They were twenty as they approached the target world. They manoeuvred around the large ice and gas giants, picking up speed as they went. Then there was a vast field of stones in their path. The asteroid belt was full of fast moving rocks of all sizes and quickly the twenty became twelve. The twelve formed a long line but an unseen gravity field smashed their middle into tiny shards. The remaining four clumped closely together when the plan came. Three of the four cleared the way, sacrificing their part of the consciousness to ensure a part of them reached the target. Only one spheroid emerged from the cloud of rocks and approached the small red world before lining up on its final approach path.

The interior of the TARDIS was a perfect example of calmness and peace. The only sounds to be heard came from the central control column as she cheerfully bleeped to herself. The front doors opened inwards with a whirr of efficiency and two figures bundled inside, screaming hysterically and both covered in blood.

The female looked sharply at her best ever friend. “Shut the door, shut the door!” She relaxed only a little until both doors were firmly closed. She was an ancient shape shifting android, created at the beginning of the Universe by a race of people now long gone from their place in the great scheme of things. He mind was filled with wisdom and information from many thousands of cultures since she had been created. “Oooh, can we make papier mache masks now?” She tugged on the Doctor’s jacket sleeve until he agreed.

The Doctor, a renegade Time Lord, rebel soul, avant garde dresser, champion of the oppressed and defender of time sometimes felt that his companion Alice had the IQ of a bucket of Tarkalian Bladder Beetles. “I think after such a strenuous adventure we should take a brief holiday to recuperate don’t you?”

Alice picked up her plastic pink watering can shaped daughter up from the floor and hugged her. “What do you think Molly? Should we all have a nice holiday?” Molly changed shape into a Lego brick castle in her arms.

The Doctor clicked his fingers together. “That gives me a great idea, I’ll just set the co-ordinates into the flight computer and we can be on our way.” He quickly tapped in the destination settings and dematerialised the ship. The central column began to rise and fall, indicating that they were on their way.

Alice handed Molly to the Doctor before rushing to her quarters to change for their big holiday adventure.

The Doctor looked at the toy castle shaped android. “I think she’s rather excited don’t you?” Baby Molly bleeped twice in his arms before transforming into a bowling pin and falling asleep.

A tiny funnel of superheated air went undetected by the recently closed UNIT observation posts all over the world. The tiny spheroid hurtled down through the atmosphere at terminal velocity past the day/night terminator and into the night. The sleeping population largely ignored the tiny streak of light and the dull impact of hard object and soft ground was nothing to wake up about. The Nestene had made it safely to Earth and soon the planet would become theirs forever.

The next day no one witnessed the arrival of the strange blue box that was operated by a power source that was half way between alien technology and magic. It’s fading in and out of reality as it fought for a purchase in the space-time continuum was totally ignored, even by a noisy raven that sat idly in a nearby tree. Humans had an awful lot of gullibility when it came to visitors from another world, which is why it’s the third most visited world, this side of the Galactic Core.

The Doctor emerged from the TARDIS and looked around. “After you Alice, I need to lock up. I’m always a bit wary of this time, the ship is sometimes mistaken for the real thing and I’d rather not run into police telephone box enthusiasts. They can be very, what’s the word? Excitable. They try to peek inside and take samples of the paintwork.”

Alice nodded in agreement. “Why don’t we disguise the outside then? That way we can draw less attention to ourselves.”

The Doctor patted the side of the ship. “I’ve thought about it, but why hurry things? It’s not like she’s even got fifty epochs on the clock is it?”

“Well I like nice, lovely pink and green and yellow and red and purple and brown and gold and blue and that turquoise. Is it green or is it blue?”

“Indeed.” The Doctor looked around and spotted a sigh post. “This way I think.” He headed off towards their destination. “Remember Alice, while you’re here don’t change shape.”

“I know, I know. Don’t change shape, unless I really have to.”

The Doctor looked sharply at his companion. “No, don’t change shape at all.”

“That’s what I said. You don’t listen to a word I say do you?” She bounced Molly, currently in the shape of a basketball, up and down on the ground.

