The Light at the End (audio story)

The Light at the End was Big Finish's Doctor Who story to celebrate the show's fiftieth anniversary. It was notable for being the audio story with the most Doctors to date — all eight that the company has license for. The only other stories to feature all eight previously were EDA novel The Eight Doctors, DWM comic Happy Deathday and short stories The Glass Princess and Categorical Imperative.

Publisher's summary
November 23rd 1963 proves to be a significant day in the lives of all eight Doctors...

It's the day that Bob Dovie's life is ripped apart...

It's also a day that sets in motion a catastrophic chain of events which forces the first eight incarnations of the Doctor to fight for their very existence. As a mysterious, insidious chaos unfolds within the TARDIS, the barriers of time break apart...

From suburban England through war-torn alien landscapes and into a deadly, artificial dimension, all these Doctors and their companions must struggle against the power of an unfathomable, alien technology.

From the very beginning, it is clear that the Master is somehow involved.

By the end, for the Doctors, there may only be darkness.

Part One
On 23 November 1962, Bob Dovie is at his home at 59A, Barnsfield Crescent in Totton, Hampshire with his two children, Kevin and Linda. While the two kids are playing, the radio that Bob has been listening to goes out for a few seconds. During that period, Kevin claims to see a police box; Bob didn't see anything, though. The police box appears again, crashing into the Dovies' garden shed, before vanishing again. It then reappears yet again, crashing into their chimney. Kevin asks if Father Christmas has come, to which a stunned Bob can only point out that it's too early for him to be here.

The leader of the Vess is talking to the Master; the Master is being given one of the weapons created by the Vess. The leader is intrigued by the choice the Master has made. He asks if the weapon pleases the Master, who admitted to such. With just a stray thought, he would be able to take his revenge on the Doctor.

Meanwhile, the Eighth Doctor is making adjustments to his TARDIS, while Charley is enjoying the arboretum. She returns to the console room just as the Doctor finishes his adjustments. While the two are talking, the TARDIS goes haywire, and and is suddenly on the verge of destroying itself. A few seconds later, everything returns to normal, except a flashing, red light had appeared on the console, one that hadn't been there before. Checking everything, the Doctor discovers that the red light appeared when the TARDIS passed through a specific place and time. The coordinates are set for 17:03 on November 23, 1963, at 59A, Barnsfield Crescent in Totton, Hampshire. The Doctor decides to investigate, and sets the TARDIS to land at that specific place and time.

The TARDIS materialises on a strange planet, one that is definitely not Earth. While trying to figure it out, the Doctor and Charley are interrupted by a large machine that passed near them. It separates them from each other, and from the TARDIS. The Doctor quickly locates Charley on the opposite side of a deep and wide hole. The machine returnes, and the Doctor tells Charley to run, that they would meet up later.

Charley ends up locating the TARDIS; she uses her key to enter it. To her dismay, the Doctor still hasn't arrived. Suddenly, the doors begin to open and close of their own accord.

Meanwhile, the Doctor tries using his sonic screwdriver to locate his ship, but instead ends up passing through a forcefield and into a viewing gallery in the Vess weapons factory. There, he meets a visiting alien who has been complaining about the pathetic demonstrations that the Vess are using to show off the effectiveness of their weapons. The strange planet that the TARDIS had landed on is a simulation. The alien leave, leaving the Doctor confused about who the Vess were.

Back in the TARDIS, Charley is trying to find the door controls, when the doors finally shut and stay shut. At that moment, ghost-like images start appearing and disappearing, images of the previous Doctors and their companions. All of them notice Charley in those few seconds that she could see them. She tries to talk to them, but can't get anywhere. Suddenly, space warps around Charley, and she finds herself in a different TARDIS control room, along with the Fourth Doctor and Leela. She has somehow been transported to the Fourth Doctor's TARDIS.

The Eighth Doctor has finally managed to use his sonic screwdriver to hack into the reality orientation controls. He starts adjusting the viewscreen to try to locate the TARDIS. Though he succeeds in doing so, he does not realise that he's in fact looking at not at his TARDIS, but at that of his fourth incarnation...

