Dialogue Disasters, scene 4

Barbara kept an eye on Ian as they walked up the hill. He was obviously tense, and was walking at an almost funereal pace, delaying their return to the picnic site. She didn't want to say anything while they were with Vicki; but the girl was unusually quiet, and Barbara wondered if she might have noticed the change in Ian's manner too.

Was she worrying about nothing? It was an aspect of her personality that came to the fore all too frequently, she knew; her mother had commented on it often enough. "I wish you could just relax," she'd say. It did happen, sometimes - after a week or so in the villa near Rome, for example - but it just wasn't something that came easily to her.

Tyron had seemed so promising when they first arrived, and in truth there still wasn't anything wrong with the world; but perhaps they brought their own troubles with them. She remembered first stepping out of the TARDIS into the warm air, smelling the perfume of the flowers and listening to the chittering of the insects. There were no birds, but the smaller creatures made just as much noise, creating a pleasant backdrop of sound.

The TARDIS had landed at the edge of a wood, in a broad, grassy valley. "It's beautiful!" Vicki had exclaimed, turning slowly round and round. "Everything's so bright and fresh!"

Ian was more focused on the feature that did the most to make the landscape look alien. "Doctor, look at the stones. There's a pattern to how they are arranged, but I can't quite figure it out."

"Indeed. Definitely a sign of intelligent life, I would say. We should investigate further."

Of course, they had. The stones were regular, about five feet high and almost as broad at their widest point. They had oval bases, tapering to a curved peak a hand's breadth across. Barbara was reminded of gravestones, but it didn't feel like a cemetery; and the stones were free of markings other than those caused by erosion from the wind and rain. The arrangement was puzzling; there were no straight lines, but each seemed to be about twelve yards from its nearest neighbours. As she looked around, she noticed an isolated hill not too far away.

"Ian," she called, "why don't we climb that hill? We might get a better sense of the pattern from a higher vantage point."

"Good idea. Doctor! Vicki!"

And so they had gone together, walking through the long blue-green grass, like a perfectly normal family on a day out in the country. Vicki chatted excitedly, Ian had a spring in his step, the Doctor kept stopping to examine things; all was well. The hill was steeper than it had looked from a distance, and higher, too; but with some huffing and puffing from the Doctor they made their way to the top, and looked down on the valley below.

"Sunflowers!" exclaimed Barbara, suddenly. The others looked at her. "The stones are like the seeds of a sunflower, arranged in opposing spirals."

"Of course!" Ian looked as if he were kicking himself for not thinking of it. "Based on the Fibonacci sequence. the number of spirals in a sunflower winding in each direction always matches a pair of consecutive numbers in the sequence - 13 and 21, for instance. Here the lower number is" - he paused to count - "34, so the higher must be-"

"55," interposed Vicki. "I remember Fibonacci; we covered that when I was six, I think. After the first two numbers, 1 and 2, each is the sum of the previous two in the sequence. So it goes 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55..."

"Thank you, Vicki, that's impressive." Ian looked both amused and surprised.

"There's another neat thing about it. As you go up the sequence, the fraction you get from pairs of numbers - 34/55ths with these stones, for example - gets closer and closer to the Golden Ratio. Which crops up in all sorts of places. You can find it in art, music, nature..."

"Yes, yes, thank you, child." The Doctor, as usual, was impatient with people explaining what he already knew; Barbara had been quite enjoying the reminder, since her maths was a bit rusty. "That's all very good, but does it explain why these stones are as they are, hmm?"

Barbara was getting a little bored with the focus on the stones. "Perhaps we could let you mull that over, Doctor, while we took a bit more of a look around? It's a lovely day, and it seems a shame to waste it."

Vicki was instantly energised. "Yes, let's explore!" She took another look around, this time paying more attention to the landscape than the stones. "Isn't that a lake over there, around the bend in the valley? I think I can see the light reflecting on water." She turned to Barbara. "Can we go for a swim? Please?"

So it had been decided, and they had all traipsed back to the ship to pick up some supplies before heading off for the lake. Barbara had hesitated when Ian suggested a picnic - they hadn't had much luck with them on previous trips - but Ian was logical and Vicki enthusiastic, so she quickly gave in.

And now, here they were, wet but warm; almost back at their picnic spot. She hoped she'd dialled the right codes on the food machine.

The Doctor was still reading, but he put his book down and sat up when he saw the others coming. "Chesterton, my boy, is something the matter?"

"Well, I-" Ian began, but the Doctor didn't give him a chance to continue as he turned to Vicki.

"Goodness, child, look at you, all soaking wet. You need to put on something dry, before you catch your death of cold."

Vicki smiled indulgently. "I'm fine, Doctor. It's a lovely warm day, and in this sun I'll be dry in no time."

The Doctor's mood darkened. "You'll do as you're told, young lady, and no more arguing with your elders! Honestly, I don't know what your father taught you, but it certainly wasn't how to behave!"

Vicki looked as if she'd been slapped; Ian stepped in to defend her. "Doctor, you can't-"

"Oh, do shut up, Chessington! It's quite clear to me that what she needs is some proper discipline. You and Miss Wright have been using the death of her father on Dido as an excuse to indulge poor behaviour for far too long. She should be over that by now, but she's spoilt; soon she'll be complaining because there are no animals on Tyron large enough for her to saddle with a stupid nickname."

With a cry, Vicki turned and ran off, face in her hands. Barbara glared at the old man. "You've gone too far this time, Doctor. I'm going after her, but don't think I'm just going to let this lie."

As she set off, she heard Ian behind her. "I don't care what you say to me, but that's no way to treat a young girl. We're going back to the ship; think about what you've said, and when you're ready to behave like a human being again and apologise to Vicki come and join us. Not before. Understand?"

And then they were gone, leaving the old man to his thoughts.

Next Time:
The final scene of this episode.