THE COMPLETE DOCTOR WHO REFERENCE GUIDE -Doctor 11

 THE COMPLETE DOCTOR WHO REFERENCE GUIDE -Doctor 11

The Eleventh Hour

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Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Tracie Simpson

 

Script Editor

Lindsey Alford

 

Written by Steven Moffat

Directed by Adam Smith

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Caitlin Blackwood (Amelia), Nina Wadia (Dr Ramsden), Marcello Magni (Barney Collins), Perry Benson (Ice Cream Man), Annette Crosbie (Mrs Angelo), Tom Hopper (Jeff), Arthur Cox (Mr Henderson), Olivia Colman - Mother), Eden Monteath (Child 1), Merin Monteath (Child 2), David de Keyser (Atraxi Voice), William Wilde (Prisoner Zero Voice), Patrick Moore (Himself).

 

The Doctor has regenerated into a brand new man, but danger strikes before he can even recover. With the TARDIS wrecked, and the sonic screwdriver destroyed, the new Doctor has just 20 minutes to save the whole world - and only Amy Pond to help him.

Original Broadcast (UK)

The Eleventh Hour      April 3rd, 2010              6h25pm - 7h30pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

The TARDIS flies, out of control, above London. The fires caused by his regeneration are burning around the Doctor. An explosion blasts him out of the open doors but he clings onto the lip of the doorway. After narrowly avoiding the Houses of Parliament he uses his sonic screwdriver to steer the TARDIS away but another explosion sends it hurtling to the ground.

 

The Eleventh Hour

(drn:64'30")

There is a house with an overgrown and neglected garden. A weather-beaten house stands quiet in the night. It is the year 1996, Easter, and, in her bedroom, Amelia Pond is praying to Santa for help with the large scary crack in her bedroom wall. Her Aunt Sharon has told her that it is an ordinary crack but Amelia knows otherwise: at night there are voices. She asks Santa to send someone to fix it, or a policeman. Seconds later there is a crash in the garden outside. She runs to her window and sees a police box, belching smoke, lying in her garden. It has smashed the garden shed. She looks up at the sky and says, "Thank you Santa".

 

She runs down and as she gets to the box the doors burst open and a grappling hook flies out. The Doctor climbs out, soaking wet. He immediately asks for an apple, all that he can think about. He explains that he was in the library, as was the swimming pool. She asks him if he is a policeman who has come about the crack in her wall. He collapses to his knees and breathes out a golden smoke. He asks her if the crack is scary, and then introduces himself as the Doctor. He tells her not to ask stupid questions and not to wander off. He then promptly walks into a tree. Apparently suffering from some post-regenerative disorientation, he demands that she give him an apple which he spits out in disgust. Following this he requests other foods and rejects each in turn. These include yoghurt ("Stuff with bits in"), bacon ("Are you trying to poison me?"), baked beans ("beans are evil. Bad, bad beans") and bread and butter (which he throws out into the garden). Finally, he searches through the fridge and finds some fish fingers which he dips into a bowl of custard. When she tells him that her name is Amelia Pond he says that it is brilliant, like a name in a fairy tale. She adds that she doesn't have a mum and dad, just an aunt.

 

The Doctor asks Amelia to show him the crack in her wall. As he looks at it Amelia hands him an apple with a smiley face gouged out of the skin. Then, he hears a voice on the other side saying that Prisoner Zero has escaped. He suspects that the crack is connecting Amelia's room to another dimension (the crack would still be there if the wall wasn't) and tries to close it with his screwdriver. In order to do this he has to open it first. As he does so a large eyeball peers through. It shoots a particle of light at the Doctor and the crack closes again. The Atraxi (the prison guards on the other side) repeat that Prisoner Zero has escaped. The Doctor thinks that the prisoner may have come through the crack. While he is exploring the upper floor of the house he begins to suspect that all is not as it seems but is distracted by the sound of the cloister bell in the TARDIS. He tells Amelia that the engines of his time machine are phasing he needs to take his ship on a short trip to stabilise it but he will return for her in five minutes. She says that people always say that they will come back but never do. He tells her to trust him, he is the Doctor.

 

As he dematerialises she returns to her room to pack her case. She has not seen a door opening on the landing of the house. She waits for him in the garden but he does not come back that night.

 

The TARDIS lands in daylight and the Doctor rushes out to find Amelia; he has realised what he missed earlier. He sonics the door, telling her she has to get out of there. He runs up to the landing and is felled by a blow from a cricket bat.

 

In a coma ward of a nearby hospital a nurse brings Dr Ramsden to hear the patients calling out, "Doctor!" she is perplexed but the nurse adds that he has seen the patients wandering around the village. She tells him he needs to take some time off, starting now.

 

When the Doctor recovers consciousness he sees a tall, attractive policewoman standing over him. He asks her where Amelia is and she tells him that the little girl has not lived there for six months. He refuses to believe that he is six months late - he promised her five minutes. She says that she has radioed for backup which will be there shortly. The Doctor realises that he is handcuffed to a radiator. He asks the policewoman to count the doors on the landing. She does so: there are five. He tells her that she is wrong, there is a sixth door hidden by apperception filter.

 

The policewoman goes to investigate this new room despite the Doctor telling her that it is very dangerous. She finds herself in a bare, dusty room. The Doctor's sonic screwdriver rolled into the room under the door when she attacked him but now it is lying on a table and is covered in slime. Prisoner Zero, a long serpent-like creature with needle teeth steals up behind her. She turns, sees it and flees back to the Doctor. He uses his screwdriver to shut the door but the door bursts open and a man and a dog emerge. The Doctor realises that this must be the prisoner, an inter-dimensional multiform, when the man begins to bark. The man opens mouth to reveal razor sharp teeth.

 

The Doctor tells Prisoner Zero that police backup is on the way but the policewoman tells him that this is a bluff: her radio is a fake and her police outfit is just a kissogram costume. The Atraxi voice is heard again saying, "Attention Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded. Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."

 

The Doctor frees himself and he and the woman run out to the TARDIS but the key will not open the lock on the door and entry is impossible. The Doctor says that the TARDIS is still repairing itself. He notices that there is a new shed to replace the one he crashed into. After licking it he announces that it has been there for twelve years. He asks the woman why she said six months and she responds by asking why he said five minutes, thus revealing herself to be Amelia. Prisoner Zero, in the shape of the man and dog, exits the house. Both man and dog are barking.

 

As they stride through the village streets Amelia says that the Doctor is twelve years and four psychiatrists late; she kept biting them because they said he wasn't real. They hear the Atraxi warning coming from an ice-cream van's speakers. The Doctor realises that the warning is being broadcast to the world and that the residence in question is not Amelia's house but the planet

 

The Doctor and Amelia enter the house of her friend Jeremy. Both he and his grandmother call the woman "Amy'. The grandmother seems puzzled that Amy is now a policewoman and not a nurse or a nun. They also recognise the Doctor as a character called "The Raggedy Doctor" from little Amelia's childhood. A big blue eye on the television screen is repeating the warning. Out in space a fleet of space ships orbit the Earth.

 

The Doctor and Amy go out into the middle of the village. He tells her that the Atraxi are going to put a force field around the planet and incinerate the atmosphere. On the village green there are a number of people taking photographs of the sun as it vanishes in the sky. The Doctor tells Amy that he has about twenty minutes to save the planet. He tells her she can help him or go home to be with her loved ones. Instead, she traps him by slamming a car door on his tie and demands to know who he is. He produces the apple that she gave him as a child twelve years earlier. He asks her to believe in him for just twenty minutes. This gains her trust and she frees him.

 

One person attracts the Doctor's attention because he is photographing somebody else: a man walking his dog. The Doctor is drawn to this man, a nurse from the hospital. He is Rory Williams, Amy's boyfriend. The Doctor takes Rory's phone and asks what he was doing. Rory tells him that he has been seeing people walking around the village that he knows to be in comas in the hospital. The Doctor accosts Prisoner Zero and says that the Atraxi have been drawn to the planet by the presence of alien technology. A star ship passes overhead, scanning. He says that he will attract their ships, seen searching the planet, by using his screwdriver. He lets off a sonic burst that shatters lights and windows as well as setting vehicles in motion. Unfortunately, the screwdriver explodes in his hand. The Atraxi ships move off and Prisoner Zero disappears down a grid. The Doctor says that he has to drive Prisoner Zero into the open.

 

The Doctor tells Rory and Amy to go to the hospital to investigate and empty the coma patients from the ward. Prisoner Zero arrives first and attacks the doctor on the ward.

 

The Doctor heads back to Jeff's house and finds him in his bedroom using his laptop. The Doctor is horrified by what Jeff is looking at and tells him to 'get a girlfriend.' He then uses the computer to call a conference of various scientific figures including NASA, Jodrell Bank, Tokyo Space Centre and Patrick Moore. He feels it necessary to prove his credentials by giving them the solution to Fermat's Last Theorem and FTL travel. Once he has secured their attention he uses Rory's phone on which he creates a virus that he tells the scientists to spread around the world. He leaves Jeff in charge of convincing the scientists to believe in him. He tells him that this is the day he saves the world. He also adds that Jeff might want to delete his internet browsing history.

 

Amy's police costume allows her to gain entry to the hospital which has been sealed off from the public. She and Rory head to the coma ward where they are met by a woman and her two daughters. She says that the doctor and the nurses are dead. It is apparent when the wrong voice comes from their mouths that this is Prisoner Zero. Amy phones the Doctor to tell him what has happened. He is already on his way, driving a fire truck. He sends Amy a text that tells them to duck as the ladders on top of the truck smash through the window. The Doctor climbs into the ward. He tells Prisoner Zero to reveal its true form to the Atraxi but it refuses. He then says it can open another crack in order to escape but it taunts him because "The Doctor in the TARDIS doesn't know' where the cracks came from. It adds a strange prophecy that "The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall".

 

The Doctor's virus takes effect, turning all of the world's digital displays to zero. The Doctor tells Prisoner Zero that this will alert the Atraxi to this source: Rory's phone from which he has also sent all of Rory's photographs of the various coma patients. An Atraxi ship hovers above the hospital.

 

Prisoner Zero says that, after all of its years hiding in her house, it has formed a link with Amy. It changes shape so that it now resembles the Doctor holding little Amelia's hand. It says that Amy is dreaming about the Doctor. The Doctor manages to make Amy, now unconscious on the floor, dream of the Atraxi's true form as she saw it in the room in her house. Before Prisoner Zero can physically attack the Doctor it is caught in the Atraxi's energy beam. It disappears.

 

Amy recovers consciousness. The Doctor tells the Atraxi not to leave the planet. He calls them back, invoking the rules of the Shadow Proclamation. He goes into a locker room and takes off his clothes (his previous incarnation's). Rory and Amy have followed him. While Rory thinks it only fair to look away as the Doctor undresses, Amy continues to watch him avidly. The Doctor puts on fresh clothes and then goes up to the roof, followed by Amy and Rory. He confronts the giant eyeball that is the Atraxi and tells them how important Earth is. He shows them a montage of creatures he has defeated as well as images of his ten previous selves. Thus warned, the Atraxi depart for good.

 

The TARDIS key begins to glow and the Doctor realises that it has completed its repairs. He races back to Amy's garden and enters the newly refurbished console room. Amy reaches her garden as the TARDIS dematerialises.

 

When the Doctor returns for Amy at night he discovers that a further two years have elapsed and she is not very happy about it. He asks her if she would like to be his travelling companion. She refuses but when she sees inside the TARDIS she changes her mind. She says that she will go with him as long as he promises to have her back in Leadworth by the following morning. When he asks why she gives a vague reply. She asks why her, but he says it is just for companionship. Beside him a scanner displays a line that looks like the crack in her bedroom. As the TARDIS vanishes a shot of her bedroom reveals the cartoons and models that Amy made of herself and the Doctor. A wedding dress can be seen on the back of her door.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

This story continues directly on from The End of Time.

The Doctor invokes Article 57 of the Shadow Proclamation as he did in Partners in Crime.

A Magpie Electricals logo can be seen on the new TARDIS console (see The Idiot's Lantern).

The Doctor says "Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey" (See Blink and Time Crash).

The Doctor's projection of images for the Atraxi show Cybermen (Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel), Daleks (Doomsday and others), a Pyrovile (The Fires of Pompeii), the Racnoss Empress (The Runaway Bride), the Ood (Planet of the Ood), the Hath (The Doctor's Daughter), Sontarans (The Time Warrior and others), Sea Devils (The Sea Devils), Sycorax (The Christmas Invasion), a Reaper (Father's Day) and a shot from Silence in the Library. (The shots from The Time Warrior and The Sea Devils are the first from the 'classic' era to be used since the revival.)

Pictures of the previous ten Doctors are also shown. This seems to confirm that these, and only these, are his prior incarnations.

 

 

 

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The Beast Below

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Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Peter Bennett

 

Script Editor

Brian Minchin

 

Written by Steven Moffat

Directed by Andrew Gunn

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Sophie Okonedo (Liz 10), Terrence Hardiman (Hawthorne), Hannah Sharp (Mandy), Alfie Field (Timmy), Christopher Good (Morgan), David Ajala (Peter), Catrin Richards (Poem Girl), Jonathan Battersby (Winder), Chris Porter (Voice of Smilers / Winder), Ian McNeice (Churchill).

 

Amy Pond takes her first trip in the TARDIS when the Doctor whisks her away to the distant future and they discover Britain in space. Starship UK houses the future of the British people as they search the stars for a new home. But when Amy explores she encounters the terrifying Smilers and learns a deadly truth inside the Voting Booth...

Original Broadcast (UK)

The Beast Below          April 10th, 2010           6h00pm - 6h50pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

A class of children in an old fashioned classroom are dismissed by their teacher, a Smiler (an apparently mechanical dummy with a rotating head that presents smiles or grimaces). One boy hangs back. He is Timmy and he has scored a zero. The Smiler tells him that he is a bad boy. As the children leave the school Timmy's friend Mandy tells him that he has lost his Vator privilege and will have to walk the twenty floors to London. Timmy goes into another Vator by himself but the Smiler inside changes to its angry expression as the Vator drops to floor zero. The floor opens. Timmy falls.

 

The Beast Below

(drn:41'55")

Amy is floating in space, still wearing her night dress and dressing gown. The Doctor is holding onto her legs in the open TARDIS doorway. She is delighting in the sight of the Universe as Starship UK comes into view. It looks like a giant city floating through space, each of its vast towers carrying the name of an English county. The Doctor pulls Amy back in and tells her that solar flares burnt the Earth's surface in the 29th Century and the world's population was forced to leave until things cooled down. They land in the ship among a street scene that is reminiscent of 1950s London. On the monitor they see Mandy crying while everyone else moves around her seemingly oblivious to her distress. The Doctor tells Amy that their role is as observers only and they must not interfere. As Amy responds to him she sees that the Doctor has already left the TARDIS and is talking to the girl. Amy follows him out.

 

She looks around her at London Market. The Doctor asks her what she notices and then supplies his own answer: this is a state controlled with rigid authoritarianism and a population afraid to break from conformity. He cites the public's reluctance to speak to a crying child and the wide berth they give to the Smilers in their cabinets. Then he places a glass of water onto the floor for a moment. They are observed by a hooded figure who phones a man called Hawthorne. Hawthorne in turn phones a woman whose face is obscured by a mask made of porcelain. He tells her that there has been a sighting of someone looking at a glass of water. She says that she will check the screens to see what is going on. Her floor is covered with glasses of water.

 

As Mandy moves off, the Doctor tells Amy to follow. He tells her to ask Mandy about the Smilers in the booths. She tracks her to a side street where the road is blocked by a striped tent, the sort that covers up road works. Amy wants to go inside to see what is happening but Mandy appears and says there is a hole in the road. She says that the Smilers will not allow anyone to talk about it. She says that they are not supposed to discuss either the Smilers or Below. They discuss Amy's Scottish accent: it seems that the Scots did not join Starship UK but have their own ship. Amy enters the tent and neither of them see the nearby Smiler turn to a frown and then to a grimace of anger. Inside, Amy sees a large tentacle writhing about. It threatens her and she escapes from the tent, only to be surrounded by four hooded men who knock her out with gas.

 

The Doctor is carrying on his own investigation in the ship's quieter zone. He is surprised that the ducts are not connected. He sees a glass of water on the floor. He meets the woman in the mask. She seems to be following her own course of investigation and asks him what he sees in the glass. He says that there is no engine vibration. He shows her the dummy power couplings and suggests that there is no engine. She says that they are on an impossible ship and there is a darkness that threatens them all. Sh gives him a tracking device that will help him to trace Amy. She says that her name is Liz 10.

 

Amy finds herself waking up inside a voting booth. The automated booth scans her and gives her age as 1306. Her marital status is unknown. It then shows her a video message from a civil servant that tells her she is going to learn the truth about the spaceship. After that she will be given a choice: forget what she has learned or protest about it. He adds that protesting could have terrible consequences for all. She watches an information film and selects the Forget option. Her memories are wiped. She is then shown a film she recorded in the booth earlier where she tells herself to stop the Doctor from trying to find out what is happening and get him off the ship.

 

The Doctor arrives in the booth with Mandy. After surveying the technology on display he deduces that she has forgotten the last twenty minutes of her life. The machine performs a scan on the Doctor and concludes that he is not human. This is news to Amy. She says that he looks human to which the Doctor responds that she looks Time Lord. He tells her that he is the last of his race after a 'bad day'. He examines the machine and then presses the Protest button to see what will happen. The floor opens up and both of them tumble down a chute. Mandy is locked out and turns, delighted to see Liz 10, who she clearly recognises. The Doctor and Amy land in what appears to be a garbage pit where they find it difficult to stay on their feet. The Doctor explains that this is because the floor is actually the tongue of a large animal. He presumes that the protestors are delivered to the monster as food.

 

He uses his screwdriver to make the creature vomit them out and they arrive in a tube where there is a door accompanied by a Forget button. They decide not to press the button. Two Smilers sit in nearby booths. The Doctor asks what is going on. The Smilers leave their nearby booths and approach them. Liz 10 arrives (with Mandy) at the same moment and uses her gun to render the Smilers immobile. As they run through the ship she tells them that she can do what she likes because she is 'the bloody Queen'. Apparently, Liz 10 is short for Queen Elizabeth the Tenth. She also claims to know who the Doctor is because she was brought up on all the stories of his meetings with her family.

 

The Doctor says that the tentacle that Amy saw must be a part of the same creature whose tongue they stood on. Liz 10 tells them that she has been on the hunt for the creature since her coronation ten years earlier. Somebody is feeding her subjects to it. She takes them back to her residence. She says that her real age is fifty but she looks far younger due to her doctors slowing her body clock. She feels that there is a conspiracy against her among her government. The porcelain mask that she wears is to hide her identity while she is out investigating. It attracts the Doctor's attention. He comments on the fact that it fits so well it can stay on her face by itself.

 

Cloaked figures close in on them. Each man's human face rotates to reveal a Smiler alter ego. One of the men contacts his superior to let him know that the queen has made a breakthrough in her investigation. Secret plans are set in motion. One of the men tells her that she is to be taken to the Tower on the highest authority. Liz says that she is the highest authority and he agrees with her.

 

The Doctor, Liz, Mandy and Amy are brought to the bowels of the ship - the Tower of London - where Hawthorne explains that the Beast will not eat the children that it is fed. The Doctor then goes on to show Starship UK has no engines, thus there was no vibration for either the Doctor or the queen to find with their glasses of water. Instead, the ship is powered by a captured Star Whale. The creature's brain is exposed and bombarded with lasers. The agony which ensues makes the creature swim on through space. Both Liz 10 and the Doctor are outraged and the queen orders the release of the whale. Hawthorne says that he is only following orders. Liz also demands that her subjects are not fed to the whale.

 

The Doctor produces a surprising piece of information. He says that Liz has been the ruler of Starship UK for centuries: her mask is that old and was clearly made for her. He says that she only thinks it has been ten years because every ten years she discovers the truth about the Space Whale and then chooses to forget. If the whale were to be set free then it would mean death for all of her subjects. Hawthorne confirms this idea, adding that he and the Smilers work for her, and shows a video tape of Liz explaining this to herself. In the tape she recalls the horror of children screaming in pain when the solar flares arrived on Earth. She goes on to say that the Star Whale - the last of its kind - came at that time, was captured and used to power the ship. Liz 10 has two choices: buttons marked Forget and Abdicate. The latter will free the whale and destroy the ship.

 

The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to relay the screams of agony that the star Whale emits when it is tortured. He says that the only solution is to destroy its conscious mind so that it can continue to keep the humans alive but not feel the pain. He launches a tirade against humanity and everyone who ever pressed the Forget button. He includes Amy in this. In fact, she comes in for the worst of this vitriol because he suspects she pressed Forget so that he wouldn't find out the truth and arrive at this appalling choice. He ends by telling her that he is taking her home as a punishment and ending her time on the TARDIS.

 

While the Doctor is preparing for his terrible act, Amy looks about her. She sees that the tentacles which threatened her, and other adults, do not have the same menace for children. Mandy and Timmy are able to stroke them if they wish. She makes Liz press the Abdicate button. Instead of the expected catastrophe the ship lurches and then carries on running calmly. The torture has stopped but the whale continues to power the ship voluntarily. In fact, Hawthorne reports, they are speeding up.

 

Amy says that she realised that a creature that was very old and the last of its kind could not bear to stand by and watch children cry. The Doctor realises that she is talking about him as much as the whale. They go up onto an observation deck where the Doctor says that she could have killed everyone. She says that she recognised the whale's kindness because she had seen it before. Having come to this reconciliation, they return to the TARDIS. Amy feels she needs to tell the Doctor about her impending wedding when the TARDIS phone rings. Amy answers it and is surprised to find that it is Winston Churchill asking for the Doctor's help. The TARDIS dematerialises to go to Churchill's aid and the Star Whale continues to pilot the Starship UK through the cosmos. There is a large crack in the side of the ship, one that closely resembles the crack in Amy's bedroom.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

A Magpie Electricals logo can be seen in London Market (see The Idiot's Lantern).

Liz 10 says that the Doctor features in her family history; knighted and hated by Queen Victoria (Tooth and Claw), dallying with Elizabeth I (The Shakespeare Code and The End of Time) among others.

The crack from Amy's wall is seen again in the hull of Starship UK.

 

 

 

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Victory of the Daleks

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Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Peter Bennett

 

Script Editor

Brian Minchin

 

Written by Mark Gatiss

Directed by Andrew Gunn

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Ian McNeice (Churchill), Bill Paterson (Bracewell), Nina de Cosimo (Blanche), Tim Wallers (Childers), Nicholas Pegg (Dalek 1), Barnaby Edwards (Dalek 2), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek voice), Susannah Fielding (Lilian), James Albrecht (Todd), Colin Procktor (Air Raid Warden).

 

The Doctor has been summoned by his old friend Winston Churchill but in the Cabinet War Rooms, far below the streets of blitz-torn London, he finds his oldest enemy waiting for him... The Daleks are back! And can Churchill really be in league with them?

Original Broadcast (UK)

Victory of the Daleks April 17th, 2010           6h00pm - 6h50pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

In the cabinet war rooms a report of a bombing attack is underway. Winston Churchill announces that it is time to roll out the secret weapons. An effigy of a Dalek is pushed across a strategy table.

 

Victory of the Daleks

(drn:41'45")

The TARDIS materializes in a nearby bunker. The Doctor introduces Amy to Winston Churchill who tries to take the TARDIS key from him. Churchill complains that it is a month since he phoned the Doctor. Another enemy formation is coming in and the Prime Minister takes Amy and the Doctor to the roof to see something. Churchill warns that invasion is expected any day and he will use whatever weapons he can. A squadron of Stukas comes into view over London. They are promptly shot down by energy beams fired by "Ironsides". Professor Edwin Bracewell is introduced to the Doctor as the inventor of the Ironsides. They are, in fact, Daleks wearing khaki camouflage paint and the Union Flag.

 

The Doctor insists that these are alien monsters but the Daleks seem to be subservient. They deny knowledge of the Doctor and intone that they are the soldiers who will win the war. The Daleks even arrive with cups of tea. Churchill argues that the Ironsides will bring victory. The Doctor appeals for Amy to tell Churchill about the Daleks but she has never heard of them. This seems impossible to the Doctor.

 

The Doctor goes to the Professor, their inventor. Bracewell is working in his laboratory. The Doctor asks what other inventions he has made. Bracewell shows him blueprints for gravity bubbles and hyper-sonic flight. The Dalek says that the Daleks will be death for everybody. He turns on the nearest Dalek and asks which war they are fighting; the war against Germany or the war against the Universe. He sets about striking the Dalek with a large wrench. He tells the Dalek that he is their greatest enemy and recounts some of his victories against them, finishing with "I am the Doctor, and you are the Daleks!" the Dalek then seems to shift personality and plays back the sound of the Doctor's voice before saying that it is the Doctor's 'testimony'. It transmits this testimony to a Dalek saucer that is hiding behind the moon.

 

Two soldiers run in to but they are exterminated. The Professor tells them to stop. He shouts that he is their creator. Amy and Churchill stand beside the Doctor, watching in horror. The Dalek shoots Bracewell's hand off, exposing wiring and revealing him to be an android robot. It replies "No, we created you!" The Daleks then chant "Victory" as they teleports away. The Doctor tells Amy that he wanted to know what their plan was but it turns out that he was their plan. He runs to the TARDIS, ordering Amy not to follow because it is too dangerous.

 

On the Dalek saucer the testimony has initiated a device called the Progenitor. The Doctor flies up to the Dalek ship. The Daleks are standing around the Progenitor. The TARDIS lands near them and the Doctor emerges carrying a Jammy Dodger biscuit. He tells them that it is the TARDIS self-destruct control and warns them not to scan it or they will all die together. The ensuing conversation reveals that theirs was the only ship to survive the defeat in the Medusa Cascade. They traced and obtained the last remaining Progenitor device. This is their 'past and future'. It turns out to contain pure Dalek DNA. The Progenitor Device did not recognize these Daleks since they were created from Davros' DNA. They needed the testimony of the Doctor to convince the Progenitor that they were Daleks.

 

The Daleks tell the Doctor to withdraw or they will destroy London. He says that they don't have the power; their ship is a wreck. The Daleks activate a device and all of the lights in London come on. This makes the city an easy target for the next wave of approaching German bombers. In the secret cabinet rooms the staff becomes aware that the light switches are ineffective and Churchill proclaims that they are sitting ducks. He is told that the Germans are only ten minutes away. Amy says that they need a weapon to fight back and it is staring them in the face. The Daleks says that they will leave and return to their own time and complete their rebirth. The Progenitor completes its program and five new Daleks emerge. They are larger and more brightly coloured than previous Daleks.

 

Amy and Churchill find Bracewell about to shoot himself because his life and memories are a lie. Amy appeals to him to provide weapons that can fight the Daleks. Bracewell is galvanised into action.

 

The new Daleks tell the old ones that they are inferior and disintegrate them. They then turn their attention to the Doctor who warns them not to mess with him and brandishes his biscuit at them.

 

Bracewell arrives with a prototype television that shows images of what is happening on the Dalek ship. Amy and Churchill join him to watch as the Doctor faces the five Daleks. They introduce themselves as the new paradigm: scientist, soldier, strategist, eternal and supreme. Meanwhile, Bracewell's new invention is ready to go. One of the RAF men in the cabinet room scrambles a squadron. The new Daleks are not fooled by the Doctor's "self-destruct device", and he bites into it as he confesses that it was a biscuit all along. As they prepare to kill him their screens show an incoming group of Spitfires. They call the Doctor for orders and he tells them to turn their attention to the dish on the side of the ship.

 

The Doctor flees into the TARDIS as the Spitfires try to destroy the Dalek transmitter. Two of the Spitfires are destroyed by the Dalek defences but the Doctor uses the TARDIS to disrupt the saucer's shields allowing the final Spitfire, Danny Boy, to successfully blow up the device. The Doctor tells Danny Boy to destroy the Dalek ship but Daleks order the Doctor to call off or they will destroy the Earth using an "Oblivion Continuum" bomb which has been hidden inside Bracewell's body. The Doctor realises that he has to give up on his best chance of ridding the universe of the Daleks forever. He flies down to the war rooms. The Daleks note that the Doctor's compassion has failed him. They open a Time Corridor and prepare to depart but not until they have started the bomb's countdown anyway.

 

The Doctor tells everyone in the war room that there is a wormhole inside Bracewell but it cannot explode if Bracewell believes himself to be human, not a bomb. He tries to use all of the scientist's implanted memories to make him feel strong emotions but the countdown continues. As the Oblivion Continuum nears detonation, Amy asks Bracewell about his love life: if he has "ever fancied someone you shouldn't". Bracewell recounts a lost love: a girl named Dorabella. The countdown returns to zero. The Daleks note their failure before leaving through the time corridor. The Doctor is turning to his TARDIS to stop the Daleks, but he is told by Bracewell that they have gone. He is dejected at losing out to them until Amy reminds him that he has saved the Earth.

 

There are celebrations and farewells in the cabinet room, during which Churchill tries to pickpocket the Doctor and steal the TARDIS key. He is foiled by Amy and then the Doctor and Amy go to Bracewell's laboratory to find the scientist. The Doctor has removed all of the technology that Bracewell introduced and so the scientist anticipates being terminated. Instead they allow him to leave to carry on his new life. As Amy and the Doctor return to the TARDIS the Doctor is concerned about Amy's inability to remember the Daleks from their previous attacks. The TARDIS dematerializes and reveals a shining crack in the wall.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

The Daleks say "I am your soldier" an obvious reference to The Power of the Daleks ("I am your servant").

Reference is made to previous Dalek stories Doomsday and The Stolen Earth / Journey's End

Churchill refers to the change of the Doctor's face; he has met two other incarnations (the Sixth in The Shadow in the Glass, and the Second and Sixth in Players.)

A crack is seen on the wall of the Cabinet War Room after the TARDIS dematerialises.

 

 

//--> 

 

Apollo 23

by Justin Richards      

BBC Logo

 

 

Cover Blurb

Apollo 23         

'Houston - we have a problem.'

An astronaut in full spacesuit appears out of thin air in a busy shopping centre. Maybe it's a publicity stunt.

 

A photo shows an immaculately-dressed woman in her best shoes lying dead at the edge of a crater on the dark side of the moon - beside her beloved dog 'Poochie'. Maybe it's a hoax.

 

But as the Doctor and Amy find out, these are just minor events in a sinister plan to take over every human being on earth. The plot centres on a secret military base on the moon - that's where Amy and the TARDIS are.

 

The Doctor is back on Earth, and without the TARDIS there's no way he can get to the moon to save Amy and defeat the aliens.

 

Or is there? The Doctor discovers one last great secret that could save humanity: Apollo 23.

 

Notes:

This is the first book in the series of original adventures featuring the Eleventh Doctor.

Released: April 2010

 

ISBN: 978 1 84607 200 0

 

 

Synopsis

Donald Babinger takes a lunch break from his office. He walks down to the park to eat his sandwiches. Shortly after, he strolls over the park. For a few moments he finds himself on the moon's surface, suffocating. His death throes are completed back in the park, in the rain.

 

The pathologist, Dr Winterbourne, is perplexed; apart from being dead Babinger seems young and healthy. As he speaks, in the local burger bar in the shopping centre, an American astronaut, Garrett, in full lunar space suit, asks to borrow a mobile phone.

 

A few hundred yards away the TARDIS lands in a local car park. Amy insists on buying a parking ticket before they head into an Italian restaurant. Before they can order the Doctor has engaged in conversation with a man who turns out to be Dr Winterbourne. The Doctor is interested in the dust on Winterbourne's arm. The pathologist tells him there is more where the spaceman is, downstairs. The Doctor recognises it as moon dust and runs downstairs. They see the space-suited astronaut and three CIA men.

 

The Doctor takes Amy back to the TARDIS. Seconds later they are staring out at the lunar landscape while the Doctor tells Amy that a man died earlier because he was displaced briefly to the place in front of her and that an astronaut was sent, more permanently, in the other direction.

 

General Adam Walinski is staring at the desert around Base Hibiscus when Dr Candace Hecker tells him the pictures have arrived from Base Diana. They go to the printer in Hecker's office and look at the photograph of Becky Starmer and her dog, lying dead on the moon. She went out to give her dog a lunchtime walk around the park in the English rain and ended up dying on the moon, along with Babinger.

 

Later, Hecker and Walinski discuss the malfunction in the link to Base Diana: after thirty years it has mysteriously failed. Hecker says the most experienced technicians didn't understand how it worked when everything was running smoothly and have no idea how Starmer and Babinger ended up dead on the moon while Garrett appeared in the shopping mall. Agent Jennings tells them that video pictures of the bodies being recovered are coming in but after a minute delay due to their beaming in from the moon instead of through the Quantum Displacement link. While watching these pictures they notice a blue box within sight of Base Diana, a blue box that wasn't there a moment before.

 

Wearing space suits, the Doctor and Amy approach a man on the lunar surface. He is astonished to see them and asks if they have come from Hibiscus. The Doctor says they are from TARDIS. The astronaut leads them to the body of Becky Starmer and the astronauts recovering it. He tells them about the displacement field that allows them to walk from the Earth to the moon malfunctioning and asks if the Doctor can have it fixed before the water and air runs out in three months. They follow him back to the moon base and enter an airlock. As they take off their suits the astronaut introduces himself as Captain Jim Reeve. He comments on how new, comfortable and sleek their spacesuits are compared to his. He asks how they got to the moon now that the displacement is down. The Doctor comments that they have a portable system in a blue box and Reeve says they are bringing the box in. he adds that, apart from knowing he can walk from Texas to the moon, he has no idea how displacement works. He asks them for I.D. before they meet Colonel Devenish and the Doctor shows him his psychic paper granting them Access All Areas.

 

Amy and the Doctor blunder into a meeting that Devenish is having with his team. They are all perplexed by the Quantum Displacement failure and as the meeting breaks up Reeve and Major Andrea Carlisle, a severe-looking woman in her thirties, remain behind. The Major and Devenish are puzzled that the Doctor claims he can fix the problem but has no idea what Base Diana is. Amy interjects that they have never needed to know until now. Another man, Professor Charles Jackson, who has been sitting quietly in a corner, tells them he is the scientist in charge of such matters and will give them a tour.

 

The bases made up of large modules connected by rectangular corridors. Some is built underground. Twelve soldiers, three officers and a handful of scientists are the occupants. Their quarters take up most of the base with the rest being for storage. Jackson tells them that the base was set up in the seventies after the moon landings officially stopped. Apollo18 to Apollo 22 brought the parts until, from June 1980, it was possible to walk to the moon. Amy asks what Jackson's job is. To her surprise he replies that he researches the human mind and why some people are apparently evil. The Doctor tells her that there is another storage facility and Jackson agrees there is a place where they keep the prisoners.

 

The Doctor tells Amy that he knew there would be a prison facility because some time in the future he would be held there. They follow Jackson to his office which is piled with papers but also contains a tea urn. He offers the Doctor a cup of Earl Grey while explaining that there are eleven prisoners, all recidivists and re-offenders. Most are on the moon because of what they know from hacking government computers or stealing sensitive documents. The treatment on offer is experimental and angers the Doctor but Jackson simply says they must agree to differ.

 

Jackson then takes them down into corridors made up of pipes and cables. This is the Quantum Displacement technology. One look tells the Doctor that it seems well designed. Further talk is interrupted by Major Carlisle who tells Jackson that he has to do a process run on Nine.

 

Prisoner Nine is a tall, thin man. Two soldiers bring him to the processing chamber containing a chair and what looks like a CCTV camera. The prisoner is strapped into the chair while everyone retires to the Observation Room. Amy asks what happens in the processing room and the Doctor tells her that the prisoner will be bombarded with alpha waves to wash away the negative impulses in the brain. Jackson accuses the Doctor of stealing his research but the Doctor says he was only guessing. They are cut short by screams from the prisoner.

 

The Doctor runs to the chair to release the prisoner. The man convulses and then says, "Doctor, is that you?" before the Doctor can respond the prisoner tells him, "They are here." He tries to say that he is not a prisoner and that he set up the equipment, but Nurse Phillips sedates him with a syringe. The prisoner promptly dies.

 

Later, the Doctor tells Amy that the sedative was probably the final straw and that the man would have died anyway. What bothers him more is being recognised. Jackson joins them and says there was a power surge which killed the man. The Doctor is more interested in what the experiment is actually doing: he realises that it doesn't erase bad impulses, it actually wipes a mind totally clean and allows it to be over-written by, say, a terminally ill genius's mind in order to allow them to live on.

 

After Jackson leaves them the Doctor tells Amy that a power surge would have affected the artificial gravity, which did not happen. He tells Amy to ask Nurse Phillips about the experiments in the Processing Chamber. When she gets to sick bay Amy finds the nurse has only one patient. She is Liz Didbrook. Nurse Phillips explains that the woman is suffering from a nervous breakdown and this seems borne out by the seemingly random flow of gibberish that she speaks. When the Nurse steps away however, Amy sees that Didbrook's eyes have gone from grey to blue and that there is a sort of sense in the woman's words which hint that the meandering ideas are a distraction to hide the truth from someone who is watching.

 

The Doctor checks the connections and relays in the displacement technology, accompanied by Major Carlisle. He finds a junction box that is blackened and damaged. She asks if it is sabotage but the Doctor is non-committal. He tells her he can repair it and then he will have to go onto the lunar surface to re-align the receptors. She leaves him to it and he repairs the damage in an hour. Just as he is finishing Reeve arrives to tell him that Devenish will be going with him onto the surface.

 

Out on the surface Devenish tells the Doctor that they are speaking on a closed communication circuit. He asks if the systems have been sabotaged. The Doctor says he will know better when he finds out if the target locations have been reset. He adds that he thinks Major Carlisle dislikes him. Devenish replies that the major doesn't seem to like anyone. While they are resetting the double row of receptors Devenish tells the Doctor that Jackson has changed and he isn't sure he can be trusted. Just then, the lunar surface in front of them becomes a shimmering Texan desert. The Doctor quickly confides that the systems were definitely sabotaged.

 

Amy decides to follow Nurse Phillips. She overhears Phillips and Jackson saying that they are meeting Major Carlisle in the Process Chamber and hurries off to be there first. She hears Carlisle and Jackson enter, followed by Nurse Phillips carrying a syringe. There is a brief struggle then Jackson tells Phillips he has programmed a blank. He adds that Devenish and the Doctor will soon be in worse trouble outside. Jackson goes into the observation room and Phillips heads into the corridor. Amy follows her. Phillips heads down to the basement where a soldier is standing inert. She tells him, 'It's time.' He goes down into the corridors of pipes and wires with Amy trailing him. He takes a metal bar and begins smashing the controls of the displacement machinery. Amy charges at the soldier and knocks him into some live cables. He collapses, eyes blank, but the damage has been done.

 

Carlisle wakes up in the chair in the Process Chamber. She remembers the struggle with Jackson and the Nurse and then the syringe. She focuses on the probe in front of her and realises that something is eating her memories. Abruptly, the power goes off and she has a moment of clarity before the probe flares back into life.

 

The Doctor and Devenish step across into the desert and remove their helmets. Suddenly they are on the wrong side of the line and suffocating on the moon, just metres from the safety of the desert. The Doctor scrabbles forward. Abruptly he is in the desert again. The line of receptors and Devenish's body have gone. He is alone in a vast, hot and empty space. A jeep crosses the expanse and three soldiers jump out. They grab the Doctor and throw him over the bonnet of the jeep. He tells them that he has papers authorizing him to be there but he left them on the moon.

 

It is a long time before anyone comes along. Eventually Nurse Phillips leads the soldier away. Amy follows them to the medical centre where the nurse is bandaging the soldier's hand. He smiles at Amy and tells her he had an accident toasting a sandwich. Amy asks if he remembers what happened and he says he does. He doesn't seem to be lying.

 

As soon as the Doctor mentions the moon, the soldiers' demeanour changes. They put him in the jeep and drive off to retrieve his space suit. Later, at Base Hibiscus he meets General Walinski. He tells Walinski the reason that he isn't on their database is that he was an expert sent to help fix the quantum link. In fact, he had fixed it when Devenish was killed and he only survived because he can survive longer without oxygen. He says that he and his assistant went to the moon from the shopping centre where the astronaut appeared. Walinski assumes that this means he was sent by the CIA. Walinski asks why anyone would want to sabotage the link and the Doctor tells him that he thinks the Earth is being invaded.

 

Captain Reeve organizes a room for Amy. She asks if anything has been heard from the Doctor and Devenish but the Captain says it is probably too early. While discussing the accommodation, Reeve says that there are about twenty people on the base. Amy has a short sleep until a soldier wakes her and takes her to the communications room. There she has a comical conversation with the Doctor on Earth as the time delay wrecks their ability to talk sensibly but she does tell the Doctor and Walinski about the sabotage by the soldier and learns that the Doctor thinks aliens have hijacked the mind wipe process and are downloading themselves into the 'blanks'. Unfortunately, the whole conversation is being monitored elsewhere on the base.

 

Amy now realises that Liz Didbrook's ramblings make a lot more sense in the light of what the Doctor was saying. She goes to the medical centre and wakes Liz. In the patient's babble she realises that Liz sabotaged the systems in order to draw attention to the aliens. She also mentions Pod 7 and 21.17. she makes her way to Pod 7 and finds that 2117 is the code on the keypad that gives her access to the corridor. The same number opens the pod door. Inside are twenty tables, each with a soldier lying on it and each wired up to monitors.

 

Amy sees one of the soldiers is awake. She tries to escape but the soldier pursues her round the room until she bumps through the wires and detaches them. The soldier immediately turns his attention to resetting the equipment. The door slides open and Captain Reeve steps in. he is astonished at what he sees. The private and all of the other soldiers were meant to have returned to Earth. Amy tells him that Nurse Phillips and Professor Jackson are programming the soldiers. Reeve says they need to talk to Major Carlisle but Amy says she thinks that Carlisle is in on the plan. Reeve doubts her but agrees to work without her for now.

 

At Base Hibiscus, Walinski and his team are seriously impressed by the Doctor's genius at understanding the quantum displacement device. Nobody alive on Earth has any idea how it really works. However, the Doctor thinks it will take him three months to fix it unless he can get back to the moon. He makes one attempt to start the device but barely has time to drag Devenish's body from the moon to the desert before the projectors explode. It seems that all contact with the moon has been destroyed.

 

The Doctor rides out in a jeep with Walinski, Candace Hecker and Agent Jennings. Jennings says that he has read some files on UNIT and Torchwood. He now knows who the Doctor is (or he would if he were a good deal older). They drive out to a crater where a fully fuelled Saturn V rocket is waiting. Hecker says that secret flights - Apollos 18 to 22 - were launched from here but this final rocket was held in reserve. They say they need three astronauts but the Doctor corrects them because he is already trained. Garrett will be one of the others, now he has returned from his unexpected trip to a British shopping centre.

 

Reeve collects his pistol and leads Amy to Jackson's office. They tell the professor what Amy found in Pod 7 and what she knows about downloading alien intelligence into the bodies. Jackson seems unconcerned and tells Amy that Reeve's gun isn't pointing at him, but rather at her. Jackson says they are going to reprogram her but this can only be done at the precise moment that a signal arrives from his homeworld. Reeve leads her away to put her in a cell. On the way they meet Carlisle who asks what is going on. Reeve, who assumes that Carlisle has been processed, tells her that Amy has seen inside Pod 7. Carlisle pulls her gun and says that she will take Amy to the cell but Reeve wants to see her safely inside so Carlisle accompanies them.

 

As they reach the foyer, Carlisle pushes Amy roughly. She staggers and then realises that this is her opportunity. She starts running, unsure of what to do until Carlisle shouts a warning that if she presses the evacuation alarm it will open all the doors and release all of the prisoners. Amy does so, setting off alarms and releasing doors all over the base. Thin, emaciated prisoners shuffle out of their cells towards her.

 

Twenty four hours after their trip to the crater, the Doctor is aboard the Apollo mission blasting off to the moon. Their journey should take eighteen hours but several hours in a mysterious radio signal is received. Pat Ashton, the third man on the ship with the Doctor and Garrett, wonders where it came from but the Doctor says it is extraterrestrial in origin. Then, Garrett says the message was for him. His eyes have turned grey and his voice has lost all expression. His foot stamps through the console, setting off explosions. The Doctor floats free and tries to restrain him. Garrett picks up a heavy spanner and chases the Doctor into the LEM. He launches himself at the Doctor but misses, crashing into the thin walls of the craft. He bursts through and is sucked out into space. The Doctor braces himself, then regains the linkway and seals the door.

 

The Doctor lands the LEM on the moon and crosses to Base Diana. He enters through a small airlock. When he enters the base proper only Amy is waiting for him. She tells him that the prisoners rioted after she let them out but they were soon rounded up. She used the confusion to hide out until the Doctor arrived. She also tells him that the aliens call themselves Talerians. This makes sense to the Doctor. He says he can use his screwdriver to jam the signal and therefore stop any more Talerians coming through. Then he tells her that he will blow up the base and kill the lot. When Amy agrees to this plan the Doctor doesn't seem surprised. She tells him she can lead him to the Communications Room but on the way he says he can tell by her grey expressionless eyes that this is not their real destination. He says he knows that she has been taken over. Someone claps and Amy's head slumps forward. Reeve and Jackson are behind the Doctor, gun at the ready. Carlisle joins them. They say he can't jam the signal but he says that was never his plan. He asks where Amy's personality is but they say it has been wiped forever.

 

Reeve and Jackson leave Carlisle to lock the Doctor up. He tells her that her brown eyes show she isn't really a Talerian and wonders if they are colour blind. She says that her reprogramming failed when the power cut happened but she has a Talerian trapped in her head. The Doctor uses his screwdriver to wake Amy up enough to follow simple instructions and then they all head off to the main computer facility. Carlisle says that most of the soldiers have been processed but many of them don't realise that they have. This makes it difficult for them to know who to trust. This does suggest that the original personalities are being kept stored in order to reload them when necessary.

 

They are halted by a technician with a gun but Amy walks into him and then down the corridor. Distracted, the technician, Gregman, is knocked out by Carlisle. She wonders if Amy did that on purpose because she ignored a clear command to halt. They pass through a door and down some stairs to where the computer facility is stored in the bedrock beneath the base. The base has been built over a giant underground lake which is used for drinking and hygiene as well as data storage using molecules of water.

 

When Gregman wakes up his Talerian personality kicks in and he follows the corridor to the door down underground. The code won't work but he realises that this is just proof that the Doctor has been that way. He hurries off to Jackson.

 

The Doctor accesses the records and locates the location of Amy's personality. It is stored in water in a small phial which he extracts from a drawer carefully. Then comes the sound of banging on the door above. They hide behind a line of storage banks as several people come down the stairs. The Doctor gives Amy her phial and tells her to put it somewhere safe but seconds later it clatters to the floor, the stopper removed. It is empty. The Doctor looks at several puddles of condensation on the floor and wonders which might be Amy. Just then she pulls Carlisle's gun from its holster as Reeve finds them. She tells Reeve that she has to trick the Doctor and take him for processing. The Doctor tells Reeve that this proves their techniques are fallible but Reeve says it just a sign of the program adapting to circumstances. Amy leads the Doctor towards the processing chamber while he wonders if her self-will is reasserting itself.

 

As they make their way up the stairs, Amy tells the Doctor that she drank the water from the phial. She winks, tells him and the Major to run and then shoots out one of the lights. The Doctor and Carlisle escape but Amy is dragged back. The Doctor is delighted that drinking the water gave Amy her personality back. The Doctor now has a plan. They hide in a nearby store room until the party from the stairs passes them.

 

The Doctor sends Carlisle to the control room so that she can access the fire suppression system. He returns to the computer facility. When he is caught by Reeve and some soldiers they see that he has vented the gas from the fire systems and replaced it with water. He whips out his sonic screwdriver and sets off the sprinklers. Reeve pulls the trigger of his gun as water cascades down.

 

Carlisle finds Amy in the Process Chamber and releases her from the chair. Every one of the soldiers has slumped into sleep. Only Jackson seems to be running around freely. They go back to find the Doctor. He is holding the unconscious figure of Reeve. He tells them that Reeve shot and missed. Around them stand several sleeping soldiers. The Doctor says that before he was caught he put the personalities of all the reprogrammed staff into the water in the sprinkler system. Their minds are now trying to readapt to their original patterns.

 

When Reeve wakes up he demands to know who the Doctor is. The Doctor asks him what he remembers last. This turns out to be a visit to the Process Chamber with Jackson. The Doctor tells him that there is an alien invasion under way and they need his help. Amy informs him that Jackson is still moving freely. The Doctor opens a drawer and sees that Jackson's phial is missing.

 

A bleeping from one of the consoles tells them that Ashton, in orbit above, has a message for them. He tells them that a beam of bright light is shining on Base Diana. On a screen they see a hideous, swollen, one-eyed monster materialise in a corridor. A similar alien slams open their door and points a gun at them. A soldier, waking from unconsciousness, stares at the Talerian with horror and then charges at it with a chair. One of the chair legs passes between the plates of alien armour and the fat monster bursts, leaving a gooey pool of slime. The Doctor says that this is why they needed human bodies, their own are too fragile.

 

A tannoy announcement by Jackson tells the Talerians to set their weapons to stun. Carlisle says that Jackson must be in his office so the Doctor tells her to gather as many men as she can and take them to somewhere defendable like the canteen. He and Amy are going to pay a visit on Jackson.

 

They find the professor in his office with the alien leader Raraarg. The Doctor begins by chatting pleasantly and suggesting they drink tea like the first time they met. Jackson produces the phial containing his human self. He says destroying it would be murder before elucidating Amy and the Doctor about the Talerians increasing fragility and their need to find more robust bodies to preserve their species. The Doctor angrily snaps that it is wrong to steal someone else's body. Jackson tells him to enjoy his tea for when he has finished it he will be shot.

 

The Doctor makes himself a cup of tea and passes one to Jackson. Pleasantly, he offers the Talerians the chance to surrender. Jackson laughs, saying that the Talerian in him has suppressed the previous occupant. Then his eyes go blue and his voice softens slightly. He tells the Doctor it has been like looking out through the bars of a prison. The Talerian leader sees that the phial is now empty, the Doctor put the water into Jackson's tea. Jackson says goodbye and uses a Talerian gun to blow open the window. Air rushes out, Jackson with it, and the Talerian leader balloons then explodes.

 

Across the base the lowering pressure causes the other Talerians to explode, too. As Amy is dragged toward the window the Doctor throws a desk at the hole, blocking it and saving their lives.

 

The Doctor takes the TARDIS to Base Hibiscus and delivers plans for adapting a space shuttle to rescue everyone on the moon. Walinski tells him that the moon base is no longer sustainable and the Doctor says that he will be keeping an eye on things in future. Walinski says that the two of them will have to be debriefed but before this can happen they sneak into the corridor and escape in the TARDIS.

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Night of the Humans

by David Llewellyn     

BBC Logo

 

 

Cover Blurb

Night of the Humans

"This is the Gyre - the most hostile environment in the galaxy."

250,000 years' worth of junk floating in deep space, home to the shipwrecked Sittuun, the carnivorous Sollogs, and worst of all - the Humans. The Doctor and Amy arrive on this terrifying world in the middle of an all-out frontier war between Sittuun and Humans, and the clock is already ticking. There's a comet in the sky, and it's on a collision course with the Gyre...When the Doctor is kidnapped, it's up to Amy and "galaxy-famous swashbuckler" Dirk Slipstream to save the day. But who is Slipstream, exactly? And what is he really doing here?

 

Notes:

This is the second book in the series of original adventures featuring the Eleventh Doctor.

Released: April 2010

 

ISBN: 978 1 84607 969 6

 

 

Synopsis

The TARDIS receives a distress signal which the Doctor says is temporal in nature, sent to a point just after a ship's take-off in order to facilitate rescue. As such, the TARDIS lands in the Battani 045 system. When they step out, the Doctor and Amy find themselves on something resembling a huge scrap yard, including the remains of the Pioneer 10 probe launched by NASA in 1972.

 

The year is 250,339.

 

In the sky above is the comet, Schuler-Khan. Suddenly a buggy pulls up, driven by two grey-skinned aliens. One pulls out a rifle. The two aliens, Charlie and Ahmed, recognise the Doctor and Amy as humans but think that they have become detached from a scouting party. Ahmed tells them that they are prisoners and will be used as bargaining tools. The Doctor tries to explain that they are answering a distress signal and have come to help. He points to the TARDIS but the aliens are not convinced.

 

The two travellers are told to get into the buggy and are driven across the metallic landscape. Suddenly a ball of burning refuse tumbles down a slope towards them. As the driver swerves the Doctor falls out. Apes in ragged clothes descend on all sides. Charlie hits the accelerator, despite Amy's protests, as flaming arrows are fires at the buggy. The Doctor is captured.

 

The buggy arrives at a wrecked spaceship: the Beagle XXI. Ahmed goes to find the captain, Charlie's father. Charlie tells Amy that his people are the Sittuun. Since encountering a Syrian cargo vessel (their first contact with aliens) they have used Earth names and human language when dealing with humans since their own language has proved unpronounceable for people from Earth. However, when Captain Jamal arrives he uses his own language, a series of clicks and whistles, which the TARDIS doesn't translate. Jamal is amazed to find that Amy knows she is from Earth and leads her inside.

 

In the ship are four aliens: Jamal, Charlie, Ahmed and Dr. Heeva. Amy tells them about her travels in the TARDIS including the space whale and the Doctor being a Time Lord. They don't believe her. In return they tell her that she is on the Gyre. This is a vast collection of debris which has been growing for at least 300,000 years. They have come here to destroy it with a nanobomb before the Schuler Khan comet hits it. There are only hours to go before the impact which will send chunks of debris as large as cities towards the twelve populated worlds of their solar system. They add that they didn't know the Gyre was populated until they arrived. Amy asks who the apes were that took the Doctor. Jamal, with some surprise, tells her that they are humans.

 

The Doctor is tied up by his captors and led through a valley of scrap. Eventually, the party arrives at a vast gorge crossed by a pipe ten metres in diameter, which the Doctor explains is the exhaust from a Proamonian dreadnaught. Unimpressed, his captors force him across the 'bridge' at spear point. He wonders how long these humans have been on the Gyre.

 

They enter a swamp and as they cross there is a splash in the water nearby. The humans begin to mutter fearfully about a Sollog. Suddenly they are attacked by a slug-like creature with eight spindly legs and razor sharp teeth. The humans run. Two are attacked and fall but the others do nothing to help and leave them behind.

 

The Doctor helps up one man as the Sollog closes in. the Doctor tells the man to cut his bonds. The man does so and the Doctor uses his screwdriver, amplified through a plastic pipe, to drive the predator off. The human ties the Doctor up again and then leads him on across a salt plain towards an enormous wrecked spaceship standing like a tower high above the plain. Along one side it says GOBO and has the image of a blue-haired clown. Around the base of the ship are makeshift buildings. From them come the sound of drumming, torchlight and the stink of smoke and rotting food.

 

A short human emerges from a wrecked space shuttle. He is announced as Tuco. The Doctor asks how long these humans have been on this place. Tuco says he is speaking heresy: humans have always been here for this is Earth.

 

Amy denies that the ape creatures are humans but Charlie tells her that they are the remains of a shipwrecked crew, descendants of people who crashed thousands of years earlier. They have evidently forgotten both their technology and their history. Amy says they don't look human but Charlie says that they do to the Sittuun. He says that when his ship crashed 108 days earlier the humans killed three of the crew and took three more as prisoner. Another Sittuun, Aisha, was killed by a Sollog so now only four of the original eleven are alive. They have tried to salvage a raft ship to escape but something in the Gyre has scrambled the navigation systems. Amy asks why they didn't merely fire a missile to destroy the Gyre. He replies that their nanobomb is the largest ever made: it took funds from eight planets in the Battani system plus fifteen more worlds.

 

Amy's response is that the Doctor could have used the TARDIS to rescue them all. Charlie apologises for capturing them and adds that his father hates humans for their violence, superstition and predatory nature. As the Sittuun evolved on a world with no predators they have developed without a concept of fear. The first three of their crew to die were actually warning the humans about the approaching comet. The reward for their concern was to be killed and hung on the city gates. He tells her that the only options are to wait for the comet's impact or to detonate the nanobomb and be vapourised. Ahmed bursts in to tell them that an Earth vessel is approaching.

 

As they rush outside a small yellow ship streaks across the sky and lands nearby. The Sittuun and Amy run towards it, noting its name: The Golden Bough. A door opens and a man in a silver space suit steps out. He has a smile like a film star and introduces himself as Dirk Slipstream. He says that he is ex-Terran Airborne division and has come freelance to rescue them. Amy immediately tells him about the Doctor being captured and Slipstream says that it is a matter of honour to mount a rescue. Captain Jamal wants to leave and detonate his bomb at once but Slipstream says that his own reputation will be ruined if the story gets out that he left someone behind.

 

The Doctor is taken down a series of dark underground passages until he is led into a cell. On the way he talks to Sancho, his guard, about how the two of them escaped the Sollog. Sancho almost smiles at the memory but puts the Doctor into a cell. The Doctor tries his screwdriver on the lock but to no avail. He has a cellmate, Manco. This man tells him his story: he is a wordslinger, the only human who is permitted to read. He inherited this talent from his family. He says that Gobo created the world from junk and looks down from the top of his tower. Gobo gave the gift of speech to all but deprived most of the sinful gift of writing. However, when the star appeared Django sent Manco into the tower to find out what it was. He read a log and found that the tower was a ship that had crashed with 3000 people on board. Only five hundred survived. That ship was from Earth. When he returned to tell Django this news he was put in prison for heresy. The Doctor agrees with Manco, saying that Gobo is only a symbol of the Gobocorp freight company. Manco says that Django claimed the log and the Sittuun were tricks sent by 'The Bad', which is why the aliens were killed. Their conversation is interrupted by Tuco who comes to take the Doctor to Django.

 

Slipstream is preparing to leave with Amy and Ahmed. Charlie wants to go, too, but his father forbids him (saying that he will take Slipstream's ship and detonate the bomb as soon as the others have gone). Charlie says this is wrong but he seems more upset by Amy's anger when he fails to join the rescue attempt.

 

After being led back through the tunnels the Doctor passes into a large chamber where a hundred humans are watching westerns projected onto large sheets while robed humans intone commentaries on the moving pictures. The comments include references to Gobo's brother Wyturp. The Doctor realises that not only do the humans have a power supply but their mythology is based on centuries of watching westerns.

 

In the buggy, Ahmed tells Amy that Charlie went to Lux Academy in the Sol 1 system (Earth). He studied music there and took his name from Charlie Parker. Ahmed feels that Charlie is half human. As they drive across the surface Slipstream says he has often wondered about Gyre - legend tells that it contains the resting place of a fabulous treasure called the Mymon Key. He adds that this is probably a fairytale.

 

Charlie sits in his room, brooding, as his rifle charges. In the ship his father and Dr. Heeva prepare the nanobomb. Charlie knows he will never see Ahmed or Amy again. He decides that he trusts Amy and therefore the Doctor.

 

Ahmed pulls up at the pipe bridge. He is afraid to drive across because of Sollogs. Slipstream orders him on and sure enough a Sollog soon blocks their path. Slipstream shoots at it, but misses, and it charges their buggy. Ahmed swerves but the impact of the Sollog knocks him out of the buggy and he rolls down the slope and clings on, holding on above the gorge. Slipstream gets into the driver's seat as Amy prepares to leap to Ahmed's aid. Slipstream orders her to sit and points the gun at her. The Sollog charges and as Slipstream shoots it (causing it to explode) Amy leaps out and runs to Ahmed. The pipe, weakened by Slipstream's earlier shot, crack. Ahmed falls into the abyss and Amy tumbles over the edge, grabbing hold at the last minute as the pipe swings into the side of the gorge. Above her Slipstream waves farewell and departs.

 

The Doctor climbs a gloomy staircase into a tower lit by torches and flickering fluorescent tubes. In a chamber lined with humanoid statues fashioned from scrap metal and hung with images of Gobo the clown he sees a large throne. He is knocked to the ground as Tuco announces Django. A tall, bearded man with long hair enters. Tuco denounces the Doctor as a heretic. The Doctor tries to talk about the comet but Django adds that the Sittuun who said the same thing were killed. He says that the comet is actually Gobo coming to take the humans to El Paso. He sentences the Doctor to death in the acid lake, Mono.

 

Amy finds herself clinging to a vine when a tiny craft flown by Charlie comes into the canyon. He pulls in close to her so that she can scramble aboard and then they land on the salt flats. Amy tells him that Ahmed is dead and that Slipstream abandoned them. Charlie replies that his father is going to take Slipstream's ship and set off the bomb. They have one hour to get to the human city and back out again.

 

Slipstream has crossed the swamp after driving off the Sollogs. The buggy is in bad condition and he knows it will get him to the human city but not back again. He reasons that he escaped from Volag-Noc and stole The Golden Bough so there will be a way out. He drives to the gates of the city where the guards promptly slash his tyres and grab him.

 

Charlie tells Amy that Beagle XXI is a European human ship but Amy can't understand why Jamal works for a company with human connections yet hates the race. Charlie adds that until first contact with humans the Sittuun had never been into space.

 

Slipstream is taken to Django. He tells the leader that he will reveal the Sittuun hiding place in exchange for access to the Gobo room at the top of the tower. He also demands a guide and Django agrees to send him with Manco.

 

Sancho leads the Doctor out from the city. The Doctor asks him if the tower is the dead centre of the world and Sancho agrees that it is. They arrive at a bubbling lake of toxic waste where the Doctor is led to the end of a jetty. Sancho tells him that he will die now.

 

Jamal is programming the bomb when Heeva enters to say that the human drums are getting louder. Charlie has gone and the captain is worried how he will break this news to his wife when he returns home. Heeva and Jamal have evidently begun a relationship since their ship crashed and she is aware that it must end when they leave. She wonders what life will be like for her if she survives and whether she will ever see Jamal again. Jamal tells her he can't leave without his son and asks for an extra thirty minutes. She wonders if they even have that long before the impact.

 

Amy and Charlie hide in a side street in the city, hardly able to believe that Amy could be so convincing when she told the guards that she was one of the humans and Charlie was her prisoner.

 

Back in the throne room the Doctor finds out from Tuco that he has been reprieved. Slipstream enters. The Doctor says that the last time they met was when the Doctor was putting Slipstream behind bars on Volag-Noc for the Belaform Diamond Heist when Slipstream crashed a passenger ship into a diamond repository on Belaform 9, killing seven hundred people. Slipstream curtly notes that the Doctor's face has changed since then. Manco is also present in the room. He is to be their guide into the Gobo room. Slipstream adds that it was he who sent the trans-temporal distress signal, knowing that the Doctor would inevitably answer it. Django interrupts, demanding to know where the Sittuun are hiding.

 

Amy sees soldiers gathering near to the city gates. She has arrived at the base of the spaceship. The comet is even closer now and fragments of it are already breaking off and crashing into the surface of Gyre, causing pieces of the city to collapse. A door opens nearby and Slipstream steps out, followed by the Doctor and dozens of humans. Three humans follow Slipstream and the Doctor through a door near the base of the ship.

 

Manco leads them while Tuco and Sancho act as their guards. Slipstream says he is looking for the hold so Manco leads them on. The Doctor reminisces that it is several regenerations since he had Slipstream incarcerated.

 

Django leads a party of a hundred humans across the desert. Most are on foot but several are riding bizarre contraptions powered by steam and levers.

 

The Doctor wonders how he can warn the Sittuun of the impending attack. His journey takes him through passages and up ladders and through a room filled with sleep pods containing the skeletons of the original crew. The wind howls and occasional crashes are heard outside. Slipstream says that he is after the Mymon Key. The Doctor tells Manco that the key is a source of limitless energy made on Mercutio 14 by the Hexion Geldmongers. It has the power to tear the universe apart. Endless wars were fought over it. Its power is derived from gravity.

 

Slipstream fills in more of the Key's history. The Geldmongers took it back and locked it in a casket that could only be opened by someone fluent in Hexion. When Mercutio 14 was destroyed and the Hexions were wiped out it was thought that the Key was lost forever. However, the casket had already been stolen and in the 31st century it was placed in a museum but later sold on. It was in transit when the ship carrying it crashed. The ship was the one they are standing in.

 

Slipstream says he read all of this when he was in prison in Volag-Noc's library. The Doctor says he can't believe that Slipstream sold out the Sittuun but Slipstream replies that the humans can't reach their prey since the only bridge collapsed.

 

They reach the control room which is full of dead screens. The Doctor uses his screwdriver to bring one console to life and dozens of wall screens light up. He presses a few keys and flicks switches. On the screens appear dozens of repeated images of Captain Zachary Velasquez. He says that The Herald of Nanking crashed and only five hundred of the three thousand crew survived. When he says that Earth is twenty five light years away Tuco denounces his words as heresy. Sancho realises that Gyre isn't Earth and asks what Gobocorp is and what is meant by a 'ship'. He tells Tuco that Django has lied to them. Tuco pushes Sancho over a walkway. Sancho plunges thirty feet and lands with a sickening thud. Slipstream orders Manco, Tuco and the Doctor to proceed. As the party leaves the room the Doctor, unseen, flicks one final switch.

 

Captain Jamal works out the controls to The Golden Bough. The only thing stopping him from leaving at once is the unsettling notion of fear. Just then Heeva calls to say that she has received a message in Morse code from the city. Someone in the tower is flashing a light. She reads the message: 'humans attacking' and says she will activate the bomb.

 

After crossing the salt flats the humans enter the marsh where they are surrounded by Sollogs. They are outnumbered until a fall of meteorites from the comet startles the Sollogs. Django thinks this is a miracle sent by Gobo to help them as the Sollogs scatter and hide. This is strengthened when they see the chasm with the broken bridge begin to collapse and fill with debris until there is only a shallow trench.

 

Meanwhile, the bomb is ticking down from sixty minutes.

 

In the cargo hold of The Herald of Nanking Slipstream has a book compiled by enthusiasts who tried to explain her disappearance. It lists passengers and cargo on the final voyage. They use the book to find a gleaming cobalt box deep within the cavernous room. The Doctor takes the box from Slipstream's hands and shakes it. He says the casket is broken and the key has been working the whole time. Slipstream asks if the Doctor can read the instructions. The Doctor says he can but he won't. Slipstream puts his gun to the Doctor's head.

 

Jamal starts the engines of The Golden Bough and orders Heeva to join him. She stops at the cargo doors of the Beagle and presses the control panel to lock the hold. Jamal tells her to hurry; the humans are almost upon them. She turns with a sad smile and tells him to leave without her. An arrow hits the control panel, causing it to explode. A second arrow hit Heeva in the chest. She falls to her knees as the humans surround her. The Golden Bough lifts off.

 

The Doctor solves the puzzle on the exterior of the casket that allows it to be opened. Inside is a block of quartz that holds a golden pebble - the Mymon Key. Slipstream says his first plan is to hold Sol 1 to ransom, threatening to turn the sun into a black hole unless he gets ten per cent of everything in the system. The Doctor says that the Gyre is the only flat debris pile in the universe. He wonders why that is and why The Herald of Nanking crashed in the first place. He suggests that such piles only form in the perfect convergence of a system's gravitational fields. As the key feeds on energy he suggests that the Gyre is its perfect home. Slipstream tells him not to be so sentimental.

 

The humans enter the cargo hold and find the bomb. Django says that it is the weapon of the Bad and must be taken back to the city.

 

As they leave the cargo hold Tuco says that it is sacrilege taking the treasure of Gobo. In response Slipstream shoots Tuco and turns his gun on the Doctor. Before he can fire, Charlie puts his gun to Slipstream's head. Charlie punches Slipstream who drops his gun which the Doctor tosses away. Amy throws her arms around the Doctor. As they step out from the ship they see the humans standing at the gate of the city, staring up at the comet which is huge above them.

 

A large fragment of comet crashes down near the humans, causing all but Django to cower. He keeps eye on the bomb's countdown. He doesn't know what the bomb will actually do, but he does know it is sent by the Bad. He knows from the teachings of the elders that the Comet is Gobo and its return will save them from the Bad. He knows also that he has the one person who can disarm the bomb - Manco.

 

Jamal fights to fly his ship in a straight line. He still feels fear, not for himself but for his son. He flies out of the Gyre's thin atmosphere and arcs back towards the city.

 

Manco leads the group into the chamber of stories. A cowboy film is playing, watched by an Elder who recites the story of Gobo over the actions. The Doctor uses his screwdriver to play the real soundtrack through the speakers so that the watchers can hear the real words. They are excited to hear the Olden Ones speaking. He tells them that they are watching The 8.10 to El Paso. He adds that it has nothing to do with Gobo and explains the true plotline of the movie. He explains that the film is fiction but the impending comet is real and implores them to leave the city. Despite this pleading none of the audience listens. Charlie pulls him away. The humans stay where they were.

 

Amy understands the Doctor's distress: there were children in the audience. A hundred metres from the city Manco declares that he is not coming. He says he belongs here and wouldn't fit in on the real Earth. The Doctor gives him the Key and says that it belongs there, too.

 

Fragments of comet fall around them and dodging between comes The Golden Bough. However, Jamal can't land: every time he approaches the ground the ship lurches upwards. Using speakers in the hull he tells them that the Gyre won't let him land. The Doctor signals for him to go up and the four others run across the salt plains towards Charlie's helipod. There they see countless Sollogs oozing into the salt. The Doctor says they have run in fear from the comet. They reach the helipod, Bird, Amy and Charlie climbing in and the Doctor and Slipstream clinging to the outside.

 

Charlie radios his father, arranging a rendezvous at the TARDIS. As they pass over the swamp a Sollog leaps onto the small craft. Charlie shakes the craft about, throwing the Sollog into the propellers but sending the two men tumbling from the outside. Amy screams. Then, seconds later, the Doctor climbs up across the nose of the craft, dragging Slipstream with him. One of the engines fails and the Bird plunges down. It crashes into the surface. Charlie and Amy emerge from the wreckage to find the Doctor crouched over an unconscious Slipstream. Charlie hauls him over his shoulder and they run to the TARDIS. They barely get inside before the valley around them is hit by a large fragment. They dematerialize as the valley vanishes in fire and debris.

 

Manco watches a fireball punch a hole in the face of Gobo before the entire ship keels over and crashes to the ground. One of Django's guards finds him in the dust cloud that results and tells him he is wanted.

 

The TARDIS lands inside the hold of The Golden Bough. There is an emotional reunion between Charlie and Jamal. They drag Slipstream into the hold. Jamal tries to pilot away from the Gyre but something drags them back down. They wake Slipstream (a slap from Charlie doing the trick) and the Doctor demands the real Mymon Key. Begrudgingly, Slipstream hands it over. The Doctor takes the TARDIS back to the Gyre and casts the key into the swamp.

 

While he is away Amy goes back to the ship's hold and is promptly taken prisoner by Slipstream who has one of the many guns he keeps there. He drags her into an escape pod which he jettisons. The Doctor, back at the TARDIS door, sees the pod's parachute and watches it land and the two occupants get out. Slipstream approaches, his gun at Amy's head, demanding the Key. The Doctor tells him it is in the swamp. Slipstream leaves Amy and wades into the swamp. He disappears from view but they hear the sound of his blaster and the screech of Sollogs. Then there is silence, followed by Slipstream's scream.

 

They return to the TARDIS and fly back to The Golden Bough. Jamal is pleased to see them and also to hear that Slipstream is dead. He turns the ship away from the Gyre.

 

With the city destroyed, Django's throne is now in the dungeon where Manco was kept prisoner. It seems appropriate to Manco that everything should end here. Django asks if he knows what the canister next to him is. Manco replies that it is the bomb. Django agrees, saying it is the work of the Bad and that Manco must deactivate it so that Gobo can save them. Manco shakes his head saying that the star with the green tail will destroy their world and many others. Django says that there are no other worlds but Manco believes the Doctor. He says that the Doctor is a good man who tried to save them all and it is Django who has condemned them to death. He reminds Django that he is a wordslinger and his chosen word is "No". Django flings himself at Manco in fury but Manco merely smiles as the bomb's timer reaches zero.

 

From a distance, to Amy's eyes, the explosion is a darkness that opens in the centre of the Gyre and spreads out until there is only a haze. The comet punches through the haze. The Doctor has refused to watch. Amy asks if he is OK and he replies that he is if she is.

 

The descendants of the crew of The Herald of Nankingare gone as is the last remnant of the creators of the Mymon Key. The Doctor reflects that time forgets all civilizations eventually. Jamal thanks him for saving them all but the Doctor tells him that it is Charlie who should be thanked. Jamal realises that the Doctor is thinking about the humans who died. Jamal, too, says that even though he saw the humans as murderous savages he still could not bring himself to set the bomb, knowing it would kill them all. This despite predictions that the impact of the comet meant his homeworld had a 98 per cent chance of being hit. He adds that the Doctor is a good man who did all that he could.

 

Charlie makes a romantic pass at Amy who is a little bit shocked and then amused. She kisses him once while he plays her his favourite Ella Fitzgerald song, Stairway to the Stars'. The Doctor enters and tells them that he once jammed on the recorder with Ella. It didn't go down well. He and Amy step into the TARDIS which vanishes.

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

The Herald of Nanking is mentioned in The Taking of Chelsea 426.

 

 

 

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The Forgotten Army

by Brian Minchin         

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Cover Blurb

The Forgotten Army   

Let me tell you a story. Long ago, in the frozen Arctic wastes, an alien army landed. Only now, 10,000 years later, it isn't a story. And the army is ready to attack.

New York - one of the greatest cities on 21st century Earth...

 

But what's going on in the Museum? And is that really a Woolly Mammoth rampaging down Broadway? An ordinary day becomes a time of terror, as Ice Age creatures come back to life, and the Doctor and Amy meet a new and deadly enemy. The vicious Army of the Vykoid are armed to the teeth and determined to enslave the human race. Even though they're only seven centimetres high. With the Doctor kidnapped, and the Vykoid army swarming across Manhattan and sealing it from the world with a powerful alien forcefield, Amy has just 24 hours to find the Doctor and save the city. If she doesn't, the people of Manhattan will be taken to work in the doomed asteroid mines of the Vykoid home planet. But as time starts to run out, who can she trust? And how far will she have to go to free New York from the Forgotten Army?

 

Notes:

This is the third novel in the series of original adventures featuring the Eleventh Doctor.

Time-Placement: The departure for the Delirium Archive sets this story before The Time of Angels.

 

Released: April 2010

 

ISBN: 978 1 84607 987 0

 

 

Synopsis

Sam Horowitz excitedly reveals his great discovery to the assembled media (and a party of schoolchildren) in the Great Hall of the New York Natural History Museum. It is a perfectly preserved mammoth. Unfortunately, the mammoth is not dead. It revives and begins to rampage through the hall.

 

Elsewhere in New York the Doctor is eagerly introducing Amy to the Universe's perfect burger when they see a brief filmed clip of the mayhem. Racing down to the museum the Doctor blags his way through the police cordon with a combination of psychic paper and a special UNIT code. Commander Strebbins is less than impressed to have her authority usurped but lets the couple enter the now-deserted museum. The Doctor hears the mammoth coming through the walls and scales a column, helping Amy up beside him: not to escape but to leap onto the Mammoth's back. They notice a kind of intelligence in the creature, almost as if it is reading the notices on the walls before they climb aboard. It charges around, trying to unseat them. Even Sam gets involved in the action, removing his jacket and playing the matador, but the creature runs past him down a corridor to the exit. The Doctor has realised that the mammoth's skeleton is metal but its flesh is real. It charges into the street and is brought down by a volley of tranquiliser darts. One also brings the Doctor down.

 

Strebbins notices that Amy has been talking to a young officer, Oscar Henderson. She pulls Oscar to one side and tells him that the Doctor used a UNIT code. She doesn't want UNIT usurping her authority and orders Oscar to keep tabs on Amy and the Doctor.

 

Sam Horowitz finds refuge in the basement of the museum where he is found by his friend, Polly, who had brought her elementary school class to the unveiling. She asks him where he found the mammoth. He recalls the day he was cataloguing reindeer droppings and found a scrap of paper claiming to reveal the location of dinosaur bones near Svalbard. He followed the trail and came home, instead, with the mammoth.

 

Oscar arrives at the Midtown Police Station to discover that Amy has sent the entire police force outside with coffee and doughnuts while she sits with the unconscious Doctor. When the Time Lord wakes up she tells him he has been out cold for six hours and the mammoth is in the zoo. They sneak out the back of the station and borrow a squad car. Oscar arrives in time to see them leave.

 

As the sun sets over New York they steal into the zoo and locate the mammoth pacing in its cage. With a burst on his sonic screwdriver the Doctor disables the mammoth. Almost at once its belly drops to the floor, revealing a brightly lit interior, something like an alien space ship. A green ball of energy spreads out from the mammoth and expands across the city. An army of tiny soldiers assembles on the deck inside the mammoth. The Doctor tells Amy that this is an invasion. They are troll-like creatures, heavily armed, each about seven centimeters tall. Their general, Erik, tells the Doctor that he is leader of the 99th Vykoid Expeditionary force and he demands that the humans surrender. He adds that his army will take no lives, only slaves to work in the Desiccated mines of Cassetia 2. The Doctor tells Amy that these mines are in asteroids made entirely of Space-Boar dung. He refuses to surrender so the general instigates the Temporal Lock. Another wave of energy passes over them. At once its effects are clear: the Vykoids are suddenly moving much more quickly than the human eye can see.

 

Fully equipped in seconds, the army prepares to move out. Throwing herself at them to stop them, Amy finds herself lying down, tied up, almost instantaneously. The army moves away and Amy realises that the Doctor has been taken with them. She raises her hand and sees that she is no longer restrained. She follows the trail of the soldiers to the road outside the zoo where it vanishes so she heads back to the squad car only to find Oscar parked nearby. Summoning her most authoritative voice she demands she supply a tracker dog. He does so, against his better nature.

 

Meanwhile, Strebbins has researched Amy and found that she is a kissogram girl from England with no connection to UNIT. She instigates the Night Storm strategy that gives her total control of the city but since the entire communication network is down she has to send a runner with the message.

 

No sooner has the tracker Alsatian been delivered than the lights of New York go out. As they head towards the centre of town bricks begin to fly at them. Windows smash, lampposts are dragged down and debris is hurled about as if by invisible hands. Amy surmises that this is to clear the people off the streets. She tells Oscar that the mammoth contained tiny alien invaders and urges Oscar to look at them through his binoculars. They see a squad of riot police confront the aliens who, at super-speed, disarm the officers and replace their weapons with comedy items like umbrellas and traffic cones. When Oscar steps in to face the Vykoids he is not only disarmed but undressed and then redressed in skirt and lacy gloves with a tiara. Amy picks up his discarded gun but knows that the Doctor wouldn't want her to use it. Thinking of him, she remembers that she has his psychic paper in her pocket. She looks at it and sees a message from the Doctor saying that he is below her. She kisses Oscar goodbye and races to a Subway station.

 

She makes her way down the tracks until she comes to another station where dozens of people have been tied up on the platform. All, apart from the Doctor, are unconscious. He tells her that the Vykoids use sedative drops in the humans' eyes but he cried his out. They flee down the track only to find that the Vykoids are sending a train towards them. They dodge into an alcove and climb a ladder to the surface. Elsewhere, Strebbins learns that her entire force has been removed from the streets and sets out with a dozen cadets to retake the city.

 

The Doctor and Amy return to the museum and find Sam and Polly in the basement. After determining that Sam isn't an alien and part of the plan, the Doctor tells Polly that she has what he needs to fight the Vykoids: children. He says that the aliens are rounding up the strongest New Yorkers and designating them for slave work but the children of the city are invisible to them. He rounds up Polly's class and takes them to her apartment. Then he divides them into pairs and sends them to the highest points in the city to spy on the Vykoids. After this he takes Sam to the zoo to look at the mammoth. Amy persuades Sam to get into the mammoth while they close it up just to see what happens. When they let Sam out a few seconds later he complains that they left him inside for ages, telling them that the mammoth interior is immune to the Time Freeze.

 

Strebbins and her men arrive in front of City Hall and are promptly caught in a giant net. The Commander is taken down to the Vykoid scientist's lair where a Vykoid, Lars, is put onto her head and hidden by a cap. He assumes control of her mind. The same is done to hundreds of NYPD officers.

 

Another pulse of green energy restores the power to the city and New York springs back to life as the night ends. Looking at a television in a shop window, the Doctor and Amy see Trinity Wells interviewing Strebbins. They wonder why Trinity is wearing a ridiculous hat. The Doctor realises that the Vykoids have taken over the police just as a line of NYPD officers behind him take off their hats to reveal the grinning Vykoids on their heads. They leap into a taxi and the Doctor races across town, shaking off four pursuing police cars. They arrive at the zoo to find Oscar and some of the children. The children leap out of Oscar's car to say they found a massive glowing ball at the top of the Statue of Liberty.

 

The Doctor, Amy and Sam get into the mammoth and drive it across New York. They notice that the Vykoids, no faster than them now, are keeping the people of the city on the streets and herding them to Broadway to avoid a supposed terrorist threat. Oscar makes his way to where Strebbins is and pulls his gun but realises he has not got the will to shoot either her or her Vykoid controller.

 

The mammoth 'swims' to Liberty Island and then crashes through the ticket barriers, before mounting the steps inside the statue. General Erik watches their approach with disbelief. He can't see what the Doctor is hoping to achieve. As the mammoth bursts into the Vykoid control room it is disabled by thousands of tiny darts. The Doctor pulls himself out with his companions close behind and grabs the general's baton which he recognises as a control device. He uses it to slow the Vykoid/police but stops playing with it when he sees that the general has Amy at gunpoint. Amy and the Doctor are tied up and dumped in the torch of the statue where the Doctor takes a look at Sam, now with a Vykoid controlling him. The Doctor tells Sam to fight against the control while the Vykoid uses him to pull levers and flick switches on a control panel. With an effort, Sam wrenches the Vykoid from his hair and hands him to the Doctor. The Doctor scans the tiny warrior with his screwdriver then touches the sonic to the peak of the torch. Satisfied he steps down.

 

Thus, when the Vykoids use their teleport to send the first batch of New Yorkers into slavery it is his soldiers that vanish from the heads of the police. The Doctor enters and tells the General that Earth has a great champion: Amy Pond. The Vykoids retreat into their mammoth and depart.

 

It is only left for the Doctor to check that New York is back to normal and for Amy to make her fond farewells with Oscar before the time travellers are setting off for the Delirium Archive.

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

The Doctor refers to the last time he was in New York City, saying he spent far too long underground (Daleks in Manhattan).

Amy has a strange recollection of seeing Nile Penguins in the museum (The Big Bang).

One of the children's fathers talks about the time his son "started chanting" (Torchwood: Children of Earth).

 

 

The Runaway Train

by Oli Smith   

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Cover Blurb

The Runaway Train

Arriving on Earth in the midst of the American Civil War, the Doctor and Amy must get a posse together to help them retrieve an alien artefact that has fallen into the clutches of the Confederation Army. The terraforming device belongs to the Cei, a race of invaders who plan to use it to turn the planet into a new home world.

But neither the Army nor the aliens are keen to let the Doctor and his gang interfere with their plans, and give chase across the Wild West. The only hope of escape for the Doctor and friends is to catch the 3.25 to Arizona and race along the newly-built transcontinental railroad.

 

Notes:

Read by Matt Smith and featuring the Eleventh Doctor and Amy, this story is set after the audio story The Hounds of Artemis.

Also available along The Ring of Steel in The New Adventures: Volume 1 box set (ISBN: 978 1 60283 933 5).

First issued by the UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph as a special promotional giveaway with its issue of 24th April 2010.

Released: October 2010

ISBN: 978 1 408 42747 8

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

(drn: ??'??")

A fly drones on a railway platform. It buzzes around an outlaw, Vin, seated on the platform. He wakes to hear the sound of boots on the wooden platform and he sees a man in overalls approach. This is a railroad worker, carrying a gun. Vin realises that the man will never use the gun, not until Vin has used his. A wind springs up. A third figure in a confederate uniform is visible. The wind increases until the TARDIS materialises. The door opens and the Doctor steps out, eying the guns. He says, 'Hello.'

 

The group lowers their weapons. The man in overalls calls him 'Doctor'. The Doctor says he doesn't recognise them but they insist he asked them to come. The soldier is Private Bernardo, a deserter, who claims to have met the Doctor in a saloon two days earlier. None of the men has met the others before and the only reason they are there is to do a job with a large reward. This is all that has brought Vin across Texas. Amy steps out, wondering what reward they have offered. She is dressed in appropriate nineteenth century garb. The man in overalls, Hilario, says that they were promised farmland in return for transporting the Doctor's goods. The Doctor is perplexed by this and denies that he has any land to give. He tells them that his 'goods' are half a mile away and all he needs is their help digging it up. Unmoved, Vin tells him that the Doctor said he would say that.

 

Peering through his binoculars at a Confederate camp, the Doctor agrees that he will need their help after all. There is a dangerous alien device in the camp that needs to be deactivated and returned to the TARDIS before nine o'clock that night. Bernardo tells him that the regiment wouldn't have built fortifications like they have if they didn't regard what they had found as important. He says it is obvious that they are intending to stay a while and will have sent out to the nearby villages for supplies. Probably wine. He suggests that he and Amy will be the best people to approach the camp.

 

Twenty minutes later they reach the camp. Bernardo produces two skins of wine which he says Amy has brought for the men. They are admitted and walk through the camp, passing a large and freshly dug hole. Nearby some barrels have been arranged around something. Bernardo distributes wine to the men and the two of them use the diversion to explore the barrels. There are some wagons nearby and in one is a golden cylinder the size of two coffins. It has a panel with four flashing lights. They are surprised by an officer who recognises Bernardo as a deserter at the Battle of Galveston. Bernardo recognises the officer as Captain Britt. Britt pulls a revolver out of its holster and puts it to Bernardo's head.

 

Vin tells the Doctor that the couple is in trouble. Amy throws herself at the Captain and deflects the gun as the trigger is pulled. Amy grabs a horse. Vin takes aim with his rifle and shoots a barrel of gunpowder in the camp. A huge explosion is detonated, and a cloud of smoke rolls across the camp. From within a cart emerges, driven by Amy. Soldiers pursue them. The Doctor leads his two companions back to the station and the TARDIS.

 

No sooner have they regained the platform than bullets start to hit the nearby water tower and blades of the windmill. The wagon with the Doctor and his friends arrive. He falls out against the TARDIS, leaps up and opens the door. The others try to get the wagon to the door but it won't fit inside. He says he hasn't got the time to materialise around it. Hilario asks what time it is: 3.25. a train sweeps down the track and stops short of the platform. Hilario says he built the tracks and no train has ever been late on them. He runs to the cab, pistol drawn, from which the driver promptly escapes into the desert. The others manhandle the cart carrying the alien device into one of the coaches. Hilario edges the train out of the platform. Britt's men fire a volley into the carriage. The casing of the device is punctured and sets off a really loud distress signal. The Doctor uses his screwdriver to cut out some of the noise. Amy checks the train to see if anyone else is on board.

 

Bernardo asks what the device is. The Doctor tries to tell them about an interplanetary war and that the device is a terraformer to allow one of the ships from the losing side to colonise Earth. He says that if he doesn't stop it everyone will drown. A bullet hits Vin in the shoulder. The Doctor uses his screwdriver to magnetise the bullet and pulls it out. He slips it into his pocket.

 

Hilario races the train through the barren landscape in pleasure. Behind he can see soldiers boarding the train from their horses. Five men scramble onto the carriages. The Doctor works his way back to find Amy. One soldier attacks the Doctor as he tries to leap from carriage to carriage. The Doctor swings helplessly until Bernardo knocks the soldier off the train with Vin's empty rifle and hauls the Doctor back aboard. The Time Lord then opens the hatch in the roof of the second carriage and the two men climb out to send two soldiers off the train. They run down the roof, too late, to see the last carriage uncoupled. They see Amy waving forlornly as the train pulls away from her.

 

The carriage trundles half a mile until it halts. Britt and his men arrive and the captain pulls her off the train. He asks her name. She tells him that she is 'Miss Pond'. He promises that she won't come to any harm unless she refuses to answer his questions. She tells him that the device is a Cei terraformer and that she was trying to get it off the planet before it went off at nine o'clock. He doesn't believe her and bundles her onto the back of his horse to return to the camp.

 

Sometime later she sees a silver disc sweeping across the sky. It is the Cei ship, she tells them. It is hovering over their distant camp. Green lights search the camp. They turn red and then an explosion erupts from the camp. The ship moves over them and away. Britt tells them that there will be no survivors in the camp. Amy notes that the ship is following the train and she says that if the Doctor fails it is because Britt stopped him. She taunts the captain into following the train with her.

 

The Doctor tries to wire the terraformer to a small metal box he pulled from his pocket. He is disconsolate. Vin checks his shoulder and guesses that he won't be able to shoot again. He says he is forty and too old to start again with a new life. He adds that the world might be a better place if everyone was like Bernardo and ran away from battles.

 

The Doctor explains that he is trying to build in an inhibitor to limit the device's radius to a few miles. Bernardo calls him to say that the saucer is approaching. Hilario is prepared to give the saucer a race and opens the throttle only to see a sign saying 'Soledad Valley'. He tells the Doctor that this is where the track runs out, half way across a thousand foot bridge. He says that they are going to have to jump for it. The Doctor says that he has finished his alterations to the cylinder.

 

The four men leap from the train, the Doctor being the last to go. He rolls over a precipice and grabs a bush. He looks across to see the train plunge off the bridge into the valley below. Hilario pulls him up to the track. The saucer upends itself and buries itself in the desert floor. Hilario and the Doctor approach. Britt suddenly appears, too, with Amy. Britt claims the starship for the Confederate army and hammers on the hull with his gun handle. The Doctor watches with interest. Amy hugs him and they inspect each other's tattered clothes.

 

A hatch opens high on the hull of the ship. A golden haze emanates and then a hunched and spindly shape moves out. A skull-like helmet encases the face and an ivory exoskeleton sheaths its body. The Doctor recognises it as the Cei leader. It leaps down among them and asks who has interfered with the terraformer. The Doctor says it was him and asks what of it. He says that the Cei thought the planet too primitive to be noticed when they committed genocide. Britt is angry because he thinks the Doctor stole his weapon and threatens the alien with his pistol: if the Cei doesn't hand over the terraformer and the spaceship he will put a bullet in its brain. The alien flicks its wrist and a gun of its own unfolds.

 

Slowly, the Doctor raises his fist to show a watch. He tells them that it is nine o'clock. A shock wave ripples across the desert from the terraformer. Grass, pine trees and fog roll out to replace the desert with a paradise. Britt is knocked down by the force of the blast. Vin points a gun at him and Bernardo does the same to the Cei. Amy asks what the Doctor did. He says he reprogrammed the Cei device to create an Earth environment. He turns to the men beside him and tells them that this is the farmland he promised.

 

Amy pushes Vin's gun away, saying he has children. Vin says that his gun was empty anyway. The Doctor helps the Cei to its feet and gives it a small metal bauble. He tells it that it is a hyperdrive booster to help the craft get home.

 

Amy and the Doctor stroll into the sunset. She asks how the trio of men knew to meet them at the railway. He picks up the pace towards the TARDIS, telling her that they have some recruiting to do.

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

 

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The Ring of Steel

by Stephen Cole          

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Cover Blurb

The Ring of Steel

When the TARDIS lands on Orkney in the near future, the Doctor and Amy arrive to find a large demonstration in progress over the construction of new electricity pylons. The Doctor tries to break things up peacefully - but suddenly the road splits open without warning and swallows police, security guards, and protestors alike.

Separated from the Doctor, Amy takes charge of transporting the wounded to hospital - but the rescue mission becomes a terrifying ride as the pylons come to life and begin to walk and the road rears up, erupting with boiling tarmac...

 

The Doctor, meanwhile, has even more than metal monsters and rebellious roads to deal with. Who is sucking the life out of the power company's employees - and just what is lurking inside the Astra-Gen headquarters?

 

Notes:

Read by Arthur Darvill and featuring the Eleventh Doctor and Amy, this story is set after the audio story The Runaway Train.

Also available along The Ruanway Train in The New Adventures: Volume 1 box set (ISBN: 978 1 60283 933 5).

Released: August 2010

ISBN: 978 1 408 42761 3

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

(drn: ??'??")

A breeze blows across the sand dunes beneath a white sky as the TARDIS materialises on a hillside above. The Doctor and Amy burst out. She complains about the cold but the Doctor ignores her and storms up a hill. He pretends that they are on a planet Orkadia but Amy recognises that they are on the Orkneys. They see an electricity pylon, half built, across the valley. A crowd is gathered at the foot of the pylon, jeering the workmen who are erecting it. The Doctor decides to investigate and Amy runs behind while he tells her that they are about fifteen years into her future.

 

The protestors' placards show their hatred of the pylons. There are about thirty of them and ten security guards facing them. The Doctor asks what the protesters want. The crowd of people wonders whether he is from Astra-gen or on their side. They are sick of the company vandalizing their islands, building illegally on the islands. They are threatening to bring the pylon down and surge forward. The Doctor tries to stop them but the Doctor steps in their way and is accidentally knocked out by a placard. The security men wade in and there is a furious fight between the two sides. The two men working on the pylon carry on, oblivious to the commotion. One man assaults the pylon base with a sledgehammer. No sooner than he hits the pylon and he vanishes into the ground. A woman screams that there is a crack in the floor. More people plunge down into it.

 

Amy sees the Doctor helping a large man, Thinwood, to his feet. He is on the other side from the crack in the floor. He tells Amy to get everyone away. An Astra-gen van speeds up to them and the Doctor and Thinwood are bundled into the back by the security guards. The asphalt road is bubbling as though there is tremendous heat beneath. The screams of those below are choked away. The van roars away. Silence settles other than the sobs of the protestors. A man bellows up at the workers who are still at their task. He can't believe that they are callously continuing their job. A frightened girl, Fay, tries to call police or ambulance help but there is no signal for her phone. Amy says they will try again from higher up and asks how far it is to the Astra-gen offices. Fay says that their new power station is a few miles away.

 

They look into the absolute dark of the split. There is no sound from below.

 

Thinwood complains to the security guards in the van about his treatment. He says that Lizzie knew that there would be 'Southern' protestors like the Doctor. Lizzie, it turns out, is the leader of the protest but is currently ill with Duck Flu. The Doctor surmises that the guards are in a trance like the men on the pylon. He calls the split in the ground 'unnatural'. Thinwood says that the company is building power plants without government permission. The Doctor wonders who needs all of this extra power. He lifts the visor of one of the guards to reveal the face of a sick old man. Another guard in the van collapses to the floor. The Doctor takes off his helmet to show another very sick old man, barely alive. The photograph on his Astra-gen ID card shows a man in his forties, half the age of the man they are looking at. The other guards in the van are still and silent.

 

The protestors make their way back to a minibus that brought some of them. Fay drives them away from the site of the incident. Amy looks back and sees that the split in the ground has healed over and the road that ran beside the pylon has widened to run underneath it. Fay says she is going straight to the hospital but Amy asks to go to the power station.

 

Fay stamps on the brakes as a metal lattice drops into the road before them. It is as if one of the pylons is walking, or at least trying to tread on them. It stomps towards them. Fay accelerates away, swerves past a car coming the other way and onto the grass. The road bubbles and swells and covers over the other car, leaving its own place to do so. Fay says that they must get to the nearest town.

 

The van halts. Thinwood says that the guards are beyond help. They hear gates clang open. Through the darkened windows the Doctor can see several pylons close together. He uses his sonic screwdriver to open the door. They are in the approach to spacious grounds with a sharp white building in the distance. As Thinwood steps out of the van the driver's window opens and reveals an aged woman who tells him to get back in because 'they' will want to speak to him. He recognises her as Sally Preston, a woman who should be in her twenties rather than her sixties. Unnerved, Thinwood tries to walk away but one of the nearby pylons lowers its arm, snapping cables that strike the tarmac beside him like lashes. He scrambles back to the Doctor who is fascinated: are they robots, bosses or henchmen. The pylon steps closer to them, its cables lashing the air. Thinwood and the Doctor enter the grounds of Astra-gen followed by the pylon.

 

Fay drives on over scarred roads. Pylons stride across the horizon, trailing cables behind them. They reach the roundabout outside Kirkwall. Amy is worried that it might break up but before she can speak her fears a crowd of people flee across the road pursued by a pylon that crashes through buildings. It has a cloud of yellow energy around it. It lashes with cables at the people fleeing before it, killing several. Fay accelerates beneath the pylon. They enter the ruins of Kirkwall. Some survivors cling in the wreckage. They pull up outside the cathedral, now smashed into two halves. Amy wonders if this is mindless violence or part of some plan. Fay leaves the driver's seat and asks an Asian guy to use the bus to take injured people up to the hospital. She and Amy are going to Astra-gen.

 

Thinwood and the Doctor run towards the building. The Doctor uses his screwdriver to turn on the music in two parked cars. Instantly the tarmac around them splutters into heat and the speakers in the cars spark and are silenced. The Doctor wonders what the link is between metal and tarmac. He uses the screwdriver to start every car in the car park and then runs with his new friend to a back door. Using the guard's pass key that he took earlier he gains entrance. Behind them the car park is suddenly silenced.

 

Fay drives an abandoned motorbike across the countryside with Amy clinging on behind. A mist is rising. The only pylons are in the distance. Every road they see is cracked and broken. They make for the top of a hill and look down onto the Astra-gen building. Pylons move around in the distance.

 

Thinwood follows the Doctor through the dimly lit corridors of the top floor. They peer into the managing director's office. Patterns of light swirl over the monitor of a computer. The Doctor says it is extra-terrestrial and this is an interface transferring energy from somewhere to somewhere else. He wonders what the power is that is spilling from the pylons and what is generating it. With his screwdriver he calls up a map on the screen. Thinwood tells him it is Orkney. A ring of red dots cover the map but Thinwood says that all of the roads are in the wrong place and that the new roads look like a circuit soldered by pylons. The Doctor tells him that it is clearly the work of an alien intelligence.

 

They go down to the boardroom. As the Doctor reaches for the door handle it grabs him and pulls him inside. Thinwood follows him in. the managing director, Anna Price, and her six board members, now hideously aged, are around the table. They are connected by cables to a steel cube at the back of the room. A chair comes round behind them. The Doctor demands to know who is behind this. Price whispers that all he needed to know was left on the view screen in the office. They have been brought here as representatives of their groups. The Doctor demands that the aliens leave Anna alone and reveal themselves. A dark, slimy shape in armour manifests itself. It apologises, saying that to survive its people must steal and slaughter.

 

Amy and Fay ride down to the security van. Amy tries to remove the helmet from one of the guards but his head snaps off in her hands. The driver, too, is dead and emaciated.

 

The Doctor seems impressed by the bizarre shape hovering before him. The creature says that it has come from its ship which is in low orbit around Earth. It is of the Refined Grade Caskelliac but the Doctor says he detects PAH rather than DNA. This is a molecule found in oil, tar and coal. This explains how the creature can control tarmac. He sees that the creature is wearing a steel exoskeleton. The creature demands to speak in order to explain itself: it was created as a weapon of war by an ancient race. Its task is to pollute and destroy worlds. It, and its fellows, are programmed by nanocreatures that repair and maintain them and their shells. Thinwood asks why they are making a circuit. The creature says it is using the planets resources and is using the circuit to broadcast an electro-chemical energy field to poison the air and oceans so that they can feed on all life on the planet.

 

The makers of the creatures were destroyed in their war but their weapon drifts on restlessly. The creature says that the Doctor has helped by listening. Anna Price's body keels over an explodes into dust. The creature begins to fade away as two more board members explode. A cable snakes out to wind itself around the Doctor's wrist. Amy rushes in as the Doctor collapses to his knees telling her that the steel box is alien and draining his energy. Then the Astra-gen van bursts through the wall and the power cables are released. The Doctor looks at the empty driver's seat as Fay enters.

 

The steel box straightens out its dents so the four of them run outside. The air seems to be thickening. The Doctor says that the intention is to suffocate the population. He wonders why they chose Orkney as the platform for their invasion. Amy suggests that the aliens want to be somewhere quiet, hence their turning off the music in the cars. They are also easily distracted and not up to full power. He uses the screwdriver to blow up a generator in a shed as a further diversion. He then runs off to the helipad where a helicopter is waiting. He says he has an unwieldy plan but needs their help.

 

He lifts off noisily in the helicopter while the other three make their way back to Kirkwall. He speeds towards the coast. The metal housings in the cockpit begin to melt and run. He uses his screwdriver to hold back the nano-machines briefly.

 

The other three jolt back to town on the motorbike. The sky is darkening and the air is hot. It stinks of tar. It is difficult for them to breathe. Their plan is to cause a noise to attract the nano-machines in order to give the Doctor the chance to act.

 

The Doctor aims for the most vulnerable spot, knowing it will be protected. A pylon shoots bolts of metal at him, shattering one of the windows. Other pylon wires strain towards him and try to bring down the helicopter but he dodges past until the lever jams. He jerks it free and turns towards the heart of the ring of steel. The air burns in his throat. He sees the new-built pylon, bigger than all the rest. The two workmen lie dead beneath it. The rotors fail and he knows he will be held stationary in the air.

 

Amy leaps from boat to boat in the harbour. Thinwood looks up at the bell tower of the cathedral and improvises a music system while Fay coerces two hundred people to emerge from the rubble. Amy returns from the harbour dragging an extension lead that she has attached to the battery in one of the boats. Thinwood tells the crowd that the pylons are trying to kill them but their only defence is to chant loudly. As the crowd begins the bells chime and the boats sound their foghorns. The cacophony intensifies. A pylon looms out of the night towards them. The crowd scream in terror and the pylon buckles and topples into the waters.

 

The air thins around the helicopter as the nano-machines stream towards Kirkwall. He steers slowly towards the pylon. The air thins and the helicopter crashes into the pylon. It bursts into flames as the Doctor leaps out. The energy circuit is broken and the air clears. He lands on grass as the tarmac bubbles and hardens. The alien spaceship appears briefly, and then dissipates. He sits up, realising that the aliens have gone.

 

In Kirkwall, the people cheer as the wind rolls in. Fay and Thinwood embrace and kiss. Amy leaves and walks towards the Doctor. He tells her that the aliens are so low on power that they will never be able to attack in the same way again. They stroll back up the hill towards the TARDIS.