One of the Vess security drones informs the Eighth Doctor that, while the planet is fake, the creatures are real, as the Vess believe that using their weapons on living beings is the only true way to prove the effectiveness of their weapons.

The Fourth Doctor explains regeneration to both Leela and Charley, getting Charley to realise that this man is a past version of the Doctor she knew. The Fourth Doctor then points out that the red, flashing light on the TARDIS console is now brighter than before. Charley knows what is happening; this is what had just happened to her with the Eighth Doctor. They headed for the same time and space coordinates that the Eighth Doctor had aimed for, and ended up in the same place.

He decided to go out and explore, but Charley filled them in on what she and the Eighth Doctor had seen while they were out there. The Fourth Doctor activated the scanner, confirming what Charley had said. The Doctor then moved to dematerialise the TARDIS, despite Charley's protests, when the TARDIS went haywire.

The Eighth Doctor watched the TARDIS dematerialise, wondering what was going on.

The Fourth Doctor was only planning to move a short distance away, but now realised that, somehow, time was folding in on itself. The ghost-like images of the other Doctors and their companions appeared again, along with an image of a man saying, "This is impossible." The images disappeared again.

The Eighth Doctor noticed that the TARDIS was now in the same room as him. The drone from before pointed out that the TARDIS had been there for some time. The door opened and Charley stepped out, followed by the Fourth Doctor and Leela. They inform the Eighth Doctor on what they discovered and the two Doctors decided to contact the Time Lords.

Before they could enter the TARDIS, the Vess security drone covered it with slime, proclaiming that the TARDIS would be impounded. The two Doctors and their companions have been identified as intruders. The Vess then decided to capture the four, but only succeeded in capturing Charley. The Eighth Doctor tried to free her from the slime, but was unable to do so. He then detected the presence of another TARDIS. With the Vess closing in on them, the two Doctors and Leela were forced to abandon Charley and headed off to find the other TARDIS.

Meanwhile, the Sixth Doctor and Peri were going through the same events that the other two Doctors had gone through, with the near destruction of the TARDIS and the flashing, red light. The Doctor pondered on how to proceed from there.

The Vess facility had gone into a security lockdown, but the two Doctors were still able to proceed, thanks to their sonic screwdrivers. They ended up at another viewing gallery, filled with visiting aliens. They watched as the Vess demonstrated one of their weapons on living beings.

The three were unaware that they were being watched by the Master. The Master turned his attention to the security drones that brought Charley to him. He introduced himself to Charley and proclaimed that soon, she will have never heard of the Doctor. A few seconds later, she disappeared.

The Sixth Doctor had noted the coordinates that came with the red light, but decided not to go there, seeing it as an obvious trap. The ghost-like images of the Doctor's past and future selves appeared. The Doctor then noticed that there was a large energy source with incredible power at the mysterious coordinates, and that it was drawing energy from another place in time and space. The TARDIS then accidentally flew into the energy stream, getting pulled to where the power was being drawn from, the Big Bang.

The two Doctors and Leela found themselves in a military museum, along with the mysterious TARDIS, which was in the form of a Vess military tank. The security drones entered the museum and Leela tried to fight them off with a crossbow she picked up. The two Doctors touch their sonic screwdrivers together, releasing enough temporal energy to force the door to the TARDIS to open.

The Master watched all this happen, complimenting the two Doctors on gaining entry to his TARDIS. However, he knew it would make no difference, and that nothing the Doctors could do would make no difference. Time was already running out for them.

The trio quickly got inside the Master's TARDIS and closed the doors. They were only able to relax for a few moments, because a few seconds later, Leela vanished. The scanner activated, showing the Master. He refused to tell them what had happened to Leela and Charley, stating that the same would happen to all the others as well. The Fourth Doctor shut off the scanner, proclaiming that the Master was just trying to distract them from the fact they could summon one of their TARDISes using the Emergency Homing Beacon. The Fourth Doctor summoned his TARDIS to them and they watched as the security slime fell off. The two then entered the TARDIS.

The Master chuckled at how the Doctors thought they were so clever, but he knew that it was all futile and that things were going to get worse for the Doctor and his TARDIS. All he had to do was just sit back and enjoy the view.

