Doctor Who/Recap/S20/E01 Arc of Infinity

"You know how it is. You put things off for a day and before you know it it's a hundred years later."

- The Doctor

Traveling alone together (with none of that, thank you), the Doctor and Nyssa are interrupted in their travels by a random alien force that tries to take over the body of the Doctor. The Doctor is perturbed, sure, but the Time Lords are completely freaked out by this. Worried that it might happen again, which would be bad news as the alien is made of antimatter, the Time Lords decide to drag the Doctor back to Gallifrey and kill him. With a token show of regret, they haul him off to the Disintegration Chamber... but someone has conveniently rigged the circuit so that he ends up just being shoved into the Matrix (no, not that one) where the anti-matter alien torments the Doctor - revealing that he's the long-lost (and allegedly dead) Time Lord Omega.

Meanwhile, in Amsterdam, a pair of teenagers are menaced by a humanoid chicken with a label-gun. ...stop laughing!

As it turns out the Doctor isn't dead, Omega brings the Doctor back and starts making a copy of the Doctor's body for some reason. So the Doctor and Nyssa run down to the Earth to try and stop him, only they're too late. Omega sheds his massive helmet to reveal... the Doctor! In a most surreal scene, the Doctor and Omega-in-the-Doctor's-body banter back and forth before the Doctor reveals the big problem with Omega's plan: the body is only temporary.

Omega then leads the Doctor on a merry chase throughout Amsterdam, though he does take time out of his busy schedule to watch a puppet show and test out his Villainous Creepy Smile on a little kid. Alas, the antimatter body is dissolving, shown to truly gross effect by its face and hands dissolving into paste and green Rice Krispies. Eventually, Omega degrades to the point that he's a completely different actor, and the Doctor calmly takes out that label-gun and shoots Omega. Omega then fades to dust, and everything is hunky-dory.

...oh, and Tegan somehow came back. The Doctor tries to put on a happy face, but it looks like he'd rather have Adric back.

This serial is notable in three ways. The first of which is that this features the return of Omega, who last appeared in the 10th anniversary special. The second is that this serial kicks off the 20th anniversary season of Doctor Who. The final? Sixth Doctor Colin Baker shows up for the first time in the franchise - not as the Doctor, but as asshole security chief Maxil. In fact, there's even a scene of Maxil shooting the Doctor, something that's caused a lot of jokes within the fanbase and cast. Colin Baker himself used to joke that he'd gotten the part of the Doctor by shooting the incumbent.

Tropes
"The Doctor: Hello, I'm the Doctor.
 * Acting for Two: Peter Davison as The Doctor and Omega
 * Alas, Poor Villain
 * Anti-Villain: Omega, when he has the Doctor's body...just goes around enjoying having a body again and smiling at people. Okay the smile is CREEPY, but the guy's only company for the past billion years have been monsters made of red bubble wrap in an anti-matter dimension...he's out of practice with social interaction.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Nyssa shoots an awful lot of people in this episode, and even pulls a gun on the Lord President.
 * Body Horror: The slow degeneration of Omega's new body.
 * Combat Pragmatist: Maxil

Maxil: *bang*"


 * Ham-to-Ham Combat: Omega and the Doctor lob large roasts back and forth with glee as they devour everything in sight (not even Amsterdam is spared), even while Peter Davison plays off himself. Colin Baker does his best to join in the fun, but can't quite catch up.
 * Mirror Match: A lovely scene where Peter Davison plays the Doctor and Omega - with the latter dubbed by Ian Collier, of course. This was so well done that many on the DVD commentary remarked that the voice fit Davison better than his own!
 * Not Quite Dead
 * Percussive Maintenance
 * Retroactive Recognition: Colin Baker as Commander Maxil.
 * Reverse the Polarity: Nyssa claims it's the way to turn matter into antimatter.
 * Scenery Porn: About a third of this adventure is in Amsterdam. Literally, this was the reason for the script being written, strangely enough. The script is able to Hand Wave it away, luckily, but it still feels damned strange.
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Poor, screwed up, crazy Omega....
 * The X of Y