The Eighth Doctor and his companions land on a world where witches, giants, sleeping princesses, and magic are real. The Doctor and his companions, Anji and Fitz, are woken by the sounds of the TARDIS, the Doctor's time and space machine, activating by itself. They land on a beautiful planet, but before they can explore their surroundings, a forest pops up from nowhere to surround the TARDIS. The Doctor tries to get through the trees, but they are so thick that they form an impenetrable barrier. Following a nearby road, the trio come upon a small town surrounding a massive castle. The town is bustling, full of people, many of whom are running small stalls where they sell goods. In order to find out what is happening, the Doctor makes his own sign and sets up shop as Doctor Know-All, offering to help with problems and quests. While he does that, Anji meets a witch in the mass of people and, foolishly, signs a contract to help with a set of sisters who need a servant. Anji is stuck with them for six days (one day for each sister), but comes into possession of a box that she believes grants wishes. Fitz ends up in a nearby tavern where an old man gives him an old, flea-bitten wolf pelt to wear. The Doctor is taken to the nearby castle where the King tasks him with saving his daughter, who is under a sleeping spell. While there, the Doctor meets a gnome named Inexplicable, who teleports the Doctor out of the castle. The Doctor meets Alex, a member of a spaceship crew who came to the planet in order to find six objects that fell from a white hole in space. Alex tells the Doctor that, on the other side of the world, insect-like aliens called the Vuim are also trying to mine the riches of the world for themselves and their partners, the pink hippo-like Abanak. As a secondary goal, the Vuim are also trying to find a cure to a genetic malady that kills them suddenly and without warning. Alex has a machine that detects the white hole energy, and it leads them to a massive giant's castle in the sky. They manage to get to the room where the giant has hidden another box, but Alex runs away with it, leaving the Doctor and Inex behind. The giant eats Inex, but allows the Doctor to live because the Doctor can tell him many fascinating stories. With the help of Janet, the giant's maid, the Doctor escapes from the giant's castle. On the shores of a lake, Janet tells the Doctor to go straight to the Castle of Sighs, find the Duke of Sigh's fairy horses, and send one of them back to her before the giant can get across the lake. Janet also tells the Doctor that he will forget her as soon as he gets to the castle, but the Doctor promises to get the horses and send one back. Fitz falls in with a pair of princes who are going to the castle in an effort to wake the sleeping princess, but it turns out that the wolf pelt is actually possessed by the disembodied spirit of their younger brother, murdered by the princes. The princes arrive at the castle but tell the guards that Fitz is a murderer who tried to kill them in the forest, so when he arrives at the castle the guards grab him and throw him in the dungeon. Anji escapes from the sisters when the Duke's man comes to invite them all to a ball, only to realize that Anji may be one of the women the Duke is fated to marry (thanks to a prophecy and Anji's dark skin). At the Castle of Sighs, Anji competes against Christina, the captain of the spaceship, who was trapped on the planet alongside Alex and one of the Abanak (since killed in the forest by the powerful and insane woodwose). When they both conspire to foil the Duke's attempts to choose one of them as his wife, the Duke turns into a frog. Meanwhile, as the Vuim begin their mining operations, the world is wracked by massive earthquakes. People suddenly go insane, including Fitz, who escapes the dungeon when one of the princes comes to take the wolf cloak from him. Fitz kills the guard and attacks the prince, only to be ambushed by the other prince. At the Castle of Sighs, the Doctor arrives and is distracted by a golden apple, dropped by one of the sisters. With a few bites of the fruit, the Doctor comes to the realization that the planet itself is alive, seeded by another object from the white hole thousands of years before. The Vuim's mining operation is essentially killing the planet itself and affecting the "magic" fed by they white hole energy. The Doctor finally remembers his promise to Janet and goes back to rescue her, then returns to the castle with Fitz, Anji, Christina, and Inex (not eaten by the giant but, instead, trapped in a looking glass). Thanks to the magical upheavel, all six boxes (really the matter expelled from the white hole) are present in the princesses' room, including the one stolen by Alex and the one Anji left in the sisters' house. The Doctor melds the boxes together and trades them to the Vuim in exchange for an end to their mining operation, saving the planet. The Vuim uses the energy from the boxes to make a wish that cures his entire race of the genetic disease that has plagued them for generations. On their way to the TARDIS, Fitz finds one of the princes, wearing the wolf skin, gibbering madly. The prince tosses the skin on a nearby fire, but as the skin burns, it releases the spirit of the murdered younger brother, who regains human form. The youngest prince rescues the princess from her sleep, and they are both crowned as rulers of the kingdom. With the planet secure, the woods pull back to allow access to the TARDIS, and the Doctor and his companions leave in search of other adventures.
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Best part of story, including ending:
I liked the blend of science fiction and fantasy, and enjoyed the explanation of how, in the science-based world of the Doctor, magic existed (at least on one planet), but only because of matter expelled from a white hole in space.
Best scene in story:
I enjoyed the scenes in the giant's castle where the Doctor, Alex, and Inex had to escape from giant rats by climbing a massive tapestry in order to make it to the second floor, where the giant had hidden the white hole matter-turned wishing box.
Opinion about the main character:
The Eighth Doctor, like his previous incarnations, does a very good job of getting into trouble, but also does a very good job of getting out of that trouble and, while doing so, saving entire planets and races of people.
