The Doctor is an old man, Pangol seems to be a megalomaniac, and the human agents were unmasked as Foamasis. Somehow, this seems like the sort of thing where everything can go wrong before it goes right.
And that is more or less the size of it. The Foamasi who helped Romana are agents of their government, and once they get the imposters’ voice changing thing, they can speak in a language anyone can understand. It seems a pair of criminals from their world were masquerading as humans for their own benefit, and now that that’s taken care of, they’ll just go home with their prisoners and call it day.
Sure does seem like everything is working out. Of course, it isn’t. Pangol has a new plan, and he won’t let the Foamasi leave even though detaining them is an act of war. With Mena dying, Pangol can declare himself the new ruler of Argolin, and he can use the tachyon machine to make hundreds if not thousands of copies of himself in order to have an army that can go off and conquer, even taking down a sacred helmet that most older Argolins see as a symbol of peace, but Pangol sees it as a sign of strength since the guy who wore it united the people…to go to the devastating war that ruined the planet.
Some people just never learn the correct lessons from history.
Anyway, the Doctor snuck off to fiddle with the insides of the machine. Pangol starts insisting he be allowed to copy himself inside of it. Hardin wants to try and revive the dying Mena. Pangol won’t allow it. That’s Pangol’s mother, remember. Likewise, Romana says they have to get the Doctor out of the machine. Pangol doesn’t care and calls Romana “alien trash”. Plus, he blows up the Foamasi shuttle as it was taking off, which is surely an act of war.
OK, I think I know who the dick for this serial is now.
So, there we go. Pangol goes inside and makes his army. They march out, helms down, and carry Romana off while Hardin goes to help Mena. Will this be the end?
Nope! The army is an army of Doctors, all returned to their youth. And tachyons are unstable, so most of them quickly disappear. See, the Doctor knew the machine needed some parts and took something from the TARDIS to fix it: the randomizer. And while Hardin does get Mena inside the machine, Pangol pushes inside as well because he’s a major dick, and when the machine turns on…
Well, Mena’s revived and young again. So is Pangol. He’s a baby. Oh, and the Foamasi agents are fine and want to chat with Mena now. It seems their prisoners hijacked the shuttle and the only people killed when it blew up were some wanted criminals. No war today. Nobody really wanted one aside from Pangol, and Mena plans to do better raising him this time.
But say, if the randomizer is on the machine, doesn’t that mean the TARDIS will be easier to find by the Black Guardian? Yeah, but the Doctor doesn’t care. He likes knowing where he’s going, and he misses K9, so back to work.
Considering how the show’s producer felt about K9, I’m glad someone missed the dog.
Well, that’s that. Let’s see where the final season of the Fourth Doctor takes us from here.
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