'Short Trips': 'A Day in the Life' edited by Ian Farrington

Each spin of the Earth - a revolution at an arbitrary rate decided by the vagaries of cosmic history - results in a period known as a day, a twenty-four hour slice of time.

When you're time travellers, the concept of a day - from midnight to midnight - can get lost: the Doctor and his companions arrive on different planets in different eras at different times of the day. They can show up during someone's lunch break or when they're asleep, at the breaking of dawn or the coming of night.

Time, it seems, is very much of the essence…

In the early hours of the morning, a rock star gives a one-off comeback performance within a virtual reality dreamscape… Over breakfast, a woman waits for the love of her life to walk through the doors of a café… The afternoon sees vital peace talks between two warring factors… A new UNIT recruit faces a terror at dusk on his first day on the job…

Throughout their adventures, the Doctor and his companions meet many people - security guards on a night shift, mysterious space travellers riding the vortex, mobs of blobby kobolds, a family sitting down to watch TV - but all too often their interaction is brief, a fleeting connection in the web of history.

A Day in the Life features sixteen stories whose total 'running time' adds up to a single twenty-four-hour period: a fictional 'day in the life of the universe' made up of fragments from throughout time and space. Given the temperamental nature of the TARDIS and the round-the-clock events that go on every single day, it is no wonder that the Doctor often arrives at his destinations at differing times. As we leave one story and join the next, we switch location and era - but not the hands on the clock…

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00.00
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'Round Trip 2:' 'After Midnight' by Andy Russell

Learning that an unscrupulous alien named Darrakhaan plans to steal back his time / space navigation device from the earth-based firm of solicitors who now hold it, the Doctor becomes concerned over the potential threat to history. By taking over the body of a burglar, Darrakhaan infiltrates the offices of MacDonald, O’Brian and Withers and locates the safe in which the navigator is hidden. Meanwhile, the Doctor, Charley and C’Rizz take over the bodies of three security guards in order to ensure that the navigator will be unable to detect them; they then track down Darrakhaan and confront him just as he is about to make his exit through the sewer tunnels under the building. When the Doctor thwarts Darrakhaan’s escape route, the alien activates the device and vanishes; however, the Doctor has set the navigator into a time loop, dooming Darrakhaan to repeat his actions of the last hour-and-a-half forever. The Doctor and his friends depart, leaving behind three bewildered security guards and one dazed burglar…

Notes:
*Featuring the Eighth Doctor, Charley and C'Rizz

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01.38
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'Sold Out' by Danny Oz

Hearing that one of his favourite death metal rock stars, Diamond Sharp, is staging a last-comeback concert, the Doctor decides to attend. The concert is being held inside Diamond’s own dreamscape, and the attendees are able to experience events by jacking themselves into a complex computer network linked directly to the singer’s own mind. Diamond’s manager, Rolly, is an old friend of the Doctor’s, and he allows the Time Lord free access to the concert; while the Doctor tunes in, an uninterested Mel chooses to spend time with the technicians maintaining the equipment. Inside the dreamscape the opening number commences, played on stage by elaborately choreographed troupes of guitar-wielding skeletons; however, when Diamond makes his entrance, he is swiftly devoured by a gigantic snake – an event not scheduled in the running order. After a scythe-wielding robot then appears and begins slaughtering the audience, the Doctor and Rolly discover that the safety protocols have been shut off. While the Doctor teams up with one of the skeletons to find the source of the problem, Mel learns from Rolly that the computer system previously belonged to a terrible cyberkiller - but because Diamond saw this as his muse, he never wiped the A.I. template. Mel jacks in to find the Doctor, but instead encounters an aged librarian – a representation of the computer itself; the A.I. explains that it has always been used to commit murder, and it wrote all of the songs that Diamond has taken credit for as a way of dealing with its actions. Meanwhile, the Doctor and the skeleton – in fact an avatar for the computer – come face-to-face with Diamond, who is very much alive; the singer explains that he deliberately murdered his audience so that he could blame the events on the computer and then make a fortune from selling his story. A battle of wits between the Doctor and Diamond begins in the dreamscape, and each combatant confronts the other with their own inner demons. But the Doctor prevails, and a defeated Diamond is left to face the authorities for his crimes, while Rolly decides to become the computer’s new manager.

