Picking up a new travelling companion had not been the Doctor's plan, at least not so soon after Rose Tyler had been lost to him in a parallel universe. He had put a great amount of effort into trying to locate the lost planet Magrathea. But when he had finally arrived in its orbit, materializing aboard the Colonial luxury liner Cloud Nine, he had come across the model six Cylon Gina Inviere. She had been an emotional wreck with all the guilt over participating in the destruction of the Twelve Colonies. And after the abuse she had suffered at the hands of Admiral Cain's crew aboard the Battlestar Pegasus she had been in the process of attempting to kill herself and countless others by detonating a nuclear warhead. The Doctor had realized he needed to intervene and deactivated the nuclear warhead with his sonic screwdriver. He postponed his plans to investigate Magrathea and instead decided to mentor Gina and help her recover emotionally.
Unlike most other adventurers, the Doctor was not interested in Magrathea's riches or advanced technology. He had been searching for the mysterious planet, traveling through time and space and following clues with the patience only a time lord could have. The Doctor was clinging to the faint hope that there might be others of his kind, or at least very similar to him. At first, many regenerations ago, he had heard tales and legends of the Magratheans having two hearts. That fact briefly perked his interest, but then he dismissed it as a coincidence. After the Time War his interest in Magrathea had flared up again when he found an ancient document in a long abandoned data storage facility. The document listed a planet named Magrata among the first eight worlds his people had colonized after they had first discovered interstellar travel. It had been located in a star system only six light years away from Gallifrey. The Doctor had sifted through whatever historical documents of his civilization had not been lost during the Time War and discovered that Magrathea had at some point gained independence from Gallifrey and had disappeared before the Time War. The Doctor finally managed to visit Magrathea during the height of the planetary construction boom several millennia ago. DNA samples from two of its citizens had revealed that the Magratheans were closely related to the Gallifreyans and the Doctor managed to find out more about the history of the planet and its ability to relocate itself. A second visit during the time when the galactic economy collapsed and the Magratheans entered cryogenic sleep provided him with more information, but he was forced to leave aboard the TARDIS before he could figure out where the planet disappeared to. The Doctor knew that Magrathea had not been destroyed or erased from history during the Time War and figured that it still must be somewhere out there. Once he had finally managed to determine its location, the incident aboard Cloud Nine happened and he decided to take Gina with him since she would have been a danger to herself and others.
The Doctor took good care of Gina Inviere and she slowly recovered mentally and emotionally. He did not have any romantic feelings toward her since he had still not gotten over the separation from Rose Tyler. The Doctor considered Gina as a student, as someone he could teach about life, the universe, and the rest. He saw her potential and wanted her to grow as a person and to jump over her own shadow. He had shown her points of interest in Earth's history and taken her with him when he guided John Crichton into saving tens of thousands of civilians from the destruction of the Twelve Colonies.
When the Doctor saw Gina smile for the first time since he met her and when she laughed about his antics, that was when he realized how much progress she had made. That was when he knew that she was finally ready for some fun. He decided to take her to the Woodstock Festival in 1969.
The TARDIS materialized on Earth with, its typical sound, on a Thursday, in the wrong location and the wrong year, which happened quite often. The Doctor opened the door and stepped out, dressed in his usual striped suit, followed by Gina Inviere, who was wearing a colorful hippy outfit.
On this particular Thursday, something was moving quietly through space many thousand miles from Earth, several somethings in fact, several dozen huge yellow chunky slablike somethings, huge as office blocks, silent as birds. They soared with ease, basking in electromagnetic rays from the star Sol, closing in on their target.
The planet ahead of them was almost oblivious of their presence, except for several pairs of watchful eyes at the Men in Black Headquarters in New York. The MIB had been monitoring the intruders carefully since they had set off the early warning system at the edge of the solar system several hours ago.
In a park somewhere down on Earth the Doctor picked up a discarded newspaper from a bench and looked at the date.
"Hmm, looks like we're 10 years late. It's 1979." He stated matter-of-factly.
"I really wanted to see this Woodstock Festival people on Earth keep talking about." Gina said disappointedly as suddenly the phone in the nearby TARDIS began to ring.
The Doctor opened a compartment on the side of the TARDIS and pulled out the handset of the external telephone. "This is the Doctor", he answered the phone.
"Doctor, this is Chief Zed from MIB headquarters. An apparently hostile fleet is approaching Earth. We have already contacted our offworld allies, but they won't be able to send help in time."
"Have you deployed the arc net shield that the Archanans gave you?", the Doctor asked.
"The generator for the arc net shield is in place, but it won't activate. The intruders seem to be jamming it.
At the same time in a control room at UNIT headquarters in London an alarm went off.
"Sir, our automated listening post on the moon is picking up several dozen objects approaching Earth.", a soldier manning a radar screen reported.
"This looks serious", his superior commented after looking over the soldier's shoulder at the screen. "Go ahead and inform the Brigadier of our situation."
"Yes, sir", the soldier responded and started dialing Brigadier-General Lethbridge-Stewart's phone number.
The doctor had meanwhile redirected the phone call from Chief Zed to his other phone inside the TARDIS, so he could monitor the approaching fleet and talk to Zed at the same time.
"The unknown fleet is broadcasting a signal on the sub-etha band. Nobody else on Earth is able to pick up this frequency with current technology. We can be glad the Baltians gave us a Sub-Etha-Sens-O-Matic", Chief Zed explained.
The Doctor turned a few knobs and flicked a few switches.
"According to their broadcast, they appear to be Vogons and want to demolish Earth in order to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Wait… Yes, Idikiukup and Bob just identified their ships as Vogon in design."
Now having his own Sub-Etha-Sens-O-Matic aboard the TARDIS tuned to the right frequency, the doctor could listen to the signal himself.
"They can't do that. They are violating half a dozen intergalactic treaties. I will stop them", the Doctor declared with determination in his voice.
"Good luck and Godspeed," Chief Zed responded and ended the conversation.
Split seconds later the TARDIS had materialized aboard one of the strange ships. While the Doctor made his way to the bridge, Gina stayed behind and got busy working on one of the consoles. As one of the Cylons' most foremost experts on cyberattacks it was easy for her to gain access to the control systems of the ship she was on as well as the rest of the fleet. The phone rang again and Brigadier General Lethbridge-Stewart was on the other end. He told her that there was a situation and that he needed to speak to the Doctor. Gina responded that the Doctor was already aware of the situation and working on resolving it.
A sudden silence hit the Earth. For a while nothing happened. The great ships hung motionless in the sky over every nation on Earth. Many people went straight into shock as their minds tried to encompass what they were looking at. The ships hung in the sky much the same way bricks don't.
And still nothing happened.
Then there was a slight whisper, a sudden spacious whisper of open ambient sound. Every hi-fi set in the world, every radio, every television, every cassette recorder, every woofer, every tweeter, every mid-range driver in the world quietly turned itself on.
"People of Earth, your attention, please," a voice said, and it was wonderful. Wonderful perfect quadrophonic sound with distortion levels so low as to make a brave man weep.
"This is Protestnik Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council," the voice continued. "As you will no doubt be aware, the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route through your star system, and regrettably your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition. The process will take slightly less… Who are you?! Security! Remove this intruder from my bridge!
"I am the Doctor", the intruder introduced himself.
A young Vogon entered the bridge and grabbed the Doctor by the arm.
"If you are here to complain about the absolutely necessary demolition of your pathetic and completely useless little planet, then I say you are a little bit late. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display in your local planning department on Alpha Centauri for fifty of your Earth years, so you've had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it's far too late to start making a fuss about it now.", Jeltz barked at the Doctor.
"First of all, the destruction of Earth is completely illegal. Second, the people of Earth have no means to reach Alpha Centauri", the Doctor started making his case.
"What do you mean; you've never been to Alpha Centauri? For heaven's sake, it's only four lightyears away, you know. I'm sorry, but if you can't be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that's your own lookout.", the Vogon countered.
"Energize the demolition beams", Jeltz ordered, but nothing happened.
None of the ships in his entire fleet was able to energize their demolition beams. A second later the arc net shield activated and formed a protective bubble around Earth. Within minutes Gina Inviere had gained access to all systems on every ship in the Vogon fleet orbiting Earth and was able to remote control every one of them through her console aboard the TARDIS.
"I myself have visited Alpha Centauri, the people of Earth have not. They have not yet developed interstellar travel and only achieved the means to land on their own moon just a decade ago. Do you know how ridiculous you sound?", the Doctor shouted, freeing himself from the grip of the Vogon security guard, who just stood there, staring at the view screen that showed a shielded and protected Earth..
"Now listen to me…", Jeltz started angrily, waving his index finger at the Doctor.
"No, you listen to me, you pile of jello", the Doctor interrupted the Vogon, pointing at him. "You are in direct violation of Article 57 of the Shadow Proclamation, which prohibits the destruction of a level 5 planet if no law was broken.
"I have orders from the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council…", Jeltz started.
"Which are null and void," the Doctor interrupted, "because they violate paragraph 15, section 49 of the treaty of Zadora, which forbids the construction of artificial wormholes in this sector of the galaxy. And you can't have a hyperspace bypass without a wormhole as exit point, can you?"
"But, but, but...", Jeltz stuttered.
"But, but, but? You should listen to yourself. You sound like a motorboat that just ran out of fuel.", the Doctor countered.
Gina typed another sequence of commands into her console and suddenly the self-destruct timers on all Vogon ships, except the one she and the Doctor were currently aboard, started counting down. Panicked, their captains ordered to abandon ship. Each ship launched dozens of escape pods. After the last escape pod had left, the countdown timers suddenly stopped.
"You dare mock me?', Jeltz shouted.
"Yes, I dare mock you", the Doctor responded.
"The Galactic Government…", the Vogon started.
"You know what?" the Doctor interrupted again, "It's funny how as soon someone controls more than a few dozen star systems they call themselves Galactic Empire, Galactic Republic, Galactic-this-or that. There's probably a couple hundred self-described "Galactic" federations, alliances, empires or whatever-you-may-call-its around in this galaxy at any given time."
The debate went on and on, with the Doctor quickly gaining the upper hand and Jeltz running out of arguments. Jeltz finally tried to hail the other ships of his fleet to give orders to proceed with the destruction of Earth, but instead of any of the other Vogon captains, Gina Inviere's face appeared on the viewscreen.
"I have taken full control of your ship and every other ship in your fleet", Gina said through the intercom speakers. And I won't relinquish it until you do as the Doctor tells you."
After about twenty minutes of debate and with Gina's help the Doctor had finally succeeded in getting this hardened and calloused bureaucrat to break down in tears.
"You can't do that... My career... I'm ruined...", Jeltz sobbed.
"So, now listen carefully", the Doctor said. "You will now pick up the crews from your other ships, who are drifting out there in escape pods. Then you will set course for your home world at maximum speed, where you will crawl into the deepest, darkest hole under the biggest rock you can find. And don't you ever dare to even think about coming back here. Any aggression against this planet and its inhabitants will be met with the deadliest force. Is this clear?"
The Doctor hadfinally managed to convince Jeltz that going on with the demolition of Earth and thereby violating the articles of the Shadow proclamation and the Treaty of Zadora would cause a major war with several major galactic powers that were enforcing those treaties. A war in which the "Galactic" Empire would quickly find itself on the losing side. Protestnik Vogon Jeltz realized that he had lost no matter what he did. If he demolished Earth, it would spark an armed conflict which would result in him not only losing his job, but also being hunted down and executed as well. If he did not demolish Earth, the Galactic Council would punish him for disobeying orders. His career was over either way. He had no choice but to surrender to the Doctor, who had already made it unmistakably clear to Jeltz that he was to leave Earth alone or suffer terrible consequences.
Over the course of the following months secret organizations worldwide, such as the Men in Black and the Torchwood Institute undertook great efforts to ensure that no one on Earth remembered the events of this day. The Men in Black wiped the memory of over 90% of the world's population by using neurolyzer satellites in orbit as soon as the Vogons had left. Within less than a year, enough people had been neuralized and enough evidence had been destroyed or falsified that whoever was left who knew about the incident and wanted to go public was labeled a crazy conspiracy theorist by the general population.
After Protestnik Vogon Jeltz had fled from Earth in fear and terror with a single ship packed with terrified Vogons, the Doctor gave Chief Zed detailed instructions regarding the remaining ships of the Vogon constructor fleet. They were to strip the ships of all equipment not necessary for the evacuation of refugees and store them on the moon until needed. The ships were then to be loaded with food and medical supplies and sent to coordinates provided by the Doctor to arrive by a specific date. The board computer was to be programmed to play an automated message on repeat at a specific frequency provided by the Doctor. The Men in Black followed the Doctor's orders without questions, because they knew that he belonged to a much older and wiser race and that he had humanity's best interest in mind.