The Promise (webcast)

 was a promotional mini-episode written by Pete McTighe and released as part of Ace Returns!, a longer YouTube webcast which also included a trailer for the release of Doctor Who: The Collection — Season 26 Blu-ray boxset. The webcast was notable for featuring the live-action return of Sophie Aldred to the part of Ace (which she had previously reprised in audio format with Big Finish), with Aldred considering the webcast as the true closure to Ace.

Synopsis
Ace is standing in her office reminiscing over her past adventures with the Seventh Doctor, when suddenly the sound of the TARDIS is heard and the Doctor knocks on her door and she runs off.

Plot
In the middle of the streets of London is a building standing tall, belonging to A Charitable Earth. In an office with a large wall-length window overseeing the Thames is a woman. Ace.

Ace thinks about what happened thirty years ago. How she was just a kid who thought she knew it all when she met him and he showed her the universe full of adventures: monsters, demons, friends, enemies, fights, justice and so much more...

The Doctor and Ace... teammates.

When suddenly, he let her go to make the world a better place. She says she loves what she does for a living now. But that she some times still look for him from her office-window because he left her with a promise that he would return one day.

Then she hears the sound of the TARDIS and sees a familiar silhouette behind the door and a question mark handle knocking on the door. She exclaims "Wicked".

Ace grabs onto her trademark jacket and heads out the door of her office.

Cast

 * Ace - Sophie Aldred
 * Seventh Doctor - Matthew Sweet (uncredited)

Crew

 * Writer and Director - Pete McTighe
 * Director of Photography - Matt Patrick
 * Production assistant/Sound recordist- Jasmine Allodi
 * Make-up - Sarah Burrows
 * Dubbing Mixer - Mark Ayres
 * Graphics - Niel Bushnell
 * Producer - Jo Larmer
 * Executive Producer - Russell Minton

Story notes

 * This is the first actual depiction of Ace's organisation, A Charitable Earth, which was mentioned by Sarah Jane Smith at the end of TV: Death of the Doctor in 2010, and which was later expanded upon by Ace herself in the 2018 audio story In Remembrance.

Continuity

 * Ace mentions knights from another dimension, (TV: Battlefield) ghosts from the past, (TV: Ghost Light) and horrors from the future. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)