Notes:
*Featuring the Sixth Doctor and Mel

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03.17
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'Undercurrents' by Gary Merchant

Jamie and Zoe are concerned to discover that the Doctor has inexplicably vanished, even though the TARDIS is in mid-flight. When they then hear a knocking on the door of the space / time ship, they use a protective force-field to open the main doors onto the vortex in order to investigate. Outside they find a man clinging to the vessel; the stranger introduces himself as Vorac, a Time Rider who was travelling through the vortex with his fellows until an undercurrent sent him spinning out of control. Jamie is immediately suspicious, and when he subsequently thinks with his fists and appears to hurt Vorac, he and Zoe have a bitter argument and fall out. Vorac helps the two friends to make up, and explains that his separation from the vortex is causing his body to die. Jamie resolves to help, and together he a Vorac don space suits and venture onto the exterior roof of the TARDIS; meanwhile, Zoe uses the ship’s controls to force a time-ram, in the hope that it will create a tear in the space / time vortex through which Vorac can travel. After the dangerous manoeuvre is successful, and Vorac is reunited with his people, the Doctor reappears and explains that he was being held by the Time Riders in exchange for their missing comrade.

Notes:
*Featuring the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe

*Time-placing: Jamie notes that it is not long since Zoe joined the crew of the TARDIS

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05.00
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'Five O'Clock Shadow' by David Bailey

When his young travelling companion awakes at 5.00 am, the Doctor tells her a short story: After the TARDIS stops suddenly the Doctor tells Susan that they have reached the end of time, when it is permanently five o’clock. Their arrival releases an evil creature call the Five O’Clock Shadow, which enters the ship and confronts the two travellers. However, the Doctor reveals that he is not the real Doctor – knowing that the Shadow would one day find him, the real Doctor set a trap for it, using constructs of himself and his companion as decoys while he himself made his escape. The Shadow is furious, and vows to return one day…

Notes:
*Featuring an unidentified incarnation of the Doctor (possibly the First?) and his companion (Susan or Vicki?), and the 'First Doctor' and 'Susan'

*The fake Doctor refers to John and Gillian, two companions seen in the ‘TV Comic’ strips, which might suggest a way of fitting them into canon…

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05.10
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'The Sooner the Better' by Ian Farrington

Many years ago, a good and honest president of was caught up in a revolution and sent to prison on trumped-up charges. Seeing an injustice, the Doctor rescued him, and set him up on Earth under the new identity of Walter Fisher. Learning that the revolution is finally over, and that the new government has issued a pardon for Walter, the Doctor decides to deliver the important message himself. But shortly after he and Leela have arrived in the Derbyshire village where the ex-president now lives, the Doctor mislays the letter; it is subsequently found by a paperboy named Paul, who hands it over to a postman. When the Doctor meets Paul and asks if he has seen the letter, Paul takes him to where the old man lives. However, they are too late: the postman was in fact an assassin in the employ of the revolutionaries, and has already murdered Walter. When the assassin attempts to escape he is swiftly captured by Leela; leaving Paul to finish his paper-round, the Doctor and Leela take the villain away in the TARDIS…

Notes:
*Featuring the Fourth Doctor and Leela

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06.30
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'Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast' by Dan Abnett

