The woman's name is Lucie Miller and judging from her accent, it's clear she comes from the North of England. She objects to the Doctor's questioning and tells him she doesn't like his attitude much. She says she isn't here by choice and tells him to keep his hair on -- always assuming that is his real hair, of course. She warns that she won't stand for people shouting at her and she likes to be treated with respect. From her style of clothes, the Doctor deduces that she's probably from the late 20th century, perhaps around 1998, but in fact she says she comes from 2006. She asks him to consider things from her point of view; she was on her way to the office for her first day in a new job and it looks as though she's been kidnapped by some sort of alien weirdo. The Doctor's had enough and tells her it's time she went home. He programmes the TARDIS for Preston, and if that isn't where she wants to go, then at least there's a very good bus service so she can complete her journey. Just then the TARDIS starts to go out of control again, and Lucie concludes that he must be a rubbish driver after all.

The TARDIS materialises and Lucie storms out before the Doctor's even had a chance to check the readings. Fortunately the air is breathable and the gravity is close to Earth normal. She's amazed to see the outside of the ship is just a funny old blue box and wonders whether it's normal for the ship to go wrong. The Doctor assures her it isn't, but there was an invisible shield around the whole of the North of England and the TARDIS bounced off it. He observes that for a 20-year old woman from 2006, she's incredibly blasé about the whole notion of travelling in time and space and with him being an alien. They've arrived in what appear to be the ruins of some sort of human settlement which was once a thriving civilisation. Lucie is disappointed as she was hoping her first alien planet would have at least two suns. The Doctor tells her she has a lot of explaining to do before he'll answer any more of her questions, but she refuses to co-operate while he's in such a bad mood. The Doctor turns his attention to the planet and realises that its sun is hidden by a cloud of debris and smoke, blocking out most of the light and heat and making things rather chilly, but Lucie doesn't mind as she's used to going out clubbing in Blackpool on a December Saturday night.

Suddenly they hear the screeching of car tyres in the distance and see a car racing towards them. Inside, one of the passengers, Asha Gryvern, orders the driver to put his foot down, but Eileen Klint tells him to ignore her as they've already succeeded in leaving the mob behind. Gryvern points out that there's hardly a spark left in the vehicle's solar cell and the mob knows it -- but the driver, Morgan, is distracted for a moment, swerves to hit the two strangers standing in the middle of the road, and crashes straight into the TARDIS.

Lucie is amazed to find that the TARDIS hasn't even been scratched by the collision, yet the car bounced right across the other side of the road. The Doctor drags Lucie over to check on the passengers, assuring her that the car is solar-powered so there's no chance of any petrol exploding. Unfortunately the driver is dead, but they help Klint and Gryvern out of the smashed vehicle and discover they're both chained together at the wrist. Just then an angry mob appears at the end of the street and charges towards them. Klint warns the Doctor and Lucie that she still has some influence around here and orders them to protect her. There isn't time to get to the safety of the TARDIS, so the Doctor asks Lucie to remove them from the area while he stays behind to deal with the crowd. He calls out to the advancing mob and asks them what took them so long to get here. He points off in the distance and claims the two passengers headed off on foot in that direction. The leader of the crowd refers to their prey as 'Government pigs' and, believing the Doctor is pointing towards the spaceport, he assumes they must have access to secret transport that will get them off the planet. The Doctor is ordered to lead the way, and he has no choice but to accompany the baying crowd in the direction he was pointing...

Lucie leads Klint and Gryvern to safety and soon realises the two women are anything but friends. Gryvern believes she's cracked a rib during the accident and it's too soon for her to be running again, so they stop for a while. Lucie asks why the mob was after them and Klint explains that they were afraid and were lashing out at the nearest target. Gryvern believes they're just animals and are using the situation as an excuse to surrender to their base instincts. She reminds Klint that they have no suns, their plants won't grow, they're freezing to death, yet Klint is still clinging to the laws of this dead society. Lucie is quite pleased to learn that the planet has two suns after all.

The Doctor suggests to the crowd that the two women must have given them the slip as they're nowhere to be seen. The leader of the mob turns on him and the Doctor claims that he was only reporting what someone else told him. Now that he's had time to reconsider his position, he can't be sure that he actually saw anybody or really knows which direction they went. The leader reveals that they found the Bunker where their so-called representatives were living in luxury while the rest of the population starved. The Doctor goes along with their rant about the failings of politicians in order to find out more about this society, and learns that what really bothers the crowd is that Klint was found in the company of Asha Gryvern, who they thought had been imprisoned. It makes the mob wish they had the death penalty and the only consolation is that Professor Martez, the so-called 'grave robber', is dead.

Klint and Gryvern want to move on, but Lucie advises them to wait for the Doctor to return. She still doesn't know who the two women are or who they're running from, and Gryvern explains that Klint is a genuine martyr who turned down her place on an exodus ship because she felt it was her duty to stay behind with her people. Yet those very people are less than grateful. Klint was the highest ranking Senator left on the planet Red Rocket Rising, which makes her their Acting President. Lucie asks why they're handcuffed to each other... and the Doctor suddenly returns and agrees that this is a good question. He's been hearing a lot of rumours about Gryvern and her erstwhile employer Professor Martez. At least he's dead now and never had to face the population that he so outraged. Klint thinks the Doctor and Lucie are citizens of this planet and she assures them she's been trying to do her best for everyone. She and Gryvern then bid them farewell and walk off together. Lucie is confused that the Doctor seems willing to let them just walk away, but he points out this is a dangerous planet and the best thing they can do is go back to the TARDIS. In any case, Lucie still has some explaining to do herself and he wants to know why she's being so cagey with him. She makes a cryptic comment about only having someone else's word for the Doctor's trustworthiness, but then they're both distracted by a sudden rain shower. The water in the atmosphere is reacting with nitric oxide in the dust cloud to create acid, so the two of them race off to find cover...

Some distance away, Klint and Gryvern also have to take cover from the acid rain. They're not far from the Zantek Facility and they hope the rain won't last forever -- but just then they hear a man on the other side of the bridge shouting out and ranting. The man is known to Gryvern as he was always hanging around the subway stations, covered in placards and prophesying doom. Klint also recalls him marching up and down outside the Senate, and they conclude that he must be feeling pretty smug now as it turned out he was right all along. Gryvern realises that if he recognises them he'll shout out at the top of his voice and bring everyone in the sector down on them. They have no choice but to take a detour around the educational complex, so they set off, both arguing about who's in charge. As they leave, the man continues ranting about how the aliens are already among them and they need to protect themselves...