Inside their TARDIS, the two Doctors tried to dematerialise, but something went wrong. The Fourth Doctor noticed that the Vess facility was located in a pocket dimension, one that could only be accessed by going to the specific space time coordinates that the two Doctors had gone to, and now they were trapped inside that pocket dimension. The Eighth Doctor tried to give them the power to break through, but it failed. The two noticed the red light again, and the ghost-like images of the other Doctors appeared again. Space warped around them again, and the two Doctors found themselves in the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS.

The ghost-like images appeared once again, with the Eighth Doctor taking notice of his immediate predecessor, who asked him if he knew anything about the power source of the pocket dimension, before disappearing. He then saw the Sixth Doctor and Peri heading for the Big Bang, followed by the appearance of the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa, talking about November 23, 1963.

The images disappeared again, but the red light was still flashing. The two heard a strange noise, prompting the Eighth Doctor to check the console. He discovered that the Fourth Doctor wasn't entirely correct. It wasn't time that was folding in on itself, it was the TARDIS that was doing so. The TARDIS was destroying herself inch by inch, second by second, but in no particular temporal order.

The power went out, trapping the two Doctors inside the TARDIS. The only thing left on was the mysterious, flashing, red light, the light at the end of the TARDIS. The image of the mysterious man saying, "This is impossible," appeared again. A few seconds later, the TARDIS was destroyed, taking the Fourth and Eighth Doctors with it.

Meanwhile, the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa went through the same experiences that the other Doctors went through. The Doctor took note of the coordinates and decided to investigate. However, he took a precaution. He set the TARDIS to land at 17:02, one minute early. They two found themselves in a garden shed. They stepped back into the TARDIS and waited the few remaining seconds before it was 17:03. Once the time came, nothing happened, except that the red light had vanished and there was no sign that there had ever been one. However, something strange had come up. The TARDIS had detected the energy of another TARDIS.

The Seventh Doctor and Ace have arrived in the pocket dimension, having gone through the same experiences as the other Doctors and deciding to go directly to the coordinates. The Doctor was wondering where the pocket dimension was getting the power to sustain it, when the ghost-like images of the other Doctors appear, including one of the Fourth and Eighth Doctors trapped in the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS. The Seventh Doctor tried to ask his future self about the power source of the pocket dimension, but the images vanished, leaving the Doctor to explain to Ace about regeneration. The two decided to go out and investigate the pocket dimension.

Meanwhile, Bob Dovie seemed to be in an odd state, talking to himself.

The Fifth Doctor and Nyssa exited their TARDIS, only to realise that in a very short amount of time, it was suddenly nighttime. The Doctor activated the scanner he had brought with him, and noticed that some kind of temporal folding was occurring, and that it may be being caused by the other TARDIS. As they tried to locate the mystery TARDIS, they were spotted by Bob Dovie, who mistook them for the police. His wife and children had gone missing. Noticing that Bob took no notice to their strange clothes, the Doctor and Nyssa decided to look into it.

Bob got tea for the two, who asked him some questions about what has happened. Bob was oddly distracted throughout the conversation, unable to focus properly. Bob seemed to recognize the Fifth Doctor from somewhere before, and then remembered that when his kids had vanished, someone was at the door.

The Doctor then sent Bob to get some biscuits, so he could point out to Nyssa that the phone was disconnected. When Bob came back, the Doctor had him call his friends to see if they had seen his wife and kids. Bob does so, apparently having a conversation with said friends. This was impossible, meaning that someone had messed around with Bob's mind.

Bob had gone into the children's room, where he started up a music box, once more in a distracted state. He was surprised when the Doctor and Nyssa entered the room, having forgotten about them. The two brought up the man who was at Bob's door when his family disappeared, and Bob was able to recall that the man had a burned appearance.

The Seventh Doctor and Ace were investigating the area their TARDIS had landed in, but wherever it was, it was pitch dark. The two ended up at a wall, and decided to head in another direction. The two started hearing strange noises. They ended up at another wall. The strange noises persisted, so the two decided to head back to the TARDIS. They noticed that something that looked like a wall of mud filled with junk and corpses was moving, and it was heading for them.

