It is 1933 and we are introduced here to a thief named Lucas Seyton. He has absconded with "Madonna and Child" by Reubens and he manages to outwit the aptly named Constable Sharpless while making his escape. Traipsing back to his domicile, he hears a kerfuffle coming from an alley which he dutifully investigates.
He discovers the Doctor being accosted by a trio of men who turn out to actually be robots. Seyton is able to dispatch with one of them causing the others to beat a hasty retreat. The hero of the hour leaves his calling card on the busted robot - "The Fallen Angel". Back at his rescuer's place, the Doctor explains that he and his companions "appeared" in a house that is guarded by those robots. It is their duty to keep the prisoners in and kill anyone who dares enter from without. The Doctor had managed to escape but he must return to find Jamie and Zoe.
Seyton, it turns out, is no petty thief. Instead he is a real life Dennis Moore, er, Robin Hood. Well, kind of. To atone for the past sins of his family who got rich off the backs of others, he steals things from his fellow aristocrats, sells them, and gives the proceeds to the poor.
After hearing the Doctor's tale of woe, Seyton volunteers to help this peculiar man find his companions and enlists the help of a friend, Ketters, who flies them to the prison/house in a Sopwith Camel or some such type of plane. Robots are sent on an intercept course and a dogfight, of sorts, ensues with one of the robots being destroyed and the plane meeting a fiery end but not before the Doctor and Seyton are able to abandon ship, so to speak. Ketters, however, met a different and less salubrious fate.
The Doctor and Seyton make it to the house and breach the entrance by using an electronic pass that they recover from the robot that was downed in the dogfight. They find that the prisoners are dead, having killed one another, but that Jamie and Zoe are still alive. However, escape will not be easy as a rather nasty metal guard spider confronts them. Just as things are looking grim, the spider is destroyed by shots from none other than Ketters who managed to survive after all.
Since the house was a high tech prison on Earth, it was outfitted with a mechanism that wipes the memories of people who stumble upon the place and they forget that they ever did within a few hours. And so Seyton is deprived of his memories of this adventure.
Andy Lane is a fine writer of Doctor Who novels and this excursion into short story territory is quite good. Seyton is a fun character. He's flippant, quotes Winnie-the-Pooh, and takes the bizarre in stride. I don't think we ever get a detailed explanation of the prison but the Doctor does say he had a hand in its creation. For instance, he programmed the guards.
Just a fun little adventure that made me wish I'd run into Lucas Seyton again.
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