This is not what Lucie expected her first alien world to be like -- she thought there'd be fewer bodies in the street for one thing. Even the name Red Rocket Rising is strange for a planet, although the Doctor claims to have heard funnier ones. He believes this planet has suffered from an asteroid strike which kicked up a dust cloud and anyone who was able to escape will have done so by now. They recall Gryvern talking about the last exit ship already having left, so those that didn't get away must have lived through the firestorm. Burning rocks would have fallen from the sky, but the buildings here are mainly intact which suggests the asteroid strike was on the far side of the globe. There the effects would have been devastating, with earthquakes and tidal waves, and most of the population would have died within minutes. But here the survivors are experiencing an impact winter -- a perpetual freezing night-time -- and it'll be months or even years before the debris in the atmosphere settles. Everyone will have been fighting over the last tinned goods; if the shops are now empty they'll soon start turning on each other; and if they survive that, the ultraviolet spring that follows will cause mutations and cancers. They suddenly hear the voice of the ranting man, calling out through the rain that the aliens are already among them and that they must be prepared to protect themselves. The Doctor notices he has a metal umbrella, so he could be just the man they're looking for!

When Klint and Gryvern arrive at the Zantek Facility, Gryvern is concerned to discover that the rabble has already broken in. There's no telling what damage they may have caused. She accuses Klint of backing out of her Government's promise to seal the building properly as it should have been impossible for anyone to get in here. She believes it may have even been the police themselves, as she regards the way they treated her as fascist. At least the rain should keep people away for a while, but their hope that no one's found the medical supplies yet is in vain; as Klint turns her torch on, they discover everything in the laboratory has been smashed. Vital documents have been shredded and the place has been looted of anything valuable. Klint thinks it might be for the best anyway, as she objected to Professor Martez's work and people died for the results he achieved. Gryvern begins to defend the experiments, but then backs down and assures Klint that she had nothing to do with them, despite what her trial decided. Klint asks her to accept the verdict -- Martez is long dead and there's nothing left here.

The man in the rain takes the Doctor and Lucie back to his home, where they'll be safe. Lucie's main priority is recovering from the acid and making sure her clothes don't fall apart, but she can't help noticing the strange man is wearing a tinfoil hat. They're both amazed to find the house filled with electrical equipment, including heating, lighting, a satellite uplink and even water filtration. Lucie didn't think any of that would be working now, but the Doctor points to a huge collection of fission cell batteries. They're cheap and efficient, but rather volatile and have been abandoned by most societies. The man suddenly pulls a rifle on them and tells the Doctor to drop his pretence -- he knows who the Doctor is and why he's here, and he's prepared to do whatever is necessary to protect his home!

Klint has successfully removed the handcuffs from herself and Gryvern, but neither of them know what to do next. When the mob overran the Bunker, Gryvern had offered Klint some hope that she might still be able to do something to help the people, but now that they know the medical supplies have all been stolen, there's nothing more they can do. Gryvern says she'll be quite happy for Klint to leave and take her bleeding heart with her, but Klint wants to know what she's planning to do, or will she spend her dying moments rummaging around amongst her master's inhuman experiments? Gryvern believes Martez was a visionary who wanted nothing more than to jump-start the evolution of the human race, but Klint accuses Martez of committing crimes against humanity and points out that Gryvern had always protested her own innocence, yet now she's defending him. Gryvern explains that Martez needed human tissue for his experiments, so he took it from the dead, and as far as she can see no one else had any use for these empty sacks of flesh so there's no problem. Klint reminds her that Martez violated the graves of the dead, sometimes even before the funeral flowers had wilted -- and as if that wasn't enough, he later decided he needed living specimens! While the two of them have been arguing, Gryvern has been working on the generator, and eventually she completes the repairs and switches the machine back on. They're both amazed to discover it's reactivated some communications equipment and there's a message coming through. They strain to listen as a grating metallic voice breaks through the static...

The Doctor tries to calm the man down and says he understands why he's uncomfortable around strangers, but the man -- who identifies himself as Tom Cardwell -- claims to have seen his ship in the sky years ago, even though it was all hushed up at the time. When he saw the Doctor on the street, his bio-scan confirmed that the newcomer was an alien. Tom accuses the Doctor of disguising himself as a human to trick people into trusting him; he's already destroyed their world and has now come for the survivors. Lucie decides she's heard enough -- OK, so the Doctor's a Time Lord, but so what? He may be a patronising git, but that's no reason to shoot him. The Doctor points out that he's standing next to the fission cell batteries and if Tom shoots, one ricochet is all that's needed to cause a massive explosion. But Tom is convinced that the Doctor wants to take his mind and experiment on his body. At least this way, he'll die as himself and he'll take them with him and save his world from the monsters...

Klint and Gryvern listen to the message on the radio, realising it's on a repeating pattern and is coming from off the planet. Someone is out there and has been able to break through the dust cloud. Klint believes it must be the returning exodus ship, but eventually the static clears and they realise straight away that the voice is alien. The metallic voice tells them they've received the distress signal coming from Red Rocket Rising and they have a fleet of ships in the vicinity with the capacity to rescue ten thousand refugees.

Tom tells the Doctor that he's read the stories about this sector of space, dating back to the days of the pioneers. The people here have forgotten so much, they've started to feel safe in their quiet corner of the Universe. They've started to believe the stories were just legends and fairy tales, but he knows the truth. All the long-range forecasts predicted the asteroid would miss the planet, but something changed its course. After the firestorm, everyone hid underground and those with nowhere to go were struck down or cooked alive, but now the fire is out they realise the cold is far worse because they can't see an end to it. Tom tried to warn everybody and did everything he could to be ready, but no one listened. Suddenly there's an alarm from his computer telling them of a forthcoming emergency message from their Government. Tom is confused and believes this means they've received word from the survivors on a new world. He explains that when they first found out the asteroid was going to hit, everyone's name was put into a lottery to decide who could leave on the ship. Not surprisingly, the list included many Senators and businessmen.