Nyssa took a look inside the dollhouse and found the corpses of Bob's family. A Tissue Compression Eliminator had been used on them, meaning that the Master was the culprit and the other TARDIS was his, but that it was the Master as he was before he took the body of Tremas. On the Dovie's television, the Master's face appeared. The Doctor confronted him on why he has crossed his own timeline, but the Master proclaimed that his timeline in regard to the Doctor's doesn't have any significance anymore. The Master told the Doctor to come to him.

Bob confronted the Doctor, having overheard the truth that his family was killed. The Doctor promised to get the man responsible, and both he and Nyssa rushed out of the house in time to see the Master's TARDIS dematerialise. They tried to go back to their TARDIS, but Bob was in their way again, somehow recognizing the TARDIS and the Fifth Doctor, but not being able to properly remember. They decided to take him into the TARDIS with them.

Once inside, Bob was shocked at what he saw and only had one thing to say, "This is impossible." The TARDIS exploded, taking the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, and Bob with it.

Part Two
The Sixth Doctor managed to put the TARDIS in reverse, sending it in the opposite direction in the energy stream, meaning that it had now landed at the coordinates that came with the red light. The Doctor realised they were now trapped.

The Seventh Doctor and Ace had temporarily outrun the mud, only to find that more of the mud was approaching the TARDIS. The mud walls were living creatures with telepathic abilities and they tried to use those abilities to stop the Doctor and Ace from escaping. The Doctor managed to get Ace to focus and throw her Nitro-9 at the mud creatures, breaking open a hole leading outside. However, it was too late for the TARDIS, as the mud creatures had consumed it.

The Sixth Doctor activated the scanner to look outside and noticed a forcefield break open. He and Peri watched as the Seventh Doctor and Ace came out of the opening. The Seventh Doctor and Ace noticed the Sixth Doctor's TARDIS and headed for it, using their key to enter. Ace noticed the red light on the TARDIS console, and both groups realised that they had gone through the same strange events. The TARDIS doors started opening and closing. The Sixth Doctor tried to figure out what was wrong, while the Seventh Doctor noticed that it was being caused by the TARDIS Emergency Systems, and that the TARDIS was trying to tell them something.

The doors shut and stayed shut. Ace brought up that the two groups has gone through the same events before arriving here, with Peri bringing up how she and the Sixth Doctor almost ended up at the Big Bang. The ghost-like images appeared again, including the Fourth and Eighth Doctor's conversation in the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS and the subsequent explosion. Ace was confused on how the Sixth and Seventh Doctors could be there if the Fourth Doctor had already died, but the Sixth Doctor pointed out what the Eighth Doctor has said, that the destruction was happening in no particular temporal order, and the Seventh Doctor realised that whatever was happening was contained within the TARDIS. The four decided to go investigate the Vess facility.

Meanwhile, in the First Doctor's TARDIS, the First Doctor, along with the Second Doctor, and the Third Doctor, were doing everything in their power to give their other selves as much time as possible.

The two Doctors, Peri, and Ace had entered the facility and found two glass elevators. They decided to split up, but couldn't decide who would go up and who would go down. Ace made the decision, resulting in her and the Seventh Doctor heading down. The Sixth Doctor and Peri prepared to head up, but just as the doors started to close, the Doctor spotted the first three Doctors. He tried to get back out of the elevator, but the doors closed completely. He watched as his first three selves disappeared.

The Seventh Doctor and Ace exited their elevator only to find themselves amongst delegations from other worlds. A Vess drone gave them a device that produced a four-dimensional projection that welcomed them to the facility.

The Sixth Doctor and Peri exited their elevator, only to run into a couple of Time Lords. The Time Lords recognized the Doctor and captured both him and Peri.

The Seventh Doctor and Ace noticed that they had been spotted, for the security cameras were focused solely on them.

The person watching them was the Master, who sent security drones after them.

The Time Lords took the Sixth Doctor and Peri into a room in a room in which they have disrupted the cameras so that they can't be watched.

The Seventh Doctor and Ace noticed the security drones coming for them, and their route back to the TARDIS was blocked. They ran for an unguarded door.

