The Twin Dilemma is is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from March 22 to March 30, 1984, the first to star Colin Baker in the title role. Colin Baker (born June 8, 1943) is a British actor who is best known for playing the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who. ... Anthony Steven was a veteran television screenwriter who worked on many programmes including All Creatures Great and Small, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and several historically based dramas. ... Peter Moffatt (born in 1923) is a British television director. ... Eric Saward was born in December 1944 and became a script writer and script editor for the BBC, resigning from the latter post on the TV programme Doctor Who in 1986. ... John Nathan-Turner. ... This is a list of Doctor Who television serials. ... March 22 is the 81st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (82nd in Leap years). ... March 30 is the 89th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (90th in Leap years). ... 1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Caves of Androzani is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from March 8 to March 16, 1984. ... Attack of the Cybermen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in 2 weekly parts from January 5 _ January 12, 1985. ... This is a list of Doctor Who television serials. ... A broadcast of the long-running and popular British science-fiction series Doctor Who. ... Main article: History of Doctor Who Doctor Who first appeared on BBC television on November 23, 1963. ... March 22 is the 81st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (82nd in Leap years). ... March 30 is the 89th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (90th in Leap years). ... 1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Colin Baker (born June 8, 1943) is a British actor who is best known for playing the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who. ...

Synopsis

In a post-regenerative crisis, the Sixth Doctor takes Peri to the desolate asteroid Titan 3 planning to stay there as a hermit for 1000 years. However, he is soon drawn into a plot to conquer the galaxy by a race of giant Gastropods… The Sixth Doctor is the name given to the Sixth incarnation of the Doctor seen on screen in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. ... Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown. ... An asteroid is a small, solid object in our Solar System, orbiting the Sun. ... Subclass Subclass Eogastropoda     Patellogastropoda Subclass Orthogastropoda   Superorder Cocculiniformia   Superorder Hot Vent Taxa     Neomphaolida   Superorder Vetigastropoda   Superorder Neritaemorphi     Neritopsina   Superorder Caenogastropoda     Architaenioglossa     Sorbeoconcha   Superorder Heterobranchia     Heterostropha     Opisthobranchia     Pulmonata The gastropods, or univalves, are the largest and most successful class of mollusks, with 60,000-75,000 species, and second largest class...

Plot

In a regenerative crisis, the Sixth Doctor attacks Peri

After his regeneration, the Doctor starts behaving a erratically. He goes to the wardrobe and looking for a new outfit and finds a glaring, mismatched, brightly coloured coat which he immediately takes a shine to. Peri tells him that he could not go outside wearing such an awful garb, to which the Doctor takes offense. Image File history File links Screenshot from the Doctor Who serial The Twin Dilemma File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Screenshot from the Doctor Who serial The Twin Dilemma File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The Sixth Doctor is the name given to the Sixth incarnation of the Doctor seen on screen in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. ... The Time Lords are a fictional race of humanoids, originating on the planet Gallifrey, seen in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ...

Two twins, Romulus and Remus Sylveste, receive a visitation from a mysterious old man called Professor Edgeworth. They question how he managed to get inside their house, he tells them he will return when their father is there. He then proceeds to abduct them and the trio dissapear. They arrive on a spacecraft in deep space. Edgeworth then communicates with his superior, a slug like creature called Mestor, who instructs Edgeworth to take the twins to Titan 3. Slugs are gastropods without shells or with very small shells (often which are internal), in contrast with snails from which they share a common ancestor, which have a prominent shell. ...

In the console room, the Doctor has a funny turn, quoting a poem about a Peri - a good and beautiful but evil fairy in Persian mythology. The Doctor accuses her of being evil, and of being an alien spy before rushing toward her and throttling her. He catches a sight of his own manic face in a mirror and collapses in a heap, releasing Peri. When she tells him that he tried to kill her, he initially denies he could be possible of such an act, but seeing how terrified of him she is, decides he must become a hermit on the desolate asteroid — Titan 3. Doctor Who character, see Peri Brown. ... by Sophie Anderson A fey or fairy is a spirit (supernatural being) found in the stories, folklore, and mythology of many (some sources say most or all) human cultures. ... The beliefs and practices of the culturally and linguistically related group of ancient peoples who inhabited the Iranian Plateau and its borderlands, as well as areas of Central Asia from the Black Sea to Khotan (modern Ho-tien, China), form Persian mythology. ...