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

 

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The Jade Pyramid

by Martin Day

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Cover Blurb

The Jade Pyramid

Intercepting a distress call, the TARDIS is drawn to a Shinto shrine in medieval Japan, where the Doctor and Amy are met by village elder Shijô Sada. He explains that the ogre-like mannequins surrounding the holy site are harmless guardians, called Otoroshi.

At the heart of the temple is an ancient jade pyramid, so sacred that only the monks may look at it. But the Shogun, the ruler of Japan, wants to possess the pyramid and has ordered seven samurai and a band of soldiers to come to Kokan and seize it.

 

Whilst the Doctor is tracked by a ninja assassin, Amy discovers what happens to trespassers at the shrine. Soon the secrets of the jade pyramid - and the towering Otoroshi - will be known...

 

Notes:

Read by Matt Smith and featuring the Eleventh Doctor and Amy, this story is set after the audio story The Ring of Steel.

Also available along The Gemini Contagion in The New Adventures: Volume 2 box set (ISBN: 978 1 60998 181 5).

Released: January 2011

ISBN: 978 1 408 42746 X

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

(drn: ??'??")

Shijô Sada wakes and wonders why. He watches dawn over the village. He can feel that something dreadful is coming. He ascends the mountain to the shrine to see if he can find an answer. The shrine glows in the mist. He enters the gates and hears two voices: the Doctor and Amy bickering over where they have arrived. Shijô Sada recognises that they don't belong in medieval Japan. The Doctor is trying to trace a signal.

 

Shijô watches them come round a corner towards him and puzzles over where they came from and why the young woman appears to be wearing only underwear. He steps out to meet them and bows. He is impressed with their facility with his language. He introduces himself as the elder of the village. The Doctor warns him that wherever he and Amy arrive terrible things seem to happen.

 

Amy is impressed by the shrine's guardians. They are huge mannequins made from animal skins over frames: fanged and clawed. He calls them Otoroshi. He adds that the shrine is famous for the jade pyramid at its heart. He is sad that only monks may look upon it and so he can't show it to the Doctor. The Doctor tells Amy that the distress signal that the TARDIS picked up an hour earlier has faded.

 

They step back away from the shrine. Amy notices that one of the Otoroshi turned its head to look at her. The Doctor seems not to believe her and then again he might. Shijô says that the Shogun has sent seven Samurai to take the jade pyramid back to the imperial court. The Doctor wonders if the pyramid is alien tech and the source of the distress signal.

 

The village welcomes the Doctor and Amy. The Doctor is invited to a meeting of the villagers in a large airy room later that evening. A small, crooked man Tanaka seems to be challenging Shijo's authority and suggesting a forceful defence of the pyramid. He is interrupted by a large, overweight man. Shijo tells the Doctor that he is a man who operates as a masterless Samurai. His name is Nasu and he is in a curious position somewhere between disgrace and prestige. The villagers listen to him respectfully but not completely. He says he cannot train the villagers to fight Samurai and the Doctor agrees that such a battle would be a massacre. Tanaka is contemptuous and says they have nothing to lose. He is obviously more concerned about the taxes that are exacted by the Shogun.

 

The Doctor looks around for Amy and sees that she has gone. She has made a bee line for Nasu and decided he will be the ideal person to lead her to the door in the shrine that she was forbidden to enter. She asks him to guide her. Amused, he agrees. They climb back up to the shrine. Amy is hoping to find the alien craft that the Doctor has suggested might be in the shrine. It is dark by the time they pass the Otoroshi and the warrior lights torches for them. Amy tells him she has left 'something' behind the inner door. Nasu is surprised - he seems to know that it is forbidden to enter but permits her to enter. They pass through to the jade pyramid. Amy is disappointed to find it is only slightly bigger than her fist. She approaches it and as she does she notices through a window that the Otoroshi have gone. She looks up and sees that they are in the room with her, clinging to the ceiling above with their claws ready to strike.

 

The meeting breaks up with the villagers keen to do something to protect the region of Kokan and the pyramid but with nobody clear how they intend to do it. The Doctor spots that Amy and Nasu have left together. A boy rushes in to say that the Imperial Samurai are only a few miles away, camped on local farmland. Shijo decides to go to talk to them and the Doctor says he will go too. Shijo agrees and the two sneak off to the stables and ride out to the farm. A star shaped weapon narrowly misses them and embeds itself into a tree. Shijo throws himself to the ground, warning the Doctor that a Ninja assassin is attacking.

 

An Otoroshi swipes its claws and Nasu pulls out his sword and swings at the ogre. The other Otoroshi drop to the floor and attack silently. Nasu dodges and pulls Amy with him into the next room and then outside. The Otoroshi pursue them but stop at the outside of the temple. They then resume their original positions as though they had never moved. Amy and Nasu make their way down the hill.

 

Nasu pulls Amy to the floor and clamps his hand over her mouth. He shows her a black-clad figure ahead and, beyond them, two horses and the Doctor and Shijo. Nasu heads down to help. The Ninja fires at the Doctor with a blowpipe. Nasu roars and attacks. The Ninja spins and throws a chain around Nasu's legs, dragging him down and aiming a sword strike at him. Nasu topples the Ninja over and forces him to retreat. Amy scrambles down to him and arrives at the same time as Shijo and the Doctor. Shijo is bleeding from a wound to his face. He mutters, 'Poison' and dies. His last words are that Nasu should be next and that Tanaka is not to be trusted. Amy tells the Doctor how small the pyramid is as they walk back to the village. The Doctor says it is clearly alien.

 

Back in the village, everything has changed. Tanaka has admitted the Imperial soldiers. The fatal attack on Shijo was part of his plan and he has declared himself the new village elder. He tells the Doctor and Amy that they will be executed in the morning. They are locked into a makeshift prison in a village house. Nasu, meanwhile, has managed to sneak away. Amy is put into one room while Amy is in another. There is another prisoner in the room with the Doctor and he wakes up; a wild haired stranger who owned the farm that the Samurai camped on. His name is Hiko and he was once a monk at the temple and he tried to defend his land against the Samurai. He tells them that there is a room beneath the jade pyramid where people who are sick recover much more quickly. There is also a metal corridor. The Doctor is intrigued by this corridor but before he can find anything out he finds that there is an Otoroshi behind him. Amy can see its large silhouette through the paper walls. She sees movement and a fire break out. The Doctor laughs and then Nasu is brought in wearing what looks like an Otoroshi skin. He explains that Hiko and the Doctor have gone somewhere else but where, he does not know. He also knows that Tanaka took some soldiers and the Samurai to the shrine. They were attacked by the Otoroshi who proved invincible, apart from one that slipped over a cliff. He found the inert Otoroshi and took the coat for his breakout attempt. Accidentally knocking over a lamp started a fire which allowed the Doctor and the farmer to escape. Tanaka appears again with the three surviving Samurai. He announces that he will attack the shrine again at daybreak.

 

Amy and Nasu, arms tied behind their backs, accompany Tanaka and his soldiers back up the hill. Amy spends her time complaining until Tanaka unsheathes a sword and threatens to execute her. She stops him by telling him she knows his secret. This stops him in his tracks. She is delighted that he is gullible and wonders what his secret might be. She tells him that there is a discrepancy between the taxes raised and those paid to Kyoto. He laughs and says that he will blame the villagers for not paying. She tells him that the pyramid is more important than he realises and attempting to take it will cause a massacre.

 

Tanaka shoves her to the ground. He brandishes the sword. The three Samurai step in, having overheard his confession. They tie him up. He protests that they were too far away to hear his conversation but Amy had ensured it took place within a natural stone circle that amplified their words and carried them to the Samurai. The soldiers haul the girl and Nasu back onto the path and on their way to the temple.

 

The Doctor's priority has been to get to the shrine and switch off the Otoroshi. He wants to know what is at the end of the corridor and how the monks passed the Otoroshi so easily. He arrives at the shrine and finds it littered with the bodies of dead soldiers and a handful of Samurai corpses. Down the slope he sees the party approaching from below. He sees a green disc around Hiko's neck and asks to look at it. It was given to him when he was a monk, the farmer explains, and he kept it when he left the order. The screwdriver reveals it as electronic, emitting a signal that announces the wearer as a friend to the Otoroshi. He adjusts the screwdriver to duplicate the signal.

 

They go to the inner room. The Otoroshi remain outside. Looking at the jade pyramid he sees that it is the source of the distress signal he received in the TARDIS. He picks it up and follows Hiko down a tunnel to a large cave. There is unusually oxygenated air in the cavern. He asks Hiko to show him the metal tunnel. They run down and arrive at a silver door. It has a recessed triangle. He places the pyramid in like a key and the door opens. The Doctor wonders if they have opened a prison or a tomb.

 

Amy is apprehensive when they arrive at the shrine. The Samurai and soldiers draw their swords. A single soldier is sent to get the pyramid. The Otoroshi attack the waiting soldiers. Amy begs the Samurai nearest to her to retreat but he refuses.

 

The Doctor looks around a vaulted chamber full of couches and life support machines. He tries to find information from a console and declares that they are in a medical room of a spaceship that has been there for centuries. The crew was benign explorers who were killed by locals; the Doctor sees a cabinet occupied by the body of a local man: he was sick when the aliens arrived and they tried to heal him. He says that the Otoroshi are guarding the man in the chamber. He wonders how the Otoroshi and the control discs are intertwined with the life of the village. He says that the technology of the ship must be kept hidden from everyone. A silver android enters the room and runs across the ceiling.

 

An Otoroshi lands near Amy in its battle with a soldier. It suddenly comes to a halt. The other Otoroshi do the same. The troops cheer (the surviving ones anyway). A soldier reports that the pyramid has gone. The Samurai search for the thief or his means of exit from the chamber but find nothing. Instead the warriors wonder why Nasu has not sought his own death. He replies that Amy has done nothing wrong. They release her. Nasu tells them that the Otoroshi attacked because they objected to the pyramid being taken by force. The gods have taken it he says. The Samurai consider this and decide to take Tanaka for trial in Kyoto. They say that the villagers should elect a new elder. The Doctor appears, as if from nowhere, and suggests Nasu. The Samurai say that they will bury the dead and then on their long journey home they will think of what to tell the Shogun about the fate of the pyramid.

 

Later, the Doctor tells Amy that he ordered the Otoroshi in the ship to block up the entrance after he drained the battery to switch the Otoroshi on the surface off. He left the healing mechanism on, however, so that the shrine would retain some of its fabled powers.

 

Source:

 

 

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The Gemini Contagion

by Jason Arnopp         

BBC Logo

 

 

Cover Blurb

The Gemini Contagion

The ice-planet Vinsk, in the year 2112. The all-new anti-viral hand wash, Gemini, has been laced with Meme-Spawn: a sentient micro-organism which makes the user fluent in every language in the universe. However, manufacturer Zalnex made one crucial mistake. They didn't test Gemini on humans, who are seized by the violent urge to communicate but speak every language all at once - with a manic, garbled shriek - and pass on the virus by touch.

The Doctor and Amy arrive on an Earth-bound cargo-ship loaded with Gemini, where a human crew are succumbing to the virus which has nasty second and third phases in store. When the Doctor and Amy are separated, they both know that it's only a matter of time before Amy is infected.

 

With the ship locked on course, and no way of curing the sufferers, the Doctor is faced with a terrible decision: does he save Amy, or Earth?

 

Notes:

Read by Meera Syal and featuring the Eleventh Doctor and Amy, this story is set after the audio story The Jade Pyramid.

Also available along The Jade Pyramid in The New Adventures: Volume 2 box set (ISBN: 978 1 60998 181 5).

Released: March 2011 2011

ISBN: 978 1 408 46816 6

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

(drn: ??'??")

The G-32's cargo bay is almost full. In the distance are the mountains of the planet Vinsk. The human crew are loading the G-32 under the supervision of armed guards. Lorraina watches her co-worker, Magnus, open a crate and berates him for stealing from the Zalnex Corporation. He takes out a bottle of hand wash called Gemini that claims to kill viruses and teach languages. Lorraina is not interested. He asks her if she would like to speak Vinskan so that she could understand the locals. She asks why, when they already speak English

 

The TARDIS travels on. Amy has just woken up and peers into the control room. The Doctor is darting round the console. He tells her they are going to arrive in 2112 at the anti-viral handwash factory where Gemini is made.

 

Magnus squirts some Gemini onto his hand. The Mexican, Ramirez, arrives near them. Magnus offers him some of the hand wash. In seconds both men are clutching their heads. Their veins stand out on their face. Lorraina screams so loud she doesn't hear the TARDIS arrive. Both men shout at her, "Listen to me".

 

The doors open in the TARDIS and Amy asks the Doctor if the Time Lords had their own language. As they step out they see Lorraina backing away from two convulsing men. As they close in on the girl, Amy runs along the gantry to intervene. Ramirez stomps towards her. The Doctor steps in and shines a light from his screwdriver into the Mexican's eyes. He stops in his track. Magnus grabs at her while she tells the Doctor that the men used the hand wash. Lorraina dodges away from Magnus and falls through a gap in the gantry. She plunges several levels. Magnus and Ramirez disappear through a door. Amy suggests that they return to the TARDIS but the Doctor picks up the bottle of Gemini and sniffs it.

 

Heavy boots approach. The Doctor tells her it is time to return to the TARDIS. As they go towards it a group of security men approach. The Doctor hides her behind some boxes and then presses a button that lowers her section of the gantry one level. Before he is arrested, he whispers down to her to hide.

 

The Doctor is held at gunpoint by two guards, Turner and Moran, while an American - Hank Musselbrook - interrogates him angrily. He grows annoyed at the Doctor's failure to give his name and punches him unconscious. Amy sees the Doctor dragged off to Zalnex Tower. She is shocked to see the huge doors of the cargo bay clang closed. She also sees the TARDIS carried away on the back of a vehicle.

 

When the Doctor wakes up he is in a room with the three guards. It is a corporate office which also contains a seventy-something year old man. The Doctor reads the man's name as Denton Vale, the Zalnex CEO. He uses a failed attempt to shake Vale's hand as an excuse to stroll around the office. The Doctor is shocked to learn that Amy and the TARDIS were not in the factory as he intended but in the cargo hold of a ship.

 

The Doctor denies that he killed Lorraina but blames the handwash for mutating the two co-workers, thus causing her to die. He says that

 

The handwash is a noble idea but something is wrong with it. He says he needs to meet the creators of Gemini.

 

Amy walks through the corridors, realising that she is on board a ship that is about to launch. She sees Ramirez lying in a storage room. A security guard levels his pulse rifle at her, telling her he has kill clearance. She steps towards him and reads his name badge, Swanson. He tells her she is under arrest but just then Magnus bursts out of a room and grabs the guard, shouting "Listen to me!" Ramirez does the same to Amy. She asks him to let go and wants to know what he is trying to say. Swanson looks at his hand, covered in the handwash, and joins in the chant of "Listen to me". She presses a button that shuts a door on Ramirez and allows her to slip away from him.

 

The Doctor is escorted through corridors to a large laboratory. Scientists are hard at work in the sunlit room. A tall, slender alien approaches. Vale introduces his chief scientist, Corn Paloa. She is aloof and graceful. Her eyes are large and oval, her face framed with white fur. She is accompanied by Jim, a rotund human. The Doctor notes that nobody wants to shake his hand. He asks her what the active ingredient of Gemini is. Paloa tells her that it is Meme-Spawn. This saddens the Doctor and puzzles Vale, who has evidently never heard of them. The Doctor explains that they are sentient micro-organisms that drift through the galaxy absorbing language. He is indignant that they have been put into handwash but Paloa says she only used cloned spawn. This does not mollify the Doctor. Vale is astonished that live creatures are in Gemini but the scientist insists that she told him. She is evasive when the Doctor forces her to admit that it has never been tested on humans. She protests that Vinskans are essentially similar to humans and they were the test subjects. Vale says that a product recall is impossible. Jim takes a bottle of Gemini from the scientist and rubs the handwash into his palm. Almost immediately he is grating the words "Listen to me." The Doctor says that this is what the cargo bay workers were saying. The Doctor orders the other scientists to evacuate as Jim launches himself at Paloa. The Doctor and the guards step in but Jim fights them off. He smears Gemini on the guard's hands and Turner and Moran are transformed too. The Doctor tells Musselbrook not to shoot as he, the guard and scientist race out of the door even as Vale closes it.

 

Captain Clive Taylor is looking forward to launching and returning to Earth. His co-pilot, Velma Henshaw, points at a monitor. He is astonished to see a scene showing Amy attacking a set of instruments in a corridor with a golf club. He sees several guards approach her but neither he nor Henshaw, beside him, see that they are stumbling erratically. Amy is trying to prevent the ship being launched. Henshaw wonders if she is an ethical protestor. Meanwhile, Amy is trapped between two men. She swings her club at a door button. A door opens but two more shrieking, black-eyed guards approach.

 

The Doctor watches Jim raging in the laboratory. Through the sound-proof glass the Doctor offers a reassuring smile, resolving to try to bring the men back to themselves. The Doctor tells the people around them that the men are trying to speak every language in the universe at once. Vale wonders why they are speaking English. The Doctor realises that it is the telepathic power of the TARDIS, routed through the Doctor and Amy that is translating the words. He decides to ignore the question. Instead he says that the Meme-Spawn gives them an insatiable urge to communicate. As he watches, Jim's mouth opens wide. The Doctor decides that the virus is mutating.

 

Amy also sees the four guards sit down and open their mouths. Something like a slimy green starfish with sharp teeth propels itself from one of the men and hits the wall. Three more are ejected from the other men.

 

The Doctor and his companions see three starfish hit the observation window. The Doctor tells them to close the vents in the laboratory but one of the starfish escapes through a vent and hits one of the security guards. It bites him and he begins to transform. The Doctor realises that he has to stop the G-32. He drags Paloa into a lift. Outside he hears pulse-fire and shouting. A starfish leaps through the closing door and bites both the Doctor and Paloa but he tells her that, as non-humans, they are immune.

 

The wind blows cold over the roof of the Zalnex tower. The roof's launch pad is lined with sleek passenger cruisers. The Doctor shows his psychic paper to two guards. It indicates that he is Vale's son. He puts the paper away and then takes it back out. This time it seems to be a pilot's licence. The Doctor and Paloa barely make it into one of the cruisers before Musselbrook arrives to stop them. Paloa points the way and the Doctor takes off for the G-32. Rifle fire sounds from below as they depart. Paloa voices her fear that the Gemini virus will infect the whole of the Zalnex tower. As they cross the sky they are shot at from behind by another cruiser containing Vale and Musselbrook. The Doctor dodges the laser bolts until a direct hit cuts a hole in the hull. Musselbrook aims at the fuel tank. Suddenly a mutant starfish leaps from behind the seat. The security man pulps it with his fist but not before it has bitten him. He intones, "Listen to me" and grabs Vale.

 

Looking in his mirror the Doctor watches the chasing cruiser nosedive into the ground. They carry on their way, just in time to see the G-32 launch into the sky.

 

Amy finds Taylor and Henshaw unconscious outside the flight deck. She steps past them and notes that the instrument panels have been smashed. As the two pilots awake, snarling "Listen to me" she closes the door on them. The pilots push at the door. She sees that the autopilot is on. Just then the Doctor calls her on the intercom. The Doctor pilots his cruiser up to a shuttle bay door and tells Amy to open it for her. She tells him that Zalnex have taken the TARDIS away. After a moment of silence she starts to repeat "Listen to me" over and over. He tells her to open the doors for him and, surprisingly, she does.

 

He pilots the cruiser into the bay and lands it safely. The door closes automatically and they head for the flight deck. The G-32 enters outer space. They run along empty corridors to a deserted flight deck. There is no way of changing the destination coordinates. Paloa flicks through the security monitor and states she has found the crew.

 

They arrive at a window to the cargo bay where all of the infected are gathered. Some are unconscious and others are shouting to be heard. Amy is among them. The Doctor tells her to force the virus from her mind. Amy is dimly aware of the disturbance but returns to her task of explaining the universe to a room full of deaf ears. The Doctor uses the sonic to see that the doors are all locked in a multiplicity of ways. Even pulse rifles have no effect. The Doctor tells Paloa that the humans will die soon due to the physical effort. Paloa is appalled and asks him to do something to save the others. The Doctor ponders the self-destruct system and then dismisses it. She says that if she had known what the results would be she would have burnt her laboratory. Suddenly the Doctor recalls that the Meme-Spawn need the air to be cold to thrive: too warm and they will die. This is why they have gathered in the hold, which is always the coldest part of the ship.

 

Amy recovers consciousness with no memory of how she got into the hold. The air is hot and heavy. The others are waking, too.

 

Later, with the cargo ship back in the Vinsk atmosphere, the Doctor and Amy hear Paloa on the intercom. She says that she is on the flight deck and there are only three minutes until the ship self-destructs. She wants to be certain that all of the spawn are dead. She tells him not to try to rescue her. He takes the cruiser, with all of the crew aboard, and leaves the ship a long way behind. As they put the miles between them and the ship, the G-32 blossoms into orange flame.

 

They arrive at Zalnex Tower as night falls. The Doctor asks if anyone knows where the factories are and where the air conditioning is. Ramirez tells him that the factories are in the tower and the air-conditioning is on the top floor. He fires energy bolts from the cruiser's weapons at the top floor. He calls down to watching officials that they can evacuate the tower in a few minutes. He tells Amy that the building is full of generators and will start to overheat within minutes, killing the spawn-clones.

 

No sooner has Amy understood this than she realises that she understands French perfectly. The Doctor tells her that it will only last for a few days. Amy wonders where the real Meme-Spawn are and the Doctor says that they will be back, drifting round the cosmos.

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

The Doctor hears the sound of the Galifreyan language amongst the babble of voices in the cargo hold. Presumably this has been carried by the Meme-Spawn since before the Time War.

 

 

 

 

The Hounds of Artemis

by James Goss             

BBC Logo

 

 

Cover Blurb

The Hounds of Artemis

When Lord Woolcroft and his team break open the fabled Tomb of Artemis, sealed for thousands of years, they are astonished by what they find inside...

The Doctor and Amy have come to Smyrna in 1929 to investigate a mystery. The Doctor knows that something very bad happened there: something that caused a lot of people to die and an entire, magnificent Temple to be found and then immediately lost again.

 

But he doesn't know what is picking off the archaeologists one by one, or how it is connected to the howling in the night. And as he and Amy get closer to the terrible truth behind an ancient evil, he begins to wish he'd never found out.

 

Notes:

Read by Matt Smith and Clare Corbett and featuring the Eleventh Doctor and Amy, this story is set after the audio story The Gemini Contagion.

First issued by the UK newspaper The Guardian as a special promotional giveaway with its issue of 19th February 2011.

Also available along The Eye of the jungle in The New Adventures: Volume 3 box set (ISBN: 978 1 60998 477 9).

Released: May 2011

ISBN: 978 1 408 42746 0

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

(drn: ??'??")

Lord Woolcroft tells a small crowd that he is about to make history. They are about to open the long-sealed Tomb of Artemis. As he breaks down the door silence falls. There is a gap in the stonework and something is seen moving in the chamber. Bradley Stapleton thrusts his torch inside, and the Doctor steps out to warn them that they are in treble danger.

 

Helen Stapleton, Bradley's granddaughter, writes a letter to a museum curator on the day of her relative's death. She has a package that tells the tale of her grandfather's doomed expedition to Smyrna in 1929. It has a diary and some notes (in another hand) along with an apology from the Doctor for missing the funeral. Helen uses the diary and notes to relate the story.

 

The Doctor and Amy introduce themselves as Doctor John Smith and Miss Pond from the Scarman Institute. Amy points out that they are on the wrong side of the door while the Doctor blusters that Stapleton is a brilliant archeologist. He also introduces Woolcroft as 'the money'. Apart from the expedition's artist, these are all that remain of the original party. Woolcroft says that the dig has not gone smoothly. The Doctor repeats that the temple is not safe. Woolcroft demands to know what they were doing inside the tomb. Amy says they entered through the back door and asks if they can leave the crypt to get some fresh air.

 

They emerge into a warm night. In the sky they can see so many stars and the Doctor tries to point out Vortis. Amy steps back to look at the enormity of the temple. The Doctor draws Amy away to tell her that this is established history and a lot of people die there but he wonders if Amy never having heard of it allows him to interfere.

 

The diary is written by Amy Pond.

 

Amy is supposed to be cleaning and classifying pottery fragments. She cheats with print-outs from Wikipedia and takes photographs and complains about the heat. She notes that the Doctor and Bradley have become very close. Bradley is intimidated by the Doctor. Lord Woolcroft is a lecherous man by day and drunk by night. The artist, Miss Van der Cass, has filled Amy in on the goddess Artemis. Amy is surprised that the locals denied any knowledge of the temple. They claim the site is cursed. Most of the villagers keep away except for one very old lady. At night the place is even creepier.

 

Over a campfire and some cocoa, Miss Van der Cass says she has come on the expedition for the adventure. She says that on the first night in the camp a strong wind blew out all the nights and one of the workmen screamed and disappeared. This has been repeated every night. At this point a wind blows up and Amy hears the sound of wolves. The storm blows dust so strongly that nothing can be seen. Amy and the Doctor try to find each other but as she runs towards him she realises that she is running towards a wolf standing on its hind legs. As she changes direction she is found by Bradley. As the storm dies away they find that three more of the party has vanished.

 

The next day Amy asks Bradley if it isn't too dangerous to stay. She finds the Doctor, digging. He says that the three members of the expedition will not leave because of the money, adventure and fun of it all. The Doctor takes Amy down to the village. On the way he chats to the old woman who weaves carpet at the edge of the camp. The Doctor is delighted by the pattern on the carpet she is making. It shows the worshippers of Artemis, a moon and a wolf (or a hound). In the village, the story of the wind and dog-men abound. Villagers, too, have been disappearing. The Doctor tells the men of the village to stop going up to the site to help with the digging. This leaves only the Doctor and Bradley to do the digging.

 

Amy asks what is in the tomb. He tells her that the statue of Artemis apparently fell out of the sky. He is hoping it is a golden statue that has been hidden in the tomb. When the Doctor opens the tomb Amy and Bradley enter to find a statue of a hound. It has the body of a man with the head of a hungry hound. The Doctor points out an empty plinth beside it.

 

That night they ate corned beef from tins while Woolcroft drank brandy. The Doctor tries to urge them to leave but Woolcroft refuses. The Doctor asks him whether he believes that the body of Artemis is in the temple. He repeats his request that they leave. A dog howls in the distance. That night Amy joins the Doctor on guard outside the tents. The Doctor warns her that they are up against great danger. He wishes they could run away but they can't: what happens is set in stone. He tells her that they will find out what happens after the sun has risen.

 

The next day sees Amy buy a carpet from the old lady at the end of the road. By dusk the Doctor has been digging all day and made another discovery. Amy runs down to see a new corridor that the Doctor has broken through to. The walls are carved and glowing. The Doctor once again points out that it is an obvious trap but the party steps through anyway. The Doctor shows her footprints in the dust. Miss Van der Cass thinks they are the steps of ancient men but the Doctor says some are claws and others are booted. Woolcroft passes through, thinking that the locals have been raiding the tomb.

 

In the glow, they see a pretty girl who smiles and welcomes them. She says she has been waiting for a long time and pulls aside a curtain. She promises them fun as they step into a vast hall. The girl addresses the Doctor by name and shows them a huge feast piled on the tables. Towering over it is the statue of Artemis smiling down at them.

 

The Doctor stares at the statue, the table and the priestess. He tells Amy that they mustn't look at the statue. He says that the feast is all in her brain and fights not to think about it. A howling, shuffling noise comes from behind the statue. He tells Amy to leave and she does. The hounds of Artemis enter the room. The priestess, Sophia, asks where Amy has gone and sends two of the hounds to fetch her back.

 

Amy has run up the corridor but stops to write in her diary about how much she loves Artemis. Miss Van der Cass and Lord Woolcroft help themselves to the feast. The Doctor dips his hand dreamily into a bowl of fish fingers and custard. When Amy sees what she has written she calls herself 'mental' and runs on. Bradley warns them that there is something wrong with the food. When he looks at it, he says, it looks wrong. The other two have already eaten before the Doctor sees it for what it is: rotting meat and bones.

 

Amy hides outside the temple as the hounds follow her. She writes in her diary the words 'Stand still. I can help you.'

 

Bradley realises that the other two have been eating people. Sophia shrugs and tells them that Woolcroft and Van der Cass have eaten the food of the gods.

 

Amy watches the hounds pass by and into the night. A voice in her mind tells her that it can help her.

 

Woolcroft and Van der Cass begin to transform into dogs. The Doctor leans in and tries to talk to them gently, asking if they are still human. There is no response. The two new dogs slink out after Amy. The Doctor marches up to the statue and accuses it of being an alien psychic parasite. He says that it has been sealed up by its priestess due to its cruelty, and left alone for thousands of years. Sophia says that there is enough greed in the world outside to find more converts for Artemis.

 

Amy finds herself running from the hounds and yet still trying to write in her diary. Somebody is still in her head. Meanwhile, the Doctor asks Sophia how she came to be the priestess. She says her family ate the feast and became dogs. She herself was kept as the priestess. Then she tells him that the women of the village have the ability to read minds which the Doctor puts down to having the psychic parasite in such proximity for so long. The Doctor and Bradley notice that the statue is putting on weight.

 

Amy stops running when she reaches the old carpet maker. The old lady stands up and Amy can't see her eyes. She runs on and is confronted by a hound in Miss van der Cass's clothes. She keeps running back to her tent. She goes through her notes to see if there is anything in their findings that will help her. The voice in her head tells her that she should have run just as claws rip through the tent.

 

Two hounds enter the room carrying a carpet. They unroll it to reveal Amy. She notices that the dogs are beautiful and the room is perfect. The Doctor tries to snap her out of the hypnotic trance. He wakes her up with some of Miss Van der Cass's smelling salts. Now she can see the human remains on the table. She asks the Doctor what they are going to do but he stands motionless. Amy asks if he is fighting a mental battle but he is looking at the carpet. He gets Sophia to look at the pattern showing hounds and an iron circle. The Hounds leap at them but stop almost in mid air. Sophia is holding them back with her mind. She says that she tried to let Amy escape and she had the dogs bring the carpet. She says she will give them a head start with the last of her will. As they leave, she turns into a hound.

 

As the others start to run, the Doctor explains that the villagers' ancestors had sealed Artemis in with a circle of iron and were using the carpets to keep the secret alive. Sophia has done her best for them but now they need a circle of iron. The hounds pursue them but the Doctor holds them back with a blast of sonic energy. The hounds cringe in agony while the trio edge past them. The Doctor intends to drive the dogs out of range of Artemis to gain their freedom. The Doctor reaches into Amy's dress and pulls out the large expanse of wiring.

 

The creature that had once been Sophia leaves the chamber, followed by Artemis. They find the doorway blocked by a cage of wiring. The statue smiles calmly. The hound says it can walk through the wire but the Doctor says he believes they are imprisoned and that is enough the statue explains that the temple has been found and therefore people will return and Artemis will be freed. The old woman appears on the scene. She smiles at the scene before her. She says that she has been watching and has come to help. She is joined by the women of the village. The Doctor says that they are his telepathic army and shuts his eyes, as do the villagers. The hills above the temple collapse and bury the temple in seconds.

 

The Doctor beams and thanks the women. He strides away, whistling.

 

Amy's last diary entry is addressed to Sophia and Miss Van der Cass. She recounts how they returned to the temple the following morning. Bradley says that people will dig the temple up again one day. He goes to salvage what he can from the tents. The Doctor gives him directions to another temple of Artemis. The sun rises. In the distance the hounds can be heard howling. Amy pulls a tarpaulin from the TARDIS. She and the Doctor step inside and wave. The TARDIS fades away.

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

The Doctor eats fish custard and Amy runs past a crack in the wall (see The Eleventh Hour).

The Doctor says he is from The Scarman Institute, perhaps named after Marcus Scarman (see Pyramids of Mars).

The Doctor refers to the planet Vortis. (see The Web Planet).

 

 

 

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The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Tracie Simpson

 

Script Editor

Lindsey Alford

 

Written by Steven Moffat

Directed by Adam Smith

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Alex Kingston (River Song), Simon Dutton (Alistair) [1], Mike Skinner (Security Guard) [1], Iain Glen (Octavian), Mark Springer (Christian) [1], Troy Glasgow (Angelo) [1], David Atkins (Bob), Darren Morfitt (Marco), Mark Monero (Pedro) [2], George Russo (Phillip) [2].

 

The enigmatic River Song hurtles back into the Doctor life but she's not the only familiar face returning... The Weeping Angels are back!

Original Broadcast (UK)

The Time of Angels     April 24th, 20109        6h00pm - 6h50pm

Flesh and Stone           May 1st, 2010 6h00pm - 6h50pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

A young man stands in a sunlit park, lipstick smeared across his mouth. Three other men stride purposefully towards him, one in evening dress and the other two armed guards. The young man tells them,"It's a beautiful day," while the man in evening dress wipes off some of the lipstick and identifies it as hallucinogenic. They are rally in a corridor of a spaceship. The man tells the armed guards "She's here."

 

River Song struts towards a locked vault and shoots the door open with a gun. She takes a small box and converts her weapon to a blow torch in order to burn the box's surface.

 

The Time of Angels

(drn:41'37")

Twelve thousand years in the future the Doctor and Amy arrive in a museum where the Doctor apparently is looking for things from his own adventure. He is drawn to the box, now somewhat battered. He tells Amy that it is a Home Box - like a black box flight recorder except it homes - and written on it is a message in the lost language of Time Lords. Amy asks what it says and the Doctor translates "Hello sweetie". The Doctor steals the box and he and run back to the TARDIS, pursued by two guards. .

 

The Doctor plugs into the box's security feed and sees River Song in front of an airlock. She gives a space-time coordinate. She is confronted by the man and the two guards who ask why she is still there after the party has finished. She tells them that she wanted to see what they had in the ship's hold and adds that the ship will never reach its destination. She then tells them that they may want to hang onto something. The airlock opens and River is ejected into space. The Doctor sets the TARDIS controls for this time and place and arrives beside the ship in time to open the TARDIS doors and let her in. She lands on top of him. While Amy gazes at the pair of them quizzically, River tells the Doctor to "Follow that ship."

 

The TARDIS chases the Byzantium as it switches to warp drive. The Doctor is manically flicking switches and pulling levers as the TARDIS shakes about violently. River tells him to switch the stabilisers on. He retorts that there are no stabilisers until she flicks some blue switches and the shaking stops. He looks angrily at them and calls them 'blue boringers'. River smoothly takes over the flight and says that she has parked the TARDIS beside the Byzantium. Again, the Doctor argues. He says that they can't have landed because there was no customary wheezing noise. River tells him that the TARDIS isn't supposed to make that noise; it's just that the Doctor leaves the brakes on.

 

River goes out to see why the Byzantium chose to land here. The Doctor shuts the door behind her and prepares to leave. Amy wants to know who River is and why the Doctor is running away. He says that River is his future and that time is not the boss of him. She pleads to be allowed to go outside because she has never been on an alien planet before. They step outside 'for five minutes' and stand on a beach. Above them, on top of a huge building, the Byzantium is in flames. The Doctor says that, according to the Home Box, there were no survivors and the crash was caused by a phase shift in the warp engines. River says that indicates sabotage. She says that the building is an Aplan temple and has been deserted for centuries.

 

Amy asks who River is so the Doctor introduces them. He accidentally calls River 'Professor' to which she replies 'spoilers'. She adds that there is one survivor: something in the belly of the ship. She says that it can never die. River calls up soldiers that are in orbit around the planet. Four men dressed in camouflage teleport onto the beach. Their leader, Father Octavian, is impressed to meet the Doctor and says that he has a further twenty men in a drop ship. River asks the Doctor what he knows about Weeping Angels.

 

The drop ship lands beside the temple and the soldiers - Clerics - emerge to set up camp. Father Octavian says that they cannot enter the ship from above because it is too close to the drives and so they need to blow their way into the cliff face from which the temple is carved and make their way up through the Maze of the Dead. Amy asks if the Doctor is Mister Grump-Face today and he launches a tirade about how he is facing one of the most malevolent creatures in the Universe which he will have to defeat in a way he hasn't yet thought of. He asks her if she has any more questions. When she asks if River is his wife from the future he says "Yes... I am Mister Grumpy-Face today." He tells Amy that the Father is a Bishop in the army. He adds that this is the fifty-first century and the church has moved on.

 

River calls them into the drop ship where she has a video of the Weeping Angel she ripped from the Byzantium security cameras while she was on board. The tape is on a four second loop. The Doctor and River explain to Amy about Weeping Angels. The Doctor says that the only time he met them before they were scavengers, barely existing. He tells Amy that the Angels can move and this one is not 'dormant' as River suggests, merely patient. The Doctor, River, and Father Octavian leave the drop ship and the Doctor tells them that the radiation from the Byzantium, deadly to almost everyone, is dinner for the angels. Father Octavian tells him that the indigenous people, the Aplans, died out but since then the planet has been Terraformed and is home to six billion humans.

 

River tells the Doctor that he has given her pictures of all of his faces so that she can recognise him when they meet. She also has a book that explains the Angels. He reads it in seconds and wonders why there are no pictures. He leafs through and finds a passage that says that "anything which holds the image of an angel becomes itself an angel".

 

Amy looks at the loop of the Angel on the screen and is puzzled to see the Angel has turned to face the camera. Every time she looks away it has moved again: its hands drop from its eyes, it gets closer and, finally, it leaves the screen and comes into the room. She tries to use the remote to turn off the screen but it keeps on switching back on. The door of the ship is locked, too. The Doctor and River become aware of her predicament and try to get in but can't. The Doctor shouts at Amy to keep looking at the Angel but not its eyes for they are "not the windows of the soul but the doors. Beware what may enter there." Amy freezes the loop at the split second where there is only image noise. The drop ship door opens and the Doctor and River enter. River congratulates Amy on her success but Amy has something in her eye.

 

The Clerics blast a hole into the Maze of the Dead and enter. The Doctor uses one of their gravity globes to light up the chamber where they see that the walls and paths are lined with stone statues. Octavian orders his men to make a visual inspection of each in order to find the Weeping Angel. He then pulls River to one side and says that the Doctor doesn't know who she is yet. She says that it is too early in his time stream but she has no intention of going back to prison.

 

Amy rubs her eye again and dust runs out through her fingers. Clerics Christian and Angelo explore a smaller chamber. They separate and Christian's rifle's light flickers. He sees a Weeping Angel about to attack. Christian calls for Angelo to come and see something. He too is attacked.

 

Cleric Bob panics and shoots a statue. Octavian tells the Doctor that the Clerics' names are sacred: given to them when they enter the service of the church. Octavian sends Bob back to guard the entrance Christian and Angelo.

 

The Doctor, Amy, River, Octavian, and the other Cleric soldiers climb up the paths of the chamber. River and the Doctor are discussing the fact that the Aplans had two heads when they realise that all of the statues have only one head. The Doctor orders everyone to turns off their torches for a split second. When they switch them back on they see that all of the statues are climbing towards them: they are all Weeping Angels. The Doctor thinks that they have been without food for centuries and are degraded but the Byzantium was crashed here deliberately to feed them with radiation.

 

Angelo calls Cleric Bob gets to come and see something. Bob is attacked by the Weeping Angel from the ship. Octavian calls Bob to tell him that all of the statues are Angels. Bob replies that he knows and that he is dead: his neck was snapped and the Angel took his cerebral cortex so that it could have a voice. It has reanimated a version of his consciousness so that it can speak to them. Bob adds that the Angel is on its way up.

 

The group runs towards the wreck of the Byzantium. Amy cannot run because she thinks her hand has turned to stone and is gripping a rail, trapping her. The Doctor tells Amy that she has looked into the eyes of an Angel and it is playing with her mind. The Doctor bites Amy's hand and the two run on. She complains about being bitten by "space teeth".

 

The remaining members of the party find themselves beneath the Byzantium but it is too high to reach. Bob calls again with a message for the Doctor: the Angels are "very keen" that he knows Bob died afraid and in pain. River realises that the Angels are trying to make the Doctor angry. Octavian details his men to guard the entrances to this chamber and they report Angels arriving in every passage. The Doctor says that the Angels have made a mistake. He asks if the survivors trust him and then asks for Octavian's gun. He tells everyone to jump when he does something extremely "stupid and dangerous". Bob calls to ask what the mistake was that the Angels made. The Doctor responds: "There's one thing you never want to put in a trap. If you're smart, if you value your continued existence, if you have any plans of seeing tomorrow then there's one thing that you should never, put in a trap...... Me." He shoots up at the gravity globe.

 

 

Flesh and Stone

(drn:42'37")

The Doctor, his companions and the Clerics jump and use the spilled gravity sphere to land upside down on the hull of the Byzantium where the ship's gravity holds them. The Angels are growing stronger and resuming their customary form as they feed on the radiation. The Doctor opens the door and they pass into the ship but the Angels are soon following. The lights begin to fail but the Doctor manages to stabilise them. Unfortunately he has to switch them off in order to open an internal bulkhead door.

 

The lights go down and the Clerics open up continuous fire to keep the Angels at bay. Amy miscounts 'four' as 'ten' for no explainable reason. They enter a control room and the Clerics try to seal all of the access doors and the Doctor says that they have five minutes. Amy says 'nine'. The Doctor says that there must be an oxygen factory aboard a galaxy class ship. he opens an entry to a forest. Amy says 'eight'. The Doctor shows that the trees are tree-borgs, wired up to the hull of the ship. Amy says 'seven'. Angel Bob radios to ask what they are trying to achieve. He says that the Angels are feeding. Amy says 'six'. Bob says that the Angels are in her eye but she says "I'm five. I mean five. Fine." They notice a crack in the wall of the ship like the one in Amy's bedroom. The Doctor scans the crack with his screwdriver and comments "That's extremely very not good." The others have moved on into the forest leaving him behind and, when he turns, he finds that he is surrounded by Angels. He tries to get away but is pulled back by his jacket. The Angels stand as if welcoming the energy from the crack. He tells them that they cannot feed on it: it is pure time energy, the fire at the end of the universe. He wriggles out of his jacket and flees into the forest.

 

Ahead of him, Amy halts. River scans her as the Doctor arrives. He looks at the results and tells her that she is dying but he doesn't know why. One of the Clerics says that the Angels are approaching. The Doctor realises that Amy has an Angel in her mind. He asks Bob why they are making Amy count down (she has reached 'two') and Bob tells him it is to make her afraid "for fun". The Doctor says that she must close her eyes and if she opens her eyes for more than a second the Weeping Angel will escape and finish her.

 

The Doctor says that he is taking River to find the primary flight deck where he will do something clever that he hasn't thought of yet. Octavian says that wherever River goes he must follow. Amy is left, guarded by the Clerics. As Amy sits alone, the Doctor reappears, now wearing his jacket. He tells her to "remember".

 

The Doctor asks if Octavian and River are engaged. The bishop tells him that River has been released from the Stormcage to complete her mission and then she will receive her pardon. Until then he is responsible. The Doctor takes a reading from the crack in the wall. He sasy that one day there will be a big bang that will crack all of space and time. He sees the date as 26 06 2010.

 

The Angels close in on the Clerics until a bright light shines from across the forest. The Angels flee as though they are scared of it. Two clerics go to investigate. Amy opens her eyes to see the light and recognises it as the shape of the crack in her wall. The two Clerics with her seem to forget that the other men ever existed and a third goes to investigate. The last Cleric forgets about him and walks into the light.

 

River moves on towards the flight deck while the Doctor tells Octavian that there is worse here than Angels. He says that Amy forgot the Daleks; all of London forgot the Cyber King. Time is being rewritten. As he turns he sees that an Angel has its arm round Octavian's throat. Octavian is killed but, before he dies, he tells the Doctor that River Song was in the Stormcage facility because she killed "a good man."

 

Amy is left alone with one of the Cleric radios. The Doctor radios her and tells her to come to the control room. He adds that the Angels can only kill her, but the crack can remove her from time as though she never existed. He sends software to the communicator that will guide her to the flight deck and warn her if anything is in the way. Because the forest is full of Angels he tells her that she has to walk as if she can see. Angels arrive and surround her. Amy trips and they realise that she is blind. They close in to kill her but River teleports her to the flight deck.

 

The doors open: the Angels are gathered outside the deck. Angel Bob says that there is a rupture in the time field but if the Doctor throws himself into the crack it will save the Angels, Amy and River.

 

River says that she has travelled in time and is a complicated space-time event, too. She offers to throw herself into the crack. The Doctor says that the Angels are more complicated and that only all the Angels are equivalent to him. He suddenly realises that the Angels have been draining all of the energy from the ship. He tells River and Amy to hang on as the artificial gravity field collapses. The Angels tumble back into the crack. This seals it, and erases them from existence.

 

On the beach outside, Amy asks why she can still remember the Angel that was in her mind if it never existed, or the Clerics who went into the crack. The Doctor tells her she is a time traveller. River stands, handcuffed by the Clerics who stayed behind. She tells him that she will see him again when the Pandorica opens. He tells her that the Pandorica is just a fairy tale. She also says that the man she killed was the best man she had ever known.

 

Amy tells the Doctor she wants to go home. He lands the TARDIS in her bedroom in Leadworth where she tells him that she is getting married in the morning. She says that nearly dying has made her reassess her priorities and tries to get the Doctor into bed with her. It is then that he realises everything that is happening in the universe is about her: the time explosion occurs on the 26th of June, 2010, her wedding day. He bundles her into the TARDIS.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

The Weeping Angels previously appeared in Blink.

River Song previously appeared in Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead.

The crash of the Byzantium was mentioned in Silence in the Library.

River says she learnt to fly the TARDIS from "the best", which the Doctor assumes to be him until she says "it's a shame you were busy that day". in Let's Kill Hitler it is explained that River learnt from the TARDIS itself.

The Doctor recalls the Cyber King (see The Next Doctor)

 

 

 

 

Doctor Who Magazine

Strips featuring the Eleventh Doctor

 

 

The Eleventh Doctor strips debuted in Doctor Who Magazine in issue 421.

 

Supernature

Writer: Jonathan Morris   Pencils: Mike Collins   Inks: David A. Roach   Colours: James Offredi   Lettering: Roger Langridge           Issues 421-423

11th Doctor and Amy

Nerena Cargill, chief medical officer of The Van Diemens III sends a biohazard warning from her colony planet urging that everyone keep away. She plays a film showing a room full of corpses. She says she is the sole survivor and that anyone who lands on the planet is condemned to death.

Elsewhere, the Doctor and Amy step from the TARDIS into a jungle teeming with life. He tells her that he is ninety-nine percent sure that wherever they are it isn't Basingstoke. Almost immediately they are confronted by a large robot spider that tells them to put up their hands and scans them for concealed weapons. When Amy asks if they are trespassing it answers in the negative, saying that arrivals are tolerated but departures are prohibited. It leads them to an encampment where they are tagged with security anklets. They learn that everyone in the encampment is a convict.

 

When Amy uses the word 'Doctor' one of the convicts leads them to Cargill. She is overjoyed to see them and hugs the Doctor. She says she has been begging the Empire for emergency medical assistance for weeks, and asks how they arrived and where they landed. Amy and the Doctor say that they didn't land and imply that they crashed. The Doctor says he and 'Nurse Pond' have been wandering for days.

 

Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of a transporter craft full of convicts. Cargill explains that since the Nigella IV massacre the Empire has been using convicts as guinea pigs on alien worlds before they are cityformed. The transporters only have enough fuel for a one way trip.

 

As they watch the convicts disembark a fight breaks out between two of them but a robot spider stuns both of them. Cargill explains that she is the nearest thing to a doctor they have, though she also says she deserves to be there more than most. She then leads the Doctor to a sealed ward containing 'plague victims'. They enter the ward in biohazard suits so the Doctor can make an examination. Each patient is horribly mutated into one of a multitude of different shapes, some resembling humanoid insects, others plants or animals. There seems to be no pattern to the disease.

 

Their diagnosis is cut short when a monstrous creature bursts into the compound. The spiders (or 'snoops') seem content to let it run amok but the convicts try to corner and kill it. The Doctor intervenes to let the creature escape into a storage room. The Doctor leads Amy into the room and points out the security tag around its lower leg. The monster was once human. Before they can speak to the creature a party of convicts led by Conrad Finch enter, intent on murder. Finch accuses the Doctor of being behind the infection somehow.

 

Just then they notice that Amy is transforming into a giant insect.

 

Cargill persuades Finch not to kill the Doctor so that he can use his expertise to help the colony. The Doctor uses Cargill's laboratory to investigate the security tag from the captured monster. It tells him that it belonged to a man called Buchan Foster. Cargill thinks this makes sense as Foster made several trips into the jungle to explore and claimed he had discovered a dark secret. He disappeared while was on a survey mission a month ago, just when the transformations started happening.

 

The Doctor says that the transformations are not due to a virus but are the amalgamations of two distinct life forms to become an entirely new species. As he and Cargill step out into the jungle he says the whole eco-system has become a pick and mix of life forms. Cargill asks if that means the life in the jungle is taking humanoid shape. Even as she speaks they are pursued by a plant with human eyes and sharp teeth. They are saved by a blast from a snoop which halts the monster and together they run back into the compound.

 

The Doctor orders the convicts to stay in the centre of the compound while he modifies the snoops to set up an energy ring around them, keeping at bay even more marauding monsters. He tells Cargill to look after the worsening Amy while he goes out to investigate Foster's secret. Finch accompanies him and they fly a snoop over the energy barrier and across the jungle to a cave behind a waterfall.

 

Back in the sick bay Amy is telling Cargill that she is saddened that she will die without her family knowing what happened to her. Cargill says her own family was wiped out by a drunk driver. They are interrupted by a monster breaking through the energy barrier and crashing through the sick bay wall.

 

The Doctor finds an underground chamber with an ancient machine at its centre. Before he can investigate he, too, begins to transform into an insect.

 

The monster pushes Cargill aside and then carries off Amy. She is now fully transformed into a giant butterfly woman and as she takes flight the other monsters turn and leave.

 

The Doctor tells Finch that the machine is a gene splicer left by an alien race. Because the planet is in the wrong orbit for life to thrive, the aliens accelerated the process. When Finch asks where the aliens are the Doctor shows him the jungle. He adds that Foster must have reactivated the machine, causing the new transformations. The Doctor begins to play the keys of the machine like an organ or piano, saying he is resetting the biology. The effect is almost instantaneous. Foster, back in the compound, becomes human again.

 

Finch punches the Doctor to the ground and pulls out a home-made gun. He says he was innocent of his crime, framed by his boss who embezzled money. This machine is his ticket to freedom once he tells the Empire about it. The Doctor says he is impressed by the gun but pulls out his screwdriver and uses a sonic blast to make it fall apart. As Finch picks up a club he is bowled over by the butterfly Amy riding a snoop. She says she followed the Doctor's scent to the cave.

 

The Doctor redirects the machine's power on itself to prevent it being used again. As a result the roof of the cavern collapses. The Doctor and Amy fly out on the snoop with Finch tied beneath. They land safely. The Doctor surveys the buried cave with satisfaction before turning to find Amy, completely naked, transformed back to human again.

 

They return to the compound where all of the humans are transformed back to themselves again. The Doctor deactivates the snoops and tells Cargill it is up to the convicts to make a success of the colony. She says that the empire will send their traction factories and concrete over the planet but the Doctor advises her to send a message saying that the virus has wiped out the colony. (This is the message that started this story). He tells them to rename the planet, too and suggests 'Basingstoke'. As they make their way back to the TARDIS Amy realises that this was the planet the Doctor had intended to visit all along.

 

Time Placement: This story must come after The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone because in that story Amy is excited that they have landed on a planet together for the first time..

 

 

Planet Bollywood

Writer: Jonathan Morriss   Art: Roger Langridge   Colours: James Offredi               Issue 424

11th Doctor and Amy

In a space battle between two fleets of ships a ship containing a crew of blue elephantine aliens is hit. It spirals uncontrollably towards a nearby planet but the crew members begin to sing and dance, almost celebrating their impending doom.

The ship plunges to the ground and crashes into a grassy field. Sometime later the TARDIS materialises near to the wreckage. The Doctor and Amy examine the ship and decide that there can have been no survivors. The Doctor says that the planet is Earth-like but at the other end of the galaxy. Amy and he begin to sing a duet about the wonders of exploring a new world. At the end of the song Amy asks why they just did that. The Doctor points to a ship coming into the sky above them and says that it might have something to do with it.

 

The ship lands and some squat, ugly and heavily armed lizard-aliens emerge. Amy runs away but the Doctor is captured. He uses his psychic paper to tell the aliens, the Shasarak of Baloch, that he is an accident investigator. One of the crew tells their leader that there is no sign of life in the crashed ship and the cargo is missing.

 

Amy escapes to a human peasant village and asks for help but the peasants start to serenade her. At the end of her song a young man, Rajiv, introduces himself. Amy tells him that there are monsters near the crashed space ship. He calls it the fallen star and says he rescued a goddess from it a few days earlier. He shows her a blue woman, part of whose face and shoulder have been damaged to reveal circuitry. She says she is a muse.

 

The Shasarak tell the Doctor they are looking for a muse. They break into a song saying that they will not rest until their mission is done. While they are thus distracted the Doctor makes his escape.

 

The muse tells Amy she is an amusement created for the Maharani of Baloch, used to induce courtiers to perform musical numbers against their will. When the Shasarak realised the powers of the muse could be used for evil they attacked the palace in order to steal it. The maharani's servants smuggled the muse away which is how she has ended up on the planet. To Amy's delight, the Doctor arrives and begins to poke around inside the muse. He says that the damage to her systems means that people keep breaking into song at inopportune moments. He says she should be able to self repair given a suitable energy source.

 

The Shasarak arrive at the village. The peasants break into a song of welcome, leading the lizard-men to assume the muse is nearby. They break into Rajiv's house but only find the Doctor. Meanwhile, Amy and Rajiv have taken the muse to the Shasarak ship. Rajiv knocks out the sentry and the muse uses the power supply in the ship to recalibrate.

 

Just as the Shasarak prepare to kill the Doctor for deceiving them they break into song. The muse has returned. The Shasarak dance and sing for three hours, time enough for the Doctor to contact the Maharani and arrange for the muse to be picked up. Rajiv asks if the muse can stay with him as they are now in love. The Doctor says that he is not the one to ask and that there is no need to make a song and dance about thanking him.

 

 

The Golden Ones

Writer: Jonathan Morris   Pencils: Martin Geraghty   Inks: David A. Roach   Colours: James Offredi   Lettering: Roger Langridge    Issues 425-428

11th Doctor and Amy

Tokyo. Mr Okada enters the office of Mr Kin at the top of the Shining Dawn skyscraper. Seeing a little girl reading a comic book, Okada asks if it is Kin's granddaughter. He is told it is not. The child is Chiyoko and she is Kin's marketing consultant on the Goruda project. Okada asks if his company's offer to launch Goruda in Europe has been considered. Kin replies that he has investigated Okada's company and found it to be a fabrication; Okada is actually a UNIT agent. Kin says that the Shining Dawn Corporation does not tolerate spies. Suddenly the air is filled with a golden light and Okada is thrown back through the window and plunges to his death on the streets far below.

The Doctor and Amy sit in at a UNIT meeting two days later where Okada's death is discussed. The Doctor says they were right to get Martha to call him. The Doctor asks Major Hiraki to fill him in on the Shining Dawn and Goruda. She tells them to see for themselves.

 

The Doctor and Amy pay a visit to a typical Japanese family, claiming to be making a documentary on Japanese families. They meet a little boy, Kaito, who was always in trouble until he started watching the Goruda cartoon on television. Now he is well-behaved and loves reading. The Doctor asks Kaito if he knows the name of Mozart's pet cat.

 

After visiting several more homes Amy and the Doctor report back. Hiraki tells them that UNIT became suspicious when the Goruda carton was used to promote a brand of homeopathic brain tonic which actually seemed to work. Hiraki thinks it is nonsense until the Doctor points out that Kaito didn't know the name of Mozart's cat but once the Doctor told him it was 'Fluffy' that was the name all the other children gave. This is odd because none of the children had been in touch with each other and because Mozart hated cats. The Doctor says that the children aren't being made intelligent, they are being made telepathic. As he says this, a thought nearby recognises the Doctor and says he must be destroyed.

 

The Doctor tastes the tonic and agrees it is pure water. He says he must take it back to the TARDIS for testing. Sergeant Machi offers them a lift but the Doctor declines because the traffic is so bad. As he and Amy head down to the underground railway the Doctor notices they are being followed. It is Sergeant Machi and he produces a gun and starts shooting. They flee onto the train but Machi catches up with them. He follows the Doctor out of the train window onto the roof. An old lady pulls the emergency brakes. The Doctor clings on but Machi hits the track, dissolving into a hissing molten golden heap.

 

Mr Kin is told, telepathically, that plans need to be brought forward and conversion begun.

 

The Doctor leaves Amy with Major Hiraki for reasons of safety. She goes to Hiraki's home. They see Hiraki's daughter Takara has a bottle of brain tonic but Takara insists that she hasn't been drinking it. The Doctor phones to say that he is in the TARDIS and his tests show that the tonic has a chameleon molecule that shows up as water in most tests. Not only that but it becomes more powerful the more it is diluted. Across Tokyo, the Goruda cartoon character tells the children to put their hands on the television screen, which they do - including Takara. The Doctor tells Amy that the molecule can absorb energy and change living tissue. He warns her not to let anyone drink the tonic.

 

Across the city the children turn golden and some shoot energy rays from their hands at their parents. The Doctor realises that the tonic increases the number of links between the neurons and those links are called Axons. As he realises this the Axon converts march destructively across the city leaving a trail of corpses in their wake.

 

JNN news broadcasts a warning that thousands of children have taken to the streets in a hypnotic trance. People are told not to approach them. The Doctor desperately tries to phone Amy from the TARDIS. He peers out of the door at the children, realising that the Axonite in their bodies has been activated. They are using electrical energy to change form while being telepathically controlled by Axos. The children continue to kill anyone who stands in their way. A UNIT-led group of riot police form a roadblock. The Doctor leaps onto a car roof and tells Captain Yoshida not to shoot because the targets are children and virtually indestructible which his men are not. This is illustrated when one child shoots a blue energy bolt from its hand which turns one policeman to dust. He says the men are best used in keeping the people out of harm's way.

 

Amy and Major Hiraki run up. Hiraki is distraught that her daughter is transformed, too. She asks if she has lost her but the Doctor promises to do everything he can to get her back.

 

A giant video screen showing the Goruda cartoon character warns the people of Tokyo not to resist if they do not wish to come to any harm. The Doctor tells Amy it is Axos, an alien parasite that consumes planets by preying on the gullible and greedy.

 

Back at UNIT headquarters, Yoshida estimates that fifty to seventy thousand have been affected. They are securing such places as military bases, police stations, the power plant and the city hall. Thousands are also on their way to UNIT HQ. The Doctor improvises a hat from a jumble of wires and other bits of equipment that he says should allow him to tune in to the psychic wavelength that Axos is using so that he can jam it. Before he can plug it in the power in the HQ goes off. The children are in the foyer, absorbing the power and killing the guards. Hiraki orders all survivors onto the roof.

 

A helicopter arrives to take them to safety but before it can land it is shot down by a missile from a second helicopter and fall, blazing, down the side of the building. The Doctor fires a grappling hook through the window of a nearby building and the soldiers and Amy use it as a zip wire to slide to safety. The Doctor, last to go, escapes as the children reach the roof.

 

With a power supply at his disposal, the Doctor prepares to plug in his psychic hat. Amy and Hiraki mutate into multi-tendrilled Axon replicants. The Amy replicant lashes out at the psychic hat but Yoshida wrestles the Doctor to safety as his men open fire from close range but with little effect. The Doctor says that the replicants were not active before because Axos could be occupied with controlling the children. He says the replicants are drones who only maintain their shape due to the link with Axos. When he puts on the helmet the drones disintegrate.

 

Immediately, a television screen shows Goruda and then reveals Axos as a well dressed businessman, Mr Kin. The Doctor asks him how he escaped the time-loop but Axos refuses to respond. The Doctor says that using children to murder their own parents means that no mercy will be shown this time. Axos shows him Amy and Hiraki and says that if the doctor continues to interfere then his friends will die. The Doctor uses his psychic hat to break the link to the children but Axos warns him that without the link all the children will die. The Doctor thinks that this is a bluff but Axos says that the Doctor's inability to take an innocent life is the reason why the Axons will win.

 

Yoshida asks the Doctor what he can do if he can't switch the link off. He realises that with the children recovering consciousness all over the city it means he can break the link for a minute or so without any ill effects to the children. He calls the City Hall, tells them to barricade themselves in and wait for him. Amy and Hiraki are led to a lower level and chained up with Sergeant Machi. He says that he has been locked up for days. The Doctor and Yoshida sprint through the Axon children, dodging their energy beams, and leap into a car. Yoshida drives, weaving past the children who fall asleep under the influence of the psychic hat.

 

They park outside City Hall and race up to the Mayor's office. The Doctor tells the mayor to do whatever he says (and not to do anything he doesn't say). As the Doctor and Yoshida search for blueprints of the Shining Dawn tower to see where the Axon space ship might be, the mayor is called by Mr Kin.

 

Chiyoko, the girl who we saw at the start of the story in Mr Kin's office, releases Amy and the two UNIT officers. She tells them that she is their friend, not working for Kin, and that she has 'other priorities'. She says it is vital that Amy does not come to any harm. When Axos is distracted by its nutrition cycle, she says, they shall be able to escape. As they make their way through a service corridor she tells them that Axos is planning to take over the Earth.

 

As Amy and her friends run through the building they feel it change into a golden creature around them. The Doctor tells the mayor that the building wasn't built on top of Axos; it is Axos. It now has enough power to devour the planet.

 

As they escape from the building, Machi is killed by the children but Amy and Hiraki run away. A helicopter hovers above them and the Doctor lowers a ladder. Hiraki and Amy (just) manage to escape up the ladder as the huge Axon's tentacles try to kill them. The Doctor takes the controls and flies them above the Electric Power Company. The lights are on, showing that there is still power. They land on the roof where the Doctor asks Hiraki and her men to hold back the enemy. Inside the building, the Doctor puts on his psychic 'hat' and speaks to the possessed children. He tells them to fight back against Axos. They create a giant figure of Goruda to battle the Axon creature. The Axon is stronger but the battle between the two colossal creatures is merely a distraction.

 

Other, smaller Axons are fighting and killing the UNIT soldiers defending the perimeter. The Doctor goes to the control room of the power plant and assumes control he reverses the polarity of the electron flow so that the power will be drained from Axos. Then he hacks into the media channels and tells the people of Tokyo to turn on every electric appliance they own. Outside, Yoshida is killed by Axons.

 

The massive demand starts to drain power from the Axons and they begin to melt. They are too far into their feeding cycle to disconnect and as the city lights up the Axon cell structure disintegrates. 'Mr Kin', now barely more than a puddle, tells Chiyoko that she promises the Axons the Earth. She replies that she lied but the Axons' sacrifice will allow a greater life to come into being.

 

One day later, Hiraki tells Amy that the children have woken with no memory of what they did. She has sent Takara away to her father while the cleaning up process begins.

 

 

The Professor, the Queen and the Bookshop

Writer: Jonathan Morris   Art: Rob Davis   Colours: Geraint Ford   Lettering: Roger Langridge    Issue 429

11th Doctor and Amy

Two children, Amelia and Rory, run through the snowy streets of Second World War London. They are being evacuated because of the air-raids but Amelia has left her aunt at the station while she goes in search of a book to read on the train. Rory hastens after her because she needs a boy to keep her out of trouble though Amelia denies this. She finds a shop - Phoenix Books - which is much larger on the inside. She shouts up to a young man on some ladders, causing him to tumble to the floor. He tells her that it both is and isn't a bookshop and that children are forbidden. Amelia picks up a large tome and starts to read which causes the door to slam and the shop to shake. The man demands to know which book she looked into but Amelia pretends to have lost it even though she is hiding it behind her back. The man tells Rory that they aren't in London anymore; the shop travels into the pages of any book that has been written so they could be anywhere. He rushes out to investigate and the three of them find themselves outside in a dark forest.

The whole world is dead as though something terrible has happened. The man tells them that his name is "Professor". As they step into a deserted town he recognises that they are in the one place that he never wanted to visit - The Desolation of the White Queen. The trees seem to be made of tortured human shapes and there is a statue in a square at the heart of the town with its hands concealing its face. He tells them to run back to the shop. Every time they turn round the statue seems to be closer but they never actually see it move.

 

They reach the shop just in time and the Doctor takes another book off the shelves to find a place where the statue will never find them. As the shop spins through a vortex the statue holds onto a lamp-post outside and then flies away, laughing maniacally.

 

The Professor tells Amelia they have landed in a golden world of fields and shining seas but when they step out they are in a snowy land where the tree in front of them contains the shape of a faun. The Professor says that he must have brought the White Queen with them and she has arrived first. They are surrounded by anthropomorphic animals (pig-man, humanoid rhinoceros and the like), all heavily armed. A wolf man tells them that the White Queen materialised many years earlier and made it winter but never Christmas. She transformed all who opposed her into trees. The Professor offers to fight her and the creatures say that would be good but they have been sent to take the travellers prisoner. She is waiting for them in the Tower of Darkness.

 

When the Professor and his companions are brought before the Queen he gives her a first and fiunal warning. Amelia also calls her evil and cruel. The Queen flings a bolt of green energy at the girl but the Professor leaps in the way and is killed. As the Queen turns to kill Rory, Amelia produces the book she first opened in the shop and opens it. The Queen is sucked back into her own story. Amelia wonders if a book can bring people back too. She picks up a quill and writes that the Professor was not dead. Instantly, he is revived.

 

The creatures offer their thanks to 'Princess Amelia' and the travellers return to the shop through a green and pleasant landscape. The Professor takes them home but he tells Amelia that if she keeps on making up stories about him he will carry on having adventures. When the children leave the shop they find Amelia's aunt waiting and she tells them they have barely been gone two minutes. Amelia is carrying a book: The Professor, the Queen and the Bookshop.

 

It transpires that this narrative was all being read from a manuscript by C.S. Lewis to his friend J.R.R. Tolkien at a meeting of the Inklings club in The Eagle and Child pub. Tolkien criticizes the story for being derivative and allegorical but Lewis turns to the two newest members of the club for their opinions. They are the Doctor and Amy - who loved it - but the Doctor suggests that the story might work better with a wardrobe. Outside on the pavement, snow falls onto the TARDIS.

 

Notes:

 

This curious and endearing story implies that the Doctor and Amy visited Lewis and Tolkien on at least one occasion and were partly responsible for the final form of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The final dedication points out that Lewis died on 22nd November 1963, the night before the first episode of Doctor Who aired.

While much of the strip derives from the Narnia books it also references many ideas in the Doctor who canon:

the bookshop is a surrogate TARDIS (and travels with a 'VWORP! VWORP!' effect);

the Doctor is called 'Professor" much as the Seventh Doctor was by Ace (and in the BBV Time Travellers series);

the Doctor and two young children travelling together is reminiscent of the TV Comic strips of the 1960s;

books on the shelves of the shop contain a number of Who-like titles (Master of Luxor, Space Whale, Sirens of. ) and there seems to be a toy Dalek on a shelf;

the book Amelia opens to start the adventure is called 'Shad.';

the arrival on a distant planet containing a petrified forest and a strange city is similar to The Daleks;

The White Queen acts a lot like a Weeping Angel and her army includes a lot of Who-style beasts (Judoon etc.)

 

 

The Screams of Death

Writer: Jonathan Morris   Art: Dan McDaid   Colours: James Offredi   Lettering: Roger Langridge                Issues 430-431

11th Doctor and Amy

Paris 1858. A young woman, Cosette, finds the house of Monsieur Valdemar. She asks him to help her sing better so that she can fulfill her ambition to be an opera singer. When she sings for him she is hideously out of tune but he tells her that he can help. He tells her to look into his eyes which begin to glow demonically.

Several months later, the Doctor, in top hat and evening dress, and Amy, also dressed for the period, pay a visit to the opera house to watch a performance of Orphée. They are astonished by the amazing performance by Cosette but the Doctor recognises by her reduced blink rate that she is in a hypnotic trance. He takes Amy to the stage door but Valdemar rushes Cosette through the waiting fans and into a carriage. A young man calls after Cosette but to no avail.

 

The Doctor guesses that the young man is Cosette's boyfriend and Amy invites him to a café. There, the young man explains that he and Cosette were engaged until she went to Valdemar. He hadn't expected much to come of Cosette's ambitions because she was such a poor singer. However, she spent more and more time with Valdemar until one night she never came home.

 

His story is interrupted by a scream from outside. Everyone rushes to the alley across from the café where a man lies dead. The Doctor sees blood around the man's ears. He surmises that the poor man only had a couple of days to live anyway. Amy wonders why anyone would bother to murder him. She also says that the scream they heard was a young woman's.

 

The Doctor takes the young man and Amy to Valdemar's house where they gain entry via a skylight in the roof. In one of the rooms they discover a series of chambers wreathed in a green gas. Each contains a young woman, the girls from the opera, wearing gas masks. The Doctor looks at the machinery in the room and recognises a DNA sampler. Just then, Valdemar enters and removes the masks from the girls. The three intruders hide in the shadows. He gives each a target and tells them to collect genetic samples. He then says that when he has selected his victims the girls shall sing them to their deaths. The girls then levitate and fly out from his house. One of them knocks on a bedroom window across the town and when the owner opens the curtains she crashes through the window, exhaling green gas.

 

Meanwhile, Valdemar tells the three intruders to come out from their hiding places. The Doctor asks how the girls managed to levitate but Valdemar insists that it is beyond the Doctor's comprehension. He releases Cosette from her chamber and tells her to sing to them all. Cosette emits an ear-shattering scream.

 

Salzburg 2098. Eldritch Valdemar is found guilty, as leader of the Eugenic Cult, of murder, treason, mental domination and genetic manipulation. He points at four men in the courtroom, accusing them of treachery. The robotic judge says that the four have bought their freedom with their testimony and Valdemar is sentenced to death. Before the sentence is carried out he swears to have his revenge and then Valdemar is hit with a blast of energy.

 

Back in Paris, 240 years earlier, the Doctor is chained to a wall with Amy and Louis (Cosette's boyfriend). Valdemar instructs Cosette to take a sample from each, which she does by kissing them deeply. Louis can see the paper bearing the names of all Valdemar's victims: the same four surnames repeated over and over again. The Doctor guesses that the targets are actually the victims' descendants who he wants to prevent existing. He has to make sure that none of the victims of his plan are his own ancestors too, hence the DNA samples.

 

Valdemar speculates that the Doctor, like him, is also from the future. He says that he got there when his death by molecular dispersion resulted in him being miraculously transported through time. The Doctor sees that someone is behind all this but it isn't clear who.

 

Valdemar goes off to check the samples and Amy uses a bent hairpin to free herself from her manacles. She releases the other two and they make their way to Valdemar just as he discovers that neither the Doctor nor Amy is his ancestor. He orders Cosette to kill them. Louis surmises that, as he is being spared, he must be Valdemar's grandfather. He snatches a flask and threatens to drink it, poisoning himself, unless Cosette is returned to him. Valdemar refuses and is swept into the air by his 'daughters of the night' to commit the slaughter. Louis manages to grab Cosette and drag her to the ground. The Doctor asks the girl to take him in pursuit of Valdemar.

 

They fly through the night. Valdemar leads them to the roof of Notre Dame Cathedral for a showdown. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to ring the cathedral bells which looses the hold he has over the girls. They turn on him and he plunges from the roof.

 

Later, after satisfying himself that Cosette can no longer sing and is back to normal, the Doctor and Amy return to the TARDIS accompanied by Louis and Cosette. They enter the alleyway together and as Louis thanks them Cosette examines the TARDIS. The Doctor and Amy step inside and the TARDIS dematerializes. It is only then that Louis realises Cosette is not with him. He does not see that he is being watched from the shadows by a little girl in a sailor suit.

 

 

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Writer: Jonathan Morris   Art: David Roach   Colours: James Offredi   Lettering: Roger Langridge                Issue 432

11th Doctor and Amy

At the Hawkshaw Manor nursing home, 2011, an old man (Arthur) is disturbed by a small boy with no face who comes into his room to watch him.

In the morning, Amy Pond (in nurse's outfit) brings him a cup of tea. She comments on how loud the children are as they play in the garden but Arthur says he likes to hear the laughter. He adds that he never had any children of his own and when his wife died in 1988 he had no relatives left. Sister Frost arrives and orders Amy to stop chatting and get on with her other duties. She tells Amy that another resident has died in the night but when Amy enters the room the body has already gone. This strikes Amy as surprisingly quick. Amy picks up a photograph of the dead woman, Margaret, as a child. When she turns around the young Margaret is behind her.

 

The Doctor, meanwhile, is talking to Miss Bruce who is in charge of the nursing home. He asks her about bodies disappearing in the middle of the night but then interrupts her reply to tell her that she is about to say she doesn't know what he is talking about. He says that she has been arranging for the undertakers to bury empty coffins and that he knows that this is true because he was there when they were dug up by archaeologists eight hundred years in the future. He also accuses her of only admitting people with no friends or relatives. He suggests that she isn't behind the disappearances and then asks her how long the home has been allowing children to play in the gardens. Miss Bruce calls him insane, saying that there are no children even though a group can clearly be seen through the window behind her.

 

Amy tries to engage the young Margaret in conversation but Sister Frost drags her away to the laundry closet at the other end of the building despite the fact that they are standing beside a room clearly marked 'Laundry Closet'.

 

That evening, as the sun sets, the Doctor takes Arthur out to the TARDIS. Arthur tells him that his friend, Bert, saw the boy with no face the night before he died. He expects to die soon. The Doctor changes the subject to the children. Arthur says that they have only appeared recently and don't like to get too close to the building. They also notice that the children's clothes and games seem rather old-fashioned. When the Doctor approaches them the children says they cannot tell anyone where they came from or the grownups will put a stop to their games. Margaret tells Arthur not to worry because he will be joining them soon.

 

Amy rushes up to tell the Doctor that there is a girl running around the home but the staff can't see her. He replies that a perception filter is at work and is probably shielding an alien hiding place. Amy remembers the laundry closet that was invisible to Sister Frost. They head straight there.

 

Arthur seems to be suffering chest pains but insists that he hasn't had so much fun in years. The Doctor says the perception filter is set to local fauna so he and Amy aren't affected. The laundry closet is revealed as a huge, high-tech alien nest. Nurst frost is within, as are a number of blank children. Frost's head opens up to reveal an insectoid robot which accuses them of being a threat to the surrogates. As weapons open fire Arthur dies of a heart attack but a boy with no face steps forward and surrounds the body with energy. The corpse vanishes and the boy grows a face. He turns to the robot and demands it to stop, adding that the Doctor and Amy are his friends. The robot immediately designates them as non-hostile and ceases fire. Amy turns to the new Arthur who is confused as to why he is suddenly so short.

 

The Doctor demands an explanation from the robot. It says it is a Vorlax regeneration drone that provides replacement bodies for dead infantry and places their consciousness within at the moment of death. It was hit by enemy fire, causing a teleport malfunction, and arrived on Earth where it activated its camouflage. The Doctor repairs the teleport device and sets it on a countdown for departure to an uninhabited garden world. Amy says that it was actually doing a good thing, giving people a second chance for life. She asks what will happen to the kids and if the other residents don't deserve the same chance. They take the children to the residents' sitting room and ask them if they would like to be made young on a planet millions of miles away. He tells them they have to make up their minds immediately.

 

The next days' news reports that all of the residents of Hawkshaw nursing home have disappeared simultaneously but the reason is that they have all emigrated to New Zealand after winning the lottery.

 

Amy and the Doctor (along with 'Nurse Frost') watch the children play in a garden paradise, diving from a waterfall and riding a friendly dinosaur.

 

 

Forever Dreaming

Writer: Jonathan Morris   Art: Adrian Salmon   Lettering: Roger Langridge             Issues 433-434

11th Doctor and Amy

The Doctor offers Amy an ice cream cone. The TARDIS has materialised on a beach that resembles a typical seaside resort in Britain, apparently in the late 1960s. It is a hot summer day and the Doctor is concerned that it is almost too stereotypical. Unbeknown to the travellers, they are being watched, probably from within a giant purple octopus above the pier entrance. Amy has a vivid memory of visiting this place before with her auntie and running to a toy shop with a model TARDIS displayed in the window. Her auntie pulled her away and little Amelia lost her red balloon. It dawns on Amy that she was born in 1989 and couldn't have been there in the 1960s. The watchers deem that her mind is too powerful and she cannot be allowed to leave. She explains her doubts to the Doctor but he breaks in to tell her that she is feeling déjà vu with someone else's memories. He starts to run down onto the beach, telling her that they have to get away because they are in a trap. Before he finishes his sentence he is turned into a life-size sand sculpture that disintegrates before Amy can reach it.

A long-haired young man (sitting in the lotus position, with a dove perched on his hand and wearing hippy clothes) floats before Amy. He calls her Amelia, the girl of his dreams. Speaking in trippy rhymes he tells her she has all the tomorrows in the world and that once she has fallen down the kaleidoscope there is no way out of the dream. She asks if he is trapped and he replies that only she can save everybody for the Doctor has closed his eyes on the Octopus ride. The young man vanishes with a warning: 'Beware of the dark.'

 

The weather changes abruptly: it is cold, grey and rainy. The people on the promenade are now only stuffed dummies. Suddenly, Amy is confronted by five dark figures. They are wearing business suits and bowler hats and each carries a rolled umbrella. Their faces are set in manic grins and each is wearing psychedelic spectacles. Amy runs away from them onto the pier. She is watched by five figures in a candle-lit room. One of them is the young hippy and another is the Doctor. They want to help her but know they can only watch. One warns that if the dark consumes her she will cease to exist. Amy reaches the end of the pier as the five shadow men close in on her. They tell her that the more scared she feels, the stronger they will become. She replies that she is not frightened but one of them contradicts her, saying that everyone is afraid of the dark. Amy climbs over the railing and hangs above the stormy waves from which hands reach up as if to grab her.

 

As the shadows tell her that she must despair, Amy responds by thinking of ice cream. A cone appears in her hand and the happiness she feels causes the sun to break out and the beach to return to a summer's day. She climbs back onto the promenade as the shadows are dispersed by the sunlight.

 

Back in the room the men watching her realise she is stronger than any of them. The young hippy floats before Amy again and tells her that he used to be a musician in a rock band and that he used to visit Psychspace for his inspiration until it became harder for him to leave and he became stuck there with the other men: a painter, a poet, a mathematician and, now, the Doctor. Amy follows the musician into the room where she finds the Doctor comatose. She demands to know what these dreamers want from her. The musician tells her that when they lose hope the darkness grows more powerful and begins to consume Psychspace. Their only salvation is if Amy helps them to smash the glass and return them to reality. They ask her to sit down and dream.

 

Amy finds herself reverting to her childhood, watching an episode of Blue Peter on television. The Doctor is one of the presenters and he that she has to use her stubborn nature to transcend the metaphysical reality. Amy wakes up in the darkened room and tells the Doctor she can see something. He regains consciousness and asks what she can see. A large purple octopus is hanging from the ceiling above them. The Doctor recognises it as a psychic squid that has lured creative minds into its home dimension to feed on their psychic energy so that it can break into the real world and feed off human imagination. The squid/octopus wraps a tentacle around the Doctor and sends a shock of energy through him. The shadow men come down the stairs and then overpower the dreamers but they turn on the squid and use their combined power to cause it to explode. As the darkness closes in on them the Doctor urges Amy to imagine the TARDIS which she builds in her mind from jigsaw pieces. They run into the console room and shut the door.

 

The Doctor tells Amy that the dreamers created the darkness from their own guilt and despair but finally sacrificed themselves to save the world. Their reality included fear and guilt and in the end they had to accept that. On that thought the TARDIS dematerializes and the travellers go on their way.

 

 

Apotheosis

Writer: Jonathan Morris   Art: Dan McDaid   Colours: James Offredi   Lettering: Roger Langridge                Issues 435-437

11th Doctor and Amy

The Doctor promises to take Amy to Wembley Stadium for the 2030 World Cup Final but they land in a big old space station instead. As they set out to explore they are seen by a giant robot that describes them as escaped specimens. It is just about to 'sterilise' them when it is destroyed by a party of six nuns carrying futuristic guns. The leader, Mother Ivana, has the Doctor and Amy scanned for impurity and says that abominations will not be suffered to live. Sister Bridget runs the scan and reports that they are untainted.

Ivana explains that they are the Sisters of Purity and their twofold mission is to investigate the structure which has been in Earth space for a year, emitting exotic particles, while also finding out what happened to a similar party that disappeared six months earlier. When Novice Konami tries to contact the transporter ship that brought them it does not respond. They decide to make their way through the corridors to the command hub.

 

On the way they pass a large device that the Doctor says is a primitive attempt at building a time engine. He says it is leaking and is the probable source of the exotic particles. They come to a sealed door and the nuns decide to blow it open with explosives. The Doctor suggests using his sonic screwdriver instead. As he does so they are attacked by a group of robots. One of the nuns is shot while the others return fire. The Doctor gets the door open and runs into the command hub where he uses the computer to over-ride the security protocols and put the robots on stand-by mode.

 

There are human skeletons on the floor. The nuns think that they are the station's crew but the Doctor sees a functioning teleport and says that the crew left long ago. The bones belong to the previous investigation team. Ivana wonders how this can be: the sisters only arrived six months earlier but the bones look hundreds of years old. The Doctor feels stubble growing on his chin and says that the temporal experiment that went wrong has caused time to accelerate. This is why Konami couldn't contact the ship - it is in a different time zone.

 

At the mention of Konami's name, the nuns turn to look at her and see that she has aged tremendously. The Doctor says that time is passing at different speeds in different parts of the station. A small purple lizard runs over Amy's foot. The Doctor looks closely at it, saying that it looks familiar. As it scuttles away, the Doctor and Amy give chase, followed by the nuns. The corridor they run down has blossomed into a jungle and the lizard has already died of old age.

 

The Doctor tells the nuns that their only hope is to get to his ship. As they follow him through the jungle the plants turn blue and the TARDIS, when they reach it, has creepers and vines growing from it as well as screaming human figures bursting from its outer shell.

 

The Doctor says that the TARDIS is caught in an accelerated time field. Amy recognises the faces on its shell as Cosette (DWM 430-431) and Margaret (DWM 432). The Doctor also recognises the Shasarak (DWM 424). The figures coalesce into a giant ogre/TARDIs. The nuns open fire but the monster flings energy balls at them and catches hold of Konami, absorbing her into itself. Only the Reverend mother, Sophia and Bridget survive the assault as the monster races away, leaving the TARDIS behind. The Doctor and Amy enter the TARDIs while he berates himself for failing to recognise the jungle as that from the planet Basingstoke (DWM 421-423). He says the TARDIS has been infected and absorbed life forms wherever they have gone. The temporal acceleration has allowed the tissue to evolve into autonomous life which has now been expelled, resulting in a half human, half monster, and half TARDIS hybrid.

 

The nuns corner this monster but as they open fire it 'vwarp-vwarps' away. They decide to destroy the time engine that they passed earlier as an insurance against time disruption.

 

The Doctor tells Amy to stay in the TARDIS because the chances of premature ageing are so high but she insists on accompanying him on his mission to the teleport where he intends to lure the creature and reconstitute its individual parts. He draws the creature to him with the sonic screwdriver and then locks it into the teleport. While he sets the machinery in motion the nuns return and take Amy at gunpoint. They demand to know what he can tell them about time technology but, instead, he says he knows that they have been fighting a war against androids that look human. He says he has worked this out because Sister Bridget has not aged visibly, unlike the others.

 

Revealed as a spy, Bridget kills Sophia but Ivana returns fire, shooting off Bridget's face to reveal the android beneath. The Doctor shuts the teleport chamber door. Amy points out that they are now trapped inside. Ivana use the time to tell them that humans have been fighting a thousand year war against Galatean robots: 'the heresy of metal'. As she does so, the robots in the chamber are reactivated by Bridget interfacing with the computer. Ivana destroys them with her last three sonic grenades. However, Bridget has an army of robots gathering outside ready to break in with laser torches.

 

The only means of escape is the teleport but that would mean stopping the creature's reconstitution (thereby killing it) and there are two hours before the process is finished. Amy tells the Doctor she doesn't feel well. As he looks at her she ages visibly in front of his eyes.

 

The Doctor has to support Amy so that she can stand up. He tells her that she must have walked into the accelerated time field. She asks him if he can make her young again. Ivana says that she is going to kill the creature in the teleport so that they can use that way as a means of escape. Amy angrily retorts that the creature is made of innocent people including Sister Konami. Ivana says that Konami will be a martyr to the cause. Amy lunges at her, saying that it is murder but before Ivana can shoot her the robots burst through the door. The Doctor drags Amy away while Ivana shows the robots a detonator switch in her hand. She has rigged the time machine at the heart of the space station with explosives: if the humans can't have it, neither will the robots.

 

The robots open fire on her. As she dies, Ivana says she is going to heaven while the others are condemned to hell. She clicks the detonator switch. As the time engine explodes the Doctor drags Amy towards it. He says that the accelerated time energy will kill them in seconds unless they get to the eye of the storm. They shelter beside the engine until the jungle around them has aged, died and withered away. They re-emerge to make their way back to the control room. On the way they are stopped by two robots who take them to Sister Bridget. She says that she has seen the light: they have been blessed by a divine incarnation.

 

A glowing blue girl emerges from the teleport. She is the little girl that the Doctor and Amy saw at the Shining Dawn (DWM 425-428). She says that Amy saved her and the Doctor made her. The Doctor says that it was an accident; she is the combination of several young women, a couple of monsters and the TARDIS. Bridget calls her the ultimate expression of being (flesh and machine combined). The girl responds by disintegrating all of the robots with a wave of her hand.

 

The Doctor offers to help her but she says that she doesn't need his help. She is Chiyoko, the daughter of a thousand generations. She can see both history and the future. The Doctor begs her to help Amy who has now aged into a decrepit old woman. Chiyoko declines, saying that they have had their time and would only try to stop her. She "Vworp"s away.

 

In a flash of inspiration, the Doctor carries Amy into the teleport and uses his screwdriver and Bridget's bio scanner to retrieve Amy's body patterns. He restores her to her youthful self. The space station begins to explode around them so they teleport back to the TATRDIs and dash inside. As the station detonates the Doctor sets the controls so that the TARDIS can follow Chiyoko through the vortex. He says that this is only the beginning of their adventure.

 

The Doctor says that the TARDIS is caught in an accelerated time field. Amy recognises the faces on its shell as Cosette (DWM 430-431) and Margaret (DWM 432). The Doctor also recognises the Shasarak (DWM 424). The figures coalesce into a giant ogre/TARDIs. The nuns open fire but the monster flings energy balls at them and catches hold of Konami, absorbing her into itself. Only the Reverend mother, Sophia and Bridget survive the assault as the monster races away, leaving the TARDIS behind. The Doctor and Amy enter the TARDIs while he berates himself for failing to recognise the jungle as that from the planet Basingstoke (DWM 421-423). He says the TARDIS has been infected and absorbed life forms wherever they have gone. The temporal acceleration has allowed the tissue to evolve into autonomous life which has now been expelled, resulting in a half human, half monster, and half TARDIS hybrid.

 

The nuns corner this monster but as they open fire it 'vwarp-vwarps' away. They decide to destroy the time engine that they passed earlier as an insurance against time disruption.

 

The Doctor tells Amy to stay in the TARDIS because the chances of premature ageing are so high but she insists on accompanying him on his mission to the teleport where he intends to lure the creature and reconstitute its individual parts. He draws the creature to him with the sonic screwdriver and then locks it into the teleport. While he sets the machinery in motion the nuns return and take Amy at gunpoint. They demand to know what he can tell them about time technology but, instead, he says he knows that they have been fighting a war against androids that look human. He says he has worked this out because Sister Bridget has not aged visibly, unlike the others.

 

Revealed as a spy, Bridget kills Sophia but Ivana returns fire, shooting off Bridget's face to reveal the android beneath. The Doctor shuts the teleport chamber door. Amy points out that they are now trapped inside. Ivana use the time to tell them that humans have been fighting a thousand year war against Galatean robots: 'the heresy of metal'. As she does so, the robots in the chamber are reactivated by Bridget interfacing with the computer. Ivana destroys them with her last three sonic grenades. However, Bridget has an army of robots gathering outside ready to break in with laser torches.

 

The only means of escape is the teleport but that would mean stopping the creature's reconstitution (thereby killing it) and there are two hours before the process is finished. Amy tells the Doctor she doesn't feel well. As he looks at her she ages visibly in front of his eyes.

 

The Doctor has to support Amy so that she can stand up. He tells her that she must have walked into the accelerated time field. She asks him if he can make her young again. Ivana says that she is going to kill the creature in the teleport so that they can use that way as a means of escape. Amy angrily retorts that the creature is made of innocent people including Sister Konami. Ivana says that Konami will be a martyr to the cause. Amy lunges at her, saying that it is murder but before Ivana can shoot her the robots burst through the door. The Doctor drags Amy away while Ivana shows the robots a detonator switch in her hand. She has rigged the time machine at the heart of the space station with explosives: if the humans can't have it, neither will the robots.

 

The robots open fire on her. As she dies, Ivana says she is going to heaven while the others are condemned to hell. She clicks the detonator switch. As the time engine explodes the Doctor drags Amy towards it. He says that the accelerated time energy will kill them in seconds unless they get to the eye of the storm. They shelter beside the engine until the jungle around them has aged, died and withered away. They re-emerge to make their way back to the control room. On the way they are stopped by two robots who take them to Sister Bridget. She says that she has seen the light: they have been blessed by a divine incarnation.

 

A glowing blue girl emerges from the teleport. She is the little girl that the Doctor and Amy saw at the Shining Dawn (DWM 425-428). She says that Amy saved her and the Doctor made her. The Doctor says that it was an accident; she is the combination of several young women, a couple of monsters and the TARDIS. Bridget calls her the ultimate expression of being (flesh and machine combined). The girl responds by disintegrating all of the robots with a wave of her hand.

 

The Doctor offers to help her but she says that she doesn't need his help. She is Chiyoko, the daughter of a thousand generations. She can see both history and the future. The Doctor begs her to help Amy who has now aged into a decrepit old woman. Chiyoko declines, saying that they have had their time and would only try to stop her. She "Vworp"s away.

 

In a flash of inspiration, the Doctor carries Amy into the teleport and uses his screwdriver and Bridget's bio scanner to retrieve Amy's body patterns. He restores her to her youthful self. The space station begins to explode around them so they teleport back to the TATRDIs and dash inside. As the station detonates the Doctor sets the controls so that the TARDIS can follow Chiyoko through the vortex. He says that this is only the beginning of their adventure.

 

 

The Child of Time

Writer: Jonathan Morris   Pencil Art: Martin Gerathy   Inks: David A. Roach   Colours: James Offredi   Lettering: Roger Langridge    Issues 438-440

11th Doctor and Amy

Chiyoko is flying through time and space, exulting in being alive. The Doctor gives pursuit in the TARDIS while Amy complains about his erratic driving. Amy asks where Chiyoko is going. The Doctor says that she has to travel up her time stream to make herself happen; at the moment she is only a possibility. They track her to the war-planet Grakktar in 4688 and see her diverting the Vorlax into the past so that it can create the clone of Margaret DWM 432) that is later absorbed by the TARDIS. In Salzburg, 2098, she rescues Eldritch Valdemar from his execution and sends him to nineteenth century Paris DWM 430-431). That way, Cosette is eventually eaten by the TARDIS. Next, she frees Axos from the time loop so that it can try to invade Earth.

The Doctor tells Amy that they cannot stop her without causing a paradox. They try to follow her to her next destination but the navigation systems 'go all wibbly' when they follow her time stream. They arrive in a devastated city. The Doctor gives Amy some pills to counter the effects of high levels of radiation while they explore. They stumble across the ruins of St Paul's Cathedral and realise that they are on Earth, albeit long after Amy's time.

 

A ship attacks them, firing energy beams. They try to get back to the TARDIS but a near miss buries the TARDIS under tons of rubble. Galatean robots close in on them but are disabled by an E-M burst from a party of human soldiers. Captain Kaido orders the incineration of the robots while she questions the Doctor. He tells her that they dropped in from one of the orbital stations. She isn't much interested but, once she has ascertained that they are organic she takes them to the crypt beneath St Pauls. Kaido takes them down in a lift. Riding with them is Sergeant Sokkuri. She was rescued by Kaido after her ship was shot down by Galateans.

 

They enter a chapel containing a massive statue of Chiyoko. Amy and the Doctor pretends that they are Chiyoko worshippers, too, while realising that she must have beaten them to Earth by several centuries. They continue on into the bunker control room. On a screen, the Galatean Prelature is contacting Earth. It offers the humans mercy in the name of Chiyoko. Commander Hachiman is furious that they name Chiyoko. The Galateans make an offer to the last humans: they can keep the planet as a reservation while the robots take the stars. Hachiman refuses, saying that humans would rather die than surrender.

 

Hachiman asks one of his men if the Ultimate Weapon is ready. He is told that the work of ten years has been completed and tells Kaido that she knows what to do. The Doctor and Amy follow her to a locked room. She tells them that they are in a restricted area but the Doctor says that he only wants to see what she is doing and to prevent it. She tells him that he is too late. She has already started the countdown and the computer only responds to her brain pattern. The Doctor sees that a network of fusion bombs has been panted beneath the planet's surface: they are going to destroy the Earth.

 

Kaido pulls out a gun but before she can shoot she is killed by Sokkuri. The Doctor scans Sokkuri and finds that she has a Galatean brain. Sokkuri tries to absorb the dying Kaido's brain patterns but an emergency E-M burst from the control room kills her. The countdown has reached 49 when Chiyoko materialises. She says that it has been fun playing a game of Galactic War just to see who would win but now that the Galateans have proved their superiority they can continue while the humans must go away. She says goodbye to the Doctor and Amy before dematerialising.

 

Amy asks the Doctor if he can do anything to stop the count, which is on 25. He says there is a remote possibility and then the planet explodes.

 

The Doctor and Amy find themselves lying on the grass of an English village green. The Doctor says he would remember stopping the planet from exploding so he assumes it must have. Amy wonders if they are in heaven. They ask a passerby for directions and the Doctor recognises him as the scientist Alan Turing. Turing assumes that he knows the Doctor from Oxford and invites them back to his home. He tells them that they are in Wilmslow in 1954. Over tea Turing and the Doctor discuss Turing's work on Fibonacci numbers. When the scientist goes to fetch some of his papers, the Doctor whispers that something is wrong: Turing should have killed himself the previous month. He asks Amy to step outside while he and Turing are getting on so well. Turing has overheard this conversation. This prompts him to want to learn more (as well as assuming that the Doctor is homosexual like him). He tells the Doctor that he had considered suicide but was saved at the last moment by a small Japanese girl called Chiyoko. Turing admits that he has been in Wilmslow in 1954 ever since he can remember.

 

Amy, meanwhile, finds herself following a dodo through the countryside after it drops a parchment. It steps through a hole in space and she follows it. It leads her into the library of Alexandria where John Keats and Buddy Holly are writing a musical for Jayne Mansfield. They are interrupted when Galatean robots arrive and blast Keats, Holly and Mansfield to pieces, revealing the trio to be robots. Amy escapes the destruction only to find herself at gunpoint again.

 

The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to open a hole in the fabric of space and he and Turing step through to a vast hall containing huge spheres. Each is a dimensional projection of various places at different points in Earth's history (including the Globe Theatre, Stonehenge, a pyramid and Easter Island). The Doctor says it is an abandoned museum. They walk across a gantry to where Amy is standing with the heavily armed Bronte sisters. Amy reveals that the sisters, and Turing, are robots. The Brontes add that they are being stalked by Galateans. The Museum of Lost Opportunities was built as a memorial to the human race in the middle of an asteroid belt around a dying sun. It was designed by Chiyoko and is all that remains of Earth. Now that the Galateans have wiped all life from the galaxy they have sought out the museum.

 

Emily Bronte is destroyed by a Galatean robot but Charlotte and Anne fight it off. Charlotte says that their decaying programs allowed them self knowledge. They know they are robots but believe they have as much soul as living creatures. They take the Doctor to a time scoop which they used to bring the Doctor to them. They say that they need the Doctor because he is the only one with enough knowledge of changing history to safely remove the Galateans from time before they can be created. The Doctor points out that this will end the Bronte robots' existence but they say they are aware of that.

 

A group of Galateans burst in and destroy Anne Bronte. As Charlotte fights back the others take cover. Amy asks if they can get the time scoop to bring the TARDIS to them but the Doctor says they will be killed by the Galateans before they can get to the controls. Charlotte says that it is time to bid goodbye...

 

Back on Earth in the near future a falling star brings an infection that spreads rapidly, soon becoming a pandemic. Robots travel the land, identifying new victims and sterilising the derelict towns with a circle of fire each with a radius of one mile for every new case found.

 

The Doctor, Amy and Turing are sent back by Charlotte Bronte, arriving amidst the devastation. Turing says that this is the time of the creation of the Galateans. He says that the history books need to be rewritten or this is the end of humanity. The Doctor explains that it is not so simple: this is the time before Chiyoko's interference began. Before he can elucidate further, they are confronted by one of the robots. It says that contaminated life forms must be sterilised but their presence is noted by humans in an underground facility. The robot detects that they are not contaminated and takes them to the facility. The Doctor tells Amy that he is rather vague on this time period but is surprised that a cure has not been found. The trio are taken to Keltor Jacobs. He introduces himself as the last hope for the human race. He tells them that the Doomsday Plague has all but wiped out the human race and the research stations across the empire are going out one by one. His assistant, Chloe, says that they have spent five years looking for n alternative solution and have settled on the creation of Galateans: robots containing the uploaded minds of the human race. Turing tries to tell them that the Galateans are not the solution but the destruction of humanity. He says that the duplicates will come to believe that they are the originals and will wipe out the humans believing them to be imposters.

 

Chiyoko materialises among them and makes it that the three newcomers were never there. Like phantoms, they have to watch as Chloe activates the Galateans just three hours before Research Station Minerva reports that it has found a cure for the plague. Jacobs tries to recall the Galateans but they have already started killing the humans. They tell Jacobs that humanity is weak and vulnerable and that now is the time of the Galateans. Jacobs tries to abort the Galateans with an EM pulse but Chiyoko kills him.

 

The Doctor says that she is diverting the course of history to ensure her own creation. She turns to him and agrees that playing with time is fun. She takes them to the planet Kepler IV, one thousand years later, to witness the glories of war. The Doctor asks her how she can enjoy standing on a battlefield, watching two armies annihilate each other just so that she can come into being. She turns to him and tells him that he made it happen by creating her.

 

The Doctor tells her that the Galateans wipe out all other life in the galaxy and begs her to put things back the way they were. She tells him that such an action would mean giving up her own life and that she has as much right to exist as anyone else. He tries to argue that if her existence depends on the obliteration of everybody else then she should give up her life. When she says she has no pity for the dead he tells her that he can have no pity for her. He asks her to remember that he gave her a chance.

 

She tells him that he is funny and that it is time for him to go away. She puts the Doctor, Amy and Turing back in London on the day that Earth was blown up. The Doctor says that they have been brought here to die and comments on how tidy it is to end this way. Amy screams as a ship hovers towards them, blasting at them with laser canons.

 

It turns out that the ship is actually shooting at the earlier versions of the Doctor and Amy as they scramble across the rubble. The Doctor decides that this time they can escape the same way that they did the last. He, Amy and Turing follow the same route into the ruins of St Paul's. The Doctor adjusts a rifle to nerve paralysis setting and shoots two guards. They then find their way into the bomb control room and hide. This time, the Doctor shoots his and Amy's earlier versions, knocking them out, so that when the time scoop picks them up he can greet the Bronte sisters and readjust the time scoop to bring Turing along, too. He then puts their past selves into the Wilmslow time bubble to meet the earlier Turing.

 

Chiyoko materialises among them and threatens to wipe them from history. The Doctor says that this isn't a safe option for her and scoops up Cosette, Margaret and Konami from before they were absorbed into the TARDIS. He then wipes the coordinates so that Chiyoko won't know where they came from, or when. That way, he says, her own existence will be under threat if she takes any drastic action. Amy whispers to Turing that she doesn't follow any of this. He replies that it is a bit beyond him, too.

 

Chiyoko is overcome by pain and regret as she feels empathy for the first time. The Doctor asks her to unwrite her own existence. She admits she is scared and, sobbing, sends her component lives back to the places they were last in before they were absorbed.

 

Amy notices that the universe is growing dark; the Doctor says that it is being erased as it ceases to exist. He time scoops the TARDIS to them and sets the controls for Keltor Jacobs' laboratory just after the Galateans are awoken. He tells them that the cure for the Doomsday Plague is about to be announced. Turing calls the Galateans as they awake on Moonbase and tells them that he is the last of the Galatean race. He sends them his memory files so that they can see a future that must never exist, thus averting the war. He hopes that the organic and artificial humans can live together in harmony.

 

Amy calls the Doctor into the TARDIS where Chiyoko is dying. The Doctor takes her to Moonbase where she is remade as a Galatean. The Doctor takes Amy to an observation platform to look down on the planet Earth below. He tells her that there are a billion possible futures and that it is time for them to go and find out which of them is about to happen.

 

 

Chains of Olympus

Writer: Scott Gray   Pencil Art: Mike Collins   Inks: David A. Roach   Colours: James Offredi   Lettering: Roger Langridge           Issues 442-445

11th Doctor and Amy

The TARDIS lands in ancient Greece, near the Acropolis in Athens. Amy emerges, wearing a skimpy tunic, followed by a similarly attired Rory. They complain that the Doctor is wearing his usual outfit but he tells them that he has the uncanny ability to blend in "like a temporal chameleon." The Doctor is eager to meet one of his heroes; Socrates. However, when he tracks him down he finds that his hero is little more than a drunken tramp who 'enlightens' the Doctor by punching him on the jaw. A young man runs up to prevent a brawl and leads his master off to a tavern. The Doctor tells Amy and Rory to wander off on their own, while he tries to work out what is happening.

