Constable Bernard Whittam is retiring, from a long life served in the police force. Everyone's here for his retirement party at Oliver's Inn - his strangely young looking parents, his faithful partner Emma, and two very odd gatecrashers; a young Scotsman, and a Doctor. But perhaps this Doctor can help him with something that's been bothering him as long as he can remember, since 1963. A noise in his head, wheezing and groaning.
The Doctor and Jamie take Bernard back to the TARDIS, and reveal the truth to him. He was created back in 1963, when the TARDIS disguised itself as a police box, just before its chameleon circuit broke. And what is a police box without a policeman? His memories before that time, such as watching Yuri Gagarin fly into space, are false, and he's been unknowingly manipulating time and space to keep himself happy, and create a life for himself. His parents don't age because he can't let them go. And Emma is always there for him.
At first he refuses to accept this, but as if by magic, Emma joins him inside the time and space machine, and the Doctor sadly explains that the longer Bernard stays on Earth, the more time will become damaged as Bernard changes more and more things. Emma and Bernard lament the retirement they'll never have, but he accepts his fate, switching the dial on the TARDIS himself. He and Emma walk off into the sunset as they fade away.
Back at Oliver's Inn, Jamie and the Doctor check on the now-finished party. No one can quite remember what they were celebrating, but the emotions stay with them. Jamie and the Doctor depart for further adventures.
The Last Day at Work contains examples of:
- Call-Back: Jamie wishes Victoria were there, both to tease the Doctor, and to help him navigate modern Britain.
- Mythology Gag: The very, very heavy implication of the audio is that Bernard is the policeman seen in the very opening scene of "An Unearthly Child".
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Jamie has no idea what cocktails are, or how 1960s Britain works.
- Reality Warper: Bernard, unknowingly, due to being a part of the TARDIS.