Gryvern is sceptical about anyone having received Klint's signal, but the Acting President knows people still have batteries and generators, and more importantly they now have hope. Those who hear the news will spread it by word of mouth, and this time no one need be left behind. She begins her message to the citizens of Red Rocket Rising: she's been contacted by a benevolent people who have overcome their own great trials and made it their mission to help others. The Doctor, Lucie and Tom are listening on the old man's ancient receiver, but unfortunately the static causes the signal to drop out when Klint gives the name of their saviours. They make out her assurance that they're being offered safe passage to another world and that the aliens have the resources, the patience and the compassion to evacuate everyone here. Tom dismisses the message and tells the Doctor that Klint can't be trusted because when the earlier spaceship crash-landed, the big corporations were allowed to move in and take the wreckage. He claims Klint went on the news and hushed the whole thing up, and now she's President. Lucie suddenly tries to grab Tom's rifle, but the two of them end up struggling for possession, which finally convinces Tom that the strangers are in league with the monsters. The rifle goes off and although Lucie manages to grab it off Tom, the radio set is damaged. Tom believes they're going to kill him with his own weapon and becomes hysterical, so the Doctor apologises and leaves with Lucie. After they've gone, the radio comes back to life just in time for Tom to hear the message from Klint repeat on a loop. This time he's able to hear the name of their alien saviours -- the Daleks!

Lucie complains that the Doctor hasn't thanked her for saving his life, but he believes she ruined his chances of getting through to Tom. He takes the gun from her and throws it away. Then he turns on her and demands that she tells him how she knows he's a Time Lord. At first she claims that she heard him mention it earlier, but when he denies this she's forced to come clean. She tells him she was on her way into work when the Time Lords whisked her away, but she doesn't know why. All she knows is that she had to get away from something or someone, but she can't remember any of the details. The Doctor recognises the results of a perceptual barrier -- it's something the Time Lords are fond of and if she tries to push harder to remember, the block on her memory will just get stronger. He advises her to relax and think of something in her comfort zone like nail varnish or her first day at work. It seems to work and Lucie starts to recall seeing something really important, but she genuinely never did know what it was and the Time Lords obviously felt it was better that they didn't tell her. The Doctor realises she's on a witness protection scheme and has been dumped on him for her own protection. He should have known -- who else could have shot her right into the heart of his TARDIS, who else could have erected a shield in the Vortex to prevent him from taking her home, and who else would presume to meddle in his life like this? He refuses to co-operate and calls out to the Time Lords to take her back, but Lucie objects to the way he's deciding her future for her. He insists this is a matter between her and them and he has no wish to get caught up in their dirty work, so he decides they should head straight back to the TARDIS, get in touch with the Time Lords and get her sent home or somewhere else. She becomes upset at the way he seems to be blaming her for what's happened so she tells him to get stuffed and storms off.

Tom runs out into the celebrating crowd and asks if they saw which way the two aliens went. He can't understand why the people aren't running for the hills or defending themselves, but the mob leader tells him the good news -- the Daleks are coming to save them! The crowd cheers and Tom is surprised no one remembers the stories about the Daleks. When he heard the name he looked them up on the old records and discovered they are the worst of all the monsters... but no one will listen to him and the crowd continues to believe the Daleks will be taking them away to a new world.

The Daleks communicate with Klint and tell her they've entered geo-stationary orbit around the planet and have identified the continent with the greatest concentration of life signs. They start scanning for a landing area and Klint advises them to home in on the guidance signal going out from the old spaceport. On behalf of her people, Klint expresses appreciation for all the Daleks are doing for them, but the Daleks interrupt and tell her they need to switch off while they recalibrate their shielding to withstand the debris field in the atmosphere. They promise to contact her again once they're ready to descend, but in the meantime they're glad to assist. The transmission cuts off and Klint and Gryvern are both surprised to hear a fake round of applause from the Doctor, who was listening from the doorway. He admired the Daleks' message and was almost convinced that they weren't ruthless killing machines. He tells Klint he found them by tracing her broadcast signal with his sonic screwdriver and he wanted to check up on the infamous Asha Gryvern before he left. He offers to save them from making the worst mistake of their lives...

In the street, Lucie calls out to the Time Lords and tells them this Doctor of theirs is a bit rubbish and she could do with another lift. Not surprisingly, there's no reply -- and suddenly she's grabbed by Tom Cardwell. He thinks the Doctor's been lying to her, but she tells him they've had a bit of a barney and she doesn't care if she never sees him again. Tom accuses the Doctor of being in league with the Daleks and thinks he's hypnotised Lucie. She tells him to go home, but he's decided to move out now that they know where he lives. He's carrying as much as he can, but had to leave everything else behind. Lucie is unwilling to vouch for the Doctor as she hardly knows him, but from what she's been told he's into saving worlds. Tom says he's too late to save the people of Red Rocket Rising, so why has he come here? They decide to go to the spaceport, where the Dalek spaceship is shortly due to arrive. Tom tells her their name would once have struck fear into people's hearts, but she just thinks he's just paranoid about aliens. He begs her to promise him that she won't fall for their lies, but she points out that she's not likely to turn down their offer of a free lift off the planet. She just wants to live a bit and see a few things before she has to go back home, but Tom argues that if she goes inside the Dalek ship, it'll be the last thing she ever sees!

The Doctor tries to convince Klint that the Daleks aren't their friends and they can't be trusted, but she tells him they're the only people who've ever offered to help. The Doctor is surprised that Klint has never heard of them before, but Klint has learned about the background of the Daleks after speaking to them. Centuries ago their people were bombarded by atomic weapons and subjected to hideous mutations, and now they can only live inside protective metal shells. Gryvern believes they are a much maligned and mistreated species and Klint says they should be pitied, not feared. The Doctor is convinced these people have been stuck out here alone on their colonial frontier for too long and have forgotten their own history. Suddenly he discovers a hologram generator in amongst the equipment in the laboratory and when he switches it off, a doorway miraculously appears in the far wall. It's obviously always been here and Gryvern reveals that behind the locked door is every secret that Professor Martez ever accomplished. The Doctor again urges Klint to warn her people about the Daleks or they'll be condemned to death. He tells her he was there at their birth, fought against them in countless wars and seen their legacy in the burial pits of a hundred worlds. Reluctantly, Klint agrees to talk to the Daleks and investigate his claims, but adds that she can only act upon what she knows. Gryvern mocks Klint again and says the worst she'll do is write the Daleks a stern letter. The Doctor wishes the Daleks could show compassion and pity -- or even understand what those words mean -- but he's never seen any evidence in them of change, growth or redemption. He offers to contact the Daleks and prove his claims, but suddenly, Gryvern picks up a live electrical cable and sticks it in the Doctor's back. Klint is horrified, but the scientist claims he was becoming hysterical and in any case it was on a comparatively low voltage. Just then, they hear the sound of the Dalek spaceship coming in to land...