The twins' father contacts the authorities, he found Zanium in their room — a sure sign of intergalactic kidnap. A Commander Lang begins the pursuit and soon finds a suspicious ship previously reported missing. He tries to contact it, but it enters warp drive — something that class of ship is not designed to do. The Enterprise-D goes into warp. ...

On Titan 3, as the Doctor contemplates a thousand years of solitude, and Peri expresses her disapproval, they hear the crash landing of a craft. Examining its wreckage, they find the concussed body of Commander Lang. They take him back to the TARDIS where he reveals his whole squadron has been destroyed. Believing the Doctor to be responsible he points his gun at the Doctor and threatens to kill him… The Third Doctor emerging from the TARDIS (from the 1970 serial Spearhead from Space). ...

Peri pleads with Lang telling him that the Doctor had in fact saved him, but he faints away. The Doctor is not keen to treat Lang, more concerned for his own life but eventually agrees to Peri's persuasion.

Edgeworth argues with Romulus and Remus, making them do Mestor's work. He scolds them for setting up a distress signal, so they are not allowed to use electronic equipment to solve the equations they have been set. An image of Mestor appears and gives the twins a more blunt threat — work for him or have their minds destroyed.

On the TARDIS scanner, the Doctor and Peri see a building — something which has no place on an uninhabited asteroid. Leaving Lang behind, they find a tunnel which may lead to the building, but on exploring find two aliens wielding guns. The Doctor cowers in fear and pleads with them not to shoot him. They are led off and are brought before Edgeworth. The Doctor claims to be a pilgrim to Titan 3, but Nomer, one of the aliens, says they are spies and should be shot. The Doctor suddenly recognises Edgeworth as an old friend - Azmael, master of Jaconda, whom he met in a previous regeneration. When the Doctor sees Romulus and, Remus and discovers it is Azmael who has abducted them, he is disgusted. Azmael teleports away with the twins and the aliens, leaving the Doctor and Peri locked in the building. The Doctor starts to break the lock's combination, but Peri discovers Nomer has set the base to self-destruct. The Doctor improvises a solution to teleport them back to the TARDIS. Peri makes a successful return, but the Doctor has not appeared when she sees the base explode on the scanner...

A glimpse of the Doctor is seen appearing in the TARDIS, he was delayed returning because using Peri's watch to synchronise their arrival, but the watch had stopped. The Doctor is surprised at Peri's compassion when she thought he had died.

On Jaconda, Mestor is seen putting to death one of the bird-like Jacondans for a petty offence of stealing a few vegetables. Soon, the TARDIS arrives, but instead of the expected beautiful planet the Doctor is expecting, he, Peri and Lang find a desolate wasteland covered with giant Gastropod trails. The Doctor is reluctant to go to the palace, scared for his own life, but is persuaded to take Lang there in the TARDIS. In the palace corridors they see murals depicting Jaconda's history, they depict the slugs of myth - but it appears that they are now all too real. Avoiding Gastropods, Lang gets stuck in a Gastropod trail.

Azmael takes the twins to his laboratory and shows them a store room full of Gastropod eggs. Mestor arrives and tries to persuade them that his aims are benevolent. Azmael begs him to stop reading his thoughts and stop Nomer watching his every move. He agrees and leaves. Azmael explains to the Twins that Mestor usurped him as leader of Jaconda and outlines a plan to draw two outlying planets into the same orbit as Jaconda. The Twins' genius is required to stabilise those planets in their new orbit. The Doctor, leaving Peri and Lang behind, finds Azmael's lab. In a manic fit of pique he attacks Azmael, but is restrained by a Jacondan and the Twins. The Doctor apologises to Azmael but demands to know what is going on.

Meanwhile, Peri is captured by Jacondan guards and brought before Mestor. When Lang escapes to Azmael's lab, and informs them what has happened, the Doctor finally shows compassion for her when he thinks she might die…

Mestor refrains from killing Peri immediately, finding her appearance pleasing. Jacondan guards arrive in Azmael's lab and seize the Doctor. The Doctor tells Mestor that he ought to allow him to assist with the dangerous operation of moving the planets, as a single mistake could blow a hole in that corner of the universe. Back the laboratory, Azmael informs the Doctor the details of the plan to bring the planets into the same orbit — they will be placed in different time zones using time travel technology Mestor stole from Azmael. The Doctor realises that as the other planets are smaller than Jaconda, bringing them closer to Jaconda's sun will lead to catastrophe. The Doctor enters the egg storeroom, and is disturbed that they have no nutritional mucus. He tries to cut one open with a laser cutter, but the shell is impenetrable. The egg reacts slightly to the heat. The Doctor realises they have been designed to withstand the heat of an exploding sun — the explosion of the Jacondan sun will scatter the eggs throughout the universe. When they hatch, the Gastropods will conquer the universe. In physics, an orbit is the path that an object makes, around another object, whilst under the influence of a source of centripetal force, such as gravity. ...

