1: Wasteland
2: The Mysterious Planet
3: The Robots of Ravalox
4: Mindwarp
5: Paying the Price
6: Attack from the Mind
7: End of Term
8: The Trial of a Time Lord
9: Time Inc.
10: The Last Adventure
11: The Judas Goat
12: Unpredictable Phenomena
13: Event Horizon
14: The Ultimate Foe
Hmmm. What would I do...?
Start off with the TARDIS being dragged to the station. Get the money shot. But the trial room is like the one from the War Games, a sort of dreamy void where people emerge from shadows and disappear again. Unreal. Unreliable.
The Doctor bursts out of the TARDIS, confused and upset, vitriolic. What the hell happened? Where is Peri? Why can't he remember?
The Valeyard and the Inquisitor aren't interested. In quick, formal terms they tell the Doctor he is on trial for his life for putting the universe at risk.
Pow! Opening titles!
Then Mysterious Planet. But a quicker, tidier, three parter version. Peri wants to visit contemporary Earth, the TARDIS lands on burnt out planet. Rubble and smoke, hell, burnt bones. Mad Max natives, dangerous. Peri is captured by the tribe and locked up with Glitz and Dibber, Glitz insisting this is all going to plan, Dibber calling his bullsh|t. The Doctor is hunted by the tribe, driven underground and finds the Drathro colony. Gets arrested when he tries to stop them "culling" excess population and is taken to Drathro. Drathro is programmed to allow the one right person to take the secrets from the computer, but Drathro's gone peculiar from being all alone. Doesn't give a damn about anything because his black light system is failing. The cliffhanger to part one is Drathro going crazy, about to kill the Doctor because he says he needs to fix the aerial - the totem pole that Glitz, Dibber and Peri have been tied to and are about to burn.
Part two.
Turns out having regular human sacrifices on the light converter is damaging it. It explodes, the tribesmen worshiping it and hailing Peri, Glitz and Dibber as gods. Glitz is delighted and convinces his new followers to prepare to gas the underground. Peri is disgusted and teams up with the tribe, Katryca et all, who don't want to murder Drathro's slaves... but, you know, Glitz is god, isn't he?
Drathro demands more cullings, because he's convinced it'll be cost efficient and save lives. Murdeen breaks cover and reveals his underground railroad plan, and all the humans try to flee to the surface fought by Grell and the other zealots. The Doctor gets involved and Drathro uses the even more unreliable L1 robot. The L1 smashes so much machinery the black light system is going to blow!
The ep ends in a three-way crash between Glitz's tribe, the escaping humans and the L1. The Doctor and Peri are caught in the middle when they see the Marble Arch sign on the wall of the ruins and realize this is Earth.
Part three.
The black light system collapse is causing the planet to shake and come apart, with volcanic shockwaves, sort of Inferno. The Doctor insists he needs to get back underground to stop Drathro, but the L1 bars their way and time is running out.
The rest of the episode has the humans band together, blow up the L1 and charge Drathro. Dibber is killed. The Doctor finally convinces Drathro to sacrifice itself for the last of humanity, much to the annoyance of Glitz because Drathro blows up with the secrets he was here to collect. He denies - firmly but unconvincingly - that he knows what it was, he was just here on orders. But he knows who the Doctor is, has seemingly been warned a Time Lord will turn up.
The planet is saved, but the ending isn't happy. The survivors are too few to endure on the scorched rock Earth has become since someone turned the sun supernova. That sort of technology is very, very rare and the Doctor refuses to elaborate further to Peri, but we can tell he's worried the Time Lords are involved. The problem is the TARDIS got them to Earth 1986, so the planet was destroyed centuries ago. Peri is now a time anomaly that will fade away soon. She's living on borrowed time.
The end has the Doctor piece together the truth that Glitz was hired by the Mentors of Thoros Beta and they must travel there, but into the future (the longer Peri stays in the present, the more likely she is to fade away) and hope they still remember why they hired Glitz. They must go!
Throughout the last three episodes we've had tiny moments of what seems to be the Doctor, the Valeyard and the Inquisitor silently standing in the background of scenes watching. This whole adventure has been in a kind of holo-deck on the trial station. The Doctor is explaining this is the reason he went to Thoros Beta, justifying his actions there. Time has been rewritten, Earth has been destroyed.
The Valeyard says it's all irrelevant and the Inquisitor agrees. We learn they are from Gallifrey in the future and have come back in time to put the Doctor on trial for what happened on Thoros Beta. The Doctor admits he can't actually remember what happened, but Peri isn't around. It seems he didn't save her in time...
End of part three.
Onto Mindwarp. Only two parts, cut out all the dead wood and crap comedy.
Thoros Beta. King Yrcanos is brought before the Mentors. He is BRIAN BLESSED (natch) but he is human, as the survivors of Earth have become barbarian warriors. The Mentors want to use humanity as slaves or experimental fodder and intend to alter Yrcanos's mind so he becomes their puppet.
The TARDIS arrives and the Doctor and Peri are on the back foot. History is changed. The Mentors are now bright green and obsessed with ruling the universe by mind control instead of fiscal deals. Sil does not recognize them at all. He has ordered Crozier to develop mind-warping technology so the Mentors can transfer their minds into any body and thus take over the whole galaxy.
Deciding the Doctor is too good an asset to lose, Crozier is ordered to brainwash the Doctor into a self-serving scumbag. Yrcanos breaks free - but is it in time to save the Doctor from being brainwashed? The Doctor betrays Yrcanos and Peri right away and even agrees to torture Peri to prove his allegiance.
The Valeyard points out the Doctor should basically have called in the Time Lords to sort this out - the Mentors' plans would have altered everything in history. And why didn't he do it earlier when he was worried about Earth? Does he not trust his own people?
The Doctor tries to explain he wasn't actually brainwashed. He was pretending to, to get their confidence. The episode ends with him revealing to Peri he's not going to let her drown, he's going to let her fade away...
Part two.
Fascinated by this, Crozier and Sil demand Peri brought in for experimentation. Someone from a history that never happened? Sil confirms his ancestors signed up Glitz to go to Earth to get the secrets, but the scene is redacted by the Valeyard. He reveals that this is an open court, technically being watched by all of Gallifrey, so the High Council have slapped a D-notice on that bit.
Since the Doctor's already shown why he went to Thoros Beta, it doesn't need to be shown. Unlike the rest of the story.
The Doctor insists he's undercover, trying and failing to take down the Mentors, but there are no scenes that show this. Everything he does could just be because he's a scumbag. He releases Yrcanos and helps him stage an attack, but only because if he doesn't, Sil intends to download himself into the Doctor's body.
Peri is tied down, fighting and screaming in the lab. Crozier has learned the final key to transfer consciousness and goes to tell everyone. Then Peri fades away in logic, causing time on Thoros Beta to freeze as Yrcanos charges the lab in a suicide attack. The Doctor is dragged away by the Time Lords.
In the court, they watch as Yrcanos unfreeze and attack the lab. Peri's vanishing means no one remembers she was there, and Crozier and Sil are utterly bewildered. Yrcanos takes them by surprise and kills them, before the guards kill him.
The Doctor is devastated and insists this doesn't change the fact someone's destroyed the Earth and humanity. The Inquisitor isn't interested. They have taken the Doctor away from this disaster because this is when the Doctor goes bad. This is his last chance for salvation and the Time Lords will decide whether he can be redeemed or kill now.
*crash zoom on Colin, my peeps*
End of part five.
Part Six - Attack from the Mind
It starts off with some actual courtroom stuff. The Valeyard explains that the court has special dispensation to change the Doctor's life - or end it. The trial is to establish whether to shoot baby Hitler or give him a darn good talking to, to prove the Doctor is not beyond redemption. This idea pisses the Doctor off immensely and he rants that he cannot believe this description of him turning evil. He might make mistakes, fail to save people, even screw up mightily but he will always try to help. He might be on the road to hell, but he'll never stop having good intentions!