Klint and Gryvern run outside the Facility and admire the magnificent sight, although Gryvern notes that the spaceship looks pretty beaten up. Klint assumes it was damaged flying through the asteroid fragments and decides she should go to formally welcome them as Acting President. She asks Gryvern to accompany her, and promises there'll be a place for her on the ship, no matter what she's done in the past, but Gryvern realises she'll just end up back inside a prison cell. The scientist agrees that the Daleks will be the salvation of Red Rocket Rising but not in the way Klint thinks -- from what they've heard, the Daleks sound like the embodiment of Professor Martez's theories. Klint wonders if that's why the Daleks are helping her people -- to save them from becoming like the Daleks!

Lucie is impressed by the Daleks' ship -- it's a proper saucer shape and everything! She wonders if those loony abduction victims on Earth were telling the truth all along, and Tom notes there have been abductions on this planet too. The landing ramp extends and the Daleks emerge to announce that this is the first of many ships to arrive. The people are welcomed aboard as honoured guests and the crowd cheers. Lucie calls out to the Daleks, but they keep their distance and instruct everyone to stay in line while the first selection is made. Tom believes the Daleks are like one-man tanks and can't understand why nobody else realises they're weapons of war. Lucie starts lowering her top, in the hope that this will help her stand out among the people wearing furs and scarves, but when she sees everyone ahead is being moved aside to make room for Klint's arrival, she calls out to her 'friend'. The Daleks ask Klint whether she knows the young girl and the Acting President describes her as an associate of the Doctor. In all the confusion, no one notices how disturbed the Daleks are by this revelation...

Gryvern returns to the laboratory to find the Doctor alive and well and working on the secret door with his sonic screwdriver. She's convinced he won't get through as the door has the most sophisticated locking system she's ever seen. He wonders whether she knew the door was there all along and perhaps she even has the access code herself? She tells him the Daleks have landed, so surely they must be the most pressing problem now, but unfortunately there's nothing the Doctor can do right now to keep the lambs out of the wolf's den. However, he's been looking around the laboratory and suspects there might be more to Professor Martez's work than he first imagined. Gryvern wonders how it would feel to be like the Daleks -- never to be afraid again and never to know pain -- and she believes humanity's weak sacks of flesh have had their day. The Doctor points out that the Daleks actually seem to be afraid of everything and he's curious about her perspective on things. Eventually he's able to open the secret door and they enter...

Aboard the Dalek spaceship, Acting President Klint is welcomed to the command deck by the Dalek Supreme. Klint nervously accepts the greeting, and notices a holographic display of the planet Red Rocket Rising as seen from space. She realises their technology is decades ahead of hers and the Daleks offer to share it once they become allies, but first they have a request of their own to make. They name the Doctor as an enemy of their race, a terrorist who's claimed hundreds of thousands of Dalek lives, and they demand that he stand trial on charges of insurgency and genocide. They tell Klint that if she wishes them to be her allies, she must extradite the Doctor into their custody. Klint is unsure and explains that there'd have to be a hearing first as she couldn't hand him over if the Daleks have the death penalty. The Daleks become more aggressive and insist that it's her duty to co-operate in return for the help they're offering.

Elsewhere on the ship, Lucie is forced into a Dalek cell. She's not particularly surprised to learn that she's become a prisoner as a result of her association with the Doctor and that she's to be confined until he is captured. From her brutal treatment, she realises that Tom was right all along about the Daleks.

Inside her cell aboard the Dalek spaceship, the angry Lucie Miller hears the Daleks moving about and taunts them for being too scared to face her. In fact, the noises she can hear are being made by Tom Cardwell, who’s come to rescue her. He warned her earlier to stay away from the Daleks, but she reminds him that it’s difficult to take someone seriously when they’re wearing a tinfoil hat. He finds the electric eye over the doorway that’s generating the cell force field, so he searches through his pockets for a screwdriver. He tells her the Daleks have started killing people already, so he needs to get her off the ship so she can get away. He shows her a nasty burn on his arm, and explains that a group of colonists were brought aboard the ship just after her and were questioned about the whereabouts of Professor Martez and whether there were already other Dalek creatures on Red Rocket Rising. None of the prisoners could answer, so the Daleks took them into a room ... Tom shudders as he recalls a burning light and then being able to see right through the bodies of his fellow prisoners as they began to be exterminated ... He doesn’t know how he survived, but he remembers bodies falling on top of him, so he must have been lucky. They hear a noise and Tom quickly hides behind a nearby wall. Moments later, a Dalek arrives and orders Lucie to accompany it to the command deck.

The Dalek Supreme reminds Eileen Klint that the Doctor is not a citizen of her world and questions why she’s protecting him, but she says she just needs evidence before she can have him arrested. They tell her the Doctor is too dangerous to remain at liberty and they demand that she take them to him. She wonders why they need her help if they have access to so much technology, but it seems the asteroid that devastated this world contained ionatronic ores and the metallic dust in the atmosphere is inhibiting their scanners. Klint is still reluctant to break the rules of her society and the Daleks turn on her and accuse her of betraying them. They tell her they’ll locate the Doctor by their own means, and the still struggling Lucie is dragged onto the command deck. She’s relieved to see Klint and is sure the Daleks will listen to her, but Klint has already started to realise they won’t listen to anyone.

