The TEMPORAL TOYBOX is back!

I've just posted an updated and augmented version of the TEMPORAL TOYBOX, my compilation of house rules and variants for the Doctor Who RPG.

This "third edition" features updated or refined versions of the earlier contents (stuff on skills, story points, combat, fear factor etc.), a more developed version of my recent variant chase system, plus a few new tidbits here and there (such as stuff on psychic combat, resistance rolls etc.). Enjoy! 

Season 11, Final Episodes

So, here are the blurbs of the three final episodes of our eleventh season. You'll notice that I haven't numbered them: technically, they would be episodes 15 to 17 (making season 11 our longest season ever) but as explained in my previous post, I've decided to leave the "Everett Blake specials" out of the regular episode count, so yes, within this clarified continuity, the final episode would be episode 15 (not that it matters very much, but you know how obsessive us GMs can sometimes be).

Coup de Théâtre: Stockholm, winter 1789. Indulging in her relish for 18^th century fashion and culture, Lady (or, rather, “Mademoiselle”) Penelope has joined the prestigious Royal Dramatic Theatre, gracing the Swedish stage and gathering her fair share of curiosity from actors and aristocrats alike - until an equally unexpected and impossible visitor crosses her timeline. And so it begins…

Tempus Ultimatum: Penelope finally manage to return to Avalon with Alecta, the impossibly reborn daughter of Rassilon – only to discover that Magnus has staged a coup in her absence and that the haven of the last Time Lords is now under martial law. But the regenerated War Chief is not interested in mere temporal power: he wants the Key to Time in order to fulfill his glorious vision… and rip Gallifrey out of the Time War, even at the cost of a cosmic cataclysm. Lives will be lost, sacrifices will be made, tears will be shed and nothing will ever be the same again.

Gallifrey: Through the sacrifice of Magnus, and despite that of Mortimus, the impossible has happened. Gallifrey has finally returned to the continuum, extracted from the Time War at the very last Moment. It is now time for Lady Penelope, Alecta and a newly-regenerated (or is that “resurrected”?) Doctor to face the last Lords of Gallifrey and their supreme master Rassilon. Will the Key to Time restore balance to the universe one last time?  As two Eyes of Harmony now face themselves in the vortex, a new future beckons – and nothing will ever be the same.

Yes, the last two episodes brought Gallifrey back from the Time War, which will (of course) have a tremendous impact on the fictional reality of our campaign. Even though this return was the logical outcome of a series of events that occurred throughout the last two seasons, it was not a set-in-stone, automatic conclusion and could have been prevented with equally – if very different – interesting consequences… But as critical choices (and some critical dice rolls) were made, we simply followed the flow of the story as it unfolded, as we’ve always done…  

The next-to-last episode also saw the terminal death of two long major Time Lord NPCs, namely Magnus (who succeeded in bringing Gallifrey back but was consumed by the energy of the Key to Time in the process) and Mortimus (who finally sacrificed his last regeneration in an attempt to stop Magnus), which was a very emotional event for Penelope. And during all this climactic madness, Magnus also had the Doctor killed, which should have been final (since, in our campaign, the Doctor was in his supposedly final incarnation)… but was brought back to life (another impossibility!) by the energy of the Key, to which the Doctor had previously attuned himself, along with Penelope, during their quest – an event which spanned the first tier of this season but which seems so far away now. Dramatically, this miraculous regeneration acted as a very nice coda to Penelope’s own earlier regeneration (which occurred approximately mid-season – a nice coincidence, if such things actually exist).  

Very satisfyingly, the Key to Time (which Penelope and the Doctor had taken the first half of the season to retrieve and reassemble) was also the instrument of the final, climactic event of our very last episode, namely the definitive (?) banishment of Rassilon (who had become something of a quantum ghost, locked in a perpetual state of half-existence and ravenously hungry for artron and vital energy) to eternal oblivion. But the Key to Time is gone now and a new universe has begun…

P.S.: In case you were wondering, our Doctor now has the face of Bill Nighy (in “The Limehouse Golem”):

Yes, he definitely looks very much like the First Doctor (but looks can be deceptive, can they?). 

Last but not least, to celebrate this fantastic season and the recent regeneration of Lady Penelope, here are the six faces of our Time Lady so far:

The First Penelope (Jamie Murray)

The Second Penelope (Cate Blanchett)

The Third Penelope (Rachel Weisz)

The Fourth Penelope (Miranda Otto)

The Fifth Penelope (Janet Montgomery)

The Sixth Penelope (Vanessa Kirby)

LONG LIVE THE TIME LADY!

Season 11, Continuity Matters

This is a postscript to yesterday's notes about Everett Blake and the "secondary continuity" stuff.

Since I'd like to give Everett's own continuity a really strong, well-established identity of its own, and after discussing the matter with Penelope's player Sylvie, we've decided that the "Everett episodes" would not be counted toward each season's now standard total of 15 episodes, making them "specials" or treating them a bit as if Lady Penelope was the recurring guest star in Everett's own adventures instead of the other way around. This is in keeping with our wish to give every Everett episode maximum character focus on Everett himself (see my previous post for the whys & wherefores of this choice). I know, it's merely a matter of perspective but this kind of little details can sometimes add an extra spark to the whole creative process.

Anyway, all this to say that Season 11 of Lady Penelope's Odyssey still has THREE regular episodes left - yes, that will make 15 regular episodes, plus the  two "Everett specials" (currently Episode 11.10 and Episode 11.14).

And I've finally found a satisfying title for this eleventh season of ours, which started with a quest for the segments of the Key to Time, saw Penelope regenerate from her fifth to her sixth incarnation and featured quite a lot of timey-wimey and extra dimensional stuff - wait for it:

TIME AND RELATIVE DIMENSIONS 

Now, without further ado, I must go back to my work on Episode 11.15 (or 11.13 if you take into account the clarified continuity) which will be set in 1790 Sweden - Sylvie's own decision (who just loved the Anno 1790 historical nordic noir drama). Enlightenment Stockholm, here we come!

Season 11, Episodes 13-14

Another diptych-of-sorts, with two different episodes set in 1911...

Episode 13: The Trouble with Jack

1911. Once again, Penelope takes a holiday in her beloved Weston-super-Mare, savouring the last days of summer. No alien invasion to fend off, no monstrous entities to battle, no eerie mysteries to investigate – just the sea, glorious sunsets, the pleasure of farniente and the quaint charm of Edwardian friendships. And then Jack Harkness had to show up…

Episode 14: Family Ghosts

Following her seaside holiday, Lady Penelope reunites with Edwardian psychic detective Everett Blake, who finds himself at the center of a devious psychic trap involving a gothic ghost simulacrum, dark family secrets and the terrifying legacy of Jack the Ripper. Will he become the living instrument of the sleeping Lloigor waiting in the Shadow Below London?

Notes

Episode 14 saw the return of our “guest-star” Cyrille who plays Everett Blake, a character who might be described as a somewhat decadent Carnacki. From Everett’s viewpoint, it was a very personal story, involving many revelations about Everett’s family and a make-or-break psychic ordeal at the end; it also gave us the opportunity to expand the character’s background and sow the seed of his future occasional involvement in the campaign. From Penelope’s perspective, this story allowed me to retro-weave together various elements from previous stories – including the “Jack the Ripper” episode from our first season (“The Shadow Below London”, yes that was years and more than 100 episodes ago!), recurring tidbits of Torchwood history and stuff from the far more recent “Gaze of the Abyss” (two episodes ago!).

Having recurring guest stars in a Doctor Who campaign is a delightful challenge – but a challenge nonetheless, since it requires the establishment of what we might call a “secondary continuity” in order to create a satisfying serial feel for the guest player-character, without unbalancing (or making things too dependent on) the main continuity of the campaign. And with a time-travelling RPG, this can become quite tricky.