The argument becomes whether or not the Valeyard should show the Doctor some of his future exploits. This is possible, but the ramifications are the Doctor will learn about his own destiny - so there's even more reason to kill the Doctor should the trial find him guilty. Comparing his erasure with what happened to Peri, the Doctor feels it's something he might deserve. And surely that proves he's redeemable?
Though the Valeyard insists the Doctor's tactics are suicidal, the Inquisitor agrees.
So, they show them the Doctor's future, what will happen to him in the months and years following Thoros Beta where he lost Peri and now lives in a universe without humanity and all his friends. The Doctor now wears a black version of his outfit, not colourful. He's had a haircut. He spends most of his time working on clocks, disenfranchised and depressed. He doesn't talk much, but then, who is there to talk to?
Well, he does have a companion (just call her Pam for now). She's an alien slave girl who was being sold at market when the Doctor, out of pity, bought her and gave her her freedom. But she had nowhere to go so now she lives in the TARDIS with him. She makes meals, tries to tidy the place up, be a nice servant. The Doctor barely looks at her, hardly speaks to her and doesn't hide his contempt. This isn't the aggro Peri and Tegan used to get; he does not give a damn about her. If they're going into danger, he'll warn her not to rely on him to save her.
The TARDIS is filled with an illusion of a glorious forest and men and women in old-fashioned white clothes dancing around maypoles. The Doctor doesn't smile, realizing it is the equivalent of a distress signal. The TARDIS lands in the forest which... fades away because it is an illusion, leaving them in a warren of underground tunnels.
Nearby are three space-rodents called Trikes trying to dig into a vault. They assume the time travelers are illusions until they are attacked by a massive snarling monster. The Doctor and Pam get involved and the monster vanishes, it was an illusion. Realizing they are real, the Trikes take Doctor and Pam hostage and back to their HQ. They learn the Trikes have invaded this deserted planet in the name of FRED (FRee Equal Democracy) and are trying to break into the vault which is the only sign of civilization. They assume the Doc and Pam are natives trying to attack them. The Doctor doesn't bother to argue - who's got time? - and they're sentenced to death.
And then before they can be executed... the Doctor and companion shrink to tiny size. Is it an illusion? Maybe. The Doctor leaves Pam to be captured by the Trikes who decide to kill the little person, while he wanders off. He finds a hole in the wall which leads to a throne room with the Penelopeans - beautiful lemur-like aliens. They explain they are hugely-powerful telepaths who live in a Matrix-like dreamworld while their bodies are in stasis in the vault. The Trikes are going to break in and kill them and they want the Doctor and Pam to stop them.
The Doctor and Pam are suddenly back to normal size in the Trike HQ. They are shot dead and their bodies dumped in the corner. Ah, but that was an illusion so the Trikes think they're dead and can now escape. The Doctor and Pam head back for the TARDIS just as the Trikes break into the vault and start disconnecting the Peneleopeans. Pam tries to help only for the Peneleopeans be revealed that they're evil; they were imprisoned in the matrix dreamworld after they wiped out most of the life on their planet, and they've used illusions to draw the Trikes here to free them.
A huge battle breaks out between the Trikes and the Penelopeans (the latter, being evil, even turn on each other) and the Doctor and Pam leave the carnage to unfold. The Doctor reveals to Pam he knew the Penelopeans were up to something, but couldn't be arsed to stop them. This way the Trikes can wipe them out or die trying. After all, something was going to wipe them out eventually. Might as well be this.
Pam starts to object and the Doctor, irritated, threatens to dump her in the warzone and fend for herself. Pam, terrified, agrees to stay.
Cut to the courtroom. The Inquisitor explains the Time Lords eventually had to intervene, but not before countless lives were lost. The Doctor used to be on trial for interference, but now he's not interfering at all. He only cares about himself.
The Doctor protests, and the Valeyard shows another bit of evidence...
End of part six.
Part Seven - End of Term
The next installment is set years after the last. The evidence opens on the Doctor, older, maybe bearded, alone in the TARDIS watching the scanner as holidaymaker bodies drift in space. He is impassive, showing no emotion.
The real Doctor insists to the Valeyard and Inquisitor he can't believe this, and is invited to watch the footage again.
A cruise ship full of holidaymakers getting free holidays arrives on Paradise Five, one of nine planets in the Paradise system which were converted to resorts after being wiped clean of life in some disaster. The holiday makers are shown around by the waitresses Stella, Bella and Lorelei and the men running it, Michael and Gabriel. The Doctor is one of the new intake, seemingly here for no other reason than to enjoy himself.
The other guests start to notice things are odd - who exactly arranged all these free holidays? Why is no one coming back from them? Where are all the other guests that should be packed in the resort? And why is there another spaceship down on the lower deck? Idly curious, the Doctor and some of the guests (his temporary companions as he travels alone now) go to visit. The spaceship is alien and very cold, and there is a glimpse of something in the shadows... something like an angel...
The Doctor is taken to meet Michael and Gabriel who are suspicious about him. He wasn't on the guest list, so why is he here? He turns the tables and eventually tricks them into revealing the whole Paradise system is a scam to lure in people that can be used as fodder and slaves in a huge operation to restore the Paradise civilization. The "angels" are the survivors who were reduced to ghost like forms by the war and now they're using holidaymakers to form new bodies. Stella, Bella and Lorelei turn into winged, skull-faced monsters to show their true selves.
The Doctor gives up and advises the guests to accept their capture without violence. They are loaded into the alien ship and flown off to be processed while the resort prepares for the next intake of guests.
Aboard the ship, the Doctor suddenly arranges a break out. With the guests' help, they block all the ventilation shafts and break into a huge aerobic workout. This exercise raises the temperature, causing the ghost-angels to disperse and allowing the Doctor seize control of the ship from Lorelei. Lorelei begs for her life, willing to offer the secrets of the ancients, the truths not even Time Lords know.
The Doctor is tempted but points out that the guests are in control and the ship is too warm for more angels to retake it. And if the guests return home, they'll blow the whistle on the angels' scheme and reveal the whole thing.
Lorelei tells him there is a third option - if he's willing to take it.
Cut to the TARDIS as the Doctor watches the dead holidaymakers in space. He blew the airlocks and killed all the guests, maintaining the secrecy of the angels' operation. Lorelei joins him in the TARDIS, now his companion and willing to share secrets that will make him the most powerful of Time Lords.
In court, the Doctor is appalled. Once, he was only an ideological enemy of Gallifrey, but now he is the most infamous and evil renegade in all history. The Doctor is horrified he could become so corrupt, but Valeyard insists it is all true. Enough is enough. They must now decide to kill the Doctor or not...
End of part seven.
Part Eight - The Trial of a Time Lord
The Doctor sudden announces sentence cannot be passed and he calls for a mistrial on the grounds his lawyer is clearly incompetent. The Inquisitor points out that the Doctor has chosen to defend himself. "And now I'm being sentenced to death!" the Doctor explodes. "What more proof do you need?"
This is stupid. This isn't funny. This is... a legally-valid strategy. The Doctor is told he can get a defender, but it has to be chosen by random Matrix lottery (to ensure true impartiality). The Doctor insists that's not fair, as the Inquisitor and Valeyard are clearly not here at random. They say they are. He says, prove it.
Data scrolls over the screen and the Doctor laughs in triumph. A tiny glitch but absolute proof someone rigged the lottery to make sure this particular Valeyard got to this case, and why would someone do that unless they were desperate for the Doctor to be found guilty? And why would that want that unless they were sure the Doctor had a chance of being found innocent? Huh? Answer that!
The Inquisitor insists enough is enough. This is an open court, they can't start doing all this crazy stuff without losing all credibility. The Valeyard starts to finally lose his cool, insisting the Doctor IS guilty and if they were capable of executing the current, "future" Doctor they'd do it right away but he's too damn powerful. The current "past" Doctor might be redeemable, but they can't take the chance. They have to kill Hitler as a baby, so to speak. In his rant, the Valeyard reveals that actually he kind of likes this idealistic colourful version, but his duty is clear. The whole freaking universe is at risk.