The Doctor rescued Molly and spun the small ball-shaped child around on his fingertip. “Reminds me of the time I used to play for the Harlem Globetrotters.”

“When was that?” Alice asked. “I don’t remember that.”

“Oh, that was before we met. Kate dragged me on one of her shopping adventures and we ended up in a basketball court. Lots of fun.” He passed Molly back to her mother.

The Nestene awoke with a roar undetectable to the human ear. However several hundred homing pigeons headed towards Eastern Europe, rather than fly home across the Channel. There was lots of plastic nearby. Plastic is life. The Nestene infused the plastic with its being and began to implement its plan.

Alice looked at the fantastic sight in front of her eyes. “Lego Land!” She hugged the Doctor and cuddled Molly with excitement.

The Doctor put a calming arm around Alice’s shoulders. “Remember the talk we had about presenting a peaceful and dignified manner at all times?”

“Of course, but this is Lego Land. Lets go on the go karts first.”

The Doctor pulled a small bag of monies from his jacket pocket. “First we have to buy tickets, then we can enjoy the attractions.”

The park was everything Alice had dreamed that it would be, there were lots of multicoloured buildings made entirely of Lego bricks, huge life-size Lego people and of course the go karts.

The Doctor pointed at the height restriction on the Go Karts. “I’m sorry Alice, you’re too tall.”

Alice was about to shrink her height when she saw a large Lego pirate heading in her direction. “Is he supposed to be in this section?”

An impurity was detected. An Auton was dispatched to deal with it.

The Doctor looked at the tall plastic figure as it lumbered in their direction. “I didn’t know that they could move.” He looked again as its Ice Warrior like hand pivoted down on a hidden hinge. He saw a small gun barrel glint in the mediocre British sunlight. “Alice, take Molly to safety, now!”

“Why? What is it?”

“Just go!” The Doctor advanced slowly towards the Auton figure. “I know what you are.”

The pirate Auton looked blankly at the Doctor. “We detected an imperfection, you will not stop the Nestene.”

“We’ll see about that.” The Doctor took off his hat and placed it on a nearby picnic table. “I’ve defeated your kind before.”

“We are invincible, we are the ultimate life form in the Universe.”

The Doctor feigned looking at his wristwatch and yawned. “I suppose telling you that I’m the Doctor wouldn’t impress you?”

The Auton levelled its gun barrel at the Doctor’s head. “Destroy, total destruct.”

I guess you are impressed.” The Doctor was about to dodge the lumbering Auton when a Alice shaped figure flew past him and cannoned into the plastic killer.

Alice stood over the broken figure, an angry look on her face. “You have a problem with the Doctor, you have a problem with me.” The Auton’s arm twitched so she ground her feet into its face.

The Doctor got up to his feet and looked at the broken fragments of Auton. “They can control plastic, any plastic. We have to keep these pieces as far apart from each other as possible.

Alice gulped when she saw the pieces of plastic beginning to melt and run together in a huge puddle of swirly colours. “Why don’t we run?”

The Doctor looked at his companion. “Where did you put Molly?”

Alice pointed over to the large steel lockers. “I put her into one of them, she’ll be safe in there won’t she? I can transmit lullabies to her if you want.”

The Doctor looked at the mass of plastic, it was beginning to rise up into a crude humanoid shape. “I think she’ll be quite safe in there, lets get these people out of here.”

“Oooh, can I turn into a police car?” Alice really wanted to help out.

The Doctor shook his head, “not just yet.” He saw her glum look and felt sorry for her.

“You can look like a WPC though, if you want to.”

Within half a second Sergeant Alice was busy ordering the public away from the rapidly reforming Auton. “Ok, move along. There’s nothing to see here.”

The Nestene had identified the impurity, a petty being from an obscure and primitive world. The Nestene knew this Doctor; it had thwarted their attempts to seize this world and others. This could not be tolerated, the Doctor was their priority and it must be destroyed, total destruct.

Mike Weston looked up from reading his copy of NME to see one of those big Lego figures moving in his direction. “Hey Sally, look at the big Lego man.” He pointed the figure out to his kid sister. He had been the one who had brought her up ever since their parents died in a car crash when Sally was a baby.

