Chapter 4

The Beginning of the End . . . of Time

The TARDIS materialised in the snowy landscape of the Ood sphere, and the Doctor stepped out in his brown pinstriped suit and long brown coat. He was wearing sunglasses, a straw Stetson and a lei. Rose came out behind him in a padded ski suit, also wearing sunglasses, a Stetson and a lei. She was carrying their six month old daughter Andrea, who was dressed in a baby ski suit.

Sigma Ood was waiting for them.

'Oh, hello Sigma,' Rose said. 'Look Sweetheart, its Sigma Ood. Say hello,' she said, lifting Andrea's arm and waving it for her.

'Hello Rose. And welcome Andrea,' Sigma said with a slight bow.

The Doctor strolled forward with his hands in his pockets. 'Ah! Now, sorry. There you are. So, where were we? I was summoned, wasn't I? An Ood in the snow, calling to me.'

'Eh?' Rose asked. 'Whatcha mean summoned? An Ood in the snow callin' ya?'

'Ah! Er, it was when we dropped Adelaide and her crew off. Didn't want to worry you. Probably nothing.' He looked back to Sigma. 'It is nothing isn't it? So anyway, we didn't exactly come straight here. Had a bit of fun, you know. Travelled about . . . did this and that. Got into trouble. You know us. It was brilliant. I saw the Phosphorous Carousel of the Great Magellan Gestadt, saved a planet from the Red Carnivorous Maw, named a galaxy Alison . . . Ahem. Anyway, what do you want?'

'You should not have delayed,' Sigma told him.

'The last time I was here you said my song would be ending soon, and I'm in no hurry for that.'

'You will come with me.'

'Hold on. Better lock the TARDIS,' he said and pointed a remote key at the blue, wooden box. The door locked and the light flashed as it beeped. Rose giggled at the new modification, she thought it was brilliant.

'See? Like a car. I locked it like a car. Like . . . It's funny. No? Little bit?' Sigma turned and walked away. The Doctor looked at Rose and blew out his cheeks. 'Blimey, try to make an Ood laugh,' he said under his breath.

Rose bumped shoulders with him. 'They never seemed to be the laughing sort to me . . . more the disapprovin', tuttin' parent sort.'

'So how old are you now, Ood Sigma?' the Doctor asked as they caught up with him, and then he saw their city, built into the rock and ice on multiple levels. 'Ah! Magnificent.'

Sigma didn't react. The Doctor hudged his shoulder. 'Oh, come on, that is splendid. You've achieved all this in how long?'

'One hundred years.'

Rose felt the Doctor's mood suddenly change. His face became very serious. 'Then we've got a problem. Because all of this is way too fast. Not just the city, I mean your ability to call me. Reaching all the way back to the twenty first century. Something's accelerating your species way beyond normal.'

'Not nothin' then,' Rose said.

'And the Mind of the Ood is troubled.'

'Why, what's happened?' the Doctor asked.

'Every night, Doctor, every night we have bad dreams.'

Sigma led them to the Ood Council, where a number of Ood in monk's robes were sitting in a circle around a small fire, in an ice cave lit with candles. The Ood in white robes was wafting incense towards him and inhaling as he chanted.

'Returning, returning, returning, it is slowly returning through the dark and the fire and the blood. Always returning, returning to this world. It is returning, and he is returning, and they are returning, but too late. Too late. Far too late. He has come.'

'Sit with the Elder of the Ood and share the dreaming,' Sigma offered.

Rose nudged him and nodded at the group sitting on the floor. 'Go on then, enjoy your nap.'

The Doctor sat in the circle. 'So, right . . . Hallo.'

'You will join. You will join. You will join. You will join. You will join. You will join. You will join,' they chanted.

The Doctor linked hands with the Ood and saw the laughing face of the Master. Rose saw him flinch and break the circle. She felt his denial and disbelief in her mind.

'He comes to us every night. I think all the peoples of the universe dream of him now.'

'Who does?' Rose asked in concern.

