The Doctor

In the TARDIS console room The Doctor is talking to himself and postulating why people talk out loud when they are alone? He hypothesizes that it is because people inherently know that they are not alone. He then uses a chalkboard to mark down the evolutionary survival skills noting that there are perfect hunters, perfect defences, but wonders why there is no such creature that is perfect at hiding. Placing down the chalk on an open book he ponders if evolution created a creature where their purpose was to hide, how would you know, detect, or sense it? The Doctor then notices that the chalk he was using is no longer where he had left it and is now on the floor. He then notices on the chalkboard the word 'Listen' has been written.

Meanwhile Clara Oswald is meeting up with fellow Coal Hill School teacher Danny Pink, in a restaurant, for their first date. However, things take a turn for the worst when the subject of his time serving in the army comes up, and they both unintentionally offend the other with their lack of understanding of each other. Because of their growing miss-communications Clara storms out of the restaurant leaving Danny slamming his head against the table after she has left.

On her return home, Clara discovers The Doctor waiting for her. Disregarding her bad mood The Doctor insists he needs her help. Reluctantly she agrees and on entering the TARDIS, The Doctor questions whether every living being has a constant companion, using the example of the dream most children have in which a hand grabs them from under the bed at night. Clara initially dismisses this, but agrees to return to her childhood so they can investigate. The Doctor connects her to the TARDIS telepathic circuits and asks that she concentrates on the time she had the dream. He tells her to not lose concentration and to remember when it was and how it felt so that the TARDIS can lock on to the correct date and location. However, while focusing her mind on this event her phone begins to ring and her mind wanders towards Danny and him waving when she arrived at the restaurant earlier. And so the TARDIS materialises outside a children's home in Gloucester in the mid 1990s, where Clara is shocked to meet a small boy called Rupert Pink - Danny as a child - before he changed his name. In his bedroom Clara discovers Rupert is having trouble sleeping and believes that there is something under the bed. Clara therefore tries to convince the small boy that there is nothing under his bed. They crawl underneath, only for something to sit on the bed above them, despite Rupert claiming that no one else has entered the room while they have been talking.

The Date

On emerging, they discover a figure underneath Rupert's blankets, and The Doctor, who suddenly appears, demands that they turn away from it and promise that they will not look at it. They do so, and it vanishes out of the door. Alone in the room Clara tries to calm Rupert down while The Doctor continuously makes comments that do not help. She inspires Rupert to be fearless using toy soldiers underneath his bed as 'protection'. She also unintentionally inspires his later name, Danny, and his career choice, when Rupert names the lead soldier Dan. Rupert then asks Clara if she will read him a story to help him sleep to which The Doctor walks forward, places a finger on Rupert's head which renders him unconscious.

Back inside the TARDIS The Doctor asks Clara why they ended up at the children's home as the TARDIS was locked on to her timeline. She insists it was because she got distracted and lies when The Doctor asks if she has any connection to Rupert. Feeling also guilty about the way she left Danny during her date, Clara asks The Doctor for a favour and gets him to drop her back to the moment just after she left the restaurant. Back with Danny they start to strike a bond with each other until Clara accidentally calls Danny 'Rupert' This makes him suspicious, questioning how she knows his former name, and accuses her of deliberately mocking him. He then storms out of the restaurant as a figure in a spacesuit beckons that she follow him into the kitchen where the TARDIS can be seen parked. Originally thinking the suited character to be The Doctor, Clara is shocked when, back inside the TARDIS, he removes his helmet to reveal a man striking a strong resemblance to Danny. The Doctor reveals him to be Orson Pink, one of Earth's first time travellers, having originally come from 100 years in Clara's future.

Danny Pink

When she inquires how she found him he says that he reactivated the trace memories left over from her subconscious and the TARDIS brought him to the end of the universe where Orson had become stuck on an expedition where, when mankind meant to send a man through time by one week, he got sent to the end of time by mistake and has been stranded there for six months. It is also revealed that Orson possesses the soldier Clara gave a young Rupert (the young Danny) earlier so suggesting that Danny and Clara may be Orson's great grandparents.

Arriving back to the end of time, and to Orson's capsule, The Doctor notices that Orson has locked his capsule even though there is no one left alive in the universe. Orson is adamant about not speaking about it but The Doctor believes that the creatures have survived and now that no one else is left they have no more reason to hide. He agrees to take Orson home on the condition they spend one more evening there (under the pretence that the TARDIS needs time to recharge).

Outside of the TARDIS The Doctor and Clara wait for night to fall. The lighting inside changes and the written words 'Don't open the door' appear on the locked door. The Doctor makes a point stating that the writing is only visible at night and that Orson likely wrote it because while he is terrified of what is outside six months of solitary confinement could lead to temptation to have company. Their discussion is then halted by a shriek outside. When Clara asks why they do not just leave if there is possible danger The Doctor reveals that this is his best chance of seeing what the creatures are that remain out of sight. When the creatures begin to bang on the locked door The Doctor unlocks it. He then demands that Clara get back in the TARDIS but when she refuses to leave him outside alone he threatens that if she does not do as he commands she will never travel with him again. Upset, she goes inside as The Doctor waits for the creatures to enter the spaceship.

The Doctor

Inside the TARDIS Clara and Orson watch on the monitor to see what is taking place outside and as the monitor begins to malfunction they see enough to show that The Doctor is holding on to the console as the air shell has been breached. Realising that The Doctor is about to die Orson steps out of the TARDIS and rescues him. With The Doctor unconscious Clara uses the TARDIS' telepathic connection again to escape the end of the universe and the creatures who are now trying to enter the TARDIS.

Exiting the TARDIS, which has materialised in an unknown location, Clara finds herself in an old barn, where a child is in bed, crying under the covers. Clara approaches the child, but is forced to hide under the bed when two people enter and try and coax the child out of the room. Overhearing their conversation, she realises that the child is in fact The Doctor, and his guardians are trying to force him to be a soldier as they do not believe him to have the potential of becoming a true Time Lord. When they leave, Clara accidentally grabs The Doctor's leg when he tries to get out of bed, and she realises she is the monster under The Doctor's bed. After convincing the young Doctor to return to sleep, she comforts him, and reveals that one day he will return to the barn (this was as the War Doctor as seen in "The Day of The Doctor"). Before Clara returns to the TARDIS she leaves the toy soldier 'Dan' by his bed to remind him that fear makes companions out of everyone.

Inside the TARDIS Clara discovers that The Doctor is awake and wondering where they are. Clara tells him not to investigate but to promise her that they will take off and never look at where they have just travelled to. The Doctor at first refuses but when Clara insists that he does what he is told he eventually obeys her command. Outside the young Doctor sits up from his bed as the TARDIS dematerialises from the barn.

Returning Clara to Earth and Orson to his original time period, The Doctor decides there is no such creature under the bed, and Rupert Pink's 'monster' was in fact another child at the children's home scaring him. Clara, meanwhile, goes to Danny's house, where they apologise for the hurtful things they said to each other earlier and Clara gives him a kiss. The Doctor, seemingly satisfied, underlines the word 'Listen' on the blackboard and the young Doctor sees the toy soldier Dan, the leader who is so powerful he does not need a weapon.