A Charitable Earth: Series 2 Pitch

My first series saw the return of Ace, alongside other characters from the Doctor Who universe join forces against the mysterious Faction Paradox, a cult of characters introduced in the Eighth Doctor novels from the late 1990s/early 2000s. That would mark the first onscreen appearance of those characters, alongside previously unseen on-screen characters like Iris Wildthyme, Bernice Summerfield and Panda.

Series 1 ended with A Charitable Earth putting themselves into stasis and travelling to the future to escape the Faction Paradox, which is where Bernice finds them at the beginning of the series, (Steven Moffat isn’t the only one who can do Timey-Wimey!).

Following on from the ending to Series 1, our characters now find themselves in the distant future and have to find a way to get home, using the ship they were discovered on, they begin a journey through space and time to get back to the modern-day. Along the way, we’ll meet new creatures and some old favourites including Draconians, a trip to Peladon, Alpha Centurions, Glitz and some old friends Ace knows from an old house in Perivale she burnt to the ground in her childhood…

Series 2 will feature thirteen episodes and will feature the first episode of another epic crossover story, Secret Invasion. Like Conversion in the last series of pitches, Secret Invasion will cover all the different shows that I would be in charge of, hypothetically in charge of, of course, and will see the Slitheen making a last-ditch attempt at destroying the Earth, having had the time to infiltrate the planet for a few years. Below is a quick overview of the characters and their arcs, as well as a brief overview of each episode!

Main Characters

Ace: Having narrowly avoided the clutches of the Faction Paradox who wanted to use the latent Artron energy of time travellers to resurrect an ancient vampire, Ace now finds herself in the future. But she is in uncharted waters, the Doctor isn’t around to help and she has to now make sure everyone gets to modern-day safely. But she soon finds herself coming up against some old enemies and she finds her past coming back to haunt her when the ghosts of Gabriel Chase come calling. Light is making a move to catalogue the universe again, but he’s also willing to destroy everything. But as the series unfolds, Ace discovers that Light might be being manipulated by an even more evil force, will she be able to get everyone safely back to Earth in the present day and stop Light once and for all?

Bernice Summerfield: For Bernice, it was finding her old friends in stasis chambers in the future in an archaeological dig that started this journey. It should be easy for her to stay in her own time and not have to return to present-day Earth, but her husband Jason Kane followed her back to warn her about the Faction Paradox and she doesn’t want to leave him stranded this time. So she sticks around, using her knowledge of her time to help her friends, but the secrets of Gabriel Chase are encompassing Ace’s friends, Bernice included, and as she has to face her tragic history, is she is going to survive this time.

Melanie Bush: The last series saw Mel discover that the Faction Paradox had a hand in creating her technology empire and now stranded in the future, she has no choice but to wait and discover what became of her life. But in the future, she also created 24 Carrot, a health drink empire that used its profits to feed millions of poorer and starving planets in the universe. And an old friend is waiting in the wings, Sabalom Glitz is looking for his old business partner, he’s in trouble and he’s gotten Mel mixed in too…

Rani Chandra: Rani joined A Charitable Earth following her expose on Project: Refreeze, a project initiated by the government which lead to officials trying to imprison her to keep her quiet. Luckily being stuck in the future means that they can’t get at her and with the Faction Paradox out of action, maybe she’d be happier in the future? But the question of staying behind and working for the Braxiatel Collection is upended when an old enemy of Sarah Jane’s reappears.

Andrea Quill: There was a time when Miss. Quill would have done anything to get away from Earth. She has a child stuck in the modern-day with her old charges’ Charlie and Mattuesz, she has to get back to her child and nothing and nobody is going to stop her. Working with A Charitable Earth as the head of security meant she could be a lot more hands-on, but now free of the chains of rules the future had better watch out, Miss. Quill is on the warpath to get back home, but what does that mean for everyone else and when an old foe steps out of the wings, will she take his deal?

Iris Wildthyme & Panda: Separated from their TARDIS, still stuck in the form of a red double-decker bus in the modern-day, Iris and Panda find themselves in an uncertain future and somewhere Iris really doesn’t want to be. And having been kidnapped by the Faction Paradox, Iris thinks everyone being stranded far in the future is her fault and it doesn’t matter how much Panda tries to tell her she’s wrong. The future has a great war looming and old enemies of Gallifrey are circling, will Iris make it back to her TARDIS or will she be exterminated along with the rest of her race in the coming Time War?

Supporting Characters

Sabalom Glitz: Following his misadventures with the Doctor and Mel, Glitz found he was happier as an intergalactic con-man than he ever was as a founding member of 24 Carrot. When Mel and Glitz when their separate ways, he found himself in the employ of a mysterious boss, a man who owns entire galaxies and a man not to be trifled with. But Glitz did trifle with Josiah Dogbolter and now he’s a hunted man, with a bounty on his head, Glitz has no choice but to turn to his former friends for help. But will Mel and Ace want to help him, or is Glitz doomed to die?

