Director: Joe Ahearne
Show Stars: Billie Piper (Rose Tyler), Christopher Eccleston (The Ninth Doctor)
Recurring Role: Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler)
Guest Stars: Rhian James (Suzie) , Julia Joyce (Young Rose) , Natalie Jones (Sarah) , Frank Rozelaar-Green (Sonny) , Christopher Llewellyn (Stuart) , Casey Dyer (Young Mickey) , Shaun Dingwall (Pete Tyler) , Robert Barton (Registrar)
Production Code: NCFR035N
Rose asks the Doctor to take her to visit the day her father, Peter, died and the Doctor reluctantly agrees. They have already gone to the wedding of Jackie and Peter, and Rose remembers how Jackie wished there had been someone there for when her father died. They materialise in 1987 on November 17, the day Peter died, and stand there as Peter is hit by a car. She’s unable to go there and asks for another chance. The Doctor agrees and they go back to see themselves waiting from the first time. This time Rose races out to shove her father aside, and as the Doctor looks on in horror their past-selves disappear. Peter says he’s going to the Hoskins-Clarke wedding and offers to give them a lift. Meanwhile, something alien hovers over the city…
Peter takes them to his apartment first where Rose shows off her father’s devices and awards. The Doctor is furious, accusing Rose of conspiring for this very moment once she found out he could travel through time. After an argument the Doctor takes the TARDIS key from her and stalks off. As he walks through the streets something starts sweeping up people throughout the neighbourhood. Peter and Rose head for the wedding where the groom is nervous that a number of people haven’t shown up. The Doctor arrives at the TARDIS but opens the doors to find … an ordinary police box. Realizing something is amiss, the Doctor runs after Rose.
Rose and Peter are driving to the wedding when Rose hears hip-hop music on the radio—music which shouldn’t exist for decades. She checks her cell phone and gets nothing but the phrase “Watson, come here, I need you” repeated over and over. She also spots a car behind her – the same car that ran over her father. After it passes them it disappears.
At the church the groom’s father gets the same “Watson” message that Rose did. Rose and Peter arrive as the hit-and-run car appears and almost hits them before disappearing yet again. Rose inadvertently calls Peter ‘Dad’ but they’re interrupted by a younger Jackie who isn’t thrilled with either one of them. Jackie is holding a baby—Rose—and it becomes clear Peter and Jackie are married and Peter is playing around. Rose realises the perfect marriage her mother had described to her was anything but.
At a nearby park, a young Mickey is on a swing as the same alien presence from earlier swoops down. As Mickey looks around, everyone quietly disappears, including his mother. Mickey runs out of the playground and heads toward the church. Rose looks on as Peter and Jackie make up and then Mickey runs up talking about monsters. The Doctor appears behind Rose and tells her to get into the church and she looks up to see a winged reptilian creature materialise and fly at her. The Doctor knocks her out of the way and they head for the church as more of the creatures attack. Several of the bystanders run and are consumed—the Doctor ushers the remainder into the church and closes the doors just in time. The Doctor notes that the older something is, the more resistant it is. The Doctor rattles off an explanation of how the creatures are like bacteria cleaning up.
The groom, Stuart, gives the Doctor the phone repeating the Watson message but he warns that it will do no good. The creatures have come to sterilise the ‘wound’ created by the alteration in history, and Rose realises that she is responsible.
The creatures continue to consume everyone in the area while the Doctor and Peter see the car drive by and disappear. Peter confronts Rose when he realises that Rose is his daughter from the future. They embrace while the creatures try to get in. The couple-to-be confront the Doctor and ask if he can save them. The two describe how they met and the Doctor promises to do what he can to save them.
Peter and Rose talk about the future but then Jackie and Peter start to fight. Rose goes to see the Doctor who is talking to her baby self, and the Doctor tells her not touch the baby or a paradox will result, giving the creatures more power. The Doctor admits he doesn’t have a plan and with his people and his TARDIS gone, there’s nothing he can do. She and the Doctor reconcile and as they hug Rose notices that the TARDIS key is glowing. The Doctor explains that he can re-summon the TARDIS using the key, which retains the connection. Using a radio battery and his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor begins to summon the TARDIS so he can use it to repair the damage.
Rose tells Peter a fake account of how he was always there for his family and he realises she’s lying. Jackie overhears them and demands to know who Rose is. When Peter hands the baby Rose to the adult Rose to compare their features, the two touch and one of the creatures appears in the church, summoned by the paradox. The Doctor shows himself to the creature and it takes him as the oldest person in the room. It then flies into the nearly-reconstructed TARDIS and both it and the time machine disappear in a flash of light. The lights begin to dim and everyone realises there is no escape.
Peter looks out the window and sees the car go by and vanish once more, and he concludes that he must die to restore things to normal. He says a final farewell to Rose, thanking her for the few hours he had with her and now he must sacrifice himself to let his child live. He also confronts Jackie and convinces her that Rose is their daughter. They have one final embrace and then Peter goes out into the street. As the creatures close in on him, the car strikes and kills him and the creatures vanish.
The Doctor reappears behind Rose and tells her to go to her father this time. She does and holds him as he dies and the Doctor looks on. The others have been restored and there are only a few small differences. Now Rose remembers how her mother told her of a mysterious girl who held Peter as he died. She and the Doctor return to the TARDIS and depart.
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