'The Power of the Doctor' (Story Code 13.09) by Chris Chibnall

“Leave Earth now Doctor, or it will be the death of you. Because really, honestly, truly, this is the day you die. No, not just die. Welcome to the end of your existence. This is the day you are erased from existence. Forever.” – The Master

A bullet train speeding through space is hijacked by ‘CyberMasters’. The security marshals make quick work of their attackers, only to watch as the corpses regenerate and attack again. Receiving the train crew’s call for help, the Doctor sets the TARDIS flying above the train, dons a spacesuit and, together with Yaz and Dan, climbs onto the vessel via a collapsible metal ladder. As the trio race across the roof on electro-magnetic boots, they come under attack from a squad of Cybermen; Dan’s face-plate is hit by an energy bolt and he slips away from the train, but luckily he is saved by his friends. The Doctor uses her sonic screwdriver to reverse the roof’s magnetic force, sending the Cybermen spinning off into space. Scrambling inside the train, the Doctor leaves Dan to bring the vessel under control while she and Yaz check on the Marshalls and passengers. Learning that the Cybermen are trying to steal the train’s precious cargo, the Doctor races to stop them. But she arrives too late: the Cybermen free a small child from a cargo pod and then teleport away with her.

In Siberia, 1916, Father Grigori Rasputin is summoned to the Tsar’s Winter Palace. In London, 2022, Dorothy ‘Ace’ McShane investigates an art gallery, where a painting has been removed under the suspicious excuse of restoration. With fifteen famous paintings having now gone missing, Ace contacts her friend Tegan, who is in Romania investigating the mysterious disappearance of a dozen seismologists. Tegan tells Ace that she received a package of a Russian doll, with a card from their mutual friend, the Doctor; the doll Tegan holds looks suspiciously like a miniature Cyberman…

Back in the TARDIS, Dan’s near-death experience has led him to decide to go home, concerned that he is pushing his luck. The Doctor returns Dan to the site of his house in Liverpool, and she waits inside the TARDIS while he and Yaz say farewell. The TARDIS receives a holographic transmission from a Dalek defector: claiming that it has become disillusioned by the Dalek mission, the creature uses the threat of an imminent incursion of Earth to persuade the Doctor to meet. But the Doctor uses the TARDIS to lock onto the kidnapped child’s trail, which leads to an extra planet in Earth’s shadow in 1916…

In St. Petersburg, 1916, Father Grigori Rasputin - none other than the Master in disguise - arrives at the Winter Palace. The Tsar and Tsarina call on the ‘mad monk’ to cure their son, whose illness they believe to be worsened by the second moon in the sky. The Master uses his hypnosis to send the family away on holiday, leaving him in charge of the palace.

The TARDIS materialises on the new moon, which the Doctor identifies as being composed of volcanic material converted into metal. Nearby is another police box, its sign changed to multiple ‘hahaha’s. Stepping inside, the Doctor and Yaz find a sinister version of the TARDIS, its Cloister Bell ringing in alarm, its red-lit controls connected to the planet’s infrastructure. Back outside, the Doctor deactivates a cloaking field and sees the child hanging in the air, tethered to the planet by chains. But this isn’t the child’s real form – she is really a Qurunx, a sentient energy creature that the Cybermen are using to power the planet. A Cyberleader materialises before the Doctor, gloating that the entire planet is a Cyber-converter. As more Cybermen materialise and open fire, the Doctor and Yaz race back to the safety of the TARDIS, where they receive a call for help from Kate Stewart. Landing in UNIT headquarters in London, 2022, the Doctor and Yaz learn from Kate about the missing paintings and seismologists; they also meet UNIT’s new freelancers: Tegan and Ace. After a somewhat strained reunion between the Doctor and her former companions, Kate shows them all the reason for the removal of the paintings: they all now carry the face of Rasputin - or, as the Doctor and Yaz know him, the Master. At that moment the Master himself appears on a monitor screen, with an invitation to join him at a conference he is giving near Mount Vesuvius. Before leaving with Yaz in the TARDIS, the Doctor touches Ace and Tegan on their shoulders, giving them both an electric shock… Arriving at the conference in Naples, the Doctor and Yaz find the Master addressing an audience of the kidnapped seismologists - all reduced to miniature form. The Master warns the Doctor to leave Earth or die, but the Doctor ignores her nemesis, and watches as UNIT troops arrive and arrest him. Deciding to transport the Master to UNIT HQ in the TARDIS, the Doctor orders Yaz to cover him with a gun. Then an alarm sounds, as the TARDIS receives a message from the rogue Dalek, with the coordinates for the Doctor’s rendezvous…

