Season 17 episodes

No   Code   Title                    First Shown  Eps  Exists
-------------------------------------------------------------
104   5J    Destiny of the Daleks      1 Sep 79    4    all
105   5H    City of Death             29 Sep 79    4    all
106   5G    The Creature From the Pit 27 Oct 79    4    all
107   5K    Nightmare of Eden         24 Nov 79    4    all
108   5L    Horns of Nimon            22 Dec 79    4    all
109   5M    Shada                       never     incomplete

Notes:

Shada was never completed due to a strike. Douglas Adams partially reused the plots of Shada and City of Death in his book ``Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency".

Episode Details

Destiny of the Daleks

Arriving on a desolate planet, the Doctor is amazed to discover the signs of drilling being carried out. The Doctor is rescued by the Movellans, a race of physically perfect humanoids who have been locked in combat with the Daleks for centuries. He begins to suspect that they are on the planet Skaro, where the Daleks are now searching for their creator Davros in order to gain a strategic advantage.

"One for casual, one for best." - Romana, DESTINY OF THE DALEKS

City of Death

The Doctor and Romana visit Paris for a holiday. When the Mona Lisa is stolen, the Doctor comes upon evidence of sinister time experiments being carried out by a wealthy Count, Scarlioni. He soon exposes a plot by Scaroth, the last of the Jagaroth race, to re-write the history of Earth by avoiding the destruction of his space ship - but it was this explosion that led to the formation of life on Earth!

"You remember the Mona Lisa? That dreadful woman with no eyebrows who wouldn't sit still?"
- The Doctor, CITY OF DEATH

Gallery Visitor 1: I think, one of the most curious things about this piece is its wonderful...afunctionality.
Gallery Visitor 2: Yes, I see what you mean. Divorced from its function, I think, purely as a piece of art, its structure of lines and color is curiously counterpointed by the redundant vestiges of its function.
GV 1: It has no call to be here; the art lies in the fact that it is here.
[Doctor, Romana and Duggan troop into the TARDIS, and it dematerializes.]
GV 2: Exquisite. Absolutely exquisite.
- CITY OF DEATH

The Creature From the Pit

The Doctor and Romana arrive on the lush world of Chloris, a world with an overabundance of plant life but a lack of metal. They are captured by the tyrannical Lady Adrasta, who controls the planet's metal supply, and throws her opponents into an old mine to be devoured by a fearsome creature. The Doctor falls into the Pit while attempting to escape - how will he deal with the creature and defeat the cruel Adrasta?

Nightmare of Eden

A passenger spaceliner and a small cargo ship collide while entering Hyperspace. The Doctor and Romana offer their help in separating the two craft, and soon realise that Vraxoin, the most lethal and addictive drug in existence, is being smuggled aboard the liner. They attempt to track down the smugglers. The Doctor is also concerned when he finds a naturalist called Tryst using an unstable Continuous Event Transmuter, which stores entire ecosystems on laser crystals! This device starts releasing Mandrels, a dangerous lifeform from the planet Eden.

Horns of Nimon

The TARDIS falls into a massive gravitational field while undergoing repairs, and the Doctor and Romana encounter and repair a damaged spaceship. Romana is imprisoned after discovering that the ship is carrying a group of young slaves on board. The Doctor follows the ship to the planet Skonnos, where the youngsters are to be sacrificed to the Nimon, a bull-headed alien that has promised wealth and power to the Skonnons. Romana is transported to a dying planet, Crinoth, where she discovers that the Nimon on Skonnos is preparing for the migration of the entire race of the Nimon from Crinoth to Skonnos, having exhausted Crinoth's resources. Can she get back and warn the Doctor?

Shada

The Doctor and Romana visit an old friend, Professor Chronotis, an old Time Lord living incognito in a Cambridge College. The Professor asks the Doctor to return a book in his posession to Gallifrey as it is one of the ancient relics of the Time Lord race with extra-ordinary powers. Unfortunately, the book has been borrowed by a student, Chris Parsons, who has discovered some of its unusual properties. The Doctor sets off to retrieve it, but he is not alone; the evil Skagra is also aware of its power and has arrived on Earth to steal it.


Links: onwards to season 18, back to season 16.
B.King@ee.surrey.ac.uk & D.White@ee.surrey.ac.uk
27th April 1994