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== Plot == | == Plot == | ||
''to be | The Doctor is called before a [[judge]], charged with leaving [[The Doctor's TARDIS|a blue box]] on a [[Double yellow lines|double yellow line]]. He explains that he was only parked temporarily while Lucie was [[shopping]]. A [[police officer]] tells the [[court]] that he was unable to check inside the box. The Doctor then says he waited two hours, but Lucie didn’t come back. He then detected a localised [[temporal shift]], stepped outside the TARDIS to find Lucie, but when he did so when he was arrested. The judge, finding the Doctor guilty, then [[Death sentence|sentences him to death]]. | ||
The Doctor then finds himself in the dock of the [[Old Bailey]] in the [[17th century|17<sup>th</sup> century]], and realises he’s fallen through a temporal shift. He tells the judge there that he is not the [[horse]] [[thief]] they previously thought was on trial. To his surprise, the 17<sup>th</sup> century judge recognises the Doctor. The Doctor recognises him as 'Hanging George Jeffries', someone he has never met before, and accuses him of being imposter. Spring-Heeled Sophie, a [[Funambulism|tightrope walker]], then enters the courtroom. | |||
Lucie walks around in the dark, asking if there’s been a [[power cut]]. She is then unexpectedly almost knocked over by a [[tram]]. A woman helps her up, asking why she was walking on the tram tracks, and suggests that Lucie must be [[Inebriation|drunk]]. The woman introduces herself as Beryl, a [[Munitions worker|munitions]] worker, and mentions that Lucie is in [[1917]]. | |||
In the Old Bailey, Sophie is accused of stealing a valuable [[tankard]] and a [[silver]] [[spoon]]. As the judge berates her, the Doctor asks him to stop, saying Sophie is too young to [[Hanging|hang]]. A guard punches the Doctor, and the judge finds Sophie guilty and sentences her to hang. | |||
In 1917 London a [[Zeppelin]] appears in the sky. Beryl, knowing this is dangerous, tells Lucie to follow her to an [[London Underground|underground station]]. | |||
In a 17<sup>th</sup> century [[Prison|jail]] the Doctor introduces himself to Sophie. He mentions Lucie, and Sophie offers to help him find her if he helps her escape. She suggests that the Doctor might have something valuable to [[bribe]] a guard with. She then reveals she has a [[cista mystica]], an [[Roman Empire|ancient Roman]] box, and inside the box the Doctor finds some alien technology. | |||
Beryl warns Lucie about the Blackout Killer, who attacks respectable females in [[Newgate]], taking advantage of the [[Black Out|blackout]] for cover. Lucie and Beryl then arrive at the underground station, only to find it locked. | |||
The Doctor, noting the presence of the alien technology, suspects foul play in the temporal shifts. Something is playing with the people in this world. | |||
Beryl and Lucie relax as the Zeppelin leaves. They see a [[building]] has been knocked down. Beryl offers to take Lucie to the [[munitions factory]], but Lucie declines and heads off to find the Doctor. As she turns to retrace her steps [[River Fleet|a river]] suddenly appears in front of her. Beryl explains calmly that this river appears sometimes and disappears in others. She says it happens whenever “he” wants, and tells Lucie it’s best not to question things. She says that those who don’t willingly believe in the [[reality]] of what they see end up going [[Insanity|crazy]]. | |||
The Doctor asks Sophie to think about anything unusual she might have noticed. Sophie recalls once escaping from a [[workhouse]] when she experienced a whoosh and weird flash, and says that she felt weird for a few days following. The Doctor tells her that she experienced being transported by a [[tractor beam]]. He finds it odd, since tractor beams can transport people through [[space]] but not through [[time]]. Sophie then says she got the cista mystica in the [[Temple of Mithras]], and tells the Doctor she found the temple at the end of [[River Thames|the river]]. | |||
Beryl causally mentions that Lucie is from another time, and assumes she was “sentenced to transportation”. After Beryl gives Lucie directions to the road the TARDIS was parked on Lucie says she needs to cross the river, but Beryl warns her against going against “his” wishes. Lucie then walks down the river and sees the buildings becoming more modern. | |||
The next day, the billman comes to announce the execution of the Doctor and Sophie. They are put into a [[Carriage|horse-drawn carriage]] to be transported to their deaths. The [[hangman]] Jack Ketch introduces himself, and the Doctor accuses him of being an [[avatar]] of a [[Shapeshifter|shape-shifting]] alien. He suggests that that’s how he was recognised in the courtroom, and that he was then moved to another time where he could be dealt with more inconspicuously. The hangman then threatens to make the Doctor’s execution slow and painful. | |||
Lucie sees [[Smoking|smokers]] standing outside a [[pub]], and says it must be [[2008]]. She then comes face to face with the blackout killer. | |||
