History Recap / DoctorWhoS37E2TheGhostMonument

This episode aired on October 14, 2018. Written by Creator/ChrisChibnall.

-->'''The Doctor:''' "Do you two know what that is?"\\

'''Epzo:''' "A tent."

--->'''The Doctor:''' "I really like it."

--->'''Remnants:''' "We see deeper though. Further back. ''The Timeless Child''!"

-->'''Ryan:''' "Why did it have to be ''ladders''?"

JustForFun/TheOneWith [[LetsPlay/ProtonJon Death Water]].

Angstrom's ship lands on Desolation safely, and Ryan and Graham are rather awed. Ryan wonders if the Doctor and Yaz are already there, and the two decide to follow Angstrom when she heads off. Meanwhile on Epzo's ship, the Doctor persuades him to jettison the back half so they can reach the planet. She then insists on taking the controls so they can crashland. On the planet, Angstrom, Graham and Ryan are walking through a canyon when they see Epzo's ship approaching at speed, and have to run for their lives as the crashing ship heads toward them down its length, the sides too steep to get out of its way. After the crash, Graham and Ryan are incredibly relieved that the Doctor and Yaz are alive, and the Doctor apologizes profusely to them for her teleporter going wrong, promising to get them home.

The Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz follow Angstrom and Epzo to a tent set up in the desert. Inside is a man who the Doctor quickly deduces to be a hologram instead of physically present, named Ilin. Angstrom and Epzo are the last two contestants out of over four thousand in a race called the Galactic Relay, the last such running of the race. Ilin, while attempting to ignore the Doctor and her friends because they're not contestants, explains that the final stretch of the race involves travelling to a location called the "Ghost Monument", so called by the planet's original settlers because it only appears once every thousand years, and directs them to their location finders. He says the stage must be completed within one solar rotation, and gives them two warnings: don't travel at night, and don't drink (or even touch) the planet's water. As the two contestants set out, the Doctor, on a hunch, demands that Ilin show her what the Monument looks like. He finally brings up a hologram of it.

Graham, Ryan and Yaz are all puzzled as to how an old police box could wind up on a far-off alien planet, but the Doctor is thrilled and thanks him profusely - she's aware of where her home is now; she just has to get there... After Ilin and the tent disappear, she explains to the trio that the box is her TARDIS, and if they get to it she can get them home. They set off after Angstrom and Epzo. While walking, the three humans discuss whether or not they can trust the Doctor, but eventually agree to, especially since they can't see any other way to get home. They catch up with Angstrom and Epzo at a dock, where the promised boat for traversing the dangerous waters is waiting. Epzo has pulled out a gun, but the Doctor points out he won't use it on Angstrom because hurting another contestant is grounds for automatic disqualification. Told the boat isn't working, she points out that it can probably be fixed. After scanning the water, the Doctor tells Yaz that the water is unsafe due to a huge amount of flesh-eating microbes.

During the voyage, everyone gets to talking. Epzo is revealed to believe that it's foolish to rely on anyone else, and the Doctor tells him she's going to do her best to change his mind. Angstrom reveals that she's participating in the race to try and save her family, as her homeworld is being "cleansed", so half her family is in hiding and the other half is on the run. She wants to try and use the prize money to bring everyone who's still alive back together again. Yaz says it makes her miss her family, including her dad who drives her bananas and her sister who wants her to move out so she can get her bedroom, despite seeing them only yesterday. Eventually, everyone gets sleepy, and the Doctor says for everyone to rest while she steers.

After they find Angstrom and Epzo again, the latter of whom is injured, the group finds their way to a hatch leading to some underground tunnels. Down there, they find an abandoned lab, and the Doctor uses its maps to deduce that the tunnels serve as a shortcut to the Ghost Monument. While everyone else is searching, Epzo takes a nap. Through a hole in the wall, the Doctor, Angstrom and Graham find a message written on the ground, as Ryan and Yaz discover via surveillance footage that the robots have found the hatch. The Doctor translates the message as written by a group of scientists who were kidnapped and forced to create weapons while their families were held hostage to ensure their compliance. And who were the scientists working for? The Stenza. Graham is reminded of "Tim Shaw", and tells Angstrom he's heard of them because his wife died as a result of them. Angstrom knows the feeling: "Mine too."

