Post by THE DOCTOR on Jul 9, 2009 23:13:31 GMT -5
plot
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CHISWICK, ENGLAND, EARTH. YEAR 2010.
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CHISWICK, ENGLAND, EARTH. YEAR 2010.
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Returning home from an uneventful day of office temping, Donna Noble rummages through the things on her dressing table, searching for some trinket or other, and finds something a lot more interesting instead. A ring, heavy and silver, inlaid with some sort of pattern etched in a green stone surface. It's something she picked up one day a long while ago, must be over a year, while she was going for a walk through the park. She popped it in her pocket, brought it home and didn't think anything more about it. But now she seems to be drawn to it, as though something inside this ring is calling to her. Donna picks it up, slides it onto her finger, and all of a sudden something white-hot and ancient shoots through her body, firing neurons in her brain that she's forgotten how to use, calling memories forth that were never supposed to be accessed again.
And now she remembers all of it. The Doctor, the TARDIS, gallivanting through time and space. The Daleks and Davros, and the DoctorDonna. It's all come rushing back.
As if that weren't bad enough, though, the ring has another surprise for her -- the Master. A sample of his biodata, his DNA and memories and personality, everything that made him him, had been placed inside the ring during his reign as Prime Minister. It was a failsafe, a backup plan, a tiny piece of Gallifreyan technology which, when it came into contact with the unmistakeable energy signature of a time traveler, was programmed to fuse with that individual's DNA. The second Donna puts that ring on, a second biological metacrisis is triggered. The Master is reborn, but as half of a human, with one solitary beating heart. And Donna is infused once again with the DNA of a Time Lord -- only this time, she becomes something much different from before.
The MasterDonna.
Just like last time, though, she finds herself in a great deal of trouble. The weight of remembering what she was, along with the sheer burning energy of what she is now, is threatening to overwhelm her. Donna is an inch from death, her mind set on fire, while the Master simply stands there and lets it happen.
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THE FAR REACHES OF SPACE. ONE HUNDRED YEARS AFTER THE LAST GREAT TIME WAR.
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THE FAR REACHES OF SPACE. ONE HUNDRED YEARS AFTER THE LAST GREAT TIME WAR.
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Meanwhile, the spaceship that had been commandeered by the Doctor's daughter, Jenny, is pulled through a rift in time and space and comes upon another vessel -- a TARDIS. In actual fact, the escape TARDIS of Lady President Romanadvoratrelundar of Gallifrey.
Jenny boards the alien ship to find Romana trapped in a stasis chamber, her TARDIS having been floating through the depths of space ever since the Time War. Upon being reawakened, Romana explains that the Time Lord High Council, fearing that the end was near, decided to preserve their President's life so that Gallifrey might one day be rebuilt. When Romana refused to leave her people to die, she was forced into stasis against her will. This comatose state, in addition to the advanced, experimental cloaking technology built into her TARDIS, was meant to ensure that she would stay hidden from Davros and his Daleks and, in the event that Gallifrey won, she could be retrieved safely. In the event that they lost, because even the Time Lords weren't quite pretentious enough to eliminate that as a possibility, the machinery would automatically revive Romana after a century had passed.
Romana knows that the war had the latter outcome, that the Time Lords had no chance, and now that she can no longer feel them anywhere in the universe she's positive that they're all dead. Or, almost all of them.
Jenny reveals that the Doctor still lives and the two of them depart in the TARDIS, leaving Jenny's ship behind, in search of planet Earth and one of the last Time Lords in existence. They pinpoint a huge surge of time energy emanating from Great Britain and Romana heads straight for it, positive that it could only be him at its source.
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CARDIFF, WALES, EARTH. YEAR 2010.
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CARDIFF, WALES, EARTH. YEAR 2010.
