Jamie McCrimmon and Victoria Waterfield watched The Doctor as he examined the control panels of the hexagonal console within the TARDIS, which looked like an ordinary blue police box from the outside but was much bigger on the inside. The Doctor looked like a man in his late-forties with a mop top, black shoes, checkered pants, a black coat, a white dress shirt, and a black bow tie. He had a bewildered expression on his face as strange noises were emitted. The TARDIS was rematerializing.

"I think that we may be landing, but I am not certain that we are in the same universe."

"You mean to say that there are other universes?" Victoria asked.

"Precisely," The Doctor responded.

"I don't suppose I'll meet another Scotsman in this universe anytime soon," Jamie said.

"I would not get my hopes up about that if I were you," The Doctor said. "Let us see what is on the screen."

The screen on the wall was turned on, revealing what appeared to be a desolate planetoid.

"There does not appear to be much out there," Jamie said.

"I do wish to go elsewhere," Victoria said.

"Now, now, it may look like nothing now, but we will never know unless we look," The Doctor said. "The atmosphere appears to be safe. Come along."

"Well, I suppose it is better to be nowhere than to run into another Yeti so soon," Victoria said.

The Doctor and his two companions exited the TARDIS and stepped on the stony surface of the planetoid. They walked around for a while until something was spotted above.

"Look, Doctor!" Jamie said. "Up there! It looks like some sort of ship!"

The Doctor looked up and saw what Jamie was pointing at. It was a ship, and it was falling in their direction.

"Scramble!" The Doctor ordered.

The three of them ran in different directions, avoiding the crashing ship. It was damaged by the crash, but the pilot inside was still alive. As they got nearer to the ship, they realized that the pilot within looked human. He was unconscious.

"Let's get him out!" The Doctor said.

Through their efforts, they managed to pull the pilot out of the wreckage. The old man wore an orange jumpsuit.

"Another crashed pilot," The Doctor said. "And I had thought that after Steven Taylor I would never encounter many more of them. Oh, how naive I was as an old-looking man."

"Old-looking man?" Victoria said.

"What do you think he was doing out here, Doctor?" Jamie asked.

"For all we know, he could be an explorer just like us," The Doctor said. "I wonder how far away he is from civilization."

They heard a noise coming from the inside of the TARDIS.

"What's that all about?" Jamie asked.

"There may be a few bugs I need to fix with the TARDIS," The Doctor said. "I will go check. You two stay here with the pilot."

As The Doctor ran back to the TARDIS, Jamie and Victoria watched the unconscious pilot.

"You think he will be all right?" Victoria asked.

"Of course he will be," Jamie said. "The Doctor will take good care of him."

Victoria looked up and saw a yellow, gaseous glow in the distance. After a few seconds, it disappeared.

"Did you see that?"

"See what?"

"There was a sort of yellow glow over there. I am sure of it."

Victoria walked in the direction in which she had seen the glow.

"Victoria, where are you going?"

Jamie looked at the pilot and then at Victoria. He reasoned that nothing was on this planetoid that could harm the pilot. He ran after Victoria. They searched around for a few minutes.

"It was around here."

"Are you sure you saw something?"

"Jamie, I am not mad."

"I did not say you were. I just do not think you ought to be chasing after something that may be harmful."

"I suppose you are right. We better get back."

When they returned, they found that the pilot's body was missing.

"Jamie! He's gone."

"I should never have left him. He probably woke up and walked about. But where would he go?"

"If he were to have woken up right here, then the TARDIS would have been the first thing he saw. I would gamble that he went that way. Maybe he is with The Doctor."

"Let's find out."

They ran inside of the TARDIS.

"Doctor?" Victoria called.

"Doctor?" Jamie called.

"I believe I have fixed the problem," The Doctor said. "When we travel again, I do believe we will be back in our own reality. Wait a minute! Did you leave the pilot."

"I am sorry, Doctor," Victoria said. "It was my fault. I saw something and went after it. Then Jamie came after me, and when we got back, the man was gone!"

"He didn't come in here, did he?" Jamie asked.

"I was busy fixing the TARDIS," The Doctor replied. "I suppose it could be possible that he wondered in here and I was too busy to notice. Start searching everywhere in here!"

A good distance away from the TARDIS, the old man's body was lying on the rocky surface of the planetoid. He awoke and examined his surroundings. His ship was nowhere in sight. A large, yellow glow appeared in front of him. It made water appear out of thin air to fly into Zefram's mouth. He swallowed.

"What is your name?" it asked with a female voice.

"My name is Zefram Cochrane," the old man answered. "Who are you?"

"I have no name."

"Is this Gamma Canaris? How did I get here?"

"Your ship was damaged and it crashed here. On my behalf, would you be willing to speak to The Doctor?"

"What doctor?"

"The doctor who took you out of your ship. I am not sure how he and the others would react if I appeared to them out of thin air."

"There are others here?"

"There are, and they look like your kind. I will take you to them if you agree to communicate with them for me."

"Yes, I agree. Whatever you say."

"Good. I have inhabited this place for a while without anyone to accompany me. I have been very lonely and would like to have someone here."

"For how long?"

"Forever."

"Now, that could cause a misunderstanding, so it's good that you're talking to me first. So, forever? Until death?"

"I have the power to rejuvenate and keep others alive for as long as possible."

"I see."

Zefram was not sure how the others would react if he told them all of this, but he was desperate to meet other beings that were similar to himself.

"Okay. I will let them know and see what they say."

The Doctor and his companions searched frantically throughout the interior of the TARDIS. They found no sign that anyone other than themselves had entered.

"Any luck?" The Doctor asked.

"Not at all," Jamie said. "Otherwise, you'd be mistaking me for an Irishman."

"He could still be outside somewhere," Victoria suggested.

