The whirring of the TARDIS filled the air as the blue box blinked into view on the far away planet.
Inside, the Doctor and Donna Noble were chattering away excitedly. Today they had a relaxing day planned on the beautiful beach planet known as the Acta Resort.
As the TARDIS came to a bumpy halt, Donna finished scooping various items into her bag. Lip gloss, a compact mirror, a bottle of water, and the all-important sunscreen. The Doctor grabbed his coat from where it lay over the jump seat and linked his arm with Donna's.
"Doctor, we're going to a planet that's a beach. Why are you wearing that ridiculous coat?"
The look on the Doctor's face was one of hurt. "It's my coat. I love my coat."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Come on then. Let's go to the beach!" She yanked on the Doctor's arm, pulling him toward the door of the TARDIS and the resort planet that awaited them on the other side.
As the pair stepped out of the TARDIS, they found themselves standing not on the soft warm sand of a beach, but sinking into what seemed to be a mass amount of colorful plastic balls.
"But… What?!" The Doctor looked around in utter confusion.
"Oi! Spaceman! This doesn't look like the Acta Resort to me!" Donna was trying to pull her legs out from among the plastic balls.
"I… What?!" The Doctor was obviously lost for words.
"What is this place, Planet of the Ball Pit, or something? Don't you ever get this landing thing right?" Donna was still struggling in the balls, tipping over slightly. She leaned on the Doctor for support.
The Doctor still looked utterly confused. What planet were they on? Earth? Did other planets have ball pits? Why did the TARDIS materialize here? Why was Donna looking at him with that face? His mind was racing.
Donna picked up one of the colorful orbs and bounced it against his head. "Hey!"
Yanked from his thoughts, the Doctor pulled his sonic screwdriver from his coat pocket and began sonic-ing the balls, tossing them aside when he didn't get the results he wanted. When the sonic failed he picked a ball up and ran his tongue around its circumference.
"UGH, Doctor! Kids wee in ball pits! Don't lick them!" Donna grimaced.
The Doctor clicked his tongue in his mouth, tasting whatever the ball had left on its surface. "Donna!" The Doctor turned his head to his companion, his face ridiculously close to hers. "Does my mouth smell funny?"
"Oi! Keep your wee ridden mouth away from me!" Donna pushed away from him as much as the pool of balls would allow.
"There's something funny tasting about these balls." The Doctor clicked his tongue once and pondered the taste he was experiencing.
"Well, they are plastic balls, you know. Not usually something people plan on tasting."
The Doctor sniffed the air, two short sniffs followed by one long one, so drawn out it was verging on comical. Donna rolled her eyes.
"Look, let's just get back in the TARDIS and get to where you promised you'd take me." Donna made to turn around.
"Oh, Donna. What's the fun in that? No, I think we'll stick around for a bit." The Doctor shoved his hands deep into his pockets and grinned.
Donna heaved a sigh. "Ugh, fine. But I want out of this ball pit. I'm getting claustrophobic."
"Alrighty then. Allons-y!" The Doctor took ahold of Donna's arm and they began to wade slowly through the swamp of plastic balls. In the distance they could see what looked like a flat surface and they continued to move forward in its direction.
"Doctor." Out of breath, Donna stopped moving. "Hold on." She held up her hand, her breaths coming out in short puffs. The Doctor stopped, allowing Donna some time to catch her breath. He looked around, contemplated their surroundings and twirled the sonic between his long fingers.
"Have you figured out where we are yet?" Donna asked, her breathing returning to normal.
"Wellllllllllllll, no. But I have a plan. All I have to do is use my handy dandy sonic screwdriver to-" His words were cut off. The sonic, moments ago in his hand, had managed to fall into the plastic balls, sinking out of view.
"One twirl too many, perhaps?" The Doctor looked feebly over at Donna.
"Must you be such a show off?" Donna sighed and began moving the balls aside where the sonic had disappeared. The Doctor remained still. "Well, don't just stand there, Alien Boy! Start digging!"
The two pushed their hands into the pit of balls, feeling around for the missing sonic.
"There are just too many of these bloody balls!" Donna shouted as she continued to move her hands beneath the surface.
Suddenly, Donna came in contact with something. From the look on the Doctor's face, it wasn't the sonic and it wasn't a ball. Not the plastic kind, at least. Donna looked up at the Doctor, eyes wide.
"Did you just grab my…?" The Doctor returned her shocked expression.
Defensively, Donna shouted back, "Hey! It's not my fault! There are balls in here!"
"Well, I guess so." He replied sarcastically.
"Stop it!" She shouted at him in frustration. Her cheeks had flushed a deep red.
He continued, hands up in defense, "I'm just saying, you touched me in a very personal area."
"It was an accident! How am I supposed to tell which is which?!"
"Well, I don't know! Just be more careful, I guess!" The Doctor stopped, having felt something metallic brush against his hand. "Aha! Got it" He wielded the sonic above his head in triumph. He looked down at Donna, who was still a bit flushed.
"Well then", Donna said, "shall we press on?"
""Yes, right. Of course. Yes. Press on we shall." There was a long silence. Neither looked at each other. Donna wished the ball pit would just swallow her up. She quickly took back that wish, realizing that that could be a very real possibility. Weirder things had happened when traveling with the Doctor.
They began pushing themselves forward, close now to the platform they had been traveling toward. Donna took extra care to look straight ahead, not wanting to meet the Doctor's eyes.
After a few minutes more of wading, they reached the platform and heaved themselves onto the flat, ball free, surface.
The Doctor stood up. "There, now. That's better."
Donna hoisted herself the rest of the way up and sighed. "Finally. I thought we'd never make it out of there."
"I don't know, from what I could tell and feel, you seemed to be enjoying yourself in there." The Doctor waggled his eyebrows in Donna's direction.
Donna shot the Doctor a glare that could terrify even the scariest of aliens. "Yeah, we're never mentioning that again."
The Doctor smiled. "Well, look on the bright side, at least there are no vicious aliens around to-"
"Oi!", Donna interrupted, "Don't curse it!"
"Oh, look!" Their arguing was cut short by the appearance of some very lanky magenta aliens.
"Who are they?" Donna asked.
"The Lactovarti. How lovely." The Doctor beamed.
"Friendly?" Donna eyed the aliens suspiciously.
"Oh, absolutely ferocious." The Doctor replied, still beaming.
Donna rolled her eyes. "Of course they are. You just had to curse it, didn't you?"
The Doctor looked down at his companion, smiling. "So…. Run?"
She grabbed his hand and smiled back up at him. "Run."
And run they did.