The merciless Collector, who runs The Company, issues a bounty on the Doctor for his capture, while an already captured Leela is sentenced to public execution, via a steamer, for crimes against the company.

Materializing at the edge of the cosmos, the frontier of creation, The Doctor, Leela & K-9 encounter four ancient space travelers from Minyos, the first race ever contacted by the Time Lords. All but extinct due to their Time Lords encounter, the Minyans (rejuvenated 1000 times each) have been embarked on a long 100,000 year old quest, searching the universe for the lost race bank of their species to take to a new home world. But their equally old ship is finally failing, succumbing to the gravitational pull of a newly forming sun and taking the Doctor and his party with it.