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 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 doesn'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 admits to such. With just a stray thought, he will 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 passes near them. The machine separates the two from each other, and from the TARDIS. The Doctor quickly locates Charley on the opposite side of a deep and wide hole. The machine returns, 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 has landed on is a simulation. The alien leaves, leaving the Doctor confused about who the Vess are.

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 can 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. The Fourth Doctor and Leela had headed for the same time and space coordinates that the Eighth Doctor had aimed for, and ended up in the same place.

He decides 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 activates the scanner, confirming what Charley had said. The Doctor then moves to dematerialise the TARDIS, despite Charley's protests, when the TARDIS goes haywire.

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

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

The Eighth Doctor notices that the TARDIS is now in the same room as him. The drone from before points out that the TARDIS has been there for some time. The door opens and Charley steps out, followed by the Fourth Doctor and Leela. They inform the Eighth Doctor on what they discovered and the two Doctors decide to contact the Time Lords.

Before they can enter the TARDIS, the Vess security drone covers it with slime, proclaiming that the TARDIS will be impounded. The two Doctors and their companions have been identified as intruders. The Vess then decides to capture the four, but only succeeds in capturing Charley. The Eighth Doctor tries to free her from the slime, but is unable to do so. He then detects the presence of another TARDIS. With the Vess closing in on them, the two Doctors and Leela are forced to abandon Charley and head off to find the other TARDIS.

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

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

The three are unaware that they are being watched by the Master. The Master turns his attention to the security drones that have brought Charley to him. He introduces himself to Charley and proclaims that soon, she will have never heard of the Doctor. A few seconds later, she disappears.

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

The two Doctors and Leela find themselves in a military museum, along with the mysterious TARDIS, which is in the form of a Vess military tank. The security drones enter the museum and Leela tries 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 watches all this happen, complimenting the two Doctors on gaining entry to his TARDIS. However, he knows it will make no difference, and that nothing the Doctors could do would make no difference. Time is already running out for them.

The trio quickly get inside the Master's TARDIS and close the doors. They are only able to relax for a few moments, because a few seconds later, Leela vanishes. The scanner activates, showing the Master. He refuses to tell them what has happened to Leela and Charley, stating that the same will happen to all the others as well. The Fourth Doctor shuts off the scanner, proclaiming that the Master is just trying to distract them from the fact they can summon one of their TARDISes using the Emergency Homing Beacon. The Fourth Doctor summons his TARDIS to them and they watch as the security slime falls off. The two then enter the TARDIS.

The Master chuckles at how the Doctors think they are so clever, but he knows that it's all futile and that things are going to get worse for the Doctor and his TARDIS. All he has to do is just sit back and enjoy the view.

Inside their TARDIS, the two Doctors try to dematerialise, but something goes wrong. The Fourth Doctor notices that the Vess facility is located in a pocket dimension, one that can only be accessed by going to the specific space time coordinates that the two Doctors had gone to, and now they are trapped inside that pocket dimension. The Eighth Doctor tries to give them the power to break through, but it fails. The two notice the red light again, and the ghost-like images of the other Doctors appear again. Space warps around them again, and the two Doctors find themselves in the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS.

The ghost-like images appear once again, with the Eighth Doctor taking notice of his immediate predecessor, who asks him if he knows anything about the power source of the pocket dimension, before disappearing. He then sees 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 disappear again, but the red light is still flashing. The two hear a strange noise, prompting the Eighth Doctor to check the console. He discovers that the Fourth Doctor isn't entirely correct. It isn't time that is folding in on itself, it is the TARDIS that is doing so. The TARDIS is destroying herself inch by inch, second by second, but in no particular temporal order.

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

Meanwhile, the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa go through the same experiences that the other Doctors went through. The Doctor takes note of the coordinates and decided to investigate. However, he takes a precaution. He sets the TARDIS to land at 17:02, one minute early. They two find themselves in a garden shed. They step back into the TARDIS and wait the few remaining seconds before it was 17:03. Once the time comes, nothing happens, except that the red light has vanished and there is no sign that there had ever been one. However, something strange has come up. The TARDIS has 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 is 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 tries to ask his future self about the power source of the pocket dimension, but the images vanish, leaving the Doctor to explain to Ace about regeneration. The two decide to go out and investigate the pocket dimension.