'That man is dead,' the Doctor told them.

['Who is?'] Rose asked in his head. He showed her the vision he had seen, and she gasped in horror.

'There is yet more,' the Elder Ood told him. 'Join us. Events are taking shape. So many years ago, and yet changing the now. There is a man . . . So scared.'

The Doctor saw Wilfred Mott sitting at a table. 'Wilfred. Is he all right?'

'You should not have delayed, for the lines of convergence are being drawn across the Earth. Even now, the king is in his Counting house,' the Elder Ood said cryptically.

The Doctor was given images of a dark skinned man and his daughter being photographed. 'I don't know who they are.'

The Elder continued. 'And there is another. The most lonely of all . . . lost and forgotten.'

The Doctor saw a woman in a dark prison cell. 'The Master's wife.'

'We see so much, but understand little,' Sigma told them. 'The woman in the cage, who is she?'

'She was . . . It wasn't her fault, she was . . . The Master, he's a Time Lord, like me. I can show you.' He showed the Ood images of the Master and his wife on the Valiant, from the year that never was. 'The Master took the name of Saxon. He married a human, a woman called Lucy. And he corrupted her. She stood at his side while he conquered the Earth. I reversed everything he'd done so it never even happened, but Lucy Saxon remembered. I held him in my arms. I burnt his body. The Master is dead.'

'And yet, you did not see,' the Elder added.

'What's that?' the Doctor asked.

He heard the Master's laughter echoing in his head as he saw a woman picking up the Master's signet ring.

'Part of him survived. I have to go!' he said, and tried to stand. The Ood gripped his hands tighter and pulled him back down.

'But something more is happening, Doctor' the Elder told him. 'The Master is part of a greater design, because a shadow is falling over creation. Something vast is stirring in the dark. The Ood have gained this power to see through time, because time is bleeding. Shapes of things once lost are moving through the veil, and these events from years ago threaten to destroy this future, and the present, and the past.'

The Doctor frowned and Rose was worried. 'Doctor, what do they mean?'

'This is what we have seen, Doctor. The darkness heralds only one thing . . .'

'The end of time itself,' the ring of Ood said together.

The Doctor broke the circle, grabbed Rose's hand, and ran out of the cave, back to the TARDIS. He unlocked the door with his remote key fob and rushed inside. Rose followed him in and shut the door, running up the ramp and fastening Andrea into her baby jump seat.

'Where are we goin' in such a hurry?' Rose asked, as sparks flew from the console.

'To find Lucy Saxon. She's either going to try and bring the Master back, or someone is going to use her to bring him back. Either way, we've got to get to her and stop it.'

When the TARDIS stopped swaying, bucking and sparking it's way through the Vortex, the Doctor stopped the Time Rotor, and ran down the ramp to exit the TARDIS. Rose stood in the door of the TARDIS as the Doctor walked through the light dusting of snow towards the burnt out remains of Broadfell Prison.

'We're too late,' he told her, turning back towards the TARDIS. 'He's back . . . I can sense him.'

'But how?' Rose asked. She'd seen him die and burn on a funeral pyre.

'Dunno. He must have set up an escape plan. Probably brainwashed a group of people to reconstitute his cellular matrix.'

They went back inside the TARDIS, and the Doctor started scanning for an Artron energy signature. After a few seconds, he found what he was looking for.

'Gotcha!' he called out, and started the Time Rotor.

'Where is he?'

'Waste ground down in the Docklands.' He stopped the Time Rotor, and held Rose's shoulders. 'I need to see him alone, so I want you to stay in the TARDIS with Andrea.'

'But . . .' Rose started to protest.

'I know . . . but I need you to watch the monitor. He may have some brainwashed henchmen out there. If you see anything suspicious, let me know.'

'How?'

He gave her that dribbled down her blouse look. ['Like this.']

['Oh Yeah . . . Sorry.']

He grinned at her and pulled her into a hug and a passionate kiss, before heading down the ramp and out of the doors.

