Production code 7P

First Transmitted:
1-22/11/1989 19:35
2-29/11/1989 19:35
3-06/12/1989 19:35

Cast
Anthony Ainley : The Master
Sophie Aldred : Ace
William Barton : Midge
Kathleen Bidmead : Woman
Lisa Bowerman : Karra
Kate Eaton : Ange
Gareth Hale : Len
Julian Holloway : Paterson
David John : Derek
Michelle Martin : Neighbour
Sylvester McCoy : The Doctor
Sean Oliver : Stuart
Norman Pace : Harvey
Sakuntala Ramanee : Shreela
Adele Silva : Squeak

Crew
Andrew Cartmel : Script Editor
June Collins : Production Associate
Stephen Garwood : Assistant Floor Manager
Dominic Glynn : Incidental Music
Ron Grainer : Title Music
and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Keff McCulloch
Paul Harding : OB Cameraman
Paul Heasman : Stunt Arranger
Malcolm James : Visual Effects
Alan Jessop : OB Cameraman
Dick Mills : Special Sounds
Rona Munro : Writer
John Nathan-Turner : Producer
Leigh Poole : Assistant Floor Manager
Nick Somerville : Designer
Joan Stribling : Make-Up
Tip Tipping : Stunt Arranger
Ken Trew : Costumes
Alan Wareing : Director
Valerie Whiston : Production Assistant

Plot Outline from Wikipedia

The Seventh Doctor brings Ace back to her home town of Perivale in the suburbs of North West London. The suburb is not as it should be: a mysterious black cat is wandering around, somehow creating a situation in which humans are hunted down and made to disappear to another dimension. Ace becomes worried when most of her old friends seem to have disappeared, but the Doctor is more preoccupied with the behaviour of the strange cat. It becomes apparent the black cat is being controlled by a strange being in the other dimension, viewing the scenes in Perivale through the cat’s eyes and choosing which humans to chase and transport. An unhappy young man called Stuart becomes his next victim. Ace follows soon afterward, hunted down by a Cheetah Person on horseback, which seems to have a hunting affinity with the curious cat. Later the Doctor and a keep-fit instructor called Patterson are chosen and teleported to another world, bathed in an alien sky, where the Doctor finds his nemesis the Master. The renegade is evidently unwell, his eyes and mouth displaying feline characteristics, and is using the black cat (or kitling) to create a dimensional bridge for the Cheetah People to hunt prey on Earth. Quite why he is doing this is unclear, other than he seems keen to keep the Cheetah People occupied somehow. The indigenous population bred the kitlings and had a great civilisation, but they were degenerated into animals by the power of the planet. His own metabolic changes show the same alterations.

Ace has meanwhile made contact with some of her friends, Shreela and Midge, who are hiding in some woods with a young man called Derek. The planet is evidently dangerous as both Stuart and a terrified milkman find out when a Cheetah Person hunts him to the death. Ace and her friends soon find the Doctor and Patterson, and the Time Lord has deduced they are on a very ancient planet which is dying. A Cheetah pack then attacks and during the fight back Midge kills one Cheetah while Ace injures another, called Karra. She begins to form an attachment to Karra and nurses her, tending her injuries, which worries the Doctor greatly. In time Ace’s eyes change and she begins to transform into a Cheetah herself. She abandons the Doctor to go hunting with Karra but he eventually wins her round.

Midge has meanwhile completely fallen to the power of the planet and is turning into an animal. The Master seizes on this and uses Midge to teleport them both back to Earth and away from the dying world. The Doctor persuades Ace to help him get back to Perivale and she does so, also enabling Patterson, Derek and Shreela to flee the strange planet. Patterson denies anything amiss has taken place, falling back on his “survival of the fittest” mantras and his self defence classes. The Doctor and Ace now head around Perivale in search for Midge and the Master. They eventually find them at the youth club, where they have killed Patterson for sport, and Midge too is killed in the Master’s machinations. Karra’s arrival brings comfort to Ace, whose transformation is continuing, but the Master kills Karra too.

The Master transports the Doctor with him back to the Cheetah Planet for a final conflict but the Doctor resists the pull of the planet, turning away from violence, and is transported away from the dying world. However, the Master looks doomed on the planet as it begins to break up. The Doctor has gone back to the TARDIS and Earth, where he finds Ace, whose metamorphosis has reversed, and tells her she will have grown through the experience: the element of theetah Planet, however, will remain within her forever

Analysis by Cuisle

The theme of this story is, not surprisingly, survival. But not, despite phrase coming up again and again, survival of the fittest. Because we realise very early on that The Doctor dislikes that idea intently. We see it first in a lighter moment when the two comic store owners played so ably by comedians Gareth Hale and Norman Pace are laughing about a joke which demonstrates the harsh reality of Survival of the fittest:

Two men are in a tent in the jungle, they hear a lion roar. One man starts to put on his running shoes. The other says he can’t run faster than the lion. The man says he doesn’t have to run faster than the lion.

Survival of the fittest, as long as you don’t mind losing a friend, and as long as there isn’t another lion. But The Doctor knows there is ALWAYS another lion.

And The Doctor knows that survival of the fittest is all very well for animals. But it won’t do for sentient beings. He is scathing of the kill or be killed attitude of Patterson the TA instructor even though he tacitly admires the man for trying to teach the youngsters of Perivale to fight against the mysterious something that is taking them literally from the streets.

Because The Doctor has spent all his life fighting for the weakest, the underdog. He has always been there to help the weak survive and very often to defeat the strong. Because what is true for animals is not true for sentient beings, be they Human, Time Lord or even the Cheetah People. Kill or be killed, the survival of the fittest, is the law of the jungle, the law of animals. But The Doctor fights for civilisation, for something higher than that. And he always has.

So when it comes down to a fight between himself and the Master he refuses to do so. The Seventh Doctor more than any of his previous incarnations has always tried to be the pacifist first and fighter second. That was evident in Battlefield, and it is even more evident here. And since he WON in the end by not fighting, who can argue with him?

Unfortunately, the survival of the show was also at stake, and despite interesting storylines like this, like Battlefield, like Curse of Fenric, the BBC had messed about with the series too much. It couldn’t survive the policy decisions of Michael Grade, who publicly said he hated it. It couldn’t survive falling ratings due to unsuitable broadcast times. But at least it went out with a bang and with the most memorable, if cryptic lines of the whole 26 years of broadcasting.

There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, here the sea's asleep and the rivers dream, people ade of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice and somewhere else the tea is getting cold.

Come on, Ace, we've got work to do.