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The Torchwood team, along with new additions Martha Jones, retired from UNIT service (and back from her honeymoon) to serve as their new medic, and techie-in-training Mickey Smith, are closely monitoring Cardiff's rift activity. It's been a bit antsy there lately, flaring up, and Jack is expecting the Doctor back there to refuel any time now. Before he gets the chance to arrive, however, they receive another, rather unexpected, guest.
A guest driving a flying bus.
Lady Christina de Souza has used her family's influences to try and track down the elusive Doctor, and her search has led her straight to Torchwood. She barges in through the Cardiff Bay entrance, bold as you like, and after talking her way out of getting shot, asks Jack for his help.
Turns out she's just in time for the triumphant return of Captain John Hart, who's picked up a derelict old ship from the middle of space (Jenny's derelict old ship, in fact) and flown it willy-nilly through another rift in an attempt to reach this one -- his trip is what's made Cardiff's rift act up like it has. John offers himself...er, his services to Jack and co. and informs Team Torchwood of the word on the intergalactic street: all that "knock four times" mumbo jumbo has been reverberating right across the universe, becoming a prophecy of the end of days. Something's coming, John says. Something big. And the Earth is going to need all the help it can get.
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CHISWICK, ENGLAND, EARTH. YEAR 2010.
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CHISWICK, ENGLAND, EARTH. YEAR 2010.
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Arriving at the Noble household to find something very far from what they were expecting, Romana and Jenny attempt to save Donna's life. Romana is no fool, of course -- she recognises the Master straight away -- but a woman's life is in immediate danger and that rather takes precedence.
Explaining the metacrises and the previous mindwipe, Donna is quickly ushered into Romana's TARDIS where, cursing the Doctor's inferior Type 40 technology, the Lady President uses her far more advanced Chameleon Arch on the ailing human Time Lord. Donna's DNA is reconfigured completely, purging her of any and all Gallifreyan cells whilst allowing her to retain her memory of past events, saving her life in a way the Doctor had not been able.
After the threat to Donna's life has been averted, the women return to the Noble house, where Romana intends to apprehend the Master and pass judgement upon him with her full authority as ruler of the now-destroyed Gallifrey.
But he's gone. And outside, Romana's TARDIS grinds to life, the Master at the helm. They rush to stop him, but it's too late; he's gone, he could be anywhere, and it's certain that he's used the Chameleon Arch to make himself a full Time Lord once more.
All hope isn't lost, though; not at all like the last time, this time Donna has kept all her memories, including the memory of being one with the Master, knowing his mind. He has one destination, one thing that he wants above anything else. One person in all the universe that he wants to find.
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THE TIME VORTEX.
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THE TIME VORTEX.
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The TARDIS floats through the endless void, hanging lazily in space, her destination undetermined. Idling there between adventures.
A pair of dirty white Converses stick out from beneath the console, the sounds of tools clinking and some very off-key singing the only things to be heard for lightyears. The Doctor is performing some light maintenance on his faithful ship, not in any hurry to be anywhere, both enjoying and wallowing in his solitude. A woman's words weigh on his mind.
Your song is ending...
Through the dark...
He will knock four times.
It happens quickly and without warning, slamming into his mind like a sledgehammer blow, jolting him out of his reverie and sending him scrambling to his feet, looking manic. A pounding beat reverberates through his head, through his body, filling him, four slow, deliberate drumbeats, and in that instant he can feel them. Simultaneously, on two different ends of the universe, two Time Lords now exist.
The Doctor wastes no time, leaping into action, plotting a course for the closest destination -- planet Earth, somewhat unsurprisingly. But he's learnt from past mistakes and doesn't intend to rush in headfirst this time, no matter how strong his longing is to find the others of his race. He needs backup, and knows just where to get it.
Trying futilely to calm the rapid pounding of his heartsbeat, the Doctor sets the coordinates for Cardiff. The Millennium Centre. Torchwood. In seconds, the TARDIS is materializing in the shadow of the Roald Dahl Plass, just as Captain Jack predicted it would.
And thus, our story begins.