With the Doctor and Martha having left Pete's World in the capable hands of Jake and Anna (who I'm sure we'll never hear from again) so they can defeat the Cybermen (who I'm sure we'll also never hear from again), we pick up with their adventures in The Idiot's Lantern. Like with most of Series 2 thus far, this can go pretty much as broadcast, maybe even with Martha taking Rose's spot as the person kidnapped by the Wire. The Doctor, rather than only going stir crazy when his slam piece gets captured by the monster of the week, would immediately start in on trying to figure out a solution from the start. Martha, too, would likely still be somewhat naive as a companion but not so recklessly headstrong as Rose is when dealing with Magpie.
Maybe we get a little more development on the Wire and its race and where it came from, although I admit that we don't really need it for the story to work. This is more just wish fulfillment on my part given how little that Mark Gatiss actually gave us about it.
The Impossible Planet is up after that. This can go pretty much exactly the same but without the blunt force trauma romance subplot. Here, since we don't have that, we can take the time to actually bother to develop the characters we have. That way, the words of the Beast could actually have some weight rather than just be vague mentions of offscreen things because Russell thinks that will make us care. Maybe a little more development on the Ood being a slave race and why exactly that came to be. Yes, I know that the Ood and their plight gets touched upon more in Planet of the Ood in Series 4, but it's still a glaring flaw with this two-parter as I've discussed in my reviews of those episodes.
And speaking of two-parter, The Satan Pit comes next. Like it's first part, this one can go to broadcast pretty much as is with only a few minor rewrites. Yes, even to the point of Martha getting the "the valiant child, who will die in battle so very soon" line from the Beast, likewise freaking out just as Rose did in the proper timeline.
Love & Monsters happens very differently. YouTuber Diamanda Hagan, who I've mentioned several times before, outlined a very good variation of this episode in her review of the same episode. We'll be going with that one, since I do actually like some of the characters in the episode...it's just that the episode and their circumstances are really, really crap. Long story short, Elton fights off the Absorbaloff and is able to walk away from it all, whether or not the Doctor is involved. It speaks more to fans and tells us that there is more to life than the Doctor in a way that isn't hilariously tone-deaf and insulting.
Fear Her does not exist. Just like it doesn't exist in the main timeline. It never happened, and you can't prove that it did. I certainly did not waste several hours of my life watching, analyzing, and reviewing it only to be left with gibbering, Lovecraftian insanity as my only reward.
With that, it's time for the finale.
Army of Ghosts does not begin with Martha Jones standing on a beach looking forlorn and depressed while wearing a black leather outfit like the saddest little emo at the Good Charlotte concert. Instead, it involves the Doctor finally giving Martha the superphone upgrade that he gave Mickey and Shareen back in Series 1 and Martha phoning up her mother. Martha's mother tells her to come home right away, bringing a meeting between the woman herself and the Doctor.
Unlike Ten's far more combative relationship, while Francine does not fully trust the Doctor, she at least takes Martha's advisement that he's on the up and up. She also comes up with a much better explanation for her association with the Doctor than she did in the proper Series 3 - remember, there is no romance subplot here. The Doctor cements this by using the psychic paper to appear as one of Martha's professors at university, which seems to assuage Francine's suspicions.
All of this coupled with that fact that Martha's only been gone for twelve hours from the perspective of those that know her on Earth. Here, rather than getting to see the Ghosts arrival as a mundane and ordinary thing, the Doctor and Martha have arrived just in time to see one of the first (if not the first) emergence of the ghosts in London and all over the world. The Doctor, being the scientist that he is, uses the TARDIS to try to trace it...but is unsuccessful. While he's able to pick up pockets of it all around, he can't lock onto a source.
But the TARDIS is a time machine. The Doctor, able to cloak his TARDIS from his past self, manages to go back in time just long enough to get a better grasp of the signal when it's at its peak. Thus, he's able to land right in Torchwood to the cacophony of a firing squad. He and Martha get taken in, finding the golden orb that Torchwood has just moved into their basement in Canary Wharf and are briefed on the situation with the Breach.
It is also here that we're introduced to Martha's twin sister - Adeola. Yes, I'm well-aware she was a cousin in the original story because Russell T. Davies doesn't know or care how genetics actually works. Despite what Hollywood movie magic tells you, Russell, identical cousins are not actually a thing except in some porn.
...I've said too much.
Either way, this creates a bit of awkward tension as Martha realizes that her sister has been lying to not only her, but the entire family about what she's been doing and Adeola sees nothing wrong with it. After all, it's for the good of the British Empire. Also, very noteably, the Doctor never meets both Martha and Adeola at the same time. No, not even for comedic purposes. This will be important later.
