The Dark Path (TV Story)

***The Dark Path*** was the first serial of Season 34 of *Doctor Who*. It was written by David A. McIntee, directed by Brian Grant, and starred Stephen Fry as the Ninth Doctor and Emma Fielding as Lena Haigh.

This story features one of the Master's earliest encounters the Doctor, greatly expanding on their personal histories on Gallifrey.

## Synopsis

Darkheart: a faded neutron star surrounded by dead planets. But there is life on one of these icy rocks — the last enclave of the Earth Empire, frozen in the image of another time. As the rest of the galaxy enjoys the fruits of the fledgling Federation, these isolated imperials, bound to obey a forgotten ideal, harbour a dark obsession.

The Doctor and Lena arrive to find that the Federation has at last come to reintegrate this lost colony, whether they like it or not. But all is not well in the Federation camp: relations and allegiances are changing. The fierce Veltrochni — angered by the murder of their kinsmen — have an entirely different agenda. And someone else is manipulating the mission for his own mysterious reasons — another time traveller, a suave and assured master of his work.

The Doctor must uncover the terrible secret which brought the Empire to this desolate sector, and find the source of the strange power maintaining their society. But can a Time Lord, facing the ultimate temptation, control his own desires?

## Cast

* The Doctor - Stephen Fry
* Lena Haigh - Emma Fielding
* Koschei - Jonathan Pryce
* Ailla I - Amy Marston
* Ailla II - Abigail Cruttenden
* Sherwin - Georgie Glen
* Terrell - Clive Russell
* Gothard - Simon Lowe
* Vacano - James Greene
* Salamanca - Peter Birrel
* Pack-Mother - Suzy Aitchison
* Hakkauth/Adjudicator Paxton - Richard Ashton
* Lieutenant Clark - Paul Broughton
* Mei Quan - Pui Fan Lee
* Brandauer - Mike Dowling
* Chief Engineer Ipthiss - Trevor White
* Surgeon Hathaway - Stephen Boxer
* Adjudicator Matthews - Billy Boyd
* Adjudicator Hiller - Sandra Huggett
* Captain Colley - Campbell Morrison

## Worldbuilding

### Books

* Lena has recently been reading *Robinson Crusoe*.

### The Doctor

* The Doctor is recognised as a Noble of Draconia.

### Koschei

* Koschei persuades Terrell to use the Darkheart to destroy Terileptus (home planet of the Terileptils).
* Koschei uses hypnotism to convince some of the crew he and Ailla have been onboard the *Piri Reis* all along.

### Organisations

* The Federation succeeded the Earth Empire.
* The Adjudicators on the planet Darkheart still believe in the superiority of Earth and humanity.
* The Adjudicator's Lodge contains murals depicting the conquering of Solos and the destruction of Mondas; Terrell is also working on one depicting the triumph over the Cybermen with the glittergun.
* The Adjudicators have access to logs from the Britannicus Base and the Space Vessel *Sekhmet*.
* Koschei has visited the Skonnon Empire.
* The Rimworld Alliance existed during the Earth Empire.

### Planets

* Darkheart is the location of a device constructed by Chronovores to heal their young and sick. It is actually a hollow bubble made from neutron star material connected to the star by a dimensional bridge
* Koschei shows Lena Skaro prior to the period when the Daleks developed space travel.
* In a bid to prevent Ailla from being killed in the first place before he learns the truth, Koschei shows Terrell how to focus a blast of temporal energy from the Darkheart and the Imperials use it to destroy Terileptus.
* Koschei compares the pyramid on Darkheart to be similar to the ones on Phaester Osiris.

### Species

* The Veltrochni previously triumphed against the Tzun confederacy. Many of them took to the stars to become nomads to escape the Earth Empire so they wouldn't have history repeated.
* The Doctor refers to the Animus as Lloigor.
* Sherwin wishes there was a mentiad on board her ship.
* Lena distantly observes the early Daleks in the Dalek City.
* There is a mural in the Empire's colony depicting the conquest of the Solonian "mutts."
* The Federation ship has a culturally diverse crew - humans, a Draconian and a number of Terileptils among others.

### TARDIS

* Koschei's TARDIS is a Type 45 with user definable macros for easy navigation.
* The Doctor can use Koschei's TARDIS to remotely control his.
* Koschei deletes Ailla's rooms in his TARDIS after encountering her new incarnation.

### Technology

* The Darkheart is the technology of the Chronovores. It focuses time energy on any area the creatures needed to heal.
* The Imperials have found the Darkheart and have learnt it can manipulate morphic fields, and have used it to become immortal. It has a side effect of rendering people sterile.

