Space in Dimension Relative and Time ( comic story ) Publisher ' s summary . The Doctor is the only one who realises that the flow of time in the vortex has been disrupted , but can he uncover the cosmic culprit and put causality back on the right track — before Alice and her fellow TARDIS travellers are de - aged right out of existence ? Plot . The Eleventh Doctor and Alice Obiefune dangle their feet in open space sitting within the TARDIS ' door . Alice mourns the death of John Jones . She proposes to go back and avert it . The Doctor replies that it is not possible , that life always moves forward . The Doctor ' s figure is being sucked out through the open door of the TARDIS . He is barely holding by the TARDIS control console with one hand . At the same time , a massive protective suite is near the console seemingly unperturbed by the decompression . The Doctor ' s figure moans in the manner characteristic of ARC and manages to pull down a lever . The door begin to close . " ARC is alive , " announces the faux Doctor . An inner door opens , and the real Doctor appears at the top of the stairs with Alice , a broken geranium pot lying behind them on the floor . Alice is happy that ARC succeeded and they are out of the Time Vortex . She apologises for hitting the Doctor on the head to save his life . But the Doctor feels that something is wrong . He demands an explanation from ARC , who still looks like him . ARC is confused . A black vortex is being sucked out of the TARDIS through the open door . The faux Doctor is barely holding by the console . Through a pothole in the inner door Alice watches the TARDIS control room while the Doctor lies on the floor near the broken geranium pot . Alice sees that ARC has been successful in venting the black hole out into space . She shouts that ARC should hit the lever to shut the door . The Doctor comes to and realises that time is running backwards in incremental jumps . As he asks Alice why she knocked him out , he feels another jump back approaching . A massive figure explodes in the control room all around the faux Doctor . ARC is proud that the deception worked : the figure thought it was absorbing the Doctor , but it was ARC , who just looked like the Doctor , and it proved too much . The splash from the explosion reached all the way to the empty massive protective suit . But ARC does not celebrate for long as the black box of the intruder combines with TARDIS engines and creates a black hole . Alice shouts through the pothole in the inner door that ARC should hit the lever to vent the black hole out into space . Meanwhile the Doctor lies on the floor near the broken geranium pot and realises that he is the only one aware that they are running backwards through time . In fact , in forward time he is unconscious , but is having a secondary " backwards " consciousness . He starts experiencing strange distortions . In front of the inner door pothole , Alice hits the Doctor on the head with the geranium pot , lamenting that the intruder already killed Jones and she needs to at least save the Doctor . To Alice ' s surprise , the Doctor is not knocked out and , in fact , happy that the distortions ceased . He is , however , apprehensive about the fate of the geranium , which he was going to call Dave . He explains to Alice that he is using his secondary backwards consciousness , a peculiar Time Lord feature . He needs her help . If the time continues running backwards , it will destroy everything . In addition , in the console room a Nimon , dressed only in a loincloth , is sucking energy from the ARC , thinking it is the Doctor . As if that were not enough , the Nimon has a black hole bomb . In the corridor , Alice stands over a still steaming pile of ash holding the pot with Dave and urges ARC to turn into the Doctor . The Doctor registers another jump back and figures that they happen at regular short intervals . The ARC turns into the Doctor and explains that he should go to the control room as the Doctor may not survive the black hole temporal forces there . ARC is ready to sacrifice himself just like Jones . As Alice is preparing to hit the Doctor on the head with Dave , he wags a finger at her without even looking . The two copies of the Doctor and Alice crowd around the inner door pothole looking into the control room . There the Nimon in his protective suit is feeding the combined knowledge of the whole of Datastore 8 from the black box to create a black hole in order to destroy the TARDIS and the Nimon homeworld . The Doctor , however , is wondering who is making time go backwards . In the corridor , ARC and Alice stare at the pile of ash , all that remains of Jones . He just sacrificed his life to save Alice . The Doctor realises they jumped again , for the sixth time . They see the Nimon in the protective suit with his black box heading towards the control room . The Doctor is wondering if he can change things using the fact that he ' s conscious about the reverse timeline . Testing , he kicks the ashes , which did not happen before . Appalled , Alice slaps him , confirming the success of his test : things can be changed . In the corridor , standing in the protective suit in front of his black box , the Nimon prepares to suck the energy from Alice to punish her for interfering with his plans . Jones jumps in between them just in time and is turned into the pile of ash . The Doctor appears with ARC and praises Jones ' sacrifice . Alice is running along a TARDIS corridor carrying the black box and bumps right into the Nimon in his protective suit . He knocks her out . Instead of helping Alice , the Doctor grabs the black box and makes a run for it to try and see if the black box is making the time go back . But after the next jump , the Doctor is running along a different corridor and his hands are empty again . Alice tells the Doctor that the Nimon just got his black box back from Jones , that ARC is going to attack him and she is planning to try and steal the black box . But knowing how it will turn out , the Doctor is more concerned with getting to the control room to get something he needs . The TARDIS is starting to feel the strain . After the next jump , the physical distortions briefly elongate the Doctor ' s fingers and a corridor ceiling begins to crumble . The Doctor realises that they are speeding up in the Time Vortex and that these jumps will soon lead to a catastrophe . The Doctor sees Jones sitting on the floor crying . He cowardly dropped the black box and ran at the sight of the Nimon . The Doctor assures Jones he would reclaim himself soon . Feeling the next jump approaching , the Doctor takes the position for sprinting . He will only have a limited time to reach the control room after the jump . With the jump , the Doctor starts sprinting along corridors . Meeting the Nimon in the protective suit carrying his black box , the Doctor just runs clean past him . Finally , he sees the door to the control room . It is closing , and he cries out asking to hold it . Another jump , and the Doctor runs face first into the door . He sees the pot with Dave standing nearby . The Doctor notices a slug crawling on Dave and stealing its nutrients . That gives him an idea . He also realises that this jump brought him right into the control room . Now everyone is on the floor of the control room . ARC is wrestling the Nimon who left his protective suit standing nearby . Alice tells Jones to run away with the black box he is holding . While they are arguing where he should run , the Doctor quickly scans the box with his sonic screwdriver to confirm it has nothing to do with the time reversal . With ARC barely able to hold the Nimon and before the next jump , the Doctor crawls under the console and searches for something hidden under it . The Nimon brags about murdering the entire population of Datastore 8 and plans to visit the same fate upon his own race . The TARDIS escapes the burning atmosphere of Datastore 8 . The Doctor , Alice , Jones , and the Nimon in the protective suit stand in the control room watching on the screen how the whole planet explodes . The Doctor presses a button on a vortex manipulator The TARDIS is on the surface of Datastore 8 , which is beginning to crumble . The Doctor accuses the Nimon of turning up in his temporal armour , which is what his protective suit is , and persuading this highly advanced civilisation of being a god and then sucking all their resources , knowledge and energy dry , all in order to prepare his black hole - creating box to the annihilation of the Nimon s . Nimon called the TARDIS to the planet to use the TARDIS engines as an oven to bake the black hole bomb . By the end of this tirade the surface is in flames and the TARDIS crew pleads with the Doctor to dematerialise . The annoyed Alice is waiting for Jones to vacate the bathroom while he takes forever glamming himself up . The Doctor appears with the vortex manipulator and Dave . ARC rushes in to share the news , but the Doctor already knows . There is a distress call from the dying planet Datastore 8 , the lone survivor from which requires saving . The Doctor comes to the conclusion that this is the start and the TARDIS is going to explode and activates the vortex manipulator . His worst suspicions confirmed , the determined Doctor presses a button on the vortex manipulator . The TARDIS explodes . This time the Doctor moved forward five leaps . Everyone , including himself from five leaps ago , are in the control room . ARC is wrestling the Nimon . Jones is holding the black box . The older copy of the Doctor tells the Nimon that ARC contains all his top secret knowledge and energy provoking the Nimon to absorb him immediately . Exactly as happened several leaps ago , when the Nimon was absorbing ARC thinking it was the Doctor , this proves too much for the Nimon and he begins exploding . The Doctor activates the vortex manipulator again . Counteracting the jump back , the manipulator brings the older copy of the Doctor a jump forward , and he can see how the Nimon explodes and praise ARC for playing his part . The younger Doctor guesses that , begin a temporal anomaly , the vortex manipulator is about the only thing that would not disappear after a jump back . He also presumes that now the older Doctor is going to use the Nimon ' s temporal armour to go outside the TARDIS to find the cause of the time reversal . Alice and Jones can only watch the two Doctors compliment each other on their extreme cleverness . The Doctor in the temporal armour gets out of the TARDIS and finds a slug - like creature clinging to the outer shell of the TARDIS , which is mid - flight through the Time Vortex . He recognises a Time Vortex leech from ancient Gallifrey an songs . The Doctor moves the leech from the TARDIS to the black box , which contains enough quantum data to serve as a kind of a surf board for the leech to start its journey backwards . Free of the leech , the TARDIS returns back to normal . When the Nimon descends on Datastore 8 in his temporal armour , the Doctor and the TARDIS crew are waiting for him and tell him to hop it . Datastore 8 is under the Doctor ' s protection from now on . Notes . Original print details . " to be added "