From past experience, I’ve found that the easiest way to handle this is to firmly anchor the guest character in a specific time period to which the time-travelling character can regularly return. Making the guest character an independent time-traveller with his own means of temporal transport might seem a good idea at first but is bound to create a somewhat frustrating imbalance between the two players – i.e. player A having all the fun and player B’s various temporal travels remaining mostly unplayed except when they happen to cross the path of player A’s adventures…

All in all, it’s a better deal to “root” or “ground” the guest character in a more stable temporal environment and personal background – but this also has its pitfalls: in this case, the GM will have to avoid making the player feel “stuck” in a static background, as if his character was “frozen in time” between adventures… but the trickiest aspect of it lies with the following simple question: “Well, since we’re so good at adventuring together, why don’t you just hop in the TARDIS and come with me to explore all space and time?” and its obvious reply: “Well, my character would really love to and has no real reason to refuse… except that I cannot play as regularly as you so it cannot happen, can it?”. The only way to avoid this kind of meta-gaming cul-de-sac is to provide very strong reasons for the guest character to remain in his time period – a demanding job or dependent NPCs might work but it’s far more satisfying to establish some kind of “ongoing mission” tied to some major aspect of the campaign world, such as membership in (or strong ties with) UNIT or Torchwood – after all, one of the original purposes of UNIT was to provide a satisfying excuse for the Third Doctor to remain grounded on Earth for many episodes – you know, defending the Earth and all that.  In the case of Everett Blake, I chose involvement with Torchwood (or more precisely with its semi-rogue “Ghost Department” – perhaps one day I’ll tell you more about this) and the necessity to stand guard against an underlying psychic menace (namely the Lloigor).  

Season 11, Episodes 11-12

Not a two-parter - more like a diptych ("the Dark Diptych"?):

Episode 11: Shadow Play

After a brief stay in Avalon, Lady Penelope must honour a sad appointment with history - the funeral of her dear old friend Sir Lawrence Stapleton, aka Uncle Larry, former director of Torchwood and her first-ever time travel companion. But in the corridors of power, a conspiracy is being hatched against the great man’s legacy and history is being manipulated by an invisible hand… A tale of hidden agendas, dark designs and unseen enemies.

Episode 12: Gaze of the Abyss

Her hunt for the Millington Entity takes Penelope to the East End of London in 1896, where an all-too familiar monster has once again begun to walk the streets, sowing death and terror in its wake - but as the Time Lady well knows, Darkness comes in many shapes, not all of them faceless. As the Dark Dimension looms in, Time is, once again, of the essence.

Notes: So Who (or What) Was the Millington Entity, Anyway?  

The Entity was the ultimate incarnation of a character whom Penelope had first met in Season 7 (in Episode 7.8: Darkness Ex Machina) back when she was battling the returned Fenric; she started life as Professor Andrea Millington, cold-hearted scientific genius, daughter to the Commander Millington from The Curse of Fenric) and one of the "Wolves of Fenric" chosen by their masters to engineer His Triumphant Return in various time periods (in this case, the 1990s). This dark design was foiled by Lady Penelope, whose interference caused a "big infernal device disaster" which left Professor Millington crippled - yes, this was, of course, a weird, cosmic (or meta-narrative?) wink at Dr. Judson's condition in Curse of Fenric. 

Professor Millington returned in Episode 2 of Season 9 (set in 2015 or so) - now working as a scientific adviser for UNIT but with a sinister hidden agenda of her own (to keep things as brief as possible: get a new, healthy and potentially immortal body by stealing Penelope's life-force). At the end of this episode, Professor Millington was a prisoner of UNIT - a bit like the Master in the 1970s but at least she was still (biologically) human. She waited for the time of her revenge (and so did the game master)... 

Shadow Play (see above) saw her return in a new role and condition (the mysterious "invisible hand" mentioned in the blurb), that of a psychic menace using the "bloodline network" of the Wolves of Fenric to manipulate events and engineer her own rebirth / apotheosis as a kind of successor to Fenric, a new entity tied to the entropic infinity of the Dark Dimension. 

Luckily for the universe (and history as we know it), this plan was once again foiled by Lady Penelope, who had to pursue the disembodied Millington Entity in time, back to the 1890s, where she took possession of one of her ancestors, a time-sensitive working for Torchwood in the East End of London... and tried to awaken "the Wound", a dimensional rift which gave access (among other things) to the Dark Dimension and which had played a significant role in some of Penelope's early adventures (see The Shadow Below London, Episode 9 of our first season). Penelope could not save the possessed ancestor (who was pretty much doomed the moment the Millington Entity took possession of her) but managed to trap the nascent Fenric wannabe in a specially-crafted temporal stasis, where the dark, entropic energies of the Entity eventually devoured her own remaining psyche, reducing her to just another cloud of mindless Dark Energy... 

Season 11, Episodes 9-10

Episode 9: Facing the Dragon

Can the bonds of love and destiny survive and transcend regenerations? This question brings Lady Penelope back to the Otherworld of the Tanu to stand before her royal lover (and former enemy) King Fenn – only to find that the tormented monarch is about to face a mortal ordeal of his own, with the future of his kingdom hanging in the balance…

Episode 10: The Lost Abbey

Suffolk, 1911. Lady Penelope teams up with psychic detective Everett Blake to investigate the ruins of a medieval abbey where two Cambridge men have mysteriously disappeared. What sinister pact did the Last Abbot of St-Waldred seal with forces better left undisturbed?  A not-so-classic ghost story featuring Weeping Angels, Reapers and Montague Rhodes James… 

Notes on Episode 9: This episode was entirely based on Sylvie's wish to have the newly-regenerated Penelope return to the character of King Fenn, who had played a major role in her previous incarnation. We had no preconceived idea of what would happen when they'd meet again face to face: would it result in a painful or friendly separation? In a continued or renewed relationship? In a somewhat unresolved situation?  In the end, their bond was renewed yet changed - "regenerated" if you will and Penelope decided to spend three (unplayed) years without travelling in time - taking the "long path" for a short while... 

Notes on Episode 10: I've been wanting to do a scenario with the great Montague Rhodes James as a NPC for AGES but could never quite find the proper way to do it, since involving MRJ in explicitly fantastic events (i.e. like Shakespeare in "The Shakespeare Code" or Charles Dickens in "The Unquiet Dead") would not have felt right, considering this author's well-known "reticence", to use a typically Jamesian term... But this episode gave me the perfect opportunity, since it was also the first one involving a new (occasional) player-character (the Edwardian psychic detective Everett Blake, played by our longtime friend Cyrille): this 'teamp-up' focus allowed me to use MRJ as a source of precious scholary information and (yes) "warnings to the curious", without actually confronting him to the menace (and then some) of the Weeping Angels - not to mention the Reapers and the decaying, half-immortal Last Abbot of St-Waldred. I also peppered the story with all sorts of Jamesian references - Cambridge academia, scholarly bits of church history, lonely ruins in the Suffolk landscape and a central villain bearing some deliberate resemblance to the typically Jamesian evils practitioners of the dark arts found in stories like "Number 13", "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas" or "Lost Hearts". 

Season 11, Episode 8

The Sixth Lady's first adventure (and a fantastic moment of actual play)!

Episode 8: Spark of Genius

Vienna, spring 1787. In the dazzling days of Mozart’s reign, the freshly-regenerated Lady Penelope meets those who live for music – and those who prey on their souls. Can the Time Lady protect a 16-year old Ludwig van Beethoven from the stealers of genius?  And is there any hope left for those who have lost the irreplaceable? A battle of wits, allegro con anima.

Season 11, Episodes 6-7

The Quest for the Key to Time has ended with two FANTASTIC episodes!

