Synopsis by Wikipedia

The TARDIS lands in Cardiff to refuel from the Rift. The Doctor states that this will only take twenty seconds (in contrast to his previous visit), noting that the Rift has been active recently. Captain Jack Harkness races towards the TARDIS, grabbing onto it during dematerialisation and causing the TARDIS to hurtle out of control to the end of the Universe.

After landing in the year 100 trillion on the planet Malcassairo, the Doctor and Martha find Jack, apparently dead from travelling through the vortex — who quickly revives. They are also surprised to find other life: the Futurekind, mutated cannibalistic humanoids, who are hunting a human attempting to reach a transport to "Utopia" — the last home of the human race.

At the transport site, the TARDIS crew meet the elderly Professor Yana and his insectoid assistant Chantho, who are desperate for help. The spacecraft to Utopia is unable to take off due to problems with its experimental drive system, and Yana's research has been stalled for some time. These problems are worsened by a Futurekind infiltrator who vandalises the power systems. Despite the unfamiliar technology, the Doctor solves the scientific problems, and Jack makes final preparations in a heavily irradiated room. As Jack does this, he discuss his immortality with the Doctor, and why the Doctor abandoned him on Satellite Five. The rocket finally takes off for Utopia, leaving the Doctor, Yana, Chantho, Martha, and Jack behind.

A subplot shows that Yana has been hearing a constant drumbeat inside his head — a condition he reports having had all his life, with the drums getting louder recently. Words such as "regeneration" and "TARDIS" — elements of Time Lord lore — exacerbate the problem, confusing and distracting him. When Martha expresses concern over the Professor's uneasiness, he reveals a long-standing problem with time, and shows Martha what appears to be a broken fob watch he has had ever since he was found as an orphaned child. The watch is identical in design to John Smith's watch in "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood". Concerned about the implications, Martha rushes to inform the Doctor, leaving Yana alone with Chantho and now aware of the watch.

When the Doctor hears about this, a flashback sequence inter-cut with the letters of the Professor's name makes clear that "Yana" is an acronym of "You are not alone", the Face of Boe's final words, illustrating the Doctor's realisation of what that means. At the same time, Yana opens the watch, releasing his Time Lord configuration. Frantic and horrified, the Doctor races towards Yana's office but is hindered as the Professor closes the doors and allows the Futurekind into the base. Yana reveals his true identity to Chantho: he is the Master. He fatally wounds her, but Chantho manages to shoot him before dying.

The Doctor arrives in Yana's office just as the Master enters the Doctor's TARDIS, taking the Doctor's severed hand (which Jack recovered after the events of "The Christmas Invasion") with him. He then deadlock seals the TARDIS, preventing the Doctor from opening it. Dying from Chantho's shot, the Master regenerates into a younger body — whose voice Martha recognises. After taunting the Doctor, he leaves in the TARDIS, stranding the Doctor, Martha and Jack in the distant future, under attack by the Futurekind.

Part II:

The Doctor, Martha, and Jack materialise in a London alleyway, having used Jack's Vortex Manipulator, repaired by the Doctor, to escape the Futurekind in the year 100 trillion. Seeing "Vote Saxon" posters everywhere, and Saxon himself on a giant TV screen, the Doctor and Martha realise that the new Prime Minister, the mysterious "Mr Saxon", is the Master.

In 10 Downing Street, the Master speaks briefly with Tish Jones, who is unsure of her duties in her new job there. Next he enters the newly rebuilt cabinet room. After calling the cabinet members traitors, because they abandoned their parties to join his electoral bandwagon, he puts on a gas mask and activates jets of poisonous gas. As the cabinet collapses, the Master beats his hand on the table, drumming out a four-beat rhythm.

Journalist Vivien Rook obtains an interview with Master's wife, Lucy Saxon, as a pretext to warn Lucy that "Saxon" did not exist eighteen months ago — his entire life before that is a fabrication. Mrs Saxon turns to the Master, who is now standing by the door. He confirms that Saxon doesn't exist, and then introduces his "friends", four floating, metallic spheres, which materialise and kill Vivien. The Master promises his wife that "everything will end tomorrow".

Meanwhile, the Doctor, Martha and Jack have gone to Martha's flat to find out more about the Master's "Saxon" persona. Part of his apparently varied history is the Archangel network, a mobile phone network which Saxon was in charge of launching. The Master then makes a televised announcement about the Toclafane, the spheres seen earlier, saying that first contact will take place the following morning. The Doctor is surprised; the name Toclafane is that of a Gallifreyan fairytale villain, not a real alien race. As the Master makes his speech, the Doctor discovers a bomb on the back of Martha's TV. They make it outside just as her flat explodes.