They hear a scream, and everyone is just in time to save Epzo from animate cloth, one of the weapons, trying to smother him. As the robots are approaching, everyone flees down the tunnel. The robots shut down the tunnels' life support, forcing everyone to exit by climbing a ladder out a hatch in a field which, according to the map, is full of acetylene gas. Ryan is nervous about climbing, and the Doctor gives him a pep talk and tells him to think of facts about acetylene while he's climbing. Outside, they are surrounded by the cloths, and the Doctor tells everyone to be still. The cloths, which can delve into people's worst fears, target the Doctor, making a reference to "the Timeless Child" and her being an outcast before she yells at them to get out of her head. Everyone drops to the ground, and Epzo's self-lighting cigar is used to ignite the gas, destroying the cloth Remnants.

When everyone finally makes it to the location of the Ghost Monument, Ilin's tent is waiting for them. Angstrom and Epzo begin arguing about who should win, and the Doctor suggests a third option. The two enter the tent together, claiming a tie, which Ilin is reluctant to accept. However, Epzo and Angstrom intimidate him into taking the deal, and he departs with the victors, leaving the Doctor, Ryan, Graham and Yaz behind despite Angstrom's protests. With no sign of the TARDIS, the Doctor begins to be concerned that she'll never get her friends home, and apologizes... and then Yaz asks what that sound she just heard was. The TARDIS arrives, right on cue, flickering and fading in and out; the Doctor, having what can only be described as ''a moment'', sonics it to get it out of the materialization loop that her last, very explosive regeneration, put the TARDIS in. Reaching her TARDIS, the Doctor notes that she's "done [herself] up a bit" and, as she lost her key during the time she was falling to her (fortunately-averted-by-a-train) death in the previous episode, she has to ask the TARDIS to let her in — the TARDIS, of course, ''does'' open for her wife, even without the key — and, to boot, she opens the doors ''inwards'', despite her dislike of it! After the doors open, Graham, Ryan and Yaz express skepticism that the Doctor expects everyone to fit inside, to which she responds by asking them to take a look, before eagerly stepping in herself — she leaves them with a warning that the last time she was in the TARDIS, she left it in "a bit of a mess", which is a ''colossal'' understatement as the ''entire room exploded!''

The Doctor takes note of the TARDIS' new look as the lights come on, and says she likes it. As the others follow her in, they are, naturally, astonished (although no one makes the [[BiggerOnTheInside traditional observation]]), and ask how this is possible. The Doctor says it's dimensional engineering, and Yaz scoffs at the idea that dimensions can be engineered. As she starts the TARDIS up, the TARDIS reveals she has a little bit of an ego — the new console proves to have a small version of herself on it[[note]]WordOfGod says this is a part of the chameleon circuit, showing what the exterior shell looks like.[[/note]][[note]]Given that the TARDIS's Chameleon Circuit ''never changes'', it's completely useless, despite WordOfGod's confirmation, so it probably an ego thing.[[/note]], along with a biscuit dispenser (which ''presumably serves no actual function when it comes to travelling in space and time!''), and the Doctor cheerfully eats the proffered custard cream biscuit, which the TARDIS offers as a welcome home gift. Outside, on Desolation, the Ghost Monument disappears for the last time.

JustForFun/TheOneWith [[LetsPlay/ProtonJon Death Water]]. Also the one in which the Doctor actually ''likes'' the way the TARDIS has been redecorated.

* AbusiveParents: Epzo's mother made him climb a tall tree when he was four years old, and then got him to jump, claiming she would catch him, only to step aside. Then she told him he'd learned he couldn't trust anyone. The Doctor, Yaz, Graham, and Ryan are justifiably horrified, although he seems to feel she was teaching him a valuable lesson in a harsh world.

