A Biography of the Doctor
The Tenth Doctor
Series Two
"Five million Cybermen, easy. One Doctor? Now you're scared."
- Rose in Doomsday
The newly regenerated Doctor sets a course for Barcelona. After briefly examining his new body he has to persuade Rose that he is actually the Doctor, as she thinks that he has been replaced. He explains that he can't change back before setting the TARDIS to travel to the Powell Estate at Christmas. Something then happens to him, which he thinks is his regeneration going wrong, and he begins losing control of some of his actions.
Notes: This story is an untitled scene broadcast as part of the BBC's Children in Need charity fundraiser in 2005. The title Born Again was first used in official material several years after broadcast. The title Pudsey Cutaway was the most widely used title amongst fans before that point (Pudsey being the mascot for Children in Need). The story follows on immediately from The Parting of the Ways and leads into The Christmas Invasion
The TARDIS crash-lands on the Powell estate on Christmas Eve, and the Doctor passes out. He is left to recover in Rose's room. Rose, Mickey, and Jackie are attacked by robotic Santas and Christmas trees.
The next morning, there is an alien transmission to Earth and Rose realises that the TARDIS isn't translating for her. Soon afterwards, large numbers of people begin walking, as if hypnotised, to edges of the roofs of nearby tall buildings, and a huge alien spacecraft arrives above London. Rose doesn't know what to do and insists that they take the still-comatose Doctor into the TARDIS and hide in it.
The aliens – the Sycorax – hav detected the TARDIS, and bring it onboard their ship. Rose tries to negotiate peace with the aliens, but fails. Fortunately, some spilt tea revives the Doctor. He exits the TARDIS and discovers that the Sycorax are using blood control to hypnotise humans with an A+ blood group. He challenges their leader to a personal combat, with Earth as the prize. He wins, despite losing a hand (which regrows because it is so soon after his regeneration).
The Sycorax transport the TARDIS and its occupants back to Earth before leaving. Prime Minister Harriet Jones, however, orders Torchwood to fire a secret weapon that destroys the ship. The Doctor decides to bring down her government with six words whispered to her right hand man "don't you think she looks tired". He then chooses some clothes from the TARDIS, picking a brown suit and long coat, before having Christmas dinner with Rose, Jackie, and Mickey.
Notes: Follows on directly from Born Again / Pudsey Cutaway
The TARDIS travels to New Earth, galaxy M87 in the year five billion and twenty three. The Doctor gets a message from the Face of Boe on his Psychic Paper telling him to go to Ward 26 of the nearby hospital. Rose meets Cassandra, who she believed to have died aboard Platform One (The End of the World).
Cassandra possesses Rose's body and manipulates the Doctor into helping her find out that the Sisters of Plenitude who run the hospital are curing diseases by growing infected human lab rats. The Doctor manages to cure the lab rats and forces Cassandra to leave Rose's body. Cassandra travels into the body of one of her cloned servants, and the Doctor allows her one last wish - to travel back to a party in her youth and tell her younger self that she looks beautiful.
Notes: The TARDIS has moved since The Christmas Invasion, but there's a lot of dialogue about the Doctor being new.
The Doctor intends to take Rose to a concert in 1979, but the TARDIS instead lands in 19th Century Scotland. They meet Queen Victoria and her retinue, staying with them overnight at Torchwood House, where her late husband often spent time. The local werewolf legends turn out to be true – there is a werewolf (actually an alien possessing human bodies) in the cellar, which escapes.
It turns out that Prince Albert and the father of the house's owner planned a trap for the wolf in the house's observatory. The telescope, combined with the Koh-i-noor diamond, can focus the moon's light strongly enough to kill it. After the werewolf is killed, Victoria gives the Doctor a knighthood (Sir Doctor of Tardis) and Rose a Damehood (Dame Rose of the Powell Estate) before banishing them both from the British Empire.
Notes: After the Doctor and Rose have left Victoria sets up the Torchwood organisation. The Doctor says it's 1879, but since that's just after he steps out of the TARDIS it may not be reliable.
The Doctor drops Rose off at an Abba concert at Wembley in 1979.