Martha rings up her mum to check on her; Francine asks Martha to come to her house, claiming that she plans to get back together with Clive. She passes the phone to Clive, who tries to warn Martha away; however, the "sinister woman" is listening and orders police to arrest the entire Jones family. Martha hurriedly drives to the scene with the Doctor and Jack. On the way she phones Tish in Downing Street, just as Tish is dragged away by guards. Martha arrives at Francine's house, but the police open fire on her car and she is forced to drive away.

As the Doctor, Jack, and Martha abandon the car, Martha phones Leo to warn him, and is relieved to learn that he is in Brighton. Saxon interrupts the conversation and the Doctor takes the phone. He tells the Master about the Time War and how it ended. The Master reveals that he was resurrected by the Time Lords in order to fight in the war, but ran away in fear. He then informs the Doctor that they are now Britain's most wanted terrorists and tells them to run, noting that Jack's friends have been sent on a wild-goose chase in the Himalayas.

One of the Toclafane appears before the Master, asking if the "machine" is ready. The Master confirms it will reach critical mass at 8:02 AM, two minutes after first contact. The Toclafane warns of an impending "terrible darkness" and suggests that they flee, but the Master merely reminds it of its deadline.

As they hide in an abandoned building, the Doctor gives Martha and Jack some insight into the Master's background, explaining that Time Lords on Gallifrey stare into the time vortex at the age of eight: some are inspired, some run away, and some are driven mad. The Doctor ran and never stopped, but he believes the latter happened to the Master. After Jack receives a posthumous message from Vivien Rook to Torchwood about the Archangel network, the Doctor discovers that the Master is transmitting a mysterious four-beat rhythm that subliminally persuaded people to vote for him, which also kept the Doctor from previously detecting the Master. The Doctor then adds a perception filter to the TARDIS keys, allowing the trio to move about unnoticed.

While the TARDIS crew look on, US President Arthur Winters arrives in Air Force One. He tells the Master that UNIT now controls the operation. Citing a 1968 United Nations protocol, Winters insists on moving first contact to the neutral ground of the UNIT aircraft carrier Valiant and conducting the meeting himself. The Master brings Martha's family along, and the Doctor and friends follow using Jack's Vortex Manipulator. Onboard the Valiant, they find the TARDIS, its cloister bell ringing and the interior glowing an ominous red. It has been "cannibalised" by the Master into a paradox machine, set to go off at 8:02 AM. The trio head for the room where first contact is being made. The Doctor has a plan: if he can get his TARDIS key around the Master's neck, everyone will see him for what he really is.

When first contact begins, the Toclafane complain that the President is not the Master. The Master reveals himself and has his friends kill the President. The Doctor is captured by guards, and the Master temporarily "kills" Jack with his laser screwdriver, which is also equipped with LazLabs genetic manipulation technology. Coupled with biological data from the Doctor's severed hand, stolen in the previous episode, it allows the Master to artificially age the Doctor by 100 years. The Master brings in Martha's family to witness his triumph.

With the paradox machine ready, the Master tells the people of Earth that it's "the end of the world" and plays "Voodoo Child". The machine activates, creating a massive rift above the Valiant from which six billion Toclafane emerge. He orders them to kill one tenth of the Earth's population. He refuses to reveal the Toclafane's true identity to the aged Doctor, saying that the revelation would break the Doctor's hearts. Whilst the Master is distracted, Martha glances mournfully at the Doctor, Jack, and her family, then teleports to Earth using the Manipulator, promising to return as she watches the Toclafane descend. The Master and his wife look down on "his new dominion", with the aged Doctor between them, forced to confront his failure to stop the Master.

Part III

(To be broadcast 6/30/07)

Martha returns to England, having travelled the world for a year. Her TARDIS key, still generating a perception filter, has kept her hidden all this time. She has seen Japan destroyed, the people of South Africa burned alive, and worldwide destruction in general. She meets Thomas Milligan, a doctor-turned-freedom fighter who is to lead her to a Professor Docherty. Martha herself has become a figure of hope against the Master, rumoured to be the only one capable of killing him.

