Evelyn Smythe and The Doctor are under attack by giant robot mosquito!
A quick chase scene later has the Doctor in the public eye, and his eye is caught by DI Menzies last seen when the Doctor was travelling with Charley. And The Doctor is, in her books, a notorious Kingpin of crime. But there's another Doctor around, and Thomas Brewster is in town. He's used the Doctor as an alias before, but is he behind the robotic menace called the Terravore?
The Crimes of Thomas Brewster contains the following tropes:
- Alien Sky: Symbios has several moons and a lot more stars.
- Bluff the Imposter: Thomas manages to at least keep Evelyn skeptical about whether or not he's actually The Nth Doctor until she asks him if he's gathering weapons to be used on the Daleks. Thomas blurts out: "The what?" and then calls them "Billy and Terry Dalek."
- The Bus Came Back: For both DI Menzies and Thomas Brewster.
- Call-Back:
- Thomas mentions that he had a relationship with a girl, but she got hit by a car and put into a coma.
- Menzies asks Evelyn what happened to Charley Smith, but Evelyn never met her. Menzies then mentions she too met the Doctor out of order.
- Thomas' Time Machine was something he built whilst under the influence of an alien species from the future.
- Chase Scene: The Doctor and Evelyn are chased down by a Giant Flyer down the Thames on a speedboat.
- Cold Open: The Doctor and Evelyn plan to visit the Tower of London, and are beset upon by a giant robot.
- Continuity Nod:
- The "other Doctor" is described as being fair-haired and wearing an Edwardian outfit.
- The Doctor mentions the London Underground seems very familiar.
- Evelyn asks Thomas (who's calling himself the Doctor) if he's planning to use his new weapons collection on the Daleks, whom's she's met twice before.
- The Doctor mentions if he's somewhere where his past selves have been, he gets a prickling sensation and that this is due to the Blinovitch Limitation Effect.
- The Doctor mentions to Evelyn he's been under the original London bridge with King James II, which happened in the Second Doctor Companion Chronicle "The Glorious Revolution".
- Curse Cut Short: When Evelyn theorizes that, whilst on Symbios, they might be in a duct, or an artery, Jared says: "Or a..." and Evelyn cuts in saying: "We have to consider all options, yes."
- Deadpan Snarker: Patricia Menzies to the degree that The Doctor says he can never take DI Menzies to Literalis II because on that planet sarcasm is a capital offence.
- Death World: Symbios.
- Doesn't Like Guns: It's mentioned by Evelyn that the Doctor doesn't condone the stockpiling of weapons.
- Eat Dirt, Cheap: The Terravore eat minerals. They can eat organics as well, provided they have iron in their blood.
- Emergency Impersonation: Menzies passes herself off as a new regeneration of the Doctor in order to fool Thomas (who has been doing the same thing).
- Even Evil Has Standards: Ghallager doesn't mind killing people for his own profits, but the end of the world is a bit too far for him, even as a Terravore stooge.
- Genius Loci: Symbios.
- Go-to Alias: Evelyn names the Doctor as Doctor "John Smith".
- Have We Met Yet?: DI Menzies has met the Doctor once before, but this is the Doctor's first meeting of DI Menzies.
- The Doctor thinks this is the case with the Terravore, the robotic beings.
- Hive Mind: The Terravore.
- Horde of Alien Locusts: The Terravore.
- I Know You Know I Know: The Doctor and Thomas play this game. The Doctor first pulls this on Thomas, but Thomas figures it out, but then Menzies says she's the Doctor.
- Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: Evelyn sees through Brewster's attempt to pose as the Doctor because Brewster knows nothing about the Daleks.
- Indy Ploy:The Doctor: I always have a plan! It's just that sometimes I haven't thought of it yet.
- Keystone Army: The Terravore. Which also works in reverse.
- Large and in Charge: The Terravore Queen is also the biggest Terravore.
- Lazy Alias: The Sixth Doctor, unknown to Brewster, introduces himself as Norman DePlume. Brewster isn't fooled for a second.
- Limited Wardrobe: The Doctor mentions he has a dozen more identical multi coloured coats. Evelyn mutters under her breath "One down, twelve to go..."
- London Underground: Evelyn tries to shake off Thomas chasing her in the tubes.
- Made of Iron: The Doctor jumps out of a three story tall building, through a window, and walks it off.
- Meaningful Name: Symbios is a planet, consisting out of several organisms as a whole.
- The Millstone: As usual, many of the problems the Doctor faces in this story are a result of Thomas' interference, though he was at least more well-intentioned this time around.
- Morton's Fork: If the Doctor is actually the "Doctor" Gallagher is looking for, he's a rival and must be killed. If not, he's a witness and must be killed.
- Phlebotinum Analogy: The Doctor traps one of the Terravore in a "temporal distortion forcefield", akin to a "Fly caught in amber".
- Menzies later converts "Can't communicate as long as the TARDIS is in the temporal vortex " to "Can't get a mobile signal".
- Punny Name: The Doctor, when he meets Thomas calls himself Norman de Plume.
-
Recast as a Regular: The comparatively minor secondary character of Flip appears here for the first time, and made enough of an impression on both the audience and the production team to eventually be brought back as a full-time companion to the Sixth Doctor. - Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Gallagher doesn't make it out of the story alive.
- Running Gag: The Doctor and Evelyn seem to still have trouble when trying to visit the Tower of London.
- Shame If Something Happened: Gallagher runs a protection racket.
- Shaped Like Itself: The police sergeant reports "giant robot mosquitos swarming out of the station like, well, giant robot mosquitos."
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Said by the Doctor when Gallagher call's Evelyn "His girlfriend".
- Shout-Out:
- Menzies mentions having read The Time Traveler's Wife as "study" about the Doctor. Okay, the The Movie. Okay the first 10 minutes of the movie.
- At least on Captain Kirk's ship they had chairs.
- Evelyn calls Thomas' outfit very Brideshead Revisited.
- Jared mentions that helping Symbios and fighting the Terravore is better than Call of Duty and Avatar.
- Flip's ringtone is "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga.
- Soft Glass: The Doctor jumps out of a window three stories high and doesn't have a scratch.
- Standard Snippet: DI Menzies' ringtone is the Nokia tune.
- Stealth Pun: The characters go through a time vortex on board a London Underground train. They are then brought through the surface of the planet Symbios by a disturbingly organic process. Both times they could be said to have travelled "by tube".
- Stock Quotes: When Gallagher is forced into coercion with the Terravore, they offer him a freshly created diamond as payment. He replies with;I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
- Sword Fight: The Doctor fights a Terravore with one, the Terravore being giant robotic creatures shaped like mosquitoes, this seems very apt.
- Time Machine: There's another one in the story that Thomas had built before.
- The Watson: The Doctor, pretending to the the Doctor's companion, says that as the Doctor's companion it's his job to ask stupid questions.
- With Friends Like These...: Thomas continues to be a thorn in the Doctor's side, stealing his identity and sullying his reputation with a group of aliens, kidnapping him, Evelyn and Menzies and finally holding him at gunpoint as he hijacks the TARDIS. Again.
- The X of Y: Just like the first story Thomas Brewster showed up in.
