It was brilliant, travelling with the Doctor; you never knew what's going to happen next

It was brilliant, travelling with the Doctor; you never knew what's going to happen next. Which alien world you were going to set foot on. What problems and adventures would come along and how you would deal with them. You never really knew. The one thing that you did know though was that with the Doctor, everything that could go wrong would.

The Doctor had promised Rose a holiday, one without monsters and without adventures; she was really looking forward to it. Sure, this life was fantastic but as she had soon learned there was only so far you could go on adrenaline before you had a nervous breakdown. So he'd said that he'd take her to the Caliphorcus system. Doesn't sound very holidayish, does it. But the Doctor assured her that it was a system of paradise planets, one planet was made up of only beaches and water, no cities, no nothing, and that was the one they were going to. It sounded wonderful, she couldn't wait.

"Almost there," The Doctor's cry jolted her out of her thoughts and she hurried quickly to the control room. He was dancing around the console like a madman, pushing buttons, pulling levers and generally acting like a four year old.

"Nearly, nearly." The Tardis landed with a shuddering jolt that knocked them both off their feet.

"Come on then," The Doctor was already prancing around the door with his great coat over one arm and holding the other out to her. She accepted and after pulling herself up and straitening her clothes stepped out of the Tardis ahead of the Doctor.

"Oh!" she started, throwing her arms around herself. It was freezing.

"Ah, well that can happen."

"What can happen?"

"I think I might have over-shot a little bit," was the Doctor's lame excuse.

"A little bit!"

"Well, only 3,000 miles. Well, only 10 solar systems. Come on, let's explore."

And before she knew what was happening she had been yanked off in the direction of what looked like a great big heap of snow.

"Who are they?"

Male. Is. Unknown. Species.

Female. Is. Human.

"Where did they come from?"

A picture appeared on the screen, it was of the Tardis.

"What is it?"

Sensors. Indicate. Ship.

"Upload ships memory banks."

Ship. Blocking. All. Attempts. To. Access.

"What is the origin of the blocking technology?"

Unknown.

A chair was thumped in frustration.

"So, what'd you think?" The Doctor was standing next to the big, white lump, studying it; his glasses perched on his nose.

"It looks like a lump of snow," she answered slowly. If she said anything fast she was afraid that she'd have hit the Doctor. They'd been standing in the freezing cold air for about half an hour just studying this blob.

The Doctor turned and looked at her, his face having a look that she recognised as 'Humans!'

"No, it's and escape pod."

"An escape pod," she asked getting closer and prodding it curiously. "Is it empty?"

"Well of course it's empty. Or I would already be trying to get it open," said the Doctor, sighing.

"OK, so what species built this?"

"I would have to say …… Reeds."

"As in … pond reeds."

"No, as in balls of squeegee stuff that takes on others species' forms."

"He knows of our species. Identify him."

Unknown. Species.

No. Record. Of. Birth.

"The female is human, identify her."

Confirmed. Human. Female.

Name. Is. Rose. Tyler.