Kudos to my player, muse, wife, soulmate & Time Lady ;)

Episode 6: The Sixth Segment

In an unexpected twist of timelines, Penelope’s quest for the final segment of the Key to Time brings her back to her beloved Vienna – but in 1934, under a very different zeitgeist. There she will meet her double, two old friends and a face from oblivion. A tale of vivid memories and forgotten realities. Featuring Sigmund Freud and the Count of Saint-Germain.

Episode 7: The Dark Dimension

The quest for the Key to Time concludes with a dolorous blow, as the Dark Dimension invades the TARDIS and the vital essence of its passengers, extending its entropic tendrils of despair around the heart and soul of Penelope’s beloved ship. Locked in January 1934, Penelope and the Doctor must find a temporary safe haven to spark their last and desperate move against the encroaching Dark. A tale of creeping shadows and points of light, featuring Albert Einstein and a box full of hope – and ending in Lady Penelope’s regeneration!

Season 11, Episodes 4-5

Continuing our quest for the lost Segments of the Key to Time, mixing flavors of "Déjà Vu",  "Everything Changes" and "Deceptive Appearances" ...

Episode 4: The Enemy Within

In search of the fourth segment of the Key to Time, Lady Penelope and the Doctor arrive on the mining colony of Vulcan, where the Doctor defeated Daleks more than a hundred years ago. Yes, there are lots of corridors and yes, the base is under siege – but the enemy is already inside, waiting to appear in full light. And he calls himself… the Doctor.

Episode 5: Xanadu

Their quest for the fifth segment of the Key to Time takes Penelope and the Doctor to the fabled city of Xanadu, summer capital of the great Kublai Khan!  Surrounded by courtiers, concubines and charlatans, protected by his family circle and the imperial guard, the old emperor is now lost in a nostalgic and morbid reverie – lost in time, you might even say…

See you soon for the next (and final?) episode of the Quest!

Run For Your Life - FASTER!

I’ve been wanting to revise the DWAITAS’ (sorry, the Doctor Who RPG) chase system for quite some time now. Why so?  Simply put, because I find the current system a bit too cumbersome and slow-moving (ah!) for my taste; I’d much prefer a quicker, simpler, less number-crunchy system based on the principle of direct conflict  - i.e. rolling to beat your opponent’s own roll, as opposed to the current chase rules which make each character or vehicle involved “roll against the terrain” without comparing their respective results.

The variant system detailed below does away with the two major features of the official chase rules, namely Speed (as a separate characteristic) and Areas, in favour of a direct conflict between the involved parties. For the sake of clarity, these involved parties will be hereafter referred to as the fugitive (the one being chased) and the pursuer (the one chasing the fugitive).

BASIC SYSTEM

Each party rolls Coordination + Athletics (for running chases – we’ll take a look at vehicles later), trying to beat the opposition. Ties go to the fugitive – just like they go to the defender in a fight.

If the fugitive wins, the result is interpreted as follows:

Success / Yes But (0-3): You put some distance between you and the pursuer. If you get a second Success in the next chase round, you manage to outrun him and the chase is over.

Good / Yes (4-8): You manage to outrun the pursuer. The chase is over.

Fantastic / Yes And (9+): As above, but the pursuer also suffers some kind of mishap (left at the discretion of the Game Master, depending on the situation) which puts him out of action at least for the remainder of the scene (or permanently if the GM deems it appropriate).

If the pursuer wins, the result is interpreted as follows:

Success / Yes But (1-3): You’re closing in. If you get a second Success in the next chase round, you catch up with the fugitive and the chase is over.

Good / Yes (4-8): You catch up with the fugitive. The chase is over.

Fantastic / Yes And (9+): As above, but the fugitive also suffers some kind of mishap (left at the discretion of the Game Master, depending on the situation) which puts him out of action at least for the remainder of the scene  (or permanently if the GM deems it appropriate).

And that’s it. Everything else if fluff and modifiers (see below).

SPECIAL TRAITS

What about the Run For Your Life! trait?  Well, instead of increasing your Speed by 1, this now simply gives you a +2 bonus to your chase rolls when you act as the fugitive.

If your pursuer has the Slow trait (for Cybermen etc.), you will only need a single Success to outrun him. If a fugitive has the Slow trait, the pursuer will only need a single Success to catch up with him. These two cases obviously cancel each other.

STUNTS & TERRAIN

Stunts should simply be interpreted as the expenditure of Story points to affect chase rolls, as per the regular rules (either before the roll to get extra dice or after to turn failure into success).

Terrain modifiers simply come into play as per the usual rules for complications, giving bonuses or penalties to the characters’ rolls.

VEHICLES & MOUNTS

Vehicular chases should be handled with the same mechanics, except for the following two differences: the roll will be Coordination + Transport and the relative Speed of the vehicles is taken into account.

Yes, unlike characters, vehicles retain their Speed rating but these do not have the same effects on play: simply give the vehicle with the highest Speed a bonus on chase rolls equal to the Speed difference. Thus, a car (Speed 8) chasing (or speeding away from) a truck (Speed 5) would get a +3 bonus on its chase rolls. But what about chases involving vehicles AND people on foot?  In this case, simply use the vehicle’s Speed rating as a straight bonus (i.e., +8 for a car chasing people on foot); in most cases, this will mean automatic victory for the vehicle – unless stunts and Story points are involved (see above) and that’s precisely why such things exist. In other words, you shouldn’t be able to outrun a car by simply running away, unless you come up with some daring or clever stunt.

When using mounts (horses etc.), use the same system as for vehicles, except that Athletics is the relevant skill. Riding animals who are able to gallop (or move in a similar, very fast manner) should be given a Speed rating (such as 4 for a healthy horse). In other words, a rider on horseback will get a +4 bonus to his chase rolls against people on foot.

Season 11, Episodes 1-3

Lady Penelope’s Odyssey has entered its eleventh season, starting with a six-part quest across space and time…

THE KEY TO TIME, REDUX

The six segments of the Key to Time were supposedly lost – forever and for good, scattered at random by the Doctor himself through time and space… until the Arch of Avalon picked up echoes from the Key through the maelstrom.

Unbeknownst to the other Time Lords of Avalon, and guided by the visionary insights of her TARDIS’ resident ghost-in-the-machine, Penelope and the Doctor embark on a quest to collect the segments before they fall into the wrong hands…

Just like old times, eh?  Well, not quite. As the Time Lady and the Doctor are about to discover, the rules of the game have changed... The segments are no longer disguised as something else. And they have begun to awaken – so Time, as usual, is of the essence.

Episode 1: The Ribos Renaissance

Tracking down the first segment of the Key, Lady Penelope and the Doctor land on… Ribos! Ribos, of all places!  Can this really be a coincidence? But as our travellers are about to find out, things DO change – even on little, isolated, backwoods planets. In the end, Penelope will save the day, the Doctor and the history of Ribos – all in a day’s work for a Time Lady!

Episode 2: Lives on Mars

Their search for the second segment of the Key to Time takes Penelope and the Doctor to the red planet, where they meet the very first men on Mars (in 1914!), discover a hitherto unknown race of Martians and uncover the last secret of the Osirian Pyramid. A tale of forgotten pasts and impossible futures, of causes and consequences… Time Lady Victorious? 

Episode 3: Time Oddity

Looking for the third segment of the Key, Penelope and the Doctor land in 1973 London, in an alternate continuum where, oddly enough, everything seems to be as it should be – except for a few details, such as the existence of the enigmatic glam rock icon Damon Wilde or the death of the entire UNIT command staff. A tale of multiple personae and unique encounters.

(to be continued)

Our Ten Seasons!

Before we embark for our eleventh season (probably in March or April), here are ALL the episode blurbs of Lady Penelope's Odyssey so far.


Season One: First Steps 

Episode 1 : The Mists of Time
In which Lady Penelope Ashworth falls into the Vortex – with too many questions in her head and a time-marauding predator on her trail …

Episode 2 : Legacy
In which Lady Penelope Ashworth discovers her true heritage as a child of Avalon and Gallifrey… and gets her own TARDIS too !