Notes: This is the Doctor's explanation of why Rose isn't on the TARDIS in Attack of the Graske. It's not clear why the Doctor didn't want to watch the concert himself.
The Doctor invites a new companion onto the TARDIS. He links his new companion's remote control to the sonic screwdriver, enhancing its abilities. They monitor a welsh family at Christmas, noticing that the mother has been replaced by the Graske. They then track the Graske back by about 120 years to 1883.
The new companion infiltrates the Graske's base to free the people who have been replaced. They companion is spotted, and a Graske opens fire. The blast ricochets around the storage area, damaging the controls and freeing a Raxicoricofallapatorian. The Raxicoricofallapatorian breaks out and chases the Graske. The companion takes the opportunity to activate the controls choosing either to place the planet in stasis or to return the original people to their native time and place, replacing their duplicates.
The Doctor then returns his new companion back home before travelling back to pick up Rose. This adventure is caught in a time loop, and the new companion makes a different set of choices every time.
Notes: Rose has been dropped off for a short break and she is clearly the only companion. The Doctor's comment that he doesn't know whether he likes mangos might suggest that this is soon after the regeneration. Given the discussion about going to a 1979 concert in Tooth and Claw (albeit for a different band), it seems most natural to place this very shortly afterwards.
Mickey gives the Doctor and Rose a tip-off about Deffry Vale High School. The Doctor replaces a physics teacher at the school [he is probably responsible for posting a winning lottery ticket through her door at midnight], whilst Rose becomes a dinner lady at the school. On the Doctor and Rose's second day, Sarah Jane Smith investigates the school under cover of writing a profile about the new headmaster for The Times. The Doctor tells Sarah that he is John Smith, but doesn't reveal that he is the Doctor.
That night, Sarah sneaks into the school, as do the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey. Sarah discovers the TARDIS parked in a school cupboard and realises that the Doctor is the Doctor. They discover that the new head and staff are really batlike aliens. The Doctor repairs a non-functional K9 in order to analyse a mysterious oil that is used in the kitchens to cook the school dinners. K9 identifies it as Krillitane oil, part of a species that takes part of the substance of species they conquer - and capable of making the children super-intelligent.
The Doctor confronts the head, and then realises that they are using the children to crack the fundamental laws of the universe, giving them the power of gods. The Doctor lures the Krillitanes to the kitchens - realising that the Krillitanes are allergic to the oil, and K9 uses his laser to blow open the vats of oil, killing them and blowing up the school whilst Mickey evacuates everyone. The Doctor invites Sarah to rejoin him, but she decides not to. Mickey asks if he can join and the Doctor says yes. When the TARDIS dematerialises it leaves a rebuilt K9 behind.
The TARDIS lands on an abandoned spaceship about 3,000 years in the future. It has an 18th Century French fireplace - the other side of which is in 18th Century France. The Doctor talks to Reinette - the little girl whose fireplace it is. He travels to France via this time window, arriving months later. He discovers something hiding under her bed - it wants Reinette, but she is "not yet complete" and flees back into the spaceship. He follows the robot back, and discovers that it is made of clockwork.
He finds Returning to Reinette, he finds her grown up and discovers that she is Madame du Pompadour. He then discovers another time window to her life, just after she met King Louis for the first time. It turns out that the clockwork robots were trying to repair their ship but didn't have the parts, so used the crew instead. It and its fellows are after one last part, and want Madame Pompadour's brain. They believe that her brain will only be compatible at the age of 37, when she will be the same age as the ship.
The Doctor returns to the ship well after the robot has run back there to find that the robots have opened a portal to a time when Reinette is 37. Rose finds a window when she is 32 and warns her of the danger. The Doctor finds the window the robots have gone through and crashes through it, disabling all the time windows. He then convinces the robots that their plan will not work without a way back, and they shut themselves down.
Reinette then shows the Doctor that she has moved the original fireplace to Versailles. He realises that it broke before he destroyed the time windows and that he can repair it to get back to the ship. He does so, checks up on Rose and Mickey, and then goes back to Reinette - who he promised to take to the stars. However, he arrives back in Versailles just as her coffin is leaving the palace, and the King gives him a note from Reinette.