As the episode goes on, the Doctor is a great deal more combative with Yvonne - finding her frustrating while very much enjoying her strong will, even saying he'd be half-tempted to invite her to travel with him if she weren't trying to imprison him forever. She's somewhat flattered.
The beats play out much the same, only with us not seeing that the enemy is the Cybermen. Yes, I know it and you know it that they will be, but I really do believe adding an air of mystery to them would have helped out a lot. Also, with the time scale being set back a bit, there's no need to explain the emotional connection via smells plot hole that Russell forgot about and hoped that all of us did as well.
That way, when the shit does hit the fan, it's much more impactful.
Torchwood, despite having records of at least one Cyberman invasion in the 1970's (or 80's), is completely blind-sided by them and they take over. As they do, the Daleks emerge from their Void Ship ready to exterminate everyone to death. Also, in this time, Jake has come over as Mickey did in the original episode, shortly to be followed by Anna as we saw in Doomsday in the proper timeline with Jake and the Preachers.
The Doctor gets brought over to Pete's World for the same talk, minus any Father's Day references, and agrees to assist. Yvonne gets killed protecting Martha rather than being Cyber-Converted only to show up with sentience and turn on the Cybermen (I say again, What the hell, Russell?). The Doctor is still more vengeful to the Daleks, but he remembers the lessons he's learned relatively recently and is trying to come up with a solution with less mass slaughter.
Luckily, with the Void stuff, he does so!
We hit the same beats, save for Martha not having the dangerously suicidal co-dependency on the Doctor that Rose does. Rather than get sent to the other universe, she holds that she's stuck with him this long and wants to keep doing so, not matter what. The Doctor accepts this, though he does reinforce the risk involved to Martha. She doesn't care, since this is the right thing to do.
Meanwhile, Adoela and Anna end up cornered by Cybermen. Anna gets executed as Ricky did in the actual show, filling Adoela with rage and fury. However, it seems as though she's about to be killed as well when we cut back to the Doctor and Martha put their plan into action, the Void gets opened up and the Daleks and Cybermen sucked in. The Preachers sans Anna have gone back to their world and, as Rose did in the proper timeline, Martha ends up having to reset a lever and falls into the Void...only, this time, there is no Pete Tyler to save her. Martha actually falls into the Void and is lost.
The Doctor collapses, distraught, as the Breach closes up. Yes, he's managed to save the day and the Earth from destruction unlike his ploy in 200,100. Yes, he's managed to save not one, but two universes, but Martha is gone...or is she? He is suddenly met by...Martha! Overjoyed, he embraces her, and everything seems all peaches and ice cream.
We get our denouement with Martha visiting her family again before coming back to travel with the Doctor. Everything seems fine. She settles in...and then we get the reveal that I'm sure you've seen coming for quite some time. Martha isn't Martha...she's Adoela. As she settles into her room, "Martha" pulls out a communications device and reports that she's managed to infiltrate the TARDIS and that the Doctor is none the wiser for her deception, and who should be on the other end of that communication device by Captain Jack Harkness himself?
Yes, like I said in Series 1, the events of Torchwood's first series do still happen in this universe. However, things are just so slightly different as we'll see in Series Three. Jack says he has plans for the Doctor, and orders Adeola to continue to monitor him and not let on about anything. This means, of course, complete radio silence for the time being. However, the Doctor isn't as in the dark as one might think. Not long after the TARDIS takes off from Earth, we see him scanning the bio-signs of "Martha Jones" and he can't find the Void stuff on her as he did before during the Battle. Something is very wrong...
...and then Catherine Tate shows up in a wedding dress.
But that is a story for another day.
So so far, we have seen quite a different shift in how things are working from the beginning of the 2005 reboot. We've seen a darker, more callous Doctor who (heh) is slowly trying to find his way back to the person that he was before. Series 2 played out very differently in some places, though remained uniform in some others. Harriet Jones remained in power as Prime Minister. What changes will we see going forward? What will be the same? Is this the last we'll see of Martha and Pete's World? What is Captain Jack's plan for the Doctor?
...one that isn't in your fanfiction, I'm sure. This is my fanficti-I've said too much!
But for the answers to these questions and more, you'll have to wait at least a few months. Series 3 reviews will have to come up first, the first starting in December with The Runaway Bride. I hope to see you all there! Until then, let me know what you think of this scenario in the comments below! Thanks, everyone!
For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.
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