Royal Hope incident

Royal Hope incident
Dates:	2008
Location:	Royal Hope Hospital The Moon
Combatants
Judoon
Florence Finnegan
Leaders
Judoon captain
Florence Finnegan
Strength
Three Judoon rockets
Two slabs

The Royal Hope incident, also known as the Judoon incident, was the name given by The Secret Lives of Monsters to the event in which the Royal Hope Hospital was briefly relocated to the Moon by the Judoon. (TV: Smith and Jones, PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters)

History

Background

The Plasmavore who would be known as Florence Finnegan had been charged with the murder of the Child Princess of Padrivole Regency 9. In an attempt to evade the Judoon, (TV: Smith and Jones) the Plasmavore went to Earth and stole the identity of a deceased human woman named Florence Finnegan. (PROSE: Judoon Case File No. 31032007/179, The Secret Lives of Monsters) Her NHS and National Insurance number showed the real Florence Finnegan to have died in 1974 at the age of 93. (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters)

Aftermath

Morgenstern gave an eyewitness report of the incident in which he commented that it proved Harold Saxon right; (TV: Smith and Jones) Saxon had spoken openly about the existence of alien life as evidenced in earlier, high-profile incidents which had been covered up by the British government. (TV: The Sound of Drums)

That night, Martha joined the Doctor in the TARDIS. (TV: Smith and Jones) After an extended "trip", the Doctor returned Martha to her home on the following day, however, after the confrontation with Richard Lazarus, the Doctor accepted Martha as a full-time companion. That night, Francine Jones was approached by an agent of Saxon, who warned her about the Doctor. (TV: The Lazarus Experiment) Two days later, on election day, Francine Jones assisted Miss Dexter in tapping and tracing phone conversations with Martha as she traveled with the Doctor. (TV: 42) The day after the election, in which Saxon was elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the Doctor and Martha returned along with Jack Harkness, realising that Saxon was the Saxon Master. They were embroiled in the Toclafane invasion (TV: The Sound of Drums) and the Year That Never Was, after which Martha decided to leave the Doctor, (TV: Last of the Time Lords) beginning a career in UNIT. (TV: Reset, The Sontaran Stratagem)

An initial theory was that the disappearance of the hospital was a David Blaine stunt. (AUDIO: Hysteria) Following investigations into the incident by the Home Office and the Ministry of Health, it was concluded that the majority of reports, including the most bizarre stemmed from witnesses suffering a collective hallucination caused by oxygen starvation. (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters) Shawna Thompson, a conspiracy theorist, noted that hallucinations could have been caused by a gas leak, pesticides or "meds in the water". (AUDIO: Hysteria) According to a report made public by the Secretary of State, the depletion in oxygen levels was caused by a freak weather event. The majority of newspapers reported on the rain going backwards, but ignored the bizarre claims of hospital staff. (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters) The BBC later claimed to hold no footage of such an event, and went so far as to deny all knowledge of the incident. (AUDIO: Hysteria)

Morgenstern later wrote the novel Accidental Moon, based on his experience. (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters) His book was self-published and resulted in him receiving abuse online as well impacting his friendships and relationships. He lost his girlfriend, friends, and his family thought he had lost his mind. Over the following years, Morgenstern grew to re-evaluate his experience. He became a psychiatrist and re-examined the incident as a potential example of mass hallucination or mass hysteria. He remembered the panic, the fear and the trauma of the event, but no longer remembered being on the moon. As far as he was concerned, the past was the past. He was safe, well and his focus was now on the future.

In 2022, Oliver was interviewed in Edinburgh by Abby McPhail, who was looking into the Royal Hope incident as part of her podcast The Blue Box Files. Oliver was embarrassed (AUDIO: Hysteria) by Accidental Moon (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters) and claimed to have re-evaluated, believing himself a victim of mass hysteria. He had researched the subject of mass hysteria extensively and was working on a new book. He remembered Martha Jones, but hadn't seen her since she became obsessed with the Doctor and "vanished off the face of the earth". (AUDIO: Hysteria) Oliver disappeared shortly after meeting Abby, (AUDIO: Interrogation) due to a psychic virus infecting the Thirteenth Doctor and targeting people who had had contact with her. The Doctor and Cleo Proctor eventually restored the disappeared. (AUDIO: Salvation)

Alternate timeline

In Donna's World, where Donna Noble turned right instead of left, the Royal Hope incident occurred on 25 June 2007 after the Racnoss invasion of Earth resulted in the death of the Tenth Doctor. In his stead, Sarah Jane Smith was investigating the hospital - along with her son, Luke Smith, and his friends, Maria Jackson and Clyde Langer - when it was transported to the Moon. Sarah Jane took control of the situation, reassuring the staff and patients that she could stop the MRI. She was successful, but everyone in the building died of oxygen starvation, save a medical student named Oliver Morgenstern, when the hospital ran out of air; Martha Jones gave him the last oxygen tank, giving up her own life to save him. The hospital was returned to its original position, where Morgenstern was interviewed by BBC News. (TV: Turn Left)

Behind the scenes

According to Defending the Earth: The UNIT Sourcebook, UNIT tended to the Royal Hope Hospital upon its return to Earth.