A wormhole opens near the Cyber-planet, disgorging a spaceship piloted by Vinder, who is on the trail of the missing Qurunx. The ship crash-lands on the surface, where Vinder is surprised to find what looks like the Doctor’s TARDIS.

The real TARDIS arrives at UNIT HQ, and the Master is escorted to his new cell in a high-security bunker. On the way he tries taunting Tegan and Ace, but they are more than happy to put him in his place. Meanwhile, in the TARDIS, Yaz demands an explanation for the Dalek message. The Doctor explains about the defector, and the meeting they have arranged; she then touches Yaz’s shoulder, giving her a shock too... Arriving inside a volcano in Bolivia, the duo split up to search for the Dalek turncoat. The rogue Dalek teleports in to meet the Doctor, and allows her to transfer data on the invasion from its casing. Elsewhere in the tunnels, Yaz discovers a squad of Daleks busy working on a giant drilling station…

At UNIT headquarters, Ace and Tegan monitor the Master in his cell. After they note the toy Cyberman on the floor behind them, the Master addresses them via CCTV; as he explains that tissue compression can be reversed, the tiny Cyberman grows to its regular height – then splits open, allowing a squad of Cybermen to emerge, along with a clone of Ashad, the ‘Lone Cyberman’. Pulling guns from a secure bolthole in the floor, Ace and Tegan open fire with gold-tipped bullets - but the Cybermen have upgraded, and the weapons have no effect. While Tegan and Ace run for safety, and UNIT troops engage in battle with the invaders, Ashad frees the Master from his prison. The evil Time Lord retrieves his confiscated control device from a wall-safe and then teleports away…

In the volcano, a squad of Daleks locate the Doctor and her new friend. Fully aware of the rogue Dalek and its mission, the Daleks have planned a trap: they open fire, cutting open the defector’s casing to exterminate the creature within. Forcing the Doctor at gunpoint to sit inside the now-empty casing, the Daleks activate a spatial-temporal shift that transports them all away. With the Doctor gone, Yaz uses the TARDIS manual and some coercing words to get the ship to follow the Daleks’ trail…

Now in St. Petersburg, 1916, the Doctor sits in her metal-prison surrounded by Daleks, Cybermen, and their leader, the Master, now back in his Rasputin get-up. Explaining how their alliance was formed by their shared hatred of the Doctor, the Master reveals his plan to combine technology stolen from Gallifrey with the Cyber-conversion planet to force the Doctor to regenerate into him. The Master is clearly insane, and to prove it, he dances with glee to ‘Rasputin’ by Boney M… Vinder tries contacting the Doctor using the phone she once gave him; his message is received by Yaz in the TARDIS - along with a message from Master, inviting Yaz to say goodbye to the Doctor. In the Winter Palace, the Master forces the Doctor into one of two transparent cubicles, while he enters the other; he then activates a device suspended from the ceiling, which channels the power of the conversion planet into the cubicles. As their bodies glow with energy, the Doctor’s physical form transforms into that of the Master… When Yaz arrives in the TARDIS, she is shocked to see the Doctor’s new form and personality. The new Master-Doctor orders Yaz to become his new companion…

While Kate Stewart puts the UNIT building in lockdown, Ace retrieves her old jacket, rucksack and baseball bat from another bolt-hole. Ace heads up to the roof, but Tegan elects to stay and help Kate.

The TARDIS is unhappy with its new master, whose form shifts unstably. Now wearing a strange mixture of the Doctor’s past outfits, the Master-Doctor continues his plan to pervert the good name of the Doctor. He lands on an alien planet and revels in the sight of two warring planets destroying each other with missile fire. When a hovering news camera approaches, the madman announces that he, the Doctor, caused events. But the Master-Doctor’s fun is cut short when Yaz shoves him outside and then absconds with the TARDIS.

