What exciting adventures will await them?
...the rest of Series 1, obviously. Though not quite as expected.
So Adam dies, Van Statten dies, with the Dalek becoming increasingly more and more insane as it rampages. In this version of events, neither Mickey nor Shareen has the clout with the Doctor to stop him as Rose did and he murders the Dalek as it gives its last, insane screams before dying. The Doctor's declaration that he wins the Time War is a lot less bitter here, though he's not without his sorrow. The wounds are clearly still quite fresh. Rather than picking up a companion who will be ultimately pointless, the episode ends with Mickey and Shareen being rightly terrified of the Doctor.
The Long Game doesn't happen. The TARDIS never lands on Satellite Five and the Jagrafess remains in control of it. Without Adam being onboard the TARDIS, half the reason for the episode is gone. We are also spared the absolute assault on all things decent that is Father's Day that should be self-evident by the title of this what if. Maybe we can sub it out with a far better story about either Mickey and Shareen wanting to change the course of history, realizing the terrible mistake they've made, and trying to fix it rather than just waiting for the only likeable character in the episode to do it.
So essentially, Turn Left before Turn Left actually existed.
The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances play out essentially the same, only with the addition of a fourth person to the main cast - that being Captain Jack Harkness. The Doctor is far colder to Jack than in the broadcast story, however, and only goes back for Jack after an earnest plea from Shareen (much to Mickey's chagrin).
He does, but instead of having a bubbly and mildly flirtatious relationship with Jack, the Doctor is far colder to him and only tolerates him...at least for now. He doesn't trust him in the least, however, seeing that the incident with the Chula ambulance was entirely his fault.
Boom Town goes very differently. You might recall from our look at this timeline's version of Aliens of London and World War Three that the Slitheen family did not all gather at 10 Downing Street as in the broadcast episodes. This episode will still serve as a sequel to those events. UNIT calls the Doctor up and requests his help in Cardiff in 2006. Strange energy surges have been detected at the completed Blaidd Dwrg power plant, with the Doctor giving a quick nod to the events of The Unquiet Dead about there being a Rift under Cardiff when it's brought up.
Also, for the record, I'm only calling it the Blaidd Dwrg power plant for simplicity's sake. I am not a fan of the "Bad Wolf" meme as my reviews have said. If you want to read more on that, look at my The Parting of the Ways review. However, as I said before, "Bad Wolf" has been popping up in more subtle ways and for a very different reason than what we got.
But this episode is several months ahead of the one we saw broadcast, so the power plant is complete. One of the Slitheen is the mayor of Cardiff, and is actively trying to fight UNIT on closing down the plant, insisting that there's nothing wrong. Unlike the actual episode, it isn't clear that the Mayor is a Slitheen in disguise or what the plan is at first. The Doctor and company will discover the extrapolator and begin to piece together what's been happening. There will be a bit of a mystery as members of the Slitheen have found a way to not have to seal themselves inside of only obese people and instead start replacing UNIT soldiers.
A little bit of The Thing-esque paranoia, where tensions between the Doctor and his companions might rise as well as none of them know who to trust, as well as everyone around them seemingly being replaced by the Slitheen.
It eventually comes down to a situation very similar to the end of this timeline's World War Three, the Doctor and company cornered in a location by the Slitheen. The Slitheen leader, think he's won, decides to activate the plant - tearing the Earth apart and powering up the extrapolator so that he can escape. In a bit closely akin to the Seventh Doctor in Remembrance of the Daleks, the Doctor already reprogrammed it to explode upon being used. Thanks to the genetic link between the members of the family, they all get sucked into the Rift before it seals up, the Doctor mentioning that they're likely to die horrifically before they actually get anywhere.
This does not help endear him more to his companions, particularly Shareen, who is quite visibly terrified of the Doctor.
While we do get a discussion about it, and the Doctor mentions that sometimes things like that have to happen in order to save the day. Jack accepts that and Mickey begrudgingly accepts that, but Shareen isn't convinced. Still shaken by what she's seen.
Bad Wolf comes next, most likely retitled because "Bad Wolf" is about as meaningful as me saying "Gray Caterpillar" over and over and over again (although it does have more of a point here, so maybe that counts for something?). As in the episode, the TARDIS crew gets taken away by transmat. Instead of game shows, however, they immediately show up on Satellite Five in the year 200,100. Just like in the transmitted episode, it isn't a big shocking reveal that they're on the same place, but it also isn't ruined as it was in the episode. The Doctor does, however, declare that history is about 200 years behind where it should be.