The Doctor is slightly confused. So the Valeyard IS part of the conspiracy but is apparently a good guy? If everyone wants Future Doctor dead, why go through a trial? Why pretend to give him a fair trial? Why rig a foregone conclusion?
The answer is obvious. The Valeyard is here to get the Doctor sentences to death precisely BECAUSE the trial was rigged. The Doctor was always going to get off scott free, allowing him to eventually become corrupt and the villain all Gallifrey despises. The Valeyard was sent by the good guys, the resistance so to speak, to save the day, which means...
Bang.
The Valeyard drops dead. The Inquisitor has a skull face and wings.
She is Lorelei, the Future Doctor's companion from Paradise Five. When the Time Lords desperately tried to put Six on trial and kill him, the Future Doctor made sure the Inquisitor would let Six off. The Sixth Doctor checked the Valeyard's credentials but never checked the Inquisitor's. Okay, this trial has blown the secret of just how evil and how powerful the Future Doctor is, and ruined the masquerade that he hasn't conquered Gallifrey long ago. But who cares?
Lorelei taunts the Doctor that he can now leave this court a free man without a stain on his character. He can run off, save planets, meet pretty girls, do all that stuff and even be good. But it won't last. The Doctor will eventually turn evil.
The Doctor suggests he might just go and kill himself. That will screw the Future Doctor's plans. Except, the Future Doctor knows exactly what Six will do. And he'll make sure there's a trampoline at the bottom of every cliff, a vaccine for every poison, a faulty gun for every execution squad. Heck, why are they even talking?
Lorelei turns into a ghostly form and flies off, leaving the Doctor alone in the court with the Valeyard's body. The Doctor checks him over, apologizing for not realizing who the real enemy was. But perhaps he can find out the Valeyard's boss, team up with him, somehow make amends?
A chuckle in the darkness. A very old man with a beard, dressed in black, hobbles forward on a cane. He is amused at the irony of joining forces with his arch enemy, especially to save the universe and Gallifrey from evil.
It's the Master.
End of part eight.
Part Nine - Time Inc.
This episode is split between two plot threads, the latter which uses extra scenes filmed with previous stories (like the opening bit in The Pandorica Opens.)
A plot:
What at first seems to be stock footage from Earthshock - the freighter, the cargo bay full of cylinders, the TARDIS lands. But it's the Sixth (Future) Doctor and Lorelei (in human form) who emerge. They have come here to investigate a distress signal, which is odd because the freighter is intact and deliberately parked near a black hole. It's clearly a trap. The Doctor admits he knows that, he's here because this is a TARDIS disguised as the freighter. Lorelei wonders why they would be interested in answering a distress signal anyway? The Doctor says it depends who's calling for help...
Suddenly, Cybermen explode out of the cylinders and seize the Doctor and Lorelei. The Master (young as we would expect him) emerges out of the shadows and gloats. He explains that since history was changed and humanity wiped out, the Cybermen could never replenish their resources and are now extinct. He landed his TARDIS on Telos prior to the events of Attack and collected a private army, but in the new universe they are a paradox which will fade away like Peri if they step outside.
But the Master intends to use them to invade Gallifrey. The Cybermen will obey him as this is their only chance for survival and the restoration of their old timeline. The Master wants the Doctor here to help him take down the Time Lords, since they have the blood of Earth and Peri on their hands. The Doctor admits this is a tempting offer, but he can do it without the Master. He'll take the Cybermen, though.
Lorelei shifts to ghost-form, snatches a Cyber-gun and shoots the Master in the leg. The Cybermen, programmed to survive, switch their full allegiance to the Doctor. While Lorelei and the Cybermen look for the control room of this TARDIS, the Doctor turns on the crippled Master. The whole "Earthshock nostalgia" thing was a nice touch, as Adric is one of the few companions not erased by history being rewritten, he's still dead and the Doctor's really rather sore at the Master's tactless mention.
The Master is unafraid. He doesn't think the Doctor will kill him. He has moral scruples. "And look where they got me," the Doctor observes, before seemingly pulling out a syringe and stabbing the Master to death.
Cut to the trial room. The present Sixth Doctor and the old Master. The old Master shows the wound on his chest. The future Doctor infected him with a sentient virus that will kill the Master if he harms anyone, tries to change bodies or stop the Doctor's plans which is why he's trapped in an old, dying Tremas. The Master explains that while the virus is unstoppable, it's also literal. It will allow him to mess with the Doctor's past, not his future, hence the trial.
The Doctor takes his TARDIS and the Master to Gallifrey. It's a rundown-looking place, practically deserted. The odd Cyberman patrols the cloistered halls. Most people are indoors, too terrified to emerge but sufficiently-advanced technology means they can live out their lives in luxury. The Doctor expected to see a bombed out ruin, but the Master explains the future Doctor didn't go axe-crazy. He took over the Capitol in a single night-of-the-long-knives battle that killed off the High Council and the President, but he left the rest of Gallifrey intact. No one was brave enough to rebel and since the new Lord President hasn't killed anyone else or waged war or anything, they're more or less willing to suck it up and pretend nothing is wrong.
The Doctor and the Master meets with some other Time Lords, representing the general locals. They explain that they've been pointlessly passing the time by dealing with piddling little history matters and pretending not to notice the sacrifice of Earth. The Master's resistance managed to authorize a trial of the younger Sixth Doctor, but the future Doctor ensured Lorelei would be the Inquisitor.
The Doctor is confused. Okay, he's taken over all of Gallifrey and he has all the secrets of the Angels. What's he doing now? Just sitting on a throne? Can he be evil and so utterly dull? The Master says the Doctor is very dangerous, but now he has learned patience. The Lord President is biding his time, waiting for something. The Doctor decides he might as well go and ask. It's not like the Cybermen can shoot him, can they?
And so, to the horror of everyone, the Doctor storms into the Panopticon and demands an audience. The Cybermen capture him but don't harm him, escorting him to the office. The Doctor gets a moment with the CyberLeader to tell him off by being a patsy working for his enemies, but the Cybermen will always survive. And the Lord President isn't all wishy washy and moaning about emotions.
The Doctor enters the office of the Lord President. Two Colin Bakers in one room - let us hope TVs across the nation can withstand it. The President isn't remotely surprised or even interested that his younger self is here. He REMEMBERS it, after all. He remembers every stupid self-pitying thing the Doctor has done and will do. He remembers the centuries after Peri's death the Doctor made a half-assed attempt to be a hero and keep fighting the good fight before he realized it just wasn't worth it, and for all his anti-establishment attitude, he was part of the problem, not the solution.
The Doctor is disgusted to see his future self just give up for a comfy chair and a nice hat to act as some corporate stooge. The President shrugs: he remembers saying that, too. In fact, he's also spent a lot of time wondering just why he would suddenly want to invade Gallifrey and doing diddly-squat for the best part of a millennium. The fact is, he's been watching the sunset and waiting for the tide to come in. It's taken a very long time, but the price for destroying the Earth and wiping out humanity is being paid. And it's not some wussy stuff about a universe without poetry or decency and kindness.
The web of time has been torn apart, and the spider has finally noticed.
However, first thing's first. The President tells the Doctor to check his pocket. He finds a gizmo the Master slipped into it. As he takes it out, it flashes with lightning and all the Cybermen on Gallifrey have a screaming fit and die in agony, shrinking to doll size. A matter compression charge designed to remove the Lord President's army instantly and allow the rebellion to succeed. The doors to the office burst open and the Master runs in with his fellow Time Lord resistance fighter.
The Lord President snaps his fingers. If this is Time Inc., he is the CEO. Temporal bubbles form around every last resistance member, freezing the rebellion in place. The President cheerfully informs the Master that the Doctor has/will betrayed the whole movement. The Master is the only one left free, and since he has struck against the future Doctor, the virus will kill him...
