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The TARDIS lands "Cardiff!" "Cardiff?" "Cardiff baby! It's built on top of a Rift in time and space, but the Rift bleeds energy, the TARDIS can absorb it" "so it's a pit stop?" "Pretty much, should take about 24 hours, should we go sightseeing?" "Might as well" Liv smiles and the pair of us rush out of the blue box..
A man stands alone in a funeral home, stood over the body of his mother "I just can't believe she's gone.." "Oh no Mr Turner, not gone, merely sleeping.." "Could I have a moment alone with her?" "Of course" the man smiles and leaves the room, only for his mother to wake up, something having taken over her.. Me and Liv hear the scream as we walk through the streets "that's more like it!" We leg it into the funeral home..
We get inside, only to find the man up against the wall, terrified beyond words "hiya, what's going on?" "That's my mother!" He proclaims, I walk over to her and scan her "not anymore I'm afraid, something else has taken over here" "like what?!" "Not sure, but whatever it is it's not malicious, you'd best go back home, forget this ever happened" "right you are" the man runs off, leaving me and Liv alone with her. I just say to her "what are you?" "We.. Are.. The.. Gelth" "right.." "What's the Gelth?" Liv asks "gaseous creatures, their planet was destroyed.." "Why?" "The Time War.." She just says "the war raged, invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms" "ok, so your planet is gone because of the Time War, so how did you get here?" "Ooh, good question" "thank you" "we passed through into this world via the Rift.." "Of course.. Using the Rift as a gateway, perfect for beings such as yourselves, so what do you want with the corpses of the dearly departed?" "We can't sustain ourselves for too long in our gaseous state, we need the bodies to keep living" "I see.. We'd best go talk to the manager of this joint, just stay here ok?" In a corridor Liv says to me "Doctor we can't let them take dead bodies" "why not?" "It's not right, it's disrespectful!" "Well it's not as if those people have any more use for them, so I think we should" "you feel responsible, don't you?" "Of course I do! I fought in the war and because of it they lost their planet, and now I can give them a second chance" "but what happens after they've taken over the bodies? They just walk about? Going shopping and down the pub?" "I don't know Liv, it's up to them what they do" "alright fine, let's talk to the manager" we leg it to find him..
Inside his office, he's already packing his stuff up "going somewhere?" "That's the third one this week! I can't keep risking it" "they're peaceful Mr uh.." "Shepherd, and how do you know that? Who even are you anyway? A queer?" Liv snickers but I just respond "I'm the Doctor, and I know that because I'm an alien from a different universe and that thing in the other room isn't a ghost, it's an alien too, it got here because there's a Rift in time and space running underneath the entire city" "right, so what do you want me to do?" "I need you to just leave, find something new to do in life, go on holiday maybe" "what are you going to do?" "We're gonna have a séance" Liv scoffs a little before Mr Shepherd just nods and runs off..
"Gelthy Gelth me old chum, could you sit down with us?" She just nods as we sit at the table "who shall I establish contact with?" "Me, Liv can't do it, sorry" "it's fine" the Gelth establishes psychic contact with me as more of them float out and decorate the room "so, you want the bodies of the recently departed I get that, but what then?" "We'll return through the Rift, finding a new home for our species" "sounds good to me" "how can you trust them Doctor?" "I see inside her mind, she, along with the rest of her species, are so very lonely, lonely and desperate, who am I if I'm to refuse them a second chance?" "I see into your mind too Doctor.. You think yourself responsible, as you fought in the war" "I did.." "Then I thank you, for showing the compassion that the Time Lords nor the Daleks never did to my kind and so many others" I just smile before saying "you can go now, find a new home for your people.. Get a second chance" she slowly nods before the rest of the Gelth scatter around the city..
Me and Liv watch from outside the TARDIS as the Gelth, in their new human bodies, march towards the centre of the city..
"You saved them.." "Of course I did, and not just out of a place of guilt" "but also a duty.." "Exactly, now, shall we get going?" "Hell yeah" Liv smiles and we step back inside the TARDIS...
NEXT TIME: A desert town in 1902, a mysterious "gunslinger" and an equally mysterious alien doctor..
