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Fear Her
London 2012, and the Doctor and Rose set off to see the Olympics, only to find terror in the most ordinary place.
London, 2012. In a quiet suburb on an average street, children play and construction work goes on... though
an old woman named Maeve (Edna Dore) seems to know that there are connections between a rash of recent disappearances on the
block. Nobody will listen to her, but another boy disappears while playing football, without a passing thought. And in the
meanwhile, alone in her room, a little girl named Chloe (Abisola Agbaje) draws another picture, this one of the missing boy,
which takes on a life of its own...
The Doctor and Rose (David Tennant, Billie Piper) arrive in the neighborhood as preparations continue for
the Summer Olympic Games, which are soon to be held in London. Rose is concerned about the number of bills posted about the
missing children in the neighborhood, which leads them to begin an investigation. Rose notices that cars mysteriously stop
in a part of the street, as Kel (Abdul Salis) a street construction worker, tells her, while the Doctor feels an uncertain
amount of energy in the places the children disappeared. The two meet the neighbors, including Trish (Nina Sosanya), the mother
of the little girl that peers at them through her second-storey window. The Doctor believes Maeve's story and continues his
pursuit of the truth, and Rose watches as a cat disappears right from under her nose.
Inside the house, Trish attempts to get through the Chloe, who's absorbed by her continued drawings all
over her bedroom. Rose is attacked by some sort of creature in a garage -- a creature made of graphite, the same material
used in pencils. More interestingly, the Doctor notices he can erase the creature with a standard pencil eraser, realizing
that whatever created the "squiggle creature" as he calls it just drew it into existence... some sort of child's drawing.
The two end up at Trish's house, after remembering Chloe's interest from her window. Trish realizes the Doctor can help her,
so she invites him and Rose in, telling them about her daughter, a lonely little girl who sits in her room all day and draws.
The Doctor detects something unusual coming from Chloe, while Rose snoops around and discovers there's something lurking in
Chloe's closet. In fact, it's a drawing of Chloe's father, an alcoholic who mistreated the two of them. The Doctor puts the
pieces together -- Chloe can manipulate reality by drawing, trapping people in her sketches or, in the case of the closet,
recreating things from fantasy.
The Doctor makes contact with a being inside Chloe -- a wayward Isolus, part of a gestalt mind that was
accidentally left behind on Earth. The Isolus doesn't mean any harm; it's lonely, having spent an eternity with millions of
its brothers and sisters, and believes the drawings that trapped the children are bringing new friends for it to play with.
The Doctor and Rose return to the TARDIS, where he attempts to create a device that will allow the Isolus to free itself and
be reunited with its traveling pod. Unfortunately, the Isolus believes the Doctor has hostile intentions, and so Chloe traps
him and the TARDIS inside a drawing!
Remembering that the Isolus crashed in the neighborhood and its pod radiates heat, Rose determines that
the pod is stuck in the asphalt on the street (hence the cars coming to a standstill). She digs it up, to Kel's dismay, out
of one of the newly filled potholes. The Isolus, which has already stolen the population of the Olympic stadium waiting for
the arrival of the torch, prepares one last drawing - a picture of the Earth, which will trap the entirety of humanity within
a drawing. Outside, the Olympic torch comes down Trish and Chloe's street, and Rose, realizing the Isolus pod needs a heat
source, throws it at the torch; ignited by the torch's heat, the pod reactivates and summons the Isolus, so the two can be
rejoined and leave Earth. The Isolus leaves Chloe, who is reunited with her mother, but also frees the terrible image of Chloe's
father from the closet -- until it is banished when Trish and Chloe sing together, ridding the bad feelings and making the
beast lose its form.
Everyone is returned from the drawings back to the way they were... except the Doctor. But he's alive, and
grabs the Olympic torch and carries it into the stadium to light the flame. The Isolus leaves Earth and the Doctor can feel
the love from the audience. Back on the street, as everyone watches the fireworks overhead, celebrating London's Olympic spirit,
the Doctor realizes that there is something terrible coming... a storm is approaching...
Extras
Thanks to Outpost Gallifrey for the story synopsis.
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