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Summary
Hoping for the Chardaz Musuem of Modern Art, The Doctor finds himself within a domed park-like area, where giant eggs hatch polite, marsupial-like creatures capable of heat vision. Trying to get directions, the Doctor follows one such creature, which ages rapidly as it uses its heat vision to bake a lump of mud into a brick. It carries the brick to a staircase -- its steps constructed of over such bricks -- which spirals up to the roof of the dome. The staircase is also decorated with bones, which the Doctor finds out the creature gets from skeletons of its own kind, all of which appear to have died from a high fall. Crying "heavenwards", the creature scampers up the staircase, the Doctor realising not only where the creature's fellows fell from, but also guessing that the TARDIS did deliver him to the museum.
Up above them, Garg Ardoniquist, an obese humanoid and controversial "genetic sculptor", is being interviewed at a party for the unveiling of his latest masterpiece. Gathered around a small dome-like structure with a hinged top, Garg explains to the interviewer that this work represents the suffering an artist goes through to reach the top of their field. Beneath them, the creature has added its brick as the latest step on the staircase, and is narrowly prevented by the Doctor from stepping off the staircase to its death. Successfully guessing that the creatures are following a program, the Doctor reaches up and unlocks the hatch. Hauling himself and the creature into the museum, the Doctor is waylaid by the interviewer, asking what it's like to be part of a work of art, while the now-elderly creature adoringly beholds its creator, Garg Ardoniquist, who narcissistically invites it to embrace its creator, for having successfully built the Stairway to Heaven.
The Doctor, however, is having none of this, and berates Garg as a pompous fool, having abused genetic science for his own ego. When Garg defends himself, saying he had suffered greatly to bring art into the world, the Doctor outlines that it was his creations that did the real suffering, the latest creature having no more reason to exist now that its programming was completed. At this point, the creature then tackles Garg, wishing to be united with its creator, resulting in them falling through the hatch to their deaths. While the attending party-goers acclaim Garg for getting so involved with his work (or begin grabbing up bricks for collectors' items), the Doctor makes a hasty retreat back to the TARDIS. Lamenting that that one small step sometimes proves to lead one downwards, he leaves as yet another egg cracks open.
Characters
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Notes
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Continuity
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Timeline
- This story occurs after DWM: Nemesis of the Daleks
- This story occurs before ST: The Glass Princess