A little later, the Doctor stood on the edge of an excavation on the waste ground, and looked over the warehouses towards the docks and the river. He sniffed deeply, searching the air for the Master's scent, and he found it. He was close.

Boom . . . Boom . . . Boom . . .Boom.

Someone was banging on an oil drum. Four times. Could you call banging, knocking? The Doctor wondered. He hoped not.

Boom . . . Boom . . . Boom . . .Boom.

He looked around, worked out where the sound was coming from, and set off at a run.

Boom, boom, boom, boom.

He ran through piles of girders on the dockside until he saw the Master on a mound of rubble against the skyline. The Master roared at him and leaped high into the air . . . impossibly high. The Doctor realised that he must be burning up his Artron energy at an enormous rate.

He gave chase through the wasteland until he saw the Master waiting for him on a pile of girders, a big malevolent grin on his face. His skeleton flashed briefly under his skin. The Doctor was right, the Master was burning up out of control.

'Please, let me help,' the Doctor pleaded. 'You're burning up your own life force.'

The Master gave him a look which said "as if", and he jumped off the girders and ran away. The Doctor ran around the pile of girders in pursuit.

['Oh, be careful Love. It looks like he's got backup behind those girders. It might be an ambush,'] Rose told him as she watched the events on the scanner.

['Thanks Love. How many are there, and how big do they look?'] he asked as he ran around the girders

['About a dozen of them . . . but they look a bit old to be henchmen. He must be losing his touch.']

As the Doctor ran around the girders, he was met enthusiastically by Wilfred Mott, and a group of pensioners. 'Oh, my gosh, Doctor. You're a sight for sore eyes.'

'Out of my way!' the Doctor shouted as he tried to pursue the Master. He climbed a stack of girders, and looked out over the docklands. The Master was nowhere to be seen.

'Did we do it? Is that him?' an elderly, dark skinned man asked.

'Tall and thin, big brown coat,' a man dressed in a suit said.

'The Silver Cloak. It worked!' a silver haired woman in a red coat exclaimed as the Doctor climbed down off the girders. 'Because Wilf phoned Netty, who phoned June, and her sister lives opposite Broadfell, and she saw the police box, and her neighbour saw this man heading east.'

'Wilfred?' the Doctor said.

'Yeah?'

He leaned in close and whispered. 'Have you told them who I am? You promised me.'

'No, I just said you were a doctor, that's all. And might I say, sir, it is an honour to see you again.' Wilf saluted him.

'Oh, but you never said he was a looker. He's gorgeous,' the silver haired woman said. 'Take a photo.' She handed a camera to the man in the suit.

'Not bad, eh? Me next,' the suit man said with a look that would make Jack Harkness blush.

'I'm Minnie. Minnie the Menace. It's a long time since I had a photo with a handsome man,' the silver haired woman said as she wrapped her arm around his waist.

'Just get off him. Leave him alone, will you?' Wilf told her as the rest of the group huddled around the Doctor.

'Hush, you old misery. Come on, Doctor. Give us a smile.' The Doctor grimaced. 'That's it.'

The man in the suit took a picture. 'Hold on. Did it flash?'

'No, there's a blue light. Try again,' Minnie told him.

'I'm all fingers and thumbs.'

The Doctor tried to extricate himself from the huddle. 'I'm really kind of busy, you know.'

'Oh, it won't take a tick. Keep smiling,' Minnie said.

'Is that your ha-HAND, Minnie?' the Doctor asked, jumping as she squeezed his bum.

'Good boy,' Minnie said with a mischievous smile.

'Did you just goose my husband's bum?' a voice said behind them. They turned around to see Rose walking towards them with a grin on her face. Andrea was suspended in a harness in front of her.

'Oh, I hope you don't mind dear. He's got a lovely bum.'

Rose laughed. 'I know. Good on ya girl, it was worth it just to see the look on his face.'

'And you've got a little baby,' Minnie noticed. 'Isn't she gorgeous.' The pensioners started cooing over Andrea, who seemed to love the attention.