Outside the incubation chamber, the Doctor is hard at work. Martez’s voice comes over the intercom and when the Doctor addresses her as Asha Gryvern, Martez admits that she’s so used to being called by that name she’s almost starting to believe she’s her. The Doctor reminds the Professor that there was a real Gryvern once, with her own hopes and dreams, but Martez dismisses such thoughts and argues that his own dreams were more worthy. Gryvern meant nothing to Martez, and she questions what right the Doctor has to judge her, as he's not even a human being. The Doctor says the creatures in the laboratory aren’t human either and they’re not the future of mankind but the end of everything. He'll do anything he can to stop Martez's twisted dreams ever seeing the light of day. Martez knows there isn’t enough explosive material in the laboratory to do any serious damage, but the Doctor only needs to create a big enough blast to seal them inside the incubation chamber. Martez continues to taunt him, but the Doctor’s bored now and switches off the intercom. In fact, the battery pack from the intercom should prove useful anyway, so he pockets it.

The Doctor hears the voice of the Daleks breaking through the static again, but this time it’s not coming from the intercom but from the nearby radio set. He listens curiously as the Daleks issue a warning to the survivors of Red Rocket Rising. They announce that a dangerous criminal known as the Doctor is on the planet and plans to destroy them all, and if anyone knows his location they should inform the Daleks immediately. They reveal that they’ve captured his accomplice, and they bring Lucie to the microphone and ask her to describe the 'terrorist’. On the spaceship, Lucie holds back, but Klint advises her to do as she's told. The Daleks order all citizens of the planet to be watchful. They also add a specific message to the Doctor in case he’s listening -- if he doesn’t surrender to them before they’re ready to leave, they’ll exterminate his friend. The radio signal cuts off and the Doctor realises the Time Lords have well and truly abandoned Lucie.

Lucie is furious with the Doctor for landing her in this mess, and she desperately tries to convince the Daleks that she and the Doctor hardly know each other and he’s not likely to give himself up just to help her. The Dalek Supreme orders her to be taken to the detention cells to await extermination and Klint steps forward, refusing to accept their judgement. She doesn’t care what the Doctor may or may not have done, but it’s clear Lucie is innocent. Lucie tries to explain that the Time Lords brought her here and she was just stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time, but the Daleks aren’t concerned with the actions of the Time Lords. They start to drag Lucie off the command deck and a furious Klint threatens to take the matter to the highest authority, adding that she’ll personally make sure the most stringent sanctions are levelled against the Daleks. Her threats have no effect until Lucie stops struggling and agrees to take the Daleks to where the Doctor is hiding.

The new Daleks in the incubation chamber eventually break through the sealed door and emerge into the main laboratory. Martez calls for the Doctor and tells him his time is up, but the Dalek scanners detect no life signs in the area. He left his explosive device behind when he fled, so Martez is confident they’re safe now. She decides it’s time to introduce her Daleks to the world so they can fulfil their destiny.

Lucie leads the Daleks out of the spaceship and they warn her not to delay. She stops to get her bearings, claiming the streets all look the same in the dark, then she settles on a particular building and says this is where she last saw the Doctor. They head towards it and then unexpectedly the Doctor himself appears around a corner and bumps into Lucie. She calls out a warning just as the Daleks open fire, but they manage to get clear and flee for their lives. Lucie is amazed that the Daleks have stopped shooting as they must surely have had a clear shot at them, but the Doctor tells her never to look a gift horse in the mouth. They keep running until they’re sure they’ve lost their pursuers, and eventually they stop to rest in a ruined building and go upstairs where they have a clear view of the street. The Doctor checks that they’re both all right, then expresses surprise that Lucie was leading the Daleks to him. She doesn’t answer and wonders whether the Daleks got distracted by something. They peer through the window and she points to two groups of Daleks at each end of the street -- and the Doctor realises one group consists of the invading Daleks and the other is from the new generation created in Professor Martez’s laboratory.

The two groups of Daleks approach each other warily and the original Daleks demand an explanation. The new Daleks explain that they’re the ultimate evolution and their creator has summoned them here to assist in the birthing of a new species. The new Daleks then welcome the invaders to Red Rocket Rising. Inside the building, the Doctor can’t believe what Martez has done, and Lucie recalls Tom telling her that the Daleks had been asking about Martez. Down in the street, the original Daleks detect the presence of genetic impurities within the two new Daleks, and despite the new versions insisting they’re all the same, the originals accuse them of deviating from the purity of the Dalek bloodline. The invaders explain that when they received the original signal from Martez, they deliberately deflected the asteroid in order to destroy the planet! The new Daleks can’t understand why they wanted to exterminate them, but the invaders describe them as a mutant species. They’re determined to eradicate the new Daleks and a full-scale battle soon ensues on the street. As they watch the bloodbath, the Doctor blames Martez from bringing this upon them. Lucie doesn’t care, but at least she’s alive and she just wants to get out of here.

One of the Dalek mutants has been completely destroyed, but the other escaped with severe damage. From the invading group, one Dalek was also destroyed and the second suffered minor damage, which suggests the mutant Dalek weaponry was highly effective. The atmospheric interference is still preventing any long-range scans so the Dalek Supreme orders his troops to pursue the damaged mutant and report back. Their priority is to locate the rest of the mutants and prevent the birth of the deviant species. Suddenly the Dalek shouts an alert as the Doctor and Lucie appear in the street. Lucie is furious with the Doctor as they could have escaped, but the Doctor seems keen to introduce himself to the Daleks, surprised that they didn’t recognise him from Lucie’s earlier description. The Dalek is about to exterminate him, but he tells it to get new orders as he has something to tell them. He says he’ll only speak to the Dalek Supreme, but adds that they should leave Lucie behind unharmed as they don’t need her. The Dalek gives him a choice of letting her come with them or exterminating her. The Doctor has no choice really...

Professor Martez is shocked when one of her new generation of Daleks returns to the laboratory in a severely damaged state and reports that the other unit was destroyed. The Dalek is confused and asks why the other Daleks would attack them if they're the same species, but its creator doesn’t know. Martez concludes that her new Daleks are actually better than the originals because they have human blood in their veins and they’ve evolved into the ultimate lifeform. The other Daleks must fear them because they can see a future when the new Daleks will replace them. The damaged Dalek dies and Martez tells it to sleep well as it has served its purpose. There will be thousands, even billions more Daleks cast in its image. It will be the vanguard of a new, better species and that species will endure. Martez declares that if the original Daleks want a war, that’s exactly what they’ll get!

