Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders

Epilogue
An End and a Beginning
Sarah Jane Smith stood and looked round the Doctor’s
laboratory. You could tell he wasn’t there, she thought, by the
fact that the place was so abnormally tidy: all the tangles of
equipment cleared away, laboratory benches bare and polished
stools ranged neatly along the wall. Perhaps the most noticeable
change of all was the empty space in the corner where the
TARDIS usually stood. One of the Doctor’s old cloaks hung from
the peg behind the door. Sarah held it to her cheek for a
moment, then turned away.
Beside her the Brigadier cleared his throat. ‘Like to keep the
place standing by, you know. Just in case the old fellow turns up
to use it.’
Sarah said ‘He’s been gone for over three weeks now.’
‘That’s nothing,’ said the Brigadier stoutly. ‘After the first
time I met him, we didn’t meet again for some years. And then
he turned up with a completely different face.’ The Brigadier
still sounded a little aggrieved.
‘He knew if he went back there he’d destroy himself,’ Sarah
went on bleakly. ‘We might as well face it, Brigadier, we’ll never
see him again.’
The Brigadier made no comment. He didn’t really know
what had happened to the Doctor and Sarah on Metebelis
Three, and didn’t see much point in finding out. He’d paid a
lightning visit to the monastery, when it was all over, and found
Yates and Sarah badly shaken and four chaps with complete
nervous breakdowns who’d had to be carted off in ambulances.
A man called Lupton was missing. There was also some story
about the Abbot disappearing, but since no one seemed very