Llanfairfach Cavern is Wyn’s last story. They are back in Llanfairfach, but something has gone wrong. They are trapped in the cavern where Wyn and The Doctor began adventuring back in Dreigiau y Llanfairfach. The cavern is still exerting some influence. The TARDIS is damaged by it, and so is The Doctor. He is rapidly aging until he needs a wheelchair to sit up and direct Alec in the work of repairing the TARDIS.

This is the first time ‘fault locating’ has been used since the old days of Edge of Destruction and such stories where the big computer on the wall was used to monitor problems with the TARDIS. Obviously we do it a bit differently now, though. We call it diagnostics now, for a start.

The Doctor aging, is something that HAS been seen before on Doctor Who. Most famously, in Dalek Masterplan when The Doctor was affected along with Sara Kingdom by the Dalek Time Destructor, but he was able to return to his true age whereas Sara was killed by it. Much later, in The Leisure Hive, the Fourth Doctor suffered the same. Most significantly, though, we saw the Tenth Doctor aged twice in the 2007 series. In The Family of Blood we saw him aged naturally in a dream in which he chose a Human life instead of being a Time Lord, and later, in Sound of Drums/Last of The Time Lords, The Doctor is aged by The Master, and is kept in a wheelchair by him to torture him daily with his helplessness. The make up team produced two different versions of the aged Tenth Doctor. It would be interesting to see how they would manage this version.

With The Doctor helpless, the three companions had their roles to play. Alec, the engineer, was trying to mend the TARDIS, Jasmin, who was going to be a doctor, had to look after The Doctor. Wyn, who had proved her courage all along, had to save the day by getting help. And she does so. In a form they never expected. Of course, this date had been pre-arranged when Wyn came to travel with Ten after starting with Nine. So it wasn’t a total surprise that the Ninth Doctor and HIS TARDIS was around. A debt is repaid after Ten had saved Nine’s life in the Unfinished Business story “Ten” which launched Wyn’s relationship with Ten.

And that wrapped it up. For NOW. I had already an idea about bringing Wyn back at a later date. But at the time nothing was written.

http://www.pearsecom.co.uk/Ten/01dreigau.htm

http://www.pearsecom.co.uk/doctorwho/65Ten.htm