Rory: Oh, um, well... thanks?
After eight years of waiting for an opportunity to arise for him after he lost his job working in a bookstore in London, Rory Williams meets a mysterious red-headed man who calls himself the Inspector. The man bumps into Rory on the street, and— after thoroughly scrutinizing him— offers to buy him a coffee.
Rory accepts the offer, and they go to the coffee shop down the street. The Inspector then seemingly hears something from the road, and runs off, leaving Rory a little white card and requesting that he calls the number on it if he has any problems.
Inspector: [[Catchphrase The question isn't 'what', but 'when']].
Rory: That doesn't make any sense!
Rory, confused, returns to his flat, and his girlfriend, Annie, who asks him what he did today. He mentions his encounter with the Inspector, and she teases him that he went on a date with a handsome red-headed man. Rory is embarrassed, Annie apologizes, and they go to bed.
The next morning Rory awakes to find Annie's not at home, probably called into work during the night, and another white card, just like the one given to him the day before, has been placed perfectly in the center of his table. He takes the card, grabs his cellphone, and begins walking down to the grocery store to pick up some milk (as he notices they've run out).
He tries to call Annie's phone, but receives no answer (we see a shot of her phone sitting on the bedside table back at their flat, ringing to an empty room), he tries phoning Annie's friend Melanie, and Annie's mum, but neither know where she's gone. He says to himself that she's probably just gone to work and she'll be back in the evening.
On his way back with the milk, he remembers about the white card in his pocket. He stops walking, sits down on a bench, and dials the number in his cellphone. Coincidentally, the Telephone Booth across the street rings as soon as he dials. No answer, so he tries again. The Telephone Booth starts ringing again, and he decides that— spooky as it is— he should probably answer it, since no one else is around to do so.
He takes the phone in the booth off the hook, and speaks into it. He hears his own voice coming through his cellphone speaker. Very shocked, Rory looks around for help, but the street outside is gone!
In stead, the Telephone Booth seems to have moved to an abandoned warehouse, where a similar Booth stands, albeit this other one is blue not the standard red. Rory steps out of the Booth, and looks around in amazement. Then he hears a voice behind him, that says, "Welcome, Inspector, I was hoping you'd show up." Rory walks around the Telephone Booth and stares open-mouthed at Annie, dressed in a majestic blue dress, wearing a smug expression on her face, which vanishes the moment she sees that it's Rory— not the Inspector— that she has caught.
Rory and Annie both demand to know of each other just what the hell is going on, and Annie tells Rory that she's so glad he's come to rescue her— she claims to have been kidnapped in the night and brought to the abandoned warehouse. She requests that they go home, and tries to kiss him, but Rory pushes her away and asks her what she meant by her words when he appeared. She tries to make an explanation, but she's interrupted when the Inspector bursts into the room, shoots Annie with a paralyzing weapon, and tells Rory to "Dash! Quick, back into the BOOTH!"
Rory does as told, while Annie yells at the Inspector, "it's not over yet! It's only just beginning!" The Inspector then crams into the BOOTH after Rory, just managing to squeeze in, presses some buttons, and the street Rory was initially on reappears around them.
The Inspector explains to Rory that Annie is actually an intergalactic criminal, named the Sergeant, and that she was the Inspector's archenemy. The Inspector asks Rory for his help later dealing with her. Rory is confused and disgusted, and tells the Inspector that he had it wrong, and that that was his girlfriend Annie, and that he didn't care what kind of sick science fiction game the Inspector was playing, but that he should keep him (Rory) and his girlfriend out of it. He then storms off, somewhat awkwardly, as he has to pick up some more milk, having left the first carton in the warehouse.
Walking away, Rory hears a mysterious noise behind him, and turns around to find that the Inspector, and the BOOTH have vanished.
Rory spends the rest of the day in his flat, reading, watching TV, eating. He contemplates the paralyzing weapon he nabbed from the Inspector's pocket. Annie doesn't return. The next night, he's woken up by several hairy hands pulling him out of bed, into the blue Telephone Booth from earlier. The booth materializes back in the warehouse, and Annie is there again, waiting for him, flanked by more of the hairy, monkey-men (named Ugruns) that pulled him out of bed.
Rory asks Annie if what the Inspector said was true, and she reveals that she is, indeed the Sergeant, and that she knows that Rory has been plotting with the Inspector to stop her. Rory, deciding that she probably should be stopped, tries to distract her. He approaches her, complimenting her dress, and asking her how she's been. The Sergeant, attempting to remain on target, restrains Rory with her Ugruns, and begins asking him questions about the Inspector, revealing her plan to wipe out the human race and replace it with Ugruns as she goes.
She approaches Rory and looks him in the eye, demanding answers. Rory compliments her again, and mentions that he is wearing his dressing gown. The Sergeant is embarrassed, and demands the Ugruns to stand back and face the other way. She goes up to Rory again, and asks him if he would join her against the Inspector, to be just like before (ie when they were boyfriend/girlfriend). Rory seemingly contemplates this option, then agrees, and they kiss.
While the Sergeant is distracted, Rory pulls the paralyzing weapon used earlier out of his pocket, and shoots the Ugruns and the Sergeant, paralyzing them all. Rory hears the mysterious noise again, and the Inspector appears in his BOOTH. He is shocked that Rory was able to deal with the situation so well, and a bit speechless. He ties the Ugruns together using some tubing on the warehouse floor, and bundles them into the Sergeant's BOOTH. He then puts the Sergeant in as well, mentions that it really was a beautiful dress, presses a few buttons, and the blue BOOTH disappears.
He then explains to Rory that he's sent them to the Ugruns' home world, where the Sergeant will have to answer for the kidnapping of those creatures. He then asks if Rory would like to travel with him, through all of space and time. Realizing he's got nothing left to do on Earth, now that his girlfriend is on another planet, Rory accepts, and they vanish together in the Inspector's BOOTH.
Notable Tropes:
- Mistaken for Gay: Annie teases Rory about his 'date' with the Inspector.
- [[Revival Revival]]: After eight years of waiting, this was the first episode of the re-booted Inspector Spacetime.
