The fabric of time and space was suddenly torn apart with a strange wheezing noise and a blaze of lights as a type 40 time machine forced its way back into existence inside reality. It had left a week and hundreds of light years ago on a special voyage. The craft’s owner, a strange middle-aged woman with the mannerisms of a younger woman but the intelligence and wisdom of a Greek Goddess, emerged. She liked to be called the Doctor, partially to remain aloof and mysterious and also because after so long she hated to change it now and break her real name in. She scouted the immediate vicinity before putting her handbag onto her shoulder and emerging out onto the alien world. “There’s nobody here.” She called back into the machine to the others. The first of them, a teenage boy called Jean-Marc, emerged. The seven-foot Ice Warrior Grrynch closely followed him and finally the slender figure of Penny emerged and she locked the doors too. The Doctor awarded Penny a gold star for having a good memory. Not wanting to upset the others she gave Jean-Marc a gold star for having a hyphen in his name and Grrynch for being the tallest.
“Thisss place looksss ssso much like home.” Grrynch spoke finally. “I can hardly believe that my people have created all thisss in ssso ssshort a time.”
“Well…” The Doctor said and scratched her scalp. “I think we may have over shot by a little.” She couldn’t meet the exasperated Martian’s gaze. “Well ok, a lot.”
“What do you mean Doctor?” Grrynch suspected things had gone awry.
Penny looked at the Doctor. “How long Doctor?” She demanded.
“A couple of millennia, maybe more.” She told her companions the news. “I’m sorry Grrynch, I think that the TARDIS did this for a reason.”
“What kind of reassson?” Grrynch asked. “I wasss looking forward to ssseeing my friends once again.”
“I know you were.” The Doctor replied. “I was looking forward to seeing the happy smile on your face when you saw your friends and family again.”
“So, why can’t we just get back in the TARDIS and go back in time?” Jean-Marc asked. “It shouldn’t be a problem, should it?”
“We were brought to this point in time for a reason.” The Doctor explained. “There was a specific reason why we were taken off our course to here and now. I need to know why otherwise I could never sleep at night because I would be forever wondering why.”
“Well it wouldn’t hurt for a quick look around would it Grrynch?” Penny asked the tall Martian. “Wouldn’t you like to know the future of your people? To see how well they will do?”
Grrynch nodded his head slowly. “Very well Penny. I will agree to ssspend a few minutesss here.”
The Doctor looked around the bluey green network of tunnels and chambers. “Is it just me or is everything unusually quiet here?”
“Don’t jinx it!” Penny exclaimed, but it was too late. The nexus of corridors they were currently occupying was suddenly filled with part of a vast invasion army. The Dominators and their robot Quarks had captured New Mars.

Jean-Marc sat on the cold wooden bench next to the giant figure of Grrynch. They had been segregated according to gender and taken to different parts of the complex. A guard stood to attention outside of their cell and a Quark stood inside of the cell to make sure they didn’t try to blindside the guard. “What are we going to do?” He wailed to Grrynch.
“They will quessstion you until they learn all they want from you and then they will kill you.” Grrynch tried to cheer the human boy up.
“Thanks a lot. Have you considered being a diplomat? With your tact and diplomacy you could start all the wars you wanted.” Jean-Marc sighed and looked at the floor. “Can I tell you something?”
“What?” Grrynch asked.
“I’m scared.”
“To admit to a weaknessss isss a ssstrength.” Grrynch put a protective arm around the youth’s shoulder. “You may not be a warrior but you have the wisssdom to become one.”
Jean-Marc was puzzled and a little insulted. “I don’t want to be a warrior and I hate violence. I’d prefer it if everyone could just get along with everyone else. I wish the Daleks hadn’t taken my parents away from me and that I didn’t have to be so dependant on others.” He was almost hysterical now as his words were choked up by the pain and anguish in his heart.
Grrynch patted Jean-Marc on the shoulder. “A great warrior indeed. I do not live to hurt others and kill my enemy. If I had no other choice I would because I pledged to ssserve my people and to protect them. If there wasss a way to obtain peace without killing I would gladly take it without ressservation. To defeat an enemy by violence when there is another way is to defeat onessself. My honour would be nothing if I killed without exploring all other possssibilitiesss. I can sense that you know some of this too. The Doctor knows of honour and ssshe knows of duty. My duty is to resssissst telling thessse Dominatorsss anything.”
“They’ll kill you.” Jean-Marc said stunned.
“They will kill me anyway. I am a warrior, they would be mossst unwissse to let me live with my honour ssstill intact.” He smiled at Jean-Marc. “Very sssorry indeed.”
“Can’t you lie to them?” Tell them what they think they want to know?” Jean-Marc searched for any idea to keep his friend alive.
“If I did not know you had my best interessstsss at heart I would kill you now for sssaying that.” Grrynch stated. “To lie isss the worst dissshonour of all.”
“I’m sorry.” Jean-Marc said quickly. “I just don’t want you to die. I don’t want anyone to die.”
“I accept your apology young warrior.” Grrynch looked at the Quark. “We cannot defeat machinesss sssuch as thessse becaussse they cannot understand honour. We ssshould conssserve our ssstrength until it is required.”


