Rose bids adieu to her mother and Mickey. Packed and ready, she rejoins the Doctor on board the TARDIS. Next stop: the year 5,000,000,026; the planet - New Earth. They arrive just outside the city of New New York, but the Doctor is mainly interested in the nearby hospital. There he hopes to find out who has sent him a telepathic message.

The hospital is run by a feline species, dedicated to healing the sick. Among the patients is the Face of Boe, seemingly preparing for death. Legend has it that he will impart a great secret to a traveller. While the Doctor ponders over what secret the Face of Boe may reveal he is also intrigued by the incredible feats of healing taking place at the hospital. Whether it is the curing of seemingly incurable diseases or the cure is not meant to be discovered at this stage in time - the Doctor is intrigued to learn the answer to these mysteries.

Rose, separated from the Doctor, finds herself in another part of the hospital and it it not long before she encounters an old enemy hidden in the lower levels. However, Rose soon learns that there is another secret, hidden within the hospital.

A group of monks arrive at Torchwood House an isolated manor somewhere in the Highlands of Scotland. However, they are seeking more than the master of the house expects.

Elsewhere, the Doctor and Rose head for Sheffield 1979 only to find themselves joining Queen Victoria's party as it heads for Balmoral. The year is 1879 and the Queen still mourns the loss of her husband, Albert. He loved Scotland so much, enjoyed his visits there and to Torchwood House, and his discussions with the father of Sir Robert, the current owner. While taking advantage of Sir Robert's hospitality, Rose discovers that all is not what it seems in the house. Something is being kept in the cellar and there are those who have been expecting Queen Victoria. Could there be any connection between the local legends and the fact that this very night is the night of a full moon?

At Mickey's instigation, the Doctor and Rose go undercover at a school: there have been UFO sightings, missing staff and the children are acting quite strangely. As a physics teacher, the Doctor is intrigued by the knowledge of one pupil, for example he knows the answer to the question of supralight travel. As a dinner lady, Rose observes odd behaviour in the kitchens such as the order that the children should eat chips, lots of chips (so much for healthy meals). A new dimension is added to the investigation when a journalist arrives on the scene, apparently to do an article on headmaster Mr Finch and his new practices which evidently are producing excellent results.

Rose soon learns that this journalist, Sarah Jane Smith, once travelled with the Doctor. Is this a glimpse of her own future? What role does Mickey play and what exactly does Mr Finch have in mind for the pupils at his school? And can he make the Doctor an offer he cannot possibly refuse? And can the contents of the boot of Sarah's car provide the team with assistance in the forthcoming battle?

In the mid-eighteenth century a young woman dashes into her bedroom and over to her fireplace. She notes that the clock above the mantelpiece is broken, so she bends down, looks into the fire and reminds the Doctor that he had promised to help her.

In the fifty-first century, the TARDIS materialises on a ship adrift in space. It has the power to move yet appears to be lacking the will. Some of its power is being used to maintain a series of time windows which all seemed focused on a young girl in eighteenth century France. The Doctor's first visit through a time window brings him into contact with a seven-year old girl and the monster under her bed. However, as time passes for the girl she grows into a woman - and not just any woman. Apart from being mistress to the King (Louis), it would seem that Reinette is also of importance to the robot crew of the spaceship.

Can the Doctor learn Reinette's secret? Can he stop the clockwork robots from taking her away to their ship? And will Reinette be able to reach the lost boy...?

John Lumic is a man like any other - battling against the ravages of age and infirmity. Unlike other men, though he has the money and the power to do something about it. There is also the slight problem that his idea will not meet with approval. Perhaps the President and the people of Great Britiain will see things differently?

The Doctor and Rose are sharing reminiscences about their travels: Mickey is feeling a little bit left out. To add insult to injury, he has been holding a control for the past thirty minutes simply because the Doctor had forgotten to tell him to let go of it...twenty-nine minutes ago. Before any further discussion can take place, the TARDIS loses all power and crashes. To the Doctor's horror the vortex has vanished: there is no chance of repairing the TARDIS - she is dead. Outside, Mickey brings their attention to the fact that they appear to have crash-landed in present day London. The Doctor quickly points out that is a parallel Earth: the TARDIS has ventured beyond its home vortex hence the power loss. There is a chance that he might be able to re-power the TARDIS but for the next 24-hours they are stranded on this parallel Earth.

For Rose, this parallel Earth provides her with another chance to meet her dad, very much alive and doing quite well too. For Mickey, on this Earth his gran is alive and it provides him with other opportunities. For certain members of the local population, however, something else is afoot as technology upgrades take on a more sinister meaning and an old enemy of the Doctor's is about to re-emerge...

