The Doctor's face was lit up both with childish excitement and the green glow of the central column of the TARDIS as he grinned at Rose, who was seated in the chair by the console.
"You like bananas, right, Rose?" he asked, running and twirling around his controls in his usual little dance. Rose laughed, her tongue poking at the corner of her mouth.
"Not as much as you," she said.
"Well, I just like them a bit," the Doctor said, throwing a lever triumphantly and standing back, watching the column grind up and down. "Bananas are good."
"So, come on, tell me," Rose said. "Where're we going now?"
"Banana groves of Villengard," the Doctor said.
Rose put a hand to her mouth and looked at him with wide eyes. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah! Course I'm serious," the Doctor said. He tilted his head to the side. "Bananas? Good?"
"It's just," Rose faltered, then went on, "It's just that I thought Jack was from around then, or I thought he might have mentioned that, or something."
"Yeah, he might have done," the Doctor said, his enthusiasm waning a bit. Then his manic grin was back. "No matter! Just you and me, Rose, a nice little walk through the banana trees. Sounds nice, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, I s'pose," Rose said.
"We could go somewhere else," the Doctor offered after a few moments of silence, eyeing her apathetic reception to their destination.
"No, it's fine, really," Rose said, smiling. "Really," she added, when the Doctor's eyebrows went up in a questioning manner.
"All right, then," the Doctor said, "Tropical wonderland, here we co-"
The TARDIS gave a frightening shriek, and both Rose and the Doctor were tossed to the side of the room by the door. Rose sat up and held her head, while the Doctor sprang up and fought the shaking of the whole ship to get back to the controls.
"Doctor, what's going on?" Rose asked, picking herself up and falling over again.
The Doctor didn't answer right away; he was bent over the screen on the console, holding on and trying not to pitch across the room.
"Doctor!" Rose shouted over the noise, in his face after struggling to grip the console across from him.
"It's the TARDIS," the Doctor said tersely.
"I got that part!" Rose yelled.
"We're being pulled toward something, like the TARDIS is attracted to whatever it is."
"What is 'whatever it is'?"
"Rose, would I call it 'whatever it is' if I knew whatever it actually is?"
"Can't you do something?" Rose asked.
Another enormous jolt that sent the pair of them straight to the ground answered Rose's question for her.
"We've landed," the Doctor said, rubbing his arm.
"Not the banana groves, I take it?" Rose said.
"I'm not sure," the Doctor admitted. He was up now and looking at that screen again, just as confused as Rose. He didn't look well, she noted. His dark eyes seemed watery and his face drawn and lined.
"Should we go take a look?" Rose suggested when the Doctor was slow to do so.
The Doctor swallowed and nodded. "Yes, I think so."
Rose frowned. "You okay?"
"I'm always okay," the Doctor said, letting Rose clearly know that he wasn't. But he grabbed his long coat from the support beam by the door, and Rose followed, wondering what they would find.