The Adventure Begins (TV Story)

The Adventure Begins was the second episode in the first series of Doctor Who. It marked the debut of Ewan McGregor as Malcolm Jennings as companion of the Doctor.

It also marked the debut of new alien, the Raxi.

Synopsis
The TARDIS nearly crash-lands on a foreign planet, Earth. He meets Malcolm Jennings, who attends the University. But the Doctor finds an alien weapon, forcing him to save the world.

Plot
The TARDIS is on its way to Earth, but gets hit by an asteroid, which sends it hurtling out of control. The boy gets thrown around, cursing Timelord education for not giving piloting lessons. He eventually grabs the stabiliser, and the TARDIS continues its journey to Earth.

The TARDIS lands on Earth, 2013, to a very loud wheezing sound, with the boy commenting 'I like it!'. The boy exits to find the TARDIS still in its 1960's police box form. He finds a note on the door which states the TARDIS Chameleon Curcuit is broken. He quickly screws up the note into his pocket.

He decides to enter a corner shop and marvels at all the products being sold, having never seen paper before. He exits to discover the TARDIS being towed away by police officers. The Boy tries to stop them taking the TARDIS being claiming ownership of it. This gets him arrested for impersonating a police officer.

At the police station, the police find that the Boy has no passport, no ID, no nothing, not even a name. Technically, the Boy doesn't exist. They place him in a cell for the mean time, until they discover who he is. He sits on his bed, and starts to think of how to escape.

In the dead of night, the Boy picks up his bed and uses it as leverage to force open the door. He quietly succeeds, but trips a motion sensor, and the alarm is sounded. Lights turn on all around him, so he starts to run for the exit. He finds to exit blocked by police guards, who start to chase after him. He quickly realises the only other exit would be in the police office. The Boy topples a bookcase onto the police officers, knocking them out. Making his way to the office, the Boy is confronted by the Police Commander. After a long brawl, the Boy floors him, and goes to unlock the window, except with the other police officers behind him, he instead jumps through the window, smashing it in the process. The Boy runs into the shadows of an alley, and the police lose him.

While conceiving a plan to get the TARDIS back, the Boy bumps into Malcolm Jennings, a student from London University of Archaeology, who drops his books. The Boy decides to help him, and carries some of his books for him. They make it to the University just in time for Malcolm's class, and the Boy sits in with him. After protesting that Professor Finch's teachings are wrong, he is 'advised' by Finch to get a job at the University. Heeding his notion, the Boy gets an interview. When asked to state his name, the Boy quickly decides on Dr. Kalaan Rasilian, but 'corrects' himself with Dr. John Smith. He eventually gets denied a job having no qualifications of any sort. The Boy meets Malcolm again, who asks him his name; Dr. John Smith, or the Doctor. The Doctor seems appropriate as he seems to know more than the Professors.

Later that night, at Malcolm's appartement, the Doctor spots a meteorite, which crashes through the window onto Malcolm's coffee table. It turns out not to be a meteorite, but a glass tube, seemingly undamaged. The Doctor can't identify the object, but realises it seems to be inactive. Malcolm suggests they reactivate it in one of the labs at the University.

The Doctor connects the glass tube to the mains, but it remains inactive. He decides to heat it up, and they hold one of the ends above a bunsen burner. The glass tube begins to light up, and the Doctor reconnects it to the mains again. The device activates with a green glow and Malcolm celebrates. But the Doctor realises what they just reactivated; an Ionic Fusion Bar! At that moment the lights turn off and it becomes dark. The Doctor states they are not alone.

The Doctor and Malcolm arrive at the Main Entrance where a big group of students are standing. Apparently they can't leave. The Doctor gets to the front and discovers the University has been surrounded by a force field; nothing can get in or out.

Malcolm decides to go to Professor Finch's office to try and figure out what's happening, with the Doctor in tow. They find Finch on the phone, unable to get a signal to anyone outside. The Doctor places the Ionic Fusion Bar on a cabinet and decides to help Finch with the phone, and dismantles it, moving a few components around. Finch decides to leave and help calm the commotion around the University. When Finch leaves, the Doctor tells Malcolm he can smell Plasma. He finds scorch marks in the carpet and realises that something had teleported into the office. He goes to pick up the Ionic Fusion Bar, but discovers it has gone. Malcolm calls the Doctor; he has found Finch dead in one of the cabinets. That means the other Finch is an imposter.

