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When she got back to the console room, she found the Doctor and Tuval still busy at the console, the Doctor explaining something to the Zygon, who was nodding gravely. Professor Litefoot, meanwhile, was rather inexplicably moving from one candelabrum to the next and blowing out all the candles.

The air was filled not only with blue smoke and the smell of candle wax, but also with an ear-splitting squealing sound which was emanating from the console and which changed in volume and pitch as the Doctor, aided by Tuval, made minor adjustments to the controls. Sam wandered over to Litefoot, and shouted into his ear,'What are you doing, Professor?'

Litefoot whirled to face her. Sam raised a hand to apologise for startling him. The professor looked tired and drawn, but did a classic double-take at the sight of her clothes. Recovering his decorum quickly, he said, 'To be quite truthful, my dear, I'm not entirely sure. The Doctor set me this task when I offered my services. He said the candles were a fire hazard.'

'It's never bothered him before,' said Sam. 'I'll see what he's up to.'

She made her way over to the console, wincing as the squealing escalated to a burbling electronic shriek. The Doctor didn't seem to notice her until she was standing right beside him, but then, before she could say anything, he spun round and gripped her arms just above the elbows.

'Ah, Sam, the very person. Would you organise the removal of every item of furniture from the main floor area? You can stack it all in the library for now.'

'Why?' she asked.

'Because I don't want anything to get broken,' he replied. 'Would you mind doing it quickly? Tuval and I are nearly there.'

He turned away. She sighed, then muttered, 'Right,' and clumped back down off the dais to relay the Doctor's instructions to Litefoot. At that moment a door beside the enormous built-in filing cabinet opened and Emmeline and her father reappeared, looking much refreshed.

The four of them spent the next ten minutes transferring the chairs, side tables, lamps and candelabra to the library area as the Doctor had instructed. Throughout this time the hideous sound filling the console room altered by degrees until it became a deeper-pitched electronic burbling, at which point the Doctor stood back, hands half raised.

'I think that's it!' he shouted. 'What do you think.Tuval?'

The Zygon listened and nodded, then said something which Sam couldn't catch.

'Right everybody,'shouted the Doctor.'If you would join me up here beside the console.'

Led by Sam, they did so.

'All right.Tuval,' shouted the Doctor.'Open the doors.'

Tuval operated the lever and the doors swung slowly open.

'What exactly are you doing, Doctor?' asked Sam.

'I'm letting the Skarasen in,' he said.

Nathaniel Seers's eyes widened. 'Are you quite insane, sir? Those creatures will devour us all.'

The Doctor shook his head. 'A state of grace exists within the TARDIS.The Skarasen couldn't harm us even if they wanted to -which they won't anyway.'

'Aren't you forgetting one thing, Doctor?' asked Sam.

'I don't think so.'

'How will the really big ones get through the doors?'

The Doctor smiled.'The TARDIS doors only look small because the chameleon circuit has fused. It's a matter of perception. Theoretically, the doors are as big or as small as I want them to be.To this end, I've managed to bypass the chameleon circuit and set up a localised mass inversion wave by tapping into the TARDIS's main drive systems.'

'What does that mean?'

'It means I've managed to break down the area around the doors into its raw state for a while. If I could do that for the whole TARDIS, I could probably get the chameleon circuit working again.The only problem is, it puts too much of a drain on the drive systems. The choice is either to have a TARDIS with no chameleon circuit or a chameleon circuit with no TARDIS.'

Sam nodded wisely. 'So what is its raw state?' she asked.

'Energy.'

'What kind of energy?'

'Just energy,' he said obscurely.

She sighed.'Is it stable