Hello and welcome to one of my favorite episodes ever: New Earth! Enjoy the show...as I say every time.
We stepped out of the Tardis and Rose squealed. She grabbed my hand and we did some kind of little dance as the Doctor stood back and grinned.
"I will never get tired of this. Will you Rose? New ground beneath my feet. Different sky! Oh I love it."
Rose scrunched her nose. "What's that smell?"
The Doctor leaned down and plucked the grass. "It seems to be apple grass."
"Apple grass!" I replied. "Oh that's beautiful! Can I just say Doctor...being with you, traveling with you...I love it." The Doctor smiled at me lovingly and his face came closer to mine. Just as we were about to kiss, Rose had to ruin our moment.
"Oi! Knock it off you two! We did not come here for the both of you to snog constantly!" She ran ahead and threw herself on the grass with a giggle. The Doctor smirked and gave me a quick kiss. "I saw that!" He grinned and picked me up over his shoulder and sat us next to my sister.
We all lay on the grass, my head on the Doctor's chest as he tells us how the Sun burned up the Earth and the people had to find a new planet. They found this planet and it became New Earth. The best of all this? New, new new new new new new new new new new new new new new York. That's a lot of New Yorks.
"You're so different." I was playing with his jacket lapel as he stroked my hair.
"New new Doctor." How right he was.
Rose was the first to get up. "Can we go to New New York?"
"Well, I thought we'd go there first." The Doctor pulled me up with him as he pointed to a tall white building with a green moon. "Universal sign for a hospital. I got a message on the psychic paper telling me 'Ward 26. Please come.' So we came."
"And here I thought we would be sightseeing. Got my hopes up for nothing then." I smirked as he held his hand to his chest in mock injury. "I was only teasing love. Let's go already. The Doctor has an appointment." I grabbed his hand and led the way to the hospital.
We walk in the building to the reception desk. "That's a bit rich, coming from you." Rose loves getting jabs in.
"I can't help it. Hospitals give me the creeps." The Doctor doesn't like hospitals...ok then. He started rambling about how much he loves a shop and where he would put one. Then a cat in a nurse's outfit walked by. "Girls...don't stare and point. That's very rude."
My sister and I were dumbstruck. "But...they're cats. They're cat people."
The Doctor and Rose get into an elevator but it closes before I can get in. I could hear any of his instructions so I just got into the next lift and got disinfected... I was none too pleased about that.
I walked out as the doors opened again, but it didn't seem very hospital-like. A man wearing scrubs came panting around the corner.
"I'm looking for Ward 26? Can you tell me where that is?"
He nodded eagerly. "Oh yes Maddy Tyler. Chip will show you the way."
I was a bit hesitant but followed him, careful to keep my distance. We made a few turns and ended up in a large room. My eyes widened when I saw a sheet with a face. And then it spoke.
"Chip?"
"Yes Mistress?" This guy was eager to please.
"You brought me the wrong Tyler! I wanted Rose! She is the one who murdered me, not this brown girl." Skin with a temper, never seen that before. Then it clicked. Rose told me about this...woman?
"You're Cassandra. The so called last human."
"That I am. And how would you know who I am?" This piece of skin was a real bitch. How do I slap her?
"My sister Rose told me all about her travels with the Doctor before I came back. She said you were burnt up." I picked up a metal pipe. What? Something is better than nothing.
"That piece was taken from my front. This is from my back. DON'T make any jokes."
"Yea well, I'm just gonna leave and get back to the Doctor. He's probably worried." I take a few steps back when I can't move anymore, bound by light.
"Chip!" Cassandra yells in triumph. "Activate the pychograft!"
I was really scared then. "What are you doing? Let me go! Just wait until the Doctor finds out about this."
"The lady's moving on. Goodbye trampoline, hello brunette!" After that I am only vaguely aware of what's going on, everything was muffled but I will be as accurate as I can.
"Oh my God! I'm a chav!" Thank you for being so rude. "It's like living in a bouncy castle." Umm...ok? "Gosh... she's with the Doctor... a man... he's the Doctor... the same Doctor with a new face ! That hypocrite ! I must get the name of his surgeon.Got a nice rear bumper now, don't I though?" My phone starts to ring. Good, the Doctor will know that somethings up. I couldn't hear what was said between the two. Something about apples and pears, a boat race? I have no idea.