Episode 3 : The Once and Future King
Lady Penelope returns to Arthurian Britain, becomes the Lady of the Lake and takes Excalibur to a very dark future…

Episode 4 : The City of Chimeras
With the help of two otherworldly cats, Penelope faces the nightmarish menace of the Master of Chimeras in 1920s Paris !

Episode 5 : Lost In Versailles

Lady Penelope travels to 18th century Versailles and helps a couple of alien castaways to escape from the so-called Age of Reason.

Episode 6 : The Gates of Janus

While visiting Ancient Rome, Penelope discovers that the city is ruled by an emperor that never was. Can she save History as we know it ?

Episode 7 : Brave New Worlds

While travelling back to the 2080s to fulfill a promise, Penelope arrives in an alternate, far brighter future – and faces a Time Lady’s dilemma.

Episode 8 : The Daughter of Time

Penelope and the Victorian adventurer Lord Ulysses Ashworth engage in some temporal tourism, from Waterloo to the dark days of Richard III.

Episode 9 : The Shadow Below London

Did you know Jack the Ripper had struck again in 1893 ? No, of course you didn’t, because it was all covered up by the Torchwood Institute…

Episode 10 : Somewhere In Time

Weston-super-mare, July 1907. Penelope finally gets to meet the Doctor - trapped in a week that never ends. Questions, answers and a waltz on the Grand Pier.

Episode 11 : The Orion Express Mystery 

Just remember two things : “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” and, of course, “The butler did it.”

Episode 12 : The Avalon Project

Penelope comes back to the 2080s to help King Arthur the Second awaken the powers of Excalibur and build a brighter future - but sinister forces conspire in the shadows…

Episode 13 : The Queen of Air and Darkness

Penelope finally faces her half-brother Mordred and her mother Morgana the Witch Queen in a duel of wits and wills- with the fate of Britain in the balance…  

Season Two: Time Lady 

Episode 1: Space Princess

In which Lady Penelope experiences the joys of a 25th century luxury space cruise, including high-stakes gambling, dinner at the captain's table and, of course, an attack by space pirates.

Episode 2: For Queen and Planet

A most adventurous journey from a cursed temple in India to the farthest-reaching colony of the British Empire - the mysterious planet Mura. And yes, it all happened in 1894.

Episode 3: Operation Strikeback

There is no Mission:Impossible when you can jump back in time. Lady Penelope faces Felicity Warburton, the Triumvirate's Time Assassin, and saves Britain's future - again!

Episode 4: All Yesterday's Tomorrows  

New York, 1933. Nikita Nova, inventress extraordinaire, is testing her new teleportation machine... but who the Hell is Nikita Nova and how come she looks so much like Lady Penelope?

Episode 5: The Doctor and the Angel 

London, 1608. The Angel of Death has extended his dark wings over the city, heralding the reign of an even greater Terror. The dying Dr Dee sends a desperate call through Time... 

Episode 6: Making History 

Accompanied by the (not quite) late Christopher Marlowe, Lady Penelope attends three public executions, bumps into Oliver Cromwell and meets the Meddling... Puritan.

Episode 7: Childhood's End

Lady Penelope is summoned to the Ark of Arcadia, a huge transdimensional ship, where she meets the Guardians of Infinity - beings formerly known as... Time Lords.

Episode 8: The Never People 

Question: How could so many Time Lords survive the Last Great Time War? Answer: By being already dead when it all happened. Featuring the Doctor!

Episode 9: Time Off 

Nothing can beat an evening at the Lyceum Theatre - especially when you get to meet Bram Stoker, Arthur Conan Doyle, E.W. Hornung, Sir Henry Irving and a Vortex Medusa.

Episode 10: The Walls of Troy

Lady Penelope and her companions never found the Trojan War - but they did have a most interesting trip, complete with temporal phenomena and metaphysical dilemmas...

Episode 11: Phantasmagoria

Summer 1816. Lady Penelope meets Lord Byron, the Shelleys and a few other tormented souls in this dark romantic tale of revenge, melancholy and psychic infestation.

Episode 12: The King and the Land

Lady Penelope returns to the Avalon Project to attend a royal wedding - only to discover that Excalibur, the key to mankind's future, has been stolen by the lords of the Otherworld.

Episode 13: The Sun of Blood

Lady Penelope forges an uneasy alliance with her half-brother Mordred to defeat the power of the Sun of Blood - and prevent the rebirth of their mother, Morgaine the Witch Queen.  

Season Three: The Web of Time 

Episode 1: Demons of the Mind 

Lady Penelope goes on holiday in 1909 Vienna, immerses herself in the local Zeitgeist, meets Klimt, Schiele, Freud, Jung - and foils the dark designs of her old enemies the Lloigor… 

Episode 2: Age of the Captain 

Back in the 2010s, Penelope discovers the link between the future of the Torchwood Institute and the past of the Time Agency – and finally gets to meet Captain Jack Harkness!

Episode 3: The Sycorax Situation
Having driven off the Hounds of Tindalos from the streets of Cardiff, Penelope travels with Captain Jack through the Rift, encounters an alien horde - and faces a life-affecting choice. 

Episode 4: Reconquista!
Another 1595. England has been living under Spanish rule for 7 years, since the victory of the Armada. It's time for Kit Marlowe, playwright, time-traveller and spy extraordinaire to make a truly historic come back - with the help of a certain Time Lady.

Episode 5: Pride & Probability 
1834. Who is really Miss Ada Byron's new mathematics teacher - and why is he plotting to destroy her friendship with Charles Babbage? Lady Penelope saves History once again in this decidedly Austenian tale of science and sensibility.  

Episode 6: Time & Tide 
Places to go, people to see, dilemmas to solve. Can Lady Penelope run the risk of unraveling the Web of Time just to save a few lives from the tides of History? Perhaps the Doctor has the answer... Oh, and did we mention Captain Jack Harkness? 

Episode 7: No Man’s Land

July 1916, the Green Fields of France – aka Hell on Earth. Lady Penelope must, once again, juggle with Time, history and her own decisions. Featuring Captain Jack Harkness, the Man Who Wouldn’t Die, and introducing Lt Edward Wilberforce, the Man Who Should Have Died. 

Episode 8: Temporal Power

They have erased the Time Agency out of history. They are the watchers, sentinels and regulators of the Web of Time. They call themselves the Time Authority – and they want a word or two with the last Time Lords (and Lady) of the universe. 

Episode 9: Deus Ex Machina

Lady Penelope, Mortimus and the Doctor finally get to meet the Higher Power behind the Time Authority – an old foe with a new face, a new name and a new plan for the universe. Can Merlin’s daughter defeat the Ghost in the Machine before it becomes God? 

Episode 10: Merry Christmas, Mr Cromwell

A desperate prayer sent through space and time reaches Lady Penelope’s TARDIS, bringing her to London, on the 23^rd of December 1654. Will she succeed in bringing the spirit of the season to England’s Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell – the man who banned Christmas?

Episode 11: The Shadow Over Shanghai

Shanghai, on New Year’s Eve 1920. As a new decade dawns, Penelope joins forces with Jack Harkness and Edward Wilberforce to save the young century from a fiendish conspiracy. But time is running out – can our heroes save history before the clock strikes midnight?

Episode 12: Judgement Day

After outwitting the Black Guardian and saving everyone at Torchwood 3, Lady Penelope is finally reunited with the Doctor, who stands accused in a trial of cosmic magnitude. Featuring Captain Jack Harkness, the Valeyard and no less than four Guardians of Time.

Episode 13: Ever After

Can Lady Penelope help the Last Doctor to come to terms with some of his more painful memories – and accept his ultimate role as Warden of the Web of Time? For this, she will need all the help she can get – including that of the Doctor’s lifelong companion, his TARDIS.

