The Two Doctors ( TV story ) The Two Doctors was the fourth story of Season 22 of " Doctor Who " . It was the first appearance of the Sontaran s since Season 15 ' s " The Invasion of Time " . The Second Doctor returned , played by Patrick Troughton , as did Jamie McCrimmon , played by Frazer Hines , both having last appeared in the twentieth anniversary special " The Five Doctors " . It was the first Sontaran story set on contemporary Earth , Peter Moffatt ' s last contribution to the show and Robert Holmes ' first Sixth Doctor script . After the success of " The Five Doctors " , Nathan - Turner was keen to do another multi - Doctor story . He quickly secured Troughton as the returning incarnation . It was suggested the story be set in New Orleans , but Holmes found it to have little merit as a setting and the idea was quashed when funding was pulled . Venice was chosen by Nathan - Turner , but this was too expensive , leaving them with Seville , a Spanish town . Holmes reluctantly agreed to a rewrite , disappointed he would have to cut his jokes about the differences between British and American English . As a vegetarian , Holmes wrote " The Two Doctors " as an allegory of meat - eating , hunting and butchering . Synopsis . The Doctor has teamed up with himself before to save lives . This time , he must save his past self in order to ensure his own existence in his present . What could Chessene and dim - witted lackey Shockeye have planned with the Sontaran s ? Only one thing is known for sure : time will tell . Plot . Part one . The Second Doctor pilots the TARDIS as Jamie McCrimmon laments over the absence of their friend Victoria Waterfield . The Doctor reminds him that she ' s off studying graphology at the time . Wondering where they ' re going , Jamie is informed by the Doctor that the Time Lord s are sending them on a mission to Space Station Camera in the Third Zone ; they ' ve also installed a teleport control on the TARDIS that grants them dual control . Showing the image of their destination to Jamie , the Doctor hears him compare its size to twenty castles . The Doctor explains to Jamie that the station is a research facility and they are here to have a discreet word with Dastari , the Head of Projects . The TARDIS materialises in the station kitchen , where they meet Shockeye , the station cook . Shockeye is an Androgum , a member of a primitive , emotionally and ethically bestial humanoid race who make up the station ' s workforce . He is confrontational , angry that a ship has been landed in his kitchen , until the Doctor reveals he is a Time Lord . Suddenly deferential , Shockeye eyes Jamie hungrily and offers to buy him from the Doctor as the main ingredient for a meal . The Doctor , shocked , refuses . He takes Jamie away to see Dastari . As they leave , however , they hear the sound of the TARDIS dematerialising . This is observed by Chessene , an Androgum technologically augmented to mega - genius levels ; her appearance has changed because of such - she looks like an attractive human woman . Chessene has plans of her own . They involve someone named Stike , who will be arriving soon , once Shockeye ' s poisoned meal for the scientists takes effect . She has also taken possession of the Kartz - Reimer module . The Doctor speaks to Dastari in his office . He explains the Time Lords want Kartz and Reimer ' s time experiments ended , as , if the wrong people had access to time travel , it would spell disaster for the entire universe . The Time Lords have an official policy of neutrality , which prevents them from getting directly involved . Because of such , they ' ve sent the Doctor , who has been exiled from their world , to maintain deniability of ever being involved . Dastari introduces Chessene . The Doctor is sceptical that augmentation can change her Androgum nature . He considers such tampering dangerous . Meanwhile , three Sontaran battlecruisers appear near the station on an intercept course . Before the station ' s defences are activated , Chessene incapacitates the technician on post and opens the docking bays . Back in the office , the Doctor warns that the distortions from the Kartz - Reimer experiments threaten the fabric of time . Dastari refuses to order them ended . He accuses the Time Lords of not wanting another race to discover the secrets of time travel . The argument grows more heated . Dastari grows faint and falls into a drugged stupor . Energy weapons begin to sound in the corridors and the Doctor orders Jamie to run , as a Sontaran levels a gun at the Doctor . Somewhere and somewhen else , the Sixth Doctor is fishing while Peri finishes dressing herself after trying to get a tan . He tries explaining that the lake should be full of gumblejack s , a fish that tastes heavenly when cooked just right . The Doctor packs up his fishing pole , chair and umbrella . He tells her it ' s time to leave . After returning to the TARDIS , Peri is startled as the Sixth Doctor sways and collapses — just as , back on the station , Jamie spies the Second Doctor in a glass chamber , writhing in agony while a Sontaran manipulates controls . In his TARDIS , the Sixth Doctor awakens in a confused state . He starts talking about jelly babies and a recorder . He has had a vision of himself in his second incarnation being put to death . He realises this is impossible , since he is still alive , but he is also