The Master noticed that some of the cameras have been disrupted in the corridors leading to where the Time Lord delegation was staying. He wondered what they were up to.

The Sixth Doctor confronted the two Time Lords about why they were in a weapons factory, when the Time Lords were supposed to be a peaceful, non-interfering race. One of the Time Lords introduced himself as Straxus and that he was working for the Celestial Intervention Agency. The Doctor pointed out that they were expecting him, so he demanded to know how many other Doctors they had captured. The answer was zero. Straxus had only been able to spot other Doctors. The Doctor then asked why all of his selves were here.

The Seventh Doctor and Ace ended up in the room where the Master was. Since they had found their way to him, the Master called off the security drones. The Doctor confronted the Master about what he's up to, but the Master calmly pointed out that time was running out for the Doctor. A few seconds later, Ace vanished. The Master laughed, proclaiming that it was the last time Ace will ever see the Doctor, and soon, she will have never known the Doctor at all. The Master told the Doctor to head back to the TARDIS, to see that his time was running out.

The Sixth Doctor accused the Time Lords of what has been happening. Straxus revealed that the one responsible was the Master. Right after that, Peri vanished. Straxus said that Peri's disappearance was also caused by the Master. Straxus was hesitant to explain what was going on, and the Doctor realised that the presence of Time Lords here was being kept secret from the High Council.

The Celestial Intervention Agency was worried about the possible threats that the universe could bring down on the Time Lords, so they aimed to obtain some of the worst weapons available in order to protect the Time Lords and the entirety of space and time. They learned of the Vess, and sent a delegation. The Master somehow found out that they were there and made a deal with the delegation. If they would allow him to take only one weapon from the Vess, he wouldn't reveal their presence here to the High Council. However, they don't know what weapon he chose.

The Seventh Doctor reached the Sixth Doctor's TARDIS, and tried to find a way to reach Gallifrey. However, the images appeared again, while the doors opened and closed. He then watched what happened to the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa.

Straxus admitted to knowing that the Master planned to use his weapons against the Doctor. The Sixth Doctor was disgusted at them, accusing them of being glad that the Master wanted to kill him, Straxus admitted that they believed the sacrifice of the Doctor was worth insuring that their operation was a success. However, they weren't expecting the Master to do something that was causing time to fold in on the Doctor, erasing him from the timeline, which is why Peri and the other companions have all vanished. They never met the Doctor, so they couldn't have been in the pocket dimension at all.

Straxus then revealed that his covert operatives on Gallifrey had informed him that history was shifting. The timeline was becoming as though the Doctor never left Gallifrey. Everything he has done since he went rogue, was being undone.

The Seventh Doctor was now beginning to understand. The images of the first three Doctors appeared, as they began to explain to him what was going on. The red light was the explosion, reduced to the single moment when it happened. The first three Doctors had used the TARDIS Emergency Systems to achieve this, and they also used it as a warning so that the Doctors would not go to those coordinates. They didn't have enough power to send a clearer message, the result having the opposite effect, drawing all the Doctors to those coordinates.

The Sixth Doctor expressed his disgust at Straxus for what he has done, but decided that there was no point in standing around and being indignant and disapproving. He needed to find a way to put everything right again. The weapon that the Master used needed to be found out, if any hope of countering it was to be discovered. The Doctor knew he would need the help of his other selves, so he set out for the Time Lord delegation's TARDIS, planning to expand the dimensional stabilisation field of that TARDIS to encompass the entire pocket dimension, thus allowing all the Doctors to materialise at the same point in time.

The Seventh Doctor realised that the ghost-like images and the doors opening and closing were the TARDIS trying to warn him of the danger. For some reason, time was folding in on the TARDIS, destroying it second by second, wiping it from the timelines. But, the first three Doctors have been constantly shifting that destruction randomly through time, to buy more time. The four Doctors then notice the dimensional stabilisation field.

The Sixth Doctor's efforts were successful. However, there was some slight phasing at the edge of the field, meaning the first three Doctors will not fully materialise. However, the Fourth through Eighth Doctors will successfully materialise in the Sixth Doctor's TARDIS. The Doctor departed to go meet up with his other selves.