Season Four: The Great Game  

Episode 1: Lord of Misrule

Back in Lord Christopher Marlowe’s alternate continuum, Lady Penelope finds herself locked in a deadly battle of wits against a mysterious time meddler known as Duke Prospero, to save a world where Shakespeare’s play was never written from the Tempest of the Sirens of Time.

Episode 2: Raiders of the Fallen Star

Siberia, 1920: the height of the Russian civil war. Can Lady Penelope and Edward Wilberforce uncover the secret of the 1908 Tunguska Event before the Mad Baron destroys History as we know it? A tale of warlords and exiles – with some Rutans and Sontarans, too.

Episode 3: Hearts & Minds

When she chose to salvage Countess Katia Kazakovna from the turmoil of history, Lady Penelope knew she would have to accept the responsibility and the consequences of this decision – and so did the Black Guardian. The Great Game has just entered a new phase…

Episode 4: The Bothan Gambit

Penelope takes her new travelling companion to the 25^th century to visit some old friends and get involved in a game of intrigue and deceit which will lay (or destroy) the foundations of the first Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Featuring the unforgettable Pirate Jenny.

Episode 5: Masquerade of the Moon

What if the Sun King had become the Moon King? From 1682 Versailles to 1652 Paris, Lady Penelope ensures that the fate of Louis XIV follows its correct path, with the help of Aramis and Cyrano de Bergerac. Can the Musketeers of Time save history from the Mad Meddler?

Episode 6: Full Circle

The Cardiff Rift, Torchwood, the Time Agency, Jack Harkness and the Last Time War – all pieces of the great temporal conundrum finally fall into place as the fates of the Doctor and Lady Penelope come full circle. Oh, and Lady Penelope dies, too. Long live the Time Lady!

Episode 7: Hesperis

Following her recent regeneration, Penelope takes some time off on the peaceful and serene world of Hesperis – a place of simple harmony and contemplative tranquility… or is it? What secrets lie hidden beneath the surface of Hesperis – or buried in its not-so-ancient past?

Episode 8: Of Truth and Time

In the wake of a star whale, Penelope discovers two of the best-kept secrets of the universe, but that’s only the beginning of the tale - a tale of memories and mathematics, of truth and time, of things past, present and parallel. Featuring Ada Lovelace and Mary Shelley. 

Episode 9: Bentham Hall Revisited

Wiltshire, 1923. Lady Penelope takes a welcome break from the Great Game (not to mention the London season) in a stately Edwardian mansion. What could possibly go wrong? A tale of family secrets, social barriers, failed expectations and sinister forces from below.

  

Episode 10: Revenge of the Lloigor

A desperate call from Excalibur brings Lady Penelope back to 22^nd century Britannia, to defend the realm of King Arthur II against the Lloigor and their minions – and finally face the Black Druid in an earth-shattering battle of raw power at the heart of Stonehenge.

Episode 11: Avalon

As the conclusion of the Great Game draws near, Lady Penelope’s Odyssey celebrates its 50th episode (yes!) with the birth of Avalon, a new world of hope and possibility, shaped by the power of quantum mathematics - and a haven for the last Time Lords in the universe.

Episode 12: Endgame

Penelope and the Doctor finally get to meet the Mad Mastermind behind the Great Game. But what is the Name of the Game? Subterfuges & Stratagems? Puzzles & Philosophers?  Time & Truth?  Featuring the Celestial Toymaker, Aristotle, Epicure and the Cosmic Cube.

Episode 13: Checkmate

The last move of the Great Game will mark the end of the universe as we know it – unless Lady Penelope and the Doctor manage to beat both the Black and the White Guardians at their own game. A tale of dilemmas and decisions, of endings and new beginnings.

Season Five: Heirs of Time

Episode 1: When in Rome…

Lady Penelope takes her new travelling companion Bernice Ashworth to the Glory that was Rome in 78 AD, under the reign of Emperor Vespasian – time for another Roman mystery, a tale of past and future, omens and oracles, destiny and history, featuring the two Plinys.

Episode 2: Heretics of Karn

Sacred Flame, Sacred Fire… we all know the litany. But things are no longer as they once were within the Sisterhood of Karn; as Lady Penelope unravels a web of secrets and lies, an ancient menace rises from the flames to challenge the power of the new Lords of Time.

Episode 3: Zeitgeist

Following the trying events on Karn, Penelope takes a vacation in one of her favorite times and places: Vienna in the 1900s… but when the artist Gustav Klimt meets a truly untimely and utterly sordid death, the Time Lady knows that only she can save the Spirit of the Age…

Episode 4: Son of the Sun
Penelope takes Bernice to Egypt during the early reign of Amenhotep IV, better known to history asthe heretic pharaoh Akhenaten, husband to Nefertiti and inventor of monotheism. Desire meets destiny in this tale of palace intrigue, false gods and hidden truths.

Episode 5: The Sands of Sutekh

A mysterious temporal mishap takes Penelope to the final year of Akhenaten’s reign, as the heretic pharaoh and his fabled City of the Horizon are about to face the wrath of Amun-Ra, the god he has forsaken – or so the priests say… The truth, of course, is much more sinister.

Episode 6: Ghosts of Gallifrey
There is trouble brewing at the manor of Lungbarrow. As the reawakened Matrix starts to encroach on the new reality of Avalon, the Time Lady and the Doctor must face the ghosts of Gallifrey – and discover the final truth about the vision and legacy of Penelope’s father…

Episode 7: Face of the Future

The Face of Boe has spoken. It is time for Jack Harkness to follow his final destiny and take leave of the new Time Lords - until they meet again, for one last time. Places to go, people to see, old plans to change and new problems to solve… All in a day’s work  for a Time Lady!

Episode 8: Heart of Darkness

Stranded in 21^st century London after a quantum storm, Lady Penelope and ex-Harkness Irregular Edward Wilberforce join forces with UNIT and Torchwood (well, more or less) to track down the last remnants of the Forge and save Britain from the terror of the Dark.

Episode 9: Everlasting Flame

Another busy week for Penelope. 1) Take care of some unfinished business in 2013 Britain (and make UNIT mad at you). 2) Gather the pieces of a foreboding puzzle with the Doctor. 3) Return to Karn, rescue the last two Sisters and bring them back to Avalon – with the Flame!

Episode 10: The Curse of Mortimus

Once upon a time, there was a madman with a box… As suspicions and tensions threaten to tear apart the fledgling alliance of the last five Time Lords, Penelope uncovers the unlikely truth about the former Time Meddler. A tale of wracking guilt, compassion and trust.

Episode 11: Nemesis
Avalon is under threat. Brought back from oblivion by dark forces, the Master has once again decided to extend his dominion over the universe. Will the Heirs of Time prevail? Introducing Anaxia, the Master’s daughter – a perfect nemesis for a certain Time Lady.

Episode 12: Summer in Neverland

After the harrowing events of episode 11, Penelope and a newly regenerated Doctor take a holiday in 1908 Weston-super-mare, the place where they first met, one year and several lives ago… and get involved in a paradoxical whodunit – or is that a whendunit? An ifdunit?

Episode 13: Who is the Doctor?

Penelope and the Doctor finally return to Avalon, only to discover that another Doctor has already made it back to Lungbarrow. Which is the Doctor and which is the impostor? Is there even an impostor? Is there something rotten in Lungbarrow? And lastly, who is the Doctor?

Season Six: Timelines

Episode 1: Father’s Footsteps 

It is time for Lady Penelope to get back to her TARDIS for a new series of voyages and adventures in space and time. Next stop: New Camelot, 2114 – unless, of course, some unexpected event turns up, such as the return of the vengeful daughter of the Master… 

Episode 2: Tea and Empathy 

Following her showdown with Anaxia, Penelope uncovers the dark secret behind her nemesis’ existence and welcomes a new companion on board of the TARDIS – the last of the Nephrem engineers, saved from death by the Chameleon Arch. It’s all about being human. 