The TARDIS appears to have ‘tripped’ while travelling in the vortex, and arrives on London’s South Bank; while the Doctor attempts to make repairs, Ace and Hex decide to find somewhere to have breakfast. The Doctor initially surmises that the ship has materialised without realising it, and still thinks that it is travelling; however, when the Time Lord begins work on the console, he finds that he is somehow unfamiliar with its internal workings. Meanwhile, Ace and Hex discover that what appears to be the London they know is in fact a fake, an amalgamation of the two different versions of the city that each of them is familiar with. As their surroundings begin to dissolve around them they race back to the ship, where the Doctor confirms Ace’s guess that the TARDIS is also a fake - they have been caught in a trap set by a vortex predator, and somewhere inside the fake ship is the real one. As the ‘ship’ rapidly breaks apart the three travellers head deeper into its depths; all seems lost until they suddenly locate the real TARDIS, allowing them to escape just in the nick of time…

Notes:
*Featuring the Seventh Doctor, Ace (as MacShane) and Hex

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08.00
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'The Heroine, the Hero and the Megalomaniac' by Ian Mond

The Doctor and Charley arrive on Armstrong’s Colony, whose population has chosen to lead the simple life of a medieval existence. When the Doctor detects strange energy emissions he sends Charley off to investigate, while he chooses to follow a trail of chronon distortion. Meanwhile, the Doctor’s Seventh incarnation has also arrived on the planet, having discovered that several of the other planets in the Van Koll system have mysteriously vanished, leaving temporal scars in their wake. After learning that the source of the energy emissions is an Ikoran therapy chair that is in the possession of the ruthless Baron Dento de Kay Leigh, the Seventh Doctor travels back in time several weeks and recruits a team of mercenaries, whom he then instructs to infiltrate the Baron’s stronghold and provide him with a means to access the chair. Elsewhere, Charley is captured by the Baron, who decides to amuse himself by using the Ikoran device to alter her personality, giving her the new identity of a criminal named Venetia Dalborough. In her new persona, ‘Venetia’ runs amok, but soon manages to shake off her conditioning after stumbling across the TARDIS; however, Charley is the recaptured by the Baron, and once more finds herself strapped into the chair. Meanwhile, the two Doctors meet and immediately clash; the Seventh Doctor is furious with his successor, noting that his irresponsible act of saving Charley from the death that she was destined for has caused the planetary destruction. He explains that when Charley’s memories were read by the Ikoran machine, a wave of destructive temporal energy was unleashed, which destroyed the neighbouring worlds. The Eighth Doctor agrees to join the mercenaries and storm the Baron’s stronghold, providing a distraction that will enable the Seventh Doctor to deactivate the alien device. After saving Charley, the Seventh Doctor is captured by the Baron and connected to the Ikoran chair; the Baron gloats that he will ingest the Doctor’s memories and learn how to pilot the TARDIS, before using it to increase his considerable wealth and power. However, this is all part of the Doctor’s plan - he turns the tables on the Baron, taking over his mind and re-writing it to make him into a kinder, gentler leader. With the situation resolved, the Doctors bid farewell to each other and leave.

Notes:
*Featuring the Seventh and Eighth Doctors and Charley

*Time-placing: mention is made of the Seventh Doctor still travelling with Ace and Hex, who are elsewhere during this story; the Eighth Doctor doesn't seem to have made Charley aware of her paradoxical situation, so this probably takes place early on in the second season of 'Big Finish' audios

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08.52
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'Waiting for Jeremy' by Richard Salter

While visiting a London café, the Doctor meets an elderly lady named Maggie Baxter, who tells him her sad story. In 1952, Maggie fell in love with and American soldier, who then left to fight in Korea; the following year, Maggie received a letter from her lover, telling her that he would meet her in the café; however, he never stated when, and so Maggie has come to the café every day for the last fifty years in the hope that she and her soldier would be reunited. The Doctor is moved by this tale of lost love and missed potential, and recounts it to his companion, Steven, when he returns to the TARDIS. Steven resolves to do something to help, and convinces the Doctor to take the TARDIS back to 1953; donning a uniform from the ship’s extensive wardrobe, Steven poses as a comrade of the soldier, and informs Maggie that her lover died an heroic death in Korea. Convinced that this will cause Maggie to get on with living her life instead of pining for a lost love, Stephen asks the Doctor to return to the present. However, Maggie is still waiting in the café – it seems she was suspicious of Steven’s story, believing that he was put up to it by her lover; Maggie suspects that the soldier was already married, and wanted to let her down gently; convinced that her soldier will leave his wife for her, Maggie has continued to wait every day since. Saddened that the woman will never achieve her true potential in life, the Doctor and Steven leave Maggie to continue her lonely vigil…

