Season 3

Season 3 has the travelers learning many secrets about the TARDIS and where it came from. They will find themselves trapped in the late 20th Century for a time, but are aided by their friends in FAITH; then they will be drawn into the web of destiny and the echoes of the Time War. Click a title to see episode details.

The Road Not Taken

Thanks to the haste of the departure from the Anomaly, the TARDIS has a new, slightly reluctant resident. The travelers' continuing inability to pilot their timeship may prevent them from being able to take J.D. (and themselves) home, but what if J.D's 52nd Century knowledge of future history is the key to finally unlocking the secret? For the first time since fleeing the Shadow Hunter in 2017 the group might have a shot at learning how to steer the TARDIS. With J.D.'s knowledge and her own copious notes taken early in their journeys Zehra is ready to try and make an effort on properly piloting the TARDIS. Thanks to the last few trips to Twentieth Century Earth the groups' electronic devices are once again charged, including Zehra's laptop computer. Taking everything she has learned and combining it with insights from J.D., Zehra programs a computer model she hopes will tell them how to set coordinates and guide the TARDIS.

The model is ready to test when the TARDIS materializes at its next destination. In this instance the TARDIS has brought them to an alien resort world called the Rigellian Riviera. The travelers do not stay long however, as the purpose is to test Zehra's navigation model. So they almost immediately work the controls and set off for another destination, in this case materializing on another alien world that J.D. believes is somewhere in what he terms the Altairan system. Having noted the console settings for each of the previous destinations, Zehra now uses her model to determine a set of coordinates that, if she is correct, should take them back to the Rigellian Riviera at the point they left. The dematerialization switch is pulled and when the TARDIS does land the travelers are ecstatic to discover that it has worked, they have in fact returned to the time and place they had just left.

With the trial run of the model complete, Zehra now tries for a more complex feat of navigation: taking the TARDIS back to Ottawa in late 2017. After triple checking her calculations, Zehra enters what she hopes are the correct settings into the TARDIS control console and with fingers crossed pulls the dematerialization switch. After a tense journey through the Time Vortex the TARDIS materializes and the travelers cautiously check to see where they have landed. Outside is a city street during a rainy night, and the street does seem vaguely familiar. Exploring a bit more, the travelers conclude they are in Ottawa, but not an Ottawa they are familiar with.

The TARDIS has landed on Sparks Street, but the buildings along the street are much taller than those the Ottawa natives are familiar with; even in peak daylight the street is probably in perpetual shadow. Nearby is Parliament Hill, but the walls around it are higher and the gates more heavily guarded and the area has a distinctly militarized feel. The travelers feel they must have arrived in a dystopian future version of the city, but in a coffee shop a television screen showing a news program indicates that the year is 2020, only three years after Zehra and Eileen's time. Things could not possibly have changed this radically in so short a time.

More differences become apparent as the travelers look around. Technology is different, more advanced in some cases and more retro in others. No one appears to have smartphones, instead connecting to the Internet (or its equivalent) with laptop like consoles wired into wall ports or from pay-for-use ATM-like machines. On the other hand, space technology is far ahead, with private space travel companies and established orbital habitats and vacation destinations in orbit. The question is, then, is this some kind of alternate timeline that the TARDIS has slipped into or has something altered history?

Luckily for the travelers the Ottawa Public Library still has a branch in the same location as they are used to, so the travelers decide to research the old-fashioned way. The investigation starts to paint a picture of this strange new world; Canada itself is a more militant nation, and is even a nuclear power. The province of Quebec separated from Canada in the 1990s, but the Canadian military seized everything south of the St. Lawrence River to maintain a corridor to the Maritime Provinces; and Montreal is a divided city, much like Berlin was during the Cold War. Also, Maine and parts of Vermont, New Hampshire, and northern New York have seceded from the United States and joined Canada. The territory has been combined with the remainder of the seized Quebec territory to form the province of New England.

Next, the travelers start digging into history to try and find out where things diverge from the history that Zehra and Eileen know. Nothing specific stands out, though the divergence becomes obvious in the 1980s, by which time the political leadership in Canada looks nothing like it did in the normal timeline. Reliant on Zehra and Eileen's knowledge of history, the group continue to dig back through trying to find a clue as to what might have happened. At J.D.'s suggestion they focus on the political leaders to try and find out how these people came to power in place of the ones from the original history. All seems hopeless until the investigation brings up a photograph that instantly gets the group's attention. In a biographical article on one of the politicians there is a photo of the man during his years in university in the 1930s, and in that photograph is a person that the group recognizes.

Zehra, Eileen, and Maryanne all recognize the figure in the photo as the person they knew as Dr. Weaver, a man who they had encountered when he tried to change the entire history of the planet Earth by preventing the extinction level event that wiped out the dinosaurs (and the humanoid reptilians known as the Silurians). When they last saw him, Weaver had just jumped into a time rift to escape the ancient past; but here he is in the photo, looking a little older but otherwise pretty much as the three remember him. If he was present in the history of these figures that came to power in this new timeline, it makes Weaver a likely suspect for whatever has happened. The picture is captioned as having been taken in Toronto in 1936, so the travelers decide that is where they need to head next.

The travelers return to the TARDIS and Zehra runs her computer model, gambling that it works well enough to get them close enough to their target. The settings are made on the console and when the TARDIS materializes after a short journey it seems to have worked. A quick look around puts the group in an alley in downtown Toronto in August 1936. The five head off to the University of Toronto campus, as the photograph seemed to indicate that Weaver was based there in some capacity. They stake out the campus and their patience eventually rewarded when they spot Weaver walking across the grounds in conversation with two other men.

J.D. heads over to speak to Weaver, the group reasoning that their target would not recognize him as J.D. was not with them when they first met the interfering time traveler. Posing as a student, J.D. asks what he hopes are innocent sounding questions, learning that Weaver is posing as a Professor McLellan at the university. The two other men continue on leaving J.D. alone with Weaver, and once they are gone Weaver makes it clear that he knows that J.D. is a time traveler himself. The other four come out from hiding and they surround Weaver. For his part, Weaver is unfazed by this and in fact seems pleased to see the others. When asked, he is happy to explain his actions. Expanding on what the group already knew about him, Weaver indicates that since they last encountered each other he has been continuing to seek a way to regain proper access to time and space. In his view, it is taking too long for humanity to advance technologically so he has chosen to push things along.

Weaver explains what the time travelers already suspected, that altering history is difficult and major changes to the timeline can have dangerous side effects. Weaver, however, prides himself on being in his own words an artist, with a skill in making tiny changes at different points that will not cause any side effects but combined will result in major alterations to the timeline. At this point he is just beginning the manipulations that would lead to the alternate 2020 that the time travelers encountered, something they indicate to Weaver that they intend to prevent. To their shock, Weaver tells the group that he would be happy to abandon his plans, on one condition. Weaver will not manipulate Earth's timeline if the travelers agree to give him access to the time machine they obviously possess. If they agree to use their time machine to take him away from Earth to a time and place where he can access the technology he needs to gain his own means of time travel then he will stop his efforts here.

Seeing that the group are conflicted, Weaver tells them to think about it and get back to him. He departs, letting them know that he can be found around campus when they have made their decision. The time travelers let him leave and then head back to the TARDIS where they debate Weaver's proposal. They all agree that stopping Weaver is key, but are worried that giving him access to time travel will have even graver consequences than leaving him to change Earth's future. Maryanne floats the idea of simply killing Weaver here and now in 1936, but the others are not comfortable with murder. Unsure of what they can do, the time travelers decide that what they need is help as they have not had to deal with a threat like this before. It is decades before FAITH would formed so the five settle on the one group they know exists at this point and knows how to deal with threats like Weaver - Torchwood. The question then becomes how do they even contact the secretive organization, let alone ask for its assistance?

Air date: January 25, 2020

Unravelled

The team have tracked The Weaver to 1936 Toronto, an early point in the renegade's manipulations of the timeline. After their initial confrontation with Weaver they are torn about what to do; murdering him is off the table, and his offer to stop his efforts if they simply take him away from Earth is also untenable as the risk of giving him access to the TARDIS is too great. Pondering what to do, the team come up with a plan - ask for help from someone on 1936 Earth equipped to deal with threats like Weaver: TORCHWOOD.

Having reconvened in the TARDIS to debate Weaver's offer and come up with a plan for how to contact Torchwood, the travelers are surprised when there is a knock at the door. Opening the door a crack to look, Zehra sees a handsome dark-haired man standing just outside the TARDIS. The man flashes a smile at Zehra and addresses her.

"Hi there. Captain Jack Harkness. Nice TARDIS you have here. Can I come in?"

Without waiting for an answer, the man brushes past Zehra into the TARDIS and steps into the console room. He looks around as the others stare at him, and offers a whistle of approval at his surroundings. Jack introduces himself to the others, and this time adds that he is there on behalf of Torchwood. The time travelers, still in shock, try to keep up, stammering questions, most notably wondering how Jack knew they needed help. Expecting this, Jack tells them that he has come because they asked for Torchwood's help; or more accurately will ask for Torchwood's help.

Clarifying, Jack explains that at some point in their relative future they will be back in the past, at which point they arrange for a message to be delivered to Torchwood. Jack can show them the message - an aging piece of paper, apparently from Eileen's sketch pad, with neatly printed letters in fading black Sharpie ink. It reads "Toronto - Millstone Lane - August 5, 1936 - 1pm" with a roughly drawn maple leaf outline. Jack lets the five get a good long look at the message, but when they ask for it he instead takes out a lighter and destroys it, pointing out that they don't want to cause a paradox. Thinking quickly Eileen pulls out her sketchpad and writes out the message while she remembers it.

With that out of the way, Jack introduces himself properly by telling the group that not only is he an agent of Torchwood but he is also a time traveler originally from the 51st Century. The conversation sidetracks for a bit when J.D. tells Jack that he is from the 52nd Century and Jack plies him for information on events from that time, important questions like whether the Boeshane Wanderers have won the championship at any point. The others try to pull them back on topic, until Jack tells them that he once traveled in a TARDIS as a companion of a Time Lord so is familiar with the craft. Now the travelers start peppering Jack with questions about operating the TARDIS. He starts off explaining the general purpose of each of the six sides of the main control console, and then proceeds to show how to use certain functions. Jack points out how the panel with the Victorian shaving mirror is sensors and how to use the mirror as a screen to see what is around the exterior of the TARDIS. When the topic turns to actually piloting the TARDIS, Jack hedges the instructions by noting that time travel can usually only be done by someone attuned to the Time Vortex, and with a TARDIS it also helps to be at least moderately telepathic. As a former Time Agent, he has been attuned to the Vortex so can do this but notes that based on what they have told him none of the group are so lucky (he follows this with a surreptitious wink directed at Zehra).

Eventually the topic of conversation returns to the time travelers' dilemma with Weaver. Jack agrees with the group that Weaver sounds like the kind of person who should not be given any kind of access to a TARDIS. Based on some of the things Weaver had told the group, Jack believes he may still have some means of limited time travel, and at minimum he possesses advanced knowledge and is a danger to leave running free on 1930s Earth. He agrees that killing Weaver is not ideal, though it may still come down to that, so capturing him is the next best thing. Torchwood has means of imprisoning individuals who present the kind of threat that Weaver does, so if they can capture him then Jack can take custody of him.

The five head out with Jack and make their way back to the university campus. Following Jack's lead they stake out the campus and watch for Weaver. Jack explains that ideally they should first discover where Weaver has his main base of operations, as Jack wants to be sure that they can seize or destroy any advanced technology that Weaver might have in his possession. They take turns watching for Weaver and try to tail him undetected. Unfortunately Weaver somehow manages to detect them and gives Jack and the members of the group with him the slip. Luckily, however, Eileen and Zehra, who were watching a different area, spot Weaver in a truck leaving campus.

The two hail a cab and have it follow the truck, eventually reaching an area by the Exhibition Grounds near some railroad tracks. They observe Weaver unloading machinery and parts from the truck into a building. Zehra is able to use a 52nd Century scanning device to send a signal to J.D., who has a similar device, informing him of where they are. J.D. in turn lets the others know and soon everyone, along with Jack, are able to join up with Eileen and Zehra. J.D. and Zehra's scanners pick up some unusual energy readings from inside the building, which alarms Jack as much as it does the rest of the group. They decide that they cannot risk waiting in case Weaver is up to something and so the group breaks into the building.

Inside, they search through the building before coming across one set of rooms that are emitting a strange glow, visible through frosted windows on the doors. The group breaks in the find the Weaver surrounded by some kind of machine that he seems to have cobbled together from 1930s technology, but at its heart is a small box-like artifact that is obviously advanced or alien technology. Weaver turns to face them as they enter and when he recognizes who the intruders are he moves to activate the machine. Jack draws a revolver and fires several shots at Weaver and the machine. It is not clear if Weaver has been hit, but the machine obviously has. Almost immediately the machine starts emitting sparks and smoke, while amidst it all Weaver starts fading from view. Jack yells for everyone to get out of there so the group starts to run. They make it outside the building just as there is a massive explosion.

Back at the TARDIS Jack is reasonably certain that Weaver has been dealt with, or at least his current scheme to alter the timeline has been thwarted. The time travelers are ready to head off, but not before inviting Jack to join them. Jack appears to think on the offer for a moment before declining, indicating that he has a reason to stay on Earth and as tempting as access to a TARDIS is he has to remain there. He gives the group one more round of tips on how to use the TARDIS before bidding farewell. As a parting gift he sets the controls for Ottawa in 2017, and once Jack has left the time travelers cross their fingers and pull the dematerialization switch, hoping that at long last they will be able to start getting people back to their homes.

Air date: February 8, 2020

Death Comes to Toytown

The coordinates provided by Jack Harkness have been programmed in according to his instructions. If everything is right, the TARDIS should be taking the travelers to November 2017, a short time after they had first left, fleeing the Shadow Hunter. Fingers crossed, Zehra pulls the lever to dematerialize and the TARDIS leaves 1936. It seems both agonizingly long and blindingly fast before the central column lights up with arcs of electricity shooting up the filaments to the glowing half-globe in the ceiling, a sign that the TARDIS is arriving at its destination.

The familiar wheezing, groaning sound echoes around the control room, but suddenly the sound begins to stutter and strain. Soon the console room itself begins to shudder and shake and it soon becomes difficult for anyone to stay standing without grabbing hold of something. The sound grows louder and more disjointed as the lights begin to flicker and dim. Cracks begin to form in the central column as you desperately try and remember which of the control panels that Jack had told the group had the emergency systems.

Finally a burst of blinding bright light erupts from the central column while a deafening noise tears into everyone's heads. Overwhelmed the group drift into unconsciousness as the TARDIS continues its desperate effort to materialize... somewhere.

J.D. awakens to shaking, and is horrified to find himself in the grasp of some giant that is waving him violently back-and-forth. An even larger giant comes into view and J.D. is set down on a ledge high above the ground. Taking a moment to calm down and get his bearings, and then gets another shock. The first giant was a child, a small boy, and the second was his mother; and it looks like they aren't actually giants, J.D. appears to have been shrunk. Based on the surroundings the place J.D. finds himself looks like a toy store, and J.D. is on one of the shelves of toys. As he watches a haggard looking man comes out from behind the counter and locks the door to the shop and switches a sign in the door so that it says Closed to those coming by. Through the store windows J.D. can see that it is dark outside and snowing, though the street outside is still crowded with people walking back and forth.

A shout gets J.D.'s attention and he sees one of the toys, a doll of a super-heroine of some kind, is moving on its own and talking; and it sounds just like Maryanne! Another voice is soon heard; it sounds like Zehra but it is coming from yet another toy, this one looking like a strange, cartoonish tiger-like creature. Using a rope that seems to be part of its equipment, the Maryanne-toy climbs down to J.D. who moves to help her. When she doesn't seem to recognize him J.D. tells her who he is, and learns that he too is a toy, some kind of action figure doll in a "Jungle Adventure" outfit. The two climb down to where the Zehra-toy is, and Maryanne recognizes her as being a toy of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh while Zehra lets Maryanne know that she is actually a Batgirl figure.

It quickly becomes apparent that despite seeming to be in toy bodies the three can move around and speak, and their voices sound like they always did. Meanwhile the man behind the counter seems to have finished counting the day's sales from the register. He nervously eyes a pair of three-foot tall plastic dolls over by the door, a boy in overalls and a girl in a dress, before turning out the light and heading through a door behind the counter. With the man gone, the dolls begin to move as well, casing their eyes on the three time travelers. On other shelves a few other toys have also begun to move on their own, notably a family of plastic bears and a blocky 1970s-style Japanese robot. The family of plastic bears stretch and yawn, and then climb down off their shelf. The robot whirs to life, clanking back and forth. Other toys animate too; balls quiver and bounce, plastic roundabouts whirl and sing, the two big dolls by the door smile horribly, revealing rows of white plastic razor-sharp teeth, like the mouth of a shark.

The last thing that any of the three can remember is being in the TARDIS and something seeming to go wrong. They call out to see if Eileen or Ursa are around, but there is no answer. Either whatever happened to them did not happen to those two or, based on what was happening to J.D. when he first "woke up", they might have been toys here as well but were sold before they awoke. If that is the case then the two might be in deadly danger, so the three here decide that they better figure out what is going on as quickly as possible.

First up, the three try to interact with the other toys that are moving. Many do not seem to react, but others do. The family of four bears are able to talk, but don't seem to be interested in speaking to anyone else, they are apparently happy to play with some of the non-animated toys. The soccer balls turn out to be reactive, but not in a good way. Exploring around the store a bit shows that the soccer balls act like sheep dogs, or maybe prison guards is more accurate, keeping the three time travelers from getting behind the counter. All this is happening under the watchful eyes of the two dolls by the door, who are even creepier than the group first thought as once the trio get a closer look they can see that both dolls have large, sharp steak knives taped to their backs.

The groups' luck changes when they go to talk to the robot toy. It as it turns out is a she, a woman named Dr. Lena Ryan. Lena believes that this is all a dream, one that she says she has been having for several nights in a row. She attributes it to stress from work, she is apparently a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Ottawa, and also from being a single mother to a young son. It takes some effort, but J.D., Zehra, and Maryanne manage to convince her to at least consider the possibility that this is not a dream. Dr. Ryan is not sure, but is willing to go along with the groups' suggestions for now and agrees to help them. They split into two teams; Zehra and Dr. Ryan get a hold of a child's chemistry set from one of the shelves and start working on something to help deal with the soccer balls while Maryanne and J.D. start using Tinker Toys to build a scaffold that will let them reach the doorknob of the door behind the counter.

Zehra and Dr. Ryan manage to concoct an adhesive and in a surprise attack they are able to use it to immobilize the soccer balls and the dolls. They move the scaffold into position and Maryanne and J.D. climb up and open the door. Behind it is a set of stairs going up, so Zehra, Maryanne and J.D. start climbing the stairs while Dr. Ryan remains below. At the top of the stairs is a small apartment, apparently the home of the man who owns and runs the toy store below. The small apartment is messy and lived in; there's a cramped, smelly bedroom, a living room crammed with books about toys and a kitchen that was last cleaned in the 1950s. Exploring a bit they see that the man is in bed, though not yet asleep. Alarmingly there appears to be spots of dried blood on the bedroom floor. There is a rotary dial phone with an Ottawa phone book open nearby. Checking it reveals that several pages are marked noting chemical factories and universities in the Ottawa area. A closer search finds a University of Ottawa campus directory with Professor Ryan's name circled in pen. A calendar on the wall tells the time travelers that it is December 1975.