'Hello again, Rose,' Wilf said, kissing her on the cheek. 'Donna said you'd had a little girl.'

The Doctor interrupted the cosy little get together. 'Did you see where he went?'

'No, sorry. The scanner was focussed on you in case you were headin' into an ambush.'

A minibus dropped the Doctor, Rose and Wilf off outside a cafe.

'Come on, then. Here we are, hurry up,' Wilf said. He waved to the pensioners on the minibus. 'Bye. You behave, bye.'

He led them into the cafe. 'Over here, come on.'

They sat down at a table and ordered three cups of tea. 'Oh, we had some good times, didn't we though?' Wilf said. 'I mean, all those ATMOS things, and planets in the sky, and me with that paint gun.' He paused, as though he was reluctant to continue. 'I keep seeing things, Doctor . . . This face at night.'

'Who are you?' the Doctor asked him with an intense look.

'I'm Wilfred Mott.'

'No. People have waited hundreds of years to find me and then you manage it in a few hours.'

'Well, I'm just lucky I suppose.'

'No, we keep on meeting, Wilf. Over and over again like something's still connecting us,' the Doctor said.

'What I can't understand, is why you didn't just ask Donna for my number if you wanted to talk to him,' Rose said, as she played with Andrea.

'Well, I didn't want to trouble her, bein' so busy like, what with the weddin' and all.'

Rose's face lit up. 'Weddin'? She's gettin' married to that bloke . . . what was his name? Shaun wasn't it?'

'Yeah, that's him. He's sweet enough . . . He's a bit of a dreamer,' Wilf said to her kindly, and then looked at the Doctor. 'So, what's so important about me?'

'Exactly. Why you?' he said.

Rose could sense that something was troubling him. 'Are you all right? You seem a bit distracted.'

He hesitated and looked out of the window before speaking again. 'I was just thinking about the prophecy. The Master banged that oil drum four times.'

Rose looked surprised. 'Wha? Don't tell me you actually think there's somethin' to it.' Sigma Ood had told him that his song would be ending soon, when they had been on the Ood planet. And then a woman called Carmen, who had been on the bus that had travelled to San Helios had said it. But she had elaborated. "It is returning. It is returning through the dark. And then, Doctor? Oh, but then he will knock four times".

'What prophecy?' Wilf asked.

'I'm going to die,' the Doctor told him.

'Well, so am I, one day,' Wilf replied.

'Don't you dare,' the Doctor told him with a smile.

'All right, I'll try not to,' Wilf chuckled.

'But I was told. He will knock four times. That was the prophecy. Knock four times, and then . . .' The Master had returned through the darkness of death. And he had knocked four times on that oil drum.

'Yeah, but I thought, when I saw you before, you said your people could change, like, your whole body,' Wilf recalled.

'I can still die. If I'm killed before regeneration, then I'm dead. Even then, even if I change, it feels like dying.'

'Oh my Love,' Rose said with tears in her eyes, remembering that Christmas when he'd changed from the man in the leather jacket to who he was now.

He squeezed her hand as he continued to explain to Wilf. 'Everything I am dies. Some new man goes sauntering away, and I'm dead.'

Rose was upset, because he'd never explained that to her before. 'You said you were dyin', and to save your own life you changed your body . . . But you told me you were still you, you never told me that you really died.'

He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her towards him, kissing the top of her head. 'You were upset and traumatised when it happened. I didn't want to make it worse for you. And don't you remember, I still have all my memories, and aren't memories the thing that makes the person who they are?'

Rose looked into his concerned eyes. 'Yeah, I suppose. But you should have told me.'

'Yeah, sorry.' He released her from the hug and slapped his hands on the table. 'Right then. Time to track him down. I've got a date with destiny.'

'Do you have to?' Rose asked. 'Can't you leave it to UNIT or somethin'?' But she already knew the answer.