Notes:
*Featuring the First Doctor and Steven

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10.10
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'A Life in the Day' by Xanna Eve Chown

Recalling the Brigadier’s offer of an invitation to his school’s fete, the Doctor and Peri arrive in the TARDIS just as the preparations are beginning; for them it has been several weeks since they returned to the village, but in real time they were there only yesterday. Not long after their arrival, the two time travellers are assailed by violent ultrasonic noises; in order to hear what these noises are saying, the Doctor returns to his ship and constructs a device to slow the sounds down. He and Peri discover that the voice belongs to a miniscule alien named Ba, whose race, the Arix, live their lives at a vastly accelerated rate. Ba accuses the Doctor of stealing his space ship, and forcing him to remain on Earth; even though the Doctor and Peri appear to have only been gone a day, Ba has since aged the equivalent of decades. The Doctor surmises that when the TARDIS arrived on their first visit to the field, it materialised around the Arix spaceship; he and Peri search through the ship and eventually find the small, spherical vessel, in the laundry room – and with horror they realise that for the Arixes on board, thousands of generations will have passed since Ba’s time. Reunited with his crewmates’ distant descendants, Ba departs in the ship and heads off into space, leaving the Doctor and Peri to enjoy the festivities.

Notes:
*Featuring the Fifth Doctor and Peri

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12.00
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'Morphology' by Phil Pascoe

Jo’s shopping trip to London’s trendy Soho district is rudely interrupted by the arrival of a huge spaceship, and two amorphous, blobby aliens who promptly kidnap her. As the creatures introduce themselves as Kobold Forty and Kobold Forty-Two, Jo suddenly realises that her speech is being affected, and that she can only use one vowel – ‘O’ – instead of the usual range of five…meanwhile, the alien ships have been detected by U.N.I.T. Headquarters, currently in the hands of Sergeant Osgood while the Brigadier is elsewhere; finding his speech diminishing as well, Osgood immediately seeks the Doctor’s help, only to find that the Time Lord is also similarly affected. Putting this morphology down to the aliens’ influence, the Doctor sets about building a machine to counteract it; however, he soon becomes frustrated when Osgood is unable to grasp the intricacies of the work required. After the Kobolds bring Jo before their leader, Kobold Two, they present a dramatisation of their history for her; as Jo looks on, a representation of the Kobold god is depicted arriving on their world of Pryon Two – and their god is none other than the TARDIS. It seems that when the Doctor tried to escape his exile and leave in the ship, the Time Lords stopped him, returning the vessel to Earth just after it landed on Pryon Two; however, the TARDIS’ telepathic circuits were busy overlaying the English language on the Kobold population so that the Doctor could understand them, and the interruption resulted in just one vowel imprinting on them. The arrival and disappearance of this ‘god’ also caused a schism amongst the Kobolds, who then split into two opposing factions that waged a terrible war for many centuries. The Kobolds demand the Doctor’s whereabouts so that they can extract revenge, but Jo chooses to reveal the location of his country house in the hope that it will buy the Doctor some time. However, the Doctor and Osgood have already left London – now abandoned after the population has fled in terror – and have now arrived at the cottage. While the Doctor discovers that he can speak normally inside the TARDIS, Jo arrives outside with the Kobolds; the aliens shoot at the Doctor and Osgood, and a fire swiftly breaks out; the Doctor tricks the aliens into following him and the others into the TARDIS, where the Kobolds are stunned to find that they can at last speak properly. However, at that moment Osgood’s machine explodes, killing Kobolds Two and Forty As Forty-Two announces that it will become the new Kobold One – a title previously unachievable until now – Jo points out that the TARDIS walls are covered with roundels, which all look like the letter ‘O’; Forty-Two suffers a breakdown, transforming itself into a giant circle. With the threat ended, the Doctor and Jo take Forty-Two to a remote world where the creature can live in peace.