Zehra, J.D. and Maryanne turn their attention to the man. He is unsurprised that toys are moving on their own and talking to him, but appears terrified of them. The three manage to convince him they are not a threat and get him talking. His name is Edgar Hamilton and he owns the toy store. A couple of months ago he found himself confronted by the two menacing dolls. One of the dolls leapt on him, clawing at his face and holding him down. The other straddled his chest and pointed its pink plastic fist at him. The fist swung down, revealing the barrel of a gun. This catches the groups' attention, because they have encountered living plastic creatures with guns in their hands before, the servants of the Nestene. Edgar goes on to explain how he was forced to help them care for a strange blob-like creature, sending him out for chemicals to treat the creature as it lay hidden in a storeroom in the back of the shop. Edgar says he tried to escape once, but the dolls stuck something in the back of his neck and he found himself trapped in the form of a rubber duck. It was traumatizing and the dolls threatened to do it to him again and leave his mind in the duck permanently. A couple of weeks ago the blob vanished from the storeroom, but the dolls remained behind and continued to terrorize him. They forced him to send out a gift certificate from the store to a woman (Dr. Ryan it turns out), which she later used to purchase an astronaut toy from the shop as a gift for her son.

Just then a noise from downstairs gets their attention. The dolls have freed themselves from the adhesive and are headed up the stairs. Edgar panics, still terrified of what the dolls may do to him. While J.D. and Maryanne look around for a way to slow or stop the dolls, Zehra climbs up to get a look at the back of Edgar's neck where he said the dolls had stuck something. Sure enough, there is a scar there and with a little effort Zehra is able to remove something that looks like a plastic computer chip. Zehra lets Edgar know that the thing has been removed and that the dolls can't transfer his brain anymore. J.D. and Maryanne have fallen back into the bedroom, unable to keep the dolls away any longer. Free and eager to escape Edgar opens up the window in the bedroom. Zehra, J.D. and Maryanne climb into the pockets of Edgar's dressing gown as he steps over the radiator and through the open window onto the fire escape outside as the dolls race towards them.

Edgar drops down to the snowy street below, which Zehra recognizes as Sparks Street. Getting around the hot radiator has slowed the dolls down, but they can be seen emerging from the window so Edgar starts to run, his slippers sliding in the snow. It is late out so the street is mostly deserted as Edgar flees with J.D., Zehra, and Maryanne in various pockets. Outside the store the dolls have made it down the fire escape and the boy raises an arm as its hand drops open revealing the muzzle of a weapon that it starts to fire at Edgar with. Due to their size, and being dolls despite their mobility, Edgar is able to outrun the terror toys and arrives at the end of the street just as a late-night bus pulls up to a stop. Edgar rushes on board, keeping his head low until he feels it is safe to look out a window. The bus is continuing on its route, taking Edgar and the trio of toy-trapped travelers away from their pursuers.

What of the other two time travelers, Ursa and Eileen? While the three who had awoken in the store were figuring things out, Eileen had awoken in a much more chaotic environment. She had found herself being bounced around in darkness, being struck by objects she cannot see. Struggling free Eileen climbs up towards a light and over a shifting edge. She drops down into snow and dodges giants to reach safety. Catching her reflection in glass, Eileen discovers that she is a Hawaiian Barbie doll! Like the others, Eileen soon realizes she can move and talk, in her own voice even, despite being trapped in a toy. She recognizes her surroundings as Sparks Street and gets to safety by climbing through the mail slot in the door of a convenience store that has closed for the night. Inside she equips herself with shoelaces as rope, a Twinkie wrapper as a poncho, a pen, and one of the hooks from a shelf that she can use as a makeshift grappling hook. Back outside she hears what sounds like gunfire and arrives to see the dolls pursuing Edgar, though Eileen does not yet know the significance of this. She sees the gun in one of the dolls hands and recognizes it as an Auton servant of the Nestene. When Eileen sees the dolls return to the toy shop and climb back up the fire escape she follows.

Ursa, meanwhile, has also awoken in darkness trapped in some kind of room. She is able to tear through the room's "ceiling" and emerges into a dimly lit larger room. Catching her own reflection she sees that she is trapped in the form of a small blonde girl doll. Her prison turns out to have been a wrapped present set under a Christmas tree. Other than the lights on the tree the house is dark; the home owners appear to be out. Ursa is not out of danger though, as she soon finds herself being stalked by a large housecat. Ursa runs from the cat, first by hiding underneath the couch and chairs in the living room before managing to lift a grating and get into a vent, closing the grate behind her so the cat cannot get to her.

Back on the bus Zehra, J.D., and Maryanne discuss what to do next. Since the Nestene seemed particularly interested in Dr. Ryan, the trio decide to follow that lead. Edgar recalls the address the Nestene made him send the gift certificate to, and luckily the bus is heading in that general direction. Dr. Ryan's home turns out to be not far from the university campus and Edgar gets off the bus nearby and takes the three there. With no other ideas the group get Edgar to ring the doorbell and after a short time the door opens to reveal a young boy; he is Sam, Dr. Ryan's son. Sam recognizes Edgar from when he went to the toy store with his mother, and is not surprised when the toys with Edgar start talking to him. Sam explains that his mother is not in, that in fact for the last few weeks she has been leaving the house every night and not returning until morning. He followed her one time and discovered she was going to an old lab at the university. Figuring that the boy is still safest at his home, the group leave Sam there and get Edgar to take them to the university campus.

On campus the group locate which building has the lab Sam spoke of and they are able to gain entry with Edgar. Inside the building the group are confronted by a phalanx of plastic chairs, animated and moving like insects. Edgar gets pinned by the chairs but as toys the others manage to evade them and make it into the lab, where they find the Nestene-controlled Dr. Ryan working on a large machine constructed from computer parts but with a small satellite dish atop it and at one end an incongruous metal chair. Also in the room are four campus security guards, all also under the control of the Nestene Consciousness while their own minds inhabit the family of toy bears back at the shop. From the ceiling, something descends. It looks like a glob of plastic, a big plastic ball hanging from a liquid plastic thread. As the glob approaches, it becomes transparent, and inside the characters see a glowing fiery chaos: the Nestene Consciousness itself!

The guards attack the trio of toys, who scatter to try and evade capture. Their size gives them some advantage in hiding, but there are not many safe places in the lab. Off to one side, there is a door leading to a storeroom, and through a grimy glass panel in the door, J.D. can see their unconscious original bodies! Unfortunately their size can only protect them for so long and the guards manage to grab all three.

Amidst all of this the three are shocked to see young Sam enter the lab. He appears hypnotized, and they can see that he is carrying a toy astronaut, the very one his mother had purchased from the toy store. Sam sits in the chair at the end of the machine and red energy begins to stream from his head towards the machine. The Nestene Consciousness cackles with delight and proceeds to tell the three time travelers how it will use the boy to seize control of all the plastic across the world. With its new plastic army it will then conquer the planet and eliminate the bothersome humans that inhabit it, turning it into a new Nestene colony world. With time running low the three realize that they need to get back into their proper bodies if they are going have a chance at stopping this. Luckily the surge of power from the machine has distracted the Nestene Consciousness just long enough for its control over the guards' bodies to lapse for a second. Maryanne, J.D., and Zehra are able to wriggle free and drop back to the ground. Figuring that Zehra is their best bet, Maryanne and J.D. attract the Consciousness' attention back towards themselves.

While the others have been causing the distraction Zehra has managed to get into the storage room where all their bodies are being kept. She gets to Maryanne's body and sees the scar on the back of her neck, just like the one Edgar had. Like before, Zehra is able to remove the plastic chip, and in an instant Maryanne is back in her own body. Maryanne immediately goes to Zehra's body to free her, and in looking for the scar on the neck she lifts Zehra's hijab and discovers her traveling companion's secret - Zehra has a second face on the back of her head, she is an alien Janus like those the group had helped at the Twin Star Bazaar. Unfazed, Maryanne proceeds to remove the chip from Zehra, who is then restored to her own body.

The Autons have realized what is happening and are trying to get into the storage closet. While Maryanne tries to keep the door closed, Zehra spots Eileen's body, and the Sonic Guitar. Zehra grabs the Guitar and tries to get it working. Back in the lab, J.D.s luck has finally run out and he has been grabbed by one of the Nestene-controlled security guards. Just as the Autons break down the door to the storage room Zehra gets the Sonic Guitar working and manages to create an interference signal. With its own signal blocked the Nestene transmitter starts to feed back onto itself, sending a surge of energy through the remnant of the Consciousness. The jolt kills the Nestene Consciousness, freeing Sam from its spell and also sending everyone's minds back to their own bodies.

Not only have J.D., Ursa, and Eileen all returned to their bodies, but so have Dr. Ryan and the security guards. Zehra quickly fills in Eileen and Ursa on what has been happening and learns from them that she had stopped the Nestene just in time - Eileen had been back at the store and was under attack from the dolls, while in Ursa's case the cat that had been chasing her had made it down into the air vents and had been closing in. J.D. and Maryanne talk to Dr. Ryan and Sam, telling them they are safe now and can go home and that they'll explain things in the morning. While the awakened security guards are still getting their bearings, the time travelers get out of there with poor Edgar in tow.

Outside the group are able to reassure Edgar that he is safe now and they pool what little modern money they have to get a taxi to take Edgar back to his store. After Edgar has gone the five wrack their brains to try and remember how they got into the predicament in the first place, and together are able to piece together at least enough memories to guess where the TARDIS is. It takes a bit of searching, but by the time the sun is starting to come up they find the TARDIS near campus, behind one of the student housing homes off of Somerset. Inside the central column is still cracked from the failed attempt to reach 2017. Wondering why the TARDIS was unable to materialize, Eileen and Zehra remember the last time the group had a real chance at getting back - the second time the group met Samuel de Champlain and encountered the rogue Time Agent named Richter. Richter had attempted to take himself and Logan to November 2017. Instead the two had wound up on the planet Obsidian - they remember Logan mentioning that, before the Daleks shot him, Richter had said something about a barrier or interference or something that had prevented he and Logan from reaching 2017 Ottawa. So maybe whatever that was is also what stopped the TARDIS from materializing there.

Zehra remembers Jack Harkness mentioning a TARDIS refuelling and repairing itself on something called a rift, and that there is one in Cardiff in Wales. A brief effort to fly the TARDIS like an aircraft rather than using the dematerialization process only results in the TARDIS running into a few buildings and only making it a few blocks. Unable to think of another option, the group decides to just take off and see where the TARDIS takes them all next. Maryanne types in some things on the navigation console and pulls the dematerialization switch…

Air date: February 22, 2020

Devil May Care

A sea breeze greets the time travelers when the TARDIS materializes. Exploring the five soon discover a paved road and they have not followed it for long before a small 1960s-style van pulls up. The van is being driven by a young couple who introduce themselves as Sandy and Lisa from Calgary. Getting a lift from the two into the nearby town, the time travelers arrive in Tofino on Vancouver Island. In short order they discover that it is late August in 1977, meaning the TARDIS has traveled forward less than two years from their last stop.

Eileen starts busking for the tourist crowd while the others explore the town. Zehra spots a few missing persons posters, more than seems normal for a place like Tofino. Checking out the local library she discovers that there have been a few disappearances in the last week or so; initially it was tourists who were thought to have gotten lost on hikes or while sailing around the islands near the peninsula but more recently several locals have gone missing.

Eileen rejoins the group with the money she has earned, which they use to get some food. Exploring further the travelers arrive at one of the beaches where they notice some kind of disturbance out on the water. They learn that it is a protest by Greenpeace, still a relatively new organization at this point, against the oil tankers that have started making the run from the newly developed Alaskan oil fields to refineries on the US west coast. As they explore around there is a commotion back at the beach so the five return to learn more. As police converge on the area on land and sea the time travelers learn that an oil tanker that had been passing offshore, the target of the Greenpeace protests, apparently vanished in front of the onlookers' eyes.

Zehra and Eileen head for the local library to see if they can find out more about the recent missing persons cases, figuring they may be related to the sudden disappearance of the oil tanker. Meanwhile Maryann, JD and Ursa start asking around to see what they can learn. When the five reconvene later they notice that there is a more military-looking presence in town, presumably in response to the tanker's disappearance. The time travelers then realize that some of the newcomers seem to have taken an interest in them. They attempt to leave discretely, but some official looking men in suits pull up in jeeps and request, politely but firmly, that the five come with them.

After being taken to a government building near one of the marinas which the men have apparently commandeered as their base of operations the time travelers are relieved to learn that the men are actually agents of FAITH, the Federal Alien Intelligence and Technology Headquarters. The time travelers had encountered FAITH before and knew its military commander, and apparently the agents had recognized them thanks to those previous encounters. The man in charge introduces himself as Lt. Chad Sheppard, a senior operative for FAITH, and he tells the five that their presence suggests that FAITH was right to send people to look into the disappearance given that the time travelers only seem to appear when there are extra-normal events taking place. Based on this Lt. Sheppard has already contacted FAITH headquarters in Ottawa to request reinforcements. Word has come that the commander himself, Major Tom Miller, will be arrive to help oversee the operation personally (and to see the time travelers again as, from his perspective, it has been nearly eight years since he had last seen them).

While waiting for the reinforcements, the group are able to learn more about the recent disappearances thanks to the involvement of FAITH. As they had already learned, the missing persons were a mix of locals and tourists, but they all disappeared while boating around the islands or near the interior; even campers that have gone missing had traveled to their campsites by boat. Zehra heads for the library with Eileen again to do more research, while the others stick with the FAITH agents. Zehra discovers an old Native legend about a plateau where a group of women and children vanished without a trace while hiding from raiders. Since then the Natives of the area had considered the plateau, located in the interior of Vancouver Island maybe 25 kilometers or so east of Tofino, to be taboo and the home of evil spirits that had consumed the women and children.

When the FAITH reinforcements arrive they bring along helicopters, so Zehra is able to convince Major Miller to send some people to check out the plateau. Needless to say she also says that she and the other time travelers should go along, and so they and a group of FAITH agents led by Lt. Sheppard board a pair of the helicopters and head into the interior. The helicopters are not able to land, but are able to drop everyone off before heading off to find a more suitable landing spot where they can wait for word from the group to come and retrieve them.

The group is exploring the forested area when Maryann spots movement and thinks she recognizes a familiar, though not human, form. Calling out to the others, Maryann starts pursuing the figure deeper into the woods. Eventually she comes to a cave entrance and wisely waits for her friends and the FAITH agents to catch up. They all cautiously enter the cave, which seems to lead to a maze of tunnels. The group are only in the tunnels a short while when they realize that the cave walls have shifted, cutting them off from the way out. Ursa tries to fathom what is happening, but only grows more confused as she cannot understand how the very rock seems to be shifting around them. Suddenly the group find themselves surrounded by humanoid reptilian figures with turtle-like heads and wearing samurai-style armor but carrying what look like ray guns of some kind.

The FAITH agents get ready to fight, but JD recognizes the beings surrounding them as Sea Devils, cousins to the reptilian Silurians that the other time travelers have encountered before. By JD's time in the 53rd Century the Silurians and Sea Devils co-exist peacefully with Humanity on the Earth and JD is able to use some of his knowledge of their culture to open a dialogue. Following JD's lead, the other time travelers convince Lt. Sheppard to not try and attack the Sea Devils. The cavern around the group again starts to shift, and Ursa can sense that they are all moving at great speed under the ground.

Using this strange method of travel the Sea Devils transport their captives to an undersea base many kilometers off the coast of Vancouver Island. There the time travelers and agents of FAITH are placed into a holding area where they find many other captives. Not only are all the missing people here, but so are the crew of the missing oil tanker. The people tell the group that they have not been harmed, but they are all scared.

JD is once again able to use his knowledge of Sea Devil culture to open negotiations. The Sea Devil leaders reveal that they had been awakened from their hibernation by the vibrations caused by the oil tankers sailing over their base. They consider the oil tankers to be intruders and have been capturing the humans to gain intelligence on these new beings that appear to inhabit the Earth. It becomes apparent that the Sea Devils are preparing to launch attacks on the surface, but JD and the time travelers try to convince them that it is not necessary.

The Sea Devil leaders are willing to hear the time travelers out, but it is only once Lt. Sheppard assures them that he has the authority to negotiate on behalf of the human governments that negotiations begin in earnest. In the end the Sea Devils agree to end hostilities and free all the people they have taken in exchange for an end to the oil tankers sailing over what they consider to be their territories. With a tentative treaty in place the time travelers, FAITH personnel, and other captives are returned to the cave system on the plateau. The helicopters are summoned and everyone is transported back to Tofino.

Lt. Sheppard briefs Major Miller, who in turn informs the government in Ottawa of what has happened. With the alternative being open conflict with the Sea Devils, the senior leadership in Ottawa decides to abide by the agreement that Lt. Sheppard negotiated and are able to convince the United States government to change to courses used by the oil tankers traveling from Alaska. Major Miller thanks the time travelers for their help in defusing the situation. Before they take their leave, he provides them with a toll-free phone number they can use to contact FAITH any time they need assistance. With that the five return to the TARDIS and once again hope they can get home.

Air date: March 7, 2020

Red Thunder

The TARDIS materializes in a field atop a small hill; bits of grass poke up through the remains of winter snow and down below through the trees there are houses and a church are visible. Looking further the time travelers can see a ferry terminal on a bay with a large island rising out of it. Almost as soon as the five have stepped out of the TARDIS the air goes still, then there is a humming that grows louder like the sound of a bell. As they look around the group sees beam of energy appear coming down from the sky and striking the far end of the island. The beam only lasts a second, and thirty seconds later the sound of a massive boom echoes across the water, blowing out windows in the town below.

A few utility pole transformers down in the town start to spark, then the TARDIS is surrounded by arcing electricity and the lights pulse before the TARDIS vanishes! Zehra recognizes the effect as the TARDIS's HADS, the Hostile Activity Displacement System, that causes the time machine to travel a short distance in time and/or space in order to protect itself from danger. Stuck until the TARDIS opts to rematerialize the group decide to investigate the strange phenomenon they have just witnessed on the island. They head down towards the ferry while also trying to discover when and where they are. In short order the travelers learn that they in a small town called Portugal Cove in Newfoundland and that the date is April 2, 1978; so once again the TARDIS has not taken them far from their last stop, moving them from the west coast of Canada to the east and less than a year forward in time.

This time the five also remember that they are not completely without resources and find a pay phone where they call the toll-free number that Tom Miller had given them to use to contact FAITH. They pass on what they have observed and are told that FAITH have an agent in St. John's that can meet them shortly. Not content to wait, the five take the ferry across to what they learn is called Bell Island, determined to start looking into the mystery right away.

From where the ferry docks on the island it is bit of a walk into the main settlement of Wabana. At the local diner the group ask around about what the locals saw. People definitely heard the explosion, and many witnessed electrical phenomena - electricity arcing out of plugs, light bulbs and TVs exploding, some wiring melting. A short time later the FAITH agent from St. John's, Donald Booker, arrives. He would rather wait for the field team from Ottawa to arrive, but once it is clear the others want to press on Agent Booker knows he has to stick with them. Booker proves useful in one regard, he has a car with him, which makes it a little easier to follow up on some of what the time travelers have learned so far.

Amongst the stories from the locals was a general consensus that the sound of the explosion came from the southwest end of the island, from the direction of the Pickman Farm in Lance Cove. The five hop in Agent Booker's car and head for the farm. When they arrive, it is evident that the Pickman family farm appears to have been the epicenter, or near epicenter, of the event. The level of destruction is higher here than anywhere else, and the location is approximately near where the five think they saw the beam of energy strike. There are holes in the roof of the main house; the television set and fuse boxes actually exploded; and the roof of the chicken coop was destroyed and five chickens inside were killed.

Near a shed are three holes in the snow which look like something buried had exploded out of them. Ursa examines the holes but cannot find any indication of what created the holes. The others also have little luck learning anything from the farm or from questioning the Pickmans with Agent Booker; that is until Eileen notices a shy young boy who has been watching the group. Eileen is able to befriend the boy, who turns out to be the Pickman's grandson Billy, and learns that he saw something that morning. Billy says he saw a large globe of light floating off the ground and remembers seeing it head off. When Eileen asks where it went Billy points, indicating a generally northerly direction.

