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‘Follow me,’ said Ruth, and with Polly’s help marched Sarah down the corridor leading to the Reminder Room.

Adam entered into the flight deck and studied the communications system. He pressed a button marked ‘Transmit,’ and spoke into a microphone. Would anyone hear him across the reaches of Space? ‘Hello? Hello? Can anyone hear me?’

Adam’s voice came clearly through a loudspeaker set in the wall close by the Timescoop. Sir Charles immediately strode up to the communications console. ‘How do I make this thing give static?’

Butler hastened to Grover’s side and adjusted some knobs. ‘This will make it sound as though you are talking by radio across Space.’

Grover spoke into a microphone that had the words SPACE SHIP written above it. ‘This is space ship number one. We are receiving you loud and clear.’

Adam’s voice came through the loudspeaker. ‘I must speak to Charles Grover. Something very strange has happened here. The girl Sarah claims we are not on a space ship.’

Grover shot a glance at Butler, then spoke into the microphone again. ‘This is Charles Grover speaking. Where is the girl?’

‘We have just locked her in the Reminder Room.’

Butler listened for a moment, raced away towards the storeroom in which he had locked Sarah. Grover spoke authoritatively into the microphone. ‘Please take no hasty action on your ship. As you know, I can reach you by shuttle in a few minutes. Over and out.’

Whitaker looked up from the Timescoop. ‘Well that’s a fine kettle of fish, I must say! ‘

‘Where’s the space-walking gear?’ asked Grover. Whitaker pointed to the cupboard. ‘All in there. It’s a good thing we thought of that.’

Grover opened the cupboard. Inside hung a replica of an astronaut’s space-walk suit. He began to put it on.

Butler ran breathless into the room. ‘She’s gone! Went through the airvent. She’ll tell them everything.’

Grover was pulling on the heavy trousers over his expensive suit. ‘Twenty years in politics has taught me that people only believe what they want to believe.’ He paused to think. ‘I suppose that goes for us all in a way.’

A giant stegosaurus was standing peacefully outside Westminster Underground Station contemplating the Houses of Parliament. It thought that the great grey buildings were other monsters; if it stayed very still perhaps they would leave it alone. Then a small and very mobile monster came hurtling round the corner making a lot of noise and smell. It stopped with a screech. An even smaller creature jumped out of it and threw something. There was a loud bang and a flash of fire that disturbed the stegosaurus’s peace of mind.

‘It’s doing you no harm, Brigadier,’ shouted the Doctor. ‘Leave the poor thing alone.’

The Brigadier, about to hurl another hand grenade, paused. ‘All right. Let’s go into the station.’

They grabbed their supply of dynamite, and hurried into the station and down the steps.

‘I never thought I’d find myself blowing up a London underground station,’ said the Brigadier. ‘If you’re wrong, Doctor, I’m going to have a difficult job explaining all this to London Transport.’

‘ ... The conveyor-belt system of mass production brings drudgery to the workers. Their natural creative drive is stifled. They are slaves to the machines. Working in continuous noise, unable to speak to their fellow workers, they are brutalised... ’

Sarah put her hands over her ears. ‘Can’t we turn that film off?’

Mark shouted above the sound of the running commentary which filled the Reminder Room. ‘It comes on automatically whenever the door is closed and someone is in here.’

Suddenly it stopped and the door opened. Sir Charles Grover, dressed in his spaceman’s suit and carrying a heavy helmet, stepped into the room. He left the door slightly ajar for fear of restarting the film.

‘You really are a terrible problem to me, Miss Smith,’ he said.

She looked at him in astonishment. ‘Why are you dressed up like that?’

Grover lowered his voice confidentially. ‘You and I know this is a fake space ship, but the people outside still believe in it. So I had to pretend to arrive