Good question. Let's see. So, um, judging by the architecture, I'd say we're around the year [looks at the Doctor] Two hundred thousand? If you listen, engines. We're on some sort of space station. Yeah, definitely a space station. It's a bit warm in here. They could turn the heating down. Tell you what, let's try that gate. Come on.
The Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. And there it is: planet Earth at its height. Covered with megacities, five moons, population 96 billion. The hub of a galactic domain, stretching across a million planets, a million species. With mankind right in the middle. [Adam faints. The Doctor doesn't react, still looks out over the Earth][deadpan] He's your boyfriend.
The thing is, Adam, time travel is like visiting Paris. You can't just read the guidebook, you've got to throw yourself in! Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers! [beat] Or is that just me?
It may interest you to know that this isn't actually the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. It's hardly human at all! It's a place where humans happen to live — [unseen creature protests] — sorry, are allowed to live, by kind permission of my client. [points upwards]
[The Doctor and Rose follow his finger and finally see the huge alien creature with ferocious-looking jaws on the ceiling]
You mean that thing's in charge of Satellite Five?
EThe Editor
"That thing", as you put it, is in charge of the human race. For almost a hundred years, mankind has been guided and shaped. Its knowledge and ambition strictly controlled, through its broadcast news — edited by my superior, your master, and humanity's guiding light: The Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe! [grins] I call him Max.
Create a climate of fear, and it's easy to keep the borders closed. It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilize an economy, invent an enemy, change a vote.