It was dark when the Doctor finally tracked the Master down to an abandoned warehouse. Electrical energy sparked in the Master's hands as the Doctor walked towards him. The Master's skull showed through his skin as he fired a beam of energy past the Doctor and created an explosion behind him.

The Doctor didn't even flinch as he continued to approach, fires burned behind him. Another warning shot passed on his other side, and again he ignored it. He saw the Master rubbing his hands together, creating crackling static charges.

The third beam hit the Doctor squarely in the chest, stopping him moving forward. Finally the energy stopped and the Doctor fell to his knees. The Master caught and held him, looking at the only other Time Lord in the universe. He then gave him a look of contempt and let him fall to the ground.

He crouched down and spoke to the Doctor, who was lying on the floor, struggling to breath. 'I had estates. Do you remember my father's land back home? Pastures of red grass, stretching far across the slopes of Mount Perdition. We used to run across those fields all day, calling up at the sky. Look at us now.'

The Doctor did remember. He saw the red lawns which led to the orchard of Magenta Fruits, where Trunkikes nested in the branches, and Silverband Flutterwings would pollinate the blooms. In the summer they would go down to the Cadonflood River, where they'd watch the jousting Neversuch beetles on the bank, the clacking of their antlers filling the warm air, and they'd fish for Yaddlefish in the crystal clear water.

All that was many lifetimes ago. A lifetime of innocence and freedom. The Doctor slowly recovered. 'All that eloquence. But how many people have you killed?'

'I am so hungry.'

'Your resurrection went wrong. That energy. Your body's ripped open. Now you're killing yourself.'

'That human Christmas out there. They eat so much. All that roasting meat, cakes and red wine. Hot, fat, blood, food. Pots, plates of meat, and flesh, and grease, and juice, and baking, burnt, sticky hot skin. Hot. It's so hot.'

'Stop it,' the Doctor told him.

'Sliced. Sliced. Sliced.'

'Stop it.'

'It's mine. It's mine. It's mine to eat and eat and eat.'

'Stop it!' the Doctor demanded. The Master covered his head with his arms. 'What if I ask you for help? There's more at work tonight than you and me.'

He uncovered his head and laughed. 'Oh yeah?'

'I've been told something is returning.'

'And here I am,' the Master said with wild eyes.

'No, something more.'

He held his head again. 'But it hurts.'

'I was told the end of time.'

'It hurts. Doctor, the noise. The noise in my head, Doctor. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four,' he said quickly, banging his head with his fist. 'Stronger than ever before. Can't you hear it?'

'I'm sorry.'

'Listen . . . listen, listen, listen. Every minute, every second, every beat of my hearts, there it is, calling to me. Please listen.'

'I can't hear it.'

The Master held the Doctor's head, and rested his forehead against his. 'Listen.'

Dum-dum-dum-dum, dum-dum-dum-dum.

The Doctor heard the beat and pulled away with a gasp.

'What?'

The Doctor looked at him in amazement. 'But . . .'

'What!?'

'I heard it. But there's no noise. There never has been. It's just your insanity . . . What is it? What's inside your head?'

The Master laughed with delight. 'It's real. It's real . . . IT'S REAL!' At last, he knew he wasn't insane. The noise was real. He fired two beams of energy downwards from his hands, propelling him into the air and out of the warehouse.

The Doctor ran after him out of the warehouse, and saw him standing on a mound of rubble.

'All these years, you thought I was mad,' the Master accused him. 'King of the wasteland. But something is calling me, Doctor. What is it . . ? What is it? WHAT IS IT?'

A bright light shone down on the Master, then a second one illuminated the Doctor. A pair of soldiers abseiled down on ropes, grabbed the Master and injected him with something to knock him out.

'Don't!' the Doctor called out as he ran towards them. Automatic gunfire peppered the ground in front of him, and he ran off to the side to try and circle around.

'Let him go!' he shouted as the Master was hoisted into the air. Something sharp hit him in the back, and his head started to spin.

['Doctor? Doctor, what's wrong?'] He heard Rose calling in his head as everything went dark.

