My AU of Doctor Who Series 14
So with the utter disaster that was the RTD2 Era of Doctor Who, I've had multiple thoughts on how I'd do my take on it.
My overarching plot for Seasons 14 and 15 would feature Mrs Flood having a different identity reveal in Season 15.
This is my base plan for Season 14. Some episodes stay the same from the original series.
Episode 1: The Church on Ruby Road: This episode would stay pretty much the same, but would introduce Ruby's friend Blake Harper, an artist and illustrator who lives with their grandmother Mrs Flood. Another change is Ruby saying she's always been an outsider, with most people feeling distrustful of her. Blake, Mrs Flood, Carla and Cherry are noted exceptions to this rule, with Cherry in particular adoring her granddaughter. The story ends with Blake and Ruby joining The Doctor as his two companions.
Episode 2: Boom: Again, this episode stays pretty much the same. It was one of the best episodes of the Season 14 we got. Including Ruby making it snow
Episode 3: The Devil's Cord: This one changes when Maestro seems to see something different in both Ruby and Blake, alongside a secret song, Maestro reveals "oh. He's part of this" in regards to Ruby and says to Blake "i see. She's got her hands in this too". Hinting that neither Ruby nor Blake are quite what they seem.
Once again Ruby makes it snow and Blake brings it up, saying it happened throughout their childhood too, remembering a handful of instances where it snowed around Ruby when they were teens.
Episode 4: A Change of Face: This starts as half of Rogue episode, expanding on the Chulder crime family and their plan to overthrow The British monarchy and take control of France. It ends with The Doctor being captured by Rogue
Episode 5: Rogue: This is the 2nd part of what was Rogue, allowing more time with 15 and Rogue and even some confusion from 15 as to why The Shalka Doctor is revealed as a previous face. Ruby and Blake finally see that Susan Twist is appearing everywhere
Episode 6: The Crypt Keeper: 15, Ruby and Blake arrive at a museum in 1909, where they encounter a history professor who claims to have sarcophagi from Egypt in his basement and wishes The Doctor to study them. Here we find 4 of the Servitor robots from Pyramids of Mars and Blake is seemingly possessed by something, leading them to reveal "He is returning. He waits for you Lord of Time"
This episode would end with the history professor being revealed as a partner of Marcus Scarman again from Pyramids of Mars and saying that Marcus is about to go on his own expedition, tying the whole thing back to the episode.
Episode 7: Be Afraid of The Dark: This adventure puts 15, Ruby and Blake in the 62nd century, in the bowels of a ruined research ship with dozens of trapped people on board. The trio find that the ship is powerless, its engineers never returned from the dark and that the group have been attacked by "a creature of shadow"
This would see the return of the Vashta Nerada, finally bringing them back after over a decade. 15, Ruby and Blake would have to face off with Vasha Nerada who held together the skeletons of the people they ate and would have to escape, blowing up the ship as they left to destroy the plague of Vashta Nerada on board
Episode 8: 73 Yards: This starts similarly to the actual episode, with the TARDIS crew landing in Wales and finding a faerie circle. This time, when 15 breaks it, both he and Blake disappear, as breaking the faerie circle unleashed something.
The episode changes with everyone who is 73 yards away from Ruby not leaving her, but simply vanishing from the Earth, including Susan Twist's cameo hiker, Carla and Kate Stewart, which majorly disrupts UNIT.
The episode continues up until Ruby meets Roger ap Gwilliam when she's in her 30's. In an interview Roger's middle name is revealed to be Brahn, after Bran the Blessed in Welsh folklore. At some point Ruby is left alone with Roger and the mystery being.
Here it is revealed Roger Brahn ap Gwilliam is in fact a Harbinger (with various letters of his full name being rearranged to fit the pattern of previous Harbingers) and his master is Zamia, a member of The Pantheon and The God of Loss.
Terrified by meeting a 2nd deity of old, Ruby runs and begins to plan. She ends up sneaking back to HarbinRoger's campaign interview and stands exactly 73 Yards from him. This forces Zamia'a power to work against them, with HarbinRoger being wiped off the face of the earth and Zamia banished with the loss of his Harbinger.
