The Reality War

Written by Russell T Davies

"This has been an absolute joy..."

Battle rages across the skies as the Unholy Trinity unleash their deadly ambition. The Doctor, Belinda and Ruby have to risk everything, in the quest to save one innocent life.

Plot

As the Doctor plummets into the Underverse, he is saved by the timely appearance of his friend, Time Hotel manager Anita Benn. Escaping through a doorway into the time-travelling holiday destination, Anita explains that the hotel is becoming unstable due to the Rani’s constant repetition of May 23rd, 2025. With real time restoring his memories fully, the Doctor and Anita return to the Wish World to ensure the safety of Belinda and Poppy.

While the Rani and Mrs Flood prepare the final stage of their plan to find Omega, the Doctor and Anita bring the Time Hotel doors to UNIT Tower; where the flow of real time restores the memories of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Colonel Ibrahim, and everyone else on duty. Kate wakes up Ruby Sunday, Shirley Bingham and Mel Bush using their UNIT bio-chips.

As the team assembles, the Rani confronts the Doctor in UNIT HQ, where she reveals her plan is to use Omega’s body as a gene bank to begin a new race of Time Lords. The Doctor insists that Poppy’s existence is proof that there is another way to achieve her goals without need of the Mad God. Returning to the Bone Palace, the Rani sets the Bone Beasts on UNIT Tower to prevent them from interfering in her plan, as UNIT Tower becomes an active battle station in response to the threat.

As battle rages, the Doctor and Susan Triad build a Zero Room to protect Poppy from the effects of Conrad Clark’s wish. Determined to protect her daughter, Belinda enters the Zero Room with Poppy. The Doctor and Ruby both make their way to the Bone Palace to confront the Rani and Conrad respectively.

The Doctor arrives just as the Rani executes her final plan, opening a doorway for Omega to enter from the Underverse. The original Time Lord emerges – now a hulking, decaying titan. Declaring himself as a God of Time, Omega snatches up the Rani and eats her whole. As Mrs Flood makes her escape using the Rani’s Time Ring, the Doctor is left to face the Mad God alone. Grabbing the stolen Vindicator, the Doctor blasts Omega with a powerful beam that drives him back into the Underverse, ending the titan’s threat.

Using an Indigo Device, Ruby teleports to Conrad to face her ex-boyfriend once more. Failing to appeal to his better nature, Ruby tricks Conrad by teleporting behind him and grabbing the baby Desiderium. She makes her own wish for Conrad to be happy and he disappears. As Ruby ends the wish that created this reality, she finds herself and the baby inside the Doctor’s TARDIS.

Returning to UNIT, the Doctor is delighted to find that both Belinda and Poppy emerge from the Zero Room unscathed. Not knowing where Desiderium came from, the Doctor and Ruby bring the baby to Carla and Cherry Sunday; who take the child in as one of their own, naming the child Joseph Sunday.

Bringing Poppy to the TARDIS, the Doctor and Belinda plan where they want to go next – but Poppy disappears as they speak, leaving Ruby as the only person who can remember her. At UNIT, the TARDIS team discover that since the end of the wish, there are a few permanent changes to reality – and Conrad Clark is alive and well, with no memory or record of who he was before. Ruby pleads to the Doctor to remember and find Poppy, who she believes is lost in the cracks of time. Determined not to lose an innocent life, the Doctor leaves his companions behind and departs in the TARDIS.

Knowing his next action will cost him his life, the Doctor prepares to sacrifice himself; but is suddenly interrupted by one of his predecessors, the Thirteenth Doctor! She has appeared in the TARDIS as a result of a “giant time schism” that the Doctor is about to cause. Unable to talk him out of his plan, the Doctor offers her future self some words of wisdom and comfort before returning to her own time. The Doctor then triggers a release of his regeneration energy and targets it on the TARDIS console, creating the schism in the Time Vortex.

The Doctor wakes up in a garden, where he is reunited with Belinda and to his delight, Poppy. Time has re-aligned itself, Poppy has survived and remains Belinda’s daughter - however, she now has a human father instead of the Doctor. Belinda reminds "Uncle Doctor" that she was always trying to get back to May 24th at 7:30am, to pick up Poppy. Satisfied that they are both safe and happy, the Doctor bids both Belinda and Poppy farewell.

Seeking company, the Doctor takes the TARDIS in view of the star that was once his friend, Joy Almondo. Reflecting on the "absolute joy" of his most recent life, the Doctor embraces the regeneration that will carry him into the next... 

Concept Art

Behind the Scenes

• Jodie Whittaker appears as the Thirteenth Doctor for the first time since her final episode The Power of the Doctor. Her inclusion in the story was so top-secret that she was given the codename “Petrol” in both the script and shooting call sheet.
• Anita’s sequence of searching for the Doctor in the Time Hotel uses footage of Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor in The Wedding of River Song and Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor in Day of the Daleks. A real scene-accurate Dalek was used on the day of shooting, at director Alex Sanjiv Pillai's request.