'The Creature From the Pit' (4 Parts) Story Code '5G' by David Fisher

The Doctor receives a distress call, and he takes the TARDIS to the planet Chloris to investigate. The planet is a verdant jungle world, but suffers from a shortage of metal ores. Romana meets a gang of criminals, who are planning a raid on the palace of Lady Adrasta, the ruler of Chloris, in order to steal her hoard of precious metal, a monopoly that she uses to keep herself in power. The Doctor traces the distress call to a large eggshell-life structure, in an area of the jungle known as the Place of Death, but Adrasta and her guards capture him, and wolf weed plants deactivate K-9. After the Doctor is sentenced to be thrown into the Pit, which contains a hideous creature, he manages to cling to the pit walls, and makes a safe descent. Here he meets Organon, the former court astrologer, who fell from Adrasta's favour when she did not like his predictions. The Doctor meets the creature, a gigantic green blob, which apparently devours its victims on contact. The Doctor realises that the creature is in fact an ambassador from the planet Tythonus, a world that lacks chlorophyll, but has an abundance of metal. The Tythonians wanted to make a trade agreement with Adrasta, but she realised that this would end her monopoly, and so she stole his communicator device, and imprisoned him in the Pit. His attacks are nothing more than attempts to communicate. The thieves enlist Romana's aid to break into the palace, where they take a large hexagonal metallic device down from a wall - this is in fact Erato's communicator, which influences them to take it to him. Adrasta is eaten by Erato, who then tells the Doctor that his people are about to retaliate for his imprisonment, by sending a neutron star towards Chloris. The Doctor takes the TARDIS and Erato into space, where the Tythonian spins an aluminium web around the star, enabling the Doctor to use his ship to knock it off into space.

Tom Baker (Doctor Who), Lalla Ward (Romana), David Brierley (Voice of K9), Myra Frances (Adrasta), Eileen Way (Karela), John Bryans (Torvin), Edward Kelsey (Edu), Tim Munro (Ainu), David Telfer (Huntsman), Terry Walsh (Doran), Morris Barry (Tollund), Geoffrey Bayldon (Organon), Tommy Wright (Guardsmaster); Philip Denyer, David Redgrave (Guards)

Produced by Graham Williams
Directed by Christopher Barry

TX:
Part 1 - 27th October, 1979 @ 6.00pm - 6.25pm
Part 2 - 3rd November, 1979 @ 6.05pm - 6.30pm
Part 3 - 10th November, 1979 @ 6.00pm - 6.25pm
Part 4 - 17th November, 1979 @ 6.00pm - 6.25pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Fourth Doctor, the Second Romana, and K-9 MKII