### Theories and concepts

* Koschei considers the Blinovitch Limitation Effect while pondering saving Ailla's life.
* The Doctor once explained to Lena you couldn't change the past in a TARDIS without splitting off another universe. Koschei confirms this before going on to explain that Darkheart can affect time anywhere.

### Time Lords

* Ailla regenerates after being hit with a disrupter fired by Koschei by accident.

### Transport technology

* "Telefrag" is a Marine Corps term for transmatting somebody into the exact same coordinates as somebody else (the result is "splat").

## Notes

* This story is the first to introduce a major incarnation of the Master outside of chronological order. All previous incarnations seen on television have used the moniker of the Master, whereas this story posits itself to be the Master's origins.
* On his Tumblr blog, McIntee further commented that although one possible interpretation of the book is that Koschei regenerates directly into the TV Roger Delgado Master, losing most of his remaining regenerations to the black hole, he intended to leave open the possibility of gap incarnations (including Edward Brayshaw's War Chief:

> The end of the story has it take several lifetimes (and, by implication, possible incarnations) for the Master to get out the Darkheart. This was intended to fit in with the stuff about the Master having used up his regenerations, but it also allows for him to actually be, say, Edward Brayshaw, if you really want him to, and that he then regenerates into Delgado. *David A. McIntee*
>
>

* Koschei, often dubbed "Koschei the Deathless" is a stock antagonist in Slavic mythology. Among his key characteristics are being a villainous sorcerer who sought immortality, and being locked underneath a tower for inhuman amounts of time. The former characteristic closely parallels a recurring character trait of the Master.
* According to McIntee, his original draft for the book, instead of having "Koschei turn dark because his companion turned out to be, er, not dead, but a Timey spying on him", had him "turn dark because after she got killed the Doctor wouldn’t let him change what happened, cos he was so sure he knew what was right, and what would keep Koschei as his BFF". This was changed against McIntee's wishes by Colin Brake.
* McIntee stated that there was "a possibility" that Adjudicator Paxton was related to Garth Paxton, one of Lena Haigh's comrades from TV: *Subjects of War*.

## Continuity

* The Doctor mentions seeing the "final end" of the Daleks (TV: *The Evil of the Daleks*)
* When Lena asks Hakkauth if he can really shape shift, he says that it is only a hologram and says, "I am no shapeshifter like the Rutan..." (TV: *The Time Warrior*, TV: *Horror of Fang Rock*, TV: *Subjects of War*)
* The Tzun first appeared in TV: *Return of the Living Dad*.
* The Doctor mentions an incident with the time path indicator and the Daleks. (TV: *The Chase*)
* Prior to attempting to merge his TARDIS with the Darkheart, Koschei tears out the recall circuit. (TV: *Arc of Infinity*) Koschei also deletes Ailla's rooms. (TV: *Castrovalva*)
* Ailla works for the CIA and knows of the Doctor. She tells him he has to return the TARDIS to Gallifrey. (TV: *The War Games*)
* The Sons of Earth are still active at this time. (TV: *The Power of Kroll*)
* Lena refers to the Rutans and the Sontarans, (TV: *Subjects of War*) Zodaal (TV: *The English Way of Death*) and the N-Form. (TV: *Damaged Goods*)
* The Darkheart colony has files of the Doctor's encounter with the Ice Warriors on Brittanicus Base in their database. (TV: *The Ice Warriors*) They also have files on the Space Vessel *Sekhmet*. (TV: *Subjects of War*)
* Terrell comments that the Cybermen often ally themselves with human traitors in order to aide their infiltration plots. (TV: *The Invasion*, *Revenge of the Cybermen*, *Earthshock, Illegal Alien*)
* The Adjudication Lodge contains murals depicting the conquest of Solos (TV: *The Mutants*) and the destruction of Mondas in December 1986. (TV: *The Tenth Planet*)
* Terrell is in the process of painting a mural depicting the successful use of a glittergun against the Cybermen aboard the Nerva Beacon in the 29th century. (TV: *Revenge of the Cybermen*)

## Home Video & DVD Releases

### VHS

* This story was released on VHS in 2001.

### DVD

* This story along with the other stories in Season 34 were released as *Doctor Who: The Complete Thirty-Fourth Season* in 2011.

### Blu-ray

* This story along with the other stories in Season 34 were upscaled in 1080i50 high definition and were released as *Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 34* in the UK.