As Liv and Helen try to escape the Deeptime Frontier space station, they are ‘rescued’ by a TARDIS, but are horrified to find that it is actually the Nine rather than the Doctor. Following their confrontation with him at the Crucible of Souls, the Nine managed to capture River Song, and has set out to capture all of the Doctor’s companions and assemble them into a vast ‘collection’ simply because he can. Trapped, Liv and Helen have to find a way to escape their captivity, aided by two other former companions; Charley Pollard and Bliss…
Tropes:
- As You Know: The Nine allows the Four to remind River of the defences his station has to prevent the Doctor finding them.
- Batman Gambit: River eventually manipulates the Nine’s ego by sending him after Katarina (a particularly ‘rare specimen’ from his perspective) at a point when River’s own past self is collecting Katarina’s body, knowing that her past self will keep the Nine occupied long enough for the companions River’s already assembled together to break out and rescue themselves.
- The Cameo: The Nine’s collection at this point includes Jamie McCrimmon, Jo Grant, Leela, Romana, and Adric.
- Didn't Think This Through: River accuses the Nine of this, observing that the Doctor’s companions are some of the most skilled and resourceful people in all of existence, and sticking a large group of them together makes it more a matter of when they’ll escape rather than ‘if’.
- Early-Bird Cameo: A brief appearance is made by Nerys Hughes as Margaret, a companion scheduled to make her debut in the Fourth Doctor Adventures in 2022, nearly three years after the release of this set. Similarly, Ajjaz Awad's version of Katarina makes her debut here several months before her first (and likely only) proper appearance in the Early Adventures "Daughter of the Gods".
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: The Nine is attempting this for the Doctor’s companions.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: At the end, the Nine is left trapped in one of his own cells.
- Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance:
- Jamie in particular has no idea why he’s here as from his perspective he only met the Doctor briefly once.
- Charley is unaware of the reason the Nine occasionally puts her in a different cell, as she has yet to start travelling with the Sixth Doctor.
- Bliss and the others are unaware of exactly how she is associated with the Doctor, as her experiences in the Time War (and even the Time War itself) haven’t happened yet.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When the Nine discusses his trouble capturing a ‘penguin’, River protests that the penguin was perfectly valid ‘from a certain point of view’, referencing how Frobisher is a comic companion who has made appearances in novels and audios.
- Noodle Incident: The Nine references how his attempt to capture a certain penguin was a mess.
- Posthumous Character: Katarina, who plays a key role in stopping the Nine despite the fact that she’s dead.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Charley, Liv and Helen assume that Bliss is there as a clue as she’s the only one of them who has never travelled with the Doctor; Bliss joining them is certainly a catalyst, but they’re wrong that she’s there as the odd one out.
- Shout-Out: When discussing his collection with River and the possibility of Bliss not belonging, the Nine mentions how nobody wantsCarry on Admiral, a movie that is not actually part of the Carry On series.
- Status Quo Is God: At the conclusion, River uses the Nine’s TARDIS to take the companions back to their points of origin while erasing their memories of the whole experience, with the exception of Liv and Helen.
- Thanatos Gambit: In a sense; River’s plan to defeat the Nine relied on him trying to essentially read Katarina’s mind after her death to confirm her identity, with her exposure to artron energy leaving Katarina’s mind just active enough that she could ‘attack’ the Nine and thus distract him long enough for the other companions to overpower him.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: As the Time War hasn’t happened ‘yet’, Bliss is living the life she had before history became twisted by the War.
- To Make a Long Story Short: Challenged to explain how Bliss can be a companion and yet not know the Doctor, River just explains that Bliss was caught up in a ‘complex temporal event’ when she met the Doctor that changed her history.
