The Tenth Doctor was aiming to have a nice trip to Bury St Edmunds. Instead, he's kidnapped out of time, without his TARDIS, and in a strange alien jungle. Meanwhile, Anya Kingdom, formerly Ann Kelso, companion to the Fourth Doctor, and member of the Space Security Service, is on the same planet, investingating a crashed spaceship with only one survivor - her old android associate, Mark Seven. The gang meet up, and after realising they all know each other, they work ot mak an escape. The Doctor realises the ship, full of the dead, was attacked by invisible predators. They're on the planet Mira, which even he consideres an obscure reference. The gang escape back to Earth.
On Earth, the talk of the planet is George Sheldrake, entrepeneur and business magnate, who is planning to open time travel to the highest bidder at midnight. The Doctor, of course, is both shocked that humans in this time period have time travel anywhere near as sophisticated as that, and appalled it's being used for profit. Mark Seven was investigating Sheldrake's shady business dealings - all of his competitors, and any witnesses who could against him, has a nasty habit of disappearing before they can act against him. And, considering his ship was sabotaged, that now includes Mark Seven.
The Doctor goes to try and meet Sheldrake personally, but is bullied away by his hired thugs, a group of dog aliens. He also has a nice conversation with a mysterious priest, one who happens to know Sheldrake, who offers him an alin bible as a gift. Getting nowhere, the group retire to SSS headquarters to make plans. They have until midnight, after all. What could go wrong?
Anya and Mark go to report to their superiors, leaving the Doctor alone. Not for long, however. Somehow, he's joined by the priest, having made bypassed every level of security. On their way back, Anya and Mark hear a shot. They rush in, to find the Doctor mortally wounded, with no assassin to be found. He's dying, but as a Time Lord, he has a trick for that. Anya and Mark have met two Doctors, and with a burst of temporal energy, standing in front of them is a third.
"Dalek Universe 1: Buying Time" contains examples of:
- Continuity Nod: Plenty, both to Big Finish's past work with Anya Kingdom, to the The Dalek's Master Plan, which this story plays around in the aftermath of.
- The Doctor is abducted to Mira, and attacked by Visians. Even Ten thinks it's an obscure choice.
- Anya mentions the Syndicate being taken down by a Doctor with white hair, when the topic of regeneration comes up.
- The SSS is havily based on Terry Nation's plethora of 60's spin-off merch featuring them fighting the Daleks.
- As befitting its status as a tie-in, The Dalek Protocol is brought up, with the Doctor finally realising Anya was present, having hid herself from Four to avoid tying the timeline in knots.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: George Sheldrake.
- Wham Shot: The Tenth Doctor, a dab hand at using it for a cliffhanger, regenerates ahead of schedule. Not into Matt Smith, but Gemma Whelan.
