'Praxeus' (Story Code 12.06) by Pete McTighe and Chris Chibnall

“Two identical deaths, on two identical continents. It’s even more dangerous than I thought. And it’s spreading.” – The Doctor

The early 2020s: returning from the International Space Station, astronaut Adam Lang’s capsule experiences a systems failure that sends it hurtling towards the Indian Ocean. Adam’s plight is seen on the news by his husband Jake Willis, who receives a text for help from Adam, and a map of his location - in Hong Kong… In Peru, two vloggers, Gabriela and Jamila, discover that a once-beautiful river now choked with rubbish. That night Jamila investigates a noise and is attacked by a flock of birds; the next morning, Gabriella wakes and searches for her missing friend, but finds Ryan instead. Carefully placing a dead bird in his backpack, Ryan explains that he is investigating reports of birds falling from the sky… Following Adam’s message, Jake arrives at a warehouse in Hong Kong, where he meets Graham and Yaz; together they search the building, unaware they are being watched by a humanoid figure in a hazmat suit… On a beach in Madagascar, two biologists, Suki and Aramu, help the Doctor rescue a naval officer from the sea; the man’s hand and face show signs of a strange calcification, which rapidly spreads across his body - which then explodes. The Doctor explains she is trying to find a connection between a missing submarine, birds going haywire and alien technology in Hong Kong… Checking the hospital, Ryan and Gabriela find the place deserted apart from a dead bird; in the quarantined morgue they find Jamila’s corpse, which also shows signs of calcification. Ryan calls the Doctor, who immediately arrives on the scene just as the infection covers Jamila, causing her to explode… Yaz, Graham and Jake find the source of the alien readings: a strange machine wired up to the kidnapped Adam. As they free the astronaut, they are shot at by two aliens in hazmat suits, but Jake snatches a gun from one and quickly despatches the attackers. After the Doctor arrives with the TARDIS, Yaz and Gabriela go back to check the alien machine. With Adam infected with the contagion, the Doctor takes the TARDIS to Suki and Aramu’s beachside laboratory; their arrival is watched by a huge flock of birds… At the warehouse, Yaz and Gabriela inspect the alien control panel, then hide as a wounded guard staggers into a teleport booth and vanishes… In Madagascar, Ryan dissects the dead bird, while Graham and Jake administer antibiotics to Adam, whose condition is worsening. Using Suki’s laptop, the Doctor diagnoses that Adam is infected with an alien pathogen; she and Suki propose genetically engineering a virus that will save him. When Ryan finds the dead bird’s body full of plastic, the Doctor realises that the infection is attacking the plastic and using it to take over its hosts; and it isn’t just animals at risk: humans are full of microplastic, ingested from their food and water. Outside, the huge flock of birds descends and kills Aramu. Yaz and Gabriela use the alien teleport and rematerialize inside a tunnel filled with rubbish, along with a part of the missing submarine... Seeing how the decomposing bird’s enzymes are naturally fighting the virus, the Doctor identifies the means of an antidote. Yaz contacts the Doctor with details of the alien machine and the locations it pointed to: in the Indian Ocean and Madagascar. Caught out, Suki admits that the infection is called Praxeus, and then she teleports away – just as the birds break into the lab. Grabbing the samples, the Doctor joins everyone else as they evade the bird attack and run for the safety of the TARDIS. In the tunnels, Yaz and Gabriela find the dead alien guard, its face covered in the Praxeus infection. Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor injects Adam with the antivirus, then uses Yaz’s comms signal to land the ship inside the tunnels. Reunited with Yaz and Gabriela, the Doctor explains that they are in an alien construct at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, beneath tons of Praxeus-infected plastic pollution. Leaving Jake with Adam, the Doctor, her fam and Gabriela search the tunnels; they soon find Suki, along with her buried space ship. Suki reveals that she and her hazmat-suited crew were survivors of a planet devastated by Praxeus; they were sent out in a laboratory ship to find a cure, and when they saw how plastic-saturated Earth was, realised they had found the perfect ‘petri-dish’ in which to experiment. Unfortunately, they lost control of their vessel, and in the crash-landing the Praxeus samples got loose and spread into the plastic-infested wildlife; the stricken ship’s signals also caused Adam’s capsule to malfunction, but provided the aliens with a useful test-subject. Noticing that Suki is also infected, the Doctor deduces that she has taken the antidote made using Adam. The Doctor offers to help fix Suki’s ship, but the alien succumbs to the virus, and she explodes. Jake arrives with Adam, now cured, and carrying phials of antidote created by the TARDIS. The Doctor and her gang repair the alien ship: they fill its organic fuel cells with the antivirus, and set the autopilot for the stratosphere so as to spread the cure in an engine burst. But as the gang race back to the TARDIS the autopilot fails, so Jake goes back to fly it manually. Using the TARDIS comms system, the Doctor talks Jake through the procedure, and he successfully disperses the antidote into the jet streams, spreading the cure across the Earth. With the alien ship breaking up under the strain, the Doctor manages to materialise the TARDIS around Jake just as the vessel explodes… The Earth now safe from Praxeus, the Doctor and her friends drop off Adam, Jake and Gabriela in Madagascar, then depart in the TARDIS…


Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O'Brian), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Warren Brown (Jake Willis), Matthew McNulty (Adam Lang), Joana Borja (Gabriela Camara), Molly Harris (Suki Cheng), Gabrielle Tolol (Jamila Velez), Soo Drouet (Joyce), Tristan de Beer (Zach Olson), Thapelo Maropefela (Aramu)

Directed by Jamie Magnus Stone
Produced by Nikki Wilson
Executive Producers Chris Chibnall and Matt Strevens
A BBC Wales production

TX (BBC 1 & BBC 1 HD):
2nd February 2020 @ 7.10 pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz

*This episode has no pre-title sequence

*Working title: 'Hush'