CHAAAAADBON arrives and saves the Doctor on behalf of the robot, who wants to meet him. While Balazar gives the Doctor, and us, some exposition about "the Immortal" (as the underground mannys call the robot), watch out for CHAAAAADBON in the background doing some great waiting-for-my-next-cue acting.
Peri meets Queen Katryca, who says
"I shall provide some excellent husbands for you.""Husbands? Plural?""Such women as we have must be shared. Think about it."
This confirms my theory that they still have fanfiction in the future. The naughty kind. And it also goes to show that you can take the manny out of Carry On but you can't take Carry On out of the manny. Peri is locked up with Glitz and Dibber, and Glitz immediately pervs on her:
"Ah, it seems we have a pretty visitor. I'm beginning to feel better already. Sabalom Glitz, my dear, and this youth with the vacuous expression and single track mind is Dibber."
This is only mild perving compared to what Peri was used to from viewers the previous season, which I suppose is progress of a sort.
Glitz's backup plan for if he cannot blow up the tall, thrusting totem pole-cum-light converter is to dig a deep hole down to the hidden, dark tunnels of the underground station. Sigmund Freud eat your mum heart out, lol. It's worth remembering when we see him in his subsequent appearances that this 'lovable rogue' Savlon Glitz was planning on gassing all of the mannys who live underground to death so that they couldn't W-word for the robot, an act which Peri says "would be mass murder."
CHAAAAADBON sends the Doctor in to meet the robot, whose name is Drathro, and his two henchmannys Tandrell and Humker. They are the two mannys who "passed the selection" to "find the two cleverest youths," which is writer Robert Holmes reusing an idea from all the way back in his very first Doctor Who story, The Krotons.
Back in the courtroom, the Doctor starts to call the Valeyard names - "the Boatyard" and "the Graveyard." The general level of humour in these scenes doesn't rise much above that, with one exchange being:
Doctor: "I protest!"Inquisitor: "What now?"Doctor: "Yes, now!"Inquisitor: "I meant, what are you protesting about this time?"
Did Bob Holmes write this, or Bob Block? Don't get me wrong, it's not that these interrupting courtroom scenes are tedious and unnecessary, although there does appear to be a manny sat behind the Inquisitor who has brought a book along just in case.
The Doctor tricks Drathro, Tandrell and Humker into getting electriced (electricked? Please yourselves, mew) and then makes his escape. Drathro sends another robot to chase him. Meanwhile Glitz, Peri and Dibber also stage an escape and get chased by the primitive tribesmannys. They split up so that Dibber can blow up the light converter/totem pole.
CHAAAAADBON reveals to Balazar that, instead of being the Immortal's executioner, he has been helping mannys to escape from the underground to the surface whenever he was supposed to kill them. He now plans to send Balazar outside, and the Doctor too if they can find him before the robot does.
In theory this is a lovely little subplot that adds depth to the minor characters, but it isn't developed enough in the time, and the way it is directed is rather flat and unengaging - there is no subtlety at all to the way CHAAAAADBON says
"I have to be careful, I think Grell already suspects."
while we viewers can clearly see Grell watching them, in the centre of frame, barely concealed from them around a corner. I do, however, like the way that CHAAAAADBON covers his microphone with his paw whenever he is conspiring, lest the Immortal overhear.
They meet the Doctor while he is escaping and Balazar goes with him. This is supposed to be the first time that Balazar has ever been outside, and his line
"It's beautiful!"
manages to capture something of the existential horror of going outside* by referencing the climactic scene of the then recent film Raiders of the Lost Ark, but I think more could have been made of this moment in the paws of a more skilled director, or even just any director who gave a shit about what they were making.
The Doctor, Balazar, Peri, Glitz and Dibber all meet up outside of the entrance to the underground station (the Doctor doesn't even know who Glitz and Dibber are yet, but he can see they're with Peri so he accepts they must be friendly... what a mistaika to maika!) but they are chased inside by the pursuing tribesmannys. Inside, Drathro's robot is waiting for them, and they are trapped between the mannys and the robot. The Doctor says
"I really think this could be the end!"
Crash-zoom to face: cliffhanger!
Crash-zoom to face cliffhanger count: 2
* I went outside once. It was awful.
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