'Time Heist' (Story Code 8.05) by Stephen Thompson and Steven Moffat

“The bank of Karabraxos is impregnable. The bank of Karabraxos has never been breached. You will rob the bank of Karabraxos.” – The Architect

Hanging around Clara’s flat, the Doctor offers his friend many suggestions on where to go next, but she is more interested in going on her second date with Danny. When the TARDIS phone rings Clara warns her friend not to answer it, but the Doctor is intrigued and picks up the receiver… and then wakes up sitting around a table in a darkened room, clutching a memory worm instead of the phone. Throwing away the worm, the Doctor sees Clara sitting next to him, along with two other people: Psi, an augmented human with cyber implants in his body, and Saibra, a human mutant shape-changer. From out of a briefcase on a nearby table sounds the Doctor’s voice: a recording of him agreeing to a memory wipe, followed by Clara, Psi and Saibra’s sworn agreements. Then the case opens to reveal an on-screens image of the person responsible for bringing them together: a hooded man who calls himself ‘the Architect’. Their mysterious kidnapper shows them the image of a huge glass and metal ziggurat: the Bank of Karabraxos, the most dangerous bank in the galaxy. The building extends deep beneath the planet’s surface, a fortress protected by an impregnable security system in which the super-rich keep their fortunes safe inside an impenetrable vault with an atomically-scrambled lock. Just then a loud banging is heard at the doors: the bank’s security has arrived to deal with the four unauthorised intruders – permanently! As Psi connects a leads from his cerebral implants to the case and downloads all the information that the Architect has provided, the Doctor pockets a small box containing a glass slide. As the guards begin to drill their way in the Architect informs the quartet of their mission: they must rob the bank of Karabraxos! The doors give way and the guards burst in, but the four unwitting bank robbers manage to escape through a second set of doors. Elsewhere, in a plush office, the bank’s head of security, Ms Delphox, contracts her minions for a report on the intruders; when she hears that the guards have had their memories erased by the worms, she gives up and enters a chamber in which two soldiers stand guard over a glass prison, which holds a strange straightjacketed creature with two protruding eyestalks: the Teller… Stopping in a deserted underground tunnel, the Doctor questions Psi and Saira; Psi is a hacker and bank robber who has served time in prison, and Saibra can physically transform into whoever she touches, aided by a hologram shell that replicates clothing. By touching the slide the Doctor took earlier, Saibra copies the DNA held on it and transforms into a grey haired businessman… A short while later, the Doctor, Clara and Psi enter the Banks’ reception area posing as a security team for the disguised Saibra. But then an alarm sounds a security breach, and shutters slam down on every window and door, trapping the quartet inside. Ms Delphox and her guards arrive with the alien Teller; however, the creature ignores the Doctor’s team and homes in on another customer instead, having telepathically tracked the man by his guilt. At Ms Delphox’s order the Teller scans the man’s thoughts, and when it detects his criminal intent its antennae link to form a circle that sends out a telekinetic pulse, wiping the customer’s mind and turning his brain into soup, leaving his head concaved. Ms Delphox then has the man arrested and gives instructions to have his next of kin incarcerated too. The group exits, the lock-down ends and the shutters re-open. The Doctor, Clara, Psi and Saibra continue on to Safety Deposit Booth 714. Inside, Saibra breathes into the security system, which authorises her withdrawal of another attaché case - planted earlier by the Architect via a drop-slot on the planet surface - which contains a bomb! Learning that four people have entered one booth, a suspicious Ms Delphox despatches a team of guards to investigate. Working out that they are supposed to target the weakest point in the booth, the Doctor orders everyone to stand against the walls while he uses the dimensional shift bomb to remove the floor. After they have all jumped into the service duct below, the Doctor reverses the bomb and reinstates the floor, just as the guards break in. Making their way down through the Banks’ infrastructure, the quartet soon comes across a third case. The Doctor realises that the more they know about why there are there, the louder their guilt will scream out to the Teller – so they wiped their memories for their own safety. Opening the case they find six of hypodermic needle-like devices. Leaving Clara to look after Psi while he recharges his implants from a power socket, the Doctor and Saibra investigate a wailing noise from up ahead; they find the mind-wiped customer imprisoned in one of a number of cells, all under constant surveillance. Vowing not to become victims too, the gang race off down another corridor as an intruder alert rings out in the bank. Opening an access grille, they hide in a room as the guards pass by outside – only to find themselves in the Teller’s prison room! Desperate not to wake the sleeping creature, the Doctor orders everyone to clear their minds; but the pressure is too much for Clara, and as she thinks of their plan she alerts the Teller, who unleashes a telekinetic wave through the room. The Doctor, Clara and Psi manage to escape through a grating and into another corridor, but the Teller locks onto Saibra’s mind, pinning her in place. Knowing that there is nothing he can do to free her, the Doctor throws Saibra one of the hypodermic devices - an atomic shredder - and she atomises herself before the Teller can liquefy her brain. With no time to mourn their friend, the Doctor, Clara and Psi make their way down the corridor and find another attaché case; inside are a jack-lead and three codes. On the trail of the intruders, Ms Delphox orders the Teller after its quarry. Psi jacks into the bank vault’s control console and starts work on breaking the twenty-four locks on the time-delayed system. Hearing the howls of the approaching Teller, the Doctor gives Psi an atomic shredder and then he and Clara split up to draw away the creature. Tracked by the Teller, Clara tries to clear her mind, but finds it impossible not to think of her mission; the creature quickly detects its victim and paralyses her with telekinesis. Hearing Clara’s screams, Psi accesses his memory and downloads information of every famous bank robber in history; this boosts Psi’s guilt, making the Teller change its quarry and go after him instead. Using himself as bait, Psi makes for the corridor and lets the Teller get close… and then injects himself with the atomic shredder, dissolving into nothingness. Back at the vault, the Doctor and Clara find all but the last lock opened; the Doctor tries sonicing the last one, but to no avail. Just as the Time Lord wonders what the Architect has pre-planned next, he and Clara hear a rumbling from above: a solar storm, as the sun sends out a huge burst of energy that hits the bank and scrambles the building’s systems – including the final lock! As the vault opens the Doctor realises that the Architect is a time traveller, having used knowledge of the future to help expedite the heist. Sealing themselves inside the vault, the Doctor and Clara stare at the towering rows of metal safes, all of them now unlocked due to the solar storm’s disruption of the security system (a disruption that would have also scrambled the TARDIS’ systems, had they tried using it to get in the easy way). Making their way through the maze of boxes, the Doctor and Clara use the code to locate the right safes; inside them are a neophyte circuit to reboot Psi’s system and restore the lost memories of his family and friends, and a gene suppressant to cure Saibra’s transformations. But before the Doctor and Clara can out what they wanted from the private vault, they come face-to-face with the Teller! The duo are escorted to Ms Delphox’s office, where the ruthless head of security plans on wiping their minds and putting them on display with all the other failed bank robbers. Ms Delphox is also concerned for her job, as the solar storm will send customers away, angering Director Karabraxos, who will in turn sack all the staff. Leaving her guards to deal with her two prisoners, Ms Delphox takes the Teller back to its cage. But to the Doctor and Clara’s relief, the guards are really Saibra and Psi in disguise – the devices weren’t atomic shredders, they were teleporters, which sent them to an escape ship in orbit, where the TARDIS is also waiting. After a very happy Doctor has handed his two comrades the objects of their payment, the four of them make their way down the central access shaft leading straight through the bank and into Karabraxos’ private office. Inside the room, which is full of priceless treasures, they meet Director Karabraxos, who looks exactly like Ms Delphox. Explaining that she has a clone in every one of her facilities working as head of security, Karabraxos contacts Ms Delphox and orders her to send the Teller, so she can learn how the intruders got in before she has their memories wiped. Director Karabraxos then fires Ms Delphox for failing her, condemning her clone to incineration. The Doctor has an important realisation that he hates the Architect; he then grabs a scrap of paper, scribbles his phone number and the fact that he is a time traveller on it and gives it to Director Karabraxos, telling her to call him. Outside, another huge burst of flame sweeps across the Bank, and an evacuation alert sounds. Director Karabraxos quickly packs her most important possessions into a case and then takes the lift to safety; however, the Doctor tells his friends to stay: they have six teleporters and so must still have work to do. At that moment then the lift returns, bringing with it the Teller, who immediately holds the Doctor in its telekinetic grip and reads his mind. But the Doctor doesn’t object, and instead he lets the creature break the block in his mind, restoring his memory: in flashback, the Doctor recalls receiving a phone call in the TARDIS from an elderly Madame Karabraxos, who lies dying on a hospital bed. She asks for his help in putting right the biggest regret in her life, and the Doctor agrees. He then goes on to set up the entire heist, recruiting Psi and Saibra, altering his voice for the recording and secreting all the cases – the Doctor is the Architect! The Time Lord explains that he had to wipe everyone’s minds because the Teller would have read them and immediately alerted Director Karabraxos through a mental link they share. With its jailer now gone the Teller lumbers over to the safe and unlocks it telekinetically; inside is another creature just like the Teller – its partner, kept hostage to ensure the Teller complied with Karabraxos’ orders. The Doctor tells them why they needed six teleporters: they weren’t on a bank heist – they were on a rescue mission to save the two Tellers! As the bank starts to crumble, everyone teleports to safety… Later, the Doctor and Clara leave the Teller and its partner on a peaceful, idyllic planet, and then return to the TARDIS to enjoy a Chinese meal with Psi and Saibra. Having returned their two associates to their respective places, Clara heads off for her date with Danny; but the Doctor knows it will never top a bank robbery…


Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Jenna Coleman (Clara), Keeley Hawes (Ms Delphox), Jonathan Bailey (Psi), Pippa Bennett-Warner (Saibra), Mark Ebulue (Guard), Trevor Sellers (Mr Porrima), Junior Laniyan (Suited Customer), Ross Mullan (The Teller)

Directed by Douglas Mackinnon
Produced by Peter Bennett
Executive Producers Steven Moffat and Brian Minchin
A BBC Wales production

TX (BBC 1 & BBC 1 HD):
20th September 2014 @ 7.30 pm


Notes:
*Featuring the Twelfth Doctor and Clara

*As Psi downloads information on every bank robber, the monitor screen shows images of: Androvax the Veil (from ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ - ‘Prisoner of the Judoon’ and ‘Vault of Secrets’), a Sensorite (‘Doctor Who’ - ‘The Sensorites’), Captain John Hart (‘Torchwood’, first seen in ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’), Abslom Daak (a comic strip character who first appeared in ‘Doctor Who Weekly’, and also in the ‘New Adventures’ novel ‘Deceit’); a Slitheen (first seen in ‘Doctor Who’ - ‘Aliens of London’); a Terileptil (specifically the one from ‘Doctor Who’ - ‘The Visitation’); and the Trickster (first seen in ’The Sarah Jane Adventures’ – ‘Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?’)