As they are walking near the Acropolis they see an old woman, Calidora, trying to stop some soldiers. They have a gold statue of Athena on a cart. She tells them that if they destroy the statue as they intend, then Athens will be destroyed in turn. They brush her off and go on their way. Amy helps Calidora to her feet. The woman tells her that they intend to melt the statue (taken from the temple of Athena at the Acropolis) to fund the war with Sparta. She says that the wrath of the gods will be swift. She presses something into Amy's hand as thanks for her kindness, adding that they should flee the city.

 

The Doctor follows Socrates to the tavern, watching as the old man is abused by passers-by. In the tavern, Socrates (now very drunk) apologises for punching the Doctor. The Doctor turns to the youth who is Socrates' only disciple and asks how this happened. The youth, Plato, says that Aristophanes' play, "The Clouds", portrayed Socrates as a fool and since then and the populace started to treat the real Socrates as if he were the fictional character. Since then, Socrates has turned to drink.

 

No sooner has the statue been melted in a workshop than thunder echoes around the city. Citizens are struck by bolts of lightning and others flee in panic. Amy stops to pick up a toddler in the street and she is also struck by lightning. A giant face appears in the sky and its booming voice announces itself as Zeus. It says that the people of Athens have betrayed its trust and they shall pay in blood.

 

The Doctor runs up to the Acropolis, pushing his way through a tide of people going in the opposite direction. Plato follows him. He shouts up to the face of Zeus, hovering above the building, asking it to stop killing people at random. When he gets no response he tells Plato that the image is powering down. It promptly fades away.

 

Rory gets to Amy and finds that both she and the child are safe. She returns the child to his grateful mother. The people around the city are declaring that they are damned and should start slaughtering goats as sacrifice as soon as the sun rises. One man pours all of his wealth down a well; others decide to burn the libraries because enlightenment has been their downfall.

 

The Doctor and Plato return to the tavern and reunite with Rory and Amy. The Doctor lists the possibilities for what is happening: aliens who arrived centuries earlier were mistaken for gods; aliens who have just arrived are posing as gods. Socrates tries to interject but the Doctor brushes him away and insults him. Amy drags the Doctor outside to find out why he is being so rude but the Doctor tells her that Socrates wrote nothing in his lifetime, everything that is known of him was written by Plato, and Plato is the real genius. Amy says that she knows what it is to be let down by a hero. She adds that she grew up and got over it. The Doctor returns to the tavern and asks what the first question is that they should ask. Socrates replies that they need to find out why this is happening now. The Doctor asks if anybody has seen anything unusual.

 

Rory tells him about Calidora and the statue. Amy produces the talisman that Calidora gave her. The sonic screwdriver shows that it is able to absorb a lightning bolt. He tells Plato to take Amy and Rory to Calidora's house while he and Socrates search Athens for more of the metal. As they go, Zeus appears to power up again. However, when they reach Calidora's residence, the woman is dead with an empty cup of hemlock beside her.

 

In the city, a tree takes on the shape of a cyclops and attacks the soldiers that took the statue of Athena. Harpies erupt from the ground, a three-headed dog made of water leaps from a well and a wall becomes a griffon. All of them shout that they are made "for the glory of Zeus". The Doctor follows a signal to the forge where the statue was melted. As the Doctor and Plato look on in horror, a nine headed dragon bursts from the pool of molten gold telling all mortals that they will die for the glory of Zeus.

 

The Doctor recognises that this is the Hydra, fashioned from burning coals. He asks Socrates to throw him a poker and uses it to strike the talisman that Calidora gave Amy. Not only does the Hydra disintegrate but so do all of the other monsters in Athens. The Doctor tells Socrates that he shorted out the psychokinetic energy by using the poker which was made of the same metal as the talisman.

 

Elsewhere, in Calidora's chamber, Plato reads a letter that Calidora left. It tells how, as a little girl, she saw a fireball drop from the sky. When she found where it landed she saw that it was a golden egg. The egg commanded her to bury it in the most sacred of places, which she did. However, she kept some of the molten metal and poured it into the statue of Athena that her father was making and then used more to make the talisman. Amy tells all of this to the Doctor and he and Socrates run to the temple of Athena. The Doctor finds that the egg is hidden in a dimensional fold above the temple. It has grown to a huge size. Socrates tells the Doctor that it was fed on belief and if they believe then they can enter. They touch the surface of the egg and are pulled inside. They arrive in Olympus.

 

The ancient gods are bowing before the wrath of Zeus. He is angry that they have let their worshippers grow less ardent. The only god who has not failed him is Ares. The Doctor steps forward to intervene but Zeus chains him to a pillar with a sweep of his hand.

 

In Athens, the armour of countless soldiers is swept into the air to join together as a giant: Ares. As Alexios and his men race to combat the giant he cuts them down with his huge sword while simultaneously declaring war.

 

Hanging upside down in his chains, the Doctor tries to tell the gods that they are merely psychic constructs created by a woman who is now dead. Her death has led to them running out of control. Socrates whispers to the Doctor that telling somebody they are not real may take some believing. The Doctor says that Socrates might be the very man to convince them.

 

The soldiers fall back from Ares assault. Plato tells them to assemble in the main market square: the Doctor and Socrates were expecting this and have a plan. Amy rides up to Ares on a white horse and challenges him before leading him back to the square. Meanwhile, Socrates uses a series of logical questions to lead Zeus through the argument that: Zeus is all powerful; he therefore has absolute knowledge; his knowledge includes events in the future; he saw that men would one day disrespect the gods; this day was therefore predestined; Zeus must obey destiny; his power cannot be absolute.

 

As Ares arrives in the square he is challenged by 'Roranicus'. Ares uses his massive sword to smite Rory who has a blade fashioned from the psychic gold. Ares blade shatters and Rory uses the sword to cut off the god's leg and hand. The other soldiers and people of Athens wade in and smash Ares.

 

When Zeus witnesses the defeat of his son Socrates asks whether a god can fall to a man. If he can't (as Zeus insists) then neither Ares or, by extension, Zeus can be true gods. Zeus disintegrates, the gods vanish and Olympus begins to collapse. Athena, goddess of wisdom, remains briefly. She knew the truth all along. She asks the Doctor a question: "What is buried in man?" as she fades away the Doctor follows Socrates out of the portal and back into Athens. He holds a piece of golden metal that literally builds gods. He says he does not know who unleashed it or made it but he would love to find out.

 

He turns to Socrates and thanks him for saving mankind. Socrates says that he has been reinvigorated to seek out truth. He points out that the Doctor is both brave and clever but not wise. The Doctor remarks that two out of three isn't bad before taking Amy and Rory back into the TARDIS which dematerialises much to the astonishment of Plato and Dimitrios but to the amusement of Socrates.

 

 

      Source: Mark Senior

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The Vampires of Venice

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Tracie Simpson

Patrick Schweitzer

 

Script Editor

Brian Minchin

 

Written by Toby Whitehouse

Directed by Jonny Campbell

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Helen McCrory (Rosanna), Lucian Msamati (Guido), Alisha Bailey (Isabella), Alex Price (Francesco); Gabriella Wilde, Hannah Steele, Elizabeth Croft, Sonila Vieshta, Gabriella Montaraz (Vampire Girls); Michael Percival (Inspector), Simon Gregor (Steward).

 

The Doctor takes Amy and Rory away for a romantic break but terror awaits in 16th century Venice. What secrets are held by the House of Calvierri and who is the mysterious Rosanna?

Original Broadcast (UK)

The Vampires of Venice           May 8th, 2010               6h00pm - 6h50pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

Venice in 1580 sees a middle-aged father, Guido, bring his seventeen year old daughter Isabella to the house of Rosanna Calvierri. Guido asks both her and her son Francesco to give Isabella a place in their school so that she can better herself. After inspecting the girl they agree and tell Guido that he must leave her in their care immediately. Guido leaves and Francesco opens his mouth to show fanged teeth. Isabella screams.

 

In 2010, the Doctor pops up out of a cake on Rory's stag night instead of the stripper that he and his friends are expecting. He then lets slip that Amy tried to kiss him...

 

The Vampires of Venice

(drn:48'08")

The Doctor takes him into the TARDIS where tells Rory and Amy that he has come to save their relationship and that he is taking them to Venice as a wedding present. Rory is distinctly unimpressed by the TARDIS. When they enter the city they find that it is under quarantine because of a plague. The quarantine order is signed by Signora Calvierri. The Doctor uses his psychic paper to gain entry.

 

They see Guido trying to attract Isabella's attention as she exits the school with other girls. All wear white dresses with veils over their faces and carry parasols. Isabella does not respond to him and another of the girls bares her fangs. Intrigued, the Doctor approaches Guido to find out why he is trying to get his daughter back and who the girls are. Guido says that something magical happens in the school. The Doctor decides to see Calvierri.

 

Rosanna Calvierri is 'hydrating' (drinking copious amounts of water) when Francesco tells her that the time has come to introduce the girls to his brothers. She tells him that they will follow the plan. Amy and Rory catch up on what she has been doing without him. He is just beginning to get excited by where and when they are when they see Francesco attack a flower girl in the streets and drink some of her blood. Amy follows him while Rory checks on the girl.

 

Guido tries to see Isabella by shouting at the gate but it s a diversion to allow the Doctor to sneak in by a side gate. Inside, he is accosted by five of the girls at the school. They speak in unison, have fangs and no reflection. He makes a quick exit and meets Amy. They excitedly swap stories of vampires.

 

They go to find Guido who tells them there is a trapdoor into the school but they need to have somebody on the inside. Amy suggests that Rory poses as her brother to get her in to open the trap door beneath the building. Guido has another plan involving gunpowder but the Doctor vetoes it. The Doctor wonders what is so bad that the Calvierris would rather people think they are vampires.

 

Amy is accepted after Rory introduces himself as a 'gondola driver'. Really, it is because Signora Calvierri is intrigued by their use of psychic paper to show their reference from the king of Sweden. Amy meets Isabella who tells her that she is taken at night to a room where she thinks surgery is performed on her.

 

The Doctor, Rory and Guido use Guido's gondola to access an underground canal that brings them to the trapdoor. Amy finds and unlocks the trap door, but is captured and taken to the room that Isabella told her about. Rosanna reveals that she recognised the psychic paper and questions her. Amy replies that she is from Ofsted so Rosanna bites her neck.

 

The Doctor and Rory find a body which has had all the moisture taken out of it. Franceso wants to drink from her. Rosanna tells Amy that the vampires drink girls dry, then fill them with their own blood. They will either die or transform. There are ten thousand husbands waiting for her in the water. Amy says that she is already engaged and kicks out at Rosanna. Her foot connects with a device on her hip and Rosanna reverts to her real form: an alien fish with spiny fingers. The Doctor and Rory approach via a corridor. All of the 'vampires' turn to chase them off and Isabella frees Amy. The Doctor holds the 'vampires' at bay with an ultra-violet light while Isabella leads her rescuers to the door. The others pass outside but Isabella is stopped by the sunlight and recaptured. The Doctor tries to get in to save her but the door is electrified and he fails.

 

Isabella is fed to her 'husbands' as a traitor in memory of all of those who were lost to the Silence by being pushed into the canal.

 

Rosanna re-enters the house to find the Doctor waiting on her throne. She realises that he must be the owner of the psychic paper and he tells her that she is from Saturnyne and using a perception filter to appear human. He says that they have no reflection as the brain is unable to compute a reflection that is different from the real world image and so blocks the image out. Rosanna adds that self-preservation allows people to see the fangs. Rosanna tells him that cracks appeared in the universe and her planet was lost so they found an ocean like her own. She asks the Doctor's aid in creating a colony on Earth but he refuses because she didn't know Isabella's name. She allows him to leave before calling her household to her and telling them that "the storm is coming." As she descends the stairs her perception filter malfunctions and her shape fluctuates between alien and human

 

In Guido's house the Doctor sonics Amy's neck wound and pronounces her fine before popping a sweet into her mouth. He talks over the possible plans that Rosanna may have and concludes that she intends to sink Venice and repopulate it with the transformed girls and her sons. He guesses that only male children survived the journey through space.

 

When the house is attacked by the vampire girls (or "fish from space" as the Doctor calls them, adding that "fish from space have never been so...buxom") the Doctor and his companions escape but Guido lights the gunpowder he has stored in the cellar. He kills himself the girls.

 

Rosanna switches on her machinery to initiate a storm over Venice. The Doctor tells Amy and Rory to return to the TARDIS while he goes back to the Calvierri house to find the device. While he is there he tells Rosanna that the girls are gone. She leaves, telling him that it is up to him to save the 200,000 residents of Venice. Meanwhile, Francesco goes after Amy and Rory. Rory taunts him with being uglier than his mother to get him away from Amy. She kills Francesco by shining sunlight on him with her mirror. They decide to go back to help the Doctor.

 

He gets them to rip out the wiring from Rosanna's throne so that the control defaults to the device at the top of the tower. He then climbs up the Calvierri's tower and deactivates the weather device. Sunlight breaks out. Rosanna goes to the canal in her human guise. The Doctor tries to stop her but she jumps in and is devoured by her sons.

 

Amy invites Rory to travel with her and the Doctor in the TARDIS. The Doctor says that it is fine by him and Rory is delighted to accept. As he and the Doctor enter the TARDIS silence falls across the city.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

The Doctor produces a library card which has a picture of the First Doctor on it, as well as the name "Dr. J. Smith".

The refugees from Saturnyne are fleeing from the Cracks and the Silence.

 

 

Nuclear Time

by Oli Smith   

BBC Logo

 

 

Cover Blurb

Nuclear Time

'My watch is running backwards.'

Colorado, 1981. The Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive in Appletown - an idyllic village in the remote American desert where the townsfolk go peacefully about their suburban routines. But when two more strangers arrive, things begin to change. The first is a mad scientist - whose warnings are cut short by an untimely and brutal death. The second is the Doctor...

 

As death falls from the sky, the Doctor is trapped. The TARDIS is damaged, and the Doctor finds he is living backwards through time. With Amy and Rory being hunted through the suburban streets of the Doctor's own future and getting farther away with every passing second, he must unravel the secrets of Appletown before time runs out.

 

Notes:

This is the fourth book in the series of original adventures featuring the Eleventh Doctor.

Released: July 2010

 

ISBN: 978 1 84607 989 4 (hardback)

 

 

Synopsis

University of Michigan February 23 1973

Doctor Albert Gilroy makes a breakthrough in his research while listening to 'Who's that Lady?' by the Isley brothers. As such he names his artificial intelligence Isley and gives it a feminine voice. While he is working late into the night he is told that the Vietnam War is over.

 

The same night, Major Geoffrey Redvers, a Vietnam veteran, ends his long journey home from the war. When his wife didn't meet him at the airport he took a taxi home. Throughout the journey his uniform has got him nothing but disrespect. Arriving home, his wife asks him why he bothered to wear it and he replies that he didn't realise what public feeling was but he does now.

 

Colorado, 28 August 1981, 3.39 p.m.

The TARDIS lands at the end of a small village which a crudely painted sign tells them is called Appletown. The Doctor, Amy and Rory step out into the heat of the afternoon and look around them. Timber houses, white picket fences, trimmed lawns and polished cars are everywhere as if someone had taken a slice of the suburbs and placed it in the desert. The Doctor pulls up the edge of one of the lawns to reveal that the turf has simply been laid on the desert. He points out the lack of trees and Rory notes that there are no roads in or out of the village. They split up in search of some locals and some answers.

 

Amy and Rory enter the Coffeehouse and sit down. A man suddenly appears behind the counter. When they ask him for a cold drink he apologises that the refrigerator is broken. Amy looks out of the window and sees that the deserted street is now alive with people going about their daily business. Among them is the Doctor. They leave the Coffeehouse to ask about his opinion. He says it is almost as if the village came to life in order to put on a show for them. He engages a few of the villagers in some polite banter. As he does so, Amy points up to a nearby window where a grey-haired man ducks quickly from sight. They decide to investigate.

 

One of the villagers, Mrs Sanderson, invites the Doctor in for coffee. He looks around the sparsely furnished house and notices that Mr Sanderson is watching a blank television screen. The man seems confused when this is pointed out to him. The Doctor notices that the room is bereft of any plug sockets and in the kitchen the taps aren't joined to a water supply. With a sense of dread he realises that the whole village is a fake and wonders what the villagers are.

 

Amy pushes open the front door to the house. They make their way to the attic bedroom where they find a young woman in a battered armchair. The woman is wearing a crumpled Star Wars T-shirt and jeans. She is listening to music on a pair of headphones and remains oblivious to Amy when she enters. Rory reaches out to remove the headphones when a man steps out from behind the door and tells him not to. He tells them that the music playing on a cassette is her reset music that allows him to talk without her military programming kicking in. bemused, Rory asks for an explanation.

 

The man introduces himself as Albert and the woman as Isley. She is a robot. He waves at the window and says that all of the people out there are robots, too. They are assassins created to be sent into foreign territory without putting American lives at risk. He adds that this is the end of the project, his designs have been burnt and the robots are to be destroyed. He seems most surprised that Rory and Amy don't know what or where the town is. He says it was specially designed so that the robots would think they were blending in as they were programmed until they are wiped out in one go. He tells Rory that they must leave quickly (but not run in case that triggers the robots' killer mode) and not go to the military base. He says he is going to stay with Isley and end with her. With horror he realises that Isley's tape has run out and she can hear what he has been saying. Her hand grips his and he orders Amy and Rory to run. They reach the path just as wood splinters above and Albert's corpse lands beside them. They run to the house that they saw the Doctor go into. He ushers them into the lounge where the Doctor has dismantled Mr and Mrs Sanderson. Amy recognises Mr Sanderson as the man from the Coffeehouse but the Doctor says there are only fifty models in all so some have been duplicated.

 

Rory and Amy ask how long the Doctor has known the people were robots and why he didn't warn them. He responds by telling them that the robots use deadly force when their cover is blown. Amy tells him that Isley killed Albert because they weren't warned. The Doctor apologises for not having more faith. A plane is heard in the distance. It suddenly dawns on the Doctor that the town is called Appletown because it is full of Apple Houses - the term used by the US military to describe the buildings used for testing nuclear weapons in the sixties.

 

They run to the front door, intent on reaching the TARDIS. The robots are gathered outside the gate, led by Isley. The Doctor shouts, "Run!" and sprints away. The other two follow but Amy trips over a hedge. By the time Rory has picked her up the Doctor has disappeared.

 

Arriving in a deserted alley the Doctor flashes a delighted grin at his two companions, only to find that they are not there. He sees somebody across the way, lurking in the shadows. This figure moves with an odd jerking motion and steps into the light. With a shock, the Doctor realises he is looking at himself.

 

California International Conference Centre, 3 August 1975

Albert stumbles, drunk and upset, across the beach. His life's work has been destroyed in a fire that is still burning behind him. As all evidence of his creation has been obliterated the day before he was due to present it he faces a future of being discredited in his field.

 

Colonel Redvers appears on the beach and tells him that the paperwork was not destroyed but removed by his men. However, Albert is inconsolable about the loss of Isley. Redvers tells him that she can be rebuilt and offers him a lot of money for his cooperation. Albert reasons that his public life is over anyway and accepts.

 

Colorado, 28 August 1981, 4.57 p.m.

The two Doctors meet in a golden haze. One Doctor appears to be speaking in a bizarre approximation of English, warning his counterpart that time is short and he must leave Rory and Amy. He points at the sky and announces that the bomb is imminent. Producing his psychic paper he shows a series of diagrams. Understanding them, his counterpart worries that what he is being asked to do could destabilize the TARDIS. The strange Doctor shuffles off and disappears into the shadows.

 

Racing back to the TARDIS the Doctor quickly activates the controls, locates the falling bomb and dematerializes. Whirling his hands over the controls he catches the bomb in a stasis field inside the TARDIS control room. With alarm he realises that the bomb is at the point of detonation. The heat inside the TARDIS rises incredibly. He paws his way to the door and flings himself out into the desert.

 

Amy and Rory race down the street, keeping ahead of the androids. They manage to evade the pursuers and arrive at the place where the TARDIS used to be but see only a flat dent in the ground. Amy says that the Doctor won't abandon them but Rory, wisely, says that they need to hide.

 

Utah Military Research Base, 27 May 1977

Albert works in a laboratory hung with plastic flesh and full of robotic limbs. The centerpiece is the female android he calls Isley. Geoff Redvers brings him a cup of coffee and discusses the progress so far. Albert and he talk about the androids' futures as assassins before Geoff lets slip that his wife has left him.

 

Colorado, 28 August 1981, 5.15 p.m.

The Doctor regains consciousness outside the TARDIS. There is a smell of burning from his scorched jacket. He goes back to the TARDIS and is surprised to find that it is cool to the touch. He looks at the town and sets off in exactly the opposite direction to the one he had intended. On the way, he notices that his watch is running backwards. Skirting through the streets he makes his way to the place where he last met himself. There he is. He pulls out his psychic paper and draws the diagrams that he saw earlier. Then, doing his best to talk backwards, he instructs himself on what to do next.

 

After this conversation he reasons out the situation. The TARDIS has tried to dissipate the energy of the bomb by going back down its own time line. The side effect of this is that he is living backwards through time. He sees the bomber gliding backwards across the sky and decides that he needs to warn the soldiers that the bomb is not going to explode.

 

Florida Airbase, 3 February 1980

A helicopter lands, and is promptly surrounded by troops. Geoff and Albert discuss a mission that went wrong. Isley's security pass wasn't cleared in an embassy where she was supposed to be carrying out an assassination and she murdered all witnesses. The soldiers bring Isley from the helicopter. She is neutralized within an electro-magnetic field. Her plastic flesh has been ripped away and her metal skeleton is on view. Albert slips headphones over her ears to neutralize her with the Isley Brothers music so that he can interface with her without being killed. In this way he learns that not only did she kill her intended target but also fifty witnesses.

 

Colorado, 28 August 1981, 5.38 p.m.

Amy and Rory make their way through the gardens until they are finally seen by Isley. She chases them and they break into a house. The two androids inside immediately become murderous. Rory holds off the female android by throwing a television at her head. This gains them enough time for Amy and him to barricade themselves into the bedroom. The robots try to break in briefly but soon go away. Any sense of relief that is felt by the two humans is abruptly dispelled when they relies that the house beneath them is on fire.

 

Washington DC, 28 February 1981.

After a six hour hearing into the embassy debacle the project is wound up. Geoff tells him that the androids are to be nuked at Appletown. This will have a secondary purpose of testing out the resolve of the Soviet Union in the cold war when they see that the USA has resumed over ground nuclear tests.

 

Colorado, 28 August 1981, 3.28 p.m.

The Doctor makes his way across the blazing desert. Time stutters at one point as the universe attempts to come to terms with the anomaly of someone moving backwards in time. He falls to the ground in agony, rising with a pain in his stomach from an event he has yet to experience. He sits for a while, wondering whether his actions are now predetermined or if he can change the course of events that are, for him, yet to occur. Three trucks reverse towards him at high speed. The soldiers inside look weary and the vehicles are spattered with bullet holes and blood. The trucks vanish towards the golden glow that is Appletown.

 

Half an hour later the trucks reappear. Lining up between two tyre tracks he waits for one of the trucks to reverse into him and flings himself onto the back panel. He tumbles into the dark interior. He finds seventeen immobile androids around him. An itchy feeling all over his body tells him that he is in a strong electro-magnetic field. Along with him, he finds a human being with crumpled clothes and grey hair. He realises that this must be Albert. He sits down next to him and hugs him in thanks for helping Amy and Rory escape from Isley.

 

The truck slows and reverses into a military compound. The Doctor hops down into a group of soldiers who are pointing guns at him and walks slowly forward towards the troops (who back away slowly). The Doctor notes that he is patting his clothes, brushing dust into them. With a sinking feeling he notes that many of the soldiers are wounded. Three dozen dead soldiers lie around the compound.

 

Colorado, 28 August 1981, 2.00 p.m.

Geoff tells his superiors over the telephone that his men are working as quickly as possible the shortage of EM emitters is making the process of getting the androids to the village a dangerous prospect. The response frustrates him and he offers his view that the task can either be done quickly or safely but he knows what is wanted. He slams the phone down in frustration.

 

In the watchtower Albert and Geoff talk about the Russian spy plane that is on its way to observe the 'nuclear test'. They know that the result could be a war.

 

Geoff warns his men that the EM fields haven't been set up but the androids have to be loaded so they need to watch what they say. Just then, one of the sentries calls up to say a foreigner who can't speak or walk properly has ridden in on a bicycle. He does, however, have an Access all areas Health and Safety pass. Geoff reminds the sentry that there is no such thing. He picks up a file and a piece of paper falls out that says I am living backwards through time. There is no point asking me any more questions I'm sorry. Albert and Geoff are perturbed because the folder came direct from the Pentagon.

 

Turning to another drawer, Geoff hands Albert a gift-wrapped present but before it can be opened a sergeant bursts in with the Doctor who speaks to them incomprehensibly. Albert says he hasn't the time to waste and leaves. The Doctor picks up the message he wrote and unwrites it in front of Geoff's eyes. Unimpressed, Geoff tries to interrogate the Doctor but gets nowhere so orders him to be loaded onto the trucks and taken to the village with the androids. At that moment a burst of gunfire sounds from below.

 

Colorado, 28 August 1981, 2.38 p.m.

Albert watches his creations being taken from the sophisticated EM-laden transport vehicles into the courtyard before being transferred to the robust desert-worthy trucks that will drive them to their deaths. He tells the troops he will escort Isley himself. She is the last android to come out of the EM field. As he guides her past the, frankly, terrified soldiers he puts his hand in hers. One of the soldiers mutters, "Android lover". Isley instantly snaps the soldier's neck. The soldiers cock their guns but it is too late - all of the androids are in military mode at once. Isley grabs the dead soldier's gun and shoots down several soldiers. As they fall the androids grab their weapons and start shooting, too. Isley pushes Albert to safety away from the carnage.

 

Colorado, 28 August 1981, 2.47 p.m.

Up above the slaughter, Geoff is trying to plug in an EM generator but struggling to fix the wires. The Doctor leans in and buzzes it with his sonic screwdriver. Geoff suspects sabotage and pushes him away. The Doctor falls over the balcony and lands with a thud. Geoff realises that the EM machine is now active and throws it into the courtyard where the massacre is happening. Silence falls immediately as the androids collapse.

 

Geoff stalks over to Albert and says that thirty seven men have just died because of his inappropriate relationship with Isley. He orders the surviving men to put Albert on the trucks, too. Then he goes back up to the office and unwraps the present he had intended to give to Albert. Inside are banknotes and a false passport. In tears, Geoff puts the passport in his own pocket. And then time is re-written.

 

Colorado, 28 August 1981, 2.41 p.m.

The Doctor stands amid the corpses and looks at the circle of collapsed androids. He sees the EM generator and realises it can't have been activated in time to save the men's lives. At that moment he vows that, just because he has seen the end result it doesn't mean that he can't somehow alter the outcome. As time unspools for him he sees the gun battle unfold in reverse. Dead men return to their feet, bullets fly back into guns. Then time stutters and freezes while he stands amid all the carnage, determined to do something. He sees the strands of all the possible futures and chooses one. Time lurches again and this time the Doctor is moving forwards. He checks his watch and sees that he has three minutes before he reaches the point where he stepped out of his time line, three minutes in which he needs to break the flow of the natural laws of physics so that the universe will change.

 

He sees Albert, sheltering from the hail of bullets that are flying again. Stepping to him, the Doctor asks what started the battle. Albert confesses that it was his love for Isley. This is all that the Doctor needs to know.

 

When the loop ends the Doctor starts to travel backwards through time again. Finding himself prone and winded on the floor he realises that he had a fall. As his body sweeps up through the air he takes his opportunity and kicks out his foot against the underside of the balcony, preventing himself from reaching the place from where he was pushed. Time reforms its pathways again.

 

Colorado, 28 August 1981, 2.23 p.m.

The Doctor is brought in by the sergeant and introduced as the health and safety guy. He is introduced to Geoffrey Redvers and Albert. He demands to know the exact time and is pleased to find that he has twenty minutes. He tells the men in the room that they have some things to sort out and gives them a brief and accurate explanation of the current situation. They are suitably shocked at his knowledge but are more dismissive when he tells them that he is going backwards in time. He tries to demonstrate the theory with string but Albert loses interest. The Doctor switches to a different story where he is an undercover Pentagon officer and starts to ask questions about the androids. Albert tells him that they are virtually indestructible other than by nuking them. Geoff adds that nuking them will probably be seen as a sign of aggression by the Russians and will lead to a war.

 

At this point they notice that Albert is missing. The Doctor says he needs to stop him: Albert's actions will lead to the deaths of most of the platoon. Geoff realises that the Doctor is now back in his backwards-time travel guise. The Doctor says that it is Albert's love for Isley that will breed disaster. Geoff reluctantly gives him five minutes before he will be loaded onto the trucks.

 

He finds Albert with Isley and warns him that he is about to cause a seriously violent situation. He says that he can understand why Albert loves Isley but, as a robot, she can never respond. He tells Albert that he has seen a future where Isley kills Albert in the village. However, by having this conversation the time line will have changed and the outcomes will be different. The problem is that the TARDIS's dissipation of the energy from the bomb has also been altered. He doesn't know how he can change that. Nor does he know how he can warn Amy and Rory because he hasn't actually arrived with them yet.

 

The Doctor reverts to travelling backwards, noticeable to Albert who - this time around - leaves Isley to be loaded in the truck without him. He hurries away sadly as the Doctor is also put aboard.

 

Colorado, 28 August 1981, 6.07 p.m.

Amy and Rory find the floor collapsing beneath them as the house burns. They run to the window and see the words Follow Me mown into the lawn. A path has also been cut across the gardens. Sure that it is the Doctor's message they leap down from the window and run. They find themselves back in the house where Albert was killed but there is no sign of his body. They see the path continuing across the gardens and realise that it must have been put there before the robots arrived or they would have noticed it rather than assuming it was just part of the village. Eventually they find a large warehouse and enter it through a gaping hole. Inside is a large motor mower. Sitting on it is Isley.

 

Colorado, 28 August 1981, 6.30 p.m.

Amy approaches Isley cautiously while Rory creeps up behind the android and slips the headphones (that are around her neck) onto her ears. He plays the cassette and she slumps forward. She asks them where Albert is. Rory reminds her that she killed him by throwing him from the house but Isley denies that Albert was ever in the village. The last time she saw him he was in the compound with their friend. Amy whispers that the Doctor has changed the past. She notices a post-it note on the wooden door. It tells her she has nine minutes and twenty four seconds to get to the town square from the moment the building begins to disintegrate. At that moment the roof of the warehouse flies off and a yellow sky is revealed. A wind whips up. Amy jumps onto the mower and guns the engine. Rory leaps on behind and they crash through the door and away. Isley jogs beside them asking where Albert is.

 

Colorado, 28 August 1981, 2.04 p.m.

The Doctor uses his screwdriver to turbo-charge the lawnmower. He then posts his sticker on the door and hops on the bicycle he appropriated earlier. He rides to the centre of the village where the TARDIS stands. Inside there is a war between the air conditioning and the exploding bomb. He writes down his three tasks: rescue his friends, eject the bomb to destroy the town and its androids, do so without creating a mushroom cloud. He sets the TARDIS in motion, reorienting it around its own timeline and then races it into the future, ejecting the bomb on the way. He halts the time machine at 6.49 p.m.

 

Rory sees that the mower is being closed down by the androids. Around them the buildings are dissolving in the eerie light and the androids begin to melt too. The ground is on fire as they approach the TARDIS which is materialising in front of them. The mower begins to crumble and they skid up to the doors which the Doctor opens as they arrive in a flurry of melting metal. He catches a black box that flies off the mower and then shuts the door as they stumble inside and then the TARDIS melts away.

 

He tells them that the device was to stop the mower disintegrating before they reached the TARDIS. He says that the bomb was ejected while the TARDIS was moving quickly through time so that its explosion is being spread out over an hour and a half. Amy asks if he managed to save everyone and he smiles sadly and says that he did.

 

Colorado, 28 August 1981, 5.20 p.m.

Albert and the soldiers watch in awe as the bomb continues to explode slowly across the desert. Albert and Geoff discuss the Russian spy plane that passed over with nothing intelligible to witness. Then Geoff hands Albert a blue folder that was given to him by a friend in the Pentagon that implies that both of them will be made to disappear after the explosion. Whether this means they will be killed he doesn't know. He hands Albert his present and Albert looks at the false passport, the million dollars in traveller's cheques and a bag of dollar bills. He tells Albert that there is a motorbike hidden in the compound and that Albert needs to take it while the soldiers are distracted by the explosion. They embrace one last time while Geoff says that he just wants to give Albert back the life he lost when Geoff took it from him all those years before. His own life, he says, was his wife and kid and the war and all that is gone now. After Albert leaves, Geoff takes off his safety goggles and looks into the explosion, thinking that he may as well enjoy himself if he is going to be dead the next day.

 

Albert rides along the desert highway. He sees a woman by the road. It is Isley, somewhat the worse for being in the village when the bomb exploded. He asks her why she ran away from the village and she replies that she needs him. He kisses her and helps her onto the bike while telling her that he needs her, too. They speed off towards New Mexico.

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

 

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The King's Dragon

by Una McCormack  

BBC Logo

 

 

Cover Blurb

The King's Dragon      

They called it Enamour. It turned minds, sold merchandise, and swayed elections. And it did its job far too well...'

In the city-state of Geath, the King lives in a golden hall, and the people want for nothing. Everyone is happy and everyone is rich. Or so it seems. When the Doctor, Amy and Rory look beneath the surface, they discover a city of secrets. In dark corners, strange creatures are stirring. At the heart of the hall, a great metal dragon oozes gold.

 

Then the Herald appears, demanding the return of her treasure... And next come the gunships. The battle for possession of the treasure has begun, and only the Doctor and his friends can save the people of the city from being destroyed in the crossfire of an ancient civil war. But will the King surrender his new-found wealth? Or will he fight to keep it...?

 

Notes:

This is the fifth book in the series of original adventures featuring the Eleventh Doctor.

Released: July 2010

 

ISBN: 978 1 84607 990 0

 

 

Synopsis

In the city of Geath there are rumours of dark, shadowy creatures that stalk the streets at night, causing the lamps to flicker and fade. There are groans and howls, too, and sightings of clawing hands that have too many fingers.

 

The TARDIS lands near to an olde-worlde road made of flagstones and mud. The Doctor tries, and fails, to hitch a ride in a horse-drawn cart. Rory and Amy look on skeptically, announcing their surprise that alien planets even have horses. Eventually, they decide to walk. As the afternoon progresses towards evening they stroll through the heat and arrive at the top of a hill from which they can look down on Geath. Not only is the city beautiful (red tiles, yellow stone buildings and a domed roof made of gold) but the Doctor also extols the democratic nature of its government and the fact that it has been at peace for twelve thousand years. He also tells them of the fabled hospitality of the people of Geath (though Amy is skeptical in the light of the cart driver's failure to stop for them) and is thus perplexed to find the gates of the city locked and the gatekeeper unwilling to let them in. The Doctor eventually persuades him by use of his psychic paper. Meanwhile, Amy and Rory have clambered over the walls, so eager are they to get into the city that had such a magnificent golden hall. It is then that Amy peeps into the gatekeeper's house and is astonished to see that it is filled with golden items: candlesticks, cutlery and cushions. Leaning in through the window, she can't resist reaching out to touch the gold and is astonished to find that it is both warm and wriggling.

 

Eventually Rory and Amy find themselves in a carriage that is taking the Doctor to meet the king. They drive down silent streets until they arrive at the golden hall. After the guards grant them admittance they walk down corridors displaying a plethora of golden ornaments. The Doctor tells them that there are three things wrong: Geath doesn't have a king; Geathians live out their lives on the streets; there is no gold on the planet.

 

The visitors enter a chamber full of courtiers whose glares are responded to by the Doctor's radiant smile. There is even more gold to be seen in this room. The king sits on a golden throne, raised on a dais. Beside him stands a man somberly dressed in dark robes, the only figure not swathed in gold. Before the dais a huge golden dragon is curled. Having spotted the new arrivals, the king stands and announces them as visitors from the neighbouring city of Dant. This fact seems to amuse both the king and the somber Teller beside him but, as it explains their presence in the city, the Doctor decides to go along with the story. While Amy talks with the Doctor and King Beol, Rory makes his way around the chamber, listening to the various conversations of the courtiers. They all seem to be outdoing each other in their praise of the king.

 

In an arcade around the chamber he finds an old woman who is both bored and bereft of gold. She invites him to sit and introduces herself as Hilthe. She says that she finds all the gold tasteless and Rory realises that it seems garish and tacky whereas a moment before he thought it amazing. At that point the crowd begin to chant the king's name and the Teller begins to tell a story (the same story every night, Hilthe tells Rory) about how Beol brought back the golden dragon from the nearby city of Sheal and would defend the city of Geath when the people of Sheal came to get it back. The story is long and involved but the audience is enraptured throughout. Even Amy is swept along by the brilliance of the Teller's performance in delivering it. Even the distracting sound of a quiet mechanical hum from the dragon fails to spoil her experience and when the Doctor asks if she can hear something she denies it as if the sound never happened.

 

Hilthe tells Rory that the story is always the same except that tonight the dragon was taken from Sheal whereas normally the Teller says that Beol took it from Dant. Rory asks her if the story is true but Hilthe says that all she knows is that Beol and the Teller arrived one day with a golden dragon in a cart and challenged her, as leader of the council, to a debate. Beol won; the citizens voted him as their new leader; gold began to appear everywhere and the people made Beol king. As the king leaves the chamber at the end of the tale and the courtiers file out Hilthe tells Rory that the people of the city are changing so that she barely recognises them. She hands him a small tile and tells him to find her so that she can tell him about the old days of the city.

 

In their suite of rooms the Doctor tells Amy and Rory to empty their pockets. He goes first and deposits golden coins and forks onto the bed. Rory adds bracelets, rings and more coins to the pile. Amy pulls out a spoon that she must have taken from the gatehouse even though she, like the other two, can't remember taking it. The Doctor plays his screwdriver over the booty and tells them that it isn't gold. In fact it is a substance called Enamour and is banned throughout the galaxy on account of the highly dangerous nature of the technology behind it. He says that he wants to take a closer look at the golden dragon and Amy is leading the way into the corridor when the howling starts.

 

Amy rushes into the dark corridor as lights ahead of her flicker and fade. Something is around the corner, shrieking and howling but the faster she runs the further away it gets. She enters a smallish chamber lit by a solitary lamp. The flame seems to be dragged from the lamp leaving her with a barely visible humanoid form. Its huge arm, scaled like a dragon's, reaches towards her. Amy reaches out to touch it and her hand goes right through. The giant vanishes and the lights return, showing her an empty room. She sees a big golden heap and fixes a brooch to her jacket. As she does so Rory bursts in, eager to know what happened. Puzzled, she tells him that the noise must have been the wind which also blew the lamps out.

 

Rory leads her and the Doctor to the side entrance of the dragon chamber. The room is in darkness apart from the glow of the dragon. The Doctor uses his screwdriver to remove a tiny piece of the dragon. He shows it to the other two and tells them that he knows they want it. That is the nature of Enamour: it bewitches people and alters minds. People want it, and then they become jealous of it until nobody trusts their neighbours or friends.

 

Rory tells them about Hilthe and her defeat in the elections when Beol arrived with the dragon. He shows the Doctor the tile that Hilthe gave him and the Doctor recognises it as a map showing how to find her house. He asks Rory to bring Hilthe to him. After Rory leaves the Doctor uses his screwdriver to loosen a part of the dragon and removes a curved plate. The writing on the plate tells him that the dragon was made a long time earlier by a distant civilization. The question is: why did they abandon it on this backward planet? And, where did Beol and the Teller find it?

 

Rory uses the map on the tile to locate Hilthe's house: easily recognised as it is the only one not slathered in Enamour. A servant leads him to Hilthe who has obviously just got out of bed to receive him: at last, an example of Geath's fabled hospitality. Rory tries to tell her that the Enamour can alter people's minds but she finds this unlikely. Abruptly he notices a gold ring in his hand but he has no memory of where and when he picked it up. The ring begins to twist, unstoppably, in his hand. Hilthe takes it from him and immediately collapses in pain. As Rory tries to help her he is pushed away by an invisible force. Hilthe is suddenly bathed in light that seems to come from within her. She speaks in a melodic voice and announces that she is the Herald who speaks on behalf of her masters, the Bright Nobles of Feond. She offers a reward for the return of the dragon. Rory replies that it isn't there on the planet and the Herald abruptly sighs and vanishes. Hilthe, returned to normal, says that she wants to meet the Doctor.

 

The Teller emerges from the shadows to ask why visitors from Dant are in the council chamber. The Doctor tells him that he must be well aware that they are not from Dant. As the Teller fondles the dragon his voice seems to take on greater power and resonance. He tells them that Beol is a good king who will protect the people and that they know this and love him. The Doctor's curt response - that there should not be a king - seems to make the Teller and the dragon angry. The Doctor calls him a liar. Hilthe and Rory enter. The old woman is furious that two men are speaking so uncouthly in the council chamber. The Doctor says that he can tell a tale that will turn their worlds upside down. He takes a dragon scale in his hand as he speaks and the Teller is suddenly in awe of him. Hilthe watches this with puzzlement while the Doctor explains that it is the dragon that makes the Enamour and the Enamour makes the people jealous and afraid. Amy sees the weakness in the Teller's face and suddenly recalls the creature she chased in the darkness. After she has told the Doctor about it he wonders whether it is a scout searching for the dragon. He says that if it is, then a Herald will appear to demand the return of the dragon. Hilthe produces the ring and says that such a thing has already happened. She asks if the Herald is really alive or just an echo of the dragon's former owners speaking down the long years. She decides to put the ring on again to find out.

 

The Herald's return is even more impressive as her voice rings around the chamber. The Doctor realises that this isn't a recording but a live manifestation. When she demands the return of the dragon he asks how she can prove that it originally belonged to her masters. He points out that Enamour is banned across the universe but she responds that her masters will take care of it once it has been retrieved. He says that he will deal with it himself but not before she begins to warn him that her enemies are close. She adds that the dragon was hidden during a war after which the Bright Nobles lost their homes. Their enemies were motivated by envy, she claims. A figure of darkness materialises behind the throne and grows rapidly until it looms over them. The Herald flickers and fades but then rallies and begins to grow. She sends shock waves at the dark figure which reaches for the Herald who fades and vanishes. There is a shriek and Hilthe falls to the floor, dropping the ring. Rory rushes to her aid while the others look at the dark shape towering over them. It speaks slowly saying that it is a representative of the Regulatory Board and is claiming the Enamour under Clause 9.4b (subsection 12.2) of the Psycho-Manipulatory Metals Act. It gives them ten standard time units to hand back the metal or 'reasonable force' will be used. The Doctor realises that the large shape is a projection but the two spaceships in the form of dragons that are crossing the sky are real. To his consternation he identifies them as gunships.

 

He turns to the dark figure of the Regulator in a rage and announces that its people are threatening a pre-industrial pacifist planet. He queries whether the gunships constitute reasonable force. Next, he tells Amy to go after the Teller who has fled the hall. She follows him through the confusion of the streets as people emerge in panic to look at the dragons in the sky. They are blaming Dant for this action despite the Teller stopping his escape to tell them otherwise.

 

Back in the hall the Doctor is informing Hilthe that the dragons are the weapons of the Regulators. As he does so, the ships open fire, blasting the trees beyond the river. The Regulator says that nobody has been harmed and this is merely a warning. It then disappears. The Doctor spits with fury at the actions of 'bureaucrats'. Hilthe demands to know what is going on and why her city is being destroyed. Recapping what she has learned, Hilthe says that the dragon was made long before her people were born and it was abandoned during a war. Since the dragon was found and her people began to work its metal it has sent a signal to its makers but that signal has also been followed by their enemies. The choice is whether to give the dragon to the Herald, as the rightful owner, or submit to the threats of the Regulators. She asks whether the Doctor can use Enamour to make weapons to defend the city. He says he won't allow such a thing because it would lead to their destruction and Hilthe would become the Queen of Ruin. She thinks for a while before admitting the wisdom of his words. Just then, the dragon wakes.

 

In the street, the Teller is accosted by a group of angry men who accuse him of bringing this danger upon them. Amy steps in to protect him. He thanks her before running away up some steps before doubling back and re-entering the council chamber through a side door. Amy follows. He takes a winding route through corridors that arrive in private chambers where Beol enters in golden armour. He says that he has been ordering the defence of the city against the dragons. Beol says he will protect the Teller just as the Teller has looked after him through their lives. Watching from a doorway Amy realises that these two men are brothers. The Teller tries, in vain, to explain that the dragons are not from their world but Beol cannot comprehend this idea and still blames Dant for the attack. He orders the three spies from Dant to be arrested.

 

The dragon lifts its wings. The Doctor steps forward and reaches in to pull out a piece of equipment which he says is an emotional amplifier, the source of Beol's victory over Hilthe in the elections. He says that the Regulators are using similar devices to frighten the population. He pulls out another device: a small box with a tiny satellite dish. He uses it to project pictures onto the dome of the chamber. The images show the golden empire of the Bright Nobles of Feond as it is destroyed from within by rebels in a civil war that spreads across star systems and centuries. At the end, the last survivors escape into space in lifeboats with their few remaining possessions. Having seen these terrible things, Hilthe asks the Doctor what action he recommends now. He says his first course of action is to get the dragon out into the main square but before he can do anything Beol strides in.

 

The King declares that he will do anything in his power to protect the city. When the Doctor indicates the dragon gunships Beol ignores him and tells his knights to lock up the newcomers. Hilthe tries to intervene until Beol accuses the Doctor of being a spy from Dant. When Hilthe hears that the Doctor used credentials from Dant to enter the city her sympathy fades and is replaced by mistrust.

 

From the doorway, Amy watches her friends being led away to the cells. She follows Hilthe back to her house. On the way, the old lady detects her presence and tells Amy to hand herself in. Amy argues that she only wants to help and Hilthe agrees to listen to her pleas at her house. Once inside, however, Amy realises that she is in a trap: the doors and windows are locked and guards are soon at the door. She escapes through the servants' quarters and onto the rooftops. After a hair-raising chase she is caught and soon finds herself locked up with the Doctor and Rory.

 

The screwdriver has no effect on the door but the three are eventually released by the Teller. Concerned by all he has seen and heard, he alone has the wit to turn to the Doctor for help. He doesn't want his brother to die and, since Amy came to his aid earlier, he thinks the newcomers are the best hope to avoid mass destruction. He fills them in on his history: he and Beol lived out in the Vale of Evesh and worked as farmers; when the cities of Sheal and Geath renegotiated their borders their farm was split down the middle; their objections resulted in Beol being beaten by Geathian goons; the brothers fled and travelled for a year until they found the dragon; once they discovered its power they decided to return to Geath to extract their revenge (with Sheal being the next city on their list). Having finally unburdened himself of this story he turns to the Doctor for advice. The Doctor tells him that they need to get all of the Enamour into the square as soon as possible. In order to achieve this, he tells Rory and the Teller to take the tiny satellite dish and use it to transmit the Teller's voice and image. The Teller's face will appear on every Enamour surface and his voice will be heard by everyone nearby. The Doctor says the Teller needs to tell the story of his life to persuade everyone to give up their Enamour.

 

Rory and the Teller set off on their mission while the Doctor and Amy make their way up to the hall to steal the dragon. Rory sets the device down on the steps above the main plaza and points the dish at the Teller who begins his call for the citizens to bring out their Enamour. Soon, people begin to leave their golden goods and a small pile starts to accumulate but the Regulator's appearance in the plaza sends others scuttling for safety. Beol appears on a horse and charges the apparition which promptly vanishes. Having seen their foe vanquished the crowd returns, no longer bearing Enamour, to chant Beol's name. Frustrated, Rory wonders what to do next. He decides that Hilthe will be more persuasive than the Teller.

 

Beol and four of his knights apprehend the Doctor and Amy in the hall. Amy begins to emit light as her body is taken over by the Herald. She demands the Enamour on pain of the destruction of the world. The Doctor shouts at Beol that this, not Dant, is the true enemy. He sets the small black box on the floor and a Regulator emerges. It attacks the Herald who fires out rings of energy, killing two of the knights in the crossfire. Amy tries to fight back against the Herald and calls for the Doctor to switch off the Regulator, which he does. The Herald continues to punish Amy, singing a song of unending sorrow, but this only makes Amy more determined to fight more. The Herald departs and Beol rushes over to Amy, praising her bravery. The Doctor asks what she saw of the Herald's worlds. She replies that Enamour was used to create a craving that kept people in thrall in an unchanging life that stretched endlessly. What started as security ended as a golden hell. She asks the Doctor if he feels sorry for the Herald because he seems reluctant to blame her for her part in these actions. He says that the Bright Nobles are the true villains. Beol, shaken by the deaths of his knights, agrees that the Enamour must go.

 

Rory and the Teller break into Hilthe's house. At first she thinks that they mean to kill her until the Teller explains why he came to Geath and the contempt he feels for the city. Then he says they must set aside their differences in order to save everybody on the planet. Persuaded, she agrees to help them and they return to the plaza. This time Hilthe makes the broadcast and her words bring a steady stream of citizens carrying the metal. By the time Amy and the Doctor arrive there is a huge pile of it and teams of people are stripping Enamour from the domed roof of the hall. Beol and his men carry out the bodies of the two murdered knights. The king throws his golden armour onto the pile which is now massive. The Regulator returns and towers over them.

 

One of the king's knights horses, terrified by the booming voice and immense size of the Regulator, bolts through the crowd. Its young rider is thrown off and crashes into a pillar, a blow that kills her instantly. Furious, the Doctor rounds on the Regulator and demands to know if this is their plan, to murder more and more people until they get what they want. Abruptly, the Regulator shrinks to normal humanoid size and shape. She is clearly weeping and protests that she meant no harm. She says that her action was prompted by haste: the metal has to be removed before the Herald seizes it. The Doctor says that she only needed to ask, there was no need for fear tactics. She responds that if the Doctor had lived all of his life with Enamour there would be no need to explain to him. Amy says that she understands and that she trusts the Regulator with the Enamour even more than she would the Doctor. He demands that the people be protected from the wrath of the Herald the regulator says that the Doctor and Amy should come aboard their ship to ask for military force to be deployed (that, it seems, is not in her job description). The Doctor says that Hilthe must accompany them.

 

The interior of the ship resembles nothing so much as an open plan office peopled by civil servants. The ship is apparently called Department Four. The chief sub-director, a woman called Anwa, greets them. She apologises for the deaths that they have caused and says that the policy of frightening worlds into submission will be reconsidered. Hilthe negotiates a treaty where Geath becomes allies with the Reconstruction and falls under their protection. The Doctor warns that when the Herald arrives she will not come as a projection as she did before, but will manifest her true self. Anwa says that the Herald will be fought and detained for rehabilitation. The Doctor asks if he can speak to the Herald first, before any fighting begins. The Herald needs to know that the Bright Nobles are all dead and she is alone. Anwa agrees and says that Camba will be at his back if he should need her help (Camba is the girl who materialised in the plaza).

 

Camba and the three visitors beam back to the plaza. Camba hides in the shadows while Hilthe puts on the ring and summons the Herald. The Herald arrives in front of them and the Doctor tries to explain to her that her masters are dead. She turns on him and Camba leaps to his rescue. The two combatants grow to huge size and there is a long battle that lasts until dawn, at which point Camba is victorious. The Herald is transported to the ship. Camba bows to Hilthe and fades away, too.

 

By daylight the city of Geath is revealed as an intricate and beautiful place. The dead knights are honoured and buried. Beol and Hilthe lead the funeral procession, attended from a distance by Anwa and Camba. After the funeral a deputation from Dant arrives to ask about the strange lights in the sky the night before. Beol receives them as temporary leader but insists that Hilthe join him in speaking to the delegation. The Doctor is sure that they will announce that it is time for some electoral reform.

 

The Teller takes them, in his cart, back to the TARDIS. He says he has outstayed his welcome in Geath and will return to travelling and telling stories. He leaves them and they enter the TARDIS. The Doctor asks them to empty their pockets: he has the ring that summoned the Herald, Rory has the tile that Hilthe gave him and Amy has a spoon she stole from the gatekeeper's house when they arrived. The Doctor also has a fork. As they travel out into space the objects vanish from the console and are left behind in the cold vacuum.

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

The Glamour Chase

by Gary Russell            

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Cover Blurb

The Glamour Chase 

'Why are you here? I mean - who are you, exactly?'

An archaeological dig in 1936 unearths relics of another time... And - as the Doctor, Amy and Rory realise - another place. Another planet. But if Enola Porter, noted adventuress, has really found evidence of an alien civilisation, how come she isn't famous? Why has Rory never heard of her? Added to that, since Amy's been travelling with him for a while now, why does she now think the Doctor is from Mars?

 

As the ancient spaceship reactivates, the Doctor discovers that nothing and no one can be trusted. The things that seem most real could actually be literal fabrications - and very deadly indeed. Who can the Doctor believe when no one is what they seem? And how can he defeat an enemy who can bend matter itself to their will? For the Doctor, Amy and Rory - and all of humanity - the buried secrets of the past are very much a threat to the present...

 

Notes:

This is the sixth book in the series of original adventures featuring the Eleventh Doctor.

Released: July 2010

 

ISBN: 978 1 84607 988 7

 

 

Synopsis

The Doctor once arrived on a planet and saved it from a massive thing that was rotting away its core. The soul of the planet was dying and the Doctor stopped it and saved billions of people. In return he asked for nothing other than dinner with one family. They offered him the Glamour as a reward but he refused, mainly because he didn't know what they meant but even when they had explained he still said no. he told them about his friends and his enemies and his many travels. They told him of their star system and their friends and enemies, too. Then they begged him to stay but he said he had to go. As he opened the door of the TARDIS a girl pushed past him saying that it would be fantastic to travel in space and that was her dream. He said that, because he had a time machine, he would find her when she did voyage through the stars. He gave her a green sphere that would call him to her whenever she wanted. He gave her a quick ride in the TARDIS to show her a new star system being born and then dropped her home before anyone had even missed her. She ran back to her family, clutching the green ball in her palm.

 

With the crew of the WSS Exalted in stasis and their ship losing hull integrity the Commander and 3 try to put out a fire in their consoles. When the extinguisher fails, 3 absorbs it into his body and uses it to nourish his body. The ship enters a star system. The Commander records a message that her ship has evaded the Tahnn ships that were in pursuit but probably only temporarily. Only six of the crew are still conscious and she has to reassign the internal structure of the ship to the hull. She requests that anyone receiving her message sends immediate aid. Then she hands the black box recorder to 3 and asks him to 3 and asks him to launch it. As he leaves the bridge he hears the Commander, 128, ordering the helm to bury the ship on the third planet from the sun.

 

As he walks through the corridors, 3 absorbs the walls and furniture of the ship and then sends it back out to thicken the exterior skin of the ship. On his way he meets the Counselor. Together they eject the black box from the exhaust tubes and then back to the stasis chambers. 3 ensures that the rest of the crew are safely in stasis before entering his own chamber and falling into unconsciousness. Thus none of the crew feel the ship as it buries itself deep into the soft soil of a planet in order to repair itself.

 

The crash landing is observed by Wulf and Owain. They, like the rest of their tribe, think that the Sky Gods have sent them a gift. They dig beneath the vast object so that it sinks deeper into the ground and then bury it beneath damp soil brought from the coast. Hundreds of years pass and myths build up around the mound: it contains a god, a chieftain, a rock from the stars. Four thousand years later Enola Porter, an amateur archeologist in Norfolk, puts her shovel through the hull of the Exalted.

 

On a summer's day in Little Cadthorpe, 14 August 1928, Oliver Marks is walking with his fiancée Daisy Conlan. He is a veteran of the Great War and still affected by the horrors of battle but, for now, he has found true happiness in love. The couple spends their time chattering happily about their future marriage and the children they plan to have together when a whining noise in the air and a blast of heat alarm them. They step out onto the village green when something shimmers in front of them and out of thin air step twenty alien creatures. They are tall, six foot six, and armoured. Each carries a short, thick gun. They start to herd the villagers in front of them and one man aims a punch at the nearest alien. He is shot by a heat ray that leaves only a charred skeleton. Panic ensues and as the villagers try to run they are all cut down in a blaze of shooting. Houses, trees and cars ignite among the slaughter. Daisy tells Oliver to run and grabs his wrist. He is rooted to the spot and when he realises it is time to go it is too late. Daisy has been shot away from him and so has his hand. Silence falls. Oliver is the only survivor of a massacre that lasted less than a minute. An alien with a prune-like face advances on him. His breath is harsh and smells of gas. He asks Oliver where the Weave are. Unable to comprehend, Oliver does not answer. He screams and faints.

 

Waking in the dark, Commander 128 smells the damp. This is bad, because the chambers should be protected against such things. She finds that the power switches are dead which is disturbing: they should have power to have lasted for aeons since the crash. She forces the lid from her chamber and slides out. The ship is tilted at a steep angle. The only light is from a single lamp. The casket belonging to 3 is open but none of the others are. She calls 3's name but there is no answer. She opens the chamber beside hers and the tactical officer slides out. He wakes groggily and remarks that they survived the crash. 3 returns to tell them that they are on a planet called Earth and that he has been awake for two days. He says that there are no signs of Tahnn activity and the local life does not seem likely to have encountered extra-terrestrials. The ship is damaged but not irreparably.

 

Together 3 and 128 climb up through a hole that 3 has dug. They look at a blue sky and abundant vegetation. 3 tells her that the locals are of a similar shape and size to the Exalted crew which means that they can be replicated easily. She sends 3 out to obtain one of the locals. While he is away she returns to the ship to oversee the revival of the crew. While most are pulled alive from their chambers, there are two corpses to be mourned. 128 tells the survivors that they will need to integrate with the local population while they find a way to repair and repower the ship. She chooses a small party to join her and tells the others to stay awake to re-energise for as long as possible.

 

The TARDIS lands in a field. Stepping out, the Doctor tumbles down a slope and lands in sheep dip. In an attempt to recover his dignity and composure, he berates Rory who is standing at the top of the slope. Rory refuses to reciprocate in the banter due to the shotgun being pointed at his face. The Doctor climbs the slope and finds two men, one older and the other with a shotgun. The Doctor greets them with his familiar bluster, takes the gun and removes the shells before returning it. He looks around for Amy. He shows his psychic paper to the older man, a landowner called Nathaniel Porter. Porter asks the younger man, Benson, to read the 'credentials' which show the Doctor to be an inspector from Scotland Yard. The two men assume that the Doctor is here to investigate complaints about 'the dig'. They seem to assume that the TARDIS is some kind of portable camp. Porter invites them to follow him to The Manse while Benson looks for Amy.

 

As they cross the fields the Doctor and Rory lag back to discuss the fact that Porter couldn't read the psychic paper. The Doctor also tells Rory that they are in the 1930s. from their raised vantage point they can look down into the village and see that the schoolyard has been dug up by archeologists. Rory asks if this is anything to do with the distress call that the Doctor is answering. Amy appears suddenly between them and Porter invites all three to stay at the Manse rather than find lodgings. They follow him down into the village where Rory feels a shiver of apprehension as they step onto the road.

 

The Manse is a vast house. At its door they are greeted by Chivers, Porter's manservant. Porter tells them that the house dates to 1824 and its name is a joke (a manse being a residence for church officials: the village has no church). They also learn that they are in Shalford Heights and that it is 1936. The house is single storied for the most part and has three wings leading off from the hall. There are two prominent pictures of Porter's two wives: his first wife 'is not buried locally' and his second is much younger than Porter. Chivers leads them down the corridor to their rooms. Amy tells them that she is going to meet up with Tom (Benson) to see what she can find out. The Doctor tells Rory to check the school library after lunch.

 

In the dining room they meet a man in a wheelchair. Although he only looks about 35 his hair is grey and his face seems devoid of life. This is odd considering the man's complaints about his complaints to the manservant that he can actually walk. The Doctor greets him and guides him to the table. The man is Oliver marks. Marks says that he was a friend of the first Mrs porter but Nathaniel lets him stay in the house. He then adds, strangely, that he smells things. He promptly goes rigid and announces that he can smell 'them'. He adds that he can smell gas and fire and that 'they' are coming back for him. Nathaniel and Chivers sweep into the room and say they will take care of Oliver. As they wheel him away Nathaniel says that they will sedate him to let him sleep.

 

Rory suggests to the Doctor that Oliver is suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from the war. The Doctor doubts that it is the war and wonders who 'they' might be. He says he will go and entertain him while the other two are out. Porter promptly appears with Old John, a servant with a limp. The Doctor tells Old john that he and his companions have come about the dig and leads him away. Amy and Rory look about for Porter but he has gone as quickly as he arrived.

 

The Doctor asks Old john he has worked there. he says he has been there 'forever. He was the gardener under the 'real' Mrs Porter but after she disappeared he was kept on to look after Mr Marks. The Doctor tries some more questions: why the church was never rebuilt after it burnt down; why the villagers are leaving; why Old john stays to work for a man he doesn't like; why the old man has a leather bracelet with tassels hidden under his sleeve. The old man leaves without response but the Doctor calls after him that he is on his side. Finding Marks in the garden, the Doctor has barely settled down when the invalid says that 'they' killed everyone, burned everything in Little Cadthorpe. The Doctor promptly returns to the house, zaps the telephone with his screwdriver and dials Rory's mobile to tell him to look for anything in the library about Little Cadthorpe.

 

The school library seems to double as the village library. Rory finds it empty and picks up a big book of newspapers. When he is surprised by the arrival of the librarian he spins round and accidentally knocks her mug out of her hand, spilling her drink. She seems rather taken aback at being suddenly damp but soon bounces back to welcome him. She seems to assume he is with the dig. She tells him that if he wants to know about the Porters then she is better than a newspaper because she was at school with Mrs Porter (the real one). While she is off making some fresh tea, Rory looks up Little Cadthorpe in his tome of newspapers. He finds that the whole village was burnt down eight years earlier and all the villagers died. He wonders why Oliver Marks, the one survivor, is not mentioned. He sets off to talk to the librarian, Mrs Thirman. He looks in her office but only finds a large woolen hammock. It starts to move and briefly takes on the shape of the librarian.

 

The Doctor question Oliver about the fire. Before he can learn anything a woman appears in the garden beside them. Oliver goes silent. The Doctor notices Rory running up the driveway. When he looks back, the woman has vanished. He follows her into the Manse where he assumes she has gone. Rory greets Oliver who tells him that he knows 'they' are coming for him because the woman was his dead fiancée.

 

The Doctor wanders the corridors in vain. He is suddenly surprised by the arrival of Nathaniel Porter who denies that any such woman could be in his house. The Doctor tells him that something odd is happening in the village and Porter must either be unaware of it or at the heart of it. Porter laughs, saying he chooses to be amused rather than insulted and then wonders aloud where Amy has got to. The Doctor returns to the garden to find that Rory and Oliver have vanished.

 

As they walk across the countryside Amy learns little from Tom other than that he is mysteriously wary of water. They enter some woods where a curious clump of trees stands. The trees seem to have grown sideways and are knitted out of green and yellow wool. Tom reaches out to them and seems to melt into the branches, becoming one with them. He grabs Amy's arm and she passes out.

 

Oliver has led Rory out of sight of the house. The Doctor finds them as Rory is wondering if Oliver is afraid of wool monsters. Oliver says that they are not the enemy. He can smell the real enemy everywhere. Rory shows a lot of concern for Oliver and wants to nurse him through his trauma. The Doctor warns him that there won't be much psychological support for Oliver after Rory has left, such things not being common in 1936.

 

The mention of wool reminds the Doctor about The Weave. He says they are a fantastic race but prone to be afraid of water which makes them soggy. They have numbers instead of names and each person is part of a greater whole. He remembers taking one of them, a little girl, for a ride in the TARDIS. He adds that they can take on the form of other people but need to keep a copy of the original. Oliver says that the enemy he saw wore red and breathed gas or petrol. The Doctor says that they sound like the Weave's enemy: the Tahnn. He wonders why they would have been in Little Cadthorpe in 1928. He assumes that they were after the Weave ship but couldn't find it. Somehow they have been using Oliver as a beacon to detect it. The only solution is to enter the dig and find the Weave ship themselves.

 

Enola Porter is in front of a marquee in the school playground. She is giving tea and cakes to her fellow archeologists. As the Doctor and Rory approach they comment on her somewhat masculine appearance. In passing the Doctor talks about the rumours concerning Lady Gaga's gender and hints that she is, in fact, an alien. Enola greets Oliver with a kiss and shakes hands with the other two. She introduces them to her team: most seem to be locals but some are academics. There is Christopher Maginn, a geologist and Hamish Ridley, with an interest in dinosaurs. Walpole Spune is an expert in stone circles and Marten is an artist whose drawings are better representations of their findings than photographs.

 

Leaving Oliver in the capable hands of Nancy Thirman, they follow Enola down to the huge tented area. Inside, a huge hole in the ground takes them beneath the playing field. They find a mound has been buried beneath the field. As an almost casual aside, the Doctor tells Enola that Rory is from 2010 when infrared scanners would be a useful tool. He adds that he is an extra-terrestrial himself. Enola takes all this in her stride and says that they found the burial site with Walpole Spune's divining rod. The German artist, Marten Heinke, has been party to much of this conversation but disappears abruptly, leaving a sketch behind. It shows Enola, the Doctor and Rory but the two men have balls of wool instead of faces. In addition, Rory is wearing his nurse's uniform in the picture and the Doctor is depicted in a brown suit (presumably from the 10th Doctor days).

 

Enola suddenly seems to tune into their being from the future and asks if she is famous in the 21st century. The Doctor agrees that she is well known by then before leading Rory away. Rory asks why he has never heard of Enola Porter and the Doctor admits he hasn't either. Amy suddenly appears behind them saying that she heard that Enola Porter discovered alien artifacts in a Roman or Iron Age burial mound. The Doctor merely nods and produces Enola's diaries, which he has borrowed without asking. He says he has some reading to catch up on.

 

The real Amy wakes up in a dark place. There is a greeny-yellow glow and a ball of wool floating towards her. It wool shapes itself into a woman and introduces herself as 128, Commander of the Exalted. She says they crashed centuries ago and have been underground while they try to survive. She thinks Amy is alien, too, because 456195 (Tom Benson) saw her and the others arrive in a capsule. Amy explains that she is from the future and that the Doctor brought them in his time machine because he is from Mars where such technology exists. 128 adds that their ship has been there for six thousand years but the crew only awoke fifteen years earlier when the ship's systems detected the Tahnn. The ship's counselor, 6011, appears and morphs into Amy's shape. They put Amy to sleep while 6011 sets out to impersonate Amy to the Doctor.

 

In the kitchen of the Manse the Doctor tries to find out from the staff some information about the first Mrs Porter. Old John curtly nods that he and Rory should go with him and takes them down a dark corridor. The Doctor wonders where Amy might be and then silently counts to five at which point she greets them from the other end. The Doctor leads her away and engages her in some light-hearted chat during which she mentions that the Doctor ought to take her back to his home planet, Mars.

 

The Tahnn ship is in orbit around Jupiter. Since their troop planted a beacon, and then vapourised themselves, several years earlier, they have been waiting for the discovery of the Weave ship and its cargo. They know that if they are too violent in their approach they will bring down the wrath of the Shadow Proclamation (who once wiped out a third of a galaxy due to one planet's transgressions - or so one story has it). The plan is to find the Weave, take their treasure and wipe out the enemy and then get out quickly. The problem is that an alien with two hearts is in the locale: identified as the Doctor. The ship moves out of orbit as the Tahnn Primary decides that the Doctor must die, too.

 

The Doctor has read through Enola's diaries to find out about her interest in archeology, her marriage and the discovery of the mound. He also learns how her team came together and her fascination with what she might discover that very day. Among the diaries is another of Marten's drawings showing the Porter's marriage but with all the guests depicted with woolen heads apart from Enola, Maginn, Ridley and Nathaniel Porter. Porter has three heads in the picture: human, woolen and Tahnn. He shows the picture to Amy and Rory out in the garden. Oliver, apparently dozing nearby, says that Enola saw Porter with the three heads some weeks earlier and is afraid that he will kill her. The Doctor then reveals that he knows Amy is a copy (the Mars thing was the clincher). She snaps back that he abandoned her six thousand years ago. He realises that she is the little girl he gave the homing beacon to. He tells her that the TARDIS received the message but led them to 1936 because another nearby signal was interfering. She tells him that the Tahnn are close so the Weave are hiding out, posing as villagers while Marten tries to warn people away. She says that Oliver is the Tahnn beacon and that the Tahnn want the Glamour. As soon as Enola breaks the wall of the ship the Glamour will escape.

 

Suddenly, the whole situation falls into place for the Doctor. The Weave can't escape without a full complement of twenty five crew members. 6011/Amy agrees that two of the crew are dead and two others are missing. The missing pair are the Executive Officer 3 and the Tactical Officer. The Doctor surmises that one of these is working for the Tahnn to get them the Glamour. Rory points out that the reason why Oliver thinks that the Tahnn are coming is because he can smell them and the reason why he can smell them is that they are already there. porter must be a Tahnn-Weave hybrid. 6011/Amy sets off to tell her commander this news.

 

In the chamber beneath the school field, Marten asks Enola not to break through the mound. He tells her he is under cover. Enola says that she has heard from the Doctor that a spaceship is on the other side of the mud. She asks Marten if he is human. Marten tells her that if she carries on as she intends the Tahnn will come and kill them all. Then he tells her that the Glamour is an energy field that can change reality and the Tahnn want it as a weapon. At this point two other archeologists, Spune and Ridley, begin to fight. Their conflict is based on their own professional jealousies but leads them to crash into the mud wall and reveal a lump of green wool - the spaceship. Ridley tumbles on and rips the side of the ship. A roaring sound comes from the ship and a burst of yellow-green energy floods the chamber. Enola blacks out.

 

6011/Amy gasps in pain as she heads down the road to the school. She realises it is too late and says so. Porter, behind her, agrees and transforms into his Weave shape. His body flows into hers and tears her apart. Her last memory is of being happy aboard the TARDIS. The Weave traitor turns into a Tahnn warrior and then back into Nathaniel Porter.

 

In the Manse, the limping Old John realises that the Weave ship has been ruptured. He knows this because when he was 14 he sneaked out in the night to the Sky God's gift. He had pushed against it with his foot until part of it gave way. He was bathed in green light and his leg, ankle, foot and toes were shattered. The villagers found him and were afraid that the Gods would be angry. In fact, life carried on as normal for everyone apart from Owain. His leg didn't heal until he was 65 by which time his children had died after a good life. At 300 he felt cursed. His name changed - Owen, Ian, Iain, Ewan and John. He would leave the village for years and return when nobody was alive to remember him. He always came back to ensure that nobody else would disturb the gift of the gods.

 

Twelve years ago he had seen Nathaniel Porter go to the school and then watched as large woolen toys emerged from the ground. One of them, alone, had devoured Porter and become him. Mrs Porter disappeared the same day. When Oliver Marks arrived, Old John had cared for him. Now both Old John and Oliver Marks are crying out. The Doctor, Rory and Amy burst in on them. Oliver tells them that 'they' are here. The Doctor realises that 'Amy' is no longer 6011. She shimmers and becomes Porter and then Tahnn. The warrior tells them he was a guinea pig, his genetic code altered to become like the Weave. The Doctor asks him how he will operate the Glamour but the Tahnn laughs: the Glamour is not a device; it is a reimagining of life. The corridor glows green and the air shimmers. The Doctor throws Rory and Old John to the floor as the Tahnn warrior dissipates out of existence.

 

The Tahnn ship approaching Earth records a massive energy surge on the planet even as it loses contact with its agent. Then a voice speaks to them, a human, who says that he no longer wants to sense or smell the Tahnn anymore so he won't. The Tahnn ship and its crew dissolve into molecules.

 

Rory and the Doctor wake up in a beautiful room containing a piano and many beautiful pictures. Oliver's rooms have transformed as have the gardens outside. A woman in a red dress that is practically falling off enters the room. The Doctor addresses her as Mrs Porter and she eases him to the door. Rory looks at a painting above the fireplace that shows the same woman. When he looks back the other two have gone. On another wall are three portraits of Amy: as she was that morning; as an eight year old; in her wedding dress. Outside in the garden all that remains of what was there five minutes earlier is the big willow tree. He knows this must be significant. Then he sees that the door out of the room has gone but a painting of a green and yellow tree has appeared.

 

The Doctor asks the woman whether they are in a parallel world or if this is all an illusion. The corridor they are in is disappearing behind them and the woman's dress changes to white and then a black maid's outfit. He realises that whoever is using the Glamour hasn't mastered it yet. They enter a ballroom full of people. If he tries, he can visualize it as it really is: the people are crammed together and some of them are actually merged with the furniture. If he relaxes his thoughts it becomes more spacious and elegant as it wants to be seen. Oliver Marks is playing the piano. He introduces the Doctor to his pretty wife, Daisy, and his two children. Amy approaches, though she isn't sure of her name and asks if the Doctor is the love of her life. He tells her that would be Rory.

 

Oliver asks the Doctor if he likes his world. He tells the Doctor that he sent the Tahnn away. The Doctor points out that the problem with the Glamour is that it is fake and when it fades the comedown is terrible. Chivers tells him it doesn't work that way. He introduces himself as the Executive Officer, 3. He has been kept in thrall by the traitor posing as Porter for years and trapped in the house by the use of psychic powers. 25463, the traitorous tactical officer, had placed a shield around the village that prevented the Weave entering or leaving. He adds that he has no idea when the Glamour will wear off. A 14 year old boy in animal skins tells them that it never does. He says that a hundred lives before he was Owain and he has lived for six thousand years.

 

Amy wakes in the dark. A handful of others are lying in the ground with her. Some, she guesses, are villagers but one is separate and in a cocoon. This last is Mrs Porter. All of the others are asleep. The walls unravel and Amy realises that she is aboard the Weave ship. She enters a larger area where the Weave crew are knitting themselves into the wall and back again. She can see from their indistinct faces that this behaviour is not enjoyable. 128, now part of the floor, tells Amy that the Glamour leaking out and being misused means that the ship is absorbing the crew to keep alive. Amy walks on, intent on finding the village and something called the Glamour.

 

Rory speaks to the picture on the wall, asking to see the door. It changes into a picture of the room but with a door in the wall. Rory walks to the part of the wall where the door was shown to be and finds himself in the party hosted by Oliver. The Doctor grabs him and asks how they get out of the room Rory tells him how he got in so the Doctor visualizes where he entered the room and leads Rory, 3 and Owain out via a wall. They run to the school and then to the torn side of the Exalted. Enola Porter and her team are frozen to the spot. Marten Heinke is moving but says he is keeping his human shape so that the ship doesn't absorb him.

 

3 tells them that none of the Weave can attract the Glamour back because they are all injured and the danger of it entering a diseased or injured crewman would be incalculable. The humans there are all too self aware to attract it, too. The only solution is Mrs Porter. Her injured body was found after 25463 tried to kill her and hooked up to the ship to save her life. The Doctor guesses that if they wake her up and show her an alien her confusion will draw the Glamour from Oliver and back to the ship.

 

3 wakes the sleeping humans Rory and Amy lead them away. Unfortunately, when Mrs Porter is woken up she is neither shocked to see 3 being sucked back into his ship, nor terrified, but rather indignant. As the Doctor bemoans 3's useless sacrifice, Amy and Rory are at the entrance to the ship. The real Martin Heinke sees his fake and punches him. This wakes Walpole Spune who screams in fear. The Glamour leaves the Manse.

 

It spreads through the ship and the crew members emerge. Enola Porter, her team, Nancy Thirman, Chivers and Tom Benson stare in amazement. 128 tells the Doctor that the ship is still too damaged to leave and without a full complement of crew it never will. Enola Porter tells the Doctor that she knows that, despite discovering an alien spaceship, she will never be famous. He agrees. She says that this means she either dies or something drastic must happen to her and as such offers herself as a replacement crew member. Hamish Ridley volunteers to go with her as does Oliver Marks.

 

The Doctor leads the other humans to the Manse. The school vanishes with a bang, as do the grounds. The Weave ship roars away from Earth. As it goes, the Weave thank Old John for looking after them for six thousand years. He dies with a smile on his lips.

 

At the door of the TARDIS, Rory asks if this is how it always is; the Doctor arrives, something massive happens, people die or lose everything they believed in and the Doctor walks away. The Doctor tells him that they have done all that they can and must move on again. He promptly falls down the hill again and lands in the sheep dip. Stomping back into the TARDIS he prepares to take them somewhere else entirely.

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

Rory mentions that the time travellers have recently been to Tibet and, before that, "a world of dragons and jousting" (possibly referring to The King's Dragon.)

There is a rather touching back-story about the death of Rory's best childhood friend at the age of nineteen and how this cemented Rory's love for Amy.

The book starts with an episode featuring an earlier incarnation of the Doctor. It is hinted that it could be any from the third to the eighth Doctor.

The Doctor mentions Howard Carter, Indiana Jones, Marcus Scarman, and Bernice Summerfield when discussing great archeologists.

There are references to The Shadow Proclamation and the Daleks.

Glamour technology was featured in Ghosts of India.

There are numerous references to Rio de Janeiro which is where the Doctor, Amy and Rory were heading for at the start of The Hungry Earth.

 

 

 

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The Coming of the Terraphiles

by Michael Moorcock              

BBC Logo

 

 

Cover Blurb

The Coming of the Terraphiles           

'There are dark tides running through the universe...'

Miggea - a star on the very edge of reality. The cusp between this universe and the next. A point where space-time has worn thin, and is in danger of collapsing... And the venue for the grand finals of the competition to win the fabled Arrow of Law.

 

The Doctor and Amy have joined the Terraphiles - a group obsessed with all aspects of Earth's history, and dedicated to re-enacting ancient sporting events. They are determined to win the Arrow. But just getting to Miggea proves tricky. Reality is collapsing, ships are disappearing, and Captain Cornelius and his pirates are looking for easy pickings.

 

Even when they arrive, the Doctor and Amy's troubles won't be over. They have to find out who is so desperate to get the Arrow of Law that they will kill for it. And uncover the traitor on their own team. And win the contest fair and square.

 

And, of course, they need to save the universe from total destruction.

 

Notes:

This is the seventh book in the series of original adventures featuring the Eleventh Doctor.

Released: October 2010

 

ISBN: 978 1 84607 983 2 (hardback); 978 1 84990 140 6 (paperback)

 

 

Synopsis

The planet Venice is covered with waterways and is as rich as any in the Calypso V system. Although well defended and as likely as any other planet to break out into warfare, it still pays regular tribute to Captain Cornelius (or 'Ironface' as he is often known). His ship, the Paine, sails on the solar winds into the outer atmosphere and his pirates drop to the surface to claim what their captain demands. For a week they gather their tolls and one man, eager to curry favour, offers what might be a string of beads which Cornelius pockets thoughtfully. When the barges are loaded and returned to the Paine the great ship turns and heads for its home base in Canis. Cornelius searches through the treasure, hoping to find the ingot of newtonium which even he must know cannot exist. Sailing back from the Rim toward the Hub, Cornelius hopes to encounter the man who may help him: the Doctor.

 

Amy and the Doctor are on a planet called Peers. Amy is watching the third day of a Tournament match, now in its third day. The Doctor is playing in this match and trying to cement his position in the First Fifteen of the Gentlemen's side. It is a long, complicated game that derives from a combination of cricket, archery, jousting and many other English village sports. It is an offshoot of the Renaissance Re-enactments carried out by an organisation of Terraphiles who attempt to create Edwardian England from a distance of several thousand years (replete with many misapprehensions). The Doctor and Amy are here after picking up a garbled message a week earlier. A vaguely familiar voice told them that Frank/Freddie Force and their Antimatter Men have crossed into the universe via a black hole and are disturbing the usual rules of energy flow. A few minute's research tells the Doctor that a tournament is to be played (as it is every 250 years) on the Ghost Worlds. The prize is the Silver Arrow of Artemis. This is enough information to send them to the practice match on Peers TM where the Doctor hopes to get into the team.

 

Urquart Banning-Cannon and his wife Enola are on holiday, watching the match. Urquart is pleased that the holiday is going smoothly (by which he means he has not raised the wrath of his wife so far). Unknown to either, their beautiful daughter Jane is attempting to court Hari Agincourt by being seen with his best friend Bingo Lockesley. So far, the plan has backfired and the only result has been to destroy the friendship between the two men. As they are key players on the Gentlemen's Fifteen, this is not a good thing. Hari is also aware that his fortune is not going to be enough to win over Urquart - the terraforming tycoon - or his wife - from a similarly wealthy background. What he doesn't know is that the Banning-Cannons are on a re-enactment cruise because Enola has accepted the honour of presenting the Silver Arrow to the winners of the final match on the Ghost Worlds in order to quell her out-of-control gambling habit. The Silver Arrow has already been sent in a time-locked vault to the planet of Flynn where it will be ready for the presentation.

 

The one blot on the holiday for Urquart is that his wife is intending to wear a hat at the garden party that Bingo is hosting, to be held that evening. It is a creation of Diana of Loondoon, one of the galaxy's foremost milliners. It is also immensely large and resembles a spider: Urquart has arachnophobia. On first meeting the Doctor, he asks if there is a cure for this complaint but the Doctor sidesteps the question and engages in a conversation about terraforming. They then discuss their travel plans: the Banning-Cannons will be on the Gargantua along with two of the teams heading to the Tournament - the Gentlemen and the Tourists.

 

After the Doctor leaves him, Banning-Cannon is approached by Bingo Lockesley who invites him and his wife to dinner at his house that evening. Urquart finds a plan forming in his mind and promptly offers the planet they are standing on as a reward to Bingo if he can successfully steal Enola's awful hat and prevent her from wearing it the following day. Although theft is not in his nature, Bingo is convinced of the rightness of the deed when the true ghastliness of the hat is described to him. He strolls off to invite the Gentlemen and the Tourists to the dinner.

 

The Banning-Cannons check out of their hotel and send their luggage to Sherwood Hall (Bingo's home) for the night. The offending hat, therefore, ends up in their suite of rooms. Urquart wonders how Bingo will manage to pilfer it. Meanwhile, Bingo is thinking of the same thing when he is approached by the Doctor and Amy. They have come to warn him that someone might be trying to steal something from him but they don't know what. The young would-be thief is so guilty about what he is intending that he thinks they are warning him off the theft whereas they are merely trying to make sense of the garbled message they received in the TARDIS. All parties separate, confused and none the wiser.

 

Bingo waits until the dinner gong calls his guests down to their meal and then sneaks into the Banning-Cannon's suite. The hat is already gone. Enola returns to the room unexpectedly and Bingo flees towards a window and faints. When he recovers it becomes obvious that Enola regards him as a hero and thinks he was pursuing the thieves when they overcame him somehow. The hat, being so heavy, would have required an anti-gravity lifter to remove it. Enola suspects it is already on its way to a spaceship and heading off-planet. Bingo thus finds himself in the embarrassing position of being rewarded by Urquart for a crime he hasn't committed while feeling responsible for helping to catch thieves who did the real dirty work for him, all without giving away to his benefactor what he did or didn't actually do.

 

Bingo's bedtime preparations are disturbed by Urquart's arrival, demanding to know where the hat is stored. Bingo pretends that it would be better not to reveal the hiding place and Banning-Cannon says that he will deliver the contract handing the ownership of the planet the following day. No sooner has Urquart left than the Doctor arrives. He tells Bingo that Enola has called the police, though he doubts that they will take the theft of a hat particularly seriously. The hat was very expensive, however. Bingo wonders if his uncle, the Investigating Magistrate, will be called. The Doctor says that, personally, he suspects Urquart Banning-Cannon and his fear of spiders as being behind it, though he supposes a contracted thief would have done the actual stealing.

 

The failure of the hat to return itself by the following morning leads the magistrate to cancel all flights off the planet. This means that the Tournament teams will not be able to take the shuttle to rendezvous with the Gargantua and will have to travel on the sister-ship, the Gigantique, two weeks later. This is appalling news, as it will prevent either team from reaching Flynn in time for the Tournament for the Silver Arrow. Bingo appeals to Enola to drop the charges forthwith, but she declines.

 

The Doctor thinks he has worked out how the hat was stolen but what he can't understand is why. As original and valuable as it was, the effort to get it, let alone the expense, would outweigh the benefits of possessing it. So it is mixed feelings for all when the hat turns up the following day. The Gargantua has already departed the system. Elona surveys the rather battered hat but cannot find anything missing on it. The Doctor, however, has not been idle: he has worked out that it is possible to hop a series of local ships and barges that will get them to a rendezvous with the Gargantua in ten days before it makes the cross-galaxy haul to the Miggea system and the Ghost Worlds.

 

Amy is rather sorry to leave PeersTM and its mish-mash of her own history. She finds the Doctor busy hiding the TARDIS so that it will be with them when they get to Miggea but not visible to any hostile forces on the journey (and for this reason he is not using it to transport everyone to their destination). As he works at this he ponders on who stole Enola's huge hat and why they returned it.

 

Captain Cornelius, in the Paine in deep space, ponders the dark tides running through the universe and their recent growth in strength; accelerating the universe to its destruction. He knows that the balance of Law and Chaos was once maintained by a Regulator (or Roogalator) that could take any form in the Realm of Chaos (our side of the universe). In spite of the danger, he turns his ship towards the cosmic hub.

 

The Doctor, Amy, the Banning-Cannons and the two teams of Tournament players (the Gentlemen and the Tourists) find themselves on a decrepit ship carrying water from Palahendra to Desiree. Enola Banning-Cannon is horrified by the squalor of the conditions aboard the ship but the players muck in stoically. Bingo uses the enforced proximity to rebuild bridges with his best friend Hari, avowing that his friendship with Jane Banning-Cannon was no more than a ruse to make Hari jealous and declare his love for Jane. Hari is hardly convinced but seems more resigned than hostile.

 

Meanwhile, Amy sees, from a porthole, a swirl of darkness engulfing nearby stars. She goes to ask the Doctor and the ship's equine captain N'hn whether this is normal. The Doctor tells her that he has never seen such activity so close to the Rim and wonders why it is speeding up now. He says that the Dark Forces she can see move at millions of miles an hour and move like tides, dragging whole galaxies with them. They were discovered at around the time Amy was born and are taken as an indicator of the existence of the multiverse. The big centaur warns that they would be destroyed if their ship was overtaken by the forces.

 

Abruptly, Amy finds herself floating in freefall while flickering forward and back in time; back on Peers; in the ship; watching an arrow hit a man in the backside. Overwhelmed, she passes out. As she recovers, the Doctor tells her that she has just encountered her first Time Storm. The Doctor leads her to her bunk and settles her down. She sees a pale blue globe containing three beautiful young men; The Bubbly Boys. He tells her not to worry as they are on her side. When she recovers (again) she is in the Doctor's dormitory and he tells her that he needs the TARDIS to solve their problems but he daren't bring it in because he is sure now that others are looking for it.

 

The ship is near the source of the storm when the pirates are spotted. N'hn thinks that they are after the ship's cargo of water. The Doctor surveys the seven ships closing on them and speculates as to whether they are Dalek-worshipping Dructionjen. He walks through the ship and sees that the passengers are, as yet, oblivious to the approaching danger. He tells Hari Agincourt what is transpiring and asks him to get some of the team together in case they are needed for the defence of the ship. Hari is delighted that there is something to do and with Bingo in a similar frame of mind the pair bond at once. The Doctor and Amy join the captain on the bridge just as the pirates send a signal to tell him to heave to. N'hn is apparently unconcerned as he is carrying Chronii for the defence of his craft.

 

The pirate ships send force beams at the hull of the water barge but the centaur immediately sends balls of light back up the beams. The Doctor tells Amy that these are Chronii - sentient beings that eat waste, including the dead. Amy points out that the pirates aren't dead but N'hn says they soon will be. Another beam shoots from the foremost pirate ship and reaches the airlock of the water tanker. The captain orders everyone to defend themselves: boarders are coming. The Doctor snatches up a bow and a quiver of arrows belonging to one of the team's archers. Amy says she thought that the pirates had been dealt with. The Doctor agrees but says the boarders were merely passengers and are on their way over.

 

Arriving at a makeshift gym the Doctor and Amy find some of the passengers staring with dismay at the newcomers. These are garishly dressed in theatrical uniforms and carrying heavy weapons. They escaped the Chronii because they are made of anti-matter and can only exist in our universe because of the protective skinsuits they wear. The leader of the boarders is General Force (in fact a pair of brothers who share one suit. Frank/Freddie Force says they have come for a hat which they believe the ship to be carrying. Enola Banning-Cannon immediately assumes that these are the same hat thieves from PeersTM and tells them that they have no right to steal from her. She is backed up by her daughter, Hari and Bingo. There is a standoff which is solved when the Doctor fires an arrow into Frank/Freddie's left buttock. The anti-matter invaders promptly show alarm and fade from the deck. The Doctor explains that he fired at Force's power implant that maintains the false skin. As well as driving off the attackers, the Doctor has also obtained Enola's undying gratitude for protecting her honour.

 

W.G Grace, the bearded lady and best whacker on the Gentlemen's team, congratulates the Doctor on his excellent shooting and Bingo says he will soon be the second best bowman on the team. Amy quizzes Enola about where she got the hat. Apparently it was never out of Enola's possession from its purchase in Loondoon until the theft on Peers. Amy wonders whether there was something smuggled inside the hat that the thief and/or General Force was after. Enola concedes that the central arch was saggier after recovery but all of the jewels were intact.

 

They eventually make planet fall on Desiree, where the spaceport is so vast that it covers half of the land on the planet. Amy is astonished, as they use an air car to traverse the port, at the number and size of the ships that are docked around her. The Doctor cheerfully informs her that many are only the tenders of much larger craft that cannot enter the atmosphere of the planet. They embark on a space bus to take them to the world of Pangloss where they have arranged to meet the Gargantua. The mighty liner is in orbit next to the planet. It seems, to Amy, to be as big as the Moon. The Doctor tells her that it is so large it has even sailed through five suns unscathed. His attention is drawn to the planet below: it appears to be deserted as though its teeming billions have vanished. The Transfer Officer of the Gargantua tells him that they found the planet a desert when they arrived, as if somebody or something had sucked it dry.

 

The vast space liner is so large that it has a full size tournament court on board, much to the delight of the two teams on board. The Doctor is being kept out of most of the practices so that the other team don't realise his abilities. He spends most of his time practicing his nut cracking. Amy spends most of her time with Bingo, who clearly sees her as a prospective wife. The rival teams, as well as the other passengers, enjoy a life of pampered luxury aboard ship. Even Enola has found a milliner aboard, Mr Toni Woni, who she rates equal to Diana of Loondoon.

 

Their tranquility is disturbed when the alarms sound to say they are entering the worst storm that the captain has ever seen. The ship is engulfed by darkness and huge hammer blows sound the length of the hull. Alarm systems scream as the Doctor tells her they are in something much worse than a time storm. They put on emergency suits and prepare for the worst. The Doctor sets his screwdriver to signal Captain Abberley and the Bubbly Boys. Abruptly the ship drops out of space-time and into the Second Aether. Everything around them is scarlet. Small ships drift in the Aether and the Doctor identifies their location as Ketchup Cove.

 

Amy recognises old fashioned schooners and tugboats, rising and falling at anchor. She realises that she is, somehow, outside the Gargantua with the Doctor. The Doctor tells her they are at the centre of the multiverse, between Law and Chaos, between matter and anti-matter. And then he vanishes. Amy is swimming in the crimson sea when a ship rises up beneath her. A man, calling himself Captain Quelch, stands on the deck of a seagoing launch. He invites her aboard but she holds back. A pleasure boat heaves into view. On the deck are the Bubbly Boys. She finds herself on the deck of their boat, talking to Captain Abberley with the Doctor back at her side. Abberley says that he thinks Quelch has pinched the Regulator of the universe. Abberley throws a handful of marbles to Amy. She catches them and sees that four are spinning around a fifth and maybe a sixth. She recognises it as a necklace and puts it on.

 

Amy finds herself back on board the Gargantua but the Doctor has to get back in through an airlock. He tells the Captain that the space liner has to get out of the Second Aether at once before it begins to mutate into another shape entirely. He hops that when it reaches the real universe it will still be space worthy and offers to guide them across the dimensions. The captain willingly gives the helm to the Doctor who steers them back into deep space. As he does so he tells Amy that their destination, the Miggea system, is the only solar system that moves through all aspects of reality, including the Second Aether. If they reach there he thinks that is the only place where it will be possible to restore the cosmic balance and prevent the destruction of the universe.

 

They drift, defenseless, in space. The bad news is that dozens of passengers have died in the storm, including the entire Second Fifteen of the Gentlemen's team. The danger is that they might be disqualified from the Tournament and any chance of winning the Silver Arrow if they cannot field a full team. A vast ship closes in on them, which the Doctor recognises as the Paine. Captain Cornelius has found them.

 

The Paine resembles an old-time clipper ship, but vastly larger, as it pulls alongside. The Doctor says he has tangled with Ironface before. He doesn't hint which way he thinks things might go but Jane Banning-Cannon hopes Cornelius may offer help. When Cornelius requests permission to board the Doctor tells him that the space liner has been crippled by a black storm and asks for aid. Cornelius seems charmed by this request and says he will leave his men behind when he crosses over. He arrives with his bosun, Mademoiselle Peet Aviv. In the captain's state room Captain Snarri admits that his ship is in dire straits. Cornelius says that his weapons will not be used. He says that he, like Frank/Freddie Force, is looking for the Silver Arrow and he is surprised that the Doctor does not know it is aboard the Gargantua. He speculates that the Silver Arrow is actually the regulator of the universe, stolen maybe fifty thousand years before, and the reason why the dark tides are running ever more strongly. The Doctor wonders if the arrow isn't in the time vault as they suppose, but is actually in another shape (it can adapt to suit its circumstances) which is why Force thought they had it on the water tanker weeks earlier. Either way, and whatever shape it has taken, it must be returned to the black hole at the centre of the multiverse.

 

The Doctor tells him that he joined the Gentlemen to win the arrow and use it to restore the order of the universe. Cornelius notes that the Gentlemen lost two First Fifteen players and the entire Second Fifteen in the time storm and thus must have a slim chance of victory. However, he offers to assist the Gargantua on the journey to Miggea but for a price: he wants the necklace Amy is wearing. She says that the Bubbly Boys took it from Captain Quelch and gave it to her but she doesn't know why. Nevertheless, she hands it over promptly enough.

 

Cornelius follows behind the liner while his nano-bots are sent aboard to repair the major damage. Amy and the Doctor are taken on a tour of the Paine and when they return Bingo is full of wonder that Cornelius made no demands of them: after all, he is a pirate. Amy tells him that Cornelius is worried about the dark tides and wants to join forces. They are interrupted by Enola telling them that her hat has been stolen again. A search is begun but the hat is not found. As they approach the Ghost Worlds the search is abandoned.

 

Amy tries to recall what she has heard of Miggea. The curious gravity of the star allows it and its four planets to pass from our universe and into every other. The settlers who found the Earth-like gravity of the planets agreeable were horrified when their solar system faded out of the universe the first time but now treat each occurrence with equanimity. The liner reaches the system without further mishap and prepares to send down two tenders to Flynn where the Tournament is to be held. The planet has been terraformed to look like the English Cotswolds crossed with the Shire. Before the tender can leave the Gargantua there is a hold up when the captain reports that an extra passenger is registering on the systems but the anomaly is soon explained as a glitch and they begin their descent.

 

Bingo's first task on arrival is to enquire of the settlers if any are skilled enough to fill the two vacancies in his team. When none are forthcoming he takes the rash step of asking Jane B-C and Amy to take the two places. He wonders whether this rash action was inspired by the fact that Jane is his best friend's fiancée and that he intends to propose to Amy himself.

 

The three teams, comprising mainly human and Judoon players plus a few other types, attend a toss to determine the order of play. The Doctor takes part in the nut cracking against two of the Judoon and wins a narrow contest by virtue of wielding his sledgehammer with more delicacy. Over the ensuing days the tournament proceeds in a leisurely manner, through equestrian and broadsword events until the final series of whackit matches is set to start. These are the games that will decide the destiny of the Silver Arrow and each will last several days.

 

The final qualifying match between the Tourists and the Visitors to see who plays the Gentlemen for the arrow is drawing to a close when Miggea starts its shift into the multiverse. The weather changes abruptly with ferocious storms assailing the planet. They find themselves traversing alternative universes and as the weather settles the Visitors clinch their victory. The final match begins on a golden day but play is often disrupted by violent earth tremors. In one of the enforced breaks the teams retire to the bar where Amy sees Captain Abberley gesturing her over. She joins him for a conversation.

 

The next day sees the Gentlemen beginning to take an advantage in the match, not least due to Amy and Jane's performances. After close of play Enola enters the bar wearing her hat. She says she has not only recovered it but found the thief. She presents a protesting Hari. He says that the only reason he was at the Banning-Cannons' rooms was to ask for Jane's hand in marriage. Jane is overjoyed, more so when Urquart enters holding the collar of Lady Peggy, the invisible thief. Lady Peggy says that she stole the hat because it smelled of the arrow and she took it for Frank/Freddie Force. She assumes that the Doctor got to the arrow before her and hid it.

 

The gentlemen seem to be struggling in the match until W.G. Grace takes her turn at the wotsit and uses her magnificent bow to shoot arrow after arrow into the whackers, wotsits and wotsit keepers. By the end of play it seems that the next day will be the decisive one. The Doctor is heartened, too, when the planet shifts into the Second Aether early in the morning's play. The captains confer and decide to play on against a background of shimmering stars. This clears to reveal that they have reached Mustard Beach and the sky is filled with galleons and rocket ships come to see the denouement. In a break in play Amy asks the Doctor about Lady Peggy, the invisible thief. He tells her that Lady Peggy did not steal the hat on PeersTM but did come aboard their ship when they were boarded by Captain Cornelius. She sneaked aboard his ship back on Venice and had been with him since. He tells her that the Bubbly Boys were crucial to finding the hat and the thief because they can see the invisible. Smugly, Amy tells him that she had already worked that out.

 

The Doctor plays a decent innings with the bow but cannot close out the game. When he is finally removed from the wotsit it is left to Bingo and Grace to take up the challenge. They do so with aplomb and the game speeds towards its inevitable conclusion. The Doctor and Amy meet Captain Abberley behind the pavilion. The Doctor finds out that Amy and the Captain set up Lady Peggy's capture when the Bubbly Boys stole her invisibility tiara and Urquart was able to catch her red handed. The clue was the extra, unaccountable person on the tender to Flynn. That had meant somebody invisible must have been with them.

 

Their conference is disturbed when Grace is out. Suddenly the match is back in the balance. Grace hands her beautiful antique bow to Bingo and he uses it to take the Gentlemen to the verge of victory which is clinched when Amy scores a perfect shot. Amid the celebrations Enola Banning-Cannon prepares to make the presentation to the winning team. Exactly on cue the sky turns indigo and a smallish ball appears in the sky and floats towards her. The Doctor intercepts it and pulls out the TARDIS, only fifteen centimeters high. This is where he hid it. From inside the TARDIS he takes the solid newtonium Arrow of Artemis, the Regulator (or Roogalator) of the universe.

 

He hand the arrow to Enola who, in turn, presents it to Bingo as captain of the winning team. The only snag is that the TARDIS has not returned to its normal size and the Doctor has to think of another way of returning the arrow to the fulcrum at the centre of the universe. Bingo runs up to Amy and draws her aside to propose marriage to her. She barely has time to let him down gently when Captain Abberley's boat appears above them. The Doctor, Amy and Bingo climb the ladder to get aboard. Abberley is pleased to see that they have the arrow but concerned that they don't have the bow to fire it into place. Suddenly all is clear to the Doctor. What was hidden in the hat, what General Force was really after, was the Bow of Diana. The Doctor reaches down to W.G. Grace and takes her antique bow. Grace was the thief on Peers. She couldn't bear it when she saw the bow in Loondoon and realised it was to be used as a support in a ridiculously large hat so she bided her time and stole it from Enola. The Doctor, on the other hand, thinks that Diana of Loondoon knew what the bow was and put it in the hat so that it would be in place on Flynn when its time came to be used. He realises that Diana is Captain Cornelius's lost love and he would recognise the bow for what it was.

 

Abberley takes them out in his boat to the point where the black hole at the centre of the multiverse can be seen through the Sagittarian Schwarzschild Radius. Somebody has to fire the arrow into the heart of the black hole. The problem is that to do so means instant death for the archer. The Doctor says that he is the obvious choice to volunteer. He steps into Abberley's cabin to view the charts to give himself a better chance of succeeding. As he does so, Bingo takes the Bow and the Arrow and climbs down a rope beneath the boat. Despite their calls for him to come back he descends resolutely. After taking aim, Bingo (or Robin Lockesley, Earl of Sherwood, to give him his proper title) fires the arrow. Amy hauls the rope to get him back but it goes slack immediately.

 

They return to the pavilion to tell the others that Bingo has died saving Creation. There are tears as well as joy. The Bubbly Boys arrive, too, with General Force and his men trapped forever in a pink bubble. Furthermore, Captain Cornelius has steered through the impossibly complex ways of the multiverse to find them. He used the necklace he took from Amy to guide him. He says that the necklace was passed on to him by an antiquarian on Venice and was a gift from Diana. It was stolen from him by Frank/Freddie Force and then from them by Captain Abberley who gave it to Amy. Cornelius gives the necklace back to Amy, saying that he intends to release Lady Peggy and then try to find his lost love Diana in Old Loondoon.

 

The Paine takes them back to real space where the Gargantua awaits. On board the liner, Urquart tells Hari that he intended to give the planet of Peers to Bingo but now he wants Hari to have it. This will also obviate any objections that Enola might have had to Hari and Jane's marriage.

 

The TARDIS has returned to its normal size and Amy stands on the control deck with the Doctor. All their goodbyes have been said and they prepare to leave. The scanners show that the black tides have gone from the universe. All that is left to do is for the Doctor to send the garbled message to himself that started the whole adventure. He says that he knows such Paradoxes are cheating but without them they wouldn't exist. He grins and pulls a lever.

