In that field, Jack tries to get the Doctor's attention. Unfortunately for them, they look away enough that now there is not only one Weeping Angel, but several others that have joined it. The Doctor and Jack do not blink, but then Jack notices a message scrawled in the dirt at their feet.
"Help us"
Finding this curious, the Doctor inquires about what they need help with, then tells Jack to close his eyes. Opening them again after a few seconds, they find another message has been scrawled.
"Time collapsing"
Some more questions follow, leaving answers in the dirt as we find out that the Weeping Angels are aware of the paradoxes that are popping up. Paradoxes that are getting so bad that even they are being affected. Since the Doctor and Jack surround the paradoxes in question, and they've determined that consuming the two will not solve the problem, the Angels have come for help. The Doctor agrees, on the condition that he and Jack are to be left unscathed. The Angels agree.
Yes, it seems that the paradoxes created at the Torchwood House are beginning to bleed into other universes as well through the cracks in reality. Things are definitely not looking good.
Back in the Field of Dreams, the Doctor and Jack seem to have struck up an agreement with the Weeping Angels. The Doctor theorizes that he could tether the Angels into the Heart of the TARDIS and, with the paradoxes that they've caused by sending people back through time, essentially "apply" that energy to the main paradox at Torchwood House like salve to a wound.
Of course, he notes, this is only a theory. Jack mentions that the Doctor's done more with less, and the Time Lord agrees, so they get to work.
The Angels get tethered, taking up equidistant places in the TARDIS console room, and the Doctor puts the machine into flight. With their energy, he is able to reenter the time vortex and - to his surprise - the process begins working! Unfortunately, no good deed goes unpunished, and Rose, Ricky, and Jake manage to use the dimension hopping technology to enter the TARDIS just as the Torchwood Agents did before.
Jack gets gunned down by Ricky after trying and failing to fire on them. Rose commands the Doctor to land the TARDIS and move away. With the paradoxes slowly healing, Rose is losing the abilities of the Wolf and the Doctor attempts to appeal to her humanity. Unfortunately, the Rose Tyler he knew no longer exists. In more than one sense. The twist comes as Rose reveals that she is not Rose Tyler, but a clone.
Rose Tyler was slain by the wolf in 1879 - torn apart. However, given the diversity it saw in her genetic makeup ("something of the Wolf" in her), the Wolf had her DNA collected so as to create the ideal soldier and has been making clones of her since the night at Torchwood House.
Rose Tyler was slain by the wolf in 1879 - torn apart. However, given the diversity it saw in her genetic makeup ("something of the Wolf" in her), the Wolf had her DNA collected so as to create the ideal soldier and has been making clones of her since the night at Torchwood House.
This Rose does not know the Doctor as anything other than the enemy of her Emperor and the Emperor has demanded that the Doctor remain trapped within the TARDIS to maintain the Empire. When the Doctor tries to explain that the TARDIS was failing and if it fails again time will start unraveling once more, Rose shouts him down. The Doctor seemingly relents, landing the TARDIS...and releasing the Weeping Angels from their tether to the TARDIS.
Rose, unprepared for this, is consumed by them. Ricky and Jake are about to share a similar fate, but the Doctor looks just as both fall into the grasp of the Angels. Jack awakens by this point. When he asks what happened to Rose, the Doctor just coldly replies that it wasn't Rose and leaves it at that. Ricky and Jake get interrogated, explaining that they do not work for the Torchwood on this Earth and instead come from another that was overrun by Cybermen.
The Preachers, unlike in our peek into a universe where the Doctor never got to Pete's World, managed to do pretty well against the Cybermen...until Mondas arrived. The Mondasian Cybermen caught the signals generated by the Earth Cybermen and came to answer the call. The two races of Cybermen found themselves to be compatible and overran humanity. The Breach began to widen and the Torchwood of their world sent them over in a desperate attempt to find help, though their pursuers were not far behind. With no options left, they ask for help.
The Doctor agrees, saying that he will help them out, particularly when he learns that Cybermen are coming over after them. Which is, of course, exactly what he needs to make this wonderful day just that much better!
Speaking of which, London has erupted into battle. Werewolves are battling Cybermen, but are getting overwhelmed in a sharp contrast to how The Invasion went. The paradox repair is making the wolves weaker, some have completely faded out of existence entirely. The Emperor finally makes a physical appearance, silhouetted from behind and with the voice of someone very familiar to anyone who has seen Series 3.
The time has come, he says, and moves over to a tall, silver cylinder and a pair of doors open to reveal a TARDIS interior.
Back at the Doctor's TARDIS, the Angels use Ricky as a mouthpiece to speak to the Doctor and Jack. With the paradoxes mostly repaired, they no longer require the Doctor and the three humans and have no intention to let them live. With access to the Doctor's TARDIS, the Angels can feast off of the Heart for all eternity. The Doctor, much to the shock of Jack, Ricky, and Jake, agrees.
The Doctor opens the Heart, channeling it through Jack, and the Angels are shattered into dust by the raw power of time and space. Jack revives and the Doctor tells them he can use the remaining energy to work out the rest of the paradoxes and then get to work on the Cyberman invasion. Before he can do that, however, the TARDIS takes a hit...namely from another TARDIS. We see both TARDISes careening through the Vortex.
As the Doctor attempts to stabilize things, a familiar voice cuts in over the intercom. At the very least, it's familiar to us...and to Jack, who recognizes it immediately.
Harold Saxon, the Emperor of the Empire of the Wolf. Or, as the Doctor knows him...the Master. Accompanying him is another Rose clone, who the Master refers to as his faithful companion as she and her other clones have been through the centuries. The Doctor attempts to get him to stop this, much as he did in The Sound of Drums in the main timeline. However, now, the Master already knows about the destruction of Gallifrey and couldn't care less. He is the Emperor of Earth now, and will soon conquer the universe without anyone to stop him...even the Doctor.
The Doctor attempts to counteract the Master, but the latter is prepared for this. The Doctor's TARDIS starts to fail, the engines groaning and the Cloister Bell going haywire as the Master's TARDIS goes into full paradox machine mode, tearing open the paradoxes the Doctor had previously sealed up. The Doctor attempts one last, desperate ploy to stop the Master by materializing his TARDIS inside the Master's. However, the Master materializes his TARDIS within the Doctor's creating an infinity loop as in Logopolis.
On Earth, in 2006, Cybermen and Wolves and Torchwood soldiers duke it out...dying and respawning and dying again, reality tearing apart and reforming around them as they wink in and out of existence.
As it does, the skies open up over Canary Wharf...and a peculiar golden orb falls from the Breach as Torchwood is breached by the Cybermen...
...and that's where we're leaving off this time. The Earth is even more royally screwed than before, the Daleks are five minutes from an invasion, and now the Doctor and the Master's TARDISes are stuck in Moebius strip as the universe careens toward disaster.
Or, as we call it in the Doctor Who fandom, Saturday...or now Sunday. Thanks, Chris Chibnall! You ass.
Anyway. What'd you think of this one? How will the Doctor, Jake, Ricky, and Jake escape from this one? What's the Master's place in all this? Can reality ever be fixed? Tune in next time to find out!
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