Parts: 4
Writer: David Fisher
Airdates: 27 October 1979 - 17 November 1979
Production Code: 5G

Doctor: fourth
Companions: the second Romana, K-9 mark two

Megalomaniac of the Week: Lady Adrasta
Creature Feature: Erato

Story: A distress call hauls the TARDIS to the lush but metal-deficient planet of Chloris. No sooner have the Doctor and Romana stepped out onto the verdant surface than they encounter a mystery - an enormous object like a broken eggshell, from which the distress call is being sent. Unfortunately for the Doctor and Romana, the eggshell is in an area called the Place of Death, and they are soon ambushed by Wolfweeds and escorted to the court of Lady Adrasta.

The Doctor is alarmed when Romana is snatched by bandits, but the Lady Adrasta is unconcerned. She is more interested in what the Doctor knows about the "eggshell", because her scientists have been unable to offer her much information. When the Doctor informs her that the object seems to be alive, she orders one of her incompetent engineers killed for not having told her this earlier. As the Doctor watches, the engineer is thrown into the evocatively-named Pit to be eaten alive.

Deciding that something is being withheld, the Doctor jumps into the Pit to find out the truth for himself. Adrasta's greed has caused her to conceal a secret that she never wants discovered, and she intends to make certain that the Doctor never does. Between the deadly Creature that lives in the Pit, Adrasta's murderous determination and the unforseen consequences of her actions, not only the Doctor may die - the entire planet of Chloris will be threatened with destruction as well.