Partners In Crime

Writer: Russell T Davies
Director: James Strong

“Nice to meet you…I’m The Doctor”
“And I’m Donna”
“Partners in Crime”

 

Donna and The Doctor are independently investigating a company known as Adipose Industries.

In a press conference for the company’s brand new miracle diet pill the CEO, Miss Foster claims that one pill taken once a day will make the fat ‘just walk away’.

Donna and The Doctor still unaware that the other is in the building make their respective ways to the main sales floor of the company where they both get hold of one of the ‘free’ pendants given to anybody purchasing the diet pills and a current customer list. They manage NOT to see each other across the office space.

Donna goes to visit Stacey Campbell and The Doctor visits Roger Davy. They are both Adipose customers and have nothing but praise for the way the tablet seems to have helped them loose weight. Whilst Donna is waiting for Stacey she begins to examine the pendant she got from Adipose Industries. Doing this triggers a reaction in Stacey and her body starts to shed her excess fat.

Miss Foster knows that this releasing of fat is unscheduled and when Stacey sees the small creature that her fat has become she has no choice but to accelerate the fat removal process to such an extent that Stacey is killed. Donna hearing the strange noises coming from Stacey’s bathroom goes to investigate and after breaking down the door sees the last of the small creatures that were formed from Stacey’s fat escaping from her bathroom window.

The Doctor has rigged a device to alert him to the presence of the Adipose creatures and this is triggered by the ones that were formed from Stacey Campbell. He tries to give chase but they elude him. In the next street Donna has also chased and lost the Adipose she saw.

With nothing more to be done that night Donna returns home to her Mother’s, where she is now living, but soon has to escape her constant nagging by visiting her Grandfather on his allotment where he goes nightly to watch the stars. He believes that space travel will be possible eventually and Donna is reminded of her previous travels with The Doctor, and tells her Granddad to keep watching for a little blue box.

The next day she is back at Adipose Industries offices, hiding in the bathroom until the working day is over. In another part of the building The Doctor is hiding and waiting too. Donna believes her cover has been compromised when Miss Foster and two of her guards come looking for somebody in the bathroom, but luckily for Donna it isn’t her but a journalist who has discovered that the test results on the Adipose tablets have been falsified. Donna follows Miss Foster back to her office.

Meanwhile The Doctor has gone to the roof and used a window cleaner’s cradle to lower himself to the level of Miss Foster’s office where he is listening to her conversation through the wall with a stethoscope.
Miss Foster is admitting to the journalist that the tablets not only attract fat but then allow that fat to become a new body…an Adipose. The Doctor stands up to hear better and FINALLY he and Donna see each other across the expanse of Miss Fosters’ office.

Through a series of mimed questions and answers Donna tells The Doctor that she has been looking for him but they are soon interrupted by Miss Foster and just like old times they both find themselves on the run again!
They finally meet on the stairwell as they try to escape but any celebration and any questions have to be put on hold as they are still being chased by Miss Foster and her guards.

They make their way back to the roof and into the window cleaning cradle. The Doctor locks the controls with his sonic screwdriver and they begin their descent. What he didn’t expect was that Miss Foster has her own sonic device which she uses to make the cradle fall dramatically. Finally The Doctor brings the cradle to a stop and as they try to break into the office block through the window Miss Foster uses her sonic device to cut one of the cables on the cradle. Donna is thrown out of the cradle and is left hanging from a cable hundreds of feet in the air. The Doctor uses his own sonic screwdriver to make Miss Foster drop her sonic device which he catches and uses to open the office window. He climbs into the building, rushes down to where Donna is hanging and saves her.

Donna and The Doctor finally confront Miss Foster who admits to being an alien charged by the Adiposian First Family with repopulating their planet. The Doctor tells her that her actions are illegal on Earth and that if she doesn’t stop he will have no choice but to make her stop. Her response is to order her guards to shoot the two of them. Using the two sonic devices to create a diversion Donna and The Doctor make good their escape and head for the computer core.

Miss Foster is accelerating the process of turning fat into the Adipose and all over London people are collapsing as their bodies shed fat. The Doctor is trying to use his access to the computer to stop the process before people die. As he works Donna tells him that now she regrets turning down his offer to travel with him and that despite what she told him she still hasn’t really done anything with her life. He tells her that the offer to travel with him still stands and this time she accepts without hesitation.

Miss Foster is aware that The Doctor is trying to stop her and increases the process even more until The Doctor realises that the only way he can stop her now is with another of the ‘free Adipose pendants’…which he doesn’t have….but Donna does… and he is able to stop the process.

The Adiposian First Family sends a ship to collect the ‘children’ that have been created. The Adipose are beamed up to the space ship and Miss Foster believes that she will go with them, however the Adiposians have other plans. They no longer need Miss Foster and switch off her levitation beam causing her to fall to her death.

The danger to Earth once again averted The Doctor and Donna are back at the Tardis. He tries to tell her that his life is complicated and that sometimes the people he travels with get caught up in that and he doesn’t need or want anything other than a mate…a friend. That suits Donna fine and whilst The Doctor loads her luggage into the Tardis she goes off to drop off her Mum’s car keys. She phones her Mum to tell her where the keys are and then tells a blonde girl she sees in the street where they are too, before hurrying back to the Tardis.  As they set off on their travels the blonde girl in the street turns and walks away.

She is Rose Tyler!

 

Written by Deryn Corner