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'We need all the help we can get,' he said, crossing the room. 'Adric and Tegan are hurt.'

But Mace's only interest was getting the front door open.

'Death has them now,' he said over his shoulder. 'There is nothing I can do.' With the bolts released, the heavy door swung open and Mace stepped out into the sunlight.

Nyssa and the Doctor followed.

'If it hadn't been for Adric, you would still be in that cel ar.'

'I am grateful to the boy. But trying to rescue him would be nothing more than a futile gesture.'

Gravel spat from beneath the Doctor's boots as he angrily caught up with Mace and grabbed him by the neck of his leather jerkin, spinning him round.

'Now listen to me!'

'That isn't the way, Doctor,' said Nyssa.

He released the actor. 'I'm sorry,' he said a little awkwardly. 'I didn't mean to do that.'

Mace tugged at his jerkin, attempting to restore both its shape and his dignity. 'I realise how you feel about the boy,' he said at last. 'But I would rather be sealed up in a plague house than go back into that cellar.'

The Doctor ran his fingers nervously through his hair. 'Let me start again,' he said. 'The android, like the ornament around your neck, is not from this planet.'

Mace fingered the trinket. 'But I found it in the barn.'

'As we found this.' The Doctor removed one of the powerpacks from his pocket and held it up. 'That thing you're wearing isn't for adornment. It's part of what is called a control bracelet. A device used on prison planets to control difficult prisoners.'

Mace looked down on the ornament. 'How can this control anyone?'

The Doctor removed the ornament from Mace's neck and inserted the tongue of the powerpack into a small hole on the side of the design. Instantly the bracelet began to pulse. 'If that were on your wrist, you would have lost control of your mind by now.'

Mace laughed in a none-too-convincing way. 'A nonsense! The glow is a conjuring trick.

You forget, sir, I am a man of the theatre. I am not impressed with such trickery, however clever it may be.'

'A trick, eh?' The Doctor disconnected the powerpack and thrust the now harmless ornament into Mace's hand. Holding up the pack, he said, 'Well, this is a piece of conjuring you won't see done for many a year.'

The Doctor twisted the top of the cartridge, causing a massive bolt of electricity to zig-zag to the gravel driveway. Mace leapt backwards, disturbed and uncertain what to believe. 'That's what happens when you discharge a powerpack,' said the Doctor discarding the spent pack. The actor scratched the stubble on his chin.

'Do you still not believe the Doctor?' said Nyssa.

The problem was, Mace didn't trust or believe anyone. He had spent too many years as a confidence trickster himself, both on and off the stage, to believe anyone readily.

'How can that android, as you cal it,' he said at last, 'come from another world? There aren't any. Any fool knows that.'

'There are many worlds in many galaxies...' He paused, noticing Mace's blank expression. The Doctor let out a loud, frustrated groan. 'Why are Earth people so parochial?' He abandoned any hope of being able to reason with Mace. 'Come on, Nyssa, let's go.'

'What about Adric and Tegan?'

'There isn't anything we can do until we have dealt with the android. And as Mr Mace won't help us, we must return to the TARDIS first.'

'For what? We haven't any weapons.'

'We'll try to modify the sonic booster.' His voice lacked confidence. 'If we connect it to the frequency accelerator we may get a high enough pitch to shatter the android's balance cones. We might even vibrate him to pieces.'

Nyssa's expression was fierce. She understood precisely what the Doctor hoped to achieve. She also knew the dangers and the fact that androids were almost indestructible without the correct weapons.

'You cannot afford to improvise against an armed machine,' she shouted angrily.

'What other choice do we have?'

The Doctor turned to Richard Mace, and as a parting gesture, pointed at the ornament around his neck.