They run out of the office into the corridor and spot the imposter heading towards the labs. The imposter locks himself in the lab and the Doctor tries to break down the door while he begins to build a mini generator. The Doctor eventually breaks down the door and corners Imposter Finch. He tries to fool the duo into thinking he's Finch, but Malcolm tells him they found Finch dead in the office. The imposter confesses and readies his teleporter, which he had just charged. The Doctor questions why imposter needs the Ionic Fusion Bar. He states his name is Anubarelack, and he is from the planet Raxon. The Ionic Fusion Bar belongs to him, and was lost when meteorites hit his spaceship, deactivating it in the process. He will use the Bar as a weapon to turn Earth into a desolate wasteland, where his race can extract resources from the lithosphere undisturbed for his dying planet, which had suffered because of solar flares. Anubarelack begins to activate the teleport but the Doctor grabs hold of him, with Malcolm a hold of the Doctor's leg. All three of them teleport away.

Malcolm and Anubarelack materialise inside the Control Deck of Anubarelack's spaceship. Malcolm realises the Doctor isn't with them. Anubarelack explains the Doctor was detached before materialisation, so he now just atoms in the air. With that notion, Malcolm lunges at Anubarelack and strikes his waist, but the alien overpowers him, and is restrained quickly. Malcolm's attack damages Anubarelack's cloaking filter, and he marvels as the once Finch turns into an alien with sharp teeth and tentacles protruding from his skull; a Raxi! Anubarelack tries to fix the cloaking filter, but to no avail. He checks the levels on his spaceship; oxygen levels depleting, hull intact at 45% and engine inactive.

Anubarelack leaves the teleporter on charge and exits the Control Deck with the Ionic Fusion Bar. Malcolm begins to break his constraints, but the locks are too strong. Malcolm looks up, and sees a face he never expected to see again; it's the Doctor! He releases Malcolm from his bonds and they both race after Anubarelack.

The alien places the Bar in the Fusion Station and the priming of the weapon begins. The Doctor and Malcolm find Anubarelack, and remove the Bar while he's not looking. Unfortunely the Bar is already self-sustaining and will still activate the desolator beam. Anubarelack mistakens the Doctor for Malcolm, and asks for him to put it back while he's still alive. Turning around, he is shocked to see the Doctor still alive, and asks how he survived, believing him to be human. To Malcolm's surprise, the Doctor admits he's not of the human race, but from a race of high and mighty beings; the Timelords! This startles Anubarelack, who blames the Timelords for not helping Raxon in it's depression. He charges at the Doctor, and the Timelord tell Malcolm to 'Run!'.

Quickly thinking of a way to turn off the Bar, the Doctor and Malcolm head for the Nuclear Storm-Drive, and Anubarelack corners them. The Doctor threatens to throw the Bar into the Storm-Drive. Anubarelack protests, saying all three of them would die. The Doctor hesitates, but Malcolm tells him it's either us, or the Earth. Anubarelack asks which one is going die, and the Doctor triumphantly chooses the Earth 'anyday', and throws the Bar into the Storm-Drive. This causes a chain reaction, which ultimately destroys Anubarelack's ship, and the desolator beam.

The Doctor and Malcolm materialise in the lab, and Malcolm, happy to be still alive, asks the Doctor how they survived. He explains that before confronting Anubarelack, he picked up the teleporter, incase they needed it later. The force field disapates, and the University celebrates.

Back at Malcolm's appartement, the news states that the University seemed to disappear, with all the students being questioned on the incident. The Doctor realises he's still got a problem; the TARDIS is still at the police station, confiscated. Malcolm says that his Father is the Police Commander there, to which the Doctor apoligises as he may have 'beat him up'. Malcolm agrees to help get it back.

At the Police Station, Malcolm distracts his Father, while the Doctor picklocks the property room. He spots the TARDIS and unlocks the doors. Malcolm finishes his conversation with his Dad and sneaks into the property room too. The Doctor explains that this is his spaceship, with Malcolm mocking 'what a tiny, old fashioned piece of junk!' Before anything else can be said, the police alarm sounds and the Doctor tells Malcolm to get inside the TARDIS. With Malcolm still doubtful, the Doctor pulls him inside. The TARDIS dematerialises while the Police Officers watch in disbelief.

Cast

 * First Doctor - Mark Hamill
 * Malcolm Jennings - Ewan McGregor
 * Anubarelack - Michael Carter
 * Professor Finch -
 * Howard Jennings -

Story Notes

 * This is the first episode to be set on Earth.
 * This is the first appearance of Malcolm Jennings.
 * The opening to this episode is a recap of last episode. This rarely happens.

Continuity

 * Anubarelack returned in Revenge of the Raxi/The Last One.
 * Brigadier Leadworth shows the Doctor unidentified events which lead to the formation of UNIT, which includes the London University of Archaeology Incident and the TARDIS dematerialising from the Police Station. (Invasion of the Cybermen)