The Switching
The Switching
Stephen Critchlow (Narrator)
This Doctor Who: Short Trips Rarities title was first released as an exclusive title free to anyone subscribing to The Doctor Who Main Range. It is now also presented here for the first time as a general release.
Yesterday there were two Time Lord prisoners on Earth – The Master in his cell, The Doctor in his exile.
But today The Doctor’s not quite feeling himself. Today he’s seeing things from a different perspective. And today The Master’s going to escape…
Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs
Written by: Simon Guerrier
Directed by: Nicholas Briggs
The Doctor wakes up in a strange place. He seems to be in a cell. He finds a device constructed out of spare parts and a bunch of library books in the cell. He speaks out loud and notices his voice sounds funny. He starts to rub his chin and realises he has a beard. He uses a shiny book cover as a mirror, and sees that he is in The Master’s body.
Meanwhile, The Master wakes in The Doctor’s laboratory. He searches for the TARDIS key but can’t find it. Jo comes in and scolds him for his rudeness towards Mike Yates. He admits he may have been rude. He asks Jo if she knows where his TARDIS key is, to which she replies that it is around his neck. After she leaves, he enters the TARDIS, and is surprised at its condition. It appears that The Doctor has taken parts of it apart to try to fix it. He tries to work the controls but since he is in The Doctor’s body, and the Time Lords have locked the TARDIS controls from The Doctor, he can’t use them.
The Doctor lures his guards into his room and attacks them, but is eventually restrained and locked up again. The Master, acting as The Doctor, goes to see the Brigadier and asks that he have The Master removed to a place where there is a view. The Brigadier tells him about the “Master”‘s attempted escape. The Master heads back to the laboratory but is stopped by a soldier and then Sergeant Benton. Benton seems suspicious of him at first, but lets him go.
The Master has realised his escape plan won’t work. He knows he will be back in his cell soon. He thinks about leaving a trap in The Doctor’s laboratory, but decides not leaving one will confound The Doctor.
Back in his own body, The Master apologises to the guards”he ” hurt in his escape attempt. He is later transferred to another facility on the coast.
Mike visits Jo in her room. They discuss The Doctor, who has been acting strangely all day. He has seemed angry at everyone, calling them”blind”. Mike tells Jo that before The Doctor became so angry he apologised to him. She is thrilled.
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The Switching was the seventh short story in the Short Trips anthology Short Trips: Zodiac. It was written by Simon Guerrier. It featured the
Mikeasks Jo out on a date. (The Curse of Peladon)
While in The Doctor’s body,The Master changes the internal configuration of his TARDIS. (The Time Monster)
After being returned to his own body, The Master borrows a bookon the Magna Carta from the Fortress Island prison library. (The King’s Demons)
The Master drinks his tea black, surprising theBrigadier,who knows The Doctor takes milk and sugar.
The Doctor has been using the time rotor casing of the TARDISas a waste bin.
In his last incarnation, The Master would twice attempt to steal The Doctor’s body in order to gain access to his remaining regenerations. (The Two Masters,The TV Movie)
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