'Ooh look. Silly Daddy is wakin' up,' the Doctor heard Rose say in an echoey voice. 'Just in time for a cup of tea . . . although, he don't deserve it,' she said, a little less echoey that time.

He opened one eye, and saw he was in the Medi-bay of the TARDIS. Rose had a lopsided smile on her face, and Andrea was looking at him with her usual expression of bemused fascination.

'Hello Sweetheart,' he said kissing his daughter's cheek. 'Hello Love,' he said, kissing his wife on the lips and accepting a mug of tea.

Rose picked up a tranquiliser dart off the tray and held it up. 'So, who shot ya then?'

'The same people who took the Master. I've lost him, and there's something big going down.'

'So how do we find 'im then . . . and I mean WE. Y' ain't gonna go off on yer own again to get shot with a dart.'

He opened his mouth to protest, thought better of it, and took a sip of his tea instead. He gave her a grin, before speaking. 'Wilfred Mott!'

'Eh?'

He put his mug down and sat Andrea on his lap. 'Donna's granddad, somehow he's connected to all this. I just have to work out how. So, we'll finish our cuppas and go and find him.'

The TARDIS landed outside the Nobles' home, and Donna was already out of the front door. Having been in the TARDIS, she was more attuned to the sound of its engines.

'Merry Christmas,' she said to the Doctor, who hurried past her.

'Are you sure?' he said distractedly as he headed for her grandfather who was coming out of the house.

'Christmas? Wha', today? Really?' said Rose as she stepped out with Andrea.

'Don't tell me ya didn't know,' Donna said with a frown and then smiled at Andrea, holding her hands out to hold her. 'Ooh, ain't she grown?'

Shaun and Sylvia walked past the Doctor, wishing him a merry Christmas, and went to see Andrea.

'I lost him,' the Doctor told the old soldier. 'I was unconscious. He's still on Earth, I can smell him, but he's too far away.'

Wilf was still disturbed by the woman he had seen on the television who had interrupted the Queen's speech. 'Oh, that's a shame. But I don't know why you are tellin' me.'

'You're the only one, Wilf. The only connection I can think of. You're involved, if I could work out how,' the Doctor told him. A hint of urgency in his voice. 'Tell me, have you seen anything? I don't know. Anything strange, anything odd?'

'Well, there was a . . .' he was going to tell him about the woman on the television, but remembered that the woman had told him not to tell the Doctor. "Tell the Doctor nothing of this. His life could still be saved, so long as you tell him nothing."

'What? What is it? Tell me,' the Doctor demanded.

'Well, it was . . .' He wanted to help the Doctor, but this information would somehow put him in danger. 'No, it's nothing.'

'Think-a think-a think. Maybe something out of the blue. Something connected to your life . . . Something.

Wilf remembered when Donna had given him his Christmas present earlier. 'Well, Donna was a bit strange. She had a funny little moment, this morning, all because of that book.'

'What book?'

As Wilf went inside to get the book, Rose and the others wandered over.

'So, did ya know it was Christmas day?' Rose asked him accusingly.

'Eh?' he said distractedly and then brought his attention back to his wife and daughter. 'Oh, yeah . . . sort of. I've been a bit busy trying to find a psychopathic Time Lord. And anyway, we can land on every Christmas day there's ever been if we want to.'

'Yeah, I know. But it would have been nice for Andrea if we'd have bought her presents and decorated the TARDIS.'

'Psychopathic Time Lord?' Donna asked worriedly.

The Doctor flashed her a smile. 'Nothing to worry about . . . Wellll, not much anyway . . . Welll, I'm working on it.'

'His name's Joshua Naismith,' Wilf interrupted, bringing out the book to show the Doctor.

'That's the man,' the Doctor told him. 'I was shown him by the Ood.'

'By the what?' Wilf asked.

'By the Ood,' Rose repeated.

'What's the Ood?'