The Doctor awakes to find herself in a desert on the edge of an abyss, a manifestation of from her unconscious mind. Sitting under a telegraph pole is a familiar figure: a vestige of her past selves that takes the form of her First, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth incarnations. Calling themselves ‘the Guardians of the Edge’, they explain that there is still time to beat the Master, while the Doctor’s evil new form is unstable…

Yaz meets the TARDIS’ holographic Doctor AI, programmed by the Doctor and visible via a nano-receptor she secretly implanted in Yaz’s shoulder. With the holo-Doctor’s help Yaz collects Vinder, but when she asks about reversing a forced regeneration, the hologram glitches, changing forms with the Doctor’s earlier incarnations as it formulates a plan for extreme circumstances.

As the Ashad-clone oversees the conversion of captured UNIT soldiers into Cybermen, Kate entrusts Tegan with the task of activating the structural termination controls, in order to bury everything inside. While Tegan heads for the basement where the controls are located, Kate distracts the Cybermen. Ace takes the quick way down from the roof using a handy parachute, only to come under fire from the Cybermen; her parachute takes several hits, but Ace’s plummet to the ground is interrupted by the timely arrival of Yaz and Vinder in the TARDIS. Yaz takes Ace to the Bolivian volcano, leaving her to stop the Daleks from flooding the world with lava, while she goes back to retrieve the Master-Doctor. The evil Time Lord offers Yaz the chance to travel with him, unaware that Vinder is hiding in the control room…

At UNIT, Tegan’s implant allows her to see the Doctor-hologram, which changes into the incarnation she knew best; the Fifth Doctor guides Tegan to the basement via a disused lift-shaft... In the volcano, Ace uses her trusty bat and Nitro-9 explosive to deal with a Dalek, and then meets the holo-AI in the form of the Seventh Doctor. Sneaking through the tunnels Ace soon bumps into Graham, who is also trying to stop the Daleks from destroying the planet. Ashad and his Cybermen storm Kate’s office, where the head of UNIT is sheltering behind a laser-shield. Kate negotiates for the release of her men, in exchange for her surrender; Ashad agrees, and Kate is taken away for Cyber-conversion. When Ashad hears Tegan slip inside the lift-shaft, his troops destroy the walls, forcing Tegan to let go of the ladder…

Returning to St. Petersburg to join the Cybermen and Daleks, the Master-Doctor gives the order to unleash the volcanoes. The Daleks activate their tectonic-plate destabilisers - and in Ecuador, Indonesia and Iceland, huge volcanic eruptions spew molten lava. The Master-Doctor is confused by the sudden arrival of the Fugitive Doctor, who is immediately surrounded by Cybermen; however, when they open fire the Cybermen destroy each other in the crossfire - this is the holo-Doctor, in yet another form. Using the distraction, Vinder appears and orders the Master-Doctor back into the conversion cabinet, shooting him in the shoulder to reinforce his intent. As the dead Cybermen start to regenerate, the holo-Doctor urges Yaz to use the Master’s control device to harness the energy via the power-converter. The Master-Doctor is subjected to a forced de-generation, which restores the Doctor to her proper form. Her job done, the holo-Doctor deactivates, while the Doctor, Yaz and Vinder enjoy a happy reunion.

As the Cybermen force Kate into a conversion chair and start the transformation process, Tegan reaches the control bank in the basement. The holo-Doctor guides Tegan on how to change the Cyber-conversion power, but a Cyberman’s arm bursts through the wall and starts to throttle her. Tegan manages to reach the controls and reverse the power, electrocuting all the Cybermen in the building, and allowing Kate to get free. Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor wracks her brains to piece everything together; she formulates a plan, but needs some help… Ace and Graham team-up to destroy another Dalek, then set timed Nitro-9 cannisters on the invaders’ drill controls. They are collected by the TARDIS just as the Dalek’s base and the volcano explode. In London, Tegan and Kate rush out of UNIT headquarters just before it is demolished; across the street from them is the TARDIS, so they rejoin the Doctor and the others.

