Destination : Nerva ( audio story ) Destination : Nerva was the first story in the first series of " Fourth Doctor Adventures " . Publisher ' s summary . After saying their goodbyes to Professor Litefoot and Henry Gordon Jago , the Doctor and Leela respond to an alien distress call beamed direct from Victorian England . It is the beginning of a journey that will take them to the newly built Space Dock Nerva . . . where a long overdue homecoming is expected . A homecoming that could bring about the end of the human race . Plot . Part 1 . Leaving London and the company of Henry Gordon Jago and George Litefoot , the Doctor and Leela barely have time to dematerialise before the TARDIS receives an alien distress call … from the year 1895 ? ! They follow the signal to a house in England , where a battle has taken place . Human and alien dead can be found ; the Doctor identifies the aliens as Drellerans — and they were " not " the aggressors . He also finds a Drelleran stardrive , which is faulty and therefore potentially deadly . They flee in the TARDIS and try to track the drive to the ship it belongs to , but the drive ’ s effect on the TARDIS nearly knocks them off course . They arrive on a transport ship , the " Chandler " , some centuries in the future . The ship is carrying a construction crew to a space station under construction … and the Doctor is thrilled to discover that the station is Nerva Beacon , which he has visited before ( here called Nerva Dock ) . With Leela , he has a brief run - in with the crew ’ s foreman and shop steward , Jim Hooley , who decides they are new workers . The " Chandler " is forced to divert to a different airlock , as their expected lock is unexpectedly occupied by a space pod from another ship called the " Aeolus " . Upon arrival , he orders the Doctor and Leela into spacesuits and onto the station hull with the rest of the work crew . The " Aeolus " pod is of Drelleran design , as is its parent ship ; but it ’ s a human aboard , one Sergeant Henry McMullan . He enters the airlock without authorisation , and demands to be let in . Chief Technician Laura Craske calls her acting supervisor , Dr . Alison Foster for permission to let him in . Foster realises something is not right , and declines , but her signal is cut off , and Laura lets Henry in . He shakes her hand , and she suddenly becomes compliant to him . She takes him to the Control Centre , and introduces him to the station commander , Commodore Giles Moreau ; Moreau declines to shake his hand . Moreau orders McMullan to medical quarantine as per standard procedure , but is interrupted by a system fault alert . Elsewhere , Hooley has escorted the Doctor and Leela back inside , and called for security ; security arrives in the form of a hovering , robotic Drudger , and takes them ( using mild force ) to the Control Centre . Hooley returns to the hull . Moreau , meanwhile , traces the fault to the airlock where the pod is docked . McMullan tries to control the situation , and appears to mesmerise Leela , but the Doctor breaks her free of it . McMullan wants to shake hands with everyone , but Leela realises he is not what he seems . Moreau orders the Drudger to arrest them all , but it collapses in system failure . Laura , meanwhile , becomes suddenly weak and incoherent . On the hull , Hooley is behaving similarly to Laura ; Foster orders him back inside . The Doctor realises McMullan is wearing the same uniform under his spacesuit as the dead soldiers they saw in 1895 . He realises the " Aeolus " is a Drelleran ship , and confronts McMullan about stealing it . A proximity alert sounds ; the Aeolus has arrived , and will soon dock . Henry , it seems , is an advance troop , carrying some kind of fast - moving infection that affects not only people , but the station systems ; it is carried on the skin , in the form of a separate , independently - acting epidermis ; the Doctor dubs it an “ Epiderm ” . Laura quickly becomes a similarly - mutated creature . The commander of the " Aeolus " , Lord Jack Corrigan , contacts them . The Doctor , Leela , and the Commodore are forced to run . Corrigan communicates with the Epiderms forming on the station , and says he and the crew will join them for the final unification of humankind . Part 2 . As the " Aeolus " docks , the Doctor warns the others not to let the creatures touch them . Hooley enters the airlock , but the inner door won ’ t secure . He insists something is wrong with him , and Foster tries to intervene — but she is stopped just short of touching him by the Doctor and the Commodore . Hooley dies while they argue , and Foster is outraged ; Leela is forced to hold her back . She sees Hooley begin to transform , and she flees with the others . Elsewhere , Corrigan comes aboard , and meets a security team — and absorbs them into the Epiderm entity . The Doctor ’ s group flees to the " Chandler " , but Moreau is touched by one of the creatures as the airlock closes ; unknown to anyone , he is infected . They cast off from the station , breaking the airlock in the process . The Doctor sees , to his delight , that Nerva is orbiting Jupiter , as he once guessed . Moreau sends a distress signal to the nearby supply ship from whence the " Chandler " originated , and requests a quarantine of Nerva , but is unsuccessful , as Jack blocks the signal . Jack tries to entice them back , and explains how he took the " Aeolus " in the nineteenth century and used it to try to build a British empire in the stars . The group discovers that the supply ship is already infected . With nowhere to go , Leela suggests using the TARDIS to get to Earth , but the Doctor thinks it won ’ t work — and it becomes moot , as Moreau transforms and blocks their way to the TARDIS . The Doctor locates spacesuits and gets himself , Leela , and Foster onto the hull . Outside , they see a huge ship coming — a Drelleran ship , centuries more advanced than the " Aeolus " . It teleports them aboard . Two Drellerans meet them . They show the group a video of Jack ’ s initial conquest of a Drelleran expedition , and explain how he conquered the peaceful Drelleran society afterward . They explain that , in revolt , the Drellerans unleashed a virus which creates the Epiderm creatures . The infected Jack was compelled to return to Earth and infect the rest of humanity ; it ’ s sheer chance that he landed on Nerva first . The Doctor argues that humanity has matured since then ; Foster and Leela convince them of his trustworthiness . However , they have made up their minds , and they infect the trio with the virus . They then return them to the station , where the Epiderms wait . When the Epiderm tries to merge with them , it begins to die . They realise they were infected with not the virus , but a cure . It spreads rapidly , and all over the station , people begin to recover and awaken . The exceptions are Jack and his crew ; having used stolen Drelleran technology to extend their lives , they now cannot handle reversion to normal , and they die . The Doctor encourages Foster to take the opportunity to develop a serum against the Epiderm virus , because Moreau is still infected — and not only that , but his infection of the " Chandler " is separating them from the TARDIS . Later , with the TARDIS recovered , Leela and the Doctor discuss their travels . He asks where she wants to go , and she takes him up on his previous offer to teach her about the universe . With that , they depart .