"Doctor Who" Summaries in Four Words Quiz

Answer: Enlightenment

"Enlightenment" is the third in a trilogy of serials about the return of the Black Guardian, a villain from an earlier season. The Doctor and his companions find themselves on a ship in space in a race against other ships that resemble Earth ships, like yachts and triremes, and sail using solar wind.

The Eternals who race these ships are immortal, but unable to think for themselves or create anything like mortals can; the prize of Enlightenment will supposedly give the winner this ability.

Answer: The Mind Robber

The Doctor, Zoe, and Jamie fall into the Land of Fiction, where fictional characters are real and real people can become fictional. The only way for the Doctor to escape is to write fiction that ends in his triumph while being careful not to make Jamie, Zoe, and himself fictional in the process.

Answer: A Christmas Carol

The Doctor visits Kazran, an old miser, on the Christmases of his childhood to help him become a better person, thus reenacting the book "A Christmas Carol." At two points in the story, Kazran goes for a ride in a shark-drawn carriage through the skies of a city that resembles Victorian Britain but is located on another planet.

Answer: Genesis of the Daleks

"Genesis" sees the Doctor on a mission from the Time Lords to either destroy the Daleks at their creation or turn them into benign beings. The giant clam is one of Davros' experiments; Harry steps on it, and the Doctor fights it off. In the Victorian-set "The Talons of Weng-Chiang," the Doctor shoots a giant rat that attacks Leela.

This scene prompted Tom Baker to say that while the BBC could do costume dramas well, it couldn't do as well with giants rats.

Answer: Inferno

In this serial, the Doctor ends up in a parallel world where everyone is fascist, and the alternate Brigadier wears an eye-patch. He sees the end results of a project to pierce the Earth's crust: volcanoes erupt and burn the surface of the planet. While the Doctor can't save that world, he can try to return to his dimension to save his Earth from the same fate.

Answer: Gridlock

The Doctor and Martha go to New Earth and find out that the inhabitants are stuck underground in never-ending traffic; some of them have been there for over twenty years. They discover that the traffic jam is meant to save the people on the motorway from a deadly plague that struck the surface years ago. Macra, large crab beings, lurk at the bottom of the motorway, feeding off the gases of the flying cars.

Answer: The Enemy of the World

Troughton plays Salamander, a dictator who secretly manufactures natural disasters. In response, he helps the damaged countries rebuild, gaining power and prestige. The Doctor impersonates Salamander on several occasions to help remove him from power.

This isn't the first time that an actor who plays the Doctor also plays the villain: William Hartnell plays the Abbot of Amboise in "The Massacre." However, the Doctor does not impersonate the Abbot and is absent for most of the story.

Answer: Mindwarp

"Mindwarp" makes up parts 5-8 of the bigger serial "The Trial of a Time Lord," in which the Doctor is on trial for interfering with the affairs of other planets. Brian Blessed makes a guest appearance (his only appearance on the show) as King Yrcanos, a samurai-type warrior who makes a lot of grand gestures and shouts a lot.

As the character is a warrior king who's been experimented on mentally, Blessed's over-the-top performance makes sense within the story.

Answer: The Romans

The Doctor starts a small fire to distract Nero; Nero notices and thanks the Doctor for giving him the idea to burn Rome in order to rebuild it the way he wants it to be. While watching the city burn from afar, the Doctor laughs in amusement that he inspired the Great Fire of Rome.

The Doctor also starts the Great of Fire of London in "The Visitation" and contributes to the destruction of Pompeii in "The Fires of Pompeii."

Answer: The End of the World

In this story, the Doctor takes Rose to the Earth in the year 5 billion, just before the planet's destroyed. Cassandra O'Brien, the self-proclaimed last pure human, has had multiple plastic surgeries and resembles a trampoline; Rose even calls her such. Cassandra's just skin stretched over a frame, yet takes great pride in her humaneness.

Answer: The Sea Devils

The Master tries to help the Sea Devils, who dominated the world long before humans came along, retake the Earth. At the end of part two, the Doctor and the Master sword fight; the Doctor disarms the Master, holds him and sword-point, and eats the Master's sandwich, proclaiming that "violent exercise makes me hungry." The other answers also contain scenes where the Doctor sword fights.

Answer: Battlefield

Knights from another dimension come to Earth to do battle. Morgaine and Ancelyn recognize the Doctor as Merlin, not by his face, but by his manner. The Doctor had dealings with them in their past, which is in his future, so he doesn't know about them yet. He even receives a message from his future self about what he should do next.

Answer: The Deadly Assassin

Writer Robert Holmes introduces the Matrix, a virtual reality supercomputer that stores the memories of dead Time Lords and can predict events. It also appears in "Arc of Infinity" and "The Trial of a Time Lord." If killed in the Matrix, the person whose mind is connected to it dies, just like in the film "The Matrix," which came out in 1999. "The Deadly Assassin" came out in 1976 and features a corpse version of the Master framing the Doctor for murder; the Doctor must then go into the Matrix to find the real culprit.

Answer: Planet of Fire

The Master has come to the planet Sarn to restore himself to his original size after accidentally shrinking himself. The healing fires restore him at first, but quickly become deadly, and the Doctor watches while the Master supposedly burns to death. The Master reappears in the next season in "The Mark of the Rani" without explaining how he survived the flames.

Answer: Midnight

On the planet Midnight, the Doctor encounters a strange being that first repeats speech, then synchronizes, then steals the Doctor's voice completely, leaving him repeating its words. Unusually for a "Doctor Who" story, neither the characters nor the audience find out what the creature is or discover its motivation. We never even see its physical form, as it acts via possession.