Willie orders the Doctor and Jo be locked in the hold (again). Jo starts planning for their escape as soon as Willie goes back to his own ship:
"Right, we'll give it a few minutes, then I'll start groaning and pretending I'm ill. When he comes in, you can use your Venusian Karate."
The Doctor isn't keen on this idea, and prefers to wait until they're taken back to Earth where he thinks they have a better chance of finding out what's going on.
There they're taken to meet General Williams, who doesn't believe their story off-screen. If there's any padding in this story (if!) just remember that the makers of this story chose not to show any of the General's not being charmed or persuaded by the Doctor or Jo during this bit. Instead we see him reporting back to the President where he tells her they are "Draconian agents." He's been watching too much Sandbaggers if you ask me.
Speaking of which, Willie is taking the Doctor and Jo to another prison where he hints at the dystopian nature of the Earth Federation:
Willie: "I'm going straight back to my ship. I don't want to get mixed up with security. It's not healthy. Look, I'll give you a piece of advice..."Doctor: "Yes?"Willie: "Sooner or later, you're going to tell them everything. They'll use the mind probe. You talk to them now. You'll save yourselves a lot of trouble."
You might expect the Doctor to say something along the lines of "no, not the mind probe!" but in fact he isn't worried about it at all. Willie leaves him and Jo in the cell, where he tells Jo a story to take her mind (probe) off their situation:
Doctor: "Did I ever tell you the story about how I was once captured by the Medusoids?"Jo: "What are they?"Doctor: "Medusoids? How can I describe them to you? Well, they're a sort of hairy jellyfish with claws, teeth and a leg."Jo: "Erk!"Doctor: "Anyway, they put me under one of these mind probes things, you see, and tried to get me to tell them where I was going. So, I said I was on my way to meet a giant rabbit, a pink elephant and a purple horse with yellow spots."Jo: "What happened?"Doctor: "Well, the poor old machine just couldn't believe it, had a nervous breakdown."Jo: "And then what happened?"Doctor: "Well, they put me under another one of these mind probe things and the same thing happened."Jo: "But you weren't telling the truth? I mean, you weren't really going to meet a giant rabbit, a pink elephant and a... what was it?"Doctor: "A purple horse with yellow spots. Yes, I was. You see, they were all delegates for the third intergalactic peace conference."Jo: "How did you get away from these things?"Doctor: "Well they had to turn me loose eventually."Jo: "Why?"Doctor: "They ran out of mind probes."
Lol.
The President and General Williams confront the Draconian ambassador with their latest accusations (not a rocher in sight), including that the Doctor and Jo are his agents, but he doesn't know what they are talking about. The Doctor and Jo are brought in, where the Doctor immediately points out all the flaws in General Williams's theory, and then gets so annoyed at the General that he says to him
"Allow me to congratulate you, sir. You have the most totally closed mind that I've ever encountered."
The Doctor had obviously not visited the Earth of 2016 by this point.
The Doctor and Jo are put back in prison. The Doctor tries to use the sonic screwdriver to escape, but he only sets off an alarm instead.
The Draconians want to question the Doctor and Jo because they think they might tell them what the mannys' plan is, so they plan to help them escape while the ambassador is very careful to not explicitly order his assistant to arrange it. There is some very neat dialogue in this scene, and it helps establish that the Draconians can be devious but they are not outright baddys.
That said, maybe "devious" is too strong a word, since their rescue/kittennap plan involves shooting manny guards in broad daylight, then making off with the Doctor while allowing Jo to run to another group of guards shouting
"It's the Draconians!"
This doesn't stop the President and General Williams interrogating Jo again, with questions like
"When were you recruited? How many agents do they have on Earth? What are their plans?"
If I ever make another list of actors who could have made a good Number 2 in The Prisoner, General Williams will not be on it. He's even too stupid for A Change of Mind.
The Doctor is taken to the Draconian ambassador, who tells him
"We know that you are both agents of the Earth government."
but he quickly modifies this to being a conspiracy led by General Williams.
"If you tell us the details of General Williams' plan, we shall be able to expose him to your President. There will still be a chance for peace."
Even when the Doctor tells them about the Ogrons, they don't believe him. Eventually he has had enough and escapes, getting out onto location where the Draconians chase him until he gets captured by the Earth guards. Back to the cell...
Jo hears the noise from episode one, which leads into a scene where the Ogrons attack the mannys, who see them as Draconians. We mostly see the Ogrons as they really are, except for a couple of shots from the POV of mannys when they are replaced by Draconians, which is enough to make the point. The Ogrons break into the prison, including smashing down the door like a Drashig, and the episode ends with them breaking into the cell to point a gun at the Doctor and Jo.
Imprisoned counter: Doctor 4, Jo 4
Running total: Doctor 5, Jo 5
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