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

For the purposes of this synopsis I have restricted myself to writing about the main narrative and the events involving the Doctor and Amy. To this end I have had to leave out a great deal of material concerning Moorcock's explanations of the Multiverse as well as many highly entertaining passages that describe the Terraphiles' misunderstanding of Earth (and, particularly, English) history as well as the descriptions of the Whackit games (a cross between cricket, archery and a number of traditional pub games and events more commonly found in village fetes.) essentially a crossover between the world of Doctor Who an Moorcock's other works, it features a number of characters familiar from the author's other novels, including Captain Cornelius and the Bubbly Boys.

 

 

Annuals

Strips and Stories featuring the Eleventh Doctor

 

 

Comic strips in blue

Short stories in black

 

 

Annual 2011

Annual 2011

 

Released: August 2010

ISBN: 978 1 40590 694 4

Buzz!

Writer: Oli Smith   Artwork: John Ross   Colours: James Offredi

 

11th Doctor, Amy and Rory

Kenya, 2013. It is lunchtime on a farm Gero is serving soup to his son, Chipo. A fly lands on the rim of the bowl. Suddenly the fly expands to enormous proportions but before it can do any damage it is thwacked by a spade wielded by Rory. The Doctor and Amy follow Rory through the door, announcing themselves as Intergalactic Pest Control. Out in the fields, over-large insects are munching on the crops. Gero tells the Doctor that he is the first farmer in Kenya to test a new fertilizer. It was developed in the tropics and has worked wonders on the crops. The Doctor asks to see the fertilizer, which is stored in the barn. When the doors open a swarm of hornets, each larger than a man, sweep out. Everyone runs into the now empty barn. The Doctor wonders why the chemical company didn't realise what the hormones in their fertilizer would do but Amy, who has been reading the brochures that Gero showed her, notices that the fertilizers were developed for use in the tropics. The Doctor catches on: it rains all the time in the tropics, diluting the chemical. The Doctor, followed by Amy, runs out of the barn. Using a high pitched noise from his sonic screwdriver he drives off the hornets so that the two of them can get back to the TARDIS. The Doctor uses his weather control to create a rainstorm. Immediately, the insects reduce to normal size. Gero thanks him for saving their lives and the Doctor says that the chemical company will soon be getting a visit from the Health and Safety inspector. The TARDIS dematerializes but inside it the Doctor and his companions have been joined by a giant butterfly.

 

 

Secret of Arkatron

by Justin Richards       11th Doctor and Amy

The TARDIS lands on a barren asteroid with a breathable atmosphere. Across a valley, at the top of a plateau, stands a house built of crumbling stone. Amy declares it 'spooky'. They climb up to the house which seems to have the faded word Arkatron carved over the door. The door creaks when they open it and the lights inside are flickering like candles. The stairs and floorboards are rotten. Suits of armour line the walls. As the Doctor steps past a picture frame it flickers to life, showing a black and white film of a uniformed man making a speech. The Doctor notices that the alarm system has been sabotaged recently and that there are footprints in the dust. A noise further in the house attracts the Doctor. Amy runs after him but loses him. She opens a door where a misshapen figure rises and reaches toward her. It is an old man in a space suit. As the Doctor arrives beside Amy the man calls for Miss Crisp. Immediately a young woman in a space suit arrives and the old man complains that 'two amateurs' have blundered in. miss Crisp explains that the man is Professor Landale and that this is his site. He claims first salvage rights. The Doctor replies that he is not a salvager. Amy continues to look at pictures and videos. Most show military men but in almost all a short, bald man in glasses appears. Suddenly a suit of armour in a nearby alcove lurches towards her.

 

The Doctor aims his sonic screwdriver at the armour and it crashes, lifeless, to the floor. Miss Crisp notices a door in the alcove. They pass through into a large bedroom hung with cobwebs. The bed has a hollow in the mattress as if someone has recently got up. A video screen scrolls a list of names headed 'Lest You Forget'. A painting on another wall shows a bald man in chains being led by soldiers through the hallway of the house. Suddenly a bald man steps from the shadows and asks what the intruders are doing in his room. He says he is the curator of the museum of the Ninth Dynasty of Arkatron and his name is Lester Forge. Landale and the Doctor comment that the Ninth Dynasty was a bloodthirsty time of the dictators. Amy opens a door and the body of an elderly woman topples to the floor. She has been shot at close range. The curator says it is Miss Dellman, his assistant. The Doctor announces that he knows who murdered her.

 

The Doctor says that the bald man in the pictures is the 'curator'. he was brought here as a prisoner for his crimes which are remembered in every picture. The Doctor says that the man isn't Lester Forge; he got the name from 'Lest you forget'. He is Maxim Klart. Miss Dellman was his jailer and the suits of armour his guards (but they were disabled along with the alarm when Miss Crisp deactivated the system). The Doctor says that Klart has been kept on a stasis bed, reading the names of those he murdered for years. Klart points a blaster at them but the Doctor uses his screwdriver to reconnect the alarm system. Suits of armour advance on Klart. They push him onto the bed where he lies, as if relaxed, with his eyes open. The four intruders leave, agreeing never to tell anyone about the house or its location.

 

 

The Grey Hole

Writer: Trevor Baxendale   Artwork: John Ross   Colours: James Offredi

 

11th Doctor and Amy

The TARDIS lands on the Gemstone Moon of Regol Genaralon. The Doctor is impressed by the crystalline flowers but Amy is more interested in a prefabricated base nearby. They enter the base, which looks deserted, and hear a strange noise from inside. They check the data banks. These tell them that a human research team should be stationed there but there has been no log entry for two weeks. The Doctor finds out that the team was researching a grey hole - a space-time anomaly that should not exist - that has broken through from another dimension. The Doctor says that it is rare, dangerous and should be left well alone. They hurry back to the TARDIS and enter the grey hole. When they leave the ship in search of the missing scientist they can't see anything but they do hear the strange noise that they heard on the moon base. The Doctor takes Amy back to the TARDIS and they move closer to the centre of the hole. In a flaming chamber the TARDIS detects traces of the scientists' brainwaves. They leave the safety of the TARDIS and run up a road towards a gateway guarded by monstrous black Vorpon. These are the guardians of the Boundary Nexus. Beyond this point, the Vorpon say, all time lines will be immobilized. The Doctor says that this sounds a bit harsh and asks who put the Vorpon in charge. They say that they are Nexus Forms (they are made from and a part of the grey hole). Amy plunges past the Vorpon saying that she has to help the scientists. The Doctor follows and the pair of them drop into another universe where the scientists are stranded. The Doctor calls the Vorpon and tells them that he will leave them in peace if they return everyone to their home. The scientists and the Doctor (along with Amy and the TARDIS) materialise back at the base and the Doctor departs with the scientists saying that their investigations will be suspended for the time being.

 

 

       Source: Mark Senior

 

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Amy's Choice

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Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Tracie Simpson

 

Script Editor

Brian Minchin

 

Written by Simon Nye

Directed by Catherine Morshead

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Toby Jones (Dream Lord), Nick Hobbs (Mr Nainby), Joan Linder (Mrs Hamill), Audrey Ardington (Mrs Poggit).

 

It's been five years since Amy Pond last travelled with the Doctor and when he lands in her garden again, on the eve of the birth of her first child, she finds herself facing a heartbreaking choice - one that will change her life for ever...

Original Broadcast (UK)

Amy's Choice May 15th, 2010            6h00pm - 6h50pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

Amy Pond is in her kitchen, mixing a cake, when she thinks her contractions have started. She is hugely pregnant. She calls for Rory who arrives on his bicycle and races into the kitchen. She tells him it was a false alarm. Suddenly, the TARDIS materializes on a flower bed in their garden. They go out to greet him. The Doctor looks vaguely puzzled (not least by Amy's pregnancy and Rory's ponytail). As they walk through the lane into Leadworth he confesses that he arrived by accident. They sit down on a bench and discuss life in Leadworth. The Doctor finds it all tedious, Rory is defensive and Amy non-committal. Birds start to sing and the three of them fall asleep.

 

The Doctor wakes suddenly on the floor of the TARDIS. Amy and Rory join him at the console, also bleary eyed. The Doctor says he had a strange nightmare but he is more concerned by the red lights flashing on the console. He starts to investigate and hears Rory describes a dream he has just had. Amy has shared the same dream and so has the Doctor. He suggests that they may have jumped a time track. Amy asks why they can hear birdsong again and the three of them wake up on the park bench.

 

The Doctor warns them not to trust anything. He says that being on the TARDIS and being in Leadworth both felt equally real at the time, with the other time (five years earlier in the TARDIS, five years later in Leadworth) more like a dream. He warns them that it is going to be difficult to work out the truth.

 

Amy's Choice

(drn:44'07")

Back in the TARDIS the Doctor wrestles with the controls as the cloister bell chimes. He is concerned with the state of things but reminds Amy and Rory that this might not be real. Amy is convinced that she is awake but Rory points out (and she agrees) that travelling with a bow-tie wearing alien in a box that is bigger on the inside is no guarantee of truth. The power in the TARDIS abruptly fades and the lights dim. The Doctor says that the TARDIS is dead. He hears the birds again and reminds them to remember how real things feel. Amy asserts that it is real.

 

They wake up in Leadworth with Amy declaring that this is the reality. The Doctor checks for motion blur or pixilation before suggesting that they are in Rory's dream. He sees a nearby old peoples' home (the Sarn Residential Home) and feels that there is something not right about it so they should "go and poke it with a stick." Inside the home he is drawn to an old woman named Mrs. Poggit, who makes him try on a jumper she is knitting for her grandson. Before he can work out what is wrong the birds sing again and the trio fall to the floor.

 

They wake in the powerless TARDIS. With them is a man who calls himself the Dreamlord. He wears a tweed jacket and a bowtie but claims not to be convinced by the look. In fact he is sneeringly contemptuous of the Doctor ("any more tawdry quirks and you could open a tawdry quirk shop") and insulting to Rory (who he calls the 'gooseberry') as well as Amy (who, he says, will have to make a choice between her men). He tells them that they are going to be presented with a choice: they will face mortal danger in both worlds but only one of the worlds is real. They wake up in the sitting room at Sarn but the old people are gone. The Dreamlord, posing as a doctor, looks critically at a scan of the Doctor's brain. He tells them that if they are killed in the dream world, they will wake up in the real one but death in the real world is permanent

 

The Doctor notices that all of the old people have left so they go outside to a playground where a party of school children passes Mrs. Poggit. They fall asleep and reawaken in the TARDIS. It is freezing cold in there and, while Amy improvises some ponchos for them the Doctor creates a generator from some kitchen utensils. This powers up the scanner so that they can see the TARDIS is on a collision course with a cold star; they have 40 minutes before they hit but they will have frozen to death long before then.

 

Back in Leadworth, they wake up to see that the children have been reduced to piles of dust. A group of old people walk determinedly towards them and the Dream Lord reappears. He tries to persuade them that this must be the dream world. The Doctor decides that he knows who the Dream Lord must be because there is only one person in the universe that hates him so much. The old people open their mouths to reveal each contains a single eyeball. The Doctor says that there is a whole creature inside, keeping the old folk alive. Mrs Poggit says they are the Eknodine and their world was taken from them. In turn they will take the Earth for themselves. The Eknodine fire a gas from their mouth and turn a passing postman to dust. Amy and Rory escape back towards their house, Rory having to attack an old lady on the way.

 

The Doctor is chased through the village and enters a butcher's shop. The Dream Lord is posing as the butcher. He laughs as the birdsong starts and the Doctor struggles to keep awake. The Dreamlord welcomes the old people into his shop while the Doctor locks himself inside the freezer and collapses into sleep. He wakes in the TARDIS with Rory and Amy. The Dream lord reappears and decides to split them up so he can be alone with Amy. The Doctor and Rory fall asleep again.

 

Rory wakes on the stairs of his house with Amy asleep beside him. Old people are trying to get in so he drags her upstairs to the nursery. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to power up the light bulbs in the shop, temporarily blinding the Eknodines while he escapes. He finds a VW camper van and drives through the village, picking up people as he goes before the old folk get them. He drops them a t a church before driving on to find his companions.

 

As the TARDIS closes in on the cold star, Amy sits on the steps of the console room, the sleeping Doctor and Rory by her feet. The Dream Lord appears in a silk robe saying that "anything could happen" now that they are alone. He asks if she thinks she is the only girl that the Doctor confides in and then asks if she knows what the Doctor's name is. He agrees that having Rory would be a consolation for losing the Doctor. He adds that her men are waiting for her to decide: "Amy's men, Amy's choice."

 

As the Doctor drives quickly along the country road, the Dreamlord appears in the seat behind him (dressed as a motor racing driver) and taunts the Doctor about his friendships and the way he constantly leaves people behind while replacing them with younger companions.

 

Amy wakes in the nursery. Rory grabs a pair of scissors and cuts off his ponytail for her as the Doctor climbs in through the window. Rory is attacked by Mrs. Poggit. He begins to turn to dust but manages to say "look after our baby" to Amy before he dies. She decides that this is the dream, because she doesn't want to live without Rory. She leads the Doctor out to the van while the Eknodines stand back to watch. The Dream Lord watches as she drives the van into the house, killing herself and the Doctor.

 

The TARDIS is filled with ice as the trio wake up. The Dream Lord returns and admits he is beaten. He restores the TARDIS power and vanishes. The Doctor decides that neither of the adventures was real, both were dreams, and then sets the TARDIS to self-destruct. It explodes in a blinding white flash.

 

The Doctor is alone at the controls when Amy and Rory come in from elsewhere in the TARDIS. He shows them some specks of Psychic Pollen from the Candle Meadows of Karass Don Slava which, he says, had fallen into the Time rotor and heated up, thus creating the dream state. He takes the pollen to the door and blows it into space. He tells the others that the Dream Lord was actually him. The pollen had brought out the dark side of his own personality. Rory wonders what stopped the Leadworth dream. Amy tells that she drove the van into the house even though she did not know which world was real. Rory kisses Amy and the Doctor asks if he should go for a swim and leave them to it. Rory says that the Doctor can take them anywhere, he is happy for it to be "Amy's choice".

 

As the Doctor sets the coordinates he sees that his reflection is, briefly the Dream Lord's face.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

The Dream Lord mentions the Doctor's relationship with Elizabeth I (see The End of Time).

The Doctor gives his age as 907.

The old peoples' home is the SARN Residential Care Home. Sarn was the setting for Planet of Fire.

This episode, at the centre of the series, is the only one that is not referred to later in the series, yet seems to reflect aspects of episodes that precede it: aliens with single eyeballs (the Atraxi in The Eleventh Hour); aliens driven from their home trying to colonise Earth (the Saturnynes in The Vampires of Venice); people being older than they seem (Liz 10 in The Beast Below); malignant aliens appearing initially benevolent (the Daleks in Victory of the Daleks). It also foreshadows incidents that follow; people taking refuge in a church (The Hungry Earth); (Rory's demise, in Cold Blood); Rory dragging Amy to safety (pulling the Pandorica from a blazing building in The Big Bang); the Doctor restoring reality in an exploding TARDIS (The Big Bang).

 

 

The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood

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Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Peter Bennett

 

Script Editor

Lindsey Alford

 

Written by Chris Chibnall

Directed by Ashley Way

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Neve McIntosh (Alaya), Meera Syal (Nasreen Chaudhry), Robert Pugh (Tony Mack), Nia Roberts (Ambrose), Alun Raglan (Mo), Samuel Davies (Elliot), Richard Hope (Malohkeh) [2], Stephen Moore (Eldane) [2].

 

The Doctor, Amy and Rory have landed in the near future in a small Welsh village. It's beautiful, but danger is just beneath the surface... the Silurians are back!

Original Broadcast (UK)

The Hungry Earth         May 22nd, 2010           6h00pm - 6h50pm

Cold Blood      May 29th, 2010            6h00pm - 6h50pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

It is 2020, in the Welsh village of Cwmtaff. A drilling team led by Dr. Nasreen Chaudhry reaches a depth of twenty one kilometres. They are attempting to drill deeper than anyone before, trying to investigate minerals that have appeared in the district but have not been found on the surface of the planet for over 20 million years.

 

The mining team clock off for the night, leaving Mo Northover, a night watchman, in control. He notices a trembling and the lights and cameras start to fail. He goes to investigate and finds a steaming hole in the ground. He reaches into a sudden covering of soil and is dragged beneath the surface.

 

The Hungry Earth

(drn:42'50")

The Doctor arrives with Amy and Rory. He has told them that they are going to Rio de Janeiro but overshot. He is intrigued that the ground feels wrong and there are patches of blue grass in the graveyard where the TARDIS has landed. The trio notice a couple waving to them from the distance. The Doctor looks at them through his binoculars and realises that it must be future Amy and future Rory. His attention is distracted by a 'big mining thing' and he decides to go and have a look.

 

Rory takes Amy's engagement ring back into the TARDIS for safekeeping and, when he exits, he finds that the other two have gone on without him. Instead he meets Ambrose Northover and her son Elliot. She thinks that he is a policeman responding to her call. She tells him that a family grave has been dug up and the coffin removed without disturbing the ground. Rory decides to investigate.

 

The Doctor and Amy break into the plant just after Dr. Chaudhry and her assistant, Tony Mack, have arrived to find Mo missing and an unexplained hole in the floor. The Doctor introduces himself as a ministry official and declares that their readings are wrong: the ground beneath them is moving without explanation. The room trembles, more steaming holes appear and the Doctor tells the others to run. Mack is trapped in a hole but Amy pulls him free only to get stuck herself. The Doctor tells them to shut the drill down but by the time they do Amy has gone. The Doctor surmises that the ground has been bio-programmed to attack whenever it perceives a threat. Even though the drill has stopped the Doctor hears more drilling. He hacks into the company records and tells the others that while they have been drilling down, somebody else has been drilling up. On a monitor, he shows them that three objects are heading for the surface. He calculates that they will arrive in twelve minutes.

 

The Doctor, Dr. Chaudhry, and Mack head out of the compound and meet up with Rory, Ambrose, and Elliot. A dome shaped energy barrier appears around the village. Rory asks where Amy is but the Doctor can only promise to get her back. Ambrose learns that her husband is missing, too. The Doctor promises to get him back, too, but asks that they all trust him. He asks everyone to get every phone, camera and piece of transmitting equipment they can find. While the adults set up a network of cameras, he asks Elliott to draw a map of all of the cameras.

 

Elliot shows the Doctor his map which draws an appreciative comment. The Doctor says that being dyslexic shouldn't hold anyone back. In a brief exchange, the Doctor talks about how he misses his home, how monsters are scared of him and how he will get Elliot's dad back. Next, the Doctor sees Ambrose collecting weapons and asks her to put them away. The dome goes dark to cut out their light and the adults retreat into the church but Elliot has gone home to collect his headphones from his house. An energy surge into the church wrecks the systems.

 

Elliott is chased back to the church and captured before the people inside can get the door open to save him. Ambrose and Tony run out into the graveyard and Tony is lashed with a venomous tongue by a reptilian humanoid. The Doctor and Rory are capture one of the reptiles by bundling it into the refrigerated Meals-on-Wheels van that Ambrose drives. The Doctor remarks that the enemy are leaving but both sides now have hostages. Daylight returns.

 

Amy awakes in what she presumes to be a glass coffin. She shouts for help but is shushed by someone looking in. Gas fills her chamber and she passes out.

 

The Doctor takes his prisoner, Alaya, a warrior of a Silurian tribe, taken into the church where he talks with her. He tries to broker a peace with her but she insists that the humans have attacked her people with their drill and the warrior class has been awoken to defend their tribe. She says that the Silurians will wipe humanity off the surface of the planet.

 

Tony wants to dissect Alaya to find the Silurians' weak points. The Doctor argues that the Silurians feel they have as much right to the planet as the humans and that they are not evil. He says he is going underground to find their friends and family but he want s the others to remain behind and be the best that humanity has to offer.

 

The Doctor, accompanied by Dr. Chaudhry, enters the TARDIS to meet the Silurians underground encampment. While the TARDIS is suddenly pulled down into the earth, the others visit Alaya. She says that one of them is going to kill her and she knows who.

 

Amy awakens in a dissecting chair. Beside her is Mo, with a huge scar running down his chest. A Silurian surgeon closes in on her.

 

The Doctor and Chaudhry exit the TARDIS. He tells her they may find a small settlement and a dozen Silurians. Instead they find a vast, underground city.

 

 

Cold Blood

(drn:44'59")

The Doctor and Nasreen enter the city, using what the Doctor calls 'front door approach'. Silurian troops capture them immediately.

 

Malohkeh, the Silurian doctor, is about to start dissecting Amy, but is called away to examine the Doctor. Amy releases herself and Mo after picking the surgeon's pocket. They find Elliot in suspended animation. He is wired up to machines but Amy says that they will get him out.

 

Rory promises Ambrose that they will get her family back and that he trusts the Doctor.

 

The Doctor and Nasreen are strapped to machinery in a laboratory and the surgeon starts to decontaminate the Doctor, causing severe pain. Malohkeh stops the procedure, against the wishes of Commander Restac, when the Doctor says that the procedure will kill him. He asks for celery.

 

Tony asks Alaya to cure him of the venomous sting on his shoulder in exchange for her release. Instead, she taunts him, saying that he will be the first ape casualty of the coming war. Restac says she will have the Doctor executed as a clear message to the surface. He tries to offer them a prisoner exchange but the drill's proximity to the oxygen pockets above the city are interpreted as an act of war.

 

Amy and Mo move through the corridors until they find two Silurians in suspended animation. They deduce that the reptiles are standing on discs that will lead up through tubes to the surface. They relieve the two soldiers of their weapons and move on but enter a vast chamber with an army of warriors standing ready. Amy says that they need to find the Doctor.

 

The Doctor and Chaudhry are led through the city. He explains to her that the Silurians put themselves into suspended animation when they thought that another planet was going to collide with the Earth. In fact, it was the moon coming into alignment with the Earth. Restac overhears and asks how he knows this. He tells her he met others of her species, similar but different. He adds, under questioning, that the humans killed them.

 

When Ambrose sees how severely hurt her father is she uses a Taser on Alaya to try to get a cure from her. Alaya continues to taunt her, goading her into using the Taser again until it kills her. Tony and Rory find the dying Silurian and Tony tells his daughter that they have to be better than this.

 

The Doctor and Chaudhry are taken into the Silurian court, also their place of execution. Amy and Mo enter but are unable to bring themselves to use their weapons and are overpowered. The prisoners are chained to pillars. Malohkeh tells Restac that this is not the way to behave but she says that it is war and the executions will begin.

 

Restac calls the humans in the church and asks to see Alaya. Ambrose refuses and Restac orders the execution of Amy. The screen Restac has been talking through goes blank. Before the Silurians can open fire, the Silurians' leader, Eldane, is brought into the court by Malohkeh and tells them to stop. He says that the humans have evolved and that war is not the way forward. The Doctor is able to call back to the surface and tells the others to come down, bringing Alaya with them.

 

The Doctor sets up a conference between the Silurians and humans with Amy and Nasreen as ambassadors for humanity. He tells them that there are fluid points in time and that this is their chance to create a timeline that will shape the future of the planet. Malohkeh releases Elliot to his father, saying that he never harms the young. As the Doctor and the two humans return to the chamber, Malohkeh is killed by Restac.

 

Amy, Nasreen and Eldane discuss how the Silurians might live alongside humans. The Doctor enters and is pleased with their progress. However, Rory enters with Ambrose and, behind them, Tony Mack carrying the body of Alaya. Ambrose confesses and her family stare at her, aghast. The Doctor berates her for being so much less than the best of her species. Restac and her warriors enter. When she sees the corpse of her sister she begins to cry and then orders her warriors to open fire. Ambrose tells them that she had her father set the drill to resume its downward course in fifteen minutes. The Doctor uses his screwdriver to disarm the warriors, causing their guns to explode in their hands, while the others flee to a control room.

 

Eldane tells them that he will release toxic gas, originally designed to defend the city. It means that Silurians in suspended animation will be safe, but the others will be killed. The Doctor asks Chaudhry to use an energy surge to destroy her drill and, as she points out, her life's work. The Doctor asks Mo and Ambrose to begin spreading the word that the Silurians will return in one thousand years and that it will be time then to share the planet.

 

Tony decides to stay so that the Silurians can cure genetic mutation brought on by the sting in his shoulder. Chaudhry says she will stay too. Having found what she was looking for she does not want to leave it so soon. The Doctor tells everyone to run to the TARDIS where he opens the door and orders them in.

 

He sees a crack in the wall beside the TARDIS. Amy recognises it as the one from her bedroom wall. The Doctor remembers Prisoner Zero and the Angels taunting him because he didn't know what it was. He goes to the crack to find shrapnel and pulls out a piece of debris. As they go to the TARDIS, Restac arrives, and shoots at the Doctor, but Rory pushes him out of the way and is shot instead. The Doctor makes Amy leave him before Rory is swallowed by the crack, thus erasing him from history. The only thing that remains of Rory is the engagement ring.

 

The TARDIS lands as the drill is destroyed by the Silurian energy surge. Amy sees herself again, on the hill, this time alone. As she re-enters the TARDIS, the Doctor looks at what he pulled out of the crack: a scorched piece of the notice from the TARDIS door.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

It is apparent that the TARDIS is at the centre of the explosion that caused the cracks in the Universe

The Doctor refers to the Silurians as 'Eocenes' and 'Homo Reptilia'.

The Silurians armour is similar to the Sea Devils' (see Warriors of the Deep).

The Silurians appeared in 1970's Doctor Who and the Silurians and then alongside race Sea Devil in 1984's Warriors of the Deep. The Sea Devils also appeared in 1972's The Sea Devils.

 

 

//-->  Vincent and the Doctor

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Tracie Simpson

Patrick Schweitzer

 

Script Editor

Emma Freud

Brian Minchin

 

Written by Richard Curtis

Directed by Jonny Campbell

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Tony Curran (Vincent), Bill Nighy (Dr Black), Nik Howden (Maurice), Chrissie Cotterill (Mother), Sarah Counsell (Waitress); Morgan Overton, Andrew Byrne (School Children).

 

The Doctor, Amy, Vincent Van Gogh and a terrifying alien all feature in this stunning but heart-breaking adventure.

Original Broadcast (UK)

Vincent and the Doctor           June 5th, 2010              6h00pm - 6h50pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

The Doctor and Amy are in the Musée D'Orsay art gallery, viewing the paintings of Vincent van Gogh. Amy asking the Doctor why he is being so nice to her, taking her to Arcadia and the Trojan Gardens, when she is distracted by one of the paintings. The Doctor steps forward to look closely at the picture: a church in a field. In one of the lower windows he sees a face, an evil face. He quickly interrupts the speech being given to visitors by Dr Black and asks when the painting was completed. Hearing that the date was probably between the first and third of June in 1890, the Doctor grabs Amy's hand and tells her that they need to talk to Vincent van Gogh.

 

Vincent and the Doctor

(drn:46'07")

The TARDIS materializes in a street and the Doctor tells Amy they need to find van Gogh, get him to take them to the church, and then overcome the monster from the painting. Amy asks where the artist might be and the Doctor suggests an orange coloured cafe like the one represented in a painting in the book of van Gogh's work she is carrying. They find the cafe in the next street and ask the owner about van Gogh. He makes a dismissive reply and walks away so the Doctor turns his attention to the waitresses. They say that van Gogh is a drunk who never pays his bills and has no talent.

 

Van Gogh and the cafe owner emerge. The artist is trying to sell a painting for one Franc so that he can buy another drink but the offer is rejected. The Doctor tries to buy the artist a drink or, failing that, the painting. Van Gogh tells the Doctor that he needs to know three things: he pays for his own drinks, no one buys his paintings or they will be laughed out of town and that Amy is cute. Amy intervenes, ordering a bottle of wine that she will share with whoever she wishes. The Doctor and Amy talk with van Gogh but when the Doctor introduces himself van Gogh assumes that he is a doctor sent by his brother. Amy looks at one of the paintings that van Gogh has with him and lets slip that it is one of her favourites. He is puzzled: she cannot have seen it before. To cover up her mistake she begins flirting with the artist until the Doctor interrupts and asks Vincent if he has painted any churches recently. Van Gogh tells him that he has been waiting for the right weather before painting one church. A woman arrives, screaming for help and the Doctor, Amy and Vincent rush after her.

 

They find a dead girl lying in the street. The girl's mother blames Vincent's madness for her daughter's death. She and the crowd that has gathered throw stones at Vincent, so the Doctor, Amy and he run away. The Doctor asks if any other murders have taken place and Vincent says that there was one a week earlier. Vincent asks where the Doctor and Amy are staying and the Doctor takes this as an invitation to stay with the artist.

 

Inside van Gogh's residence the Doctor and Amy are overcome to see so many of his paintings lying about. Van Gogh apologises for 'the clutter' and promises to clear them away some day. The Doctor tells him to be careful with his paintings because they are precious. When the painter asks who thinks that they are precious, Amy says they are precious to her. The Doctor tries to ask about the church but begins to tell him about how he sees the world, that it offers much more than the normal eye can see. He talks about colours; how he can hear them. Amy screams from outside.

 

Vincent and the Doctor find Amy on the ground, saying that she was knocked over by an unseen assailant. Vincent runs to get a pitchfork and runs towards them, telling them to run The Doctor thinks that Vincent is having a fit. Something knocks him over and he realises that Vincent is fighting an invisible enemy. The Doctor swings a stick around randomly while Vincent drives the creature away.

 

The Doctor tells Vincent that the creature is invisible to them so Vincent paints over one of his completed canvases, to the Doctor and Amy's distress. The Doctor takes the sketch and tells Amy to keep Vincent safe. He returns to the TARDIS and retrieves a device from a box. It has a scanner that can identify species visually. He tests it on himself (it prints out pictures of his first and second incarnations) but it cannot identify the monster from van Gogh's sketch. The Doctor steps out of the TARDIS and the machine shows the alien behind him. It identifies it as a Krafayis. The Doctor runs and hides until the creature gives up the chase. Amy suddenly appears, both of them scream, and she says that she was bored of Vincent's snoring.

 

The Doctor wakes Vincent and tells him that Amy has brought him a present for saving her in the night; the house is surrounded by sunflowers. Amy suggests he does a painting of sunflowers but Vincent says that they are not his favourites - to him they are a complex mix of the half-living and half-dying - a challenge. The Doctor tells Vincent he can rise to the challenge.

 

The Doctor shows Vincent a picture of the Krafayis. He says that they are a pack animal that travels through space. If one of them is lost or left behind the others will not return for it. This one has been left behind, and will kill until it is killed, which is difficult due to the creatures' invisibility. The Doctor says they can fight this creature: if Vincent paints the church the alien will come. Vincent consents to help. Once he has left the room the Doctor tells Amy that, if Vincent is killed, many of the paintings in the Musée d'Orsay will never have existed.

 

The Doctor finds Vincent on his bed, crying. Vincent says that he knows the Doctor and Amy will leave him; everyone leaves him. The Doctor insists that there is always hope, but Vincent will not be comforted. He becomes annoyed and orders the Doctor to leave. The Doctor explains to Amy that Vincent will soon shoot himself, and they should leave. He says that they should go to the church alone and hope that the Krafayis turns up but Vincent enters, ready to go with them.

 

Amy walks with Vincent. On the way she tries to say how sorry she is that he feels so sad but he says that he will try to be strong and get through his depression if she can get through hers. She tells him that she is not sad but he says that he can hear it in her: he points out that she is crying.

 

The Doctor tries to interrupt by suggesting a plan of action. He says that his excellent, if smelly, godmother gave him the device that will allow him to see the monster. On the way, they see the funeral of the girl who was killed the previous night. Vincent sets up his equipment outside the church and begins to paint. After a lengthy period of painting the creature appears in the window of the church. The Doctor goes in, telling Amy and Vincent not to follow but Amy tells Vincent that she will when the time comes.

 

The Doctor puts on his machine to track the Krafayis. Night falls. Vincent tells Amy that the Krafayis has moved and she rushes inside the church just as the Doctor is knocked to the floor. They hide in a confessional booth until Vincent wards off the Krafayis with a chair, allowing all three of them to escape outside. The Doctor tries to stun the Krafayis with his screwdriver but fails. As the monster attacks Vincent uses the legs of his easel to stab it do death. Vincent says he didn't mean to kill the creature while the Doctor comforts it as it dies.

 

Later, the three of them lie in a field and look up at the stars while Vincent describes the night sky as he sees it.

 

The next morning, the Doctor takes Vincent to the TARDIS, now plastered with advertising posters. They show him the inside and then take him to Paris 2010, the Musée d'Orsay. They make their way up to the van Gogh exhibition. The Doctor asks Dr. Black to explain van Gogh's place in of the history of art. Black gives his opinion that he was the finest painter of all, "not only the world's greatest artist but also one of the greatest men of all time." Vincent begins to cry tears of joy before hugging Dr. Black. The Doctor returns Vincent to his own time. Vincent tells the Doctor that he will be a new man from now on and proposes, only partly humorously, to Amy who says she is not the marrying kind. The TARDIS dematerialises.

 

Amy and the Doctor return to the Musée d'Orsay, where Amy is optimistic that van Gogh will have lived a long life and created many more paintings: in fact, nothing has changed. The Doctor explains to her his theory that good things can't remove the bad things from life but, equally, the bad things can't spoil the good things. He adds that he believes they certainly added to the good things in Vincent's life. They step over to the painting of the sunflowers which now carries a dedication 'to Amy'.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

Pictures of the First and Second Doctors are printed by the Doctor's creature identifying device.

The Doctor's reference to a godmother with two heads could refer back to his regeneration in The Parting of the Ways where he said that this was a possibility, or to the Aplans (The Time of Angels)

Amy mentions a trip to Arcadia. The "fall of Arcadia" was one of the events of the Time War (see Doomsday).

 

 

//-->  The Adventure Games

City of the Daleks       

BBC Logo

 

 

City of the Daleks

Executive Producers:

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Anwen Aspden

Charles Cecil

Developed by Sumo Digital

Written by Phil Ford

Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek Voices), Sara Carver (Sylvia).

 

The TARDIS materializes in 1963 to find the human race crushed by the Daleks. The Doctor embarks on a quest to the Dalek planet to correct time and save the last survivor of Humanity - Amy Pond!

This is your chance to be the Doctor.

 

Are you ready for the challenge?

 

Notes:

The Adventure Games are a series of four episodic downloadable games in which players assume control of the Doctor and Amy as they embark on new adventures which complement the TV series. They are available for free in the UK, and for a few dollars internationally from Direct2drive.

Released: 2nd June 2010

[UK Download].

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

The Doctor and Amy discuss London - in 1963, the coolest place on Earth - even the galaxy! Amy wants to see John Lennon. The Doctor asks why nobody ever wants to see Ringo Starr. The TARDIS materializes in London in 1963, but something is wrong.

 

London is inruins. The sky is orange and cloudy. Smoke billows everywhere. A nearby shred of newspaper declares it to be the "End of the World". Daleks have destroyed Earth. The Doctor declares that this is impossible. They don't have this kind of technology.

 

Suddenly, a young woman appears, chased by new red Daleks, resembling the drone Daleks revealed in Victory of the Daleks. The red Dalek announces that the last human alive must be destroyed. She lures the Dalek near a pile of dynamite and runs to a trigger, which she depresses, detonating the dynamite. The Dalek is surrounded by explosions and is immobilized. It screams and seems to die. She jumps down a manhole as more Daleks appear.

 

Amy encourages the Doctor to follow her and see what's happened. They are unable to reach the manhole because of the sudden appearance of a host of Dalek drones.

 

Amy and the Doctor sneak around to a precariously balanced, black taxi cab. They push what's left of it into a barred tube station entrance, smashing the wooden planks and leaving room for Amy and the Doctor to go to the underground station.

 

They catch up with Sylvia, which is the last person alive, and she explains that the world military was targeted and destroyed instantly while pockets of average people managed to survive a while longer. When the Daleks invaded, they came through a shredded sky and blanketed the sky until it was dark with Daleks. Earth was destroyed. She wants to know how the Doctor and Amy survived but the Doctor says they were just spending time 'away'. The Doctor wants to know how Sylvia survived. She says people make do when they are forced to. Daleks appear and Sylvia runs down an empty corridor undetected by the Daleks. The Doctor and Amy are not as quick and must follow without being detected by the Daleks.

 

When they catch up to Sylvia, she says the electrified train track must be discharged to prevent their electrocution if they are to escape down this corridor. The Doctor rewires a terminal nearby by hand and the three run down the track to a trap Sylvia has set for the Daleks involving dynamite. The Doctor forces Amy to climb up the manhole Sylvia first entered from the surface, just as Daleks appear. Sylvia orders them to run as she is exterminated by a Dalek death ray. The Doctor is distressed to see her die and calls out, but is left with no choice but to climb after Amy as the Dalek triggers the trap and the tunnel explodes.

 

Amy and the Doctor sneak their way back to the TARDIS, avoiding patrolling red Daleks and the Doctor hastily looks up the source of their invasion power - he traces it back to Skaro, the Dalek home planet. Amy feels sick and coughs but the Doctor comforts her as if he doesn't know what's really going on - she is fading from existence. The Doctor grimly states that they must go to Skaro and prevent Earth from being destroyed by stopping whatever power source the Daleks discovered to mess with locked time periods.

 

They appear on Skaro and Amy feels worse when they exit the TARDIS. The Doctor explains that when they walked on the destroyed 1963 Earth time, Amy became a paradox - she shouldn't exist now - but the TARDIS can protect her as a time traveler for a short period of time. If the Doctor can collect Dalek parts, he can assemble a crude device that should stave off her non-existence a while longer. The Doctor runs through the active Dalek factory, collecting spare parts and returns to Amy. He constructs a sort of Chronon bracelet out of the parts and equips her with it. Amy still fades to invisibility off and on, but she is apparently more stable with this device.

 

The Doctor and Amy explore the building a bit more and discover the Dalek 'librarian' - source of all data for the Daleks in this city. It resembles a giant, emotionless, goat-like eyeball scanning a series of observation computers. By sneaking around its sight and reprogramming the security codes the Doctor is able to confuse the eye and use it as a digital window to view the top floor, where the Dalek Emperor appears. Amy comments that this Dalek appears large and the Doctor replies that it's an occupational hazard - part of sitting on a throne all day. As they leave to go to the top floor, Daleks seize them in the lift and declare that the Dalek Emperor will see them. The Doctor replies 'just the dictator I wanted to see.'

 

The Dalek Emperor seems to brag about knowing the Doctor. The Doctor says, well that saves time. He doesn't have to explain who he is again. The Doctor converses with the Dalek Emperor and acts afraid of the Daleks' power source, trying to make the Dalek Emperor to reveal it. The Dalek Emperor proudly obliges and reveals the Eye of Time. The Doctor is shocked - this was what the Time Lords once had. It is more powerful than the TARDIS, more powerful than any other source of power, some speculate the heart of all time and space. How did the Daleks acquire it? The Dalek Emperor declares that the Time Lords lost it and now the Daleks are the new Time Lords.

 

Amy and the Doctor leap into the Eye to escape the Daleks. They appear back in time in the same city - Kaalann, the capital city of the Daleks, just before the Eye was brought to Skaaro. The Doctor declares that if they can delay the Daleks from placing the Eye in their control center at this time, they can buy a window to stop the Daleks from acquiring it as a power source.

 

In the ruins of Kaalaan's floor surrounding the control center, a noxious looking liquid appears in fissures in the ground. The Doctor and Amy devise a crude battery from Dalek materials to draw power from the fissures and charge the control center prematurely. As the Daleks enter through time with the Eye, they are vaporized by the Doctor's trap and the Doctor seems to indicate this is a good thing for the time being. They find the Dalek 'librarian' again, this time guarded by strange gooey plants which whip their heads and attack nearby entities.

 

Avoiding these and smashing the all-seeing Dalek eye window, a sort of Dalek pupil bounces out and the Doctor says he can reverse-engineer it to blind all the Daleks. The Doctor orders Amy to collect a Dalek eye stalk and Dalek blaster arm which he can use as components of a universal Dalek-blinding device. Amy explores the ruins of the Dalek factory, avoiding the plants and high-alert red Daleks to acquire pieces from the strewn Dalek armor, then returns to the Doctor. Amy's partial invisibility seems to save her from danger at times, but she continually fades toward non-existence. The Doctor works quickly to build the device, then orders Amy to insert the device in the ruins of the Dalek Emperor to activate it. The Doctor and Amy sneak their way to the top floor again, where Daleks anticipate the Eye of Time to be lowered into the control center.

 

Amy just avoids Dalek guards and does as she is told. When the librarian eye is attached to the Dalek Emperor's casing, it shoots beams into the sky and all the red Dalek guards are temporarily immobilized from shock. They begin screaming 'The Daleks are under attack' and that their vision is impaired. The Eye of Time hovers in place, up by Amy and the Dalek Emperor's throne. The Daleks shoot wildly then stand still firing in place, helplessly blind. The Doctor runs around the beams as the Daleks shout at him and makes his way to the control center, where he is able to use the sonic screwdriver to damage it. Surges explode from the control center of the Eye and Amy begins fading into non-existence. He races up to the now hovering Eye of Time, near the Dalek Emperor's throne, and grabs Amy, then compels her to leap with him through the Eye of Time.

 

It spits them back out into the Dalek city, where they'd parked the TARDIS. The Eye of Time doesn't seem to be anywhere in sight. Amy asks what happened and the Doctor dismissively explains that they've come to Kaalaan at the time and in the state they left it - the real Kaalaan, how it should be: destroyed. Amy no longer pulses in and out of existence. The Doctor and Amy enter the TARDIS and the Doctor jokes that Amy had wanted to see Ringo Starr, didn't she?

 

Amy rolls her eyes and they materialize with the TARDIS in proper 1963 just in time to see Sylvia in a red phone booth. She might be late for an appointment, they overhear Sylvia explaining, but it's not the end of the world!

 

Earth is restored. The Daleks never invaded. The Doctor has saved the day again.

 

Source: Maxeem Konrardy

 

 

The Adventure Games

Blood of the Cybermen           

BBC Logo

 

 

Blood of the Cybermen

Executive Producers:

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Anwen Aspden

Charles Cecil

Developed by Sumo Digital

Written by Phil Ford

Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Barnaby Edwards (Chisholm), Sarah Douglas (Elizabeth Meadows), Nicholas Briggs (Cyber Voices).

 

The Doctor and Amy materialize in the Arctic - where members of a survey team are turning from flesh to metal and digging something sinister from under the ice that's been waiting thousands of years - an army of Cybermen!

This is your chance to be the Doctor.

 

Are you ready for the challenge?

 

Notes:

The Adventure Games are a series of four episodic downloadable games in which players assume control of the Doctor and Amy as they embark on new adventures which complement the TV series. They are available for free in the UK, and for a few dollars internationally from Direct2drive.

Released: 26th June 2010

[UK Download].

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

Setting: Arctic circle, 30 miles west of GSO site

Time: Present era

 

A small skidoo races through the snow carrying a distressed rider. He wants to escape whatever he is racing away from.

 

One month earlier, the man - whose name tag identifies him as Chisholm - is chipping away at ice while a series of like-uniformed work around him. A supervisor or superior warns him to be careful as the site is ancient.

 

These memories from a month earlier seem to drive him madly onward. Chisholm is suddenly forced to stop his skidoo, dismount and search for some way around a giant wall of ice blocking his path. He keeps repeating to himself that he can't go back. He simply can't.

 

A month earlier, he recalls, he hit something incredible and began to unearth it.

 

In the present, Chisholm doesn't seem to be in control of himself as the memories overpower and disorient him. He falls backward into a crevice, screaming.

 

The object found was a Cyberman's arm.

 

In the TARDIS, the 11th Doctor - apparently still on his rock-and-roll obsession - plays noiseless air guitar and wraps up his story about failing to teach Elvis the G-sharp. Amy asks incredulously, "You taught Elvis to play guitar?" to which the Doctor responds, "Not very well, obviously ..."

 

Their light conversation is interrupted by an SOS signal that the TARDIS picks up. Amy asks if it was intended for the TARDIS but the Doctor doubts that. Distress beacons typically aren't choosy about who detects them. The TARDIS lands in the Arctic. The Doctor and Amy rush out in their normal, summery clothes - Doctor in his tweed jacket, classic dark bow tie and heeled shoes, Amy in her skirt, vest and heeled boots. Surprised, she asks where they are. The Doctor replies that it's just the Arctic and the TARDIS should keep them warm - at least for a while. Amy protests that they aren't wearing proper footwear for the arctic. As the Doctor distractedly notes that the distress signal wasn't very strong, the ground shakes beneath them.

 

Amy shouts "Earthquake" before correcting herself and shouting "er... Ice quake!" and reminds the Doctor about their heeled footwear.

 

The Doctor says they must be atop a floating ice plateau, and wants to go explore. "Didn't you listen to anything I just said?" shouts Amy. "No," states the Doctor and begins poking around the area. They have arrived just next to the abandoned skidoo. The Doctor takes the SatNav from it. Looking down into the crevice, a man's body can be seen and the Doctor decides to climb down. Amy waits as the Doctor jumps and climbs into the crevice - several feet deep. He searches the man's backpack for a medical aid and finds a metal container for water. Filling it from a nearby stream of melting ice and heating it with the sonic screwdriver, the Doctor produces a steaming mess caddie of water - "the perfect receptacle for water" as he opines - and regrets he hasn't any tea to make it more appetizing.

 

Reviving the delirious Chisholm, the Doctor learns that his ankle is injured and they decide to try to use the skidoo's cable to bring him up. However, when they attempt to do this, the entire skidoo comes crashing down upon them and they don't seem to have another means of getting back up to Amy and the TARDIS. Then, they notice the skidoo has destroyed a part of the ice wall and they are able to walk through it. Amy waits as the Doctor pushes enormous chunks of ice about the area to make a path for the weakened Chisholm to follow. When the Doctor climbs around a chasm that the new companion can't follow, the Doctor is forced to create a sort of ice bridge. He uses the sonic screwdriver to melt the base of an ice stalactite and pushes it across the ravine. It crashes down into place. Chisholm shuffles up the ice and they reach the TARDIS again.

 

The Doctor and Amy inquire immediately about the place Chisholm was running from. The archaeologist adamantly refuses to go anywhere near it, passing out from fright. Amy comments that Chisholm is delirious, but the Doctor corrects her - he's "terrified".

 

They bring him into the TARDIS and use the SatNav to look up the location of the GSO site. The TARDIS appears in the middle of the base, which is a lone refuge from the cold surrounded by a wire fence and miles of snow and ice in every direction. As they exit the TARDIS, Amy asks if the Doctor has ever seen the Thing. The Doctor asks whether she means "the John Carpenter, Kurt Russel Thing or the Howard Hawks thing-y with the walking carrot" and dismisses the question.

 

Chisholm attempts to stay calm enough to describe the attacks and what was happening to his friends when he initially fled earlier - namely, their transformation into robots. The Doctor seems to be picking up clues but suddenly a slithering metal leech-like robot leaps at Chisholm from behind and appears to "bite" him. Amy and the Doctor avoid the Cybermat and it is shooed away. Chisholm reacts in horror and flees to the base's tower to isolate himself.

 

The Doctor rubs his chin and wonders why a Cybermat would be programmed to infect people - turn them into robots - instead of kill them. They approach an airplane hangar-like building, which appears to be the main compound. However, when the Doctor knocks on the locked door, a menacing figure opens it. He has the head of a Cyberman hanging limply on his neck like a zombie. He sways, apparently ready to jump at the Doctor. "Who are you then?" asks the Doctor, as if innocently.

 

"Die," responds the man with the Cyberman head.

 

"Not much for conversation," says the Doctor, changing strategy. He shouts at Amy to figure out some way to disable the cyborg while he basically runs around in circles, just ahead of his pursuer. "Must eliminate ... Die ..." chants the cyborg. Amy thinks quickly and sneaks just behind the cyborg's circular path - which runs just past a steam vent. Clogging the outlet with the turn of a lever, she waits until the cyborg is just in range - then turns the lever to release the steam directly upon the cyborg. Electric bolts that resemble the deadly sign of a Cyberman attack run across the cyborg's body and it expires, screaming.

 

The Doctor breathes a heavy sigh and congratulates Amy on the quick thinking.

 

When they attempt to retrieve Chisholm from behind his locked door, he responds through the communicator that he would prefer them to save themselves. The Doctor promises that Chisholm will be spared and asks for more information about who to talk to about how to stop the Cybermen. Chisholm despondently replies that Elizabeth Meadows is the Senior Scientist and she should be inside the main compound. They leave him to wallow in the tower.

 

They take the pass key from the cyborg body and cautiously enter the locked door of the compound. This time, no cyborg greets them and they are able to sneak inside - finally out of the cold - and into the base. They deftly turn and avoid another person with a Cyberman head that is pacing just around the corner. The Doctor and Amy enter a room where a Cybermat is wagging its tail intimidatingly before a computer screen. The Doctor gives it a cyber-migraine with a specific burst of the sonic and it scurries through an air vent. The Doctor concludes that the clever awful things must have infested the airlocks of the entire base. If they can get to the entire nest and give it a giant cyber-migraine with an amplification of the sonic's signal, it might just disable the cyber-virus from spreading to whomever is left alive and hiding. Amy says those things are worse than spiders. The Doctor solemnly responds, "Spiders? I'd rather we change the subject" [displaying for the first time this particular Doctor's arachnophobia?]

 

On the computer, they discover that the project is a multi-national investigation - "a real brainy bunch" quips the Doctor - and Meadows' daughter would be turning 5 on May 5th - and the Doctor seems to think this is relatively soon. They also learn that Chisholm is the Chief Engineer and Archaeologist. They believe they can enter a locked chamber from the hallway using Meadows' daughter's birthday as a password. That seems to work - only too well! Meadows is inside this chamber and attacks the Doctor with an ice pick - then barely misses or avoids them as the Doctor dodges - wedging it firmly into a table.

 

They huddle inside the small makeshift lab, where a couple microscopes, files and a Cyberarm lay strewn on the tables. Meadows' arm is in a cast, which the Doctor eyes suspiciously but accepts as the 'injury' she explains it as. She tells them that she has been working privately in this room, thinking everyone else was dead or converted into Cyberslaves. She says she is trying to develop an antidote to the cyber virus. The Doctor immediately adopts this plan and offers to help her develop the cure to Cyberslavery. Meadows relates that this site - where they found the Cyberman arm - is 10,000 years old.

 

Amy and the Doctor get back to work trying to find a fresh sample of the cyborg blood. They locate the distress signal device, as it was sitting conveniently on a shelf in a nearby study, and use it to create their desired sonic screwdriver amp. They return to the computer room and examine the air vent. Amy suggests the Doctor climbs inside and - continuing his latest pop reference obsession - replies, "Am I wearing a Bruce Willis vest?"

 

Amy asks if he expects her to drop it right in the vent and the Doctor smiles. "You're a star!" he approves, "And you're even brighter than Alpha Ceti Beta 6."

 

As she climbs up into the vent-work, she narrates her experience (coming closer to the nest - seeing it - dropping the device in) but just as the signal activates, the vent-work gives way and she falls into a small radio room - where the wandering cyborg had stored himself! It immediately gives chase to her around a small table, repeating "Die ... Must eliminate ..." The Doctor pounds on the door, "Amy? Amy are you all right?!" In a matter of seconds, to avoid being distance-zapped by a cyborg bolt of electricity, Amy loosens some wires hanging from the ceiling, allows the cyborg to chase her round once more and flicks the light switch - completing the ceiling wiring's circuit with the cyborg's body. Electric shocks fly across the Cyberslave as it collapses. Amy has killed another cyborg and saved her own life.

 

The Doctor gets through the door and Amy is able to meet with him about the radio in the room. All at once, the radio is active. It calls, "Fort Cecil to GSO Zebra Bay! We are coming in for a delivery ..." The Doctor tries to communicate back to warn them, but they don't respond. Amy realizes the signals can be received but not sent. The Doctor quickly locates the problem. Amy is assigned to replace the capacitor and warn them not to come near to prevent more bodies to be used by the cyber virus. He removes the nano-synthesizer from the dead Cyberslave and dashes off to try to come up with a cure for the virus. Unsure of where to find a capacitor, Amy goes back outside into the cold to Chisholm's tower communicator. She asks if he is alright and if he knows where there is a replacement capacitor. He sounds worse than before but is able to tell her the combination to a locker which stores a replacement.

 

After repairing the radio, she warns the Fort Cecil signal not to come any closer because of an outbreak of "polar flu" that must be quarantined. They reply that they understand and will be by later - "Over and Out."

 

Amy asks herself, "They actually say that?"

 

The Doctor has created a cure using Meadows' small lab, but Meadows herself was nowhere to be found when he got there. Perturbed by the disappearance of Meadows but unflappable a team as ever, the Doctor and Amy rush to Chishom with the cure. He reluctantly emerges from behind the giant metal door and reveals himself. His right arm has completely transformed into a Cyberman arm and his face is horrifyingly halfway between his human face and that of a Cyberslave. The Doctor and Amy get him inside the compound and into the lab where he can safely heal from the nanotechnology. They, however, must go on as he lays on the lab floor.

 

They activate the lift inside the makeshift lab - which is actually a lift hallway - and descend several levels into the ice. When they come out, they encounter a vast, layered network of criss-crossing tunnels - filled with pacing, searching Cyberslaves. Apparently, someone has been alerted of their presence because the Cyberslaves are looking for intruders. They quickly dodge around Cyberslave after Cyberslave, into nooks and hallways and climb down ladders until they must be much deeper into the ice than before. As they round a corner, they discover the tunnel they are in connects to an enormous cavern. A Cyberman ship is embedded in the ice and covered with a lattice of catwalks. The ceiling appears to be over 100 feet above them, the cavern well lit from inside by flood lights and light from the ship itself.

 

Amy gawks and asks if this ship has really been here for 10,000 years. The Doctor responds that it has been hibernating, waiting for explorers to send out the Cybermats and create Cyberslaves - using minimal energy to awaken an army of Cybermen that will convert all of human life into Cybermen. [It is worth noting at this point that the Doctor "remembers" through a bonus "WHO FACT" during earlier gameplay that Cybermen are originally from Earth's twin planet Mondas, which goes some way to explaining why the Cybermen are so compatible with Earth humans.]

 

Amy and the Doctor attempt to climb up to the helm of the spaceship using the catwalks, but they find to their chagrin that they can only ascend using pneumatic lifts that require one person going up at a time - because someone has to remain on the previous level to activate the switches. After staggering their ascent in turns, and making slow progress upwards, the Doctor asks Amy to go up before him on the third lift. When she reaches the top of the lift, two Cyberslaves escort her away. "Amy!" yells the Doctor, but he knows it's too late. He must figure out where she is being taken. He whips out the sonic screwdriver and risks it on a few disabled lifts to reach the top quickly, and dashes through the doorway to the bridge of the craft.

 

Inside, a dramatic scene is presented for the Doctor. Elizabeth Meadows, her 'injured' arm revealed as a Cyberman arm, her eyes being encroached by gray, cybernetic veins, defies the Doctor with an image of Amy in a Cyberman conversion chair. The Doctor begins to make demands but Meadows explains everything; they crashed a long time ago in the Arctic. Now the Doctor has a choice - to awaken the Cyberman army immediately or his friend dies. The Doctor, now well experienced in these specific negotiations, accepts the terms immediately - he will release the Cyberman army in exchange for Amy's life, but not before adding that he now knows Meadows was a Cyberslave all along. The Doctor completes the program using the ship's computer and the awakening begins.

 

Cyberslave Meadows ignores the Doctor as she brings the Cyberman leader to life with a switch. The official Cyberman leader, with a black casing around a transparent window to what was once a human brain, does indeed awaken. "Lord, I have reactivated you," declares Cyberslave Meadows in fright. The Doctor recognizes what's happening and shouts to the Cyberleader, "No, you don't have to kill her!" but it's too late. Speaking as quickly as it was revived, the Cyberleader emits that they have no need for Cyberslaves, "Cybermen are superior to all," and blasts Meadows dead. Switching quickly into Doctor-delete mode, the Cyberleader fires at the Doctor as he runs out of the room and into the ship's halls.

 

He quickly navigates around awakened Cybermen into the Cyberman conversion chamber and locks the door's opening mechanism. The Cybermen begin ramming on the door with their fists and it's only a matter of time before their door fails and the Cybermen are upon Amy and the Doctor. He releases the manacles of the chair and Amy leaps out, ready for action. However, they must find another way out because there are far too many Cybermen behind the door the Doctor just entered from.

 

Using switches to aim the chair's conversion beams toward the back of the frozen room, the Doctor uses the conversion chair's own weaponry to blast a hole in the ice. Amy and the Doctor escape the room through the hole and round the back of the ship's bridge. But before they can leave the base entirely, the Doctor must undo the awakening before the Cyberman army takes over Earth. They enter the bridge and find it abandoned enough for the Doctor to access the ship's computer.

 

He intends to use the discoveries he made creating the Cyberslave antidote to reverse the Cyberman awakening. He believes that by making the ship's program reverse itself, he can force the blood of all the Cybermen to reverse the nanosynthesis process and remotely destroy all the Cybermen on Earth. The Cyber leader appears to put a stop to them, announcing that they are to be deleted. Things appear grim, when a fully recovered and fully human Chisholm appears just as suddenly to take out the Cyber leader with some electrical weaponry of his own - the originally discovered Cyberarm!

 

The Doctor seems impressed to see his virus-cure work - and Chisholm both alive and human. Chisholm declares just how happy he really is and begins kicking the metal of the collapsed Cyber leader.

 

The Doctor doesn't want to take any chances on the cyber base becoming active and has programmed the ship to self-destruct. Unfortunately, Amy, Chisholm and the Doctor have less than a minute by now to escape. They run down the catwalks, down a pneumatic lift, across a pneumatic bridge, out of the enormous chamber, into the tunnel network and up a lift. As they race out into the cold, the GSO base rocks and explodes from underneath - knocking the trio into the snow.

 

As they get up, finally feeling somewhat safe from the cyber threat, the Doctor remarks that it all went according to plan ... "in the end."

 

Amy skeptically asks, "Do you even know what a plan ... is?"

 

The sound of the engines of a small plane overhead indicates the presence of the Fort Cecil delivery crew. Chisholm has a way home and the Doctor and Amy find it's a fine time to depart. There is one thing that UNIT never got used to about his name, remarks the Doctor cryptically to Chisholm. Chisholm asks who he is. The Doctor replies, "The Doctor. Just the Doctor." Amy and the Doctor step into the TARDIS and depart.

 

Meanwhile, somewhere out in the snow, a frozen dozen of Cybermen stand like soldiers in rows, almost silently, waiting. The sound of an electrical current subtly emanates from them. They aren't moving. Nor are they destroyed.

 

Source: Maxeem Konrardy

 

 

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The Adventure Games

TARDIS              

BBC Logo

 

 

TARDIS

Executive Producers:

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Anwen Aspden

Charles Cecil

Developed by Sumo Digital

Written by James Moran

Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Sarah Douglas (Entity).

 

With the TARDIS caught in a time riptide, it's up to Amy to save the day or leave the Doctor trapped in the void forever. Meanwhile, a dangerous entity is roaming the TARDIS corridors and it hasn't been fed for a very long time...

This is your chance to be the Doctor.

 

Are you ready for the challenge?

 

Notes:

The Adventure Games are a series of four episodic downloadable games in which players assume control of the Doctor and Amy as they embark on new adventures which complement the TV series. They are available for free in the UK, and for a few dollars internationally from Direct2drive.

Released: 27th August 2010

[UK Download].

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

"Not true," protests the Doctor. Amy is telling him how everywhere he goes ends up as a disaster area. The Doctor tries to come up with the times nothing at all has happened after landing the TARDIS. There was Brighton Beach ... wait no ... that wasn't good at all. There was that one time in France ... oh, no ...

 

Suddenly, the TARDIS shakes violently and the Doctor shouts that they must have remained stuck in the previous time stream. Before anything can be done, the TARDIS doors fly open and the Doctor is sucked out the door.

 

Amy rushes to the exit door to find the Doctor floating along by the TARDIS with small energy-based tadpole-like creatures swarming around him. He signals that he can't breathe and Amy asks in a panic what she must do. He starts signaling in charades and after a comedic bit of confusion ("Doctor? monkey? King Kong? chest? yes, chest?" ... "sounds like" ... "best? press? Yes, 'press'? Press doesn't sound like "chest" ... etc. ) Amy learns she has to press all the red buttons on the console. When she does, some kind of power is restored to the TARDIS and a bubble-like shield of energy extends out from the TARDIS to envelope the Doctor.

 

Amy talks to the Doctor through the external monitor and asks what went wrong. The Doctor assures her that the chronomites can't hurt him - they're mostly harmless 4-dimensional creatures that feed off the void - "a bit itchy, though," he remarks. He must be brought back inside the TARDIS through energetic means.

 

Amy is instructed to go to the Doctor's private drawing room and gives her a complex series of instructions on how to get there, including a series of turns through hallways, avoiding "the green door" and following a certain wall until it gets a bit slimy. "You can't miss it." There, she has to find a laser screwdriver and lock it in the console's fabrication unit (where the TARDIS produces its sonic screwdrivers) to use it as a tractor beam to pull the Doctor back inside.

 

Amy tries going up a flight of stairs immediately off the console area and ends up arriving back in the console area. She asks the Doctor what's happened and he explains that they must be in a time riptide and it's messing with the TARDIS's internal space-time construction. She makes some adjustments on the console and tries again, this time she locates the drawing room.

 

The drawing room resembles a small rectangular study with two long bookshelves filled with books and items of curiosity. On every available area of the wall are clocks of some kind, ticking away, and framed pictures of pastoral scenes with saucer-shaped UFOs hovering in the clouds. To Amy's right is a coat rack, from which hangs a scarf used by the Fourth Doctor. At the opposite end of the hall is a softly burning fireplace, which lights the room. A portrait above the mantel portrays a Victorian-looking gentleman casually holding a sonic screwdriver. Amy looks around at the objects - trying to find something that looks like it can be used like the tractor beam the Doctor described. She sees the chronon bracelet that saved her in Kaalaan, a Dalek eye stalk, Liz Ten's face mask and a host of other curiosities and mementos of the Doctor's many adventures. Eventually, she discovers a framed clock that swings open from the wall like a safe.

 

Inside, she finds the laser screwdriver but when she reaches back to retrieve it, she seems to accidentally knock a genie-like bottle to the floor. It smashes to pieces and an orange glowing orb rushes out and up the fireplace. Under her breath, she blames this on the amount of clutter in the room. The TARDIS goes through another violent spasm and Amy worries that they've locked into another pocket of time in the time riptide - which the Doctor was explicitly trying to avoid.

 

She rushes back to the console room and finds him still outside. Doing as he asks, she puts the laser screwdriver in the center of the fabrication panel on the console and it activates, producing a conical tractor beam that safely brings the Doctor through the TARDIS door and into the room.

 

They close the door, and Amy begins to explain that she owes him a bottle of aftershave. The Doctor remarks that he doesn't keep any around, but suddenly the cloister bell sounds. Just as the Doctor expresses that this alarm only sounds when something is "very wrong." The cloister bell turns off, but the Doctor says, "that's ... weird." The TARDIS splits into two times, separating Amy and the Doctor by a thousand years within the same space. This is indicated by the TARDIS's dials being incapable of telling him whether he is "in the present" or "in the future" - and he concludes that this is the result of a lesion in time.

 

The Doctor scrambles to fix the problem by creating a Tachyon Feedback Loop from both directions at once - which requires his fob watch. He races off to his drawing room. The Doctor passes numerous items he would recognize here - the cricket ball the Fifth Doctor used to propel himself back into the TARDIS the last time he was ejected, the sonic blaster used by the Ninth Doctor and which might eventually come under possessionnn by River Song, the Journal of Impossible Things, a map of Venice, the Time Lord staff which resembles Rassilon's when he was stopped by the Tenth Doctor, a Sycorax staff, an Ood's telepathic orb, countless books and other objects - and stops at the broken "aftershave". It isn't aftershave at all, but a very ill omen.

 

"Impossible!" thinks the Doctor, "it was behind a triple-deadlock force-field..." but he can't deny that The Entity has escaped. Amy may be in more trouble than he previously imagined. Thinking as quickly as he can, he collects the distress beacon from their adventure in the Arctic [adventure games episode 2], the chronon bracelet's chronon blocker [adventure games episode 1] and rushes down to the console. Blocking the TARDIS's chronons by installing the blocker in the fob watch and placing the watch in the console, he pushes a version 1,000 years away in the same location using the distress beacon's oscillator. He then leaves a message for Amy to find in the future so that she knows to locate and activate the watch.

 

Meanwhile, 1,000 years in the future, Amy is being zapped by the orange orb, which is causing her to glow orange and is messing with her. Amy tries to shoo it away, but finds she can't touch it and she begins to feel weak. She has been pressing buttons on the communication panel of the console and did manage to find the Doctor's message, but she is forced to antagonize The Entity while she is listening in a desperate attempt to keep it from eating her energy. The Doctor tries to explain this in the recording he left for her, but in order to prove that Amy is Amy and not someone else, he asks her to respond to ten Doctor Who trivia questions. [This bizarre game rather breaks the fragile fourth wall of an already ultra-meta franchise like 'Doctor Who' but we can presume - if we want - that Amy was not actually asked about the names of episodes of 'Doctor Who' -- that she was asked more pertinent questions about her past with the Doctor - which is what the Doctor tells Amy he is about to ask her.]

 

After Amy asks the questions successfully, the fob watch's location is revealed and she is able to press the attached console button, even while The Entity continues to harass her time energy. Amy begins to feel ill. The two time streams merge. Amy and the Doctor and The Entity are together in the TARDIS control deck. Amy coughs as the Doctor lectures The Entity and tells it to release his friend. The Entity insists that it must continue to feed on Amy, as well as the Doctor. The Doctor says the Entity must return into its chamber immediately and produces a sort of perfume bottle identical to the one Amy had broken. The Entity refuses and says the Doctor kept it prisoner inside. He says he had no choice because the Entity kept eating and if he had allowed that there would eventually be nothing left and "it would get very boring."

 

The Doctor promises he knows a place the Entity can live and eat forever and never be out of sustenance. The Entity becomes intrigued by the Doctor's knowledge of time and decides the Doctor has a lot of time it can eat. When it approaches the Doctor, the Doctor is able to contain it in the bottle and force it to give Amy's energy back to her (under the threat that it will never eat again). It does at is commanded and Amy is revived. The Doctor, although slightly reluctantly, maintains his end of the deal and releases the Entity into the time riptide to feed on the swarming chronomites.

 

"Chronomites! You can eat them forever and they circle right around again unharmed." "This is acceptable," responds the Entity and exits the bottle, into the riptide.

 

Amy comments that he didn't mention the itching factor. "No, completely slipped my mind," says the Doctor sardonically. The TARDIS door slams shut.

 

Amy and the Doctor decide to take a break after their dangerous adventure and amuse themselves exploring the TARDIS panels without going anywhere at all. This is how they describe the six panels of the console [presumably because the TARDIS is able to change itself, this layout is likely only relevant to the 11th Doctor ... or possibly only this episode]:

 

The Fabrication Panel. It has what Amy calls "a time speedometer" and what the Doctor calls the Time Altimeter. Below that, in the center of the panel, is what the Doctor calls the Fabricated Dispenser - where the sonic screwdrivers and other devices emerge from a lengthy, resource-heavy creation time. Amy calls this circular plane the "Makey Uppy Thing". On the left is a large red lever which materializes or dematerializes the TARDIS. In the lower right is the "zig-zaggy" device Amy was instructed to use to stabilize the TARDIS when it was unable to park due to another TARDIS being created in the disguise of a flat [The Lodger]. The Doctor calls it the Heisenberg Focuser, and it is meant to compensate for the inability to measure both the position and state of subatomic particles at the same time. A rotating lever in the lower corner is something Amy describes as necessary before and after materializing. The Doctor says this is a very important Harmonic Generator so that when the TARDIS lands it doesn't create a sonic boom and 4-dimensional crisis. [I wonder if the First Doctor episode Planet of Giants, where they left the TARDIS doors open, might have something to do with this kind of "space/time/size" crisis. :-P ]

 

The Communications Panel. It has a telephone, special typewriter that scans any substances in the vicinity, a Dictaphone for recording messages, a digital spaceship communicator, and a radio thing which can alter sound without the listener knowing (something the Doctor says really upsets Marconi.)

 

The Navigation Panel. A sextant spins the TARDIS and attempts to keep it upright. A forwards/backwards switch is what the Doctor believes might be a way of choosing between travel into the past or travel into the future. In the center is a pretty, spinning object the Doctor calls the Atom Accelerator - which is important to get going once the TARDIS is powered up for a journey. Finally, a classic keyboard is mounted to the dash for entering specific location and time information. The Doctor comments that he prefers "winging it" more often.

 

The Helm Panel. Some kind of viewfinder, used to look outside the ship is mounted here in the center. On the right is a throttle that determines the speed of the TARDIS either through time, through space, or both - usually kept in synch apparently. Also, a large handbrake is on the right - which the Doctor recommends one leaves in place in order to make a cool sound when landing. River Song said he shouldn't do this, but it does create that classic TARDIS noise.

 

The Mechanical Panel. Four current meter-style dials show from left to right engine cycles per second, engine temperature, time rotor speed and exterior temperature. A gyroscopic device is meant to keep the ship "rightways" up and Amy thinks the Doctor could do with a lot more of them. The Doctor thinks it works well most of the time, he hopes. A large lever on the left locks and unlocks doors. On the lower left is what resembles an old, manual car engine rev. This is what the Doctor calls the engine gear which allows the TARDIS to shift into time travel. On the right is the physical brake (as opposed to previously mentioned time handbrake) which is meant to keep things in place once landed. A foot pedal that looks like a kick drum part is visible below this console, but it's not mentioned what it does.

 

The Diagnostic Panel. This one has another large red lever said to be the Inertial Dampers that will reduce shaking. A cooling system mounted at the top of this panel measures overheating. The Doctor says the old one broke and he is pretty sure this one is fine - although maybe he isn't quite certain. In the center are a Bunsen burner for manual chemistry and a sink with built-in water dispenser (mostly for tea) and microphone (for taking notes).

 

The Doctor and Amy decide to move on. The Doctor knows just the place for peace and quiet, he says. To launch the TARDIS, he specifically throws the switch that locks the doors on the Mechanical Panel, begins the Atom Accelerator on Navigation, turns on the Inertial Dampers on the Diagnostic Panel, dematerializes the TARDIS using the Fabrication Panel's large red lever, then shoves the throttle into full gear at the Helm Panel. The core pumps as usual during "take off" and the TARDIS is apparently soundly traveling through time and space again.

 

They arrive in 25th century London, just after the Great Flood. They exit the TARDIS and look up from their position under the sea. An enormous shark with two tails swims above them. They appear to be in some sort of transparent city-sized sea lab. "Uh oh" says the Doctor.

 

Source: Maxeem Konrardy

 

 

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The Only Good Dalek               

BBC Logo

 

 

Cover Blurb

The Only Good Dalek               

Story: Justin Richards    Art: Mike Collins    Colours: Bethan Sayer    Letters: Ian Sharman

 

 

Station 7 is where the Earth Forces send all the equipment captured in their unceasing war against the Daleks. It's where Dalek technology is analysed and examined. It's where the Doctor and Amy have just arrived. But somehow the Daleks have found out about Station 7 - and there's something there that they want back.

With the Doctor increasingly worried about the direction the Station's research is taking, the commander of Station 7 knows he has only one possible, desperate, defence. Because the last terrible secret of Station 7 is that they don't only store captured Dalek technology. It's also a prison. And the only thing that might stop a Dalek is another Dalek.

 

Notes:

An epic, full colour graphic novel featuring the Doctor and Amy.

Released: September 2010

 

ISBN: 978 1 84607 984 9

 

 

Synopsis

The war between the Daleks and humanity has been raging for a hundred years and seems interminable.

 

The TARDIS lands in a petrified jungle, much to Amy's consternation. She asks which planet they are on but the Doctor says that they shouldn't be on a planet at all though he recognises the place and says that the devastation is the result of a nuclear fire that burned for a thousand years... they realise that the jungle is inside a very large room and locate a window that shows them a view of outer space.

 

A screaming man runs through the jungle, begging not to be left behind. He reaches a door but is denied access. By the time the Doctor reaches him the man is mutating into a Varga plant. The Doctor tells Amy not to touch him. A Slyther appears on the scene and kills the mutating man while the Doctor and Amy make their escape. The Doctor tells Amy that they appear to be on Skaro. The door opens and a group of armed and uniformed soldiers enter. The Doctor shows his psychic paper as identification while telling them that the man they are looking for, Hadleigh, is already dead. The soldiers take the Doctor to meet Tranter. On the way they pass a cell containing Robomen (who are permanently kept on suicide watch) and a cage full of Ogrons.

 

The Doctor is led into Commander Tranter's office and introduces himself as an inspector and Amy as his expert in 'stuff'. Tranter is annoyed that Earth Central doesn't trust him after he has been fighting on the front line against the Daleks for ten years. He says he has been in charge of Station 7 for a month since he was offered any desk job he liked. The Doctor says that he knew and worked with Bret Vyon and Sara Kingdom. Tranter is impressed but says that the Doctor must have begun fighting Daleks when he was very young.

 

The Doctor suggests that the station is being used for research purposes. Tranter agrees: it is a super-secret base in Earth-Space where prisoners are interrogated. He says that they use it to hold Robomen, Ogrons and things that were left behind (including Mechanoids) when Daleks ravaged other worlds. They even have a crashed Dalek scout ship among the Dalek technology that has been picked up but none of it works without the Daleks operating it. The prize of their collection is a room full of captured Daleks, ten in total, which have had their weapons removed and can run only on static electricity supplied through the floor. Tranter reflects on the irony of his situation: two months earlier he was a prisoner of the Daleks, now he is their jailer. His incarceration seems to be the reason why he has an artificial eyepiece to augment his vision. He tells them that the Daleks have inhibitors fitted so that they cannot store power and that the section of the ship they inhibit can be jettisoned and allowed to crash onto the planet Strantana below.

 

Tranter thinks that the inspection has been triggered because of Weston. He was the chief scientist on Station 7 for years and had recently claimed that he had found a way to make the Daleks less deadly and aggressive. Tranter's first objective when he took over the station was to stop Weston: the commander doesn't think that Daleks can be changed and opines that the only good Dalek is a dead Dalek. When the Doctor asks if he can see Weston's laboratory Tranter laughs at him but sends the young officer, Jay, to accompany the Doctor and Amy while they go to have a look. Jay tells them that Weston's work was progressing and Hadleigh, his deputy, seemed to be on the verge of a breakthrough.

 

When they arrive at Weston's laboratory they are shocked to find that the door opens onto outer space, albeit with a force shield. It seems that the lab was detached from the station by Weston just days before Tranter's arrival, probably by the scientist himself. The Doctor says that when Station 7 was used as an ore station this was how the freight pods would have been sent back to the planet. As they stare out into space, Amy spots something moving. Jay calls it in but the command centre replies that it is only a group of asteroids moving through the system.

 

Jay and Tranter accompany the Doctor and Amy to a presentation being made by Kustler (the new chief tech since Hadleigh died). He tells them that Hadleigh had switched the direction of research from Weston's genetic experiments to a digital approach. Kustler reveals a Dalek which he claims to have total control over. A positronic brain between the Dalek creature and the control linkages allows him to operate the casing without intervention from the Dalek itself. This causes a stir among the other scientists in the room but the Doctor and Tranter demand that the experiments be halted. Kustler argues that control over these Dalek casings will allow the humans to operate the other Dalek technology by proxy. Tranter says he will think about it but says that Jay must return the Dalek to the lock-up.

 

The Doctor and Amy walk with Jay and the Dalek. The guard tells them that this is only one of two that have been signed out. Hadleigh took the other with him to the petrified jungle. they see that the scientist had fed static electricity into the floor to allow the Dalek to move freely. The Doctor demands that this be shut off while he goes into the jungle. Amy wants to go with him but he gives her the task of keeping her eye on the asteroids while he and Jay lead three guards into the Skaro sector. The Doctor refuses a protective suit because it would slow him down.

 

Things go wrong across the station very quickly: one of the guards is attacked by a Varga in the jungle and his suit is ripped; the Robomen attack their guard after a mysterious signal bypasses the jammers; the asteroids change course to head for the station; they are scanned to show that they are 78% Dalekanium. Defence fighters are launched.

 

The Doctor and Jay, with their escort guards , find an orange Dalek. Despite the static being cut, the Dalek is standing by a metal lizard, a Magneton, from which it is drawing power. The guard who was attacked earlier, now transformed into a Varga, appears on the scene and causes a distraction for the Dalek to pick up the Magneton and crash it down on another guard's head. The Doctor asks the Dalek what it is doing there and it replies that it is waiting to be rescued. The Doctor and Jay, now the only survivors, flee to the exit where Amy is waiting to tell them that the asteroids have revealed themselves as Dalek ships.

 

Amy asks Jay how the Daleks can know about Station 7 but Jay is at a loss to know. The Doctor says that the important question is what the Daleks want. Kustler says that the Station has no chance of survival unless he is allowed to arm the captive Daleks and use their weapons against the attackers. Tranter refuses and Kustler accuses him of being closed minded. He says that is why Weston left after the 'last time'. When the Doctor asks what that means Kustler tells him that Station 7 was converted from an ore station years earlier and Tranter was sent there as a junior officer. When he heard Weston's plans he made his objections public but was redeployed due to Weston's seniority. Since then Tranter fought on the front line and earned both promotion and a reputation. Even though he was captured at the siege of Logario he escaped from the Dalek prison ship with several other people and escaped back into Earth space. When he was invalided out of the front line he took the job on Station 7 mainly, believes Kustler, to close down Weston's research. Tranter denies this and even agrees to let Kustler have his way. Now it is the Doctor's turn to object but Tranter says that the Daleks can only be attacking the station because they know the research is dangerous to them.

 

Kustler and his team remove the Daleks from the lock-ups and begin to convert them. They are numbered so that jay can tell which is which. She, too, has misgivings, as do the technicians working on the Daleks. The Dalek power pulses, like a giant heart beat, resonate through the station. It is a sign that the Dalek ships have broken out of their camouflage and are closing in on the station. A dogfight with the defending station fighters ensues while Jay places five converted Daleks at a point where the entrances are covered. Outside, the last of the fighters is destroyed. A Dalek saucer docks with the station and ranks of Daleks begin to move down the docking tubes. Kustler is forced to abandon his conversion process and leave the unconverted Daleks in the laboratory.

 

The Daleks begin to cut their way through the bulkheads. They send a signal to the Robomen and Ogrons to kill all humans and these prisoners burst from captivity and fight their way through the corridors. Jay orders the defenders to let them pass so that they can be killed by the converted Daleks. When the Daleks duly respond to Tranter's command, and slaughter the first prisoners to arrive, it seems that the plan is working. However, the Dalek attack force is now aboard the station and a second saucer is docking. The attackers take a number of casualties as they are ambushed but seem to think they are within acceptable parameters.

 

The Doctor wants Amy to get into the TARDIS while he tries to find out what the Daleks have come for. He says that he can save everyone if he can use the TARDIS. Amy objects but Tranter orders Jay to go to the petrified jungle with Amy to secure the Doctor's equipment. The Doctor says he wants to use the static feed to the floor, coupled with the station's engines, to send a massive energy pulse through the station. This will destroy Station 7 and the Dalek ships attached to it. They need to make sure all the humans are off the station by then so the Doctor says they should fall back to the lock-ups beside the jungle.

 

The Daleks continue to fight their way through the corridors, killing every human they meet and recovering or destroying Dalek equipment that they find on the way. They cannot find what they are looking for, though they name it as 'the abomination'.

 

Jay and Amy reach the TARDIS but it is being guarded by the unarmed Dalek in the jungle. They retreat, cautiously.

 

The Dalek attack force reaches the last line of defence - the converted Daleks. Tranter presses the switch that will cause the Daleks to open fire but nothing happens. Instead, the converted Daleks turn on the humans. The Doctor realises the conversion was all a trick. He orders the humans to retreat to the lock-ups. Kustler is aghast at what he has done but at least he knows why Hadleigh was killed - he discovered the Dalek deception. Sadly, this is the last thing he hears before he is killed.

 

Tranter and the Doctor lead a small party of security officers down the corridors. The Doctor accesses a terminal to blow the docking clamps in order to release the jungle section of the station. Daleks burst through the sealed doors and a gunfight rages around him as he does so. A stray Dalek shot breaks the window on the corridor, sucking a Dalek and a human out before the Doctor reconnects the force shield. The portion of the station containing the Doctor and Tranter, along with a handful of survivors, falls towards the planet. He thinks that Amy is on board that section too because it contains the jungle. As he gazes across at the station he sees Amy and Jay, still aboard.

 

Amy and Jay work their way through the station. They come across a damaged blue Dalek and realise that it was one of the converted Daleks. Not realising that the 'conversion' was a deception they leave it alone and try to move down a corridor but are caught by a party of Daleks searching for the abomination.

 

The Doctor tells the people with him that the capsule is sturdy enough to survive entry into the thin atmosphere of the planet. The capsules were designed to be dropped from orbit. Tranter realises that this is what Weston would have done.

 

All of the Ogrons and most of the humans on the station are dead. The Daleks withdraw control of the Robomen, leaving them to their fate. The Daleks surmise that the abomination must be on the jettisoned part of the station. They also identify the Doctor and order saucers to follow him down to the planet.

 

The section of the station crashes onto the icy wastes of the planet, breaking through the crust to reveal molten lava beneath. The survivors scramble from the vessel as it sinks but some don't make it out in time. The Doctor spots the TARDIS floating on the lava as he leads the remainder to safety. Their escape, meanwhile, is being observed on view screens from afar by somebody who recognises Tranter. No sooner have the humans got away from the lava than they are assaulted by a group of fierce creatures - tall, muscular and possessing sharp fangs. These creatures are driven off by a second group but the newcomers have been fitted with steam-driven servo-relays. Somebody has been messing with their brains. The second group seems much friendlier and leads the humans across the snowfields.

 

As a known associate of the Doctor, Amy is questioned about the Doctor's attempts to recover the abomination. Amy has no idea what they are talking about but does glean the fact that the Doctor is still alive. She is returned to a cell with Jay and tells her about her experiences. Jay shows her the control device for the converted Daleks and they begin to make plans for how to use it. Jay signals for a Dalek to come to their rescue. While she does this the saucer they are on moves away from the station and launches missiles. Station 7 is utterly destroyed. A red Dalek enters their cell. Amy and Jay rush it in an attempt to escape. The Dalek brushes them off and turns to exterminate them but the blue Dalek arrives in the nick of time and responds to the control device. It destroys the red Dalek and then leads them to escape via the scout ship the Daleks recovered from Station 7. As they leave the Dalek saucer, thinking that they have escaped, the Dalek command watches on. The women will lead them to the Doctor and to the abomination. To maintain the illusion a few missiles are launched at the scout ship and some flying Daleks block its path. These obstacles are overcome with some minor damage to the ship. It makes a successful, if rough, landing near to where the Doctor landed. The Dalek leads them across the snow, following the trail left by the humans that passed that way earlier.

 

Ahead of them, the Doctor and his party have been allowed through a hatch and find themselves in the old ore refinery. The Doctor recognises that they are being permitted to pass through the levels by a guiding hand (who is watching on remote cameras) and tells whoever is waiting for them that they will be there soon. As they traverse the underground base they see that it is using ice and lava to create vast amounts of steam power. This is an undetectable power source. They see a reactor, unused but ready for action. Several miles later they finally encounter their host; Professor Weston. He tells them that he was badly injured by the native creatures after he crashed but used steam technology to repair himself as well as to augment some of the creatures. He tells one of the creatures to provide food and drink for the visitors. While this is happening Weston tells the Doctor that the Daleks are approaching but they will not be able to detect his base.

 

Dalek saucers land near to the scout ship and ranks of Daleks disembark. Their first action is to rescue the Slyther that escaped from the crashed section of the station. Then they detect a signal from their agent in the foothills of the mountains.

 

Weston spots Amy, Jay and the blue Dalek on his screens. He prepares to send his creatures out to attack them until the Doctor tells him that Kustler tried to convert the Daleks and the two girls obviously think that the one with them is under their control. They decide to allow them to enter the base and then capture the Dalek so that Weston can use the casing. This brings the Doctor to ask about the Dalek creature that Weston is keeping in a jar. Weston plunges his hand into the jar to tickle the creature while pointing out how its aggressive tendencies have been removed. He has created, in essence, a good Dalek. Tranter reacts angrily to this, reiterating that the only good Dalek is a dead Dalek. He adds that the creature is an abomination.

 

Amy, jay and the Dalek find themselves following the route through the base that the Doctor took earlier. Their pursuers soon approach the outer doors. Weston prepares to send his creatures out to fight them but Tranter's last few soldiers say that they will go too. Protecting Weston's work is of paramount importance. Despite digging in before the Daleks arrive the defenders are quickly killed with few Dalek casualties.

 

Inside the base, Amy and Jay arrive at the room where Weston, Tranter and the Doctor are waiting. The 'converted' Dalek tries to kill the abomination but the Doctor jams a steam pipe into its damaged casing. This knocks out the Dalek creature long enough for them to remove it from its casing. Somehow the Daleks on the command saucer are able to watch this exchange and know where the abomination is. The saucer launches missiles to blow the doors of the base open. Weston cuts off the flow of steam from the generator so that the corridors ice up. This slows the Daleks' progress. The only thing to do now is to get out of the escape route and use the tamed Dalek creature to fly the scout ship away from the planet.

 

The Dalek creature lashes out with its tentacles but the Doctor and Tranter manage to manhandle it into a tank similar to the abomination's. So violent are the Dalek's actions that it cracks the tank but not enough to break out. Weston picks up a disc containing all of his research notes and findings. The Doctor uses the control panel in the room to set the nuclear reactor to critical in twenty five minutes. The only problem is that the safety measures will have to be disengaged on the reactor itself. While they are busy, Tranter takes the docile Dalek creature and puts it into the captured casing.

 

The Daleks are slowed by the ice-filled corridors and so release the Slyther to try to stop the escapees. It catches up with them at an intersection near to the reactor. Weston orders his Dalek to kill the Slyther but it protests that it has been taught to value life. The Doctor tells it to fire at the roof. It does so, causing the roof to collapse. Unfortunately, the rock fall breaks through the floor of the corridor and the Slyther tumbles into the molten lava. This also blocks the way for the escapees and they have to find another way to the generator room. This will necessitate opening bulkheads; Jay says she will go back to the laboratory to do this. For some reason Tranter follows her and the Doctor, suspicious, follows him in turn.

 

Jay opens the bulkheads but as she prepares to leave the laboratory she notices he two jars where the Dalek creatures were stored: the cracked one is empty, meaning that the tamed Dalek is still in its jar. Tranter enters and attacks her but the Doctor stuns him with a burst of sonic energy directed at Tranter's artificial eye. He says that Tranter is not in control of himself. He suspects that Tranter's time as a prisoner of the Daleks led to several things: interrogations revealed what Tranter knew of Weston's genetic experiments on the Daleks; false memories were implanted so that he thought he had escaped of his own accord; a desire to run station 7 was planted in head, too; a tracking device, camera and transmitter were placed in his eyepiece so that the Daleks could find the station. Tranter says that now he knows the Daleks are there in his mind he can feel them. The Doctor removes the eyepiece and crushes it underfoot.

 

The Doctor looks at the tanks and realises that Amy and Weston are with a real Dalek. There are only seven minutes left on the countdown clock and the Daleks are making progress through the tunnels.

 

The blue Dalek leads Weston and Amy towards a trap. Tranter runs off to the reactor to over-ride the safety devices. The Doctor and Jay arrive on the scene as the Daleks close in on Weston. He passes his data disc to Amy and pushes her through a doorway towards where the Doctor is hiding. The Daleks exterminate Weston while the Doctor breaks a steam pipe and brings an ice-fall down, destroying or blocking out the Daleks. Only the blue Dalek breaks out it sets out back to the laboratory to halt the countdown. It arrives with a red Dalek in time to stop the clock with three seconds to spare.

 

Tranter finds the reactor room already occupied by the Daleks. He pretends that he is still one of their agents. The ruse buys him the time to press the over-ride button and damage it so that it cannot be re-set but the Daleks tell him that the countdown has been halted.

 

The two Daleks in the laboratory pick up the jar containing the abomination, intending to take it for analysis and extermination. It starts to thrash about and cracks the jar open, then it pulls the lever re-starting the countdown. It utters the word, "Exterminate!" The reactor becomes critical and lava explodes out into the reactor room, killing the Daleks within and Tranter (who seems to welcome his fate). The lava flows through the corridors, wiping out the Daleks but not the Doctor, Amy and Jay who manage to climb up ladders to the emergency hatch. They emerge onto the surface to find that it has stopped snowing.

 

In the laboratory, the red Dalek blames the blue for failing to protect the facility and exterminates it. Before it can do the same to the abomination the lava flows in and destroys it. The abomination watches from the relative safety of a place on a control panel. The lava pours out down the mountain, sweeping away Daleks and causing the ice to melt under their saucers. As the space craft sink into the molten lava and explode only the bridge section of one escapes but is caught in the massive explosion of the saucer beneath it.

 

With all the Daleks dead, the Doctor leads Jay to the Dalek scout ship. He makes it ready for flight, even without a Dalek. Amy and Jay hug while Jay asks if the deaths of everyone on Station 7 were worth it to protect Weston's work. The Doctor says that the cost was terrible but the result was worth everything. Back in the TARDIS, which they find lying in the snow, he reassures Amy that Jay will be alright but Weston's data will have little practical effect on the outcome of the war.

 

Flying back to Earth, Jay contacts a young communications officer and says that she feels like a sitting duck in a Dalek ship. The officer reassures her that she will create a safe path for her as she knows what it is like to be a prisoner of the Daleks. When her superior officer asks who she was talking to, the communications officer says it was merely routine. As she turns to speak her left eye is revealed to be an implant exactly like Tranter's. Jay's ship crosses an asteroid field where a Dalek saucer is waiting for her.

 

The TARDIS passes through a huge space battle between Earth and Dalek forces. Amy asks how, if Weston's work is worthless, it was worth the death toll. The Doctor replies that it gives the humans the one thing that the Daleks can never destroy; hope.

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

The novel references Bret Vyon and Sara Kingdom (see The Daleks' Master Plan) as well as featuring Skaro, a Slyther and Varga plants. There are also Robomen (see (The Dalek Invasion of Earth) and Ogrons (see Day of the Daleks).

Amy mentions the forest aboard the Byzantium (see The Time of Angels).

 

 

 

[Back to Main Page]

 

The Lodger

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Tracie Simpson

Patrick Schweitzer

 

Script Editor

Lindsey Alford

 

Written by Gareth Roberts

Directed by Catherine Morshead

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), James Corden (Craig), Daisy Haggard (Sophie), Owen Donovan (Steven), Babatunde Aleshe (Sean), Jem Wall (Michael), Karen Seacombe (Sandra), Kamara Bacchus (Clubber),

 

There's a house on Aickman road with a staircase that people go up, but never down... To solve the mystery of the man upstairs, the Doctor must pass himself off as a normal human being, and share a flat with Craig Owens.

Original Broadcast (UK)

The Lodger       June 5th, 20109           6h00pm - 6h50pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

The TARDIS materialises in a park and the Doctor opens the door. He is blown out by a small blast and the TARDIS dematerialises. Amy is still inside, saying that they are in Colchester, when she realises that the ship has taken off again.

 

One day later, a young man walking down a street is called into a house by a man asking for help. He follows the man into a room at the top of the stairs. In the flat below, Craig and Sophie plan a night in front of the television with a pizza. Sophie is bothered by a large stain on the ceiling that seems to be coming from the upstairs flat. Unseen by either of them, the stain begins to spread. Sophie leaves to comfort a friend who is upset about a break up. Craig wants to tell Sophie he loves her and when the doorbell rings he thinks Sophie has forgotten her keys. He opens the door, says "I love you" and sees that it is the Doctor.

 

The Lodger

(drn:41'18")

The Doctor has come in answer to an advert for a lodger. He gives Craig paper bag stuffed with money (three thousand pounds is later revealed) and says he isn't sure if that is a lot or not. He seems more interested in who lives upstairs than seeing his room and generally behaves in an eccentric manner: air kissing Craig, raiding the fridge to make an omelette and telling Craig that he resembles a couch. He tells Craig that his luggage should "materialise" soon.

 

The TARDIS has attempts another landing, but fails.

 

The Doctor contacts Amy via an earpiece he wears throughout. She uses the phone to let him hear what the TARDIS engines sound like and he tells her that the thing that is stopping the TARDIS materializing is big.

 

While this is happening, a woman passes the house and hears someone asking for help. She enters, goes up the stairs and enters the top floor flat. Craig is taking to Sophie over the phone about the Doctor. She worries that with a name like that and three thousand pounds in cash he might be a drug dealer. The local area is hit by a time loop. The Doctor tells Amy to pull the zigzag plotter to keep the TARDIS steady and then says he needs to get some important things. He leaves the house and returns later with a shopping trolley full of junk.

 

The next morning, the Doctor is in the shower. Craig hears a big bang upstairs and goes to investigate. The Doctor leaps from the shower, grabbing Craig's toothbrush instead of his screwdriver. A man in the flat above tells Craig he doesn't need his help. The Doctor, wearing only a towel, rushes into the hallway just as Sophie arrives. Craig takes a phone call and finds that his pub league team is short of a player. The Doctor assumes that this is a drinking league but when he finds that it is football he offers to fill in. He tells Amy he is doing this to appear more 'blokey' but asks her if football is the "one with the sticks".

 

The game is played on a local parks' pitch. Initially, the Doctor seems confused about what the team captain is saying to him but once the game starts he is exceptionally talented and scores a large number of goals. Afterwards, he misinterprets one of the team saying they can annihilate other teams. He quickly realises that this was just a figure of speech. Meanwhile, another woman is asked to enter the upstairs flat by a little girl. As she screams in pain or fear at whatever is in there, the team are caught in a time loop and the TARDIS suffers massive turbulence. The Doctor steps out of the time loop and tells Amy he is worried the TARDIS could be lost in the Time Vortex.

 

Back home, Craig tells the Doctor Sophie is coming round and he wants to tell her his true feelings. The Doctor says that they won't know he is there and withdraws to his room to work on something. Sophie notices that the stain on the ceiling has grown even larger. Craig tries to tell Sophie how he feels about her but the Doctor appears from behind the couch wanting to know how to switch a (regular) screwdriver on. He ends up joining them, tangled in wires for his scanner. Sophie tells the Doctor about her dream of travelling abroad to care for animals. He gets Sophie to admit she doesn't want to stay working in a call centre. After she leaves, the Doctor enters his room, where the scanning device is complete. He tries to locate the problem above but the results are inconclusive so he tells Amy to look up the blueprints of the building. Craig touches the stain on the ceiling but seems to receive some kind of shock from it.

 

When the Doctor takes breakfast into Craig he finds him seriously ill. He uses old teabags to start his cure. Craig is distraught: he has to be at work for an important meeting but the Doctor tells him to rest as he is too weak to go. When Craig wakes up it is afternoon. He dashes to work, only to find the Doctor at his desk. The Doctor is dealing rudely with a client on the phone. Craig's boss is delighted with the Doctor's contribution to the meeting that Craig should have attended. Just like with the football match, Craig is dismayed at how easily the Doctor succeeds and usurps him. Sophie asks Craig for his opinions about her leaving to work abroad but he is too distracted to listen and says that it is fine with him.

 

Back at home, Craig goes into the Doctor's room to see what he has been doing and discovers a massive contraption, the scanner, made out of household junk. He sees the Doctor talking to a cat about people who go up the stairs but never return. He decides it is time for the Doctor to leave. The Doctor tries to explain that he can't go now but Craig won't understand him so the Doctor headbutts him. This gives Craig an instant telepathic history of the Doctor. A second butt explains his investigation of the flat above. Sophie arrives but a little girl upstairs calls to her for help. A time loop begins and Craig is now able to feel it as an outsider. He and the Doctor realise that someone upstairs is in danger and rush off to help. Amy calls the Doctor to tell him that, according to the plans, the house is a bungalow with no upper storey.

 

When they step into the upstairs flat they find a large, incomplete TARDIS-like interior. Sophie is being dragged towards the console by an invisible force. A man appears: he is a holographic auto-pilot. He tells them that the ship has crashed, the pilots are dead and a program has been trying to find suitable replacements. Because humans aren't able to withstand the energy in the program they have all been burnt out. The Doctor cannot believe that the ship is trying to use humans as replacement pilots but it immediately tries to force him to touch the controls. Amy says that should be a good because the Doctor isn't human but he replies that his partaking in the test will blow up the solar system.

 

The Doctor deduces that Craig was not wanted by the ship because all he wanted to do was stay in his flat with Sophie. The auto-pilot detected people who yearned to leave, as did Sophie on this occasion. When the Doctor points out how much Craig loves her, Sophie reciprocates and kisses him. Neither of them wants to leave now and when they touch the console the ship begins to shut down and implode. As they run from the control room they see the bungalow for what it is, albeit with a ship on the roof. Passers-by in the street still do not see because of the perception filter in use.

 

The Doctor tries to leave unobtrusively while Craig and Sophie are romantically distracted but Craig catches him as he is going. When the Doctor says he will come back Craig knows it is not true but gives him the keys to the flat anyway. The Doctor makes his exit without seeing the crack behind the fridge that resembles the one in Amy's bedroom.

 

Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor and Amy prepare the note for the paper shop window that the Doctor will answer to get the flat. Amy asks if the Doctor for a pen and while she looks for one in his coat pockets she her engagement ring.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

Craig has a postcard on his fridge from the Vincent van Gogh exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay (see Vincent and the Doctor).

In the TARDIS, Amy shouts "Hey, you!" to someone unseen and then seems to forget about them (The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon).

"The Lodger" was a Doctor Who Magazine comic strip (DWM 368) scripted by Gareth Roberts, featuring the Tenth Doctor and Mickey Smith. Some of the basic domestic situations were similar but the storyline was very different.

There is a great similarity between the Doctor's sudden prowess at football in this episode and his cricketing skills with both bat and ball in Black Orchid.

In Day of the Moon the Doctor finds a similar ship to the one in this episode and says that it is "very Aickman Road."

 

 

//--> 

The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Peter Bennett

 

Script Editor

Lindsey Alford

 

Written by Steven Moffat

Directed by Toby Haynes

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Alex Kingston (River Song), Tony Curran (Vincent) [1], Bill Paterson (Bracewell) [1], Ian McNeice (Winston Churchill) [1], Sophie Okonedo (Liz Ten) [1], Marcus O'Donovan (Claudio) [1], Clive Wood (Commander) [1], Christopher Ryan (Commander Stark) [1], Ruari Mears (Cyber Leader) [1], Paul Kasey (Judoon) [1], Howard Lee (Doctor Gachet) [1], Barnaby Edwards (Dalek) [1], Simon Fisher Becker (Dorium) [1], Joe Jacobs (Guard) [1], Chrissie Cotterill (Madame Vernet) [1], David Fynn (Marcellus) [1], Caitlin Blackwood (Amelia) [2], Susan Vidler (Aunt Sharon) [2], Frances Ashman (Christine) [2], Barnaby Edwards (Stone Dalek) [2], William Pretsell (Dave) [2], Halcro Johnston (Augustus Pond) [2], Karen Westwood (Tabetha Pond) [2], Nicholas Briggs (Dalek voice) [2].

 

After so many ominous warnings, the Pandorica finally opens, but the secret it holds is more terrifying than even the Doctor had anticipated.

Original Broadcast (UK)

The Pandorica Opens               June 19th, 2010           6h40pm - 7h30pm

The Big Bang  June 26th, 2010           6h05pm - 7h00pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

In France, 1890, Vincent van Gogh writhes in his bed, calling out while the doctor at his side and Madam Vernet comment on one of his paintings. Apparently it is worse than usual.

 

In the Cabinet War Rooms, 1941, Professor Bracewell shows Winston Churchill a Van Gogh original and tells the Prime Minister to get a message to the Doctor.

 

In the Stormcage Containment Facility, 5145, a prison guard on his first day of duty answers the phone. River Song hears the Doctor's name mentioned and demands to have the phone. It is Churchill, telling her about Van Gogh's painting. The guard takes the phone and River kisses him. He is aware that she has tried to use her hallucinogenic lipstick and holds her at gunpoint. Unfortunately for him, he is pointing his gun at a drawing on the wall: she has escaped.

 

In The Royal Collection, 5145, River Song steals a painting. On her way out she is confronted by a gun-toting Queen Liz 10. River tells her she needs to get the painting to the Doctor.

 

In the Maldovarium, 5145, River is buying a vortex manipulator from Dorium Maldovar. She pays for it with a Callisto Pulse (capable of deactivating micro-explosives from up to 20 feet - just like the ones she has placed in Dorium's drink).

 

The Doctor has decided to go to the oldest planet in the Universe, Planet One. The cliff faces are made of pure diamond and contain an otherwise indecipherable inscription. The TARDIS translates it as "HELLO SWEETIE". There are time-space coordinates beneath the message.

 

The TARDIS lands in Roman Britain during the 2nd century AD. The Doctor is greeted by a Roman soldier who thinks that he is Caesar. Amy says that the Romans were her favourite topic at school. The soldier takes them to Cleopatra (or, rather, River Song in disguise). She shows them the painting; a picture of an exploding TARDIS.

 

The Pandorica Opens

(drn:48'05")

Rivers tells the Doctor that the title is 'The Pandorica Opens'. Amy wonders what a Pandorica is: River tells her it is a prison for the most feared thing in the Universe while the Doctor contradicts her and says that it is a myth or a fairy tale. He consults a map, saying that if somebody had hidden such a device they would want to remember where they left it.

 

They gallop across the plains on horseback, arriving at Stonehenge. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to find a way beneath the monument into the Underhenge. They fail to see a severed head of a Cyberman lying behind a rock but at the bottom of the steps the Doctor glances at a Cyberman's arm lying on the floor. He uses his screwdriver to light flaming torches.