The group decides to split up, with Maryanne, Eileen and Ursa heading overland on foot in the direction Billy indicated the light had gone while Zehra and JD go with Agent Booker in the car following the road around to the other side of the island with the intent to meet up with the others when they get there. The three traveling on foot do not spot anything as they cross over the center of the island, and the others in the car similarly see nothing unusual on their more roundabout trek. The two groups meet up near the locked gates of one of the island's iron mines, once the driving force of the island but closed since the mid-1960s.

As it starts to get dark Agent Booker points out that there are not really any accommodations on the island itself so they will need to head back to the mainland to find somewhere to sleep. Though the time travelers want to keep investigating they realize it is pointless now that it has gotten dark. The five go with Agent Booker on the ferry back to Portugal Cove where he finds them all rooms at a roadside motel courtesy of FAITH. The time travelers amuse themselves by watching old television shows while being happy to be able to get some food that is different from the same old stuff they are usually stuck with on the TARDIS.

The next morning the FAITH team from Ottawa have arrived and the time travelers are pleased to see that the team is led by Lt. Chad Sheppard, who they had met during their encounter with the Sea Devils on Vancouver Island (months ago for Chad but only days ago to the TARDIS gang). Chad is accompanied by a woman named Andrea, the team's scientific advisor, and a man named Bobby, the technical expert. Chad informs Agent Booker and the time travelers that they are not the only ones investigating the strange phenomenon that struck the island; FAITH has learned that two American government scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico (home of the American nuclear weapons program) have also arrived on Bell Island.

The time travelers and FAITH agents take the ferry back across to the island and discover that something happened during the night. They learn from the authorities that a local man named Bert Whitmeyer was found dead early that morning and that no one can explain how he died. At the small hospital in Wabana, where the body is being kept, the FAITH agents are able to gain access to examine it. The time travelers tag along, and soon wish that maybe they hadn't. Whatever killed Bert seems to have somehow folded his body in on itself, like he had been compacted into a cube shape. Stepping out of the room to get some air, Zehra notices a woman with bandaged hands watching her. The woman seems shy and apologizes for looking, saying she was just curious about what happened to Bert. Before Zehra can ask the woman anything else she is distracted by her friends and Lt. Sheppard coming out of the makeshift morgue. When Zehra looks back the woman has gone.

While Andrea stays to examine the body further with some assistance from Bobby, and Agent Booker questions the authorities, Lt. Sheppard accompanies the time travelers as they go back out around the island to look for more clues. A big one comes when they go past the mine entrance again and see that something has broken open the gate. The group check around the mine entrance and shaft and find traces that something, or several somethings, humanoid and heavy have been through there recently. Most of the mine tunnels are flooded and the tracks seem to emerge from the water.

Searching the area around the mine they find more tracks, this time leading down a tunnel through the rock to a small beach area below the cliffs on the north side of the island, a place the locals call the Grebe's Nest. Down in the Nest they see more signs of activity, something that JD's scanner indicates were caused by several heavy things being moved. Similar tracks to what they saw in the mine are there as well. When the group ask around to find out more about the Grebe's Nest, the locals tell them to talk to a woman named Susan Fitzgerald, who just happens to be the woman with the bandaged hands that Zehra had encountered briefly at the hospital. Lt. Sheppard checks in with Agent Booker at the hospital and he is able to learn that Susan bad come in early that morning to get her hands treated for burns. Chad is also able to get Susan's address and he and the time travelers start heading there.

Outside Susan's house Zehra's scanner starts picking up strange readings from inside. Susan herself is initially reluctant to let anyone in, but eventually relents. JD, Chad and Ursa stay outside while Maryanne, Eileen and Zehra go in. While Eileen distracts Susan, Zehra and Maryanne follow the scanner readings down into the basement where they find a large chest full of what look like large round rocks, rocks that are starting to give off a lot of heat. Outside the house Chad spots a group of strange figures walking down the street towards the house, and then realizes that the figures are not human. The group are four large humanoids with reptilian features clad in green armored exoskeletons. JD immediately recognizes them as Ice Warriors, originally native to Mars, and warns Chad not to make any aggressive actions.

In the basement Zehra and Maryanne discover that the rocks are actually eggs of some kind when one of them cracks open and a winged fiery creature emerges. The two swiftly retreat back upstairs where they warn Eileen and Susan, only to find that Susan seems to have expected something like that to happen. Back outside JD greets the Ice Warriors and is able to keep things calm despite Chad getting antsy. When asked the Ice Warriors confirm that they were responsible for Bert's death, claiming they were defending themselves when the man drunkenly confronted them. JD does not think that this is a reasonable justification for murder given that the Ice Warriors outnumbered and outgunned Bert, but before he can pursue his argument Eileen, Maryanne and Zehra burst out of the house with Susan in tow then come to a shocked stop when they see the Ice Warriors.

The flaming creature soon emerges from the house, but the Ice Warriors use some kind of device to capture it in a spherical force field of some kind. The aliens explain that the creature is a Martian Dragon, a species held sacred by the Ice Warriors and that was thought to be extinct. According to the Ice Warriors, the "Dragons" are plasma creatures with a complex life cycle. They are ancient and native to Mars, but apparently with the loss of much of Mars' water they adapted to laying their eggs on Earth instead. The eggs remain dormant for centuries or millennia before the plasma creatures' instinct tells them it is time to spawn a new generation. At this time they migrate along the solar wind from Mars to Earth and seek out the mature eggs then, like the Phoenix, they would die and the new generation would be born from the eggs. The Ice Warriors had detected this latest migration, which was the cause of the phenomenon the time travelers had witnessed striking the island, and had dispatched a ship to investigate.

Susan explains that she has known the rocks were eggs since she first found them down in the Grebe's Nest when she was a young girl. She claims she could hear them singing to her in her mind and she stayed on the island even as an adult so she would be close to them. Recently she could tell something was changing as the song in her mind became clearer and she began to dream of Mars and of the journey from there to Earth. Susan began moving the eggs from the Grebe's Nest to her basement to protect them. She burned her hands moving the last of them yesterday as they had begun to get hot.

Chad asks the Ice Warriors if they will leave now that they have located the newborn Dragon and the rest of the eggs. The Ice Warriors tell him that this is their intention, that they will take the Dragon and the eggs back to the new Martian homeworld where the creatures can be cared for and protected. Susan does not want this to happen, saying she has a special connection to the creatures and cannot bear to be separated from them. The Ice Warriors recognize this bond, though they are shocked to learn that a human has formed such a link with their sacred creatures, and offer to take Susan with them. The time travelers are not sure about this, but Susan seems excited of the prospect. She explains that she has never really felt like she belonged here and that it was only the eggs keeping her on the island, and the idea of traveling through space to another world is something she cannot pass up.

Chad reluctantly agrees that the Ice Warriors can go and that Susan can go with them. JD is angered that the Ice Warriors are escaping any consequences for the murder of Bert, but Chad makes it clear that to avoid any potential conflict they have to let the aliens go. The others are also still not sure about letting Susan go, but she seems determined and there is little they can do about it. Chad arranges for some transportation to take the Ice Warriors back to the mine entrance where they first emerged, having hidden their spacecraft under the water offshore and accessed the flooded mine tunnels that ran out under the sea floor. Watching from the Grebe's Nest the time travelers and the FAITH agents see the Martian spaceship emerge from the cold waters of Conception Bay and fly up into the sky.

With everything wrapped up the time travelers accompany the FAITH agents back to the mainland where they soon discover that the TARDIS has finally reappeared, materializing back in the exact same spot where it had landed the day before. The FAITH agents thank the group for their help and the time travelers pile back into the TARDIS. Once again they try to set some coordinates and then pull the dematerialization switch. As they depart Zehra notes that the Oolotic Hematite ore like in Bell Island can be found all over the world in places like the Aral Sea, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and China. She wonders if their early appearances millennia ago is what led to the legends of dragons all over the world.

Air date: March 28, 2020

Ghost Engines

The time travelers awaken separately to find themselves in lying in beds in rooms they do not recognize. The décor in the rooms is old, almost Victorian and a glimpse out of a window shows a city street that seems to reinforce the idea they are Victorian times. The five meet up in the hallway outside their rooms, happy they are together, and try and piece together how they got to wherever and whenever they are.

Things slowly come back to them as the travelers remember the TARDIS' strained flight and materializing a short time later to discover that once again the vessel had barely traveled at all. The group had found themselves in Montreal in the year 1980, so again the TARDIS had only managed to take them about two years forward in time and still appearing somewhere in Canada. Checking around the five found that the people of the Montreal neighborhood they had materialized in were frantically searching for a missing boy and that he was only the latest to disappear in the last few days. The time travelers join in the search and JD starts picking up strange readings on his scanner. The readings lead to an old abandoned railway tunnel. They went in to investigate further and there was a sudden howl of wind followed by a flare of blue light; and this is the last thing they can remember before waking up in this strange house.

The travelers are then interrupted by the arrival of a young dark haired woman in Victorian servant's clothing. Seeing that they are up and about she tells the five she will let the lady of the house know, saying her mistress will be pleased that everyone seems unharmed. Her mistress turns out to be Lady Julia Fraser, a woman the travelers met in Ottawa in 1868 when she was just sixteen but who looks much older to them now. Shockingly another old acquaintance is also present, also looking much older than when the five had met him, Frederic Lake. This is a little distressing to Eileen as she had developed an attraction to Frederic when they met in 1864 and he was a teenager, and now he is here in front of her as a man apparently in his thirties.

Lady Julia explains that, having been inspired by her uncle's interests and her own experience as a teenager when she first met the time travelers, she has dedicated her life and fortune to investigating the strange and unusual. Similarly, Frederic has followed in his father's footsteps to become an adventurer in his own right also traveling the world investigating the extranormal. The pair explain to the travelers that they find themselves still in Montreal but the year is currently 1883, nearly a century earlier than where the group started out. Julia has traveled from Ottawa to investigate a monster sighting, some sort of monstrous bat-like thing apparently attacked a passenger train and the police are baffled. Frederic has come from England after learning of similar reports, but in his case they were of strange men with mechanical parts and he feared the Cybermen had returned. He soon met up with Julia and her companion and with one of Lady Julia's alien artifacts (from her uncle's collection) they detected a burst of unknown energy. Following the energy reading led them to a construction site owned by the Great Encompassing Railway Company, which was where they found the unconscious forms of the time travellers. They brought the five back to a home that Lady Julia maintains in Montreal.

Keen to discover how they got here and, more importantly, hopefully find a way to travel back to 1980 where they left the TARDIS, the travelers are ready to join the investigation. The railway tunnels are the obvious starting point so, after changing into more era appropriate clothing provided by Julia, the five head out alongside Frederic, Julia, and Julia's maid / assistant / companion Nancy. Working back from the construction site where the time travelers were found the group are able to locate what they believe is (or will become) the railway tunnel the displaced quintet were checking out when they were in 1980. Similar to before JD's scanner is picking up unusual readings from somewhere in the tunnel.

Proceeding deeper into the tunnel JD and Zehra are able to get better readings with their scanners, readings that show some kind of advanced circuitry embedded in the tunnel walls. While the more science minded members of the group are busy, Maryanne is keeping an eye out and spots some movement. It turns out to be a young girl in ragged clothes and Maryanne is able to coax her out of the shadows. The girl's name is Marie and she is hiding from someone named Mr. Rook. Rook it seems runs a gang of street children, forcing them to commit petty crimes for him; and the man himself soon makes an appearance in the tunnel searching for Marie. Maryanne and Ursa are ready to protect Nancy, but before anyone can do anything a monstrous screeching noise gets everyone's attention.

From out of the shadows deeper in the tunnel a cluster of dark, bat-winged creatures comes swarming out towards where everyone is. Rook draws a pistol but is soon set upon by some of the creatures and vanishes from sight, carried away in their claws. The rest of the creatures then turn their attention on the time travelers, Lady Julia, Nancy and Frederic. Everyone gathers close to help protect each other, but before the monsters can attack the tunnel starts to fill with a strange light. The brickwork flares blue, just like it did in the tunnel in 1980, and a train appears on the tracks, rattling at high speed towards the group and causing the creatures to scatter and flee. The train is a steam locomotive, but not like any train any of them has seen before. Electric lights illuminate it, circuits drive it and it's armoured like a tank. Hollow-eyed men stare out through gunports, some wearing suits like deep-sea divers and carrying strange rifles. Just as quickly as it appeared the train disappears in another flash of blue light, leaving the bewildered investigators and the street child alone in the now dark and empty tunnel.

Before the train vanished Maryanne had managed to spot signage on the locomotive that Lady Julia identifies as belonging to the Great Encompassing Railway Company, the same company behind the construction site where she and Frederic had found the unconscious time travelers. With Lady Julia's influence Zehra is able to access some library resources and Maryanne and Eileen are able to get into the archives of the Montreal Gazette in order to research the Great Encompassing Railway. Their efforts, combined with the more common knowledge (in 1883 Montreal anyway) of the Railway paint the picture of a relatively new yet highly successful company founded by one Sir Anthony Heath (who was knighted for his success with Railway) that has an expanding rail network across much of eastern Canada. Sir Arnold comes from a good family and was educated as an engineer. He and another railway worker were the sole survivors of a tunnel collapse a decade earlier and together the pair founded the Great Encompassing Railway Company less than a year later. A few months later the other survivor had passed away and since then Sir Arnold has worked with a succession of mysterious 'business partners', all of whom appear to come from nothing and then vanish again. Under Sir Arnold's guidance the Railway has grown to the powerful company it is today and made him a wealthy man, rich enough to have purchased a mansion and estate on the edge of the city a few years ago.

Of additional interest is the fact that the Railway seems to have an uncommonly high rate of worker injury and death, and also that the Company hosts periodic charitable dinners at its headquarters in Montreal for the less fortunate, the next one being the next evening. Once again with Lady Julia's influence the group are able to get invitations to the upcoming charitable dinner, planning to take advantage of it to get a closer look at Sir Arnold and the inner workings of the Railway. The attendees at the dinner are a mix of charitable donors and other upper class socialites and the urchins and other "unfortunates" that are the intended recipients of the evening's charity. Before the dinner, officials from the Encompassing Company circulate through the crowd, asking questions of the lower class guests. JD and Maryanne both note that the officials hand out tickets to those they question; ostensibly for transportation to get them home, but some are being given red colored tickets and others yellow.

At the end of the dinner (and accompanying sermons and speeches) Maryanne managed to obtain one of the tickets and attempted to accompany the people home, but the Encompassing Railway employees see through the bluff and stop her from joining the group. The others are equally curious but want to wait until morning before following up. Eileen has other ideas though and tries to sneak out of Lady Julia's residence to investigate on her own. Maryanne catches Eileen, but rather than stop her elects to accompany her. The pair soon learn that none of the people issued yellow tickets returned to their homes, so the two proceed to Sir Arnold's mansion to see if they can learn anything.

Maryanne and Eileen manage to sneak onto the grounds of Sir Arnold's estate where they note some of the odd aspects, like a railway track that runs through the garden in a ring around the house and a newer tower at the back of the mansion that to their modern eyes looks like it is topped with lightning rods attached to thick power cables that snake into the tower itself. Despite the late hour there are people moving about the grounds, some of whom have advanced though still Victorian-looking prosthetic limbs, perhaps the source of the tales that drew Frederic Lake to the city. Unfortunately the two are soon caught and brought before Sir Arnold in his study in the mansion.

Though initially suspicious of the intruders, once Sir Arnold learns that Eileen and Maryanne are aware of at least some of mysteries surrounding the Great Encompassing Railway and that they are no strangers to the paranormal he becomes more welcoming. He starts by explaining that the railway tunnel collapse that had nearly killed him almost a decade ago had also revealed a strange vessel from another world. The vessel had been a prison ship and was damaged by the collapse such that many of the prisoners escaped, including the bat-like creatures, called Kith, that were attacking people around the tunnels. Sir Arnold becomes more excited as he continues his tale, speaking of another prisoner that had escaped but this one was far more dangerous than the creatures, a veritable devil from Hell. Luckily, he continues, there was also a jailer aboard the vessel, a non-corporeal being named Zoroth. Zoroth was weakened by the accident that brought the craft originally and to survive it needed to take over the body of Hollis, the only other tunnel worker besides Sir Arthur himself to have survived the collapse.

It was Zoroth who explained to Sir Arthur about the danger the other prisoner, Kray, presented to all of humanity if he could be recaptured. It was with Zoroth's help (still in Hollis' body) that Sir Arthur established the Great Encompassing Railway Company. Using his advanced science Zoroth has been able to turn Sir Arthur's railways into a net to entrap Kray. As the railway expands the net is drawn closer, but they are running out of time. Zoroth is growing weaker, and has been forced to take a succession of hosts of the years. Sir Arthur acknowledges that this eventually kills the hosts, but he understands that the threat of Kray necessitates such sacrifices. With time growing short, however, he feels that people like Eileen, Maryanne, and their friends who have experience with the strange and alien may be able to help he and Zoroth finally trap Kray for good.

To further prove his intentions Sir Arthur then takes Maryanne and Eileen down to his workshop in the new tower attached to the mansion. In the cellars beneath it Sir Arthur throws a massive switch on one wall and in a flash of blue light the three find themselves somewhere else entirely. It's something out of the fever dream of an engineer. Imagine a cavern or a sea made of blue fire. In this cavern is a titanic engine, cobbled together from locomotive parts and scrap iron. This engine is so huge that people live in a shanty town of lean-tos and huts in and around its monstrously big boilers and gear-shafts. At the heart of the engine, connected to it by thick cables, is an alien starship like a silver-green jewel. Dozens of the Steampunk cyborg engineers toil to maintain this great groaning engine. At the foot of the engine is a train station where a single strange train waits; the same train that the time travelers and their friends glimpsed in the underground tunnels. Sir Arthur brings Eileen and Maryanne aboard the train and introduces them to Zoroth, who is using one of Sir Arthur's servants as his current host.

By this time the others back at Lady Julia's house have taken notice that Eileen and Maryanne are nowhere to be found. It becomes clear that the two must have gone to Sir Arthur's mansion, unwilling to wait until morning. Lady Julia calls for horse-drawn carriages to take everyone to the estate. Disembarking a short distance away, the group then proceeds on foot to the grounds. Like Maryanne and Eileen before them they sneak onto the estate and take a look around. They also see the strange railway that circles the mansion, but this time the tracks are starting to glow. As the group watches, a train engine materializes onto the tracks, appearing from nowhere in a flash of blue light. Even more shocking to them is the fact that both of their missing friends appear to be aboard the train.

Spotting the others Maryanne waves them over to the train. Between Maryanne, Eileen, Sir Arthur, and Zoroth the group are brought up to speed. Some of Sir Arthur's workers who have been keeping watch around the city have reported a sighting of their quarry, Kray, and are heading out to try and capture the creature. Convinced of the threat that Kray presents to the world the time travelers as well as Frederic, Lady Julia and Nancy all agree to help. They board the train and in a flash it once again disappears only to reappear in one of Sir Arthur's railway tunnels. The train rides the rails towards where the sighting was reported. As the train nears it Ursa is the first to spot the glowing figure which must be their target. The others soon get a look and realize that like Zoroth this Kray must also need to take over a host, and in this case the host is the missing boy from 1980 that the group had been trying to help locate!