"I will lock the TARDIS so that he cannot get in before we get to him."

As they exited the TARDIS once more, The Doctor took out his key and locked the door. Before they could get far, they watched the pilot rematerialize like the TARDIS had done on a plethora of occasions.

"How did you do that?" The Doctor asked.

"There is something else around here. It has powers but it does not look like us."

"It must be the glow that I saw!" Victoria said.

"Exactly! I'm sorry. I haven't introduced myself. My name is Zefram Cochrane of Starfleet, the man who flew the Phoenix and made first contact. You've probably heard of me."

"I'm sorry," The Doctor said. "I cannot say that I have."

"Aren't you guys from Earth?"

"My companions Jamie and Victoria are," The Doctor explained. "But it is not the Earth of this particular universe."

"You came from another universe?"

"Yes. A minor glitch in the TARDIS."

"TARDIS?"

"The police box over there."

"I've heard of these things. Man, telephone booths are ancient. We haven't used those things on Earth in a hundred years or so."

"It may look ordinary, but it is actually my ship."

"You're joking, right?"

"Quite the contrary. I use it to travel through time and space, hence the acronym TARDIS: Time And Relative Dimension In Space."

"So this thing can take me home?"

"Possibly."

"Then let's get out of here!"

Zefram ran over to the TARDIS and tried opening the door.

"Now, hang on," The Doctor said.

"Unlock this thing!" Zefram demanded.

"We deserve to know what's going on if you're going to travel with us," The Doctor said.

"You don't get it," Zefram said. "That thing, that glow, whatever you wanna call it wants to keep us here forever! Now let's get out of here before it finds us!"

The Doctor got out his key. It vanished from his hand. They all looked back at the glow. The Doctor tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge.

"Drat!" The Doctor said. "Why do I leave what could open doors behind locked doors?"

"Sounds like a catch 22 situation," Zefram commented.

"Stop!" it said. "You lied! You were trying to escape."

"You cannot keep us here against our will!" Zefram shouted.

"Not even if I could restore your youth?"

The glow used its powers on Zefram. Within seconds, the wrinkles vanished from his face and the hairs darkened on his head. He touched his face and felt his hair.

"I must look fifty years younger!"

"You may stay like that, if you'd like. And what about you, Doctor? Wouldn't you like to have your youth restored?"

"I'd rather not. Please! Stop!"

The Doctor grabbed onto his face as he reverted to his previous incarnation, complete with white hair draped down the sides of his head. His face was similar to that of a man in his late-fifties.

"I think you went the wrong way," Zefram commented.

"No," The Doctor said in an elderly-sounding voice. "This is how I looked before I regenerated."

"Regenerated?" Victoria said.

"My people regenerate whenever they reach the end of a life cycle, thus altering their appearance."

"This is what you looked like before I met you?" Jamie asked.

"Evidently."

"Did you always look like that?"

"Don't be silly, my dear boy. I may have lived hundreds of years before my first regeneration, but that does not mean that my face always looked the same."

"Let's see make you younger until you find a face that is more satisfactory," the glow said.

Everyone watched as The Doctor continued to get younger. Eight unfamiliar faces were revealed in the process: one with a mustache and black hair, one clean-shaven with white hair, one with a goatee and black hair, one with a goatee and curly hair, one clean-shaven with long hair, one with a goatee and bright hair, one clean-shaven with dark hair, and another clean-shaven with dark hair. With each face, he said the same thing in an altered voice:

"Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! I do not wish to experience adolescence longer than I already had!"

"Very well, Doctor," the glow said. "I will keep you this way and you can stay here this way. As for your companions, I can leave them as they are. I will provide food out of thin air for you."

"You will restore me back to how I appeared when I arrived!"

"Very well. But only if you agree to stay."

"We will not stay!"

"Hang on a sec," Zefram said. "Doctor, you said you've lived for hundreds of years?"

"I have."

"And you have never gotten bored?"

"Well...there was really only one instance in which I really got bored."

"But other than that, having a long life has been great? You don't feel bored by anything right now?"

"Not at all."

"I have an idea."

"What?"

Zefram looked at the gaseous being.

"I will stay with you this way under one condition: You must allow The Doctor and his companions to leave in their ship."

"But you will remain?" it asked.

"Yes. You can be my..."

"What?"

"Companion. I promise."

"Very well," the Companion said. "They may leave, but you must stay."

The key reappeared in the Doctor's hand.

"And you must change me back!"

The Companion complied. The Doctor went through the various faces again until he was back to his second incarnation.

"I cannot bare to leave you here," Victoria said to Zefram.

"I'll be fine. Don't worry. Looking young for a while in this vacation spot could be fun. I've worked hard for Starfleet. I deserve a break. And if you ever come across Starfleet, don't tell them where I am."

"Doctor, you're not just going to leave him here, areyou?"

"Well, he insists. And, I must say, I sympathize a bit with the Companion. Being alone is perhaps one of the greatest fears in all of the universes. It is always good to have someone at your side."

"Goodbye, everyone," Zefram said.

The Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria entered the TARDIS. The doors closed. Zefram heard sounds coming from the TARDIS and watched as it dematerialized.

"Unbelievable," Victoria said. "Are you sure that that was the right thing to do?"

"You're starting to sound like Steven," The Doctor said.

"There you go again mentioning someone I have never met. I do hope Zefram will be all right."

"He made his choice," The Doctor said. "Just as Dodo, Barbara, Ian, and all the others made theirs. Just as I made mine a long time ago."

"Doctor," Jamie said. "You mentioned that there was a time when you were really bored. What exactly were you referring to?"

The Doctor thought about the time he and his granddaughter Susan stole the TARDIS and took off from Gallifrey, where he had grown bored among the other Time Lords. He did not feel ready to reveal this information.

"I will tell you in time."