There are two characters of great interest in this story: Salamar and Vishinksy. Salamar is the controller of the Morestran spaceship, with Vishinsky as his second in command. Salamar is young, he makes impulsive decisions and is keen to make an impression as a strong commander, whereas Vishinsky is more eager to sit down and listen to arguments, in particular those of the Doctor. This is all fairly generic, until we reach the cliffhanger.
The Doctor and Sarah Jane are accused of killing members of the crew with special anti-matter powers, and so Salamar decides to eject them into space (acting on the suspicions of Professor Sorenson whom we will deal with tomorrow). Thus, they are held in coffin like structures, and are ready to be ejected when Salamar gives the order to Vishinsky that they be sent out into space. Vishinsky refuses, so Salamar forces him to do it, taking his hand and making him pull the lever to send them outside. It shows that Salamar is not just doing this to get rid of what he sees as the problem, he is also doing this to express his superiority over Vishinsky by making him do the action. He is the commanding officer and he isn't going to let anyone else on the ship forget it.
However, by performing this action, it reveals how unstable Salamar is, that he is willing to go to extraordinary lengths to prove his dominance over anyone else. As we approach the conclusion, we shall see how this instability shall manifest itself even more as the Planet of Evil rears its head once more...
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