With Kray spotted Sir Arthur orders his Steam-Borg soldiers to open fire. Kray has some kind of force field, which deflects the bullets; and he also retaliates with tendrils of some kind of psychic energy. The tendrils have no effect against the soldiers, however, as the diving suit-like outfits they are wearing seem to protect them. Concerned that the boy may be harmed, JD, Maryanne, Ursa and Zehra leap off the train to confront Kray. When they get close enough to demand that Kray release the boy, they are shocked when Kray says that the boy is under his protection. Kray allows the boy, Simon, to speak and he tells the time travelers that he was scared and that the "policeman" has been helping him. The time travelers realize that they have been on the wrong side, it is Kray that was the jailer on the ship and Zoroth that was the dangerous prisoner.

Kray is too weak to release Simon, even though he knows his use of the boy as a host is killing the child. Zehra is able to help though, using her own psychic abilities (though still keeping that detail secret from her friends). With Zehra's assistance Kray leaves Simon and joins with Zehra. When Zehra explains to the others what is happening they all volunteer to help and with the combined life force Kray is able to swiftly regain his strength. Realizing things are going off the proverbial rails an enraged Zoroth takes psychic control of all the Steam Borgs and threatens to unleash them on Montreal if Kray is not turned over to him.

A confused Sir Arthur tries to grasp what has happened, until JD is able to explain and succeeds in making Sir Arthur realize just how he has been used by Zoroth to cause harm, not hunt a devil like he had believed he had been doing. Though Kray has regained much of his strength he is still trapped by Zoroth's "Ghost Engine" machine and the railway net. Despondent over what he has done, and realizing he must atone, Sir Arthur seizes control of the train and activates the machinery, sending the train and himself back to the pocket dimension on a suicide run to destroy the Ghost Engine.

With the net gone Kray regains access to his full abilities. Leveraging the circuitry installed in the railway tunnels he turns Zoroth's technology back on the villain and trapping him in place. With Frederic and Lady Julia's help they are soon able to locate Kray's vessel, which Zoroth had repaired but had been unable to use without the control codes that only Kray knew. In short order Zoroth is back in his cell, and Kray proceeds to round up the Kith and return them to their cells. With all his prisoners collected, Kray is ready to return to his home time and planet and will also be able to return Simon and the time travelers to 1980.

The group prepare to take their leave of Frederic, Lady Julia, and Nancy and thank them for all their help. Lady Julia and Frederic in turn thank the time travelers for their help, and say they are both glad to have had a chance to see them again. As the time travelers prepare to leave Eileen suddenly remembers something important, that Captain Jack had told them that the message that told him to come and help them in 1936 had been sent by the time travelers themselves in their future but his past. Eileen pulls out the copy she had made of the note Jack had shown them, or more accurately the note itself since it cannot be a copy of itself, and gives it to Frederic asking him to get it to the Torchwood organization so they can pass it Captain Jack Harkness in the future. Frederic seems shocked that Eileen knows of Torchwood, since it has only been existence for a few years and is supposed to be a secret, but he agrees to her request and takes the note.

Ready to leave, the time travelers ask if Kray can take them to 2017 rather than 1980, but unfortunately he says he can only return them by using the same dimensional shunt that brought them here so it can only send them back to 1980. They are disappointed, but accept that they will have to continue to try and find their own way back to their original time period. Kray activates the shunt and sends the time travelers and Simon back through, where the five are able to reunite the young boy with his worried family. After accepting the thanks of Simon's parents, and joining in some of the celebrations of the boy's safe return, the time travelers return to the TARDIS and take off once again.

Air date: April 11, 2020

Pyramid Scheme

The TARDIS still does not seem to be working properly as this latest journey is as rough, and short, as the last few have been. Materializing in wooded foothills the five reach a nearby road and are able to get a lift to the nearest town from a couple of young men named Jimmy and Kevin. The pair reveal that they are Bigfoot hunters from Oregon who have here in because of a surge of recent Sasquatch sightings in the area. The "here" turns out to be a distant suburb of Vancouver on the edge of the mountains. The time travelers soon learn that the date is mid-July 1982, meaning once again the TARDIS has kept them in Canada and only brought them forward a couple of years in time.

The group try their usual tactic of having Eileen busk with her guitar to earn some spending money before they realize they have the contact number for FAITH. Knowing that more often than not the TARDIS drops them in a time and place where something unusual is happening they make the call and FAITH arranges accommodations for the group at a motel and offers to send some agents (also being aware that the presence of the time travelers usually signals something strange is happening). Once settled in the time travelers set to see what they can find out in the otherwise normal looking suburb they have found themselves in.

With her obsessions with conspiracy theories, Eileen is the first to find suspect things. Eileen swears that she has spotted several Men in Black around town but the others are reluctant to believe her at first. They decide to check around and see if there have been any unusual reports made to the police. That avenue of investigation looks like a dead end until the time travelers notice a distressed looking woman who is trying to get the police to look into something but the authorities appear to be dismissing her concerns. The group decide to follow the woman to see what they can learn from her.

JD and Maryanne, posing as reporters, knock on the woman's door and offer to help. The woman, Gina Moravec, is glad to have someone willing to believe her and she tells the two how she is concerned with recent odd behavior in her 13 year-old son Doug. She has trouble providing details as it is more of an accumulation of little things that have worried. She has also started noticing changes in some of the other kids in the area, but the police and the other parents have dismissed her concerns. The two thank her for her time and relay the information to the others, who decide to check out the kids around the suburb.

At first everything seems normal, but then a slight pattern emerges. Eileen and Zehra talk to some of the kids and learn that they too have noticed a change in behavior in some of their friends. Specifically it seems some kids have stopped hanging out with their friends and have banded together, kids that normally never hung out together. The group's investigation leads them to a local hangout called Mike's Pizza and Arcade where nearly all the older kids of the neighborhood congregate. As the only teenagers in the group, Eileen and Zehra head inside to take a look and find themselves in a large darkened space filled with noisy arcade cabinets and a counter at the back where the kids can buy pizza and pop and get quarters for the machines. Grabbing some food the two scout around the arcade, eventually catching sight of one game that seems to be attracting a lot of attention from the other teens and pre-teens in the arcade.

The game, a puzzle-based game called Pyramid!, has a constant crowd of kids around it and a line of people waiting to play. While they watch they see one girl apparently beat the game, and Zehra senses a psychic change in the girl. As the other kids cheer her victory the girl slowly makes her way out of the arcade so Eileen and Zehra move to follow her out. Outside the arcade Eileen watches from a distance as the girl joins up with a group of kids, including Doug and others that are those that have supposedly been exhibiting odd behavior. Following the group from a distance the time travelers watch as the kids make their way through the neighborhood and then enter the forest that borders the suburb. The group hurries after them, finding a small path worn through the trees that takes them to a slightly wider trail that leads up into the mountains.

Catching up with the kids, JD opts to try and bluff his way through a conversation to get new information. He does not seem to make much progress, and Ursa senses something approaching through the trees. She gets the others to try and hide but JD remains exposed in the trail and he finds himself confronted by two giant, hairy creatures - Sasquatch!? With little choice the other time travelers step in to help JD. The creatures easily seize some of the group but more from luck than anything the others are able to get them free and the time travelers flee back to the suburb.

With the arcade game somehow connected to events the time travelers decide to check it out. A little digging reveals that the game is new and was produced by a Vancouver-based company called Whisper Software. Only a few coin-op cabinets have been produced so far and all have been distributed around the Vancouver area. The address of the company leads the group to a generic looking building in an industrial area, home to several different companies. It is a weekend so the offices are closed, but Maryanne breaks in and the group takes a look around. Their snooping does not turn up much of note except for one bit of unusual information; for some reason the company has also taken ownership of a closed down resort up in the mountains.

The time travelers then head back to the arcade, where Eileen wants to give the video game a try. She and Zehra go back in and see that the lineup for the game is long, but Eileen bribes a boy named Bobby into letting her take his spot by showing him her fancy "futuristic" cell phone. Bobby even offers Eileen tips on playing the game to help her. The Pyramid! game is a puzzle-based game, with multi-color and multi-shape challenges that a player must overcome to reach the final level and beat the All-Seeing Eye in the Pyramid, one of many Illuminati-themed elements to the game. "Face the challenges of the Secret Masters to unlock the treasures of the Illuminati!" says the message on the game's opening screen, further grabbing Eileen's conspiracy theory-filled mind.

The game's challenges prove increasingly difficult, but Eileen manages to overcome them slowly but surely until she reaches the final level. As she makes her way past the last puzzle the glowing pyramid on the screen suddenly grows to encompass her whole field of vision. She feels herself drawn in, only to find herself in a black and neon space; her mind has been trapped! She can see others trapped in the space with her, and looming above them is a shapeless presence, the master of this realm of the mind and their captor, a creature of pure intellect calling itself the Great Intelligence.

Back in the arcade the kids watching are cheering as Eileen beats the game. At the same time Zehra can sense a change in Eileen's psychic aura and realizes that whatever happened to the other kids has happened to her. Zehra gets Eileen outside and back to the rest of the time travelers and asks how she is feeling. Eileen describes the encounter in the pyramid, and explains how she was able to fight her way back out and break free from whatever the game was trying to do. Zehra is suspicious, but cannot articulate her suspicions to the others without revealing her own secrets so keeps quiet. The others believe what Eileen is telling them, clueless that it is no longer Eileen's mind in control of her body. Unaware of the threat in their midst the time travelers break down what they have learned and plan what to do next.

Though there are arguments for further investigation among the group there are also calls to take action, and through its control of Eileen the Great Intelligence is able to steer the time travelers towards taking action. They eventually decide to check out the spa resort that the software company owns and get a taxi to take them up into the mountains. They leave the taxi a kilometer or so before the resort and head the rest of the way on foot. The grounds are surrounded by a dilapidated fence and the gate is locked, but it is designed more to keep vehicles out and there are enough gaps in the perimeter for the time travelers to make their way through. As quietly as they can manage they approach the main building of the resort and Zehra can start to sense something within. As the group are looking around to find the best way to get inside, they are suddenly surrounded by several of the Sasquatch and a few of the Men in Black.

Their captors take the time travelers inside to the vast main hall of the resort, which is completely empty except for the frame of a giant metal pyramid. Inside of the pyramid is a swirling cloud of blue glowing mist, which Zehra shockingly realizes contains the minds of everyone affected by the Pyramid! game, including Eileen. The Great Intelligence reveals itself to the time travelers by speaking through Eileen, explaining how it arrived on Earth and was able to take control of a few humans and use them to build its monstrous robotic Sasquatch slaves and the more human looking Men in Black constructs, and further used its mental powers to guide the programmers who developed the Pyramid! game and influence the company's backers to distribute the arcade cabinets. The Great Intelligence wants to manifest fully on Earth and for that it needs more power, and to get that power it must feed on the minds of intelligent beings. With the arcade game acting as a test and trap it ensures that only the smartest minds are ensnared to serve as food for the Great Intelligence. The time travelers presented a potential threat with their interference, but now that it has learned what it needs of them the Intelligence will simply kill them.

Maryanne, Ursa, and JD all desperately search for a means to take out the Sasquatch or damage the pyramid in some way but there is nothing around them that will help. It is Zehra who comes up with a desperate plan; laying her hands on the pyramid she sends a psychic "shout" at Eileen's mind. Inside the mental space Eileen is energized by Zehra's effort and turns her attention to the other minds trapped in there with her. Though individually they are no match for the Great Intelligence together they are a threat. Eileen rallies the others and they begin to assault the walls of their mental pyramid prison. In the grand hall the metal pyramid starts to spark with blue energy as the minds' assault continues.

The Great Intelligence rallies its power to fight against the prisoners' revolt, which causes the Sasquatch and Men in Black to go immobile as all the Intelligence's attention is taken up. The other time travelers follow Zehra's lead and touch the pyramid, and though they lack her (secret) mental ability their efforts serve to bolster the imprisoned minds. The energy crackling around the pyramid grows stronger and it soon becomes apparent that it will not be able to hold much longer. The time travelers bolt for the exit, with Ursa grabbing the now immobile body of Eileen. Just as they get clear there is a massive explosion as the metal pyramid shatters. Eileen awakens in her own body, freed from the mental prison and reunited with her friends. The resort itself has been destroyed, burying the now inert Sasquatch and Men in Black, and the Great Intelligence appears to have been driven back to whatever dimension it came from.

The FAITH agents dispatched to the area arrive soon after, too late to help against the Great Intelligence but able to help with the cleanup, and the cover up. The other kids who had been trapped by the video game have also had their minds restored, and FAITH starts to spread the cover story that is was psychoactive patterns in the video game that led to addictive and abnormal behavior in the kids. Psychologists secretly working for FAITH will work with the kids to help them recover and also convince them of the cover story while FAITH gathers up the remains from the resort as well as confiscating all of the Pyramid! arcade cabinets as well as all the material related to the game.

With FAITH taking over the mopping up, the time travelers take their leave and return to the TARDIS, realizing that whatever is wrong with their ship is not getting better and wondering if the next hop will once again only take them a short time into the future somewhere else in Canada.

Air date: April 25, 2020

Templar Throne

The time travelers emerge from the TARDIS to find themselves in the multi-level parking garage of a small shopping mall. A quick look around finds only one parked car, strangely with its driver-side door still open but no sign of the driver or anyone else nearby. The car is an ordinary sedan. It looks rather grimy, and the interior is very untidy. Strewn across the floor, the rear seats and the front passenger seat are books, documents, newspapers, children's toys, food wrappers, an umbrella, half-eaten sandwiches, a raincoat - and more. Looking closer, Maryanne sees that the keys are still in the ignition, and a search of the raincoat turns up a wallet in the name of a Dr. L. Philpott. Among the documents in the front seat is a bundle of typed pages entitled "Podford - from Temple to Shopping Centre and back again." From the license plate on the car and the identification in the wallet the time travelers determine that they have arrived somewhere in Nova Scotia and that the year is 1984.

A further search of the area turns up no sign of the driver, so the group head down to the lower level of the parking garage. There are a few more cars here, but nothing unusual, so the five head decide to head into the attached shopping mall proper. Entering next to a grocery store and pharmacy, the group can see that the stores all appear to be shuttered. The sun was setting outside, so perhaps it is closing time. The grocery store anchors one end of the mall, and looking down the length of it the time travelers can see a fountain in a central atrium so they head in that direction. As they approach the atrium they can see there is some kind of activity at the far end of the mall.

Cross the mall the five pass a florist, an electronics store, and several clothing stores, as well as the non-functioning central fountain, before reaching the other end of the mall. There they see a small gathering of people mingling amidst a set of displays outside of a record store. The group are greeted by a middle-aged woman who introduces herself as Anne Wallace, the head of the Podford Historical Society. She asks if the five are here for Dr. Philpott's talk, to which JD replies that yes they are. The displays are an exhibit and a quick perusal gives some useful information.

From the exhibit the five learn that they are in the Temple Field Mall. During the clearance of the site when the mall was being built the remains of medieval stone walls were unearthed. As an amateur historian, Anne Wallace, realized the walls could be the remains of a Templar temple and she succeeded in interesting Professor Hugh Brenner, head of the Saint Mary's University's archaeology department. Though no proof had ever been found, legend says that Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, was the first European to visit North America nearly a century before Columbus. This journey, allegedly in 1398, supposedly followed an ancient Phoenician route whose secret the Templars had uncovered in Jerusalem during the Crusades. There are even attempts to tie the name of Nova Scotia (New Scotland) back to Henry's alleged journey. Other stories claim that Henry Sinclair built a castle near New Ross in Lunenburg County during his supposed visit; and another Lunenburg County location linked to Templar Treasure is, of course, Oak Island and its mysterious "money pit". Some say the money pit contains a pirate treasure, but others claim it is a Templar treasure that lies buried there.

Much to the annoyance of the shopping centre developer, the council agreed to delay work on the foundations of the centre while Brenner's university team carried out an archaeological dig. The remains proved to be the apparent ruins of temple walls, but they were situated in such a way that the shopping centre could be built alongside them. When the dig was finished, the developer paid to create a small walled park overlooked by the shopping centre, where shoppers could wander among flower beds and the ruined Temple walls.

Elsewhere in the exhibit, glass-topped tables display objects found during the Temple Fields excavations (for instance buckles, brooches, coins, sword hilts, reliquaries); two L-shaped display areas show captioned photographs of the dig in progress, artist's impressions of the medieval Temple, and photographs of artifacts not on display. In addition to the history of excavations, the exhibit also contains some background about Knights Templar, and some names of significance like Anne Wallace (as the local enthusiast who instigated dig), Professor Hugh Brenner (distinguished archaeologist in charge of excavations), and Doctor Laurence Philpott (author of most authoritative history of Templars).

Most of the people present are other members of the Podford Historical Society, but a few are not. Among them Zehra meets a young man named Angus Drew, who is a reporter for the local paper. He is less interested in the planned talk than he is about a local belief that the mall and excavation are cursed. When the funds from the local council and the Department of the Environment ran out, Professor Brenner continued to work at the site, alone and unaided, even after workmen had started constructing the shopping centre. He unearthed a number of interesting and valuable objects, the most spectacular of which was a large and intricately carved blue stone, but he remained dissatisfied: he made public his belief that large parts of the Temple remained to be discovered.

Despite the Professor's requests for more time, the construction machines moved in. Brenner frequently visited the site driven, according to his worried colleagues, by an obsession. One day, when the glass and concrete galleries of the shopping centre were almost complete, he disappeared. The police could find no clue to his whereabouts and, on the evidence of accounts of his recent erratic behaviour, it was generally concluded that his mind had become disturbed, he had suffered a breakdown, and he had either fled overseas or had taken his own life.

A few days later the shopping centre, named Temple Fields, was opened by the Mayor of Podford. The objects found during the archaeological excavation were put on display in a small exhibition at the centre. Brenner's disappearance had already caused some townspeople to regard the new shopping centre as jinxed. When the blue stone, the centrepiece of the exhibition, was stolen after it had been on display for only one day, there was much muttering and shaking of heads. And when a few days later Doris Lumley, an elderly retiree, failed to return from her first trip to the Temple Fields supermarket, the shopping centre acquired an evil reputation.

No trace could be found of the blue stone or of Doris Lumley. The two mysteries filled the first three pages of the Podford Advertiser. After a brief flurry of interest, the townsfolk tended to stay away from Temple Fields. On the Tuesday of the second week a local named Kevin MacDonald went missing; his car was found abandoned on the upper story of the parking garage. The few shoppers who were prepared to brave Temple Fields took to parking their cars close together on the ground floor. Angus tells Zehra that Anne Wallace arranged tonight's lecture by Doctor Philpott to rekindle local pride in the Temple and the Mall.

Anne Wallace is growing increasingly worried that Dr. Philpott has not yet arrived. The time travelers decide to not reveal their discovery of his apparently abandoned car, waiting until they can learn more. Instead JD presents himself as an associate of Dr. Philpott and, while indicating he does not know why the Doctor is late he does offer to start the lecture, knowing that he can use the notes found in Philpott's car to fake his way through it while giving the others time to investigate further. Anne thanks him for the offer and will consider it; in the meantime she sends another Historical Society member, Paul Bracewell, out to look for Philpott in case the Doctor got lost looking for the Mall.

A set of glass double doors by the record store lead outside to a staircase going down into the Archaeological Garden next to the Mall and, despite the growing darkness as night falls, Zehra and Ursa decide to head outside to take a look at the Garden. The exposed stonework, in places no more than a few levels of undressed stone, delineates the shape of the Templar's church and a few surrounding buildings. The archaeological site has been transformed into a public amenity. Grass, now unkempt, grows all around the old stones, graveled paths cross the ancient church, shrubs bloom in flower beds, park benches provide seats for footsore shoppers, and the whole area is enclosed within a new, high brick wall.