The President burst out laughing. He can't believe the Master fell for that fake syringe business (well, he can, because he remembered learning just that). There was no virus, just the Master's own paranoia. Lorelei steps from the shadows and lunges at the Master, tearing into him like a huge vulture. His screams are choked off.
The Doctor is horrified by this - and it's a sight he'll never forget. This all happened as the Lord President remembered it, which means what happens next is going to be apocalyptic - in every sense of the word.
B plot:
A terrified Penelopean flees through the tunnels, filled with screams and fire. He finds a couple of Trikes hiding in the old vault, but they don't try to kill each other - what would be the point? They're all dead anyway. As they blame each other for who's vault this all is, their mutual enemy closes in. A shape looms through the smoke and Trikes and Penelopeans can only sob this isn't an illusion before they die.
Glitz is on Ravalox, still waiting for his lift. He is torn between trying to join the tribe of the remaining humans (who aren't exactly pleased with him) or trying to survive in the rubble until someone collects him. A strange noise fills the sky and a flying saucer approaches. The humans are understandably frightened of this impossible threat, but Glitz is downright terrified. It might just be a spaceship, but he knows damn well who's piloting it. They're here to find the secrets and they won't be happy to find they're gone. In fact, they won't be happy if they were here. They're going to kill everyone.
Thoros Beta. Yrcanos is trying and failing to organize the chaos, and is forced to rely on a Mentor (Nabil Shaban, but not Sil, just an identical slug) for advice. The Mentor is sort of lost, since the intergalactic hypernet has gone down and they cannot even contact Thoros Alpha for help. Turning on the scanners they can see lights going out on the surface. Yrcanos realizes this isn't a breakdown - something is killing everything on Thoros Alpha, and when they are finished they'll come to Beta.
Paradise Five. Michael and Gabriel are arguing on a communicator with a pilot of another transport ship. Paradise Five is full up, no more vacancies, no free holidays. The pilot insists they KNOW about the whole slavery thing, but being possessed by an angel is better than dying. All the passengers are willing to sign up for the Angel War if they can survive. Gabriel snaps that there is no war. The Angels' enemies have been wiped out and the Angels aren't doing much better. Paradise Five is now packed full of unusable recruits with no transport, at least none that can take them anywhere except to the front line and certain death.
Ravalox. The saucer fires a laser bolt that destroys the tribe's village and kills most of the humans. Glitz's desire to run for their lives gets a lot of support as the ship lands. The hatches start to open.
Thoros Beta. Yrcanos is desperate to get onto the beaches and fight the invaders, but the Mentor says using the technology of the city to coordinate the battle means he needs to say off the frontline. Not that it's doing much good, as the Alphans are being cut down before their phasers can do any real damage. Yrcanos is furious he's basically hiding in a bunker with women and children (who he pities given they're not up to fighting anyway). There is a hammering at the door of someone who wants to be let in. The Mentor insists this is too dangerous, and Yrcanos sees through the slit it is one of his Alphan warriors. The door opens and the Alphan is blasted dead by his captor, who starts firing into the room. The Mentor tries and fails to escape while Yrcanos goes down fighting without getting a single kill.
Paradise Five. Stella and Bella see something metallic on the security monitors for the landing bay before the screen turns to static. Gabriel impatiently tells them to investigate. The bay is dark and spooky as the last time we saw it, but Stella and Bella aren't afraid. Well, much. Nothing shows on infra-red. Then they spot a hole cut through the wall of the hangar leading to the airless caves outside.
A Dalek appears behind them and fires at Stella and Bella. The Angels survive the shot, just, and flee. A second shot finishes off Stella while Bella escapes the hangar. More Daleks glide in through the breach in the hangar.
Upstairs, Michael and Gabriel seal off the lower level and order the workers to weld the hatches shut. They are confident these barriers will hold long enough for them to sneak onto the passenger ship and use it to escape. The question of what will happen to the refugees is raised and Michael and Gabriel laugh at the idea they matter. And then there is reports that the barriers are being ripped open like paper...
On Ravalox, Glitz and Murdeen are the only ones still running as they flee back through the ruins passing bodies. Murdeen, furious, insists they should try and fight back against the Daleks before they penetrate the underground and kill everyone. Glitz is more interested in hiding in the L1 hangar, which can act as a survival room. They come to blows and Glitz decides there are two types of people in the universe - those protected by three inches of steel and those who are not. He ducks into the hangar and seals the door, trapping Murdeen outside as the Daleks arrive.
The latest passenger ship arrives on Paradise Five. In the entrance bay, everyone lies dead - Gabriel, Michael and Bella among them. A dozen or so Daleks loom over the bodies, and turn their attention (and eyestalks) to the airlocks as they open and fresh victims emerge to be exterminated.
A Dalek looms over the exterminated Trikes and Penelopeans.
Daleks move through the tunnels of Thoros Beta, checking corpses and exterminating a Mentor that's playing possum.
More Daleks, more places, gleaming cities, ruined spaceships, forest, quarries, beaches, day, night. Dead bodies everywhere. The Daleks, the only thing left alive. On Ravalox, Glitz contemplates the now-empty water ration as he is trapped in a metal cupboard while Daleks search for the secrets. Outside, the Daleks conclude they have sterilized the planet. Only Dalek life remains.
On Skaro, the Daleks report they've wiped out all life on the planet, on every planet, on every galaxy. The Daleks are now the supreme beings of the universe. But, Emperor Davros is quick to quietly remind them, the Dalek Empire still has one planet left to conquer and destroy - Gallifrey, home of the Time Lords.
The final battle is to begin.
End of part nine.
Part Ten - The Last Adventure
On Ravalox, a redhaired tribeswoman and her fellows flee the Daleks. One by one they're exterminated until the redhead is left and then they kill her too...
...bang and Melanie Jane Bush sits bolt upright in bed in her cottage in Pease Pottage. What a nightmare! She goes downstairs, makes herself tea, contemplates the garden and suffers PTSD Nam-like flashbacks of dying on Ravalox, that seem to be getting harder and harder to shake off. Then there's a knock at the front door, where a charming bearded man awaits with a business proposition for Mel. The Master has use of Mel's programming skills, and she could help save the whole world.
And opening credits!
The Dalek Empire is closing in on Gallifrey. True, the transduction barriers et all will keep them out but the Dalek Empire has access to all the resources of the entire universe. They'll get in eventually, exterminate the Time Lords and then finally win their war against all life kind. The Doctor rounds on the Lord President - is he just going to sit around and let that happen?
"Why not?" the President retorts. After all, he's spent the best part of his life trying to stop the Daleks winning. How does he know a Dalek-ruled universe won't be better than the crapheap they currently call reality? Besides, it's not like there's anyone left to object.
The Doctor asks what happens to him now. The President tells him he can leave, do whatever he wants. One way or another, he'll end up being President of Gallifrey facing the Daleks and the end of everything. The destiny is inevitable.
The Doctor delves into his coat pocket and pulls out a CD phaser from Thoros Beta and holds it against his temple. The President and Lorelei are taken aback. That wasn't the plan. The President doesn't even remember picking up the phaser and sure as hell doesn't remember this bit of the conversation. Of course, he's not an idiot, he can work out the solution: the Sixth Doctor intends to wipe his own memory, so his actions will take his future self by surprise. OR he's really going to kill himself right now.
The President thus lets the Doctor leave in his TARDIS. He genuinely doesn't know what the Doctor's going to do know, but he can guess. For the first time in a long time, there's something new on the horizon and he and Lorelei are in a position to turn it to their advantage. Cool, huh?
The Doctor lands the TARDIS on Ravalox and lets Glitz inside before taking off. Glitz is caught between three realities - one where Earth survived, one where Earth burnt, and one where the Daleks killed everything. As such, he is an anomaly that will by the Doctor to try and turn things around. Glitz has to spill the beans.