She walked us back into the lift. Finally we got to what I assumed was Ward 26. I could see that the Doctor got excited when he saw 'me' but there was something in his eyes. Good, he could tell already, I thought. He grabbed 'my' hand and started rambling on as per usual about all the diseases that shouldn't have cures did.
"I have to find out where the terminal is. Gotta find out how they do all this." I had no control over my body so apparently my walk was different. "Because if they've got the best medicine in the world... then why's it such a secret?"
"I can't Adam and Eve it." What the hell does that even mean? Cassandra is a nut.
I could see how confused my sister and the Doctor were. "Umm...Mads? What's with the voice?" I was screaming inside at Rose.
"Oh you know. Just larking about. New Earth...new me." 'New me'? I was getting so pissed off. Why is the Doctor taking so long to do something?
"Well I can talk. New new Doctor." If there was a wall, my head would be hitting it repeatedly.
Cassandra was inwardly smirking at me and said, "Mmm, well aren't you just." She grabbed his face and kissed him hard. I was beyond pissed now. He is my Doctor and she's feeling him up! She breaks away and stutters, "T-terminal's this way." Cassandra walks away quickly.
We all go down to the Intensive Care and start looking around. There are thousands of cells all around us. The Doctor sonics open one of the green doors and we all look in horror at the man inside.
"What's wrong with him?" Cassandra voiced what everyone was thinking.
"He's a mixture of every disease ever known. It's how the nurses here are able to cure everything." Even from wherever I was, I could see how horrified and saddened my Theta was.
"Are we safe?" Rose asked.
"The air is sterile. Just don't touch them." The Doctor shut the door and locked it again.
"It's for the greater cause you know. All these humans came to our planet with such diseases. We couldn't cope. We tried everything we could think of. Bio-cattle and clone meat, but it was too slow. These carriers are doing a great thing. Think of all the people happy and healthy out there, because of us." Novice Hame appeared nearby.
"Do the outside people actually know what's going on?" Rose was watching my face, but apparently Cassandra couldn't care less about what was said. And it showed.
"We thought it best not to say anything."
"Hold on. I can understand the bodies. I can understand your vows. But one thing I can't understand... what have you done to Maddy?" Cue the Oncoming Storm. About bloody time!
"I have no idea what you are talking about. We have done nothing to this young woman." Exactly right kitty cat.
The Doctor's voice was deadly quiet."I'm being very, very calm. You wanna beware of that... very, very calm. And the only reason I'm being so very, very calm is that the brain is a delicate thing. Whatever you've done to Maddy's head, I want it reversed." There was fury in his eyes that I love so much.
"We haven't done anything." Novice Hame appeared to be a bit desperate.
"I'm perfectly fine." Big lie Cassandra. Rose looked ready to punch 'me'.
Rose was getting very angry. "These people are dying and my sister would be making a scene about it. What happened to Maddy?" God I love my sister.
"Oh fine little girl. No fun." Cassandra started playing with the Doctor's tie. "What's the matter? Don't you know the last human when you see her?"
"Cassandra?" Both of them were speechless. Took them long enough!
The body stealing bitch giggled and took her perfume from her/my cleavage and sprayed the both of them, knocking my sister and the Doctor unconscious. She then proceeded to lock them in an empty cell. Kind of pointless to do, because when she makes her demands to the Matron, Cassandra unlocks all of the doors again.
Rose began screaming for Cassandra to get out of my body, but the Doctor drug us all out because if we were touched by those carriers, we would be screwed. "Let's go Cassandra. One thousand bodies filled with just as many diseases. I want her body safe!" I love that man. So worried about me...that sounds really selfish.
Cassandra leads everyone to the same room she was previously trapped in. She turns around and through what is supposed to be my eyes, I see the Doctor with his screwdriver raised at 'me'.
"Get out of Maddy's body." The Doctor was almost the Storm. "That psychograft is banned on every civilized planet. You're compressing Maddy to death!"
"To death? You bitch! Get the hell out of my little sister!" Go Rose.
"But I got nowhere to go. My original skin's dead!" Who cares?
"That's not my problem. You can float as atoms in the air for all I care." The Doctor raised his screwdriver once more. "Give her back to me."
"You asked for it." Cassandra left my body and flew into the Doctor's.
"Blimey, my head." Rose was by my side holding me up.
