The Masks of Makassar (short story)

Summary
The Doctor and Rose land on an alien planet whose inhabitants wear masks enabling them to share their thoughts as a telepathic community. The spokes-unit for the community mind, Makassar, asks the Doctor to speak on its behalf to the alien representatives who have come to see the masks for themselves, but the Doctor refuses. However, when he admits to Rose that his own people had a system like this, called the Matrix, Rose realises that this planet reminds him of the home he’s lost. The Doctor realises that she’s right and goes to apologise to Makassar while Rose gets some sleep -- but she is confronted by a ghost-like phantom of a man wearing a mask, and when she tries to find the Doctor, she is attacked by Units who force a mask onto her face. The Doctor is also attacked by Units and forced to wear a mask, but Makassar finds it more difficult to take over the Doctor’s mind than he’d anticipated, and the Doctor is able to fight him off and rescue Rose from the gestalt. The Doctor places her in a dreamscape fashioned from Rose’s memories of the Powell Estate, where she gets her bearings and tells him about the ghost, who is presumably a rebellious Unit. The Doctor sends her out to find the ghost, and when she is attacked by Units, she calls out to the one who tried to contact her. While Makassar’s attention is divided, the Doctor manages to overpower him and draws on the power of the gestalt to generate his own ghost, one with some physical substance. Before Makassar can stop him, the Doctor removes his control mask and replaces it with one of the masks worn by the ordinary Units. The other Units are freed, including the Doctor and Rose, while Makassar is trapped in a mental feedback loop, capable only of sending orders to himself

Characters

 * Ninth Doctor
 * Rose Tyler
 * Makassar

Continuity
to be added

Timeline

 * This story occurs after NSA: Winner Takes All
 * This story occurs before DWA: Pitter-Patter