* ArcWords: "The Timeless Child" looks to be one such phrase, judging from the Doctor's interest.
* ArcVillain: The Stenza, it seems, are more than a one-off villain race. After their hunt in the previous episode, they are a GreaterScopeVillain here.

-->'''The Doctor:''' Do you two know what that is?\\

'''Epzo:''' A tent.

* BrickJoke: In the previous episode, the Doctor calls her new sonic a Swiss Army Sonic, only without the knife, because only idiots carry a knife. Here Angstrom saves Epzo from strangulation using her knife.

* ButchLesbian: Like Grace, Angstrom's wife was killed by the Stenza.

** The Doctor breaks out Three's favoured Venusian Aikido to paralyze Epzo when he's holding Angstrom at gunpoint.
* ChekhovsGun: Epzo's cigar, which ignites with a snap of the fingers, is used to ignite the acetylene in the air and destroy the killer cloth attacking them.
* CommonalityConnection: When Graham mentions that his wife died because of the Stenza, Angstrom says "Mine too."

** The Doctor persuading the TARDIS to open up because she lost her key is reminiscent of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent Twelve claiming that all doors are slightly psychic and persuading one to open]]. However, she does ''not'' [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead snap her fingers to open the door]].

** Upon entering the TARDIS, Ryan's first request is to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E1TheWomanWhoFellToEarth start pressing buttons]]. The Doctor isn't having any of that.

* DeadlyEuphemism: Angstrom's homeworld is being "cleansed".
* DeadlyGame: The Galactic Relay is a race spanning 94 worlds that can have only one winner/survivor. Angstrom and Epzo are the last of a much more crowded field of ''4000'' competitors.

* DoesntLikeGuns: The Doctor is ''not'' happy when Ryan tries to go all ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' on the Sniperbots, suggesting her dislike of guns has reverted to Ten-levels.

** When the Doctor, Yaz, Graham and Ryan are rescued by Epzo and Angstrom respectively, conversation reveals that Desolation, the planet the two racers are heading to, appears to have been knocked out of orbit. The Doctor later deduces that, as a result, her teleporter actually worked perfectly (apart from bringing along the companions): the TARDIS can be found on Desolation, and they were left hanging in space because the planet has been shifted from its old orbit.

* HiddenHeartOfGold: Although Epzo is a misanthropist who doesn't like to rely on anyone, he still pulls the Doctor and Yaz onto his ship when he could have left them to asphyxiate in open space. (Granted, both he and Angstrom ''did'' assume that saving them was a bonus-earning Rally challenge...) It's a bit less hidden at the end.
* HistoryRepeats: Like in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour "The Eleventh Hour,"]] an antagonist foreshadows a coming MythArc with ArcWords that won't be explained for another season or two, and then mocks the Doctor for not yet knowing what the Arc Words mean.

* IHaveYourWife: The scientists who worked in the abandoned lab were forced to do so because their families were held hostage.

* InnocuouslyImportantEpisode: Seems to just be an episode about the Doctor and her companions retrieving the TARDIS, but remember that run-in with the Remnants. It will be important.

* KillItWithFire: The cloth weapons that the group encounters after fleeing the tunnels are destroyed by igniting the acetylene in the air with Epzo's cigar.
* MadeOfIron: The TARDIS has, again, ''survived an explosion'', this one ''internally''. As we discover, all that happens to her after said explosion is that she ends up stuck in a materialisation loop which the Doctor is easily able to get her out of; everything else is perfectly fine.

** The Doctor was a hologram for three weeks. "The gossip I picked up..."

* ThePreciousPreciousCar: Epzo is initially reluctant to jettison the back half of his damaged ship to save fuel because, as he claims, ballads have been written about it. The Doctor, incredulous, snaps that a tragic opera could be written about their pointless deaths, and persuades him to jettison so they'll reach Desolation.

* TheReveal:
** This episode debuts the current TARDIS prop and new desktop theme; it's revealed that the regeneration was so strong, it not only damaged the console room severely enough to require a new desktop, but it knocked the TARDIS into a materialization loop that brought it to Desolation, where it's been for at least several millennia.
** Likewise, the hologram of the "Ghost Monument" reveals it's the TARDIS.
* RewatchBonus: With season 12. Not just the "timeless child", but how the Doctor lets her "nice all the time" façade drop when she's pissed off, including forgetting Yaz was there and dismissing her.

