Doctor Who_ The Twin Dilemma - Eric Saward [51]
‘declared a breakthrough in the science of chemistry.’ A use for Mosten acid was found in the shaping of metals into forms (without drilling, filing or any other mechanical technique), and Senile Nine has thrived on the business ever since.
AZMAEL’S DOME: It has a ‘kitchen, complete with adjoining storeroom which [contains] enough food to keep a schoolful of hungry children sated for a millennium’, bedrooms, laboratories, a greenhouse, a power plant, workshops, a ‘compact cinema equipped to show film, video and many other visual mediums’, and a ‘library, considered the best this side of Magna Twenty-eight’.
THE REVITALISING MODULATOR: It acts like a matter transporter, but ‘instead of…transporting [them] to a pre-set destination, the modulator bombards the atoms of the body with Ferrail rays’, which ‘induces a feeling of well-being and contentment. Although no substitute for natural sleep, it does allow a person without time for sleep to continue working at maximum efficiency for a short period of time.’
TITAN THREE: Although it is ‘accused of being the bleakest, most miserable planet in the universe’, it ‘is no bleaker than any other small planet devoid of vegetation.’ Instead, ‘the real problem…is that its thin atmosphere contains a very rare gas nicknamed Titan Melancholia. It isn’t at all poisonous, but prolonged inhalation can cause depression in humanoid life forms.’
A colony was originally established ‘to house a research unit and monitoring base for the solar system, Maston Viva.’ Although the Mastons detected the gas, ‘it wasn’t until some time later that it was noticed that people who spent more than six months on the planet became strangely depressed.’ Eventually, the Mastons
‘started to abandon their work in favour of writing long, introverted, painfully self-critical novels and essays. […] Such was the all pervading gloom of the place that Mein Kampf and the works of Strindberg were read as light comic relief.’ While the colonists calmly ignored their duties, ‘an enormous burst of radiation wiped out the population of Maston Viva’, which could have been prevented had attention been paid to it. Now, ‘there was little left for the [colonists] to do. After each of them had completed a long, soul-searching autobiography, they committed mass suicide.’ Since then, nobody has chosen to live on Titan Three, although a daily glass of Voxnic has been found to counteract the effects of Titan Melancholia.
THE FIFTH DOCTOR: His successor says he had a “feckless charm”. Peri remembers him as being “almost young.”
TIME LORDS: Regeneration explained! It is made possible ‘by a massive release of a hormone called lindos, which, at lightning speed, is transported around the body causing [its] cells to reform and realign themselves. Although much work has been done by genetic engineers on Gallifrey, the process still remains a random and, in some cases, rather erratic one. Some Time Lords are able to proceed through their allotted twelve regenerations with enormous grace and dignity, growing older and more handsome with each change of shape. Others leap about to a startling degree, finishing one regeneration a wise and noble elder, only to start the next a youthful, boastful braggart.’ They obviously have some sort of sexual drive, as demonstrated below.
PROFESSOR JAMES ZARN: He developed the revitalising modulator to do away with his hangovers, and consequently increased his party-going. In ‘2130 AD he won the coveted Astral-Freed award for his contribution towards the eradication of space plague’, which gave him more money to go to more parties.
Aside from his groundbreaking work on the revitalising modulator, he also ‘won the coveted Astral-Freed award’ in 2130 ‘for his contribution towards the eradication of space plague’ (this gave him more money to go to more parties). One night, a drunken Professor Zarn entered his revitalising modulator with a bottle of Voxnic. Unfortunately, ‘two things act rather