 

The Pandorica is a large metal cube. He recounts the fairy tale that says a warrior or goblin, feared by the Universe, capable of arriving on a planet and changing life there forever, was trapped inside by a good wizard. River says that the Pandorica contains many levels of security; locks, time codes and matter lines. Each is being opened, one by one. The Pandorica will open in a few hours. The Doctor wonders who is inside and whether they have met before. Amy asks how Vincent van Gogh could know about it when he isn't due to be born for centuries. She comments on how similar its name is to Pandora's Box, her favourite childhood story.

 

River and the Doctor say that the stones around them are transmitters, broadcasting to the Universe. They wonder who else knows that the Pandorica is opening. A quick scan tells her that at least ten thousand ships are in orbit: a Dalek saucer, a Cyber Ship, Sontarans, Slitheen, Drahvin, Chelonian and Atraxi among them.

 

The Doctor decides the Romans are the greatest military machine in the history of the universe and sends River back to them to get help. Unfortunately, news has arrived from Egypt that Cleopatra is dead. River tries to use her disintegrator pistol to demonstrate her power. Before the Roman commander can answer, a volunteer arrives; Rory Williams dressed as a Roman soldier.

 

In the Underhenge, Amy produces the engagement ring that she found and asks the Doctor if he is planning on proposing to someone. He tells her it is a memory of a friend who was lost. While something stirs in Amy's mind he asks her if it bothers her that her life doesn't make any sense: there are too many rooms for a start. Just then, the arm of the Cyberman reanimates and its gun starts to shoot randomly. The Doctor grabs it but it electrocutes him and it passes out. The head crawls in, using wires as tentacles, and attacks Amy. She fights it off but it fires a dart into her neck. As she begins to feel woozy, the body of the Cyberman lurches in. Amy hides behind a door with the Cyberman trying to break in. Rory arrives and kills the Cyberman with his sword and Amy passes out.

 

The Doctor wakes up and eventually realises that one of the soldiers is Rory, who tells him that he died and woke up Roman. The chamber shakes as space ships close in from above. The Pandorica is in the final phase of its opening. River calls to tell the Doctor that the sky is full of ships. He tells her to bring the TARDIS: there is equipment in it that he needs. He goes back to the surface and steps onto a stone. From there he addresses the fleets in the sky above him, telling them that he has the Pandorica and challenging them to come and take it from him. The ships move off to argue - so he thinks - about who should try to take it first.

 

The Doctor warns Rory that something bad is about to happen: Amy wakes and does not recognise her fiancé. She goes to get some fresh air while Rory tells the Doctor that he died and woke up there with a head full of Roman things. The Doctor throws him the engagement ring and tells him to go after Amy.

 

River tries to take the TARDIS to Stonehenge but it malfunctions and then transports her to Leadworth, on 26th June 2010. She exits, wondering why it has brought her here. After she has gone, the scanner screen cracks and a voice intones "Silence will fall". As River enters the darkened house she notices the scorch marks on the ground and a broken front door. In Amy's bedroom she finds a book on Roman Britain which contains an illustration of the Roman commander she has just left. Beside it is a book about Pandora's Box. She tells the Doctor this and they guess that somebody has been in Amy's subconscious to create a plausible scenario as a trap for him. He guesses that the Romans don't even realise that they aren't real.

 

She returns to the TARDIS but it seems somebody else is flying the TARDIS. She phones the Doctor and he tells her to shut off the engine but she can't. He asks her the date and she tells him 26th June 2010. He implores her to land the TARDIS and get out before it explodes. When she tries to leave she finds that the doors are locked.

 

The Romans are triggered by a high-pitched sound and their hands drop to reveal guns; they are Autons, under the control of the Nestene Consciousness. The Doctor is led to the Pandorica where the Dalek Supreme is waiting with an Eternal and a Drone. They tell him that the Doctor is responsible for the end of the universe and a Cyber Leader concurs. Other aliens arrive and the Doctor realises they have formed an alliance. He clings to the hope that they have come for his help but he is fixed into a seat in the Pandorica as they tell him their alliance is to save the universe from him.

 

Amy remembers who Rory is but he is fighting to master the Auton commands. He tells her to run but she says she will never leave him. Against his will, he shoots her and she dies in his arms.

 

The Doctor tries to tell his captors that the TARDIS is the cause of the explosion and he is not aboard it. The Daleks insist that he is the only person who can fly it. He tells them that there will be a total event collapse: every sun will supernova, at every moment in history and the universe will never have existed. River finally opens the TARDIS door but in it opens onto a stone wall. She says that she is sorry as the TARDIS console explodes. Stars explode across the galaxy and only the Earth remains.

 

 

The Big Bang

(drn:53'41")

It is 1996 and Amelia Pond is praying by her bedside for help with the crack in her wall. Nothing happens.

 

She has drawn a picture of the Moon and stars. A psychiatrist and Amelia's aunt explain to her that there are no stars in the sky: there is only the moon. Amy sits on the stairs, eavesdropping on their conversation, when somebody drops a pamphlet for the National Museum through the letterbox. Amelia picks it up and sees a note telling her to visit. Her Aunt Sharon takes her to the Gallery. Amelia goes to the Pandorica and finds another note saying "Stick around, Pond". Her drink is abruptly stolen from her.

 

The museum closes: Amelia has hidden and is still inside after everybody else has left. She returns to the Pandorica and touches it. The cube lights up and the Pandorica opens. Inside is Amy Pond, telling her that "This is where it gets complicated".

 

Back in 102 A.D. Rory is cradling the corpse of Amy. The Doctor appears, using a vortex manipulator. He tells Rory that Amy isn't dead before contradicting himself, adding that it isn't the end of the world (and then contradicts himself again). He tells Rory to rescue him from the Pandorica and gives him the sonic screwdriver, asking him to put it in Amy's top pocket when he has finished. Rory opens the Pandorica and lets the Doctor out. The Doctor and Rory take Amy down into the Underhenge where they find stone statues of the Daleks, Romans and Cybermen. The Doctor says that they are fossils of the Universe. They put Amy into the Pandorica while the Doctor explains that it is designed to be so secure that death is not an escape. He says that the cube will heal Amy when it is touched by her DNA in two thousand years away. He leaves a telepathic message in Amy's head so that she will know what is happening when she wakes up and then prepares to jump back to the future but Rory chooses to stay and guard Amy in the Pandorica. The Doctor tells him that he needs to avoid heat and radio waves and to stay out of trouble.

 

Amy looks at one of the museum's video exhibits that tells the story of a Roman centurion that followed the Pandorica through its two thousand year history, protecting it against any dangers. He was last seen in 1941 when a fire threatened it and he dragged it to safety. Amy recognises the centurion as Rory.

 

A stone Dalek comes back to life and says "Exterminate." The Doctor re-appears as the Dalek comments that its weapons systems are restoring. A security guard, Rory, shines his torch on the Dalek and then shoots it with his Auton hand-gun. The Dalek's vision is impaired and the four of them run. The Doctor has acquired a fez and is carrying a mop. Rory says that this is how he looked when he gave him the sonic screwdriver all those years ago so the Doctor takes this as his cue to leap back in time. After setting up his rescue from the Pandorica he also drops off the pamphlet at Amelia's house and steals her drink from earlier in the day (because she has just told him she is thirsty).

 

Another version of the Doctor appears at the top of some steps. His clothes are smoking and he tumbles to the floor, unconscious. As the Doctor scans him the unconscious Doctor revives and whispers something in his ear and then apparently dies. The Doctor says he has twelve minutes to live. Amelia has disappeared and the Doctor says that the universe is still collapsing and they are only temporary anomalies. The Dalek starts restoring itself as the three of them make for the roof.

 

The Doctor shows them the Sun. He asks them what it can be if every other star in the universe has been wiped out of existence. With the aid of a satellite dish and his sonic he proves that it is the exploding TARDIS. He also picks up the sound of River, caught in a temporal loop created by the TARDIS to protect her. She is saying "I'm sorry my love." The Doctor uses the vortex manipulator to collect her and fetch her back to the roof. Her first reaction is to take the Doctor's fez and obliterate it with her pistol but the stone Dalek immediately appears, hovering above the parapet. They escape down into the building. The Doctor tells them that the light from the Pandorica is a restorative field which re-activated the Stone Dalek .The Dalek had been only an echo in time but the energy brought it back into existence. The Doctor says he intends to use the Pandorica to reboot the Universe.

 

The Dalek follows them and shoots the Doctor and, as he falls, he uses the vortex manipulator to jump back into the past. River makes the Dalek beg for mercy before killing it. Amy and Rory return to the stairs where the Doctor's body should be but it has gone. The Dalek's power was low so the shot was not fatal. River rejoins them and tells them that the Doctor lies. He pretended to die so that he could use the time while the others were away to get into the Pandorica. They find him there and River sees that he has wired the Vortex Manipulator to the Pandorica so that he can take it with him when he jumps back to the TARDIS. The light from the Pandorica will explode into every moment in history and restart the Universe. Unfortunately, the Doctor will be on the other side of the cracks. The universe will be restored but the Doctor will never have existed.

 

He speaks to Amy, telling her to remember her parents who were erased from history by the crack in time in her wall. He pilots the Pandorica into the explosion and resets the Universe.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

Vincent van Gogh was in Vincent and the Doctor.

Liz Ten was in The Beast Below.

Churchill, Bracewell and the Daleks were in Victory of the Daleks.

River Song last appeared in The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone.

Silurians last appeared in The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood.

The Judoon, Sycorax, and Sontarans last appeared in The End of Time.

The Hoix appeared in Love & Monsters.

Cybermen last appeared in The Next Doctor.

The Daleks and Cybermen have appeared in the same story on TV in The Five Doctors and Army of Ghosts / Doomsday.

The explosion at the end of the episode recalls the night sky as seen by Vincent van Gogh at the end of Vincent and the Doctor (based on the painting "Starry, Starry Night").

In The Big Bang episode the Doctor travels back through his time stream and visits events in The Eleventh Hour, Flesh and Stone and The Lodger.

 

 

//--> 

 

Night and the Doctor

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Marcus Wilson

 

Written by Steven Moffat [1-4] and Tom MacRae [5]

Directed by Richard Senior [1-4]

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor) [1-4], Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) [1-2], Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams) [1], Alex Kingston (River Song) [3-4], James Corden (Craig Owens) [5], Daisy Haggard (Sophie) [5].

 

What does the Doctor do at night when his companions are asleep?

Notes:

Night and the Doctor is a series of five made-for-DVD mini-episodes of Doctor Who released as bonus features in the Complete Sixth Series DVD and Blu-ray box sets. Four of them are thematically linked and take place in the console room of the TARDIS while the fifth one precedes the events of the episode Closing Time, and does not feature the Doctor or any regular companions.

 

 

 

 

Bad Night

(drn:3'39")

The phone rings in the TARDIS control room. Amy, in her night dress and dressing gown, answers it and finds she is talking to the Prince of Wales. He wants to speak to his mother. As she talks a fly buzzes round her and she squashes it with a rolled up newspaper. The Doctor enters, carrying a goldfish in a glass bowl. He tells her never to answer the phone, and then takes it from her. He assures the prince that his mother is well.

 

A second call comes in and the Doctor switches lines to talk to an Ambassador. He tells this caller that the Warrior Chieftain is safe in the TARDIS and will be released when the Queen is turned back into a human. The Doctor and Amy gaze meaningfully at the goldfish. Then the Doctor sees the squashed fly, puts the Ambassador on hold and asks Amy what she has done. She says that she thought it was just a fly.

 

She deflects this by asking him where he has been. As he is wearing top hat and tails she assumes he has been at a party with River Song and asks him if this is what he does at night. She then changes tack and tells him she couldn't sleep because she needs to tell him something. The Doctor shouts for Rory because Amy is "having an emotion." She is appalled that the Doctor and Rory pass her over, one to another, when she has something serious to say. At this point the Doctor gives a cry of despair and opens the TARDIS door. He shouts out to River that they have brought the wrong goldfish. As he leaves the TARDIS he tells Rory and Amy that he has three hours to save the Commonwealth. Amy asks him what happens in three hours and he tells her that this is when the pet shops open.

 

 

Good Night

(drn:4'51")

The Doctor enters the TARDIS, wearing a tuxedo and carrying a euphonium. He calls out to River that Marilyn is too late and will have to use the biplane. Amy is sitting on the steps in her dressing gown, waiting for him. She asks if he does this sort of thing every night. He tells her that he has extra adventures while she is sleeping. He says that he has just helped out a possessed orchestra on a moon base, written a history of the universe in jokes, prevented two supernovas and done some locum work at an understaffed practice in Brixton.

 

Amy comments that his companions are just tiny parts of his life. He replies that they are all he ever remembers. She tells him that she is troubled; she remembers the time before he restored the universe and at the same time she can remember how life should have been - there are two conflicting sets of memories in her head. He says that this is true for everyone. Anyone who has memories of parties or holidays that they were never at is feeling the effects of time being rewritten. To prove his point he connects Amy to the TARDIS telepathic circuits and tells her that her saddest ever memory was at a fairground in 1994. She says that dropping an ice cream cannot be her saddest memory. The TARDIS lands and the Doctor asks her what happened after she dropped the ice cream. Amy recalls being bought a new ice cream by a red haired woman wearing a night dress.

 

He opens the door of the TARDIS and tells her to go and buy them both ice creams. He adds that he gets scared on ghost trains and wonders if it will be alright if he holds her hand.

 

 

First Night

(drn:2'16")

River is on the first night of 12,000 consecutive life sentences in the Storm Cage. The TARDIS lands in her cell and she enters. There is a dress hanging on the console and the Doctor is wearing a tuxedo. He tells her he is taking her to Calderon Beta and she needs to put on the dress. He tells her that she has to put all of their adventures together into her diary so that they can synchronise their lives. She says that being in prison means there won't be any adventures but he tells her that she could walk out whenever she chooses. As she goes off to get changed he hears laser fire at the door. He opens it and River falls in, saying that she knew he would come back because he is a nostalgic idiot. She passes out in his arms.

 

 

Last Night

(drn:3'35")

The doctor realises that River is pretending to not breathe. She opens her eyes and says that she was being shot at by Sontarans for asking if they were on a hen night. Noticing the dress she asks if he has brought somebody else and says that she remembers him bringing someone else the last time they were here. He tries to explain that it is the same night but she storms off into the TARDIS.

 

The first River pops back and asks who he was talking to. He tells her he was talking to himself. As she goes back to get changed the second River asks the same question. She gets the same answer and walks out exactly as a third River comes in through the TARDIS door. She sees the dress (identical to the one she is wearing) still on the console and asks who is there. He tells her to go back out and check that the light on top of the TARDIS is still working. Puzzled, she does so. As she goes out the second River comes in. The Doctor fits her with a time bracelet and sends her back to Storm Cage.

 

The third River re-enters, followed by a second version of the Doctor wearing top hat and tails. He tells her that she has got into the wrong TARDIS. River is intrigued by the prospect of two Doctors but he ushers her out. She says that they are going to the Singing Towers of Darillium. The two Doctors reflect that the first time they met River, in the library, she said that the last time she had seen him was at Darillium. As the second version of the Doctor leaves, the first River comes in. She wonders what the other one was doing there but the Doctor tells her, "Spoilers." She says that he will be the death of her. He is left pondering this statement.

 

 

Up All Night

(drn:2'00")

 

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

  

 

A Christmas Carol

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Sanne Wohlenberg

 

Script Editor

Lindsey Alford

 

Written by Steven Moffat

Directed by Toby Haynes

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Michael Gambon (Kazran / Elliot Sardick), Katherine Jenkins (Abigail), Laurence Belcher (Young Kazran), Danny Horn (Adult Kazran), Leo Bill (Pilot), Pooky Quesnel (Captain), Micah Balfour (Co-pilot), Steve North (Old Benjamin), Bailey Pepper (Boy \ Benjamin), Tim Plester (Servant), Laura Rogers (Isabella), Meg Wynn-Owen (Old Isabella).

 

Amy and Rory are trapped on a crashing space liner, and the only way The Doctor can rescue them is to save the soul of a lonely old miser, in a festive edition of the time-travelling adventure, written by Steven Moffat. But is Kazran Sardick, the richest man in Sardicktown, beyond redemption? And what is lurking in the fogs of Christmas Eve?

Original Broadcast (UK)

A Christmas Carol      December 25th, 2010              6h00pm - 7h00pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

A Galaxy Class star-liner loses control in thick clouds around a planet. As the crew struggle to regain control a distress call is sent from the ship's honeymoon suite. Amy and Rory, dressed as a police woman and a Roman soldier respectively, arrive on the flight deck. Amy says that she sent the distress call and that she has a friend who can help. Rory is worried because the light on his communicator has stopped flashing: perhaps this means that help is coming. The ship's computers detect a small ship coming alongside. The TARDIS appears and the screen displays the message, "Come along, Pond."

 

A Christmas Carol

(drn:61'40")

Kazran Sardick, a wealthy miser who owns most of the planet below as well as the cloud belt, reflects on the human tradition of celebrating the midwinter solstice. On this planet the settlers called it the Crystal Feast. He thinks that the whole concept is a waste of time and money. He has inherited a money lending business from his father and part of his practice is to cryogenically preserve members of any family who has ask him for money. He then uses them as security.

 

On Christmas Eve, he meets a poor family in his library. They have come to him to beg for the release of one of their family so that she can spend Christmas with them. She is a young beautiful girl, the sister of a middle-aged woman. Her chamber stands in the middle of the room. Kazran rejects them as a matter of course. Similarly, when the President of the planet phones to request his permission for the star-liner from Earth to land safely he refuses. He says that crashing is a kind of landing and is unmoved when told that there are over four thousand people on board.

 

The Doctor suddenly arrives, sliding down the chimney, arriving in a cloud of dust and saying that he couldn't resist a chimney on Christmas Eve. The family, still in Kazran's library are amazed witnesses as he tries to persuade Kazran to clear the ice clouds from the skies. The controls in the room turn out to be isomorphic and only accept Kazran's instructions. He refuses to help and says that he doesn't care if the people on the ship live or die. The family's young son throws a piece of coal at Kazran's head. The old miser goes to hit him, but holds back. He has the family removed. The Doctor, however, stays to confront Kazran. He says that he has noticed some things. The chairs in the room are arranged to face away from the portrait of Kazran's father. Although there is a Christmas tree in the painting there isn't one in the room. The Doctor concludes that Kazran does not wish to be like his father and the biggest difference is that he didn't hit the boy.

 

Outside, the Doctor talks to Amy over her phone. She tells him that the ship has less than an hour until it crashes. He tells her that he is working on a plan but is interrupted by a man who tells him that there is a fish warning. Looking up, the Doctor sees some fish swimming through the fog. When a Christmas carol is played over public speakers he suddenly thinks of a plan.

 

Kazran is sleeping in his chair in the library when a film is projected onto the wall of his twelve year's old self when he tried to film his first meeting with a sky fish. Kazran wakes to see the part where his father comes ranting into the room and strikes him for going against instructions. The twelve year old argues that fish like people, particularly when they hear singing. The Doctor appears in the room, saying that he found the film on an old drive. He asks if Kazran saw the fish; the old miser replies that it was the occasion when no one would come and he was on his own in the world. The Doctor leaves through the door and promptly reappears in the video, coming in through the window. The adult Kazran argues that this didn't happen before remembering that it did.

 

The young Kazran and the Doctor are hiding inside Kazran's wardrobe. The Doctor has hung his screwdriver in the room and left the window open to lure the sky fish in. Kazran tells the Doctor that he is the only child in his class who has never seen a fish. When the Doctor peeps out of the wardrobe door he sees a small fish playing with the sonic. The Doctor is curious and steps out, despite Kazran warning him not to. Almost immediately, a large sky shark swims in through the window and eats the fish and the sonic screwdriver. The Doctor manages to get back into the cupboard where he tells the boy that he has learned how the fish swim in the fog, which will help him to land a space ship in the future. The shark smashes through the door but gets wedged in the frame and the Doctor reaches into its mouth to retrieve the screwdriver. The shark has bitten it in half. The Doctor manages to use what is left of his device to stun the shark but, out of the cloud layer, it begins to die. The boy is aghast. The Doctor says he needs a life support to get the shark back into the sky. Little Kazran offers him an ice box. They run through the house to a chamber full of cryogenic suspension units. Unfortunately, they cannot open any of them without a code. Back in the future, the older Kazran is vainly shouting the code at the video of these events. The Doctor reappears behind him, hears the number, and goes back in time to open the door.

 

The box contains a young woman called Abigail Pettigrew. Her video message relates her love of fish, which they take as permission to borrow Abigail's box for the night. The shark has followed them to the vault, homing in on the half of the sonic not in its stomach. Before it can attack, Abigail sings to it, calming it so that they can place the shark inside the box and the three of them take it into the TARDIS. They return the shark to the sky. In the future, Kazran turns to look at a picture on the wall of his library: it is of Abigail.

 

The Doctor notices a dial set at eight on Abigail's ice box. He asks her why but she replies by asking if he is one of her doctors. They take her back to the vault but before they shut the box the boy tells her that the Doctor has promised to return every Christmas. Every time the door closes it seems to Abigail it reopens with the Doctor and Kazran wishing her a happy Christmas. The Doctor takes them out on excursions: the first is a shark-drawn carriage ride through the clouds, later he offers them all of time and space. The older Kazran can be seen, looking through a whole pile of photographs of these adventures, wondering how he can have new memories. However, after each visit, the dial on Abigail's ice box counts down, moving from eight to two.

 

Eventually, Abigail sees that Kazran is older than before. She finds the young man attractive. She asks that this time they visit her family. Watching her relations prepare for Christmas through the window she begins to cry. Kazran asks why and she says that she is watching the life she will never have. They go inside and Abigail's sister invites them to have dinner. She warns her that Kazran will turn out just like his father. On their return to the chamber the young couple share a kiss.

 

The following Christmas the Doctor takes them to a Hollywood party. Kazran is upset when he finds Abigail crying by the pool. She tells him it is time for him to learn the truth. The Doctor finds them kissing: he wants to leave because he has accidentally got engaged to Marilyn Monroe and a car is waiting to take him to a chapel. When the Doctor and Kazran return Abigail to her box the Doctor tells Kazran that he'll come back in a minute, changing that to "next year" but Kazran says Christmas is "old" and he doesn't want to do this anymore. The Doctor is puzzled that he has failed to change Kazran and gives him the half sonic screwdriver in case he needs him. Kazran replies that he won't. Abigail's dial has turned to one.

 

Christmas Eve, a few years later, Elliot Sardick shows his son the completed machine: the sky and all that is beneath it now belong to them. Kazran goes up to his room and looks at the screwdriver. He turns and sees the Doctor standing outside his window but he shuts the curtain and puts the screwdriver back in the drawer.

 

The older Kazran again refuses the president's request to open the cloud belt and let the star-liner land safely. A hologram of Amy appears in the library. She says that she is the ghost of Christmas present. She tells him that she has brought him something. He hears singing in the vault: the ship's passengers are singing "Silent Night", singing for their lives. Amy tells him that they are trying to control the clouds with their voices. Amy tells him that the Doctor was trying to turn Kazran into a kinder man. Kazran says that time can be rewritten but people can't. He stalks angrily through the hologram choir and they blink out of existence. He stops at Abigail's ice box and tells Amy that Abigail was dying when she volunteered to be frozen. She only has one day to live. He asks how it is possible to choose which day to let her out. Amy apologises and then projects a hologram of Kazran onto the ship's flight deck. He sees the crew vainly trying to control their descent. He replies to their pleading that everybody must die some time.

 

Back in the chamber, the Doctor says that he will now show Kazran his future. Kazran says that everyone dies cold alone and afraid and nothing can change him. He says that the reason he won't help the ship is because he simply doesn't care. When he demands that the Doctor show him the future he realises that it is already happening: his twelve year old self is there, witnessing all of this. The boy at first confuses his older self for his father who goes to slap him. As the memories of this pour into him he hugs his younger self and he decides to save the ship.

 

There are only five minutes to save the ship. The problem is that Kazran's brain waves have changed too much and the machine no longer responds to him. The Doctor thinks of a new plan. Using the half of the sonic screwdriver he will signal the other half in the shark in the clouds. He needs to release Abigail because her voice resonates with the ice crystals and can calm the sky. Kazran releases her. She chides him for waiting so long but tells him that they have shared so many Christmas Eves and says that it is time for them to have a Christmas Day. She sings and the ship's crew land the ship safely.

 

The skies have changed and snow begins to fall. Amy and Rory meet the Doctor in the street. Amy asks where Abigail and Kazran have gone for their last day together. A shark-drawn carriage passes overhead.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

Another odd marital relationship for the Doctor is featured here, this time with Marilyn Monroe (though he insists that the chapel wasn't real). It follows his marriage with Queen Elizabeth I in The End of Time.

 

 

 

[Back to Main Page]

 

Space and Time

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Julie Gardner

Russell T. Davies

Producer

Annabella Hurst-Brown

 

Written by Russell T. Davies

Directed by Richard Senior

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams).

 

The Doctor, Amy, and Rory find themselves trapped in the TARDIS when it materializes inside of itself, but receive help from a special ally.

Original Broadcast (UK)

Space  March 18th, 2011       N/A

Time     March 18th, 2011       N/A

 

Notes:

Broadcasted as part of BBC One's Red Nose Day telethon.

 

 

 

 

Space

(drn:3'18")

The Doctor is under the console, fixing the TARDIS. Amy tries to get his attention but he is too busy. She is annoyed that Rory is helping the Doctor install thermo-couplers. At first she thinks that he is helping the Doctor fly the TARDIS. Rory says that Amy couldn't fly the TARDIS and that she cheated on her driving test by wearing a short skirt. At that point the TARDIS goes dead. Rory apologises for dropping a thermo-coupler. Amy says it is her fault: Rory was looking up her skirt through the TARDIS's glass floor. She is wearing the skirt from the driving test. The Doctor lands the TARDIS in the nearest safe place. Unfortunately, it has materialised inside itself near the door. The Doctor walks into the TARDIS, coming back into the control room through the outside doors. Rory thinks this is cool but the Doctor tells him they have caused a space loop: they are trapped inside the TARDIS forever. Another Amy walks through the TARDIS doors telling them that this is where it gets complicated.

 

 

Time

(drn:2'54")

The new Amy explains that she stepped into the TARDIS which is now in the future entered the TARDIS a few seconds into her past. The first Amy asks how she knows this but the new Amy says that this is what she has just been told by herself. She adds that she entered the TARDIS after slapping Rory. Rory asks why he was slapped. The Doctor tells them the timeline must be followed or they would end up with two Amys: Rory's face brightens and Amy slaps him. The Doctor tries to get Amy into the TARDIS but she stops to flirt with herself. No sooner has she gone through the door than a second Amy and a second Rory enter through the main doors. They tell the Doctor that he told them to go into the TARDIS. He tells the first couple to go in and the new couple to stay where they are. He then tries to set off a controlled temporal implosion to resolve the problem but he doesn't know which lever to pull. A second Doctor appears through the door and tells him to pull "the wibbly lever". The Doctor pulls it and runs into the TARDIS which dematerialises.

 

Everything is back to normal. The Doctor tells Amy to put some trousers on to prevent this happening again.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

The Time Monster had a moment where the Doctor's TARDIS was inside the Master's TARDIS, and the Master's TARDIS was inside the Doctor's TARDIS.

In Logopolis the Master's TARDIS materialised within the Doctor's.

Amy says "This is where it gets complicated" again, as in The Big Bang.

She also says "I'm just repeating this too...and this...and this," as the Doctor did in Blink.

 

 

 

Doctor Who Magazine

Strips featuring the Eleventh Doctor

 

 

The Eleventh Doctor strips debuted in Doctor Who Magazine in issue 421.

 

Supernature

Writer: Jonathan Morris   Pencils: Mike Collins   Inks: David A. Roach   Colours: James Offredi   Lettering: Roger Langridge           Issues 421-423

11th Doctor and Amy

Nerena Cargill, chief medical officer of The Van Diemens III sends a biohazard warning from her colony planet urging that everyone keep away. She plays a film showing a room full of corpses. She says she is the sole survivor and that anyone who lands on the planet is condemned to death.

Elsewhere, the Doctor and Amy step from the TARDIS into a jungle teeming with life. He tells her that he is ninety-nine percent sure that wherever they are it isn't Basingstoke. Almost immediately they are confronted by a large robot spider that tells them to put up their hands and scans them for concealed weapons. When Amy asks if they are trespassing it answers in the negative, saying that arrivals are tolerated but departures are prohibited. It leads them to an encampment where they are tagged with security anklets. They learn that everyone in the encampment is a convict.

 

When Amy uses the word 'Doctor' one of the convicts leads them to Cargill. She is overjoyed to see them and hugs the Doctor. She says she has been begging the Empire for emergency medical assistance for weeks, and asks how they arrived and where they landed. Amy and the Doctor say that they didn't land and imply that they crashed. The Doctor says he and 'Nurse Pond' have been wandering for days.

 

Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of a transporter craft full of convicts. Cargill explains that since the Nigella IV massacre the Empire has been using convicts as guinea pigs on alien worlds before they are cityformed. The transporters only have enough fuel for a one way trip.

 

As they watch the convicts disembark a fight breaks out between two of them but a robot spider stuns both of them. Cargill explains that she is the nearest thing to a doctor they have, though she also says she deserves to be there more than most. She then leads the Doctor to a sealed ward containing 'plague victims'. They enter the ward in biohazard suits so the Doctor can make an examination. Each patient is horribly mutated into one of a multitude of different shapes, some resembling humanoid insects, others plants or animals. There seems to be no pattern to the disease.

 

Their diagnosis is cut short when a monstrous creature bursts into the compound. The spiders (or 'snoops') seem content to let it run amok but the convicts try to corner and kill it. The Doctor intervenes to let the creature escape into a storage room. The Doctor leads Amy into the room and points out the security tag around its lower leg. The monster was once human. Before they can speak to the creature a party of convicts led by Conrad Finch enter, intent on murder. Finch accuses the Doctor of being behind the infection somehow.

 

Just then they notice that Amy is transforming into a giant insect.

 

Cargill persuades Finch not to kill the Doctor so that he can use his expertise to help the colony. The Doctor uses Cargill's laboratory to investigate the security tag from the captured monster. It tells him that it belonged to a man called Buchan Foster. Cargill thinks this makes sense as Foster made several trips into the jungle to explore and claimed he had discovered a dark secret. He disappeared while was on a survey mission a month ago, just when the transformations started happening.

 

The Doctor says that the transformations are not due to a virus but are the amalgamations of two distinct life forms to become an entirely new species. As he and Cargill step out into the jungle he says the whole eco-system has become a pick and mix of life forms. Cargill asks if that means the life in the jungle is taking humanoid shape. Even as she speaks they are pursued by a plant with human eyes and sharp teeth. They are saved by a blast from a snoop which halts the monster and together they run back into the compound.

 

The Doctor orders the convicts to stay in the centre of the compound while he modifies the snoops to set up an energy ring around them, keeping at bay even more marauding monsters. He tells Cargill to look after the worsening Amy while he goes out to investigate Foster's secret. Finch accompanies him and they fly a snoop over the energy barrier and across the jungle to a cave behind a waterfall.

 

Back in the sick bay Amy is telling Cargill that she is saddened that she will die without her family knowing what happened to her. Cargill says her own family was wiped out by a drunk driver. They are interrupted by a monster breaking through the energy barrier and crashing through the sick bay wall.

 

The Doctor finds an underground chamber with an ancient machine at its centre. Before he can investigate he, too, begins to transform into an insect.

 

The monster pushes Cargill aside and then carries off Amy. She is now fully transformed into a giant butterfly woman and as she takes flight the other monsters turn and leave.

 

The Doctor tells Finch that the machine is a gene splicer left by an alien race. Because the planet is in the wrong orbit for life to thrive, the aliens accelerated the process. When Finch asks where the aliens are the Doctor shows him the jungle. He adds that Foster must have reactivated the machine, causing the new transformations. The Doctor begins to play the keys of the machine like an organ or piano, saying he is resetting the biology. The effect is almost instantaneous. Foster, back in the compound, becomes human again.

 

Finch punches the Doctor to the ground and pulls out a home-made gun. He says he was innocent of his crime, framed by his boss who embezzled money. This machine is his ticket to freedom once he tells the Empire about it. The Doctor says he is impressed by the gun but pulls out his screwdriver and uses a sonic blast to make it fall apart. As Finch picks up a club he is bowled over by the butterfly Amy riding a snoop. She says she followed the Doctor's scent to the cave.

 

The Doctor redirects the machine's power on itself to prevent it being used again. As a result the roof of the cavern collapses. The Doctor and Amy fly out on the snoop with Finch tied beneath. They land safely. The Doctor surveys the buried cave with satisfaction before turning to find Amy, completely naked, transformed back to human again.

 

They return to the compound where all of the humans are transformed back to themselves again. The Doctor deactivates the snoops and tells Cargill it is up to the convicts to make a success of the colony. She says that the empire will send their traction factories and concrete over the planet but the Doctor advises her to send a message saying that the virus has wiped out the colony. (This is the message that started this story). He tells them to rename the planet, too and suggests 'Basingstoke'. As they make their way back to the TARDIS Amy realises that this was the planet the Doctor had intended to visit all along.

 

Time Placement: This story must come after The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone because in that story Amy is excited that they have landed on a planet together for the first time..

 

 

Planet Bollywood

Writer: Jonathan Morriss   Art: Roger Langridge   Colours: James Offredi               Issue 424

11th Doctor and Amy

In a space battle between two fleets of ships a ship containing a crew of blue elephantine aliens is hit. It spirals uncontrollably towards a nearby planet but the crew members begin to sing and dance, almost celebrating their impending doom.

The ship plunges to the ground and crashes into a grassy field. Sometime later the TARDIS materialises near to the wreckage. The Doctor and Amy examine the ship and decide that there can have been no survivors. The Doctor says that the planet is Earth-like but at the other end of the galaxy. Amy and he begin to sing a duet about the wonders of exploring a new world. At the end of the song Amy asks why they just did that. The Doctor points to a ship coming into the sky above them and says that it might have something to do with it.

 

The ship lands and some squat, ugly and heavily armed lizard-aliens emerge. Amy runs away but the Doctor is captured. He uses his psychic paper to tell the aliens, the Shasarak of Baloch, that he is an accident investigator. One of the crew tells their leader that there is no sign of life in the crashed ship and the cargo is missing.

 

Amy escapes to a human peasant village and asks for help but the peasants start to serenade her. At the end of her song a young man, Rajiv, introduces himself. Amy tells him that there are monsters near the crashed space ship. He calls it the fallen star and says he rescued a goddess from it a few days earlier. He shows her a blue woman, part of whose face and shoulder have been damaged to reveal circuitry. She says she is a muse.

 

The Shasarak tell the Doctor they are looking for a muse. They break into a song saying that they will not rest until their mission is done. While they are thus distracted the Doctor makes his escape.

 

The muse tells Amy she is an amusement created for the Maharani of Baloch, used to induce courtiers to perform musical numbers against their will. When the Shasarak realised the powers of the muse could be used for evil they attacked the palace in order to steal it. The maharani's servants smuggled the muse away which is how she has ended up on the planet. To Amy's delight, the Doctor arrives and begins to poke around inside the muse. He says that the damage to her systems means that people keep breaking into song at inopportune moments. He says she should be able to self repair given a suitable energy source.

 

The Shasarak arrive at the village. The peasants break into a song of welcome, leading the lizard-men to assume the muse is nearby. They break into Rajiv's house but only find the Doctor. Meanwhile, Amy and Rajiv have taken the muse to the Shasarak ship. Rajiv knocks out the sentry and the muse uses the power supply in the ship to recalibrate.

 

Just as the Shasarak prepare to kill the Doctor for deceiving them they break into song. The muse has returned. The Shasarak dance and sing for three hours, time enough for the Doctor to contact the Maharani and arrange for the muse to be picked up. Rajiv asks if the muse can stay with him as they are now in love. The Doctor says that he is not the one to ask and that there is no need to make a song and dance about thanking him.

 

 

The Golden Ones

Writer: Jonathan Morris   Pencils: Martin Geraghty   Inks: David A. Roach   Colours: James Offredi   Lettering: Roger Langridge    Issues 425-428

11th Doctor and Amy

Tokyo. Mr Okada enters the office of Mr Kin at the top of the Shining Dawn skyscraper. Seeing a little girl reading a comic book, Okada asks if it is Kin's granddaughter. He is told it is not. The child is Chiyoko and she is Kin's marketing consultant on the Goruda project. Okada asks if his company's offer to launch Goruda in Europe has been considered. Kin replies that he has investigated Okada's company and found it to be a fabrication; Okada is actually a UNIT agent. Kin says that the Shining Dawn Corporation does not tolerate spies. Suddenly the air is filled with a golden light and Okada is thrown back through the window and plunges to his death on the streets far below.

The Doctor and Amy sit in at a UNIT meeting two days later where Okada's death is discussed. The Doctor says they were right to get Martha to call him. The Doctor asks Major Hiraki to fill him in on the Shining Dawn and Goruda. She tells them to see for themselves.

 

The Doctor and Amy pay a visit to a typical Japanese family, claiming to be making a documentary on Japanese families. They meet a little boy, Kaito, who was always in trouble until he started watching the Goruda cartoon on television. Now he is well-behaved and loves reading. The Doctor asks Kaito if he knows the name of Mozart's pet cat.

 

After visiting several more homes Amy and the Doctor report back. Hiraki tells them that UNIT became suspicious when the Goruda carton was used to promote a brand of homeopathic brain tonic which actually seemed to work. Hiraki thinks it is nonsense until the Doctor points out that Kaito didn't know the name of Mozart's cat but once the Doctor told him it was 'Fluffy' that was the name all the other children gave. This is odd because none of the children had been in touch with each other and because Mozart hated cats. The Doctor says that the children aren't being made intelligent, they are being made telepathic. As he says this, a thought nearby recognises the Doctor and says he must be destroyed.

 

The Doctor tastes the tonic and agrees it is pure water. He says he must take it back to the TARDIS for testing. Sergeant Machi offers them a lift but the Doctor declines because the traffic is so bad. As he and Amy head down to the underground railway the Doctor notices they are being followed. It is Sergeant Machi and he produces a gun and starts shooting. They flee onto the train but Machi catches up with them. He follows the Doctor out of the train window onto the roof. An old lady pulls the emergency brakes. The Doctor clings on but Machi hits the track, dissolving into a hissing molten golden heap.

 

Mr Kin is told, telepathically, that plans need to be brought forward and conversion begun.

 

The Doctor leaves Amy with Major Hiraki for reasons of safety. She goes to Hiraki's home. They see Hiraki's daughter Takara has a bottle of brain tonic but Takara insists that she hasn't been drinking it. The Doctor phones to say that he is in the TARDIS and his tests show that the tonic has a chameleon molecule that shows up as water in most tests. Not only that but it becomes more powerful the more it is diluted. Across Tokyo, the Goruda cartoon character tells the children to put their hands on the television screen, which they do - including Takara. The Doctor tells Amy that the molecule can absorb energy and change living tissue. He warns her not to let anyone drink the tonic.

 

Across the city the children turn golden and some shoot energy rays from their hands at their parents. The Doctor realises that the tonic increases the number of links between the neurons and those links are called Axons. As he realises this the Axon converts march destructively across the city leaving a trail of corpses in their wake.

 

JNN news broadcasts a warning that thousands of children have taken to the streets in a hypnotic trance. People are told not to approach them. The Doctor desperately tries to phone Amy from the TARDIS. He peers out of the door at the children, realising that the Axonite in their bodies has been activated. They are using electrical energy to change form while being telepathically controlled by Axos. The children continue to kill anyone who stands in their way. A UNIT-led group of riot police form a roadblock. The Doctor leaps onto a car roof and tells Captain Yoshida not to shoot because the targets are children and virtually indestructible which his men are not. This is illustrated when one child shoots a blue energy bolt from its hand which turns one policeman to dust. He says the men are best used in keeping the people out of harm's way.

 

Amy and Major Hiraki run up. Hiraki is distraught that her daughter is transformed, too. She asks if she has lost her but the Doctor promises to do everything he can to get her back.

 

A giant video screen showing the Goruda cartoon character warns the people of Tokyo not to resist if they do not wish to come to any harm. The Doctor tells Amy it is Axos, an alien parasite that consumes planets by preying on the gullible and greedy.

 

Back at UNIT headquarters, Yoshida estimates that fifty to seventy thousand have been affected. They are securing such places as military bases, police stations, the power plant and the city hall. Thousands are also on their way to UNIT HQ. The Doctor improvises a hat from a jumble of wires and other bits of equipment that he says should allow him to tune in to the psychic wavelength that Axos is using so that he can jam it. Before he can plug it in the power in the HQ goes off. The children are in the foyer, absorbing the power and killing the guards. Hiraki orders all survivors onto the roof.

 

A helicopter arrives to take them to safety but before it can land it is shot down by a missile from a second helicopter and fall, blazing, down the side of the building. The Doctor fires a grappling hook through the window of a nearby building and the soldiers and Amy use it as a zip wire to slide to safety. The Doctor, last to go, escapes as the children reach the roof.

 

With a power supply at his disposal, the Doctor prepares to plug in his psychic hat. Amy and Hiraki mutate into multi-tendrilled Axon replicants. The Amy replicant lashes out at the psychic hat but Yoshida wrestles the Doctor to safety as his men open fire from close range but with little effect. The Doctor says that the replicants were not active before because Axos could be occupied with controlling the children. He says the replicants are drones who only maintain their shape due to the link with Axos. When he puts on the helmet the drones disintegrate.

 

Immediately, a television screen shows Goruda and then reveals Axos as a well dressed businessman, Mr Kin. The Doctor asks him how he escaped the time-loop but Axos refuses to respond. The Doctor says that using children to murder their own parents means that no mercy will be shown this time. Axos shows him Amy and Hiraki and says that if the doctor continues to interfere then his friends will die. The Doctor uses his psychic hat to break the link to the children but Axos warns him that without the link all the children will die. The Doctor thinks that this is a bluff but Axos says that the Doctor's inability to take an innocent life is the reason why the Axons will win.

 

Yoshida asks the Doctor what he can do if he can't switch the link off. He realises that with the children recovering consciousness all over the city it means he can break the link for a minute or so without any ill effects to the children. He calls the City Hall, tells them to barricade themselves in and wait for him. Amy and Hiraki are led to a lower level and chained up with Sergeant Machi. He says that he has been locked up for days. The Doctor and Yoshida sprint through the Axon children, dodging their energy beams, and leap into a car. Yoshida drives, weaving past the children who fall asleep under the influence of the psychic hat.

 

They park outside City Hall and race up to the Mayor's office. The Doctor tells the mayor to do whatever he says (and not to do anything he doesn't say). As the Doctor and Yoshida search for blueprints of the Shining Dawn tower to see where the Axon space ship might be, the mayor is called by Mr Kin.

 

Chiyoko, the girl who we saw at the start of the story in Mr Kin's office, releases Amy and the two UNIT officers. She tells them that she is their friend, not working for Kin, and that she has 'other priorities'. She says it is vital that Amy does not come to any harm. When Axos is distracted by its nutrition cycle, she says, they shall be able to escape. As they make their way through a service corridor she tells them that Axos is planning to take over the Earth.

 

As Amy and her friends run through the building they feel it change into a golden creature around them. The Doctor tells the mayor that the building wasn't built on top of Axos; it is Axos. It now has enough power to devour the planet.

 

As they escape from the building, Machi is killed by the children but Amy and Hiraki run away. A helicopter hovers above them and the Doctor lowers a ladder. Hiraki and Amy (just) manage to escape up the ladder as the huge Axon's tentacles try to kill them. The Doctor takes the controls and flies them above the Electric Power Company. The lights are on, showing that there is still power. They land on the roof where the Doctor asks Hiraki and her men to hold back the enemy. Inside the building, the Doctor puts on his psychic 'hat' and speaks to the possessed children. He tells them to fight back against Axos. They create a giant figure of Goruda to battle the Axon creature. The Axon is stronger but the battle between the two colossal creatures is merely a distraction.

 

Other, smaller Axons are fighting and killing the UNIT soldiers defending the perimeter. The Doctor goes to the control room of the power plant and assumes control he reverses the polarity of the electron flow so that the power will be drained from Axos. Then he hacks into the media channels and tells the people of Tokyo to turn on every electric appliance they own. Outside, Yoshida is killed by Axons.

 

The massive demand starts to drain power from the Axons and they begin to melt. They are too far into their feeding cycle to disconnect and as the city lights up the Axon cell structure disintegrates. 'Mr Kin', now barely more than a puddle, tells Chiyoko that she promises the Axons the Earth. She replies that she lied but the Axons' sacrifice will allow a greater life to come into being.

 

One day later, Hiraki tells Amy that the children have woken with no memory of what they did. She has sent Takara away to her father while the cleaning up process begins.

 

 

The Professor, the Queen and the Bookshop

Writer: Jonathan Morris   Art: Rob Davis   Colours: Geraint Ford   Lettering: Roger Langridge    Issue 429

11th Doctor and Amy

Two children, Amelia and Rory, run through the snowy streets of Second World War London. They are being evacuated because of the air-raids but Amelia has left her aunt at the station while she goes in search of a book to read on the train. Rory hastens after her because she needs a boy to keep her out of trouble though Amelia denies this. She finds a shop - Phoenix Books - which is much larger on the inside. She shouts up to a young man on some ladders, causing him to tumble to the floor. He tells her that it both is and isn't a bookshop and that children are forbidden. Amelia picks up a large tome and starts to read which causes the door to slam and the shop to shake. The man demands to know which book she looked into but Amelia pretends to have lost it even though she is hiding it behind her back. The man tells Rory that they aren't in London anymore; the shop travels into the pages of any book that has been written so they could be anywhere. He rushes out to investigate and the three of them find themselves outside in a dark forest.

The whole world is dead as though something terrible has happened. The man tells them that his name is "Professor". As they step into a deserted town he recognises that they are in the one place that he never wanted to visit - The Desolation of the White Queen. The trees seem to be made of tortured human shapes and there is a statue in a square at the heart of the town with its hands concealing its face. He tells them to run back to the shop. Every time they turn round the statue seems to be closer but they never actually see it move.

 

They reach the shop just in time and the Doctor takes another book off the shelves to find a place where the statue will never find them. As the shop spins through a vortex the statue holds onto a lamp-post outside and then flies away, laughing maniacally.

 

The Professor tells Amelia they have landed in a golden world of fields and shining seas but when they step out they are in a snowy land where the tree in front of them contains the shape of a faun. The Professor says that he must have brought the White Queen with them and she has arrived first. They are surrounded by anthropomorphic animals (pig-man, humanoid rhinoceros and the like), all heavily armed. A wolf man tells them that the White Queen materialised many years earlier and made it winter but never Christmas. She transformed all who opposed her into trees. The Professor offers to fight her and the creatures say that would be good but they have been sent to take the travellers prisoner. She is waiting for them in the Tower of Darkness.

 

When the Professor and his companions are brought before the Queen he gives her a first and fiunal warning. Amelia also calls her evil and cruel. The Queen flings a bolt of green energy at the girl but the Professor leaps in the way and is killed. As the Queen turns to kill Rory, Amelia produces the book she first opened in the shop and opens it. The Queen is sucked back into her own story. Amelia wonders if a book can bring people back too. She picks up a quill and writes that the Professor was not dead. Instantly, he is revived.

 

The creatures offer their thanks to 'Princess Amelia' and the travellers return to the shop through a green and pleasant landscape. The Professor takes them home but he tells Amelia that if she keeps on making up stories about him he will carry on having adventures. When the children leave the shop they find Amelia's aunt waiting and she tells them they have barely been gone two minutes. Amelia is carrying a book: The Professor, the Queen and the Bookshop.

 

It transpires that this narrative was all being read from a manuscript by C.S. Lewis to his friend J.R.R. Tolkien at a meeting of the Inklings club in The Eagle and Child pub. Tolkien criticizes the story for being derivative and allegorical but Lewis turns to the two newest members of the club for their opinions. They are the Doctor and Amy - who loved it - but the Doctor suggests that the story might work better with a wardrobe. Outside on the pavement, snow falls onto the TARDIS.

 

Notes:

 

This curious and endearing story implies that the Doctor and Amy visited Lewis and Tolkien on at least one occasion and were partly responsible for the final form of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The final dedication points out that Lewis died on 22nd November 1963, the night before the first episode of Doctor Who aired.

While much of the strip derives from the Narnia books it also references many ideas in the Doctor who canon:

the bookshop is a surrogate TARDIS (and travels with a 'VWORP! VWORP!' effect);

the Doctor is called 'Professor" much as the Seventh Doctor was by Ace (and in the BBV Time Travellers series);

the Doctor and two young children travelling together is reminiscent of the TV Comic strips of the 1960s;

books on the shelves of the shop contain a number of Who-like titles (Master of Luxor, Space Whale, Sirens of. ) and there seems to be a toy Dalek on a shelf;

the book Amelia opens to start the adventure is called 'Shad.';

the arrival on a distant planet containing a petrified forest and a strange city is similar to The Daleks;

The White Queen acts a lot like a Weeping Angel and her army includes a lot of Who-style beasts (Judoon etc.)

 

 

The Screams of Death

Writer: Jonathan Morris   Art: Dan McDaid   Colours: James Offredi   Lettering: Roger Langridge                Issues 430-431

11th Doctor and Amy

Paris 1858. A young woman, Cosette, finds the house of Monsieur Valdemar. She asks him to help her sing better so that she can fulfill her ambition to be an opera singer. When she sings for him she is hideously out of tune but he tells her that he can help. He tells her to look into his eyes which begin to glow demonically.

Several months later, the Doctor, in top hat and evening dress, and Amy, also dressed for the period, pay a visit to the opera house to watch a performance of Orphée. They are astonished by the amazing performance by Cosette but the Doctor recognises by her reduced blink rate that she is in a hypnotic trance. He takes Amy to the stage door but Valdemar rushes Cosette through the waiting fans and into a carriage. A young man calls after Cosette but to no avail.

 

The Doctor guesses that the young man is Cosette's boyfriend and Amy invites him to a café. There, the young man explains that he and Cosette were engaged until she went to Valdemar. He hadn't expected much to come of Cosette's ambitions because she was such a poor singer. However, she spent more and more time with Valdemar until one night she never came home.

 

His story is interrupted by a scream from outside. Everyone rushes to the alley across from the café where a man lies dead. The Doctor sees blood around the man's ears. He surmises that the poor man only had a couple of days to live anyway. Amy wonders why anyone would bother to murder him. She also says that the scream they heard was a young woman's.

 

The Doctor takes the young man and Amy to Valdemar's house where they gain entry via a skylight in the roof. In one of the rooms they discover a series of chambers wreathed in a green gas. Each contains a young woman, the girls from the opera, wearing gas masks. The Doctor looks at the machinery in the room and recognises a DNA sampler. Just then, Valdemar enters and removes the masks from the girls. The three intruders hide in the shadows. He gives each a target and tells them to collect genetic samples. He then says that when he has selected his victims the girls shall sing them to their deaths. The girls then levitate and fly out from his house. One of them knocks on a bedroom window across the town and when the owner opens the curtains she crashes through the window, exhaling green gas.

 

Meanwhile, Valdemar tells the three intruders to come out from their hiding places. The Doctor asks how the girls managed to levitate but Valdemar insists that it is beyond the Doctor's comprehension. He releases Cosette from her chamber and tells her to sing to them all. Cosette emits an ear-shattering scream.

 

Salzburg 2098. Eldritch Valdemar is found guilty, as leader of the Eugenic Cult, of murder, treason, mental domination and genetic manipulation. He points at four men in the courtroom, accusing them of treachery. The robotic judge says that the four have bought their freedom with their testimony and Valdemar is sentenced to death. Before the sentence is carried out he swears to have his revenge and then Valdemar is hit with a blast of energy.

 

Back in Paris, 240 years earlier, the Doctor is chained to a wall with Amy and Louis (Cosette's boyfriend). Valdemar instructs Cosette to take a sample from each, which she does by kissing them deeply. Louis can see the paper bearing the names of all Valdemar's victims: the same four surnames repeated over and over again. The Doctor guesses that the targets are actually the victims' descendants who he wants to prevent existing. He has to make sure that none of the victims of his plan are his own ancestors too, hence the DNA samples.

 

Valdemar speculates that the Doctor, like him, is also from the future. He says that he got there when his death by molecular dispersion resulted in him being miraculously transported through time. The Doctor sees that someone is behind all this but it isn't clear who.

 

Valdemar goes off to check the samples and Amy uses a bent hairpin to free herself from her manacles. She releases the other two and they make their way to Valdemar just as he discovers that neither the Doctor nor Amy is his ancestor. He orders Cosette to kill them. Louis surmises that, as he is being spared, he must be Valdemar's grandfather. He snatches a flask and threatens to drink it, poisoning himself, unless Cosette is returned to him. Valdemar refuses and is swept into the air by his 'daughters of the night' to commit the slaughter. Louis manages to grab Cosette and drag her to the ground. The Doctor asks the girl to take him in pursuit of Valdemar.

 

They fly through the night. Valdemar leads them to the roof of Notre Dame Cathedral for a showdown. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to ring the cathedral bells which looses the hold he has over the girls. They turn on him and he plunges from the roof.

 

Later, after satisfying himself that Cosette can no longer sing and is back to normal, the Doctor and Amy return to the TARDIS accompanied by Louis and Cosette. They enter the alleyway together and as Louis thanks them Cosette examines the TARDIS. The Doctor and Amy step inside and the TARDIS dematerializes. It is only then that Louis realises Cosette is not with him. He does not see that he is being watched from the shadows by a little girl in a sailor suit.

 

 

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Writer: Jonathan Morris   Art: David Roach   Colours: James Offredi   Lettering: Roger Langridge                Issue 432

11th Doctor and Amy

At the Hawkshaw Manor nursing home, 2011, an old man (Arthur) is disturbed by a small boy with no face who comes into his room to watch him.

In the morning, Amy Pond (in nurse's outfit) brings him a cup of tea. She comments on how loud the children are as they play in the garden but Arthur says he likes to hear the laughter. He adds that he never had any children of his own and when his wife died in 1988 he had no relatives left. Sister Frost arrives and orders Amy to stop chatting and get on with her other duties. She tells Amy that another resident has died in the night but when Amy enters the room the body has already gone. This strikes Amy as surprisingly quick. Amy picks up a photograph of the dead woman, Margaret, as a child. When she turns around the young Margaret is behind her.

 

The Doctor, meanwhile, is talking to Miss Bruce who is in charge of the nursing home. He asks her about bodies disappearing in the middle of the night but then interrupts her reply to tell her that she is about to say she doesn't know what he is talking about. He says that she has been arranging for the undertakers to bury empty coffins and that he knows that this is true because he was there when they were dug up by archaeologists eight hundred years in the future. He also accuses her of only admitting people with no friends or relatives. He suggests that she isn't behind the disappearances and then asks her how long the home has been allowing children to play in the gardens. Miss Bruce calls him insane, saying that there are no children even though a group can clearly be seen through the window behind her.

 

Amy tries to engage the young Margaret in conversation but Sister Frost drags her away to the laundry closet at the other end of the building despite the fact that they are standing beside a room clearly marked 'Laundry Closet'.

 

That evening, as the sun sets, the Doctor takes Arthur out to the TARDIS. Arthur tells him that his friend, Bert, saw the boy with no face the night before he died. He expects to die soon. The Doctor changes the subject to the children. Arthur says that they have only appeared recently and don't like to get too close to the building. They also notice that the children's clothes and games seem rather old-fashioned. When the Doctor approaches them the children says they cannot tell anyone where they came from or the grownups will put a stop to their games. Margaret tells Arthur not to worry because he will be joining them soon.

 

Amy rushes up to tell the Doctor that there is a girl running around the home but the staff can't see her. He replies that a perception filter is at work and is probably shielding an alien hiding place. Amy remembers the laundry closet that was invisible to Sister Frost. They head straight there.

 

Arthur seems to be suffering chest pains but insists that he hasn't had so much fun in years. The Doctor says the perception filter is set to local fauna so he and Amy aren't affected. The laundry closet is revealed as a huge, high-tech alien nest. Nurst frost is within, as are a number of blank children. Frost's head opens up to reveal an insectoid robot which accuses them of being a threat to the surrogates. As weapons open fire Arthur dies of a heart attack but a boy with no face steps forward and surrounds the body with energy. The corpse vanishes and the boy grows a face. He turns to the robot and demands it to stop, adding that the Doctor and Amy are his friends. The robot immediately designates them as non-hostile and ceases fire. Amy turns to the new Arthur who is confused as to why he is suddenly so short.

 

The Doctor demands an explanation from the robot. It says it is a Vorlax regeneration drone that provides replacement bodies for dead infantry and places their consciousness within at the moment of death. It was hit by enemy fire, causing a teleport malfunction, and arrived on Earth where it activated its camouflage. The Doctor repairs the teleport device and sets it on a countdown for departure to an uninhabited garden world. Amy says that it was actually doing a good thing, giving people a second chance for life. She asks what will happen to the kids and if the other residents don't deserve the same chance. They take the children to the residents' sitting room and ask them if they would like to be made young on a planet millions of miles away. He tells them they have to make up their minds immediately.

 

The next days' news reports that all of the residents of Hawkshaw nursing home have disappeared simultaneously but the reason is that they have all emigrated to New Zealand after winning the lottery.

 

Amy and the Doctor (along with 'Nurse Frost') watch the children play in a garden paradise, diving from a waterfall and riding a friendly dinosaur.

 

 

Forever Dreaming

Writer: Jonathan Morris   Art: Adrian Salmon   Lettering: Roger Langridge             Issues 433-434

11th Doctor and Amy

The Doctor offers Amy an ice cream cone. The TARDIS has materialised on a beach that resembles a typical seaside resort in Britain, apparently in the late 1960s. It is a hot summer day and the Doctor is concerned that it is almost too stereotypical. Unbeknown to the travellers, they are being watched, probably from within a giant purple octopus above the pier entrance. Amy has a vivid memory of visiting this place before with her auntie and running to a toy shop with a model TARDIS displayed in the window. Her auntie pulled her away and little Amelia lost her red balloon. It dawns on Amy that she was born in 1989 and couldn't have been there in the 1960s. The watchers deem that her mind is too powerful and she cannot be allowed to leave. She explains her doubts to the Doctor but he breaks in to tell her that she is feeling déjà vu with someone else's memories. He starts to run down onto the beach, telling her that they have to get away because they are in a trap. Before he finishes his sentence he is turned into a life-size sand sculpture that disintegrates before Amy can reach it.

A long-haired young man (sitting in the lotus position, with a dove perched on his hand and wearing hippy clothes) floats before Amy. He calls her Amelia, the girl of his dreams. Speaking in trippy rhymes he tells her she has all the tomorrows in the world and that once she has fallen down the kaleidoscope there is no way out of the dream. She asks if he is trapped and he replies that only she can save everybody for the Doctor has closed his eyes on the Octopus ride. The young man vanishes with a warning: 'Beware of the dark.'

 

The weather changes abruptly: it is cold, grey and rainy. The people on the promenade are now only stuffed dummies. Suddenly, Amy is confronted by five dark figures. They are wearing business suits and bowler hats and each carries a rolled umbrella. Their faces are set in manic grins and each is wearing psychedelic spectacles. Amy runs away from them onto the pier. She is watched by five figures in a candle-lit room. One of them is the young hippy and another is the Doctor. They want to help her but know they can only watch. One warns that if the dark consumes her she will cease to exist. Amy reaches the end of the pier as the five shadow men close in on her. They tell her that the more scared she feels, the stronger they will become. She replies that she is not frightened but one of them contradicts her, saying that everyone is afraid of the dark. Amy climbs over the railing and hangs above the stormy waves from which hands reach up as if to grab her.

 

As the shadows tell her that she must despair, Amy responds by thinking of ice cream. A cone appears in her hand and the happiness she feels causes the sun to break out and the beach to return to a summer's day. She climbs back onto the promenade as the shadows are dispersed by the sunlight.

 

Back in the room the men watching her realise she is stronger than any of them. The young hippy floats before Amy again and tells her that he used to be a musician in a rock band and that he used to visit Psychspace for his inspiration until it became harder for him to leave and he became stuck there with the other men: a painter, a poet, a mathematician and, now, the Doctor. Amy follows the musician into the room where she finds the Doctor comatose. She demands to know what these dreamers want from her. The musician tells her that when they lose hope the darkness grows more powerful and begins to consume Psychspace. Their only salvation is if Amy helps them to smash the glass and return them to reality. They ask her to sit down and dream.

 

Amy finds herself reverting to her childhood, watching an episode of Blue Peter on television. The Doctor is one of the presenters and he that she has to use her stubborn nature to transcend the metaphysical reality. Amy wakes up in the darkened room and tells the Doctor she can see something. He regains consciousness and asks what she can see. A large purple octopus is hanging from the ceiling above them. The Doctor recognises it as a psychic squid that has lured creative minds into its home dimension to feed on their psychic energy so that it can break into the real world and feed off human imagination. The squid/octopus wraps a tentacle around the Doctor and sends a shock of energy through him. The shadow men come down the stairs and then overpower the dreamers but they turn on the squid and use their combined power to cause it to explode. As the darkness closes in on them the Doctor urges Amy to imagine the TARDIS which she builds in her mind from jigsaw pieces. They run into the console room and shut the door.

 

The Doctor tells Amy that the dreamers created the darkness from their own guilt and despair but finally sacrificed themselves to save the world. Their reality included fear and guilt and in the end they had to accept that. On that thought the TARDIS dematerializes and the travellers go on their way.

 

 

Apotheosis

Writer: Jonathan Morris   Art: Dan McDaid   Colours: James Offredi   Lettering: Roger Langridge                Issues 435-437

11th Doctor and Amy

The Doctor promises to take Amy to Wembley Stadium for the 2030 World Cup Final but they land in a big old space station instead. As they set out to explore they are seen by a giant robot that describes them as escaped specimens. It is just about to 'sterilise' them when it is destroyed by a party of six nuns carrying futuristic guns. The leader, Mother Ivana, has the Doctor and Amy scanned for impurity and says that abominations will not be suffered to live. Sister Bridget runs the scan and reports that they are untainted.

Ivana explains that they are the Sisters of Purity and their twofold mission is to investigate the structure which has been in Earth space for a year, emitting exotic particles, while also finding out what happened to a similar party that disappeared six months earlier. When Novice Konami tries to contact the transporter ship that brought them it does not respond. They decide to make their way through the corridors to the command hub.

 

On the way they pass a large device that the Doctor says is a primitive attempt at building a time engine. He says it is leaking and is the probable source of the exotic particles. They come to a sealed door and the nuns decide to blow it open with explosives. The Doctor suggests using his sonic screwdriver instead. As he does so they are attacked by a group of robots. One of the nuns is shot while the others return fire. The Doctor gets the door open and runs into the command hub where he uses the computer to over-ride the security protocols and put the robots on stand-by mode.

 

There are human skeletons on the floor. The nuns think that they are the station's crew but the Doctor sees a functioning teleport and says that the crew left long ago. The bones belong to the previous investigation team. Ivana wonders how this can be: the sisters only arrived six months earlier but the bones look hundreds of years old. The Doctor feels stubble growing on his chin and says that the temporal experiment that went wrong has caused time to accelerate. This is why Konami couldn't contact the ship - it is in a different time zone.

 

At the mention of Konami's name, the nuns turn to look at her and see that she has aged tremendously. The Doctor says that time is passing at different speeds in different parts of the station. A small purple lizard runs over Amy's foot. The Doctor looks closely at it, saying that it looks familiar. As it scuttles away, the Doctor and Amy give chase, followed by the nuns. The corridor they run down has blossomed into a jungle and the lizard has already died of old age.

 

The Doctor tells the nuns that their only hope is to get to his ship. As they follow him through the jungle the plants turn blue and the TARDIS, when they reach it, has creepers and vines growing from it as well as screaming human figures bursting from its outer shell.

 

The Doctor says that the TARDIS is caught in an accelerated time field. Amy recognises the faces on its shell as Cosette (DWM 430-431) and Margaret (DWM 432). The Doctor also recognises the Shasarak (DWM 424). The figures coalesce into a giant ogre/TARDIs. The nuns open fire but the monster flings energy balls at them and catches hold of Konami, absorbing her into itself. Only the Reverend mother, Sophia and Bridget survive the assault as the monster races away, leaving the TARDIS behind. The Doctor and Amy enter the TARDIs while he berates himself for failing to recognise the jungle as that from the planet Basingstoke (DWM 421-423). He says the TARDIS has been infected and absorbed life forms wherever they have gone. The temporal acceleration has allowed the tissue to evolve into autonomous life which has now been expelled, resulting in a half human, half monster, and half TARDIS hybrid.

 

The nuns corner this monster but as they open fire it 'vwarp-vwarps' away. They decide to destroy the time engine that they passed earlier as an insurance against time disruption.

 

The Doctor tells Amy to stay in the TARDIS because the chances of premature ageing are so high but she insists on accompanying him on his mission to the teleport where he intends to lure the creature and reconstitute its individual parts. He draws the creature to him with the sonic screwdriver and then locks it into the teleport. While he sets the machinery in motion the nuns return and take Amy at gunpoint. They demand to know what he can tell them about time technology but, instead, he says he knows that they have been fighting a war against androids that look human. He says he has worked this out because Sister Bridget has not aged visibly, unlike the others.

 

Revealed as a spy, Bridget kills Sophia but Ivana returns fire, shooting off Bridget's face to reveal the android beneath. The Doctor shuts the teleport chamber door. Amy points out that they are now trapped inside. Ivana use the time to tell them that humans have been fighting a thousand year war against Galatean robots: 'the heresy of metal'. As she does so, the robots in the chamber are reactivated by Bridget interfacing with the computer. Ivana destroys them with her last three sonic grenades. However, Bridget has an army of robots gathering outside ready to break in with laser torches.

 

The only means of escape is the teleport but that would mean stopping the creature's reconstitution (thereby killing it) and there are two hours before the process is finished. Amy tells the Doctor she doesn't feel well. As he looks at her she ages visibly in front of his eyes.

 

The Doctor has to support Amy so that she can stand up. He tells her that she must have walked into the accelerated time field. She asks him if he can make her young again. Ivana says that she is going to kill the creature in the teleport so that they can use that way as a means of escape. Amy angrily retorts that the creature is made of innocent people including Sister Konami. Ivana says that Konami will be a martyr to the cause. Amy lunges at her, saying that it is murder but before Ivana can shoot her the robots burst through the door. The Doctor drags Amy away while Ivana shows the robots a detonator switch in her hand. She has rigged the time machine at the heart of the space station with explosives: if the humans can't have it, neither will the robots.

 

The robots open fire on her. As she dies, Ivana says she is going to heaven while the others are condemned to hell. She clicks the detonator switch. As the time engine explodes the Doctor drags Amy towards it. He says that the accelerated time energy will kill them in seconds unless they get to the eye of the storm. They shelter beside the engine until the jungle around them has aged, died and withered away. They re-emerge to make their way back to the control room. On the way they are stopped by two robots who take them to Sister Bridget. She says that she has seen the light: they have been blessed by a divine incarnation.

 

A glowing blue girl emerges from the teleport. She is the little girl that the Doctor and Amy saw at the Shining Dawn (DWM 425-428). She says that Amy saved her and the Doctor made her. The Doctor says that it was an accident; she is the combination of several young women, a couple of monsters and the TARDIS. Bridget calls her the ultimate expression of being (flesh and machine combined). The girl responds by disintegrating all of the robots with a wave of her hand.

 

The Doctor offers to help her but she says that she doesn't need his help. She is Chiyoko, the daughter of a thousand generations. She can see both history and the future. The Doctor begs her to help Amy who has now aged into a decrepit old woman. Chiyoko declines, saying that they have had their time and would only try to stop her. She "Vworp"s away.

 

In a flash of inspiration, the Doctor carries Amy into the teleport and uses his screwdriver and Bridget's bio scanner to retrieve Amy's body patterns. He restores her to her youthful self. The space station begins to explode around them so they teleport back to the TATRDIs and dash inside. As the station detonates the Doctor sets the controls so that the TARDIS can follow Chiyoko through the vortex. He says that this is only the beginning of their adventure.

 

The Doctor says that the TARDIS is caught in an accelerated time field. Amy recognises the faces on its shell as Cosette (DWM 430-431) and Margaret (DWM 432). The Doctor also recognises the Shasarak (DWM 424). The figures coalesce into a giant ogre/TARDIs. The nuns open fire but the monster flings energy balls at them and catches hold of Konami, absorbing her into itself. Only the Reverend mother, Sophia and Bridget survive the assault as the monster races away, leaving the TARDIS behind. The Doctor and Amy enter the TARDIs while he berates himself for failing to recognise the jungle as that from the planet Basingstoke (DWM 421-423). He says the TARDIS has been infected and absorbed life forms wherever they have gone. The temporal acceleration has allowed the tissue to evolve into autonomous life which has now been expelled, resulting in a half human, half monster, and half TARDIS hybrid.

 

The nuns corner this monster but as they open fire it 'vwarp-vwarps' away. They decide to destroy the time engine that they passed earlier as an insurance against time disruption.

 

The Doctor tells Amy to stay in the TARDIS because the chances of premature ageing are so high but she insists on accompanying him on his mission to the teleport where he intends to lure the creature and reconstitute its individual parts. He draws the creature to him with the sonic screwdriver and then locks it into the teleport. While he sets the machinery in motion the nuns return and take Amy at gunpoint. They demand to know what he can tell them about time technology but, instead, he says he knows that they have been fighting a war against androids that look human. He says he has worked this out because Sister Bridget has not aged visibly, unlike the others.

 

Revealed as a spy, Bridget kills Sophia but Ivana returns fire, shooting off Bridget's face to reveal the android beneath. The Doctor shuts the teleport chamber door. Amy points out that they are now trapped inside. Ivana use the time to tell them that humans have been fighting a thousand year war against Galatean robots: 'the heresy of metal'. As she does so, the robots in the chamber are reactivated by Bridget interfacing with the computer. Ivana destroys them with her last three sonic grenades. However, Bridget has an army of robots gathering outside ready to break in with laser torches.

 

The only means of escape is the teleport but that would mean stopping the creature's reconstitution (thereby killing it) and there are two hours before the process is finished. Amy tells the Doctor she doesn't feel well. As he looks at her she ages visibly in front of his eyes.

 

The Doctor has to support Amy so that she can stand up. He tells her that she must have walked into the accelerated time field. She asks him if he can make her young again. Ivana says that she is going to kill the creature in the teleport so that they can use that way as a means of escape. Amy angrily retorts that the creature is made of innocent people including Sister Konami. Ivana says that Konami will be a martyr to the cause. Amy lunges at her, saying that it is murder but before Ivana can shoot her the robots burst through the door. The Doctor drags Amy away while Ivana shows the robots a detonator switch in her hand. She has rigged the time machine at the heart of the space station with explosives: if the humans can't have it, neither will the robots.

 

The robots open fire on her. As she dies, Ivana says she is going to heaven while the others are condemned to hell. She clicks the detonator switch. As the time engine explodes the Doctor drags Amy towards it. He says that the accelerated time energy will kill them in seconds unless they get to the eye of the storm. They shelter beside the engine until the jungle around them has aged, died and withered away. They re-emerge to make their way back to the control room. On the way they are stopped by two robots who take them to Sister Bridget. She says that she has seen the light: they have been blessed by a divine incarnation.

 

A glowing blue girl emerges from the teleport. She is the little girl that the Doctor and Amy saw at the Shining Dawn (DWM 425-428). She says that Amy saved her and the Doctor made her. The Doctor says that it was an accident; she is the combination of several young women, a couple of monsters and the TARDIS. Bridget calls her the ultimate expression of being (flesh and machine combined). The girl responds by disintegrating all of the robots with a wave of her hand.

 

The Doctor offers to help her but she says that she doesn't need his help. She is Chiyoko, the daughter of a thousand generations. She can see both history and the future. The Doctor begs her to help Amy who has now aged into a decrepit old woman. Chiyoko declines, saying that they have had their time and would only try to stop her. She "Vworp"s away.

 

In a flash of inspiration, the Doctor carries Amy into the teleport and uses his screwdriver and Bridget's bio scanner to retrieve Amy's body patterns. He restores her to her youthful self. The space station begins to explode around them so they teleport back to the TATRDIs and dash inside. As the station detonates the Doctor sets the controls so that the TARDIS can follow Chiyoko through the vortex. He says that this is only the beginning of their adventure.

 

 

The Child of Time

Writer: Jonathan Morris   Pencil Art: Martin Gerathy   Inks: David A. Roach   Colours: James Offredi   Lettering: Roger Langridge    Issues 438-440

11th Doctor and Amy

Chiyoko is flying through time and space, exulting in being alive. The Doctor gives pursuit in the TARDIS while Amy complains about his erratic driving. Amy asks where Chiyoko is going. The Doctor says that she has to travel up her time stream to make herself happen; at the moment she is only a possibility. They track her to the war-planet Grakktar in 4688 and see her diverting the Vorlax into the past so that it can create the clone of Margaret DWM 432) that is later absorbed by the TARDIS. In Salzburg, 2098, she rescues Eldritch Valdemar from his execution and sends him to nineteenth century Paris DWM 430-431). That way, Cosette is eventually eaten by the TARDIS. Next, she frees Axos from the time loop so that it can try to invade Earth.

The Doctor tells Amy that they cannot stop her without causing a paradox. They try to follow her to her next destination but the navigation systems 'go all wibbly' when they follow her time stream. They arrive in a devastated city. The Doctor gives Amy some pills to counter the effects of high levels of radiation while they explore. They stumble across the ruins of St Paul's Cathedral and realise that they are on Earth, albeit long after Amy's time.

 

A ship attacks them, firing energy beams. They try to get back to the TARDIS but a near miss buries the TARDIS under tons of rubble. Galatean robots close in on them but are disabled by an E-M burst from a party of human soldiers. Captain Kaido orders the incineration of the robots while she questions the Doctor. He tells her that they dropped in from one of the orbital stations. She isn't much interested but, once she has ascertained that they are organic she takes them to the crypt beneath St Pauls. Kaido takes them down in a lift. Riding with them is Sergeant Sokkuri. She was rescued by Kaido after her ship was shot down by Galateans.

 

They enter a chapel containing a massive statue of Chiyoko. Amy and the Doctor pretends that they are Chiyoko worshippers, too, while realising that she must have beaten them to Earth by several centuries. They continue on into the bunker control room. On a screen, the Galatean Prelature is contacting Earth. It offers the humans mercy in the name of Chiyoko. Commander Hachiman is furious that they name Chiyoko. The Galateans make an offer to the last humans: they can keep the planet as a reservation while the robots take the stars. Hachiman refuses, saying that humans would rather die than surrender.

 

Hachiman asks one of his men if the Ultimate Weapon is ready. He is told that the work of ten years has been completed and tells Kaido that she knows what to do. The Doctor and Amy follow her to a locked room. She tells them that they are in a restricted area but the Doctor says that he only wants to see what she is doing and to prevent it. She tells him that he is too late. She has already started the countdown and the computer only responds to her brain pattern. The Doctor sees that a network of fusion bombs has been panted beneath the planet's surface: they are going to destroy the Earth.

 

Kaido pulls out a gun but before she can shoot she is killed by Sokkuri. The Doctor scans Sokkuri and finds that she has a Galatean brain. Sokkuri tries to absorb the dying Kaido's brain patterns but an emergency E-M burst from the control room kills her. The countdown has reached 49 when Chiyoko materialises. She says that it has been fun playing a game of Galactic War just to see who would win but now that the Galateans have proved their superiority they can continue while the humans must go away. She says goodbye to the Doctor and Amy before dematerialising.

 

Amy asks the Doctor if he can do anything to stop the count, which is on 25. He says there is a remote possibility and then the planet explodes.

 

The Doctor and Amy find themselves lying on the grass of an English village green. The Doctor says he would remember stopping the planet from exploding so he assumes it must have. Amy wonders if they are in heaven. They ask a passerby for directions and the Doctor recognises him as the scientist Alan Turing. Turing assumes that he knows the Doctor from Oxford and invites them back to his home. He tells them that they are in Wilmslow in 1954. Over tea Turing and the Doctor discuss Turing's work on Fibonacci numbers. When the scientist goes to fetch some of his papers, the Doctor whispers that something is wrong: Turing should have killed himself the previous month. He asks Amy to step outside while he and Turing are getting on so well. Turing has overheard this conversation. This prompts him to want to learn more (as well as assuming that the Doctor is homosexual like him). He tells the Doctor that he had considered suicide but was saved at the last moment by a small Japanese girl called Chiyoko. Turing admits that he has been in Wilmslow in 1954 ever since he can remember.

 

Amy, meanwhile, finds herself following a dodo through the countryside after it drops a parchment. It steps through a hole in space and she follows it. It leads her into the library of Alexandria where John Keats and Buddy Holly are writing a musical for Jayne Mansfield. They are interrupted when Galatean robots arrive and blast Keats, Holly and Mansfield to pieces, revealing the trio to be robots. Amy escapes the destruction only to find herself at gunpoint again.

 

The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to open a hole in the fabric of space and he and Turing step through to a vast hall containing huge spheres. Each is a dimensional projection of various places at different points in Earth's history (including the Globe Theatre, Stonehenge, a pyramid and Easter Island). The Doctor says it is an abandoned museum. They walk across a gantry to where Amy is standing with the heavily armed Bronte sisters. Amy reveals that the sisters, and Turing, are robots. The Brontes add that they are being stalked by Galateans. The Museum of Lost Opportunities was built as a memorial to the human race in the middle of an asteroid belt around a dying sun. It was designed by Chiyoko and is all that remains of Earth. Now that the Galateans have wiped all life from the galaxy they have sought out the museum.

 

Emily Bronte is destroyed by a Galatean robot but Charlotte and Anne fight it off. Charlotte says that their decaying programs allowed them self knowledge. They know they are robots but believe they have as much soul as living creatures. They take the Doctor to a time scoop which they used to bring the Doctor to them. They say that they need the Doctor because he is the only one with enough knowledge of changing history to safely remove the Galateans from time before they can be created. The Doctor points out that this will end the Bronte robots' existence but they say they are aware of that.

 

A group of Galateans burst in and destroy Anne Bronte. As Charlotte fights back the others take cover. Amy asks if they can get the time scoop to bring the TARDIS to them but the Doctor says they will be killed by the Galateans before they can get to the controls. Charlotte says that it is time to bid goodbye...

 

Back on Earth in the near future a falling star brings an infection that spreads rapidly, soon becoming a pandemic. Robots travel the land, identifying new victims and sterilising the derelict towns with a circle of fire each with a radius of one mile for every new case found.

 

The Doctor, Amy and Turing are sent back by Charlotte Bronte, arriving amidst the devastation. Turing says that this is the time of the creation of the Galateans. He says that the history books need to be rewritten or this is the end of humanity. The Doctor explains that it is not so simple: this is the time before Chiyoko's interference began. Before he can elucidate further, they are confronted by one of the robots. It says that contaminated life forms must be sterilised but their presence is noted by humans in an underground facility. The robot detects that they are not contaminated and takes them to the facility. The Doctor tells Amy that he is rather vague on this time period but is surprised that a cure has not been found. The trio are taken to Keltor Jacobs. He introduces himself as the last hope for the human race. He tells them that the Doomsday Plague has all but wiped out the human race and the research stations across the empire are going out one by one. His assistant, Chloe, says that they have spent five years looking for n alternative solution and have settled on the creation of Galateans: robots containing the uploaded minds of the human race. Turing tries to tell them that the Galateans are not the solution but the destruction of humanity. He says that the duplicates will come to believe that they are the originals and will wipe out the humans believing them to be imposters.

 

Chiyoko materialises among them and makes it that the three newcomers were never there. Like phantoms, they have to watch as Chloe activates the Galateans just three hours before Research Station Minerva reports that it has found a cure for the plague. Jacobs tries to recall the Galateans but they have already started killing the humans. They tell Jacobs that humanity is weak and vulnerable and that now is the time of the Galateans. Jacobs tries to abort the Galateans with an EM pulse but Chiyoko kills him.

 

The Doctor says that she is diverting the course of history to ensure her own creation. She turns to him and agrees that playing with time is fun. She takes them to the planet Kepler IV, one thousand years later, to witness the glories of war. The Doctor asks her how she can enjoy standing on a battlefield, watching two armies annihilate each other just so that she can come into being. She turns to him and tells him that he made it happen by creating her.

 

The Doctor tells her that the Galateans wipe out all other life in the galaxy and begs her to put things back the way they were. She tells him that such an action would mean giving up her own life and that she has as much right to exist as anyone else. He tries to argue that if her existence depends on the obliteration of everybody else then she should give up her life. When she says she has no pity for the dead he tells her that he can have no pity for her. He asks her to remember that he gave her a chance.

 

She tells him that he is funny and that it is time for him to go away. She puts the Doctor, Amy and Turing back in London on the day that Earth was blown up. The Doctor says that they have been brought here to die and comments on how tidy it is to end this way. Amy screams as a ship hovers towards them, blasting at them with laser canons.

 

It turns out that the ship is actually shooting at the earlier versions of the Doctor and Amy as they scramble across the rubble. The Doctor decides that this time they can escape the same way that they did the last. He, Amy and Turing follow the same route into the ruins of St Paul's. The Doctor adjusts a rifle to nerve paralysis setting and shoots two guards. They then find their way into the bomb control room and hide. This time, the Doctor shoots his and Amy's earlier versions, knocking them out, so that when the time scoop picks them up he can greet the Bronte sisters and readjust the time scoop to bring Turing along, too. He then puts their past selves into the Wilmslow time bubble to meet the earlier Turing.

 

Chiyoko materialises among them and threatens to wipe them from history. The Doctor says that this isn't a safe option for her and scoops up Cosette, Margaret and Konami from before they were absorbed into the TARDIS. He then wipes the coordinates so that Chiyoko won't know where they came from, or when. That way, he says, her own existence will be under threat if she takes any drastic action. Amy whispers to Turing that she doesn't follow any of this. He replies that it is a bit beyond him, too.

 

Chiyoko is overcome by pain and regret as she feels empathy for the first time. The Doctor asks her to unwrite her own existence. She admits she is scared and, sobbing, sends her component lives back to the places they were last in before they were absorbed.

 

Amy notices that the universe is growing dark; the Doctor says that it is being erased as it ceases to exist. He time scoops the TARDIS to them and sets the controls for Keltor Jacobs' laboratory just after the Galateans are awoken. He tells them that the cure for the Doomsday Plague is about to be announced. Turing calls the Galateans as they awake on Moonbase and tells them that he is the last of the Galatean race. He sends them his memory files so that they can see a future that must never exist, thus averting the war. He hopes that the organic and artificial humans can live together in harmony.

 

Amy calls the Doctor into the TARDIS where Chiyoko is dying. The Doctor takes her to Moonbase where she is remade as a Galatean. The Doctor takes Amy to an observation platform to look down on the planet Earth below. He tells her that there are a billion possible futures and that it is time for them to go and find out which of them is about to happen.

 

 

Chains of Olympus

Writer: Scott Gray   Pencil Art: Mike Collins   Inks: David A. Roach   Colours: James Offredi   Lettering: Roger Langridge           Issues 442-445

11th Doctor and Amy

The TARDIS lands in ancient Greece, near the Acropolis in Athens. Amy emerges, wearing a skimpy tunic, followed by a similarly attired Rory. They complain that the Doctor is wearing his usual outfit but he tells them that he has the uncanny ability to blend in "like a temporal chameleon." The Doctor is eager to meet one of his heroes; Socrates. However, when he tracks him down he finds that his hero is little more than a drunken tramp who 'enlightens' the Doctor by punching him on the jaw. A young man runs up to prevent a brawl and leads his master off to a tavern. The Doctor tells Amy and Rory to wander off on their own, while he tries to work out what is happening.

As they are walking near the Acropolis they see an old woman, Calidora, trying to stop some soldiers. They have a gold statue of Athena on a cart. She tells them that if they destroy the statue as they intend, then Athens will be destroyed in turn. They brush her off and go on their way. Amy helps Calidora to her feet. The woman tells her that they intend to melt the statue (taken from the temple of Athena at the Acropolis) to fund the war with Sparta. She says that the wrath of the gods will be swift. She presses something into Amy's hand as thanks for her kindness, adding that they should flee the city.

 

The Doctor follows Socrates to the tavern, watching as the old man is abused by passers-by. In the tavern, Socrates (now very drunk) apologises for punching the Doctor. The Doctor turns to the youth who is Socrates' only disciple and asks how this happened. The youth, Plato, says that Aristophanes' play, "The Clouds", portrayed Socrates as a fool and since then and the populace started to treat the real Socrates as if he were the fictional character. Since then, Socrates has turned to drink.

 

No sooner has the statue been melted in a workshop than thunder echoes around the city. Citizens are struck by bolts of lightning and others flee in panic. Amy stops to pick up a toddler in the street and she is also struck by lightning. A giant face appears in the sky and its booming voice announces itself as Zeus. It says that the people of Athens have betrayed its trust and they shall pay in blood.

 

The Doctor runs up to the Acropolis, pushing his way through a tide of people going in the opposite direction. Plato follows him. He shouts up to the face of Zeus, hovering above the building, asking it to stop killing people at random. When he gets no response he tells Plato that the image is powering down. It promptly fades away.

 

Rory gets to Amy and finds that both she and the child are safe. She returns the child to his grateful mother. The people around the city are declaring that they are damned and should start slaughtering goats as sacrifice as soon as the sun rises. One man pours all of his wealth down a well; others decide to burn the libraries because enlightenment has been their downfall.

 

The Doctor and Plato return to the tavern and reunite with Rory and Amy. The Doctor lists the possibilities for what is happening: aliens who arrived centuries earlier were mistaken for gods; aliens who have just arrived are posing as gods. Socrates tries to interject but the Doctor brushes him away and insults him. Amy drags the Doctor outside to find out why he is being so rude but the Doctor tells her that Socrates wrote nothing in his lifetime, everything that is known of him was written by Plato, and Plato is the real genius. Amy says that she knows what it is to be let down by a hero. She adds that she grew up and got over it. The Doctor returns to the tavern and asks what the first question is that they should ask. Socrates replies that they need to find out why this is happening now. The Doctor asks if anybody has seen anything unusual.

 

Rory tells him about Calidora and the statue. Amy produces the talisman that Calidora gave her. The sonic screwdriver shows that it is able to absorb a lightning bolt. He tells Plato to take Amy and Rory to Calidora's house while he and Socrates search Athens for more of the metal. As they go, Zeus appears to power up again. However, when they reach Calidora's residence, the woman is dead with an empty cup of hemlock beside her.

 

In the city, a tree takes on the shape of a cyclops and attacks the soldiers that took the statue of Athena. Harpies erupt from the ground, a three-headed dog made of water leaps from a well and a wall becomes a griffon. All of them shout that they are made "for the glory of Zeus". The Doctor follows a signal to the forge where the statue was melted. As the Doctor and Plato look on in horror, a nine headed dragon bursts from the pool of molten gold telling all mortals that they will die for the glory of Zeus.

 

The Doctor recognises that this is the Hydra, fashioned from burning coals. He asks Socrates to throw him a poker and uses it to strike the talisman that Calidora gave Amy. Not only does the Hydra disintegrate but so do all of the other monsters in Athens. The Doctor tells Socrates that he shorted out the psychokinetic energy by using the poker which was made of the same metal as the talisman.

 

Elsewhere, in Calidora's chamber, Plato reads a letter that Calidora left. It tells how, as a little girl, she saw a fireball drop from the sky. When she found where it landed she saw that it was a golden egg. The egg commanded her to bury it in the most sacred of places, which she did. However, she kept some of the molten metal and poured it into the statue of Athena that her father was making and then used more to make the talisman. Amy tells all of this to the Doctor and he and Socrates run to the temple of Athena. The Doctor finds that the egg is hidden in a dimensional fold above the temple. It has grown to a huge size. Socrates tells the Doctor that it was fed on belief and if they believe then they can enter. They touch the surface of the egg and are pulled inside. They arrive in Olympus.

 

The ancient gods are bowing before the wrath of Zeus. He is angry that they have let their worshippers grow less ardent. The only god who has not failed him is Ares. The Doctor steps forward to intervene but Zeus chains him to a pillar with a sweep of his hand.

 

In Athens, the armour of countless soldiers is swept into the air to join together as a giant: Ares. As Alexios and his men race to combat the giant he cuts them down with his huge sword while simultaneously declaring war.

 

Hanging upside down in his chains, the Doctor tries to tell the gods that they are merely psychic constructs created by a woman who is now dead. Her death has led to them running out of control. Socrates whispers to the Doctor that telling somebody they are not real may take some believing. The Doctor says that Socrates might be the very man to convince them.

 

The soldiers fall back from Ares assault. Plato tells them to assemble in the main market square: the Doctor and Socrates were expecting this and have a plan. Amy rides up to Ares on a white horse and challenges him before leading him back to the square. Meanwhile, Socrates uses a series of logical questions to lead Zeus through the argument that: Zeus is all powerful; he therefore has absolute knowledge; his knowledge includes events in the future; he saw that men would one day disrespect the gods; this day was therefore predestined; Zeus must obey destiny; his power cannot be absolute.

 

As Ares arrives in the square he is challenged by 'Roranicus'. Ares uses his massive sword to smite Rory who has a blade fashioned from the psychic gold. Ares blade shatters and Rory uses the sword to cut off the god's leg and hand. The other soldiers and people of Athens wade in and smash Ares.

 

When Zeus witnesses the defeat of his son Socrates asks whether a god can fall to a man. If he can't (as Zeus insists) then neither Ares or, by extension, Zeus can be true gods. Zeus disintegrates, the gods vanish and Olympus begins to collapse. Athena, goddess of wisdom, remains briefly. She knew the truth all along. She asks the Doctor a question: "What is buried in man?" as she fades away the Doctor follows Socrates out of the portal and back into Athens. He holds a piece of golden metal that literally builds gods. He says he does not know who unleashed it or made it but he would love to find out.

 

He turns to Socrates and thanks him for saving mankind. Socrates says that he has been reinvigorated to seek out truth. He points out that the Doctor is both brave and clever but not wise. The Doctor remarks that two out of three isn't bad before taking Amy and Rory back into the TARDIS which dematerialises much to the astonishment of Plato and Dimitrios but to the amusement of Socrates.

 

 

      Source: Mark Senior

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Hunter's Moon

by Paul Finch 

BBC Logo

 

 

Cover Blurb

Hunter's Moon             

'There's no end to the horror in this place - it's like Hell, and there are devils round every corner.'

On Leisure Platform 9 gamblers and villains mix with socialites and celebrities. It's a place where you won't want to win the wrong game.

 

With Rory kidnapped by a brutal crime lord, the Doctor and Amy infiltrate a deadly contest where fugitives become the hunted. But how long before they realise the Doctor isn't a vicious mercenary and discover what Amy is up to? It's a game that can only end in death, and time for everyone is running out.

 

Notes:

This is the eighth book in the series of original adventures featuring the Eleventh Doctor.

Released: April 2011

 

ISBN: 978 1 84990 236 6

 

 

Synopsis

Mallick runs for hours across a polluted landscape. Eventually he stumbles and falls on the rubble of broken machine parts and tears his chin on a jagged metal edge. A figure in the gloom fires an energy bolt at him and Mallick climbs away down a ladder. The figure follows while another one fires a shot from a nearby gantry. Mallick tumbles down a slope, injuring his back. The two figures close in. Mallick struggles to his feet but runs into an octopoid monster that starts to crush him. One of the pursuing figures uses his weapon - an Eradicator - to shoot the monster in the mouth. The two hunters close in. one places a pistol to Mallick's head and fires.

 

Harry Mossop spent twenty years in the Metropolitan Police until he lost the job two years ago. Since then he has been a security guard for Grant Pangborne but that job went too. Now he gets by on jobseekers' allowance and faces the scorn of his wife, Dora, and the disregard of his eighteen year old daughter Sophie on a daily basis. He tells his wife that he might go to see whether Pangborne will give him his job back. Christmas is coming and the lack of money is biting Harry's ego.

 

The TARDIS lands on a space platform that is fifteen miles in diameter. It is one of fifty such stations on the outer rim of the galaxy. The Doctor says that it is a leisure platform for the Torodons. He tells Rory and Amy that Torodon men are usually involved in heavy industrial work whereas their women are reserved for entertainment. He warns Amy that it is very much a man's world.

 

Harry puts on a black outfit and picks up some burglary tools. He takes a tube train to Pangborne's offices. He worked there for three months after losing his job with the Metropolitan Police. However, after trying to install CCTV he found himself out of a job. In many ways he feels that he made himself redundant.

 

Torodons are stocky humanoids with a silvery skin but are also lithe and graceful. The women wear figure-hugging body suits and rainbow make-up. There are many other species on the station and nobody pays any attention to the three newcomers. There seems to be perpetual rainfall on the platform but the Doctor says that it is condensation from the underside of the domed roof. He says he once got caught up in the crossfire of a battle between Torodon and their Terileptil enemies. He saved a Torodon destroyer that was in danger of blowing up and made friends with Kobal Zalu, now a police chief on the platform. He tells Amy and Rory to go and have fun while he catches up with his friend. As he walks alone to meet his friend he is arrested and told that he is lucky he wasn't shot on sight.

 

Harry uses the key code to enter Pangborne's building. He makes his way to the yard where he is surprised to see two trucks parked. He hears a muffled cry from one and is picked up and flung by a massive figure standing in the dark. It is a man wearing heavy-duty body armour, at least two metres tall. The man has a face split in two: one half looks smooth and healthy, the other is grey and dead. As Harry is picked up and flung again he rips his assailant's sleeve, revealing a mechanical arm.

 

Rory and Amy find themselves lured into a gambling casino. Everything inside is lurid and tasteless but as they turn to leave they pass what looks like a Craps game. Rory watches for a while and comments that one player's winning streak looks too good to be true. Unfortunately, his words are overheard and the player asks if Rory thinks he is cheating. When Amy tries to drag Rory away from an escalating argument, Rory's manhood is insulted. Stung, he accepts a challenge to play the game of Dead Man's Duel.

 

Harry is interrogated by the giant, Zarbotan, and another man, Zalizta. They want to know how much he knows about their operation. Harry tries to bluff is way out but they use a screen to contact Pangborne (who they call Xorax). He tells them that Harry is an incompetent ex-policeman. They are a little mollified but blame the security breach on Xorax and say he will be reported to Xorg. They decide to take Harry and, to ensure there is no follow up to his disappearance, his family.

 

Rory finds himself out of his depth in the game and losses everything. Not only that but he is informed that he must take part in a Reparation Throw. The stakes are the TARDIS, which his opponent Xaaael, has located on the casino's screens as the only non-Torodon vessel in the docking bay. Inevitably, he loses. Xaaael has him marched away to hand over the TARDIS in person. Amy leaves the casino alone. A grey-skinned janitor tells her that Rory is in deep trouble. Amy agrees - trouble with her. She enters a police station to make a complaint. A policeman calls up a camera shot of the docking bay. It shows Rory, Xaaael and several of the Torodon's henchmen. When Rory cannot produce the TARDIS key he is beaten unconscious. The policeman switches off the screen and announces that no law has been broken. Amy leaves the police station. She encounters the janitor again and asks him where Rory went. He leads her down to a store room and prises open a crate. He tells her to get in: the crate is going onto Xaaael's ship and that is where Rory will be.

 

The Doctor is taken to Kobal Zalu who sees that he has changed bodies. The Doctor tells him that he has changed several times since they last met. Zalu says that he wants to talk but the old days are over and he wants the Doctor to leave the platform without causing trouble. Confused and rueful, the Doctor leaves. He is back very soon, telling Zalu that the TARDIS and his friends have vanished and that the whole incident was watched by one of Zalu's officers. The Chief asks what he could do - the TARDIS was won in a game of Dead Man's Duel. The Doctor is flabbergasted but Zalu says that this is organized crime on a scale beyond the police's powers. As the Doctor prepares to storm out Zalu takes him to the Intelligence Room, telling him that there are things that he needs to know.

 

Back on Earth, Harry's wife Dora and his daughter Sophie are kidnapped as their car drives through Hammersmith. They are dropped into a padded chamber containing several people including Harry. Dora accuses him of getting them into this mess by unofficially investigating criminals but before Harry can offer a plausible explanation there is a thrust of power and they all suffer massive g-forces.

 

Zalu shows the Doctor profiles of Zargadoz Xaaael, Krauzzen Xorg and Zorbatan, among others. He explains that they are all part of Xorg's influential and powerful crime syndicate. Added to their power and ruthlessness, they also indulge themselves in 'fun hunts' where the moon of Zigriz, Gorgoror, hosts big game hunts of anything they have captured elsewhere in the galaxy.including people. Zalu says he is powerless to act because Central Government is happy for Xorg to carry on his activities on the Outer Rim and not bother them at the Inner Rim or on Torodon itself. The Doctor says that if the authorities won't intervene he will have to do it himself. Zalu introduces him to Point-Sergeant Xelos. She is the officer that Amy went to earlier. She hands the Doctor a rifle. At first he says that he doesn't use weapons but they explain that it is the only way he will get his friends back. Zalu tells him that the rifle is a transmat beam disguised as a weapon. It will look like it has disintegrated its target but in reality it will have transported it back to a holding cell on LP9. Its range will easily reach Gorgoror. Unfortunately, it is only good for three shots.

 

The Doctor takes the rifle and the ship that Zalu loans him. It is a police vessel that has been disguised for two reasons; so that Xorg's men don't recognise it and, if anything goes wrong, it allows the police deniability.

 

Amy is discovered in the hold of Xorg's ship almost as soon as she emerges from the crate. It has been transferred across from Xaaael's craft. When Xorg finds out that she has come to rescue her husband he is amused. He tells Xaaael to give her a job as a waitress in the salon.

 

The prisoners are unloaded into a bare room. They can't work out why they have been kidnapped but Andrei, a Romanian, says that some of them are illegal immigrants. A bloodied and bandaged Rory steps out and tells them that they are on board the Ellipsis, a Torodon star-cruiser. This information perplexes Harry but he finds it difficult to argue with the evidence. Zarbotan and two other Torodons enter with a Perspex trough of grey, sludgy protein. The captives demand an explanation but Zarbotan merely tells them that they have five minutes to eat. Rory points out that they wouldn't be feeding prisoners if they meant to kill them. He samples some of the tasteless food. Harry looks around at Rory, Sophie and Dora and then at Andrei and his group of companions. He surmises that as hostages they won't be worth much in ransom money. Rory points out that they must be valuable to somebody for all of this trouble to have been taken.

 

Amy is led to the salon. It is a luxurious space attended by several Torodon women. Lounging around the couches are several males. Among them is the entertainer, Zubedai, who she had seen in the casino on LP9. She is taken to a room behind the bar to meet Madam Xagra, the largest female that Amy has set eyes on. She tells Amy that she is the head housekeeper on the ship and it is her job to ensure that the female staff is obedient and attentive of the men. She adds that Amy's life will depend on her subservience. Amy looks out of the porthole and asks where they are. Xagra tells her that they are orbiting the moon, Gorgoror.

 

A drop ship falls to the moon's surface. It passes through toxic smog to a landscape lashed by wind and rain. It passes over a wasteland of derelict buildings and sweeps in to land in a vast structure of blackened bricks. The captives are unloaded by Zarbotan and three others. They are taken outside into the weak daylight. In front of them are ruined towers and a pool of stagnant water. Zarbotan tosses a discarded tool into the water. It dissolves immediately. Harry says that they can't be abandoned here but Zarbotan says that most visitors don't stay there for more than a couple of days: they are either eaten by the savage creatures that infest the moon or they are killed in the chase. He adds that there are seven areas in the chase before advising them to use them well and live - for a while.

 

Amy has spiked, rainbow hair and a skintight cat-suit. She finds it rather fetching but none of the men are paying attention. They are too much taken by the news that an unknown hunter has arrived, prepared to pay big money to join the hunt at the last minute. Krauzzen patches the newcomer, the Doctor, onto the screen. Clearly the man is in a spaceship, his boots resting on the control block. Krauzzen tells him to leave their space but the Doctor wagers that he can outscore any of the hunters on board the ship. He shows them a case full of Torodon par-creds to back up his wager. Krauzzen is impressed but the deal clincher comes when the Doctor uses his psychic paper to show a reference from Xandor Konzalar, one of the greatest champions of the hunt. The other hunters around Krauzzen agree that the Doctor should be allowed to join them.

 

The drop ship departs and the dispirited prisoners camp out by a huge exhaust tower. Rory grows exasperated with Harry's blind optimism that the Torodons will simply return for them in a couple of days and let them go. He makes a fire and surveys the people gathered around it. He notices that Sophie has moved away from her parents and has attached herself to Andrei. His musings are interrupted when a bipedal monster with a shaggy pelt howls in the distance and then races towards them. Rory tells everyone to run.

 

In the salon, the Doctor shows off his rifle, claiming to have designed it himself. Krauzzen shouts across the room to a powerful gangster, Xalva, and tells him to kill the Doctor. Before the gangster can react, the Doctor shoots him with the transmat rifle. There is a flash and the man vanishes leaving a pile of dust. This apparently satisfies Krauzzen but the fact that the Doctor has only brought a quarter of the promised money doesn't. The Doctor tells him that the rest is in his ship in the docking bay. He adds that the ship is locked with a black-light micro-circuitor that will bow Krauzzen's ship apart if anyone tampers with it. At last, the gangster leader relaxes. He feels that he has much to gain from meeting the Doctor. The Doctor is introduced to the rest of the hunters and then shown images of the prey, including Rory. He is told that they will begin the chase in twenty-four hours.

 

The beast bounds after the prisoners as they run into a derelict building. Harry decides that, as it can outrun them; the best way to avoid it is to climb a gantry. Sophie refuses to go with him, saying that he is always wrong, and follows Andrei and the others. Harry and Dora climb on together but the beast chases them. It is close behind when they reach the top. Just as it looks over for them, Rory shouts for them to cross a ramshackle bridge. He helps them across and then slides a crate down, followed by two more. The third sends the moon-buck plunging and it is killed, impaled on a jagged metal shard. Watching on a screen, the Doctor mutters, Poor Aggedor.' Amy sneaks up to stand beside the Doctor. He passes her a note. When she reads it tells her to find the TARDIS while he is on Gorgoror. Inside the paper is the TARDIS key.