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

The Fifth Doctor and Nyssa exit their TARDIS, only to realise that in a very short amount of time, it's suddenly nighttime. The Doctor activates the scanner he has brought with him, and notices that some kind of temporal folding was occurring, and that it may be being caused by the other TARDIS. As they try to locate the mystery TARDIS, they are spotted by Bob Dovie, who mistakes them for the police. His wife and children have gone missing. Noticing that Bob takes no notice to their strange clothes, the Doctor and Nyssa decide to look into it.

Bob gets tea for the two, who ask him some questions about what has happened. Bob is oddly distracted throughout the conversation, unable to focus properly. Bob seems to recognize the Fifth Doctor from somewhere before, and then remembers that when his wife and kids vanished, someone was at the door.

The Doctor then sends Bob to get some biscuits, so he can point out to Nyssa that the phone is disconnected. When Bob comes back, the Doctor has him call his friends to see if they have seen his wife and kids. Bob does so, apparently having a conversation with said friends. This is impossible, meaning that someone has tampered with Bob's mind.

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

The Seventh Doctor and Ace are investigating the area their TARDIS has landed in, but wherever it is, it's pitch dark. The two end up at a wall, and decide to head in another direction. The two start hearing strange noises. They end up at another wall. The strange noises persist, so the two decide to head back to the TARDIS. They notice that something that looks like a wall of mud filled with junk and corpses is moving, and it is heading for them.

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

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

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

Part two
The Sixth Doctor manages to put the TARDIS in reverse, sending it in the opposite direction in the energy stream, meaning that it has now landed at the coordinates that came with the red light. The Doctor realises they are now trapped.

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

The Sixth Doctor activates the scanner to look outside and notices a forcefield break open. He and Peri watch as the Seventh Doctor and Ace come out of the opening. The Seventh Doctor and Ace notice the Sixth Doctor's TARDIS and head for it, using their key to enter. Ace notices the red light on the TARDIS console, and both groups realise that they have gone through the same strange events. The TARDIS doors start opening and closing. The Sixth Doctor tries to figure out what's wrong, while the Seventh Doctor notices that it is being caused by the TARDIS Emergency Systems, and that the TARDIS is trying to tell them something.

The doors shut and stay shut. Ace brings up that the two groups have 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 appear again, including the Fourth and Eighth Doctor's conversation in the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS and the subsequent explosion. Ace is confused on how the Sixth and Seventh Doctors could be there if the Fourth Doctor had already died, but the Sixth Doctor points out what the Eighth Doctor has said, that the destruction is happening in no particular temporal order, and the Seventh Doctor points out that whatever is happening is contained within the TARDIS. The four decide 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, are doing everything in their power to give their other selves as much time as possible.

The two Doctors, Peri, and Ace enter the facility and find two glass elevators. They decide to split up, but can't decide who will go up and who will go down. Ace makes the decision, resulting in her and the Seventh Doctor heading down. The Sixth Doctor and Peri prepare to head up, but just as the doors start to close, the Doctor spots the first three Doctors. He tries to get back out of the elevator, but the doors close completely. He watches as his first three selves disappear, and wonders what they are up to.

The Seventh Doctor and Ace exit their elevator only to find themselves amongst delegations from other worlds. A Vess drone gives them a device that produces a four-dimensional projection that welcomes them to the facility.

The Sixth Doctor and Peri exit their elevator, only to run into a couple of Time Lords. The Time Lords recognize the Doctor and capture both him and Peri.

The Seventh Doctor and Ace notice that they have been spotted, for the security cameras are focused solely on them. The person watching them is the Master, who sends security drones after them.

The Time Lords take 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 notice the security drones coming for them, and their route back to the TARDIS is blocked. They run for an unguarded door.

The Master notices that some of the cameras have been disrupted in the corridors leading to where the Time Lord delegation is staying. He wonders what they are up to.

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

The Seventh Doctor and Ace end up in the room where the Master is. Since they have found their way to him, the Master calls off the security drones. The Doctor confronts the Master about what he's up to, but the Master calmly points out that time is running out for the Doctor. A few seconds later, Ace vanishes. The Master laughs, 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 tells the Doctor to head back to the TARDIS, to see that his time is running out.

