Peter Purves

It's the start of August 1916, and war is raging on the battlefields of France. In the front line trenches, British soldiers are vanishing without trace. Captain Mark Steadman witnesses one of his comrades being pulled down beneath the mud, and realises that something is terribly wrong.

When three civilians and a large blue box arrive on the scene, Steadman finds himself helping in their enquiries. The Doctor declares that something has gone wrong with the timeline of the War; the Battle of the Somme should have already begun, yet there is no sign of it. He demands an audience with Field Marshall Haig! A crater in no-man's land reveals the grisly horror of the missing men's fate, and brings the Doctor and his friends into terrible danger. There are forces at work here which even he can't fully comprehend.

Peter Purves reads this gripping classic novelisation of a TV adventure featuring the First Doctor and his companions Steven and Dodo. 

Landing on a distant planet, the Doctor confidently announces to his companions that the TARDIS has brought them to an age of great advancement, peace and prosperity. The Doctor's calculations seem to be confirmed when the travellers are greeted by Jano and the Elders, who take them on a tour of their city - a haven of beauty, harmony and friendship, set in a wilderness inhabited by tribes of savages. But the security of the city is founded on one deadly and appalling secret. Soon the Doctor and his friends discover that is not only outside the city walls that savages dwell...