DOCTOR WHO IN DETAIL

At home Jane Bishop, with her family, is watching the Doctor on television talking about how the Monks have been helping, shaping, guiding, and protecting, humanity from the beginning. During the broadcast soldiers raid her home, and she is charged with the manufacture and possession of propaganda intended to undermine the True History. As she is taken away she keeps protesting that the Monks have only been on Earth for a few months. Outside Bill Potts watches as she is taken away.

At home Bill Potts struggles to make sense of what is happening. In the past Bill has created an imaginary version of her Mum to talk to when she's under pressure. She can remember asking for the Monks' help (see The Pyramid At The End Of The World) but she can't remember much after that. The Monks just appeared and took control of the Earth. Even though it was only six months earlier it feels like they have always been there.

Even though the Doctor seems to be on the side of the Monks Bill thinks he will have a plan to save everyone. As she talks she hears her door open - and Nardole enters the room. Nardole tells Bill he has a device that can break through the Monk's scrambler and has located the Doctor. There is a small outpost off the coast of Scotland. Every so often then need supplies, and Bill and Nardole use that as cover to break in.

Inside the outpost Bill and Nardole find the Doctor in a room. Instead of being pleased to see her the Doctor calls for guards. The Doctor makes a call and says he has called for the Monks. The Doctor explains to Bill that humanity has stopped progressing, and whilst the current situation isn't much better it is safer. Furious Bill takes a pistol from a guard and aims it at the Doctor. The Doctor tells her that he has joined the Monks, and she fires the gun at him.

The Doctor starts to regenerate, then stops, and everyone in the room (except Bill) starts to clap. The Monks have been controlling people, and the Doctor needed to check that Bill was definitely not under their control. The Doctor tells Bill he has spent the last six months planning, and recruiting and deprogramming the guards.

Back in Bristol the Doctor and Bill sneak back into the University and down to the vault. Inside, contained in a force field, is Missy playing a piano. The Doctor asks Missy if she has ever met the Monks. Whilst the Doctor comes up with ideas Missy tells him if his getting hold or cold with the answers. When Missy mentions the person who asked them for help the Doctor realises that person creates a psychic link. One person could not influence a planet, but there are many statues around the world, and they boost the signal around the world.

The Doctor says he has found the person who asked the Monks for help, and Missy says killing that person would weaken the Monks' hold. Missy, wanting to change and become good, has offered the Doctor a way to save the Earth. But the Doctor says he will not sacrifice a person because it is the easy way.

In the centre of London is the Monk's cathedral. The Doctor surmises that they must have a machine in there that creates and broadcasts the Monks' history. The idea is that the Doctor plugs his brain into it to transmit the true history to the world. The Doctor, Bill, Nardole, and the guards, attempt to break into the Monks' pyramid. The closer they get the stronger the psychic influence. This even extends to making people believe there are more Monks than there really are. To combat the effect everyone apart from the Doctor is wearing headphones and listening to a continuous loop of Bill talking about the Monks.

Inside the pyramid they find the control centre that is broadcasting information. The Doctor tries to control the machine, and for a short while it works. As the Doctor starts to override the machine it fights back and the Doctor is thrown across the room. When he wakes he is tied up. He struggles to get free as Bill takes control of the machine. The machine starts to take over, and uses Bill to broadcast its own truth. Until it hits the memory of her Mum, created by Bill. That memory is from a world without the Monks, and around the world people start to reject the Monks.

Rejected by humanity the Monks do what all oppressors do when the lose power - run.