DOCTOR WHO IN DETAIL

The Doctor and his companions land in the city of Arkhaven, the last bastion of civilisation in a doomed world.

The inhabitants of the city are pinning all their hopes on a final desperate gamble for survival. Behind the scenes there are jealous factions at work, secretly contesting for the chance to shape the destiny of a new world. Beneath its ordered surface, Arkhaven is a city of secrets and mysteries where outward appearances can be deceptive.

Is the thing they call the 'Creeper' really at large in Arkhaven's eerie outer zone - and is it beast or machine? What is the hidden force at work that has acted so strangely upon Susan?

With Barbara lost and the countdown to doomsday drawing to a climax, the Doctor must discover the true nature of the final enemy - or is that enemy simply fear itself?

The TARDIS arrives in Salem Village, Massachusetts, 1692. The Doctor whishes to effect repairs to his ship in peace and privacy, and so his companions - Ian, Barbara and Susan - decide to 'live history' for a week or so. But the friendships they make are abruptly broken when the Doctor ushers them away, wary of being overtaken by the tragic events he knows will occur.

Upon learning the terrible truth of the Salem witch trials, Susan is desperate to return - at any price. Her actions lead the TARDIS crew into terrible jeopardy, and her latent telepathy treatens to help the tragedy escalate way out her control...

'Have you ever thought what it's like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension, to be exiles?'

24 June, 2006. The TARDIS has landed in London. Ian and Barbara are almost back home. But this isn't the city they knew. This London is a ruin, torn apart by war. A war that the British are losing.

With his friends mistaken for vagrants and sentenced to death, the Doctor is press-ganged into helping perfect a weapon that might just turn the tables in the war. The British Army has discovered time travel. And the consequences are already devastating.

What has happened to the world that Ian and Barbara once knew? How much of the experiment do the Doctor and Susan really understand?

And, despite all the Doctor has said to the contrary, is it possible to change history?

'Life is cheap in Byzantium. Life is cheap everywhere that the Romans are.'

Byzantium. The imperial city - rising dramatically, as if by a trick of the light, from the peninsula of the Bosphorus and the Black Sea. Its domes and towers and minarets overlook a place of intrigue, lust, power, oppression, resistance and murder.

Romans, Greeks, Zealots, Pharisees ... all meet in the market squares of the great city, but mutual loathing and suspicion are rife.

In the cauldron, the Doctor and his companions arrive, expecting to view the splendour and civilisation of the Roman empire. But events cast them into a deadly maelstrom of social and political upheaval. In the eye of the hurricane they must each face the possibility of being stranded, alone and far from their own times, in an alien culture bunker.

'May you live in interesting times.'

The TARDIS crew have seen many times. When they arrive in China in 1865, they find banditry, rebellion, and foreign oppression rife. Trying to maintain order are the British Empire and the Ten Tigers of Canton, the most respected martial arts masters in the world.

There is more to the chaos than mere human violence and ambition. Can legends of ancient vengeance be coming true? Why does everyone Ian meets already know who he is? The Doctor has his suspicions, but he is occupied by challenges of his own.

Sometimes the greatest danger is not from the enemy, but from the heart.

In interesting times, love can be a weakness, hatred an illusion, order chaos, and ten Tigers not enough.

The gods have returned, and they're here to save our world.

New York, 1965. A time of conflict between ideologies, races, generations and genders, when crime runs rife and an unpopular war drags on in a distant land. In the midst of this turmoil, people cry out to their gods.

And now, it seems, the gods have answered their call. Walking the slums and tenements of down town Manhattan, demonstrating extraordinary powers, five strangers are gathering a crowd of worshippers.

Steven wants to believe in miracles, but the Doctor is more sceptical. What are the stranger's real motives, and why does history make no mention of these events? As New York begins to tear itself apart, the Doctor's principles are tested to their limits. Which side should he choose to help? And what part will a London schoolgirl named Dorothea Chaplet play in the ensuing chaos?

What price is humankind willing to pay for salvation?

'There are many beasts and monsters in the universe, it is true. But the worst of them is Man.'

A terrifying alien army is sweeping across the landscape, decimating towns and subjugating everyone and everything in its path. With their astute military tactics and advanced weaponry, the invaders seem unstoppable.

But this is not distant star, no alternative time line. Trapped in a frightened city, the Doctor and his companions discover that this is Earth history, and they are powerless to intervene. The impending slaughter of thousands is a matter of grim historical fact.

Not everyone within the city is prepared to accept their fate. Desperate people embark upon desperate courses of action. They may even succeed.

For deep beneath the city, something truly evil is stirring...

Far out in space, on the ragged edges of Earth's bloated empire, an elite unit of soldiers is on a training mission. But deep in the heart of the hollowed-out planetoid that forms their battleground, a chilling secret waits to be discovered: ten alien corpses, frozen in time at the moment of violent, bloody death.

The bodies are those of the empire's most wanted terrorists, and their discovery could end a war of attrition devastating the galaxy. But is the same force that slaughtered them still lurking in the dark tunnels of the training ground? And what are its plans for the people of Earth?

When the Doctor arrives on the planetoid with Ben and Polly, he soon senses a net tightening about them. And as the soldiers begin to disappear one by one, paranoia spreads; is the real enemy out there in the darkness, or somewhere among them?