The text provides excerpts from the novelization of a Doctor Who serial, chronicling the final adventure of the First Doctor alongside his companions, Ben and Polly. The narrative details their arrival at a military installation in the South Pole Base in the year 2000, just as a terrifying new world, the long-lost sister planet Mondas, approaches Earth. This impending global crisis is exacerbated by the appearance of the Cybermen, emotionless, technologically augmented beings who have traveled from Mondas seeking to drain Earth's energy. Conflict erupts when General Cutler, the base commander, attempts to use a Z-bomb to destroy Mondas and protect his son, while Ben works with scientists to thwart the escalating threat, eventually discovering the Cybermen’s vulnerability to radiation. Ultimately, Mondas overloads and disintegrates, saving Earth, but the exhausted Doctor, after showing signs of severe aging, undergoes a sudden physical renewal, emerging as a completely new, younger man as his companions look on.

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.