Doctor Who BBCN17 - Sick Building by Doctor Who

the feet of the snow beast.
    ‘Yeeessss!’ hissed the Doctor, and realised that he had finished the fast bit of the song, and it was time for the slower, reflective, sad bit at the end. He was joined by Barbara and Toaster and they came to watch the massive creature feed.
    ‘It’s completely forgotten us,’ Toaster gasped.
    ‘Thank Domovoi and the food machine,’ Barbara said. ‘But I think that was everything! Years and years of foodstuffs, gone in a flash.’
    ‘It won’t be needed by anyone else,’ said the Doctor grimly. Then he whirled to hug Barbara. His arms could barely go round her oblong girth. ‘Now! Life signs! Where are the Tiermanns and my friend Martha?’
    Barbara consulted the Dreamhome’s flickering web of information and she knew in a flash. ‘Drawing room. Sealed in behind emergency screens.’
    The Doctor was already leading the way. ‘Tell them to let us in, right now! I want a word or two with Professor Tiermann!’
    They left without the creature even noticing, so intent was it on gnawing and sucking up the sticky juices.
    It took some moments to persuade Tiermann to unlock the heavy door screens to the drawing room. But his family and Martha had watched the Doctor’s strangely musical struggle with the snow beast on the monitor screen. They knew it was quite safe to open the door long enough to let him in. Tiermann scowled at them all and the door flew open.
    The Doctor sprang into the room and Martha hugged him. ‘Come on, come in,’ he told his two robot friends. ‘Don’t be shy.’
    Barbara and Toaster looked quite abashed, showing their faces before their inventor once more. They shuffled awkwardly into the room. The Doctor dashed over to them. ‘These are my friends, Barbara and Toaster. And they were the ones who got me out of the depths of Level Minus Thirty-Nine! Where they themselves had been 75

    locked up.’ He glowered at the professor. ‘That’s where he banged up anything unwanted.’
    Tiermann cursed. ‘What are you doing bringing old rubbish like that back up onto the surface? We don’t have time for things like that.’
    Barbara and Toaster looked mortified.
    ‘Now, now,’ said the Doctor mockingly, though Martha could hear the furious steel in his voice. ‘They are my friends, and I will take responsibility for them. No one expected you to care, Tiermann.’ He turned to Martha. ‘How are you doing? What’s been going on?’
    Martha ticked things off on her fingers. ‘They wouldn’t let me near the lifts. He’s set light to the grounds of the mansion, because the shields are failing. Some of the technology inside the house is breaking down, too. Oh, and, as you know, monsters are getting in from outside anyway.’
    ‘Sounds like you’ve been having a pretty exciting time of it,’ the Doctor grinned. ‘Meanwhile, I made some new friends, and I met the Domovoi.’
    ‘The what?’ Martha asked.
    Tiermann’s head whipped around. He was in the corner, letting Walter pour him a stiff drink. ‘You met what?’ he thundered, and stalked across the plush rug to confront the Doctor.
    ‘Yes, I thought that would make you listen,’ said the Doctor coolly.
    ‘My new friends took me even deeper into the house, and I met the Domovoi face to face. The central intelligence that controls this entire Dreamhome. Must say, Tiermann, that she’s an impressive piece of work.’
    Tiermann’s voice was dangerously low. ‘No one sees her. No one goes down there. Only me.’ There was something besides anger in his voice, Martha realised. What was it, now? She narrowed her eyes.
    Fear? Was that it? She saw that it was, in Tiermann’s ashen face and his bulging eyes. Tiermann was frightened of his own creation.
    ‘I talked with her,’ the Doctor told him breezily. He took the glass out of Tiermann’s hand, sniffed its contents, and tossed it away into the pot of a nearby rubber plant. ‘Awful synthetic stuff. Yee-ee-ees, we 76

    had quite a nice chat, really. I