In the TARDIS, the Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth Doctors appeared, having each come directly from the explosions they were caught in. The First, Second, and Third Doctors also appear, but with ghost-like appearances. The Seventh Doctor welcomes them all to the TARDIS, and the Sixth Doctor joins them a few moments later, proclaiming that it was time for them to fight back.

The Master managed to restore the cameras and started to watch the footage of the Time Lord delegation with the Sixth Doctor and Peri. However, an alert came to him from his TARDIS, thus forcing the Master to go find out what it's about. He has the security drones with him also come.

The eight Doctors made telepathic contact with each other and shared their experiences. They noted that due to the size of the pocket dimension, they will be able to maintain telepathic contact with each other. They came up with a plan.

The Master had arrived in his TARDIS and discovered that his TARDIS has detected the dimensional stabilisation field. He quickly deduced that it was being produced from Straxus' TARDIS and that it would allow the eight Doctors to materialise in the pocket dimension. He ordered the drones to go assassinate the Time Lord delegation, but the Fourth and Eighth Doctors had arrived, using the same sonic screwdriver trick to open the door again. The Master had the two Doctors restrained and wondered why they have come here. He also wondered where the other Doctors were.

The other Doctors were still in the TARDIS. They were planning to make an attempt to break out of the pocket dimension. The First Doctor reminded them that time was collapsing in the TARDIS at an accelerating rate. The first three Doctors will do their best to repair the TARDIS Emergency Systems, so that their warning is more clear, and will result in none of the Doctors setting course for November 23, 1963, which will prevent the Fifth Doctor from meeting Bob Dovie, because it was when he entered the TARDIS that the explosion occurred. The Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Doctors began their attempt.

The Master realised that the Fourth and Eighth Doctors had come here to distract them and turned his attention back to the other Doctors. He noticed the attempt being made by the other Doctors and sent an energy pulse into the vortex, aimed for the Doctor's TARDIS.

The pulse struck the TARDIS, sending it into the energy stream on a direct course for the Big Bang. The Sixth Doctor has already been in this situation before, and he repeated what he did, sending the TARDIS back towards the pocket dimension, and backwards in time. The Fifth Doctor was suddenly struck by inspiration and shared it with the other Doctors.

The Fourth and Eighth Doctors learn the plan, but the Fourth's sudden exclamation on its brilliance attracts the attention of the Master. The Fourth Doctor quickly covers it up by saying it was an exclamation at the brilliance of the Master's plan to destroy him. Feeding the Master's ego, the Fourth and Eighth Doctor do what they really came to the Master's TARDIS to do, trick him into revealing what the weapon he used was. He had used a Conceptual bomb to take the thought that Bob Dovie had when he first entered the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS, and make it a reality, the thought being on how impossible the TARDIS was. The result was the TARDIS being erased from existence, which means it wasn't there when the Doctor decided to leave Gallifrey. No TARDIS meant no departure. The Doctor never left Gallifrey. The Fourth and Eighth Doctors revealed their deception, sending the conversation to their other selves.

The other Doctors set the TARDIS to land at 59A, Barnsfield Crescent on November 23, 1962, resulting in them first crashing into the garden shed, and then into the chimney. The first three Doctors contacted the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Doctors. The First Doctor was the first one to hear the emergency signal from the TARDIS, because his TARDIS was already in 1963 when the explosion occurred. But, it was the TARDIS Emergency System that drew the other Doctors in, allowing the Master to plant the bomb. If the first three Doctors could shut off the Emergency System, then the other Doctors would never have been drawn there. But, before they could do so, the destruction of the TARDIS caught up with them, destroying the First Doctor's TARDIS and killing the First, Second, and Third Doctors. It was now up to the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Doctors to save them.

The Fifth Doctor decided that he should be the one to carry out the plan, as he was the one who first brought Bob Dovie into the TARDIS. He stepped outside the TARDIS and talked with Bob, convincing him to come up to the roof. Back inside, he convinced the Sixth and Seventh Doctors to leave the control room. Bob stepped into the TARDIS and couldn't believe his eyes, proclaiming the TARDIS to be impossible. This was what the Fifth Doctor intended, so that when Bob stepped into the TARDIS the next year, he wouldn't find it so impossible.