Notes: This is Mickey's first trip in the TARDIS, so it follows on from School Reunion
The Doctor asks Mickey to hold down a particular TARDIS control. After thirty minutes of joking with Rose he says that Mickey can take his hand off it now. When he does the Time Vortex just disappears and the TARDIS lands on a parallel Earth. Without access to energy from the real universe, the TARDIS dies. The Doctor finds a working fuel cell,which he can recharge at the cost of 10 years of his life. It will, however, take 24 hours to fully charge up.
The alternative London has Zepplins in the sky, and Rose's father is still alive and on advertising hoardings. Rose's phone automatically connects to the Cybus Network. She discovers that her alternative parents are still married but never had children. They note that most people have earpieces which download things from Cybus Network. Mickey goes to visit his gran, who died five years ago in the real universe and gets kidnapped by a group called the Preachers run by his alternative self (called Ricky). They don't have earplugs, and consider themselves almost a resistance movement.
The Doctor and Rose go to visit Pete and Jackie at Jackie's birthday party, posing as a waiter and waitress. A group of Cybermen - only just created by John Lumic, a genius who runs the Cybus Corporation - arrive at the party, kill the President of Great Britain, and announce their intention to convert the guests. The Doctor, Rose, and Pete all escape into the gardens just as Ricky's group prepare to attack the Cybermen. Both groups are surrounded by Cybermen, who are immune to bullets. The Doctor attempts to surrender, but the Cybermen say that they will instead be "deleted".
The Doctor destroys the Cybermen surrounding them by using the power cell from the TARDIS. They escape in Ricky's group's van, and discover that Pete is the group's secret information source, Gemini. Arriving in London, they discover that Lumic has used the earpieces to control London's population, herding them into a factory at Battersea which is creating Cybermen. Ricky is killed by the Cybermen.
They try to sneak in in various different ways. The Doctor discovers that these alternative Cybermen can be defeated by shutting down their emotional inhibitor chip before being captured and taken to the control centre. Pete and Rose also end up there, having discovered that Jackie has been "upgraded".
Mickey finds a way to spy on Cyber-Control. The Doctor realises that Mickey is watching, and casually mentions the location of the code for the emotional inhibitor and to send it to Rose's phone. She gets the message, chucks the phone to the Doctor, and he inserts it into a conveniently-located piece of equipment which sends the code to every Cyberman. The Cybermen all go mad and self-destruct, taking the factory with them.
Mickey decides to stay behind on the alternative Earth, help shut down the Cyber-factories, and look after his gran, even though the Doctor says that once the TARDIS leaves, it will be impossible to return.
Notes: Follows on immediately from Rise of the Cybermen
The Doctor tries to take Rose to see Elvis in the late 50s, but ends up in London 1953, the day before the coronation of Elizabeth II. They arrive in a street where everybody already has a television. They discover that people are losing their faces as the result of a creature called "the wire" which has been living inside the TVs. Rose is affected by the wire. The owner of the local electronics shop intends to attach the wire to the Alexandra Palace transmitter, where it will be able to feed on the millions who will be watching the coronation. The doctor intervenes, trapping the wire inside a betamax video cassette. This restores all of its victims.
The TARDIS lands in a santuary base, though it is clearly reluctant to do so. The base contains writing that the TARDIS can't translate – meaning that it is impossibly old. The base is on a planet that is orbiting a black hole, and the crew consist of humans and Ood. The Ood apparently offer themselves as slaves and want to have orders. They are drilling into the heart of the planet to extract a power source that is generating an impossibly powerful gravitational field.
The Oods' translators start saying odd things, and that "he" is awake. Shortly afterwards the drill reaches the centre, and the Doctor volunteers to investigate with one of the crew. It turns out that there are the ruins of a civilisation. On the base, Toby, the base's archaeologist, reveals that he has been possessed by the being entombed there (the Beast). He telepathically takes control of the Ood. At the stame time, the planet nudges out of orbit and starts falling towards the black hole.
The crew blockade themselves from the Ood and the Captain suggests Strategy 9 emptying the oxygen from all but a small portion of the base, thus killing all the Ood. The Beast taunts the crew with knowledge of their dark secrets and traps the Doctor in the centre.
