'Astronautical' doesn't really mean anything; I just made it up. -- Adam Cadre, Photopia

Tales from /lost+found 122: Invaders From Mars!

Just for the sake of completeness…

4×18 February 18, 2000
INVADERS FROM MARS! (Serial 55)

Setting: New York, October, 1938
Regular Cast: Hugh Laurie (The Doctor), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Lizzie)
Guest Starring: Leiv Schreiber (Orson Welles), David Suchet (John Houseman), Paul Williams (Howard Koch), Eric Loren (Cathulan Leader)

Plot: The Toynbee device delivers the Doctor and Lizzie to New York City just before Halloween, 1938. Stopping for a meal, they have a chance meeting with Orson Welles, who has just decided to cancel their planned production of The War of the Worlds in favor of Lorna Doone. Exploring New York, the Doctor and Lizzie pick up a tail in the form of two Cathulan criminals who have detected the energy from the Toynbee device. An attempt to give them the slip at the Empire State Building fails, and the time travelers are taken prisoner. The Doctor offers to fix the Cathulan ship’s shields in exchange for their freedom, and discovers that the aliens are planning an elaborate con against Earth: they intend to crash their ship into the Empire State Building, then claim to be involved in an interplanetary battle between two space empires, and offer Earth their protection for a hefty price. The Doctor plants a seed of an idea that Earth might be in danger from a legitimate invasion in order to frighten the Cathulans. Lizzie starts a fight with the junior Cathulan, allowing the Doctor to escape. He seeks out Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre. With some difficulty, he persuades them to put on War of the Worlds that evening. The Doctor helps Howard Koch to rewrite the radio play as a hoax that could trick listeners into believing that an invasion from Mars is really occurring. During the writing process, the Doctor drops hints to inspire Howard to write the screenplay for Casablanca and warns Orson not to let the studio recut The Magnificent Ambersons. Still a captive of the Cathulans, Lizzie guesses the Doctor’s plan and plays on their fears so that when the Mercury Theater broadcast begins, they will be convinced. In New York and across the country, listeners mistake the broadcast for reality and panic, leading to rioting in the streets. The Cathulan leader goes outside to see for himself and witnesses the mass panic, but sees no Martians. Back at the studio, network executives force Orson to broadcast a disclaimer. The junior Cathulan hears the disclaimer and realizes he’s been tricked. But while attempting to take revenge on Lizzie for the deception, he is electrocuted by a faulty component of his ship. When the leader returns, Lizzie claims to be a Martian operative and passes off the burned body as a victim of a Martian heat ray. She is permitted to leave before the surviving Cathulan flees in his ship. Crowds on the streets of New York witness the alien ship, but their accounts will be dismissed as mass hysteria. Lizzie and the Doctor reunite at the radio studio and the Doctor puts Orson in contact with a UNIT precursor that deals with extraterrestrial incidents, who will protect Orson from prosecution in return for using the hoax as a cover for the Cathulan incident. After saying their goodbyes, the Doctor and Lizzie attempt to return to their own time, but an unknown force diverts them to a decaying city one hundred years into the future, where the Doctor is surprised to see a marble statue of himself, depicted as a battle-hardened warrior.

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