History Recap / BigFinishDoctorWho079NightThoughts

* GoodNewsBadNews: At the beginning of Part Three, The Doctor says this to Ace after he finds her leying on the ground near a bunch of bear traps.

* GoodNewsBadNews

* YouCantFightFate: The academics' attempts to change the past by preventing Eadie's death fail because the effects of [[AppliedPhlebotinum the Bartholomew Transactor]] are temporary and only succeed in briefly creating a [[TemporalParadox paradoxical timeline]] where Eadie lived, resulting in her living corpse roaming the island.]]

* YouCantFightFate: The academics' attempts to change the past by preventing Eadie's death fail because the effects of [[AppliedPhlebotinum the Bartholomew Transactor are temporary and only succeed in briefly creating a [[TemporalParadox paradoxical timeline]] where Eadie lived, resulting in her living corpse roaming the island.]]

* BearsAreBadNews: Ace and the Bursar are terrorized by a stuffed (in the taxidermy sense) bear that [[spoiler: keeps moving when they're not looking... and breathes]].

** [[spoiler: DemonicDummy]]
* DamselInDistress: Ace. She's ''not'' happy about it, and Hex teases her mercilessly.

* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Hex's nightmare, which involves a group of people arguing around an operating table; the "patient" is a doll with no eyes. [[spoiler:Turns out to be a psychic distress call symbolically representing Eadie's death.]]
* EyeScream: The entire episode is EyeScream after EyeScream.

* IronicNurseryTune: The hooded figure whistles "Oranges and Lemons" [[spoiler:while it kills people and gouges their eyes out.]]
* KarmicTwistEnding: [[spoiler:When the Doctor, Ace and Hex leave, Major Dickens is the only member of the original group left alive, albeit tied up and awaiting the police. The Doctor wonders aloud how Eadie managed to stay alive so long, and reveals there's a slim chance her corpse could still be wandering the island if circumstances aligned just right. Cut back to the Major, who hears a sound and assumes it's the cops -- but instead sees a familiar figure, one with no eyes, the voice of Happy the Rabbit, and a very sharp pair of shears...]]

* [[spoiler:OurZombiesAreDifferent: Eadie is pretty close to the RevenantZombie type...but wouldn't be a zombie at all if not for the temporal paradox caused by the Bartholomew Transactor, making her about as different as zombies come.]]

* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: The purpose of the academics' experimentations at the mansion [[spoiler:turns out to be to send a message back in time preventing them from euthanizing a girl who was misdiagnosed with a terminal illness. Of course, it [[CameBackWrong doesn't go exactly as planned.]]]]

* TaxidermyIsCreepy: Hartley the taxidermist's occupation ends up playing a fairly significant role in the story. [[spoiler:Specifically, he's to blame for all the EyeScream, since his removal of Eadie's eyes for use in his stuffed animals [[DrivenToSuicide triggers her mother's suicide]] and fuels Eadie's revenge.]]
* [[spoiler: TimeTravel]]

* YouCantFightFate: The academics' attempts to change the past [[spoiler:by preventing Eadie's death]] fail [[spoiler:because the effects of [[AppliedPhlebotinum the Bartholomew Transactor]] are temporary and only succeed in briefly creating a [[TemporalParadox paradoxical timeline]] where Eadie lived, resulting in her living corpse roaming the island.]]

* KarmicTwistEnding: [[spoiler:When the Doctor, Ace and Hex leave, [[CompleteMonster Major Dickens]] is the only member of the original group left alive, albeit tied up and awaiting the police. The Doctor wonders aloud how Eadie managed to stay alive so long, and reveals there's a slim chance her corpse could still be wandering the island if circumstances aligned just right. Cut back to the Major, who hears a sound and assumes it's the cops -- but instead sees a familiar figure, one with no eyes, the voice of Happy the Rabbit, and a very sharp pair of shears...]]

After a tremendous amount of NightmareFuel, the Doctor figures out that the old bursar is actually a Professor Bartholomew. He's very familiar with her theory on particle transmission, since it will eventually lead to humanity discovering its first forms of time travel. Also, the deacon kills herself. But by the time the Doctor realises ''why'' they're all here, Major Dickens is threatening the group with his collection of bear traps -- the very things that caused the bursar to become crippled years ago -- if they try to leave. The academics aren't on a winter retreat... they've been held captive by Dickens on the island for ten years. Because ten years ago, the Major and the others (some in on it, some definitely not) tried to use the bursar's theory to send a message back in time. And in order to have a perfect moment, the Major chose to operate on (and eventually euthanise) a young girl named Eadie, who'd come down with a deadly illness from the chemical war weapons that had been tested on the island. Except... there was no illness. Eadie only had an eye infection, and she was perfectly fine. Eadie was murdered just so that Dickens would have a moment in the past to influence: he would send his own voice back in time, to tell himself and the crew ''not'' to euthanise her, simply to test the theory. For ten years, the rest of the group had been cooperating with him, some to repent for their past mistake, some -- like the taxidermist -- out of sheer passion for their work.

* MeaningfulName: Major Dickens is a ''major dick''.

** She later calls him [=Batman=], and says he's "[[WesternAnimation/YogiBear Smarter than the average bear]]."