Charlie and Mattuesz, Will Buckland, Ben Hayworth and Jason Kane: Left behind by their loved ones thanks to the machinations of the Faction Paradox, what will become of A Charitable Earth? Will, Ben and Jason have to keep the charity running and when a spaceship crashes in the New Forest can they rescue the survivors and remove the wreckage to a safe location before anyone else can get to it, they soon discover running this charity is a lot harder than it looks like. Charlie and Mattuesz meanwhile find themselves having to look after Miss. Quill’s baby, but a Quill baby is a lot tougher than they thought it would be and as the child grows at a rapid rate, they have to face the fact they might have to become parents, but Charlie worries what that’ll mean when Miss. Quill comes back.

Doctor Smith: The ship that Bernice finds A Charitable Earth onboard is semi-sentient and can accommodate the crew’s desires and can warp the corridors to get them to places quicker. It can also be staffed by holographic characters designed with the jobs of cooks and doctors. Reading the minds of Ace, Mel and Bernice, the ship’s Doctor takes the form of the Doctor in his Seventh incarnation. As the series progresses, he becomes much more than just the ship’s physician, he becomes a member of the crew. Much like T.O.S.H.I.K.O in Torchwood, Doctor Smith will go on a journey to learn what it means to be human.

The Series

1. Here’s to the Future

When the members of A Charitable Earth find themselves stuck in a time they don’t know, how will they survive? Slowly coming around from being in stasis for thousands of years, the team gradually come back together and begin to work out a way to get home as they’ve all got lives they can’t give up back home. But there is a problem, there are two Bernice’s one came with the others in a stasis pod and one discovered the group in an archaeological dig. Can the team keep the two Bernice’s apart for long enough to avert a massive paradox?

2. No Place Like Home

Still stuck in the future and with a paradox averted by keeping the Bernice’s apart, Iris now focuses on how to get the spaceship they arrived in the future with working. With the help of Mel whose computer programming background comes in handy with setting the ships AI up, the ship begins its self-repairs. It’ll take forty-eight hours to complete but without a time crystal, Iris can’t get the ship to travel back in time. However there are bigger problems, the planet they were uncovered on holds a dark secret and it threatens to destroy them all before the ship can take off…

3. Left Behind

Thanks to the Faction Paradox the members of A Charitable Earth have been parted from their friends and loved ones. But those friends suddenly find themselves having to run the charity until Ace comes back. Will Buckland, Ben Hayworth and Jason Kane find themselves trying to help the survivors of a crashed spaceship in the New Forest, while Charlie and Mattuesz have to take care of a baby, but Quill babies grow fast and they have to face the possibility that her mother, Miss. Quill and the others won’t ever be coming back.

4. The Draconian Prince

With the ship having completed its repairs, Ace and the gang find themselves on a quest to find one of the last time crystals. Their hunt takes them to Draconia, the homeworld of the Draconians. There they find a royal family in turmoil and a young, head-strong and proud Prince with his world unravelling. As his origins become clear, it threatens to destabilise the entire royal family, allowing for a darker family to possibly take the throne and destroy the Draconians name by making them a warrior species. Ace has helped many different people before, but will Draconian politics finally prove her undoing?

5. Ghosts

Ace, Bernice, Iris, Panda, Mel and Rani are all having nightmares. At first, its put down to stress and the ship’s holographic Doctor can’t find anything wrong with them. But things are going wrong and those nightmares are slowly becoming reality. Ace finds herself walking the corridors of Gabriel Chase, the house she burnt to the ground when she was a child and it seems the ship is warping to fit the new realities being made by their nightmares. As the ship descends into chaos, the ship’s doctor has to look for answers outside in the vacuum of space, could the answers be found in time in a strange nebula?

6. Secret Invasion – Part 1

The first episode in a brand new crossover adventure. Having just their ship, Wicked, a temporal shockwave threatens to hamper A Charitable Earth’s quest to get home. Having to land on an Earth colony world, what they discover is shocking. The Slitheen have conquered Earth in the twenty-first century and have gone on to conquer most of the galaxy. But what hope do they have when it appears they are the only ones who know something is wrong. Using the TARDIS recall device, Ace calls the Doctor to their time. Now, with their help, the Doctor must journey back to the modern-day and stop the Slitheen’s invasion before it comes to fruition. And it seems that they’ll need the combined might of UNIT and Torchwood to stop them.

Secret Invasion will continue in Doctor Who: Series 6!