So, things are as they were in The Long Game in the main timeline. The Jagrafess is still running things as is the Editor (go ahead and have Simon Pegg in, if you like). They quickly pick up that the four strange people are not supposed to be here, the Editor being told that "the masters" have brought them here for their own reasons. However, the others are expendable...the Doctor is not. The "Masters" have something special in mind for him.
Nevertheless, the TARDIS crew does manage to put up an effective resistance, hiding out in one of the air ducts. As in The Long Game, it's noted how hot everything seems to be. Almost no air is blowing through the vents. The Doctor works out that something seems to be drawing all the cool air and works out Floor 500 is the control. The group also hacks the computers to find that a transmat has been sending individuals out to coordinates somewhere on the far end of the solar system, but there's nothing out there.
Despite being mostly captured by security, the Doctor and Shareen manage to get through to Floor 500, where they encounter the Jagrafess and the Editor. Before their minds can be probed, however, the Doctor manages to fix the heating problem and brings all the heat back up to Floor 500.
The Jagrafess explodes and, in the chaos, the Editor manages to take Shareen hostage and transmats away with her, much to the Doctor's shock. A short time later, the Doctor, Jack, and Mickey have managed to commandeer Satellite Five in the chaos. With the death of the Jagrafess, the Doctor hacks into the computers and deactivates Satellite Five's transmission jammer - revealing a Dalek war fleet on the other side of Pluto, right where the transmat coordinates were leading to.
Onboard one of those ships, the Editor and Shareen have appeared. The Editor tries to bargain for his life, using the Doctor's companion as a bartering chip, but the Daleks simply exterminate him. Rather than call up the Doctor and taunt him, the Daleks instead subdue Shareen and prepare her for "mutation".
Back on Satellite Five, the Doctor has located the TARDIS - the Daleks didn't destroy it for some reason. He prepares to head to the Dalek fleet and board to save Shareen. They meet the Dalek Emperor and several of the same beats play out with the Dalek Emperor declaring itself God and revealing the the Daleks are basically made up of human bits. It offers them a demonstration of this power it has.
In a scene very much akin to The Best of Both Worlds from Star Trek: The Next Generation, they do find Shareen...mutated into a Dalek and screaming about how they will be exterminated. We get some shades of Revelation of the Daleks with the clear Dalek that showcased the human being mutated into a Dalek there being seen here with a more updated look. Mind you, I'm not certain if the show would ever do something that utterly horrific anymore, but this is my rodeo.
Mickey is naturally horrified and insists that the Doctor fix this. However, the TARDIS crew has to make an escape as the Daleks begin to advance on Earth, ending the episode.
The Parting of the Ways will pick up with the TARDIS landing back on the Satellite and the group there trying to make what meager defenses it can. Mickey has it out with the Doctor, even managing to slug him in the jaw but good while shouting at him that what happened to Shareen - just like with Rose - is all his fault, before he's pulled away by Jack to go and help with the defense of the station. The Doctor starts working on his technobabble death weapon. To do this, he has to access the Heart of the TARDIS to draw some power from it, a little bit of the excess hitting Jack without the Doctor's notice. Jack just shrugs it off.
The Daleks invade and slaughter the people on the lowest levels first as they did in the broadcast episode. They work their way up from there. Instead of essentially being redshirts who die in spite of taking on Captain Jack's advice, the humans actually do make a good effort and do a bit more than just blind one of the Daleks. However, it soon becomes clear that the Daleks have the advantage of numbers and they're overwhelmed. Mickey gets sent up by Jack to help the Doctor finish the transmitter just before Jack gets zapped by the Daleks.
At the top, however, the Doctor is going over everything in his head. Why the TARDIS was spared by the Daleks, the words Bad Wolf coming up for seemingly no reason - up to and including the name of the company that the Jagrafess was puppeting - the Bad Wolf Corporation. None of it seems to connect until the Doctor looks at the floor of Floor 500 and realizes its checked in black and white, resembling a massive chess board. It is then that we get the reveal of the true villain behind everything: Fenric, who makes himself known.
The Daleks did not fall through time as the Dalek Emperor claimed, but instead were pulled from the Time War by Fenric. And I know someone is going to bring up the Time Lock, but Fenric is one of the Great Old Ones. He is one of the beings that survived the destruction of the previous universe and is literally the inspiration behind one of the gods in the Cthulhu mythos. He's been able to create time storms that can carry people to other places and times with virtually no effort. While trapped inside a flask in a completely different time. Time Lord high science is nothing compared to his power.