The Sixth Doctor accuses the Time Lords of what has been happening. Straxus reveals that the one responsible is the Master. Right after that, Peri vanishes. Straxus says that Peri's disappearance was also caused by the Master. Straxus is hesitant to explain what is going on, and the Doctor realises that the presence of Time Lords here is 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 reaches the Sixth Doctor's TARDIS, and tries to find a way to reach Gallifrey. However, the images appear again, while the doors open and close. He then watches what happened to the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa.

Straxus admits to knowing that the Master planned to use his weapon against the Doctor. The Sixth Doctor is disgusted at them, accusing them of being glad that the Master wanted to kill him, Straxus admits 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 reveals that his covert operatives on Gallifrey had informed him that history is shifting. The timeline is becoming as though the Doctor never left Gallifrey. Everything he has done since he went rogue, was being undone.

The Seventh Doctor is now beginning to understand. The images of the first three Doctors appear, 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 have 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 expresses his disgust at Straxus for what he has done, but decides that there is no point in standing around and being indignant and disapproving. He needs to find a way to put everything right again. The weapon that the Master used needs to be found out, if any hope of countering it is to be discovered. The Doctor knows he would need the help of his other selves, so he sets 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 realises 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 is 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 are successful. However, there is 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 departs to go meet up with his other selves.

In the TARDIS, the Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth Doctors appear, 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 is time for them to fight back.

The Master manages to restore the cameras and starts to watch the footage of the Time Lord delegation with the Sixth Doctor and Peri. However, an alert comes 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 make telepathic contact with each other and share their experiences. They note that due to the size of the pocket dimension, they will be able to maintain telepathic contact with each other. They come up with a plan.

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

The other Doctors are still in the TARDIS. They are planning to make an attempt to break out of the pocket dimension. The First Doctor reminds them that time is 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 begin their attempt.

The Master realises that the Fourth and Eighth Doctors have come here to distract them and turns his attention back to the other Doctors in time to see the TARDIS dematerialise. He sends an energy pulse into the vortex, aimed for the Doctor's TARDIS.

The pulse strikes 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 repeats what he did, sending the TARDIS back towards the pocket dimension, and backwards in time. The Fifth Doctor is suddenly struck by inspiration and shares 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 Doctors 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 reveal 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 contact 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 Systems that drew the other Doctors in, allowing the Master to plant the bomb. If the first three Doctors could shut off the Emergency Systems, then the Doctors would never have been drawn there. But, before they can do so, the destruction of the TARDIS catches up with them, destroying the First Doctor's TARDIS and killing the First, Second, and Third Doctors.

The Fifth Doctor decides 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 steps outside the TARDIS and talked with Bob, convincing him to come up to the roof. Back inside, the Sixth and Seventh Doctors leave the control room. Bob steps into the TARDIS and can't believe his eyes, proclaiming the TARDIS to be impossible. This is what the Fifth Doctor intended, so that when Bob steps into the TARDIS the next year, he won't find it so impossible.

The plan succeeds and the Conceptual bomb never went off, restoring all the Doctors, their companions, and their TARDISes. The Master is enraged, and orders 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 means that the Fourth and Eighth Doctors were never in the Master's TARDIS either. The Master then discovers that all eight TARDISes are aimed for the exact place in time and space that his TARDIS is. The Doctors are planning to Time ram him, and there is nothing he could do to escape. He proclaims to the Doctors that the Time Lords will never let him get away with it, but the Doctors believe that they will. A few seconds later, the two Doctors vanish, returning to their TARDISes.

The eight Doctors discuss whether they should really time ram the Master, when the First Doctor brings 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 has to do is switch the system off, and he does so.

Each Doctor finds himself back in his TARDIS with his companions, with no memory of what had happened. The Eighth Doctor finds himself setting course for the 23rd of November 1963 at 59A, Barnsfield Crescent. He and Charley go and knock on the door of Bob Dovie's house. Bob is irritated by their presence, as he has 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 is true for the Eighth Doctor. Bob is 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 depart, 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
 * - 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. (AUDIO: The Sands of Life)
 * 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)