As Doctor Elizabeth Klein of UNIT meets with her assistant, Will Arrowsmith, to discuss his future with UNIT, the Doctor appears in the pub where they’re talking. When Klein and Will follow the Doctor, he takes them back in time to 1945, where he explains that he is following up reports that a man named Kurt Schalk has become the most wanted man in the universe for the invention of the Persuasion Machine, a machine that can make anyone believe anything programmed into it.
Tropes
- Apologetic Attacker: The Shepherds feed on humans to sustain themselves, but express regret at what they have to do to sustain themselves.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Invoked when the Doctor gives Will what he calls a ‘sonic Dictaphone’, as Will notes that a Dictaphone is ‘sonic’ by definition.
- The Dreaded: While UNIT value the Doctor’s insight, Will observes that the Seventh Doctor is considered the most dangerous.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Shepherd and Shepherdess, particularly when they regress to a more feral form if they haven't eaten.
- Expendable Alternate Universe: The Shepherd and Shepherdess consider the current universe a pale reflection of past realities.
- Foreshadowing: Hinterberger mentions ‘stumpy, troll-like men with faces like potatoes’.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Schalk goes from a minor clerk to the most wanted man in the universe.
- Future Me Scares Me: In a sense; the Seventh Doctor is aware that he’s going to regenerate soon, and wants to take action to tie up a few loose ends in this body because he’s concerned that his next self won’t be willing to do what has to be done.
- Happiness in Slavery: The Shepherd and Shepherdess intend to enforce this on the universe with their completed Persuasion Machines.
- Knight Templar: The Shepherd and Shepherdess consider themselves the saviors of the universe and want to make it fit their vision.
- Mood Dissonance: The Kletch announcement of their bomb in Dusseldorf is disturbingly cheery when talking about how it will detonate in the next few seconds.
- Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Will is very good at the practical scientific work, but is less skilled at fieldwork.
- Shout-Out: Will compares the TARDIS’s current interior to a Victorian-esque design in the style of The Time Machine (mainly the film version).
- Spotting the Thread: The Shepherdess notes that the stars above New Peerlessness have changed, suggesting that their prison has changed as well.
- Stalker without a Crush: Klein confronts the Doctor about his habit of stalking her life, to the extent that he knows her parents’ names.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The Doctor not only traps the Shepherd and Shepherdess on New Peerlessness, but also relocates the planet to a chamber in the TARDIS to ensure they stay trapped.
- Translator Microbes: Will starts talking about the TARDIS telepathic circuits to explain how he and a German he’s just met can understand each other.
- Underestimating Badassery: Schalk and Hinterberger state that they doubt they’ll see the Doctor and Will alive after they depart with the Shepherd and Shepherdess, but Klein has the opposite view.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Doctor considers the Shepherd and Shepherdess this, as their good intentions don’t give them the right to ignore the individual in the name of their ‘greater good’
- Worf Had the Flu: The Doctor is able to trick the Shepherd and Shepherdess, speculating that he couldn’t have done this if they were at their full powers.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When Will blames himself for almost failing to disarm a bomb, the Doctor assures him that he did well to narrow down his choice to just two options even if he chose the wrong one at the last moment.