 

The Doctor and the other hunters are taken by drop-ship to the moon's surface. They split into groups and begin to look for their prey. On the way the Doctor and Krelbin encounter a vast blob of vitreous material sliding towards the. As Krelbin prepares to disintegrate it, the Doctor fires his transmat rifle. The creature vanishes. The Doctor knows that he has only one shot left. Krelbin tells him that they have done well to leave the other hunters; he doesn't rate any of them. He explains that he was once a Galactic Marine. Even though he knows that Zarbotan and Krauzzen were in the elite forces he speaks disparagingly of their career paths since. He says that he only keeps in trim for when the real war starts again.

 

As Rory leads Harry and Dora through the complex of derelict buildings he leaves the mark of a jagged mouth, scrawled with a lump of charcoal, at every divide in the paths. When Harry asks what it is, Rory says that he hopes it will be their salvation. Soon after, they are tracked down by a giant insect. Dora is too shocked and exhausted to run and passes out, so they leave her in some lockers and confront the creature themselves. They try to ride it down with a wagon but the creature leaps aboard with them. They fight it off, Harry chopping at it with a spade, and it plunges down a gulf as the wagon picks up speed.

 

Back on the ship, Amy decides to take on Xaaael so that she can access the TARDIS she challenges him to a game: if she wins, she gets easier living conditions; if she loses she lets him into the TARDIS. He agrees to meet her in his quarters. Once there, she has him repeat the rules of the game over and over while simultaneously plying him with drink. Eventually, he passes out and she steals his wallet of pass cards.

 

Krelbin and the Doctor encounter an ape-like shologgi in a narrow passage. The Doctor says that, despite its appearance to the contrary, it is a docile herbivore. He shoulders his rifle and edges past the creature. As Krelbin follows the Doctor tells him that it was trained for gladiatorial combat and will respond to a high-pitched whistle. To prove the point he uses his sonic screwdriver to emit just such a sound. The shologgi suddenly becomes fearsomely alert. The Doctor tells Krelbin to slide his weapons over or he will whistle again and Krelbin will die. Once he has the weapons the Doctor drops them down a well and then gives Krelbin ten seconds to run before he uses the screwdriver again. In the observation chamber, Krauzzen and his gangsters watch in amazement.

 

Harry and Rory, scarcely believing that they are alive, make their way up from the floor of a canyon where their truck came to rest. As they walk, Harry tells how he lost his job on the police due to incompetence. Rory says that he is in this mess due to mistakes of his own. They arrive at a barricade leading to a prison facility. They enter because Harry thinks this may be a source of weapons. He is right. They find a collection of rusty bats, spears, cleavers and shields.

 

Amy enters the Secure Hold and starts to look for the TARDIS. She hears someone banging on a door and opens it. A Torodon male is inside. He says that he has been locked up to die in there. His name is Xorax but she might know him as Grant Pangborne.

 

The Doctor releases Dora from the locker where the men hid her. He tells her that he has come to rescue her and her friends. Before they leave the locker room he has her change into more practical clothes - a close-fitting anti-toxin suit. This is all watched by Krauzzen who now knows that the Doctor is not who he had claimed to be. He decides that such an infiltration requires extreme action. His men know what that entails.

 

Zarbotan is furious when he discovers that Xaaael has been duped by Amy. They both head to the hold.

 

Dora and the Doctor scramble through a series of ducts. They are being pursued by an Air-Walker, a bipedal creature with a leathery skin. They arrive in a huge chamber that, from the look of it, once contained a power plant. They scramble over debris and up onto a causeway. As they cross over a huge crater the Doctor feels the transmat rifle wrenched from his shoulder and drop. It lands on the edge of the crater. When he sees Dora's earrings detach from her ears and drop, and the sonic screwdriver threatening to go the same way, he realises that the power plant's magnetic core must now be below them. They struggle on to a steel door. The Air-Walker is leaping across the chasm behind them. The door is buckled and won't budge. The Doctor asks Dora if there is anything in the pockets of her suit that will help them. She finds a small pack of explosives. The Doctor uses half of this to blast the door open. They get through just as the Air-Walker leaps to kill them. There is a crackle of energy and when it lands with a thump beside them the creature is a smoldering corpse. They turn to see Zubedai lowering his rifle.

 

Xorax tries to explain to Amy why he has been taken prisoner but Amy soon grows bored and resumes her search for the TARDIS. She finds it on a shelf five metres up. Before she can reach it, Zarbotan enters the room on a silver hover-board. He glides down the aisles of shelves, about three metres off the ground. Amy scampers off to hide.

 

Zubedai raises his weapon to kill the Doctor but the Air-Walker's last act is to bite his ankle. Taking his chance, the Doctor throws the remaining explosives at Zubedai's feet and detonates it. All that remains is a crater. The Doctor and Dora run out onto a wasteland where they see some of the other prisoners being chased by three hunters. The hunters are deliberately missing their targets to herd them. This is halted when Harry and Rory begin to pelt the hunters with rocks from a hidden position inside the scoop of a derelict crane. The Doctor reaches the base of the crane and tells them to get down before the hunters get a lock onto their position. He spots an old electric buggy and sparks it into life with his screwdriver. The four of them climb aboard.

 

The three hunters are a stockbroker, a banker and a business manager. They are grumbling about the way the fugitives fought back when Krauzzen and his men arrive. Rather than sympathise, the gangsters use their weapons to blast the trio to ashes.

 

The Doctor has managed to drive about a mile to where the other prisoners are lying low. There is an emotional reunion for the Mossops (and thanks for Andrei for protecting their daughter) before everyone climbs onto the buggy. The Doctor drives it to a dome containing the abandoned rocket base. They find the control tower and climb up the rickety stairs. From an observation deck they see the next building along has an array of antennae on the roof. The Doctor guesses that if there is any power left on the moon it will be in that building. He finds the control tower's radio and is soon busy trying to repair it. When he has it working he tells them that all it needs is some power.

 

Amy plays a lengthy game of cat and mouse with Zarbotan until he finally corners her. He points his pistol at her and she closes her eyes. She hears a clunking noise and then opens her eyes to see Zarbotan has been replaced by Xorax (holding a blunt instrument). She asks where Zarbotan has gone and Xorax takes her to a crystal scope. Through it she sees Zarbotan tumbling through space to the atmosphere of Gorgoror. Xorax has disposed of him through a garbage chute.

 

Between them, the Doctor, Rory, Harry and Andrei concoct a makeshift zip-wire across to the roof of the nearby building. Andrei and the Doctor argue which of them should cross over to find the breaker switch that will give them the power. As they do so, Harry sails across the gap on the zip-wire. Krauzzen has him in his rifle's sites all the way but decides not to fire: he is interested to see what the prisoners come up with.

 

No sooner has Harry restored the power than Amy's voice is heard on the radio. She is in the TARDIS with Xorax. The Doctor gives her a crash course in how to fly down to rescue them. While he does that, Harry makes his way to the parapet of his building. The cheers his friends give him turn to gasps of horror when they see Krelbin emerge behind him. Krelbin raises a rifle and shoots Harry in the back. Harry vanishes in a blaze of light. The Doctor breaks off from a second call, this time to the LP9 police, to see Krelbin triumphantly holding up the scalp of the shologgi. He then starts to climb across the zip-line towards them.

 

Harry arrives in a holding cell in the LP9 police headquarters. Despite all that he can tell them, the police (and Zalu in particular) say that the politics are too complicated for them to do anything about the situation. Harry tells them that he was an Earth policeman and that politics were the bane of his life there, too. He says that he will stand up to Krauzzen in court and he will do anything to break the hold the gangsters have on Torodon. Again, his words fall on deaf ears until Xelos enters. She has heard from the Doctor on Gorgoror. Suddenly, Zalu makes up his mind. He tells Xelos to order up an Operational Response.

 

The TARDIS materialises on the observation deck and Amy bounds out, followed by Xorax. No sooner has Xorax shut the door behind him than Xaaael's raptor bird space ship arrives, hovering next to the tower with rapid-fire howitzers directed at the fugitives. Xaaael, wearing exoskeleton armour, gets out and strolls along the wing, followed by two gangsters armed with photon rifles. A ramp from the ship allows them to descend to the tower. Krelbin crawls over the parapet to join them. Krauzzen and his men arrive via the stairs.

 

Krelbin wonders where the other hunters are but the Doctor says that Krauzzen knows he is finished on the Outer Rim and is removing the evidence. Krelbin turns the transmat rifle on the gangsters but is immediately stabbed from behind by Zarbotan. The giant has glided up on his hover-board but he is in terrible condition. His real and artificial flesh have burned away to reveal a cybernetic skeleton and organic parts sealed in plastic containers.

 

The Doctor responds to the situation by challenging Krauzzer to a game for the ownership of the TARDIS, including an instruction manual for how to operate it. When the gang-boss declines, saying that he doesn't need to play for something he already owns, the Doctor asks the other gangsters if this is the sort of leader they want; someone too scared to play a game. This persuades Krauzzen to accept the Doctor's wager that he can make it back to the observation booth, chased by any two men that Krauzzen chooses, with a head start of five minutes. In order to out-psych the Doctor, Krauzzen offers him ten minutes. The Doctor sprints away and Krauzzen orders the prisoners and TARDIS to be taken to his ship, ready to leave orbit.

 

The Doctor decides to get underground to negate the speed of Zarbotan and Krauzzen's hover-plates. After a furious sprint through several buildings he arrives in a vast room full of barrels. Scrambling up these, he hears a photon rifle discharged and the barrels beneath him explode. He sees Krauzzen hovering up behind him and leaps to grab the hover-board. They veer wildly around the building as Krauzzen tries to shake him off. They collide with Zarbotan and knock him off his board. The giant full a hundred feet to the floor. The Doctor leaps onto some rubble and rolls away. He finds himself face to face with Zarbotan, now barely held together by his mechanisms. The Doctor races away until he finally reaches a large crater. He leaps over the lip and hides a few feet down. Krauzzen finds him easily but is perturbed to find his photon rifle ripped from his hands and his hover-board following it down the crater. He leaps off and hangs from a jutting timber beneath the Doctor. Krauzzen's mechanical parts pull down towards the magnetic core. Krauzzen's body rips apart and falls into the crater, leaving only an organic hand behind.

 

As the Doctor walks away from the crater he finds the giant Zarbotan waiting. Fortunately, his body has given out and he falls lifeless to the floor under the Doctor's touch.

 

The end of Krauzzen and Zarbotan is watched by everyone aboard Xaaael's Raptor Bird as it flies up to Krauzzen's ship. Xaaael feels that this makes him the leader of the gang. When Zalizta objects, Xaaael murders him in cold blood. The prisoners and gangsters disembark into the ship one by one. As they emerge from the airlock the gangsters are arrested by the armed police who are waiting for them. Zalu tells Xaaael that Xorax has agreed to testify against the gang.

 

Zalu asks if the prisoners had many casualties. Rory says that they lost one brave man; Harry Mossop. This is Harry's cue to emerge in Torodon police armour.

 

Amy and the prisoners return in the TARDIS to retrieve the Doctor. He takes one final look at the surface of Gorgoror and then they set off to return the fugitives to Earth.

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

the Torodons are mentioned as being at war with the Terileptils (The Visitation). The creature killed on Gorgoror is the same type as Aggedor (The Curse of Peladon). The Chief of Police has met the Doctor in a previous incarnation when he had white hair (so the first or third Doctor, probably).

 

 

 

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The Way Through the Woods

by Una McCormack  

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Cover Blurb

The Way Through the Woods              

'As long as people have lived here, they've gone out of their way to avoid the woods...'

Two teenage girls disappear into an ancient wood, a foreboding and malevolent presence both now and in the past. The modern motorway bends to avoid it, as did the old Roman road. In 1917 the Doctor and Amy are desperate to find out what's happened to Rory, who's vanished too.

 

But something is waiting for them in the woods. Something that's been there for thousands of years. Something that is now waking up.

 

Notes:

This is the ninth book in the series of original adventures featuring the Eleventh Doctor.

Released: April 2011

 

ISBN: 978 1 84990 237 3

 

 

Synopsis

Vicky Caine has been babysitting. As she leaves the house and makes her way up to the bus stop she realises that her watch has stopped and that she may have missed her bus. It is a chilly October night and after waiting for a while at the stop she becomes sure that the last bus has already gone. Faced with the dilemma of returning to the house where she babysat and asking for a lift home or taking a taxi, she opts for the latter. Sadly, her phone has no signal so she decides to walk home. The problem is that the road bends so far away from her intended direction due to the huge loop it makes to bypass the woods. In the distance, the town hall clock chimes half past ten and she knows that she is going to be in trouble when she gets home. She decides to leave the road and skirt round the edge of the woods to save time. The idea of the woods scares her, as it does everyone in Foxton. For generations people have stayed away from Swallow Woods. Vicky decides that, as nobody local will go close to the woods, it must be safe to walk nearby. She hops over a fence and crosses the field that borders the woods. However, she slips on some mud and tumbles through the darkness into the edge of the trees. She tries to walk away from them but it seems she is going further in. her passage is watched by a fox, the last creature to see her for some time.

 

The pubs close at nine thirty in England during the First World War. Emily Bostock, the barmaid at the Fox has been aware of the young man in the corner watching her. She is irritated when the obviously fit and healthy man is presented with the white feather of cowardice by one of the regulars and speaks out in his defence, pointing out that none of them have been laying down their lives for their country. She tells the young man that he can walk her home if he likes. As they step out onto the lamplit street he tells her his name is Rory Williams. He points out that he doesn't know where she lives. She nods at the darkness of the countryside and says that it is four miles away. This doesn't seem to trouble him and they link arms.

 

As they walk she expresses surprise that the white feather didn't bother him. When he says he didn't understand what it was at the time she suspects that it may be that he is a spy or a conchie. He tells her that he doesn't know what a conchie is: his explanation that he has been away travelling barely satisfies her but she gives him the benefit of the doubt. She decides that having an escort should make it safe to take a short cut near to the woods. When they find themselves unexpectedly near the trees she says she doesn't believe in the legends about Swallow Woods swallowing people. Rory is perplexed when he can hear the distant sound of a motorway but Emily doesn't seem to notice it. She is feeling slightly foolish, being in the dark with a man she barely knows, and worries what the locals will say about her. On an impulse she runs into the trees, daring Rory to catch her. He follows and they are not heard of for quite some time.

 

Four days after the disappearance of Vicky Caine, the Doctor is being held by the local police on suspicion of abduction. He finds himself in an interview room with a broken clock and a broken blind. Two detectives enter: a red haired man and a blonde woman. The Doctor tells them that he is running short of time. They question him about a woman called Laura Brown who has disappeared recently. He denies meeting her and adds that he never met Vicky either. As neither of them have mentioned Vicky this only implicates him further. He tells them that they don't understand the situation and that only by releasing him can he resolve it. This, naturally, cuts no ice.

 

Two hours later, in front of the police station, the male policeman, Galloway, announces that a young man in his mid twenties is helping the police with their inquiries into the disappearances of Laura Brown and Vicky Caine. The assembled media ask if it is now a murder investigation and if the local woods have been searched. A local reporter, Jess Ashcroft, working for the Herald, chats to one of the television journalists. They flirt mildly and arrange to go for a drink later. Jess is pleased because Charlie is both handsome and a contact with the national news media where she sees her future. Before she can go to join Charlie for a drink, Jess is accosted by a woman who introduces herself as Amy Pond and warns her that Jess will be the next person to disappear.

 

The TARDIs lands in Long Lane, just outside Foxton. The Doctor, Amy and Rory emerge into the chilly October air. The Doctor tells Rory to spend the afternoon in the Fox and get to know Emily Bostock. He gives Rory a small triangular device and tells him to press a button on it when he gets to wherever he is going with her. He says that the TARDIS will be there in a flash. He adds that there is something in the woods that might disorientate him so concentration is vital. As the TARDIS dematerializes, taking the Doctor and Amy with it, Rory starts walking into town.

 

Detective Inspector Gordon Galloway reflects on how he met his wife on holiday and ended up transferring to her home town where he has lived for eighteen months. It isn't the mysterious disappearances of Laura and Vicky that make him feel uneasy: the town itself seems strange and insular as if it were hiding a secret. The idea that he had arrested a suspect seemed alien to both sets of parents. In addition, he had tried to instigate a search of the most likely place for the girls - Swallow Woods - and yet it simply hadn't happened. People were always too busy, or equipment was broken. Worse, there was his chief suspect. When he asked DC Ruby Porter if it was the right man she agreed that she thought it was but when pressed to explain all she could say was that he seemed both young and very old at the same time.

 

Galloway and Porter return to the interview room. When they do, the Doctor grabs Galloway's wrist and stares intently at his wrist. He stares at Galloway intently and tells him, 'Amy and Jess. It's time.'

 

Jess tries to meet Charlie in the Fancy Fox pub in town but is intercepted by Amy who drags her to a separate table. Amy tells her urgently that she knows all about the woods. She produces a plastic bag and empties the contents onto the table. She extracts a series of aerial photographs of the woods and hands them to Jess. The first shows the motorway and how it swings away to pass around the woods. Another photograph, taken much earlier, shows the road following the same track when the village was much smaller. Amy hands her a third photograph and says that it is the Roman road and it follows the same route. Finally she shows her a photograph from before the time of roads, showing a footpath curving away from the woods. Amy says the photograph was taken earlier in the week, or six thousand years ago. She goes on to say that since the Bronze Age people have been avoiding the woods and yet, every fifty or so years, people have been disappearing into the woods and never coming out again. She shows some other documents, from the Domesday Book and from Parish records that not only indicate these mysterious disappearances but also prove that nobody owns, or wants to own, Swallow Woods. Finally she hands Jess a newspaper, dated the following day, which names Jess Ashcroft as the third girl to go missing. Amy tells her that as far as she is concerned, Jess has already gone. But, this time, Amy is going with her.

 

Rory blunders through the trees looking for Emily. She pelts him with a pine cone from a perch up a tree. She tells him there is nothing to fear in the woods but he points out that night has already turned to day in the woods and autumn has become summer. He tells her that there is a broken time engine in the woods, making strange things happen. Emily takes this in her stride and asks if she can help him locate and dispose of the engine. He doesn't tell her that, according to history, Emily is never heard of again after that night.

 

On the TARDIS, the Doctor tells Amy about the damaged warp drive of the craft in the woods and how it creates temporal and spatial anomalies in the wood which cause people to go missing.

 

After an hour of walking, Emily and Rory find a glade in the trees. The glade is still and huge, reminding them of a cathedral. At its centre is a pool and, beside it, the remains of a campfire. Emily suspects it belongs to Harry, a young man who ran away to avoid conscription into the army. Emily makes a romantic pass at Rory he blurts out that he is married. Mortified, she turns and runs into the trees. Rory turns to follow but he feels dizzy and faint.

 

Amy shows Jess one last aerial photograph. She says it was taken fifty years in the future and shows a lake where the woods should be and countryside instead of the town. Amy tells her that she doesn't know how it happens but the obliteration of Foxton occurs in the next few days. Jess is sure that the photographs are fakes but Amy asks why she would do such a thing. Instead she questions why nobody in the town will approach the woods and yet, at fifty year intervals, somebody is drawn to enter. Charlie comes over to offer Jess a drink but she makes an excuse, saying she has to cover a pensioner's birthday party, so he gives her his number. Then she tells Amy that they need to be going.

 

When Rory wakes up, he realises at once that he is breathing the recycled air of an alien space ship but he can see an October wood. He can also hear the throb of the ship's engines. Emily comes to help him to his feet but he cannot remember either his own or her name. She reminds him of both while he discovers that they are in a small hold and the walls are metallic but patterned to look like woodland. He tells her that, apart from her running off, he can remember nothing. She tells him that they are looking for a damaged engine so he follows her through a doorway. In his pocket is a triangular device but he has no idea what it is for.

 

Amy and Jess park in Long Lane near the woods. Amy tells Jess about how she and the Doctor left Rory in 1917 and then how he never sent the signal they were expecting. Amy was supposed to follow Laura into the woods but the signal still didn't come, nor did it before Vicky vanished. That was when they popped into the future and found that Foxton was gone and Jess was the last person to disappear. Thus Jess is their last chance to save the town. Jess says that she had noticed the Doctor around town and had been trailing him which exasperates Amy because it explains why she had such a hard time catching up with Jess. They leave the car and enter the woods.

 

They step out of the October night into a forest on a summer day. As they pass through the trees the seasons change. They enter a glade in winter and find a brooch in the shape of a butterfly. It seems to have been there forever. Then they encounter Vicky Caine.

 

Rory and Emily are discussing whether the ship is in flight. He is surprised at how knowledgeable she is about future science but she tells him that she read H.G. Wells stories with her fiancé, Sam, before he was killed in the war. She tells Rory that he'd said the engines on the ship were dead but from what she has seen the ship seems very much alive.

 

When Galloway returns to the interview room he finds that the Doctor has repaired the blind and dismantled the clock. Galloway wants to know how the Doctor knew that Jess would disappear: her car has been found near the woods. Instead the Doctor orders him to be silent and listen. Galloway can hear nothing but Porter can. The Doctor surmises that she has lived in Foxton all of her life and is used to the sound that he has only just hear: the space ship's propulsion unit is still operational. That means there must still be somebody on the ship maintaining it: the pilot is still alive.

 

Vicky tells Amy and Jess about how she ended up in the woods and arrived at the glade. She says that no matter which way she walked out of the glade she always returned to it and as she went round in circles the seasons changed. She also saw someone with reddish, brownish hair who might have been a man. This person tried to get her to follow him into the wood but she had chosen not to. Just as Amy is debating on their next course of action she sees a fox enter the glade. The fox transforms into a man with reddish, brownish hair and beckons to her. Immediately, Amy tells the other two to try to find a way out of the woods while she follows the man.

 

Rory agrees that the ship seems to be alive. They enter a room with a large, flat console. Emily waves her hand at it and images appear on the surface, scrolling rapidly. She manages to slow the text down so that they can discern pictures of humans. One of them is Harry Thompson who has been missing for six weeks. Others seem to be in historical clothes dating back through the ages. Then they hear footsteps approaching and Rory tells Emily to run.

 

Amy follows the fox-man out of the trees to a beautiful landscape of rolling countryside with a fairytale castle at the centre. Amy tells him she is too tired to make the journey without a rest. The fox-man waves his hand and the distance collapses until they are at the gate. A white haired woman approaches and welcomes Amy. She introduces herself as Laura Brown.

 

Galloway has finally got his men to erect searchlights near Swallow Woods. The rain is pouring but Galloway suspects that this is not the only reason why he has no local officers among his men: everyone around him has been drafted in from elsewhere. Before he can enter the wood, Galloway sees two figures emerge: Vicky and Jess. The paramedics try to lead them away but Jess demands that Galloway release the Doctor. She says a storm is coming and the Doctor is the only one who can stop it. Jess explains the time distortions and spatial pockets to Galloway but he merely thinks that it is a prank thought up by Amy. Ruby Porter joins Galloway for the interview and is less disbelieving. As soon as Galloway leaves to resume the search of the woods Jess appeals to Ruby to talk to the Doctor.

 

Rory and Emily have nowhere left to hide after running through the ship. All of the passages lead back to the control room and it is there that they are found by a young man. Emily recognises him as Harry Thompson but it is obvious to Rory that Harry has been taken over by someone else.

 

The were-fox is called Reyn: he and Laura seem to be very close friends, reminding Amy of an elderly couple. Laura explains that only ten days have passed in the world outside but she has been in the woods for almost sixty-one years. She insists that she is not a captive and, as the trio settle down to a meal, she helps Reyn tell his story. He recounts how his ship crashed centuries earlier and that he had no way of repairing it. The ships used by his people were unusual in that they learned from their travels and eventually came to consciousness in a process called The Shift. The ship in the woods has been taking people every fifty years or so and learned from their experiences. Reyn says he tried to stop them entering the ship by luring them to his home but he has not always been successful. Amy asks whether Rory has passed this way but Reyn says that he must have gone into the ship. She then asks why he doesn't let the Shift finish and allow the ship to leave but Reyn says that such a thing could be disastrous. With the time and space pockets that the ship has created any departure could have untold consequences. Amy replies that within a week something is going to happen that will turn the woods into a lake. She refuses to say how she knows this. Reyn says that if people tried to get out of the ship such a crisis might happen.

 

Ruby Porter slips into the cells of the police station. She finds the Doctor and demands to know what is happening. He replies that it is all aliens and space ships. He seems to be optimistic until he hears that Jess and Vicky escaped the woods without Amy. Porter tells him that her uncle was lost in the woods when he was fifteen, back in 1959. He tells her that he can end this situation and all the disappearances. She agrees to let him help.

 

Although Amy can see a large chamber around her and Reyn and Laura, she feels as if she is trapped in a small space. She knows that the medieval hall is an illusion. Laura tells her that it has been a variety of things in her time: a space station, a gothic mansion, an intergalactic empire. Amy replies that she has been trapped five miles from home and never actually been anywhere. She says that she is not going to submit like Laura but is going to find a way out. Reyn permits her to leave but says that she will soon be back.

 

Emily soothes Harry, ignoring Rory's assertion that the young man has become something else. From things Harry is saying, Rory pieces together details of a flight through space and then arrival on Earth followed by learning from 173 people. He realises that the ship steals memories and that is why he can't remember who he is. Emily wonders how a man can be a ship. Rory berates the ship/Harry for what it has done. Harry replies that he is sorry to be born. As he does so the lights flicker and a great gale blows through the woods.

 

At the door of the police station, Jess is waiting for a car to take her home when she sees Porter giving the Doctor his screwdriver and leading him out into the rain. Jess joins them as they enter Porter's car.

 

Amy finds herself running in circles through the woods. The trees are lashed by the wind, rain pours in and the ground is full of water. Reyn watches her, telling her that there is no way to leave. He is promptly contradicted by the Doctor.

 

Amy runs over, demanding to know where the Doctor has been. He tells her he has broken out of jail but she assumes this means they let him out. He tells her that Jess and Vicky escaped the woods and then looks around him. Amy introduces him to Reyn. The Doctor says he recognises the species and talks about the Long War before abruptly breaking off. He asks how the ship came to crash and Reyn recounts an attack by enemy gunships and his decision to hide out on Earth. He adds that the Shift began while he was first encountering people. Amy interrupts to find out about the Long War. The Doctor tells her it was a territorial conflict between neighbouring empires. Reyn adds that it has been going for generations. The Doctor says he will help to guide the ship through the Shift and maintain the integrity of the environment. In the distance, dogs can be heard approaching. Around them the trees seem to be in chaos: some are autumnal, others are in full leaf or bare. Reyn promises to lead them to the ship as well as he can. The Doctor tells him to lead the dogs astray while he and Amy look for the ship. As they do so the Doctor tells Amy not to trust Reyn. He adds that the Long War has been finished for a long time and the ending wasn't happy.

 

The Doctor leaves Amy and Reyn to return to Laura while he makes his way into the ship. Rory doesn't recognise him but Emily fills him in on details about Harry's desertion and the ship's guilt at the people it abducted. The Doctor remarks that this is a lethal combination of shame and guilt but Rory and Emily manage to talk the ship out of its suicidal impulse and the Shift is complete. In his control room Reyn is listening to all of this with Amy and Laura. He produces a weapon and promptly orders the ship to return to the War.

 

Emily shouts back that there is not going to be a war. The Doctor suggests that they ask the ship what it wants to do but Reyn says the ship has a duty. Despite this the ship refuses to re-enter the war. This prompts Reyn to materialise beside them, along with Laura and Amy. Reyn says he shall execute the ship and then fly its shell anyway. The Doctor is appalled; the effects of killing the ship would be detrimental to anyone who had contact with it in unimaginable ways. Even Laura pleads with him to rethink. The Doctor tells Rory and Amy to press the buttons on the triangles he gave them earlier and the TARDIS promptly materialises beside them. The Doctor tells Reyn to leave the ship alone and in return he will use the TARDIS to take him home. Reyn realises that this is the right thing to do and lowers his gun.

 

Reyn and Rory travel with the Doctor but when they reach their destination Reyn barely recognises his planet: underground tunnels and turrets spiking the clouds are the landscape. The Doctor tells Reyn that the war is long over and nobody won. His people are more mistrustful and have all but forgotten the Long War other than in myths. However, he says that Reyn is a legendary figure of hope who will bring back the technology (since forgotten) to teach ships how to live again. Reyn is appalled and asks to be taken home to his ship but a child spots him at the TARDIS door and recognises him as the Traveller. A crowd gathers and welcomes Reyn, carrying him like a hero.

 

The Doctor and Rory make a trip back in time to leave the seeds of a story about a traveller returning from the past, emerging from a blue box with forgotten knowledge.

 

Back in the ship the Doctor tells Laura it is her turn now. She understands that she has to seal up the ship and close time around her. The Doctor says that it is safe for the ship to leave and Laura can go with it to visit the universe for real. Emily and Harry (now returned to his prior self) agree to go with her.

 

Amy and Rory watch the TARDIS screen as the ship leaves the woods and Rory pins Emily's butterfly brooch to Amy's lapel. The Doctor opens the door and they look down on Swallow Woods. Like a speeded up film they see people come and go through the woods. Only Emily and Harry and Laura will be counted among the mysteriously vanished - everyone else who went into the woods throughout history has been saved.

 

Galloway awakes from a nightmare about being trapped in a forest in a storm to find the phone ringing: Laura calls to tell him that she is safe and has gone on a gap year without telling anybody. Later, his wife tells him they should leave Foxton and move north. Vicky Caine and all of the other disappeared have their lives back with no memory of entering the woods (stretching back to the Bronze Age). Ruby Porter never even became a police woman, lecturing in history instead.

 

Even Jess has her memory of a police box dematerializing fade from her head.

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

Winston Churchill is referred to and his "Keep buggering on". (see Victory of the Daleks)

The Doctor mentions Rory's 2,000 years waiting for Amy. (see The Big Bang)

 

 

 

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Dead of Winter

by James Goss             

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Cover Blurb

Dead of Winter             

'The Dead are not alone. There is something in the mist and it talks to them.'

In a remote clinic in 18th-century Italy, a lonely girl writes to her mother. She tells of pale English aristocrats and mysterious Russian nobles. She tells of intrigues and secrets, and strange faceless figures that rise from the sea. And she tells about the enigmatic Mrs Pond, who arrives with her husband and her physician.

 

What she doesn't tell her mother is the truth that everyone knows and no one says - that the only people who come here do so to die.

 

Notes:

This is the tenth book in the series of original adventures featuring the Eleventh Doctor.

Released: July 2010

 

ISBN: 978 1 84990 238 0

 

 

Synopsis

The TARDIS lurches at a sixty degree angle and despite the Doctor's nonchalance Amy and Rory realise it is crashing. The whole ship flips over, a fire starts and the Doctor says that something bad is happening in the space time continuum. An alarm clock (proximity sensor) rings and they crash.

 

A little girl called Maria writes to her mother from St Christophe on the northern coast of France. It is 4th December 1783 and her mother is in Paris. Maria wants to go home to be with her mother but has been left at a hotel sanatorium. Every day the nurses wheel the patients down to the beach as part of Dr Bloom's Fresh Sea Air Cure to freeze the badness out of their lungs. Maria occasionally goes down with them but she is frightened of the perpetual mist on the beach that sometimes talks to the patients.

 

Amy wakes up in bed with Maria at her side. Amy has no memory of even who she is and only knows that her carriage crashed because the girl tells her. Maria tells her, also, that the dead are brought to this place, or rather the dying, but few go home. At that point the Doctor and Rory enter and Amy remembers her name.

 

Dr Bloom is upset by the arrival of the three strangers who were found lying on the beach by Kosov that morning. While Kosov had to carry Amy in, the two men managed to walk by themselves. Neither of them seem fully compos mentis, though one is reasonably convinced that he is called 'Doctor Smith' and the other thinks he is Amy's husband. Bloom tells them that there is no sign of their carriage on the beach and assumes that the horses cantered off with it after the accident.

 

Maria goes to the beach to avoid Dr Bloom, who she finds intimidating, and sees the Dead in their wheelchairs talking to the mist and the mist singing back to them. Figures emerge from the fog and the Dead get out of their chairs and dance with them on the beach. Dr Smith appears at Maria's shoulder, watching, and comments that it is interesting but frightening. He takes her back to the hotel where she tells him about some of the other guests, including the Elquitine Sisters who play the violin and the cello all day. Olivia, the fat sister, is quite talkative, but Helena, the thin sister, spends all of her time writing complex equations. A newcomer at the hotel is an angry Englishman, Mr Nevil. He complains about everything and denies that anything is wrong with him. Dr Smith tells Maria that the hotel is no place for a girl and that the events on the beach are disturbing. He says she must write to her mother and ask to be taken home.

 

Amy awakes again and finds Doctor Smith and Mr Pond discussing the hotel. They have found out that the patients are being treated for tuberculosis but the Doctor says that the cure that Bloom is using is a hundred years ahead of its time. The two men confess to Amy that neither of them can remember why they are in France, though Doctor Smith has a strange feeling that they travel in time.

 

Bloom's wife, Perdita, finds Mr Pond watching the beach. He tells her that he is waiting for the patients to dance in the mist but Perdita says she has no idea what he means and insists he return to the hotel. When Bloom hears about this conversation he is chilled. He knows there is something terrible about the strangers but Kosov has told him that the Sea is interested in them and that they must be kept close. As such, Bloom invites Dr Smith to dinner. Maria is there and Doctor Smith is surprised to hear Bloom refer to her as the hotel's pet. After Maria has laid the table she leaves. In the ensuing conversation Bloom boasts about his clinic's successes. Dr Smith agrees that the eighteenth century is the worst of all for health. Bloom has arranged the seats so that Dr Smith has his back to the French windows and can't see what is out there, listening. Dr Smith starts to ask about the cure and the patients on the beach, which disconcerts Bloom. Perdita appears immediately. Her beauty and politeness change the tone of the conversation. Dr Smith confesses that he has no memory of his medical practice in England and when he leaves Bloom and Perdita share a thought that Smith has not come from The Sea.

 

Dr Smith goes over what he knows. In his mind is a very large, very dark room with a black box that says DO NOT OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS. Out of the window he can see the sea. He knows that Dr Bloom is not in control of the clinic and that Maria is more important than she seems. He also knows the difference between jam and chutney. And marmalade.

 

The following morning Amy asks Maria to join her on a secret mission. Dr Smith wants to know if there are any secret patients or places where people aren't supposed to go. Maria can only think of Prince Boris, a handsome Russian aristocrat. She wheels Amy down to his rooms where the Prince is in bed. He says that he is another consumption sufferer but thinks he will soon be well enough to ride again. To prove this he challenges Maria to a 'chariot race' in wheelchairs. As Maria speeds off, Boris topples from his chair, gasping for breath. Amy rushes to help him but Kosov, the prince's giant servant, scoops him up and returns him to bed. He insists that Amy return to the room with them.

 

Dr Smith and Mr Pond are observed by Nevil as they talk to the Elquitine sisters. He notes, with distaste, their interest in the thin sister's equations which apparently resemble a logic gate. Nevil becomes outraged that these men are somehow making a show of themselves, disconcerting the sisters, and flies into a temper. He begins to have convulsions and coughs up blood. He refuses to partake in the fresh air treatment and Bloom threatens him that if he does not follow the prescribed regime then Nevil must leave. He invites Nevil to his room at eight o'clock. When Nevil arrives the windows onto the terrace are open and, as he stares in horror, Bloom invites in a creature that crawls across the floor. Nevil is engulfed by it.

 

Maria runs to find Mr Pond and tell him what has happened to Amy. She finds him outside Dr Bloom's study waiting to see what happens. A cry from the study makes her run inside where she sees something terrible but when Mr Pond comes in all she can see is Mr Nevil on a chair and Dr Bloom by the fire. Perdita leads her away, saying that she has only had a fright and Mr Pond is left sniffing an odd smell in the air. When she is woken by a tapping at her bedroom window she lets in Dr Smith who says he is looking for Amy. She tries to say what she saw in the study but can't find the words. Instead she tells him that Kosov took Amy back to Prince Boris' room. He tells Maria that she is in danger and whispers his secret name that she must use when she is scared. He then sets off to find Amy.

 

Bloom is annoyed that he has to put up with Maria when her own mother won't have her. She nearly ruined everything when she burst in on Nevil but his wife calms Bloom with a cup of tea. He sees Kosov going down to the beach and wonders what he will tell them there but his wife laughs the fears away.

 

Amy and Prince Boris discuss Kosov. The servant has a way of making the prince healthy just by being near him. They drink tea while the wind rattles the windows and Amy tries, and fails, to remember what her life was like before. Boris recovered quickly from his fit but soon after Kosov leaves the room he begins to weaken again. He calls for the servant so Amy hammers at the door but it is locked and nobody comes.

 

Maria has gone back to the beach. She sees Mr Pond behind the rocks on the sand. No sooner has he told her that things are very wrong than Kosov finds them. Mr Pond says, 'Warp transfer coil' (not for the first time) and apologises for repeatedly blurting out such an apparently meaningless phrase. He changes the subject by pointing out that Kosov is actually hovering half an inch above the ground. Pond and Maria run through the mist towards the sea. Maria loses Mr Pond in the mist but hears him telling her to stay out of the water. This is too late, as she is already in the shallows. Something grabs he foot and pulls her into the waves. All of this seems oddly familiar to her but she can't remember why. The mist clears and she sees the Dead in their chairs, watching her drown. Mr Pond appears and pulls her to her feet. A strange light is dancing in the water. Pond pulls her to the beach where Kosov is still waiting. He says that Pond should have let the sea take Maria and then a mist pours from his mouth. Pond and Maria run again, back to the hotel. As they reach the top of the cliff path Kosov catches up with them. Pond tells Maria to find Amy just before Kosov sweeps him up and throws him down the cliff. Maria runs on until Perdita Bloom greets her and tells her they have been worried about her.

 

Nevil finds himself suddenly feeling much better. Rather than wishing to complain he finds the fatter of the Elquitine sisters and tells her his treatment is working. She replies sadly that it has been a long time since she was given any treatment at all.

 

Dr Smith bursts into Boris's room. Amy asks him to look after the prince. The Doctor produces a sonic screwdriver to depress the prince's tongue and looks at it in confusion: he does not recognise it. Amy tells him they use it to fight monsters but that means nothing to him. He complains that Amy can't walk, he can't think straight and yet Boris has been miraculously cured of tuberculosis. Boris tells him that this means Kosov is near. Indeed Bloom and Kosov enter immediately and Bloom claps a strange-smelling rag over Amy's nose. When she wakes up she is strapped to her wheelchair on the beach. She is surrounded by fog watching a man emerge from the sea.

 

Bloom is pleased when Kosov tells him that Mr Pond has been taken care of and that Amy is safely on the beach. Maria and Dr Smith have been tied up in the study and the windows open to let in a storm as well as a towering creature. It flows like lava and looks like green meat. As it leans over Maria to absorb her she calls Dr Smith's secret name: Rory.

 

Dr Smith is in the room with the box that says DO NOT OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS. It is time to open the box. He is not the Doctor at all.

 

Rory announces his real name to the Blooms. He taunts them that the real Doctor has now got his memory back and is on the way to save them. Bloom laughs and says that the Doctor has been thrown off a cliff. Rory asks Maria to reach a pen out of his pocket. She twists herself to take it and realises that it is not a pen but has a pretty light at one end. She squeezes it and a hideous noise is emitted, driving the creature back and causing Madam Bloom to collapse. Rory manages to pull Maria's ropes free and then, chair still tied to his back, he runs from the room with her. Bloom dismisses the creature and his wife assumes control, tidying the room and ringing for servants to find the escapees.

 

On the beach a switch in Amy's head tells her that the figure approaching her is the Doctor. Yet, at the same time, she knows that the Doctor is dead and this is a creature that looks like him.

 

Snow has fallen and the patients are wheeled to the beach in the morning. Amy's chair is pushed by the creature that looks like the Doctor. Perdita is delighted that soon they will learn everything about the strangers. He knows that the spirits of The Sea give the patients what they want and in return it learns about them. The fog rolls up towards her.

 

Amy recalls the crash of the TARDIS and the three of them had stumbled onto the beach. The Doctor was aware of a psychic probe and gave the screwdriver to Rory. As Amy watched, puzzled, the Doctor seemed to freeze while Rory spoke in words that could only be coming from the Doctor's mind. Amy ran to the TARDIS to see if there was anything inside to help but the door slammed shut before she got there and the Doctor's voice in her head apologised as she collapsed to the sand.

 

Now she watches as figures coalesce from the mist and walk up to the patients in their chairs. The patients recognise the figures and begin to smile and laugh before standing up to dance. Amy asks the Doctor if he is real and to convince her he treads on her toe to show that he can't dance. He tells her that his psychic force field is in place and protecting Amy, too. He says he has scattered some false memories of Amy's for the mind parasite in the sea to devour and buy them some time. He also tells her that Rory has regained his memories and that his own came back as a result of being thrown from a cliff. He says he was using Rory's head as a temporary safe place for his own memories but they are safely back (except for a recipe for chutney).

 

Marie enjoys her night of hiding with Rory until they are found under a dining table by Amy and the Doctor. The Doctor insists that they hide in Prince Boris's room where they tell the prince that they are time travelers from the future. The Doctor surmises that the expense of Bloom's remarkable cure means that only the rich and the powerful can afford it. He says that the cure is being y a hive of sentient aliens called The Familiar. The problem is that these benevolent creatures are being manipulated by somebody. Boris tells him that he was virtually brought up by the servant Kosov who he saw as a surrogate parent. Later, they parted, but when Boris fell ill and was told about Bloom's hotel he was delighted to find Kosov already there waiting for him.

 

Kosov stands with the Blooms and tells them that the Doctor was not the Familiar. That one was lost in the water. Rory approaches them diffidently. He says that he appreciates what Bloom has been trying to do but wants to let him know that the Doctor always gets his way and that there is no point standing up to him. As he turns to go he begins to cough up blood. The Blooms take him indoors and make a diagnosis. They tell him the treatment can begin at once.

 

The Doctor is furious that Rory has crept away to talk to the Blooms but, after a furious argument with Amy, he is persuaded by Maria to go and rescue him.

 

Mr Nevil is perplexed. After his treatment began he started to see Olivia Elquitine as attractive but she has grown cold towards him since she has not been allowed onto the beach. Meanwhile, the Doctor speaks to Bloom and tells him how convenient it seems that Rory should fall suddenly ill and need to take the cure. Bloom, on the other hand, is quite taken by the idea that the Doctor is from another planet: a fact imparted earlier by Kosov.

 

On the beach, Rory watches the fog roll in towards him. Amy is there to comfort him and they talk about his fear, despite all the brave things they have done and the dangers they have encountered. At the last, Rory whispers to Amy that she isn't real. He realised this when neither of them mentioned that he was tied to his chair. While this is happening Boris calls Bloom to his rooms. He gives the doctor a gun as a present and tells him that soon somebody is going to try to kill Madam Bloom.

 

Amy wants to know why they can't cure Rory with space medicine from the TARDIS. The Doctor tells her that he can't find his ship; he thinks it may have shifted in time and space but it is nearby and he expects it to turn up soon if the Familiar haven't already got it. He won't let Amy go to the beach to rescue Rory because he knows the Familiar will perform the cure and in so doing they will learn enough about the Doctor to not take him on in a fight.

 

Bloom ruminates on the change that overcame The Sea when it stopped accepting everybody who needed to be cured and began picking only politicians, soldiers of high rank and other people of power. It was particularly interested in Prince Boris. Despite his indolence he came from a family renowned for its cruelty.

 

The Doctor and Amy visit the dining room where a few very sick patients are sitting. The Doctor calls them to attention and says to them that the cure they have been hoping for is not coming. He apologises but says that he has come to take their hope away. The patients look scared but the Blooms appear in the room and reassure them that the Doctor isn't a medical man. The Doctor begs Bloom to stop using the thing on the beach. He accuses Bloom of infecting Rory but Bloom denies it. The Doctor notices that all of the patients have gone quiet as though something has got into their brains. A gust of wind blows the French windows in and the candles go out. The room is lit by an eerie green glow from the floor. Fog pours out of the patients' clothes. Nevil points a gun at some of them but lightning from the mist knocks it from his hand. The Doctor tells Amy that the fog is after him and he runs towards the door.

 

Bloom and Perdita escape, too. She says that she is scared because something is pressing into her brain. She can feel that The Sea is not happy because someone has woken up and taken hold. The Doctor tells Amy the same thing as they run down the corridor. She decides to ignore the Doctor's words and runs to the beach to rescue Rory. Maria is cut off by the Elquitine sisters but they are hunting somebody else. In panic she hides in the cupboard under the stairs where she finds the Doctor. He asks her to find Prince Boris because it is possible that Kosov is controlling things and the prince may be able to influence him.

 

She finds the prince playing cards and joins him for a game. Kosov enters and chases Maria until Boris intervenes. He asks Kosov how old he is. The answer, 35, is a problem for that is how old he was when Boris was only four. This immobilizes the giant servant and Boris announces that he knows Kosov is only a ghost. Kosov slips to the ground, his face melting, as Boris laughs. Maria flees.

 

Perdita can feel the demise of Kosov and slides to the floor. Bloom races to the prince's rooms and finds Kosov melted to a lump of wet clay. Boris announces that he killed the apparition since he had no more need of him. He announces that he now wants to meet the creature on the beach so that he can show it who the boss is.

 

On the beach the Amy Familiar tells Rory he was only given enough disease to make him trust her and now she has learned what she wants from him he can be cured. At that moment Boris arrives through the mist and tells Rory that it was his idea to let Kosov infect him. The Amy creature describes what she has learned of the TARDIS and the Doctor and asks if she can let Rory go. Boris answers in the negative saying that she must drain Rory dry. They dance on the beach until they are exhausted. Around them the other patients are suffering a similar fate.

 

Maria runs back to the Doctor and he leads her to Bloom's study, which is empty. He needs to think about what to do. He tells her he could solve everything easily but doesn't want to for fear of the consequences. It is then that Bloom returns. Bloom asks for the Doctor's help but the Doctor says he needs to find out who is behind things before he weakens the creature's psychic connection. Boris staggers in through the French windows and says he has something wrong with his mind. Resolved, the Doctor asks Bloom when he first met Perdita. When Bloom struggles to remember the Doctor says that Perdita is a Familiar. She promptly melts away. The Doctor apologises to Bloom but adds that the link to the creature is broken. Boris contradicts him: the way is now clear for the prince to exert his control. He says that he has been shaping the Familiar's actions for a while now, and he is going to use it to help him wage war on the world.

 

The real Amy's arrival on the beach causes the fake Amy to vanish into the mist. They try to stop the other patients from dancing but a baby Familiar drags Rory into the sea. When Amy runs to help him a fake Rory tries to pull her in but she recognises him at once. Both Amy and Rory get back onto the beach and stop some of the dancers. A storm starts to rage around them and the Doctor appears prisoner of the Elquitine sisters. They drag him to the sea while he tells them that this is a bad idea. He sinks to his knees and pleads with Boris, who has also arrived, not to do this. When the prince says that the Sea has much to learn from the Doctor it has a surprising effect. The Doctor stands up to face the prince and the mists part around him. Bloom arrives with the pistol and shoots the Doctor in the head.

 

Rory picks the Doctor up and carries him into the Sea. The sea turns green but the Doctor is cured by it. He doesn't thank Rory, saying that all he wanted was to stop the Sea scanning him but now it has. He tells everyone to run. The Sea howls and a gale blows. Figures pour into the sky, screaming. The beach explodes.

 

Maria wakes up on the beach. The Doctor is beside her, building sandcastles. She helps him while he tells her that he has put blankets over all the others on the beach to stop them catching cold. Sadly, he tells her that he tried to stop the creature getting into his mind but once it did it experienced all of his pain and loss. Now there is only a ghost of the creature left. When the Doctor finds Boris the prince is in bed reading a paper. The Doctor tries to moralize but Boris is unrepentant. He says he has a few books to read before he dies but the Doctor says they need to be short ones. He goes to find Rory and Amy. He tells them that those who were cured by the Sea will stay well but the others will have to trust Doctor Bloom. Some, like Nevil, greet the news of their impending death with cheerful resignation. Next, the Doctor finds Bloom and tries to make some sort of peace. He notices that Bloom has a pile of Maria's letters to her mother. Bloom says that he keeps them because he cannot send them on since Maria's mother abandoned her daughter. He says that the real Maria died before her mother fell ill. The Sea created a Familiar of Maria to cure the mother but it was left behind when she returned to Paris.

 

The TARDIS appears on the beach the following morning. The Doctor and Rory head to it, followed later by Amy and Maria. To the little girl's delight the Doctor introduces her to her mother who says that they are not going back to Paris but will travel together for a while. As the couple departs, the Doctor tells Amy that the ghost of the creature had just enough energy to create one last Familiar. They enter the TARDIS.

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

This story is told through multiple points of view, including letters and diary entries written by various characters as well as the internal monologues of Rory, Amy and (briefly) the Doctor. While this synopsis does not mirror this style it follows the order in which the narrative is revealed.

 

 

 

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Borrowed Time

by Naomi A. Alderman            

BBC Logo

 

 

Cover Blurb

Borrowed Time            

'You want more time Mr Brown, of course you do. We all want more time. Let me make you an offer...'

Andrew Brown never has enough time. No time to call his sister, or to prepare for that important presentation at the bank where he works. The train's late, the lift jams. If only he'd had just a little more time. And time is the business of Mr Symington and Mr Blenkinsop. They'll lend him some - at a very reasonable rate of interest.

 

Detecting a problem, the Doctor, Amy and Rory go undercover at the bank. But they have to move fast to stop Symington and Blenkinsop before they cash in their investments.

 

Notes:

This is the eleventh book in the series of original adventures featuring the Eleventh Doctor.

Released: June 2011

 

ISBN: 978 1 84990 233 5

 

 

Synopsis

A darkened room, windows to high for a human to see the three red moons in the night sky, comes to life briefly. For a split second there is a sensation that it is full of light and hot sweaty bodies. Mostly, however, it is silent and the impression that there is a man with a bow tie and a tweed jacket bound hand and foot in the room seems like a fleeting moment of horror.

 

Andrew Brown works for Lexington International Bank. He has worked hard, built a career and risen up the ladder. The only impediments to his continued career rise are his rival, Sameera Jenkins, and the fact that he never has enough time to complete the work that would ensure his next promotion. Aggravatingly, Sameera always seems to manage her time better than him. On this particular day, Andrew is hitting one stumbling block after another: his phone is dead, he has overslept, he has spilled water over his suit, forgotten his sister's birthday and his train is late. As a result, his presentation speech goes badly wrong. When he returns to his desk he is approached by two strangers, Mr Symington and Mr Blenkinsop. They tell him that they represent a consortium that can lend him time. He tries to get rid of him but they provide him with a demonstration that shows exactly what they mean.

 

Amy and Rory spend a holiday on fifty-first century Earth. They are currently in a Super Lucky Romance bubble - a device that slows time down so that they can enjoy precious moments for longer. Unfortunately they haven't read the signs on the beach and find their tent infested with flying crabs. As the crabs double and redouble in number, Amy phones the Doctor. The TARDIS materialises beside them and the Doctor rescues them from the bubble. He presents Amy with a tulip as a wedding gift. When she fails to be impressed he explains that it represents the folly of humans who thought that they could sell it for more than it was worth. When that still doesn't stir her interest he decides to take her to the Lexington Bank to witness the greatest banking collapse in human history.

 

In London's Square Mile is the Lexington bank. Down in the basement of the bank there is a maze of sore rooms and this is where the TARDIS materialises. Amy and Rory emerge wearing business suits (or as near as they are ever going to get). The Doctor leads them to a street level door and they walk out onto the pavement where they see a dirty old woman huddled on the floor. She is wearing expensive clothes but seems incredibly tired. Rory gives her a sheath of banknotes and she tells them not to go back into the bank because they will have their time stolen. When the Doctor asks her what she means the woman snaps into business mode and presses her card into his hand. It tells him that she is Nadia Montgomery, Head of Communications and Marketing. The Doctor thanks her. Rory7 and Amy think that she is mad but the Doctor treats her with respect.

 

The trio enter the bank where the Doctor announces himself to the receptionist as Doctor Schmidt, the efficiency auditor from Zurich. Amy is passed off as his assistant and Rory is sent off to work in the mailroom. Vanessa Laing-Randall takes them on a tour of the building. On the way she shows them a huge glass sculpture that twists its way up through the central well of the building, reaching as high as the eighth floor. She says that it is their mission statement: each strand represents the work-life balance.

 

Amy looks around at the different offices visible from the balustrade where she is standing. The building reminds her of a bee hive. Suddenly he fiddles with something on his wrist and collapses to the floor of his office. She is sure that he is dead.

 

By the time they get there, the man's secretary has covered his body with his jacket. Laing-Randall says that he died of overwork, when the Doctor examines the man there is no evidence of a watch on his wrist. Despite this, the Doctor tells Laing-Randall that she is messing with dangerous forces. She is perplexed by this idea and invites him along to her next meeting.

 

In the mailroom, Rory is puzzled at how much work is being generated by Andrew Brown and Sameera Jenkins. He asks a few questions and finds that some of the staff are said to be able to be in New York and Tokyo on the same day. Two of the other workers hint, with amusement, that he can find answers in Storeroom F. When he gets there he feels an odd, tingling sensation. The door slams behind him and there is a fluttering noise. He has to use his mobile phone as a torch. In the dim light somebody knocks boxes flying, tugs at his jacket and chuckles. A see-through woman flickers into being and disappears again, several times.

 

Spooked, Rory returns to his work station in the mailroom where he is astonished to find himself taking a phone call from Andrew Brown on the fifth floor about a package while he can clearly see Brown in the mailroom berating another worker.

 

In the boardroom, waiting for a conference to start, the Doctor is taking readings. He asks if anyone is using a temporal inhibitor. The executives stare at him blankly. He settles down to watch Andrew Brown's presentation, delivered well enough. However, the clients' request for details on the tax implications means he has to leave the office for a moment, returning almost instantly with a document that covers the problem. A similar thing happens when Sameera is asked to find an in-house lawyer and seems to have one waiting ready outside. This pattern is repeated throughout the meeting until the Doctor flusters Andrew by asking when he had the time to suddenly change his tie. The Doctor drags Vanessa Laing-Randall into the corridor and asks her what is going on but she still seems unaware that anything odd is happening. He accuses her of using time travel technology but this puzzles her even more.

 

Amy is finding out about 'stuff'. She has been told by the Doctor to stay close to Sameera Jenkins, an Asian woman with a Lancashire accent. Sameera criticises the length of Amy's skirt before going off to a meeting. Amy searches Jenkin's office for a bracelet but finds, instead, receipts that show she ate five lunches the previous day. Sameera returns to the office and Amy sees that she is, indeed, wearing the bracelet. Amy lunges for it, Sameera presses a dial and then everything changes. Ghosts of the pair of them can be seen flickering round the office while Sameera wails that it is out of sync. She readjusts the watch and they flip back fifteen minutes. Sameera says that she only uses time travel for work because there is so much to do. Amy says that she is a time traveller, too and Sameera asks who she borrows her time from.

 

Sameera arranges for Blenkinsop and Symington to explain it all to Amy. They arrive remarkably quickly and explain the concept of borrowing time. They give her a bracelet. Two phone calls arrive from the Doctor and Rory and Amy decides to try it out. They tell her that the interest repayment is five minutes per hour. Amy has a leisurely lunch with Rory and then goes back in time to meet the Doctor. Just for fun she winds back an extra two hours and goes out for a haircut and a manicure. She does a quick calculation and sees that she owes the watch twenty five minutes interest. She decides to borrow a whole day and hires a car. She drives back to Leadworth. She borrows a bit more time to enjoy her day with her parents and then drives back to London to get in several hours shopping before it is even ten o'clock. Realising it is twenty five hours since she had any sleep she winds back again and books into a hotel.

 

When she returns to the Doctor she realises that she has borrowed about four days in total. He senses something as soon as he meets her and pushes up her sleeve to reveal the device. She feels ashamed. He tries to get it off but it is locked onto her wrist, woven into her persona. Amy tries to pacify the agitated Doctor by saying that she has only borrowed four days, accruing eight hours of interest. The Doctor says that she isn't paying the interest on what she borrows but also on how long she borrows it for. With the aid of a cake to demonstrate, he points out that she already owes ten years of her life. Amy tries to prise the bracelet off and Blenkinsop and Symington appear. They point out that removing the Time Harvester will mean forfeiting the rest of her life. The two men bare their teeth like sharks. Amy suddenly realises that the curious humps on both men's backs are actually shark fins. Amy and the Doctor run, pursued by the two humanoid sharks.

 

They jump into a lift but when they reach the ground floor the two shark-men are waiting. They evade them and run on past where Amy and Rory are still having lunch. Rory immediately grasps that this is a 'time-travel thing' and runs with the new Amy. He uses the Super Lucky Romance Camera to create a bubble around Blenkinsop and Symington. They stroll back to the TARDIS with the Doctor but find that three pairs of Blenkinsop and Symington are waiting for them on the pavement outside.

 

Amy reaches into her bag and is surprised to find a spanner. She throws it at one of the shark-men, causing a gash in his head. Rory notices hat all of the other shark-men has a gash on its head. The old woman, Nadia, that they met earlier, steps into their midst. Rory sees that she has a watch like Amy's except this one is fizzing like a firework. As the shark-men rush towards her Rory uses his camera to catch them in time bubbles. Nadia holds out her wrist and tells the Doctor that the watch is hurting her. The Doctor says that it must be taking and returning time randomly. He says that he will try to make it stop.

 

In return she goes to the room where the TARDIS is and finds it surrounded by dozens of Blenkinsop and Symington ghosts. The Doctor leads Amy and Rory through London. He says the fact that all of the shark-men were gashed on the head means that they are all the same creature at different points in time. If one of them sees them then all of the others will, too. He fires a sonic burst at Amy's watch, saying that this will send some of her time back to the bank and convince Blenkinsop and Symington that this is where Amy is now. This should buy them some time.

 

The Doctor says that they need a friend in the bank. Rory suggests Andrew Brown because he must have borrowed so much time. The Doctor rings Galactic Enquiries to get Brown's address and they make their way to his flat. They find him simultaneously cleaning, painting, trimming, cooking and playing. Somehow all of these versions remain oblivious to the others. The Doctor approaches the one cleaning the car and asks how much time he has borrowed. Andrew says that he has tried to pay back the time as soon as possible and only owes 'a couple of weeks'. The Doctor uses his screwdriver to show that Andrew owes 55,000 years. The Doctor wonders how the lenders can ever hope to recoup the time that they are owed.

 

The Doctor says that time is too volatile to transport so it must be stored on Earth. He thinks that it will be in the Bank but Andrew has other ideas. He says that he has noticed unusual invoices from Little Green Storage in the Millennium Dome.

 

They go to the Dome and find a small door with Little Green Storage scrawled on it. The Doctor rings a bell. Somebody who recognises him from a different incarnation invites him in to visit his storage locker. When the group step through they find that they are in an enormous space: five miles across and several hundred feet high. The walls are lined with doors. A small figure floats beside them. The Doctor introduces him as the Yomalet-Ram and says that they have all been shrunk to a fraction of their size to fit into the Dome. When the alien leaves them they travel in an elevator to the Lexington Bank locker. Unfortunately, it stops near about forty of them. The Doctor produces a master key and they start searching for the right one. Most are full of alien technology, including a TARDIS shaped console being repaired by red metal robot men. Eventually they find the right one. It is lined, floor to ceiling, with green glass boxes on shelves.

 

Nadia watches the shark-men attach a glass sphere to the TARDIS door. It is some sort of Time Bomb. She knows she must stop them gaining entry.

 

Amy asks if the glass bricks, each labelled with a name, contain the borrowed time. The Doctor says he would be able to feel it if that were the case. He suspects that the bricks are more like bank statements. Andrew Brown finds the one with his name on it and takes it. The cockroaches, which have been scuttling about, start to grow to the size of large dogs. The Doctor leads the escape back to the elevator but, when it won't take them back to the exit, he decides to take them to his storage locker.

 

The Doctor's door has a warning: 'Don't come in here - seriously'. They enter anyway before the car-sized cockroaches catch up with them and find themselves crushed into a tiny vestibule. The Doctor tries to open the interior door but a message pops up on a dot-matrix screen telling him not to enter. Instead, it opens a hatch and gives him a magazine article, some batteries and some bug spray.

 

Nadia enters a store room and picks up a telephone directory. She winds time back by an hour and then waits for the Blenkinsop to arrive with the Time Bomb. She hits him over the head with the directory and then retrieves the bomb as he drops it. She makes her way outside, now ageing faster than she ever has done.

 

Andrew winds back time to create more and more versions of himself, each armed with bug spray. He opens the door and launches an assault on the giant creatures. When they are all dead, Yomalet-Ram appears. He says that, despite the Doctor being such a lucrative client, he couldn't be shown any favours. He guides them to the exit. Outside, returned to normal size, they find it is daylight. Andrew decides to smash his glass brick to find out what will happen, but Rory stops him. He shows him a note on the underside saying that the brick should be returned to the office of Vanessa Laing-Randall, Lexington Bank.

 

The only one who can re-enter the bank safely is Andrew. He wants to warn the others about what is going on. The Doctor wants to find Nadia and look at her watch. Andrew leads Nadia to the Doctor in Temple Gardens where the Doctor tries to get her watch to emit a field that will cover all of them so that the Blenkinsops and Symingtons ignore them like they do Nadia. As he does so, Andrew returns to the bank and begins to explain to Sameera about the watches and the accounting system. Sameera has been very careful with her watch but still owes 35 years.

 

The Doctor shows Rory the magazine article, dated 5013. It is about the discovery of Cosmic radiation Power at Aberdeen University. The Doctor explains that the article is sealed inside a time-bag that keeps it impervious to fluctuations in time. When he removes it from the bag the details have changed and the discovery was made in Tokyo. He says that this proves that the planet is losing its future. He hands the batteries to Rory to use in the Super Lucky Camera to replace the infinite power it originally had before the change in the time stream.

 

Sameera and Andrew work their way through the offices, talking to all the people that have been using the watches. They are too late to save one man who tries to pay back his debt all in one go and dies instantly. Sameera and Andrew realise he is the tenth person to die in the bank in the past six months. They decide to stop competing with each other and to work together. They conclude that the place where the Blenkinsop-Symington's seem to emerge from is Vanessa's office.

 

The Doctor says that the only way they can move about is if they take Nadia with them wherever they go. They steal a wheelchair from St Bart's Hospital to transport her.

 

When Andrew and Sameera get to Vanessa's office they find her mousy secretary, Jane Blythe, in the outer office. She hovers nervously while they search Vanessa's files but find no evidence. They tell Jane that the Doctor has hinted at alien involvement. A Blenkinsop-Symington arrives and says that such behaviour means the forfeit of all owed time. Jane slams the door shut, with her, Andrew and Sameera on the inside, as the pair begins to transform into sharks. She tells the two humans that all of the bad things started when Vanessa was transferred to London. Sameera says that they need to talk to the Doctor and Amy because they are time travellers. The shark-men batter the door down and Andrew and Sameera escape past them leaving Jane inside.

 

The Chancellor is preparing to make a speech from a podium erected in front of television cameras in the bank. Sameera and Andrew find the Doctor back stage. He is with Amy and Rory as well as Nadia (who has reverted to being a child since the Doctor's latest attempt to tamper with her watch). As the broadcast goes live, Amy rushes the stage to say that aliens have been giving out watches like hers. She brandishes it at the camera before pulling out the ten-year old Nadia to tell her story. Nadia's watch stops; the protective field collapses and dozens of shark-men turn their heads to look. Sameera weighs in by stepping into the camera's vision and paying back her thirty five years in one go.

 

Among the confusion and panic, the shark-men eventually trap Amy and Rory. They threaten to make Amy pay back her time debt but the Doctor steps in and says that he will stand in for her. Vanessa arrives on the scene. She has no idea what is happening and says so. The Doctor agrees but looks at Jane, adding that she is the mastermind behind the organisation. One of the Symington's bites Vanessa on the shoulder, draining the time out of her until she empties like a husk.

 

Jane confesses that she is like a tree trunk and the Blenkinsops and Symingtons are her many branches. The Doctor looks away, apparently bored and comments on the sculpture that dominates the atrium. He casually mentions that Jane hasn't called in much of the borrowed time. He then reveals to Jane that he is a Time Lord and offers to pay Amy's debt, but only after Rory has made the same offer. The watch falls from Amy's wrist and shatters. The Doctor says he will take on other debts and removes Andrew's watch. He puts it on while whispering to Amy that the sculpture is the Time Harvester liquidity fund.

 

After the shark-men lead the Doctor away Amy tells the others left with her that they need to smash the sculpture.

 

The Doctor is taken to a large, dark hall, which is intermittently (and only for infinitesimally small periods) a hive of activity. For an appointed time the room is filled with glass bricks and the screens flicker into life. Traders around the galaxy focus on Jane Blythe as she offers to auction the last Time Lord.

 

Amy, Rory, Nadia, Andrew and Sameera drag a filing cabinet to the edge of the atrium above the sculpture. They are blocked by the shark-men but Amy grabs the Super Lucky camera and presses the shutter while running, thus enclosing herself and her friends in a long time bubble. It gives them three hours of subjective time to make their preparations. When the bubble collapses the shark-men close in but the filing cabinet topples onto the sculpture which disintegrates. The Blenkinops and Symingtons disappear.

 

The Doctor addresses the traders in the Time Market. He points out that Andrew Brown owes 100,000 years of time. Then he asks the traders to check their data bases to see how long a normal human actually lives for. There is a period of panic, the market becomes unstable and Jane vanishes. The Doctor steps in to make an offer and buys the remaining time bricks for one second per decade.

 

When the police arrive to find out how the vast sculpture was destroyed it seems that no-one can remember. The owners of the Time Harvester watches find the displays say that the contracts are now void. The Doctor reappears and hands Sameera and Nadia their time bricks. He says that the owners can open them. When they do, Sameera returns to being 35 again, though Nadia stays 20 (despite actually being twice as old).

 

After the TARDIS departs, Sameera says that she wants to open a delicatessen somewhere and Andrew thinks he would like to be a teacher. They embrace.

 

The TARDIS arrives in Foreman's Yard, Totter's Lane, in London's Isle of Dogs. The Doctor tells Rory that Lexington Bank will still collapse but Nadia will be able to rescue some of it. He walks to a warehouse and knocks on the door. A voice from the dim interior greets him and says that one day he will become a valuable client. Or already is. The voice asks if the Doctor needs something secreting amongst another client's belongings.

 

In Heemstede, The Netherlands, 1636, a tulip farmer is short of men to plant the late season bulbs. With time short, it looks like the farm will be ruined. Mr Verspronck and Mr Hoogeven appear to have the solution when they arrive carrying a special pocket watch.

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

After the Symington-Blenkinsops are beaten, the clean-up in Lexington Bank is carried out by UNIT and Torchwood.

 

 

 

Touched by an Angel

by Jonathan Morris    

BBC Logo

 

 

Cover Blurb

Touched by an Angel

'The past is like a foreign country. Nice to visit, but you really wouldn't want to live there.'

In 2003, Rebecca Whitaker died in a road accident. Her husband Mark is still grieving. He receives a battered envelope, posted eight years ago, containing a set of instructions with a simple message: "You can save her."

 

As Mark is given the chance to save Rebecca, it's up to the Doctor, Amy and Rory to save the whole world. Because this time the Weeping Angels are using history itself as a weapon.

 

Notes:

This is the twelfth book in the series of original adventures featuring the Eleventh Doctor.

Released: June 2011

 

ISBN: 978 1 84990 234 2

 

 

Synopsis

10th April 2003

On her way to visit her parents in Chilbury, Rebecca Whitaker curses her husband Mark for not making the trip due to work commitments. It is raining and as she takes a sharp left turn her car hits a lorry travelling in the opposite direction. She finds herself upside down in a field looking at a statue. As the trucks orange hazard lights flash on and off the statue appears to be getting closer.

 

7th October 2011

After a hard day at work, Mark is berated by one of his colleagues at work, Siobhan. She tells him that he should stop mourning his dead wife - eight years is too long - and that he should start to have a social life of his own. Then she gives him a package that has that day's date on it. Apparently it has been waiting in the archive for eight years with strict instructions that it should be given to him only then. He feels uneasy about the package because it is his own handwriting on the envelope.

 

On the way home he stops to buy petrol. As he waits to pay in the kiosk he glances at the CCTV screen. He sees the statue of an angel at the end f the aisle. He looks back down the aisle but there is no angel yet one is still on the screen. He drives back to Bromley and parks his car. As he walks down the high street he passes a Chinese restaurant and steps in. Again, he sees a CCTV screen showing the statue of an angel right behind him. When he turns around there is nothing there.

 

He edges out of the shop and runs down the high street. As he passes the hi-fi shop all of the televisions flicker into life. Each of them shows Mark with an angel at his shoulder. He stops to look and a voice tells him not to close his eyes or look back. The voice tells Amy and Rory to keep watching the screens. The voice tells Mark that he is being chased by a temporal scavenger that is currently quantum locked because it is being looked at. The voice tells him it is safe to turn round. When he does so, Mark sees the Doctor, carrying his timey-wimey detector, and Amy and Rory. There is no sign of the angel. The Doctor explains that it can only exist on screens and therefore an only touch Mark if he is on screen, too, as he is now due to the shop's CCTV.

 

In panic, Mark runs for home. He gets to his front door and then realises that there is a camera for the videophone. He feels the cold touch of marble and then he is gone.

 

The Doctor uses his detector to trace Mark's steps. He, Amy and Rory arrive outside a block of flats. At the steps to the entrance stands an angel statue. The Doctor steps up to it confidently and taps it on the wing. A chunk of stone falls off. He says that the angel has used up its energy to send its target into the past. He can detect a residual trace of time energy and suggests that they follow to see where the victim went. Rory asks if they should find out who he was. The Doctor agrees that this is sensible and says he will pick Rory up in an hour.

 

Mark is astonished to find himself still in the same place but in 1994. In the TARDIS, the Doctor is similarly disbelieving but for a different reason: contrary to normal practice, the angel has sent its prey back to a point within his own lifetime.

 

Mark has no spending money, or means to get any. Then he remembers the envelope he was given in 2011. He opens it and finds that it is stuffed with fifty pound notes, as well as a letter in his own handwriting. The letter contains a series of dated notes. The first date, 10 June 1994 says 'arrival'. Checking with a newspaper, Mark sees that this is the date today.

 

The letter tells him certain basics: there is no quick return to 2011; he must live his life with a new identity; he can save her. It is signed with his own name.

 

The Doctor hops the TARDIS back to 1994. He wants to find Mark before he does any damage by contacting people he knew in his youth. They wonder how to track him down in the whole of London as his time trace is already fading rapidly. Then Amy remembers Rory. Instead of arriving an hour later, the Doctor brings them back a week later. He doesn't seem overly concerned and is quite impressed that Rory has used the time to trace Mark's friends and family.

 

Mark is surprised that his own mother doesn't recognize him. Aware that he shouldn't tell her who he really is he pretends to be a distant cousin from Canada. He tries to persuade his mother to get her husband to have a heart check-up (Mark knows that his father only has three years to live.) Later, he makes his way by train to Warwick where he knows his younger self is a student. On the train journey he feels an odd tingling in his hand. At the same time he glances out of the window and sees a spinning blue box keeping pace with the train. What he can't se, but the occupants of the TARDIS can, are the six stone statues on the roof of the train.

 

Mark waits outside his old student house. He sees his younger self emerge from the house with his girlfriend from the time, Sophie, and two house-mates, Lucy and Rebecca. He doesn't see the six angels trailing him, nor does he see the Doctor, Amy and Rory watching the whole scene. All of them eventually converge on the student union building. Although it is a beautiful summer evening, there is lightning flickering across the surface of the building. The Doctor says that this is the Angel's preparing to feed on the energy released when the young Mark meets his older self.

 

The Doctor gives Amy and Rory the job of keeping the young Mark away from the Angels. They drag him upstairs on a mysterious errand while the Doctor finds the older Mark and says he needs to take him back to 2011. When Mark refuses the Doctor punches him in the face and then escorts him from the building, pretending to everyone that the dazed man is drunk. They are joined by Amy and Rory as well as six angry Angels. This leaves the young Mark alone (dragged away from his girlfriend by Amy). It is then that he finds himself with Rebecca and they kiss for the first (and second) time.

 

The older Mark, along with the Doctor, Amy and Rory, manages to escape the angels by leaping onto a passing bus.

 

The following morning, the Doctor and his companions sit down to breakfast with Mark in a hotel while the Doctor explains the Weeping Angels usual method of feeding off the energy released by sending someone back in time. The Doctor says that this set of angels seem to want to create a time paradox instead which is why it is vital they get Mark back to his own time. Mark tells them that this is not possible. He tells them about the letter that he received from his future self which he claims is in a safety deposit box in London. He says that it contains specific instructions that he must follow to make sure that history remains on track. As an example he cites the time when he lost his wallet in Rome. When it was handed in at reception he was so grateful that he never considered the fact that it would have been impossible to trace him to his hotel. Now he realizes that his other self must have been behind the return. The Doctor says that he will take Mark there in the TARDIS but the excuse Mark makes is that there were many other such things on the list. The Doctor is suspicious and wonders why Mark wants to stay in the past.

 

The Doctor, Amy and Rory return to the TARDIS to discuss the situation. While they don't trust him they all agree that Mark's story about Rome has a ring of truth about it. The Doctor returns to him and tells him that he will be allowed to continue living in the past as long as he doesn't try to meet himself or change history. The final rule is that Mark must make a copy of the letter he sent to himself and send it to himself. As long as it is not the original the Doctor thinks there will be no paradox.

 

Over the years, Mark and Rebecca remain friends. In 1996 they sleep together after getting drunk but agree that it was a mistake. Mark was only pretending to agree. It starts a period where the closeness between them fades. Meanwhile, the Doctor in the TARDIS keeps a close eye on the situation by slaving the navigation systems to Mark Whitaker's life. If there are any temporal disturbances the TARDIS will be drawn straight to him.

 

Mark meets Rebecca (or Becky as she styles herself) in a shopping precinct just before Christmas 1997. They have fallen out of touch. She tells him that she is still with Anthony; Mark is seeing a girl called Jenny. Mark tells her about his father's death. As they part she picks up a lottery ticket that falls out of a newspaper that she thinks is Mark's and hands it to him. A few minutes later, the older Mark, unrecognized by her, comes to retrieve the paper. Both Marks feel a tingling sensation in their right hand.

 

A few months later, after a small win on the lottery, young Mark finds himself on holiday with Rebecca. They kept in touch after their pre-Christmas meeting and their friendship was strengthened when she found out that her fiancé was cheating on her. She had already booked the trip to Rome so Mark took the other ticket and spent the first few days sharing a bed with her, platonically.

 

The older Mark watches his younger self being pick-pocketed by a youth. Rory gives chase, and retrieves the wallet and the Doctor hands it in at reception. The problem is that the Doctor's device is still showing temporal flux. Older Mark remembers that this was also the day when he and Rebecca were locked into the museum on the Capitoline Hill. Thus the Doctor and his three companions have to perform an elaborate routine to bring this about. Having succeeded, they find themselves being pursued by six angry Angels and are only saved by the inadvertent arrival of a security guard.

 

The upshot of this adventure is that the young Mark and Rebecca finally become romantically entwined.

 

Moving on to 1999, the older Mark has to intervene in his younger self's life. For five years he has been masquerading as Harold Jones, making money through a series of wise investments. His business has been handled by a firm called Pollard and Joyce. Now 'Harold' approaches Frank Pollard and asks him, as a favour in return for all of the business he has given to the firm, to give young Mark Whitaker a job. Pollard agrees but 'Harold' insists that his own involvement is never revealed. On the day that Mark hears he has got the job, he proposes to Rebecca.

 

The TARDIS has barely left Rome when the Doctor spots an event on 4 November 2000. He lands in Chichester and runs out in front of an SUV that older Mark is driving. This causes a limousine to crash into the back of Mark's car and it is only when Rebecca and her father emerge that the Doctor realizes that Mark was going to watch his own wedding. The Doctor is furious, more so when he finds that the limousine is too badly damaged to drive and Mark has to offer Rebecca and her father a lift to the church. Naturally, the Doctor goes too, along with Amy and Rory. When they arrive at the church in Chilbury there are electric flashes dancing along the gravestones. The Doctor knows that something is amiss: Mark tells him that it is the time - Rebecca is fifteen minutes late, which never happened the first time round. To solve this, the Doctor drives off in the SUV, returns in the TARDIS, hops everyone back in time to five minutes before the wedding, and ushers them to the church. Sadly, a passing truck splashes Rebecca's dress with muddy water.

 

The Doctor returns almost instantaneously with an identical dress, though it has taken him a long time to get it made. He then has to jump back half an hour for her to put the dress on, take another trip back to the limo to retrieve her bouquet and then all that is left is to hypnotize the bride and her father so that they don't remember any of the preceding events and watch her enter the church..

 

It is only when the Doctor sees the angels barring the path to the church that he realizes he has been wrong all along. The Angels have not been trying to create a time paradox; they have been trying to keep the two Marks apart. The problem now is to work out what the Angels are really planning.

 

On 5 June 2001 Mark takes out of the wall safe in his apartment the letter that he wrote to himself. He has now completed all of the things on his list of interventions in his own life. He begins to copy it out. This is the second copy he has made of this letter. The first, which he showed to the Doctor, did not contain the words 'YOU CAN SAVE HER. Just as I did'. He pauses in his writing and glances out of the window at the panoramic view of London. He yearns to speak to Rebecca again and, idly, wonders what his younger self is doing.

 

In fact, his younger self is working late and has just accidentally found the Harold Jones file which bears the instruction NOT FOR THE ATTENTION OF MARK WHITAKER. Intrigued, he opens the folder, finds details of something called 'Project Magwitch', and discovers that Harold Jones has been promoting Mark's career for some undisclosed reason. Checking Jones' address in Highgate, he decides to find out.

 

Arriving at Jones' apartment, Mark is surprised by how similar the man is to himself. The Doctor, meanwhile, has to land the TARDIS in the approximate vicinity because the paradox sensors are being swamped by an exceptionally powerful signal. There is no doubt where they should go, however, as lightning bounces around on the top of one of the blocks of flats nearby.

 

Both Marks rub their right hands as a tingling passes through them. The older Mark is worried: he doesn't remember this meeting ever taking place. There is a strong smell of static electricity. As the older Mark carries on the pretence of being Harold Jones (and Mark's cousin) inside the apartment, the Doctor cannot get near the door outside the apartment due to the vivid blue flashes of the Blinovitch limitation field. At that moment, Mark spots the two letters that 'Harold' was copying. He reaches for one and there is a flash and smoke. The Doctor, Amy and Rory burst in to find smoke and electricity filling the flat. As they realize that the problem was caused by the younger Mark visiting his older self, the apartment bursts into flames. The windows shatter and six Weeping Angels enter in triumph.

 

The two Marks are pulled, unconscious, out of the building by the Doctor and his companions. When the older Mark wakes up and remembers everything he promptly runs back into the block and up to his blazing flat. He tries to retrieve the two letters from his desk but they are both ashes. The six Angels watch him as the Doctor arrives and leads him away. Back outside, Mark tells the three time travelers what has happened: history has been changed because he can never send the letter to himself. The Doctor holds up his timey-wimey detector and announces that history hasn't been changed. This can only mean one thing: the letter wasn't written by Mark but by the Angels on psychic paper. In a leap of logic, the Doctor realizes that there must have been something else on the list of instructions that Mark didn't tell him about. Rather than reply, Mark gets into his SUV and drives away.

 

The Doctor waits until the younger Mark awakes and then hypnotizes him to forget the events of the evening. After Mark has gone back home to his wife, Rory remembers that he spent a week in Mark's apartment and there was no wife. The three of them conclude that she died and that the Angels plan is to get Mark to change history by trying to save her. At that moment Rory runs up the street to them and says that he has been sent back from the future by being touched by an Angel. He says that he has been waiting four weeks for them to turn up after being zapped back from 2003.

 

In the TARDIS the Doctor performs a quick operation with the sonic screwdriver to obviate the effects of the Blinovitch Limitation so that Rory can touch his other self. He also gives the future Rory a fez to wear so that he can tell them apart. He takes the TARDIS to 10 April 2003, the day that Rebecca died.

 

Mark's plan is to drive to the lane where Rebecca died and park his car further up the road so that the lorry has to stop before it can hit her car. As the darkness closes in, he parks in a lay-by beside the road and settles down to wait.

 

The TARDIS materializes near the same stretch of road and Amy and the two Rories follow the Doctor across a muddy field. By the time they get to the SUV the car is in the middle of the road. The wind is howling and there are blue flashes. Mark is waiting for them. The Doctor tells him to move the car because the whole thing is a trap. He flashes his torch around them to reveal the Weeping Angels. Amy and Rory ask the Doctor if there is any way that Rebecca can be saved but he tells them, sadly, that the death is too complex a space-time event. The Angels would feed off the energy from any paradox and grow strong enough to go on feeding until every person on the planet had been used up. The Doctor then scribbles some instructions on a piece of paper and hands it to Rory. He tells him to go back to the TARDIS but as Rory sets out to go he is touched by an Angel and disappears.

 

The Doctor turns to the other Rory and asks if he succeeded in following the instructions. Rory says that it took him four weeks to convince the farmer. As Amy stands, mystified, Rory steps towards a black box with a big red switch. Unfortunately, two Angels are blocking his way.

 

The Doctor tries to reason with Mark. He points out that Mark has travelled in time and if he rewrites the future he will rewrite the past. This could easily mean that he loses all of the time he ever had with Rebecca. He makes his decision.

 

Rory and Amy find that the Angels are closing in on them, imperceptibly. The nearest Angel manages to get its arm around Amy's neck. Fortunately, Mark's car arrives among them and its headlights are so bright that Rory can watch the Angel and prevent it from killing Amy. The car is beside the big red button and, on the Doctor's instructions, Mark presses it. Immediately six bright halogen lamps come on, surrounding the Angels. Beside each are a video camera and a television monitor. This is what Rory has spent a month setting up. The Angels begin to fade to nothing. They were too weak to hold their forms and now only exist as an image on a TV screen. The Doctor turns each camera to a screen and creates an infinity loop that dissipates the Angels. The problem is that the sixth Angel has escaped.

 

They run down the hill as the lorry sweeps past. It collides with Rebecca's car and they find the upturned wreckage in a field with the Angel standing nearby. Rebecca dies in her husband's arms. Rory realizes that the Angel has gone again but the Doctor tells him not to worry for it is the one they saw dying in 2011.

 

The Doctor takes Mark to Rebecca's funeral and then back to 1993 where he meets Rebecca (or Bex as she styles herself) at a student party. There he tells her all about himself without including any details that she would recognize. She advises him that he has mourned his dead wife for long enough and ought to resume his own life. She strokes him on the cheek and he leaves her, seconds before his younger self enters the room and meets her for the first time.

 

Back in the TARDIS the travelers notice that Mark has grown younger. When Bex touched his face she shorted out the time differential so that he is the same age as when he first met the Doctor.

 

The TARDIS lands outside Mark's old flat, exactly one week after he was sent back into the past. The travelers say goodbye and then they dematerialize, leaving him on the street. He still owns Harold Jones property, he is still a multi-millionaire and he can do whatever he likes. He decides that the first thing to do is find Rebecca's old friends Lucy and Emma and have a long talk.

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

  

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Paradox Lost

by George Mann          

BBC Logo

 

 

Cover Blurb

Paradox Lost 

'The Squall feed on psychic energy. They spread like a plague and if they are not stopped they will strip the Earth clean...'

London 1910: an unsuspecting thief finds himself confronted by grey-skinned creatures that are waiting to devour his mind. London 2789: the remains of an ancient android are dredged from the Thames. When reactivated it has a warning that can only be delivered to a man named 'the Doctor'.

 

The Doctor and his friends must solve a mystery that has spanned over a thousand years. If they fail, the deadly alien Squall will devour the world.

 

Notes:

This is the thirteenth book in the series of original adventures featuring the Eleventh Doctor.

Released: June 2011

 

ISBN: 978 1 84990 235 9

 

 

Synopsis

On the night of 13 October 1910, Edgar Miller breaks into a house in London. He makes his way from room to room, filling a sack with valuables. When he reaches the bedroom he stares in horror. Two people are lying in the bed, dead. Their faces have horrified expressions and their eyes are bleeding. Standing over them is a humanoid figure: spindly, red eyed and with needle sharp teeth. Miller flees down the stairs and into the kitchen. Three more of the creatures are standing there. One of them tells him they are Squall and that it is time to feast. Blood bubbles from Miller's eyes.

 

The TARDIS is making a hectic journey, bumping and vibrating as it goes. Rory asks what is happening but the Doctor can only tell him that it is in a hurry. It lands suddenly with a bump. The Doctor flings open the doors and steps into the sunshine to find where they are.

 

Rory follows and sees a bright futuristic city. He recognises from some of the older buildings that it is London. The Doctor guesses that they are in the twenty-eighth century. He is still wondering why the TARDIS came in such a hurry. Amy points to the bank of the Thames below them. Some people are pulling something out of the water. The three of them walk down to see what is happening.

 

On the bank are a team of archaeologists. Some are ducking in and out of tents and others cluster round the thing from the river. A middle aged woman who appears to be in charge asks if she can help the newcomers. The Doctor flashes his psychic paper which apparently tells her they are inspectors from the city conservation board. The woman introduces herself as Patricia Young. She indicates the thing that has been dragged from the water and says that it is an extremely expensive artificial intelligence unit which someone has dumped in the river. The unit is humanoid but missing an arm and the lower part of a leg. The Doctor scans the unit and asks Patricia how long these units have been on sale. When she tells him that it is only two or three months he replies that this particular unit has been in the water for centuries.

 

The Doctor notices that there is still some residual power in the unit and uses his screwdriver to activate it. The unit turns its head towards the Doctor and says his name. It tells him that it has waited a thousand years for him, adding that the Squall are coming and that Gradius's experimental ship has torn a hole in time. It tries to say something about the hive manifesting in the path and something that the Doctor told it but its power cuts out and the unit crumples.

 

The Doctor says that the last of the power has gone and the unit's neural matrix will have collapsed. He guesses that this unit is the reason why the TARDIS brought them here. Amy wonders how it can think the Doctor told it anything but the Doctor thinks that this must be an event from his future. She asks who the Squall are. He says that they are a race of parasites that live outside the normal universe. They try to get into the real universe and feed on psychic energy to establish their hives.

 

He tells Amy and Rory that they need to find Gradius and put an end to his time experiments. While they are doing this he will take the TARDIS back to the day before the unit ended up in the river. He calculates from a sonic reading that he needs to go to 16 October 1910. He blithely assures Rory that it is a simple matter of plugging a hole in the universe, stopping a murderous horde of aliens and popping back to pick them up. He runs back to the TARDIS.

 

On the night of 16 October 1910, Professor Archibald Angelchrist sets out to find the creatures that are responsible for a string of murders in London. He has been retired for five years but has gained enough knowledge to conclude from newspaper reports that the murderers are alien. He has fought aliens before on a number of occasions and finds reports of bipedal demons on the streets of the city no more alarming than anything else he has faced. He has worked out that there are at least three creatures on the loose, each working within its own territory. He drives his car down to a likely place to find one.

 

Striding out into a cold, foggy night he makes his way to the river. Almost at once he finds the creature and waits for its attack. He beats at it with his walking stick but is alarmed when its talons grip him and he feels it probing him telepathically. He strikes it hard with his cane and seems to have regained the advantage when the Doctor arrives with his sonic screwdriver. The creature backs away and flees into the fog.

 

Angelchrist is initially angry at the Doctor's intervention. However, he is soon won over by the fact that the Doctor seems to know more about them than he does. When the Doctor learns that Angelchrist was hunting the creature, and has fought aliens previously in his job for the secret services, he shares some information: he tells the old man that they are the Squall, there are far more than three of them and that they are pouring in through a rent in time. The professor says that he has mapped out the area of their activity and takes the Doctor to his car, saying that he will drive him back to his house to see it.

 

It takes Amy and Rory a day to negotiate the city streets. On the way they pass what appears to be a zoo with glass domes, but Amy recognises it as an oxygen factory. Eventually, they enter an information booth and track down Professor Gradius. They make their way to the headquarters of Gradius Industries which seems to be a large, empty warehouse near the British Museum. In the centre of a huge hangar they see a huge space ship. As they walk round it they find a dead woman. She is wearing a white lab coat and her eyes are weeping blood.

 

The Doctor looks at the map in Angelchrist's study. It shows the sites of six murders. The Doctor decides that the place they want is near to the British Museum. The professor agrees to join the Doctor for one last adventure. They take the professor's car. On the way they see three of the Squall circling in the skies overhead. After half an hour of driving round the area near the museum, the Doctor parks the car. He leads the professor to an alleyway and kicks open a gate. They see, buried in the wall of a house, a silver space ship that the Doctor says is Gradius' time ship. The professor is puzzled that the wall of the house has not been damaged but the Doctor says that he is more surprised the neighbours haven't noticed. It is then that they see the eaves of all the houses are filled with the Squall. As the aliens close in the Doctor notices one of them is holding Amy's jumper. He holds the screwdriver up and it emits a high pitched squeal that drives the aliens back. The Doctor tells Angelchrist that the power will drain soon, so now is the time to run.

 

Back in June 2789, Rory searches the dead woman's pockets and finds an ID card showing that she is Professor Celestine Gradius. They hear a knock from a trapdoor in the floor. An AI unit pops its head out of the hole. It tells them that it is Gradius' assistant, RVN-73. Amy promptly christens it Arven. It says that it tried to help the professor fight off assailants but when it was overcome it threw itself down the hatch. The last thing it heard was the professor telling the attackers to get out of her head. Rory wonders who the attackers were. As if in answer a mass of the Squall come down the stairs. Amy suggests that they hide in the ship. Rory and Amy climb aboard while the AI holds off the Squall but Amy gets out again to rescue the unit. Rory helps her and they pull Arven through the door and slam it shut. As the Squall try to tear through the hull Amy orders Arven to fly them to 16 October 1910. He warns them that the ship has only been tested on flights of a few minutes but agrees to do what they say.

 

The Doctor and Angelchrist drive at speed through the foggy streets. As they drive, the Doctor tells Angelchrist that the Squall are hive creatures: basically a single organism with the individuals merely drones that feed the hive on psychic energy. The hive mind divides between the drones so that three or more together are intelligent enough to communicate. The Doctor says that the time ship is what allowed them to break through to Earth. He also says that the Squall have a psychic dampening field that renders them almost invisible until they pounce. There could be thousands of them in London and nobody would know they are there unless, like Angelchrist, they were expecting to see them. Eventually the Doctor parks the car and strides through foggy alleyways to find the TARDIS. Unfortunately, when they reach it, the Squall are swarming over the big blue box, drawn by its energy. One of the aliens sneaks up on the two men and attacks the Doctor. He drops the screwdriver but Angelchrist picks it up and uses it to drive the Squall off. The two men run.

 

When they get back to the professor's house they have a cup of tea and then the Doctor sets about using the professor's workbench to make something useful. By morning he has built an amplifier for the sonic screwdriver so that he can get back into the TARDIS. Before that, however, he needs to find Amy and Rory wherever they are in 1910.

 

Rory and Amy wake in a dark space. They ask Arven to switch on the lights but he tells them that half of the control panel is missing. Apparently they have materialised inside a wall and the control panel, along with Arven's arm, is part of the wall now. There is no way of reversing this process so Rory has to amputate the Ai's arm at the shoulder. The three of them exit the ship but Amy's red jumper snags on the buckled metal and she discards the garment when the first of the Squall arrives through a shimmering haze: the rent in time.

 

The three of them run up a busy street to escape. The sight of the battered Arven, his flesh in tatters, his arm missing, causes some distress to passers-by. As they pass a news vendor Amy snatches a newspaper. When they finally stop by a churchyard they find that they have arrived three days early on 13 October. To their horror, three of the Squall are still in pursuit. They run towards the church and close the doors against the aliens. While Arven holds the doors closed, Amy and Rory search for another exit. They find steps going down. While they debate whether to explore, Arven races up to them telling them that the Squall are inside.

 

They find themselves in a long tunnel that leads past some very old coffins and then worms its way under the ground. It eventually connects to the sewers and from there they climb a ladder that lets them out on a sunlit street.

 

For three days they move from place to place. They steal a coat to hide Amy's ultra-short skirt and a cap to hide Arven's ravaged face. They have to keep moving for the Squall always seem to find them. At one point they enter a deserted house only to find the corpse of a burglar in the kitchen and the Squall already waiting for them. Eventually they take refuge in a boarded up house in Whitechapel. Rory reminds Amy that it is now 17 October, the day that the one-armed AI in 2789 told the Doctor it ended up in the Thames. At least, points out Rory, they know that Arven is going to meet the Doctor later that day. As such, they make their way from the house to the river. The hope is that the Doctor will go to the river, too, for his predetermined date with Arven. As they wait, the Squall closes in on them. There seems no hope of escape.

 

The Doctor arrives, with Angelchrist in tow, and uses the screwdriver and amplification device to incapacitate the Squall. He switches it off, tells them to go and allows them to run away. Amy, naturally, berates the Doctor for being three days late before telling him that the Squall were in the twenty-eighth century, too. The Doctor introduces the professor to his friends and Amy introduces Arven. It dawns on Amy that she was responsible for creating the rift that allowed the Squall through. Rory thinks that this is a paradox but the Doctor tells him that time doesn't work like that. He says that there are fixed points but other than that time flexes around those points.

 

The group walks back to the TARDIS. The professor warns the Doctor that they are walking into a trap but the Doctor replies that if they know it is a trap then it can't be one. As the Squall close in on them the Doctor is appalled to find that the amplifier no longer works. The Doctor remembers that when Arven was pulled from the river it told him to modulate the frequency. He does so and the Squall fall back. The Doctor opens the TARDIS door and the group step inside. Angelchrist is astonished by what he sees but the Doctor is quick to get onto the console where he is disappointed to find that the rift is already too big to close by simply flying the TARDIS through it. He needs to think of a new plan.

 

The Squall use the TARDIS telepathic circuits to tell the Doctor that they intend to take London in a matter of hours and then use the TARDIS to dominate the universe. The Doctor decides it is time for plan B and hops the TARDIS over to the other side of London and materialises in Angelchrist's laboratory. While the professor makes tea and sandwiches for his guests, the Doctor starts to improvise a new device. All too soon, the Squall come crashing in through the window. Arven and the humans begin piling furniture against the window to keep them out. The Doctor appears, wearing a top hat. Amy tries to tell him that this is not the time for new headgear but he lifts the hat and shows a tangle of wires underneath. He tells her that this is Plan B.

 

He tells her that the Squall have tasted his mind. While human minds are juicy morsels, their real goal has become his big Time Lord brain. He has made the hat into a booster for his psychic signal so that all of the Squall are attracted to him. That way he can lure them back to the rift and put them back where they came from. He then intends to use the Gradius time ship to seal the rift with an implosion. As he tells them this he enters the TARDIS and manipulates some of the controls but tells them that the TARDIS has to be kept away from the Squall in case they exert an influence over it and from the rift in case the implosion pulls it through.

 

Arven tells them that he has learned enough from their conversations to know that their past is his future and that somehow he will make it home to his own time. He volunteers to create a distraction so that the others can get to Angelchrist's car. The Doctor makes some adjustments to Arven with the sonic screwdriver and the others say goodbye to the AI unit. He then opens the door and fights his way out through the Squall. As he hoped, the Squall follow him and the others exit the house via the cellars. As they get into the car they see Arven up the street, now reduced to little more than a metal skeleton as the Squall rip him to pieces. As the car drives away, a cloud of aliens forms in the sky above, giving chase.

 

The Doctor drives quickly if erratically while the other three use a variety of weapons they have brought to fight off any of the Squall that get too close. Eventually he arrives at the house where the time ship crashed. He smashes the car through a wooden gate and leaps out and into the ship. The cloud of Squall descend and fight their way into the ship. As the others watch in horror, one of the Squall emerges with the limp form of the Doctor, his clothes shredded. Angelchrist leaps top help him as there is a rending sound and the world turns white.

 

Amy and Rory find themselves lying in the garden of the house. There is a hole in the wall where the ship was but it, the Squall, Angelchrist and the Doctor have gone. Before they can begin to grieve, the TARDIS materialises beside them. Amy opens the doors and sees the wreckage of the time ship in the control room. Lying unconscious among the wreckage are the old professor and the Doctor. The Doctor sits bolt upright and asks if the Squall have gone, then checks the scanner to see if the rift has closed.

 

He tells them that he programmed the TARDIS to scoop the time ship away at the moment of the implosion. When Rory says that he thought the TARDIS had to be kept away from the implosion the Doctor replies that he knew the Squall were listening via the telepathic circuits so he told a clever lie that prevented them seeing his true plan.

 

The Doctor offers Angelchrist a lift home but the professor asks if he may see the universe properly from above. The Doctor agrees. Soon, Angelchrist is standing at the TARDIS door looking at the stars. Next, the Doctor takes them to the twenty-eighth century where they land by the Thames. While the professor is astonished at the London he can see, Amy and Rory are more taken by the sight of themselves and the Doctor on the embankment. The Doctor tells them that the TARDIS originally brought them to that point in response to a distress beacon he created in Arven just before the AI left to distract the Squall.

 

As soon as the earlier versions of themselves have dispersed, the Doctor leads Amy and Rory, followed by Angelchrist, to the remains of Arven. The Doctor pulls a metal cylinder from Arven's chest: a back-up memory. He pockets it and then says that it is time to take the professor home.

 

In London, 23 October 1921, Angelchrist reflects on the last ten years of work with the secret service and Scotland Yard. He thinks of the various mentions to the Doctor he has uncovered in that time in the secret files he has seen. He thinks about the various faces the Doctor seems to have worn. Just then, there is a knock on the door. He opens it to find the Doctor asking if he can have the sonic wrench he left behind. The Doctor is astonished to find that ten years have gone by. However, he presents Angelchrist with a newly repaired and pristine Arven and asks if the AI can stay with the professor because his kind won't be granted their liberty for at least two centuries. The professor is delighted to have the company.

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

The Doctor makes a reference to Bessie his vintage car in his third incarnation.

Amy says that she could do without the earth suddenly opening beneath her feet again. (The Hungry Earth).

Professor Angelchrist reads records of "a tall, thin man with long hair and a frock coat" (the Eighth Doctor), "teeth and curls" and "a long woollen scarf" (the Fourth Doctor), a "leather jacket" and "a Northern accent" (the Ninth Doctor), and a man in a "pantomime coat of many colours" (the Sixth Doctor).

Rory recalls aliens made of wool (The Glamour Chase), vampires (The Vampires of Venice) and nuclear bombs (Nuclear Time).

28th century London has an oxygen factory similar to one on the Byzantium. (Flesh and Stone).

The Doctor comments on a rift he previously encountered, large enough to drive a double-decker bus through (Planet of the Dead).

 

 

 

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The Silent Stars Go By

by Dan Abnett               

BBC Logo

 

 

Cover Blurb

The Silent Stars Go By             

For centuries the Maintainers have worked. With no help from other worlds, they subsist on the food they can grow and that's little enough. But their purpose, their whole life is to maintain the machines that will one day make their world as habitable as old Earth.

Life used to be hard. Now as their crops fail, livestock sickens, and the temperature drops, it's becoming impossible. This year's Winter Season Feast won't be the usual celebration. It's not a time for optimism or hope - and it's not a time to welcome unexpected guests. The Doctor, Amy and Rory find a society breaking apart under the strain. Tensions are mounting, old rivalries are coming to the fore, people are dying...

 

And then the Doctor's old enemies the Ice Warriors make their move. With the cold-hearted threat of invasion, the real battle for survival begins. Or does it? The Doctor begins to suspect that behind everything lies a deadlier, and even more chilling danger...

 

Notes:

This is the fourteenth book in the series of original adventures featuring the Eleventh Doctor.

Released: September 2011

 

ISBN: 978 1 84990 243 4

 

 

Synopsis

Vesta rises before the Guide's Bell and dresses for the cold. She puts on layers of warm clothes for the winters have been growing more severe. She had never seen snow until three years ago but now it lies thickly every winter and gets worse every year. She thinks about the story of things lurking in the woods but dismisses the idea as she attaches a lamp to her pole. She knows that by going to put flowers on her father's grave she will miss an hour of work but she also knows that the others in the village will be confident that she will make the time up later. She leaves Beside and follows the North Lane out to Would Be. The trees are silent but she has a feeling that something is following her. She presses on across the snowy landscape until she reaches the Memory Yard in the middle of the wood. She lays her flowers at her father's grave just as the Guide Bell rings out in the village below. She asks the Guide to look after her dad and then sets out for home. She sees a star move across the sky. There has been much talk recently of moving stars, so she hurries on down the path to see if she can catch another sight of it. The villagers of Beside think the stars and the winters are bad omens but Vesta isn't superstitious. She stops short when she sees the tracks in the snow, deep footprints with an enormous stride. A giant has passed by through the woods very recently. Suddenly scared, she finds the idea of her father's grave reassuring and turns back the way she came. Something growls in the trees.

 

Amy compliments the Doctor on a perfect landing, albeit that the TARDIS seems to be leaning slightly. He has promised Amy and Rory a trip home for Christmas but as they emerge into a silent and snowy rural scene it is apparent that they are not in Leadworth. The Doctor says that, wherever they are, it is definitely Christmas. He strides off with the other two struggling through the snow behind. There are three mountains nearby, although the Doctor says that he doesn't think they are mountains really. He doesn't elucidate further but carries on down the slope. Rory ask the other two to wait while he runs back to the TARDIS for a coat. As soon as he has gone, the Doctor and Amy are confronted by six men, grim faced and carrying pitchforks.

 

Rory returns to the same spot to find his friends have gone. He notices that another set of tracks have joined theirs and everybody seems to have gone off together. With a sinking feeling, he decides to follow. Soon, he is horrified to see four or five green giants walking towards him. Knowing that he must avoid them, he runs.

