The Doctor, Nyssa and Thomas Brewster are drawn towards a barren assembly of reef... With a strange ship stuck to the side of it.
Of whom the commander curses the Doctor that brought them there...
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: A bit in reverse at first, Ruhks are compressed into lesser beings when not exposed to their native dimension. As soon as they can return, they become gorgeous beings of light which can easily traverse time and space itself.
- Call-Back: The events of the Haunting of Thomas Brewster into The Boy that Time Forgot are mentioned.
- Thomas flogged a few bits of TARDIS, amongst others the Food Machine, the Fault Locater and the Conceptual Geometer.
- Chaos Architecture: Thomas' journey caused the TARDIS to change it's interior (and get rid of a rattling noise... But added in a different rattling noise.) and the Doctor is really upset over it.
- Emotion Eater: The Ruhk can't see, but he feels fear in his mind.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: When stuck in the Time Reef unprotected you die, and you live, and you die again.
- Go-to Alias: Thomas apparently had visited the Time Reef before, but went by "the Doctor".
- Heroic BSoD: The Doctor breaks down when he thinks the TARDIS has been compressed and died.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The Ruhk stalls for time so the Doctor, Nyssa and Thomas can escape the Reef.
- Human Sacrifice: Lady Vuyoki was supposed to have been one, but she got caught in a temporal warp. But for a different reason than why she claims.
- In the Style of: The bizarre setting, the low comedy provided by Brewster, the fast-and-loose temporal mechanics, and the general assemblage of mad people are straight out of Season 22-23.
- Limited Wardrobe: The Doctor is implied to have one (Though in various sizes) when the Doctor recognizes Thomas is wearing one of his shirts.
- The Slow Path: Nyssa and the Doctor have spent 5 months in Victorian London, while Thomas could have been gone for "virtually 5 minutes" according to Nyssa.
- Summon Bigger Fish: Overwhelmed The Doctor just draws in more Ruhks into the Reef.
- Tap on the Head: The Doctor gets cold clocked in one punch.
- Time Travel: The Gamma is a Time Travel ship, though at the moment stuck on the Time Reef.
- Trail of Bread Crumbs: The Doctor uses a ball of Baler Twine to go into the innards of the TARDIS.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The crew of the Gamma prepare to sacrifice the Ruhk to the gods, who's an intelligent creature capable of speech.
A perfect world. One person sees it's wrong. And Thomas finds it very weird that she's living in one.
- Shout-Out: Connie says the Jubilee line is like Dawn of the Dead.