The plan succeeded and the Conceptual bomb never went off, restoring all the Doctors, their companions, and their TARDISes. The Master was enraged, and ordered the drones to kill the Fourth and Eighth Doctors, but the drones disappear. Since the bomb never went off, all the events that occurred afterward never happened, so the drones were never there. This meant that the Fourth and Eighth Doctors were never in the Master's TARDIS either. The Master then discovered that all eight TARDISes were aimed for the exact place in time and space that he was. The Doctors were planning to Time ram him, and there was nothing he could do to escape. He proclaimed to the Fourth and Eighth Doctors that the Time Lords would never let him get away with it, but the Doctors believed that they would. A few seconds later, the two Doctors vanished, returning to their TARDISes.

The eight Doctors discussed whether they should really Time ram the Master, when the First Doctor brought up that the Fifth Doctor's part only fixed half the problem. As long as all the Doctors were drawn to November 23, 1963 by the TARDIS Emergency Systems that was activated on the First Doctor's TARDIS, the Master will be able to plant the bomb. All the First Doctor had to do was switch the system off, and he did so.

Each Doctor found himself back in his TARDIS with his companions, with no memory of what had happened. The Eighth Doctor found himself setting course for the 23rd of November 1963 at 59A, Barnsfield Crescent. He and Charley went and knocked on the door of Bob Dovie's house. Bob was irritated by their presence, as he had already been visited by the other seven Doctors and their companions, all of whom had asked if everything was okay, and none of them could explain why they had done so. The same was true for the Eighth Doctor. Bob was also still cross about the Fifth Doctor's crash-landing into his chimney the year before. After getting the door slammed in their face, the Eighth Doctor and Charley departed, heading off for their next adventure, just as the other seven Doctors had done.

Cast

 * The Doctor - William Russell
 * The Doctor - Frazer Hines
 * The Doctor - Tim Treloar
 * The Doctor - Tom Baker
 * The Doctor - Peter Davison
 * The Doctor - Colin Baker
 * The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
 * The Doctor - Paul McGann
 * Leela - Louise Jameson
 * Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
 * Peri - Nicola Bryant
 * Ace - Sophie Aldred
 * Charley Pollard - India Fisher
 * Ian Chesterton - William Russell
 * Susan Foreman - Carole Ann Ford
 * Vicki Pallister - Maureen O'Brien
 * Steven Taylor - Peter Purves
 * Sara Kingdom - Jean Marsh
 * Polly Wright - Anneke Wills
 * Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines
 * Zoe Heriot - Wendy Padbury
 * Jo Grant - Katy Manning
 * Tegan - Janet Fielding
 * Turlough - Mark Strickson
 * The Master - Geoffrey Beevers
 * Bob Dovie - John Dorney
 * Straxus - Oliver Hume
 * The Vess - Nicholas Briggs
 * Kevin Dovie - Benedict Briggs

Continuity

 * Nyssa mentions meeting the Master on Logopolis. (TV: Logopolis), whilst the Master has not yet met Nyssa.
 * Charley mentions being on the R101. (AUDIO: Storm Warning)
 * Peri knows who the Master is, after meeting him in TV: Planet of Fire and The Mark of the Rani. She also recognises the Second Doctor, because of the business with Dastari (TV: The Two Doctors)
 * Bob Dovie listens to the Common Men on the radio. (AUDIO: 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men)
 * The Fourth Doctor notes that the Eighth Doctor is wearing a Wild Bill Hickok outfit. (TV: Doctor Who)
 * When Charley is seeing the images of the past Doctors and companions, one of the images is of the Second Doctor, Ben, and Polly, with the Doctor playing his recorder while Polly is trying to get reassurance from him that they won't see the Daleks again. She even comments on how they don't seem to be able to get any straight answers out of this new body of the Doctor's. (TV: The Power of the Daleks)
 * The Eighth Doctor mentions the parrot in the TARDIS. (PROSE: The Sands of Time)
 * Straxus mentions that in the timeline where the Doctor never left Gallifrey that the Dalek Invasion in the 22nd Century was never stopped and that the War Lords spread over the galaxy. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth,  TV: The War Games)