Last time, the Chaos Doctor (resembling the Seventh) kidnapped the Guardian Doctor (resembling the Fourth Doctor) and stole from him the fourth fragment of the Key to Reality. Elsewhere Jenny, her Doctor, and Ross Jenkins were in another version of the Land of Fiction and aided another of the Doctor's multiversal counterparts in finally defeating that place and escaping its terrible trap. Likewise elsewhere, the Jack Harkness from the Wolfverse and his complimenting Doctor have their reunion at last and manage to evade the Chronarch... but for how long?
And what will become of them next? Let's take a peek!
We pick up again with The Roseless Doctor and the Master, who we haven't seen much of since Part 6. The pair are bringing back their fragment of the Key to Reality to the White Guardian's realm when they are contacted by Romana (appearing as the second incarnation played in the show by Lalla Ward). As they pass through the universes, her universe's Gallifrey has apparently been monitoring the events and decides to help. While Roseless is more willing to accept the help, the Master is more suspicious.
He is proven right when they land on "Gallifrey" and the TARDIS is taken from them not by the Time Lords, but by the Black Guardian. Having been observing both Roseless and the Master, he has decided to make them his champions in taking on the Chronarch. They're naturally surprised that he even cares, but the Black Guardian explains that the Chronarch is a creature of complete and utter chaos the likes of which neither he nor his counterpart can ignore. As much as he despises the Doctor in all his forms, the Black Guardian is willing to aid in the destruction of the Chronarch. It's obvious to both Roseless and the Master that he has a secondary agenda - taking control of the Key of Reality - but they decide to play the long game.
Meanwhile, Jenny's Doctor and his little band of maniacs get a transmission from the Guardian Doctor, who tells them that he is being pursued by the Chronarch and requires assistance. They move to his aid, wandering right into the Logopolis-esque trap of the Chaos Doctor materializing his TARDIS inside the TARDIS of Jenny's Doctor. This leads to Jenny's Doctor, Jenny, and Ross having to navigate through both TARDISes while handling several threats that the Chaos Doctor pops in such as some Daleks, Judoon, and even a Weeping Angel or two. They manage to find and rescue the Guardian Doctor, however he has been rigged up in such a way that he regenerates into a new man from the trauma just as the others get to him.
This distraction allows the Chaos Doctor to steal Jenny's Doctor's team's fragments of the Key to Reality as well and disconnects his TARDIS from the other, leaving the two Doctors, Jenny, and Ross in one that is not only falling apart as its dimensional control has been removed... but is also careening toward a nearby star.
So, for those keeping score...
The Chaos Doctor has three fragments. The Roseless Doctor and the War Master have one and the Wolf Doctor has one. The Chronarch remains ignorant of the plan... or does he? Let's read on.
The Chronarch is indeed ignorant of the plan, though he has become aware that something is happening. Inside his massive battleship of a TARDIS, he converses with a being we have not yet seen before - a Chameleon-esque android that he refers to as "the Conduit". The Conduit appears to be speaking in multiple voices at once and appears to have a humanoid brain. It has been calculating for the Chronarch over the last few (indeterminable amount of time) and declares that the other Doctors will use all of their efforts to stop him, which is nothing new to him. However, he is very visibly enraged when he's told that there is a 96.7% chance that this combination of Doctors may actually succeed. It is only saved from destruction by informing the Chronarch that "not all factors are considered".
The Chronarch decides to lower those chances and remove some of the factors.
Remembering an old trick from his days in the Time Lord Academy, he uses technobabble to increase the range of the TARDIS sensors and manages to lock on to the artron trail left by the Wolf Doctor's TARDIS. He and Jack suddenly become aware that their randomizer gambit hasn't succeeded nearly as well as they were given to think it would and begin evasive actions.
Despite a merry chase and some tricks on both ends, the Chronarch is finally able to overwhelm the Wolf Doctor's TARDIS as well as jam its dematerialization unit - something that "Can only be possible if..." - the console is overloaded and the Wolf Doctor is hit with several thousand volts of electricity, enough to overload even his own Time Lord physiology. As the Chronarch's forces bring the Wolf Doctor's TARDIS aboard - the Doctor begins to regenerate. Jack attempts valiantly to fight, but is gunned down by overwhelming odds and both he and the newly-regenerated Doctor are dragged off of the TARDIS and brought before the Chronarch.
With his mental defenses weakened by his regeneration, the Wolf Doctor is unable to stop the Chronarch from reading his mind, learning of the entire plan to acquire the Key to Reality. The Chronarch is amused and decides to thank him by - instead of taking his last incarnation - rigging him into the Conduit. Jack is confused, is made to watch as the Wolf Doctor is rigged to some machinery where Jack sees the motionless bodies of Adelaide Brooke, Adam Mitchell, and several others also rigged up and in some kind of stasis. The Chronarch introduces Jack to his battle computer - the Conduit.
As an added bit of terror, the Chronarch has the Wolf Doctor's TARDIS brought in and rigged up to several others TARDISes... forming a net where it appears their "corral" parts of growing over and between each other like cancerous cells.
Now we know what it was that made the Doctor who never went to Pete's World so disgusted: a network of TARDISes that have been fused together. Jack is likewise squicked by the sight. Jack is taken away and the Chronarch begins filtering through the White Guardian's files and expanding his search to find the Keys to Reality, determined to subvert even the Guardians and truly become the King of not only Time... but Reality...
... and that's where we're going to be leaving off this time. The forces of good have really bit the big one and it looks like Reality might be circling around the toilet. How will they get out of this one?
Next time, the Chronarch goes head to head with a new foe and I glean from the last Doctor Who-based What If I have done! Stick around!
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