Episode 3: Or Not To Be 

London, 1601. Penelope takes her new companion to the Globe for the first performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet - but what started as a fun lesson in humanity soon turns into a darker tale of grief and guilt. Can the Time Lady save the Bard from the thrall of the Nameless King?

Episode 4: The Time Keeper

It’s “there and back again” time for Lady Penelope, from Edwardian London to Elsewhere Manor to a lonely planetoid called Shada…  Featuring Henry Gordon Jago, professor George Litefoot, the deadly Mr. Clockwise and the Time Keeper himself, the mysterious Mr. Alias.

Episode 5: Remembrance

Cambridge 1985 - Penelope goes looking for the lost memories of Professor Chronotis – but Time has another blast-from-the-past in store for her. Featuring Lord Percivale Ashworth, PM Margaret Thatcher and, for the very first time in Lady Penelope’s Odyssey, the Daleks! 

Episode 6: A Matter of Identity

Who is the Time Keeper?  What if the Doctor had been wrong all along?  To solve the mystery of Mr. Alias’ true identity, Lady Penelope and her fellow Time Lords of Avalon must put together the last pieces of the puzzle – a stolen watch, a lost TARDIS and a forgotten name.

Episode 7: New Lives

The times, they are a-changing – and so are the Time Lords of Avalon. Drax finally gets a new body, a new self and a new TARDIS, Mortimus gets a new destiny and, last but not least, Penelope gets a new travelling companion in the person of the aforementioned Time Lord.

Episode 8: Friends & Foes

For Penelope, it was supposed to be a nice Saturday evening in 2013 before a new series of adventures in time and space. For the Master’s daughter, it was the final phase of a fiendish plan. Featuring Torchwood and the Cyberman formerly known as Yvonne Hartman. 

Episode 9: Renaissance
Florence, 1505. Penelope and Mortimus meet the great Leonardo da Vinci, artist, inventor and former travel companion of the Monk – but the nostalgia trip soon turns into a temporal conundrum when they uncover the Machiavellian scheme of a certain Time Meddler.  

Episode 10: Crossing Lines
How do you find your place in the continuum when you have been erased from history? To answer this question, Penelope takes Miss White where it all began (or ended?): 51st century Iceland, 20 years after World War VI. It’s all about choosing sides - and making a difference.

Episode 11: Gallifrey No More
Autumn has come to Avalon. As the last Time Lords are building a new society, the shadows of the past awaken in a secret gallery of Lungbarrow manor. Can Gallifrey really be reached through a 3-D painting and saved from time-locked oblivion? The answer, sadly, is NO.

Episode 13: The Dark Flame
An ominous vision from the Sisters of the Eternal Flame sends Penelope on the last surviving world of the Traken Union, a lonely, peaceful planet known as Serenity. As forgotten truths and sinister secrets are uncovered, can the Time Lady prevent a new rising of darkness?

Episode 13: Balance of Power
The power of the Dark Flame has awakened the Melkurs. As her silent army sows death and destruction over Serenity, Anaxia begins her reign of terror. With the fate of the universe hanging in the balance, Lady Penelope prepares for a final showdown with her nemesis… 

Season Seven: Forged in Flame

Episode 1: The Forsaken

Lady Penelope decides to spend some time with the reformed temporal meddler Mortimus on the Eden-like world of Atala, among her dear Ganymedian friends. It’s time to uncover ancient secrets, heal old wounds and welcome a new companion on board of the TARDIS!

Episode 2: The Sontar Stratagem

The Ganymedians are doomed, destined to be slaughtered and enslaved by the brutish Sontarans - unless Penelope decides to alter the course of history. With the fates of millions in her hands, the Time Lady will have to make a choice – and live with the consequences.

Episode 3: Choices

History has been altered, the destruction of Atala has been averted – but what of the new, unwritten future?  In search of the ultimate weapon of mass protection for her Ganymedian friends, Lady Penelope must find a way to preserve their safety as well as their serenity.

Episode 4: The Great Escape

New York, 1925. Lady Penelope joins forces with Henry Gordon Jago (inimitable investigator of infernal incidents) and Harry Houdini (master magician, escapologist extraordinaire and dashing debunker of spurious séances) against invisible invaders from Yith.

Episode 5: Shadow of the Wolf

Constantinople 1041 AD. The glorious Byzantine empire has begun its slow descent into decadence – unless chaos and darkness swallow it first. Will Lady Penelope manage to free Harald Hardrada from the clutches of Fenric – and save history from the Empire of the Wolf?

Episode 6: Homecoming

Fenric has awakened. After a quick stop on Avalon, the newly regenerated Lady Penelope embarks on a new race against time, with a new companion at her side – the freshly revived time traveller and ex-Wolf of Fenric formerly known as Ace. A tale of new beginnings.

Episode 7: Ghosts of Elseneur

Following the temporal trail of the Wolves of Fenric, Lady Penelope and her new companion arrive at Kronborg castle (better known as Hamlet’s Elseneur) in 1658, in a fortress besieged by the armies of Sweden. A tale of ancient evil, desperate battles and forgotten secrets.

Episode 8: Darkness Ex Machina 

Maiden’s Point, 1993. Fifty years after the Ultima incident, dark forces from the Shadow Dimension are once again encroaching on reality. What is really going on at Project AESIR? Lady Penelope has (almost) all the answers, the will to fight – and very little time left… 

Episode 9: Entity 
4114. A lost planetoid shrouded in unnatural darkness. An ominous octahedron towering over the ruins of a mysterious necropolis. A lonely, dying dome of light. Buried horrors and forgotten secrets. Enter a team of Torchwood Archive archaeologists – and a Time Lady! 

Episode 10: The Mark of Fenric 
January 1945. The tide of history has turned and the Reich has already lost the war – unless a little man in a black uniform signs a single piece of paper, unleashing Ragnarok and plunging the world into final chaos. Will Reichsführer Himmler authorize Operation Fenric?

Episode 11: Into the Maelstrom 

As the devouring darkness of the Shadow Dimension threaten the whole of time and space, Lady Penelope and Gale plunge into the heart of the maelstrom to confront Fenric on its own territory, a realm of darkness and deceit. The Children of Time to the Dark Tower came…

Episode 12: Aftermath

Fenric is no more. The nightmare is over – or is it?  As Penelope and Gale are about to discover, the final act of spite of the mad god could have greater consequences than its destruction – unless the Time Lady, carrier of the blue flame of balance, can set things right. 

Episode 13: Last of the Eternals

Penelope and Gale decide to take some time off in the cosmopolitan mega-city of New Byzantium – but someone is waiting for them here, someone who wishes to make the Time Lady an offer she can’t refuse. It’s time to meet the Last of the Eternals - and make a choice.

Season Eight: Past & Future

Episode 1: The Lost Woman
How could a chance meeting with Lady Penelope turn Christina Rossetti, poetess, sister of the great Dante Gabriel and living enigma into a prophesying time-sensitive?  Who are the Goblin Men?  Who is the little girl in the labyrinthine House of Time?  And, of course, who is the Doctor? A Pre-Raphaelite story of visions, secrets and redemption.

Episode 2: The Book of Time
While doing some temporal tourism in 240 BC Alexandria, Lady Penelope visits the fabled Great Library – and soon discovers the existence of a book that should not be there. Or anywhere else, for that matter. A tale of secret passages, treasured dreams and  false gods. Knowledge is power - and time is of the essence.

Episode 3: Brother's Keeper
Having been hijacked by the mysterious Book of Time, Lady Penelope's TARDIS takes her to a labyrinthine, majestic and utterly lonely place known as the Braxiatel Collection, full of lost treasures, forgotten memories and relics of times past. But who is the master of this house of secrets?  Questions, answers – and more questions.

