The Next Doctor

Writer: Russell T Davies O.B.E
Director: Andy Goddard

“I’m The Doctor, simply The Doctor…the one…the only and the best!”

The Doctor lands in Victorian London and on hearing a woman shouting for ‘The Doctor’ is intrigued and runs through the streets until he finds her. As he tries to take control of the situation she continues to call for The Doctor despite his protests that he is already there.  Soon another man arrives, asks the woman (Rosita) for his sonic screwdriver before telling her this is work for a Time Lord and she should go back to the TARDIS. When The Doctor asks the man who he is he says that HE is The Doctor!!

Before the two men can discuss the matter further the creature that had been threatening Rosita breaks free. The new Doctor says that he has been tracking it for a couple of weeks now and although it initially appears to evade the two Doctors by climbing up the outside wall of a nearby building the new Doctor manages to lasso it, but the creature is strong enough to pull the new Doctor up with it. The Doctor grabs hold of the rope to try and slow the creature down but he too just ends up being pulled up the wall, through an open window and along the floor of the deserted building.  It appears that both The Doctors will be pulled to their deaths until Rosita appears and cuts through the rope attaching them to the creature.

Safely back on the ground The Doctor asks his counterpart if he knows who is which he doesn’t. The Doctor decides to play it safe and introduces himself as John Smith a man who has heard a lot about the legend that is The Doctor. The new Doctor admits that since the Cybermen came to London he knows that part of his memories is missing.

In another part of the city the Cybermen have gathered. They have allied themselves with a woman who they believe will help them with the rebirth of the Cyberking.

Whilst the funeral of the Rev. Fairchild is taking place the new Doctor intends to break into his house. As he goes to open the back door The Doctor is already inside. He asks to see the new Doctor’s sonic screwdriver and is handed an ordinary screwdriver, its sonic noise is made when it is banged against a hard surface. Something about this new Doctor is not as it seems!

The two Doctors go inside the house and whilst they start searching the new Doctor tells The Doctor that he is investigating murders and abductions that started three weeks ago with a man called Jackson Lake and ended with the Rev Fairchild. He believes the Cybermen are to blame and is looking for proof.

The new Doctor is surprised that he is telling The Doctor, a comparative stranger, all about what he is doing but he feels that he can trust him. The Doctor notices that the new Doctor has a fob watch, similar to the one he used to hide from the Family of Blood and wonders if it might be doing the same thing. When he opens it though he discovers that it is nothing more than a decorative watch!

The Doctor uses his own sonic screwdriver to help speed up the search, covering up the noise it makes by saying he was whistling. They find two metal spheres which The Doctor ‘guesses’ are Infostamps.  When he opens his up he finds it contains a compressed history of London from 1066 to 1851. The new Doctor remembers seeing an Infostamp before, on the night he lost his memory, when he believes that he regenerated. He also believes that The Doctor was there with him and asks for his help.

Before they can leave, the room is invaded by Cybermen and the two Doctors end up running for their lives. Trapped on the stairs The Doctor grabs a cutlass off the wall and tries to fight off the Cybermen whilst insisting to them that he is actually The Doctor. The Cybermen are relentless in their pursuit and as they close in for the kill the new Doctor remembers using the Infostamp as a weapon and does so again, killing the Cybermen.

At the funeral all the good men of the area are gathered when through the snow appears a woman. She tells them that she is Mercy Hartigan and implies that she had the Rev. Fairchild killed just to bring all the men together. She then unleashes the Cybermen on the assembled crowd, whereupon they kill all but 4 of the men. These 4 men have been kept alive because they are in charge of local workhouses and have access to the one thing that Miss Hartigan needs, children. Once they have been fitted with earpods they are sent on their way to collect the children.

The new Doctor and Rosita are living in a stable block surrounded by all of Jackson Lake’s luggage and with the new Doctor’s TARDIS outside in the yard. The Doctor scans some of Jackson’s luggage and then opens up a trunk to find a large stash of Infostamps. He tells the new Doctor that he needs to see his TARDIS, but when they get outside it is nothing more than a hot air balloon that has never been flown.  On seeing the luggage and the TARDIS The Doctor has now worked out the mystery of his ‘future self’ and offers to tell him.

