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‘Used to say what?’

‘Mm?’

‘On Venus.’

‘Oh yes. They had this proverb, you see,’ the Doctor said absently, making some minute adjustments. ‘That’s when there were still people on Venus to have proverbs.

Before the – ’ He stopped, grunting with concentration.

‘So what was the proverb?’

‘Mm? Oh yes. “You’d swallow a Klakluk and choke on a Menian dustfly.” ‘

‘A Klakluk?’

The Doctor stood up. ‘A large lumpy beast. A bit like a moose with no horns. A nervous creature. It had two heads, so that a pack of pattifangs couldn’t creep up on it. It never knew whether it was coming or going. A very confused animal, all in all. Thank you.’

‘What for?’

‘You can let go now.’

‘Oh. Oh yes.’ Sarah let go and wiggled the stiffness out of her fingers. ‘So what’s all that got to do with going back to Atlantis?’

‘Well,’ said the Doctor, ‘you’ve travelled in the TARDIS

yourself about eight hundred years back to Merrie England.’

‘Merrie! That lot!’

Their hosts, if that’s what they could be called, in the mediaeval castle to which the TARDIS had taken them seemed to spend most of their time killing each other –

when not engaged in trying to kill the Doctor and Sarah.

The Doctor laughed and walked over to the TARDIS.

‘Yes, a grim bunch, weren’t they, old Irongron and his chums. But if you can swallow that, why choke on a mere three thousand years more?’ He went inside.

Sarah called after him. ‘Yes but Atlantis wasn’t a real place. It’s a fantasy, a legend!’

But the Doctor wasn’t listening. He returned with a long wire which led out of the door and came back to the bench.

‘Mark you,’ he said. ‘it was quite a hairy trip. The poor old TARDIS was nearly done for. Time Ram.’

Now what? What was the man talking about?

‘Don’t tell me,’ she said. ‘The TARDIS was attacked by a randy sheep with a clock for a face.’

The Doctor looked at her severely. ‘Time collision! She collided with another TARDIS in the Time Vortex. They ended up inside each other.’

Eh?

‘You mean the TARDIS was inside the other one?’

‘That’s right. And the other one was inside the TARDIS.’

At the same time?

‘At the same time?’

‘You’ve got it. Very disturbing. If you went out of one you found yourself in the other. And vice versa. No way of getting out. Like being inside a four-dimensional Moebius strip.’

Oh well. Perhaps it hadn’t been such a good idea. ‘I’ve got a feeling that you’re not taking this interview very seriously. Doctor.’

‘Interview?’

‘My editor is going to say that it’s all a load of old...’

Watch it! bananas,’ she finished feebly, avoiding

‘codswallop’ by a breath.

The Doctor stood up from the task of attaching the power lead to his circuit. He was not pleased. ‘Do you mean to tell me that you’ve been interviewing me?’

‘Well, yes. For my magazine. Metropolitan.’

The Doctor was haughty. ‘Without even asking me?’

‘But you know I’m a journalist. I thought you... I did say I wanted to have a bit of a chat, now didn’t I?’

A flicker of emotion passed across the patrician face.

What could it be? Disappointment?

Sarah floundered on. ‘And I thought, since we got on so well, I mean, after all we’d been through together...’

The Doctor’s lips were thin. ‘My dear Miss Smith,’ he said, ‘you are hardly entitled to take such a liberty just because you saved my life a couple of times.’ He looked up with irritation as the door swung open.

Sarah recognized the man in the army uniform who had come in. It was the officer – a Brigadier, wasn’t he? – who had been in charge of security at the research establishment.

‘Ah, there you are, Doctor,’ he was saying.

The Doctor was even more irritated. ‘Well, of course I am,’ he said. ‘Where else should I be but in my own laboratory?’

But the Brigadier had turned to Sarah.

‘Good morning,’ he said.

‘Good morning,’ she replied with relief. If only he knew what a welcome interruption he was!

But the Doctor wasn’t going to let her off so lightly.

‘This is Miss Sarah Jane Smith. A journalist,’ he said icily.

‘She’s just leaving.’ He switched on his circuit. It made a low humming sound.