concerned he may have died in the past and only exists now as a temporal anomaly . He decides to consult his old friend Dastari . The TARDIS materialises on the station . Everything is dark . The smell of decay and death is everywhere . The station computer demands the Doctor leave . When he refuses , it tries to kill Peri and him by depressurising the passageway . The Doctor opens a hatch and drags his unconscious companion to another section . In Dastari ' s office , the Doctor discovers the scientist ' s day journal and the Time Lords ' objections to the Kartz - Reimer experiments . He refuses to believe his people are responsible for the massacre . Peri suggests someone is trying to frame the Time Lords to drive a wedge between them and Third Zone governments . They leave the office to enter the service ducts , work their way to the control centre and try to deactivate the computer before it kills them . On Earth , Chessene , Shockeye and a Sontaran , Major Varl , seize a Spanish hacienda , killing its aged owner , Doña Arana . Varl sets up a beacon for the Sontaran ship . Chessene absorbs the knowledge of the old woman ' s mind , learning they are in Andalucia just outside Seville . Varl announces Group Marshal Stike of the Ninth Sontaran Battle Group is in orbit . Meanwhile , Oscar Botcherby and Anita approach the grounds . Oscar , an English ex - stage actor who is running a restaurant in the city , is here to catch moth s , armed with a net and a cyanide killing jar . Anita and he see the Sontaran ship zoom overhead and through binoculars observe Dastari and another Sontaran carrying an unconscious Second Doctor towards the hacienda . Anita pulls Oscar along , thinking them victims of an aeroplane crash who need help . In the bowels of the station , the Sixth Doctor tries to disconnect the main circuit to prevent the computer from attacking them again . Suddenly , Peri is attacked by a humanoid in rags . Her cries distract the Doctor . He is hit by a gas trap and falls unconscious , ensnared in the wires . Part two . Peri knocks out her attacker and frees the Sixth Doctor , who saved himself by shutting off his respiratory passages . He disconnects the computer ' s circuits . They find that Peri ' s attacker is a half - delirious Jamie , who has been hiding all the while . Jamie moans that " they " killed the Doctor . Under hypnosis , he tells the Sixth Doctor what has transpired , giving a description that the Doctor recognises as the Sontarans . Returning to the office to examine the station records , the Doctor suddenly sees Peri in the glass tube , writhing in pain . As he frantically works the controls , the person in the tube changes from Peri to Dastari to the Second Doctor and even to himself . When Jamie and Peri return to the office , the Sixth Doctor explains that what Jamie saw was an illusion designed to make people believe the Doctor was dead and not investigate further ; the animator had been left on and captured Peri ' s image . This means the Second Doctor is a prisoner . The Sixth Doctor deduce s the Sontarans kidnapped Dastari as well . Dastari is the only biogeneticist in the galaxy who can isolate the symbiotic nuclei of a Time Lord , which gives them the molecular stability to travel through time . Given time travel , the Sontarans will be unstoppable . The Sixth Doctor puts himself into a telepathic trance to find his past incarnation . He wakes , having heard the sound of the Santa Maria , the largest of the twenty - five bells at the Great Cathedral of Seville . In the cellar of the hacienda , Dastari and Chessene set up equipment . The Second Doctor is drugged and passive . Dastari asks why they are on Earth . Chessene says it is convenient for an attack Stike plans for the Madillon Cluster against the Rutan Host and Shockeye wants to taste the flesh of humans . Dastari heaps scorn on Shockeye ' s primitive urges . He urges Chessene to remember she is beyond those , now . The TARDIS materialises near the hacienda . Oscar approaches it as the TARDIS crew emerge . He thinks it a real police box and the Doctor and his companions are plain - clothes police officers . Taking advantage of the mistake , the Doctor asks that Oscar lead him to the hacienda . Dastari plans to dissect the Second Doctor ' s cell structure to isolate his symbiotic nuclei and give them to Chessene . The Second Doctor calls him mad . He protests that her barbaric Androgum nature and the ability to time travel will mean there will be no limit to her evil . The Sixth Doctor asks Peri to create a distraction at the hacienda ' s front door while he and Jamie enter the cellar via a passage from the nearby ice house . Peri interrupts Dastari ' s operation . She poses as a lost American student . Chessene is suspicious , having read thoughts of the Doctor in her mind . Chessene gets Shockeye to bring the Second Doctor through the hall , strapped to a wheelchair , to see if Peri reacts . She does not for she has never seen the Second Doctor . Peri makes her excuses and leaves , but Shockeye chases her anyway , eager for a meal . Meanwhile , the Sixth Doctor and Jamie are in the cellar . The Doctor examines the Kartz - Reimer module , a prototype time machine modelled on Time Lord technology . He tells Jamie that once the module ' s briode nebuliser is primed with his symbiotic nuclei — the Rassilon Imprimatur — it will be safe for anyone