It's been six months since the Eighth Doctor died, and Lucie's not coping well. Things get a little complicated when her old enemy, the Headhunter, shows up at her door, shoots her in the chest, and drags her into the TARDIS.
The bullet, as the Headhunter explains, was a time bullet, which she can reverse or accelerate. And since the Doctor has been apart from the TARDIS for too long, they're both suffering: the TARDIS is leaking dangerous "time waste" all over the universe. So, since the Headhunter's current employer doesn't like a universe tainted with time waste, they're off to find the Doctor. Lucie's elated to hear that he's still alive. Using the TARDIS' brief quick start manual (only 17 books long), they manage to pilot her to his approximate location.
The Doctor, however, has spent 600 years Going Native on an ocean planet populated by sentient jellyfish, the Keltans. He has grown to really like this place and considers the Keltans his new family. He gladly helps them fight their wars, defeat their enemies and nurse their young. His most recent companion, Selta, is a sweet young jellyfish girl, and they get along splendidly. It turns out that he was rescued by the Sisterhood of Karn. Not because they particularly liked him, but because he was carrying Morbius' stellar manipulator activation device on him.
Also, after 600 years without a TARDIS, and with a somewhat screwed-up memory, he doesn't recognise Lucie. Helped by Lucie's rage and hurt feelings, they both figure out rather quickly that her slapping him really hard restores his memory a bit, since her hands have some lingering TARDIS energy on them.
Meanwhile, the Doctor has been trying to save the Keltans from extinction, as the Molluscari (described by the Doctor as "aggressive space oysters") want to take Orbis to use as their new spawning grounds. The Headhunter attempts to blackmail the Doctor by threatening to slowly kill Lucie with the time bullet that's still in her. But the Doctor's memory is still spotty, and he assumes that Lucie and the Headhunter are collaborating to trick him. He leaves Lucie behind to go help the Keltans.
The conflict on Orbis is heating up. Literally: the Molluscari have been using Morbius' stellar manipulator to warm the planet in order to make it more habitable for them, while making it completely uninhabitable for the Keltans. It's discovered that Selta had believed that Orbis was doomed and betrayed the Doctor to the Molluscari in a desperate bid to save her own family. And if things couldn't get any worse, the Doctor inadvertently ends up activating the stellar manipulator, which causes the Molluscari to go on into an indiscriminate feeding frenzy on the Keltans as Orbis is destroyed. The Headhunter and Lucie rush back to the TARDIS, but the Doctor refuses to leave. After 600 years, he considers Orbis his home and refuses to abandon it or the Keltans.
To save his life, Lucie shoots the Doctor square in the chest with a time bullet and forces him back to the TARDIS. After the Doctor comes to, the Headhunter explains that her "leaking time stuff" story was just a ruse — simply put, the universe needs the Doctor, so she's going to force him to come back. The Doctor wants to go back to save his people, but it's too late: Orbis has been destroyed by the stellar manipulator, and the Keltans have been completely wiped out.
With no other choice, and with his memories now returning, the Doctor agrees to go back to travelling the universe with Lucie.
Tropes
- Bad Moon Rising: Looks like we're in for nasty weather...
- Bizarre Alien Biology: A running gag throughout the episode.
- Bizarre Alien Reproduction: The Molluscari want to take Orbis for themselves to use as a spawning ground.
- Call-Back: The Doctor talks about using tights to repair an engine, like in Big Finish Doctor Who 033 Neverland.
- Cargo Cult: The jellyfish people act like one for the Doctor and his technology. He sees them as his family, so he's still a bit weirded out by it even after 600 years.
- Colony Drop
- Easy Amnesia: The exact nature of the Doctor's amnesia is never really specified, especially since the Headhunter's claims about it being TARDIS-related were probably just as false as her fib about the TARDIS being sick.
- Embarrassing Nickname: "Old Doctor".
- Evil Is Hammy: Andrew Sachs as Crassostrea is a magnificently Large Ham.
- Failed a Spot Check: The Doctor realises a bit late that Lucie's automatic translation means she's a TARDIS traveller.
- Going Native
- Got Me Doing It: The Doctor almost introduces himself as "Old Doctor" after repeatedly asking his jellyfish buddies not to call him that.
- Horror Hunger: The Molluscari.
- Hostile Weather
- I Choose to Stay: Even after the Doctor realises who Lucie is, he wants to stay on Orbis to be with his new people.
- Insistent Terminology: The Doctor isn't old. All right, he's not extraordinarily old. Well, anyway, he'd like to not get called old all the time.
- Large Ham: Andrew Sachs needs to grow female organs so he can spaaaawwwwwnnnn.
- Never Found the Body: Turns out the Doctor wasn't dead at all.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Doctor gets the bright idea to turn up the stellar manipulator purely to be contrary, causing the "moon" to smash into Orbis. Just about the most sub-optimal possible outcome...
- Punctuated Pounding: Lucie slapping the Doctor, hard.
- Running Gag: The Eighth Doctor developing amnesia, again.
- Sapient Eat Sapient: The Molluscari consider the Keltans a delicacy, much to their (and the Doctor's) horror.
- That's No Moon: The Doctor actually says so in so many words.
- Wacky Cravings: If genocide can be considered "wacky".