Meanwhile, on the Valiant, the Master is keeping the aged Doctor in a dog tent as his prisoner, Martha's family as his servants, and Captain Jack Harkness in chains. Lucy Saxon is still with him, but a bruise above her eye suggests abuse. He shows the Doctor the world he has created: the new Time Lord Empire. Across the world, warships are being built from every piece of scrap metal available to wage war on the rest of the universe. Still, in spite of the situation, the Doctor says he has "only one thing to say", but the Master doesn't want to hear it. After a failed attempt by the Jones family and the Doctor to gain control of the Master's Laser screwdriver, the Master sends out a transmission for Martha, having heard of her return. Watching in Docherty's lab, Martha sees the Master age the Doctor to 900 years, which shrinks him into a tiny, frail creature. All it does is give Martha hope, since the Doctor is still alive.

Though the Toclafane have proven to be virtually invincible, Martha stumbled upon one that was struck by lightning, and with the data gathered from that one, Docherty is able to replicate the accident. Upon examining the sphere, they make a horrifying discovery: the Toclafane are the humans from the year 100 trillion. There was no Utopia, only more darkness, and with everything dying around them the humans cannibalised themselves, becoming the child-like Toclafane. The Master brought them back in time using the TARDIS, which could only travel between the present and their time. The paradox of the Toclafane killing their own ancestors is prevented by the paradox machine built by the Master, which holds the paradox in check.

When Docherty asks if the rumours about Martha are true, Martha reveals a gun, developed by Torchwood and UNIT, purportedly able to kill a Time Lord and prevent the ensuing regeneration. Martha reports she has retrieved three of the four chemicals needed for the gun from their hiding places around the world, and has returned to London to get the fourth. As Martha and Thomas depart for a shelter in Bexley to hide, Docherty reveals their whereabouts to the Master.

The Master captures Martha and takes her back to the Valiant. He intends to execute her at the moment his fleet is launched. As the clock counts down, Martha reveals the real reason she travelled the globe: it wasn't for the gun, or to fight back, but merely to talk. She told everyone about the Doctor; specifically, she told everyone to think of the Doctor at the same time the Master plans to launch his fleet. Combined with the Master's Archangel satellite network, which the Doctor has had an entire year to get in tune with, this has the effect of charging the Doctor with the combined psychic energy of the entire planet. So charged, the Doctor is able to restore his original age and stop the Master's plan. As the Master cowers, the Doctor says the words he was afraid to hear: "I forgive you."

With the Master out of the picture, Jack rounds up some soldiers to destroy the paradox machine, but is delayed by the Toclafane protecting it. The Master, using Jack's vortex manipulator, teleports himself and the Doctor to Earth, threatening to detonate his fleet and take the Earth with it. The Doctor knows he won't do it, and manages to teleport both himself and the Master back the the Valiant just as Jack destroys the paradox machine, rewinding time to just after the President is killed and just before the Toclafane arrive. Everyone on the Valiant remembers the events because they are at "the eye of the storm".

The Master, now defenceless, is handcuffed and stands before the Doctor. The Doctor announces that, since the Master is a Time Lord, he is the Doctor's responsibility and will be imprisoned on the TARDIS. However, Lucy silently shoots the Master. Rather than let himself be a prisoner for all eternity, the Master lets himself die, refusing to regenerate despite the Doctor's pleas. Just before dying, the Master says, "I win", referring to the Doctor's now inevitable loneliness, then muses on the constant drumming in his head, wondering if it will finally stop. The Doctor cremates the Master's body on a pyre. After he leaves, a female hand wearing red nail polish (such as Lucy has been wearing) is seen taking the Master's ring from the burnt out pyre, with the Master's laughter echoing in the background.

In Cardiff, Jack tells Martha and the Doctor he will be staying there to look after his "team". He also reveals that as a child he was known as the Face of Boe, to which the Doctor and Martha react with surprise and disbelief. Martha tells the Doctor she is staying at home to look after her family and to finally become a true doctor. She gives him her phone so they can keep in touch. Leaving in the TARDIS, the Doctor begins to relax in the console room chair until the room is shaken with great force, and the bow of a ship smashes through the TARDIS' wall. Picking up a life preserver, he is shocked to find "Titanic" written on it.

_________________

Whoah. Captain Jack - the Face of Boe! That's all I can say.

Kylie Minogue guest stars in the 2007 Doctor WHO Christmas Special.