“Seen them before, they’re so past boring. This whole place is boring, why did I even think it would be cool to come here?” Sally looked briefly at the tall figure before looking back at her older brother and his glare.

Mike looked sharply at his little sister. “Hey, it’s your birthday present, you wanted to come here.”

“Well I’m here and it’s boring.” She looked up as the huge spaceman shaped figure towered over her. “What do you want?” She demanded.

“Destroy humans, total destruct.” The Auton fired at the smaller of the two creatures, destroying it in a cloud of smoke.

“No!” Mike screamed in horror and shock. Seconds later a woman copper was standing next to him and it tore the Lego creature into three pieces.

“Come with me.” Alice took hold of the crying man’s hand. “I’m so sorry about her, if only I had been a bit quicker.”

“She was my sister, she was the only family I had left.” Mike looked at his rescuer and realised that half of her seemed to be a small car. “What the hell are you?” His head felt funny and the world seemed to be spinning faster and faster.

“Call me Alice.” Alice made a seat for the sleepy man to snooze on until she got him to safety.

The Doctor walked towards a growing tower of Lego bricks that seemed to be growing in the middle of the amusement park. He made to pick up a telephone to call UNIT but it was made out of plastic and the receiver turned into a creature that was part squid and part cobra.

A small plastic ball rolled out from a doorway and stood silently in front of him.

“It’s going to take more than you to defeat me.” The Doctor fished into his jacket pockets and pulled out a small glass vial. “I wouldn’t advise any action, otherwise I might accidentally spill some of this.” He held the bottle of mineral water up menacingly.

“Get down!” A soldier shouted to the oddly dressed man.

“What?” The Doctor turned around to see a soldier aiming a rifle. “Don’t shoot, your bullets can’t harm them.”

“Get out of the way you bloody idiot!” The soldier aimed above the clown’s head and fired.

The Doctor ran over towards the soldier. “Call yourself a soldier? You’re not trained for this. Get Brigadier Bambara on the phone, this is a code triple A situation.”

“Shut up right now.” The soldier aimed at the sphere of plastic and fired again and again.

The Doctor put his fingers in his ears while the solider fired at the ball of plastic. “Is that an SA-80?”

“Standard issue.” The soldier replied.

“Put it down, quickly! The handle’s made of plastic.”

The soldier looked at the idiot when suddenly his hands began to burn. The handle had melted and was burning the skin of his hands. He tried to scrape the plastic away but it was too sticky and the pain was too much.

“Ok, that’s enough.” The Doctor yelled at the ball of plastic. “Release him, now.”

The sphere rolled forward, growing bigger by the second as it sucked air into its form. Then it barged into the soldier and enveloped him with its body.

The Doctor tried prodding the ball with a twig but it was no use. He heard the wild screams of the soldier until they fell ominously silent. “No, this has gone too far.” He lent down and drew a line in the dirt with the twig. “This far, no further.”

Alice quickly hid her new friend inside of an unused room, along with Molly. Then she left, rushing back at speed to where she had left the Doctor and the other people. She changed her shape into that of an orange police car and flashing purple lights, she got back quickly and looked good too. However things weren’t so good and she was surrounded by a number of the large Lego figures. There were too many of them to fight so she quickly transformed her outward shape once again so that she appeared as a Lego princess, dressed in a beautiful pink gown and a chunky tiara, which fitted on to her head.

The Autons looked around. “The shape shifter has eluded us, we must return to destroying the human vermin.”

“Destroy, total destruct.”  Alice pretended to say the words but she quite liked humans, they were funny and strange and besides Eve was one and Eve was nice. She missed her former roommate and confidant. It just wasn’t the same telling the Doctor about her crush on the TARDIS’s vending machine. She began to explore when two Auton drones appeared next to her.

“What are our orders?”

Alice looked at the cowgirl and cowboy; they would make such a nice couple if they stopped being so mean to everyone. “Why don’t you erm disarm each other to test for loyalty?” She didn’t enjoy watching the figures tear the others arm off. “Now, why don’t you two help herd the humans out of the immediate vicinity?”

