No Exit single work   short story   science fiction  
Issue Details: First known date: 2003... 2003 No Exit
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'The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan answer a distress call from Earth colony F-four, which has been cut off from the rest of the galaxy for ten years. No children have been born in that time. Within a day, Tegan has come down with a terrible chill and fever, and when the Doctor runs tests he discovers that every colonist is carrying a lethal virus -- and that the last crop shipment sent to the colony was genetically engineered to render the colonists sterile. It seems that the planet was seeded with the virus by an alien species which feared that humanity would expand into its territory; the colonists are carriers, and if any of them get off-world, billions will die. The colonists refuse to accept this and try to force the Doctor to take their representatives off-world, but the Doctor takes Tegan aboard and dematerialise, tricking the colonists into believing that he has self-destructed the TARDIS rather than risk taking them away. The colonists realise that he would never have taken Tegan aboard if he intended to do so, but when they run their own tests they confirm the Doctor's findings, and release Nyssa, realising that they have no hope. The Doctor is able to cure Tegan, but the virus has embedded itself in the colonists' DNA; they will remain infected and unable to bear children, and the colony will slowly die out in isolation.'

[The Doctor is the Fifth Doctor.]

Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/whotrip8.htm). Sighted: 20/5/11

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Steel Skies : A Short-Story Anthology John Binns (editor), Maidenhead : Big Finish Productions , 2003 Z1780526 2003 anthology poetry science fiction

    'There are many places that most of us can never see: places that are sheltered, locked away, cordoned off from the outside world. But to the Doctor, and those who travel with him in his TARDIS, there is no such thing as a locked door. Anywhere in space and time is open to them to visit -- even if sometimes it might be better to leave such places well alone.

    Steel Skies is a collection of stories based in enclosed and artificial environments: places constructed to keep the dangers of the universe outside, perhaps, or to keep their inhabitants locked in. It is divided into four sections, each exploring a different kind of confinement:

    Section One, Flight, comprises four tales of travellers who left their homes for far-away destinations -- to explore, to start a new life, or to fight for the survival of their species.

    Section Two, Frontiers, explores the corridors, living quarters and ventilation shafts of four futuristic environments -- designed to shelter men, women and children from harsh natural forces, or from the threat of nuclear war.

    Section Three, Incarceration, tells four stories of punishment and imprisonment, from San Francisco's infamous Alcatraz, to the cage of a flightless angel in the dilapidated ruins of Heaven.

    Section Four, Isolation, deals with the loneliness and despair of being cut off from the world outside, by physical or mental incapacity, by the ravages of war, or caught between destinations aboard the TARDIS itself.

    A recurring theme in all four sections is the effect of the Doctor's arrival in these enclosed environments -- sometimes positive, sometimes less so.'

    Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/whotrip8.htm). Sighted 20/5/11

         Maidenhead : Big Finish Productions , 2003
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Last amended 4 Aug 2011 14:39:53
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