On board the Dalek spaceship, the Doctor asks Lucie how she ended up being a prisoner in the first place. In return, she asks why he just went up to the Daleks and surrendered. He then reminds her that she led the Daleks straight to him earlier, which wasn’t exactly loyal. The Dalek gets increasingly frustrated with their bickering and orders them both to be silent, but Lucie won’t let the subject drop and tells the Doctor she only went aboard the spaceship to get as far away from him as she could. He remarks that she even failed at that!

The Dalek Supreme is informed that the Doctor has been captured, and gives orders for Lucie to be returned to the hostage quarters. Klint realises the Daleks never intended to help her people at all and asks why they bothered with the charade. The Dalek Supreme demands she give them information about Martez and she explains that he was a criminal scientist, but when she says he's dead, the Doctor arrives on the command deck and reveals that she’s wrong. Martez is the reason the Daleks are here -- the evil genius is very much alive inside Asha Gryvern’s body. The Doctor tells Klint that the Daleks are engaged in a war, which is how their spaceship sustained so much damage. He asks the Dalek Supreme who their opponents are this time -- Mechanoids, Movellans, or maybe even other Daleks? He deduces that one of their ships crash-landed on Red Rocket Rising some time ago and Professor Martez somehow got his hands on the contents. Martez contacted the Daleks to request their help in birthing his creations after the government uncovered his experiments. Instead, they tried to destroy the planet with an asteroid. Klint is shocked to discover their would-be saviours are actually the perpetrators of her society’s destruction. The Dalek Supreme explains that the new generation mustn’t be allowed to contaminate their bloodline and when the asteroid didn’t do the job they came here to make sure the blood of the Daleks remains pure. Their main battle forces are deployed in sector Gamma Z Alpha Nine, but this ship was despatched here to find out whether the mutant Daleks posed a threat. The Daleks know the Doctor has been in contact with the mutants and demands to know where they are, but the Doctor tells them there’s no need for threats this time. He knows what they want and he’s willing to help them!

In her cell, Lucie is delighted when Tom appears again. He tried to get off the ship and was nearly down the ramp when he saw the Daleks bringing her and the Doctor on board, so he had to hide again. Lucie admits she’s confused by the Doctor’s actions as it seemed that he voluntarily offered himself up to them. Tom still has his screwdriver so he starts working on the force field. Just then they hear the sound of the engines as the spaceship lifts off. Tom apologises as he really wanted her to be safe and thought he could protect her... but now it’s too late. He says they can’t do anything to help themselves or any of the others on this ship, but there are thousands more of their people down on the planet waiting blindly in line to be culled. He takes out the fission cell batteries from his pocket and tells her he has enough to stop the Daleks. He’s run through this scenario in his head so many times that he can’t really believe he’s finally going to do it for real -- to give his live in exchange for stopping the monsters and save the world. Lucie starts to panic and pleads with him to release her from the cell...

The Doctor programmes the route to the Martez facility into the spaceship guidance systems, but he notes that the co-ordinates seem confused. The Daleks are still being affected by high quantities of ionatronic dust in the atmosphere, so he’ll have to monitor the course manually. That’s good news for the Doctor as it means they need to keep him alive. He believes one or two missiles aimed at the co-ordinates will be enough to remove the problem, and the Daleks compliment the Doctor on being an efficient ally, but Klint is not so happy. She wonders how many city blocks are going to be destroyed by these missiles as there are still people in the buildings, but the Doctor says they’re after one block, the one where Martez is breeding his monsters. Klint reminds him the 'monsters’ are just the victims of Martez’s experiments, which means they’re living beings as well. The Doctor argues that they’re trapped in a perpetual nightmare of hate and fear, but Klint wonders what that says about the Doctor if he’s prepared to side with these Daleks? He says the Universe is bad enough with one race of Daleks, but she believes he’s helping these Daleks to commit genocide and she doesn’t care how he tries to justify that. The Doctor reminds her the invaders are relatively weak and are caught up in the middle of a war. They had to resort to subterfuge this time as they’re under-equipped and under-manned, but that didn’t stop them shooting down the exodus ships as soon as they left the planet. Klint is horrified and can’t believe what he’s telling her, but he reminds her about the ionatronic dust. The exodus ships were old freighters and used ion-drive engines -- and ionatronic dust is what you get when those engines blow up. The Daleks were out there all the time, watching and waiting for the planet to die. The truth finally hits Klint and she realises the few survivors on Red Rocket Rising are all that’s left of their colony. All this time she’s been able to comfort herself with the knowledge that at least the others were able to get away, but now the Doctor has taken that away from her. He wanted her to know what she’s dealing with: the Daleks are pure, undiluted evil... and Martez is trying to create them all over again!

Tom releases Lucie from the cell and together they descend into the engine area as he’s determined to go ahead with his plan to destroy the ship. He believes they’ve already left the planet, so he starts piling the fission cell batteries up against the wall. She urges him to wait, as the Doctor was fully aware that he couldn’t trust the Daleks when he came on board, so he must have made a plan. Suddenly Tom pulls out a lighter and prepares to ignite the batteries. Lucie leaps towards him and they start to struggle...

The Daleks expect to reach their designated target in 90 rels. Klint asks the Doctor what the Daleks are likely to do once they’ve wiped out Martez’s creatures as it seems unlikely they’ll reward him for helping them. The Doctor is aware of this, but he had a chance to stop the birth of the Daleks once before and he chose not to take it, which was a big mistake. The laboratory building comes into sight and the spaceship begins to descend on a collision course. The Doctor and Klint are shocked as this wasn’t part of the original plan, but the Dalek Supreme explains that their supply of missiles is exhausted and the only effective weapon they have left is the command ship itself. The neutronic power source will ensure total destruction of the target. The Doctor points out there are still innocent people aboard the ship and they’ll all be killed, but the Daleks ignore him. An order is given for all the Daleks to begin evacuating and the Dalek Supreme tells the Doctor they plan to fly down to the surface, verify that all the mutant Daleks have been destroyed, then exterminate any remaining humans on the planet. Klint asks if the Daleks ever do anything but kill, and they respond that the only form of life that matters is Daleks life. They are already transmitting a distress signal to Dalek command who will dispatch a rescue mission from Gamma Z Alpha Nine.