“We obey.”

Alice felt that she had done a little bit of good, although expecting the Autons not to chuck people about like competitors in an Olympic hammer throwing contest was a little much faith on her behalf. Still she could only do her very utmost totally focused best to help, couldn’t she?

The Doctor opened the storage cupboard and used the sonic screwdriver to gain access to the dangerous chemicals storage room. He looked over the metal and wood shelves until two brown glass jars caught his attention. “Good, very good. Now I’ll need something to disperse it.” A plastic wire descended slowly from the ceiling and wound itself around his neck. His hands shot up and tried to find a grip on the wire, as he fought to stop it from choking the life out of him.

The Nestene concentrated, the Doctor creature was in its grasp. It could feel the sick, polluted life form twitching and dying. It redoubled its efforts to get this annoying detail accomplished as it had far grander tasks to complete.

Brigadier Winifred Bambara’s feet crunched onto the gravel car park before her jeep had even stopped moving. “I want this place evacuated and the perimeter secured ASAP. Wolf and Fox teams I want you to sweep the rest of the place, remember these things love plastic so take care.” She watched the specially equipped troops rush forward. There was no trace of plastic on their person; even Corporal Johnson’s spectacles were made from metal and glass with tiny nose pads made from felt pads.

Lieutenant Gabrielle Chekov saluted to her CO. “Hawk team is in position now sir, Eagle team reports some problems with orange cones.”

Bambara looked at her junior officer. “Traffic cones? Oh shame. Tell them to kick them over.”

The Doctor tried to shoo the UNIT soldier away when he burst into the storage room but he used a metal blade to cut him down with.

“How did you get in this mess?” Private soldier Ray Taylor asked the gaudily dressed civilian. He saw that the plastic was still strangling the bloke but he somehow managed to uncoil it with some difficulty.

“Hold it still.” The Doctor’s voice was gruff and rasping. The wire was whipping around, trying to find its target. “This will dissolve the plastic.” The Doctor poured the slightly yellow compound over the wire and it quickly melted and dissolved into a red gunky puddle.

“What is it?” Taylor asked. “The Brigadier just said it liked plastic a lot.”

“It’s an Auton.” The Doctor screwed the top back on the brown glass jar and got to his feet. “Thanks for saving my live by the way, most kind of you. I’m the Doctor; I don’t think you’ll have heard of me. I used to do a spot of work for UNIT a long time ago when Lethbridge-Stewart was in charge.”

“Yeah, well we should evacuate you sir. They don’t want any civilians in the area.”

The Doctor looked at the UNIT soldier. “Civilian? Civilian? Do I look like a civilian to you Private? I’m your best hope for saving the Earth from the Nestene consciousness.”

“I thought you said it was an Auton.”

“Yes, that was an Auton. The Nestene Consciousness is something far more complex and explaining that will give you a headache for at least a month. I’m the Doctor, trust me I’m your only hope.”

Alice wandered around the empty amusement park. All of the nice, pretty displays had gone. The plastic had been drawn away to form the huge tower rapidly building itself skywards. This was the best place to look for a way to stop the bad Autons so she skipped over in its direction.

“Why are we going to that tower sir?” Taylor asked the strange Doctor guy.

“To have a look around of course soldier.” The Doctor paused for a second and put his hand over the man's eyes. “Ray Taylor, two brothers, two sisters. Unmarried. Joined the army to try and find a direction in life. Recruited by UNIT after your platoon discovered a crashed Terileptil shuttlecraft. Favourite colour red, likes smoking, left handed, once sang Wonderwall at the Christmas karaoke party.”

Taylor looked amazed at the Doctor once he removed his hands from his eyes. “Wow, how did you learn all of that?”

The Doctor smiled sagely. “The eyes are the window to the soul. You should return to your fellows, Lance Corporal Potdevin will ask you out on a date tonight.”

“Marie-Claire? Really?”

The Doctor nodded slowly. “Now go, please. This is my battle, yours is elsewhere.” He headed inside the tower once the soldier had departed.

