On a warm afternoon in the country, a light wind toys with the blades of tall grass, and a bird's song ripples across the field, lilting and complex. The songbird is perched on top of a blue light that is mounted on top of a blue box. The box, which is tall enough for a person to walk into upright through its' one double door, is perched across both rails of a railroad track. Abruptly the bird stops its' song and takes to the sky.
Suddenly, an unlikely couple round a bend in the tracks running into view as the staccato blasts of a trains' horn fill the silence. In a frantic rush, they sprint wildly towards the blue box, eyes wide and gasping for air. With the train looming closer, the man and woman slide to a hard stop against the door. Fumbling at the lock for just a second, they fall inside.
"Come on! Let's go!" the woman shouts turning to look back through the door.
"Aaaak!" the man yelled tripping and hitting the floor hard. "Who put that there?"
"Doctor!" the woman insisted with all the urgency she can muster, "we need to go NOW!" Jumping to a central console, the Doctor begins to pull levers, twist dials, and push buttons, his arms a blur of motion.
"Hold on Donna," the Doctor called out, "this is going to be close."
A few meters away and closing fast, the warning of the trains' horn is punctuated by the yells and shouts coming from inside the box. The Tardis' engines slowly come to life, and the blue box adds a loud pulsing noise to the cacophony. As the screaming iron fury of the locomotive reaches the box, the Tardis starts to fade away.
The train, now barely visible, tears through the cabin like a giant spectral anaconda, and Donna grabs the door to keep from being swept along with it. The Doctor, teeth clenched and white knuckled, grips the controls as the Tardis bucks and shudders. With one last violent lurch and an inaudible "pop", the train disappears, and the din of steel wheels, air horns, and temporal engines is replaced with a thick silence.
"Are you alright?" the Doctor asks striding towards his companion.
"Am I alright?" Donna starts as she gets up from the floor. "Am I alright? I could literally count the bugs stuck to the front of that train as it was about to run me over, and you ask if I'm alright?"
"Well, are you?"
"What I want to know is what took you so long?" she asked poking him in the chest with each word. "What was so important that it got your attention while running in front of a train?" she demanded. Just as the Doctor is about to reply she continues, "And how'd the Tardis get on the tracks anyway?"
"This is incredible," the Doctor commented looking over at his monitor.
"Yeah, it's incredible," Donna said, "incredible we're still alive as slow as you are!"
"No, the odds against this are astronomical," he continued in a reverent tone.
"Against what?" she demanded growing more agitated.
"They're phenomenal," excitement growing in his voice.
"What is"
"Actually, they're phenomenally astronomical," he finished triumphantly.
"That train must have really hit you after all, Doctor," she said giving up.
"No, it's the odds against anyone winding up here, of all places."
"OK, you got me I'll ask, where are we," Donna asked rolling her eyes.
"We're exactly nowhere."