Saturday 24 June 2006

Fear Her

The TARDIS materialises on Dame Kelly Holmes Close on the day of the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games. The neighbourhood is preparing for the passing of the Olympic torchbearer, but the mood has been destroyed by the inexplicable disappearances of several local children. A council worker, Kel, also mentions that cars have been breaking down momentarily all day. The Doctor and Rose investigate and realise that the source of the problems is a solitary 12-year old girl, Chloe Webber, who is able to cause people to disappear by drawing them. The Doctor hypnotises Chloe and finds that she is possessed by an immature Isolus, an alien life-form used to traveling through space with a family of billions and which has crashed its pod to Earth due to a solar flare. The Isolus has befriended Chloe as she had a troubled childhood and it relates to her loneliness. Besides snatching people, this has also caused Chloe to draw a life-sized, exaggerated figure of her late violate father, which briefly has become animated.
The Doctor explains that if they can find the Isolus pod and provide it power, the alien will leave Chloe. A frantic Chloe draws the Doctor into one of her paintings, forcing Rose to try to find the pod herself. She rationalizes that the pod is located on the spot on the street where cars have been breaking down, and is able to dig it up with the council worker's help. With Chloe having already caused the entire crowd at the Olympic stadium to disappear and now intent on making everyone in the world disappear, Rose tries to find out how to power the pod. Thanks to visual indications from the Doctor's "picture", Rose understands that she needs to offer the pod heat mixed with emotional strength, which she does by throwing the pod towards the Olympic Torch. As the missing children start to reappear, Rose realises that so will the demon-like drawing that Chloe had made of her father. Rose and Chloe's mother are able, though, to calm Chloe enough and the - unseen - monster disappears.
As the torch-bearer approaches the Olympic Stadium, he staggers, but the Doctor completes the run and lights the Olympic Flame, allowing the Isolus to peacefully leave Chloe's body and return home. As the Doctor and Rose walk off to watch the Games, Rose remarks that however hard they attempt, nothing will ever split the two of them up. However, the Doctor becomes uneasy and surmises that a storm is approaching.

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