AKA. "The One Where David Tennant Saves the Day By Hugging the Villain to Death"
The TARDIS lands the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn in Edinburgh, Christmas 1827. The Doctor immediately realises that the infamous body snatchers (and occasional murderers), William Burke and William Hare, must be around, in the middle of handing fresh corpses over to a Dr. Knox for medical tests.
The Doctor can't wait to meet the men, because however abhorrent they must have been, they were an important part of history and did it for science. Evelyn doesn't agree at all. They soon meet every single Historical Domain Character in the plot: an alcoholic whore named Mary, a mentally disabled street performer named Daft Jamie (David Tennant!), Hare (who's trying to get it on with Mary), and Knox. Suspiciously absent, however, is Burke, so team TARDIS goes off to investigate. Also, the Doctor, very nostalgic for daft young Scottish men named Jamie, takes Daft Jamie under his wing.
Dr. Knox, a classic Card-Carrying Villain, tells Evelyn and Mary that he's fully aware of who the Doctor is — in fact, the Doctor is like the Jekyll to his Hyde. The Doctor points out that 1827 is, in fact, thirty years before Stephenson would even be born, let alone write Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, meaning Knox is a time traveller, meaning that things are a lot more complicated than they seem.
Knox turns out to be a human with a stolen TARDIS (don't ask how — the episode never really explains it) who was hired by some aliens to do virus tests on humans for medicinal purposes. Sadly, alcohol grants immunity to the virus, so coming to Edinburgh really wasn't the smartest thing to do. Luckily, a few murders in, Knox realised that he could also just set up a "Groundhog Day" Loop, keep on murdering everyone over and over in creative ways (sometimes involving Hare and Burke, sometimes not), and charge some other aliens to watch. Sadly, this means that the web of time is close to tearing apart. Luckily, Daft Jamie is able to see through the loop, thanks to being Inspirationally Disadvantaged. Even more luckily, Jamie isn't immune to The Virus because he doesn't drink, so the Doctor simply takes him into the TARDIS, vworps over to a month later (just outside the "Groundhog Day" Loop), and casually tells Jamie that Knox is the reason Jamie's now famous. Leaving out the part where Jamie's fame is because he's dead. Jamie's so delighted that he hugs Knox to bits... infecting him with The Virus. The Doctor happily leaves a very scared Knox behind, vworps back to 1827, and drops Jamie off on the street so he can go get killed by Hare and Burke. With the timeline reset, the Doctor has to admit that he hates having to send people to their deaths like that, but that it's all part of the big picture.
Tropes
- Anachronism Stew: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is referred to a full 3 decades before it's written. This is a plot point.
- Ancient Tomb
- Admiring the Abomination: The Doctor is intrigued with meeting two criminals.
- Artistic License – History: Some mild examples. Notably, there's no mention at all of the fact that Burke and Hare were both married, and their wives were almost certainly accomplices in the murders. Also, Kevin O'Leary and Tom Farrelly have the wrong accents - Burke and Hare were from Tyrone and Armagh or Derry respectively. Farrelly's Cork accent is from the wrong end of the country entirely. That said, there's also plenty of detailed historical references too.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Subverted, Knox has a TARDIS, but isn't a Time Lord. He's also not the real Dr Robert Knox
, who survived another forty years, and presumably took his rightful place back when the timeline reset itself. - Bread and Circuses: When Knox realised that his original plan wasn't working, he instead just made a "Groundhog Day" Loop and invited some shady alien types to come watch him murder people over and over.
- Brief Accent Imitation: The Doctor does Mary's accent for a slight jab.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Knox delights in being evil, and says so very explicitly.
- The Chessmaster: The Doctor is on a roll.
- The Constant: The TARDIS is this to the Doctor.
- Continuity Nod: The Doctor meets Daft Jamie, and recalls his companion, Jamie McCrimmon.
- Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon
- "Eureka!" Moment: When the Doctor realizes Daft Jamie might not be as Daft as he seems.
- Exact Words
- Foregone Conclusion: Everyone who died in history dies in this episode, albeit in a more timey wimey way.
- For Science!
- "Groundhog Day" Loop
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: Daft Jamie's mental disability leads to two things: he doesn't drink alcohol because it makes him feel weird, and he's able to see through the "Groundhog Day" Loop. On the one hand, not drinking alcohol means he's gotten infected by The Virus. On the other hand, when the Doctor tells him that Knox is responsible for making Jamie "famous" in the future, Jamie is so happy that he hugs Knox, spreading The Virus to him. Just as the Doctor planned.
- Historical Domain Character: Everyone.
- Hoist by His Own Petard
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Mary.
- In the Style of Robert Shearman, bizarrely enough.
- Inspirationally Disadvantaged: Jamie.
- Like an Old Married Couple: The Doctor and the TARDIS, as Evelyn points out.
- Never Got to Say Goodbye: Of sorts. The Doctor laments he never told former companion Jamie that he was a very brave man.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Daft Jamie.
- The Scottish Trope
- Shout-Out:
- The Doctor quotes Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Again.
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- Spanner in the Works: Without Jamie, Knox' plans could've gone off without a hitch.
- The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: Justified due to the fact it's a TARDIS.
- Third-Person Person: Daft Jamie.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: Seriously.
- Un-person: Jamie doesn't get treated well by people, except for Mary.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Subverted. Knox' house is his TARDIS and Evelyn asks how the citizens of Edinburgh could possibly fail to notice. Mary tries to Hand Wave it, but it turns out that the whole thing is in a big giant "Groundhog Day" Loop in the end.
- The Virus: A superpowerful alien flu.
- What the Hell, Hero?: The Doctor won't advocate murder, but he knows that the murders would lead to incredibly important medical breakthroughs and that the men involved did it for science. And that they're part of the web of time anyway, meaning there's little point in getting angry about the events. So he congratulates Hare on committing them and tells him to keep up the good work. Evelyn is pretty much on the verge of walking out on the Doctor for the entire episode. Bizarrely, the Doctor never gives a better explanation for his endorsement and doesn't comment on it at any later point in the episode.
