Tom Baker, regarded by many as being the definitive Doctor Who, narrates this novelization based on a serial from the original TV series. Why do so many spaceships crash-land on Karn, a bleak, lonely and seemingly deserted planet? Are they doomed by the mysterious powers of the strange, black-robed Sisterhood, jealously guarding their secret of eternal life? Or does the mad Dr. Solon, for some evil purpose of his own, need the bodies of the victims - and more especially, the body of Doctor Who?

For many thousands of years the Suthekh had waited, trapped in the heart of an Egyptian Pyramid. Now at last the moment of release, when all the force of his pent-up malice would be unleashed upon the world, had come. The TARDIS lands on the site of Unit headquarters in the year 1911, and the Doctor and Sarah emerge to fight a terrifying and deadly battle.