The Eighth Doctor, trying to get Lucie as close to her home time as he can, lands in the middle of a snow storm in 1974. The two of them step out of the TARDIS and almost immediately tromp on a mutilated corpse. They go into a nearby diner to notify authorities, and wind up trapped there facing a literal alien invasion.
While people rapidly start dying, Lucie realises that the diner's waitress is actually her aunt Pat, and introduces herself. Pat is extremely disappointed that in Lucie's time, she's "a nobody", not a famous drummer as she hoped to become. She decides to just become the best aunt she can be once Lucie is born.
And the Doctor saves the day using Lucie's MP3 player and a stylophone.
The Headhunter is still on her way.
Tropes
- Alliterative Name: Ron the Roadie.
- Bottle Episode: The entire thing takes place within a roadside cafe.
- Call-Back: The TARDIS has a bumpy ride through a Time Eddy.
- The Doctor mentions Jamie and Zoe.
- The title of the story is one to "The Horror of Fang Rock".
- Call-Forward: Tommy at one point mentions he can hear the music of the spheres.
- Creepy Monotone: Tommy pulls this off at times.
- Eldritch Abomination: What the aliens' "real" forms look like.
- Energy Beings: The Only Ones are creatures originally inhabiting sound, before they became their current form.
- Glam Rock: Obviously. There's even a Glam Rock version of the Doctor Who theme at the end.
- A Good Name for a Rock Band: Several pop up in the story.
- Greasy Spoon: The roadside diner. Lucie remarks that it's not very clean, and would be shut down in her time.
- He Is Not My Boyfriend: Lucie gets somewhat indignant when Tricia assumes the Doctor is her "bloke".
- Hostile Weather: As Arnold says, "It's like the Call of the Bleedin' Wild out there."
- Karma Houdini: Arnold directly causes the death of Tricia because he's a stubborn bastard, but later he stays behind the hold off the Only Ones and give the others time to get away. Despite his injured leg, he manages to defeat them and escape with his life. He even saves the day by bringing the Doctor the final component to his improvised trap.
- Left the Background Music On: Scene changes are often accompanied by a synth track... Until we're introduced to who does the synth tracks.
- Mind Control: The aliens want to use Tommy and his music to trick his fans into becoming dinner.
- Red Baron: The Only Ones know the Doctor, but only by repute.
- Shout-Out: The aliens are called "The Only Ones", a punk band from the 70s.
- Top of the Pops is mentioned often.
- Snow Means Death: They're trapped in the cafe by a massive snowstorm.
- To Serve Man: The Only Ones think humans are really tasty.
- Waxing Lyrical: Arnold Corns at one point says:
