1 Following the Date.
In the Tardis Control room, the Doctor is thinking about some people abducted by Cybermen.
"You're very pensive just now?" Ommera asks gently. She sometimes sees the Doctor looking like this. Frequently, when pensive, he is regretful. He can't save everyone every time, though he does try to. Then he blames himself, although his adversaries are often totally at fault. They just wouldn't see it that way. They would see the Doctor as getting in their way, never mind how many people perish along their way.
The Doctor had met Ommera when she accidentally wandered into the Tardis on her home planet, Slint, thinking it was a museum (episode 1, Maintenance Mission in this series). Since then she has become his companion. The Doctor has relied heavily on Ommera during some previous adventures.
The Doctor sighs. "Yes," he says. "I'm thinking about some people who I heard were abducted."
"Abducted?" Ommera starts to share his concern. Although she probably never met these people, it's always a tragedy for anyone abducted. "That's not very jolly."
"Not for them, no," the Doctor says. "But I may be able to rescue them. I'm just working out how."
"Let's do it," Ommera says decisively.
"But it will be dangerous," the Doctor warns.
"More dangerous for them if we don't," Ommera says.
"Yes, much." The Doctor gets up. "But I don't want to put you in danger, or Crystelle."
"Count me in," Ommera says at once.
"And me," Crystelle rejoins.
Crystelle's home planet is Tinsel. She is travelling with the Doctor and Ommera having been of comfort to the Doctor in an earlier episode Step Carefully in this series. She would like to rescue people and help them.
"Ok then," the Doctor sighs. He doesn't like to put these two dear folk in any danger, but his life is full of danger. "But, I've been puzzling how to rescue them."
"What do we know about them?" Crystelle asks. "Where did you hear about their abduction?"
The Doctor sighs again. He will have to own up that he has known about this for quite some time, especially that he discovered on the day that he met Ommera and didn't tell her then. But why should he have told her then? Besides, that day was otherwise a really happy day.
"Ok," the Doctor starts off, sighing. "It all started when I took Ommera to Cookerama."
"Ommera told me all about that," Crystelle says. "It sounded wonderful."
"It was wonderful," Ommera agrees. "Best day out ever!"
"While you were cooking I went poking around behind the scenes and I met some workmen."
"You mentioned that one of them accidentally put the popping candy into the pancake mix," Ommera recalls.
Crystelle laughs. "That was so funny."
"That's right," the Doctor continues. "But then I got talking about the grand baking room. They said it had burnt down a few months earlier, so they replaced it with a metal tent, so it couldn't burn down again."
"It was wonderful. So beautifully presented," Ommera recalls. It had been a very special day out. At the end of the day she had almost kissed the Doctor. She still treasures that.
The Doctor continues. "Then some of the workmen seemed to think it had been burned down by metal gentlemen with head torches."
"That's weird," Crystelle says.
"They showed me pictures of their guests that day," the Doctor says. "They were Cybermen."
Crystelle recalls. "You mentioned them before as one of your enemies."
Ommera shudders. "Why are they so bad?"
"They just are. They don't like anyone interfering in their expansionist ways."
"So, how did they abduct people?" Ommera asks.
"They usually offer what they call upgrades," the Doctor says. "They must be very alluring because a lot of people fall for it."
"What happens after they abduct people?" Ommera asks.
"They take them for what they call processing," the Doctor knows that this is going to get rather dodgy, trying to describe this. He wants to spare them some of the details. "I've rescued people right from in their queues. They really didn't like that!"
"When they, er, process people, what do they do?" Ommera asks.
This is where the Doctor feels he must spare the details. "I don't want to go into the gory stuff."
"Oh, yuk!" Ommera is disgusted.
"I've spoken to many Cybermen who totally regret having their upgrade. But by then it's too late. Then they're brainwashed into doing more unspeakable things, including recruiting more Cybermen. Volunteers they sometimes call them."
"How awful!" Ommera groans.
"I've been puzzling how to find these people who the Cybermen abducted. When I was in the gift shop at Cookerama, I noticed the date of their visit when I looked at the pictures of them."
"Why don't we go back to that date, at the beginning of the day and park up in the spaceship park and wait for them to arrive?" Ommera asks.
"Then we can get onto their spaceship," Crystelle suggests.
"It's dangerous to blatantly enter their spaceship on foot, wait until the crew get back and risk never getting back to Cookerama," the Doctor says.
"We can move the Tardis to be on their spaceship?" Crystelle suggests.
