Doctor Who and an Unearthly Child

In the cave of skulls, the Doctor and his companions stood looking around them in despair. A hazardous escape, a long and dangerous journey, and now they were back where they had started, in this terrible cave with its piles of rotting skulls and its cloying stench of death.

Barbara saw the body of Old Mother at the back of the cave and gave a scream of horror. 'This place is evil,' she sobbed. 'Evil!'

'At least they haven't tied our hands this time. Well, Doctor, what do we do now? Got any bright ideas?'

The Doctor stood lost in thought, rubbing his chin. He looked up. 'As a matter of fact, young man - I have!'

Za and Hur were talking, standing by the flat stone in front of the great cave. Za was almost himself again by now. The claw marks on his arm and shoulder had stopped bleeding, and he was able to ignore them. His mind was full of questions.

'Tell me what happened after I fought with the beast in the forest.'

'You were stronger than the beast,' said Hur proudly. 'It took away your axe-head in its side. You lay on the earth, covered with the blood of the beast. I thought you were dead.'

'And the strangers? Tell me what they did!'

'The young man of their tribe came towards you. He did not kill you. He told me his name.'

'His name?'

'He said his name was Friend.'

'They must have come from the other side of the mountains,'

said Za thoughtfully.

'But nothing lives there.'

'So we thought. But I see that we were wrong. This new tribe comes from there. Tell me more of what happened. Tell me what the strangers did next.'

Hur frowned, struggling to remember. 'I did not understand them, Za. They moved slowly, and their faces were not fierce. They cared for your wounds, and carried you on their skins, as a mother carries her baby. Why did they not kill us, Za? We were their enemies. We made them captive.'

Za shrugged helplessly. 'They are a new tribe. They are not like us. Not like Kal's tribe either. Their minds hold strange thoughts.

The young one, the one called Friend, spoke strange words to us.'

'I do not remember.'

Za frowned with the effort of recollection. 'He said, "Kal is not stronger than the whole Tribe."'

'I do not understand.'

'It is a new thought,' said Za. 'But I understand. Except for me, Kal is the strongest warrior in the whole Tribe. And I was weak. But the whole Tribe drove Kal away with the stones. Even the old men and women, even the children, were stronger than Kal, together.'

Za wrestled with this new concept of co-operation. 'The whole Tribe can gather more fruit than one. The whole Tribe can kill the beasts in the forest, where just one hunter would die.'

'Their minds are not like ours,' agreed Hur. 'Perhaps they come from Orb. That is what the old men are saying. They say we must return them to Orb in sacrifice.'

'No, they come from a tribe across the mountains. They can make fire, but they do not want to tell us, because our Tribe would become as strong as theirs.'

'What will you do with the strangers, Za? Will you kill them?'

Za shook his head. 'Your father, Horg, says that the leader must know how to make fire. I do not wish to be driven into the forest, like Kal. I must learn to make fire. The strangers must teach me. Otherwise they will die.'

Za strode up and down for a moment, and then turned to Hur. 'I am going to speak with the strangers again.'

'Will you ask them to show you how to make fire?'

Za nodded. 'I shall ask them many things. I shall learn from their new thoughts. I want to hear more things that I can remember.'

He looked solemnly at Hur. 'A leader has many things to remember!'

Using his authority as leader, Za snatched an axe from the nearest Tribesman, and headed for the cave.

In the cave of skulls, Ian, working under the Doctor's instructions, was making a kind of bow with one of his shoe-laces and a bendy piece of wood, one of the branches at the back of the cave. A long thin piece of wood, like an arrow, was wrapped in the middle of the shoe-lace.

'I hope this works, Doctor,' said Ian. 'Sure you wouldn't like to have a go?'

'No, no, young man. I merely provided the theory. The practice calls for strong wrists and unending patience, and I have neither.'

Barbara looked at the apparatus in some puzzlement. 'I still don't see how you think you're going to make fire with some kind of toy bow and arrow.'

'Easy to see you're not a science teacher,' said Ian. 'Energy into heat, remember. The idea is, I rotate the arrow bit against a chunk of dry wood, very fast and for a very long time. All my hard work gets converted into heat - and with any luck, into fire.'

'I see. The proverbial rubbing two sticks together?'

'That's right. Any boy scout is supposed to be able to do it. I only hope I can!'

Susan appeared with a flat round stone with a hollow depression in the middle - a kind of natural bowl. 'Is this the sort of thing you want?'

'That'll do fine.'

'You'll need something very dry and tindery,' said Barbara.

'Dead leaves and old grass should do it.' She found a supply of both at the back of the cave. Carefully avoiding Old Mother's body, she carried them back.

'Good,' said Ian. 'Now, I put this bit of dry wood in the bowl, we pack the dry leaves and grass around it... so... and away we go!'

Ian stood the arrow in the bowl, point downwards, and held it in position with another piece of wood in his left hand. By moving the bow in his right hand backwards and forwards, he began turning the point of the arrow round and round on the flat piece of wood. He worked away steadily, and soon the point had formed a kind of groove. Round and round, moved the arrow on the piece of wood, but there was no sign of fire...

'It's no use you all standing over me,' said Ian irritably. 'It isn't going to burst into flames straight away you know. It'll probably take all night!'

Za marched up to the sentry he had left outside the second exit from the cave. 'I go in to speak with the strange tribe. If anyone but me comes out, you will kill them.'

The tribesman nodded and Za went into the tunnel.

In the hillside immediately above the exit, there was a ledge of rock. On it lay Kal. His eyes were blazing with hatred, and the stone knife was gripped tightly in his hand.

He looked hungrily down at the unsuspecting sentry - all that stood between him and his revenge.

11

The Firemaker

Despite Ian's protests, the others were still standing round him watching his efforts. As Barbara had remarked, there wasn't really a great deal else to do in the cave, and since all their lives depended on his efforts, they could scarcely be blamed for taking an interest.

'I think I can smell something,' said Susan suddenly.

'So can I,' agreed Barbara. 'A sort of scorching...'

'You're doing it!' said Susan excitedly. 'It's going to work!'

Ian's forehead was dripping with sweat, and his wrists felt as if they were on fire themselves. 'Not yet,' he grunted. 'Long way... to go... yet.'

Suddenly Za appeared from the back of the cave. 'What is this?

What are you doing?'

'We are making fire,' said the Doctor impressively.

('I like the "we",' thought Ian mutinously. 'Who's doing all the work?')