Synopsis by Wikipedia

The story is told partly in flashback to scenes in which the TARDIS is being pursued, under attack using some kind of energy beam weapon. The Doctor tells Martha that those who are pursuing him could trace him across the universe, and he must undergo a transformation to turn him into a human. His pursuers are dying, the Doctor says. His plan is to transform into a human for three months, by which time those beings should all be dead. His Time Lord configuration is stored in a pocket watch and Martha is charged with guarding it.

As a human, John Smith, the Doctor becomes a schoolteacher in Farringham School in England before the Great War. The story picks up two months into his human life. Smith is unaware of his previous life as a Time Lord, and his character is quiet, a little timid and introspective. He has dreams of being a Time Lord and sometimes sketches them in a notebook. Martha (who is aware of what is happening and remembers everything) is his maid.

His pursuers, who refer to themselves as the Family, show up on Earth in an invisible spaceship and take over the body of a school prefect who stumbles upon their ship while digging up a hidden cache of beer. They have scarecrow-like creatures as their henchmen, who round up more victims to use as vessels.

Smith is cajoled by the school nurse, Joan Redfern, to attend a dance. Martha is distraught as she realises that he has fallen in love with a human, particularly someone other than Martha herself. The Doctor left recorded instructions telling her what to do in nearly any eventuality. One of these was "Don't let me abandon you". But his instructions did not foresee that he might fall in love.

Meanwhile, one of Smith's pupils, Timothy Latimer, who has previously demonstrated extrasensory perception in an encounter with other students, finds and takes the pocket watch, having heard the Doctor's thoughts despite the perception filter the Doctor had placed on it. When he briefly opens the watch, the Family sense that the Time Lord they are hunting is located somewhere within the school. Capturing and possessing a friend that Martha has made whilst working as a maid, one of the Family attempts to question Martha, but she escapes. Martha realises she must bring the Doctor back, but the watch is gone, without which she cannot restore him. Shocked by Martha's bizarre claims (and a slap to the face), Smith fires her.

The climax comes at the dance. Martha retrieves the sonic screwdriver and rushes to find Smith there, hoping the familiar object from his other life will help convince him. Meanwhile the Family arrive, one of them having overheard Martha trying to convince Smith he is the Doctor. They kill two people and then take Martha and Joan hostage, demanding that Smith "change back" into a Time Lord. Still believing he was born human, Smith does not understand the Family's words. In a cliffhanger ending, he is further horrified when they tell him to choose whom they should kill: "Maid or matron, your friend or your lover. Your choice."

Part II

As the Family of Blood holds Martha Jones and Joan Redfern captive, John Smith stands by helplessly. Tim Latimer briefly opens the watch containing the Doctor's essence, thus confusing the Family with the Doctor's scent. This allows Martha to grab a gun from Mother of Mine, take her hostage and point the gun at Son of Mine, who points his gun at Martha. Eventually the Family members lower their weapons, and Martha tells Smith to evacuate the building. After everyone has left, an animated scarecrow grabs Martha and retrieves the gun. She escapes and runs outside, where she finds Smith and berates him for not running away. The watch still tells Latimer to keep it hidden.

Smith, Joan, and Martha race back to the school and Smith sounds the alarm. Father of Mine investigates Martha's past movements while the rest of the Family return to the school. They send Sister of Mine inside to spy on the school's inhabitants.

Inside the school, Martha argues with Smith about having the students fight, but Smith says that they are trained to defend King and Country. Headmaster Rocastle enters, initially angry, but approves Smith's actions upon hearing that Baines (Son of Mine) and Clark (Father of Mine) have gone insane and are chasing them, and that people have been murdered. The headmaster and Smith arm the boys and prepare for battle. Unable to stop them, Martha races to Smith's room to search for the watch, followed by Joan. Joan slowly comes to believe the origins of Martha and the Doctor. Latimer hides with the watch.

Rocastle and Phillips head outside to assess the situation. Son of Mine demands that John Smith be handed over along with his Time Lord consciousness, and mocks Rocastle for teaching children to fight in the war that Son of Mine knows is coming. Rocastle states his devotion to King and Country. Son of Mine vaporizes Phillips. Rocastle runs back into the school, where he and Smith resume battle preparations, ordering the boys to set up barricades and a line of machine guns to repel the Family. Son of Mine summons his scarecrow "soldiers". Father of Mine finds the TARDIS. Joan asks Smith about his Nottingham childhood, noting that his knowledge is confined to facts. "How can you think I'm not real?" he protests. She argues that whoever he is, he knows it is wrong to have the boys fight.