Knowing that the Doctor survived the Time War, Fenric had set a trap for him and sprang it once everything was in place. The Doctor pulls out the flask that Fenric was trapped in before the events of The Curse of Fenric, and declares that he's been prepared for this for at least a few centuries and was able to work out Bad Wolf, the Great Old One is losing his touch. Mickey arrives just in time to meet him, introduced to Fenric by the Doctor and absolutely horrified at the prospect of meeting as cosmic God. The Doctor, as well, wary of what Fenric might do to Mickey.
The transmitter powers up and the Doctor is at the controls, ready to use them. Fenric reveals to Mickey what the Doctor did not - if he activates the transmitter, every being outside of the room will be killed - including the Earth. This had been Fenric's plan all along, for the Doctor to stuck in a position to destroy the Earth that he so loves, and the Doctor has fallen right into it.
He declares that the Doctor is a coward and will not use the device (citing his deception to break Ace's faith in him in The Curse of Fenric). Fenric offers Mickey a place at his side as Fenric will rule the universe with Earth as his throne. He'll even bring back Shareen, demonstrating his power by bringing her back...as one of his haemovores. Fenric brings a laser pistol to Mickey's hand (because why would people in the year 200,100 still be using bullets?) and eggs him on, reminding him of Shareen and how the Doctor allowed her to become like the Daleks, and how he can make sure that the Doctor, this figure that has harmed so many people, never harms anyone again.
The Doctor makes no attempt to justify his previous actions. He simply says that Fenric will not bring Mickey what he wants, he's only in it for himself.
We hold on this for a long moment, even the sounds of the Daleks attacking the station are faded out as Mickey makes what is possibly the most important decision of his life. He powers it up, and fires...at Fenric. The Great Old One is easily able to deflect the blast, calling Mickey a weakling as well. However, Shareen has managed to get some control back over herself and grabs Fenric, forcing his host body from the room. With the station about to lose all shielding under the Dalek attack, and Shareen not able to keep Fenric back for long, Mickey cries out for the Doctor to do what he must. The Doctor, stone-faced, activates the transmitter.
The Earth of 200,100 is roasted as the Dalek fleet is disintegrated. Shareen and Fenric's host body are obliterated. Jack awakens from death on the lower levels, time vortex energy spewing from his mouth much to his confusion and more so as he finds the dusted remains of Fenric and Shareen. He hears the TARDIS dematerializing and runs, but like in the broadcast episode is too late to reach it. It vanishes, leaving him on a derelict space station and with the whole world dead beneath him. He will later appear in Torchwood (yep, still happens in this universe).
Because there's not a regeneration to consider, the tone is much more somber as the Doctor pilots the TARDIS away, both the Doctor and Mickey believing Jack to be among the dead. There is silence for a long time, then Mickey asks to be taken back home. The Doctor complies, landing them in London in 2006 again. When they land, Mickey hands his TARDIS key back to the Doctor. He says that traveling with the Doctor has been a life-changing experience, but has cost too much. Rose died, then Shareen, and all because of him.
Maybe it wasn't the Doctor's fault, but Mickey stands by the things he said earlier on Satellite Five: The Doctor brings death and misery everywhere, and needs someone to stop him...but Mickey admits that he isn't strong enough to be that person.
Despite the Doctor asking him to stay on, Mickey refuses, tearfully leaving the TARDIS behind as he mourns those he has lost. The Doctor, somber and alone again, gets back into the TARDIS and dematerializes, ending Series 1 on a far sadder note than the sudden heartwarming feelings given by the Ninth Doctor's last hurrah and regeneration. Perhaps even with an echo of Resurrection of the Daleks with the Doctor saying that he must mend his ways (he won't). The Doctor has killed an entire planet to defeat his old time foes (for a second time, no less, for a nice parallel), Mickey has lost everything and is broken and embittered, and Shareen was brutally mutated by the Daleks and then murdered by the Doctor in an event that I'm certain people that don't understand what supporting characters are will call fridging.
But for now, that's the end of this What If? story. If you like it, please let me know through various social media or in the comments below. If you do, I might continue this on with Series 2 whenever I finish reviewing that. And if there's another What If you'd like me to visit, please let me know! As always, I'm the MadCapMunchkin, and I'll see you next time!
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