 

The arrival of strangers in Beside is treated with some trepidation. The Elect, Bill Groan, hopes that they are well-wishers from one of the other plantnations but neither the Doctor nor Amy is dressed like Morphans. His adviser, Winnower Cropper, the last of her generation, remarks that they have not received well-wishers at festival time since the ice started coming. Bel Flurrish wants to speak with them regarding the disappearance of her sister that morning but Bill says he wants to question them first. The Doctor and Amy are led to the Assembly Hall. The Doctor is intrigued by the building and its construction, apparently of something called 'shipskin'. Bill Groan introduces himself as the Nurse Elect. The Doctor gives his name and Amy's but cannot explain where they come from satisfactorily. He shows his psychic paper to Jack Duggat who reads that they have come as festival well-wishers from Seeside Plantnation. Far from smoothing things over, it makes everything worse: Jack Duggat cannot read.

 

The Doctor and Amy are locked in a cell beneath the hall. Bel demands that Bill Groan question them about her missing sister but he says there must be a council meeting first. Bel comes down to them, holding the psychic paper. She demands to know why it contains a picture of her sister. The Doctor says that one of its drawbacks is that it shows people what they want to see. He and Amy ask how they can help her. She tells them that her sister left in the night and has not been seen since. The Doctor seems more interested in the sudden onset of harsh winters but he does tell her that if they are released from the cell they will help her look for Vesta. She replies that she doesn't have the key but he opens the lock with his sonic screwdriver anyway.

 

They sneak out of the building and back to Bel's house. He is again intrigued by the wooden walls and shipskin nails. He finds that the Morphans have lived on Hereafter for twenty seven generations. It seems, he says, as though the terraforming programme is failing somehow. Bel tells him that other things are going wrong, too: livestock going missing, people in the woods who cannot be accounted for, stars that move across the sky. She suddenly remembers that this is the anniversary of her father's death and knows where Vesta must have gone.

 

Rory runs down the snowy slope into the trees. He suddenly finds a group of men around him. They are carrying axes and pitchforks. He tries to tell them about the green giants but all they care about is the whereabouts of Vesta Flurrish. They are about to drag him back to the council when one of the green men steps into the clearing. One of the men strikes it with his axe but the blow has little effect. The giant throws the man back against a tree with a bone crunching impact. The other men leap in to attack the creature and it uses a weapon on its forearm, some sort of sonic gun. One man is killed instantly and the others turn to run. As Rory flees he sees another man near him shot down.

 

Out on the North lane the Doctor pauses. He seems to have heard something. Bel says that it is the dogs barking in the village below but he says that he has heard something familiar but forgotten. Before he can think further they are accosted by Samewell Crook.

 

Rory hides behind a tree. As far as he can tell, all of the other men have been killed. The green monster draws near him and looks around. Somehow it seems to see him. He wonders if it is a reptile and then concludes it has acute sight or heat vision. He runs but it doesn't fire at him. As he hears its remorseless footsteps behind he wonders if it wants him alive.

 

Samewell tells Bel that freeing the prisoners is a Cat A crime. She disregards him; finding her sister is paramount. It is obvious to Amy that the young man is besotted with Bel. The four of them arrive at Would Be (or Wood B as the Doctor assumes it was called originally. He finds that the three plantnations on Hereafter are Aside, Beside and Seeside. He says that this is an earth colony, late Diaspora, and speculates that the Earth has already gone.) the Doctor is worried that the winters mean that the world is becoming less Earth-like in a way that he has seen before.

 

Rory races down a slope and sees a river of ice in front of him. He jumps onto it, hoping it will take his weight but not that of his pursuer. Half way across the ice gives way and he plunges into the water. To his surprise, it is warm. He is carried along beneath the ice and realises that he will be suffocated all too soon. To his surprise, the ice ends and he floats into a large mill pond. The current carries him to some buildings where he scrambles onto a jetty and looks for a door into one of the buildings. He hears a sound on the jetty and puzzles how his pursuer could have got there so fast. He finds a hatch and crawls through, locking it behind him. No sooner has he done this than something scrapes at the handle on the outside. He hears the green giant's weapon being fired, then a thump, then silence. After a long pause and no further sounds he crawls deeper into the darkness. Just as he realises that there is somebody in the dark with him he is knocked unconscious by a blunt object.

 

Thick snow is falling by the time they reach the graveyard. The fresh flowers on her father's grave tell Bel that Vesta was here. Vesta's are the only tracks but they are disappearing under the snow fall. The Doctor follows them until he gets to the giant footprints that cross Vesta's. The Doctor follows the new trail and finds a clearing where the snow is heavily and widely stained with blood. The Doctor says that whoever shed the blood is obviously dead but Samewell discovers sheep's vertebrae and says it is another of their animals that has been killed. He blames a hungry dog but the Doctor is more suspicious: a dog could not have consumed a whole sheep in so short a time. The snow is now so heavy that they decide to find shelter. Samewell leads them in the direction of a vent he knows is nearby. The Doctor assumes this is some sort of protection against the wind.

 

Rory wakes up to find he has been attacked by a girl holding a wooden mallet. She says she came into the building to hide from a creature with red eyes. Rory assumes that this was the same, or similar , creature that he was pursued by. They introduce themselves and Rory finds that she is Vesta Flurrish. He tells her that he met some men who were looking for her.

 

The snow eases as night falls and clouds begin to break up. Bel shows them a patch of stars. One of the stars is moving east to west. The Doctor tells Amy it looks like a spaceship in orbit. Amy asks if the planet is being invaded but he says that the invasion began months earlier - the people are only just beginning to notice it. Six figures close in on them from all sides. They are green and massive. The Doctor says that his hunch was right and identifies the creatures as Ice Warriors.

 

The Ice warriors fire a warning shot and tell the four people to surrender. Instead, the Doctor sets his screwdriver to block the sonic guns and the four of them run off through the snow. Samewell leads them to a conical structure the size of a hut. It is made of metal but, once inside, the Doctor does not hold out much hope of it keeping out the Ice Warriors. He says that they are honourable creatures but dangerous enemies. As the Warriors begin to bash at the door of the hut, the Doctor looks for and finds a trap door. He says that they are at the top of a ventilation shaft. They drop down and slide down a big, shiny tube for what seems to be miles. Amy, the last to go, gets separated from the others. When she arrives at an intersection and stops, she has to make a choice which way to go. She sets off walking through another tube and is confronted by a pack of rats. They are large, naked and have too many legs, but they are still rats to her. And they look very hungry.

 

Vesta and Rory swap stories of how both of them separately ran away from red-eyed monsters and ended up hiding in what Vesta calls the 'autumn mills'. She says the water that Rory fell into was warm because it runs out of Firmer Number Two. She guesses that Rory is a shepherd but when he says that he is a nurse she is embarrassed, assuming that he means a Nurse Elect (or village leader). When she assumes that he came from another plantnation for the Winter Festival he does not disabuse her. She insists that they go to Beside at once.

 

Amy runs from the ravenous horde of rats. Just as they seem likely to overcome and eat her, she is deafened buy a piercing noise that kills some of the rats and drives the others away. She sees the Doctor approach, brandishing his sonic screwdriver.

 

Sol Farrow is on night-time sentry duty at Beside's west gate. He reflects on the fact that there are now sentries posted all around the village, not least because of the disappearance of so many people that day but also because of the lost livestock and the rumours of giants in the woods. In the assembly hall a meeting of the villagers has been called to discuss the disappearance of eight men, the Flurrish sisters and the two strangers. Winnower tells Bill Groan that he must face the people but he is at a loss for what to say. She suggests that they consult the Guide for advice. Before they can go in, Sol arrives with Vesta and Rory.

 

The Doctor tells Amy that the rats were purpose built by the terraformer when they arrived. The three mountains that the travellers saw when they arrived are atmospheric processors full of extraordinary machinery. He thinks the rats would have been brought or (more likely) the technology for their making would have been brought from Earth. When the machinery detected intruders within the pipes, or a loss of efficiency, it would have made and released the rats to clear out the glitches. He thinks that it might have been escaped rats that have eaten the livestock. He thinks that the lack of efficiency is actually the Ice Warriors tampering with the systems for their own benefits.

 

Vesta introduces Rory to Bill Groan and the assembly as her new friend. She tells them that the Doctor and Amy are Rory's friends and that he is a well-wisher from a plantnation they have never heard of called Leadworth. Rory tries to cut across this side-tracking to talk about the creatures with the red eyes. He says that one of these creatures killed men from the village. Pandemonium breaks out in the assembly as villagers try to learn of their loved ones. When Vesta tells the crowd to respect a Nurse from another village Bill and Winnower lead Rory to another room: the antechamber of Guide's room, the Incrypt. They want Rory to prove himself by opening the door to the Incrypt. To do so he presses his hand against a palm reader and the door opens. Having proved himself, Rory is led back to the assembly hall with Vesta. The room has been cleared now. Bill and the council members enter the Incrypt while Vesta and Rory stay in the assembly to eat soup.

 

The Doctor leads his friends through the massive chambers and tunnels of the terraformer. He says he needs to find out what the Ice Warriors have been doing and to stop it. On their journey they find a room full of decaying organic matter. Something has cut through the doors to enter a mile-long laboratory full of incubation tanks. The tanks have been sabotaged and the meat that was being grown has gone off. They leave the room but very soon spot a group of Ice Warriors approaching. There are three of them and they have replaced their sonic blasters with huge broadswords. More Ice Warriors emerge from other tunnels. The Doctor races down a long corridor to a door but finds he can't pass through because the palm reader does not recognise him as human. Bel opens the door for him and Amy and Samewell pass through. The Doctor stops to address the Ice Warriors. He tells them that he is the 'Belot'ssar' and he greets their warlord. This stops the pursuers briefly and allows him to pass through the door and Amy shuts it. They keep on running and arrive at a work station.

 

The Doctor sits at some controls and brings the equipment back to life. With a flourish, he presses a button and suddenly the world around them changes. Rory, meanwhile, is in the assembly hall with Sol. He comments that the council are taking a long time over their discussions. Sol says that is to be expected when the Guide Emanual is being consulted over something unexpected. Just then, the room changes to resemble a modern white chamber. Rory finds himself facing the Doctor and Amy, as well as two Morphans he has never seen before. The Doctor tells him that he isn't really there: it is a virtual projection. Vesta and Sol are terrified of the apparition. Rory says that the village is scared by the appearance of monsters with red eyes. The Doctor says that they are called Ice Warriors and they are a threat to all human life on the planet. Their conversation is repeatedly interrupted by the sounds of the Ice warriors trying to get through the doors nearby. The Doctor presses on, saying he needs to recalibrate the Terra Morphers back to their original settings. He says he needs a copy of the Guide. Rory adds that the council are consulting an E-Manual as they speak.

 

Ice Warriors burst into the chamber. Amy is dragged away by Bel and Samewell but the Doctor is grabbed by one of the Warriors as he tries to disable the terminal. He is pinned into his seat by an axe-wielding Ice Warrior who tells him that death is inevitable but there must be talk first. An Ice Lord enters the chamber and demands to know what weapons the Doctor has. When the Doctor tells him he has no weapons, the Ice Lord does not believe him, saying that new weapons have been deployed against the Ice Warriors that day. The Doctor admits that he used his sonic screwdriver to overcome the effects of the sonic disruptors and shows him the screwdriver, now drained of power. The Ice Lord mentions other occasions when his men's weapons were rendered useless but the Doctor has no idea what he is talking about, though he realises that this is why the Ice Warriors have reverted to swords and axes.

 

The Ice Lord says that they found the planet ten years earlier and found it ideal for settling. After observing the colonists, they decided to change the climate. However, recently they have seen new arrivals and sent troops to identify them. The Ice Lord says that recent events have turned the matter into open war. The Doctor thinks that the Ice Warriors have misread the situation. During their interrogation it becomes apparent that the Doctor has had previous meetings with the Ice warriors and knows of their bloodlines and clans. The Ice Lord wonders why the Doctor refers to himself as 'Belot'ssar', meaning 'cold blue star'. The Doctor says that it is name given by the Ice warriors to the TARDIS and is a term showing his friendship with the Ixon Mons family, given to him by Ice Lord Azylax as a mark of respect. Unfortunately, this Ice Lord, Ixyldir, has never heard of any of this, including Azylax. The Doctor realises, with horror, that he has arrived a lot earlier in the Ice Warriors' timeline than he thought by about 9,000 years.

 

Amy tells Bel and Samewell that the Doctor allowed himself to be caught so that the others could escape. This means he must have had a plan. She knows that this must involve sabotage and getting the Guide. Samewell points out that the most pressing thing to do is evade the Ice warriors that are closing in on them.

 

The assembly hall reverted to itself just before the Ice warriors arrived. Rory is in a panic, wondering what has happened to Amy. The council emerge from the Incrypt, asking what has happened. Rory tells him that the planet is under attack and that the Doctor needs the Guide to save them all. Winnower refuses but before a decision can be made, a man bursts in and tells them to come outside. They step out to see three stars moving across the sky and a fourth descending towards them at speed. Rory tells them that it is a space ship. At the same moment, the sounds of battle are heard nearby. The villagers have no idea who can be fighting. Energy weapons are fired from the space ship at targets in the woods. Rory tells Vesta that this must be the Ice warriors. She wonders why they don't use their teeth and talons instead, at which point it becomes clear to them that they have been talking about two completely different sets of red-eyed monsters all along.

 

The Doctor tries to persuade the Ice Lord that his people have a strict code of honour and that, by stealing a planet, they are contravening their beliefs. He argues that the colonists have no way of defending themselves but Ixyldir contradicts him, saying that one hundred and fifty new colonists have appeared, each capable of resisting the Ice Warriors.

 

Amy and her friends have to leap from one walkway to another to escape the Ice Warriors. They then find themselves face to face with a new creature. Back in the village of Beside, two Ice Warriors are seen fighting a lithe, loping humanoid creature.

 

The Doctor persuades Ixyldir that they need to find another control room with better access to the systems in order to get the situation under control. The Ice warriors say that there is such a place on level six. As they make their way there, the Ice Lord explains how his people need a home and began to tamper with the Terra Formers. This initially brought a response in the form of vermin but the resistance has escalated. The Doctor says that he suspects the defence mechanisms created a new weapon: Transhumans. This is what the Ice Warriors are fighting now.

 

The new creature is part human, part quadruped and a lot of machinery. It has steel teeth and claws. It bypasses the humans and fights with two advancing Ice Warriors, killing one. The other Ice Warrior, mortally wounded, holds onto the Transhumant and leaps off the walkway, taking both to their deaths.

 

In Beside, the new Transhumant approaches Winnower and tells her that it has come to protect the Guide System. It follows them to the assembly hall. Winnower says that she didn't mean for this to happen: she only asked for help from the Guide. Before Rory can ask her what she is talking about, a hologram of the Doctor reappears. He tells Rory that the Transhumans don't care about the Morphans; their job is to protect the future of the planet for the real colonists who are in hiber5nation in the Firmer (one of the three mountains). They are the elite from Earth who are using the Morphans as their labour force until the planet is ready for them. He says it is the Transhumans that have been killing and eating the livestock. The Transhumant agrees, adding that once all the livestock is eaten, the colonists will be next on the menu. The Doctor looks up from his console and sees four Transhumans approaching, bringing Amy, Bel and Samewell as their prisoners.

 

The leading Transhumant tells the Doctor to cease his interference but adds that this won't save anyone's lives. However, the Ice Warriors have laid a trap and spring from hiding places. A vicious fight ensues. The Doctor shouts at Rory to act now. Rory runs into the Incrypt and orders it to send data to the Doctor's location. As the battle carries on around him the Doctor hammers in new commands and presses 'activate'. Meanwhile, Rory and Jack Duggat are fighting off their own Transhuman. Suddenly, it retracts its claws and turns to depart. Those fighting the Ice Warriors do the same. The Doctor says he has sent them back to hibernation.

 

The Doctor tells Ixyldir that there is a planet, Atrox 881, that he knows will be a significant part of the Ixon Mons dynasty in 9,000 years. It is circling a cold, blue star.

 

Bill Groan asks if the travellers would like to stay. The Doctor thanks them but says he must be on his way. He warns them that it will be a few years before the hard winters cease but he doesn't expect the Morphans to encounter too many problems. He says that he has reset the Guide controls so that the Morphans can all access the data base easily. He adds that he has reset the hibernation equipment so that the sleeping colonists will not be released until - or if - the Morphans decide.

 

As they walk to the TARDIS, the Doctor tells Rory that his Christmas present is to be allowed to drive the TARDIS. The blue box dematerialises as the silent stars pass overhead for the final time.

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

The Doctor comments on the fact that his companion, Victoria, came up with the name Ice Warrior (The Ice Warriors, 1967) but it has been used almost universally ever since, including by the Ice Warriors themselves (The Monster of Peladon, 1974).

 

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The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Marcus Wilson

 

Script Editor

Caroline Henry

 

Written by Steven Moffat

Directed by Toby Haynes

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Alex Kingston (River Song), Mark Sheppard (Canton Delaware), William Morgan Sheppard (Old Canton Delaware) [1], Stuart Milligan (President Richard Nixon), Chuk Iwuji (Carl), Mark Griffin (Phil), Marnix Van Den Broeke (The Silent), Sydney Wade (Little Girl), Nancy Baldwin (Joy) [1], Adam Napier (Captain Simmons) [1], Henrietta Clemett (Matilda) [1], Paul Critoph (Charles) [1], Kieron O'Connor (Prison Guard) [1], Emilio Aquino (Busboy), Kerry Shale (Dr Renfrew) [2], Glenn Wrage (Gardner) [2], Jeff Mash (Grant) [2], Tommy Campbell (Sergeant) [2], Peter Banks (Doctor Shepherd) [2], Frances Barber (Eye Patch Lady) [2], Ricky Fearon (Tramp) [2].

 

The Doctor is engaged on quest that takes him from the visually stunning Utah desert to the White House where he's enlisted by President Nixon himself to assist enigmatic former-FBI agent Canton. His mission - save a terrified little girl from a mysterious spaceman.

Original Broadcast (UK)

The Impossible Astronaut     April 23th, 2011           6h00pm - 6h45pm

Day of the Moon           April 30th, 2011           6h00pm - 6h45pm

 

Notes:

The Impossible Astronaut opens with a caption remembering Elisabeth Sladen (1948-2011).

 

 

 

 

Charles II and some palace guards enter the King's daughter's room. He demands to know where the Doctor is. She is painting a nude portrait of the Doctor but feigns ignorance until a sneeze from beneath her skirts reveals the Doctor's whereabouts. Back in 2011, Amy reads aloud from a history book about "a mysterious doctor" who was put in the Tower of London on the order of the king and who escaped two days later, flying off in a magical sphere. She also recounts a break out from a prisoner of war camp in the Second World War that failed when the escape tunnel led to the commandant's office.

 

Amy wonders if the Doctor is just trying to get their attention. Rory, watching a Laurel and Hardy film, glances at the history book and misses the Doctor appear in the film and wave at the camera. An envelope is delivered, TARDIS-blue envelope, labelled with the number 3. Inside is a card with a map reference, date, and time. River Song receives an identical letter, but marked number 2, in her cell at the Stormcage Containment Facility. A guard warns his superior that she is packing her bags for a trip to a planet called America.

 

Rory and Amy arrive on a bus, getting out in the desert in Utah. The Doctor, wearing a Stetson, greets them excitedly. His hat is shot from his head by River. The quartet goes to a cafe where the Doctor and River compare diaries. The Doctor informs them that they are going to space in 1969.

 

The Impossible Astronaut

(drn:43'36")

Later, they have a picnic by a lake. The Doctor drops in the fact that he is over eleven hundred years old, some two hundred years older than when Amy and Rory last saw him. Amy sees a strange silhouette watching from the distance but when she looks away she forgets all about it. An old man arrives in a pickup truck and waves to them. Before he comes down to them an astronaut rises out of the lake. The Doctor tells the others not to interfere and walks down the beach to the astronaut. He tells the astronaut that it is alright, he knows who it is. The astronaut shoots the Doctor twice and he begins to regenerate, but a third shot kills him outright. The astronaut returns to the lake. River announces that the Doctor is dead. She shots at the departing astronaut but then says, to herself, "Of course not". The old man arrives as Amy hugs the dead Doctor. He has a can of gasoline. He says that he was invited by the Doctor who told him to bring the gasoline. He has an invitation marked number 4. He says that he is Canton Everett Delaware III. River explains that a Time Lord's body is a miracle; empires would value just one cell. Rory suggests using a moored boat for a Viking funeral and burns the Doctor's body. Delaware says he won't be seeing them again, but they will see him

 

River, Amy, and Rory go back to the cafe. Rory and River try to work out what the Doctor wanted them for though Amy is simply distraught that he is dead. Another invitation on a table, labelled number 1, leads them to speculate who the Doctor trusted the most. The Doctor comes into the restaurant, greeting them with delight. River slaps him but the Doctor appears not to know why. River asks how old he is and he tells them that he is nine hundred and nine. They realize the Doctor they saw die was a future version. River tells him that they have been hired by someone who trusts him to investigate space, 1969, and Canton Everett Delaware III.

 

In the TARDIS River tells Amy and Rory they cannot tell the Doctor of his death: his knowledge of it could rip a hole in the universe. The Doctor refuses to act on what they have told him of the mission because he knows they are hiding something. He asks River who she really is and who she killed. Amy convinces him to go with them by swearing on fish fingers and custard. The Doctor sets the TARDIS to "invisible" and "silent" (or, rather, River does so by readjusting the controls behind his back). He steps out of the TARDIS and finds himself in the Oval Office. President Richard Nixon is meeting with a young Canton Delaware. Nixon wants Canton to conduct an independent investigation. The young man has recently been thrown out of the FBI. He tells Canton about a child who phones him every night regardless of where he is. The child pleads for his help because the "space man" is coming to eat her. Nixon plays Canton a recording of a phone call, where the child appears to call herself Jefferson Adams Hamilton.

 

Nixon turns around to see the Doctor in the middle of the office. He calls security and agents enter the office, pointing pistols at the Doctor. He tells River to make the TARDIS blue again. His companions step out and are also held at gunpoint. When the claims to be an agent on loan from Scotland Yard, Canton, says that he trusts a man who can bring a big blue box into the Oval Office more than the man who let him do it. He tells him he has five minutes to solve the mystery. The Doctor asks for street maps of Florida.

 

Amy glances at the doorway of the office and sees a suited alien. She remembers seeing a similar alien at the lake but when she looks away she forgets it again. She says that she feels sick and is escorted to the women's toilet. The alien is waiting for her. A woman in the bathroom sees the alien, forgets it when she turns away, sees it again and disintegrated by it. Amy takes a picture of it with her camera phone. The alien tells Amy that she will tell the Doctor "what he must know, and what he must never know". Amy forgets the incident on leaving the room.

 

In the Oval Office, the Doctor finds what he has been looking for and enters the TARDIS with his companions and Canton. They materialize in a warehouse in Florida a few miles away from Cape Kennedy. Looking out of the window they see that Jefferson, Adams, and Hamilton are the names of three streets which intersect outside the warehouse. They explore the warehouse, the Doctor admitting that they have walked into a trap; River comments that the warehouse phone cords have been cut so the child couldn't have called Nixon from there.

 

They discover a large console, cables coated in slime and boxes of Apollo space equipment. River guesses Amy's plan to kill the astronaut to prevent it from killing the Doctor at the lake. She says that this would lead to a paradox.

 

River finds a hole in the floor down into a network of tunnels below the warehouse. She goes down and finds more aliens crouched in the shadows but forgets them as soon as she climbs back. She says that she wants to take another look. The Doctor sends Rory down with her. Rory finds a maintenance hatch. As she unpicks the lock, River tells him that when she and the Doctor first met, she was a young girl and the Doctor knew everything about her. River says that because the Doctor and she are travelling in opposite directions through time she will eventually meet a version of him that doesn't know her and that it will kill her. She opens the hatch. Inside is a console like the TARDIS.

 

Canton explains to Amy that he was kicked out of the FBI because he wanted to get married. They hear the little girl calling for help and run after her. Amy stumbles in pain while Canton runs ahead. The Doctor and Amy catch up with him further up the corridor. He is unconscious. Amy tells the Doctor that she is has something important that she needs to tell him: she is pregnant. The astronaut approaches down the corridor. Amy grabs Canton's gun. the astronaut lifts its visor: it is the little girl. Amy tells the Doctor that she is saving his life and shoots at the astronaut.

 

 

Day of the Moon

(drn:45'57")

Three months have passed since the warehouse in Florida. Amy is running through the Valley of Gods in Utah. Her arms are full of tally marks in ink. Two vehicles chase her to a cliff where she halts. Several men step out, among them Canton Delaware. She asks if he remembers the warehouse but he responds by shooting her down.

 

In Area 51 the Doctor is tied to a chair inside a huge hangar. Armed guards watch him from a distance. Canton enters and throws down a photograph of Amy's arm. He asks the Doctor what the marks mean.

 

River Song is at the top of an unfinished skyscraper in New York City. Her body also shoes the tally marks. An alien confronts her and then she is cornered by FBI men. Canton tells her to surrender but she chooses to fall back out of the skyscraper and plunges towards the ground.

 

Rory, similarly covered in markings is cornered and shot at the Glen Canyon Dam. His body and Amy's are brought to the Doctor at Area 51. The FBI has spent three months building "a perfect prison" around the Doctor, made of dwarf star alloy. Canton seals himself inside with the Doctor, commenting that it is totally impervious to sound or radio waves. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory free themselves from their respective bindings. The invisible TARDIS is also in their prison and they step aboard. They travel to the side of the skyscraper as River falls and she plunges through the open door into the TARDIS swimming pool.

 

The three renegades reveal that the markings are a tally of how many aliens they have encountered in the past three months. The Doctor says that this is not an alien invasion, but an occupation.amy draws the Doctor aside and tells him that she is not pregnant after all. The Doctor takes them Cape Kennedy, where Apollo 11 is almost ready for launch. He tells them that the secret weapon to defeat the aliens is Neil Armstrong's foot.

 

The Doctor injects a device into his companions' hands that will record their encounters with aliens. It will flash to remind them of what they have seen. Canton leans over to adjust the Doctor's bowtie and then realises that his palm is flashing. There is a message in his voice telling him that he has just seen (and forgotten) an alien by the TARDIS doors. The Doctor says that it is a hologram derived from the image on Amy's phone camera. While Canton was looking at it the Doctor gave him the instruction to adjust his tie. As Canton forgot both the alien and the message, but acted on it anyway, the Doctor suggests that the aliens have been controlling humans with subliminal suggestion for thousands of years.

 

The Doctor tells Canton and Amy to start their search for the little girl by visiting children's homes, looking for anyone who has gone missing. Their trip eventually leads them to Graystark Hall, a children's home a few miles away from Cape Kennedy. The building is empty except for a rather disturbed warden. He thinks that the year is1967 and he is preparing to shut the home. There are messages painted across the walls telling him to leave but he says that the children (who left two years earlier) are painting them. He has similar messages on his wrist.

 

Amy goes upstairs and enters a room that appears to be empty. It is only when she notices that she has dozens of tally marks on her arms and face that she looks up to see a swarm of aliens hibernating on the ceiling. She exits, forgetting what she has seen instantly. As she moves down a corridor a hatch opens in one of the doors. A woman with an eye patch looks out and says that someone is only dreaming. Amy looks at the door again but the hatch has gone. She enters the room. It is a child's bedroom. There are toys and photographs of the little girl. One picture is of Amy with a baby. The little girl enters, wearing the astronaut suit, and asks for help. There is a bullet hole in the suit's helmet visor. Amy apologises for trying to shoot her. Two of the aliens follow the girl in and Amy screams.

 

Canton hears Amy's scream from the warden's office. An alien comes in and declares itself to be one of the owners of the planet. Shooting it three times, Canton welcomes it to America.

 

The Doctor is caught in the nose cone of Apollo 11 rearranging some of the electronics. He says he put it back exactly as he found it (apart from one wire). He is taken to a lecture theatre to be questioned by security but is rescued when River and Rory bring President Nixon to vouch for him. As they leave, Canton calls, requesting help.

 

They hurry to the orphanage. They enter the child's room. They can hear her but trace her voice to the nanorecorder, which has been taken from her palm. The Doctor says that it is broadcasting live. They also find the astronaut suit. The little girl is actually around the corner, listening to them speak. The warden arrives to say that someone has been shot. The Doctor goes to the office where the wounded alien is lying. The Doctor demands to know what it is and the creature says that it is the Silence and "silence will fall".

 

Canton takes the wounded alien to the Doctor's prison at Area 51. It is treated by a military doctor who promptly forgets all about it, repeatedly. The alien says that the Silence have ruled the world since the Stone Age. It adds that it was a mistake for Canton to have it treated; the humans should kill them all on sight. Canton records this speech on Amy's video phone.

 

River and the Doctor examine the space suit. They find it loaded with a dozen different kinds of alien technology to make it a perfect life support machine. They comment that the girl must be very strong if she could force her way out of it. River asks if the suit could move by itself, as this would explain the little girl's original phone call saying that a space man was coming to eat her. Rory listens to Amy's nanorecorder and hears her saying that her life was so boring before he "dropped out of the sky," and that she wants to see his "stupid face".

 

Amy recovers consciousness, tied to a machine in the console room and surrounded by the Silence. They tell her she has been there for several days.

 

On the day of the moon landing, the Doctor manages to trace the signal from Amy's nanorecorder. The TARDIS lands in the console room. The Doctor comments that it is like the one he saw in Aickman Road. He brings a television out of the TARDIS and tells the Silence that he is not a violent man but River would ki8ll at least three of them instantly if they attack. She ups the number to seven. He asks the Silence why the little girl is so important to them but they do not reply. The television shows a live broadcast of the moon landing. He uses the equipment he placed in the command module to insert a film clip of the video Canton took of the Silence saying that humans should kill them all on sight. He tells them that this will be one of the most watched pieces of film in human history and tells the Silence that it is time for them to leave. Around the world, people watching this broadcast begin to kill the Silence without thinking. The Silence begin to charge up their bodies to attack but River shoots them down in a dazzling display of marksmanship. Rory tries to free Amy, but she tells him to get his "stupid face" into the TARDIS. The Doctor frees her and everyone escapes into the TARDIS.

 

Canton is dropped back in the Oval Office. Nixon asks the Doctor how he will be remembered in the future and the Doctor says he will never be forgotten. He tells that Nixon should give his permission for Canton to get married and return to the FBI. Nixon asks if Canton's partner is black. Canton replies that he is.

 

The Doctor takes River back to the Stormcage Facility and offers her a chance to travel with him in the TARDIS but she says she has to serve her sentence in full. She kisses him passionately and is surprised to find that, for the Doctor, this is the first time. As he boards the TARDIS she reflects that, for her, it is the last.

 

The Doctor and Amy talk about her pregnancy. She says that she didn't tell Rory because she was afraid that her time in the TARDIS might give the baby a "time head'. Rory is listening to them speak on the nanorecorder. Amy is aware of this and tells him that she is not pregnant. The Doctor, however, scans Amy for pregnancy. The console display alternates between pregnant and not pregnant.

 

Six months later, the little girl staggers through a dark alley. She tells a concerned tramp that she is dying but says she can fix it. She begins to regenerate.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

River Song shoots the Doctor's hat again, as in The Big Bang.

Amy refers to fish fingers and custard (see The Eleventh Hour).

The Doctor demands Jammie Dodgers (se Victory of the Daleks) and a fez (see The Big Bang)

The Doctor asks River who she murdered (see Flesh and Stone).

A TARDIS-like console is discovered (see The Lodger).

The Doctor's, "Human beings. I thought I'd never get done saving you," recalls "You're like rabbits! I'll never get done saving you" from Time of Angels.

The Doctor remembers various references to silence: made by Prisoner Zero (The Eleventh Hour), in Venice (The Vampires of Venice), and in The Pandorica Opens.

The Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones watched the Apollo 11 moon landing four times (see Blink).

The Silence's console is very similar to the Aickman Road time ship, and the Doctor says it is "very Aickman Road." (see The Lodger).

 

 

The Curse of the Black Spot

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Marcus Wilson

 

Script Editor

Caroline Henry

 

Written by Stephen Thompson

Directed by Jeremy Webb

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Hugh Bonneville (Henry Avery), Oscar Lloyd (Toby Avery), Lee Ross (The Boatswain), Michael Begley (Mulligan), Tony Lucken (De Florres), Chris Jarman (Dancer), Carl McCrystal (McGrath), Lily Cole (The Siren).

 

The TARDIS is marooned onboard a 17th-century pirate ship and the Doctor is soon being forced to walk the plank at gunpoint. But things are about to get much, much worse...

Beset by terror and cabin fever, the pirates have numerous superstitious explanations for the appearance of a mysterious Siren. The Doctor has other ideas but as every plan of escape is thwarted, he must win the trust of the implacable Captain Avery and uncover the truth behind the pirates' supernatural fears - and he must work quickly because some of his friends have already fallen under the Siren's spell...

 

Original Broadcast (UK)

The Curse of the Black Spot May 7th, 2011               6h15pm - 7h00pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

The pirate ship, Fancy, is becalmed at sea. A crewman with a minor cut is brought to Captain Henry Avery who pronounces him a dead man after a black spot appears on the man's palm. The man goes out onto deck and the captain locks the door behind him. A woman's voice is heard, singing. When the crew exit the cabin the crewman has gone. Avery says that this disappearance is the same as the rest of the crew and that he and his remaining four crew members are "shark bait". There is banging in a door to the hold; when it is opened the crew see the Doctor, Amy, and Rory.

 

The Curse of the Black Spot

(drn:44'43")

In Avery's cabin, the Doctor tries to explain that the TARDIS sensors picked up a distress call. However, they are held at gunpoint by Avery and told that there is only one barrel of water to sustain all of them until the wind picks up so the Doctor and Rory must walk the plank. Amy is sent to the galley where she finds a trunk full of swords. As the Doctor is about to jump off the plank Amy appears, brandishing a sword. She terrifies the crew who try to fend her off with sticks and rope. One of the crew is accidentally cut as he struggles with her. He declares himself a dead man. No sooner has he been cut than a black spot appears on his hand. A second fight leads to Amy dropping the sword, cutting Rory. A Black spot appears on his palm.

 

The woman's voice is heard singing again. Rory and the pirate are both overcome and act as if drunk. A beautiful woman, lit by an eerie green light, flies up from the waves onto the deck. She reaches her hand out to the pirate who takes it willingly: he vapourises immediately. The crew and the time travellers run below deck where they find themselves knee deep in water. Avery tells the Doctor that the woman is a demon, the Siren, who lusts after blood. Any injury will attract her.; Avery refers to the woman as a Siren, and she has been taking every injured crew member, whether the wound is large or small.

 

One of the crew is bitten by a leech. Everyone climbs out of the water a black spot appears on the man's hand. The Doctor says that there is three inches of timber between them and the siren but she appears anyway. After she takes the crewman the Doctor guesses that she is using water as a portal. To keep themselves safe they go to the powder room, the driest place on the ship. They find the door unlocked and inside is Toby, Avery's young son who has stowed away to meet the "honorable Navy captain" his mother told him about before she died. Toby is very ill, and soon a black spot appears on the palm of his hand. The Doctor realises that the Siren is not after blood: she comes for the sick as well as the bleeding. The Doctor tells Avery that their only escape is in the TARDIS. As the two men prepare to leave, the captain gives his son a mermaid medallion.

 

The Doctor leads Avery into the TARDIS, where the pirate captain soon shows he is at home with the concept of the Doctor's ship and finds it comparable to his own. The two surviving crewmen, the boatswain and Mulligan plan to leave the ship along with Avery's treasure. Toby learns from them that his father is a pirate. In response, the boy cuts the boatswain's hand with a sword, meaning that the man cannot leave the armoury. Mulligan leaves without him. As this happens, the Doctor discovers that the TARDIS cannot recognise its location; the plane on which it is standing is unfamiliar to it. It suddenly grinds into life. Despite the Doctor's efforts, it begins to dematerialize. The Doctor tells Avery that he has no idea where the TARDIS might take them and they abandon ship.

 

They encounter Mulligan on the deck. He is carrying Avery's treasure. He opens fire on them with two pistols and then locks himself in a cabin and lights a match, accidentally burning his hand; he is taken by the Siren. When the Doctor and Avery go into the room they see that there is no water present and the Doctor revises his theory. He has deduced that the Siren can use any reflective surface as a portal. They remember that Toby has Avery's medallion so they rush to the armoury. The Doctor breathes on the medallion to mist up the surface to stop the siren coming. He and Avery then go to the captain's cabin where the Doctor smashes the mirrors and windows and throws all of the captain's treasure overboard. He tells Avery to find the jewelled crown that Mulligan was stealing and dispose of it.

 

Avery, Toby, Rory and Amy are sleeping. Amy awakes to see a woman with an eye patch staring at her through a hatch in the side of the ship. The hatch disappears after the woman closes it. Amy goes to Avery's cabin and finds the Doctor. She is about to mention the woman when he tells her he feels as though he is being watched. A sudden storm makes everyone go on deck and, as they struggle with the sails, Avery tells his son to fetch his coat. As the boy does so, the jewelled crown falls out and rolls across the deck. The Siren appears and takes Toby.

 

Rory is knocked into the sea by a sudden movement of a spar. Amy says that she is going in to rescue him but the Doctor says that the only hope is to release the Siren. He takes a lid from the water barrel and the Siren emerges and plunges into the sea after Rory. The Doctor says that he thinks the Siren is intelligent and can be reasoned with: perhaps the others are still alive. He pricks his own hand and those of Amy and Avery. The black spots appear on their palms and the Siren returns for them.

 

They wake up in a spaceship. The Doctor explains that it is in the same space as the pirate ship. His feeling that they were all being watched is borne out by the fact that the windows on the spaceship face onto the Fancy. Amy says that the distress signal was coming from the spaceship. They make their way through the craft and discover the bodies of the crew who, the Doctor thinks, died of an Earth virus or bacteria.

 

They enter the sick bay and see Avery's crew, Rory, Toby, and the TARDIS. The humans are attached to life support machines. Amy tries to detach Rory causing the Siren to appear and sing him to sleep. The Doctor realises that her voice is an anaesthetic and that she is a virtual doctor who has been caring for the injured humans since her own crew died. As she cannot cure them she leaves them in stasis and tends to them. The Siren won't let Amy help Rory until she recognises that he is her husband. Then the Siren holds out her hand, with a glowing ring around her wrist. The Doctor says that this is a consent form and Amy must put her hand through the ring. Once this is done they have to face the fact that Rory is on the point of death. He tells Amy to perform CPR on him, which she does, in order to save his life.

 

The Doctor tells Avery that Toby has typhoid fever, and if he were to leave the ship he would die in months. Avery says he will stay on the ship to look after his son. He tells the Doctor to point him at the "atom accelerator" and he will fly the ship away so that the Siren does not try to treat all of humanity. The pirates take up their positions in the ship and head out to the stars.

 

Back in the TARDIS, Amy and Rory say good night to the Doctor. He calls her "Amelia," which Amy says is a sure sign that he is worried about her. The Doctor replies that he is always worried about her. She has a flashback to his death on the beach in Utah and says that it is mutual. The Doctor secretly scans Amy for pregnancy again. The result is still both positive and negative.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

The Eyepatch Lady from Day of the Moon reappears.

Captain Avery was mentioned in The Smugglers.

 

 

 

 

The Doctor's Wife

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Sanne Wohlenberg

 

Written by Nail Gaiman

Directed by Richard Clark

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Suranne Jones (Idris), Michael Sheen (Voice of House), Paul Kasey (Nephew), Adrian Schiller (Uncle), Elizabeth Berrington (Auntie).

 

The Doctor receives a distress signal from an old friend. Could there really be another living Time Lord out there? Hopes raised, he follows the signal to a junkyard planet sitting upon a mysterious asteroid in a Bubble universe, populated by a very strange family, as the time-travelling drama continues.

The Doctor, Amy and Rory are given the warmest of welcomes by Auntie, Uncle and Nephew. But the beautiful and insane Idris greets them in a more unusual fashion - what is she trying to tell the Doctor? As the Doctor investigates, he unwittingly puts his friends in the gravest danger.

 

Original Broadcast (UK)

The Doctor's Wife        May 14th, 2011            6h30pm - 7h15pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

Idris, a young woman, says that she is afraid of what is about to happen. Auntie, who is leading her to her fate, tells her that she is right to be afraid, as it will hurt. She adds that Idris's actions are going to serve a greater purpose. An Ood, Nephew, drains her mind and soul in preparation for the arrival of a Time Lord.

 

Meanwhile, the TARDIS is travelling through when there is a knock at the door. The Doctor opens the door to see a small white cube approaching. It flies into the TARDIS and the Doctor catches it, saying that he has got mail. He tells Amy and Rory that it is a hypercube, a Time Lord method of communicating. This one is from the Doctor's friend, the Corsair, and has come from outside the universe. They follow the signal back to its source. As they do, the Doctor deletes TARDIS rooms to provide energy and bursts into a bubble universe, landing on an asteroid. As they travel, the Doctor tells his companions what a wild man, or woman occasionally, the Corsair could be.

 

When the TARDIS lands it is drained of power. The Doctor says that the matrix, essentially the soul of the TARDIS, has gone.

 

The Doctor's Wife

(drn:45'46")

They step out into a junkyard. The Doctor says that the yard is full of Rift energy and the TARDIS will refuel itself if left to its own devices.

 

Idris runs over to them, shouting "thief" at the Doctor. She kisses him and then bites him. She is followed by Auntie, Uncle, and Nephew. They try to make excuses for Idris, intimating that she is mad. The Doctor is pleased to see an Ood and notices that it is mute because its communication sphere is broken. When the Doctor fixes the sphere it plays several distress messages from various Time Lords. The Doctor is optimistic that there are other Time Lords alive nearby. Idris collapses and Nephew carries her into a cage. Auntie and Uncle invite the Doctor to speak to the House.

 

The House is the name they give to the sentient part of the asteroid. House provides for Auntie, Uncle, Nephew, and Idris while they serve him in return. The Doctor tells House that he is the last of the Time Lords and his TARDIS is the last in existence. The Doctor sends his Amy and Rory back to the TARDIS to get his sonic screwdriver, which he actually has with him. He uses it to lock the doors of the TARDIS when Amy and Rory are inside. He traces the Time Lord voices to a cupboard where he finds dozens of hypercubes, transmitting distress signals from Time Lords long dead. The hypercube from the Corsair was sent to lure the Doctor to the asteroid. The Doctor has already noted that House has been "repairing" Auntie and Uncle with body parts from the Time Lords who have landed here. Auntie has one of the Corsair's arms, for example. The Doctor tells them to run.

 

In the TARDIS, Amy and Rory realise that they are locked in and the TARDIS is surrounded by a cloud of green gas.

 

The Doctor finds Idris. She has predicted that the Doctor will be upset about the hypercubes ("the little boxes") and he asks how she could know this. She tells him that she is the TARDIS, implanted in Idris's body. To convince him of the truth of this she tells him that she left her door unlocked so that he would steal her because she wanted to see the universe. Far from him stealing her (or borrowing as he would have it) she "borrowed" him. He uses his sonic screwdriver to release her from the cage. She tells him that House eats TARDISes. Because that would blow a hole in the universe, the House has to remove the matrix and place it in a body that will die because of the incompatible energy. Idris thus has minutes to live.

 

The Doctor rushes off to the TARDIS, trying to free Amy and Rory before the TARDIS is eaten. The TARDIS doors remain locked and Amy and Rory cannot escape. House takes control of the TARDIS, dematerialising it heading off towards the bigger universe in search of food. House reveals his plans to Amy and Rory and asks them why he shouldn't kill them immediately. Rory suggests that House needs entertainment and they can provide that for it. House orders them to run and they do so.

 

Auntie and Uncle drop dead once House has gone. Idris says that she only has eighteen minutes to live and the asteroid will be over in three hours. The Doctor looks around at all the junk and realises that it is all made up of half-eaten TARDISes, their chameleon circuits intact and operative. They decide to reconstruct a TARDIS console from these remnants.

 

Amy and Rory find themselves victims of House's games. It slams corridor bulkhead doors to separate them, putting Rory into a faster time stream than Amy so that he ages and dies in minutes, then revealing all of this as an illusion in Amy's mind. Rory and Amy eventually come back together.

 

The Doctor and Idris converse while building the new TARDIS. The Doctor says that she never takes him where he wanted to go but she says that she took him where he needed to go. They complete the console and Idris fuels it with her TARDIS energy. They chase the TARDIS through the vortex. The Doctor tells Idris to send Amy a telepathic message to lower the shields so that they can get on board. Idris asks if Amy is "the pretty one" and sends Rory the message instead. She directs them to a previous console room which House does not know exists.

 

The couple flees from Nephew, who House has sent after them. They get to the doors, which are locked, and Idris sends Rory another telepathic message to give him the password. Amy mentally visualizes the code to allow them entry and they lower the shields. Nephew follows them inside but is vapourised when the Doctor and Idris arrive in the new console. The Doctor tells Amy and Rory that Idris is the embodiment of the TARDIS. Amy asks if he has been wishing very hard. The Doctor sees that Idris is dying and has to act fast. He makes a pact with House, saying that if the entity promises to keep them alive he will tell it how to break across into the Universe. House agrees and the Doctor tells it to delete 30% of the TARDIS rooms for extra fuel. The House promptly starts with the old console room, intending to kill them all.

 

They all reappear in the main control room. The Doctor reveals the emergency failsafe of the TARDIS is to transfer all living things in deleted rooms to the main control room. House decides to kill them all there and then and the Doctor and Amy give it a round of applause. This is to buy some time while Idris dies and the matrix leaves her body in golden vapour. House's plan was to trap the matrix in a body where it could die safely away from the control room but now the matrix has been released into the console room. The matrix quickly overpowers House and assumes control of the ship, presumably removing the evil entity in the process.

 

The matrix projects an image of Idris to have a final conversation with the Doctor, saying how glad she is after seven hundred years to have talked with him. She also says the one thing she never got to say to him, "Hello." The Doctor doesn't want her to go but she does, saying "I love you."

 

The Doctor is underneath the console putting a firewall around the matrix. Rory tells the Doctor that Idris whispered, "The only water in the forest is the river," before she died. She said they would need to know this one day. The Doctor tells Amy and Rory that he is configuring a new bedroom for them. They ask not to have bunk beds this time. After they have gone the Doctor speaks to the console and tells her to take them somewhere restful, perhaps the Eye of Orion. One of the levers moves by itself and the Doctor dances around in delight.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

In response to House's claim to have killed a hundred Time lords the Doctor says that he killed all of them (see The End of Time).

The Cloister Bell rings when House takes over the TARDIS (see Logopolis, The Waters of Mars).

The Doctor sent a message by hypercube in The War Games.

The TARDIS used psychic messaging in Inside the Spaceship.

Deleting parts of the TARDIS for energy is used in Logopolis and Castrovalva.

The Doctor's theft (or borrowing) of the TARDIS is addressed again. See also The Big Bang, The War Games and The Five Doctors.

The Doctor says that the asteroid is filled with rift energy which will refuel the TARDIS, as in Boom Town.

Idris says, "The only water in the forest is the river". The meaning of this is made apparent in A Good Man Goes to War.

The Doctor has rebuilt the TARDIS before: The Claws of Axos, The Horns of Nimon.

 

 

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The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Marcus Wilson

 

Script Editor

Caroline Henry

 

Written by Matthew Graham

Directed by Julian Simpson

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Mark Bonnar (Jimmy), Marshall Lancaster (Buzzer), Sarah Smart (Jennifer), Raquel Cassidy (Cleaves), Leon Vickers (Dicken), Frances Barber (Eye Patch Lady), Edmond Moulton (Adam) [2].

 

A solar tsunami sends the TARDIS hurtling towards a futuristic factory where doppelgangers - known as 'Gangers' - are used to complete jobs deemed too hazardous for humans. When a second wave hits, the Gangers separate and war seems inevitable. Only the Doctor can prevent an escalation of hostilities... but all is not as it seems...

Original Broadcast (UK)

The Rebel Flesh            May 21st, 2011             6h45pm - 7h30pm

The Almost People      May 28th, 2011            6h45pm - 7h30pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

Three workers (Jennifer, Buzzer, and Jimmy) a small chamber containing a circular vat filled with acid. All three are wearing heavy duty acid suits and visors. Jennifer takes an acid reading and is worried by the low result. Buzzer, standing on the rim of the vat, teases her and she accidentally pushes him into the vat. His body, and the suit, are dissolved by the acid. The other two leave to write up a report about the accident though they seem more concerned about the loss of the suit. Buzzer enters the corridor and confronts them, albeit with some jocularity, about accidents in the workplace. His body, it seems, is still melting in the vat of acid.

 

The Rebel Flesh

(drn:43'15")

Amy and Rory are playing darts in the TARDIS while the Doctor surreptitiously scans Amy for pregnancy (again getting both positive and negative readings. ) he offers to drop them off for fish and chips while he goes off to deal with something else, but Amy says she would rather stay with the Doctor. The TARDIS is hit by a solar tsunami and plunges down toward Earth. It lands on an island in the 22nd century outside a medieval monastery. Amy assumes they are in the 13th century but Rory points out the Dusty Springfield song playing inside and suggests that the date is somewhat later. As they approach the monastery they see a pipe sending acid to the mainland. They pass into the building and set an alarm off. The Doctor says that they are about to be greeted by 'almost' people.

 

They run into a chamber where there are four bodies in harnesses (and an empty harness). Five people follow them in, four of whom are duplicates of those in the harnesses. The Doctor uses his psychic paper to show that he is from the Meteorological Department, sent on account of the solar storms. He says that an even larger storm is on the way. The foreman, Miranda Cleaves, is phlegmatic about this but the Doctor demands to be shown the "critical system."

 

Cleaves takes them to a vat containing the Flesh. She explains that it is biological material which can replicate living organisms. Apart from Jennifer, the workers in the room are all Flesh doppelgangers (or "gangers,") who are currently being controlled by their apparently sleeping originals from the harnesses. Cleaves tells them that the site was losing workers every week so the army started to use gangers. The Doctor scans the Flesh with the sonic screwdriver and reaches out to touch it. He says that it seems to be scanning him and is far more alive than they realise. Jennifer goes to her harness and everyone watches as a ganger Jennifer is created. The Doctor reminds the workers of the impending solar flare and some are worried but Cleaves says that they should keep producing acid until the mainland tells them to stop: difficult as the last flare knocked out all of the communications systems.

 

The Doctor tells Amy and Rory that the factory runs on solar power. He says that when the solar flare arrives there will be a dangerous power surge. He heads up to the roof to disconnect the weathervane that collects the power. Before he goes he tells Amy to "breathe", much to her puzzlement. He climbs a ladder and begins pulling wires from their sockets. He is still doing this when a massive solar wave hits and he is thrown from the ladder and knocked unconscious. The acid pipes burst and leak everywhere, forming puddles within the monastery and even causing the TARDIS to sink below ground. The gangers scream and start to revert back to Flesh.

 

The Doctor wakes up and sees that the weathervane has gone leaving only a burning base. He finds Cleaves who is no longer in her harness and showing concern for abandoning her team. The Doctor asks Cleaves how long they were unconscious for. She says a few minutes but he thinks that it has been at least an hour. Amy and Rory wake up too and return to the harness chamber. The rest of the team are badly shaken after the power surge, Jennifer is in shock and Rory comforts her. The Doctor and Cleaves arrive and Cleaves says that their gangers should have returned to Flesh forms. This is contradicted when they hear the Dusty Springfield song again: someone is playing the record in the recreation area. The gangers seem to have become autonomous. The Doctor hints that the gangers will have memories and personalities now.

 

The group go to the recreation room; one of the gangers has made a tower of cards and Buzzer says that this is something his grandfather taught him. The Doctor points out that the gangers have a heedful of memories now. Jennifer says she feels ill and goes to the washroom. She is followed by Rory who tells her that people should not go off alone. Jennifer vomits up Flesh into the sink. She realises that she is a ganger and goes into one of the toilet cubicles. As Rory sees the Flesh in the sink, Jennifer's arm punches out at him from the cubicle. Her head extends through the hole in the door on an enormously long neck. She shouts, "Let us live!" Rory flees.

 

The Doctor asks Jimmy if he is a violent man. Jimmy says he isn't and the Doctor explains that it is likely this is true for his ganger also. The Doctor passes Cleaves a plate of food. She takes it but when he warns her that it is hot she drops it. She worries that she didn't feel the heat earlier but the Doctor explains that her nerve endings aren't stable yet. Cleaves turns to her Flesh form but the Doctor tries to console her, saying that Flesh is in its early stages and the problems can be solved. She shouts at him and runs out. The Doctor says that Jennifer is a ganger, too and he and Amy to go off to find Rory, accompanied by Jimmy. The Doctor repeats that the gangers are unlikely to be violent, more likely to be scared and angry. He says that he needs to talk to them to rectify matters. They walk through the monastery corridors but their route is blocked by acid puddles. The Doctor decides to fetch the TARDIS and Amy goes to search for Rory. Jimmy makes his way back to the dining hall and orders Buzzer and Dicken to fetch acid suits.

 

Rory has seen Jennifer's ganger looking for him. At first he hides from her but then they meet in the locker room where she declares that she is Jennifer Lucas, not a "factory part". She says that she has memories and becomes full human, saying she is just as real as the original Jennifer. Rory embraces her as she breaks down in tears.

 

The Doctor returns to the vat of Flesh and scans it with his sonic screwdriver. After he leaves a mouth forms in the liquid and says, "Trust me," as the Doctor had said to Cleaves's ganger. The Doctor finds his TARDIS almost completely sunk below ground. At the same time, acid burns through his shoes. He pulls them off and goes back to the monastery in his socks. The gangers, minus Jennifer, meet up in the acid room. They have the acid suits and Cleaves says that they have the advantage now.

 

Amy pushes open a door and sees the eyepatch woman again, looking at her through a hole in the wall. She turns to see Rory and Jennifer's ganger who are followed in by Buzzer and Dicken. Amy tells them that this is her ganger. Rory says that no one will touch her. They go back to the dining room where Jimmy, Buzzer, and Dicken ask Jennifer's ganger about what she has done to the original Jennifer. Amy thinks that they should wait until the Doctor arrives.

 

The Doctor has, in fact, gone to the acid room and talked to the gangers. He tells them to meet their originals and work with them. They go to the dining room. On the way they pass Cleaves, who watches them pass with mistrust. The Doctor first asks if anyone can lend him a pair of shoes and then tries to explain that the gangers are real living people. Jimmy and his ganger share memories of his/ their son's birth. They both decide to go and find Jennifer and Cleaves together. Before they can, however, Cleaves enters the room with an electric circuit probe, capable of delivering 40,000 volts (enough to kill human or ganger). She electrocutes Buzzer's ganger when he tries to take the probe away from her. The Doctor angrily explains that Buzzer's ganger had a human heart. Jennifer decides that humans can't be trusted so Cleaves turns on her with the probe. Rory takes the probe from her and the gangers run off. The Doctor berates Cleaves but she says that it is "us or them." This is repeated by Buzzer and Jimmy. Elsewhere, the ganger Jennifer is saying to the other gangers that it is "us or them."

 

The Doctor asks which room is the monastery's most defendable. Cleaves tells him it is the chapel, which contains the Flesh vat. Rory goes off in search of Jennifer. The other gangers, apart from Jennifer who is hunting her "spare", march to the chapel. The Doctor and the humans lock and barricade the door. Jimmy says that it is insane; they are fighting themselves. The Doctor says that it is about to get "insanerer" as his ganger steps out of the shadows, saying, "Trust me. I'm the Doctor."

 

 

The Almost People

(drn:45'06")

The ganger Doctor struggles to cope with its transformation, speaking as the First, Third, Fourth and Tenth Doctors while the Doctor tries to calm him down. He asks the ganger a few questions to see whether it is really him. As they do this, smoke begins to creep in at the door as the gangers try to force entry with acid. The two Doctors realise that they can tell what the other is thinking and come up with a plan to escape through an air-duct. Again, the Doctor tells Amy to "breathe." They escape down the vent as the gangers arrive in the room. They find the corridors full of choking gas - caused by the acid reacting with stone - and make their way up to the evac tower. They plan to call the mainland for help and then trace Rory and Jennifer. The ganger Cleaves knows where they have gone because she, too, is thinking like her original. Both Jimmy and his ganger pause at the chime of midnight to wish their son, Adam, a happy fifth birthday. The ganger Jen arrives, saying that she has managed to overcome the memory suppressing protocols and can remember her previous deaths. She says that the eyes are the last thing to melt. She demands that they start a revolution but Cleaves says that she wants a quiet life and to be left alone. The ganger Cleaves is suffering from bad headaches.

 

In the evac tower, Amy watches the two Doctors working as one, finishing each other's sentences, but says that she can tell one is the Doctor and the other is only 'almost' the Doctor. The Doctors get power into the machines and start to scan for Rory. Cleaves calls the mainland and asks for an emergency pick up from the roof of the tower. She also warns that the gangers are running amok and need to be decommissioned. Gangers Cleaves, Dicken, and Jimmy go to the control room and listen to Cleaves's transmission. Cleaves types a password and explains that this must be used in all future transmissions to the mainland. Ganger Cleaves praises her other self, saying how clever she is. Ganger Jennifer tries to access the thermal control but the palm-reader does not recognise her, displaying a message that calls her 'non-human'.

 

When the woman with the eye patch appears again Amy finally tells the Doctor. He tells her it is a "time mirage." The Doctor ganger leaves the room saying that "it' is in his head. Amy follows to apologise for being so unfriendly and hinting that she has seen his death. He violently shoves her up against the wall and asks "Why?"because this is what the gangers say when they must die. Inside the room, the other Doctor also says "Why?" Shaken, Amy returns to the room while the two Doctors say that they seem to be in contact with the Flesh and say that it wants revenge. The humans demand that the ganger Doctor sits apart from them on a barrel in the middle of the room.

 

Rory finds both Jennifers in the same room. They both argue that they are the real Jennifer, despite Rory saying that he agrees with the Doctor that both must be saved. The two girls fight and one falls into a puddle of acid and dissolves: she is a ganger. Rory and Jennifer make it to the thermostatic control room and Jennifer asks for Rory's help in clearing the deadly gas caused by the acid. Jennifer uses Rory to shut off the thermostatic regulators. In the tower, the computer notes a rise in temperature because Rory and Jennifer have shut off the cooling vents. This will boil the acid and destroy the monastery in less than an hour.

 

Buzzer sees Rory and Jen on a CCTV monitor and sets off to get them to the tower. The Doctor throws his screwdriver to his other self and sends him along, too. He asks Amy to trust him on this one. The Doctor's ganger and Buzzer find a dying body. The Doctor says that his screwdriver can tell the difference between human and ganger and this is the real Jennifer. She dies as they reach her. Buzzer knocks the Doctor unconscious and says that it is on the boss's orders. On his way back, he finds Ganger Jen comforting a pile of discarded Flesh. She kills him.

 

The rescue shuttle arrives overhead and demands a safer landing site. The communication is cut before Cleaves can respond. Ganger Cleaves guesses the code word is 'Bad Boy' and calls the shuttle and orders it to the courtyard. Both versions of Cleaves are suffering simultaneous headaches. The Doctor says that she has a blood clot in her brain which is inoperable on Earth. She realises that he is not a weatherman after all. They leave the tower to go to the thermostat room in order to reset the cooling vents.

 

The other gangers find the second Doctor as he recovers consciousness and recruit him to their group.

 

The Doctor's party meets Rory. He tells them that Jennifer has found a secret tunnel not on the schematics through which they can escape, maybe back to the TARDIS. To get there they have to pass through the acid room. It is there that Rory and Jennifer's ganger lock the door. Rory is surprised at this, he just wants to tell the Doctor that the humans discard living ganger Flesh and that the world should know. Jennifer pulls him away back to the other gangers where he finds that she created a second ganger copy and killed the human Jennifer. A telephone rings and the Doctor takes a holographic phone call from Jimmy's son which he had set up earlier. The ganger Jimmy rushes off to release the human Jimmy but arrives just after the acid in the vat has boiled over, killing the human version. Jimmy's dying wish is that his ganger should replace him. Cleaves's ganger, too, is having a change of heart.

 

The Doctor and the survivors follow Jimmy's ganger back to the dining room. Jimmy finishes the phone call with Adam. The Doctor tells the boy that his daddy is coming home today

 

The Doctor tells everyone to run as the monastery begins to collapse. Jennifer, now a Flesh monster chases them. The Doctor gets them to a chamber and Dicken sacrifices himself closing the door against the monster. The Doctor and Cleaves's ganger barricade another door and the TARDIS drops in through the ceiling. Cleaves, Jimmy's and Dickens's gangers and Rory enter the TARDIS . Amy stops for the Doctor but he says that he is staying behind to keep the door shut. The shock for Amy comes when the two Doctors tell her that they swapped shoes, her only way of telling them apart, and the one she thought was the ganger was the real Doctor all along. She hugs the ganger and tells him he is twice the man she thought. He tells her to "push" and then says that he and the original Doctor had to find out the truth about Flesh, his purpose for going to the factory all along. The Doctor gives his sonic screwdriver to the ganger and then enters the TARDIS with Amy. As he goes he tells Cleaves's and the Doctor's gangers that they might still survive. The Doctor ganger uses the screwdriver to dissolve the monster outside, dissolving himself and Cleaves at the same time.

 

In the TARDIS the Doctor says that the energy of the time craft will permanently stabilise Jimmy and Dicken, making them into people. He also gives Cleaves a medicine that will cure the blood clot in her brain. He drops Jimmy off at a beach to be with his son and takes Cleaves and Dicken to an Army press conference where he tells them to spread the word about the gangers.

 

Back in the TARDIS, Amy is wracked with pain. The Doctor tells her she is in labour. The Doctor tells Rory to step away from her while he explains that their trip was so that he could get to see the Flesh in its early stages in order to learn how to stop the signal to Amy. He says that he and Rory will find her, wherever she is, then uses his sonic to dissolve her into a puddle of Flesh.

 

Amy wakes up in a white room. A panel opens in the wall to show the Eye Patch woman who tells her to push. Amy screams and the baby is on its way.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

The Eye Patch Lady is seen again, as in Day of the Moon and The Curse of the Black Spot.

The TARDIS scanner continues to show Amy's pregnancy result as both positive and negative (see Day of the Moon and The Curse of the Black Spot.

Doubles of the Doctor have been seen previously in The Massacre of St.Bartholomew's Eve, The Enemy of the World, Meglos, Arc of Infinity, Journey's End, The Eleventh Hour, and The Big Bang.

The Ganger Doctor says, "One day, we will get back. Yes, one day," as the First Doctor said in 100,000 BC. He adds, "Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow," as used by the Third Doctor in The Sea Devils and The Five Doctors. He then says, "Would you like a jelly baby?" in the voice of the Fourth Doctor and, "Hello, I'm the Doctor," in the Tenth Doctor's voice (see The Christmas Invasion).

 

 

//--> 

 

A Good Man Goes to War

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Marcus Wilson

 

Script Editor

Lindsey Alford

 

Written by Steven Moffat

Directed by Peter Hoar

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Alex Kingston (River Song), Frances Barber (Madame Kovarian), Charlie Baker (Fat One), Dan Johnston (Thin One), Christina Chong (Lorna Bucket), Joshua Hayes (Lucas), Damian Kell (Dominicus), Neve McIntosh (Madame Vastra), Catrin Stewart (Jenny), Richard Trinder (Captain Harcourt), Annabel Cleare (Eleanor), Henry Wood (Arthur), Dan Starkey (Commander Strax), Simon Fisher-Becker (Dorium Maldovar), Danny Sapani (Colonel Manton), Hugh Bonneville (Henry Avery), Oscar Lloyd (Toby Avery), Nicholas Briggs (Voice of the Cybermen).

 

Amy Pond has been kidnapped and the Doctor is raising an army to rescue her as the drama continues. But as he and Rory race across galaxies, calling in long-held debts and solemnly given promises, his enemies are laying a carefully concealed trap.

In her cell in Stormcage, River Song sadly acknowledges that the time has come at last - today will mark the Battle of Demons Run and the Doctor's darkest hour. Both sides will make their sacrifices and River Song must finally reveal her most closely guarded secret to the Doctor.

 

Original Broadcast (UK)

A Good Man Goes to War       June 4th, 2011              6h40pm - 7h30pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

On the Demon's run military base, Amy is looking after her baby daughter, Melody Pond. Madame Kovarian, the Eye Patch Lady has come to take the baby. Amy tells Melody that her father is coming for them.

 

On one of the ships of the Twelfth Cyber Legion, the Cybermen detect an intruder working his way up the levels of the ship. It is the Last Centurion (aka Rory Pond). He tells them that the Cybermen monitor everything in the quadrant and therefore he has a question and the Doctor has a message. The question is, "Where is my wife?" The Cyber leader asks what the Doctor's message is. Behind Rory, in space, the ships of the fleet begin to explode. Rory asks if he needs to repeat the question.

 

A Good Man Goes to War

(drn:48'03")

On Demon's Run, two Clerics (the Fat Man and the Thin Man) pass Lorna Bucket, another soldier. They are talking about the Doctor destroying the Cyber Legion and the time he drove the Atraxi from the Earth. They ask Lorna about her encounter with the Doctor. The Fat Man leaves with three Headless monks to complete a conversion tutorial. The Thin Man stays with Lorna, to talk about the Doctor. She says she met him when she was a young girl in the Gamma Forest, and he told her to run. The Fat Man is brought to the Headless Monks' headquarters and is asked to make a donation. The Monks advance on him with an empty box. He realises that they are going to take his head.

 

In Victorian London, a hooded figure returns home. She tells her maid, Jenny, that she has just defeated Jack the Ripper, and eaten him. She is the Silurian woman, Madame Vastra. Jenny shows Vastra to the drawing room, where the TARDIS waits. Vastra says that a very old debt is about to be repaid. She tells Jenny to pack the swords.

 

In the Battle of Zaruthstra in 4037, Commander Harcourt needs a nurse to tend the son of the President. A Sontaran, Commander Strax, enters and tends the wounded boy. As he leaves, Strax says that he was made a nurse as a penance. He hears the TARDIS nearby and says that his penance may be finished.

 

River Song returns to Storm Cage Containment Facility. She has been on a birthday outing with the Doctor. Rory steps out of the shadows, still in his centurion outfit. Rory tells River the Doctor needs her and that she must come with him. River checks her diary and calculates that it is the Battle of Demon's Run. She says that she can't be there until the very end. She tells Rory that this is the day when the Doctor will rise higher than ever before, and then fall so much further. It is also the day when he finally finds out who she is.

 

Dorium Maldovar, entrepreneur and bar owner of the Maldovarium, is packing to leave. Madame Kovarian and Colonel Manton stop by to interrogate him. They say that they have already waited a month and the Doctor has done nothing. Dorium tells them that the Doctor is raising an army of people who owe him a debt. He also knows that the Clerics and the Headless Monks are based on an asteroid called Demons Run and adds that the name comes from an old saying: "Demons run when a good man goes to war." Kovarian and Manton leave, thinking that there is nothing to be learned. As soon as they have gone, the TARDIS materialises. Dorium is horrified to realise that he has been recruited, too. He protests that he is old, fat and blue.

 

At Demon's Run, Colonel Manton makes a speech to the military, both Clerics and Monks. He tells them that the Doctor is just a man and they must not believe the stories they've heard. Amy watches all of this from her room, above. Lorna comes in to give her the prayer leaf she has sewn with Melody's name in the language of her people. Amy initially ignores the offer until she realizes that Lorna has met the Doctor. S takes the leaf but tells Lorna to be on the right side when the Doctor arrives.

 

Lorna arrives at the speech as Manton is telling the Clerics that he has received a dispensation from the Papal mainframe that will allow him to lower the hoods of the monks so that they can see why the monks are invincible. As he lowers the third hood, the monk is revealed as the Doctor. The Monks brandish their swords and the Clerics raise their guns at him. Up in the control room above, Vastra and Jenny overpower two guards and turn off the lights in the hangar. The Doctor puts his hood on and tells Amy to get her coat. The lights come back on and the soldiers look at the Monks to see which the Doctor is. One of the Clerics panics and shoots a Monk. The Monks retaliate and a battle seems about to begin.

 

Colonel Manton orders the Clerics not to fire as he removes his weapon pack and drops his gun. The other Clerics do the same. Lorna sees a Monk using a sonic screwdriver to unlock a door and follows him. An army of Silurians and Judoon materialise on the walkways and hangar floor. The Clerics realise they are beaten. Commander Strax appears and holds a gun to Manton, telling him that Demon's Run is taken. Manton says that he will call in the fleet but the Doctor has a squadron of Spitfires attack the communications array.

 

Kovarian escapes towards her ship, accompanied by two Clerics carrying Melody in a cot. Kovarian sends the Clerics back to the hangar, telling them that it is important the Doctor thinks he is winning until the trap closes. Lorna overhears all of this from the shadows. She runs away but Rory appears and confronts Kovarian. She asks him how he plans to take her ship with twenty of her crew aboard but the doors open and Henry Avery and his son, Toby, appear: the ship is theirs.

 

Kovarian and Manton are taken to the Doctor in the control room. The Doctor tells Manton to order his men to run away; he wants Manton to be made infamous for those words and known as Captain Runaway for the rest of his life. The Doctor is angry and doesn't want anyone to use his friends to get to him again. Rory brings Melody to Amy in her room. Their tearful reunion is interrupted by the Doctor and meets Melody; the Doctor reveals that he can speak baby. Madame Vastra comes in to say that the Judoon have departed with the Clerics. It is only when she announces that the Doctor has never risen higher that Rory remembers River's words.

 

The victors gather in the hangar. Amy says that Melody is crying because the TARDIS noise bothers her. They discuss whether she needs feeding or changing but the Doctor brings a cot from the TARDIS , saying the baby is tired. Rory and Amy wonder why Amy was kidnapped and why the Clerics and Madame Kovarian wanted possession of Melody. Amy asks the Doctor what he thinks is happening, but he changes the subject and tells her that the cot was his. He goes to the control room where Dorium has gained access to Kovarian's computer files. He finds some scans of Melody's DNA, which show traces of Time Lord DNA. Vastra wonders where and when Melody was conceived. She knows that Time Lords only achieved their status through exposure to the time vortex and the Untempered Schism. the Doctor recalls that the first time Amy and Rory were together on the TARDIS after he rebooted the universe was on their wedding night. He thinks back to Amy's worries that her baby would have a 'time head'. Vastra suggests that Kovarian wants Melody as a weapon. The Doctor wonders why a Time Lord would be a weapon but Vastra reminds him of the things he has done. Dorium reflects that the Clerics' were beaten too easily and that something is wrong. The Doctor reconsiders what he has learned: the little girl from 1969 America with super-human strength, enough to escape from the astronaut suit. Kovarian appears on a screen in the control room. She tells the Doctor that Melody is "hope" in their war against the Doctor.

 

Back in the hangar, Lorna is brought in at gunpoint by Strax. She warns the group that she overheard Kovarian talking of a trap. They say that this is what they would expect a Cleric to say but she tells them she only joined the Clerics to meet the Doctor. She calls him "great warrior." Amy says that the Doctor is not a warrior, so Lorna asks why he is called "the Doctor" in that case. The lights in the hangar go off. Strax checks for life forms in the base other than the group around him and the Silurians: the result is negative. However, Lorna says the Headless Monks aren't alive and won't register. The Monks attack the Silurians and a force field surrounds the TARDIS as the doors in the hangar begin to lock. Dorium identifies the Monks' chant as "the attack prayer". He goes forward to greet them, saying that the Monks know him of old but he is beheaded. His headless body joins the Monks as they close in on the Doctor's friends. Rory leads Amy and Melody away into the shadows behind some crates and then joins the others as the battle begins.

 

The Doctor, up in the control room, tells Kovarian that Melody is not a weapon and he will never let her near Melody again. Kovarian drily replies that fooling him once was "a joy," but fooling him "twice in the same way - it is a privilege". He rushes off to Amy.

 

As the fighting goes on, Melody sees a hatch open, apparently in mid-air, and Kovarian whispering "Wakey wakey." Melody dissolves into Flesh, and Amy screams Rory's name. The Doctor arrives after the battle is ended and Rory says that they know Melody is Flesh. The Headless Monks have lost or withdrawn, Lorna and Strax have been mortally wounded. Strax informs Rory that dying is not the pleasure he thought it would be but he reflects on a long life - after all, he is twelve. The Doctor tries to give some comfort to Amy but she is too distraught to have anything to do with him. Vastra takes him, instead, to Lorna. She says that they met before but she does not think he will remember her. The Doctor lies, saying he remembers everyone and that they ran together. He asks Vastra who she was. The Silurian cannot tell him but remarks that she was very brave.

 

The Doctor, dejected, comments that they were always brave. He turns to leave but River Song appears in the hangar. The Doctor wants to know why she did not come earlier, when he asked her. River says that she could not have prevented any of it happening the way it did but suggests that the Doctor could. She asks if this is how he imagined events would unfold when he first set out on his journeys: a man who could turn an army around at the mention of his name. She points out that the word 'Doctor' means 'healer' or 'wise man' in much of the universe but 'great warrior' in the language of the Gamma Forest. The Doctor demands to know for once and for all who she is. She says that she is telling him now and glances at his cot. He reads the Gallifreyan carving and his face changes to delight. He looks with amusement at Amy and Rory before abruptly entering the TARDIS. He calls back to Amy to say that Melody is safe and then takes off.

 

Amy picks up a pistol and points it at River, demanding to know what she said to the Doctor. River hand the prayer leaf to her that Lorna sewed, which was in the cot. She says it is Melody's name in the language of the people of the Gamma Forest but they don't have a word for "Pond," because "the only water in the forest is the river." The TARDIS translation matrix gradually takes effect and the stitching on the prayer leaf changes from Melody Pond to River Song. River smiles, saying that she is their daughter. Amy and Rory gaze at her in disbelief.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

The Doctor recalls events in America, 1969 (see The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon.)

River's true identity is revealed after hints from Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead and continuing through Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone.

The Doctor refers to "sexy, fish vampires" (The Vampires of Venice), Rory dying (Cold Blood) and becoming plastic (The Pandorica Opens) as well as the rebooting of the universe (The Big Bang).

Cybermen, Sontarans, Silurians and Judoon appear.

Other returning characters are Dorium (The Pandorica Opens), the Spitfire pilot using the call sign "Danny Boy" (Victory of the Daleks), and Henry Avery and Toby (The Curse of the Black Spot).

The Church as a military organisation was seen in The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone.

Melody Pond is made of Flesh (see The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People).

The Doctor's dealings with the Atraxi are recalled (see The Eleventh Hour).

"The only water in the forest is the river," was said to Rory by Idris in The Doctor's Wife.

 

 

//-->Let's Kill Hitler

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Marcus Wilson

 

Script Editor

Caroline Henry

 

Written by Steven Moffat

Directed by Richard Senior

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Alex Kingston (River Song), Damian Kell (Dominicus), Nina Toussaint-White (Mels), Caitlin Blackwood (Young Amelia Pond), Maya Glace-Green (Young Mels), Ezekiel Wigglesworth (Young Rory), Philip Rham (Zimmerman), Richard Dillane (Carter), Amy Cudden (Anita), Davood Ghadami (Jim), Ella Kenion (Harriet), Albert Welling (Adolf Hitler), Mark Killeen (German Officer), Paul Bentley (Professor Candy), Eva Alexander (Nurse), Tor Clark (Female Teacher).

 

The Doctor's frantic search for the infant Melody Pond takes him to 1930s Berlin, where he comes face to face with possibly the most evil enemy he has ever encountered - none other than Adolf Hitler.

With conflict brewing in the background, the Time Lord prepares to teach his enemies a lesson in responsibility.

 

Original Broadcast (UK)

Let's Kill Hitler                August 27, 2011           7h10pm - 8h00pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

Let's Kill Hitler

(drn:53'41")

Rory drive's his Mini erratically through a wheat field with Amy in the passenger seat shouting intricate instructions. They screech to a halt in front of the TARDIS with the Doctor brandishing a newspaper - the Leadworth Chronicle. It shows an aerial photograph on the front page of the crop circles they have just made, spelling out the word "doctor". Rory tells him this is because he never picks up his phone. Rory notices a line through the word that they did not make. Another car drives across the field towards them and the Doctor dives out of its way. It halts suddenly and Amy and Rory's friend Mels gets out. She is delighted to see the TARDIS at last and knows who the Doctor is. As police sirens are heard she produces a gun and tells the Doctor she needs to get away. She suggests they us the TARDIS and the gun to kill Hitler.

 

In a montage of shots, Mels repeatedly gets into trouble: at primary school for insulting a teacher because she has never heard of the Doctor; at secondary school for the same thing; in a police station for stealing a bus. Finally, in Amy's bedroom, she manages to point out to Amy that Rory has not got a girlfriend because he loves Amy and not (as Amy has assumed) because he is gay.

 

The TARDIS spins, out of control, through the sky. Mels has shot the console to test out the "clever lie" that weapons don't work in there because the TARDIS is in a state of temporal grace.

 

In 1938 Berlin, a Nazi officer, Erich Zimmerman, enters his office, watched by a workman wearing overalls. Inside the workman is a crew of tiny people who gather data on the officer's appearance. One of the tiny crew makes her way to the eyeball and looks out because she doesn't trust the sensors (they "made Rasputin green" apparently). On the way she has to update her privileges on a wristband to prevent the anti-bodies (robotic jellyfish in appearance) from killing her. The workman (actually the Teselecta) assumes the shape and size of Zimmerman who is shrunk and beamed aboard where he is left to the antibodies to be exterminated.

 

The Teselecta enters Hitler's office and begins the process of sentencing and punishing him for his war crimes. However, one of them points out that it is 1938 and too early in his time stream; they need to return later.

 

The TARDIS crashes in through the window. Hitler dives under his desk and the Teselecta is knocked out. The Doctor staggers out of the TARDIS, followed by the other three. He tells them not to re-enter because of a cloud of toxic smoke caused by Mels having shot the console. Hitler thanks them for saving his life and asks what the blue box is. The Doctor says it is a police box from London and "The British are coming." The Teselecta stands up and Hitler produces a gun and fires at it several times. Rory punches him and then, on the Doctor's instructions, locks him in a cupboard. The bullets missed the Teselecta but hit Mels in the stomach. The Teselecta scans the TARDIS and says that they have found an even bigger war criminal than Hitler.

 

Mels reveals that she is Melody Pond (apparently Amy named her daughter after her best friend who was her daughter all along) and regenerates into the woman they know as River Song. She runs around excitedly checking out her new body while the crew of the Teselecta confirm that they have got the woman who kills the Doctor in their clutches. River produces a gun and tries to shoot the Doctor but he had previously removed the bullets. She pulls another gun, only to find he has swapped it for a banana. As she produces a knife and another gun (both proving futile) she explains that she was programmed for this assassination when she was a child. Eventually she seems to relent and kisses the Doctor before exiting through the window to go shopping. As she leaves she reveals that this was her actual method of execution. The Doctor collapses, dying, and the Teselecta scan reveals to its crew that he has been poisoned. The Doctor tells Amy and Rory to go after her. They arrive at ground level as a party of six soldiers shoot her but River uses her regenerative energy to knock them down and, laughing, steals their guns and a motorcycle.

 

The Teselecta arrives on a motorbike and Amy and Rory knock it off and steal the bike. Rory says he expects he will be able to ride the bike because it is that sort of day. The Teselecta changes form to incorporate a motorbike and sets off in pursuit. Its crew wonder how the Doctor can die here and now when the records show that his death is known to be at Lake Silencio in 2011.

 

The Doctor falls into the TARDIS and asks for a voice interface. It appears first in the form of a hologram of the Doctor. He asks for someone that he likes instead and it changes to Rose Tyler, Martha Jones and Donna Noble. He rejects each because of the guilt he feels at seeing them. Finally, it becomes young Amelia Pond. The Doctor tries to get it to help him but it replies that he has been poisoned and has 32 minutes to live. It adds that the poison came from the Judas Tree, there is no cure and that regeneration is impossible. He pleads for something to inspire him and it mentions "Fish fingers and custard." He laughs and drags himself over to the console.

 

Melody arrives at a restaurant and threatens the diners with a machine gun. She steals all of their clothes and sends them out. Amy and Rory arrive, followed by the Teselecta, which has now assumed the form of Amy. The Teselecta enters and accuses her of killing the Doctor on the orders of the movement known as The Silence and the Academy of the Question.

 

Amy and Rory find themselves inside the Teselecta. the antibodies threaten them but one of the crew gives them wristbands and tells them that they are aboard Justice Department Vehicle 6018.

 

The TARDIS arrives in the restaurant and the Doctor steps out in top hat and tails. He uses a sonic cane to deduce that the Teselecta is a justice machine with 423 people miniaturised to fit inside. Amy sends him a signal, using the sonic screwdriver, to show that she and Rory are in there, too. The Teselecta explains that it travels to criminals near the ends of their lives in order to "give them hell." By this it means that they are put into a state of perpetual pain. As a demonstration it envelopes River in an energy field and tortures her. The Doctor, now collapsed due to kidney failure, begs them to stop. The Teselecta says that time travel has responsibilities; the Doctor retorts that going back to torture dead people doesn't seem very productive.

 

The Doctor demands to know who arranged his death. Amy tells the Teselecta captain that the Doctor is her best friend and that River is her daughter. She says she has a right to know what is happening. She is given access to the records department and tells the Doctor that the Silence, a religious movement, believe "silence will fall" when the Oldest Question in the Universe is asked. It says that Question is hidden in plain sight but does not know what the Question actually is.

 

The Doctor pleads with Amy to stop the Teselecta torturing River. She uses the sonic screwdriver to destroy the crew's security clearance wristbands, provoking the antibodies into an attack. The captain asks the mother ship to teleport to them away, leaving only Amy and Rory aboard. The Doctor, with only three minutes to live, begs River to save her parents. She is impressed by the fact that he still cares about others in his last moments and demands to know who 'River' is.

 

Amy and Rory embrace as the antibodies close in on them but the TARDIS materialises around them. They look to see the Doctor but find it is River who has flown the TARDIS. She says that the Doctor told her she is the child of the TARDIS and the TARDIS taught her how to fly it. They go back into the restaurant and find the Doctor in his last moment. He tells Amy and Rory that there is no way for him to survive. He asks to speak to Melody and tells her to find River Song. He whispers something in her ear and she replies that she is sure "she already knows". The Doctor's consciousness fades and she asks Amy who River Song is. Amy asks the Teselecta to show them River Song and it changes form to become River. Melody asks her parents if the Doctor is "worth it". They say she is and River kisses the Doctor, passing her regenerative energy into him.

 

This obviously has a debilitating effect for she wakes up in a hospital bed. Amy tells her that she shouldn't have used up all of her remaining regenerations to save the Doctor, whereas he gives her the diary that she will use later to keep track of their meetings.

 

In the TARDIS, the Doctor looks at some information he downloaded from the Teselecta: the day of his death. He keeps this hidden from Amy, saying only that he has left River in the best hospital in the universe in the care of The Sisters of the Infinite Schism and that one day River will find her way back to them. Amy asks how River will do this.

 

River applies for a degree in Archaeology at the Luna University in 5123. When the professor asks her why she wants to do this she replies that she is "looking for a good man."

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

Holographic images of Rose Tyler, Martha Jones and Donna Noble are seen, as well as the young Amelia Pond.

Melody recalls regenerating into Mels in New York (se Day of the Moon).

The Doctor switching Melody's gun for a banana is reminiscent of his actions with Jack Harkness in The Doctor Dances.

River learned how to pilot the TARDIS from the TARDIS herself (see The Time of Angels).

River's receives her diary (Silence in the Library and all subsequent episodes featuring her) from the Doctor himself.

 

 

//-->

 

Night Terrors

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Sanne Wohlenberg

 

Written by Mark Gatiss

Directed by Richard Clark

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Daniel Mays (Alex), Jamie Oram (George), Emma Cunniffe (Claire), Andrew Tiernan (Purcell), Leila Hoffman (Mrs Rossiter), Sophie Cosson (Julie).

 

The Doctor receives a distress call from the scariest place in the Universe: a child's bedroom, as the time-travelling drama continues.

Every night George lies awake, terrorised by every fear you can possibly imagine - fears that live in his bedroom cupboard. His parents are getting desperate - George needs a doctor.

 

Fortunately for George, his desperate pleas for help break through the barriers of all time and space and the Doctor makes a house call. But allaying his fears won't be easy; because George's monsters are real.

 

Original Broadcast (UK)

Night Terrors   September 3rd, 2011               7h00pm - 7h45pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

Shadowy figures and whispered voices outside scare a young boy in a block of flats. His name is George and his parents are worried because he is terrified of everything. Claire, his mother, says goodnight before she goes to work. She tells him to put all of the things that he is scared of in the wardrobe and then goes through the routine of turning the light on and off five times to keep the monsters away. George starts chanting "Please save me from the monsters" over and over. Claire talks to his father, Alex. And they discuss calling in a Doctor. In the TARDIS across the universe, the Eleventh Doctor gets George's message on his psychic paper. He lands the TARDIS outside the block of flats and tells Amy and Rory that he is going to make a house call, something that he rarely does, to the scariest place in the universe: a child's bedroom.

 

Night Terrors

(drn:42'29")

Amy, Rory and the Doctor split up to look for George. The Doctor knocks on one door and talks to an old woman, Mrs Rossiter. Rory talks to the landlord of the flats, Jim Purcell. Amy meets a pair of twin girls and their mother. The results are all the same; the residents slam their doors in the faces of their inquisitors. Amy and Rory walk past George's window just as the little boy peeps out. Rory says, "Maybe we should let the monsters gobble him up." And the boy shuts the curtains and opens them again after they have passed. The Doctor sees George looking out of his window and knocks on the door of the flat. George's father mistakes the Doctor for a health visitor or social worker and invites him in.

 

Amy and Rory get in a lift. The sound of the lift scares George. He whispers, "save me from the monsters." The lift plunges and Amy and Rory scream. The lift reaches the ground floor and the doors open but the lift is empty.

 

Mrs Rossiter takes a sack of rubbish out across the yard to a huge pile of black bin bags. She hears something move inside the pile and thinks it might be George trying to frighten her. Suddenly, she is sucked into the pile.

 

Amy and Rory find that they are in a house, but Rory suggests they have died. They find a lantern to help them see around them and, curiously, a wooden frying pan painted to look like copper. In a drawer is a large glass eyeball.

 

Alex tells the Doctor that George is scared of everything and that he and Claire have started a routine with George where anything that scares him is put in the cupboard. The Doctor goes to meet George, who asks if he has come to take him away. The Doctor, confused, says no. Instead, he suggests that they open George's wardrobe but they are interrupted when the landlord arrives and demands Alex pays the rent. George peers out of his room, scared of the landlord and his dog. The Doctor tries to distract and amuse George by switching on his toys with sonic screwdriver. This works and the Doctor scans George's wardrobe for monsters. The readings are not what he expects; in fact they are "off the scale." When Alex comes back in the Doctor tells him that George's monsters are real.

 

Amy and Rory find a room in the house where the door has handles and the hands on a clock are painted on. They are disturbed by a child's giggle. Elsewhere, Mrs Rossiter shuffles through the corridors, scared and alone. They look for the source of the giggling and open a cupboard door to find a large wooden doll. As they turn away in relief, the doll comes to life.

 

The Doctor overcomes Alex's objections about the reality of monsters by explaining that he has travelled across time and space to answer a distress call. Then the Doctor persuades Alex that they need to open the cupboard before changing his mind and then changing it back. As they do this, Purcell is sucked through the carpet of his flat. The Doctor opens the wardrobe but it is perfectly normal inside. Realising he is missing something he picks up a photo album of Alex and Claire. The photographs, taken eight years earlier and only weeks before George was born, clearly show Claire is not pregnant. Alex remembers that Claire can't have kids. The Doctor asks, "What are you, George?" the wardrobe doors open, revealing a doll's house. The Doctor and Alex are pulled into the wardrobe while George shouts "Please save me from the monsters". The Doctor is pulled into the cupboard with Alex.

 

In the house, Purcell runs up to Amy and Rory, asking for protection. Before they can react a wooden doll grabs him and he, too, becomes made of wood. Amy and Rory flee and hide in a room while the two dolls stand outside demanding to play. The Doctor and Alex arrive in the house. Alex wonders where they are but the Doctor tells him that they are in the doll's house in the wardrobe.

 

Amy is caught and made into a doll, too. Rory runs away from the dolls. The lights flicker in a group of five, which Alex recognises as George's thing. They are pursued by a doll, holding it off with a giant pair of scissors while the Doctor realises that George is a Tenza, an alien "cuckoo" that finds parents and gives them exactly what they want. He says that George has been made frightened, setting in motion all of these events subconsciously: he has to be made aware of what he is doing. As the Doctor and Alex back away from dolls onto some stairs they are joined by Rory doing the same thing in the opposite direction. The Doctor shouts to George to attract him to the wardrobe and the little boy appears in the house. The dolls surround George. The Doctor asks why George would be afraid. Alex explains that they needed help to deal with George's fears. The Doctor explains George thought he was being sent away. Alex runs down the stairs and hugs his son. He promises to never send him away. The dolls freeze.

 

The next morning, Mrs Rossiter wakes up in the bin bags, blaming her tablets. Amy and Rory step out of the lift. Purcell is lying on the carpet in his flat. Claire arrives home finds her son happy and playing with Alex and the Doctor. As the Doctor leaves, he tells Alex that George will grow up normal but he may return around puberty. Amy and Rory and the Doctor return to the TARDIS.

 

The display showing the time and place of the Doctor's death appears on the screen. The song that the wooden dolls sang ("Tick tock goes the clock") plays over the scene.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

 

[Back to Main Page]

 

The Girl Who Waited

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Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Marcus Wilson

 

Script Editor

Caroline Henry

 

Written by Tom MacRae

Directed by Nick Hurran

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Josie Taylor (Check-In Girl), Imelda Staunton (Voice of Interface).

 

Amy is trapped in a quarantine facility for victims of an alien plague - a plague that will kill the Doctor in a day - as the time-travelling drama continues.

The Doctor can use the TARDIS to smash through time and break in, but then Rory is on his own. He must find Amy and bring her back to the TARDIS before the alien doctors can administer their medicine.

 

Rory is about to encounter a very different side to his wife. Can he rescue Amy before she is killed by kindness?

 

Original Broadcast (UK)

The Girl Who Waited September 10th, 2011            7h15pm - 8h00pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

The Doctor lands the TARDIS on the planet Apalapucia, voted number two holiday destination in the universe. He promises them sunsets, spires and silver colonnades but they arrive in a bare white room. Amy goes back into the TARDIS to get her camera phone and the Doctor and Rory push a door button (marked with a green anchor) to enter another white room with a giant magnifying glass. Amy follows them to the door and presses the red waterfall button instead of the green anchor. She goes into a similar but empty room as the others.

 

The Doctor sees Amy in the magnifying glass, though she isn't in the room with them. A white robot enters and asks them if they are staying long at the Two Streams facility. The Doctor realises that Amy has ended up in a second, faster time stream. Her image fades from the glass but returns in seconds. However, for her a week has passed.

 

The Girl Who Waited

(drn:46'01")

The robot tells them that they are in a "kindness facility", dealing with the Chen-7 plague, an illness that only afflicts races with two hearts. This includes the native Apalapucians and, naturally, Time Lords. After delivering its message the white Handbot beams away.

 

Rory goes back out of the room and tries to re-enter by pressing the red waterfall button but Amy isn't there. The Doctor tells him that it isn't as simple as that and says that he needs to take the glass back to the TARDIS to get a lock on her position and smash through time to get her. He tells her to enter the facility and leave a sign so that he can find her. He warns her to stay away from the Handbots; they won't recognise her as alien and their kindness will kill her.

 

In the TARDIS, the Doctor fits Rory with a pair of glasses that act as cameras so that the Doctor can follow his actions. He says that if he enters the facility it will be instant death but it will be less dangerous for Rory. Meanwhile, Amy walks through the facility, finding it largely deserted except for the holograms that offer her entertainment opportunities and the Handbots. These try to inject her with medicines. Amy tells them that the medicine will kill her but they reject this statement and pursue her. She leaps down an access passage and tries to hide out underground. The Handbots soon track her down but when she hides in a cage that seems to be connected to a shaft of some sort the robots walk by. Even though she is in plain sight there is something in the vapour emitted from the cage that shields her.

 

The Doctor has to stay in the TARDIS because of the plague but he takes the ship into the red waterfall time stream and Rory exits. Meanwhile, Amy has passed through a portal into the gardens where she talks to the interface and finds that the Handbots couldn't see her due to the exhaust from the temporal engines. Two Handbots close in on her but she neutralises them by pulling their hands into contact with each other. She then makes her way to the temporal engines, leaving a note on the door of the engine room to tell the Doctor where she is.

 

Rory explores the facility which is deserted. The Doctor tells Rory to use the sonic screwdriver on the time glass (which he has taken with him) and this allows them to see forty thousand time streams and the Red Waterfall full of people. Rory is attacked by a futuristic Samurai warrior who turns out to be Amy. Unfortunately she has been waiting for 36 years and has grown bitter with hatred for the Doctor. She saves Rory from a Handbot by stabbing it through the face with her word. As she leads Rory through the facility she shuts down two other Handbots with her trick of holding their hands together so they feed back. She says that she has made a sonic probe which manages to convert the Handbots' 'black box' devices to transmit their demise as accidental. She takes Rory to her den where he meets her pet, a Handbot called Rory from which she has removed the hands. She speaks to the Doctor through Rory's glasses, telling him that her life has been hell.

 

Amy leads the Doctor into the garden where he can use her to speak to the interface about the temporal engines. Rory wanders off alone and is about to be killed by the kindness of one of the Handbots when it is decapitated by Amy. The Doctor says he has worked out how to fold time to get top the younger Amy's time stream but Amy refuses to participate in this. She says that it will mean her death and the younger Amy will replace her. She demands that they take her with them as she is.

 

Rory blames the Doctor for all of this, telling him to read a history book and find out about outbreaks of the plague. The Doctor retorts that that isn't how he travels. When Rory throws the glasses onto the floor the Doctor detects the younger Amy in the same place, but 36 years earlier. Rory uses the time glass to see her and then to get the older Amy to converse with her younger self. However, the older Amy remembers this conversation from when she was younger and says that the older Amy refused to help and the Doctor and Rory left in the TARDIS. The younger Amy, this time, asks the older Amy to change her mind, to consider Rory in all of this. After discussing why they fell in love with him in the first place, the older Amy decides to help. Her demand is that the Doctor takes her too. The Doctor says this will be extremely difficult but not totally impossible. He says he will have to jettison the karaoke bar to compensate the paradox and suggests that Rory's marriage might suffer by having two Amys aboard.

 

The Doctor instructs Rory how to reroute the time streams via a control panel while the two Amys synchronise their thoughts. They both think of their first kiss with Rory to the tune of 'The Macarena'. Both Amys appear, face to face. This causes the glasses to short out, leaving the Doctor out of touch. The TARDIS starts to go into launch procedures to get away from the paradox. The Doctor realises that they have eight minutes to get to him. Both Amy's fight off a Handbot and then they reach the time portal but they can't get through to the gallery where the TARDIS is waiting. The older Amy realises that it has been locked externally and starts to override the circuits. As she does so a group of Handbots materialises. The older Amy fights them off and tells the young couple to go. The young Amy is anaesthetised by one of the robots and Rory has to carry he unconscious body into the TARDIS. The Doctor stands in the doorway as the older Amy runs towards him. He apologises and slams the door in her face.

 

The Doctor tells Rory that he lied: it would be too much from the TARDIS to contain both Amys in the same time stream. Rory objects and says that they can't leave one behind. The Doctor says that as soon as they leave the older Amy will cease to have existed but he says that Rory can choose which one stays behind. The older Amy and Rory say goodbye through the locked door. She tells him not to open the door or she will come in but she is giving the younger Amy her days with Rory as a gift. She steps away and asks the interface to show her a hologram of Earth. As she looks at her home and remembers how she fell in love with Rory she is anaesthetised buy Handbots.

 

In the TARDIS, Rory asks if the Doctor knew all along that he couldn't save both Amys. The Doctor says that he promised to save Amy and there she is, safe. Amy wakes and asks where her older self is. The two men look on in silence.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

The God Complex

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Marcus Wilson

 

Written by Toby Whithouses

Directed by Nick Hurran

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Sarah Quintrell (Lucy Hayward), Amara Karan (Rita), Dimitri Leonidas (Howie Spragg), Daniel Pirrie (Joe Buchanan), David Walliams (Gibbis), Dafydd Emyr (PE Teacher), Spencer Wilding (The Creature), Rashid Karapiet (Rita's Father), Caitlin Blackwood (Young Amelia Pond), Roger Ennals (Gorilla).

 

The TARDIS lands in what looks like an ordinary hotel, as the time-travelling drama continues. But the walls move, corridors twist and rooms vanish. There is a room for every visitor that contains their deepest, darkest fears. Fears that will kill them. What lies in the Doctor's room? And when his turn comes, will he welcome death like all the rest?

Original Broadcast (UK)

The God Complex       September 17th, 2011            7h10pm - 8h00pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

A young police constable, Lucy Hayward, wanders through the corridors of a 1980s hotel. She is writing in her notebook about something that took all of her former companions. She opens various doors to bedrooms and finds: a clown with a balloon; an old fashioned photographer taking a picture; a gorilla. This last thing makes her scream. There is a close up of an eye opening and Lucy says, "praise him". The monster approaches and kills her.

 

The God Complex

(drn:47'53")

The TARDIS arrives in the hotel. The Doctor, Amy and Rory exit and begin to look around them. The Doctor says that it is clearly alien and is fascinated by the fact that aliens would want to imitate such a thing. Rory finds a collection of photographs on the wall. They depict a mixture of humans and aliens and each has the name of a subject and a caption. The captions are incomprehensible:"Balloons", "Plymouth", "that brutal gorilla". They ring the bell on the reception desk and are immediately confronted by two humans, Rita and Howie. Behind them is Gibbis, a mole-like alien from Tivoli, the most invaded planet in the galaxy (a fact that he seems curiously proud of).

 

Rita is quick to realise that the newcomers are just as surprised as they are and are either no threat or something new to be learned from. The Doctor is impressed by her and jokes that Amy is fired as his companion. Howie tells them that there is no way out and all the exit doors are walls. There are no windows either. Rita adds that the corridors and rooms are constantly shifting and that each room contains 'a bad dream'. The three of them tell how they were snatched from their lives two days earlier and found themselves in the hotel.

 

The Doctor leads them back to where he left the TARDIS but it is gone. He asks if there are any more people there and Rita tells them that Joe is "tied up right now." They take the Doctor to a bar area where Joe is tied to a chair amongst a large number of ventriloquist's dummies. Joe tells him that he used to be scared of dummies but now he finds them amusing. He adds that everyone has their own room. He talks cryptically about being too raw when he arrived but says that he is now "cooked" (the Doctor's word) and that 'He' shall feast. The Doctor attaches Joe's chair to a trolley and the group begin to search for the TARDIS or, failing that, an exit.

 

On their way, Howie opens the door to a room despite the Doctor's attempt to stop him. Inside are five attractive girls who make fun of his stammer and his ability to speak Klingon. The Doctor pulls him away and reassures him that Howie is right; it is all a CIA plot. As they go down the corridor, Howie mutters "Praise him," and a low growl is heard.

 

The Doctor spots a place in the ceiling which seems to have been gouged away and Amy picks up some papers from the floor nearby. A roar is heard. As the Doctor hurries them away to hide, Rory sees a fire exit but when he looks again it is a hotel room door. The group dash into two rooms. Rita finds herself with Joe and her domineering father, admonishing her for getting a B grade in maths. She apologises and then says "Praise him." In the other room where the other five are hiding stand two weeping angels. The Doctor realises that they are holograms. He thinks that they are Amy's bad dream but Rory says that they are meant for someone else.

 

Joe's ropes slide off his arms and he runs off. The Doctor peeps through the spy hole in the door and sees an alien Minotaur pass down the corridor. When he dashes out after it he sees Joe being dragged down the corridor. He follows but the corridors distend and shift. When he finds Joe, it is too late; the man is dead.

 

Back in the bar, Amy tries to cheer up Gibbis by telling him that the Doctor will save them all. The Doctor and Rita talk. She says that the Doctor's idea of being on an alien planet is no more far-fetched than her own theory that they are in the Muslim hell. They ponder how Joe died and the Doctor says that the man's spark went out as though his faiths and fears vanished. Watching from a distance, Rory tells Amy that when he sees the Doctor getting friendly with anyone he has the urge to phone their next of kin. Amy remembers the paper she found and gives them to the Doctor. They are Lucy Hayward's last writings. As the Doctor reads them, Howie blurts out, "Praise him!"

 

Gibbis says that this is what happened to Joe. He thinks they should just give Howie to the creature. The Doctor says that they will all stick together. He takes Gibbis aside and berates him for his aggressive cowardice and promises that no-one else will die. He then says to Howie that when he is next possessed by the creature he will ask some questions. Howie confirms, in his possessed state, that he wants to be eaten. The Doctor tells the others that he is going to capture the creature.

 

He has Gibbis guard Howie in reception and uses Howie's voice, broadcast over the hotel PA system to a room upstairs, to lure the beast. The Doctor talks to the Minotaur and finds that the hotel is a prison and that the victims are the Minotaur's "lunch.' The creature tells him that they are not ripe. It adds that they have to be made ready and then says that it has been there so long it has forgotten even its own name. The Doctor realises that the creature wants all of this to stop. Before they can go on, Howie appears on the stairs below; he has persuaded Gibbis to let him go. The Minotaur breaks out of the room and goes to kill him. It knocks Rory down on the way. As Rita tends him and the Doctor runs after Howie, Amy finds her room.

 

She opens the door but Rita steps in front of her before she can go in and Amy sees nothing. The Doctor finds Howie's corpse as Gibbis appears, trying to say that Howie overpowered him. The Doctor and Rory make their way back to the photographs on the wall: Howie's picture is already there.

 

Rita pulls the Doctor aside and asks why he feels the need to save everybody all of the time. She says that it sounds like he has some sort of God complex. He says that he feels responsible to Amy and Rory: if he offers everyone all of time and space he shouldn't be surprised that they take it. The responsibility for their safety is therefore his. he offers to show Rita all of time and space, too, when they escape from the hotel. He notices a CCTV camera and rushes off, saying "Got you, Mr Minotaur." Rita looks into the camera and says "Praise him." The Doctor passes room number eleven and opens the door. He hears the TARDIS cloister bell and looks inside. He says, "Of course. Well, who else?" He smiles before shutting the door gently.

