August 13, 2021
Travelling with the Doctor can be a draining experience. Your life is usually in danger, have to save a lot of people, not to mention all that running! No wonder, from time to time, the Doctor tries to take their friends on a holiday. Despite their best intentions, these endeavours sometimes go seriously wrong.
Here are six occasions where these attempts at a holiday were spectacularly derailed.
Death at the Spa
What’s better than a holiday? A free holiday, of course! Having won a two-week all-inclusive stay at the luxurious Tranquillity Spa, things were finally looking up for Team TARDIS. A chance to relax by the pool, chill out in the steam room… and get chased down the corridor by predatory aliens.
Yes, the Spa was under siege from the Dregs, the hostile local lifeforms who wanted to kill everyone in Tranquillity Spa. To save her friends, the Doctor had to leave the Spa and uncover the secret of Orphan 55.
The Queen and the Package Holiday
The Doctor’s trip to Orphan 55 wasn’t the first time a free holiday backfired on them. In their seventh incarnation, the Doctor and Mel won a place on a Nostalgia Tour Bus, a time-travelling package holiday company. The destination? Disneyland, 1959!
After hitting a satellite, the bus was knocked off course, landing at the Shangri-La holiday camp in Wales. The Doctor and Mel could still have had a relaxing time, but Delta, the Queen of the Chimeron, had boarded the bus to escape a criminal gang called the Bannermen. Instead of taking time off, the Doctor and Mel had to focus on keeping Delta alive!
The Ultimate Holiday Destination
Everyone has a different idea of the perfect holiday. While the Doctor was enjoying a rest on Brighton beach, Romana wanted to leave, and with good reason. It was cold, out of season, and she discovered – the hard way – that K9 wasn’t sea-proof!
On Romana’s suggestion, they moved on to Argolis, home to the Leisure Hive. Despite it being a recreation centre, they became caught in a scheme to restart an alien war. Perhaps they should have just stayed in Brighton after all…
Amy - Squared!
Apalapucia: another top holiday destination, another disastrous trip in the TARDIS. The Doctor promised Amy and Rory sunsets, spires, and soaring silver colonnades. What they got instead was a temporal tragedy.
With Amy trapped in a different time stream from the Doctor and Rory, they set out to save her. When they reached her, they discovered two different versions of Amy! Rather than a relaxing holiday, Rory had to make one of the most difficult decisions of his life…
The Unknown Terror
There’s a clear pattern that seems to be emerging here. The Doctor should just stay away from holiday resorts! However, on the planet Midnight, it would have been safer if he’d stayed in the spa with Donna.
Taking a tour bus to see the Sapphire Waterfall, the Doctor and fellow holidaymakers were soon besieged by an unknown creature. The Doctor sprang into action, and unusually, that’s when things went really wrong!
Romance, Art and Death
Ah, Paris. The city of love, art and… time distortion? Yes, while taking some time off to show Romana the delights of the French capital, the TARDIS crew found themselves entangled in a diabolical scheme to steal the Mona Lisa, and rewrite history.
After meeting violent butlers, making a chicken instantaneously revert to an egg, and witnessing the most important punch in history, the Doctor and Romana had time to take a proper holiday. At last.
