The Doctor discovers a starship trapped in a time warp over Earth. Meanwhile, public schoolboy - and secret alien émigré, Turlough, learns he can have that which he most desires, in return for the murder of the Doctor...

The TARDIS lands on Earth six years out of date, stranding the Doctor in 1983 while leaving Tegan and Nyssa to look for him in 1977. Both parties also encounter former companion, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, though curiously, he has no memory of the Doctor at all.

Mawdryn and his eternal mutants reveal the truth: they are exiles, they are in pain and need the Doctor's future 'lives', as afforded by each of his remaining regenerations.

As the Doctor's ethics are challenged and the two Brigadiers finally meet, Turlough plots with the Black Guardian to bring the Time Lord down once and for all...