Episode 4: Pandora's Box
Penelope and Mortimus return to the Braxiatel Collection - but the Time Lady soon finds out that Something Is Not Quite Right. Who is the real ghost in the machine? Can a piece of forgotten history come back to haunt and possess the last heirs of Gallifrey?  And how exactly do you put Pandora back into her box?

Episode 5: From Russia, With Diamonds
Saint-Petersburg, 1763. Lady Penelope and Edward Wilberforce, now a Timewatch operative, investigate the mysterious disappearance of their friend countess Katarina “Kitty” Kazakovna at the court of Catherine the Great. A tale of deceit and power, featuring clockwork droids, psychic jewels and the Ascended Master himself, the Count of Saint-Germain.

Episode 6: The Question
Who was the mysterious Gallifreyan personage only remembered as “the Other”?  What role did he play in the grand discoveries of Rassilon and the founding of Time Lord society?  Who unleashed the Moment that ended it all ? Can a Destroyer also be a Creator?  WHO IS THE DOCTOR? Tonight, Lady Penelope gets ALL the answers (as well as some new questions).

Episode 7: The Masque of Winter

December 1607. The Thames is frozen and William Shakespeare is facing the winter of his discontent. As Lady Penelope gets reunited with the illustrious playwright, they soon discover that something wicked this way cometh. Can the Time Lady and the Bard of Albion prevent the Master of the Masque from bringing the madness of Carcosa into our reality? All the world is a stage – and it’s time for the Tempest to rise!  Also featuring Ben Jonson, the Children of Blackfriars, the first Jago, various dramatis personae and, of course, a bear.

Episode 8: Silver Dawn

All Lady Penelope wanted to do was to reunite with her old friends at the Torchwood New Year’s Eve bash – but then Cybermen crashed the party and she soon found herself hunting the living weapon known as the Nemesis – one of the creations of the great Omega, revealed as Penelope’s ancestor. When she discovered that the validium entity was possessed by the surviving psyche of the sorceress Lady Peinforte, Penelope gave her life to save the Earth, ending her fourth incarnation…  A tale of reunited friends, sacrifice and new beginnings.

Episode 9: The Other Penelope
A funny thing happened on the way to Avalon… Her TARDIS takes the freshly-regenerated (and still slightly disoriented) back to the seaside town of Weston-super-Mare – where she first met the Doctor, four lifetimes ago, in 1907. But it’s now January 1930 and the Time Lady must solve new mysteries. Why has her timeline brought her back near the majestic Grand Pier at this precise point in history? What is the retired H.G. Jago doing here? And who is that other woman calling herself Penelope Ashworth?  A tale of identities and memories.

Episode 10: Forgotten Faces

At last, the newly-regenerated Penelope is back on Avalon, catching up with the Doctor and quite a few other people. But when the Time Lady decides to delve into the pages of the Book of Time in search of the forgotten story of Omega, she finds herself transported to the edge of the antimatter dimension to meet the entity that once was her ancestor…

Episode 11: Twilight of the Tanu
Back in the divergent future of King Arthur II, Lady Penelope returns to the Otherworld of the Daneans.  Surrounded by ancient secrets and growing tensions, she soon discovers that the Hidden Kingdom is dying, deprived of its vital earth-power. As the clouds of war gather on the horizon, the Time Lady must find a way to heal old wounds and forge new ties…

Episode 12: Trial of the Tanu
The ancient order of things has been restored in the Hidden Kingdom – or has it?  As Lady Penelope continues to explore the mysterious history of the Tanu folk and her own mixed heritage, an ancient evil is rising behind the Gate of Exile. Can the Time Lady help her lover Lord Fenn free his people from the shadows of the past and build a new, brighter future?

Episode 13: Time of the Tanu
As the Hidden Kingdom celebrates the coronation of King Fenn and the Tanu prepare to enter the Third Age of their exile on Earth, Lady Penelope must help the new monarch to turn an ominous prophecy into a promise of a bright and glorious future – but first, she will have to uncover the last secret of the Shining Folk. A tale of destiny, duty and decisions. 

Episode 14: Farewell, Alexandria
One year ago, the Book of the Gods vanished from Alexandria, taken away by the mysterious stranger calling herself the Time Lady. One year ago, destiny took a turn and history was put back on track – or was it?  One year ago, Penelope had a different face. A tale of unfinished business, unfulfilled dreams and unwritten history - an epilogue and a new beginning.

Episode 15: Reichenbach
Season finale. Bad news bring Lady Penelope back to Avalon. There is something wrong with the Doctor. But WHAT exactly is that “something”? A shadow from the past?  A ghost from the future?  A dark reflection of everything he has ever been?  The Book is the Key, the Book has always been the Key and Time will soon come full circle, from Gallifrey to Reichenbach…

Season Nine: Time, Space & Beyond

Episode 1: City of Sighs

Venice, July 1825 – a city of sighs and shadows, of bygone dreams and Byronic nostalgia… Who knows what terrible vision lurks beneath the dark waters of Venice? It is now time to look below the surface and behind the masks. A tale of two cities, of white masks and black stars, featuring the return of Lady Penelope’s oldest arch-enemies, the Porphyrs of Carcosa.

Episode 2: Tinker, Time Lord, Soldier, Spy

As Torchwood and UNIT are locked in a major crisis, Penelope crosses the path of Professor Andrea Millington, 22 years after their last, dramatic encounter – and the former pawn of Fenric is now following her own hidden agenda. A tale of loyalty, suspicion and cooperation. Featuring the third death and final sacrifice of Torchwood agent Yvonne Hartman.

Episode 3: Days of Empire

Her search for a time sensitive takes Lady Penelope to the city of New Delhi, where she soon discovers that the golden days of the colonial Raj have left some very living ghosts behind them. More than 90 years after its official demise, Torchwood India is still here – or is it?  For some, the empire never fell –and the present must pay the price for the past.

Episode 4: “I am a Gallifreyan”

Back on Avalon, Lady Penelope must deal with the consequences of the New Delhi Incident – including the traumatic regeneration (or is this a retro-generation?) of her current travelling companion, the Time-Lord-in-training known as Trevor. A tale about identity, empathy and change - oh, did I forget to mention the TARDIS’ ultimate secret?

Episode 5: Last of the Mentors
The Myriad of Aldebaran: a bustling, cosmopolitan alliance of worlds, hundreds of intelligent species, a culture of ethno-diversity, fascinating business ethics… and no humans in sight for 900 years or so. Or at least this is how it should be… Can the Time Lady put history back on track and save the Myriad from the machinations of the Last Mentors?

Episode 6: Interesting Times
China, October 1901. In the wake of the Boxer Rebellion, Lady Penelope and Trev come to Peking to deliver a very important letter from Professor George Litefoot to a mysterious woman. A purely historical episode – with a lot of drama, some difficult decisions and a bit of danger too. A tale of troubled times, family affairs and unexpected futures.

Episode 7: Stolen Pasts
Her quest for time sensitives takes Penelope to the Scottish Highlands, twenty-one years after the Battle of Culloden. As secret plans are being hatched and old debts are about to be repaid, tragedy looms on the horizon for the last highlanders… A tale of changing times and erased memories, featuring the return of a very different Jamie McCrimmon.

Episode 8: Saving Zoe

Whatever happened to Zoe Heriot? Did she stay on Space Station W3? Did she survive Earth’s war against the Cybermen? Did she recover her stolen memories, like Jamie did?  Has her life been changed forever by the echoes of the Time War and the vicissitudes of History? Of course, the answers are never quite the ones you expect…

Episode 9: Should Old Acquaintance be Forgot

The Time Lady decides to catch up with her dear friends Christopher Marlowe and Louise-Athénée, whom she has not seen in ages - three regenerations, actually. With a nostalgic Lord Ulysses at her side, Penelope returns to the alternate timeline of Reconquista and Lord of Misrule. A tale of absent friends and old acquaintances.  To be continued, of course.

