- Inspector: This is how it all ends: us and Stephen Fry at the end of the universe. I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner.
"Spacetime" is the name of not one, but two mini-episodes of Inspector Spacetime for the BBC's Red Nose Day. They feature much Time-Travel Tense Trouble, continuity nods, and prime Epileptic Trees bait.
Space(Time)
The Inspector, Angie, and Aiden are all squished inside the BOOTH mid-flight. After some major flirtering, the Time Wheel begins spinning, signalling a Level-5 cosmic terror. All of a sudden, the BOOTH grows bigger, as another BOOTH has merged with it.
"Oh dear", the Inspector says, and out of the wreckage comes the Seventh Inspector. But that's no problem, we've collided with a BOOTH before, we know what to do with that. But it isn't the Seventh Inspector at all, it's Stephen Fry, who's hijacked Seven's BOOTH for his own purposes. And a BOOTH without a proper driver will automatically send out a distress signal for help...but if there are no Space Masters left-
Cue fifty phone booths crashing into the BOOTH. A Blorgon climbs out of a BOOTH.
"Who are you?"
"I. AM. THE. INSPECTOOOOR!"
One final cut around the room shows us that the Inspectors, not just from this dimension, but every other dimension, have come to help.
Space/Time
The Inspector, Blorgon!Inspector, Stephen Fry, Angie, and Aiden are all inside the BOOTH. Inspectors begin emerging from their BOOT Hs, including a Turkish Inspector wielding a Batarang (and chatting with Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson through a Time Window), a Borg Inspector, a Scottish, Highlander-esque Inspector with a sword-wielding Aiden, a bow-tie-wearing Not-Inspector played by Matt Smith (who is immediately killed by the Blorgon), the Hugh Laurie Inspector from the comedy skit "Plague of Awful Disease", and an Inspector with bionic implements that resemble Inspector Gadget's.
Cool as this may be for us, it's causing a time paradox which threatens to shatter reality. In order to stop this, the Inspector and the BOOTH crew need to find the perfect foil for Fry to balance out his powers over Seven's BOOTH. Laurie!Inspector offers to help, since his universe was destroyed in "Plague". But since Fry is a public figure, but needs constant watching, the Inspector will need a public identity, and Regular!Inspector offers the name "Hugh Laurie". The two head back to their BOOTH, and the other Inspectors disappear. But what about Seven? Won't he need his BOOTH? The Inspector says that the BOOTH will return to the Inspector just in time for his Eighth incarnation (as it did in the TV movie).
All appears to be good, but one final Inspector remains, a young, skinny fellow, who, when asked his identity, merely repeats QUIET WILL RISE, and then vanishes.
INSPECTOR SPACETIME WILL RETURN IN RISE OF THE QUIET!
Tropes
- Celebrity Cameo: Matt Smith, current star of that ripoff, had the good humor to make a tongue-in-cheek appearance where he is instantly killed off by a Blorgon.
- Celebrity Paradox: Played with. Stephen Fry/Seven is lampshaded, but it's subverted with Plague!Inspector, who turns out to be our Hugh Laurie.
- Continuity Nod
- Epileptic Trees: The identity of the Final Inspector has been widely theorized about.
- Mythology Gag
