One day, after an incident involving a mysterious poison and a cure made of space bat cheesecake, Iris sacrifices her life and regenerates into Daniel Hogarth. Panda is extremely confused by the idea of a male Iris Hilary Wildthyme. Especially when the guy turns out to have a decidedly un-Iris-like new personality, and starts preaching on about psychology and throwing out all the booze (including the concentrated liquid soul of Noel Edmonds).
Soon enough, both of them are summoned by a guy named Roger, who turns out to be the third Naxian from the left two adventures ago. He explains that he went out on a few dates with Iris (they snuck off while no one was looking) and he's still madly in love with her. Him. Whichever. Iris isn't interested anymore, though, now being a straight bloke and all, and only agrees to help Roger because there's an intergalactic war on. Roger and some of his fellow Naxian warlords opened a bar (called Iris's) in 22nd century Spain, mostly out of boredom, and now they'd like to stop the war altogether through the power of disco. Panda soon figures out that Roger's entire plan is really just another way to get into Iris' pants again, and tries to convince Iris to cut the whole thing out, but to no avail. While the war leads to a missile strike, soon enough aimed at the bus, Panda opens the hip flask he's been clinging to all day and summons... Iris.
Iris, back from an extended stint on "rehab planet", explains that she had her bus create a decoy avatar while she was away. Panda's task was to keep up the Extra-Strength Masquerade for the poor substitute Iris. The next Iris is devastated to find out that he's not real, and decides to sacrifice himself in order to direct the time-locked missiles into the sun. The real Iris feels really very guilty once she realises that the persona she had her bus create has so many feelings and so much personality of its own. She explains to the next Iris that she didn't expect a fully-formed individual, let alone a bloke, and also her middle name is not Hilary. Which means that the next Iris invented all those aspects by himself, back when he was still a chunk of data. "Hilary" is delighted to realise that he's a real person in some way after all, and after quite a number of attempts at committing a Heroic Sacrifice, Iris and Panda and Roger end up saving him a few times over. In the end, Hilary decides to get a job as an accountant at Roger's bar (strictly platonically, of course), since Naxians are rubbish at doing sums. They're brilliant at playing good music, though, and Roger's efforts actually did stop the war with the power of disco. Dance Party Ending!
Tropes:
- Affectionate Parody: Of "The Caves Of Androzani" and "The Twin Dilemma", and of "The Five Doctors", as well as of "Human Nature" / "Family Of Blood". With a bit of "The Power Of The Daleks" thrown in. As a whole, the episode gleefully parodies how Doctor Who was written in the 1980's.
- Bad Liar: Roger, with anything regarding Iris.Panda: For a shape morphing alien your poker face is pathetic.
- Gender Bender: The next Iris.
- Dance Party Ending: With disco!
- Everybody Lives: In the end.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Doubly subverted twice.
- Interspecies Romance: Roger is madly in love with Iris.
- Loss of Identity: Hilary suffers from some.
- New Old Flame: Played With in case of Roger.
- The Nth Iris: But not really.
- The Power of Rock: The power of disco. The trope gets name-checked.