Episode 10: The Banquet of Ashes
1606, Marlowe's alternate timeline. Penelope and her companions prepare to enter the secret vaults of the Vatican where their friend Louise-Athénée is imprisoned. Who is the mysterious Red Monk? Why is the heretic Giordano Bruno still alive? What sinister force manipulates the mind of Pope Victor IV?  A tale of secrets and lies, of old friends and old foes.

Episode 11: Keep of the Tharils

Long before the Time War, Lady Romana guided the Tharils on the paths of freedom and wisdom, making them the guardians of E-Space. As the War erupted, the Tharils began their long vigil, locked up in their cross-dimensional keep, waiting for a message from Gallifrey which never came. And now a new Time Lady is about to enter Warrior’s Gate…

Episode 12: Empire of the Three

As Tharil society wavers on the brink of civil war, the TARDIS takes Penelope and Mortimus to the Celestial Citadel, at the heart of the Empire of a Thousand Worlds which now rules over all E-Space. Here, they meet the young god-emperor Arius, his Mother (also known as the Rani) and his General (formerly known as the War Chief). To be continued…

Episode 13: Alea Jacta Est

Following her daring capture of the Rani, Lady Penelope returns to the Celestial Citadel to negotiate an unlikely but necessary status quo between the Tharils and the Empire of a Thousand Worlds. But how do you convince the godchild emperor of E-space and his Time Lord General to choose the way of peace and balance?  By improvising, of course!

Episode 14: Thrall of the Rani

It is now time for Lady Penelope and Mortimus to return to N-Space and Avalon – with a prisoner (the Rani) and a potential ally (the War Chief). But the Rani has not played her last card yet. Imprisoned and helpless, Penelope and her companions must find a way to escape and free the regressed Tharils from the mysterious domination of the Rani…

Episode 15: The Trials of Time Lords

Lady Penelope has returned to Avalon – and now, the Rani and the War Chief must face the judgment of the new Lords of Time, with the Doctor acting as a reluctant supreme magistrate. One will be condemned, another will be spared – and a third one will sacrifice his life… Can past crimes be unwritten?  In the end, Time is the harshest judge of all. 

Season Ten: The Tides of Time

Episode 1: Avant-Garde

Accompanied by a most unlikely temporal tourist, the reformed renegade Time Lord Magnus (formerly known as the War Chief), Lady Penelope returns to one of her favorite time spots: Paris during the 1920s (also known locally as les années folles)… Who knows what awaits them in the City of Lights, Champagne and Surrealist Soirées?

Episode 2: En Garde!

Penelope takes her new traveling companion Théo to the time of The Three Musketeers. Arriving, well, Twenty Years After, the Time Lady soon finds herself investigating the puzzling anachronism of Cardinal Mazarin’s plastic vacuum flask. Featuring swashbuckling swordsmen, crazy conspirators and, of course, murderous mannequins...

Episode 3: Force Majeure

On her way to 2226 Paris, Penelope’s TARDIS is hit by yet another echo from the mysterious temporal shockwave, landing 250 years before the intended destination – but as far as Théo is concerned, 1976 is still the future! What could possibly go wrong?  Well, Sontarans. And Rutans. Plus a terrible weapon from the Time War. C’est la vie!

Episode 4: The Forever Day
Somewhere, on the border of Time, inside her magnificent palace, empress Jevane of the Khuvani is having a perfect day, over and over, awaiting the end of the Endless War. But when Penelope and Magnus become part of the supposedly immutable Order of Things, Eternity ends, heralding Oblivion. A play of Shapes and Secrets, of Otherness and Humanity.  

Episode 5: Warzone
Hit by a mysterious temporal turbulence, Penelope’s TARDIS crashes on the wrong side of the supposedly impassable barrier which isolates the Last Great Time War from the rest of the continuum. Captured by Gallifreyan forces, the Time Lady of Avalon and the former War Chief must face an unprecedented predicament – as well as their own differences…

Episode 6: The Hand of Morrolan
Following her harrowing experiences in the Warzone, Lady Penelope is back on Avalon for some R&R – as well as for some Q&A. It’s time for her to explore the unsolved mysteries and the deepest secrets of her legacy as the daughter and heir of Morrolan, Time Lord renegade, visionary dreamer and architect extraordinaire…  

Episode 7: Hellfire!
London, 1768. The Hellfire Club has risen from the ashes, England is ruled by a mad king and dark powers from below the earth are lurking in the shadows… At the secret request of Sir John Fielding, the blind beak of Bow Street, Lady Penelope and the Count of Saint-Germain (Yes! He’s back!) team up to foil the infernal designs of the Lloigor and their minions…

Episode 8: The Hermes Paradox 
After reviving the Count of Saint-Germain with the Elixir of Life, Lady Penelope takes him to 3^rdcentury BC Alexandria – in search (well, as far as the Count is concerned) of the fabled manuscripts of the great Hermes Trismegistus, father of all Hermetic knowledge. Places to go, people to see, books to read (or write?), paradoxes to avert (or embrace?).

Episode 9: The Cagliostro Caper 
Just when she thought she was done with the Count of Saint-Germain, Lady Penelope embarks with the so-called Immortal Man of Mystery on yet another impromptu adventure, in search of the elusive Count Cagliostro - yes, that other so-called Immortal Man of Mystery. A tale of intrigue and imposture, with a touch of nostalgia and nevermore.

Episode 10: Siren Song
Troubled by nostalgic visions of Lord Byron, Lady Penelope arrives in 1827 Florence, on the Ponte Vecchio – just in time to prevent the suicide of a young Englishman, lost in a labyrinth of distorted memories. Thus begins a tale of mystery, masquerade and melancholy, a minuet of deceptions, dilemmas and destinies, danced to the tune of the Time Sirens’ song…

Episode 11: Menaxa
Pursued by the Sirens of Time, Lady Penelope lands in the ruins of a sacred theatre, on the deserted world of Menaxa - a forgotten planet, with no history left to alter. The scene is set for the Time Lady’s final confrontation with the ravenous Sirens of Time. There, under the silent gaze of three mysterious watchers, comes the time for decision, ordeal and sacrifice. 

Episode 12: The Medusa Machine

Take an immense space-time rift and a planet that should not be there. Add a cosmic grand design and a time-shattering doomsday device. Mix twelve deluded Gallifreyan Monks with a demented time-sensitive Dalek - and voilà, instant apocalypse! Unless, of course, Lady Penelope and her allies manage to stop the Medusa Machine before it strikes midnight…

Episode 13: Deus Ex Medusa

As a Dalek Time War fleet surges out of the Medusa Cascade, the Time Lords of Avalon stand united to protect all of reality from Dalek Caan’s insane plans. With the power of the Hand of Morrolan at her command, Lady Penelope stands on the frontline of this cosmic battle, ready to destroy the Dalek kamikazes. But can she prevent the apotheosis of a mad demiurge?

Episode 14: A Time to Sow

Thanks to Lady Penelope’s command of the Hand of Morrolan, the temporal haven of Avalon has just escaped complete annihilation – and it is now time for its lords and guardians to learn from the past and look at the future. Can utopian dreams be preserved from the hard realities of power and responsibility? And if the Doctor does not rule over Avalon, who will?

Episode 15: The Gaze of Oblivion

Victory, survival and knowledge have something in common: they all come at a price. As the Medusa Cascade is turning into a self-aware, godlike cosmic force, Lady Penelope and the Doctor must now face the consequences of their choices and the aftermath of their actions. It is time for them to gaze into the abyss and put the final legacy of Rassilon at rest…