he first incident that comes to people's minds is the disappearance of the Spanish fishing-trawler "Catalina" after it was chased from the waters off Newfoundland by the Canadian warship "Leacock". Most notorious was the loss with all hands of the 500,000 ton dead-weight oil-tanker "Juan Valdez" off Cornwall - environmentalists were perplexed and dismayed to find not so much as a single drip of crude with which to tarnish the consciences of the world's motorists. The press soon coined the term "Dulse Oblong", which suggested an area o maritime mystery in the North Atlantic encompassing those areas in which people eat seaweed. However, when a police box fell out of the sky and into the sea between Scotland and Ireland, the mystery was close to being solved.

 

Agent Alfie Leighton slipped on the bubbly weed that carpeted his cavern-home, wiped the condensation from his "Joe 90" spectacles with a snotty-hanky, munched on a cold pork-pie that he kept in the pocket of his raincoat, and envied his comrade and rival, James Steed, who got the glamorous jobs with fast cars and gorgeous girls, battling power-mad enemies, not bleeding anemones. He stuffed the pie back in his coat and went back in the cave. A humming noise in the air told him they were here. He reached into a crevice in the scaly cavern wall and pulled out a telescopic sight.

 

uch a warping of space-time suggests an irregular gravitational field in this area, grandfather,' said the girl with the pony tail and anorak.

 

'I fear you are right, Susie.' replied the silver-haired scientists Dr. Who. Their TARDIS had been plucked from the ninth-dimension and deposited in the North Channel by a strange force. Safely washed ashore by the tide, they had decided to explore this land in search of an explanation. 'Keep peddling my dear. Phew.' Their mode of transport was a two-seater tricycle the Doctor had acquired on the Isle of Wight in 1881. 'When we reach the top of this hill, we'll get a better idea of where we are.'

 

The day was warm and sunny, and yet the going seemed to Susie to be getting lighter.

 

'Grandfather, do you think this is one of those magnetic hills? Maybe this is what effected the TARDIS?'

 

'Now, Susie, you and I know that the so-called 'electric-hill' is an optical illusion, but I do agree, my child, that less work seems to be required to ascend this hill. Most strange.'

 

Strange indeed, for as they approached the hump of the hill, a terrifying sight stepped out from behind a boulder to confront them.

 

'Zarbi!' exclaimed Dr. Who.