LYNDA HAS HAD GONE TO SIT WITH THE OTHER CONTESTANTS ON THE SOFA, while the Doctor was using his sonic screwdriver to try and get out. He needed to get to his friends, he wasn't sure what happened to them when they got transmitted to wherever the hell they were.
"Doctor, they said all the housemates must gather on the sofa. You've got to." Lynda said from her spot on the couch.
"I'm busy getting out, thanks." the Doctor replied rudely, not caring what the girl was saying.
"But if you don't obey, then all the housemates get punished."
"Well, maybe I'll be voted out, then." the Doctor said sarcastically, plopping down on the purple couch near the dark-skinned woman.
"How stupid are you?" the man asked, rudely, "You've only just joined, you're not eligible."
"Don't try anything clever or we all get it in the neck," Lynda added.
"Big Brother House this is, Davina Droid." the electronic female voice said, the woman sitting next to the Doctor grabbed his hand in hers and squeezed it tightly, causing him to sigh in boredom. The others were also holding hands tightly. "Davina Droid. Crosbie, Lynda, and Strood, you have all been nominated for eviction. And the eighth person to be evicted from the Big Brother House is..." there was a too long of a pause, "Crosbie!"
The Doctor rolled his eyes, leaning back on the sofa, his hands behind his head, bored.
"I'm sorry! Oh, I'm sorry! Sorry!" Lynda cried, reaching over to grasp her hands.
"Oh, it should've been me." Strood pulled Crosbie into a tight hug, rubbing her arm, "Oh, that's not fair, Crosbie love."
"I won't forget you," Lynda promised, the trio walked to the door leaving the Doctor leaning back on the couch, disinterested.
"I'm sorry I stole your soap," Crosbie admitted.
"I don't mind, honestly." Lynda pulled her into a hug,
"Thanks for the food. You're a smashing cook. Bless you." Strood also pulled her into a hug once Lynda pulled away.
A door to a short white corridor opens, with another door at the far end.
"Crosbie, please leave the Big Brother House."
Crosbie looked frightened as she looked down the white corridor, "Bye, then. Bye, Lynda."
"Bye." Strood and Lynda make an arch, and Crosbie walks through.
"I don't believe it. Crosbie." Lynda whispered.
"It's only a game show." the Doctor said, turning towards the two contestants, "She'll make a fortune on the outside. Sell her story, release a record, fitness video, all of that. she'll be laughing."
"What do you mean, on the outside?" Lynda demanded.
"Here we go." Strood cried, "The screen suddenly changed from the eye to the white corridor, he and Lynda rushed back over to the couch sitting down.
"What are they waiting for? Why don't they just let her go?" the Doctor demanded.
"Stop it," Lynda snapped at him, "it's not funny."
"Eviction in five," The computerized voice returned. "four, three, two, one."
A beam comes down from the ceiling and hits Crosbie. After a few moments, she vanishes in a puff of smoke.
The Doctor leaned forward in his seat, frowning at what he had just witnessed.
"What was that?" the Doctor asked.
"Disintegrator beam." Strood answer hoarsely.
"She's been evicted." Lynda explained, "From life."
"Are you insane?" the Doctor yelled, standing up, "You just step right into the disintegrator? Is it that important, getting your face on the telly? Is it worth dying for?"
"You're talking like we've got a choice!" Lynda cried, standing up from the couch.
"But I thought you had to apply." the Doctor faulted.
"Don't be so stupid. That's how they played it centuries back."
"You get chosen whether you like it or not." Lynda snapped. "Everyone on Earth is a potential contestant. The transmat beam picks you out at random. And it's non-stop. There are sixty Big Brother houses running all at once."
"How many? Sixty?" the Doctor choked.
"They've had to cut back." Strood shrugged, "It's not what it was."
"It's a charnel house!" the Doctor snapped. "What about the winners? What do they get?"
"They get to live."
"Is that it?"
"Well, isn't that enough?" Lynda snapped.
"Lindsey is out there!" the Doctor said as he walked over to the door that Crosbie went through, "So is Rose. They got caught in the transmat. She's a contestant. Time I got out. That other contestant, er, Linda with an I. She was forcibly evicted for what?"
"Damage to property," Lynda answered.
"What, like this?" the Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at the camera on the ceiling and it exploded into oblivion.
· ━━━━━ ·⚘· ━━━━━ ·
Lindsey groaned as she felt herself being carried in someone's arms.
"She's waking up." she heard the man's voice, she pushed herself out of the man's arms causing her to fall to the floor. She cried out when she landed on her wrist.
"Shit." the man cursed, he reached down to grab her
Lindsey ran down the corridor out to an opening, she looked around for a moment at the rather familiar outlay.