Notes:
*Featuring the Third Doctor and Jo

*Time-placing: The Doctor is still stuck on Earth, and Sergeant Osgood appears, so placing this after 'The Daemons' (which also features Osgood) seems as good a place as any

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14.00
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'Making History' by Trevor Baxendale

The peace treaty between Earth and the jellyfish-like Omwanars is thrown into jeopardy when mankind’s representative, General Sir Robert ‘Titan’ Simmons is found dead, apparently from a heart attack. Also present at the historical signing of the treaty are the Doctor and Steven, who quickly suggest a solution to Simmons’ assistant, Mr Harlow: that Steven stand in for the general and sign the treaty in his place. Harlow nervously agrees, and so Steven is introduced as the general to the Omwanar representative, Lyshur Lysus. The two of them quickly make friends, and it seems that all is going well – until the alien reveals that it is pregnant, and wants to grant Steven the honour of being the host for its eggs. After the Doctor determines that Simmons was murdered, the killer immediately reveals himself as Earth representative Malvin, an agent of the Earth Military Union; Malvin reveals that the Union wishes to prolong the war because its members believe that Earth will be assured a triumphant victory in the current conflict. Malvin shoots Lyshur Lysus, but before the alien dies, it manages to lays its eggs inside its assassin, guaranteeing him a painful death when its young hatch and begin feeding on their host. The Doctor forges Lyshur Lysus’ signature, and Steven does the same for Simmons, ending the war and ensuring peace between the two races.

Notes:
*Featuring the First Doctor and Steven

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15.21
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'One Wednesday Afternoon' by Alison Jacobs

Having finished her grocery shopping, housewife Peggy Garrett is on her way home when she literally bumps into two strangers, the Doctor and his friend Turlough. After the two of them help pick up her spilled shopping and then rush off, Peggy finds a necklace in amongst her purchases; she and her husband, Stan, decide to put a ‘Found’ advert in their local new paper, and then Stan hides the object for safe keeping. The next day, the Doctor and Turlough pay the Garretts a visit, clutching a copy of a paper from two weeks’ time, with a photograph of Peggy wearing the necklace. The Doctor reveals that the necklace is a priceless royal artefact that he stole – two alien factions are currently fighting over its possession, which could trigger a terrible war. When the Doctor asks for the necklace so that he can take it somewhere safe, Peggy offers to take them to its hiding place. However, as they leave the house they find themselves pursued by deadly burning lights and gun-wielding soldiers. They split up, Turlough going one way while the Doctor and Peggy head for Stan’s allotment, where they locate the necklace. However, the Doctor and Peggy are then cornered by members of the two alien factions pursuing them. After Turlough and Stan rejoin them, the Doctor and his companion take the necklace and make for the TARDIS; with their quarry eluding them, the aliens leave Earth and give chase in their spaceships. Peggy then checks her pocket and finds that in the confusion Turlough slipped her the necklace; realising that she must wear the jewellery in order to be photographed for the paper, Peggy resolves to throw the object into the sea afterwards.

