The Doctor, Flip, and Constance are joined by 51st-century bounty hunter Calypso Jonze to track down the Somnifax, a bioweapon capable of bringing one's nightmares to life. The device has travelled to Providence, Rhode Island in 1937 where it finds the perfect host - horror writer H.P. Lovecraft.
Tropes
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Lovecraft is on the receiving end of several as the TARDIS crew call him out for his bigoted views. The Doctor delivers a very cutting condemnation before he leaves after the author asks him to stay longer so he can converse with "a gentlemen of his own level."Doctor: You know, Mr. Lovecraft, you could so easily have been better than you are.''Lovecraft: I beg your pardon?!''Doctor: Well I've journeyed throughout time and space and in all my travels I have never met anyone who professed a doctrine of hierarchical bigotry who didn't place themselves at the top of their social order. It's a blind, hateful, cruel, and cowardly arrogance. It is the rankest of stupidities. And the truth of it is the people who hold such views make themselves the worst of humanity. They are always the real monsters. And for someone who considers himself an intellectual, Mr. Lovecraft, the premise that you are somehow superior by virtue of your birth or heritage is the most ignorant, poisonous, and conceited idea you could possibly entertain. So please, do not insult me by suggesting we are alike in any way.''