Rose and the crew incapacitate the Ood and abandon the base. The Doctor drops further down, arriving in the Beast's prison. He realises that the Beast's intelligence is onboard the spacecraft whilst its body remains in the planet. Fortunately Rose manages to shoot Toby – who is still possessed – into space. The Doctor then finds the TARDIS and saves the ship. He doesn't, however, have time to save the Ood.
Notes: Follows on immediately from The Impossible Planet
The Doctor visits Elton Pope's house, trying to defeat an Elemental Shade who had escaped from the Howling Halls. He stopped it, but Elton's mother died before he could do so.
The Doctor and Rose are fighting a Hoix on contemporary Earth when Elton barges in searching for the Doctor. The Doctor and Rose defeat it, stopping it from attacking Elton in the process. He thinks that he recognises Elton.
The Doctor tracks down Elton, and an Absorbalof from Clom (the twin planet of Raxacoracofallapatorius) who has been trying to absorb Elton. He hints that the people who have been absorbed can fight the Absorbalof. They do so - pulling its body apart, and Elton snatches and breaks a cane it has been carrying, as one of them suggests. The cane contained a limitation field which kept its body together.
Notes: This story is told from Elton's point of view, and clearly establishes that he is an unreliable narrator. It's unclear when the Tenth Doctor's first two meetings with Elton take place. They most likely take place in the sequence above, but the first two could easily take place at any time before the final one.
The TARDIS arrives in London, 2012, for the opening ceremony of the Olympic games. The children in Dame Kelly Holmes Close have gone missing over the last week or so. Whilst investigating, Rose is attacked by a scribble creature made of graphite. The cause of both is a girl names Chloe, whose drawings can become living things. The Doctor uses his telepathic abilities to speek to an entity that is possessing her. It is Isolus - a member of a telepathic species which travels through space in packs of billions. They desperately need each other and use their ionic abilities to literally create fantasy worlds. Chole draws the Doctor him, taking him out of reality.
Rose finds the Isolus pod, which needs heat. The drawing of the Doctor shows her that it also needs flame, and it just happens that the Olympic torchbearer is running past. Rose chucks the pod into the flame, allowing the Isolus to return to its brothers and sisters and brings all the drawings back to life. The torchbearer stumbles and falls, so the Doctor picks up the torch and completes the run.
The TARDIS arrives on the Powell estate to find that ghosts are appearing, walking around, and fading at fairly precise intervals. The Doctor theorises that something is pressing itself into this reality. He sets up some equipment to monitor the ghost shifts and work out where the ghosts are coming from. He pinpoints the machinery which is causing the shifts. It turns out to be Torchwood, an organisation the Doctor was ignorant of. He is given a grand tour, showing that they develop technology developed from alien material on Earth. They were created by Queen Victoria after Tooth and Claw to protect Britain and use alien technology "for the good of the British Empire".
One of Torchwood's artefacts is a "void ship" - a vessel that exists outside of time and space. It came through a breach in space-time, and Torchwood have been exacerbating the hole - causing the ghost shifts - in order to get energy from it. Rose sneaks in to find Mickey posing as a lab assistant. The systems are then overriden by staff wearing earpods like the ones from the parallel world in Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel. The ghost shift is turned on full, the voidship becomes solid, and the ghosts materialise across the world, becoming Cybus Cybermen, who are invading Earth. At the same time, the voidship opens, revealing four Daleks and a device they call the Genesis Ark.
The Daleks and Cybermen go to war with each other, and the Cybermen begin converting Torchwood staff to bolster their numbers. The Doctor travels across the breach to the parallel world, discovering how the Cybermen escaped their defeat there. In escaping, Mickey accidentally touches the Genesis Ark, activating it. It contains millions of Daleks, who take to the air. The Doctor opens the void on one side, sucking everything that has been through it out of reality. This defeats the Daleks and Cybermen (though some of the Daleks escaped through time first). Rose, Jackie, and Mickey are trapped in the parallel universe.
After closing the breach, the Doctor manages to find a point in space and time where the breach open enough to send a message through, though he needs to borrow power from a supernova to do so. When the message runs out a woman in a wedding dress appears in the console room.
Notes: Follows on immediately after Army of Ghosts
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