Notes:
*Featuring the Fifth Doctor and Turlough

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16.37
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'How You Get There' by Simon Guerrier

While journeying to a London hospital to visit Professor Emmett, a scientist who suffered a breakdown after inventing a supposed weather control device, the Doctor is thrown off his train due to engineering works. After making his way to the hospital, the Doctor then has to travel to the centre of London to rejoin his companion Bernice, and so heads for the nearest bus stop. It soon begins to rain, and the Doctor whiles away the time by chatting to an elderly woman. After the bus arrives, the Doctor gives a demonstration of magic to a single mum and her son, and when the rain becomes heavier, causing the traffic to go slower, he organises a sing-a-long amongst his fellow passengers. As the storm continues to build, the bus is terminated at Vauxhall, where the passengers all disembark as friends thanks to the Doctor's efforts. The storm's intensity swiftly becomes ferocious, and the Doctor just manages to cross Vauxhall Bridge before the structure is blown into the Thames. Reaching his destination, the Doctor slips past the building's security guards and heads up in the lift; he emerges in the offices housing Emmett's weather machine, where he finds Bernice and U.N.I.T.'s Major Brimmicombe-Wood held at gunpoint by terrorists. The terrorist leader, Endwell, is an expert on climate control, and has activated Emmett's machine in order to destroy London in a misguided attempt to show the damage that mankind is causing to the planet. With the distraction caused by the Doctor’s arrival, Bernice tries to hit Endwell with her handbag; however, she misses, and the bag smashes into the window, shattering the glass and letting in the raging tempest outside. Endwell is sucked out by the winds, while the Doctor just manages to save himself by gripping the broken glass in the window frame. Following the Doctor’s desperate instructions, Bernice struggles against the howling gales and is able to shut down the weather machine. Some time later, after the authorities have arrived to mop up – with the aid of the reformed terrorists – the Doctor and Bernice set off to find the TARDIS…

Notes:
*Featuring the Seventh Doctor and Bernice

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17.15
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'The Last Broadcast' by Matthew Griffiths

Having said goodbye to his wife and children, Geoff Sinton is about to head for the pub to meet his mates when he is interrupted by the arrival of two strangers, who introduce themselves as the Doctor and Harry Sullivan, before barging in and taking over Geoff’s living room. As the Doctor begins rewiring the family television, Harry explains that they are installing an upgrade; however, it soon become apparent that this is not the case when the Doctor connects the Sinton’s telephone to the set and uses the lash up to contact what appears to be an alien spaceship. Addressing Marshal Kathnor of the Verulan invasion fleet, the Doctor reveals that the aliens are about to broadcast a signal that will immobilise the nation, paving the way for an invasion. When the alien leader refuses to listen to the Doctor’s request to desist from carrying out his plan, the Doctor contacts his friend Sarah, who is hiding inside the infrastructure of the alien vessel; at the Doctor’s instruction, Sarah rewires part of the ship’s circuitry, but is then captured by the Verulan’s and brought before Kathnor. As the Doctor looks on the alien leader order the activation of the signal; however, Sarah’s sabotage causes the signal to be reflected back to the ship, resulting in its imminent destruction. Sarah manages to get free, and boards an escape pod just as the Verulan ship is destroyed. With the invasion threat over, the Doctor and Harry set off to rescue their friend from her forthcoming splash-landing in the sea, leaving Geoff to go down the pub after all.

Notes:
*Featuring the Fourth Doctor, Harry and Sarah

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17.40
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'Terror of the Darkness' by Joseph Lidster

New-recruit Lieutenant Will Hoffman’s first day in U.N.I.T. is an eventful one; having seen alien ships over London, he is then charged with driving Colonel Emily Choudry to the site of a ‘Code Blue’ alert – a sighting of the time/space craft known as the TARDIS, and its occupant, the Doctor. Arriving in time to save the Doctor from being mugged by a gang of youths, Hoffman and Choudry learn that the Doctor is tracking an evil space parasite known as The Darkness, which feeds off people by ingesting the anger and fear that it can make them experience; the creature had attached itself to the Verulan spacecraft, but when the Doctor’s earlier incarnation destroyed the vessel, The Darkness then fell to Earth. Following the trail of bodies caused by the murderous influence of The Darkness, as its victims find themselves murdering their loved ones, Hoffman himself almost succumbs to the creature’s control. When the Doctor notes that only light can destroy The Darkness, and that they have until sunset to destroy the creature, Choudry has the idea of calling the BBC and borrowing several of their Outside Broadcast vans, and by turning on the powerful OB lights, she is able to destroy the space vampire. With the denizens of suburbia saved, the Doctor offers Choudry and Hoffman a lift back to U.N.I.T. Headquarters in the TARDIS…

