The one with the Space Whale Aesop. Only literally, this time.
Deep space in the distant future, and Captain Greeg and his crew are hunting mile-long Space Whales on a vast harvesting ship. By pure accident, they also capture the TARDIS.
The Doctor and Peri must use all their wits to survive. But what is the creature running loose in the ship's bowels? And can the Doctor save Megaptera before its song is extinguished forever?
Written by Pat Mills, of Judge Dredd and Charley's War fame. It was originally pitched (by Mills and his 2000 AD comrade John Wagner) for Tom Baker, and was later nearly Turlough's introductory episode before being shelved.
Tropes:
- AI Is A Crap Shoot: After encountering the Doctor, the Factory Ship's computer is briefly very sensitive and hippy-like before adopting a violent gamer personality.
- Applied Phlebotinum: Dark matter and tachyons are somehow part of the space whale's biology and give it the ability to 'dive' below the event horizon.
- Butt-Monkey: Peri, yet again. She is chased by spaceship crew through the worst parts of the Factory Ship, first to find a hideously killed crew member, then slashed and infected by a fungal alien, made delirious from the subsequent medical treatment, made delirious again by a TARDIS safety system, and trapped inside a space whale by the loopy people living there.
- Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": The space whales are called Galeens. The 'Framily' call the one in this story 'Megaptera' which means 'giant wing' and is the genus name for the Humpback Whale on Earth.
- Classical Hunter: The Tuthon; time sensitive aliens who hunt the space whales but think of them as 'brothers' and ritually acknowledge their pain at the kill.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: The company's owners (unheard in the story) are blamed for the unscrupulous methods and deteriorating conditions on board the Factory Ship.
- Deadly Euphemism: Captain Greeg decides that the Doctor and Peri's deaths will be an unfortunate accident. Also, while the 'Framily' cordially invite any aliens they meet to live them, the crew of a Sontaran Battle Sphere apparently did not fit in and are absent with very little explanation...
- Fun with Acronyms: The Doctor claims to be from an environmental protection group called the Wildlife Interstellar Life Federation or WILF.
- Green Aesop: Even if there is an economic depression, don't hunt (giant time-travelling space-)whales and brutally chop them up, because it's cruel. So amusingly, it's got literal space whales but isn't a Space Whale Aesop.
- Immune to Bullets: Played with, regarding the Tuthon's fungal physiology. Standard issue laser blasts don't stop it but submachinegun bullets slow it down enough for capture. Later though we hear how tough it is as it expels the bullets from its body and rapidly recovers.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: The TARDIS now has a psychic safety system which prevents PTSD but leaves Peri a bit woozy.
- No Kill like Overkill: Captain Greeg's decision to destroy the TARDIS and occupants with all the industrial sized chopping and cutting machinery in the business end of his ship.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Doctor uses the time technology of the TARDIS to save the space whale from capture but this prevents it from being able to 'dive' into time to escape the subsequent pursuit.
- Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: Played with. The Chief Engineer is smart and technically adept but has what she calls 'hyperstition'. That is, she believes weird stuff happens when dark matter is involved.
- Punch-Clock Villains: Most of Captain Greeg's crew.
- Really 700 Years Old: The 'Framily', whose lifespans have been extended by proximity to the space whale's 'time core' organ.
- Those Two Guys: The Factory Ship's security guards. They aren't dim so much as disgruntled and unmotivated.
- Wacky Wayside Tribe: The 'Framily', a commune of odd sorts living inside the space whale, using spaceship wreckage as shelter.
