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A story for the Fifth Doctor, Turlough, Nyssa, and Tegan Jovanka, taking place between Mawdryn Undead and Terminus. Written by Jenny T. Colgan, and read by Mark Strickson.
Turlough has joined the TARDIS — the snake in the orchard — and is trying, with limited success, to gain the others' trust.
But when they land in the Gardens of the Dead, the whole team — Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough — will have to join forces and fight together to keep the Doctor safe. And discover what is behind the very last door in the TARDIS.
Gardens of the Dead contains examples of:
- Beneath the Mask: Turlough has a very brief glimpse of the pain and loss the Doctor carries around with him, both on his face and in the graveyard he finds in the TARDIS.
- Call-Back:
- Taking place almost immediately after "Mawdryn Undead", there are several references to the events of that story, and the Black Guardian continues to pressure Turlough into trying to kill the Doctor.
- Nyssa tells Turlough about her father being taken over by The Master.
- Chekhov's Gun: Of all things, Turlough's bottle of water.
- Easy Amnesia: Due to the Black Guardian's psychic attack, Turlough accidentally lets slip his plans to kill the Doctor in front of Nyssa. She runs to tell Tegan and the Doctor, but falls and hits her head on a gravestone, and conveniently loses all memory of this adventure.
- Kill It with Water: The psychic dust can only be stopped by pouring water on it, turning it to mud and halting its advance.
- Minion with an F in Evil: Carrying on from "Mawdryn Undead", Turlough proves remarkably incompetent at dispatching the Doctor, and very reluctant to even try.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Poor Nyssa is so good that she sticks to the clearly labelled path even when fleeing a presumed murderer, and it leads directly to her Tap on the Head moment.
- Older and Wiser: This story is narrated by an older Turlough who claims he has become this, even being considered downright respectable.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The titular Gardens feature psychic dust that form a ghostly recreation of a person's deceased loved ones.
- Pragmatic Hero: Unlike Nyssa, Turlough has no issue with trampling over graves and leapfrogging headstones to reach his target before she does.
- Properly Paranoid: Tegan is the only one of the three regular TARDIS crew still suspicious of Turlough and his motives. In his narration, Turlough says that he can't really be annoyed with her for this, since she is completely right about him being (reluctantly) up to no good.
- Psychic Link: The Black Guardian continues to berate Turlough through this, and his narration reveals that it physically hurts him.
- Spanner in the Works: The Gardens of the Dead is meant to be a peaceful, harmless place, but thanks to the Black Guardian putting a parasite in the TARDIS, everything quickly goes horribly wrong.
- Stepford Smiler: Turlough notes the Doctor's efforts to remain constantly chipper despite all his losses.
- Unrequited Love Lasts Forever: It's strongly implied that Turlough holds a candle for Nyssa into his old age. This makes a bit more sense when taking into account all the adventures he shared with an older Nyssa who rejoined the TARDIS in "Cobwebs", as opposed to the few lines they spoke to each other before she initially left in "Terminus".
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Tegan and Turlough waste no time establishing what will become their regular dynamic, though at this early stage there is much more "vitriol" than "best buds" going on. The TARDIS only arrives at the Gardens because Turlough messed around with the console to annoy Tegan, and they both snipe and stick their tongues out at each other throughout the story. Turlough notes that he actually appreciates Tegan's blunt nature, and says that if it weren't for the arguing they would probably get along much better.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: In-universe, Turlough puts on an incredibly broad and exaggerated Australian accent to mimic Tegan and annoy her, and he continues using it when narrating her regular dialogue.
