Timelash ( TV story ) Timelash was the fifth story of season 22 of " Doctor Who " . It was notably the last story of the classic era to revolve around an adventure with a historical figure , H . G . Wells , and kept his identity a secret until the very end . Previously , his presence in the " Doctor Who " universe had been alluded to when one of his books , " The War of the Worlds " , was seen being read by in " Frontier in Space " , and would later be acknowledged again when the Seventh Doctor and post - regenerative Eighth Doctor read " The Time Machine " , another of his works , in the 1996 TV movie . The story also gave a nod to the Doctor ' s past adventures back when he was travelling with Jo Grant in his third incarnation and retroactively addressed that they had been in an adventure off - screen involving the main antagonist of this story . Oddly , the viewers were witnessing a sequel to this as - of - yet unseen conflict ; thus , the Doctor could conveniently and reasonably demonstrate a history and knowledge of the alien species and the planet central to the story , and the writers relied heavily on exposition about these past events to carry the serial forward . Coincidentally , this story aired right after a multi - Doctor story where the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown had an adventure with his second incarnation and his then - companion Jamie McCrimmon , resulting in two consecutive retrospective looks of bygone " Doctor Who " eras over the course of the same season . Synopsis . On the planet Karfel and in 1885 Scotland , the Sixth Doctor and Peri , together with a young man named Herbert , become entangled with the machinations of the despotic Borad . Plot . Part one . The Doctor and Peri are arguing over their next destination when the TARDIS is ensnared by a Kontron tunnel , a time corridor in space . After the Doctor fails to free the ship , he and Peri strap themselves in . The TARDIS approaches the corridor and is nearly torn apart by the impact , but stabilises once it has entered the corridor . It is navigated to the source of the disturbance , the planet Karfel , a world the Doctor has visited before . Before they get there , the translucent image of a woman glides through the console room . On Karfel the small population is ruled in a rigid hierarchy . At the apex is the Borad , a sadistic and despotic ruler . The Borad has never shown himself in person , only via security monitors which show a dignified old man , but something in his manner does not ring true . Fear is enforced rigidly through the policing of android s . Rebels such as Aram , Gazak and Tyheer are dealt with either by summary execution or despatch and death via the Timelash - a permanent , and ultimately fatal , exile down a corridor of time and space . Below the Borad is the Maylin , in effect a proxy mayor figure , the most senior of the five Councilors of Karfel . These Councillors are more cyphers than people of true council . One of them , Mykros , has grown unhappy with the rule of the Borad . Since the Borad came to power , their people have become disillusioned , rebellious and miserable . Their former allies , the Bandril s , are poised to invade . The Bandrils threaten war after the Borad rescinds the grain supply treaty , which underpinned the relationship between the two civilisations . Mykros determines to discover the truth and follows the Maylin , Renis , into the Borad ' s power chamber . The unhappy Maylin is transferring the power supplies of the Karfelon s into the Borad ' s personal system , despite the danger to his own wife , who is recovering from hospital surgery . Renis finds Mykros and gives him his blessing in rebellion . However , the Borad finds out and metes out the usual punishment : the Maylin is aged to death in a deadly beam while Mykros is sentenced to the Timelash . Before he can be sent in , however , Vena , Renis ' daughter and Mykros ' lover , intervenes to plead for his life . When this fails , she steals an amulet conferring the power to pervert the energy supply from the new Maylin , the sycophantic Tekker , and accidentally falls into the web of the Timelash herself . The arrival of the TARDIS presents Tekker with an opportunity to retrieve the amulet . The clever Maylin greets the Doctor and Peri as favoured guests , but the Doctor is suspicious of a Karfelon society that has made huge scientific leaps in a short time and that does not permit mirror s . When the Doctor refuses to venture into the Timelash again , Tekker explains that Peri has been taken hostage to ensure his co - operation in retrieving the amulet . However , while attempting to capture Peri , she escaped into the caves of the Morlox , large lizards indigenous to Karfel , where Tekker hopes she will die . While cornered by the Morlox , Karfelon rebels , Katz and Sezon , arrive and shoot at the Morlox and take her into their company . However , they are soon attacked and captured by a patrol of guards . To protect Peri , the Doctor returns the TARDIS into the Timelash . He calculates that the normal path of the Timelash would send Vena to 1179 on Earth , but the interference of the TARDIS ( which she passed through and the Doctor and Peri had seen earlier ) caused her to end up in Scotland in 1885 . When the Doctor arrives he finds Vena , the amulet and a justifiably agitated young man named Herbert . All three depart on their return journey to return the amulet – which is all Tekker cares about when the TARDIS arrives back in the Council Chamber . The Doctor , Vena and Herbert are rounded up with the rebels Mykros , Sezon and Katz and condemned to the Timelash . Brunner reports the Timelash is ready , and Tekker tells the Doctor to save his breath for the Timelash . The android grabs the Doctor and forces him to move towards the Timelash . Laughing , Tekker tells the Doctor goodbye as the android forces the Doctor closer to the Timelash . . . Part two . They fight back , killing the toadying Councillor Brunner and sealing the chamber doors , determined to hold out in a siege . This buys the Doctor enough time to hoist into the Timelash on a rope and take two Kontron crystal s from the wall of the time corridor . He uses this to create a time ruse , allowing him to slip out of the chamber . Herbert follows . Tekker has fled to the Borad . He blames the setback on the last remaining loyal Councillor , Kendron , whom the Borad executes . Tekker remains at the side of the Borad , now revealed as a hideous amalgam of human and Morlox . Together they watch on a screen as Peri is brought into a cave and strapped down while Morlox gather to feed . A canister of the chemical Mustakozene - 80 is placed nearby . This can fuse together different tissue as one creature . It seems the Borad has taken a liking to Peri and wishes to mutate her like himself . The Doctor arrives to confront Tekker and the Borad , recognising the latter as Megelen , a crazed scientist he encountered on his previous visit to Karfel and exposed to the Counsel for unethical experiments on Morloxes . It seems one of those experiments has now gone wrong and Megelen wishes to replicate its effect to create a partner . His plan has been to provoke a war with the Bandrils with bendalypse warhead s , which will wipe out all the Karfelons — but leave the Morlox and himself alive , allowing him to repopulate the world in his own image . This revelation prompts Tekker to rebel , but he is swiftly aged to death . The Doctor uses a Kontron crystal to deflect Megelen ' s beam back at him , killing the mutant in his wheelchair . Herbert helps the Doctor rescue Peri from the Morlox . They return to the Council Chamber where Mykros and Vena have identified a Bandril invasion fleet armed with bendalypse warheads . It is close to Karfel . The Bandrils are suspicious of the Doctor ' s attempts to intervene and prevent a missile strike . He takes drastic action . He materialises the TARDIS in the path of the incoming warhead , risking his own life to save Karfel . He succeeds and returns to Karfel to find Megelen returned from the dead and threatening the Council Chamber — or , rather , the other one was a clone of this original . Megelen is unbalanced by the image of himself in a boarded up mirror , revealing the reason he hid himself away . He is thrown into the Timelash by the Doctor , who says the Borad was sent to Loch Ness . In the TARDIS , the Doctor and Peri prepare to depart Karfel to return Herbert to his own time . Herbert is still outside and the Doctor calls to him to hurry up , before showing Peri Herbert ' s calling card , which identifies the young man as " Herbert George Wells " . Story notes . Production errors . " to be added " Home video and audio releases . DVD releases . This story was released as " Doctor Who : Timelash " . It was a " Super Value Edition " DVD . It was released : Contents : Notes : VHS Releases . The story was released on VHS on 5 January 1998 .