Glitz explains Sil sent him and Dibber to Ravalox to salvage the secrets from Drathro, because Drathro and his scheme were Andromedan in manufacture. Apparently they managed to find a way to hack into the Matrix in the belief the Time Lords would never draw attention to their poor security by going after them. Instead, they used their powers to trigger a supernova and scorch the planet clean of life.
So the Doctor sets the TARDIS back in time to before the supernova and they appear in Victorian London at the end of the 19th Century near Marble Arch at the place Drathro will convert into his underground temple. The upper level is a factory and the area is curiously deserted.
A quick chat with a passing Victorian Gothic stereotype reveals why - it seems Jack the Ripper has come back and is terrorizing London. No one is brave enough to be outdoors at night, certainly not round Marble Arch where the killings have resumed. Screams are heard and the Doctor and Glitz run to see a shadowy top-hatted figure run away and blood everywhere...
...but it's fake. Holograms. No ripper. This is all to keep folks away from the factory.
Resolved, the Doctor and Glitz try to get inside but are flustered off by Mr. Popplewick. And his supervisor, Mr. Popplewick. And the foreman, Mr. Popplewick. They're all clones and so stubborn, the Doctor can't talk to them. They try to sneak around the back when they spot wet footprints coming from a bucket of rain water and when they get a look, a hooded monster leaps out and tries to kill them.
The Monster is also Mr. Popplewick, in charge of negative phantasmogoric customer laisions. Another Mr. Popplewick starts hurling quill pens at them and they explode, while an even more senior Mr. Popplewick fires harpoon guns. Glitz is untouched by it all, because he's an Andromedan and thus the security allows him through. Finally they see the inside of the factory is a hollow building with Drathro fussing over downloading stuff onto a USB. The badly-tempered L1 is there, glad for an excuse to go ape and kill someone the Popplewicks can't.
The aforementioned Victorian Gothic stereotype arrives and peels off his latex face to reveal... the Master! The Doctor is unsurprised, the performance was too grotesque to be real. The Master reveals he is in charge of the whole operation, using Drathro, the Popplewicks and the Andromedans to download all the secrets of the Matrix. Unfortunately, in order to get unrestricted access to all the files means that the Time Lords will know they're being hacked. But that's why the Master's based in Victorian England - the Time Lords can't fight back without risking the web of time.
Except, the Doctor points out, the Master's pushed the Time Lords too far. They're more terrified of what the Master will do with the Matrix than what might happen to the universe. They're going to trigger a supernova, scorch Earth and alter all of history. The Master has finally bullied a High Council willing to fight back and as a result the whole universe is going to collapse in on itself.
The Master doesn't believe him, until Drathro reports that a Time Lord device is detected heading for the sun. It's real all right. Glitz suggests using the data from the Matrix to hack the star-killer thing and shut it down, but there's not enough time. It needs someone who THINKS like a computer programmer and soon there won't be any of those in history. The Master dives into his TARDIS and vanishes, reappearing a moment later with Melanie Bush, a computer genius from 1986.
As Mel starts trying to reprogram the star-killer, Drathro goes crazy. Again. As this is technically ruining the plan to steal secrets from the Matrix, he orders the Popplewicks to close in on the factory and kill everyone. The Doctor, Glitz and the Master are thus forced to fight off a tide of Dickensian cliches as time ticks away to zero...
At the last second, the star-killer shuts down. The sun doesn't explode and Earth is not destroyed in the 19th Century. Mel taps in another code and Drathro shuts down and the Popplewicks dissolve. The human race has been saved and the future can now happen differently - but not, Mel notes with a crafty smirk, necessarily the same.
Suddenly she has a skull face and wings. Mel is Lorelei, having been planted there by the Lord President who is going to use this "second chance" to turn things the way he WANTS them too from now on. "Ciao boys," Lorelei laughs before flying off.
As the Doctor, the Master and Glitz take a moment to understand this development, the screens monitoring the sun show that while the star-killer is gone, there is now a gigantic fleet of Dalek ships heading straight for the Earth...
End of part ten.
Part Eleven - The Judas Goat
A deliberately-unsatisfying cliffhanger resolution before the opening credits. The Daleks are closing on on 19th Century Earth, specifically the Fantasy Factory. Glitz and the Master are very much of the "leg it" plan but a shot from a Dalek saucer causes the roof to collapse, blocking them off from the Master's TARDIS. As the Daleks close in, the Doctor suddenly has an idea but refuses to say what it is, only it might take some time...
Caption: 1100 years later...
Yes, it's 2986! Around the airless planet of Mogar, space-shuttles are launching to dock with the Hyperion III combined passenger liner and cargo freighter that transports people and mineral resources across the galaxy from Mogar to Earth. It's actually quite a cynical business, and very expensive too - the passengers have basically spend their last credit on this and it's not like Earth is a nice place to be.
The Earth's sun has started undergoing violent solar flare activity, forcing the population to hide in thermal shelters across the surface of the planet. But instead of a brief, nasty solar storm it's going on longer and longer. Some think the sun's being manipulated somehow to scorch the Earth. More think it's divine retribution, because these are the dying days of the Earth Empire where they no longer have the money and might to maintain their stranglehold across the galaxy. Planet after planet is shrugging off the imperial yolk, humanity has lost its easy popular charm. Whispers spread that when Earth is finally roasted, humanity will collapse into barbarism and go extinct - and good riddance.
The Mogarians aren't particularly-pro-Earth either. When the solar flares started, mankind dropped the nice guy act and started plundering their mineral wealth to build the thermal shelters. Despite their pacifistic attitudes, the Mogarians are rooting for anyone who can take down the selfish humans...
So it's a bleak and apocalyptic vibe as passengers and crew board the ship.
Commodore Travers - grim but determined to do his job, never really had to deal with passengers before now, aware he's likely to see the end of the world, has the not-unfounded feeling he's surrounded by idiots
Security Officer Rudge - only ever had to deal with passengers before, not actual security, not eager to travel to a burning Earth for a dying society, and certainly not for the pay, has the not-unfounded feeling Travers is an arrogant pig-headed bastard
Edwardes - latino lover type who thinks he's god's gift to everyone, too dense to suspect the end is nigh, even if he did, he'd go out with a bang, and nonetheless is actually a big of a prig when it comes to following rules
Mr. Kimber - a nice old man who has chosen to go home to Earth to be with his family so he can die with people he loves, a slight senile story-teller of the "friend of a friend" variety and probably drinks a bit
The Mogarians - three diplomat aliens in encounter suits who are aboard, wanting to get a better deal with the dying Earth Empire (coz they know how desperate it is). Arrogant, holier-than-thou and also working with...
The scientists - four human scientists (only three seen, one is locked up) who want to try a new business venture of selling not Mogarian metals but Mogarian plants. These Vervoids are mobile, sentient plant-men with an incredibly adaptive ability. They might even be able to survive on a scorched Earth.
Professor Sarah Lasky - a woman normally nice but the apocalypse and stress of events has left her in a foul mood with everyone and making basic mistakes. She tries to deal with her rising panic using the gym, and deep down wants the Vervoids to inherit the Earth instead of leaving it a radioactive stone.
Bruchner - a classical absent-minded Professor who is now stressed to near psychosis after what happened to one of their number. He is convinced they have meddled in God's domain by tinkering with the Vervoids, and that their attempt to save the Empire will be punished. Obviously on the edge of a nervous breakdown.
Dolland - smug psychopath executive type, the least-qualified of the group and with the least scientific understanding. He's a business guy, he sees the Vervoids for the incredible business opportunity they provide and even if he understood how dangerous they were, well, caveat emptor right? He is, however, very good at manipulating people and has kept Lasky and Bruchner on task. Oh so reasonable, but whatever morality he had is fading. After all, if these are the last days of mankind, who cares if he has to pop a cap in an enemy's ass...