 

He finds the surveillance camera room from which he sees Rita making her way through the corridors. He calls her on the phone of a room she is passing. She answers and apologizes on the phone to the Doctor. She asks that he doesn't watch her being robbed of her faith but says that she can feel the rapture approaching and feels blessed. Amy and Rory arrive behind the Doctor but he switches off the screens as the Minotaur's shadow passes in front of Rita.

 

After Rita's body is laid on a stage in the bar beside those of Joe and Howie, the Doctor is full of rage, smashing objects and screaming. It is then that he realises that the Minotaur is not feeding on people's fear but their faith. Rita had religious faith, Joe had faith in conspiracies and Joe was a gambler who believed in luck. It is only when people fall back on their faith that they begin to offer praise. Rory has been unaffected, even shown exits, because he has no strong faith in anything. Amy, on the other hand, has faith in the Doctor. At this moment she says, "Praise him,"

 

The four survivors run through the corridor, pursued by the Minotaur. Amy stops to face the creature but they drag her in to a room. It is hers, and little Amelia is inside, sitting on her suitcase. Amy's greatest fear is revealed: waiting for the Doctor.

 

The Doctor tries to break Amy's faith in him. He tells her that this is how it ends for his companions; those who come with him die or get hurt. He says he is not a hero, but a mad man in a box and it was vanity that made him come back for her. He calls her Amy Williams. With Amy's faith in him broken, the Minotaur begins to die. The hotel architecture vanishes to reveal itself as a deck on a space ship. The Doctor accesses the ship's systems and finds that the Minotaur is of a species related to the Nimon. They visit worlds and set themselves up as gods but when the people become secular the Minotaurs are imprisoned. The creature was fed by scooping up people with strong faiths, keeping it alive beyond its desire to live. The ship's systems have failed, he says, and the fears of the previous victims have been left behind.

 

The Minotaur talks to the Doctor about "An ancient creature drenched in the blood of the innocent, drifting in space through an endless shifting maze. For such a creature, death would be a gift." When the Doctor tells the Minotaur to accept death it says, "I wasn't talking about myself." It dies.

 

The Doctor drops off Gibbis and takes Rory and Amy back to Earth. He lands outside a house and gives them the keys. Outside is Rory's dream car, a goodbye present. Amy asks Rory to leave them for a moment so that she can ask the Doctor why he is abandoning them. He says that he can't keep putting them in danger and doesn't want things to end with him standing by their graves. Amy tells him that, next time he sees River, he should get her to visit "her old mum." The Doctor enters the TARDIS and it dematerialises as Rory re-emerges from the house. He asks what the Doctor is doing and Amy tells him that the Doctor is saving them.

 

On board the TARDIS, the Doctor stands alone, looking aghast.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

Amy has met the Weeping Angels in The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone and, with Rory, in Touched by an Angel.

 

 

//--> 

 

Closing Time

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producers

Denise Paul

Marcus Wilson

 

Written by Gareth Roberts

Directed by Steve Hugues

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), James Corden (Craig Owens), Daisy Haggard (Sophie), Alex Kingston (River Song), Frances Barber (Madame Kovarian), Seroca Davis (Shona), Holli Dempsey (Kelly), Chris Obi (George), Lynda Baron (Val), Paul Kasey (Cyberman), Nicholas Briggs (Voice of the Cybermen).

 

In the last few days of his life, the Doctor pays a farewell visit to his old friend Craig, and encounters a mystery, as the time-travelling drama continues.

People are going missing, a silver rat scuttles in the shadows of a department store, and somewhere close by the Cybermen are waiting.

 

Original Broadcast (UK)

Closing Time  September 24th, 2011            7h10pm - 7h55pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

A street light buzzes and flashes across the road from Sanderson and Grainger's department store. Inside the store, two shop assistants finish cashing up and complain when the lights flicker there, too. One of the girls goes home while the other, Shona, heads into the customer changing rooms to tidy up. There is still somebody in one of the changing cubicles. She pulls back the curtain and sees a rather battered Cyberman. She screams.

 

Across town, Sophie is leaving for a well earned break. Craig sees her off at the door where she says that her mother (and maybe Craig's) might phone. He insists that he can cope on his own. No sooner has she gone than there is a knock on the door. The Doctor is standing on the doorstep. He says that he has come to make a house call. He says hello, turns to leave and then sees the power flickering in Craig's house. He rushes in, saying that there is somebody else in the house. He races upstairs and pushes open a door. He tells whatever is in there to get off the planet. Fortunately, it turns out to be Craig's son, Alfie.

 

Closing Time

(drn:45'04")

Craig tells the Doctor that this weekend is all about proving that he can cope on his own, which he can't. The Doctor shushes Alfie (who, he reveals, prefers the name Stormaggedon, Dark Lord of All). The Doctor adds that he is on a farewell tour and has only popped in to say hello. As he strides away from the house he determinedly ignores the flickering street lights. However, he can't help scanning the area and notices a patina of teleport energy.

 

The next morning, Craig is shopping in the department store when he finds the Doctor working in the toy department. Craig immediately concludes that the Doctor is investigating something alien and dangerous. The Doctor says that three people have vanished in the past week from the local area. He also has seen that teleport energy is being used. As he says this he leads Craig into a lift that has been taped up and has a "Danger" sign on the door. He says that the teleport device must be disguised as something but he can't figure out what. They promptly arrive aboard a space ship with a Cyberman closing in. The Doctor uses his screwdriver to take them back to the shop. He tells Craig that he has fused the teleport so that the Cybermen are stuck in space.

 

The Doctor tries to make Craig leave but he refuses, saying that it is safer to be near the Doctor in these circumstances. The Doctor tells Craig to go round the store and see if he can spot anything unusual. This leads Craig into trouble when a shop girl thinks he is a pervert. However, the Doctor arrives to smooth things over. He has been told about a silver rat that has been seen in the store. When the shop assistant mentions that Shona has not turned up for work and the last time she was seen she was on her way to the changing rooms he decides to head there. When the sonic screwdriver reveals that Shona was taken by a Cyberman, Craig is puzzled because he thought they were looking for a rat. The Doctor tells him that the thing is a Cybermat and it has been sucking energy from the store.

 

As Craig goes off to change Alfie's nappy, the Doctor turns and sees Amy and Rory walking through the shop. A little girl walks over and asks for Amy's autograph and the Doctor sees Amy's face on a hoarding, advertising Petrichor perfume, "For the girl who is tired of waiting."

 

After the shop closes, the Doctor and Craig hide behind the aisles. The Doctor nets a Cybermat but as he celebrates he hears George, the security guard, scream in the basement. The Doctor races down and sees George's corpse. A Cyberman steps out and chops the Doctor with its arm. Craig finds him lying unconscious. He says that he would have been killed if the Cyberman didn't have a damaged arm. He says that George will have been taken, like the other missing people, for spare parts but he wasn't taken because he is not compatible. He is puzzled about a number of things: the Cybermen's ability to beam down after the teleport was fused; the need for spare parts; the damaged Cyberman.

 

The Doctor returns to Craig's home to work on the Cybermat. Craig goes out to get some milk and the Doctor is left holding the baby. The Cybermat reactivates and the Doctor ends up running from the house with Alfie, accidentally locking himself out. Craig returns and is attacked by the Cybermat. As he fights it off, the Doctor crashes in through a glass door and helps Craig subdue the Cybermat. Afterwards, as the Doctor wipes the Cybermat's brain, he confesses to Craig that he shouldn't have come here, and by being there he has put Craig and Alfie in danger. He goes on to tell Craig that he is leaving, his time is up and he is due to die the next day. When he turns to see Craig's reaction he finds both man and baby are asleep.

 

The next morning, Craig wakes up on the couch to find that the Doctor has returned to the store with the reprogrammed Cybermat to stop the Cybermen. Craig follows after the Doctor with Alfie. The Doctor realises the Cybermen's ship is not in space but has been buried beneath the Earth for centuries and is beneath the store. They climb up to a door in the changing room. Craig arrives and leaves Alfie with a middle-aged shop assistant, Val. He follows the Doctor into the tunnel, armed only with a barcode reader. The Cybermen are telling the Doctor, who they have taken prisoner, that they plan to take over the Earth, even though there are only six of them. When Craig arrives they disarm him and say he will be the new Cyber Leader. He is put into a conversion machine. The Doctor releases the reprogrammed Cybermat but one of the Cybermen simply treads on it.

 

The Doctor urges Craig to fight the conversion but it appears to succeed until Craig hears Alfie's cries from the CCTV in the ship. Craig fights the conversion and the Cybermen overload as they feel the emotions they have repressed. Their heads begin to explode. The Doctor and Craig use the teleport to get away as the ship explodes. Craig is reunited with Alfie while the Doctor concludes that Craig "blew them up with love." When Val assumes that they are a couple, Craig tries to deny it but the Doctor has already slipped away.

 

When Craig returns home he finds that the Doctor has used time travel to clean the house throughout and got a glazier to fix the door. He is waiting for Craig and tells him that Alfie prefers to use his real name rather than Stormageddon and is very proud of his dad. Craig is worried that the Doctor is in trouble but the Doctor insists he has to leave for America. He borrows some blue envelopes from Sophie's stationery drawer. Craig gives him a Stetson hat as a parting gift.

 

The Doctor leaves by the back door as Sophie enters at the front. Craig reassures her that nothing weird has happened while she was gone, but Alfie says, "Doctor".

 

Before he enters the TARDIS the Doctor speaks to a small group of children. In the distant future, River Song, newly made a Doctor of Archaeology, reads over the statements written by those children. She also has the date and location of the Doctor's death. Madame Kovarian steps out of the shadows. She says that River won't remember her because of the things they have done to her head. Two Silents accompany her, and Kovarian introduces them as River's "owners". As soldiers arrive with an astronaut suit she tells River that she will be the one to kill the Doctor. They sedate her and place her in the suit. She is submerged in Lake Silencio to await her fatal meeting with the Doctor.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

Craig has met the Doctor in The Lodger.

"Petrichor" was part of the password in The Doctor's Wife.

The "Petrichor slogan, "For the girl who's tired of waiting", recalls The Eleventh Hour and The Girl Who Waited.

The Doctor TARDIS blue envelopes and Stetson are seen again in The Impossible Astronaut.

The Cybermen seem to be descendants of the original series versions from Mondas (there is no Cybus logo on their chests).

 

 

The Wedding of River Song

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Marcus Wilson

 

Written by Steven Moffat

Directed by Jeremy Webb

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Alex Kingston (River Song), Frances Barber (Madame Kovarian), Simon Fisher-Becker (Dorium Maldovar), Ian McNeice (Emperor Winston Churchill), Richard Hope (Dr Malokeh), Marnix Van Den Broeke (The Silent), Nicholas Briggs (Voice of the Dalek), Simon Callow (Charles Dickens), Sian Williams (Herself), Bill Turnbull (Himself), Meredith Vieira (Herself), Niall Greig Fulton (Gideon Vandaleur), Sean Buckley (Barman), Mark Gatiss (Gantok)*, Emma Campbell-Jones (Dr Kent), Katharine Burford (Nurse), Richard Dillane (Carter), William Morgan Sheppard (Canton Delaware).

 

* Credited as Rondo Haxton

As the Doctor makes his final journey to the shores of Lake Silencio in Utah, he knows only one thing can keep the universe safe - his own death. But has he reckoned without the love of a good woman?

Original Broadcast (UK)

Space  October 1st, 2011      7h05pm - 7h50pm

 

Notes:

Mar Gatiss is credited under the pseudonym Rondo Haxton in homage to the American horror actor Rondo Hatton who the character's look is inspired from.

 

 

 

 

It is 5.02 on 22 April 2011. In fact, it is always 5.02 on 22 April 2011. The War of the Roses is going into its second year, picnickers in London are warned not to feed the Pterodactyls and Charles Dickens is on television being interviewed about his new Christmas Special, a ghost story. Cars fly, suspended beneath hot air balloons Winston Churchill, the Holy Roman emperor has returned to Buckingham Palace from a conference in Gaul with Cleopatra. He asks his doctor, a Silurian called Malokeh, why the time and date never change. He calls for his soothsayer and asks what happened to time. The soothsayer, a bearded Doctor, tells him the answer is, "a woman".

 

The Wedding of River Song

(drn:45'19")

Earlier; a dying Dalek sees the Doctor approach. He takes from it everything that it knows about the Silence. This leads him to the docks of Calisto B where he tracks down Father Gideon Vandaleur, former envoy of the Silence. The Father is exposed as the Teselecta but the crew sends him on to find Gantok, another of the Silence's agents. Gantok plays a game of live chess with the Doctor (meaning they play with live electricity). Gantok is facing checkmate (and death unless the Doctor forfeits the game). The Doctor agrees to forfeit if Gantok can tell him why he has to die. Gantok says that he will take the Doctor to Dorium Maldovar's head where he will get the answers. So, in the seventh transept of the Headless Monks, the Doctor and Gantok find Maldovar's head in a box. Gantok tries to double-cross the Doctor and produces a gun. However, the ground falls away beneath his feet and he plunges into a pit filled with living skulls that devour him.

 

The Doctor asks Dorium about the Silence and is told that they are a religious order of great power who consider themselves the guardians of history. Dorium says that the Doctor's future terrifies the Silence. He says that "On the fields of Trenzalor, at the fall of the Eleventh, when no creature can speak falsely or fail to answer, a question that must never be answered will be asked: the first question, hidden in plain sight." He asks if the Doctor wants to know what this question is. The Doctor nods. He takes Dorium's head with him into the TARDIS. Dorium protests at being taken but also says that the Doctor now knows the question.

 

Back in the senate room, Churchill asks the Doctor what the question is. The Doctor replies with a question: what would Churchill do if he knew that a man could speak a secret so devastating that it would threaten everything? He adds that he had never realised that it was his silence that was spoken of in the prophecy, or his death. They look around the room and wonder how they got there or why Churchill is holding his revolver. The Doctor looks at his arm which has a single pen stroke on it. He carries on with his story.

 

In the TARDIS, Dorium says that Lake Silencio in Utah is a still point in time and therefore easier to create a fixed point - the Doctor's death. The Doctor says he will not go to his death yet but intends to continue his farewell tour. However, when he phones his old friend the Brigadier to come with him, he finds that the Brigadier has died. He realises that the time has come. He finds the Teselecta again and asks it to deliver the blue envelopes containing the invitations to Lake Silencio. As he leaves the room, the Teselecta asks if there is anything it can do for him. The Doctor leaves in silence.

 

In the senate room, Churchill asks why the Doctor took his friends to his death. He says that his friends have always been the best of him. Looking at his arm he sees there are now three pen strokes.

 

At Lake Silencio the Doctor, Amy Pond, Rory Williams and River Song drink a bottle of wine that Napoleon once threw at the Doctor. An astronaut rises from the lake and the Doctor goes to meet it. It is River Song, in the suit created by Madame Kovarian and the Silence. River says that she cannot control the suit and it raises its arm. He tells her that he forgives her and shuts his eyes. Instead of the three shots that kill him there are five and the Doctor is still alive. He demands to know what she has done. River tells him she has drained the weapons system.

 

The Doctor tells Churchill that nothing happened or, rather, everything happened at once and is continuing to happen. As they discuss this they notice that Churchill's gun has been fired and the Doctor is now holding a sword. They realise that they have been defending themselves and the Doctor's arm is full of tally marks. They look up to see the ceiling is infested with dozens of Silents. A grenade rolls into the hall and soldiers storm in pointing weapons at the enemy. Leading them is Amy Pond. The Doctor is delighted to see her until he realises that she is wearing an eye patch. She raises a gun and shoots the Doctor.

 

He wakes in Amy's office on a train. She tells him that the effects of the stun gun will wear off soon. He tries to persuade her that they were once friends but as he looks around her office he sees a model TARDIS and drawings of the people and monsters that they have met; due to her time travel and the crack in her wall she can remember both timelines. However, she cannot remember that Rory is the Captain Williams in her detachment of soldiers.

 

As the train enters Area 52, in the pyramid of Giza, the Doctor tells Amy that his being alive means that time has stopped and, like an explosion, the effect will keep spreading out into the universe until everything falls apart. In the pyramid, the Doctor and Amy walk past tanks of water containing captured Silents. Rory tells the Doctor to put on the eye patch he has been given. All of the soldiers are wearing them, too. Amy explains that it is an eye drive, an external memory that allows people to remember the Silents after they have stopped looking at them.

 

Rory is disconcerted that the Silents are more active now that the Doctor is in the base. He says that there are more than a hundred of them in the tanks. He sends two men to check the tank seals. The Doctor goes after Rory to try a bit of matchmaking between him and Amy. He then rejoins Amy in the King's Chamber where River Song is waiting. Madame Kovarian is also there, a prisoner tied to a chair. It was her eye patch that was used to create Eye Drives.

 

The Doctor and River flirt with each other but for him it is a ruse to touch her. He goes to take River's hand and time starts to move again. For a brief moment the two of them are back at Lake Silencio but when they are pulled apart they are back in the pyramid. She has the soldiers put him in handcuffs and tries to persuade him to live. The Silents release themselves from the tanks and start to kill the soldiers. They attack the eye drives, causing death or debilitating agony. Kovarian laughs at them until her eye drive begins to electrify. She begs the Silents to spare her but they tell her (telepathically?) that she is no longer needed. Amy and River beg the Doctor to come with them where they have something to show him. Rory valiantly stays to hold off the Silents. He is overcome when his eye drive electrifies and the Silents taunt him that Amy will never come for him. Amy re-enters with a machine gun and kills all of the Silents before vindictively replacing Kovarian's eye drive so that she, too, can die.

 

At the top of the Great Pyramid, River has built a time beacon, broadcasting to the universe at all times, future and past. It tells everyone that,"the Doctor is dying, please help." Millions of replies are saying, "Yes, of course". The Doctor, however, continues to insist that he must die to prevent all of time disintegrating. River says that she will suffer more than anything in the universe if he dies without realising that he is loved. The Doctor tells Amy to take off the handcuffs and uses his bow tie as part of a marriage ceremony. Rory tells Amy that he doesn't know what is going on and she explains that in another timeline they had a daughter and she grew up to be River. The Doctor whispers into River's ear and tells her she must never tell anyone what he has just told her. He adds, for her parents' benefit, that he just told her his name.She is astonished at this. He then asks for her help and they kiss. Time begins to move again, River shoots the Doctor at Lake Silencio and the timeline is restored. The balloon cars, pterodactyls and other anachronisms vanish.

 

Later, Amy is sitting in her garden. River arrives from the crash of the Byzantium and they share a bottle of wine. Amy is still distressed about killing Kovarian but River tells her that all of those events were in an aborted timeline. Amy says that she needs to talk to the Doctor but he is dead. River does not agree. When Amy says that River might be having adventures with him before his death but he is still dead to her, River tells her a secret. Rory finds his wife and daughter celebrating until it dawns on Amy that she is the Doctor's mother-in-law.

 

A hooded figure replaces Dorium's head in the Seventh Transept. Dorium senses that the figure is the Doctor and asks how he escaped. The Doctor tells him that he was on the beach but inside the Teselecta. He didn't whisper his name to River at their wedding, he told her to look into his eyes where she saw the real Doctor waving at her from inside the Teselecta. He says that he was barely singed by the fire at his funeral. He adds that he has been too noisy and now the universe believes he is dead he can step back into the shadows. As he leaves, Dorium calls after him. The Doctor stands at the doors of the TARDIS while Dorium repeats the question that the Doctor has been running from his entire life. It is, of course, "Doctor who?

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

Charles Dickens reappears (see The Unquiet Dead).

Winston Churchill also returns (see Victory of the Daleks and The Pandorica Opens).

The Silurian doctor, Malokeh, returns (see The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood).

The Doctor says that he could revisit Rose Tyler and Jack Harkness.

River mentions the Byzantium and is still wearing her combat uniform from The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone.

One of the Silents calls Rory "the man who dies and dies again." Rory died in Amy's Choice, Cold Blood, The Curse of the Black Spot, and The Doctor's Wife.

 

 

Death Is the Only Answer

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Written by Children of Oakley CE Junior School

Directed by Jeremy Webb

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Nickolas Grace (Albert Einstein), Paul Kasey (Ood).

 

An incident in the TARDIS involving the Doctor's new fez brings in an unexpected guest.

Original Broadcast (UK)

Death is the Only Answer       October 1st, 2011      N/A

 

Notes:

Broadcasted as part of Doctor Who Confidential, this mini-episode is the result of a BBC Learning and Doctor Who Confidential Script to Screen competition.

 

 

 

 

Death Is the Only Answer

(drn:3'48")

The Doctor enters the TARDIS and hangs his fez on a lever on the console. When he pushes another lever the fez vanishes. A time portal appears behind him and Albert Einstein comes through it with the Fez. Einstein says that he had been working on his own time machine but suddenly arrived in the TARDIS. The Doctor says that the fez was Einstein's and the TARDIS must have recognised this and created the portal by accident. Einstein is holding a jar of green liquid which he claims is bionic fusion liquid, the last component of his time machine. The Doctor scans the liquid and suggests that his friend has got it wrong. He says that he will run some tests on it but Einstein says he wants to do that himself. Einstein turns away from the console and the jar bubbles over causing the liquid to splash onto Einstein's face. He transforms into an Ood. His eyes are red and he repeats, "Death is the only answer."

 

The Doctor makes a few adjustments to the controls and creates an energy field that turns Einstein back into a human, albeit with wilder hair which the Doctor admires because it looks "more sciencey". He scans Einstein and determines that he walked into the TARDIS on 18 September 1945. He drops the scientist off on that day and sets off for another adventure. As the Doctor walks away from the console he passes a blob of the spilled liquid from Einstein's jar. It begins to move on its own.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

The Doctor mentions River Song blowing up his old fez in The Big Bang.

Einstein had his picture taken with the Doctor and Father Christmas at Frank Sinatra's hunting lodge (see A Christmas Carol).

 

 

//--> 

 

Night and the Doctor

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Beth Willis

Producer

Marcus Wilson

 

Written by Steven Moffat [1-4] and Tom MacRae [5]

Directed by Richard Senior [1-4]

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor) [1-4], Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) [1-2], Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams) [1], Alex Kingston (River Song) [3-4], James Corden (Craig Owens) [5], Daisy Haggard (Sophie) [5].

 

What does the Doctor do at night when his companions are asleep?

Notes:

Night and the Doctor is a series of five made-for-DVD mini-episodes of Doctor Who released as bonus features in the Complete Sixth Series DVD and Blu-ray box sets. Four of them are thematically linked and take place in the console room of the TARDIS while the fifth one precedes the events of the episode Closing Time, and does not feature the Doctor or any regular companions.

 

 

 

 

Bad Night

(drn:3'39")

The phone rings in the TARDIS control room. Amy, in her night dress and dressing gown, answers it and finds she is talking to the Prince of Wales. He wants to speak to his mother. As she talks a fly buzzes round her and she squashes it with a rolled up newspaper. The Doctor enters, carrying a goldfish in a glass bowl. He tells her never to answer the phone, and then takes it from her. He assures the prince that his mother is well.

 

A second call comes in and the Doctor switches lines to talk to an Ambassador. He tells this caller that the Warrior Chieftain is safe in the TARDIS and will be released when the Queen is turned back into a human. The Doctor and Amy gaze meaningfully at the goldfish. Then the Doctor sees the squashed fly, puts the Ambassador on hold and asks Amy what she has done. She says that she thought it was just a fly.

 

She deflects this by asking him where he has been. As he is wearing top hat and tails she assumes he has been at a party with River Song and asks him if this is what he does at night. She then changes tack and tells him she couldn't sleep because she needs to tell him something. The Doctor shouts for Rory because Amy is "having an emotion." She is appalled that the Doctor and Rory pass her over, one to another, when she has something serious to say. At this point the Doctor gives a cry of despair and opens the TARDIS door. He shouts out to River that they have brought the wrong goldfish. As he leaves the TARDIS he tells Rory and Amy that he has three hours to save the Commonwealth. Amy asks him what happens in three hours and he tells her that this is when the pet shops open.

 

 

Good Night

(drn:4'51")

The Doctor enters the TARDIS, wearing a tuxedo and carrying a euphonium. He calls out to River that Marilyn is too late and will have to use the biplane. Amy is sitting on the steps in her dressing gown, waiting for him. She asks if he does this sort of thing every night. He tells her that he has extra adventures while she is sleeping. He says that he has just helped out a possessed orchestra on a moon base, written a history of the universe in jokes, prevented two supernovas and done some locum work at an understaffed practice in Brixton.

 

Amy comments that his companions are just tiny parts of his life. He replies that they are all he ever remembers. She tells him that she is troubled; she remembers the time before he restored the universe and at the same time she can remember how life should have been - there are two conflicting sets of memories in her head. He says that this is true for everyone. Anyone who has memories of parties or holidays that they were never at is feeling the effects of time being rewritten. To prove his point he connects Amy to the TARDIS telepathic circuits and tells her that her saddest ever memory was at a fairground in 1994. She says that dropping an ice cream cannot be her saddest memory. The TARDIS lands and the Doctor asks her what happened after she dropped the ice cream. Amy recalls being bought a new ice cream by a red haired woman wearing a night dress.

 

He opens the door of the TARDIS and tells her to go and buy them both ice creams. He adds that he gets scared on ghost trains and wonders if it will be alright if he holds her hand.

 

 

First Night

(drn:2'16")

River is on the first night of 12,000 consecutive life sentences in the Storm Cage. The TARDIS lands in her cell and she enters. There is a dress hanging on the console and the Doctor is wearing a tuxedo. He tells her he is taking her to Calderon Beta and she needs to put on the dress. He tells her that she has to put all of their adventures together into her diary so that they can synchronise their lives. She says that being in prison means there won't be any adventures but he tells her that she could walk out whenever she chooses. As she goes off to get changed he hears laser fire at the door. He opens it and River falls in, saying that she knew he would come back because he is a nostalgic idiot. She passes out in his arms.

 

 

Last Night

(drn:3'35")

The doctor realises that River is pretending to not breathe. She opens her eyes and says that she was being shot at by Sontarans for asking if they were on a hen night. Noticing the dress she asks if he has brought somebody else and says that she remembers him bringing someone else the last time they were here. He tries to explain that it is the same night but she storms off into the TARDIS.

 

The first River pops back and asks who he was talking to. He tells her he was talking to himself. As she goes back to get changed the second River asks the same question. She gets the same answer and walks out exactly as a third River comes in through the TARDIS door. She sees the dress (identical to the one she is wearing) still on the console and asks who is there. He tells her to go back out and check that the light on top of the TARDIS is still working. Puzzled, she does so. As she goes out the second River comes in. The Doctor fits her with a time bracelet and sends her back to Storm Cage.

 

The third River re-enters, followed by a second version of the Doctor wearing top hat and tails. He tells her that she has got into the wrong TARDIS. River is intrigued by the prospect of two Doctors but he ushers her out. She says that they are going to the Singing Towers of Darillium. The two Doctors reflect that the first time they met River, in the library, she said that the last time she had seen him was at Darillium. As the second version of the Doctor leaves, the first River comes in. She wonders what the other one was doing there but the Doctor tells her, "Spoilers." She says that he will be the death of her. He is left pondering this statement.

 

 

Up All Night

(drn:2'00")

 

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

  

 

The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Piers Wenger

Caroline Skinner

Written by Steven Moffat

Directed by Farren Blackburn

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Claire Skinner (Madge Arwell), Maurice Cole (Cyril Arwell), Holly Earl (Lily Arwell), Alexander Armstrong (Reg Arwell), Sam Stockman (Co-pilot), Bill Bailey (Droxil), Paul Bazely (Ven-Garr), Arabella Weir (Billis), Spencer Wilding (Wooden King), Paul Kasey (Wooden Queen).

 

Christmas Eve, 1938, and Madge Arwell helps an injured spaceman-angel. He promises to repay her kindness. Three years later, Madge escapes war-torn London with her children for a house in Dorset. The Arwells are greeted by a caretaker whose Christmas gift leads them into a magical wintry world.

Original Broadcast (UK)

The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe  December 25th, 2011              7h00pm - 8h00pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

PREQUEL

The Doctor is on a spaceship holding down a red button. He is on the phone to the TARDIS, telling Amy that if he lets go of the button it will cause the space ship to explode. He is asking Amy to rescue him but as he speaks he realises that she does not have his co-ordinates. Nor can she fly the TARDIS and, more importantly, she is not on the TARDIS. The Doctor wishes her a Merry Christmas and lets go of the button: the spaceship explodes.

 

 

 

A giant spaceship closes in on the Earth. As it points its weapons at the planet, it begins to explode. The Doctor runs down a corridor away from a ball of fire. He is blown out of a hole in the ship and clings on to a length of severed cables. He tries to reach for a space suit but another explosion blows the suit out into space. He dives after it and clutches onto it as he falls towards the planet below.

 

The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe

(drn:58'21")

Madge Arwell is cycling down a darkened country road when there is an explosion in the field next to her. She loses control of her bike and crashes into a red telephone box. She makes her way to a crater in the middle of the field and sees a man in a space suit lying in the hole. He asks her for help with his helmet. She raises the visor and he tells her that he is blind but she reassures him that the helmet is on backwards. He tells her that he got dressed in a hurry. She returns home and tells her son, Cyril, that she has borrowed Mr Goldsmith's car to drive a space man (or possibly an angel) into town to find a police telephone box. After a bumpy ride she finds the telephone box. She tells the Doctor he needs to take the suit off but he tells her he can't because it is an impact suit and it is still repairing him. When he can't find the TARDIS key she opens the phone box door with a pin. He asks her name and then tells her that if she ever needs a favour in return she should make a wish. He enters the door but it is the wrong box. He asks her if she can help him find another one.

 

Three years later, during World War II, Madge's husband Reg is piloting a damaged Lancaster Bomber over the English Channel. He tells the crew that he is taking them home for Christmas.

 

Madge receives a telegraph telling her that her husband is missing, presumed dead, just before Christmas. She decides not to tell her children just yet. Instead, she makes a wish. Due to the wartime evacuations, she takes the children to Uncle Digby's house in Dorset. The house is a country mansion that has been left in the care of Mr Cardew the caretaker. However, the door is opened to them (or rather, the door falls off its hinges) by the Doctor, calling himself "the Caretaker". He greets them by name: Madge (who does not recognize him from their previous meeting), ten year old Cyril and Madge's beautiful fourteen year old daughter, Lily.

 

The Doctor gives them a guided tour of the house which he has 'repaired' for their visit. This involves spinning chairs in the smaller sitting room, a lemonade tap in the kitchen and a bedroom for the children so full of tricks and toys that the only way he could put beds in is to suspend hammocks from the ceiling. The children are astonished by all of this but Madge takes the Doctor aside and explains about Reg's death. She says that she finds it hard to see the children happy when she knows that they will soon be sad. The Doctor tells her that they should be allowed to be happy precisely because they will soon be so sad. Madge decides to give them the best Christmas ever before she imparts the bad news to them. The sound of the children's laughter draws her to the large sitting room where the Doctor has mechanised a Christmas tree. Beside the tree is a large blue present that glows and whispers. The label says that it is for all of them but Cyril is the most drawn to it.

 

In the night, Cyril asks Lily if they can go down to see what is in the present. She tells him to go to sleep but as soon as he does she sneaks off to go downstairs. On the way, she is attracted by sounds from the attic and goes up to the Doctor's room to investigate. As she does, Cyril sneaks down the stairs.

 

Lily finds the Doctor hard at work on some wiring. Beside him is the TARDIS which he tells her is his wardrobe. As he checks the wires he asks where Cyril is. Lily goes back to the bedroom and sees what she thinks is her brother in her his hammock. She reports back to the Doctor who assumes that whatever he is working on is faulty.

 

Cyril, meanwhile, has opened the large present under the Christmas tree and found it to be a portal to a snow-covered forest. He crawls through and sees one of the trees sprout a silver bauble which falls to the ground, grows in size and cracks open. He flees back through the portal but soon returns. He sees footprints leading from the bauble, deeper into the wood. He follows.

 

The Doctor becomes convinced that Cyril has been in the portal and goes with Lily to Cyril's hammock, discovering that the boy has used the "old bear and duvet" trick to make it seem as if he is still in bed. They follow him through the portal. Lily wants to know where they are so the Doctor tells her they have gone through a dimensional portal. They notice that the footprints that Cyril is following are growing larger. When Lily brushes against a tree, more 'baubles' grow. The Doctor tells her that he chose this place as a perfect destination for Christmas but something is wrong: the trees are agitated and talking to each other. When he looks into a bauble his face is reflected back and then replaced by a wooden one. Lily accuses him of being irresponsible, taking them to a distant planet in the future but he replies that it was meant to be a supervised trip and the planet used to be one of the safest he knows.

 

Cyril arrives at a tower and enters. He finds a giant wooden statue of a king in its throne. As he passes it to go up the stairs the king turns its head. Madge, meanwhile, finds her children missing and follows them into the forest. She is accosted by three armed soldiers who scan her for weapons. They find that she is either armed or wearing wool and settle for the latter. Madge breaks down in tears.

 

At the tower, Cyril reaches the top room and finds a wooden queen standing behind a throne. She is holding a metal circlet.

 

The Doctor and Lily enter the tower. The Doctor tells her that the wooden king was hatched from a bauble less than an hour ago. He also notes that the whole building is grown from trees into the shape of a building. He says that it is a trap for people but they can't leave until they have found Cyril.

 

Madge's crying eventually persuades the three soldiers to put down their weapons. They say that they are from Androzani Major and the year is 5345. They ask Madge where she is from and she tells them "England, 1941." She produces a pistol and tells them that she is looking for her children.

 

The Doctor and Lily arrive at the top of the tower but the Doctor's sonic screwdriver won't open the wooden door. As he tries to find a new setting Lily looks out of a window and sees stars coming out of the trees. The Doctor tells her that it is the life force. She says that it is so beautiful it is making her cry and the Doctor replies that crying when happy is "so human." A whooshing sound and a golden light from beyond the door make them redouble their attempts to get in. Inside the room the wooden queen is putting the circlet, now glowing, onto Cyril's head. The king leaves his seat below and starts to come up the stairs.

 

Madge takes the three soldiers into the cockpit of a huge walking machine. The soldiers tell her that the Androzani trees in the forest are about to be melted down with acid rain to make battery fuel. Anyone outside will be killed. Madge has Billis, the female soldier, tie up the two males. Billis detects life signs in the forest but says she is not trained to drive the machine to them.

 

The door at the top of the tower opens. Lily and the Doctor enter, followed by the wooden king. Cyril is connected to them by the circlet and translates their thoughts. The trees are screaming and the stars are leaving the trees because of their fear.

 

A warning announcement, saying there is five minutes to acid fall, accompanies the three soldiers being beamed out. Madge is left alone. She can hear her children over the machine's communications. Cyril is telling the Doctor that the stars are leaving because they are frightened of the rain. The Doctor says that the stars need to evacuate inside a living thing. The top of the tower, a large sphere, is an escape pod. The queen says that they cannot escape because Cyril is weak and the forest cannot live in him. The Doctor says that he is stronger and takes the circlet but it is too painful. Lily takes it and says it is tingly. The queen says that Lily is too young. The rain starts to fall.

 

The Doctor says that the tower won't protect them for long. He wants them to get back to the portal but the children refuse to leave until their mother comes. Madge promptly arrives, driving the Androzani harvester until it crashes to the floor near the tower. Madge runs inside the tower, her clothes holed by the rain. The wooden queen identifies her as "strong" and places the circlet on Madge's head. The Doctor realises they think she is the "mothership" and therefore able to carry the life force safely. The stars pour into the band and Madge absorbs them. The top of the tower lifts off and flies into the time vortex. The Doctor tells Madge to think of memories of home. To do this she remembers Reg and the pod homes in on Reg's stricken aeroplane. She begs them not to make her watch her husband die but as they pass the plane Reg starts to follow the pod as it is the only thing he has to navigate by.

 

The escape pod is lands safely just outside the house in Dorset. The life force of the forest converts itself to a waveband of light among the stars and the king and queen's bodies lie, empty on the floor. The Doctor steps outside, leaving Madge to explain their father's death to Lily and Cyril but he quickly returns to tell them to come outside. The Lancaster bomber and a bewildered Reg are on the lawn outside. The family is joyfully reunited.

 

Madge and her family begin to celebrate Christmas and the Doctor tries to slip away unnoticed. Madge tracks him down in the attic and realises that he is the man in the space suit from three years ago. She invites him to stay for Christmas but the Doctor insists on leaving. She thinks he has other friends to go to but he tells them that they all believe he is dead. Madge persuades him to go to see them for Christmas. The Doctor tells her that if Madge ever needs him again she only has to wish.

 

The Doctor arrives outside Amy and Rory's home. It is two years since he left them there and Amy is angry at him for letting them think that he is dead before she reveals that River Song told them he was alive. They hug and Amy calls Rory to the door. They tell the Doctor that a place is set for him at the table. He asks how they knew he was coming but Amy tells him they always set him a place. The Doctor follows them over the threshold, crying with happiness.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

Droxil, Ven-Garr and Billis are from Androzani Major in the year 5345. The planet was featured in The Caves of Androzani.

The Doctor mentions the Forest of Cheem (The End of the World).

Amy tells the Doctor that two years have passed since Lake Silencio (The Impossible Astronaut/The Wedding of River Song). This puts the end of this episode on 25 December 2013.

 

 

 

 

Pond Life

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Caroline Skinner

Producer

Denise Paul

 

Written by Chris Chibnall

Directed by Saul Metzstein

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams) [1-4], Silas Carson (Voice of the Ood) [3-4], Paul Kasey (Ood) [3-4].

 

The life of Amy and Rory while the Doctor is away.

Notes:

Pond Life is a series of five Pond Life is a series of five mini-episodes of Doctor Who released over five days, 27-31 August 2012, on the official Doctor Who website. All five were broadcast as part of the BBC Red Button Service on 1 September 2012.

 

 

 

 

Part One - April

(drn:0'54")

The Doctor leaves a recorded message on Amy and Rory's telephone. As they listen, drinking a glass of wine, they hear him describe how he leapt from a Sontaran ship with a surfboard and surfed down a firefall; how he had crumpets with Mata Hari in a Paris hotel room (she disrobes in front of the fire); how he laid down some backing vocals in a recording studio. He adds that he should be with the Ponds 'any day now' but he is having trouble with the helmic regulator and the temporal steering. He finishes by saying he has collided with Ancient Greece. The call ends with a loud splash and Amy salutes the phone with her glass, saying, "The Doctor."

 

 

Part Two - May

(drn:1'12")

The TARDIS lands outside Rory and Amy's bedroom door in the middle of the night. He bursts into their bedroom, telling them that they have to get dressed quickly because no one on the planet is safe. As they complain that they have rules about the bedroom he realises that he has arrived at the wrong point in time and then he blames the helmic regulator. He tells them not to worry, the planet is actually safe. As he says this there are brief, alarming shots of dinosaurs and explosions. The Doctor leaves them lying wide awake in bed, Rory muttering, "I really hate it when he does that."

 

 

Part Three - June

(drn:0'54")

Rory, in his dressing gown, walks along the landing to the bathroom. He steps in and then backs out in shock. He pushes open the door to reveal an Ood sitting on the toilet. Rory turns to Amy and says, "Ood on the loo."

 

 

Part Four - July

(drn:1'26")

The Doctor is in the entrails of the TARDIS, talking to Rory on the phone. He explains that he must have left the Ood behind when he paid a visit "the other night". Rory complains that the Ood seems to think it is their butler (various shots of it performing household chores). The Doctor tells him that the Ood are conditioned to serve and the best thing is to let him but he will come by and pick it up that night as long as the TARDIS does not implode due to a power drain. The Doctor rings off as the alarms sound. In the Ponds' house, the Ood serves a fried breakfast. Rory tells Amy that he feels guilty but she tells him to eat his food. They smile at the Ood.

 

 

Part Five - August

(drn:1'33")

The Doctor lands the TARDIS in the road outside the Ponds' house. There is no answer when he rings their bell. He is multi-tasking, fixing the light on the TARDIS while he phones, leaving a message to say that he dropped the Ood back home and reconnected it to the hive mind; the helmic regulator has been hit by an arrow at the Battle of Hastings; he has ridden a horse through Coventry in the 11th century and that he has accidentally invented pasta. He adds that he presumes everything is alright with the Ponds. (Insert of Rory leaving the house with a black bin bag and Amy looking distraught). After a moment's reflection the Doctor uses his screwdriver to delete the message.

 

Later, Amy enters the house and checks the phone: there are no messages. She says, "We need you raggedy man. I need you."

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

  

[Back to Main Page]

 

Asylum of the Daleks

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Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Caroline Skinner

Written by Steven Moffat

Directed by Nick Hurran

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Jenna-Louise Coleman (Oswin Oswald), Anamaria Marinca (Darla von Karlsen), David Gyasi (Harvey), Naomi Ryan (Cassandra), Nicholas Briggs (Voice of the Daleks); Barnaby Edwards (Dalek 1), Nicholas Pegg (Dalek 2).

 

The Doctor, Amy and Rory are kidnapped by their deadly foe the Daleks and forced to go on a seemingly impossible mission - to enter the Asylum, a planetary prison containing the most terrifying and insane of the aliens' kind. They need an escape route, and fast - but with a mad, mechanised army closing in, and the Ponds' relationship in meltdown, it is up to the Time Lord to save not only their lives but his friends' marriage.

Original Broadcast (UK)

Asylum of the Daleks                September 1st, 2012 7h20pm - 8h05pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

The camera pans across a ruined city, the wreckage of derelict buildings still burning, until it comes across a giant statue of a Dalek. In a chamber at the end of the eye-stalk, stands a woman, Darla. She says that there was once a man who defeated the Daleks but stories say that he is dead. The Doctor is with her. He looks over the ruined landscape and says that it is Skaro, original planet of the Daleks. He asks her why she wanted to meet in this place. She tells him she needed to intrigue him. He asks how she managed to get a message to him; very few people can manage that.

 

She tells her story: her daughter Hannah is in a Dalek prison camp and she wants the Doctor to rescue her. The woman says that she was a prisoner, too, but managed to escape. The Doctor laughs at her and says that this is a trap. Darla is part of it and doesn't even know. Suddenly, a Dalek eye-stalk appears from her forehead and a Dalek gun breaks through the palm of her hand. She shoots the Doctor. A Dalek saucer hovers into view and a voice intones "The Doctor is acquired."

 

Amy Pond is taking part in a photographic shoot when an assistant appears to tell her that her husband needs to see her. She snaps back that she doesn't have a husband. Rory is in the dressing room with divorce papers for her to sign. She scribbles her signature and declares that they aren't married anymore. Rory leaves, muttering insulting remarks about her modelling career. A makeup girl comes in to tend to Amy. An eye-stalk appears from her head and a Dalek voice says, "Amy Pond is acquired."

 

Rory gets onto a bus. The driver's head produces an eyestalk. There is a white flash and the voice says, "Rory Williams is acquired."

 

Rory wakes up on the floor of a bare white room. Amy is looking out of the window. Rory joins her and sees a fleet of Dalek saucers. He asks her how much trouble they are in. A door opens and a Dalek enters, followed by the Doctor and another Dalek. He replies, "Out of ten? Eleven." A shaft opens in the ceiling and the floor rises, taking them into a vast circular arena. The arena is full of Daleks. Beside them stands the TARDIS. The Doctor tells Rory and Amy that they are not on just any space ship; this is the parliament of the Daleks. He spreads his arms, expecting a public execution. Instead, the Dalek prime minister says, "Save us." This call is taken up by all of the other Daleks. The Doctor comments, "Well, this is new."

 

Asylum of the Daleks

(drn:48'56")

A very pretty girl in a red dress listens to 'Carmen' while hammering planks across a doorway. She pulls a burnt soufflé from the oven, and then dictates a log entry that says it is day 363 and the terror continues. Daleks bang on her door demanding to be let in. She turns up the music.

 

The Doctor paces round angrily until a Dalek announces that they have arrived and the Prime Minister will speak with him. As he approaches, he passes the woman whom tricked him. He asks if she remembers who she was and that she has a daughter. She says she remembers when she needs to for deep cover and that she knows about the daughter because she has read her file. She seems amused by this. The Doctor approaches the Prime Minister, a Dalek creature encased in glass.

 

The Prime Minister asks if the Doctor has heard of the Dalek Asylum. He replies that he has heard of a place where the Daleks send their insane and battle scarred. He wonders why they don't just kill them. The Dalek replies that the Daleks consider the hatred felt by the insane to be beautiful and it would be offensive to destroy it. He wonders if this is why they have never been able to kill the Doctor.

 

A hole opens in the floor allowing Amy and Rory to look down onto a planet below. This is the Asylum of the Daleks where uncounted Daleks have been sent. The Asylum is automated and therefore unsupervised. The Daleks play 'Carmen', saying that it is a transmission being received from the Asylum. The Doctor says that he played triangle before asking if anyone has tried to contact the broadcaster. The Prime Minister and Darla exchange a glance. The Doctor makes a call down. The young woman in red runs across to her radio and asks who is talking and if they are real. She identifies herself as Oswin Oswald, junior entertainments manager on the Starship Alaska. She says that the ship has crashed and she is shipwrecked but she isn't sure of her location and the rest of the crew is missing. She has provisions but is under regular attack by Daleks.

 

The Doctor asks her what she has been doing for a year and she replies that she has been making soufflés. The Doctor asks where she gets the milk, at which point the Dalek Supreme says the conversation is irrelevant. The Doctor says that it isn't: if someone can get into the asylum the Daleks can get out. The Supreme says that the asylum must be cleansed. There is a force field round the planet but it can only be turned off from inside. The Doctor asks why they don't do it themselves. He is met by silence and realises that they are too scared to go themselves. The Supreme says that the Predator of the Daleks will be deployed. The Doctor says that the Daleks have no Predator until Darla explains that Predator is the name they use for the Doctor.

 

The Doctor has a device strapped to his wrist to protect him from 'the nano-cloud'. He is told a gravity beam will land him close to the source of the transmission. Rory and Amy are given similar devices because, as the Supreme says, it is known that the Doctor needs companions. The Doctor tells Amy not to be scared but she says, "Who's scared? Geronimo!" The three of them are fired down a gravity beam to the planet's surface.

 

Amy lands in the snow near a man who is drilling at a hatch in the ground. She shouts for Rory. The man says he is Harvey and asks if they are the rescue mission.

 

The Doctor is also in the snow. Dalek eye-stalks protrude from the snow and observe him. When he notices them, the music from 'Carmen' starts. It is replaced by Oswin's voice. The Doctor asks her how she is using Dalek technology. She tells him it easy to hack tough he disagrees with this. She tells him she is somewhere underground. The signal begins to break up when Amy and Harvey arrive. Harvey tells them that another beam came down over the hill. When they get there they see a deep shaft into the planet's interior.

 

At the bottom the shaft lies Rory. He recovers slowly to find himself surrounded by Daleks. They are silent and immobile. He pushes one but there is no response. He begins to relax.

 

Harvey takes the Doctor and Amy to an escape pod, saying that the ship (the Alaska) crashed two days earlier. This is a puzzle since Oswin says she has been there a year. The rest of the crew members in the pod are long dead and almost skeletons. Harvey is shocked because he was only talking to them two hours and then he remembers that he died out in the snow. He develops a Dalek eye-stalk. The Doctor and Amy push him through a hatch. The Doctor says that the nano-cloud transforms anything non-Dalek so that they become a part of the defence rather than a threat. He adds that this works on anything organic, living or dead. At this, the corpses develop eye-stalks and lumber into life. The Doctor and Amy struggle through them and through another hatch. Amy says how much she has missed this sort of adventure.

 

Oswin calls them, making fun of the Doctor's chin. The doctor asks how she can keep hacking into Dalek technology. She asks if there is a word that means 'total screaming genius and a bit sexy'. He tells her there is: 'Doctor'. She tells them that there is a way out through a hatch in the floor. While the Doctor is opening the hatch he asks what happened between Amy and Rory. She says that they just split up and there is nothing he can do to fix it. Beneath the hatch is a long shaft with a rope ladder leading down. Just then, the Doctor notices the corpses on a viewscreen showing him Amy's wrist protector. She asks what will happen to her without it.

 

Rory examines one of the Daleks, moving its eye section. He is perturbed when it swings back into its original position. As he steps back he bumps a metal rod. The sound causes a number of Daleks to wake up. The one in front of him says, "Eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eggs." Looking at the floor, Rory sees one of the spheres is missing from the Dalek's body and picks it up. He asks if this is the egg. The Dalek replies, "Eggs-term-in-ate. Exterminate." The other Daleks take up this refrain. As they start to shoot, Rory rolls past them looking for a way out. Oswin's voice tells him to run to the door at the end. As he approaches it opens and then closes as he slides through, locking the Daleks out.

 

Oswin introduces herself and asks his name. When he tells her she says the first boy she fancied was called Rory before changing her mind and saying it was a girl called Nina. She adds that she is just flirting to keep him cheerful.

 

As Amy descends the ladder she asks what is happening to her. The Doctor tells her she is being rewritten by nano-genes. The physical changes will come later but her mind is already being affected. When she asks how he knows this he tells her that this is the fourth time they have had this conversation. She says she is scared and he tells her to hang onto this: scared isn't Dalek.

 

Oswin guides Rory to a safe place and then contacts the Doctor. She tells him she is ending him a map to get him to Rory's location. While she does this, Amy steps through another door and finds herself in a chamber where people are laughing and dancing. The Doctor runs after her but she says it is safe, there are only people there. He tells her to look again; the nano-cloud is affecting her perception. This time she realises they are actually Daleks, some of them revolving on the spot. One of the Daleks follows them as they run out and corners them. It tries to exterminate them but its gun won't work. The Doctor tells it to access its files to see who he is. It recognises him as the Predator. He tells it to follow its standing orders. Knowing it must kill him it begins to self destruct. The Doctor uses his screwdriver to send it in reverse and it blows up in the chamber containing the other Daleks, killing them all.

 

Rory runs into the chamber and surveys the damage. He asks, "Who killed all the Daleks?" the Doctor enters, carrying Amy. He says, "Who do you think?" Rory bends over her and asks if she remembers him. She slaps him. Oswin is worried that she is so angry - this seems to be the start of the conversion. Amy sits up and observes that "Somebody has never been to Scotland."

 

The Doctor is full of questions. Why hasn't Oswin been converted? How can a junior entertainments officer hack the systems of the most advanced warrior race the universe has ever seen? More than that, he wonders where she gets the milk for her soufflés. He then says that his plan is to defeat the Daleks, rescue Oswin and repair Amy and Rory's marriage. Amy says that she can count three lost causes. The Doctor tells Oswin that as soon as the force-field is turned off the Daleks in the ship above will burn the planet with them on it. He asks if Oswin can turn off the force field. She asks why she would do that. He tells her that he can boost the internal teleport to take them back to the Dalek ship. Oswin tells him that she will only drop the force-field once he has come to rescue her.

 

After the Doctor has rigged the teleport he tells Rory to go without him if he has to. He tells Amy that the nano-genes are extracting love from her and her best defence is to not let them. After the Doctor has gone, Rory tries to give his wristband to Amy, saying that he has more love than her. He says he has always loved her more than she has loved him. She slaps him and says that she didn't kick him out but she let him go because he wants children and since Demons Run she hasn't been able to have children. Rory still tries to give her his wristband only to find that she is wearing the Doctor's. She says that he is a Time Lord and probably doesn't need it.

 

When the Doctor arrives at Oswin's door he finds the most damaged Daleks, mentally. She tells him that they are the survivors of particular wars; Spiridon, Kembel, Aridius, Vulcan, Exxilon. The Doctor notes that these were all Daleks who survived him. They come to life, intoning "Doc-tor." Oswin thinks this is weird, these Daleks never wake up. The Daleks close in on the Doctor, trapping him against a door. As he screams for help, Oswin hacks the Daleks' telepathic web and makes them forget the Doctor. They withdraw in silence. Oswin opens the final door.

 

She tells him to come in and rescue her and show her the stars. The Doctor is aghast. He is not looking at a girl but a Dalek. He tells her she is living a dream because the truth is too terrible. After she escaped down the rope ladder she was transformed into a Dalek but because she was a genius they did a full conversion. Oswin finally recognises the truth. He says that the clue was the milk and the eggs to make the soufflés. She hears the word 'eggs' and starts to say "Eggs-term-in ate!" Just as the Doctor fears for his life she begins to sob. She asks him why the Daleks hate him so much. They have grown stronger because they fear him. He says he knows and he tried to stop. She tells him to run because she has turned off the planet's force-field. As he turns to go she declares, "I am Oswin Oswald. I fought the Daleks and I am human. Remember me."

 

Explosions begin and Rory asks how long they can wait. Amy tells him they will wait the rest of their lives and they kiss. The Doctor arrives and tells them they are good top go. Neither of them responds so he presses the button. As the Dalek missiles hit and the planet explodes they teleport away.

 

On the ship, the Daleks report the Asylum is destroyed but they are under attack via teleport. The Doctor steps out of the TARDIS saying he is so good he can teleport with pinpoint accuracy. The Daleks ask who he is. He tells them he is the Doctor, the Oncoming Storm, and the Predator. Darla says that titles are meaningless and asks who he really is. This is when the Doctor realises he has been wiped from the minds of all of the Daleks. As he steps back into the TARDIS the Daleks begin a chorus of "Doctor who? Doctor who?"

 

He drops Amy and Rory off at home where they enter their house together. The Doctor dances around his TARDIS console, chanting "Doctor who! Doctor who!"

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

A number of previous Dalek stories are mentioned, particularly when referring to the 'Intensive Care' Daleks outside Oswin's door. Oswin mentions Spiridon (Planet of the Daleks), Aridius (The Chase), Vulcan (Power of the Daleks), Exxilon (Death to the Daleks) and Kembel (The Daleks' Master Plan).

Amy and Rory's marital troubles are hinted at in Pond Life part five.

 

 

 

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Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Caroline Skinner

Written by Chris Chibnall

Directed by Saul Metzstein

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Riann Steele (Queen Nefertiti), Sunetra Sarker (Indira), Rupert Graves (Riddell), Mark Williams (Brian Williams), David Bradley (Solomon), Noel Byrne (Robot 1), Richard Garaghty (Robot 2), Richard Hope (Bleytal), Rudi Dharmalingam (ISA worker), David Mitchell (Voice of Robot 1), Robert Webb (Voice of Robot 2).

 

The Time Lord is asked to stop an unmanned spaceship hurtling toward Earth, so he assembles a crack team of helpers - an Egyptian queen, a big-game hunter and the Ponds, plus one. But once on board, they are amazed to find the ancient vessel is carrying live cargo in the shape of dinosaurs. How did the prehistoric creatures get there?

Original Broadcast (UK)

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship    September 8th, 2012               7h35pm - 8h20pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

Egypt, 1334 BC. The Doctor is entering his TARDIS, saying farewell to Nefertiti and apologising for the mess. She refuses to let him go after what they have been through together: a giant alien locust attack. Suddenly he picks up a temporal newsfeed on his mobile phone.

 

In the HQ of the Indian Space Agency, in the year 2367, he is briefed that a craft about the size of Canada is heading towards Earth. He looks at some of the readings taken from the craft and is very interested. He says he knows somebody who would also want to take a look, and the ponds. Nefertiti looks at him quizzically. She asks if there has been any communication with the craft. The ISA officer, Indira, says there has been nothing but if the craft gets within 10,000 kilometres of Earth they are going to send up missiles. This gives them about six hours. The Doctor grabs Neffy (as he calls her) and runs.

 

The Doctor goes to the African plains in 1902 and picks up John Riddell, a big game hunter. Riddell is surprised to see the Doctor: he left seven months earlier to get some liquorice, leaving Riddell with two dancers.

 

Rory's dad is up a stepladder checking a bulb. Amy and Rory stand nearby, when the TARDIS suddenly materialises around all three of them. The Doctor is blustering around in the console room, oblivious to Rory and Amy's annoyance and the newcomer he has picked up. He hops over to the future and the incoming space ship.

 

When they step out into a dusty and web-strewn concourse, the Doctor is puzzled by the presence of spiders. He then rounds on Brian, demanding to know who he is. When Rory explains that it is his dad, the Doctor turns his anger on Rory until he remembers that he materialised around them. He then becomes welcoming and apologetic. Rory quickly explains to his dad that, far from going to Thailand for their honeymoon, he and Amy travel through space and time in a police box. Amy tells the Doctor it is ten months since he visited and she wonders if Riddell and Nefertiti are the new companions. The Doctor says that he just felt he needed a gang for this mission.

 

A lift begins to descend to their floor. When the door opens two huge dinosaurs rush out. The Doctor is delighted. As everybody else runs for cover he stands in their way, saying "Dinosaurs. On a spaceship."

 

Dinosaurs on a Space Ship

(drn:45'16")

The whole party flee through the spaceship, eventually hiding in an alcove. Riddell wants to kill the dinosaurs but the Doctor tells him they are there to preserve them. Rory wonders whose space ship it is. Unknown to them, they are being observed on a screen somewhere within the ship. Brian asks if the dinosaurs are flying the space ship. The Doctor replies that would be ridiculous; they are probably passengers.

 

The Doctor, Brian and Rory locate a screen that allows them to look at the ship's systems. The Doctor mentions that they need to get to the engines. All three of them promptly find themselves on a beach. Brian loses his temper with the Doctor and demands to know where they are. Rory explains that his dad is a nervous traveller, who only goes to golf and the paper shop, while the Doctor sticks out his tongue and tastes the air. He says that it is too metallic to be Earth. Rory notices that the beach is humming so the Doctor tells them to dig while he looks at the rocks. Brian produces a trowel from his pocket ("What sort of man doesn't carry a trowel?") and digs down to find a metal floor beneath the sand.

 

The mysterious observer notes that Rory shouted "Doctor!" and demands the newcomers brought to him.

 

Amy tells Riddell to stop drinking from his flask. He says that he doesn't take orders from females but Nefertiti says if he speaks to her that way then she will have him executed. Amy asks her who she is and, learning she is the queen of ancient Egypt is duly impressed. Nefertiti asks if Amy is a queen. She replies that she is Rory's queen but not to repeat that to him. It is then that they realise they have blundered into a T.Rex nest. They tiptoe away.

 

The Doctor is overjoyed to find a screen in the rocks that tells him they are still aboard the ship and that it is powered by the waves. The problem is that it will take too long to shut down the engines. Added to that, a flock of pterodactyls is closing in. The three of them run to the safety of a cave. This turns out to be the entrance to a tunnel down which two large robots are coming. The robots say they are very cross with the Doctor. They lead him and his party through the ship, letting slip that they have been aboard for two thousand years. On the way they meet a triceratops which is very affectionate towards Brian. He gets rid of it by throwing a golf ball for it to chase.

 

Amy finds a screen and accesses the ship's data records. She learns that she is aboard a Silurian ship, built to take a cohort of people, in cryogenic suspension, away from the predicted impact of an asteroid on Earth. It is an arc, carrying fifty species of animals, too. Riddell asks where the Silurians have gone. Amy uses the computer to find that they have apparently left the ship. When she looks to see what has changed since the ship set off she finds another ship is aboard.

 

This is where the Doctor is led to. He enters a room where Schubert's "Fantasia" is playing. He comments that he played on this piece. He finds an injured old man called Solomon who assumes he is a medical doctor able to heal his legs after an encounter with three raptors. The Doctor says that he will repair Solomon's legs if he explains where he got the dinosaurs from. Solomon's response is to tell the robots to injure Brian. One of them shoots him in the shoulder. Solomon says that he doesn't like questions and if the Doctor doesn't heal him the next shot will be fatal. Rory uses some medicine he picked up on his travels to heal Brian. Amy rings him and tells him to let the Doctor know that they are on a Silurian vessel.

 

Solomon says that he acquired the ship and is transporting it to the Roxborne Peninsula, a commercial colony. The Doctor realises that a purple light that scanned him was to see who he was and how much he was worth. However, the result is that the Doctor apparently doesn't exist, the first time this has happened, says Solomon.

 

Just as the Doctor finishes fixing the old man's legs, Rory passes his phone through. Amy tells him what she has found out. The Doctor asks Solomon what happened to the Silurians. Solomon says that the robots woke them a handful at a time while he offered them a price for the dinosaurs. When they refused to sell they were ejected into space, thousands of them. The Doctor wonders why a ship going to the Roxborne Peninsula is heading for Earth. He then realises that the ship set a course for home when its crew left and Solomon can't over-ride it. He adds that the ship is targeted by missiles but Solomon is sceptical.

 

The Doctor leaves the room, telling the robots that they are wanted inside. He takes Rory and Brian to the triceratops and leaps on its back. Brian throws a golf ball for it to follow and they make their escape while the robots follow very slowly, shooting inaccurately. The triceratops deposits them near some screens where an incoming message from Indira tells them that they are entering the earth's atmosphere and the missiles are about to be launched.

 

Riddell finds some tranquiliser guns. He begins to partake in some crude flirting with Nefertiti. Elsewhere, Solomon and the robots arrive beside the Doctor. Solomon believes in the missiles but realises he will have to leave on his own ship which means losing the dinosaurs. However, he plans to take Nefertiti instead, since his IV device has told him who she is and how much she is worth. The Doctor refuses to hand her over but to prove his ruthlessness Solomon has one of his robots kill the triceratops. This whole encounter has been watched by Amy and her group via a screen. Nefertiti demands to be teleported in with her friends and hands herself over to Solomon.

 

The Doctor and Riddell try to stop her but she is determined, even when Solomon makes suggestive remarks. He teleports, with her, back to his ship. The Doctor accesses the controls and magnetises Solomon's ship so that he can't escape. However, he needs two people from the same gene chain to steer the Silurian ship away from Earth. Brian points out that he and Rory can do the job. While they take the controls, the Doctor and Amy work on the machinery. As they do, they talk. Amy says that she can't settle to anything in her life: she is always worrying that the Doctor will never return. He says that she will, outlive him but when she says it could be the other way round he gives her a meaningful look and kisses her forehead. The Doctor removes a green cube from the controls while Amy and Riddell step outside with guns to hold off a raptor attack.

 

Brian and Rory exultantly steer the ship away from Earth but the missiles are still locked on. The Doctor teleports onto Solomon's ship and incapacitates the robots. He tells Solomon that the missiles are locked onto the cube which he places on a table. Solomon threatens to kill Nefertiti but she overpowers him, saying she is nobody's possession. The Doctor tells Solomon to look at the missiles and think how valuable they are; he adds that they are all Solomon's. The Doctor leads Nefertiti back to the Silurian ship and releases the magnetic clamps. Solomon's ship breaks away and is destroyed by the missiles.

 

The Doctor says it is time to drop the dinosaurs off but Amy and Rory say that they would rather go home for a couple of months. Brian asks a favour before that. There is a cut to a shot of the TARDIS orbiting the Earth while Brian sits in the doorway, looking at the planet below. Amy and Rory join him while the Doctor stands behind, looking at them wistfully.

 

Back on the African plains, Riddell looks up at the stars. Nefertiti steps out of his tent, holding a rather large Silurian weapon.

 

Rory tries to fix a light bulb. Amy enters with another postcard from Brian. She puts it beside other cards from Rio, Pisa and the Taj Mahal. The new card shows a picture of the TARDIS and some dinosaurs and is labelled "Siluria".

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

Once again, the programme features a piece of nineteenth century classical music which the Doctor claims to have played on.

 

 

 

 

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A Town Called Mercy

Logo

 

 

 

Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Caroline Skinner

Written by Toby Whitehouse

Directed by Saul Metzstein

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Ben Browder (Isaac), Adrian Scarborough (Kahler-Jex), Dominic Kemp (Kahler-Mas), Rob Cavazos (Walter), Joanne McQuinn (Sadie), Andrew Brooke (The Gunslinger), Garrick Hagon (Abraham), Byrd Wilkins (The Preacher), Sean Benedict (Dockery).

 

The time-travelling companions arrive in a Wild West town where the residents are being terrorised by a cyborg killing machine. The relentless gunslinger will stop at nothing until it has terminated the remaining name on its hit list - and unfortunately for the Time Lord, it turns out to be targeting an alien doctor.

Original Broadcast (UK)

A Town Called Mercy September 15th, 2012            7h35pm - 8h20pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

A town called Mercy

 

A woman's voice tells of a man who lived forever; a man who fell from the stars.

 

A robot drone crosses the desert and is terminated by a cyborg. A wounded alien faces the cyborg who tells him to make peace with his gods. The alien asks if he is the last but the cyborg tells him that there is one more: the 'doctor'.

 

A Town Called Mercy

(drn:44'19")

The Doctor stands outside a Western town called Mercy. A wooden sign says that it has a population of 81. Another sign says, "Keep Out". Rory points out this latter but the Doctor says he treats such things as suggestions rather than orders. Th town is encircled by a line of wood and stones. The Doctor steps over it and, followed by Amy and Rory, walks down the main street. A flickering street lamp attracts his attention: it is ten years before such a thing was invented.

 

They seem to be attracting angry glares from people on the street. When they enter the saloon, silence falls. The Doctor introduces himself. Someone asks if he is an alien Doctor. He agrees that he is. The occupants of the saloon rise up and grab the newcomers and bundle them to the edge of town. The Doctor is pushed over the boundary of wood and stones.

 

The cyborg appears in the distance and strides purposefully towards the Doctor. He shimmers out of existence and then reappears a few strides further on. The Doctor moves back towards the townsfolk but they pull out their guns and point them at him. The cyborg shimmers into existence a few strides nearer. The town marshal fires a shot into the air and tells the Doctor to get back across the line. As soon as the Doctor steps over the boundary the cyborg vanishes.

 

One of the townspeople says that he is an alien Doctor, "It could be him." the Marshal, Isaac, says, "You know it ain't." The Doctor follows the marshal back to the town jail. He asks what is going on. Isaac tells him that The Gunslinger appeared three weeks ago demanding the alien doctor. It was he who put the boundary round the town and nobody has been allowed in or out since. He throws a Stetson to the Doctor: it has a hole through the crown. He says that it was a warning shot to prevent anyone leaving. The plan is to starve the town until they give up the doctor.

 

Rory says that nobody could have known that the Doctor would be there because even they thought they were going to the Day of the Dead festival in Mexico. The Doctor blames their failure to arrive on toast crumbs on the console. He then sits down to work out what is happening. He says that the alien Doctor must be resident 81 in the town because the sign was recently altered. He must therefore be much loved and probably brought the electricity. If Isaac knew that the Doctor wasn't the alien then he must know who it is and where he is.

 

At this point a figure in the jail cell sits up and says it is time to end the subterfuge. He is a small, bespectacled man, apparently middle-aged. He has a distinctive tattoo on his face. He introduces himself as Kahler-Jex. The Doctor is delighted to see him, saying that the Kahler are the most ingenious race in the galaxy. Jex says that his craft crashed a mile outside town. When Isaac and the other residents pulled him from the wreckage he decided to repay them by becoming the town doctor: he was a surgeon on his own planet. Isaac says that he also saved them from a cholera outbreak. He adds that Jex provided the town with heat and electric light by using his ship as a generator.

 

When the Doctor asks what the Gunslinger wants, Isaac interjects. He says that it doesn't matter and that everybody deserves a second chance. He adds that the war only ended five years ago and there is still a lot of violence under the surface. He says that if they give up Jex, they will be opening the door to chaos.

 

The Doctor wonders why Jex didn't repair his spaceship. Jex says that it was too badly damaged. The Doctor then says he will pop out to the TARDIS and bring it back. He can then take Jex home. Isaac asks how he will get past the Gunslinger.

 

The plan is simple. Isaac (dressed in Jex's clothes) and Rory run out of town to distract the Gunslinger while the Doctor borrows the preacher's horse and rides out the other way. The preacher says that his horse is called Joshua but the Doctor says that he speaks horse and the horse is called Susan and wants the preacher to respect his life choices.

 

Amy is left with Jex. She wonders if he wants to return home. He says he has given everything he could to his people and welcomed the chance to start afresh on a new world. He notes that Amy is a mother; he can see it in her eyes. She asks if he is a father and he smiles, saying that in some ways he is.

 

As the Doctor rides into the desert he sees a cable and follows it to Jex's ship which seems remarkably undamaged. He uses his screwdriver to enter the ship. The internal alarm sounds, giving him ten seconds to enter a pass-code or the vehicle will self destruct. He manages to over-ride it before it reaches seven.

 

The alarm rings out across the desert. Jex realises that the Doctor is in his ship and isn't following the plan. It also draws the Gunslinger's attention away from his quarry. The Doctor accesses Jex's personal files and watches a harrowing sequence involving cyborg experiments, accompanied by much screaming on the soundtrack. As the Doctor leaves the craft he finds the Gunslinger outside, pointing his gun-arm at him. The Doctor says that he knows who Jex is and why the Gunslinger wants him. He doesn't understand why the Gunslinger hasn't entered the town to get him. The Gunslinger powers his weapon down and says that innocent people would get in the way. When the Doctor says they should return Jex for trial the Gunslinger says that when Jex starts to kill people on Earth they can use their system of justice. He adds that there will be no more warning shots and that the next person to leave town will be killed.

 

Amy finds herself at gunpoint, too. Jex has a revolver at her head. He says that certain truths may have been discovered and Isaac may not be so protective. He adds that, by taking Amy with him, he may be safer because the Gunslinger is less likely to shoot if innocent people could be hurt. Isaac returns with Rory and puts a gun to Jex's head.

 

Jex tries to say that he was leaving to get everybody else out of danger but the Doctor returns and explains that Jex is lying: he was responsible for murder. Jex argues that he is a war hero but the Doctor tells how Jex and his team took volunteer soldiers and fused them with weaponry to create a cyborg force. Jex says that a nine year war had killed half of the population on the planet. His cyborgs ended the war in a week. He argues that the morals of peacetime are not those of war and he refuses to repent. He goes on to say that when the cyborgs were decommissioned at the end of the war one of them went rogue and hunted down the team that created until only two were left. They fled but the Gunslinger has tracked them to Earth. Jex is the sole survivor.

 

Rory asks what to do with him: he is clearly a war criminal. Isaac argues that he saved the town from cholera. Amy asks when they started to execute people and turns to the Doctor who stands undecided. Jex looks at the Doctor and says that they are similar except the Doctor doesn't have the nerve to do what is needed to save his people. Suddenly, the Doctor bursts into life. He says they need to save the town and pushes Jex out to the border.

 

The townsfolk follow and when Jex tries to get back across the line the Doctor takes one of their guns and points it at him. Amy, too, grabs a gun and points at the Doctor. When the Doctor says she won't shoot she says that she's not sure, she may have been taking stupid lessons since they last met. She asks when the Doctor changed and decided that killing someone was an option. The Doctor says it is time to look after the victims; every time he shows mercy (to the Daleks, the Master) they come back and kill again. Amy says that the Doctor has been travelling alone too long and that they have to be better than Jex.

 

Realising she is right, the Doctor tells Jex to step back. However, the Gunslinger appears behind Jex and tells him to make peace with his gods. Jex tells him that he recognises the cyborg as Kahler-Tek. He says he remembers the names of all the cyborgs. He pleads that he has changed and is helping people. The Gunslinger pulls the trigger but Isaac flings himself at Jex, saving his life but taking the shot at point blank range. As he dies, Isaac tells the Doctor to save Jex and look after the town. He presses his badge into the Doctor's hand.

 

The Doctor tells two men to take Jex to his cell. He then tells the Gunslinger that things have gone on too long. The Gunslinger agrees and warns the town that if Jex is not given to him by noon the next day he will kill everybody.

 

The preacher arrives at the jail and tells the Doctor to go outside, adding that he should wear his gun belt. When the Doctor steps outside, a group of the townsfolk ask him to take a walk while they get Jex. The Doctor tells them that if he were to do that then Isaac's death would be meaningless. He adds that Jex might not be worth it but the townspeople are and he would hate to see someone as young as eighteen turned into a killer.

 

Later, Jex explains his guilt to the Doctor. The Doctor says that he thinks Jex has chosen his own punishment, exile on a backward world, because it is easier to confront than a trial on his own planet. Jex says that it would be easier to condemn him if he were merely a mad scientist who created a monster. He says that he believes when he dies he will have to carry the souls of all those he has harmed up a mountain. He doubts if he could be so strong. The Doctor says that they all carry their prisons with them. This gives the Doctor an idea.

 

The next day, when the Gunslinger arrives at high noon, the Doctor goes out to face him. Instead of drawing a gun, the Doctor produces a sonic blast from his screwdriver that distracts the Gunslinger. The Doctor has arranged for the townsfolk to wear paint in the shape of Jex's facial markings. While the Gunslinger tries to get a fix on the correct target they race between the buildings. This provides a distraction for Jex to get out of town and back to his ship. He does so while the Gunslinger is stalking through a terrified crowd in the chapel.

 

The self-destruct countdown begins when Jex enters his ship and he halts it with the pass-code. The Gunslinger, back in town, finds the Doctor. The Doctor tells him Jex is about to leave. Instead, Jex broadcasts to the Gunslinger, asking him if he will return home after all of this is over. The Gunslinger says he can't: he is a monster. Jex says that he is, too. He realises that Kahler-Tek will chase him wherever he goes and more innocents will be hurt. After a moment's reflection he decides that he needs to end the war. He restarts the ship's self-destruct sequence and is killed when his ship blows up.

 

The Gunslinger is ready to self-destruct out of town, saying that he is a creature of war with no place in a time of peace. The Doctor suggests it could be his role to preserve peace.

 

The Doctor offers Amy and Rory a chance to find out where all the animals sent up in the first rockets into space ended up. They decline his invitation.

 

The Gunslinger remains outside the town, Isaac's marshal's badge pinned to his clothes. The voiceover from the start of the programme is revealed to be the great granddaughter of the little girl in Mercy at the time. She says that they don't need a sheriff or a marshal for they have their own guardian angel from the stars.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

The Doctor mentions he is 1200 years old.

For the second episode running the Doctor makes a reference to his Christmas list.

As with the first two episodes in this series, there are point of view shots from the perspective of a machine). As with the first two episodes, flickering light bulbs are featured throughout.

The Doctor refers to Daleks and the Master.

 

 

 

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The Power of Three

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Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Caroline Skinner

Written by Chris Chibnall

Directed by Douglas Mackinnon

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Mark Williams (Brian Williams), Steven Berkoff (Shakri), Stephen Blything (Henry), Jemma Redgrave (Kate Stewart), Selva Rasalingham (Ranjit), Alice O'Connell (Laura).

 

Earth is invaded by millions of sinister-looking black cubes - but what is their purpose and who sent them? To find out the Doctor is forced to play a waiting game, so moves in with Amy and Rory, but soon drives them up the wall.

Original Broadcast (UK)

The Power of Three     September 22nd, 2012           7h30pm - 8h15pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

Amy reminisces about life with the Doctor (a rapid collage of some of their adventures ensues) before we see that she and Rory have gone back to their own lives and are getting by without the Doctor. They sit in the garden, talking about the difference between their two lifestyles: with and without the Doctor. Suddenly, the TARDIS can be heard materialising. They look at one another and decide that the Doctor is getting in the way of their lives. They decide not to go with him. That night, as they sleep, a black cube materialises beside their bed and settles on the bedside table. It is the year the Doctor came to stay; the year of the slow invasion.

 

The Power of Three

(drn:41'22")

The next morning, at half past six, Rory's dad Brian, wakes them up to tell them that billions of featureless black cubes have appeared everywhere in the world. The street is full of them. While Amy and Rory join Brian in the street, Amy notices the Doctor in the playground opposite, examining a cube. The news channels, too, are full of the story. Some speculate that it is a stealth marketing campaign while experts like Professor Brian Cox declare they are not space debris. They are lifeless and resistant to any kind of testing the Doctor has tried so he takes the TARDIS into the Ponds' house and decides to use their kitchen to cook the cubes.

 

Rory starts to get dressed for work. The Doctor is amazed that he has a job. Amy tells him they both work: Rory is still a nurse and she writes articles on travel. Amy tells the Doctor that she has been travelling with him, on and off, for about ten years. She is almost thirty. As they speak, a UNIT detachment, led by their scientific advisor, Kate Stewart (daughter of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), arrives at the Ponds' house after an energy spike gives away the position of the TARDIS. Kate recognises the Doctor by his dress sense and a hand held x-ray device that shows his two hearts. She explains that UNIT are baffled by the cubes, too. She has heated them, dropped them from a helicopter and run a tank over them. They remain invulnerable. The Doctor suggests that the cubes arrived in plain sight and may want to be observed so he suggests observing them.

 

The Doctor waits for four days but, when the cubes remain inert, he gets bored. He spends a frantic period of hyper-activity vacuuming the carpet, painting a fence, fixing the car and so on. When he finds that only one hour has passed he re-enters the TARDIS, only to find Rory's dad still in there, where the Doctor left him, watching the cubes. He puts Brian in charge of watching the cubes for him while he goes off in the TARDIS. He says he will stay in touch via the news feeds from Earth and offers Amy and Rory the chance to come with him but they decline.

 

October comes. Amy agrees to be her friend's bridesmaid. Rory agrees to go full time at work. Later, they discuss this and admit how much they like the idea of normal life. Meanwhile, Brian is keeping a video diary of the cubes. 67 days in and the cube remains inactive.

 

December: unknown to the world, a little girl at the hospital where Rory is a nurse, has one of the black cubes, which glows with an eerie blue light. It seems to control two medics with bizarre facial disfigurements. They are kidnapping patients.

 

Summer returns. Amy and Rory are celebrating their anniversary with a barbecue. Nine months have passed since the cubes arrived. The Doctor arrives during that time and takes Amy and Rory to 26th June 1890 and the Savoy Hotel in Paris. He wishes them a happy anniversary and promises them there will be no complications. He is soon apologising for the Zygon ship that was under the hotel and the fact that half the staff were alien imposters. Their next trip takes them to Henry VIII's court. They end up hiding under a bed after Amy mistakenly marries the king.

 

The Doctor returns them to their own time. Brian realises that they have been gone (they are only away from the barbecue for a few minutes) because they have returned in different clothes. The Doctor admits that they were gone for seven weeks because he got sidetracked. Brian asks the Doctor what happened to his other companions and the Doctor admits that some leave, some are left behind and some die. He promises that this will not happen to Amy and Rory.

 

Later that night, the Doctor asks if he can stay with Amy and Rory to keep an eye on the cubes. She says that she thought he would get bored but he says that he will be better at it this time. Hesitantly, he tells her that he misses her. She smiles.

 

Brian finishes his log for day 361 and drops off to sleep. As he does so, the cube spins around. One in the bathroom spikes Amy and takes her pulse. Another one opens in front of Rory and a fourth interrupts the Doctor's game of tennis on the Wii by firing laser bolts at him before it starts to surf the internet.

 

Rory is summoned to the hospital to help with an inrush of patients who have been attacked by the cubes. He takes Brian with him. The Doctor heads off to a secret UNIT base beneath the tower of London after Kat sends a message to his psychic paper. He takes Amy with him. There, they find that the cubes are all behaving individually: some create mood swings; one plays the "Birdie Song"; others have breached national security around the world. After 47 minutes, the cubes stop.

 

The Doctor and Amy go to get some fresh air outside. He tells her that he knows she and Rory are planning an end to their travels with him. He tells her that he keeps coming back to her because hers was the first face his incarnation saw. He wants to be with her before she fades away from him. Amy asks him not to be nice to her but he tells her that she always gets what she wants. It dawns on him that the cubes, too, have got what they wanted.

 

He returns to Kate and tells her that the cubes have scanned the whole planet and its inhabitants. They now have enough knowledge to attack. The best defence is to warn everyone to keep away from the cubes. Suddenly, the cubes all begin to show a blue number seven on their sides. The seven becomes a six. As the warnings are broadcast, the countdown continues.

 

In the hospital, Brian is snatched by the two disfigured men and wheeled away on a trolley. Rory sees them and chases down a long corridor into an elevator. The elevator is empty but one wall is a portal through to a spaceship above the Earth. As Rory steps through he sees a number of people unconscious on beds.

 

The Doctor enters a sealed booth to talk to a cube. It reaches zero in its countdown and then opens: inside, it is empty. Screens in the control room show CCTV pictures from around the world. People are receiving massive electrical shocks from the cubes and having heart attacks. The Doctor, too, receives a shock and one of his hearts stops. A scan he set running earlier reveals seven sites around the world where signals are originating, controlling the cubes. He recognises that these are being controlled from space via wormholes. The nearest is the hospital where Rory works.

 

The Doctor arrives in the hospital and notices that the little girl with the cube is giving off strange signals. He recognises her as an outlier droid. He disables her but before he can go on he begins to collapse. Amy uses a defibrillator to restart his other heart and the two find the wormhole portal in the lift. With a smile, they step through onto the space ship.

 

Seeing Rory and Brian unconscious, the Doctor and Amy revive them. Rory and Amy wheel Brian back through the portal and then rejoin the Doctor. He is confronting a member of the Shakri, a race of people the Doctor thought were a myth. According to Gallifreyan legend, they serve the Tally, as 'pest controllers' of the universe. The Shakri says that he has come to erase humanity before they spread like a contagion out into the stars. The Doctor argues that humanity is full of ingenuity and hope.

 

The Shakri vanishes: he was only the ship's interface. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to use the cubes to restart the hearts of all those who 'died'. The energy released destroys the seven wormholes and the three of them leap through the portal just in time.

 

Back at the Ponds' house, after a celebration dinner, the Doctor makes ready to leave, saying that he knows the others cannot go with them. Brian says that Amy and Rory want to (must) go with him. The Doctor invites Brian, too, but he says that somebody must stay to water the plants. The Doctor and his friends enter the TARDIS, wave and leave.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

The Doctor, Amy, and Rory eat fish fingers and custard (The Eleventh Hour).

Amy and Rory's stay at the newly opened Savoy hotel is ruined by "a Zygon spaceship parked under the Savoy" (Terror of the Zygons).

 

 

The Angels Takes Manhattan

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Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Caroline Skinner

Written by Steven Moffat

Directed by Nick Hurran

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Alex Kingston (River Song), Mike McShane (Grayle), Rob David (Sam Garner), Ozzie Yue (Foreman), Bentley Kalu (Hood), Burnell Tucker (Old Garner).

 

New York's statues come to life, and with Rory in grave danger, the Doctor and Amy face a race against time to locate him. Luckily, an old friend has come up with a novel way to guide them.

Original Broadcast (UK)

The Angels Takes Manhattan               September 29th, 2012            7h20pm - 8h05pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

A gangster by the name of Grayle employs Garner, a private eye, to go to Winter Quay, where there are stories of living statues. Garner is sceptical but will believe anything for twenty five dollars a day plus expenses. He arrives in the night to find a little girl in the building opposite apparently hiding her eyes (or copying a Weeping Angel's pose.) One of the statues outside the building moves from its plinth.

 

Garner makes his way through the building until he finds a room with his name on it. He finds an old man who claims to be him and who warns him that he is about to be sent back in time. Angels close in on him but he manages to escape them and reaches the roof. There, he comes face to face with the Statue of Liberty, a giant Weeping Angel.

 

The Angels Takes Manhattan

(drn:44'20")

In contemporary New York, the Doctor and the Ponds are picnicking in Central Park. The Ponds are growing irritated by the Doctor who is reading aloud from a detective novel by Melody Malone. The Doctor notices that Amy now wears reading glasses. He tells her that they make her eyes look "all liney" and then realises that this is not an effect of the glasses. Rory goes off to get coffee and Amy asks the Doctor to read her a story. Before he does, he rips out the last page in the book, telling her that he hates endings and that, without the last page, the story goes on forever.

 

Returning with the coffee, Rory hears the sound of children giggling. A cherub on a fountain disappears and the laughter seems nearer.

 

The Doctor pauses in his reading when the narrator of the story confronts a skinny guy who is getting coffee for the Doctor and Amy. He greets her as "River". Amy asks the Doctor where he got the novel but he says he just found it in his pocket.

 

Rory finds himself in night-time New York with River Song (or Melody Malone), being bundled into a car by two men with guns. The Doctor and Amy run back to the TARDIS and Amy consults the novel which tells her that all this happened on 3rd April, 1938. It also says that landing in 1938 New York is impossible due to severe time distortions. Outraged, the Doctor tries the trip anyway but is returned to 2012. He lands in a cemetery. Amy consults the novel and finds that the Doctor is going to break something but he tells her to stop reading because knowledge of the future can lead to events becoming fixed in time. If Rory dies in the book he will be dead in life. He tells her that once something has been read it is written in stone. As he and Amy reenter the TARDIS, the camera pans across the graveyard and reveals Rory's gravestone.

 

River and Rory are driven to Grayle's mansion. On the way she tells Rory that she managed to get through the distortions by using a Vortex Manipulator, less bulky than a TARDIS. Rory isn't sure how he travelled. They are taken into the mansion, which is surrounded by Angels. In the novel, Melody comments on the gangster's collection of Qin Dynasty artifacts. The Doctor promptly returns to 221 BC, China, and has the message "Yowzah" painted onto a vase.

 

River is taken to Grayle's office, Rory is thrown into the basement with "the babies" and given a box of matches by Grayle's henchman, who tells him that he'll last longer with them, which is funnier (to him). Rory hears the giggling again and lights a match. He finds several cherubs are in the cellar with him. He lights more matches until one of the cherubs closes in on him and blows his match out.

 

River spots the word "Yowzah" on a vase and sends the same word to the Doctor via her manipulator. He receives it on the scanner and sets the TARDIS controls to lock onto her co-ordinates. River looks through Grayle's collection and draws aside a curtain to reveal a chained statue. It is damaged. Grayle says that he needed to know if they felt pain. River replies that they do, and the others are outside because they can hear this Angel's screams. Grayle says that "they" are everywhere, but no one seems to notice. Grayle turns off the lights and the Angel grabs River's wrist. Grayle says that River is going to tell him everything she knows about them.

 

The TARDIS lands and knocks Grayle off his feet. The Doctor steps out and surveys him before going over to River. She tells him that she has been released from prison because the Doctor apparently never existed; she adds that she is also now a professor. The Doctor tells River they have to break her wrist to get her free. She wonders why they can't break the Angel's but the Doctor tells her Amy read it in a book that River has yet to write.

 

River agrees that they mustn't read on but Amy suggests that they can read the chapter titles. Thus, she learns where Rory is and rushes off. As she leaves, the Doctor reads them too and sees the last chapter is l "Amelia's Final Farewell".

 

The basement is empty so Amy returns to the Doctor who is deep in thought, considering the alternatives. River joins him with her scanner, saying that she has traced Rory to Winter Quay, still in the same time as them. The Doctor is overjoyed to see River escaped without having to break her wrist to get free, but when he grabs her hand to take her to the TARDIS she grimaces in pain. He heals her wrist with some of his regeneration energy, which only makes River angry. She storms off, followed by Amy who asks River why she lied. River tells her that they should never let the Doctor see the damage, nor should they let him see them age: he hates endings. They take a car and drive off to Winter Quay, but leave the mansion's door open to the other angels.

 

They arrive at Winter Quay. Rory has been exploring on the same floor the detective earlier. Rory has found a room with his name on it. There is an Angel blocking the end of the corridor. As the others arrive Amy embraces Rory and they enter the room. Inside is an old man who calls to Amy. She recognises him as a very old Rory. As he holds her hand he dies. The Doctor tells Rory that this means the Angels will keep him there till he dies; he will live out his life alone in the room. The Angels, it seems, have built Winter Quay as a battery farm so that they can feed at will. Rory says that he will run away. The Doctor says that he can't escape a future that is already written but River says that, if he can get away a paradox is created, the farm will be poisoned and the Angels will die.

 

Amy and Rory decide to make a run for it, but the Doctor and River are trapped in the room by the Angels. Amy and Rory find Angels blocking the way down the stairs so they run up to the roof. The Statue of Liberty is waiting for them. While Amy keeps it at bay by staring at it, Rory steps onto the parapet to commit suicide. Amy tries to stop him but he tells her that he always comes back from dying, convincing her to jump too. The Doctor and River reach the roof as they jump.

 

They find themselves in the cemetery in 2012 New York. The Angels are gone. The Doctor decides they can celebrate with a family outing. As they enter the TARDIS, Rory notices a gravestone with his name on it. He stops to look and vanishes, touched by a last surviving Angel. The Doctor tells Amy that he cannot go back to rescue Rory, re-entering New York at that period could destroy the city. Amy asks if she would be sent back to Rory if the angel touched her. The Doctor says that nobody knows but River tells Amy she should try. Amy and River hold hands for the last time. The Doctor pleads with Amy not to do it but she turns to him and says, "Raggedy Man, goodbye." The Angel touches her and she vanishes. The gravestone now holds Rory and Amy's names, saying they died aged 82 and 87 respectively.

 

In the TARDIS, the Doctor apologises to River because Amy and Rory were her parents. River says that it doesn't matter, but what is important is that he should not travel alone. He asks her to travel with him and River replies that she would be delighted to, just not all the time. She adds that "one psychopath per TARDIS" is more than enough. She goes up the stairs to start writing Melody Malone's book and says that she will send it to Amy to get it published. She adds that she will get Amy to write an afterword. The Doctor remembers that he tore out the last page and rushes back across New York to their picnic site. He reads Amy's message that tells him both she and Rory lived good lives and still love him. She also asks that he never travel by himself. Amy has a final request for him; he should go back to the morning she waited for him as a little girl and tell her younger self of their adventures together and about the man that she will fall in love with.

 

Young Amelia runs into the garden and sits on her suitcase to wait. She turns her head as the sound of the TARDIS is heard.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

The afterword Amy refers to The Beast Below, The Curse of the Black Spot, Vincent and the Doctor and The Big Bang.

River mentions that she was released from the Stormcage facility because the man she killed never existed: The Impossible Astronaut and The Wedding of River Song.

Rory refers to his long history of having died and coming back to life: Amy's Choice, Cold Blood, The Curse of the Black Spot, The Doctor's Wife.

The Private Detective, Garner, is probably a reference to Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, who was traditionally employed for twenty five dollars a day plus expenses and who was played by James Garner in the movie "Marlowe" (1969).

 

 

 

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P.S.

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Written by Chris Chibnall

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), Mark Williams (Brian Williams).

 

A letter that Rory sent to his father Brian explaining why he and Amy are not returning.

Notes:

P.S. is a mini-episode entirely realised in animated storyboards and set after the departure of Amy Pond and Rory Williams in The Angels Take Manhattan.

 

 

 

 

P.S.

(drn:0'54")

From the official BBC Doctor Who website. This mini episode begins with the scene at the end of the Power of Three and then proceeds through the unfilmed scene that follows, presented as a storyboard with a voiceover by Rory.

 

Brian tells Amy and Rory that they should travel with the Doctor and save worlds everywhere...

 

It is sunset and Brian is alone in Amy and Rory's house. He is watering the plants. There is a ring at the doorbell. When Brian opens the door there is a stranger there. He hands Brian a letter. Brian is perplexed and says that he doesn't understand; this isn't his house. He asks how this man managed to find him there.

 

The Man, who speaks with an American accent, tells him that the letter will explain everything and that he will wait. He steps past Brian, into the house. Brian looks at the envelope which says "Dad." He takes it through to the lounge to read it.

 

The letter, written by Rory, tells him that if the calculations are correct it is a week since they left in the TARDIS and that they are not coming back. They are trapped in New York, fifty years before Rory was born. He says that the letter will tell how they lived and how, despite it all, they were happy. First, it introduces Anthony, the man in the hall. He was adopted by Amy and Rory in 1946 and is Brian's grandson: Anthony Brian Williams. Rory goes on to tell Brian what a wonderful father he was as well as saying he knows how odd it must feel to have a grandson who is older than him.

 

Brian steps out into the hall. Anthony holds out his hand in greeting but Brian, stunned, steps past it and embraces him instead.

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

The Snowmen

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Executive Producers

Steven Moffat

Caroline Skinner

Written by Steven Moffat

Directed by Saul Metzstein

Incidental Music by Murray Gold

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Jenna-Louise Coleman (Clara Oswald), Richard E. Grant (Dr Simeon), Dan Starkey (Strax), Catrin Stewart (Jenny Flint), Neve McIntosh (Madame Vastra), Tom Ward (Captain Latimer), Liz White (Alice), Joseph Darcey-Alden (Digby), Ellie Darcey-Alden (Francesca), Sir Ian McKellen (The Great Intelligence), Juliet Cadzow (Voice of the Ice Governess), Jim Conway (Uncle Josh), Cameron Strefford (Young Walter), Annabelle Dowler (Walter's Mother), Ben Addis (Bob Chilcott), Daniel Hyde (Lead Worker), Sophie Miller-Sheen (Girl).

 

The Doctor is in mourning after losing Amy and Rory to the Weeping Angels and determined to avoid getting mixed up in the universe's problems. But a call for help whisks him back to Christmas Eve 1892, where a trio of old friends and a plucky young governess called Clara need him to take on a chilly menace that comes with the snowfall. Will he be persuaded to abandon his new life as a recluse and defend his beloved Earth once more?

Original Broadcast (UK)

The Snowmen               December 25th, 2012              5h15pm - 6h15pm

 

Notes:

None.

 

 

 

 

In the winter of 1842 a group of children are playing in the snow. Another boy stands apart, building a snowman. When he is asked if he wants to join the others he replies that he is happier alone. As the woman leaves, the boy calls her "silly". The snowman repeats his words. The boy turns to flee but the snowman tells him that it can help him. Intrigued, he asks how.

 

Fifty years later, Walter Simeon watches as men shovel snow into glass containers which are loaded into a wagon and taken to Simeon's Institute. Simeon takes one of the containers to a vast snow globe. The snowman's voice tells him that the swarm is coming and that humanity is nearing its end. It asks how he will keep his plans secret from his labourers. Simeon has a plan. Back at the snow site, one of the workers says that Simeon promised to feed them. Simeon agrees: he just didn't say who he would feed them to. An army of snowmen rise up, baring sharp teeth, and devour the men.

 

The Rose & Crown, a barmaid steps outside with a tray. She notices a snowman that wasn't there earlier. She asks the Doctor, who is passing through the alley, if he made it. The Doctor says no and continues walking but stops when she says it appeared out of nowhere. He returns and examines the snowman. He wonders if snow can remember how to build a snowman. The barmaid thinks this is silly which makes the Doctor smile. He asks her name: it is Clara. He remarks that this is a nice name and continues on his way.

 

Clara chases the Doctor down the alley and sees him getting into a carriage. She climbs onto the back. Inside the carriage the Doctor talks to Vastra on a phone. She tries to persuade him to resume his investigations of strange events. The Doctor replies that he has retired. Clara opens a hatch and leans in, asking "Doctor who?"

 

The Snowmen

(drn:59'41")

The Doctor hauls Clara into the carriage. She shouts to be let out. The Doctor examines the snow and asks Strax, who is driving the carriage, what he would look for after finding something that he's never seen before. Strax replies" a grenade". The Doctor tells Strax to fetch a memory worm to erase Clara's memory. Strax arrives without the worm; he forgot to wear the protective gauntlets. When Strax is sent under the carriage to get the worm he forgets the gauntlets again and thinks he's been run over. Amused, Clara gives the gauntlets to the Doctor, who replaces the memory worm into a jar.

 

Clara asks about the snowman as one suddenly erupts out of the snow. The Doctor asks Clara if she was thinking about it as more snowmen rise up. The Doctor says that the snow is sentient and reflects the thoughts of people near it. The Doctor tells Clara to imagine the snowmen melting. The Doctor cannot erase her memory now because she would forget how to defend herself. He orders her to forget him. He tells Strax to take her home but she sneaks out of the carriage and follows the Doctor.

 

He enters a park and pulls a ladder out of thin air above him. She lets him start his ascent and then pulls the ladder down and follows. She climbs enormously high to a platform. Leaning over, she waves to people below but they don't seem to see her. Clara continues up until she reaches the clouds where the TARDIS waits. She knocks on the door and hides round the side of the TARDIS as the Doctor leans out. While the Doctor looks for her, she runs back down the stairs. The Doctor finds a cloth that she dropped and watches her go.

 

The following day is Christmas Eve. Clara returns to her job as governess to the children of Captain Latimer, Franny and Digby. She uses the alias Miss Montague. Captain Latimer is having trouble connecting with his children and hopes Clara can communicate with them. He says that Franny seems troubled. When she goes to meet them they plead with her to use her secret voice (her real Cockney accent). The children tell her they prefer her to their last governess who drowned in their pond the previous year.

 

Dr Simeon arrives at the Latimer household to examine the frozen pond. Clara is perturbed but thinks the Doctor may be able to help her.

 

Clara returns to the park but can't reach the hidden ladder and shouts up to the Doctor. Jenny watches and then takes her to see Madame Vastra. Clara is bothered by Vastra's appearance but overcomes her qualms. Vastra tells her that she will pass a message on from Clara to the Doctor who is retired now after suffering a great loss. The problem is that the message may only be one word long. When the Doctor finds out that the word Clara gave was 'pond' he is intrigued enough to investigate. The Doctor goes to Dr Simeon's institute in the guise of Sherlock Holmes. He examines the glass sphere and observes a newspaper article about a governess who drowned in a pond. The Doctor deduces that Clara said 'pond' to warn him. While Simeon's servants break through the doors which the Doctor has locked the Doctor sneaks out.

 

He visits the Latimer home to examine the pond where the woman drowned. As he does so, he notices Clara waving through a window and decides to talk to her. Clara is telling Franny and Digby a bed-time story about the Doctor and how he stops children from having bad dreams. Franny reminds her that she has been having nightmares about the governess who drowned. When the door opens Clara expects the Doctor to enter but it is a facsimile of the drowned woman made from ice. The Ice Governess attacks the children but Clara locks them in a playroom. The Ice Governess breaks but the Doctor shatters her with his sonic screwdriver.

 

The Ice Governess begins to reconstitute herself so the Doctor, Clara and the children escape downstairs and bump into Captain Latimer. The Doctor explains he is there because he is Clara's gentleman friend and they had been upstairs kissing. Amid the confusion Dr Simeon arrives outside the house, using a device that causes snow to fall on the frozen pond.

 

Vastra, Jenny and Strax enter the house and set up a force field to isolate the Ice Governess. Strax decides that Captain Latimer's office is the best place to defend so they hide out in there. The Doctor explains that Simeon's plan is to use the Ice Governess to an army of ice out of the snowmen. Simeon will use them to conquer the Earth. The Doctor tells the others to stay in Latimer's office but Clara follows him and kisses him in the corridor. The Doctor encounters Simeon at the front door and is told that he has five minutes to hand over the Ice Governess. The Doctor grabs an umbrella and then uses the sonic screwdriver to turn off the force field. He runs upstairs to the roof followed by (and led by) Clara.

 

They are pursued by the Ice Governess. Clara uses the umbrella to pull down the ladder up to the spiral staircase and they run up to the TARDIS. The Doctor is trying to get the Ice Governess away from the power source that allows her to reconstitute herself. Ultimately he plans to destroy the creature and quarantine the pieces in an impenetrable container.

 

The Doctor leads Clara inside of the TARDIS; instead of saying it is bigger on the inside she says, "It's smaller on the outside." She also asks if there is a kitchen because she enjoys making soufflés. He gives Clara a key to the TARDIS but as she takes it Clara is grabbed by the Ice Governess and both of them tumble to the earth below. The Ice Governess is shattered and Clara mortally injured.

 

The Doctor takes Clara into Latimer's study. Strax tries to revive her but she is too badly injured to save. The Doctor asks Clara if she would like to travel with him and she says yes.

 

The Doctor confronts Simeon and his snowmen. He has a box which contains the Ice Governess. He tells Simeon to meet him at the institute. Vastra asks if the Doctor is making a bargain with the universe: the Doctor says that the Universe owes him, hoping it will allow Clara to survive.

 

Back at Simeon's office, the Doctor and Vastra force a showdown with Simeon. The Doctor reveals that the giant snow globe contains a version of Simeon's essence: Simeon recalls the snow speaking to him when he was a child; the Doctor thinks that he put all of his darkest thoughts into the snow, making it intelligent. Simeon is amazed to find that he made the snow globe sentient but this does not deter him. He takes the box from the Doctor and opens it, only to discover the memory worm. It erases the memories of his adult life.

 

The snow globe still intends to continue with the plan and now invades Simeon. Simeon attacks the Doctor but then is halted in agony when the snow in the globe turns to rain. Simeon dies and the entity within is defeated. The Doctor says that the snow back at the Latimer house was reflecting the emotional pain of the Latimers as Clara approaches death. The Doctor races to be at Clara's side for her last moments. Before she dies Clara says, "Run you clever boy. And remember."

 

With her death overwhelming him, the Doctor seems to have returned to his previous withdrawn and angry state. He attends Clara's funeral where Vastra shows him a card for Simeon's Institute which shows that the entity in the snow globe was the Great Intelligence. The name sounds familiar but the Doctor can't quite remember where from.

 

Clara's grave gives her full name as Clara Oswin Oswald. The Doctor remembers that from the Dalek Asylum, Oswin Oswald who enjoyed making soufflés. The Doctor is puzzled because the same woman has apparently died twice in different times. Now revitalized, he realises that there is a chance of meeting her again: he has a puzzle to solve and relishes the challenge.

 

In the 21st Century, the graveyard where Clara's body lies is overgrown. Another Clara passes near the grave but her friend asks her to leave because it is spooky. Clara says that she doesn't believe in ghosts.

 

In the TARDIS the Doctor puts a picture of Clara on the TARDIS screen and says, "Watch me run!"

 

 

Source: Mark Senior

 

Continuity Notes:

The Doctor has a lunchbox showing a map of the London Underground which he shows to the Great Intelligence, echoing the fact that The Web of Fear (featuring the Great Intelligence) was set in the tunnels of the Underground.

 

 

 

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233       The Rings of Akhaten 1 episode

234       Cold War           1 episode

235       Hide     1 episode

236       Journey to the Center of the TARDIS               1 episode

237       The Crimson Horror   1 episode

238       Nightmare in Silver     1 episode

239       The Name of the Doctor          1 episode

240       The Day of the Doctor               1 episode

241       The Time of the Doctor