Sister of Mine finds Latimer, who beams the Time Lord consciousness out of the watch, striking her with an image of the Doctor at his most merciless. This betrays his position, and the Family send their scarecrow army in to bring out the watch. This army's first line is machine-gunned, but Smith finds himself unable to fire. Sister of Mine appears and Rocastle thinks she is merely a girl and should be brought into the school for her own safety, despite warnings from Martha, Joan and Smith. Sister of Mine kills Rocastle. Smith instructs the boys to make an orderly retreat, but the Family and their scarecrows chase them and line them up to look for the watch. Finding that none of them have it, they are about to massacre the boys when Latimer sends a beam from the watch on an upper floor. This distracts them, and the boys get away. Latimer escapes out a window.

The Family bring the TARDIS to the school, and taunt Smith (who is watching from the adjoining woods) to come to them. Smith denies having seen the TARDIS before, but Joan recognizes it as the blue box in Smith's journal. No longer able to deny the Doctor's existence, Smith pleads desperately to remain himself. The Family return to their ship and use their alien technology to bombard the village in an attempt to hasten Smith's surrender.

Smith, Joan and Martha retreat to the Cartwrights' empty cottage, Joan having deduced that Sister of Mine killed her human host's parents earlier in the day. Latimer arrives soon after, watch in hand. He says he has seen the Doctor, and describes him as both fearsome and wonderful. After Smith takes the closed watch, it causes him to speak in the Doctor's voice for a moment, explaining Latimer's telepathic abilities as being due to "an extra synaptic engram". Smith is horrified. Martha tries to convince Smith to open the watch and change back, saying that she loves the Doctor to bits and that he is needed. Smith sees the transformation back to the Doctor as his own suicide. Latimer and Martha then leave Joan and Smith alone. Smith has an agonised discussion with Joan, with both seeing a vision of how Smith can live out his life if he remains human: marrying Joan, having children, becoming a grandfather, and dying at home with Joan at his bedside. Joan remains ambivalent, having discovered from Smith's journal the awful consequences of the Family gaining what they seek.

Smith appears at the Family's ship and stumbles into things as he gives up the watch in return for the Family stopping the bombardment (and, apparently, to preserve his human identity). When they open the watch in triumph, they find it empty. Smith has changed back into the Doctor, misdirected their senses so as to seem human, and in falling around pushed buttons that cause the spaceship to overheat and destroy itself. The Family and the Doctor escape, but Son of Mine narrates the fate that befalls the Family afterward. He now realises that the Doctor made himself human out of kindness to the Family; he would have preferred that they die out peacefully. After all the death they caused, however, he deals out the ultimate punishments to them. They wanted to become immortal by absorbing a Time Lord, and then conquer across time and space, and so the Doctor grants this wish in other ways: he traps Father of Mine in chains forged at the heart of a dwarf star, Mother of Mine in the event horizon of a collapsing galaxy, Sister of Mine in every mirror in existence. (It is said that whenever one sees something moving in the mirror, even for a second, it is she. Son of Mine also states that the Doctor visits her once a year, every year, indicating that the narration is taking place some years after the events of this story.) Finally, the Doctor suspends Son of Mine in time, and dresses him as a scarecrow to watch over the fields of England as its protector.

The Doctor then visits Joan, who is certain that Smith is dead. The Doctor states that Smith still exists within him, and claims he is capable of everything that Smith was. He invites her to travel with him, but Joan refuses to go with the stranger who wears her dead lover's face. She accuses him of causing the deaths around the school, and sends him away. She watches him leave and then starts to cry, clutching Smith's A Journal of Impossible Things to her chest. The Doctor returns to the TARDIS, where Martha awaits him. She brushes off her earlier confession as an act of desperation, which he seems to accept. He thanks her for looking after him and they hug.

Latimer appears to see the Doctor and Martha off. He states that he knows what he must do, is given the now-empty watch by the Doctor, and watches the TARDIS leave. Latimer later saves Hutchinson and himself on the Western Front, based on his premonition in the previous episode. The scene then cuts to the future, when an elderly Latimer attends an Armistice Day commemoration, still holding the watch. The Doctor and Martha observe from a distance, wearing artificial poppies, used as a symbol of remembrance, inspired by the poem "In Flanders Fields," one of the most famous poems about World War I. They silently acknowledge each other as the service continues.

______________

The best moment - the past Doctors - This was clearly the best story of the season - a 2 parter where the Doctor gives up his Timelord DNA and becomes human - lives life as a human. It also is the first time the previous Doctors including Paul McGann are referenced.