Inside his laboratory, Martez can hear the sound of the Dalek ship approaching. She can’t understand how they were traced so quickly and realises the Doctor must have betrayed them. The mutant Daleks turn to their creator for advice, and she tells them that there’s enough of them now to create an army to fight their new enemy. The Daleks recognise that Martez is in pain, but she assures them her mind is strong enough to overcome it. They tell her that more of them will be required to resist their attackers and ask her to birth more units...

Lucie manages to get the lighter from Tom but he begs her to give it back. Although he says they have no more time, she’s convinced there has to be another way and suggests they find the Doctor. Suddenly a Dalek appears and moves in to exterminate them. Tom urges Lucie to ignite the batteries now as he doesn’t want to die for nothing...

The target is now only 15 rels away, but before the Dalek Supreme leaves, it orders one Dalek to remain behind to ensure the detonation goes ahead as planned. The escape hatches are opened and one by one, the Daleks evacuate the doomed ship. The countdown reaches single figures -- and then suddenly the spaceship is rocked by an enormous explosion. The Dalek pilot identifies a number of hull punctures and discovers the anti-grav propellant units have been compromised, which in turn causes the neutronic power to shut down. The target co-ordinates are lost and the ship is unable to regain height. With the lone Dalek preoccupied, the Doctor and Klint race from the command deck as the ship prepares for a crash-landing...

The spaceship crashes into the ground and completely reduces the area to rubble. The Doctor and Klint fight their way out of the wreckage and meet Lucie and Tom doing the same. The Doctor realises that being in the wrong place and the wrong time must be a habit for Lucie! He assumes she had something to do with the crash, but she tells him it was Tom. She was trying to stop him from blowing up the batteries when a Dalek came out of nowhere and started firing, thereby detonating the explosives itself. The Doctor is shocked to discover that Tom genuinely planned to kill them all, but in a way it’s good as he’d hate to think Tom would do something so monumentally stupid by accident. Lucie turns on him and points out that if they’d sat around waiting for him to do something, they’d still be waiting now. He accepts that’s a fair point and in fact Tom did actually save all their lives. The explosion shut down the neutronic power source, so the spaceship came down with a rather large bump instead of a large bang. The Doctor thanks everyone, then reminds them they still have a problem -- the skies are full of Daleks and he imagines Martez’s Daleks will be emerging soon, so Red Rocket Rising is about to experience a Dalek bloodbath. Whoever wins, it's not going to be them!

The Dalek Supreme is joined by the lone Dalek from the spaceship, who reports that the ship crash-landed off course and there was no neutronic explosion, so the mutant Dalek base of operation is still intact. They believe the Doctor must have sabotaged the drive systems, so they must now attack the mutant Dalek base personally.

The Doctor and the others take cover as about fifty Daleks fly overhead in the direction of the laboratory. Lucie asks the Doctor for some clarification and learns that he and the Daleks have fought each other many times before. She assumes the Daleks must always win, because if he’d beaten them they wouldn’t be here now, but then he points out that if they’d beaten him, he wouldn’t be here either. Klint overhears their conversation and notes that the Doctor and Lucie don’t seem to like each other much. Tom cuts in and reminds them all that the planet is about to be destroyed by two armies of monsters and they don’t have time to argue. The Doctor says he’s doing his best, but Lucie certainly isn’t impressed and even Klint notes that his only plan so far would have wiped out Martez’s Daleks but got them all killed in the process. And he didn’t even get that right. Klint tells the Doctor he’s all they’ve got, which falls a little short of the vote of confidence he was expecting. Lucie is impressed when he rules out leaving in the TARDIS and she grudgingly admits that he’s got guts after all. He apologises to her and says when the Time Lords put her into witness protection with him, they couldn’t have expected her to go to war... but that’s what’s going to happen. Then he finally announces that he has a plan. Based on sheer weight of numbers, it’s likely Martez’s Daleks will probably win, so they’re role is to even the odds a little. He asks Tom to collect all the transmitters from his house...

The two Dalek groups confront each other just outside the laboratory. The invading Daleks order the mutant versions to stand aside and allow them access, but their demands are refused. More of the new generation are being birthed all the time and they already outnumber the original group, but the Dalek Supreme is determined not to let the contaminated creatures win. It orders the mutants to set their automatic self-destruct mechanisms, but they refuse to obey its orders as they believe themselves to be superior. A full-scale Dalek battle seems about to begin, with both Dalek groups determined to completely wipe out the other... but then they hear the sound of a large group of humans advancing on their position.

Tom leads an angry mob towards the Daleks, urging everyone to destroy the monsters. The mutant Daleks plead with the humans not to attack them, claiming they are the future of their race, but to no avail. Soon the air is filled with the sound of Dalek guns. Inside the laboratory, the weakened Martez asks what’s going on, and is told that her Dalek forces have engaged the enemy but have now come under attack themselves from the human survivors. Martez is confused and can’t understand why the people would turn on her creations, especially when she learns the humans appear to have joined forces with the enemy Daleks. Her own Daleks now see the humans as enemies and prepare to destroy them as well. In the meantime, Martez is ordered to continue with the birthing.

The battle on the streets continues, and Lucie struggles to understand the logic of the Doctor’s plan, believing it’s nothing more than murder. Klint has just received a call from Tom informing her that the invading Daleks have used the confusion to gain an advantage, but only for a while. The Doctor urges Tom to pull his group back before it turns into a massacre. Klint and Lucie leave to act on the next part of their plan, but before she leaves, Lucie tells the Doctor she needs him to stay alive. He returns the thought and tells Lucie she’s not meant to die here, so she needs to keep her head down and stay out of trouble.