The Doctor speaks [[Quagreegian]], provoking the creature imitating a hangman to reveal itself as a [[Quagreeg (species)|Quagreeg]]. The Quagreeg’s avatar then identifies itself, and all of the other avatars, as parts of a single Quagreeg named Sepulchre. | |||
The blackout killer tells Lucie she cannot escape, then drops its disguise, saying “we need new blood”. | |||
The Doctor asks Sepulchre if it is trapped on [[Earth|this planet]] too. The avatar explains that Sepulchre transports suitable [[Human|humans]], those who won’t be missed, and uses them to sustain itself. As the carriage pulls into [[Tyburn]] the Sepulchre avatar restores its human guise and prepares for the execution. | |||
Lucie pushes the Sepulchre avatar of the blackout killer into the river and makes her escape. | |||
The Doctor is about to be hung. He tells the crowd he repents a number of offences against [[fashion]]. He then tells the hangman he’s not afraid because the situation is [[Illusion|not real]]. The more he denies the reality of the situation, the fuzzier it becomes. Sepulchre’s avatars attempt to silence the Doctor, but the Doctor insists that in this place and time he has the right to make a final [[speech]]. With the Sepulchre then distracted, the Doctor and Sophie make their escape. | |||
Lucie, walking further, finds herself again in another time period which she cannot identify. | |||
The Doctor and Sophie head to the river and find Sophie’s [[Rowboat|boat]]. The Doctor realises the river is connecting all of the [[Historical re-enactment|time zone re-enactments]]. The Doctor asks Sophie to help him put an end to Sepulchre’s rule, and when she refuses he implores her. He says that Sepulchre has deliberately put her down, and that the more she fights back the weaker he becomes. Sophie grabs some [[Rope|ropes]] from her boat. A stranger approaches, and Sophie [[Lasso|lassos]] her. The Doctor then recognises the stranger as Lucie, and Sophie unties her. When a group of men – Sepulchre avatars – appear in the distance, the three get into the boat and head off. | |||
The Old Bailey judge leaves his time zone to meet the hangman. He warns his Sepulchre counterpart of the Doctor’s movements towards the temple. | |||
The three row the boat into a [[tunnel]], taking out a [[lantern]] to see. The Doctor explains that [[information]] flows down the river, like in a [[Brain|brain’s]] [[Neural pathway|neural pathways]], connecting and updating all the parts of Sepulchre’s [[psyche]]. The Doctor, noting that Sepulchre’s avatars are disposable, explains that he can only defeat Sepulchre by attacking the entity itself. | |||
At the temple, Sepulchre tells its avatars that the Doctor and his companions must be sent back to another time. When [[Boudica|Boudica’s]] [[Great Britain|Britain]] is suggested, Sepulchre agrees that this time will be suitably dangerous enough to contain the [[Time Lord]]. Sepulchre then realises that the cista mystica has has been stolen, and panics knowing that the Doctor can use it to destroy him. | |||
The Doctor, Lucie and Sophie reach the temple, and the Doctor attempts to tie up the boat. Then, the Doctor, Lucie and Sophie suddenly find themselves flowing off a [[waterfall]]. When they land, they find themselves in Roman London, suspended inside a [[Wicker man (ritual)|wicker man]] about to be [[Burn|burned]] in a [[ritual]] of [[Celt|Celtic]] [[sacrifice]]. Lucie sees a man in robes walking towards the wicker man with a flaming torch. He lights the wicker man’s wooden legs. | |||
Sepulchre, at the temple, celebrates the Doctor’s demise, and sends his avatars to attend the Doctor’s death in person. The Doctor uses [[The Doctor's sonic screwdriver|his sonic screwdriver]] to weaken the fastenings in the [[wicker]]. The three jump out, and when they land they see the wicker man has disappeared – by disrupting the simulation they have undermined its reality. They are then met by Sepulchre, who welcomes them to his neural re-enactment chambers. The Doctor then realises that the re-enactments are taking place [[Imagination|inside Sepulchre’s head]]. Lucie, grasping his meaning, describes Sepulchre’s head as being like [[TARDIS|a TARDIS]], with the same mechanism TARDIS uses to be bigger on the inside being the device inside the cista mystica. The Doctor then confronts Sepulchre, who says humans are like [[livestock]]. The Doctor uses his sonic on the cista mystica to destroy the device inside, closing the neural pathways between the different chambers of Sepulchre’s mind. | |||
With the illusions shattered, Sepulchre’s avatars are revealed as monsters to the humans in the 17<sup>th</sup> century London. The humans in this mental re-enactment turn on the avatars. The mob soon turns towards the Doctor and Lucie. The Doctor, realising that they must now seem alien too since they were not originally part of this simulation, tells Lucie they need to leave. | |||
They walk back along the river to 2008, and find the TARDIS covered in [[Parking ticket|parking tickets]]. They step inside. The Doctor explains that all the versions of London will continue inside Sepulchre’s head, but without Sepulchre being able to control their realities and prey upon their inhabitants. The Doctor then messes with the TARDIS controls, and he and Lucie set off on their next adventure. | |||
== Cast == | == Cast == | ||