The beach was deserted. The shale on the shore had not enticed anyone out to see the sea. The weather didn't help, overcast and gloomy.

"So, this is Florana, then?"

"No, Sarah, not quite. Or at least, it's not a part of the planet I'm familiar with."

The TARDIS had pitched down on the edge of a small cliff, and Sarah had been less than thrilled to step out, slip through the grass, and roll ten feet to the ground.

The Doctor had apologised as he picked her up, but she smiled politely to show she understood it wasn't his fault.

As they walked along the beach, they saw a waterfall looming large, and it seemed as well a place to aim for as any, so they did.

***

"Damn you, Silbas, I've had all I can take from you!"

"Lusall, you must believe that I love you, I'd never do anything to hurt you!"

"Oh, sure! You're practically in that harlot's stockings!" She pointed at the alluring middle-aged woman stood at Silbas' shoulder. "What a fool I've been!"

"No, Lusall, don't!"

***

Sarah saw the movement first. A black shape at the cliff-top.

"Doctor, look!"

As they both watched, the black shape, moved over the edge.

"She'll be smashed by those rocks!" The Doctor was displaying his usual flair for alarming speeds. Quite what he expected to achieve, Sarah could barely guess, but she ran after him because she knew he might need her help.

***

"Well, Volupa, I hope you're satisfied now."

She patted Silbas on the shoulder. "Satisfied? We'll see." Then she seemed to glance away into the evening sky.

***

What Sarah took to be the sound of an incoming helicopter grew louder and louder, and finally she realised there was an enormous black shape in the sky. It was aiming a light at the waterfall. Search and Rescue, presumably.

With this encouragement, she pushed herself on, even though her heart was pounding, and her lungs heaving.

***

The base of the waterfall was crystal clear, and the Doctor stared around in desperation. The body (because he thought it looked most like a body as it fell) would have to be around there somewhere, but he couldn't see it.

Looking back, he heard the noise, and saw the incoming vehicle. The light was almost blinding, and he had to shield his eyes to reorient them from the glare.

Whilst he did this, he heard a splash, and as he turned back, he saw the black shape in the water. It was a body, floating now face down. Miraculously, they had made it down in one piece, but the shock would have knocked them unconscious.

Without wasting any more time, he shook off his jacket, kicked off his shoes, and dived headlong into the water.

***

Silbas was gobsmacked. He had been to this waterfall several times throughout his life, since first being brought as a small child, but he had never known there was a pathway down the cliff.

Volupa, however, was slinking down this path in what seemed to him to be an unnatural turn of speed.

"Wait, surely there's nothing we can do for her now?"

"Don't despair, Silbas, help may be at hand! Look over there!"

He followed the aim of her arm, and gasped to see the mighty airship hovering close to the waterfall. Were they really there to save dear Lusall?

Realising Volupa was nearly out of sight, and unsure of the path, he began to dash after her, even though the ground was a little slippery.

***

As Sarah arrived, she saw the Doctor carrying a woman's body in his arms. He looked grim as he placed her on the ground. Seeing Sarah arrive, he gave a gloomy shake of his head, although he still went into the process for artificial respiration.

After only a few moments, the unconscious woman coughed and spluttered, and said "Oh, what happened to me?"

"I'm not sure. You've had a very lucky escape, that was a terrible fall..." His voice tailed off as he noticed the woman open an eye sharply.

"Who the hell are you?" she asked.

"Well, I'm the Doctor, and this is Sarah Jane. We saw you fall-"

The woman sat up, looking around with an oddly angry expression. "Where has that pack of morons got to? Honestly, I'll never dive so well a second time..."

Sarah was about to ask something, but the Doctor caught her eye, and shook his head. He stood back.

***

"She's alive!"

Volupa stumbled, cursing as she did so. Looking back, she saw Silbas looking down at something on the ground. It couldn't be Lusall, she wasn't supposed...

But it was Lusall. And she was clearly not alone.

***

The sound of stomping boots approaching added another layer of mystery. The Doctor signalled that Sarah should come over to stand by him.

The woman he had rescued remained on the ground in a sitting position, although they could see her shoulders beginning to tense already.

There were five of them, some carrying guns, others carrying huge cameras. Their leader carried nothing. The mark of his command, thought the Doctor.

"About time, where the hell have you been?" For a woman freshly saved from drowning, she seemed in sharp mood.

"We got here as fast as we could. When we saw you pulled out of the water, we switched off the cameras straight away."

"Oh, marvellous!" She stood up, the need for charade over.

"Doctor, what's going on here?"

"Well, Sarah Jane, I think we've made a mistake. Well, I did." He corrected himself when he saw her gasp.

***

Silbas was baffled.

Suddenly, a pack of the King's troops had marched over to where Lusall lay, and then she simply got up, and walked back towards the falls.

"How can she not have been hurt?" he asked.

Volupa was frowning at him. "Come on, my love, we must go back up top, there will be a better view of things from there."

"A better view of things? I don't understand you."

She sighed, shaking her head, then clicked open her brooch. Then she spoke into it. "Cameras off, yeah? Going for another take, sure, I guessed so... I think we might have a problem though... Uh huh... alright, get the stand-in ready to meet me at the top." Then she pressed the centre of the brooch, and it seemed to change colour.

"What is going on? I must go down, Lusall needs me!"

