Last episode, the Doctor received Lucie's distress call from 22nd century Earth. She's using Nyssa's temporal interocitor, slipped into her luggage by the Doctor when she left him.
Earth is struck by a plague. Within days, humankind is weakened. Lucie loses her appetite, then the use of her legs, then the use of an eye. Alex takes care of her, unaffected by the sickness because of his Gallifreyan blood. Months later, by the time the plague clears up, they manage to make it back to Susan.
And Earth is invaded by Daleks.
Lucie, now disabled and traumatised, keeps waiting for the Doctor to come help. But she gives up long before Susan does. They join up with La Résistance and try to avoid the mass graves and the horror around them. Months pass. Then years. La Résistance makes its way over to the United States, where the Daleks are digging a giant mine. Just like last time, Susan notes.
And then it turns out that the Daleks have help. From the Monk.
Lucie doesn't know that, though. And neither does the Doctor, who finally arrives on Earth... two years too late. He finds the Dalek Time Controller, alive and well and in entirely the wrong time period.
Lucie records her story for him on Nyssa's device. Although she suspects he may have forgotten her again and gone swanning off with jellyfish. In a last-ditch attempt at putting up a fight, she, Susan and Alex gather together their last weapons and fire away at the Dalek control fleet. With the rockets already on their way, they discover that the Doctor is on the ship too.
Tropes:
- After the End
- Author Appeal: Nicholas Briggs. Full-scale Dalek invasion.
- Back for the Finale: Tamsin.
- Blatant Lies: The Monk telling Tamsin that the Daleks are medical missionaries and that they are collecting the art treasures for posterity.
- Conqueror from the Future: The Dalek Time Controller.
- Cross Through: The Dalek Time Controller previously showed up in Six' audios. Eight is very freaked out by it, noting that he's not supposed to be there.
- Friendly Fire: The Saucer the Doctor is on is hit by torpedoes from resistance fighters.
- Handicapped Badass: Lucie.
- Minion with an F in Evil: The Monk, who is upset by the Daleks wanting to exterminate all the rebels after stopping the attack, and blocks the transmissions again, allowing some to escape.
- The Plague: The way the Daleks invade Earth, again.
- La Résistance
- Shout-Out to Shakespeare: The Monk quotes Richard II "This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle".
- The Slow Path
- Temporary Love Interest: Sebastian Andrews seems to be this for Lucie at first, but he gets killed during the attack on the Dalek mines.
- Villain Team-Up: The Monk and the Daleks.
- Wicked Cultured: The Monk. Not exactly evil but certainly cultured, wanting to gather the art treasures of Earth and quoting Shakespeare.