The Doctor and Rose have travelled back in time to see Elvis in his heyday. Naturally, the TARDIS arrives in Britain in 1953 as the nation prepares for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Rose is quite surprised to note that in one street, every house has a television aerial. She recalls her mum telling her that in 1953 it would be quite the thing for even one house per street to have a television: and for an event such as the coronation, people would have crowded into houses.

The mystery deepens further when it becomes apparent that there are people locked away in rooms. People are being shoved into cars and driven off to a mysterious location. Is there some connection between these events and why is Mr Magpie selling television sets at cheap prices?

Emerging from the TARDIS, the Doctor and Rose find that they have arrived in a storage area of some complex. Wandering along the corridors of the complex they find some writing on a wall: writing which the TARDIS telepathic circuits cannot translate - making it an ancient language indeed.

The complex houses two species - humans and the Ood, a servitor race. When Rose asks for further information about the planet they have arrived on, the human crew are amazed but show her. Both the Doctor and Rose are astonished to find that the planet they have arrived on is in geostationery orbit around a black hole - an impossible planet indeed. Even more amazing, the humans have come to this planet, intrigued by the potential that could be offered by the gravity beam emanating from the heart of the planet.

As Toby struggles to translate the ancient language, the Ood develop peculiar faults with their translators, and the complex computer advises that he has awoken... Perhaps the source of the gravity beam, deep within the planet, is something best left alone?

When he was 3 years old, Elton was awoken in the middle of the night. He went downstairs and found a strange man standing, looking out of the window. Many years later, he came across a photograph of the same man - a current photograph. This man does not seem to have aged: and there are others who have noticed his existence. Elton forms a group with these other people - all they know about this man is that he is known only as the Doctor.

The small group bond in their own way, and then one day Victor Kennedy joins them and sets them new tasks in the quest for the Doctor. As the members of the group begin to diminish, and Kennedy's urgings to find the Doctor intensify, Elton begins to draw closer to finding the Doctor. However, perhaps there are other discoveries to be made, which are more important that finding this Doctor?

The year is 2012 AD, and London is preparing to host the Olympics. In a nearby street, however, children have been disappearing. One moment, a young boy is kicking a ball about, the next he is gone. The Doctor and Rose are soon on the trail which leads them to a house and a girl who spends most of her time in her room, drawing pictures.

Is it just imagination or do the pictures move? What has Chloe drawn in the back of her wardrobe? And just how could anyone feel alone with thousands crowding London for the Olympics?

Rose returns to Earth with a load of washing for her mum, plus a little gift from a bazaar on a distant world. She is surprised when her mother seems uninterested. Instead, Jackie has news of her own: her father, Rose's grandfather is due to visit any minute. Since Rose's grandfather died some ten years ago, she is concerned that there is something wrong with her mother. However, a strange, indistinct but recognisably humanoid figure appears from nowhere and moves around. Minutes later it is gone again, the ghost shift over.

The Doctor uses the television to determine that these ghosts appear all over the world and the initial fears have been dispelled and acceptance has taken over. While the people of Earth have come to regard these ghosts as normal, the Doctor is concerned enough to find out more about these fleeting visitors. Analysis during the next ghost shift enables the Doctor to locate the source of the signal that is controlling the shift. His efforts attract the attentions of those controlling the shift and they await his arrival with eagerness.

The Doctor and Rose, with Jackie on board the TARDIS, arrive at Torchwood Tower. There they discover that a mysterious sphere has been under analysis for many years, along with the strange region where the sphere came through. In fact, Torchwood Tower was built to enclose this region. The Doctor recognises the sphere as a void ship, something which can exist outside of space and time. As two worlds begin to crossover, the sphere prepares to unveil its secrets and it looks as if Earth is about to plunge into war...

It is Donna's big day. Her family and friends are gathered at the church, ready for her wedding to Lance. Who would have believed that six months previously she had been a temp at an office filled with people she regarded as too snobbish to know? Who would have believed that her boss would have offered to make her a cup of coffee? And who could possibly have believed that she was now walking down the aisle to marry that same man?

Of course, disbelief at any of those is soon eclipsed when Donna walks down the aisle but before she reaches the altar some force snatches her and she finds herself standing inside a strange room with a strange man? Obviously this is some prank dreamed up by Nerys, determined to prevent Donna and Lance from getting married. Except, that outside the doors of this strange room is the vastness of interstellar space.

The Doctor tries to help Donna return to Earth, to reunite her with her family and friends. He cannot take her back in time to the moment she was taken away from her wedding. Just when it seems that the matter has been resolved the Doctor watches in horror as Donna gets into a taxi driven by a robot Santa. Now he must rescue Donna and solve the mystery of the force that brought her to the TARDIS and which seems to have employed the robot Santas.