Previously on… Doctor Who. Thomas Hector Schofield, known to his friends as Hex, was shot in 1845 Crimea. Taking their friend to the hospital they first met him, the Forge, a shady organisation the Doctor faced once before (and would again in his future) under the leadership of Nimrod fought a plague of alien bugs simply labelled "the contaminants". When Nimrod reveals to Hex what happened to his mother and what she really was, Hex' faith and trust in the Doctor is absolutely shattered and he leaves the crew of the TARDIS. But before the Doctor and Ace depart, they're informed that one of the symbols in the TARDIS is in the Forge archive as well... Which means a Time Lord is buried there.
But what the Doctor finds seems to be beyond possibility, and in tow comes something far worse, and the return of an old friend can spell doom for them both.
Tropes
- All Just a Dream: Sort of. The Word Lord manages to destroy every living thing in the universe... except only in the Hand of All, a living story that has no effect on the real universe.
- Back for the Dead: Evelyn's natural death.
- Badass Fingersnap: Whenever Nobody No-One wants to emphasise his power, he does one.
- Batman Gambit: The Older Doctor leaves Ace and Hex in places where he needs them...
- Blatant Lies: Ace's entire spiel about what "her role" is to the Doctor.
- Bill... Bill... Junk... Bill...: The Doctor when he's rummaging through the alien tech.
- Borrowed Catch Phrase:The Doctor: Just one more thing...
- Break the Cutie: The previous audio play tore down Hex. This episode makes sure to kick him while he's down, and hard.
- The Bus Came Back: It's Evelyn!
- Bus Crash: Rossiter, Evelyn's husband, has passed away since the last time we saw him.
- Call-Back: The Doctor finds a Neutron Polariser in a backpack of alien tech.
- The Doctor mentions the events of Antartica.
- The Doctor employs a mind probe.
- Hex rants on that the bad events never stop, with the Forge, the Cybermen, the Daleks and the sky falling in.
- The current Nobody No-One wears a scarf as an homage, and calls the Doctor "Lazarus".
- Evelyn recalls the events of Project Twilight and how she came to meet Hex' mother.
- Pelachan's church has as "Holy relics" the jawbone of an Ice Warrior, half a Cyberman's arm, and a Dalek's eyestalk.
- When the Older Doctor asks Ace where she'd draw the line at saving others' lives. Picking up a gun, firing a missile, destroying a planet and she quips: "You've done it."
- To override the Doctor's programmed path for the TARDIS, Ace activates the Fast return switch.
- The only currency Ace has in her pockets are Reichsmarks.
- Aristedes is mentioned as "a serious woman" that shows up to talk to Henry to warn him about Ace.
- The TARDIS is still white.
- Ace says she was still a kid when she started living in the TARDIS.
- Four out of five.
- When Evelyn she talks to the Doctor, they speak about how she met this incarnation before, Charles Darwin and leaping from steam trains...
- In a partial Call-Forward (due to the Anachronic Order Big Finish is brought out) she also mentions Thomas Brewster and the Axos.
- When Nobody No-One is systematically summing up the universe, he mentions Daleks, humans, Time Lords and Sontarans.
- Call-Back: Evelyn's last thoughts are of her Doctor, in his bright coat.
- She also mentions the Doctor once told her he doesn't always win.
- Calling the Old Man Out: The Word Lord brings this up a lot. But Evelyn really takes it to the Seventh Doctor hard.
- Chekhov's Gun: The TG tablet, Space-time Stamp, and Mobius chip.
- The Chessmaster: The Older Doctor. Oh so much. Although Ace is forced to come up with a large bit of it.
- Compliment Backfire:Evelyn: You are a monster.Nobody No-One: Thank you, grandma!
- Continuity Cavalcade: When the Doctor exposes his full memories to Nobody No-One we hear, (according to the TARDIS wikia); Project Twilight; Project Lazarus; Project Destiny; Son of the Dragon; Castle of Fear; The One Doctor; Jubilee; Colditz; The Magic Mousetrap; Enemy of the Daleks; The Pyralis Effect.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: And there is NO such thing as a (timeship).
