Last time, Lucie was possessed by a giant space spider queen and had become the head of a cult. Clark Goodman, the cult's original founder, seeks out Kelly Westwood (his greatest critic) and the Eighth Doctor in a blind panic. He reveals that he made the whole thing up after he found weird crystals one day. The Doctor explains that, no, the crystals implanted the idea of the Eight Truths into his head, and the spiders merrily latched onto it to prepare humanity for invasion.
Using a sample of Lucie's DNA that the Headhunter stole while in the TARDIS, she linked the stellar manipulation device (stolen on Orbis) to Lucie and made it follow her across time and space, knowing that Lucie would eventually get back to the easily conquerable planet Earth. It was easier than transmatting it. In return, the spiders offer the Headhunter protection and a job. They've now brainwashed much of humanity, though, using the crystals that the cult gives out to all its members. The Doctor, Clark and Kelly investigate, and the Doctor is able to use his touch telepathy to cure Karen and some others. Karen reluctantly makes a Heel–Face Turn. But the Doctor knows that curing millions of people is going to take more.
The Doctor and the gang take a break to get some cheeseburgers.
Lucie, tucked away in the back of the spider queen's mind, is fighting back full force with her Deadpan Snarker powers. She realises that she can view the queen's memories and use them against her. When the queen banishes her to a virtual astral plane (along with a lot of dead humans), the Doctor establishes a psychic connection to her using the TARDIS telepathic field.
The queen eventually possesses the Headhunter, who's able to use her trained psychic resistance and create a mind control paradox by pretending to worship the queen from within the queen's mind. She makes a Heroic Sacrifice and dies, despite the Doctor trying to save her.
Lucie's placed at the centre of the human consciousness and is able to guide humanity back to normal. The virtual consciousness of the dead humans are still locked on the virtual plane, though, and the Doctor decides to just let them live on in a safe place. Humanity's memory of events is erased (along with, if the Doctor can manage it, all media coverage). Karen is dropped off somewhere safe, with the Doctor telling her that he doesn't expect an apology, but that he'll check on her in the future for safety's sake. With that, Lucie and the Doctor are off for a holiday in Blackpool.
Tropes
- A God Am I: Lucie briefly toys with the idea of becoming a Goddess when she's at the centre of global human consciousness, but just as a joke. The Doctor tells her to cut it out.
- Alas, Poor Villain: The Headhunter.
- Call-Back: The "Blackpool holiday" ending is a nice homage to the originally planned ending of "Revelation Of The Daleks".
- Call-Forward: The Doctor notes that Gallifrey also has another machine that places recently deceased people in a simulated world. Missy steals it long after the events of this story.
- Continuity Nod: The philosophical nature of people living on as data after death was previously a theme in "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead". The Doctor here states that he can't give a good answer as to whether or not it counts as "life" without going into hours of philosophical debate.
- Doesn't Like Guns: The Doctor veto's the name "Brain Gun" for his psychic gadget with a very curt "I don't use guns". He's fine with using it if it's got any other name, though.
- Heel–Face Turn: Both Karen and the Headhunter make one.
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: The Headhunter for the spider queen.
- Virtual Ghost
