a group of marshmen have carried the tardis to a cave, intending to use it as a battering ram to force their way into the starliner. romana decides to venture outside. she is bitten by a marshspider and starts to change, seeming possessed. adric panics and materialises the tardis inside the starliner. when the outlers emerge, the doctor pilots the tardis back to the cave, and finds an alert but amnesiac romana. the doctor scoops up the remains of a marshspider and then reverses his journey once more with adric and an unconscious romana in tow. by the time he is back in the starliner, however, dexeter has tried to examine the brain of the marshchild, provoking it to attack and kill him and itself. the doctor is furious, turning on the deciders and denounces their society – revealing secret ship controls that show the starliner has been ready to pilot from alzarius for centuries, but the farce of constant repair continued. the problem is that, though the deciders understand the technical construction of the ship, no one knows how to pilot it.