in two. The Doctor still holds him under threat of a good smacking.
The interplay between the Doctor and the Monk is quiet fun. In the 80's someone started the theory that the Monk is an earlier incarnation of the Master. The evidence is flimsy at best. If it is the case, then he definitely got darker with age. The Monk isn't evil. He uses people, but his motives (which we'll find out next episode) are far from those of the Master.
The Vikings show up and capture the Doctor. They throw him into the cell that he was previously held in.
The Monk deals with one of the two Vikings, while the Doctor takes out the other. Both by hitting them over the heads with a piece of wood. Must be a Time Lord thing (not that we know that yet.)
Vicky and Steven find that the tide has come in and that the TARDIS is submerged. Vicki despairs that the Doctor moved it to save it from the sea. She feels a great sense of lose at the TARDIS and the Doctor. Steven insists on going back to the monastery to see what is going on there. Vicki is reluctant to go until they find a futuristic cannon aimed out to sea.
They walk back through the secret door and find the viking that the Doctor knocked out. They begin to search the monastery. During their search they discover that a power cable runs from a sarcophagus. They find an entrance and walk into the Monk's TARDIS.
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| The Master or just fanwank? |
Next up: Checkmate
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