An unabridged reading of this novelisation of a classic 1984 TV adventure for the Fifth Doctor. Far into the future, the TARDIS hovers over the planet Frontios, refuge of survivors from Earth who escaped the disintegration of their home planet. The Doctor is reluctant to land, not wishing to intervene in a moment of historical crisis; the colonists are still struggling to establish themselves, and their continued existence hangs in the balance. When the TARDIS is forced to crash land by an apparent meteorite storm, however, the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are marooned on the hope-forsaken planet. And somewhere, beneath the surface, the Tractators are waiting...