"Oh my. This is...different." Rose and me couldn't speak. "Goodness me, I'm a man. So many parts, and hardly used." The 'Doctor' started moving around crazily. "Ah! Two hearts! Oh baby, I'm beating out a samba!"
Rose was as annoyed as me. "Get out of him!"
"Ooh... he's slim. And a little bit foxy. I see why you like this new man Little Maddy." She wiggled his eyebrows at me teasingly.
The zombie patients found us and tried breaking in the door. "What do we do ? What would he do ? The Doctor... What the hell would he do?" Cassandra-Doctor was frantic.
I saw a ladder nearby and headed to it. "We have to go up. Come on Rose." Cassandra shoved us both out of the way.
"Oh no! Me first." Pushy bitch.
We all climb until Matron Casp grabs Rose's ankle and keeps saying that the humans were filled with so many diseases. That what they did was right. One of the patients grabbed onto the Matron and she became covered in boils. She falls but we keep climbing.
We reach the top and Cassandra tries to use the sonic screwdriver, but the Doctor hid away all of his thoughts. When she left the Doctor and went back into me, he refused to to anything until she left me. Kind of selfish of me to think, but she could have gone into Rose as well. The Doctor probably wouldn't have reacted to that well either. But regardless, Cassandra went into one of the patients while the Doctor soniced open the door. He reaches a hand each to my sister and myself and pulls us in. "Nice to have you back Maddy."
"Oh no you don't." Cassandra goes right back into me. Yay.
"That was your last warning Cassandra. Get out of her!"
All she does is sit in a trance and say that the only thing they want is to be touched. The Doctor takes 'my' hand and leads the four of us back to Ward 26. We get there, we are ordered to show our skin to prove that we brought no diseases.
The Doctor then orders that all the cure fluids be gathered and he attaches them all to a chain across his torso. He then sonics open the lift doors and jumps onto the cable. He yells that he's going to need another set of hands and Rose pushes 'me' forward.
The three of us fall straight down and land on the top of the lift itself. The Doctor opens the disinfectant lid and pours all the solutions into it. He then opens the safety latch and jumps down into the lift.
"Pull that lever and let the solution go." We did and the Doctor gets showered in the cures. "Here! I'm in here!"
"Well don't tell them that!" Cassandra, you bloody idiot. Even I could tell what his plan was and I was locked inside my own head.
The patients started coming into the lift and getting showered with the solution. "Pass it on! Pass it on!" The Doctor was jumping up and down as the patients walked out and began hugging each other. The Doctor's grin was so big and it made me so happy. He helps us jump down and we exit the lift.
"I'm the Doctor and I cured them." He kept grinning as the NNYPD showed up. Suddenly the Doctor starts running back to Ward 26. "The Face of Boe!"
We get to Boe and the Doctor has a conversation with him, Cassandra all the while complaining about a head full of big face. She is promptly shushed by my sister. The Face of Boe was very cryptic with his message to my Theta, implying only that they shall meet again. The Face teleports out and Chip comes running in.
"Chip! You're alive!" Anyone could see the lightbulb go off.
"Cassandra don't you dare! He has his own life to live." The Doctor was adamant, but he also wanted me back.
"I worship the mistress. If she wishes for my body, then I gladly give it to her." Cassandra left my body and entered Chip's.
The Doctor caught me in his arms before I could fall. "Oh Gods, my head hurts."
"Good thing I know a good doctor to take care of then eh?" I couldn't help but giggle as I looked at him. He held me close and kissed the top of my head. In my peripheral, I could see Rose smiling.
Cassandra-Chip fell to the floor. "Little Chip's heart is racing so. Oh my...he's dying. I'm dying. I don't want to die."
"I can take you to the city," The Doctor offers.
"No." She contemplates something. "I have lived long enough. I am content to die."
"Then there is one last thing I can do for you then." The Doctor helps them into the Tardis, Rose and I following close behind.
A few moments later, Cassandra-Chip walks out of the Tardis and sees herself, before she became a sheet of skin. They approach the past her and get her attention. They tell her how beautiful she is before collapsing. The former Cassandra cradled them in her arms as they passed on.
Rose, Theta, and myself slowly walk back into the Tardis. He pulls a lever and we leave for our next journey.
Apologies for not getting it up when I said I would. Here it is and I hope that it was ok.
Until next time.
-Morgan Holmes