Penny looked at the Doctor. “So how do we escape?”
The Doctor shook her head. “They took my bag of tricks away remember.”
“You must have been in situations before when all you needed was talent, intelligence, adaptability and ingenuity?” Penny tried to shake the Doctor out of her melancholy mood.
“The problem isn’t our gallant jailor.” The Doctor jerked her thumb at the guard outside. “It’s our tin friend over there.” She pointed at the Quark with her index finger. “What we need Penny, is a plan.”
Penny gave the matter some serious thought. “What about if I pretended to be ill or something and distracted the chunk of metal? You call for the guard, he comes in and you grab his weapon. You then fire his weapon at the Quark and we escape.”
“A brilliant idea.” The Doctor remarked. “I’m giving you a gold star for being extra smart.”
“Thank you.” Penny smiled with pride. “When shall we begin?”
The Doctor fished into her jacket pocket and pulled out a small vial of bright red nail polish. “Right after we give your toenails an emergency coat of polish.”
“We don’t have time for this.” Penny complained as the Doctor blew on her wet nails to make them dry quicker.
“There’s always time for the little things.” The Doctor tried not to lecture. “That’s what life is all about.”
“What about boys?” Penny joked. “Maybe we can fix you up on a hot date with that guard?”
“Some other time perhaps?” The Doctor pointed at the Quark. “I expect nothing less than an Oscar winning performance young lady.”
Penny writhed on the floor and shouted for help. The Doctor begged the Quark to assist her poor ill friend. Finally the door unlocked and the guard entered. The Doctor grabbed his weapon before her cheeks burned bright red and she took a hold of his gun. She shot the Quark before the confused machine could react before smiling sheepishly and the guard and apologising. Then much to everyone’s relief she changed to a stun setting and shot him in the chest.
“Nice one Doctor.” Penny got to her feet. “I liked the way you acted on instinct.”
“I got terribly confused in all the muddle.” The Doctor explained to her companion. “I’m sure he’s just as embarrassed as I am.”
Penny looked at the guard. “With that smile?”
“Come along Penny.” The Doctor escorted her young friend out of the cell.


Alarms sounded in the control room. “Deal with that.” The commander shouted without diverting her eyes from the intricate plans. “I have more important things to worry about.
“At once.” A senior officer saluted and left.
Finally the alarm died down and the commander got back to her plans.