to use . Unfortunately , the Sontarans have heard him . Outside , Shockeye catches up to Peri . She trips and falls . Shockeye looms over her , muttering with delight . . . Part three . Shockeye knocks out Peri and brings her to the kitchen . In the cellar , Stike threatens to kill Jamie unless the Sixth Doctor gets into the module and primes it with his symbiotic print ; the Doctor does so . Stike is about to kill Jamie anyway , but Jamie stabs Stike ' s leg . Jamie and the Doctor run upstairs , where they find the Second Doctor . Before they can release the prisoner and escape , Shockeye shows up with the unconscious Peri . The Second Doctor feigns unconsciousness while the others hide . While the Sixth Doctor and Jamie watch from their hiding place , Chessene voices her concerns . If a second Time Lord is involved , other Time Lords may come . She has a contingency plan . She asks Dastari to implant the Second Doctor with Shockeye ' s genetic material , turning the Doctor into an Androgum in her thrall . Then they will eliminate the Sontarans . However , Dastari and Chessene do not know the module is primed and that , outside , Stike is preparing to leave in it once Sontaran High Command has been notified . He will leave no survivors . He orders Varl to set the Sontaran battlecraft ' s self - destruct mechanism . Interrupting Shockeye before he slaughters Peri , Chessene has him bring the Second Doctor to the cellar . There , she stuns Shockeye so Dastari can remove his genetic material . The Sixth Doctor revives Peri in the kitchen and ushers Jamie and her away . The Sixth Doctor tells them what he revealed about the Imprimatur in the cellar was not strictly true — he had heard Stike approaching and the speech was for the Sontaran ' s benefit . The machine worked for the Doctor , but will not for them because the Doctor has taken the briode nebuliser . Dastari has implanted the Second Doctor with a 50 % Androgum inheritance . When Shockeye wakes in a rage , he finds a kindred spirit in the transformed Doctor . They decide to go into the town to try the local cuisine . In the meantime , Dastari lures the Sontarans into the cellar . Chessene attacks them with two canisters of coronic acid . Varl is killed , but Stike , though wounded , escapes . He tries to use the module , but without the nebuliser , it severely burns him . Stike staggers towards his battlecraft , forgetting about the self - destruct . The ship explodes , taking him with it . The Sixth Doctor , Peri and Jamie follow the Second Doctor and Shockeye into Seville , hoping to cure him before the change becomes complete and affects the Sixth Doctor as well . Dastari and Chessene are seeking the two of them , knowing that unless the Second Doctor undergoes a second , stabilising operation , he will eventually reject the Androgum transfusion . The Second Doctor and Shockeye go to Oscar ' s restaurant . They order gargantuan amounts of food . When Oscar demands they pay , Shockeye stabs and kills him , just as the Sixth Doctor and the others arrive . Shockeye leaves behind the Second Doctor , who slowly reverts to normal . All of them leave the restaurant to the distraught Anita . Chessene and Dastari arrive to take them back to the hacienda at gunpoint . Chessene and Dastari find the nebuliser missing . The Sixth Doctor tells them how he primed the machine for Stike . To test the Doctor ' s claim , they replace the nebuliser and send Peri on a trip with the module and she survives . Chessene gives Shockeye permission to eat Jamie . The Androgum takes him to the kitchen . Alone for the moment , the Sixth Doctor smugly confirms the Second ' s suspicions — the nebuliser is sabotaged , with an interface layer so thin it would only work once for Peri . The Doctors retrieve the key to their chains . The Sixth Doctor frees himself first and runs to save Jamie . He encounters Shockeye in the kitchen . The Androgum wounds him with a knife , then pursues him through the grounds , but the Sixth Doctor finds Oscar ' s cyanide killing jar . He ambushes Shockeye , covers his head with Oscar ' s butterfly net and presses the cyanide - soaked cotton wool to his face , killing him . The sight of the Time Lord ' s blood on the ground is too much for Chessene . She falls to her knees and starts licking it , to Dastari ' s disgust . He realises that no matter how augmented she may be , Chessene will always be an Androgum . He decides to free the Second Doctor and his companions . When Chessene sees this , she shoots and kills Dastari . She tries to shoot the Second Doctor and Peri as well , but Jamie throws a knife at her , making her drop the gun . Chessene goes into the module , hoping to escape , but the module explodes , causing the molecular disintegration of Chessene and turning her back into a common Androgum in death . The Second Doctor uses a Stattenheim remote control — which the Sixth Doctor covets — to summon his TARDIS . He and Jamie say their goodbyes and leave . The Sixth Doctor and Peri make their way back to their own TARDIS . The Doctor tells her that from now on , it will be a healthy vegetarian diet for both of them . Home video and audio releases . DVD release . This story was released as " Doctor Who : The Two Doctors " in a two - disc set . It was released : Contents : Notes : VHS release . This story was released as " Doctor Who : The Two Doctors " . Released :