The Doctor, Martha and Jack were having fun in the TARDIS. In the Mood was blaring in the background as the Doctor watched Martha and Jack prance around the console room floor. Jack had missed this experience being stranded on twenty-first Earth. His Torchwood colleagues never seemed like friends to Jack and, although there was adventure to be had in Cardiff, it was nothing to the excitement and genuine adventure he could experience travelling through space and time in a blue Police Telephone box with the Doctor. Martha was quite a different kettle of fish compared to Rose, and the new Doctor was vastly different to the one he knew. It felt like being part of a completely new crew aboard a tired old ship.
Moments later, the console began to make a roaring sound; the TARDIS was about to land. The Doctor rushed in from a nearby room in the TARDIS and frantically adjusted the controls to ensure a smooth landing. He wasn't in time. The TARDIS lurched violently, which flung Martha and Jack to the floor. When it did finally land, the Doctor apologised to an enraged Martha before opening the doors.
The TARDIS had landed in the middle of a residential street. All of the houses were pre-fabricated and made from some well insulated metal.
"Where are we then?" asked Martha impatiently, expecting the answer to be Earth.
"Now that I don't really know" replied the Doctor. "Let's take a quick guess and say Earth shall we?"
Just then, a door burst open and out of it rushed a young woman. She was blonde, tall and slim. Much to her surprise, Jack wolf-whistled at her. This was met by a dig in the ribs and a fierce glare by Martha.
"What? You have to show your appreciation somehow!"
"I'm sorry about my friend" said Martha "He can be an idiot sometimes. What's your name?"
The girl stood there dumbfounded. These people were so different to anyone else she had ever seen before. The young woman who had just spoken to her, she had never seen anyone with that colour skin before. She felt embarrassed, but wanted to be polite. "Nicola" she said.
"My name is Martha" replied Martha. "This is Jack, and the guy standing over there is the Doctor".
Nicola then went on to explain the reason she had rushed out of her front door. She had received a message via the interlink informing her that she had not met the "inhabitant quality standard" due to a barely visible mole on her face. Nicola explained that on the Earth colony of Golgafrincham, every inhabitant has to meet a standard of beauty, decided by the colony's president. Anyone who does not has to join the Police and is forbidden from having a child.
Martha was astonished by this.
"They can't do that!" she shouted.
"It's the law" replied Nicola. "The law laid down by President Lohan. I need to get out of here."
In the government complex at the centre of the Earth Colony, a slightly skinny blonde haired man stood at a control panel. In front of him was a clipboard with a list of people who were to be seconded to the Police. His name was Charles Valli. Charles turned to a man sitting beside him.
"Time to send out the constables" he said. "First on their list is a Miss Nicola Newton. Make sure they sedate her if she tries to cause any trouble. We don't want her running away do we?"
The man selected the relevant options on his Computer screen and clicked the icon to download the information into the constables. Moments later in another part of the complex, a heavy gate opened and out marched a squad of tall, armoured, metal men.
The violent landing had made its mark on the TARDIS. The Doctor was sure that part of the dematerialisation circuit had rattled loose. Martha and Jack weren't as concerned about that as they were about the fate of Nicola. The Doctor had told them to let Nicola run off. This time, he didn't want to interfere and make whatever situation they found themselves in worse. Before Nicola left, Jack had promised that if she needed help, she could find him and that he would promise to get her to safety. Martha, much to her dissatisfaction, gave Nicola her phone in case an emergency arose.
Nicola found herself walking swiftly down a busy street not so far away from her house. She knew that her only chance of escape lay in getting as far from the colony as possible, where the Police wouldn't come looking for her. Unfortunately, she had no transport of her own since the government had disabled it when they had told her of her fate.
She had only got a mile when she heard the heavy footsteps approaching. She froze on the spot wondering what she could do. Then, Nicola remembered the phone and Jack's promise. She battled with the menu system of Martha's phone and rang TARDIS as Jack had told her. All she could do was wait.
Jack placed the TARDIS's phone down and walked over to the Doctor.
"Doctor, Nicola's in trouble. She said that the Police had found her" he said.
"Right. Let's get going then. Alonsi!" was the Doctor's reply.
The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to open Nicola's garage and found a vehicle that looked like a Car without wheels. Spotting that the Car's security system had disabled the ignition, he aimed his favourite tool at the ignition and the Land Rover A-320 roared into life.
"All aboard" he shouted as they headed off to Nicola's rescue.
When the Doctor, Martha and Jack arrived at the place where Nicola said she would be, they found her cowering behind a small building. In the distance, the Doctor recognised the imposing figures of a squad of Cybermen marching toward them.
End of Chapter One