In the Winter Palace, the Master drags himself out of the conversion chamber as his body starts to fail…

Having set her friends to work at the TARDIS’ controls, the Doctor lands on the conversion planet. Nipping outside, she repairs Vinder’s ship so he can return home to his wife and child. Piloting the Master’s TARDIS, the Doctor links it to her own ship, combining their power to open the wormhole for Vinder, and then transport the Cyber-planet to 2022. Here the Doctor utilises the planet’s power to freeze the erupting volcanoes by transforming their rock and magma into metal. The Doctor then frees the Qurunx, on the proviso it uses its power to disintegrate the conversion planet. The Master teleports into his TARDIS in time to see his plans destroyed; his body fading, he activates his control device and turns the Qurunx on the Doctor, which blasts her to the ground in a beam of energy. In the chaos the Master is rendered unconscious by a chunk of rock, and the Qurunx resumes its destruction of the planet. Yaz carries the Doctor back to the safety of the TARDIS, where she is surrounded by her concerned friends. The TARDIS flies away through space, just as the Cyber-planet implodes… A while later, the Doctor awakes and learns that Yaz has taken everyone home (well, Croydon). As the Cloister Bell tolls, the Doctor’s body starts glowing - she will soon regenerate. After spending her remaining time with Yaz eating ice cream and watching the Earth from atop the TARDIS, the Doctor takes Yaz back to Earth. After the TARDIS departs, Yaz is surprised to see Graham and Dan; it seems Graham has decided to create a support group for the Doctor’s former companions, and together they meet Kate, Ace, Tegan, Jo Jones, Melanie Bush and Ian Chesterton…

Her time running out, the Doctor decides to land the TARDIS on a rocky outcrop so she can regenerate in front of a sunrise. But this time her regeneration is different: her clothes change as well as her form - and this new Doctor’s face looks just like his Tenth incarnation!

“What? What?! WHAT?” – The Fourteenth Doctor

Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), David Bradley (The Doctor), Colin Baker (The Doctor), Peter Davison (The Doctor), Paul McGann (The Doctor), Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Jo Martin (The Doctor), David Tennant (The Doctor), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Sascha Dhawan (The Master), John Bishop (Dan Lewis), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Jemma Redgrave (Kate Stewart), Jacob Anderson (Vinder), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brian), Patrick O'Kane (Ashad), Joe Sims (Deputy Marshal Arnhost), Sanchia McCormack (Train Marshal Halaz), Anna Andresen (Curator), Anna Andresen (Alexandra), Richard Dempsey (Nicholas), Joe Slovick (Messenger), Nicholas Briggs (Voice of Daleks and Cybermen), Barnaby Edwards (Dalek Operator), Nicholas Pegg (Dalek Operator), Simon Carew (Cyberman), Jon Davey (Cyberman), Chester Durrant (Cyberman), Mickey Lewis (Cyberman), Felix Young (Cyberman), Richard Price (Cyberman), Andrew Cross (Cyberman), Matt Doman (Cyberman), Bonnie Langford (Melanie Bush), Katy Manning (Jo Jones), William Russell (Ian Chesterton)

Directed by Jamie Magnus Stone**
Produced by Tracie Simpson and Alex Mercer
Executive Producers Chris Chibnall, Matt Strevens and Nikki Wilson
A BBC Wales production

TX (BBC 1 & BBC 1 HD):
23rd October 2022 @ 7.30 pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Dan, Tegan, Ace, Kate Stewart, Vinder and Graham, with Mel, Jo and Ian, and introducing the Fourteenth Doctor

*This special ninety-minute episode was transmitted internationally as part of the BBC's centenary celebrations

*This story was also made available in Ultra-High Definition (UHD) on the day of its first transmission: viewers in the UK were able to watch it in 4K resolution and high dynamic range (HDR) colour via the BBC iPlayer

*Sophie Aldred and Janet Fielding were also credited in the title sequence, along with Jodie Whittaker, Mandip Gill and John Bishop

*Ace remarks that the last time she saw the Master he was a cat, a reference to ‘Survival’ that contradicts the events of the Virgin ‘New Adventures’ novels

**Annetta Laufer directed some of the past Doctors sequence, and Rachel Talalay directed the final regeration scene