The console room lurched violent, almost tipping ninety degrees to the side, the Doctor holding onto his umbrella as it held firm to the console. Suddenly the ship righted itself, the Doctor landing on the floor with a thud.

"Right then," he said, rolling his r's and brushing some dust of his question mark sweater. "What was that all about then?"

He waited, knowing at any moment his companion would ask him a question about what had happened, and he'd get a chance to show off how brilliant he was... or at least stall while he himself tried to figure it out.

But there was not 'Professor'. There was no question. The Doctor looked up to see his companion completely gone. He quickly scanned the console room, but she wasn't there.

"Ace?" he asked, concerned. Something had just snatched his friend from the TARDIS, while also managing to time ram him almost out of existence. "Ace!"

The only response he got was the TARDIS shuddering as it landed. The Doctor checked the instruments. Everything seemed fine, and it was no use hiding away inside his TARDIS. Something took his friend, and they were going to regret it greatly.

"Ace!" cried the Doctor, as he stepped out the TARDIS. "Are you here?"

"None of your friends are here Doctor," said a cruel, familiar voice. "There's only you."

"The Rani," scowled the Doctor, turning to face his arch-foe pointing some sort of fancy gun towards him. "I should have known you were the one behind all this. Who else could so skilfully mess with the fabric of space and time. I'd admire your genius if it wasn't so despicable."

"Spare me your dribble Doctor," said the Rani dryly. "Keep quiet, and you might just learn something."

"What are you doing here?" demanded the Doctor. "And what have you done with Ace?"

"Oh your poor, slow little man," laughed the Rani. "You really have no idea what's going on, do you?"

"I know you were the one who hi-jacked my TARDIS and brought me here, 23rd November, 1993, in the East End of London. I also know you've been messing about with my timeline, and that you've also taken me to 1972 and 2013. But to what end?"

"Isn't it obvious Doctor? A most ingenious trap, if I say so myself. Oh come now, do you need me to spell it out for you?"

"You might as well," said the Doctor. "Who am I to deny a good monologue."

The Rani sneered, but her ego got in the way of her common sense.

"You see, Doctor, it's a simple time loop. You arrive with your companion, realize something is amiss, and then precisely 737 seconds after you arrive you try to leave, causing you to be thrown back through the time loop to begin again."

"A simple time loop?" said the Doctor. "I fail to see why you'd go through all this trouble for such a childish toy."

"Oh my dear Doctor, how I pity your limited scope. Yes, one time loop would be nothing... but three, happening simultaneously... Yes, even your TARDIS would struggle to get out of that one. You could of course do it, with time... the one thing you do not have!"

"In what way?" said the Doctor, as he started counting down the seconds in his head.

"You see, Doctor, it's your friends that make you weak. All I had to do was use the time scoop to jumble up your companions, and you become too distracted with their safety to see the bigger picture. Add to that the excruciating pain of your past and future selves being trapped in the time loop and, well, you just don't have enough time to figure it all out."

"But now that I know your plan, what's to stop me from thwarting it?"

"You think you can break yourself out of three time loops at the same time? Don't be absurd. Even if you could co-ordinate with your past selves, you'll never be able to focus on so many things at once."

"So that's your plan... Tell me, why the East End of all places?"

"Can you think of any worse place to torture you?"

The Doctor had to admit, she had a point. Still, if he kept her talking, she might slip up and reveal something of key importance.

"Why do all this?" asked the Doctor. "It seems like an awful lot of effort?"

"Why?" spat the Rani. "Why? Because of all the terrible things you have done to this universe, Doctor. All the havoc you have caused with your decisions. Thanks to you, our entire race is going to be wiped out, including me! You think I'm just going to stand by and let us doom you all. No, if you're here, trapped forever in this dimension of time, then your interference will be gone. The Daleks will be destroyed, and the Time War will never happen!"

The Doctor said nothing, clearly aware that he was being told future events he had yet to have a part of. Instead his mind raced with possibilities, as he tried to work out the best way of beating the Rani and escaping this predicament.

"One more thing," asked the Doctor. "How do you plan to escape the trap yourself?"

"Oh Doctor," she said, as she levelled the gun. "You really think I'd tell you?"

"You can't kill me, can you," said the Doctor quickly. "Doing so would disrupt your plan."

"I'm not going to kill you," said the Rani, a devilish grin on her face. "This sonic beam will leave you in unending agony, lasting just long enough for you to make your way back to the TARDIS, at which point the whole cycle will begin again. So while this will only last a few minutes-" She let out a chuckle and aimed the gun "it's going to feel like centuries. Goodbye, Doctor. Enjoy being stranded here forever!"

END OF PART 1