Do the people we become shape the stories we like? Or do the stories we like shape the people we become?

The Doctor is happily retired. He always knew he would retire, and he is fairly sure that he’s happy, living in a semi-detached in suburban England. However, the only problem is that the Doctor feels miserable. He is plagued with doubts, depression and ennui. He spends too much time watching TV. He feels the neighbours are judging him. He only has his therapy sessions and a visit from his grandchildren to look forward to. Then, a series of grisly murders rock the neighbourhood. The eccentric tokens left at the scene—a recorder, a question-mark umbrella, a stick of celery, and a pair of sunglasses—jog the Doctor’s memory. Something happened on the Doctor’s last adventure. Something that reaches right back to his childhood. Something that makes him think the adventure isn’t over at all.

The city of Hamelyn is plagued with rats. They're everywhere! Every street, every shop, every tavern, every home. Yet there is one place the rats never go, and that's any place where there's no one to see them. There's more happening in Hamelyn than meets the eye - children are missing, and someone new sits on the town council - a piper, in Technicolor clothes. This is the man who's sworn to rid Hamelyn of its rats, for the right price of course...though nobody besides the Doctor knows how horribly high that price will ultimately be...

Ted Kenworthy knew he was destined for greatness. Named one of “Britain’s Brightest Teenagers” by the Sheffield Independent, he is now married to Sandra, the love of his life. The only trouble is he can’t get ahead at his factory job, his cutting-edge research is wasted, and he has a feeling that Sandra is drifting away. Then Ted meets Sam R.T. McNess, a wealthy American executive. McNess sets him up in his own facility, and gives him all the time and resources he needs to carry out his work. Ted’s success won’t just benefit him—his ingenuity might bring an end to warfare! All that, and a baby on the way! Everything is going so well for Ted. So why is he so full of anger and anxiety? Why does he worry about McNess and his American yes-men? And why, on the day he demonstrates his major breakthrough, have two strangers—the Doctor and Hannah Redfoot—arrived?g

A hike on Pluto turns grim for the Doctor and Hannah when the TARDIS is plucked from the surface and they stumble across the gruesome remains of a party of space explorers. Joining Captain Julia Cornelius and the exploration vessel Boundless, the time travellers discover an ancient force toying with the minds of the humans—a force wishing to visit Earth. To prevent it from escaping Pluto, the Doctor must risk his own sanity.

A trip to Timberland, South Dakota to sample some classic county fair delicacies soon becomes a mystery the Doctor and Hannah are compelled to unravel. The county fairgrounds should be a near riot of activity, but they are nearly deserted. The people they meet are friendly, but standoffish. While investigating, they encounter Kara, a young woman who has spent the last few days on the run from everyone in the town – including her family. Something or someone has taken control of the entire town, and only good luck and better reflexes has kept Kara out of the clutches of the invaders. Soon, the Doctor, Hannah and Kara find themselves unraveling a sinister plot laid by an old enemy of the Doctor’s with the fates of the entire town of Timberland in the balance. Their only hope may lie with Mirlon, an invader whose conscience is troubled by her orders.

For over a thousand years the Pama race has been indebted to a Time Lord who chose to help them. A Time Lord who stepped away from Gallifreyan society and was shunned in return. Young Londragulthardan started on her path to cure a virulent virus among the Pama people. But that idealistic endeavor has metamorphosed into tampering with every aspect of Pama society. Now the Doctor and Hannah have arrived. Even the Doctor, no stranger to meddling of his own, is stunned by the lengths that Londra has gone too. When she entreats him to help finally find a cure for the dread disease will he agree or let nature and history take its course? And how can the Doctor make such a choice when Hannah’s life hangs in the balance? For she too has contracted the Penumbra virus. A virus that leads inexorably… to death!