SLIPPING FORWARD INTO THE DISTANT FUTURE, the TARDIS arrives in the Veruna system, where some of the last remnants of humanity have sought refuge following the destruction of Earth. Landing on the planet Frontios, the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough find a beleaguered and failing human colony. Forty years previously, the colonists’ ship had crashed there, stranding them with little technology or means of support beyond subsistence farming.