Paris, 1944. The Doctor ends up landing in Nazi-occupied Paris, absolutely not by his own volitionnote , and stumbles across the Gates of Hell while looking for a refuge from German troops. While there, he discovers The Doctor, frozen in time...
The two Doctors join forces to travel up and down the time line to prevent the Cybermen from taking over the world.
Tropes:
- Bad Future: Well, more like Bad Present, as the Cybermen do end up taking and razing Paris by 1944 in the altered timeline, with the implication that the rest of the world is likewise conquered.
- Just how bad is it? Five mentions the distinct lack of World War Two as a negative consequence.
- Big Freaking Gun: Tina's is implied to be one in power, if not in size. It has eleven settings, going all the way from "mildly annoying" to "near total disintegration". Both Five and Ten ask Tina to keep the gun on the lower end of the lethality scale if at all possible.
- Bigger on the Inside: Tina Drake is the one to remark on this property of the TARDIS in this outing. She says that she always thought that the Dimensional Transcendence properties were just an urban legend.
- Boring, but Practical: Ten tries to open a padlock with his Sonic Screwdriver, but fails after numerous attempts. Not even a deadlocked or wood padlock, just a bog-standard iron padlock of the 1760s. Five opens it in five seconds flat with one of Tina's hairpins. Five snarks that Ten's screwdriver can be used to scan for temporal anomalies but is worthless in opening a simple lock.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Joseph Delon starts out as this, as he has been implanted with Cyberman tech by his father to become a sleeper agent for the Cybermen. At one point he is in full on The Renfield mode, but gets better thanks to the intervention of The Doctor.
- Call-Back: Given the story is set in Paris, there are two to "City of Death":
- Ten remarks in the demolished Paris that they passed by a spot where they and Romana had bought ice cream;
- When Five mentions to Ten that he parked the TARDIS in an inconspicuous spot (given that a British police call-box that is roughly a century too modern for 1809 Paris might just stand out), Ten retorts that they had once landed her right inside The Louvre. Five responds it was "you-know-who" that was responsible for that one, and that incarnation took a more lax view to camouflage.
- Continuity Nod:
- The Fifth Doctor is very rusty at using a Sonic Screwdriver, having lost his during "The Visitation". He is very visibly touched that the Tenth Doctor would let him have the honor of using his to gimmick the Cybermen's time gate to send the Cyberscout back to the Paleozoic Era.
- The Fifth Doctor recognises the Tenth immediately, referencing their previous meeting in "Time Crash" where, unlike the Hand Wave used in most multi-Doctor stories, the fact that the younger Doctor would remember their encounter is a plot point.
- Historical Domain Character: King Charles VI, or "King Charles the Mad", is the first inflection point for the Cybermen's plot. They give him a golden orb that is in reality a temporal gate allowing the Cybermen to transport themselves to Paris, with instructions to bury it just outside the city gates or be destroyed.
- I Hate Past Me: Almost completely averted between the Fifth and Tenth Doctors. Other than a slight bit of overprotective sniping at Ten to not touch Five's TARDIS console (almost immediately reversed), the two work extremely well as a team and enjoy their adventure together. Five expresses annoyance at how reckless his previous incarnation was, between parking the TARDIS in The Louvre and his scarf being a tripping hazard.
- Nonindicative Name: The "Gates of Hell" in Paris mentioned have nothing to do with Auguste Rodin's 1880 bronze doors by that name.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: The subtle familial tone of the working relationship between Five and Ten (which can be likened to an older brother/younger brother or even father/son relationship) was intentional on the part of the writer, riffing off the good working relationship between Peter Davison and his
real-life son-in-law, David Tennant. - The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The French Revolution provides the first "recruits" to the Cybermen's army, as Joseph Delon tricks fleeing aristocrats into thinking he's smuggling them to safety. In reality? Not so much.
- Running Gag: Vortex manipulators are quite portable. It's remarked on by Tina, Ten, Five and Tina again, though that last one is qualified as she remarks that while the manipulator is portable, the TARDIS is better as it is Bigger on the Inside.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The hidden chamber of dormant Cybermen that were hidden in the 1809 catacombs. They chase The Doctor and Tina into a another hidden vault, which leads to...
- Sealed Good in a Can: The Doctor being caught in time stasis, until Ten can free his former self from it.
- Spotting the Thread: Five recognizes Tina Drake right off the bat for a Time Agent because she's wearing a hat that won't be in existence for another nearly 50 years.
- Tempting Fate: Tina laughs that the Cyberman emerging from the pawnbroker's shop doesn't have a gun. Just seconds before it fires a bolt at her.
- Those Wacky Nazis: Ten runs into a couple when he has his Oh, Crap! moment, discovering he had landed in Paris, right at the tail end of the German occupation. However they don't affect the plot in any meaningful way, because as soon as Ten and Five emerge from the catacombs again, the Cybermen's Temporal Paradox has been triggered and the Germans are no longer in control of Paris. After everything gets solved and time is back to normal, Five is relieved when he accidentally overshoots slightly and arrives in Paris around August, 1944, after the Allied liberation. He remarks that just after dealing with the Cybermen, he wasn't in any mood to deal with Nazis... not that there is any good time to deal with Nazis.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: It's a Tenth Doctor story, so this is a given. The story begins in 1809, with Five and Tina in the catacombs, then goes to 1944 with Ten, who stumbles across Five undergoing The Slow Path. The story then goes backwards in time through the 1700s, with flashbacks going as far as the 1300s.
