'The Long Game' Story Code 1.7 by Russell T. Davies

“…you’ve bred a human race which doesn’t bother to ask questions. Stupid little slaves believing every lie. They’ll just trot right into the slaughterhouse if they’re told it’s made of gold.” – the Doctor

The TARDIS takes the Doctor, Rose and Adam to the space station Satellite Five in the year 200,000 AD, a time described by the Doctor as the Fourth great and bountiful Human Empire. While Rose and Adam sample the culinary delights of the marketplace in which they have arrived, the Doctor meets two journalists, Cathica and Suki; under the pretence of conducting a management check, the Doctor learns that Satellite Five is the empire’s foremost news broadcasting station, transmitting its reports to the whole human race across six-hundred channels; however, the Doctor’s instincts tell him that things on the station are not as they should be… Cathica and Suki show the Doctor and his companions around the station, taking them to the apparatus that they use to broadcast to their audience; as the three time travellers look on, Cathica uses a cerebral implant to channel multiple news information streams directly into her brain, using it as a computer to process and package the data before sending it onto Suki and her colleagues to transmit across the empire. Elsewhere, in a freezing cold control room, a sinister man known as the Editor detects a security breach in the station; when his minions determine the source to be Suki, the Editor decides to give the woman a promotion, instructing her to report to his domain on Floor 500. Seeing that Adam is overwhelmed by his surroundings, Rose gives him her mobile phone and TARDIS key, and leaves him to spend some time alone on the Observation Deck. Taking the lift to Floor Five-Hundred, Suki finds several corpses grouped around a processing terminal, and then meets the Editor; the man gleefully confronts Suki over her real identity: an anarchist working for the Freedom Foundation. Pulling a gun, Suki reveals that she has come to Satellite Five because the news is manipulating people with lies; the Editor responds by introducing her to his Editor-in-Chief - a huge alien creature suspended from the ceiling, which promptly kills her. After remarking that there are no aliens on the station, the Doctor notes that the Human Empire’s development seems stunted by ninety years - and that Satellite Five has been in operation for ninety-one years… On the Observation Deck, Adam uses a computer terminal to search through the station’s databanks and then transmit the data via Rose’s mobile to his parent’s answer-phone; when the terminal locks him out, he visits Floor Sixteen, where he learns from a nurse that he needs a brain implant to access more information; using the Doctor’s credit, he agrees to a brain operation. Hacking into the station’s computer, the Doctor learns that the ventilation system is channelling all heat to the lower levels, while keeping the upper levels frozen. The Editor checks into the Doctor and Rose’s backgrounds, only to find that they have no official records. Leaving Cathica behind, the Doctor and Rose hack the lift’s systems and make for the upper-most level, only to be captured by the Editor and his undead minions, including the animated corpse of Suki. Interrogating the two time travellers, the Editor introduces them to his boss, an alien known as the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe. The Editor reveals that he represents a consortium of banks that have allowed the creature to control the human race via the station’s news broadcasts for their own financial purposes. Learning that the Jagrafess has been alive for hundreds of years, the Doctor realizes that the station has been configured to act as a life support for the creature; his words are overheard by Cathica, who has managed to reach the offices by copying the Doctor’s overriding of the computer systems. Adam attempts to use his implant to download the stations memory into his mind and transmit it via telephone to his answer-phone at home; but instead the system downloads his memory, providing the Editor with intimate knowledge of the Doctor, and allowing him to retrieve the TARDIS key. However, Cathica uses the nearby terminal to override the station computer, freeing Adam and reversing the heating system so that all the warmth is vented up into Level Five Hundred. Rose frees herself and the Doctor, and as the duo makes a hasty retreat, the Jagrafess goes berserk - but then the excessive heat causes it to expand and explode, apparently killing the Editor in the blast. Some time later, the Doctor and Rose bid Cathica goodbye, satisfied that humanity will return to normal. Furious at Adam’s selfish actions - which could have irretrievably changed mankind’s history - the Doctor takes the young man back home, unceremoniously dumping him in his own time before departing in the TARDIS with Rose. As they depart, adam's mum arrives - and is shocked to see her son's new upgrade…

Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who), Billie Piper (Rose Tyler), Bruno Langley (Adam Mitchell), Colin Prockter (Head Chef), Christine Adams (Cathica Santini Khadeni), Anna Maxwell-Martin (Suki Macrae Cantrell [Eva Saint Julienne]), Simon Pegg (The Editor), Tamsin Greig(Nurse), Judy Holt (Sandra [Adam's Mum]), Russell T Davies' Dog (Adam's Dog)

Directed by Brian Grant
Produced by Phil Collinson
Executive Producers Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner and Mal Young
A BBC Wales production

TX:
7th May 2005 @ 7.00 pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Ninth Doctor, Rose and Adam

*Bad Wolf sightings: Cathica shows the Doctor a news report concerning the Face of Boe's pregnency, which is being broadcast from the 'Bad Wolf TV' channel. For the week leading up to this episode's original transmission, the homepage of the BBC website depicted a series of television screens, all showing news-style images in the style of the story - including, in the bottom right-hand corner, a picture of a wolf. Clicking on this caused the word "badwolf" to appear several times...

*The title 'The Long Game' refers to events that are actually revealed in episode twelve, 'Bad Wolf'...