Repeat Offender (audio story)

 was the third story of the anthology The Memory Bank and Other Stories.

Publisher's summary
The Doctor has tracked the deadly Bratanian Shroud to 22nd century Reykjavík – where he’s about to become the victim of a serial criminal. Again.

Plot
Lara Jensen returns home to find a smell of burning in the air and two strangers standing over the unconscious body of her wife, Kat Gunnarsdottir. One of the strangers introduces himself as the Doctor and explains that they have just saved Kat from a creature called the Bratanian Shroud and that the burning smell is from a mediascreen which he adapted to use as a wave disruptor. Lara whips out her chem-spray, points it at the strangers, and calls the police.

The other stranger, Turlough, asks to go to the lavatory, pointing out that there is only way out of the apartment. Shortly after Lara agrees, this is no longer the case. Turlough uses a laser to make a hole in the washroom's wall and then climbs to the ground.

At this point, Police Inspector Jill Sveinsdóttir arrives on the scene. Sveinsdóttir scans Lara and the Doctor and finds that the Doctor is an unregistered visitor to Iceland, a crime punishable by 2 years in jail. Sveinsdóttir presses some controls on her uniform and begins the Doctor's trial. Accused of breaking and entering, assault, destroying private property, and illegal immigration, the Doctor can only say that he's "not exactly guilty". He tries to explain that he was there to stop an alien evil from committing murder, but Sveinsdóttir opens Kat's perception feed and sees the Doctor threatening Kat with a weapon. The Doctor insists that the footage has been tampered with.

After a bit of research, Sveinsdóttir notices that two similar events occurred in the block in the last five weeks. The other two both involved broken mediascreens, residents knocked unconscious and suffering amnesia, footage apparently being tampered with, and a charred body in the doorway. Further research finds that a total of eight similar deaths have occurred in the surrounding area. While the Doctor tries to convince the Inspector that this is further evidence of the danger posed by the Shroud, she asserts that he must have committed all these murders and that he was planning on tampering Kat's perception feed before getting away.

Then, Turlough phones Lara. When she puts it to speaker, he tells the Doctor that he has found three different versions of the TARDIS and then hangs up. Alarmed, the Doctor asks Sveinsdóttir some questions about the victims. He learns that all of them were burnt beyond recognition and had two hearts. The Doctor insists that he's caught in a paradox; his own future selves did the exact same things he's doing now and were killed. Sveinsdóttir tries to take him out of the flat, but the Doctor realises that the other Doctors each died as they left the apartments and that he too will be killed if he enters the doorway.

As a last defence, the Doctor pleads that Lara come closer to the mediascreen. Lara attempts to resist, but Sveinsdóttir forces her to come over. Within the range of the mediascreen's wave disruptor, Lara collapses, the Shroud free from her mind. Sveinsdóttir is almost convinced of the Doctor's story, but Turlough walks into the flat and says that he and the Doctor are responsible for the killings.

The Doctor sees that Turlough is obviously being controlled by the Shroud and deduces that the Shroud must be using Reykjavik's wireless data transfer system to move between any body in the city. If the Shroud were stranded without the system or a brain to inhabit, it would dissolve into nothing. The Doctor orders Sveinsdóttir to use her root access to Reykjavik's data flow to shut it down. She is slightly hesitant, but comes to see the threat that the Shroud poses and obeys. The Doctor then runs towards Turlough with the mediascreen, purging the Shroud out of his mind and killing it.

As the Doctor and Turlough begin to leave, Sveinsdóttir asks them to testify for her during the inevitable investigation of such a vital system being disabled. The Doctor assures her that when he encounters the Shroud a few weeks ago he will defeat it, meaning that it will never live to possess Kat Gunnarsdottir and Sveinsdóttir will never have even met them.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Peter Davison
 * Turlough - Mark Strickson
 * Inspector Jill Sveinsdóttir - Mandi Symonds
 * Lara Jensen - Suzann McLean

Continuity

 * The Doctor and Turlough previously lived Reykjavik in the 51st century in the company of Nyssa and Tegan Jovanka. (AUDIO: The Butcher of Brisbane)
 * Inspector Sveinsdóttir refers to the Lunar Penal Colony. (TV: Frontier in Space, Bad Wolf; PROSE: Love and War)
 * The Doctor refers to artron energy. (TV: Four to Doomsday, et. al)