--->'''The Doctor:''' I really like it.

* SurvivalMantra: The Doctor has Ryan recall facts about acetylene that he learned during an NVQ (National Vocational Qualification) while scaling a ladder to help him keep his mind off his fear.

* TookALevelInKindness: Traversing the threats of Desolation, by the end, seems to have taught Epzo that he can sometimes rely on other people, as shown when he agrees to claim a tie with Angstrom.

* WeakenedByTheLight: The killer cloth is inactive during the daytime.

--->'''The Doctor:''' ''[reading from a mural]'' "We are scientists. Abducted, tortured, and made to work while our families are held hostage. We are forced to find new ways of destruction. Poisons, weapons, creatures. We gave them our minds, and they made us the creators of death. This planet has been left scorched and barren from our work. The atmosphere and water are toxic, killing machines and creatures inhabit every corner. We had no choice but to obey... ''[horrified {{beat}}]'' [[ArcVillain ...the Stenza]]."
** Angstrom then reveals that the Stenza didn't just target Desolation and Earth.
--->'''Angstrom:''' You know the Stenza too?\\
'''Graham:''' ''[quietly]'' My wife died because of them.\\
'''Angstrom:''' ''[close to tears]'' Mine too! I'm sorry... They took our planet, sent us into hidin', ''cleansed'' millions of us...

--->'''Remnants:''' We see deeper though. Further back. ''The Timeless Child''!

-->'''Ryan:''' Why did it have to be ''ladders''?

The one with [[LetsPlay/ProtonJon Death Water]]. Also the one in which the Doctor actually ''likes'' the way the TARDIS has been redecorated.

The Doctor takes note of the TARDIS' new look as the lights come on, and says she likes it. As the others follow her in, they are, naturally, astonished (although no one makes the [[BiggerOnTheInside traditional observation]]), and ask how this is possible. The Doctor says it's dimensional engineering, and Yaz scoffs at the idea that dimensions can be engineered. As she starts the TARDIS up, the TARDIS reveals she has a little bit of an ego — the new console proves to have a small version of herself on it[[note]]WordOfGod says this is a part of the chameleon circuit, showing what the exterior shell looks like[[/note]], along with a biscuit dispenser (which ''presumably serves no actual function when it comes to travelling in space and time!''), and the Doctor cheerfully eats the proffered custard cream biscuit, which the TARDIS offers as a welcome home gift. Outside, on Desolation, the Ghost Monument disappears for the last time.

Graham, Ryan and Yaz are all puzzled as to how an old police box could wind up on a far-off alien planet, but the Doctor is thrilled and thanks him profusely. After Ilin and the tent disappear, she explains to the trio that the box is her TARDIS, and if they get to it she can get them home. They set off after Angstrom and Epzo. While walking, the three humans discuss whether or not they can trust the Doctor, but eventually agree to, especially since they can't see any other way to get home. They catch up with Angstrom and Epzo at a dock, where the promised boat for traversing the dangerous waters is waiting. Epzo has pulled out a gun, but the Doctor points out he won't use it on Angstrom because hurting another contestant is grounds for automatic disqualification. Told the boat isn't working, she points out that it can probably be fixed. After scanning the water, the Doctor tells Yaz that the water is unsafe due to a huge amount of flesh-eating microbes.

* ContrivedCoincidence: Despite being severely damaged and forced to make a crash landing on an unfamiliar planet which isn't even in the right place, Epzo's spaceship manages to come down within walking distance of Angstrom's.

* IKnowMortalKombat: Subverted when Ryan tries to justify taking the [=SniperBots=] on with a gun through his experience playing ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty''. Both [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity]] and {{Reality Ensue|s}} as the robots get right back up and he discovers his gun is out of power. Played straight in that their immunity is the ''only'' reason it doesn't work; he takes down several with precise shots before they can even react.