Timelash

141 – Timelash
Doctor Who serial
The face of the Borad
Cast
Doctor Colin Baker (Sixth Doctor)
Companion Nicola Bryant (Peri Brown)
Others Robert Ashby — The Borad Denis Carey — Old Man Paul Darrow — Tekker Eric Deacon — Mykros Neil Hallett — Maylin Renis Jeananne Crowley — Vena David Ashton — Kendron David Chandler — Herbert Tracy Louise Ward — Katz Peter Robert Scott — Brunner Dicken Ashworth — Sezon Steven Mackintosh — Gazak Christine Kavanagh — Aram Martin Gower — Tyheer/Bandril Ambassador Dean Hollingsworth — Android James Richardson — Guardolier
Production
Directed by	Pennant Roberts
Written by	Glen McCoy
Script editor	Eric Saward
Produced by	John Nathan-Turner
Executive producer(s)	None
Incidental music composer	Elizabeth Parker
Production code	6Y
Series	Season 22
Length	2 episodes, 45 minutes each
Originally broadcast	9 March–16 March 1985
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → The Two Doctors Revelation of the Daleks
List of Doctor Who serials

Timelash

Author	Glen McCoy
Cover artist	David McAllister
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	105
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	December 1985 (Hardback) 15 May 1986 (Paperback)
ISBN

Timelash is the fifth serial of the 22nd season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts from 9–16 March 1985.

The TARDIS is suddenly ensnared by a Kontron corridor (similar to a time corridor). After the Doctor tries unsuccessfully to free the ship, he and Peri strap themselves in, bracing themselves for the potentially disastrous occurrences. The TARDIS approaches the corridor, and is nearly torn apart by the impact but stabilises once it has entered the corridor, and is navigated to the source of the disturbance, the planet Karfel, a world which the Doctor has visited before.

On the planet Karfel the small population is ruled in a rigid hierarchy, at the apex of which is the Borad, a sadistic and despotic ruler. The Borad has never shown himself in person, only via security monitors which reveal him to be a dignified old man, but something in his manner does not ring true. Fear is enforced rigidly through the policing of androids; and all rebels are dealt with either by summary execution or despatch and death via the Timelash - a permanent, and ultimately fatal, exile down a corridor of Time and Space. Acting as a proxy for the Borad, the Maylin is the most senior of the five Counsellors of Karfel. One of them, Mykros, has grown unhappy with the rule of the Borad. Since the Borad came to power their people have become disillusioned, rebellious and miserable, and their former allies, the Bandrils, are posed to invade. The Bandrils threaten war after the Borad rescinds the grain supply treaty which underpinned the relationship between the two civilisations.

Mykros determines to discover the truth and follows the Maylin, Renis, into the Borad's power chamber. The unhappy Maylin is transferring the power supplies of the Karfelons into the Borad's personal system, despite the danger to his own wife, who is recovering from hospital surgery. Renis finds Mykros and gives him his blessing in rebellion. However, the Borad finds out and metes out the usual punishment: the Maylin is aged to death in a deadly beam while Mykros is sentenced to the Timelash. Before he can be sent in, however, Vena, Renis' daughter and Mykros' lover intervenes to plead for his life. When this fails, she steals an amulet conferring the power to pervert the energy supply from the new Maylin, the sycophantic Tekker, and accidentally falls into the web of the Timelash herself.