While Ursa inspects the grounds for anything unusual Zehra walks around the park paths to see if she can find anything. At the far end of the Garden there is a portable office, probably left over from the construction or the original dig but based on the current signage Zehra thinks it has been coopted into serving as an information booth. She checks the door, but as the Mall is closed the door is locked. Before she can explore further, however, a figure reaches from out of the darkness and grabs hold of Zehra. The man appears disheveled, with an ashen sunken face, but his grip is fierce. What shocks Zehra more than his appearance, however, is the fact that she cannot get any kind of reading of the man's future using her abilities; it is as if he does not have a future at all. Zehra cries out, bringing Ursa rushing to her as the man tries to drag her out of the Archaeological Garden and towards the parking garage. The man seems unusually strong for his gaunt appearance, but Ursa is able to force him to release Zehra. With his victim freed the man runs off into the darkness into the parking garage. Ursa initially wants to chase him but Zehra stops her and the two instead head back into the Mall to tell the others what just happened.

While filling in Maryanne, JD and Eileen about the attack Zehra recognizes one of the pictures in the exhibit as being her attacker. Though the man that grabbed her was much more emaciated, she realizes now that it was Professor Brenner, the archaeologist that headed up the dig before disappearing mysteriously. Before any of the time travelers can follow up on this their attention is drawn by gasps of astonishment from some of the other people around the exhibit. When the five took they see that the door to the outside is being blocked by some kind of translucent force field. A rapid search shows that the field surrounds the entire Mall, blocking all the entrances including the one leading to the parking garage (and the TARDIS). The people begin to panic so the time travelers try to calm them down while examining the force field, determining that it pushes back against any attack against it with equal intensity.

While JD and Zehra are trying to figure out a way to get through or disable the force field, Eileen and Maryanne become aware of a strange low level sound starting to permeate the Mall. It soon becomes apparent that the sound is having an effect on the people, including JD and Eileen herself. Eileen starts playing her Sonic Guitar, putting on an impromptu rock concert to block the sound. Ursa seems to be immune, likely because she is not human, while Zehra and Maryanne, who seem to be able to resist the effect for the moment (Zehra hiding the fact that she too is unaffected), start searching for its origin. With some help from Zehra's scanner they trace it to the fountain in the center of the Mall, but they determine that the sound itself is coming from the pipes beneath the fountain, with the empty bowl of the fountain acting as an amplifier.

The regular access to the Mall's basement, and the pipes beneath the fountain, is from the parking garage and so is cut off by the force field. While Zehra and Maryanne are trying and find another way down to the basement, the Mall is suddenly plunged into darkness as the electricity is apparently cut. The loss of power does not stop the sound from continuing to echo from the fountain, but the other people trapped in the Mall again start to panic. A few minutes later Maryanne senses rather than sees figures moving through the darkness. She relays a warning and Ursa and JD prepare for potential attackers. Realizing that there had been no sign of anyone else near them before the lights went out, Maryanne notes that this might mean that the force field is down. She and Zehra check and discover that they are able to get through to the garage, barely crossing over before the force field reappears.

Zehra and Maryanne find the stairwell and head down towards the basement. At the bottom is a locked door, but Maryanne is able to pick the lock and the pair move through into a darkened corridor. The sound is even louder down here, but Maryanne counters it by playing music from her cell phone though her headphones. Using Zehra's cell phone as flashlights, the two follow along the corridor until they find the pump room under the fountain. It becomes clear that whoever cut the power left it on in this one room, as a complex jumble of speakers and stereo equipment has been set up to broadcast the sound up into the fountain. The two see that the sound is being input from some microphone lines so they disconnect the lines, which causes the strange sound to stop.

With the sound cut off Eileen no longer needs to play her guitar to help protect the bystanders, but they are still being stalked by figures in the darkness. With little to provide light it had been up to Ursa to fight off anything trying to come close to the group, but the loss of the sound seems to have caused whatever was threatening them to run off. Back in the basement Maryanne and Zehra follow the lines that had carried the sound, which leads them further down the corridor past several manhole covers until they reach a small square room with a manhole cover in the north-east corner of the floor. Unlike all the other manhole covers, this one has been lifted and is resting on its side against the wall. A square manhole is revealed, with a narrow metal ladder fastened to its south side.

Navigating down the ladder the two enter the sewer system under the mall, coming down into an inspection chamber. A quick look around reveals a hole knocked through one of the walls, leading to a roughly hewn passage. Making their way through the passage the two emerge into another room. The floors are flagstone, the walls are stone blocks covered with crumbling plaster. Everything is cold and damp, and the entire location is dark. Zehra realizes that this is part of the Temple, and that Professor Brenner must have continued the excavations on his own when the funding had dried up and uncovered it after the Mall had opened. The sound is decidedly more noticeable here, so this must be its source. Maryanne again puts in her headphones and cranks up the music to drown out the sound.

The room they have emerged into is adjacent to a larger crypt, with several more room attached to it. One appears to have been armory, with rusted and decaying weapons. Maryanne looks for any that are still in usable condition, and settles on a medieval mace. Arming herself proves to be beneficial as she and Zehra are joined by three shambling figures, including Zehra's earlier assailant, the zombie-like Professor Brenner. One of the others is a little old woman, albeit a ragged and emaciated one, who must be the missing Doris Lumley, and making the remaining one Neil MacDonald, the other missing person. Brandishing the mace, Maryanne positions herself to block the three while Zehra continues searching the crypt.

As Maryanne engages the three Zehra makes her way to the back of the crypt where she finds a throne, apparently carved from a single block of stone, and set into it there is a glowing blue stone, the stone that had been stolen from the exhibit in the Mall! With her scanner Zehra soon determines that neither the throne nor the stone are what they appear. Though appearing to be stone, the throne reads as a machine of some kind, of an advanced technology that Zehra cannot fathom, while the stone itself is radiating a strange energy. Zehra takes a chance and touches the stone to see if it is intelligent or aware, but she gets nothing from it so it too must be some kind of technology. A cry from Maryanne reminds Zehra that time is of the essence, so with nothing to lose she yanks the stone from the throne. Almost immediately the sound stops and the three attackers drop to the floor. The two breathe a sigh of relief, but it is premature as Maryanne suddenly winces in pain. It seems the throne is still a threat, and is directing all its remaining power at Maryanne, trying to dominate her mind. Zehra encourages her to resist while she helps get Maryanne out of the crypt and away from the throne.

Once the two reach the ladder leading out of the sewer the attack has weakened enough for Maryanne to shake it off and the two climb back up into the Mall's basement. There they find another body, this one less emaciated so surmise it must be a more recent victim. He turns out to be Paul Bracewell, the members of the Historical Society who had been outside searching for Doctor Philpott. The two are soon joined by JD, Eileen, and Ursa, who were able to get into the parking garage as the force field had dropped when Zehra removed the stone. Finding the fuse box the five are able to restore power to the Mall and restore the lights.

Knowing that the throne is still a threat, as is the blue stone, the time travelers call their allies at FAITH. Within a few hours a team of FAITH agents arrive in Podford and take control of the scene. Performing a more thorough search the agents locate the missing Doctor Philpott, who explains that he had been grabbed by Brenner after parking his car and taken to the throne, but that when his willpower proved strong enough to resist the throne they had tied him up and locked him one of the utility closets in the basement. When Zehra explains about the threat that the artifacts present, FAITH seals off the Mall until they can bring in a demolition team to blow up the throne. With the throne destroyed FAITH takes possession of the blue stone, promising the time travelers they will keep it secure.

With the crisis resolved, the time travelers bid farewell to the FAITH agents, who thank them for their efforts. Back in the TARDIS the five take off again, wondering if yet again they will only travel a year or two ahead somewhere else in Canada.

Air date: May 9, 2020

Space Invaders

The TARDIS materializes after another rough journey. This time the travelers step out and discover that they appear to be on a spaceship of some kind. A spaceship means two things, one they have not materialized in Canada, or even on Earth, and they are likely sometime in the future and not sometime in the 1980s. The initial exploration seems to indicate that the ship is a derelict; the lights flicker erratically and there is obvious damage in the corridors.

Locating a viewport the five get a limited look outside, confirming that they are indeed in space but also that the ship they are on is badly damaged. A tremor shakes the vessel and through the viewport they watch as a distant part of the ship breaks away. Thinking that things are a little too dangerous, the five turn to make their way back to the TARDIS, but are suddenly cut off as the corridor they are in seals itself off. With horror they watch as the section of the ship where the TARDIS had landed breaks away and starts to drift away.

JD and Zehra break out their scanners and use them to search for anything of use, hoping to locate a control center or some other means of getting the TARDIS. Instead they are surprised when the scanners detect human life forms! The time travelers carefully make their way through the damaged corridors to reach the location of the life signs. Rounding a corner, the five find themselves staring down the barrel of a pistol. The man pointing the gun at them is wearing a spacesuit of some kind, with a Canadian flag patch on the arm, and behind him are several other people similarly dressed.

When the time travelers identify themselves one of the other people, a young man, seems to recognize their names and tells the man with the gun to stand down. The group then shockingly learn that they have not traveled as far as they thought, because the man explains that he and his companions are agents of FAITH and that the year is 1986. Apparently Canada, under the auspices of FAITH, has a secret space program made up of vessels reverse engineered from technology recovered from crashed UFOs. Even more surprising, Canada is not the only nation with such abilities at this point in time; several nations operate similar covert space programs all under the umbrella of a top secret United Nations organization known as the International Space Command. And for one final surprise, the young man is Lieutenant Jeff Miller and he is the son of the time travelers' friend Tom Miller, who when they last checked was the head of the military forces for FAITH.

Jeff introduces the others as scientist Dr. Marie-Celeste Lafontaine, technician Arthur Chen, and Sergeant Derek Brown (aka "Deke"), who is security for their team and the man who was initially pointing the gun at the group. Jeff himself is co-pilot on the Aurora 7, the spacecraft the FAITH team came to the derelict on. He goes on to explain that the Aurora 7 had been dispatched by International Space Command to intercept an unknown object that was approaching Earth. Spectrographic analysis indicated the object was artificial in nature, and readings indicated there was an energy source present. The object did not currently appear to be maneuvering, and did not appear to be on a collision course with Earth, but it would pass close enough to be within the Earth-Moon gap and so might present a threat.

The Aurora landed on the derelict spacecraft and the team led by the mission commander Major Casey went out to explore, leaving the pilot Lt. Miller and the flight engineer Lt. Babineau on board. When the team lost contact with the ship, Major Casey went back to check leaving Lt. Miller in charge, and now they have also lost contact with him. As the time travelers have already learned, the derelict is badly damaged and is breaking up. Like them, the FAITH team have been cut off from the route back to their ship and were trying to figure out another way back when the time travelers arrived.

Zehra helps Chen and Dr. Lafontaine access some of the derelict's systems, enough to get a rough schematic as well as learning that the ship is apparently from somewhere called Mondas. With the schematic and what they know so far about the damaged sections of the ship, the FAITH astronauts are able to plot a route they hope will get them back to where the Aurora is docked. The time travelers decide to go along, acknowledging that it is their only way off the derelict and that FAITH's help is likely the only way they will be able to recover the TARDIS.

Proceeding through the disintegrating vessel, the group enters a darkened section. As the FAITH agents play their flashlights around the group are startled when a series of figures are revealed lined up against the walls. The figures are unmoving, and despite some differences in appearance from what they have seen before, the time travelers recognize the figures as Cybermen! Cautiously, the group begin to examine the seemingly inert Cybermen and horrified they discover that several of them have been ripped apart, apparently from the inside out. Suddenly one of the intact Cybermen begins to move, and moments later its chest splits open. With sudden speed an insect like creature emerges, it swings one of its blade-like forelimbs and decapitates Deke, who was examining the Cyberman the creature has emerged from. Several other of the Cybermen also begin to convulse, implying that more of the creatures are about to emerge!

Jeff fires his pistol at the creature that killed Deke and orders the other to run. Once everyone is clear of the area Jeff follows, attempting to close a door behind him. Luckily the door controls are still working and a bulkhead slams in place, cutting off the creatures. Everyone hastily makes their way through the maze of hallways, trying to follow the route back to the Aurora. Pausing to check for pursuit the group can see no sign of any pursuers, but the relief is short-lived when JD's scanner detects that the creatures are moving about inside the walls, through maintenance tunnels and other access ways. With the creatures closing in Eileen, Zehra and Chen rip open some panels and are able to locate some power cables. Together they rig up the cables to the superstructure and electrify it, creating a barrier that for a time at least should keep the creatures at bay.

At last the group reach the area where the FAITH spacecraft is docked, but discover that the corridor leading to the landing bay has been exposed to vacuum. The FAITH team have helmets and oxygen supply with their spacesuits, but the time travelers do not. With the creatures once again closing in the group have no choice but make the dangerous crossing and hope they can get to the other side before the vacuum kills the unprotected people. Chen and Lafontaine go first, trailing some cabling to serve as a safety rope. Then with Jeff taking up the tail end behind them the five time travelers head out into space. With no atmosphere and no gravity it is a dangerous crossing, and Zehra almost does not make it, but in the end they all make it to the other side and through into the landing area. As soon as the last of them are through Chen seals off the landing area to prevent the remaining atmosphere from leaking out.

Cautiously approaching the Aurora, the group can see signs of a fight. There is no sign of the creatures, but also no sign of the remaining FAITH team members. With the scanners showing the creatures again approaching, the FAITH team cannot wait to find out what happened to their teammates. Ushering the time travelers aboard, FAITH team prepare the Aurora. Jeff takes the helm and guides the Aurora off of the Mondasion derelict. Once clear they can see that the insect-like creatures are crawling across the exterior of the derelict, apparently not affected by vacuum. Confirming that the derelict is still on a course that will take it away from Earth, the Aurora then turns back to home.

The ship lands at a secret FAITH base in Manitoba and the time travelers are welcomed. In short order they are on board a military plane along with Dr. Lafontaine and are flown to Ottawa. On arrival they are taken to the main FAITH headquarters, located under a government facility at Shirleys Bay. They are greeted by their old friend Colonel Miller and along with Dr. Lafontaine explain what happened up on the derelict. Col. Miller tells the time travelers that he will send out another FAITH spacecraft to retrieve the TARDIS, which International Space Command stations are able to locate by tracking the section of the derelict that had broken away with it. Since the retrieval will take some time, accommodations at a hotel are provided to the five while they wait.

True to their word, FAITH is able to recover the TARDIS from space and brings it back to FAITH headquarters within a few days. The time travelers had been trying to enjoy their unintended vacation in 1986 Ottawa, but had been understandably anxious. Now with great relief they see the TARDIS safe and sound in Dr. Lafontaine's lab. Thanking FAITH and bidding everyone farewell, the time travelers pop inside the time machine and set off once again. This time the shuddering and noise is worse than ever as something causes the TARDIS to strain even more than it has recently. In a matter of minutes the TARDIS has landed again, and when the time travelers check they discover that they are right back in the lab in FAITH headquarters. The technicians in the lab are surprised at the appearance of the TARDIS, and according to them the time travelers had only left a few hours earlier. The five look at each other and wonder if they are truly trapped here in the past now.

Air date: May 23, 2020

Tapestry

After limping forward in fits and starts through a little more than a decade the TARDIS appears to have hit the end of the road in mid-1986. The TARDIS is presently in the FAITH bunker beneath the Department of Transport facilities that are part of the Canadian military and civilian telecommunication research campus at Shirleys Bay near Ottawa. After the last attempt to dematerialize only took the TARDIS forward a couple of hours, and left it in the same place in the bunker, the team have decided to let FAITH help.

The senior scientific expert on site right now is Dr. Marie-Celeste Lafontaine, who was part of the FAITH spacecraft crew the time travelers met on their initial arrival in 1986. Dr. Lafontaine, while highly intelligent and at least passingly familiar with alien technology, is unfortunately out of her depth when it comes to the TARDIS. Instead FAITH is summoning the person behind a lot of their advanced technology, a Dr. Randall Kellerman. For the better part of the last decade, Kellerman has helped FAITH unlock many of the captured alien technologies and allowed them to be reverse engineered.

Kellerman is in his early fifties, balding with a beard and half-moon glasses and usually wears a designer suit. When he arrives at the FAITH bunker he is accompanied by his assistant Sawyer, a tall 30-something man with slightly messy brown hair and large glasses dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, a sharp contrast to Kellerman. It quickly becomes apparent that Kellerman thinks very highly of himself and very little about other people, especially his own assistant, Sawyer. The time travelers show Kellerman and Sawyer the TARDIS console and explain what they have learned so far about how it works, mostly from what they themselves had been told by Jack Harkness.

Though the group tries to provide information and suggestions to Kellerman, the scientist seems disinterested. The more time they spend around him, the more sympathy they develop for his poor assistant. For his part Sawyer seems to earnestly want to help, though the constant berating from Kellerman seems to have impacted the younger man's confidence. When Zehra offers encouragement, Sawyer tells her he has an idea of what might have happened. Thanks to the information provided by the time travelers, Sawyer believes it is tied to the fact that the TARDIS is existing in two places at this point in time.

Sawyer points out to Zehra that, according to what she and her friends have said, the TARDIS came to Ottawa in the early 1970s and remained in place at the Centennial High School until the time travelers found it in 2017. More importantly there is something significant about 1986, namely that the mystery event that resulted in the school being abandoned is mere months away. Sawyer also notes the group's description of the effort by a Time Agent to bring one of them back to 2017 where they encountered some kind of temporal disturbance, so he theorizes that the attempt to take the TARDIS back to 2017 also hit this disturbance. As a result Sawyer believes that the TARDIS wound up anchored to its past self, a sort of Temporal Anchor, tying the TARDIS to the period between when the Professor first parked it at the school in 1975 and when the mysterious incident happens in the fall of 1986.

After spending several hours examining the console, Sawyer also thinks he may be able release the TARDIS from what has it trapped, as long as Zehra is okay with him playing around with the controls. Zehra is fine with it and she and Eileen look on as Sawyer starts to hesitantly manipulate the dials, switches and other controls on the console panels. He seems to become more confident as he goes, finally reaching the dematerialization switch. At this point Sawyer straightens his posture, removes his glasses and turns to Zehra and Eileen. With a wide, threatening smile he says "Thank you for the TARDIS", before he pulls the switch. The TARDIS dematerializes, except Zehra and Eileen are not taken along. The time machine simply vanishes around them, leaving the two in the FAITH lab where the TARDIS had been.

While Zehra is taken by surprise, Eileen appears to go into shock. She drops to her knees on the floor, and goes catatonic, completely unresponsive. JD, Maryanne and Ursa are asking what happened, as does Dr. Lafontaine. Zehra starts to explain quickly while also trying to get through to Eileen, who seems to be muttering to herself. From what Zehra can make out, Eileen seems to have recognized Sawyer somehow. With no idea what to do next, Zehra comes to a decision and removes her hijab, revealing her alien nature as a Janus to everyone there. She concentrates on Eileen with her precognition and postcognition powers, fighting trying to interpret the confusing images caused by Eileen being a time traveler whose past was sometimes in the future and vice versa.

Finally Zehra is able to pinpoint where Eileen recognizes Sawyer from, a traumatic period in her past when as a child living with her grandmother their house was visited by a strange man, a visit during which Eileen's grandmother was somehow brutally killed. As she focuses on Eileen's past encounter with Sawyer, Zehra is shocked when Sawyer himself seem to sense her probing and within the images from Eileen's past Sawyer turns and addresses Zehra directly. The shock is enough to cause Zehra to break her link with Eileen, but it also draws Eileen out of her catatonia.

Together Zehra and Eileen fill in the others, who are still trying to come to grips with Zehra's revelation of her alien nature (though not for Maryanne, who had learned the truth earlier). As Eileen remembers the incident from her childhood, the group know when and where in time they can find Sawyer (and presumably the TARDIS), but without a time machine how can they get there? Zehra and Eileen can only think of one way, the TARDIS. The earlier version of their TARDIS is sitting in a high school cafeteria in Ottawa at this moment, and also at the school is an expert in time travel, even if he doesn't realize it, namely The Professor, the presently amnesiac Time Lord that the TARDIS originally belonged to.