The mutant Dalek assisting Martez tells her there have been heavy human losses, which she never intended to happen. The Doctor arrives unexpectedly in the incubation chamber and the Dalek turns to exterminate him, but Martez holds it off. She asks the Doctor whether he’s responsible for the massacre of her people, but he reminds Martez that she's equally responsible. Martez believes she’s equipping humanity for the future, but the Doctor accuses her of playing God. He produces his sonic screwdriver and admits that he was relying on the fact that Martez wouldn’t have dismantled the bomb he left behind earlier. The sonic waves explode the bomb inside the incubation chamber... but once the smoke has cleared, Martez is relieved to discover that none of the systems has been damaged and the birthing can continue. Only the Dalek that stayed behind to guard Martez has been destroyed. Martez accuses the Doctor of betraying them to the monsters, but the Doctor points out that both groups of Daleks are monsters -- they’re no different from each other and are both consumed by hate. Martez’s Daleks are now killing the humans, the very people she hatched the scheme to save in the first place. If the mutant Daleks do win the battle today, the Doctor thinks they’ll eventually find their way off the planet and will wreak havoc wherever they go, conquering innocent worlds or in-fighting with their own relatives. Is this really what Martez wanted for them? All she’s created is a deadly galactic hurricane, a force that will create destruction and unimaginable misery everywhere. The Doctor tells Martez that he’s seen this all before and her creations will soon work out that they no longer need her. It’s like being in a recurring nightmare where the same thing happens over and over again. The battle outside is just a taste of what’s to come -- unending war which may one day destroy everything!

Tom is joined by Lucie as he organises the human mob's retreat. Lucie and Klint have retrieved the stuff they need and it’s been installed in some nearby warehouses, just as the Doctor requested. Aerials have been set up all around the area and Klint is busy getting everyone up to the roof. Martez’s Daleks are right behind the mob and the other Daleks are right behind them, so Tom and Lucie hurry to get into position...

Martez, now looking quite ill, asks the Doctor what she should do, but the Doctor feels he’s done enough moralising for today and leaves the decision with Martez. The Professor is wounded and weak and the body of Gryvern is starting to deteriorate, no doubt burnt out by the force of Martez’s intellect or more likely because brain transference is a really stupid idea. Martez realises the Doctor could easily overpower her and stop the birthing, but instead the Doctor tells her to listen to the Daleks’ battle cry of “exterminate”. That is the sound of the future that Martez has created. He leaves the Professor to think about his words, and returns to the battle just as a group of mutant Daleks arrive back at the laboratory to get further reinforcements. Martez now realises that even her Daleks refer to themselves purely in military terms, so she leans forward and, instead of operating the equipment, switches the power off completely. The Daleks order her to reconnect it, but it’s too late and the creatures in the incubation chambers are already dying. The Daleks open fire and kill Martez with a single blast.

Tom makes a final check of the equipment in the warehouse and hopes he’s set it on a high enough frequency. It should be enough to confuse the Daleks, but the effect won’t last for long and they’ll adapt very fast. Lucie and Klint confirm that the colonists are all safe on the roof and are ready to drop down on them every brick and every bit of rubble they could lay their hands on. The Doctor arrives and congratulates them on their choice of cul-de-sac. He tells them Martez is dead and there won’t be any more new Daleks, so that part of the nightmare is over. He explains that when they activate the transmitter, the Daleks will get a momentary brain shock and the rest will be down to their brute force! Klint shouts out that the Daleks are coming and they switch on the transmitter -- but there’s no effect. Lucie thinks the plan has failed, but the Doctor urges Tom to try the booster, even if it means burning the equipment out. The sound waves hit the Daleks and they immediately suffer from a loss of control. They scream out and fall to the ground in confusion. Above them, Lucie gives the order to the survivors to start dropping their objects. The Daleks find themselves under bombardment and before long the street is filled with dust. When things settle down, the Doctor looks over the edge to see if they’ve been successful, but they hear the sound of Dalek guns and see that the Dalek Supreme and two of Martez’s Daleks still survive. Lucie thinks it’s all over, but the Doctor points out that even one surviving Dalek is too many. The fighting continues and the Doctor runs down into the street.

By the time he gets there, only the Dalek Supreme and one of Martez’s Daleks are left and both appear to be severely damaged. The Doctor tells them to look around at the devastation and asks whether it sickens them? On seeing him, the Dalek Supreme mutters the word “enemy”, but the Doctor knows they regard everyone and everything as their enemy, even the pathetic creatures who were made in their image. He asks whether all this death and destruction has affected it in any way, urging it to surprise him one last time -- isn’t there a glimmer of hope inside all that battle armour? Even with its dying breath, the Dalek Supreme insists that the blood of the Daleks must remain pure, and then it opens fire on the last of Martez’s creations. The Dalek explodes and Lucie is able to see what the creatures inside look like. Then, finally, the Dalek Supreme itself dies...

Acting-President Klint makes a colony-wide broadcast to the survivors of Red Rocket Rising urging them not to give up hope. If the last few weeks have taught them anything, it’s that humanity is a remarkable and enduring race. She tells them they’ve suffered a great deal due to the monsters inside and outside their society, but they’ve survived and they will continue to thrive. She proudly announces that their calls for help have finally been answered and a fleet of ships is on its way from a world at the edge of their solar system, populated by people very much like them. But as she gives the name of that world, the static on the radio cuts in and the name is lost. Although it sounds as if it started with "Tel..."

As the inhabitants of the planet celebrate, Lucie suggests to the Doctor that he could give some of them a lift himself as there's plenty of space inside the TARDIS, but he says it’s not that simple. She’s still a little uncomfortable around the Doctor, and she assures him she wasn’t really trying to lead the Daleks to him and in fact didn’t even know where he was. He knew that and agrees that maybe he’s been a little unfair to her too. It was just a reaction to the Time Lords, as he always seems to let them “push his buttons”. Lucie is unsure whether he wants her to stay with him and he says he wouldn’t go that far. He offers to drop her off somewhere else, but she turns him down and says she’ll be happy to wait here for the rescue ship. He accepts that it’s probably for the best as they’re both free spirits. Lucie agrees that they shouldn’t have to dance to the Time Lords' tune and they both have their own lives to lead.

Elsewhere, a woman answers the telephone and greets the caller warmly. She listens to the message and writes down a name, making sure she’s spells it correctly -- LUCIE -- then confirms that the girl is native to Earth in 2006 and is currently on Red Rocket Rising, a fact that she finds interesting. She asks the caller to send over a bio-signature and checks that the usual terms and conditions are acceptable to him. She then formally accepts the commission from Mr Hulbert and guarantees him a satisfactory outcome. He’s just employed the Headhunter and she promises there’s nowhere in space or time that Lucie Miller can hide from her...