The Fourth Doctor and Romana are hiding out in London following their search for the Key to Time, the Doctor having sent the TARDIS and K-9 throughout the universe on remote control to throw the Black Guardian off their trail. Posing as a lord and lady, they while away the weeks in the Genteel Interbellum Setting. While Romana looks for something to interest her in the primitive society of the 1920s, the Doctor detects an alien energy source operating nearby.
The culprit resides at Basset Hall, an old-fashioned mansion inhabited by an Upper-Class Twit named Reginald (well, "Weginald") and a succession of demanding aunts who all insist Reginald get engaged to a spiffing nice girl with some grey matter in the old bean. Reginald is very thoroughly brainwashed, to the point of not realising that his long line of aunts is actually one single aunt in a variety of stolen bodies. And since Reggie is rather adept at bringing home sweet young fiancees with great frequency, his auntie always has a fresh supply of new bodies.
His latest object of affections, Romana, follows him home to Basset Hall out of sheer boredom, where she's rather annoyed to discover that the staff consists of evil androids and Reggie is a blithering idiot with a neural implant in his skull. Reggie's aunt, meanwhile, recognises a Time Lady when she sees one, and plans to steal Romana's body and enjoy her Gallifreyan regeneration abilities to its full extent.
Meanwhile, the Doctor (who notices a bit late that Romana has gone out) decides to go on a nice drive together with his young maid, Mabel. They soon follow the alien signal to Basset Hall, where they encounter said evil androids as well as a honking big spaceship next to the ornamental duck pond. While he and Romana both independently go about incapacitating the aunt, Mabel runs off scared and bumps into Reggie, who instantly begins to fancy her.
In the end, the Doctor and Romana unwittingly help each other kill off the Monster of the Week (who's also the Last of Her Kind, dashed good luck that) and head home, merrily unaware of the other's adventure. Mabel and Reggie decide to start a new life together — him as Lord Basset, and her as his wife, no matter how people may talk.
Tropes
- Author Appeal: The only prompt Jonathan Morris got was "the twenties". The P. G. Wodehouse angle was his own idea.
- Battle Butler: Grenville, the robot Butler.
- Call-Forward: Reggie's aunt, only after suitable female bodies to inhabit, delivers this corker:
- Florence: Leave the man, it's the girl I want!
- Crash-Into Hello: Mabel and Reggie, with a grand helping of Meet Cute.
- Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Reginald.
- Evil Aunt: Reggie's aunt. Subverted, in that she's not really his aunt, she's an alien who's been inhabiting various bodies.
- Evil Matriarch: Reggie's aunt.
- Feigning Intelligence: Reggie pretends to be a scientific-minded person when he meets Romana, not revealing that he is, in his own words "a first-class chump". He is aided by Grenville telepathically telling him what to say.
- Grand Theft Me
- In the Style of: P. G. Wodehouse. Reggie is a perfect Composite Character of Bertie and Gussie from Jeeves and Wooster. Pretty much every single concept from Wodehouse's novels is parodied or turned on its head, and Reggie even briefly mentions the Drones Club.
- Pun-Based Title: Auntie Matter = Anti-matter, depending on your accent.
- The Roaring '20s
- Robot Maid: Well, Robot Butler, Grenville, and the identical Robot Gamekeeper, Diggery.
- Uptown Girl: Reginald, Lord of Basset Hall by the end of the story, is a gender-inversion to Mabel, a maid. He mentions the class-distinction and that people will talk about it, but tells Mabel they'll just have to let them talk.
