| abstract | - The episode starts In Medias Res, as the Doctor and Lucie fight an evil scientist named Dr. Zimmermann. Lucie has decided to take a few levels in Science Hero, and she's come up with a rather elegant plan to disrupt Zimmermann's gadgets. The Doctor gladly helps her with the implementation and compliments her new skills as they banter, flirt and run a lot. And Now for Someone Completely Different. A snarky old woman named Rachel is hosting a fancy garden party. Her brother, an equally snarky crippled war veteran named Gordon, is in charge of security. But he'd rather sneak out and be gloomy by himself for a bit. Rachel, exasperated, tells her husband Nick to go talk some sense into Gordon. Zimmermann's planning to sell a time weapon to the highest bidder, even if it would mean the deaths of billions. The Doctor obviously doesn't approve, but they're interrupted anyway by hungry Clock Roaches (the Tar-Modowk). Nick and Gordon have a chat, and Nick tells his brother-in-law that everyone's coping with the tragedy in their own way. So he understands that Gordon's a bit moody. They don't elaborate. Zimmermann escapes from his ship with his weapon, leaving the Doctor and Lucie behind to die. They start to run. At the garden party, Nick asks Rachel to sing. She does, beautifully, in her native Hungarian: a slow and lovely melody, accompanied by accordeon and strings. But after the song, she feels exhausted, and she asks to be excused to go take a nap. The Doctor and Lucie escape in the TARDIS, but the Time Vortex isn't being helpful. They end up 30 years into the future, at a nice garden party. The Doctor notices that something's off. There's a time loop in place, and the party is being held over, and over, and over... possibly for millennia. No one attending has realised it yet. But the hungry Tar-Modowk are quite drawn to the loop and could be pulled through the vortex any minute now. Rachel's singing has led them here, and the Doctor needs to find a way to stop them. He and Lucie bounce ideas off of each other for a bit, and although Lucie's reasoning skills are definitely getting solid, they can't figure out who would be stupid enough to put a time loop on a random garden soiree. When they recognise Nick as an aged and mellowed Dr. Zimmermann, they try to sneak in by acting like they belong there. This works for all of two seconds before Gordon asks them who the hell they are. The Doctor manipulates Gordon into letting them roam about freely. (Lucie asks the Doctor if all that manipulating never bothers him. Of course it does, he merrily responds.) Lucie finds Rachel in her room, who quite casually assumes that Lucie is either about to admit an affair with Nick or about to steal all her jewelry. She's quite used to that by now, and doesn't seem too bothered by either prospect. Lucie explains that she's just Lucie, and she's here with the Doctor. Rachel knows those names -- quite well. The Doctor confronts Zimmermann, who's actually happy to see him. Like an old friend from long ago. Ten minutes, the Doctor dryly reminds him. Zimmermann reveals that he has no idea why the Tar-Modowk are coming: he didn't summon them. And the giant mansion they're in isn't exactly his, either. All the money belongs to his lovely wife Rachel. Because when he crash-landed here 30 years ago, he found something that money could never buy: regular, plain old-fashioned human love. And so, he told Rachel everything. About being an alien, about the time weapon, about the Doctor and Lucie. And instead of becoming a war criminal, he decided to simply settle down with Rachel, Going Native forever. He became human in every way... even cheating on Rachel occasionally, but never wanting to live his life without her anymore. Rachel isn't feeling well at all. She's exhausted and sick, but they're all soon interrupted anyway when the Tar-Modowk break through riding time-travelling pterosaurs and start killing people. The Doctor isn't too impressed: he used to own one as a pet. He captures one, names it Margaret and climbs on its back to go turn off that damn time loop. It turns out that Zimmermann created the loop to extend Rachel's life forever. Because normally, this would have been the night she died of illness. And that was why Gordon was so gloomy and distracted. In the end, the Doctor convinces Zimmermann to turn off the loop and let Rachel die in peace. All's well that ends well, except the Headhunter shows up and kidnaps Lucie.
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