After their experiences in Big Ben, things haven't been right between Jackie and the Doctor. Rose and Pete (off-screen) decide to book them both onto a personal zeppelin flight to the jewel of England... Hull. Hopefully, the pair can make up their differences and learn to get along again. And while the pair argue, the Doctor belittling Jackie's status as a glorified dinner lady, and her firing back by claiming that at least she knows who she is, not being a metacrisis, a second Jackie Tyler warps in.
She claims to be from a another parallel universe, one affected by global freezing, and she's here to replace Jackie. And to prove she's serious, she throws the pilot out the airlock, and holds them both at gunpoint. Because she's a scientist, trying to save everyone she knows, and this Jackie is just a dinner lady, and a chav, it's obvious which one should live. Jackie takes incredible offense to that. Sure, she may not change the world, but that doesn't mean she doesn't matter. She was there for Rose when Jimmy Stone almost lead her off the rails. She's there for Pete and UNIT now. And she's talking so she can distract her parallel self long enough for the Doctor to sneak up and take the gun.
The Doctor gambles, shooting the autopilot of the zeppelin, because if there's one thing he knows, it's that Jackie Tyler, any Jackie Tyler, loves life too much to risk dying in a zeppelin crash. Alt!Jackie implores them to listen to her, but Jackie tells her to use her intelligence to think of another plan. One that doesn't involve sacrificing everyone on a planet that they deem "less worthy". Frustrated, her alternate self warps away.
The Doctor goes to fix the autopilot, while Jackie gets to work on the gateau, realising that, despite all the changes, all his behaviour, she still has absolute faith in him to get them out of this. But he can't. When he shot the autopilot, he blew it beyond repair. There's no way to pull out of the crash. Him and Jackie are facing death together. They warn the crew on the ground they're going down, to evacuate everyone near the Humber, and the Doctor admits to Jackie he won't regenerate. This is his first time at the end, properly, and he's terrified. Jackie consoles him, telling him about that first Christmas they had together, with him wearing that face, and admits that she was proud of her new family that they'd made. And she still is. For, while he isn't quite the same, he's still the man who made sure to spend time warning people to get clear. He's still trying to save people, anyone he can. He's still the man who showed her daughter the stars. Her friend.
At the last moment, the Doctor comes up with an idea. Jump out, into the river, and hopefully avoid the fireball that an exploding zeppelin will make. Out of options, the pair go out the airlock... and survive.
Flight into Hull! contains examples of:
- Beyond the Impossible: Despite the Doctor and Donna speaking of the dimension walls sealing themselves off, Alt!Jackie is able to jump into Pete's World. Of course, with her world being destroyed, she may come from a place still under the effect of the Reality Bomb before it was undone. If that makes any sense.
- Call-Back: When the Doctor mentions the number of second chances he and Jackie have gotten in their lives, he brings up the Slitheen, the Daleks, and the Cybermen.
- Jackie brings up how she teases Rose for her Pete's World counterpart being a dog.
- Parallel Earth is still suffering from global warming.
- The Quevvils are mentioned, from the New Series Adventures novel Winner Takes All
- Jackie mentions her, the Doctor (newly regenerated), Rose and Mickey sharing Christmas Day together.
- The Ditz: Jackie seems to only think there can be two parallel universes, despite having visited another one previously, 'like those two lines from maths class'. In contrast, her alternate self is not this, and looks down on her for it.
- Kill and Replace: What the alternate Jackie plans to do to our Jackie.
- Oop North: Alt!Hull is mentioned to be filled with glass pyramids, with the greatest spa in the world. This is, of course, a big ironic jab at the reputation of Hull in our world.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The alternate Jackie Tyler is looking for a way to save her Earth. Unfortunately, it involves murdering a lot of parallel versions.
- Zeppelins from Another World: What Jackie and Metacrisis Ten spend the day on.