Time resets and Ruby manages to stop 15 from breaking the faerie circle in the first place, saving 15 and Blake from vanishing. Ruby remarks she "saw that woman again" in reference to Susan Twist's reoccurring face and 15 remarks that they're being stalked through time and space as the trio leave
Episode 9: The Maelstrom: This would be the first of a two parter, introducing a new planet Cilarus, which The Doctor remarks is the homeworld of The Hath. They leave The TARDIS and find themselves on a huge floating oceanic station and we get to see an some of world, which The Doctor says is 80% water
The Doctor tells Ruby and Blake about his last meeting with Hath and how he lost his daughter that day, explaining how Hath and Humans forged a centuries long alliance that day. This is demonstrated when a group of humans and Hath gather around them.
The trio are quickly taken by the security group of Hath and Huamns inside the station to discover it's a research facility on an infectious outbreak recently made its way to their planet.
After determining who they are, the head medicinal researcher shows The Doctor, Ruby and Blake the infection. We see a Human with a cracked mouth, water soaked clothing and a black mouth pouring more water. This is Susan Twist's apperance in this episode, with The Flood making a return, wi
The Doctor says that this infection comes from Mars and the security captain stating a Martian craft crashed here last month, but the pilot was dead on impact, adding that nothing could've survived the crash.
The Doctor explains when and where he last met The Flood and explains what they are. That even one drop of water can cause destruction and that the entire planet could now be infected. The episode ends with two of the security guards at the door stiffening and shaking, as they're transformed into Flood
Episode 10: After The Storm: We open right where we left off, with the Flood infected guards moving towards the company. They all retreat except the security captain, who holds the line, ordering everyone else to escape. The Doctor is now determined to find how far the infection has spread while Ruby and Blake try and get everybody to a shuttle craft out of the city.
The group are attacked again by The Flood and more are infected. Ruby and Blake end up being cornered by a burst ceiling of leaking ceiling. The fear and danger cause Ruby to unintentionally transform the leaking infected water to become snow, that simply drifts away from the two
The Doctor finds that the infection is contained to the research station, that none of the water on Cilarus is infected, the Hath scientists managed to contain the outbreak.
15 meets up with his friends and the Hath and breaks the news, that they can all leave, but the entire station has to be destroyed, vaporised. With a heavy heart, the Hath agree but the Flood ambush them. 15 does manage to save his friends but the remaining Hath are infected.
The Doctor, Ruby and Blake escape and 15 deadlocks the entire station, trapping the Flood inside, but he can't bring himself to do what needs to be done and destroy the station.
In an act of mercy, Blake removes the sonic screwdriver from his hand and blows up the station. The trio leave for The TARDIS, the mood sad and sombre. 15 thanks Blake for helping him through what needed to be done and the episode ends with a darkened TARDIS and the trio mourning the fallen team.
Episode 11: Dot and Bubble: Yeah I liked this one. It would almost stay as is, with the only changes being Ruby getting angry at the end too and producing snow and The Doctor stating they need to find out why Susan Twist is following them everywhere.
Episode 12: The Legend of Ruby Sunday: This one has some similar beats, but with two small changes and one huge one. The two smaller changes are that Carla stays with Ruby instead of going home and the 2nd is that The Doctor clues in that Susan Triad Tech could be Sutekh, remembering when Blake was possessed by some spirit.
The big change comes with The Reveal. Harriet Arbinger/Harbinger is still there, but lists Sutekh as one of the gods instead of being the reveal. In this au, she speaks of "the manipulator, the schemer and the faceless face of The Pantheon"
Instead of anything being hidden on top of the TARDIS for centuries, something attached to 15's TARDIS when he split it from 14's. Its also revealed that everything to do with Ruby as been a method of forcing a reunion between The Doctor and an old enemy.
Its all been a lie and a trap. Its all been, a trick. The Trickster is revealed in all his terrible glory, laughing as his power manifests fully, introducing himself: "I am Trickster, The God of Traps"
Susan Triad is revealed as a servant of The Trickster, part of The Trickster's Brigade, shown to be a shapeshifter who was previously The Fortune Teller. She mocks 15 and Mel. The Trickster, laughing like a madman, declares his intent to bring Chaos to all the stars
Episode 13: Grandparent Trap: Susan Triad instantly brings chaos to London, starting to terraform the land into a twisted landscape with hellish hazards for humanity to avoid. The Doctor and Mel rush back to UNIT, where Trickster has brought chaos to the tower, killing everyone inside to plunge the Earth into a defenceless state.