7. All Hands on Deck

When the TARDIS refused to leave and aid Ace and the Doctor’s other friends to get back to the modern-day, they had to make the tough decision to stay in the future and see the situation out till the end. The Doctor has given them some power cells from the TARDIS storerooms and Iris manages to hook them to the ship and they begin to time-jump back towards the modern-day. But their quest for a time crystal isn’t over and the power cells soon run down. Now only a few thousand years from home, A Charitable Earth finds itself in danger from raiders. The Harvesters have returned and they want fresh meat. Will Ace and the gang survive, or will they find themselves literally harvested?

8. The Prize of Peladon

Having narrowly escaped the might of the Harvesters, the Wicked is rescued by a number of ships from Alpha Centauri and taken to the nearest hospitable planet in the Federation, Peladon. There, allowed to rest and recuperate, they discover that a small group of Peladonians have begun a cult, that worship the power from a mysterious item that supposedly powers the entire planet. But upon investigation, Iris and Panda discover that item is one of the fabled time crystals. Iris, Miss. Quill and Panda plan to steal it, while Ace and the others try to go through the proper channels. Will the desire to go home split the team apart irreversibly?

9. Going Home

Using a shard of the time crystal, A Charitable Earth is on its way home again, but when a power surge threatens to destabilise the whole ship, they are forced to stop. Now a few hundred years away from modern-day, they find themselves meeting some ghosts from the past as Ace has to come face to face with the inhabitants of Gabriel Chase once more, was her nightmare in an earlier episode much more than that, was it a warning sent telepathically from Control, warning them that Light escaped and now threatens the history of creation itself.

10. The Light in the Dark

A Charitable Earth, now including Control, Nimrod and Redvers Fenn-Cooper, from Ghost Light, have followed Light back in time, all the way to the death of the previous universe, where he plans to start cataloguing all life as it evolves so he won’t lose track again. But the interference from his old enemies means he threatens to destroy all life instead. Can they put a stop to his plans for universal destruction or will they all be wiped from existence?

11. In the Beginning

In the beginning, there was nothing. Then there was a large implosion and the old gave way to the new. On the verge of the shockwave, a small spaceship plummets into the new universe. Onboard is a small exploration crew, fleeing from the death of their native universe. Onboard are Light, Control and Survey, survivors of a doomed universe. But the deaths of their loved ones can’t interfere with the mission, they need to explore this strange new universe, seek out new worlds and new civilisations, boldly going where no new life yet exists. This is the origin of our universe…

12. Journey to the Dark Times

A Charitable Earth had one plan, to get back to their own time. But like all good plans, things have gone wrong and an old enemy of Ace’s has returned to wreak havoc on all time. With the aid of some old ghosts from Gabriel Chase, Ace and her friends decide to follow Light to the dawn of the universe. At the dawn of time, A Charitable Earth and their new allies need to confront Light about his plans, can they thwart him and save all of existence? And who is Lights new ally, a mysterious cloaked figure that is waiting in the wings?

13. The Confrontation of Dorothy McShane

Light’s ally has made himself known, the Trickster has returned, this time with a plan to destroy all life in the universe. While Mel, Bernice, and Iris help Control, Nimrod and Redvers to stop Light, Ace, Miss. Quill, Rani and Panda face off against the Trickster.

The Trickster has an offer though, he can send everyone home, if Ace uses the TARDIS recall device to bring the Doctor to him. But the Trickster will kill the Doctor, Ace knows that but what happens when Miss. Quill and Panda agree to his terms, and will Rani be able to stop them? Maybe this time, there really is no way home…

Overview

So that’s the basic outline for what the second series of A Charitable Earth would look like. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, I’m a big fan of Ghost Light. I’ve always loved its strangeness and how it could have possibly had more of a lasting impact on Ace. So that’s what this series will explore, how she is haunted by her actions as a child and how those actions are still with her today.

Taking the crew to the future allows for some more exploration than we might otherwise get. Looking into how Mel lived after leaving the Doctor is something that Big Finish have done and there will be elements of that work in this series, especially looking at the character of Josiah Dogbolter, who will be appearing in a later series as a baddie. And for characters like Rani, who met aliens, actually getting to travel in time might not be in her range of expertise, even though she experienced some time travel with Sarah Jane, being flung so far into the future sees her set off on the wrong foot in the early part of this series, but when the Trickster turns up, she makes sure she does everything she can to help, out of her depth or not.

That is what this series will be all about. Exploring characters. While the first series was about getting the characters together and seeing what they have gotten up to since we last saw them, this series will be about exploring those characters and who we can trust and who we should be wary of. And it’ll be interesting to see how a now, responsible Ace acts when confronted by the actions of her childhood.

Looking forward with the crew now back in modern-day at the end of this series, Series 3 will introduce Sabalom Glitz properly with Ace giving him a role in her charity as well as some departures from other characters. But more old enemies are waiting in the wings, The Cheetah People need a new home, and Earth will do quite nicely…