Dr. Lafontaine brings around some FAITH vehicles to bring the time travelers to Centennial High School, going along with them herself. At the school Zehra and Eileen opt to go in, since they are both teenagers and can blend in. Inside the two can see that the TARDIS is where they expect, sporting its cola machine exterior complete with the Out of Order sign attached. The pair mingle with the other students and make their way to the English classroom where they hope to find The Professor. They confirm that he is there, or at least English teacher Robert Browning, the human identity The Professor has submerged himself into to hide from the Time War. Eileen sneaks in, as does Zehra who passes herself off as a new exchange student. They sit through the English class and when it finishes the two approach Mr. Browning. It becomes evident that The Professor really does believe himself to simply be a human teacher, until Zehra brings up the Swatch Watch.

Seeing the watch in Zehra's possession, Mr. Browning is puzzled because it is identical to one he had forgotten he had, tucked away in his desk. Unknowingly, by drawing the man's attention to the watch Zehra triggers the Chameleon Arch. Energy flows out of the watch in Zehra's hand and envelops the hapless teacher, and within moments The Professor has returned. Instantly the restored Time Lord begins peppering Eileen and Zehra with questions to learn what has happened. Amidst this the three realize that one of the other students, a girl that had been sitting behind Eileen during the class, had hung around and witnessed everything. The girl, whose name is Melanie but who goes by Ems, is fascinated by what she has seen and efforts to distract her or get rid of her have no effect.

Choosing to ignore Ems for the moment, the Professor returns to the situation at hand. Knowing the importance of maintaining the timeline, the first thing he does is ask Zehra where she found the watch in 2017 and then has her place his version of the watch, which still contains his essence, in that place so it will be there three decades later for her to find. His next move is to head for the TARDIS, so Zehra runs outside to let the others know. Maryanne, Ursa and JD come into the school, as does Dr. Lafontaine. Zehra shows that she has the key, a coin identical to The Professor's (in fact, the same coin key from its own future). The coin opens the TARDIS door, confirming the groups' story even more, and everyone (including Dr. Lafontaine and Ems) follow The Professor inside.

The interior of the TARDIS is completely different from what the time travelers are used to. This interior is a pristine, almost sterile, white, with a control console that, while still six-sided, is covered with a high-tech array of displays and controls. The walls are covered with roundels and a large monitor screen dominates one wall. The Professor immediately begins operating the controls, clearly well versed in the operation of the TARDIS. In moments he has set the controls for 2010, the date Eileen remembers Sawyer coming to her grandmother's house when she was ten years old. A flick of the switch and the TARDIS dematerializes from its cafeteria home.

The TARDIS reappears in Ottawa in 2010, in the neighborhood where Eileen lived with her grandmother. Eileen gives directions to the house, but The Professor tells her that she needs to stay outside because meeting her younger self would result in some dangerous effects. The rest of the group head for the house, where they find the door unlocked. Inside they see the younger Eileen unconscious on the floor, which lines up with the older Eileen's memories of that day. In the dining room they find Sawyer and Eileen's grandmother, and an unexpected confrontation. Sawyer is there facing down an old woman, except the old woman is clearly not human.

Sawyer addresses the group as they arrive, and a brief exchange with The Professor makes it clear that Sawyer is not human either. Sawyer is in fact another Time Lord, and not just any Time Lord as he also reveals that he is the Weaver, who regenerated into his current appearance after being shot by Jack Harkness when he encountered the Torchwood agent and the time travelers in 1936. Weaver goes on to explain that Eileen's alleged grandmother is in fact an alien creature called a Psychovore that has been slowly feeding off the young girl for several years.

It becomes clear that the Psychovore is the immediate threat, and The Professor turns his attention to it. The creature launches a psychic attack, which threatens to take out Maryanne, JD, and Ursa; but The Professor and Zehra are able to fight it off. When the Weaver points out that combined the group in the room represent radically different life forms and energies, The Professor understands that this is the key to stopping the Psychovore. The Professor tricks the Psychovore into trying to feed from the group, which leads to the creature biting off more than it can chew. The mix of natures from Time Lords, aliens, and time traveling and extra-dimensional humans is far more than the Psychovore can handle and the creature is killed by the influx of strange energies.

The older Eileen arrives as the Psychovore collapses, having overcome her fear and reluctance when she heard the sounds of the confrontation. She sees her alleged grandmother, now exposed for what it was, and feels a great weight lifted from her. Looking around, the group then realizes that the Weaver used the confrontation with the Psychovore to sneak away. Remembering that pursuing the Weaver and the time travelers' TARDIS was the original goal, the group races back to The Professor's TARDIS, pausing only to call the local authorities so they will come and get the younger Eileen.

Luckily for the group, the trail left by the Weaver escaping again in the TARDIS is fresh enough that The Professor can get a fix on it with his TARDIS' sensors. The Professor sets in a pursuit course and they are off again to try and catch the Weaver.

Air date: June 6, 2020

Radical

The group can only watch as the Professor dances around the control console of his TARDIS, checking instruments and adjusting settings as he tries to trace the Weaver and the future TARDIS through the Time Vortex. From what the Professor can detect the trail is leading right to where everything began - Ottawa 2017! But there is a time storm over that location, one that has prevented all prior attempts to return there. All that can be hoped is that the Weaver has a plan to avoid or get through the time storm and that following his time trace will allow the older TARDIS to do the same.

The transit is rough and the TARDIS is shaken heavily, forcing everyone to find something to hang onto even with the Professor's skilled hand at the controls. Finally the TARDIS materializes, but not in Ottawa as it becomes clear. It only takes Maryanne a moment to recognize the city street outside the alley where the Professor's TARDIS has landed; they have somehow reached the parallel world New York City where she comes from. Maryanne heads off in a rush, leaving the others puzzled until Eileen (who had seen this New York before from Maryanne's memories) tells them where they are. The time travelers rush after their friend, with the Professor, Dr. Lafontaine, and Ems following behind.

Maryanne clearly knows where she is going and soon leads the others down into the sewers beneath this alternate Big Apple. Passing through some concealed passages the group are brought up short when they are confronted by several gun-toting masked individuals. Maryanne does not recognize them, but opts to go along with the gunmen and the others follow her lead. They are brought further into the tunnels, emerging into an open area that has been converted into a base of some kind. A young woman emerges and gasps before rushing to embrace Maryanne.

The group try and follow the conversation between Maryanne and the young woman, who is apparently called Shadow. She seems to be filling in Maryanne on what has happened since the latter disappeared. The key takeaway, and what seems to upset Maryanne, is that the rest of her teammates from this world apparently went off in search of her months ago and have not yet returned. While this is going on, Zehra's attention is caught by the sight of a piecemeal but still advanced looking computer and science lab setup in a section of the underground facility they are in.

The lab apparently belongs to someone named Donny; one of Maryanne's missing teammates. Zehra wonders if they can use the setup to try and track down the Weaver. Shadow is reluctant to let anyone touch Donny's gear but Maryanne vouches for her. With the Professor and Dr. Lafontaine, Zehra checks out the computer setup and confirms what she suspected, that it has multiple data feeds that will allow them to search for signs of the Weaver. With collected news feeds, links into law enforcement systems, and backdoor access to traffic and closed circuit cameras around this world's New York City.

Using the gear the trio start their search. After some effort they have turned up no trace of the Weaver, but have uncovered a different mystery - the entirety of New York City seems to be surrounded by a strange white mist. Even stranger, Shadow and her allies seem to have not been aware of the mist. Worse, the mist seems to be slowly constricting. Wondering if the mist is somehow tied to the arrival of the Weaver, or of the time travelers, they decide to investigate. Maryanne is reluctant to leave Shadow having finally returned home, but realizes that the Weaver poses a danger.

The quintet head topside along with the Professor and Dr. Lafontaine, and the eager but confused Ems in tow. Needing transportation for the group Maryanne hotwires a SUV on the street and everyone piles in. They head east off the island of Manhattan and into New Jersey headed towards the wall of mist. They encounter no resistance entering the mist, and once inside the visibility seems to have dropped to nothing until the group realize that they can still see the lights of Manhattan behind them. The Professor realizes what it is they are experiencing, and tries to explain to the others that they have not crossed into an area of something but rather an area of nothing. The whiteness they see around them is the absence of anything. When JD asks why they are still driving and not falling if they are driving on nothing, the Professor points out that there is also nothing to fall through which seems to satisfy JD (or at least confuse him into silence).

The group opt to keep going forward, as measured by the shrinking Manhattan skyline in the rear view mirror. As Manhattan fades out of visibility the group realize that something else is taking shape in front of them. The nothingness soon gives way to a barren wasteland, a landscape dominated by a large, dark, imposing castle visible atop a steep hill in the distance. Maryanne maneuvers the SUV across the rough terrain towards the castle until it finally becomes impassable to the vehicle. Everyone piles out of the vehicle and starts making their way up the hill towards the castle. They find a path up, but as they approach the castle they are suddenly confronted by several white robots. The robots escort the group into the castle where they are brought to a large main chamber, and seated in a large throne at the far end is the Weaver!

The Weaver explains that the dimension they are in is not a parallel Earth as the group had suspected but an alien dimension that seems to be defined by the stories from the minds of the people of Earth, a Land of Fiction so to speak. Theoretically a manifestation of every story ever told exists somewhere in this dimension, but for the dimension to remain stable it requires an intelligent mind at its center. The white space the group passed through is the border space between the stories, but it has been expanding and eating away at the different story regions because the dimension lacked the central mind. Weaker stories were more susceptible, but they were all at risk.

Maryanne refuses to believe that her home is just a work of fiction, but the Weaver tells her it is just that; that her New York, and Maryanne herself, are all aspects of someone's fanfiction stories based on a favorite cartoon from their childhood. The Weaver hints that he knows how Maryanne crossed over from the Land of Fiction into the regular world, but does not elaborate. He instead points out that he is now the guiding central intelligence of the Land of Fiction and from the Throne he has complete control of reality in the dimension.

Zehra starts to wonder that if the dimension is somehow tied to stories and imagination if she can affect things herself. She concentrates on manifesting something small, a pebble, and a small pebble materializes in her hand. Several of the others are trying to confront the Weaver, but the robots are keeping them at bay and the Weaver simply taunts them that this world is his to control. Zehra tries to concentrate on a way to reach their TARDIS, but her efforts are interrupted by the Professor. He has seen that the Weaver is trying to trick them, and warns everyone to stop trying to affect the environment. The Professor realized that by trying to alter reality around them, anyone doing so was in effect writing themselves into a story, which could trap them in the Land of Fiction.

The Weaver congratulates the Professor on his astuteness, but the Professor is not finished. He has also noticed that the Weaver has not left the Throne and theorizes that the other Time Lord cannot. Weaver reluctantly confirms that this is true; as he said before the Land of Fiction needs an intelligent mind at its core, but what he had neglected to mention was that once it had such a mind the dimension will not that person go. Weaver became trapped before he realized the danger, but since he cannot leave he is now determined to see that none of the others escape either.

The robots advance towards the group, but Dr. Lafontaine manages to get around them and reach the Weaver and the Throne. Suddenly it is Dr. Lafontaine who is seated on the Throne, and the Weaver is standing next to it. The robots back away from the group and they rush to Dr. Lafontaine. She seems disoriented at first, but soon regains her composure. She explains that she realized that the Land of Fiction was tied to human stories, and that it likely wanted a human mind rather than the Weaver's alien one, as powerful as his mind surely was. When she reached the Throne she concentrated on offering herself as the Mistress of the Land of Fiction and it agreed, bringing her into the Throne and throwing out the Weaver.

Speaking of the Weaver, he uses the momentary distraction to flee the chamber. Before anyone can catch up with him he reaches the stolen TARDIS and dematerializes. Dr. Lafontaine cannot stop him as she is still adjusting to the Throne. The Professor and Zehra both ask if Dr. Lafontaine can free herself, but she tells them she can sense that she cannot. For the time being at least it seems she has a new job, and she tells Maryanne that she has already started to stabilize and restore the affected regions of the Land of Fiction including Maryanne's New York. For her part, Maryanne still does not fully believe that her whole world is a work of fanfiction, but still offers thanks to Dr. Lafontaine for saving Shadow and her city. The group reluctantly bids farewell to Dr. Lafontaine, promising to let FAITH know what has happened and to try to someday find a way to come back and free her.

The group heads out of the castle, and Dr. Lafontaine is able to easily return them to Maryanne's New York. They return to the underground lair where Maryanne sadly bids farewell to Shadow; even though she has finally made it home, she cannot leave her new friends while they continue to chase after the Weaver and their TARDIS. She also believes that her friends from here may have also found a way out as part of their search for her, so leaving increases the chance that Maryanne might find them. Everyone boards the Professor's TARDIS and he pilots it out of the Land of Fiction and back into the Time Vortex.

The Professor takes the TARDIS back to 1986 where the time travelers keep their promise to tell FAITH what happened to Dr. Lafontaine. With this done they ask the Professor what they can do next to try and track down the Weaver. The Professor thinks that the Weaver is using the stolen TARDIS to travel to points in the personal timelines of each of the lost time travelers. He is not sure why, but he suspects the Weaver is trying to solidify the sequence of events that leads the time travelers to find the TARDIS in the first place, so they will eventually bring it to 1986 where he can steal it. On the one hand this will make his stealing of the TARDIS into a fixed point in time that cannot be affected, but on the other hand these kinds of interference with the personal timelines of the time travelers will leave its own kind of mark. The Professor turns to the time travelers and asks if any of them can think of an event in their past, anything strange or unusual that might indicate the Weaver's interaction with their timeline much like he had with Eileen's. Everyone looks around at each other, then stare in unison at JD as he slowly raises his hand...

Air date: Jun 20, 2020

Ice

Guided by JD's memories, or lack thereof, and with assistance of the TARDIS Telepathic Circuits, the time machine heads for a point some five years in JD's past in the hopes to pick up the trail of the Weaver. The TARDIS materializes on an ice covered planet, far away from a sun, where the temperature is so low the cold begins to seep into the TARDIS itself. The group equip themselves in cold weather gear and flashlights and head outside.

Emerging into a frozen landscape, the group's lights illuminate towering glaciers all around them. The atmosphere is thin and cold, as if they were on top of a very high mountain and plumes of what looks like smoke rise from fissures in the ground. Every few moments, the ground trembles as distant glaciers crack and quake. As the time travelers explore, they come to an expanse of ice that is especially clear. Shining their lights down into the frozen ground, they see that they are walking above a frozen alien city! Whatever lived down there wasn't human, judging by the architecture.

After a few minutes, the group spot a pair of lights coming towards them out of the darkness. Those lights must be attached to a vehicle of some sort, judging by how they're moving. As the vehicle approaches another quake rattles the ground near the time travelers, and this one opens a giant crack in the ice around them. The door of the vehicle, a large all-terrain buggy of some kind, opens up and the driver shouts for them to run. It is a near thing, but all seven are able to get into the vehicle. The driver is barely able to get clear as a wide crevasse opens in the ice. Relief is tempered by despair, however, as the time travelers look back to see that the TARDIS has fallen into the newly opened gap and has been buried beneath the ice.

The Professor is not immediately concerned with the TARDIS; he is more focused on what they may find on the planet. The driver introduces himself as Vax Kent and tells the group he is part of an archaeological expedition from Luna University. At the edge of the ice field, Vax leads the time travelers to the archaeologists' camp. As the buggy arrives the group can see that the camp consists of four small interconnected geodesic domes, and next to the camp is a spacecraft that has several thick cables running out of it stretching out over the ice. At the sound of the buggy's approach several people emerge from the camp to greet the arrivals.

Vax explains that he is a grad student from Luna University and introduces the expedition leader, Professor Ortega. Accompanying Professor Ortega is one of his top students, a young woman named Hali. Also part of the expedition is Professor Bernice Summerfield, a visiting professor at Luna University, who is accompanied by one of her students - and it is a younger JD! Professor Ortega is curious as to what has brought the group to the ice planet, implying that he feels they are interfering and perhaps intend to steal his discoveries. This is not helped when the group start to introduce themselves, as one of them calling himself the Professor simply adds credence to Ortega's suspicions. As the introductions are being made, the Professor cautions JD not to reveal his true identity (it helps he is unrecognizable with the goggles, thick hood and padding of his cold weather gear. The Professor also warns JD that under no circumstances should he make physical contact with his younger self.

Even with the literal and figurative icy reception from him, Ortega is still happy to expound on the expedition. The planet doesn't have a name. It's not supposed to be here at all - it's not part of this solar system. It is a wanderer, a rogue planet that must have spent millions of years flying through interstellar space until it fell towards this star for a brief summer. An automated probe detected a faint signal beneath the ice. There was a civilisation here once, maybe millions of years ago. The expedition's goal is to find out everything they can while the ice is thin enough to bore through. The ice is melting naturally as the rogue world gets closer to the star that has captured it, but to speed things up the archaeologists are using the engines from their spaceship to melt tunnels in the ice so they can make some preliminary investigations before more of the ice melts and the city is exposed to the open air for a few weeks. They're nearly through into one of the ice caves, far below. Another day's drilling should get them into part of the frozen city.

The Professor, Zehra and JD take a look at the preliminary scans the expedition has made and are able to discern some information, mainly that the city's inhabitants were human-sized but definitely not humanoid - the entrances to the buildings are all small round holes, for example. Also, one part of the city is quite unlike the rest of it. Instead of weird bee-hive structures with little holes for doors, it's all angular buildings and flat walkways. On the edge of scans there is also an indication of an unimaginably deep well or shaft driving deep into the planet, but some strange energy reading is making it difficult to get details from the surface scan. The group offers their assistance, with the promise to allow Ortega to take credit for any discoveries, which is enough of a confession for the expedition leader to reluctantly agree. The group are able to take some to rest and eat, and even though JD makes an effort to stay away from the expedition members, he is approached by Prof. Summerfield.

Benny, as Prof. Summerfield likes to be called, has recognized JD as the older version of her student. She tells the group that she too is a time traveler, originally from the 26th Century who is a visiting pro-fessor at Luna University here in the year 5207 and so does not question how that JD could co-exist in the same time as his younger self. Benny is more interested in what has brought JD and the rest of the group here. The Professor again cautions about how much to reveal, but JD does explain that he has no memory of taking part in this expedition, and they think the answer to why he doesn't remember it may help them solve another problem. Benny accepts this and offers to keep an eye on JD's younger self, to help solve the mystery and also to keep the two JD's from making physical contact which she also knows would be very bad for everyone.

After everyone has eaten and had time to rest, and at one point both Eileen and Ems decide to flirt with the younger JD (Ems because she thought he was cute, Eileen simply because she knew it would bother the older JD), Prof. Ortega declares that it is time to start drilling again. The time travelers meet the final member of the expedition, a man named Borys who is the engineer from the spacecraft and not another university archaeologist. Borys will work the ship's engines to feed energy down the attached cables to power plasma torches that the expedition members will use to melt through the ice. Prof. Ortega will monitor the effort from the camp, observing through helmet cameras worn by Vax, Hali, Benny and young JD. The Professor tells Ems to stay in the camp with Ortega, while the rest de-cide to join the archaeologists down in the ice.

The time travelers squeeze into cramped, heavy protective suits and wriggle down nearly two kilometers of narrow icy tunnel, each dragging a heavy cable for the plasma torches before joining Benny and the three students blasting the ice. After some time the ice cracks and quakes again, and suddenly the wall in front of Hali gives away. The archaeologists have broken through into an upper level of the city where there's a natural cave in the ice. Several alien structures, still mostly embedded in the ice, can be reached through the cave, and the group can melt away more of the ice to explore more of the structures. Exploring the cave reveals that whatever the inhabitants of the city were, they were human-sized but definitely not humanoid - the entrances to the buildings are all small round holes, for example. The archaeologists also discover that the inhabitants used a pictogram language, like hieroglyphics. Some seem to show ten-legged insects scuttling around doing ten-legged insect things, while others show the insects fighting creatures that look like humans.