"What the hell?" she muttered.
"Hey! Get back here!" she heard the man running up behind her. She panicked as she darted behind a stack of metal crates.
"I know you're here, girly." the man taunted as he reached the room, "Come out and I won't hurt you."
Lindsey bit her lip in an attempt to stop herself from making a sudden noise. She caught sight of a piece of metal that was laying on the floor beside her. She gently picked it up hoping not to make a sound as she flung the metal rod in another direction.
"There you are!" the man sneered, running towards the noise.
Lindsey took the opportunity to dart towards the open lift. Once she entered she caught the attention of the man who started to run towards her.
"You're not getting away!" he yelled as the lift doors closed, cutting him off from the pain withered red-head girl.
Lindsey cringed as her headache was getting worse she fell back against the back of the lift, sliding down the wall in pain. She held onto her head as the voices from her watch got louder and louder. Her world once again falling to black.
· ━━━━━ ·⚘· ━━━━━ ·
"You are the weakest link. Goodbye!" Anne-Droid said, Rodrick and Rose, look away as Colleen is atomized.
"Going to the break!" the floor manager called. "Two minutes on the clock. Just a reminder we've got solar flare activity coming up in ten. Thanks, everyone."
"Colleen was clever. She banked all our money. Why'd you vote for her?"
"Because I want to keep you in. You're stupid! You don't even know the Princess Vossaheen's surname. When it comes to the final, I want to be up against you, so that you get disintegrated and I get a stack load of credits courtesy of the Bad Wolf Corporation."
"What?" Rose blinked, "What do you mean? Who's Bad Wolf?"
"They're in charge." Rodrick answered with a frown, "They run the Game Station."
"Why are they called Bad Wolf?" Rose demanded.
"I don't know. It's just a name." Rodrick said, shrugging. "It's like an Old Earth nursery rhyme sort of thing what does it matter?"
"I keep hearing those words everywhere we go. Bad Wolf." Rose mumbled. "Different times. different places, like it's written all over the Universe."
"What're you going on about?"
"If the Bad Wolf is in charge of this quiz, then maybe I'm not here by mistake," Rose said. "Someone's been planning this."
· ━━━━━ ·⚘· ━━━━━ ·
The Doctor was seated between Lynda and Strood, "The Doctor, you've broken the House Rules. Big Brother has no choice but to evict you." The computerized voice said, the Doctor grinned. "You have ten seconds to make your farewells, and then we're going to get you!"
"That's more like it." the Doctor cheered, running around the couch towards the door, "Come on, then. Open up!"
"You're mad! It's like you want to die." Lynda said.
"I reckon he's a plant. He was only brought in to stir things up." Strood accused.
"The Doctor, please leave the Big Brother house."
The door slid open and the Doctor immediately runs into the corridor, the door soon closing with Lynda trying to get one last glance of him before it closed.
"Come on then, disintegrate me!" the Doctor said, looking up at the camera, "Come on, what're you waiting for? Disintegrate me. What are you waiting for?"
"He is, he's mad. He's bonkers." Lynda said, watching the screen.
"Eviction in five, four, three, two, one." the computerized voice said before it shuts down.
"Ah, ha! I knew it!" the Doctor cheered. "You see, someone brought me into this game. If they'd wanted me dead, they could've transmatted me into a volcano. They want me alive."
"Maybe security isn't as tight this end. Are you following this?" The Doctor said as he used his sonic screwdriver on the door, unlocking it. "I'm getting out!"
The door to the Big Brother room opens revealing Lynda who was still standing by the door. The Doctor turns to face her, "Come with me."
"We're not allowed!" Strood protested.
"Stay in there, you've got a fifty-fifty chance of disintegration." the Doctor said. "Stay with me, I promise I'll get you out alive. Come on!"
"No, I can't. I can't." she shakes her head.
"Lynda, you're sweet." the Doctor said. "From what I've seen of your world, do you think anyone votes for sweet?"
Lynda hesitates, but the Doctor holds out his hand she looks at it for a moment before rushing into the white corridor taking his hand as he guilds her out. They run out to find a rather familiar sight, well to the Doctor anyway.
"Hold on. I've been here before." the Doctor said, "This is Satellite Five."
· ━━━━━ ·⚘· ━━━━━ ·
"No guards. That makes a change. You'd think a big business like Satellite Five would be armed to the teeth." the Doctor said, as he opens another door and they go through.
"No one's called it Satellite Five in ages." Lynda told him, "It's the Game Station now. Hasn't been Satellite Five in about a hundred years."
"A hundred years exactly. It's the year two zero one zero. I was here before, Floor one three nine. The Satellite was broadcasting news channels back then. Had a bit of trouble upstairs. Nothing too serious. Easy. Gave them a hand, home in time for tea."