He tells them both how the Cybermen had been fought, defeated and sent into the void, but that one of them must have fallen through the weakened walls of the world into 1851. Jackson Lake arrived at the same time as the Cybermen and got hold of an Infostamp – the one that contained the Cybermens’ history of The Doctor. The stamp backfired and poured all the information into Jackson. Turning over the new Doctor’s fob watch they find it is engraved with the initials JL – the new Doctor is actually Jackson Lake and as he re-watches the Infostamp he sees that the man in front of him is actually The Doctor! He is distraught to think that what he believed to be his life has been nothing more than a lie, but The Doctor points out all the good things that he has already done when he thought he was The Doctor.

They both know that the information from the Infostamp should not have been enough to make Jackson loose his mind and when he tries hard enough Jackson can remember that the Cybermen had killed his wife. Maybe that had been enough to cause his fugue state.

All the Infostamps start activating which The Doctor takes to be a call to arms to the Cybermen and sets off to investigate. Jackson sends Rosita after him to help, whilst he still tries to come to terms with the events of the day. In the streets Rosita and The Doctor see streams of children being marched to the Cyber base. They follow them and come across Miss Hartigan with two of her Cybermen guards. The Doctor thinking she is in danger tries to warn her and to get her to move away but she tells him that the opposite is true. The Cybermen will not hurt her but give her the liberation she truly wants and that the children are needed as a workforce to provide the energy that will enable the rise of the Cyberking. She commands her Cybermen to kill Rosita and The Doctor but as they approach Jackson Lake, who has decided that his life is better when he is helping The Doctor, uses Infostamps to destroy them.

Jackson stills knows that not all of his memories have returned and wonders if the answers might be found in the cellar of the house where he first encountered the Cybermen. In the cellar The Doctor finds a Dimension Vault, technology stolen from The Daleks, that had enabled the Cybermen to travel through time, Jackson however doesn’t find any answers.

Miss Hartigan has accelerated the rise of the Cyberking and is taken to what will be his throne room only to discover that despite what the Cybermen had promised her she will in fact be converted and become the Cyberking. Her mind, however, is stronger than had been anticipated and she becomes a sort of Cyberman – human hybrid. She believes that the balance of Cyber Technology and her limited and controlled emotions is the way forward. The Cybermen can not accept any form of emotions and the Cyber Controller attempts to kill her but is himself destroyed.

In the Cyber base the energy levels are rising and The Doctor, Rosita and Jackson don’t know what the power is needed for but do know that if they interfere the Cybermen will be alerted and the children placed in danger. They can do nothing but wait. As Miss Hartigan destroys the Cyber Controller they see a massive fluctuation in the power levels and realise that when the power level reaches 100% the children will be killed anyway. They have no choice but to attack the Cybermen and set the children free. Seeing the children triggers a memory in Jackson and he remembers that the Cybermen had taken his son! He sees one child trapped high in the Cyber base and knows that it is his son. He tries to rescue him but is beaten back by flames that destroy seemingly the only way up to the child. The Doctor, never without a plan, pulls the cutlass he took from the Rev Fairchild’s house from his suit pocket (they’re bigger on the inside!), grabs a pulley rope, cuts it free and hoists himself up to save Jackson’s son.

The Cyberking, which is actually a space ship containing a cyber conversion factory rises from The Thames and strides across London demanding surrender and blasting the city with laser fire.

The Doctor returns to where Jackson lives and grabs another roll of Info stamps and part of the dimension vault. He jumps into Jackson’s TARDIS and sets it loose, flying up to confront the Cyberking.

He offers Miss Hartigan a choice; he will find her a planet where she can live, but without people to convert, or he will have to stop her now. She chooses to ignore his offer and so he has no choice but to use the Infostamps against her. He doesn’t use them to kill her but just to sever the connection between her and the Cybermen so that she can truly see what she has become. This knowledge is so horrific to her that she turns her remaining power on the Cybermen destroying them and her in the process. The damaged Cyberking begins to fall towards London but The Doctor uses the dimension vault to transport it into the time vortex where it will be harmlessly destroyed.

On the ground, Jackson Lake explains to the watching crowd that the man who has just saved them is The Doctor and then leads them in rousing applause and cheering in recognition of the acts he has just performed.

Jackson invites The Doctor for Christmas lunch although he knows from his own memories of The Doctor that he won’t stay. Before he lets him go though he takes a look inside the real TARDIS and proclaims it nonsense, wonderful nonsense that makes his head ache!  He asks The Doctor how come he now travels alone because he has seen all the wonderful shining companions he has had in the past. Sadly The Doctor admits that every time they leave it breaks his heart and so he has decided from now on to travel alone. Jackson insists that The Doctor joins him for a meal – in memory of all those they have both lost…and for once The Doctor agrees.

Written by Deryn Corner