Viewing The Pyramid

Following on from the events that took place in "Extremis" The Doctor is still blind after saving Bill Potts in "Oxygen", when he was exposed to the vacuum of space - a secret he is keeping from Bill.

Elsewhere, a five-thousand year old pyramid appears overnight in a disputed area in the country Turmezistan between American, Russian, and Chinese forces. The Secretary-General of the United Nations recruits The Doctor, as President of Earth, to help.

The Monks, who occupy the pyramid, cause every clock in the world to display a time counting down in the manner of a Doomsday Clock. The Doctor recruits the military leaders to coordinate attacks on The Monks, as a show of strength, but The Monks easily deflect them. The Doctor, Bill, and Nardole then join the leaders as they enter the pyramid to negotiate with The Monks.

Bill and Nardole

Using the computer running their simulations The Monks show that the Earth will be lifeless within a year. They offer humanity their help to stop a pending cataclysmic disaster, but only if they ‘consent’ to accepting their help. The Doctor warns that this consent will have unknown but everlasting consequences for the whole world. Against The Doctor’s pleading the Secretary-General offers his consent, but The Monks disintegrate him, saying he gave it out of fear.

Outside the pyramid, The Doctor realises that The Monks have been misleading them to believe that it is a military disaster that will destroy the planet. He instead suspects the threat is biological. Using the Internet they find several laboratories performing bacterial work and briefly override their internal camera systems to determine which one The Monks have hacked into. When one of the cameras reactivates, so revealing which laboratory The Monks have been watching, The Doctor and Nardole travel in the TARDIS to the Agrofuel Research Operations, leaving Bill with the military leaders with explicit instructions not to allow them to consent to The Monk’s demands.

The Doctor Confronts The Monk

At this research centre, through a series of inconsequential events, two scientists have accidentally created a super-bacterium, capable of breaking down all living organisms, which is set to be vented into the atmosphere. When the TARDIS arrives, and on learning what has occurred in the laboratory, The Doctor sends Nardole back to the TARDIS for his safety. Unaware that he has already been contaminated Nardole collapses unconscious once he is back inside the TARDIS.

Meanwhile, Bill, in communication with The Doctor, joins the military leaders back in the pyramid as they offer to surrender. The Monks however, refuse the consent of the leaders, considering it a strategic move, and disintegrate them.

Back at the research centre The Doctor, with the help of one of the scientists called Erica, crafts a makeshift bomb to destroy the laboratory so as to sterilise the bacteria. With the bomb set, the Doomsday Clock starts to run backwards, but The Doctor finds himself trapped in the laboratory unable to see a combination lock due to being blind. Unable to free himself, or get Nardole's assistance, The Doctor is forced to admit to Bill that he is still blind.

Secretary-General of the UN is Killed

Hearing this shocking news, and despite The Doctor pleading with her, Bill on learning that The Monks can return The Doctors sight, offers her consent to The Monks for their help.

The Monks accept her consent because she is seen as representing The Doctor's authority and her consent came from her love for The Doctor. The Doctor regains his sight and escapes the laboratory just before it is destroyed. The Doctor then accosts Bill for what she has done as The Monks assert their control over Earth.