|
''The Deadly Assassin'' is the third serial of the 14th season of the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 30 October to 20 November 1976. It is the first story to feature the Doctor without a companion, with Sarah Jane Smith departing in the previous story and Leela joining in the next story. This serial also re-introduces the Doctor's long time nemesis, the Master, for the first time since ''Frontier in Space''; in this story played by Peter Pratt. ==Plot== The Fourth Doctor has arrived on Gallifrey after receiving a mysterious summons from the Time Lords and having a precognitive vision about the President of the Time Lords being murdered. As soon as the TARDIS materialises within the Citadel, it is surrounded by the Chancellery Guard. Commander Hilred reports to Castellan Spandrell, noting the TARDIS is a Type 40 time capsule, which is no longer in service. The soldiers are ordered to impound the TARDIS and arrest the occupant. The Doctor realises that the Time Lords did not summon him. Spandrell goes to see Coordinator Engin in the Archives Section. Hilred and his troops enter the TARDIS, but the Doctor sneaks out and makes his way to a service lift that leads to the main tower. A soldier who threatens to place the Doctor under arrest is killed by a phantom-like figure who disappears. All of this has been observed by the Doctor's old adversary, the Master. Chancellor Goth arrives outside the TARDIS. Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor is watching a news broadcast by a reporter he recognises as Runcible, a classmate from his days at the Academy. The President is set to retire and to name a successor. Runcible is talking to Cardinal Borusa, one of the Doctor's former teachers. The TARDIS is transducted to the museum within the Capitol, and the Doctor borrows Gallifreyan robes. Several floors beneath the archive tower, the Master, severely emaciated, confers with an unseen accomplice. He says the trap has been set and they must make sure the Doctor dies quickly. At the Panopticon, a Gallifreyan quasi-ceremonial chamber, the disguised Doctor converses with Runcible before the outgoing President appears. The Doctor notes a camera stationed on an unguarded catwalk. He also spots a sniper rifle next to the camera. The Doctor fights his way to the catwalk, warning that the President is about to be killed. Unbeknownst to the Doctor, the assassin is among the delegates and shoots the President dead. However, the crowd sees the Doctor on the catwalk with the rifle and assumes he is the killer. Under interrogation, the Doctor maintains that he has been framed. Eventually, Spandrell starts to believe him and orders Engin to assist him in an independent investigation. To delay his possible execution, the Doctor invokes Article 17: he will run for President, which guarantees liberty for those running for office during the course of an election. The Doctor returns to the scene of the crime with Spandrell. They discover that the sight on the sniper rifle was distorted, making it virtually impossible for this weapon to have killed the President. They decide to check the recorded proceedings of the event stored in the camera. The Master, hastening to extract the record himself, kills Runcible's technician using his TCE (Tissue Compression Eliminator). Runcible attempts to take the tape to the archives for review, but he is killed. The Doctor realises that the Master sent the Doctor the premonition of the assassination through the Matrix, a vast electronic neural network which can turn thought patterns into virtual reality. He decides to enter the Matrix to track the Master. Engin warns him that if he dies in the virtual world, he will die in the real world as well. The Doctor enters the Matrix and is engaged in a series of surreal nightmare episodes. He realises that his surroundings are an illusion and tries to deny their existence but passes out from the strain. In the real world, Engin tells Spandrell that the Doctor’s adversary is using a lot of energy to maintain the virtual environment, so the Doctor can defeat him if he provides an adequate distraction. Back in the Matrix, the Doctor confronts an assassin who eventually reveals his true identity: Chancellor Goth. In a struggle, the Doctor hits Goth over the head. The Master, realising that Goth has been effectively defeated, tries to trap the Doctor in the Matrix by overloading the neuron fields. Engin gets the Doctor out of the Matrix, but Goth is fatally burnt. The Master then injects himself with a hypodermic needle. The Doctor and Spandrell, accompanied by soldiers, make their way to the chamber where the Master and Goth were accessing the Matrix. They find the Master without a pulse and Goth dying. Goth reveals that he found the Master, near death, on Tersurus. The Master was nearing the end of his final regeneration. Goth went along with his schemes mainly for power: he knew the President had no intention of naming him as a successor, but if a new election was held, Goth would be the front-runner. Before he dies, Goth warns that the Master has a doomsday plan. When Spandrell relates the story to Borusa, the Cardinal orders that a cover story be created to maintain confidence in the Time Lords and their leadership. The official story will be that the Master arrived to assassinate the President, and Goth killed him but perished in the attempt. The charge against the Doctor will be dropped on condition that he leave Gallifrey. Attempting to piece together what the Master and Goth were planning, the Doctor inquires as to what becoming the President entails. He is told that the President has access to the symbols of office: the Sash and Great Key of Rassilon. As Engin plays records that describe how Rassilon found the Eye of Harmony within the "black void", the Doctor realises these objects are not merely ceremonial. He inspects the hypodermic needle and realises that it contained a neural inhibitor, which mimics a deathlike state but does not cause death itself. The Master is still alive. The Doctor, Spandrell, and Engin arrive at the morgue to find that the Master has revived and killed Hilred. Armed with Hilred’s staser pistol, the Master seizes the Sash from the President's corpse and traps the three in the morgue. The Doctor explains that the Eye is actually the nucleus of a black hole, an inexhaustible energy source that Rassilon captured to power Gallifrey; the Sash and Key are its control devices. The Doctor deduces that the Master was planning to steal this energy to gain a new cycle of regenerations; however, if the Eye is disrupted, Gallifrey will be destroyed and a hundred other worlds will be consumed in a chain reaction. Inside the Panopticon, the Master makes his way to the obelisk containing the Eye. He unhooks the coils that connect it to Gallifrey and is prepared to access the energy. The Doctor makes his way to the Panopticon via a service shaft. The Citadel begins to quake, and cracks appear in the floor. The Doctor and the Master fight, until the Master loses his footing and falls into a chasm. The Doctor reconnects the coils and saves Gallifrey, although half the city is in ruins and many lives have been lost. The Doctor is now free to return to his TARDIS. He bids farewell to Borusa, Spandrell, and Engin but also warns that the Master may not be dead. He harvested energy from the obelisk before he was stopped and may have been able to channel it. As the Doctor’s TARDIS dematerialises, Spandrell and Engin witness the Master sneak into his own TARDIS – disguised as a grandfather clock – and escape. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Deadly Assassin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|