Notes:
*Featuring the Sixth Doctor

*This story has a brief cameo by the Fourth Doctor and Harry

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19.25
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'Visiting Hours' by Eddie Robson

While visiting a comatose Jamie in an exclusive clinic, the Doctor stops to talk with the neighbouring patient, Miss Woods. She tells him that a few days ago she was taken to hospital for fainting, only to be swiftly transferred to this strange establishment, where she and her fellow patients are not permitted any visitors; she is still having blackouts, and fears that she too will end up in a coma like the others in her ward. The Doctor is soon thrown out of the clinic by the ward sister, but he manages to sneak back in through the window. He and Miss Woods play cards for a while, until the woman blacks out once more. By projecting his mind the Doctor follows her, and together they find themselves in a dark void, where they are joined by Jamie and the other comatose patients; the Doctor realises that they have been brought and held there deliberately, and deduces that because he should not be there, the void will allow him to leave. After created a ‘hole’ in the void, the Doctor instructs everyone to link hands so that he can taken them with him; however, two of the patients, Mr Scott and Miss Stevenson, begin arguing, and it is not long before a vicious fight breaks out between them. Forced to leave the battling couple behind, the Doctor leads everyone through the hole; they emerge into the hospital ward, where their sleeping bodies are still lying in their beds. As the patients’ essences return to their proper selves, the Doctor explains that an unknown power was using Mr Scott and Miss Stevenson as opposing forces to create a new universe in the void, in the same way that matter and antimatter created this universe. With Jamie now restored to health, he and the Doctor leave to track down the person responsible…

Notes:
*Featuring the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe

*Time-placing: the author, Eddie Robson, tells me that this story is intended to be set between 'The Krotons' and 'The Seeds of Death'

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21.58
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'Round Trip 1:' 'Before Midnight' by Andy Russell

When a chronic energy blast hits the TARDIS, the Doctor, Charley and C’Rizz track its point of origin to the Sanmarus Institute, a deep space research centre. Here they meet the Director, Zalaron, who shows them around the institute and introduces them to the Collection, a group mind of the finest thinkers in creation headed by a disembodied ball of light called Quyin. Meanwhile, an unscrupulous alien named Darrakhaan arrives at the Institute with the intention of stealing its secrets of time-travel. When Darrakhaan steals a time-space navigation unit, Quyin informs the Doctor, who suddenly realises that he can sense his future self telling him to pursue the thief. As the Doctor confronts Darrakhaan and attempts to grab the device the two of them fall into a timeless void; however, the Doctor manages to arrive just before Darrakhaan, and is able to use the time-space navigator to send the thief into a time-loop, keeping him out of harm’s way by forcing him to inhabit the bodies of ordinary people in mundane lives all across the universe – but always at a point within reach of the Doctor, just in case Darrakhaan should attempt to escape. To ensure that his plan works, the Doctor, Charley and C’Rizz use the Collective to send their minds back in time into their own bodies, becoming the blast of chronic energy they experienced earlier; the Doctor then arranges for their earlier selves to stay within the time loop, while their future selves return to the Institute shortly after they departed – a minor breach of the Laws of Time that the Doctor is able to get away with...

Notes:
*Featuring the Eighth Doctor, Charley and C'Rizz

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Publication Date:
June 2005


Notes:
*Published by Big Finish