- Delayed Ripple Effect: The Older Doctor says this is the reason why he can stand around and talk to Hex and Ace, while his younger self has died.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Henry is nothing but nice to Ace, and she takes advantage of him, despite bearing no ill will.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When Henry says "Nobody can change that" Ace realizes what she can do.
- Exact Words: Whenever someone says "No one" or "Nobody" Nobody No-One can use whatever they said against them. Ace manages to use this against him by exploiting the idea that as a Word Lord, it's how the words are written rather than spoken that's important...
- Final First Hug: Ace and the Older Doctor hug.
- Foreseeing My Death: The Doctor claims he has "something similar" to a birthday calendar, but then for "other kinds of dates".
- Have We Met Yet?: Nobody No-One is from the Doctor's future.
- Human Popsicle: The Doctor says Time Lord sarcophagi are more like hibernation chambers than coffins.
- Indy Ploy: The Doctor says he has to be a Chessmaster because of past failures, like Hex' mom.
- I Never Told You My Name: When that strange passerby calls Hex by his name...
- It's Personal: Ace is positively gleeful when she has the Word Lord on the ropes, but it's nothing on the Doctor's gloating. There hasn't been this much hate dripping from Sylvester McCoy's voice since "Remembrance of the Daleks."
- Karmic Death
- Laughing Mad: When Nobody No-One sends Hex running after dropping a grenade in the duck pond.
- Late to the Tragedy: The Doctor is late to own death. Twice.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The Word Lord brings this up when they are about to die, telling the seventh Doctor that he may just exist in a world of words and sounds.
- Like a Son to Me: The Older Doctor says this to Ace.
- Long List: Nobody No-One's list of things he's going to kill in the universe.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The Handaveil on Pelachan is one, as long as there is a storyteller.
- Manipulative Bastard: The Doctor is in rare form, setting up poor Henry as a Love Interest solely for his last name, then using the death of his previous incarnation's best friend as a weapon.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Ace and Henry.
- Noodle Incident: How Hex recognizes an Ice Warrior's jawbone isn't explained.
- Ace's dealings outside of the White Rabbit pub are very similar. She fights Polymorphic Soot monsters with L. S. Lowry and he flew a Loom shuttle to safety. For starters.
- Not Quite Dead: Nobody No-One is good at this.
- The Nth Doctor: The Nth Word-Lord: He even uses the word "regenerated".
- Oh, Crap!:Other Doctor: ... nobody is coming... ... nobody is coming...
Ace: Did he say...!?The Doctor: I'm afraid I opened up a nasty can of words... - Omnicidal Maniac: Nobody No-One turns into one towards the end.
- Previously on…: Like the episode before it, this shows snippets from the story prior to it in order to explain the context of the events.
- Reality Warper: Nobody No-One, who can use people's Exact Words to influence the fabric of reality itself.
- Shout-Out: Nobody No-One calls the Doctor "Columbo in a hat" due to his tendency to come back, again and again.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: The Seventh Doctor to the Word Lord.
- So Proud of You: The Older Doctor's Last Words to Hex.
- Spell My Name With An S: Henry Noone.
- Story-Breaker Power: Nobody's abilities brought up to eleven by the unfortunate frequency with which his name is used to describe imposible situations. However, the use of his name is a Drama-Preserving Handicap.
- The Storyteller: In this case, essentially a human host for a story existing as an independent entity.
- Sufficiently Advanced Alien: The history and religion of Pelachan is based on Cargo Cult.
- Taking You with Me: Evelyn was already due to die at this time and at this place. The Doctor's plan, however, allows her to take Nobody No-One with her.
-
Tear Jerker: The Older Doctor and his goodbyes to both Ace and Hex.- When the Doctor (unintentionally) erases all of Dorothy's past.
- Evelyn's death. Just... Evelyn's death.
- Temporal Paradox: Nobody No-One is not bound by the laws of time and space, and can easily kill a younger version of the Doctor without worry, despite having "fought the Doctor across all of existence".
- Time Skip: After the first part, both Hex and Ace spend some time in their own time / space periods.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: The Handaveil is a Lotus-Eater Machine who creates a world spoken through a storyteller. Anything the storyteller says is woven into the story.
