Death in Heaven ReKapped! (Part One)

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Danny Pink is dead and being given a guided tour of the afterlife.

Clara is trapped beneath St Paul’s Cathedral surrounded by Cybermen emerging from the water-tombs.

The Doctor has just discovered that his nemesis has returned as Missy and has Master-minded the emergence of Cybermen from 3W mausoleums across the world.

Much of what we know from subsequent events is from UNIT records from the Black Archive…

UNIFIED INTELLIGENCE TASK FORCE

INCURSION EVENT FILE

Code: S9.12PC, a.k.a. “Dark Water”

* * * Top Secret * * *

Extract 1:

1.1 Interrogation of Cybermen data-implants recovered from the St Paul’s area indicate that Clara Oswald survived the cathedral’s Catacombs by claiming to be an incarnation of the extra-terrestrial known as the Doctor. She stated Clara Oswald was “a cover story, a disguise… Clara Oswald has never existed…”

1.2 It was while Ms Oswald attempted to deceive the Cybermen underground that covert and uniformed UNIT troops attended the Doctor and the Extraterrestrial hostile known as “Missy” [highly dangerous, mauve warning] outside the Cathedral. Cybermen were patrolling public areas and civilians attempting to interact with them.

1.3 Science Corps. agent Osgood appropriated Missy’s teleport/ communications/ projected energy weapon/ accessory.

1.4 The hostile known as Missy was apprehended. She reported using the alias “Queen of Evil.”

1.5 Chief Scientific Officer, Kate Stewart addressed the Cybermen and made contact with the Doctor. His ongoing contract with UNIT from the Lethbridge Division was confirmed. Salary and terms were not discussed.

1.6 A severed Cyber-Head from the International Electromatics Incursion was presented to demonstrate Terrestrial military effectiveness.

1.7 Conflicting with intelligence from previous event files, the Cybermen responded by becoming airborne.

1.8 St Paul’s Cathedral’s dome had been covertly engineered to deploy a total of 91 Cybermen into British airspace. Agent Osgood suspected this correlated to the 91 areas of significant population density in the British Isles.

1.9 The Cyberman airborn above London vaporised to leave a dark, expanding cloud. Extraterrestrial, Missy, claimed it was “pollinating”…

Extract ends.

In the Nethersphere, Danny’s preserved consciousness was informed by the hospitality interface that they were “going home”. Lights in the simulated city dim as the interface explains that the afterlife is in fact more of a datacloud – and it was about to rain…

UNIT Extract 2:

2.1 Extraterrestrial Missy stated to the Doctor that the human race would cease to exist in twenty-four hours.

2.2 As the Doctor attempted to interrogate the hostile, Missy, both Extraterrestrials were neutralised with tranquilisers. The First Protocol was implemented.

2.3 Prior to losing consciousness, the Doctor stated to agent Osgood, “Guard the graveyards”. The significance of this was initially unclear.

Extract ends.

A dark cloud forms over Brompton Cemetery and confused onlookers watch the rain fall only inside the graveyard. Water from the Cybercloud runs into the ground where bodies are buried.

More water rises from the drains and seep into Chaplet funeral home where a lone mortician listens to radio reports. The “flying cybermen are here on a global scale” but don’t seem to be attacking anybody. Meanwhile the water drips upwards and into the morgue refrigerators. The mortician stares as something inside starts trying get out. Behind him a fully-formed Cyberman rises from a post-mortem slab. The Cyberman is distracted and confused by a mirror and finds a frontsheet with the words “known as Danny Pink”…

UNIT Extract 3:

3.1 St Paul’s had been locked down, agent “Doctor”, hostile “Missy” and the Doctor’s Time Capsule, TARDIS were secured on the Boat One aircraft.

3.2 Officer Stewart informed the Doctor that once on board his word constituted law and that he was now the President of Earth according to internationally agreed Incursion Protocols.

3.3 The initial First Protocol laws were i) Clara Oswald was to be found and brought to the President; and ii) The President was not to be saluted.

Extract ends.

Clara is in the water-Catacombs holding an audience with three Cybermen. She lists several details about the Doctor’s background. Another Cyberman approaches from behind and asserts that she is Clara Oswald. It knows her date of birth and the names of her parents. Clara tells them that she made these details up as she is an “incredible liar”. The new Cyberman quietly agrees, “correct”. It then anaesthetises her prompting the other Cybermen’s realisation that this one is not under Cyber-Control. “Correct,” it states before blasting them.

On Boat One the Doctor is having a one-to-one with his old enemy, who had woken to find herself in Hannibal Lecter-style restraints. Missy taunts the Doctor that she knows where Gallifrey is and won’t tell him. The Doctor leaves reminding Missy of all the times that she’d tried achieving world domination and noting that it had just been thrust upon him. “Piece of cake…”

Osgood impresses the Doctor by deducing who Missy is and that as the clouds hadn’t dispersed they could continue to pose a threat. The Doctor replies “all of time and space”, noting that this is something for her bucket list…

Kate Stewart briefs those aboard Boat One that Cybermen are emerging from every cemetery, every funeral home, and every hospital where there are dead. Meanwhile Clara wakes to find herself apparently alone in a cemetery far from the centre of London. She calls out,  but can’t find whoever brought her there. Metal hands begin to rise from the graves.

Aboard Boat One the Doctor explains that the rain contains all of the information needed to convert any appropriate biological material into a Cyberman. He explains that the sinister 3W exploited the wealth of its clients to develop a new form of cyberconversion and now every corpse on the planet would be under Cyber-Control. “How can you win a war against an enemy that can weaponise the dead…?”

In the graveyard Clara is surrounded by Cybermen struggling up from under grave stones.

Colonel Ahmed informs the Boat One crew that worldwide the Cybermen seem to be wandering but not attacking. The Doctor notes that they’re still “newborns” with minds downloaded from Missy’s Gallifreyan hard-drive storage into the newly animated Cyber-bodies. It seems that Missy has been doing this for some time – perhaps as long as the human race has had a concept of the afterlife…

Missy is playing cat and mouse with Osgood in the hold. Googly eyed and, “bananas”, she goads Osgood into coming over then whispers that she is going to kill her. “Why does one pop a balloon?” With Osgood dead, Missy crushes her glasses under foot and activates her wrist-band. Boat One suddenly lurches…

In the cabin a Cyberman suddenly appears at a porthole. A group of them are flying after the plane, responding to Missy’s summons. In the hold the Doctor finds Osgood’s remains. Missy taunts him, “Do you have any more friends I can play with?”

In the graveyard, Clara wanders between lumbering and hesitant Cybermen until she finds the one that brought her there. It asks where the Doctor is and she says she won’t betray him, “He is the closest person to me in the whole world; the one man I would never, ever lie to.”

The Cyberman raises its gun arm aiming at Clara. Its arm is trembling. It lowers the weapon and removes its face plate to reveal Danny’s face, scarred and pierced with implants. He shows Clara his emotional inhibitor which hasn’t been activated and asks her to help him activate it. “Please, I don’t want to feel like this.”

TO BE CONTINUED…

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