15 and Mel reunite with Ruby, Carla and Blake in the Time Window, seeing the hooded figure of Ruby's mother walking away. Like in the actual episode, the true TARDIS appears, now piloted by Harbinger and Trickster.
The Doctor and The Trickster have a talk, with 15 asking how Trickster is free after being bound during Sarah Jane's funeral. Trickster laughs and replies how he is always freed. He took advantage on a dying woman and granted her final wish, nodding his head towards the holographic form of Ruby's mother.
The Doctor and the others all retreat into the memory TARDIS and retreat, where they find Trickster's chaos spread into the Time Vortex itself during all of 15, Ruby and Blake's travels together. The Doctor recalls how to beat The Trickster is to break the deal
They try to track down Ruby's mother, going to the far future, where Roger ap Gwilliam, now a normal human since the faerie circle was never broken and check DNA charts again. 2046 is still in chaos, humanity eliminated in the wave of anarchy unleashed by The Trickster. But because like with Sutekh, it all happened at once, the records are all still there.
However the records end up blank when The Doctor pricks Ruby's finger to run a DNA scan on her family. Ruby Sunday exists, logged as the adopted daughter of Carla Sunday, but there is no mention of a mother. The Doctor then decides they must risk a return to 2024 and confront Trickster directly.
The group return to the broken world of Earth in 2024, humanity forced to survive brutal games of chaos all for The Trickster's pleasure. The Doctor demands to know what Trickster meant by his words on a deal citing the rules set in place by The Toymaker
Trickster laughs in The Doctor's face and relents, admitting that Ruby's mother never existed, it was simply his shapeshifter servant delivering on his side of the deal.
The Doctor then asks why Trickster chose now to manifest himself and he replies by summoning images all throughout Ruby's life, before saying in a mixture of pride, cruel delight and sadistic malice
"I had to wait until my dear daughter had grown, old friend"
Ruby is revealed to be the daughter of The Trickster, a living trap that The Doctor could never resist. Trickster revealed himself now because he needed to wait until Ruby was old enough to be a strong enough anchor for his permanent place in this world. But now he has no use for her and he coldly dismisses the entire group, saying they are no threat to him any longer
As they once again flee from The Trickster, Carla requests they check on her mother. Depsite The Doctor knowing they need to find whoever made the deal, in order to beat The Trickster, he relents when Ruby and Blake want to check on their grandmothers too
Surprisingly Mrs Flood and Cherry Sunday are both alive and well, safe in Cherry's bedroom. Carla and Ruby hug Cherry while Blake collapses into Mrs Flood's arms.
While explaining everything to the two old women, Cherry's face pales and she starts to cry, curling in on herself and cursing her past decisions. In all comes to a horrifying realisation. It was never Ruby's mother who made a deal. It was Cherry herself.
Cherry, in a show of strength and pure familial love, pushes herself to her feet, supporting herself on Ruby's shoulder and demands Trickster show himself. The mad god tries to convince Cherry that Ruby and the others want her dead, but Cherry is determined. She takes back her deal, banishing The Trickster back to his prison.
Despite defeating The Trickster, Ruby remains where she is. The Doctor theorises that its similar to when The Toymaker lost. Ruby is the prize for beating Trickster. Cherry begins to fade and quickly says her goodbyes.
She kisses Ruby's cheek, telling her no matter what Ruby will always be her granddaughter and embraces her daughter one last time. The mother and daughter say a simple goodbye while hugging and Cherry slowly fades away.
The Trickster is undone and all his chaos is reset. UNIT is thriving, Mel is alright and the universe is in order again. Ruby decides to stay on Earth, saying
"I spent all my time with you wondering who my real mum was. But she was always right here" looking over at Carla. Blake however decides to stay with The Doctor and the two leave for more adventures
Mrs Flood still has her little speach at the end, but this time she is sitting calmly at a table, holding a book about Galifrey and The Time Lords. She says her line of "The Doctor's story ends in absolute terror" to end off the episode and close out Season 14