With the access in the cave the archaeologists and the time travelers can get an idea of the nature of the buildings buried below. Several structures of interest are identified and everyone concentrates their efforts at uncovering these ones. The first reached has walls covered in the pictoglyphs that, upon examination, appears to tell the story of the insect race that presumably called this planet home. From what the archaeologists can decipher the race was very warlike and fought a number of races across the galaxy, notably human as well as glyphs that might represent Sontarans and Draconians. The glyphs go on to show how those other races drove the insects back until they ended up on an isolated planet, vowing bloody vengeance on the rest of the galaxy. The rest is not clear, but it appears that something came to the world, something shown by a glyph that represents Death (if the TARDIS translation circuits are correct) that brings with it the enemies of the insects.

The next area excavated from the ice is the unusual angular buildings that differ from the rest of the city. It soon becomes apparent that it was built and inhabited by beings other than the insects, and the searchers soon find out who it was: Daleks. They stand, sentinel and unmoving, in ranks on the walkways, or toppled and covered in ice and snow. All these Daleks are dead, but there is no sign of external damage. Approaching one of the seemingly dead Daleks the Professor carefully opens up the casing, and finds the mutant inside has withered and burned from within. Whatever killed the Dalek did so without penetrating the armored casing. Examining the technology of this part of the city, the group find plenty of evidence that the Daleks were interrupted before they could finish whatever it was were working on here. They had dug deep into the planet's mantle, sinking shafts that seem to go all the way down to the core. Both Benny and JD note that the Daleks once invaded Earth (in the 22nd Century) and attempted something similar, which was ultimately intended to turn the core into a giant engine to move the planet. The Professor surmises that these Daleks come from sometime late in the Time War and may have been allied with the insect creatures in the war with the Time Lords.

The presence of the Daleks aligns with some of the other pictoglyphs found, and points to the identity of the insect creatures - something confirmed when the next area is excavated. This one contains weapons, the design of which reveals the creatures as the Yag Haz. The Yag Haz were a race of ten-legged insectoids known for their astounding paranoia. They believed that all other races were a potential threat to them, so they spent most of their time looking for ways to conquer or destroy other intelligent beings. The Yag Haz went to war with humans hundreds of years ago, and were driven out of civilized space and were never heard from again. The archaeologists want to excavate more of this latest area, and also try and get to the source of the strange energy readings, but the plasma torches suddenly stop working. An urgent message from Borys tells them that they all need to get back to the camp right away.

The archaeologists and the time travelers work their way back up the shaft as quickly as possible and race back to the camp. There they are shocked to be confronted by Borys and an unknown woman dressed in some kind of uniform, both holding pistols of some kind. Everyone is ushered into the mess hall in the camp where Professor Ortega and Ems are already being held by some kind of security robot. The woman calls herself Agent Whynt and states she is with the Space Security Service and that Borys is also with the SSS. Ortega is furious with what he sees as Borys' betrayal and with the government trying to interfere in his expedition. Agent Whynt replies that they had sent Borys along just in case something dangerous was discovered, and the fact that this turns out to be a Yag Haz world definitely qualifies.

Things continue to get heated, but something else draws the attention of Zehra and the Professor. They both sense something unusual nearby, and whatever it is seems to be getting closer. A surreptitious glance at her scanner shows Zehra that the source of the strange energy readings deep in the ice is on the move now, and is approaching the camp! She tells the Professor and the two try and let everyone know, but Agent Whint dismisses the warning as she is more concerned with the possible Yag Haz presence and the evidence of the Daleks than with some anomalous scanner reading.

Suddenly a new presence appears in the room, a shuffling figure looking like an old man dressed in a raincoat. The thing glances around and sets its eyes on Vax, who happens to be nearest to it. It points at him and a glowing apparition materializes and walks towards Vax, who stares at it in terror. He seems to recognize the ghostly figure, calling him Gan while claiming that he is dead, that Vax saw him fall. The apparition grabs hold of Vax and disappears, and at the same moment Vax collapses violently to the floor. Vax is clearly dead, and his body looks like it fell from a great height. The old man turns away from the body and starts surveying the others in the room.

The Professor yells for everyone to get back. He recognizes the thing that looks like an old man; it is a deadly weapon of the Time Lords called Memento Mori. The Professor explains that when a Memento Mori attacks, it latches onto the timeline of its victim and follows it back, searching for other timelines that were truncated by contact with that victim - in other words, people who died because of that victim. It then momentarily resurrects those people as temporal echoes, and uses them as a sort of psychic lens to unleash a devastating assault on its targets. This explains what happened to the Daleks; creatures like them that have killed thousands or even millions of beings would be especially vulnerable to the attack of the Memento Mori. The same would apply to the Yag Haz; only the truly innocent are immune to the power of the weapon.

Prof. Ortega was standing next to Vax, so the Memento Mori seems to target him next. Ortega claims he never killed anyone, but the Professor points out that by bringing Vax to this planet he was responsible for his death and this is enough for the Memento Mori. Agent Whint opens fire on the Memento Mori with her pistol, but it has no observable effect. The Professor claims that the Memento Mori were virtually indestructible. They looked like humans, but that was just an outer shell over a dimensionally transcendent interior. They would need to power of an exploding star to stop one. Ortega recoils in fear as a ghostly apparition of Vax appears and starts to move towards him.

The time travelers are scrambling, desperately trying to think of something to do, when Benny shouts out "The Blinovitch Effect!". The others are puzzled but the Professor seems to understand. He turns to JD and tells him he needs to get close to the Memento Mori and do the one thing he had been warned explicitly against doing - make physical contact with his younger self. JD understands and pulls down the hood and removes the goggles that were concealing his identity. Ortega, Hali, and the younger JD are confused (as is Ems, who apparently had not clued in that the two JDs were the same person). JD gestures to his younger self to join him close to the Memento Mori. The young man is reluctant, but Benny urges him on. Once the young JD is close enough the older one grabs hold of his arm and there is a brilliant explosion of white light.

When the light clears the Memento Mori is gone, as is the apparition of Vax, and both versions of JD are lying unconscious on the floor. Zehra checks on the older one while Benny, and Ems, rush to the younger JD. The Professor examines them both and believes they should be fine, although the younger JD will experience some additional effects, mainly losing several days' worth of memories because of the disruption. This explains the older JD's inability to remember the events here, but also means that it was not due to anything the Weaver had done. With that being the case, the time travelers decide they should leave and ask for the archaeologists help in retrieving the TARDIS. Ortega is still confused by what just happened, as is Agent Whint, but Benny takes advantage of that confusion to help locate the TARDIS. She is able to take the time travelers out in the buggy, and thankfully additional ice melt over the last day or so has cleared a path down to the TARDIS.

The time travelers clear away the small amount of ice blocking their way in and manage to get the door open. JD is still out of it so Maryanne and Ursa help get him inside, followed by Eileen and Ems. Zehra and the Professor thank Benny for her help and ask her to look out for the younger JD. She says she will make sure he gets back to Luna University safely and won't upset anything by trying to fill in his missing memories. They thank her and go inside the TARDIS and, once the Professor confirms there was no major damage from the ice quake he sets the controls and the time travelers head off again in their pursuit of the Weaver.

Air date: July 4, 2020

The End is Near

With no luck searching for signs of the Weaver in JD's past the group next look to Ursa. The only problem is, Ursa does not know where to find her homeworld; her people were not technologically advanced enough to have even primitive spaceflight, and Ursa herself joined the time travelers on a completely different world that she had been transported to by some unknown means. Still, this might be enough information to start with now. Before now the time travelers had little to no control over where and when the TARDIS took them, but now they have the Professor with them.

The key, according to the Professor, is the circumstances that led the time travelers to that planet on what was only their second journey in the TARDIS. The group had described how the TARDIS had repaired itself after it landed on the planet, which tells the Professor that the world was most likely the location of a Time Rift, the energies of which the TARDIS could have harnessed to make the repairs. The presence of a Time Rift would also explain how Ursa was transported from her own planet to that one. Combined with what Ursa and the others could remember of the planet, its sky, and the stars and moons visible at night, the Professor is able to narrow down the likely identity of that world.

Using this information, augmented by connecting Ursa to his TARDIS' telepathic circuits, the Professor is able to bring them back to that world. Sure enough, once they step out of the TARDIS the time travelers see they are near the village of the blue-skinned canine-like natives they had visited before. Ursa is pleased to see that the villagers appear to have adopted many of the construction techniques she taught them. The wooden village walls have been reinforced with stone, and the beginnings of a stonework road are visible cutting a path through the hostile wilderness around the village. The villagers in turn are happy to see Ursa and the others again and a feast is laid out to welcome the returning friends as well as the newcomers JD, Ems and the Professor.

Once the festivities wind down, the Professor turns his attention to the Time Rift. With the TARDIS sensors he is able to map it out, and with Ursa's recollections of when she was transported here he goes a step further - the Professor can track Ursa's trip through the rift back to where she came from. The group pile back into the TARDIS and the Professor sets the coordinates to take Ursa home. In short order the TARDIS has made the trip and a hesitant Ursa takes a look outside, and is thrilled to find herself on the outskirts of her hometown! The place is populated by people that appear to be anthropomorphised versions of Earth-like animals. The mayor of the town is a mole person, one of Ursa's old friends is a marten (named Martin), and there are rabbit women, raccoon men, and a wide mix of others. While the others had seen people from Ursa's world before all of this remains new to Ems, who finds it all amazing (and much to Ursa's chagrine Ems gushes how everyone looks so adorable to her).

While happy to be home, at the back of Ursa's mind is what she learned during her travels through space and time about the doomed future of her world. Meanwhile, the Professor continues his analysis of the Time Rift from this side of it. Using the Sonic Bass (with the Professor's guidance) Eileen causes the Rift to become visible. It looks like a slow motion lightning bolt running from the sky down into the ground. The Professor detects that the Rift was caused by something disrupting Space-Time, forcing itself forward and backward. With Zehra's help, the Professor traces the effect and determines that he can use the Rift itself to take the TARDIS to the origin point. Everyone, boards the TARDIS for the effort, including Ursa.

The TARDIS appears on a desolate world, grey with a starlit sky. There are ancient looking ruins all around and scattered all about are skeletons, shattered Dalek casings, and other strange things. As they survey the devastation the group suddenly realize they are not alone; across the battlefield, seated on the wreckage of an alien war machine, is the Weaver. He barely acknowledges the travelers as the cautiously approach, not even turning to look at them until they are almost close enough to touch, and he looks towards the Professor and speaks, his voice sounding of despondency and resignation.

The Weaver tells of how he sought out Gallifrey, only to find it gone, destroyed in the final days of the Time War with the Daleks. He also learned how bad things had gotten near the end of the war, after both he and the Professor had chosen in the respective ways to escape and hide from the conflict. The Weaver tells of discovering tales of the atrocities being committed by both sides near the end of the Time War, and that this world was one of the final battlefields. Reality warping weapons, monstrous things from Omega Arsenal, were unleashed by the Time Lords against the Daleks and their allies. While the discussion is going on, Eileen starts taking pictures of the battlefield with her phone so that she can sketch it later, capturing images of wrecked Daleks, broken Cybermen, and a shattered statue that might once have looked like an angel...

The Weaver final discovery was that the aftermath of this particular battle is what caused the disruption that brought the Professor and the time travelers here. He has seen that nearby planets and star systems are being torn apart as the disruption moves outward, planets including Ursa's homeworld. So the Rift will soon tear Ursa's planet apart. Needless to say Ursa is upset about this and demands to know what can be done. The Professor thinks he can stabilize the Rift, at least long enough for some people to be evacuated, but it will take both TARDISes. Not only that, but he needs the Weaver to help as it will need another Time Lord to operate the other TARDIS; none of the others in the group have anywhere near the skill to manage it. As soon as they can return to her planet, Ursa will need to gather as many people from across her world as she can in very short time and bring them to the stabilized Rift.

The group tries to convince the Weaver to help. Pleas to his decency, and it being the right thing to do, seem to have little effect and it is JD who eventually hits on the right approach. With the Weaver having admitted to reinforcing events in the time travelers' past to secure the timeline that led to him stealing the TARDIS, the group point out that their own past experience has told them that at least some of Ursa's people escape the destruction and become the Enkidian Diaspora, and that their own tales indicate that Ursa herself has a hand in that. The way to ensure that this will happen is for the Weaver to help them.

This has the desired effect and the Weaver heads off in the stolen TARDIS, followed by the Professor and the rest of the group in his TARDIS. They arrive back on Ursa's world near her home town and, while the two Time Lords get to work on opening the Rift, Ursa heads off to spread the word and convince people of the danger and the need to come to evacuate their homes and come to the town. While Ursa travels as widely as possible to warn as many people as possible the others help out around the town. Zehra and JD offer what little technical help they can to the two Time Lords, while Maryanne reluctantly assists Eileen and Ems as they help set up food and accommodations for the refugees flocking to the small town.

The days pass far too quickly and finally the Professor says it is time to open the Rift to move people through. By his calculations the shockwave of the disruption will be there in just over a day. Ursa, Maryanne, Eileen and Ems gather everyone who made it to the village and prepare them to evacuate. Back at the TARDISes the two Time Lords make their final preparations and then activate the Rift. They have directed the other end of the gateway they are creating to open in the Enkidian star system, since history will name the evacuees and their descendants after that place. Energies pour forth from the two time machines and the Rift become visible again. This time the lightning-like effect is frozen, and the largest arc starts to grow and split until it forms an archway.

The Professor shouts that it is time, and the refugees begin to filter through, cautiously at first then picking up speed with Ursa's encouragement. Hours pass as the steady stream of people make their way through the Rift, and with things appearing to go smoothly under her friends' watch Ursa heads out to find any refugees that might still be on the road to town so she can rush them to the portal before they run out of time. Finally it becomes apparent that the end is near, as the sky over the world starts to twist out of shape with the approach of the outer edge of the shockwave.

Ursa desperately urges the stream of refugees to hurry through, rushing through the town to find any stragglers. The Professor starts warning that they are running out of time, and Eileen sends Ems to join him so she will be safe. Ursa tells her friends to also seek safety, but they will not leave until she does. As the sky itself starts to rip apart the Professor and the Weaver shout that they can't maintain the gateway any longer and that it will collapse. Ursa rushes the last of the refugees she can find through, knowing that there are still many who had not been able to make it to the town in time, and many times that who never got the warning at all. Finally the portal collapses, sending energy flying everywhere. Almost as one the time travelers run for the same TARDIS, their TARDIS, the one the Weaver had stolen, and where he is still at the controls. With the shockwave about to strike Ursa takes one last look at her home and follows her friends into the TARDIS.

Ursa closes the door as the Weaver activates the TARDIS. The craft is rocked violently as it tries to escape the destruction of the planet it had been sitting on moments earlier. Finally the buffeting slows and then stops; they appear to have escaped. With the TARDIS safely floating free in the Time Vortex the time travelers prepare to confront the Weaver, but it soon becomes apparent that his discoveries about the Time War have taken any fight out of him. When Zehra and Eileen suggest they find the Professor's TARDIS to make sure the he and Ems escaped safely, the Weaver silently acquiesces. Under Zehra's watchful eye the Weaver checks the sensors, sets some coordinates, and puts the TARDIS in motion again.

Air date: July 18, 2020

School's Out Forever

The TARDIS lands, and when Ursa checks the mirror screen it shows a school cafeteria. Taking a look, and you have materialized in the Centennial High School cafeteria, parked right next to the old version of the TARDIS. So apparently the Professor and Ems came back, but how long have they been here?

JD calls the FAITH number to let them you know are back, and they tell him it has been five months. So you all left with the Professor in his TARDIS chasing the Weaver who had your TARDIS in April 1986, it is now late September 1986. A cafeteria lady confronts you all, and the Weaver flashes some piece of paper and claims you are all here to repair the cola machine. She seems to buy this and goes back to the kitchen as the bell rings and students start filing in for lunch.

Weaver and Zehra go into the old TARDIS so Weaver can finish removing the connection between the two TARDISes. No one is in the old TARDIS, and the lights are out; it has been partially shut down. The two start to power up the TARDIS and just as they have the Cloister Bell alarm starts to go off in both. The others pop into the old TARDIS to see what is going on. Suddenly the lights in the TARDIS start to flicker and everyone feels a presence. Then a chilling voice speaks seemingly from nowhere - it is the Shadow Hunter! It is looking for the Professor, demanding to know where its target is. It recognizes the Weaver as a Time Lord, but does not seem interested in him as its target is the Professor.

Getting no response the Shadow Hunter starts to destroy the TARDIS. The central console starts to spark and smoke, and soon the roundels on the wall start to explode outward, shooting flame everywhere. Everyone starts to retreat, fleeing back into the cafeteria; except of course for Eileen, who tries something stupid. She pulls out the Sonic Bass and tries to emulate the signal the Daleks used to tame the Shadow Hunter way back when you encountered them on the planet Obsidian. Whatever she does, it manages to get the Shadow Hunter's attention, so Maryanne pulls Eileen out of the TARDIS.

In the cafeteria JD sets off the fire alarm to get the people out of the school, except the Shadow Hunter has closed off the school with a Deadlock Seal; nothing can get in or out of the building. Desperate JD asks Zehra for the old Swatch Watch and puts it on, thinking he can somehow trick the Shadow Hunter. He goes back into the old TARDIS but the damage has gotten even worse. The ceiling is partially collapsed and there is toxic smoke everywhere, so JD leaves. In the meantime Maryanne has gone into your TARDIS and retrieved the Stasis Gun from where Eileen had stowed it (planning on using it against the Weaver if needed).

With the doors sealed the school staff start sending the students to the gymnasium. Not knowing what else to do you all start to follow. JD asks the Weaver what he knows about Shadow Hunters, but unfortunately the Time Lord does not know much of anything. When JD laments that the Professor probably knows Zehra tells him about how they have been able to communicate with the Professor when his essence was inside the Swatch Watch, and that she had hidden the original Watch in the gym locker room after awakening the Professor with the future version of the Watch. The group starts making their way through the crowd towards the locker room.

While pushing through the crowd some of the group hear there is some kind of problem on the second floor. Ursa and Eileen break off the check it out while the rest, including Zehra, keep heading for the locker room. They eventually get their and Zehra retrieves the original Watch. She, JD, and Maryanne try to form the psychic gestalt with the Professor's essence (the Weaver wants nothing to do with the process). Contact is made, but as soon as the trio try to get the Professor-aspect in the Watch to talk about Shadow Hunters there is a surge of panic and the Professor-aspect tries to break the link. JD is ejected while Maryanne and Zehra try and hold on, while the Professor-aspect screams that they are endangering themselves and his essence by trying to communicate with him this way. The Weaver warns JD that there is a psychic battle brewing that could harm the two so JD physically disrupts the link by throwing a basketball at Maryanne and Zehra, distracting them and allowing the Professor-aspect to break the connection. The Weaver puts the original Watch back in its hiding place above the lockers.