'They're just the Ood,' the Doctor told him. 'But it's all part of the convergence. Maybe? It may be touching Donna's subconscious from when she was on the Ood planet.' He turned to Donna. 'Why this book?'

'I dunno. It just seemed to catch my eye when I went into WH Smiths. I don't even know what it's about, but I just thought it was something that Gramps would need . . . I mean want.'

'No, you said need. And I think you're right, because he needed it so that he could show it to me. Come on Rose, we've got to go.'

'Yeah, me too,' Wilf said.

'Dad? Don't be silly. It's Christmas,' Sylvia said.

'I know, but the Doctor says I'm part of this somehow,' he said, remembering the woman in the church and on the television. 'An' if he needs me, then I'll be there for 'im.'

'Well, if he's goin', I'm goin' too,' Donna said.

'No, y'don't need to do that Sweetheart,' Wilf told her.

'Yes I do Gramps,' Donna said, grabbing Shaun's hand. 'C'mon, I've been waitin' to show ya the inside of this mad box for ages.'

They went past the Doctor and Rose, who had bemused expressions on their faces. 'Ever felt like you've been left out of the decision making process?' the Doctor asked Rose with a lopsided smile.

'Frequently,' she replied with a laugh.

'Stay right where you are,' Sylvia said to Wilf as he went to follow Donna and Shaun into the TARDIS. 'And get those two out here right now.'

'I'll be back soon,' Wilf said hurrying into the TARDIS.

'Just you listen to me. I forbid it. Get out of there!' Sylvia demanded as the door shut and the TARDIS started to dematerialise. 'Doctor, bring my family back right now! Come back here! Come back here, I said! Come back!'

Shaun was looking around the vaulted room with his mouth open. 'So it's true! Everythin' you said about this place . . . it's all true.'

The Doctor handed Wilf the book as he circled the console. 'Naismith. If I can track him down . . .' He looked up and saw the look on the old soldier's face. 'Ah. Right. Yes . . . Bigger on the inside. Do you like it?'

'I thought it'd be cleaner,' is all Wilf could think of saying. He thought space ships would be like the Enterprise on Star Trek. All new and shiny.

'I do my best to keep it tidy,' Rose said. 'The kitchen is spotless, but it's SO big for one housewife to keep clean.'

'Oh, I didn't mean any offence,' Wilf said. 'But listen, Doctor, if this is a time machine, that man you're chasing, why can't you just pop back to yesterday and catch him?'

'I can't go back inside my own timeline. I have to stay relative to the Master within the causal nexus. Understand?'

Wilf nodded and then shook his head. 'Not a word.'

Rose laughed. 'Just smile and nod,' she advised him. 'That's what we do,' she said, nodding towards Donna, who was cuddling Andrea.

'Welcome aboard,' the Doctor said.

'Thank you.'

The Doctor landed the TARDIS and shut down the console. 'Right, everyone wait here and I'll go and find the Master.' As he moved towards the ramp leading to the doors, Rose took Andrea off Donna and followed him.

'Where do you think you're going?' he said sternly.

'I'm goin' to follow you so that I can pick you up when you get shot by another dart.'

'But you can't do that! It might be dangerous out there, and we've got Andrea to think of,' he said, trying to make her realise that their life had changed now that they had a child to look after.

'We could baby-sit,' Donna offered hesitantly to try and diffuse the situation.

'Oh would you Donna? That's really kind of you to offer,' Rose said as she handed her daughter back to her.

'What?' the Doctor said, realising that no one was taking any notice of him.

'She's got some bottles in the fridge, and there's a little cot in the living room for her to have a nap,' Rose finished, kissing Andrea on her forehead. 'Be a good girl for Auntie Donna now.'

Wilf chuckled. 'I think you've been out flanked, lad.'

The Doctor gave him a stern frown. 'Story of my life. I often wonder if I said "come on let's run headlong into danger and almost certain death", if people would then stay put.'

Rose came and kissed him on the cheek. 'Not a chance,' she said with a cheeky grin, and headed down the ramp to the doors. 'You comin' or what?'