Warning: spoilers may be unmarked.
Written by Jonathan Morris; Published 2000, and featuring the Fourth Doctor, Romana II and K9.
The Beautiful Death. The ultimate theme-park ride. For twenty galactic credits, you can find out what it's like to be dead.
But something has gone wrong. Visitors expecting a sightseeing tour of the afterlife have been transformed into mindless zombies, set on a killing rampage.
The TARDIS arrives in the aftermath of the disaster and, to the Doctor's baffled delight, he is immediately congratulated for saving the population from certain and terrible destruction.
The only problem is, he hasn't actually done it yet.
Aided and abetted by a drug-addled hippie lizard, a hard-hitting investigative reporter and a suicidal ship's computer, the Doctor has no choice but to travel back in time and discover exactly how he became a hero.
And then he finds out. He did it by sacrificing his life.
Tropes:
- Anachronic Order: The story begins with the Doctor and Romana II arriving at the G-Lock space station after the main crisis has been averted by their future selves, requiring them to go back three more times in order to create the situation and ensure that everyone who they met knows who they are.
- And I Must Scream: The story ends with the main villain, Koel Paddox, suffering this fate. Having spent his whole life studying the Arboretans and their ability to relive their lives over and over again when they die, he attempts to recreate their ability so that he can relive his life to save his parents who died in a shuttle accident when he was six years old. Unfortunately, he fails to account for the fact that unlike the Arboretans that he drove to extinction through his experiments, he lives within time so he cannot change anything his past self does. As a result, he is forced to spend the rest of eternity witnessing his crimes over and over again without being able to change a single thing.
- Continuity Nod: When the Doctor uses his Sonic Screwdriver to open a door, he asks "Where would we be without my Sonic Screwdriver?", to which Romana II replies "Still locked in a cellar in Paris, presumably."
- Convenient Terminal Illness: Essentially applies to ERIC, who is suicidally depressed, allowing the Doctor to destroy the Repulsion by transferring its essence into ERIC and then blowing him up.
- Death Seeker: Ship's computer ERIC has wanted to die for almost two centuries because he was programmed to blame himself for the accident that created the G-Lock.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Repulsion. It's an entity that exists in the realm between life and death and it plans to enter our world by possessing the Doctor's body.
- Evil Only Has to Win Once: With numerous time loops involved in this story, the Doctor and his friends have to avoid screwing up, otherwise the universe is doomed.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: The Arboretans loop right back to the start after they die and remember how they messed up, giving them the ability to change their own history.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Koel Paddox, who wipes out the Arboretans to recreate their ability to restart their lives after death so that he can save his parents from dying, finds himself unable to change anything since he's a human instead of an Arboretan. All he can do is watch from inside his own head as he lives all the tragedies and atrocities that he has committed forever and ever...
- Last of His Kind: Gallura becomes the last of the Arboretans, but this is of minimal personal impact to him as he knows he will see all of his people again in his next life.
- Look Behind You: Romana II manages to trick Paddox into thinking that the Doctor is up and walking after he was seemingly dead from undergoing The Beautiful Death, allowing her to tackle him and make a daring escape.Romana: Doctor! You're alive after all! Thank goodness!
- Monstrous Cannibalism: The Arachnopods end up eating one of their own.
- Never My Fault: Rochfort, the Captain of the Cerberus, blames ERIC for said ship getting stuck in the closing hyperspace tunnel, despite the fact that ERIC told Rochfort to let him stop, but Rochfort refused to listen and kept insisting they can make it through until they crash into the sealed exit. As a result, Rochfort tells ERIC that he should have overridden him despite the fact that ERIC's programming explicitly prevents him from doing so. This conflict drives ERIC into a suicidal depression for 2 centuries, while Rochfort soon ends up being possessed and killed by the Repulsion while trying to avoid taking responsibility.
- Rule of Three: The Doctor and Romana II end up travelling back in time thrice in order to try and resolve the situation that their future selves have already resolved.
- Sole Survivor: Hoopy, a drug-addled lizard-like hippy alien, is the only being taking part in the Beautiful Death who doesn't become a "zombie". The Doctor eventually determines that this is because the spirit intended to possess Hoopy didn't want to come back to life and so remained in the Repulsion's domain.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: When Gallura tells journalist Harkan Batt that he's assured he will see his people in the next life, Harkan apparently assumed Gallura was talking about a religious belief, and nobody who knew otherwise bothered to correct him as it was just easier that way.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: At the beginning of the story, the Doctor, Romana II and K9 arrive on the G-Lock space station and find out that they have already averted a terrible disaster, resulting in them having to go back to the day before and meet everyone who they just met for the first time. Of course, then they have to go back to the beginning of the day again when everyone they meet still recognises them, to say nothing of the Doctor having to go back over two centuries to meet ERIC for the first time (musing that he's relieved when ERIC doesn't know who he is because it would get very frustrating if he has to do it all over again).