As Ursa and Eileen make their way up the stairs to the second floor the bloodied body of a teenage boy comes tumbling down. Once they get up there they see everyone in a panic. The Shadow Hunter is attacking people; Ursa sees one kid get pulled into a locker by a shadow. She starts trying to get the students to go back into the classrooms where they will hopefully be safer. Eileen meanwhile has spotted the Professor. She goes to talk to him but just as she gets there a locker flies open revealing the Shadow Hunter. Eileen and the Professor both try to protect each other, which just leaves them both exposed and an inky black tendril wraps around Eileen and starts to pull her towards the locker. Ursa races in and is able to pull Eileen free, but then the tendril grabs the Professor and pulls him in. Ursa and Eileen try to pull him free but the Hunter has a stronger grip and starts to pull him in. Eileen tries a different tack, trying to draw the Shadow Hunter's attention back to herself. Something does attract the Shadow Hunter's attention and it releases the Professor, however he has been badly hurt (from being pulled into a locker that is much too small for him to fit).

Maryanne, Zehra, JD and the Weaver head upstairs to find the others. They find Ursa, Eileen and the injured Professor. The Weaver can tell that the Professor has used the Chameleon Arch again to make himself human, and also that he is dying from the injuries from being pulled into the locker. Zehra checks out the English classroom to see if she can find whatever now has the Professor's essence in it, and she sees that the current lesson is on King Lear, which was what it looked like in 2017 - confirming that this is the day of the "incident" that caused the school to be abandoned in 1986.

There is no trace on the Professor or in the classroom of whatever the Chameleon Arch stored his essence in. Finally Zehra uses her power to look back in the Professor's timeline to discover that he gave the Arch to Ems for safekeeping. When the group start asking about where Ems is the Professor mutters about her actual name - Ems is Melanie Moon (so M.M., Ems). Eileen is shocked at this, and tells the other that she thinks this means that Ems might actually be her mother (and further disturbing JD given how both Eileen and Ems hit on his younger self).

The group has to find Ems, so they split up. Eileen and Maryanne head for the cafeteria (with the Weaver following to go to the TARDIS) and Ursa and JD go to the gymnasium where all the students have gathered. Zehra stays with the injured Professor. In the gym JD and Ursa can't see any sign of Ems, and the same for the cafeteria. Eileen and Maryanne then head for the school theater, which is off of the cafeteria. In there they see Ems being attacked by the Shadow Hunter. Eileen once again draws the Shadow Hunter's attention and it drops Ems. Eileen is able to get a glimpse of the creature as it moves through the darkness and points it out to Maryanne who hits it square with the Stasis Gun. Ems does have the new Chameleon Arch, this one is a Sony Walkman and cassette tape. In the cafeteria they are joined by the Weaver, who indicates that the Arch may be the only thing that can save the Professor.

With the Shadow Hunter frozen the Deadlock Seal opens and the students start to evacuate. JD calls FAITH again and they start to send over a team. Everyone regroups back on the second floor, but Zehra tells them it is too late for the Professor, he died from the internal injuries. JD realizing that everything is happening to set things up so the school is the way it is in 2017 when Logan, Zehra, Eileen and Maryanne first get on the TARDIS. He warns FAITH that they need to seal off the school because there is a dangerous creature there. The Weaver also has one last thing to do and he brings out the strange white sphere he had brought from the Time War Battlefield. He explains that this device is what will be responsible for helping keep the school abandoned, and that in 2017 it will be what brings Maryanne over from her world to this one. So Ursa buries the sphere in the spot where Maryanne remembers she first appeared in 2017.

The group takes the Walkman from Ems, explaining that with them the Professor's essence will be safe and there may be a chance to preserve him (the Weaver had explained that if Gallifrey was still around they could take it back there where the Professor could be placed in something called the Matrix). Ems is left in the care of FAITH and everyone else piles back into the TARDIS.

After a little discussion the group asks Weaver to pilot them back to 5212, because JD wants to at least visit his home again. The Weaver wants to take it slow, since the TARDIS is still showing the strain from being linked to its older self to open the rift to evacuate Ursa's people. Since it will be a slow trip everyone heads off to get some tasks out of the way. Ursa and Maryanne look for somewhere to store the now-depleted Stasis Gun, to make sure nothing risks the Shadow Hunter getting released (until 2017 at least). JD goes off the pack, and Zehra looks for somewhere to keep the Walkman safe; leaving Eileen and the Weaver in the control room.

After a short while the TARDIS suddenly shudders; in the control room the Weaver goes white and is staring at something just past Eileen. Eileen slowly turns around as the Weaver warns her: "Whatever you do, Don't Blink."

Air date: August 1, 2020

Where Angels Fear to Tread

Eileen stares at the thing in the console room, what to her looks like the statue of an angel with its hands covering its face, but the look on the Weaver's face tells a different story. He explains that the thing is called a Weeping Angel, and that it is one of the deadliest creatures in the universe. They are quantum locked, meaning that they can only move when they are not being observed, but when they do move they move blindly fast. He continues, detailing how the Angels survive by sending a victim back in time, then feeding on the potential time energy of the life the victim would have lived. This Angel, however, is inside of the TARDIS, a far more potent food source that could make this Angel unstoppable.

The Weaver wonders aloud how a Weeping Angel got aboard, and Eileen spares a glance around and spots her shoulder bag lying open on the floor with her cell phone visible inside, turned on despite knowing she always turns it off to save battery life. It is then that a faint memory strikes her, of going through photos she'd taken from the Time War battlefield where the time travelers had found the Weaver and remembering seeing a damaged angel statue in one of the pictures despite being certain she had not seen one on the battlefield originally. When she tells the Weaver this he explains that a Weeping Angel can regenerate itself from even an image of itself, so there must have been destroyed Angels on the battlefield and when Eileen took its photo it started to reform from the picture, aided no doubt from the phone itself being inside a source of energy like the TARDIS.

The Weaver tells Eileen to get out and warn the others while he tries and keep the Angel contained in the Control Room. Unfortunately even immobilized under the Weaver's gaze the Angel is still slowly draining the energy from the TARDIS, and if it drains enough they will be stranded in the Time Vortex, at the mercy of an all-powerful Weeping Angel. Eileen backs out of the room, grabbing her bag on the way and as soon as she is out of sight of the Angel she breaks into a run. It is not long before she runs into one of the others, literally in this case as Eileen barrels into Ursa in a hallway near their rooms.

Once Ursa and Eileen have picked themselves up, Eileen hurriedly explains the situation and the two split up to find Zehra, Maryanne, and JD. Eileen finds Zehra in the Library and tells her what is happening. Zehra wonders if the Library has any books on the Weeping Angels, but Eileen says they need to find the others first. Ursa, meanwhile, has found Maryanne and JD in the Dining Hall. When she tells them what Eileen told her JD gets a worried look. He has heard of the Weeping Angels, but thought they were a myth, or at least that they had vanished from the Universe. Ursa says they need to find Eileen and Zehra, but JD says no, that he has an idea. He asks Maryanne to come with him and tells Ursa to find Eileen and Zehra. Ursa is reluctant but JD assures her that they'll find them as soon as they can. Ursa heads off while Maryanne goes with JD, asking what his plan is.

With Maryanne in tow, JD searches through several rooms in the TARDIS before he finds what he is looking for - a large mirror. With Maryanne's help he detaches the mirror from its mounting on the wall and together they slowly and carefully start carrying it towards the Console Room. Once there they see that the Weaver is still where Eileen left him, staring across the control console at the Weeping Angel on the other side. The two pull one of the couches in the control room into position and carefully prop it up. The mirror is directly in the Weeping Angel's line of sight, meaning it cannot move as it is looking at itself.

The Weaver thanks the two and says the mirror was a good idea, but he is not sure it will hold the Angel for very long. Still it is something, and the Weaver is finally able to blink his eyes and think. He says that they need to find the others and get somewhere safer, if that is at all possible. The three head off in a run, pausing only when they pass through a doorway and then only long enough to seal the door. The Weaver knows that doors will not stop an Angel for long, but every little bit helps. Off in the distance the three think they can hear the sound of a mirror shattering into a thousand little shards. They pick up their pace as the lights in the hallways start to flicker.

In the meantime, Ursa has met up with Eileen and Zehra and together they are trying to find the others. The sound of running alerts the three to where they ought to look, and sure enough they quickly catch up with JD, Maryanne, and the Weaver. The Weaver quickly runs down the situation, namely that the mirror idea did not hold the Weeping Angel for long and that right now the only reason it isn't hunting them down is that it is too busy draining all the time energy out of the TARDIS, at which point it can kill them all at its leisure. He tells them this as he continues to hurry through the halls of the TARDIS, taking turns and going up and down spiral staircases seemingly at random until the other five are completely lost as to where in the admittedly maze-like TARDIS they are. Maryanne wonders if they should go back and get the Stasis Gun; would it not be effective against the Weeping Angel? Zehra and JD point out that it is almost out of power, and what little it has left is being used to keep the Shadow Hunter at bay back in 1986, so they cannot risk it.

Finally the Weaver stops at a set of doors and pushes them open. Inside is a wood paneled room with a large curtained window on one wall and something like a Victorian rolltop writing desk in the center, though an oddly-shaped one surround by brass handrails. The Weaver flips open the desk to reveal a set of controls similar to those on the central console in the Control Room. He flicks some switches and the room lights up, with the curtains parting to reveal a window looking out into a swirling maelstrom. The Weaver tells the five that this is the TARDIS's Secondary Control Room, which comes as a bit of a shock to them as they had completely unaware there even was another Control Room aboard. The window is showing them that they are still inside the Time Vortex.

The Weaver calls Zehra over, who sees that the "desk" is in fact six-sided, like the main console, and she starts opening up the rolltops on the other five sides to expose the controls underneath. The Weaver starts calling out instructions which Zehra tries to follow as quickly as they can. At last the Weaver hits a switch on the console and for a brief moment everyone hears the distinct sound of the TARDIS materialization/dematerialization process, but only for a moment before the sound dies and the lights in the room flicker and go dark. The only light in the room now is the flickering orange glow coming from the ever present grates in the floor, and even it is starting to get dimmer.

The Weaver checks the console again, but it is now dead. It is what he feared would happen; the Weeping Angel has completely drained the TARDIS of its essence, leaving it adrift in the Vortex, and it is now undoubtedly coming for them. Zehra and JD ask why the Weeping Angel doesn't just leave if it has absorbed the power of the TARDIS, to which the Weaver replies that the Angels are killers and would not pass up a victim just because it has already fed on more energy than it could ever need. Ursa and Eileen ask if there is anything they can do, to which the Weaver answers that he is thinking.

Maryanne points out that there is still light coming from the grating, so there must still be power. The Weaver looks and agrees; the TARDIS may be dead, with its essence drained, but the Engine Room is still functioning for now. The only question now is if they can get there before the Weeping Angel gets them. They leave the Secondary Control Room and carefully start working their way down the darkened corridor, with Eileen, Zehra and Maryanne providing additional light with their cell phones.

They work their way through the halls of the TARDIS with the Weaver taking point, since he seems to know where he is going. Maryanne brings up the rear, and catches a glimpse of the Weeping Angel behind them at the far end of the hallway. She pans her phone's light across the Angel and stares at it while shouting a warning to the others. They have turned a corner and shout for her to join them, but Maryanne says she will stay there to hold the Angel back. As she continues to stare, however, the light on her phone starts to flicker, threatening to plunge the hallway into darkness. The Weaver shouts that the Angel can drain the power from their lights and tells Maryanne to run and join them.

Maryanne complies and the group start a game of leapfrog, switching between Eileen, Zehra and Maryanne and taking turns keeping watch at the rear to delay the Angel while the rest move to the next turn in the hallway. On one of Zehra's turns she risks using her precognitive powers to try and get a read on the Weeping Angel's future in the desperate hope it might give a hint on how they can survive. Being a quantum creature, and one now suffused with time energy, the Weeping Angel is almost blinding to look at for Zehra with her abilities. She manages to get one clear image, and it is not a good one; she sees a future where the Weeping Angel has its hands wrapped around the Weaver's neck.

With the Weeping Angel creeping ever closer with each turn, the six finally reach their destination. The Weaver turns the wheel on a heavy door and swings it open to reveal a narrow gangway leading across a vast chamber awash in red-orange light, the same color of light that once flickered up through the floor grates around the TARDIS before it went dim. The Weaver ushers the other five into the room and tells them to head for the middle where they should find a control console. He stares down the hall, spying the Weeping Angel before stepping into the chamber himself before sealing the door behind him.

Inside the five race along the gangway, but slow once they realize where they are. Looking above they see the source of the fiery glow around them, there is a burning star in the center of the chamber. The Weaver tells them that this is the Eye of Harmony, an exploding star on the cusp of collapsing into a black hole, held in place by Time Lord Technology; the Heart of the TARDIS and source of the unfathomable power needed for it to travel through the Vortex. The five stare in awe, though Zehra realizes something else as she takes another look around; this is the room she saw in her vision of the Weeping Angel's future, this is where it will kill the Weaver.

The groups' wonder is broken by a loud banging sound, and they look back to the heavy they came through to see it starting to dent and buckle as something immensely strong keeps striking it from the other side. The Weaver starts looking over the readings and control on the console in center of the chamber, desperate for any idea of how to save them. With a final crash the door buckles and the Weeping Angel stands there on the threshold of the chamber. The Weaver tells the others to get behind him, which they do reluctantly while trying to keep one eye on the Angel. Hesitating at first, Zehra realizes she must warn the Weaver, and she tells him what she saw when she tried to see the Angel's future.

A look of resignation comes across the Weaver's face, a look which soon turns to determination. Looking towards the Angel he calls back to the five and tells them to close their eyes and hold on tight to something. Once he is sure everyone has a solid grip, he risks a look at the console and finds the control he is looking for, turning back just as the Weeping Angel closes the distance and wraps its hands around his throat. The Weaver stares at the Weeping Angel that has him in a death grip and smiles, telling the Angel it may have caught him but that it is too late for it. With that he throws a switch on the console.

Their eyes shut tight the five hear a massive roaring sound and a force yanks them off their feet. All five hold tight to the railing on the gangway for what seems like an eternity before the force pulling on them and the roaring stop abruptly and they fall back onto the gangway. The silence is deafening and Zehra calls out to the Weaver but gets no answer. Slowly she cracks open her eyes, then tells the others to do the same. The gangway is empty save for the five of them, no sign of the Weaver or the Weeping Angel, at least no sign until they look up. Above them is the burning orb of the Eye of Harmony, but barely visible against the fiery light are the Weaver and the Angel, locked in a permanent embrace slowly drifting towards the inferno above.

Zehra is the first to clue into what happened; the Weaver shut down the shielding protecting them from the Eye of Harmony. It was only for a moment before the emergency systems kicked in and turned it back on, but it was long enough for the gravitational power of the star to take hold of the Weaver and the Weeping Angel and pull them towards it. Locked in place by the Weaver's steady gaze the Weeping Angel could not flee, and now the pair are doomed to drift forever locked together and trapped within the Eye of Harmony. The Weaver sacrificed himself to stop the Angel and save the five of them.

The time travelers observe a moment of solemn silence and give their thanks to the Time Lord that saved them, someone they considered an enemy for so long. The moment passes quickly, however, because they are not out of danger yet. Making their way out of the chamber and back into the darkened hallway, the five start to slowly head away and up to try and find more familiar areas of the TARDIS. It takes what seems like ages, but Ursa has a knack for maneuvering through darkened tunnels and between her and Zehra's knowledge of the TARDIS they eventually manage to find the Control Room. Broken shards of mirror crunch under their feet as they survey the darkened room.

As the Weaver had said, the Weeping Angel appears to have completely drained the TARDIS of its essence. The whole console is dead, even the Time Rotor with its Jacob's Ladder of climbing electricity had gone completely dark. As the time travelers understood it, the TARDIS was a much a living being as a machine, so by draining its essence the Weeping Angel effectively killed the TARDIS. Even though the Eye of Harmony was still theoretically generating power, there was no way to operate, or even activate the TARDIS now that its essence was gone. The five had survived the Weeping Angel, but not faced a lingering death as they slowly starved to death with no way to get more food, assuming the life support even continued to operate.

Ursa asks if there is any chance they can restore or replace the lost TARDIS essence, something that seems impossible until Zehra realizes that maybe they can. They have the Chameleon Arch containing the Professor's Time Lord essence. His body was killed by the Shadow Hunter, but could his essence possibly inhabit the TARDIS instead? There is only one way to find out, so the group retrieve the Walkman from where Zehra had placed it in the Library. Not knowing what might work, Zehra wraps the headphones around part of the console and pushes "play" on the Walkman. A stream of sparkling light emerges from the Walkman and starts to snake weave and dance around the console room. It swirls around the Time Rotor, and lightning starts to crackle up and down the interior. The console is enveloped in orange light, a light that starts to spread and intensify until the five are blinded.

The familiar sound of the Time Rotor begins to echo around the room and the light fades back to a reasonable intensity. When their sight returns the five see that the console room has changed. It has reverted back to something similar to what it was when they first found it, though far less distressed. This time around the floor is a checkerboard of black and white tiles and the walls smooth with an off-white and pale blue color tint. The Control Console has a retro-futuristic look, covered in push buttons, toggle switches, multi-colored lights and LED displays. Dominating one of the six panels is an early 1980s-style computer console with a clunky keyboard and a black-and-green monochrome monitor. The central column resembles a Lava Lamp, a glowing blue tube with faintly glowing blobs that rise and fall through the interior. Several green chalkboards decorate the walls of the Control Room around the Console, and to one side is a cart holding a 1980s CRT television set and what appears to be a Betamax video cassette player, the TV showing the image of the Time Vortex outside.

The five start laughing and hugging each other, even Maryanne briefly joins in teh celebration before she resumes her usual gruff exterior. Their gambit seems to have worked; the Professor's essence now powers the TARDIS, and he seems to have redecorated to suit his personal tastes. Has it really worked though? There is only one way to find out and Zehra walks up to the new console, asking the others where they should go. JD states that before the Weeping Angel appeared he had been hoping to get back to Luna University in 5212. That seems as good a place and time as any, so Zehra sets the controls as best as she can and pulls the switch. The Time Rotor speeds up and the dematerialization sound echoes around the console room; they are in flight.

When the TARDIS signals they have landed the group look to the TV. The screen shows a hallway of some kind, and JD exclaims that he thinks it is a hallway from his dorm at Luna University. They go out and take a look, noting that the TARDIS exterior still looks like an out-of-order cola machine. Sure enough they are in a dorm at Luna University. JD rushes to find a computer console and checks the date; it is several months after he went off on the expedition to Anomaly IV, where he boarded the TARDIS. JD is finally back home.

JD races off to find out what his standing is with the University, and the others decide to follow unsure of what else to do. At the Archaeology department the five find a familiar face, Prof. Bernice Summerfield! She greets them and welcomes them to the University. Benny tells JD that his status with the University is fine. Knowing what she did from her previous encounter with the time travelers, when JD did not return from the expedition to Anomaly IV she had him marked as absent due to temporal phenomenon. Being a time traveler herself, Benny was able to convince the department of this and allow an extension on JD's PhD thesis.

With JD home, the other travelers have to decide what to do. Benny offers some advice on how to better operate the TARDIS, which Zehra carefully notes. They thank her, then prepare to say goodbye to JD. For his part, JD's initial happiness at being back in 5212 has faded some. Faced with the prospect of returning to his schoolwork and the dread of having to complete his thesis, JD is facing some doubts. He looks at Prof. Summerfield, then to his fellow time travelers, and comes to a decision. JD asks the Professor if she can extend the extension again, as he feels he still has some more "research" to do. She nods agreement and JD rushes to join his friends at the TARDIS before they accidentally leave without him.

JD gets there just in time, and the others are not too shocked to see him, even glad (though neither Eileen nor Maryanne will admit it). Zehra sets about applying the tips from Benny as she works the TARDIS controls. The five look at each other, realizing that for the first time in a long time they are in control, with no driving desire or threat to force them on a particular path. The whole of Time and Space is open to them, time to see what kind of adventures await.

THE END... FOR NOW

Air date: August 15, 2020

Warp Zone | Doctor Who RPG | TimeLost Episodes | Season 3