"Possibly," the Doctor agrees. "But it's never that easy."
"Sure. Let's do it," Crystelle affirms. She hasn't seen much action but rescuing people who are in danger appears well worth it.
"I'm in," Ommera says. She feels as if she will follow the Doctor anywhere.
The Doctor types in the Cookerama spaceship park co-ordinates, and the date, presses a few buttons and pulls a lever.
The Tardis grinds and the Console monitor shows the Cookerama spaceship park. It is empty.
"Just have to wait now," the Doctor is feeling brighter now.
"It looks like it is very early in the morning," Ommera says. "Just getting light."
"They have shortish days here," the Doctor says. "Only about six hours long."
"So, not long to wait," Ommera says brightly. This will help them feel better about having to wait… "Oh, look. What's that landing now?"
"I can't read the symbols on the outside of their spaceship, but is that an image of a Cyberman?" Crystelle asks.
"Yes," the Doctor says. "Now, I don't want either of you to step outside the Tardis. I want to keep you both safe. Once you step out of the Tardis you are extremely vulnerable. When man first went to the moon, it was dangerous enough inside the lunar lander, but they did need to take extra care when they stepped out. They were extremely vulnerable. If I don't come back, the Tardis is programmed to take you automatically back to your home planets and times."
"I'll never leave you," Ommera affirms passionately.
"Love is blind, but I will also go where you go." Crystelle is more pragmatic. She can see that Ommera loves the Doctor passionately but that she has to sit on this.
"No," the Doctor says sternly. "I want both of you to promise to go home and forget about me."
"I'll never do that," Ommera says vehemently.
The Doctor groans. "I'm sorry. I just want to keep you safe."
"I love you. You know that," Ommera says gently.
"Thank you," the Doctor replies gently. "And I love you too."
Ommera kisses the Doctor briefly. This might be one of the few moments she feels she can express her feelings more openly. The Doctor is adept at avoiding most of the time.
The Doctor steps over to the Tardis Console and presses a few buttons.
"I'll scan for a safe place to land the Tardis on board their ship," the Doctor says.
The Doctor peers at the Console monitor screen. "There. A reasonably small room. They won't miss that."
The Cybermen's spaceship hatch door opens while the Doctor is scanning their ship for a suitable small room to move the Tardis to. The Doctor ignores this and continues scanning.
Then a small ladder lowers from the hatch door to the ground. It is all rather basic for a large spaceship.
"Oh, look! They're disembarking," Ommera points out.
They watch the Cybermen disembarking on the Console monitor. This isn't a haphazard event.
In turn, six Cybermen descend the ladder. A seventh Cyberman appears briefly at the top of the ladder, but purely closes the hatch door.
"They're very regimented," Ommera says.
"So they are. Let's wait until they're all out," the Doctor says. "There must be a problem with their main embarkation hatchway for them to use the step ladder! That may mean they have no engineers on board."
When each Cyberman has completed his descent, he joins a line of Cybermen.
When all six Cybermen are disembarked the line of Cybermen march off towards the Cookerama entrance. The sixth Cyberman had only just set foot on the ground when the others set off marching. The sixth trails behind by a few paces, unable to catch up. It looks comical.
"I'll scan now for how many crew are left in," the Doctor says.
The Doctor scans the Cybermen's spaceship for remnant crew. "Ok. Only two left on board. They're obviously staying put."
The Doctor pulls a lever, the Tardis grinds. The picture on the monitor dissolves from the Cookerama spaceship park to a grey screen.
"Oh. Not a great view," Ommera says. "Can I put Tardis Voice Control on? I've a feeling we might need it."
"Doh. Ok, then." The Doctor yields reluctantly. But he knows that Ommera's judgement has helped them in previous adventures. "That view is just the close-up view inside whatever small room we are in."
Ommera presses the Voice control button on the Tardis Console.
They walk over to the Tardis door and open it.
They are in a lift. The lift doors are very close to the Tardis doors, so close that they can't get access to the lift control buttons. There is a service control panel visible, but it requires a key.
"Let's see if we can get the lift doors open," the Doctor says.
The Doctor wafts his sonic screwdriver around the edges of the doors to open the doors. Sparks fly. The lift doors open.
Beyond the lift doors they see the Cybermen's spaceship bridge.
"This is rather a public place for us to be," Ommera says. "I wonder if we can change what floor we're on?"
When will the Cybermen discover the Tardis? Will they recognise the Tardis?