A Damp Arrival

The Doctor decides to visit New Earth again so as to impress his new companion, Martha Jones.

But instead of landing in a nice part of New New York, the TARDIS lands in the undercity – where not only is it dark and dingy but it is also raining! The Doctor though is unfazed until he discovers that the inhabitants of the city are preoccupied with regulating their own emotions and are using a form of drug to achieve this.

But before he can decide what to do about it Martha is kidnapped by two thugs who make their escape in a functional looking hover vehicle. The Doctor is in hot pursuit but is unable to catch up with Martha and finds himself on a lay-by of a gigantic, underground motorway.

The Doctor and Martha

Gasping for breath, and not just because of running, The Doctor is horrified to find that the motorway is completely clogged up with similar looking hover vehicles that are pumping out tons of noxious exhaust fumes.

Desperate to rescue Martha and to also find some cleaner air The Doctor finds himself invited to board one of hover vehicle – Inside he learns from the inhabitants that they have been stuck on the motorway for 12 years and have travelled just 5 miles! He also learns that the only way to beat the traffic jams is to reach the very lower levels and so use the fast lanes – but to do so there are strict criteria including the need to have at least three passengers. The Doctor also learns that this is where the hover car, that was used to capture Martha, is.

A Hover Car

Meanwhile Martha wakes up inside her capturer’s hover car and learns that the only reason why she was taken by them was so to make up the required number of passengers to allow the use of the fast lane – but even the use of this quickest means of travelling in New New York will take 6 years.

After failing to get any help from the police network The Doctor decides to take matters into his own hands and so, using his Sonic Screwdriver to gain access, he starts to travel from hover car to hover car meeting many varied inhabitants until he finally reaches the bottom level. But what he observes below him in the fast lanes shocks him. The fast lanes are the feeding ground of hundreds of crab like beings that he recognises as being Macra…

Martha it seems is in grave danger but she is convinced that The Doctor will be able to rescue her – But The Doctor has another problem to overcome – he is being pursued by a cat like figure, called Novice Hame, brandishing a large rifle.

Martha

When Novice Hame finally catches up with The Doctor she operates a teleport device and The Doctor is whisked away from the motorway, and so further away from Martha, and in the senate of New New York. But everything is in ruins and it is then that The Doctor learns that the only thing that is keeping, what little of the city is left, is The Face of Boe and that Novice Hame has hunted The Doctor down because The Face of Boe is dying and they are desperate for his help before the city completely dies. All this because of an emotional drug that had a virus within it.

The Doctor therefore has five problems to resolve – return power to the city, keep The Face of Boe alive, defeat the Macra, release all those trapped in the gridlock on the motorway and of course to rescue Martha...