"You know, Silbas, I said they shouldn't have used you. They wanted the verisimilitude, but I could just see something going askew. Now, you're worthless, aren't you?"

He was now gaping speechless. She leaned in close, and he found himself transfixed by the low cut of her dress. As she kissed him, he began to wonder what it was that he was so worried about.

Then she patted the back of his neck, and he slipped unconscious.

***

The Doctor and Sarah stood with their arms raised.

"You two morons have cost us a fortune in wasted film! I'd have you both shot if it wasn't a waste of ammunition!"

"Well, let us go back to our ship, and we'll say no more about it."

"Bloody tourists! You come here, leech our public services, spend a pittance, then bunk off back to the outer galaxies, and leave us to clear up your mess! You make me puke!"

"Yes, I see that. Had we known you were faking a suicide to make a film, we'd have kept well away."

"They what?" Sarah gasped as she realised the truth of the Doctor's accusation. "You mean, she wasn't drowning?"

"Of course not. That's why I couldn't see her land. She jumped in when my back was turned. I must say, she must be an incredible gymnast."

"Oh, wise to our secrets, eh? Little bit of industrial espionage?"

"For heaven's sake, man! How can it be..." The Doctor broke off, mouth agape. "No, that would be..." His eyes followed the woman as she trudged up the mountainside.

Further up, he saw a large shape thrown into the waterfall.

"No!" But as he rushed forward, two rough arms held him back, and he could only stare as the shape plummeted into the water.

***

Back on the mountain top, Volupa was busy running through her paces.

"It's a bloody joke, this!"

She turned as she saw Lusall walk back onto the mountain top. "What happened, dear?"

"These two idiots turned up and pulled me out of the water. They thought I'd thrown myself to my death... hah!"

"Oh, people will meddle, won't they?"

"Where's Silbas?"

"He's been replaced. He couldn't accept you were safe, and so I dealt with him. Jeklim here is his replacement."

Lusall clapped eyes on the hunky replacement. "Won't he look a little too unordinary for the plot to work?"

"I don't think they care now. They just want a proper shot, all-in-one-take. Then we count our paycheck."

"Hmmm... can't really argue with that."

***

The body had been pulled out of the water, and the Doctor insisted on trying to resuscitate, but it was no use.

As Sarah wiped the tears, she realised that the troops had gone back to their helicopter. "So what was wrong with him?"

The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck, then looked back toward the summit. "I suspect he didn't fit in with their plans. So they dumped him. It's despicable."

Sarah closed the dead man's eyes. "So, this is the lengths some people will go to... it's horrible."

"It's murder, Sarah." He was still staring at the mountain top. "Murder."

***

"Damn you, Silbas, I've had all I can take from you!"

"Lusall, you must believe that I love you, I'd never do anything to hurt you!"

"Oh, sure! You're practically in that harlot's stockings!" She pointed at the alluring middle-aged woman stood at Silbas' shoulder. "What a fool I've been!"

"No, Lusall, don't!"

***

Sarah gasped as she saw the black shape fall, although this time she saw what they had missed the first time.

The woman seemed to fall, and presumably the camera was focussing on the people at the mountain top, and their slow descent. Meanwhile, a second helicopter appeared, and landed at the base of the mountain, with the troops jumping out.

She almost missed the splash, as the woman reappeared from wherever she had safely landed. Then she dived from a safer distance, landing in the water.

The troops broke up into a smaller team, with three of them pulling her out of the water. They had a black stretcher which folded out, and they placed her on it, walking her into the helicopter.

Meanwhile, the people from the mountain top finally arrived. A man and a woman. He was distraught that his wife had thrown herself to her death, because of her discovery of his infidelity with the frowsy trollop stood behind him.

The troop leader reassured the man that his wife would be alright, and offered him a place in the 'copter. He looked back at his mistress, then took up the offer.

As the helicopter closed its doors, the mistress sank to her knees, crying. Jane Fonda couldn't have overdone it better.

Then the helicopter took off.

Suddenly, she saw the Doctor walking back towards her. Where had he gone to?

***

"Well, gentlemen."

The troop leader and Jeklim looked at each other in bafflement. "What the-! I should have shot that jerk when I had the chance!"

"I appreciate your little coup de theatre, gentlemen, but your attitudes to other people is abhorrent. You casually kill your own kind, and display ruthless intolerance to other species. I cannot allow you to carry on with this game of yours. I have calculated the location of your transmitter satellite, and sent a carrier wave that should render it useless." The sound was coming from a tape recording. The troop leader shot at it.

He hit the controls, and the explosion knocked out the pilot.

***

When they realised what was going to happen, Sarah shielded her eyes. But the Doctor just stared, sensing that a senseless murder was about to be avenged.

The helicopter ploughed straight into the waterfall, exploding in a mushroom of flame.

"Well, they won't be pulling that little stunt again. Come along, Sarah Jane."

"Doctor... how...?"

He looked down at her, his face grim. Then he set off walking, back to the TARDIS.

Sarah looked back at the wreckage, and at the so-called mistress, who was frantically tapping her chest, for some reason.

She wanted to stay, to help.

But she looked down at the dead man, whose story she didn't quite understand, but who had been a victim of a senseless media trick.

Then she, too, walked away, back toward the TARDIS.