And finally Janet, the stewardess. Sweet, competent, friendly, professional, makes a lovely cup of coffee...
Oh yeah, she's also Lorelei having stolen a human body. She's got the Doctor first-class accommodation, and while it's the Lord President he's got the curly hair and awful coat of the Doctor proper. He's also acting a bit more "Doctorish", to the point we're not sure if this is the evil Lord President or a good Lord President. Has the Doctor found a better future after all?
---
Everyone is boarding the Hyperion III. Mr. Kimber recognizes the Doctor from past exploits in the galaxy, and the Doctor quietly insists he's just on holiday. No biggie. The Mogarians and the scientists, though, they're far from convinced. They double down their security on the hydroponics section in the hold and the quarantine section.
The ship launches, and Janet brings some coffee to Edwardes who notices that a spaceship seems to be following them. The drugged coffee knocks him out and Janet gives the Doctor the all-clear. He sneaks down to the hold and uses a remote to summon his battered, clearly much-older police box TARDIS.
Then he notices the hold, some old curiosity returning. Janet tells him to focus, but the Doctor uses a sonic lance to break into the hold. He sees twelve sinister-looking gurgling pods, and heads to the little shed to investigate. They note that Lasky works in breeding plants/animals for domestication, but how much domestication does a dozen walking mangel-wurzels need? In the shed they find demeter seeds, and Janet, annoyed, lets the shed door open and light shine on the pods.
The pods start to gurgle louder and the Doctor is forced to turn off the light and leave the hold right away. The pods go dormant again. Why oh why were they stupid enough to leave a high-intensity lightbulb in a hold that only has low-level light? Janet convinces the Doctor to just leave it, maybe go to the gym or something.
Heading there, the Doctor gets short shrift from Lasky, who is then told by Dolland someone's broken into the hold. Lasky and Dolland and Bruchner rush back there, panicking. Someone's let high-intensity light loose, and the pods are now ripe. They have to be left alone from now on. Lasky tells Dolland to make sure no one goes back in again. As Dolland fixes the door, Bruchner decides to put in an electrical cable so anyone who tries will be fried. Dolland thinks about it and decides it's a good idea. Bruchner is determined not risk awaking the Vervoids for the greater good. Dolland just fancies snuffing a guy.
Janet watches on from the shadows.
Edwardes is getting a roasting from Rudge and Travers about passing out on watch and losing track of the spaceship following them. Suspicious someone is up to something, Travers decides to take a dangerous short-cut around the Black Hole of Tartarus in order to shake off any pursuers. Rudge gulps, especially when he gets the joyful job of having to tell the passengers.
In the lounge, the Doctor is being bored rigid by nice Mr. Kimber. He tries to engage the Mogarians in conversation, but they're pretty much just bitching about how unfair humanity is and how they deserve whatever's coming for them.
Edwardes is stalking down the corridors when he spots Janet and twigs SHE must've drugged him! The bitch! He chases her back to the hold where Janet confesses; she put a sedative in the wrong coffee, it was for Mr. Kimber who just won't shut up... Edwardes is eventually placated and together they stroll the hold, chatting. Janet is subtly manipulating Edwardes to check out the hold, have a look inside. After all, they have security clearance and they're not going to touch anything right?
Waxing nostalgic about how there are no more above-ground gardens on Earth, Edwardes opens the gate and ZAP! He is fried, dead. He falls over. Janet doesn't scream. She reaches up and pulls the wire free without being electrocuted. It sends sparks showering, lighting up the hold.
The pods gurgle and start to break open.
Janet watches and smiles.
End of part eleven.
Part Twelve - Unpredictable Phenomena
Guards rush to the cargo hold and see Edwardes dead. Janet is taken to report to the Commodore but no one suspects she's a murderer, she's part of the crew. A guard is left to check the body. As he does so, mourning his dead co-worker, the Vervoids emerge from their pods. They loom creepy and menacing but don't attack. The guard, terrified, pulls out his phaser and shoots them down. When they don't die immediately, he fires again and again until one of them kills him - using a vine as a garotte, it sneaks behind the guard and chokes him to death. Then they open an air vent and drag the bodies out. By the time the stretcher party arrive, there's no one there.
On the bridge, Travers is tearing a strip off Rudge. He's a security officer who has allowed people to both break into and booby-trap the hydroponics store and is so clueless he hasn't even asked the scientists any questions. Rudge insists he's used to quiet passenger stuff, but Travers isn't impressed. This just means Rudge hasn't had to deal with any problems at any time before, not that he's good with his job.
Lasky, Dolland and Bruchner are brought in and interrogated. Lasky is shocked someone died. Bruchner insists that no one, even Edwardes, should have tried to break in. Dolland is cleverer - where is Edwardes? Is he dead? They can't prove anything, so they can't prove the boobytrap killed anyone! Rudge is all for letting them go, but Travers points out all the pods have burst, so what's that about?
Dolland says they're just fruit and the scientists will sue for compensation. No big deal. As the scientists leave the bridge, they are not as casual as Dolland. He was so stupid he unwittingly woke up the Vervoids with the one booby-trap that caused bright light! Lasky is angry they endangered innocents, Bruchner is worried that the Vervoids might be dangerous. Dolland shrugs, the things are five minutes old. They're harmless.
The Doctor meanwhile is tearing a strip off Janet. They are on this ship for a reason and he specifically told her to keep her head down, not electrocute someone and unleash some augmented aubergines! Janet shrugs; Edwardes needed to be got rid of, he suspected her, plus it's not her fault Dolland booby-trapped the hold. The Doctor agrees with Dolland's belief the Vervoids are basically harmless, they're the plant equivalent of mountain gorillas and are no doubt hiding scared the ducts. It won't help their plan at all. Ah, says Janet, that supposes these are ordinary Vervoids...
In the lounge, the Mogarians are troubled that the ship is getting too close to the black hole. They complain to Travers, who assures them they're safe. The Mogarians go off on a rant about how untrustworthy humans are, and storm off angrily. Everyone gets the impression that something else is upsetting them. Rudge is ordered to talk to them and when he does, the aliens circle him and reveal they've been watching him. They think he can be of use to them...
Mr. Kimber is boring the crap out of the guard on the isolation room. It's a relief when a Vervoid scratches at a near air vent. While Bruchner shouts at the guard to stay on guard, Kimber goes to his room, still chattering away. The Vervoid, unable to break through the vent near the isolation room, sends another to try a different route. It emerges into Kimber's en suite bathroom. Kimber enters, sees the monster, and goes to ring the alarm. The Vervoid garotts him with a vine and drags his body out the vent, using the shower to drown out the screams.
The Doctor and Janet head past the isolation room, noticing it odd that someone seems to be in quarantine and under guard. They discuss this as they duck into Edwardes communication room. Taking a fire axe, they first set off the alarms to distract everyone and smash all the equipment to completely isolate the ship.
The false alarm is quickly discovered and the Doctor and Janet make themselves scarce, noticing the leaves stuck in the bars of the grilles. The Vervoids aren't doing much, are they? Janet goes to fix that...
Even as they find this, the guard returning to the isolation room is mugged and killed by two Vervoids who drag his body in the vent. Bruchner arrives, horrified to find the room unguarded. Janet arrives and with crocodile tears explains Mr. Kimber didn't show up for the fire alarm. More and more people are disappearing, and the only clue are these leaves! Bruchner, realizing the Vervoids are killing people, freaks the hell out and runs off. Janet follows.
The Doctor is dragged to the bridge for a roasting by Travers. The Doctor roasts him bag, dropping any hint of niceness and crushing the man's ego cruelly by emphasizing he's a jobsworth for a dying empire wasting the last years of his life before the sun explodes. He's even got a death wish, or else he'd hardly take a short-cut around a black hole, would he?