“What’s that?” Jean-Marc asked when the alarms started to sound.
“General alert.” Grrynch explained. “I have a feeling that the Doctor has escaped.”
“Yes, she’s like that with cells. Once she’s locked inside one she just has to escape and show off how clever she is.”
“How well you know me.” The Doctor agreed with Jean-Marc and waved to her companion through the small viewing hole in the cell door. “Now get back as our metal friend is about to become scrap.” She fired, reducing the Quark into a number of slightly singed parts.
“You are indeed a mighty warrior.” Grrynch greeted the Doctor as she unlocked the cell door and pulled them out of it.
“It was a necessity.” She informed him. “Those things are lethal, I couldn’t take any chances with your lives.” She pointed down at the guard. “I think he’ll sleep for a while, don’t you?”
“We ssshould make sssure.” Grrynch insisted.
“No killing.” The Doctor almost shouted. “Especially those who cannot defend themselves.”
“Why don’t we lock him in the cell?” Penny suggested.
The Doctor and Grrynch pulled the unconscious guard’s body into the cell. “I wasss going to sssuggest that we ussse him to take usss to where the ressst of my people are held captive.” Grrynch informed the Doctor.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” The Doctor apologised. “I misinterpreted your intentions. I’ll try not to be so judgemental from now on.”
“We should hurry. The sound of gunfire may have been heard. We should try to free my people, let loose they can do much to defeat our enemy.”
The Doctor decided to split them up into two groups via ippy dippy. “Penny, you go with Grrynch and help free his people. Jean-Marc, you’re with me. We have to defeat whoever is in charge here to disorganise their troops.”
“Can’t I go with you Doctor?” Penny asked. “I’m not exactly to most person to have around in a battle.”
The Doctor put her hands on Penny’s shoulders. “I have great faith in you Penny, I need your caution to aid Grrynch from running headlong into possible ambushes. He’s a great and noble warrior but these Dominators are anything but that. I know you’re the right person for this.” She took out a bag of sweets from her jacket pocket. “Would you like a dolly mixture? Take two for being so brave.”
Penny popped the sweets into her mouth before following the tall Martian Ice Warrior along a different corridor to that the Doctor and Jean-Marc would be taking.
“Right then, time to find out just who is in charge around here.” The Doctor headed over toward a lift and pressing the up button. “This is always the tricky part, making sure you don’t get shot on sight.”
“I think I’ll go and find Grrynch.” Jean-Marc turned to leave.
The Doctor caught up with her friend. “I was only trying to lighten things up a little. Megalomaniacs never kill me, sure they may try after a while but first they need their little rants and for some reason they want to tell me their plans.” She started the grin. “That’s the best part.”


She followed the green armour clad warrior down corridors and staircases. “How do you know where we’re going?” Penny asked at length. “If you don’t know this place you seem very confident about it.”
“Ssstandard layout.” Grrynch explained. “Our society has a very rigid architectural code. We were merely on a detention level, the true cells are down here, far away from any key systems.”
“I guess it kind of makes sense.” The last thing you want are your prisoners escaping and taking control of your base.”
“Precisssely.” Grrynch smiled. “That isss why they will never sssuspect it when it doesss happen.”

“This way, I think.” The Doctor scratched her scalp, shaking her long blonde hair. “I’m not really very familiar with Martian archaeology. All I know is that their command centres are at the higher levels of their bases.”
The bluey green colouration of the lower levels slowly gave way to a red and gold colouration in the walls. Jean-Marc wondered if this colouration was natural or deliberate. “Seems strange. I would have thought they would want to use as much natural defence as possible. A couple of miles of rock sounds great.”
“That’s human thinking.” The Doctor awarded Jean-Marc a gold star for rational thought. “However Ice Warrior generals prefer to stand as close to combat as possible, usually leading the battle in fact. Their sub-ordinates would be more likely to stay behind and operate the bases defences.”
Jean-Marc spotted a small hatch on the wall behind the Doctor and tried to open it. “I think that there may be something useful behind this panel.” He informed the Doctor.
“Let me see.” The Doctor looked at the panel. “Hmmm, yes I think this could be it.” She fished into her jacket pocket and pulled out her sonic screwdriver. “Thank Rassilon I didn’t have this in my handbag when they confiscated it.” Within a few seconds the panel sprang open. “Emergency door release? This is exactly what we need.” She tugged the handle-shaped switch round ninety degrees and a nearby invisible seeming door opened.