Mike opened his eyes. He was in some sort of storage room. He was laid out on a really uncomfortable bed. Nearby on a desk there was a weird cuckoo clock that seemed to be constantly chiming the hour with a different thing each time. He picked it up and somehow he was filled with a tremendous feeling of peace and contentment. For some reason he felt it necessary to tickle the clock and it changed shape into a green teapot! He was going to drop it but he felt great sadness and fear coming from the teapot so instead he held onto it. There was a door in the room so he opened it and found himself in another part of the park. He remembered his sister dying, she was vaporised right in front of his very eyes. Somehow this teapot was putting words into his head, filling in some of the gaps in his knowledge. He wanted to fling it onto the ground but it seemed to be trying to feel sorry for his loss. Was it crying? There was some sort of weird tower up ahead and he felt the teapots influence drawing him towards it. There was someone there, someone who meant everything.

Alice stopped in her tracks. She could feel Molly nearby. “Yes, bring him to Mummy.” She hoped her baby could process the information correctly; she was very easily distracted. Unlike her mother of course. Was that a gold coloured Lego brick? Alice followed it, as it seemed to move like a caterpillar up the winding staircase.

“Hold steady!” Bambara fired her pistol at the approaching wave of plastic. The colours seemed to ripple over its surface like a kaleidoscope and she didn’t realise quite how close it was until a soldier nearby yelled in pain when it engulfed him in flesh scorching agony. “Retreat!” She gave the order to fall back. She tried to pick the fallen man up but he was already dead and the plastic mass pulled the body into its self.

The Doctor made his way into the control room. Inside of it, on a raised dais, squatted a Nestene sphere. “I knew I would find you here. I could sense your presence at the edges of my mind. You can’t win; the force of recorded history is against you. No, you can’t change history, you mustn’t. The fabric of reality would be pulled apart like an old wool scarf. You cannot remake the Universe in your own image. Yes I’m going to stop you.”

Alice wondered to whom the Doctor was talking to when she found him in the large room. “Hi there.” She breezed up to her very best, super duper friend and took hold of his hand. “Miss me?”

“Of course.” The Doctor handed his companion one of the glass bottles. “We must use this to destroy the Nestene sphere.”

Alice looked at the bottle. “What will this do?”

“It’s a plastic corrosive, it will eat all the plastic away in seconds.”

Alice was puzzled and needed a very vital question answering. “Including the plastic we’re standing on?”

“Ah yes, but we have to save the Earth.” He looked at Alice. “Once we destroy that you must save yourself, find Molly and get UNIT to take you in. They will look after you until your baby’s old enough to control her abilities. They might even make you a Captain.” The Doctor laughed for a couple of seconds.

Alice started to unscrew her bottle. “It’s been nice travelling with you, you’re really nice.”

The Doctor ran his fingers through Alice’s hair. “Don’t cry Alice, I think there’s at least one more Doctor in me yet.”

Mike trudged up the staircase. He could hear the faint whisperings of a conversation up ahead. He wanted to pause but the teapot turned itself into a pink telephone and had urgent feelings of need. “Ok, ok. We’ll go on, just don’t change without letting me know first? I don’t want to drop you.”

The wave of plastic seemed to fall back and meld into the rapidly expanding tower. “Hold your fire. The Doctor’s in there.” She looked at Private Taylor. “It wasn’t a short guy with a loud mouthed girl by any chance?”

“No sir, he was pretty tall with the weirdest outfit I’ve ever seen. Better tailored than the shouty one we encountered last year though and he wasn’t as broad as him.”

“Must be a new one then.” Bambara felt that having her teeth drilled out by a psychotic Zygon was more appealing than having the Doctor rush in and save the day at the last second.”

The Doctor turned back to the Nestene sphere. “This ends, now. I can’t let you harm anyone else.” He was about to unscrew the jar in his hands when the sphere exploded and a mass of sticky was flung out onto his face.

Alice screamed in shock as the reddish purple thing clung all over the Doctors face. She tried to pull it off but it paralysed her hands.