Janet follows Bruchner to the hydroponics section where he starts smashing everything up. Dolland tries to calm him down, but Janet subtly winds him up - innocent people are dying and if the killer Vervoids get off the ship, everyone still alive on Earth will be killed. Lasky is drawn in but Janet's Lady McBeth act has already worked. Bruchner knows that there's only one way to save things. He beats Lasky unconscious, runs out and locks Janet and the scientists in the shed. Not what Janet wanted.
Travers sends the Doctor to the brig, very rattled, but the Doctor easily slips loose and while the crew are taken aback by the ruined comms room, goes to investigate the isolation room. He sees a Vervoid trying to break in and gently tries to talk to it, only for it to attack him. He fends it off, amazed at how aggressive the creature is. Come to think of it, if they're so psychotic, why are they removing the bodies?
In the depths of the vent systems, the Vervoids dump the corpses into a huge compost heap. Some of the Vervoids are unsure about all this killing. They don't enjoy it. The lead Vervoid points out how the guard tried to kill them they were born. Animalkind is irredeemable. The one the Doctor faced arrives and explains he still can't get into the isolation room. The Vervoids decide that they must go on the offensive and delay opening up the isolation room - first they will kill everyone aboard!
The Vervoids begin their hunt...
End of Part Twelve.
Part Thirteen - Event Horizon
As the Vervoids spread out through the ship, they start pouncing from air vents. Guards, passengers, speaking parts, no one is safe. Bruchner rushes onto the lounge and they agree to seal the doors. Brucher rants unhelpfully about Lasky and reveals he's locked her in the shed. Needing a clear explanation, Travers decides to let Lasky out and the Doctor tags along saying that if they take the long route - avoiding the isolation room - they should be safe.
Rudge turns up with the Mogarians, saying he's showing them the flight deck because they really want to and it's their birthday and it's good for morale. Travers rolls his eyes, says "whatever!" and he and the Doctor head off. Big mistake. Rudge immediately seals the flight deck and the Mogarians take over the controls. They stop the ship's advance towards the black hole sector and signal the tiny ship that's shadowing them.
Yes, as we soon find out as the Mogarians broadcast a righteous self-pitying rant over the PA system, this is a hijack. They want to reclaim all the plundered metals back to Mogar and let the crippled Empire die when the sun explodes, this is all karma, remember Solos, ich bin donut, etc. Rudge likewise wants to be part of a civilization without an imminent expiry date, and he'll be an honored Mogarian citizen for helping the resistance. Plus he hates Travers' guts. This is a win-win as far as they're concerned.
Having managed to get to the hydroponics store, the Doctor and Travers release Janet, Lasky and Dolland. They admit the truth - they have upgraded the wild Vervoids to be intelligent servants. Lasky just wants to prove it can be done, but Dolland knows they're going to be rich. They sell Vervoids as slaves and use the revenue to give a boost to the Empire! Who cares for morality, they're just damn plants, cheaper than robots and rather tasty with a cheese platter.
But something's gone wrong. The Vervoids are conditioned to be peaceful and obedient, but now they're killing people. Something is driving them evil. Something that they've locked in the isolation room. It's actually the last scientist - Baxter. Part of upgrading the Vervoids meant mixing human DNA with plant. And it seems that Vervoid DNA is now shall we say a teeny tiny bit... aggressive? Baxter fell sick when the Vervoid cells began to corrupt her but the Doctor realizes this means Baxter is corrupting the Vervoids. An angry, crazed mind is influencing them!
Meanwhile the Vervoids break into the isolation room and free Baxter, who is now half-Vervoid and is now their queen! Bwahaha! Death to the animalkind, etc. They start to move out in the open, vine-garotting every character they meet. Screams are heard on the bridge as the Mogarians move in for docking with their ship. Rudge is worried, but the Mogarians aren't. Their suits are reinforced and protected, they can't be suffocated. This is another problem humans have brought among themselves.
In the hydroponics section, the Doctor hits on the answer - just as the bright lights caused the Vervoids to wake up, intensifying the lights will cause their bodies to go into overdrive and kill them. Dolland is against this, what with him being evil and all. He's convinced they just need to kill Baxter and they'll be fine. While the Doctor and Lasky set up vionesium arc-lights, Travers, Janet and Dolland head back into the upper levels. The Vervoids pounce on them and Travers and Janet flee while Dolland tries to reason with the Vervoids. They listen to his speech, then kill him because, you know, they really don't like the idea of being slaves.
The Hyperion III docks with the Mogarian ship. Baxter the Vervoid Queen orders her legions to kill them but the Mogarians are suffocation proof. They shove past the Vervoids to get to the hold and in fury, Baxter orders the Vervoids to start belching marsh gas to poison everyone. While the Mogarians are immune, they are horrified when all the humans start to choke and die. Even Rudge.
With the communications room wrecked, Janet realizes the TARDIS is the only safe place. Since all the Vervoids are in the corridors, the air vents are safe and she, Travers, Bruchner and a few survivors follow her. They find the human compost heap and... they're turning into Vervoids! The Vervoids are multiplying! And if they get to Earth with their funky demeter seed powers, they'll wipe out humanity! Bruchner freaks the hell out and Janet asks him what Bruchner is going to do about it? Fly the Hyperion III into the black hole of Tartarus?
Well, as a matter of fact, Bruchner is going to do just that. He runs off into the ducts, shooting Travers when he tries to follow him. Meanwhile, the composted humans are turning into half-Vervoids and start to attack the survivors. Janet smartly flees stage left, as she doesn't need air to breathe.
In the cargo hold, the Mogarians aren't sure what to do now. They're not equipped to fight plant-men, but they can't let all this happen. Lasky arrives with the vionesium, blasting down Vervoid after Vervoid. Only Baxter, half-human, is able to withstand. Lasky pleads for Baxter to see reason, but Baxter's fully Dagenham East (three stops on from Barking) and she murders Lasky and shuts down the lights. She might have failed, but the Doctor has fled in the TARDIS with Janet.
Bruchner manages to run the gauntlet of smoke and Vervoids to get onto the bridge. The Mogarians left there are distracted by the arrival of the TARDIS and Janet emerges with a tray of drinks for them. What the hell? She throws the liquid over them and it's acid, LOL! Their suits melt, exposing them to oxygen, killing them all. The Doctor steps out of the TARDIS and explains he is helping Bruchner with the 'dive into the black hole plan'. That needs two pilots to do it and no distractions.
Janet turns all skull-angelly and fights off the Vervoids and Baxter while the Doctor and Bruchner plot the Hyperion III and docked the Mogarian ship on a collision course with the black hole. The ship shudders, the Vervoids panic, Baxter rants insanely that this is not the end, the Mogarians are dragged down by sheer weight of mutant Vervoid hybrids. But the ship is past the point of no return.
Janet expects the Doctor to let her into the TARDIS so they can leave, but there's been a change of plan. She's being left inside. The Doctor is going to travel into the black hole all right, but in the safety of the TARDIS. Janet is surplus to requirements. She bangs on the police box as Bruchner looks out the window at the approaching black hole, lit up by the hellish light.
The ship hits and is utterly annihilated. Everyone and everything is destroyed.
The Doctor picks himself up off the TARDIS floor. The ship is in a white void, the place he's been trying to get through for so long now. He opens the doors and steps out. A woman is standing there, waiting for him.
"Hey," says Peri Brown. "Did you miss me?"
End of Part Thirteen.
Part Fourteen - The Ultimate Foe
The command deck of the Dalek Mothership. The Doctor, the Master and Glitz are brought before Emperor Davros. The Doctor contacted the Daleks and convinced them to not attack 19th Century Earth in explanation for what the hell is going on (and a neat recap for any viewers). Davros admits he's confused. He remembers being captured on Nekros, turned into a glorified battle computer by the grey Daleks, but also remembers never being overthrown on Skaro. This new Emperor look seems to be the two histories merging and the Dalek databanks can't make sense of anything.