The one remaining Jacondan in the lab collapses dead, his mind burnt out. Mestor had been using him as a monitor, he knows the full details of what has been discussed. Peri, Lang and the Twins return to the TARDIS, whilst the Doctor and Azmael go to confront Mestor. When Mestor refuses to abandon his plans, the Doctor hurls a vial of acid taken from the lab at him, but a force field protects Mestor from any harm. Mestor threatens to possess the Doctor's mind and body, and to demonstrate takes control of Azmael's body. Azmael tells him to destroy Mestor's body before he can return to it, which he does with a further vial. Then Azmael, in his last regeneration, forces himself to regenerate — killing himself — and in doing so destroys Mestor. Dying, Azmael says he has no regrets and that one of his fondest memories was a time spent with the Doctor by a fountain.

The Doctor and Peri return to the TARDIS and Lang decides to stay behind on Jaconda to assist with their rebuilding. When Peri tells the Doctor off for being rude, he reminds her that he is an alien "I am the Doctor… whether you like it or not!"

Notes

1. Maurice Denham makes a guest appearance as Azmael.
2. Anthony Steven worked very slowly on the scripts, offering many strange excuses (purportedly saying that his typewriter had literally exploded) and turning them in at a very late stage. Compounding things were the fact that the scripts were viewed as being of poor quality and too much for the show's budget by script editor Eric Saward, who was forced to massively rework them in a very short amount of time.
3. This story was the first time a regeneration took place before the end of a season since the Hartnell-Troughton change in 1966.
4. The cat badge worn by the Sixth Doctor on his lapel for this story was hand-made and painted by Suzie Trevor, and purchased for the programme from a specialist badge shop in central London. For each subsequent story, the Doctor was to wear a different cat badge to symbolize that he was a "travelling cat of different walks."
5. At least one aspect of Steven's original script featured the Joconda and Gastropods being dropped totally early in the fourth episode without any real resolution to the plot, with the final battle taking place in another dimension against a being called Azlan who was controlling Mestor all along.
6. Fandom often holds the serial in a very low light, being regarded as one of - if not the - worst serials ever made. A 1997 poll by Doctor Who Magazine ranked the serial the second worst of all time (Dimensions in Time was number one), while a 2003 poll by fansite Outpost Gallifrey ranked it worst of all, below even Dimensions in Time.
7. The Doctor is unusually violent at the start of this episode, even attempting to strangle Peri. The intention was to create a Doctor that was initially unlikeable, in contrast to the instantly likable Tom Baker and Peter Davison Doctors.
8. Eric Saward intended for Azmael to be the hermit who the Doctor had spoken to in his youth, referenced in The Time Monster. Anthony Steven misinterpreted the request and instead made Azmael a former academy tutor of the Doctor. Ironically, the misinterpretation prevented a serious continuity error from developing, as Planet of the Spiders had already established the hermit to be a Time Lord named K'Anpo.

Maurice Denham (born December 23, 1909 in Beckenham, Kent; died in July 24, 2002) was a British character actor who appeared in over 100 television programmes and films throughout his long career. ... A script editor - a position sometimes known as story editor in the 1950s and 60s - is a member of the production team of scripted television programmes, usually dramas and comedies. ... Eric Saward was born in December 1944 and became a script writer and script editor for the BBC, resigning from the latter post on the TV programme Doctor Who in 1986. ... 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Doctor Who Weekly #1, cover dated October 17, 1979 Doctor Who Magazine (abbreviated as DWM) is a periodical devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ... Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman outside the Queen Vic pub Dimensions in Time was a charity special of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that ran in two parts on November 27 and 28, 1993. ... 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor Thomas Stewart Baker (born January 20, 1934) is a British actor, mainly associated with playing the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, whom he played from 1974 to 1981. ... Peter Davison (born April 13, 1951) is a British actor, most commonly associated with playing Tristan to Robert Hardys Siegfried in All Creatures Great and Small and as the fifth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, whom he played from 1981 to 1984. ... The Time Monster is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from May 20 to June 24, 1972. ... Planet of the Spiders is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from May 4 to June 8, 1974. ...

External links

• Cast and Crew list, on the BBC website