"A hundred years ago? What, you were here a hundred years ago?" Lynda said, in disbelief.
"Yep!"
"You're looking good on it." She flirted.
"I moisturize." he joked, not noting that she was flirting with her, "Funny sorts of readings. All kinds of energy. The place is humming. It's weird. This goes way beyond normal transmissions. What would they need all that power for?"
"I don't know." Lynda admitted, "I think we're the first-ever contestants to get outside."
"I had three friends traveling with me. They must've got caught in the same transmat. Where would they be?"
"I don't know. They could've been allocated anywhere. There are a hundred different games."
"Like what?"
"Well, there's ten floors of Big Brother." Lynda began, "There's a different House behind each of those doors. And then beyond that, there are all sorts of shows. It's non-stop. There's Call My Bluff, with real guns. Countdown, where you've got thirty seconds to stop the bomb going off. Ground Force, which is a nasty one. You get turned into compost. Er, Wipeout, speaks for itself. Oh, and Stars In Their Eyes. Literally, stars in their eyes. If you don't sing, you get blinded."
"And you watch this stuff?" the Doctor asked.
"Everyone does. How come you don't?"
"Never paid for my license." he lied.
"Oh, my God! You get executed for that." Lynda gasped.
"Let them try." he grinned, holding up his sonic.
"You keep saying things that don't make sense. Who are you though, Doctor, really?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Well, it does to me." Lynda huffed. "I've just put my life in your hands."
"I'm just a traveler, wandering past." the Doctor said, "Believe it or not, all I'm after is a quiet life."
"So, if we get out of here, what're you going to do?" Lynda asked. "Just wander off again?"
"Fast as I can," he replied.
"So," Lynda hesitated, before asking him, "I could come with you?"
"Maybe you could."
" I wouldn't get in the way." She insisted.
"I wouldn't mind if you did." he grinned, "Not a bad idea, Lynda with a Y. But first of all, we've got to concentrate on getting out. And to do that, you've got to know your enemy. Who's controlling it? Who's in charge of the satellite now?"
"Hold on," Lynda muttered, she ran around the corner on the door the Doctor was working on opening, the Doctor walked from the door in time to see her flip a switch. His stomach dropped as the sign above them lights up.
Bad Wolf Corporation
"Your lords and masters," Lynda said, pointing up at the sign.
· ━━━━━ ·⚘· ━━━━━ ·
Jack is taking apart the Defabricator.
"Compatible systems." he muttered, "Just align the wave signature. Attaboy! Got me a gun. Well, ladies," he turned to the now headless robots, "the pleasure was all mine. Which is the only thing that matters in the end."
He runs out of What Not To Wear towards a lift, He checks his wrist computer. "Two hearts," he paused, "that's him. Which floor?"
He turns to step into the lift only to freezes when he sees a familiar red-head, "Lindsey!" He let the gun fall from his grip as he dropped near his former lover. He took her in his arms, checking her body over for injuries.
"Come on, love." he checked her pulse sighing in relief as he heard one.
· ━━━━━ ·⚘· ━━━━━ ·
"Blimey!" Lynda gasped when they reached the observation deck, she ran up to the window in awe, "I've never seen it for real before. Not from orbit. Planet Earth."
"What's happened to it?" the Doctor blinked in surprise at the state of the Earth.
"Well, it's always been like that Ever since I was born. See that there?" she pointed towards one side of the planet. "That's the Great Atlantic Smog Storm. It's been going twenty years. We get newsflashes telling us when it's safe to breathe outside."
"So the population just sits there?" the Doctor demanded, "Half the world's too fat, and half the world's too thin, and you lot just watch telly?"
"Ten thousand channels," Lynda nodded, "all beaming down from here."
"The Human Race." the Doctor growled, "Brainless sheep being fed on a diet of...." he stopped and thought, I don't mean Lindsey when I say that... he turned to Lynda "Mind you, have they still got that program where three people have to live with a bear?"
"Oh, Bear With Me." Lynda laughed. "I love that one!"
"And me. The celebrity edition where the bear got in the bath."
"Got in the bath!"
"But it's all gone wrong." the Doctor said, looking back towards the Earth, "I mean, history's gone wrong again. This should be the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. I don't understand. Last time I was here I put it right."
"No, but that's when it first went wrong," Lynda told him. "A hundred years ago, as you said. All the news channels, they just shut down overnight."
"But that was me." the Doctor muttered, "I did that."
"There was nothing left in their place." Lynda said, "No information. The whole planet just froze. The government, the economy, they collapsed. That was the start of it. One hundred years of hell."
"Oh, my," he whispered, as he looked away from the blonde beside him, back towards the Earth below. "I made this world."