The Doctor explains that when the Master hacked the Matrix, the Time Lord overreacted and nuked Earth, altering history. They've managed to put it back on track, more or less, but there are all sorts of anomalies like Davros standing astride two histories (very impressive for a bloke with no legs, Glitz notes). But Davros is not the only one trying to make sense of things. The universe isn't settling properly and something is stopping finding its balance. The Doctor wants the Daleks to help him find it, otherwise they'll never be sure if they're the "classic" Daleks or some "retconned" ones.
Davros considers it.
In the white void, the Lord President Doctor is glad to see Peri again. She's not entirely sure what the hell happened. She remembers being betrayed by the Doctor on Thoros Beta, not sure if that was a ploy or not (the President isn't sure either) then... nothing.
The President explains that her being a time traveler was a two-edged sword. It meant she didn't simply blink out of existence when her history was erased, but when she DID finally vanish, she vanished for good. Restoring humanity won't bring her back. Traveling with the Doctor didn't just get her killed, it got her never born. And he feels really bad about that, and has - after a lot of time - managed to tangle his own history in such a way he's managed to get her back.
The void they're in, accessed by the black hole of Tartarus, is a "time vent". All the diseased "wrong" time is flooded out of the universe, allowing it to resolve paradoxes. It's known as the spider who weaves the web of time. The President, having landed his TARDIS here, has "blocked" the vent which means Peri hasn't been washed out. She's safe at last and he's saved her.
But Peri has to ask... what happens to the universe now the vents are blocked?
The Dalek fleet is traveling to the 30th century, searching for the black hole. It's not easy, and several ships are lost as they try and pass through eras that no longer exist. The Master explains it to Glitz in the term of a boiling kettle with no steam to escape. The anomalies are burning up reality. The only safe place now will actually be the time vent itself, which is why he's even hanging around the Doctor. Glitz notes that if they kill the Doc now, his future self can't exist to cause this mess. The Master agrees, but isn't willing to take the risk - he'd rather certain safety instead of suicidal revenge.
The Dalek ships arrive in 2986 around Mogar... just as the planet disintegrates and then vanishes. The era it formed in has gone and it can no longer exist. The gaps are spreading. On screens, whole galaxies are flickering and blinking out. No history can agree with another, so they settle for never happening at all. The Daleks start to disappear from the ship as it approaches the black hole.
The Master and Glitz make a break for it, intending to steal Davros' escape capsule (he has one no matter what his history) and fly through the black hole to safety. They're hampered when the white and gold Daleks start to change into black and grey Daleks and there's a fight. The Doctor ditches Davros and joins them at the escape pod. The Master kicks Glitz out of the pod and they launch just before the Dalek ship vanishes in a puff of logic. The only thing left is the black hole...
The Doctor and the Master emerge in what looks like a suburban street. They're in America, Baltimore. A slightly older Peri is getting her mail. She has kids and a husband (former jock who looks disconcertingly like Peter Davison). She's happy. And she recognizes them both and knows time's up.
The President arrives, furious that they're risking the happy ending he's given Peri. It's the ending she is owed, dammit and screw the universe. The Master mocks the President for being a wuss, the Doctor tries to argue that the price is too high. It's Peri, though, who shuts everyone up. She's the reason the escape pod made it, she brought them here because she's not a victim. She's deciding her fate and if she goes, she goes. She didn't help the Doctor save people and planets out of self-interest, she never thought she was immortal and if she was really worried about dying she would've quit after Androzani.
The President is desperate. Peri was the only one who gave him a chance knowing the nice guy he used to be. She stuck by him, even when he went crazy and tried to kill her. He owes her this, he owes her more. In short, what's the point of saving a universe without her in it? Peri isn't dissuaded. The Doctor died for her, now she's paying back the debt. What's the point of destroying the universe because of a broken heart?
Peri tells the Doctor to go into his future self's TARDIS and unblock the time vent. The paradoxes will resolve and everything should settle back to the way it was, more or less. The President will cease to exist, and instead become the Doctor who can go on in her name, saving people, fighting for good, making her proud.
The President finally gives up and lets the Doctor into his ship. The Master politely asks what's going to happen to him in all this? Peri shrugs. She doesn't give a crap about him, but she sure hopes it's painful. The Master runs to the TARDIS but the President stops him. True, none of this is ever going happen, but killing the Master once was never quite enough for him...
In the TARDIS, the Doctor sets the controls. He looks at Peri on the scanner and muses something from A Tale of Two Cities. He presses the button.
The black hole belches with blinding light, knocking the Hyperion III off course. The light is so bright all the Vervoids die. Travers, Janet and plenty of other non-speaking survivors convince the Mogarians to help them head back to Mogar since the ship is damaged. Maybe they should try and make a new future instead of clinging to the terminal Earth empire.
Janet has had a strange dream, but when she checks the communications room it's undamaged. They are, however, getting a distress call from Paradise Five. The holidaymakers have overthrown the Angels and taken over the slave ship. Lorelei is forced to pilot the ship or dissolved. She's pretty pissed off, especially as she has the inexplicable belief things were really going her way.
The Trikes of FRED are blocking up the last of the Penelopean vaults. Some of the Trikes can remember a full-scale war, but that's probably just another hallucination. They don't need to hang around this place any more. In their imagination, the Penelopean royals blame each other for their evil plan failing.
White and grey Daleks are blowing the crap out of each other. The white Daleks win and report to the bridge to Emperor Davros who rants that the attempt to turn him into a battle computer failed. He took over battalions and created his own empire. Now the grey ones are renegades fleeing through time and space. Davros wants them hunted down, and also for some reason suspects the Doctor has been involved. He orders the Doctor to be tracked down as well.
The Master wakes up in a burning volcanic planet, battered and bruised. He can remember everything and he's mightily pissed off the universal reboot has stranded him on this hellhole without a TARDIS. But he is going get off here somehow, find the Doctor and kill him once and for all...
Glitz is nudged awake by Dibber as they fly their ship through space. Glitz was sure that they had a job offer from Thoros Beta, but Dibber reminds him that the Mentors have gone quiet when their "buy-up-the-cosmos" plan lead to them trying to conquer the Earth colony on Thordon which is famous for its King Yrcanos. In short, trying to get BRIAN BLESSED to work for some slugs destroyed them...
On Thoros Beta, Tuza is reporting to King Yrcanos that Sil and some other Mentors managed to escape in the confusion through a supply tunnel to Crozier's lab. Even so, all the slaves have been freed and Yrcanos has lead them to victory as he promised. They return to the wrecked lab where Peri is waiting. She has near total amnesia of what happened. Kiv was going to download his mind into her body when Yrcanos struck and shot everything, including Peri. She was only stunned, but the shock means she cannot remember how she got here. Yrcanos can remember something about a Doctor helping them, but not much else. In the meantime, Yrcanos offers to take Peri back to his planet to make her a queen. Peri shrugs, kinda liking the big lug. Hey, she's pretty sure she's wanted a family life...
On Gallifrey, the woman we once knew as the Inquisitor is President is talking to her Castellan (who we once knew as the Valeyard) about some strange readings in the Matrix. It's clearly an attempt to break in, but no one's managed it so there's nothing to be worried about yet. Both find themselves wondering what the Doctor's up to nowadays, apropos of nothing.
The Doctor is standing in the TARDIS, seemingly lost in thought. Wordlessly, he steps outside and finds he's landed outside Marble Arch station in 1986. It's full of people and life. He's rather dazed. A young computer programmer called Melanie Bush (the real one this time) stops him and asks him if he's all right since his fashion sense suggests otherwise. The Doctor assures her he's fine and wonders if they've met before. Mel doesn't think so, but he does seem familiar. And just what was he doing in a police box?
Before they can reply there is a loud hum and shouts. An alien spaceship UFO is descending out of the sky towards the heart of London, not far away. While Londoners flee, the Doctor decides to have a closer look and asks Mel if she's coming. She suspects she'll regret it but she takes his hand and together they run off into the distance to see what's inside the flying saucer...
End of Part Fourteen.
End of Season 23