The first cell door opened before Penny could operate the controls. “I didn’t touch it.” She said quickly before realising that something else had caused this to happen. “The Doctor! It must be her influence.”
Grrynch entered the cell and quickly set about removing the manacles the Dominators had put on his people’s wrists and ankles. Penny, whose nimble fingers were a great asset, soon joined him. “Now we can take our revenge.” He spoke, to stir up their spirits. “We must not kill them, if we can help it. Even though they do not possess honour we have ours and the Doctor would lecture us most sternly.”
Once the last Martian was freed Penny and Grrynch set about helping to free the rest of their incarcerated people. The newly freed Martians joined in and it only took ten minutes before the tens of thousands of Martian prisoners were freed. A Martian General approached Grrynch. “My life is yours to command.” Grrynch knelt to his superior officer.
“My boy, my life is yours to command.” General Izzxyr helped the young warrior to his feet. “You are the truest example of what it means to be a warrior and your human follower brings you even more honour.”
“She’s my friend.” Grrynch informed the aging General Izzxyr. “I have two other friends working at this moment to try and defeat our enemies.”
“We must help these friends of yours.” Izzxyr smiled. “You say one of these is called the Doctor? A tall man with white hair?”


The Doctor and Jean-Marc made their way into the command centre. They saw a vast number of Dominators crowded around a large table where one of them seemed to be planning an invasion. “Excuse me? Is this the beauty salon?” She joked. “I have a manicure booked for 3pm and a shampoo and set too.”
“Arrest them!” The Commander screamed loudly at her incompetent lieutenants. “I want them to suffer for daring to interrupt my plans.”
“Plans?” The Doctor asked, looking at the black PVC clad woman. She wore the same shell like body armour as the other Dominators but her armour was a ceremonial gold colour rather than the combative grey of the followers. “I thought you were playing Risk. I’m the Doctor by the way; I’ve defeated your kind before. A whole fleet in fact.”
“How dare you lie in my presence? I am the Dominatriarch! I am the supreme commander of the Dominator fleet.” The Dominatriarch looked at the Doctor, a cruel sneer on her lips. “I don’t think you could defeat one of my Dominators never mind a whole fleet of my finest.”
The Doctor slowly removed her grey jacket, folded it and handed it to Jean-Marc. “I am an expert in unarmed combat.” She adopted a classic Venusian aikido stance.
“Whoever said it was going to be unarmed combat?” The Dominatriarch laughed. “Rotu, take care of this insolent woman.”
Rotu went to draw his pistol but suddenly he was sailing through the air and with an agonising twist of his arm he dropped the weapon.
“You see, an expert.” The Doctor released her nerve pinch wristlock. “Weapons are also a weakness as well as an advantage. Become to reliant on them and you will be defeated.”
“Enough of this!” The Dominatriarch commanded. “Somebody shoot her.”
“No!” The voice hissed with authority. Grrynch aimed a sonic rifle at the Dominatriarch. “If you harm my friend then I will kill your leader.”
“Shoot!” The Dominatriarch repeated her command. “Will no one obey me?”
“Looks like you’ve lost.” Penny said, stepping through the open doorway and hugging Jean-Marc and then the Doctor. General Izzxyr and a large number of Martians followed her. “I think the General will accept your surrender now.”
“Shoot!” The Dominatriarch repeated herself yet again but before she could say anything else the Doctor punched her in the face and everything went dark.
The Doctor shook her hand for a few seconds. “I think she’ll be quiet now. Grrynch, right on time.” She tried to pat him on the shoulder but had to settle for hugging him around the waist.
“I am pleased to see you too Doctor. You have helped my people a great deal.” Grrynch introduced Izzxyr to the Doctor.
“I was under the impression you were a man.” Izzxyr stated.
The Doctor smiled at the aging general. “Don’t believe everything you hear about me, I seem to get distorted. Then again perhaps we should have a more positive outlook on life don’t you think?”
“Come on Doctor.” Jean-Marc said. “Now you’re confusing him.”


The TARDIS doors opened and it’s three inhabitants returned, laughing and smiling. “You were totally shameless Doctor.” Penny laughed. “I saw you dancing with Izzxyr, your hands were everywhere.”
“I’m used to leading.” The Doctor explained to her naïve companion. “I didn’t know where to put my hands.”
“If it’s any consolation, I don’t think the General was upset.” Jean-Marc laughed. “Judging by his smile he seemed very happy indeed.”
The Doctor looked at her two friends and rolled her eyes. “I think that I may have to invalidate those gold stars.”
“Fancy a cup of tea Penny?” Jean-Marc quickly changed the subject.
“Very much so.” Penny agreed. “Do you want a cuppa too Doctor?”
The Doctor laughed. “Best idea I’ve heard all day.”