The Doctor thrashed about as the Nestene tried to force its way into his nose and mouth. He tried pulling the sticky mass off of his face but it attacked the nerves paralysing his fingers.

“Help?” Mike looked down at the pink phone. “The jar?” He rushed forward and tipped half of the contents of one of the jars all over the squirming man’s face.

Alice looked at Mike and told him to pour more of the stuff over her hands, which he did. Then she picked up Molly and hugged her tightly. “I’m so glad to see you again. You managed to bring help too. Who’s Mummy’s precious little baby then? It’s you, yes it’s you.”

Mike left the strange lady and her telephone while he saw that the guy was ok. There was still some of the stuff on his hands so he poured the last of the yellowish liquid onto it. Immediately the floor began to shudder and shake.

“We have to get out of here!” Alice picked the Doctor up easily with one hand. “Take Molly and follow me.” She raced down the staircase with the Doctor over her shoulder.

Mike picked up the pink telephone and followed the crazy woman.

Bambara watched as the large multicoloured tower started to sink downwards. “Get my people out of there ASAP.” She watched as Lieutenant Potdevin quickly passed the order on. “Call intelligence division, I want a cover story issued to the media in less than one hour.” She looked at Private Taylor. “You’re sure he called himself the Doctor? It couldn’t be another of those CIA impersonators trying to steal our files?”

“Yes sir.” Taylor replied. “He said he used to be a scientific advisor with a Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.”

“I see.” Bambara looked across at the blue police telephone box. “Well it looks like he’s managed to save the day. I really hate it when this happens; all the forms are in triplicate and Lockwood spends three weeks questioning every one and inspecting each and every piece of equipment.”

Alice placed the Doctor down on the floor. “Doctor? Are you ok?”

The Doctor coughed violently and wretched up a sickly red lumpy fluid. “I’ve been better Alice. What a day?”

Mike helped the weirdly dressed Doctor to his feet. “Are you ok?”

The Doctor tried a weak smile but it was too much. “I’ll recover, it tried to fill my lungs but I was able to hold it back until you were able to save my life.”

Alice kissed Mike softly. “He’s a hero, he even protected my baby.”

“That’s a baby?” Mike’s astonishment finally caught up with him. “Well after today I’m not surprised. I can’t even bury my kid sister, they killed her right in front of me and I couldn’t protect her.” Tears started to flood down his cheeks as the pain of bereavement filled his being.

The Doctor comforted the sobbing man. “I’m sorry, I wish I could save them all but I’m not a god. I can’t bring her back, I’m sorry.”

Alice looked sharply at the Doctor. “He needs people to be with.”

The Doctor shook his head. “I can’t just go around abducting people and forcing them to travel with me.”

Alice turned away and headed back to the TARDIS. “I’ll be in my room if you need me.”

The Doctor handed Mike a handkerchief. “I know you don’t want to hear this right now, but you need to get past this. You can be of great help to me and to others. You’re hurting, you’re in pain, you feel like you’re the only one but you’re not. There are people out there who can’t help themselves, people who have no one and nothing to turn to, people who we can help.”

“Please, leave me alone.” Mike snapped at the Doctor.

“I understand hurt Michael, I’ve lost too many people close to me not to understand the anguish of loosing a loved one. I want to help you Michael, please let me help you come to terms with the loss of your sister. I can see such generosity in your heart Michael, it’s like a beacon that calls out into the night guiding lost souls to safety.” The Doctor stood up. “Come with me, please?” He held out his hand.

Mike stood up. “Ok, but enough of the touchy feely stuff, yeah? Oh and it’s just Mike.”

The Doctor pointed towards the TARDIS. “I think you’ll find the TARDIS is to your liking Mike. The pay is nonexistent but the rewards can be quite good for the soul.” He spotted Brigadier Bambara in the distance. “First of all I’d like you to meet an old friend. Just don’t laugh at her first name, she’s very uptight about it.”

Alice watched the Doctor and Mike from the TARDIS scanner. “It’s going to be nice to have someone new about the place, especially on Hopscotch Tuesday, isn’t it?” She smiled to herself and hugged Molly when she transformed into a yellow plastic bucket and spade in her arms.