Transit (TV Story)

***Transit*** was the fourth serial of Season 30 of *Doctor Who*. It was written by Ben Aaronovitch, directed by Michael Kerrigan and starred Richard Griffiths as the Eighth Doctor, Saskia Reeves as Guinevere Hoult and Lisa Bowerman as Bernice Summerfield.

This was the final regular story for Saskia Reeves as Guinevere Hoult.

## Synopsis

*"Oh no, not again..."*

It's the ultimate in mass transit systems, a network of interstitial tunnels that bind the planets of the solar system together. Earth to Pluto in forty minutes with a supersave non-premium off-peak travelcard.

But something is living in the network, chewing its way to the very heart of the system and leaving a trail of death and mutation behind it.

Meanwhile, the Doctor has finally taken Guinevere back. Back down amongst the joyboys, freesurfers, chessfans, politicians and floozies, where friends are more dangerous than enemies and one man's human being is another's psychotic killing machine.

Once again the Doctor is all that stands between humanity and its own mistakes.

## Cast

* The Doctor - Richard Griffiths
* Guinevere - Saskia Reeves
* Bernice - Lisa Bowerman
* Kadiatu - Josette Simon
* Francine - Sarah Smith
* Old Sam - Simon Russell Beale
* Credit Card - Tommy Flanagan
* Dogface - Max Beasley
* Lambada - Barbara Flynn
* Blondie - Iain Glen
* Ming the Merciless - Patsy Byrne
* FLORANCE - Jennifer Saunders

## Worldbuilding

### Books

* Kadiatu's great grandmother of the same name wrote *The Zen Military*.
* There is an opera based on the Doctor.

### Conflicts

* The Thousand Day War was fought with the "Greenies".
* Ubersoldaten were augmented soldiers that fought in the Thousand Day War.

### Currency

* Moneypens are used to transfer currency.

### The Doctor

* The Doctor refers to his third, fourth and fifth incarnations' liking for wine, beer and cricket respectively.

### Events

* Earth's *official* First Contact with aliens is embodied in the Arcturan Treaty of 2085.

### Individuals

* Kadiatu is related to Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart.

### Jargon

* "Personspace" refers to the area of space explored by humans.
* "Catfood-monster" refers to a homeless person.
* "NAFAL" means to "not-as-fast-as-light".

### Planets

* Benny once attended a conference at the Institute of Human Ecology on Cygni VI.
* Benny picked up a digging mantra on Proxima IV.

### Politics

* A President runs the Union of Solar Republics and is based in Reykjavik, Iceland.

### Transport technology

* The "botched" Zygma energy experiments of the thirtieth century are mentioned.

## Notes

* Ben Aaronovitch previously submitted this serial to the *Doctor Who* production team for Season 25.
* Kadiatu was considered to be the new companion, Bernice didn't appear in the first draft, but Colin Brake decided to make Bernice the new companion so the book had to be rewritten to fit her in.

## Continuity

* The Doctor taunts a possessed-Benny by saying he never built her a boom-box. (TV: *Silver Nemesis*)
* The Doctor mentions that he has visited "all three Atlantises." (TV: *The Underwater Menace*, TV: *The Dæmons*, TV: *The Time Monster*)
* The Doctor calls the entity "Fred." He'd previously attributed this name to a Robot Yeti (TV: *The Web of Fear*) and Romana I. (TV: *The Ribos Operation*)

## Home Video and DVD Releases

### VHS

* This story was released on VHS in 2001.

### DVD

* This story along with the other stories in Season 30 were released as *Doctor Who: The Complete Thirtieth Season* in 2008.

### Blu-Ray

* This story along with the other stories in Season 30 were upscaled in 1080i50 high definition and were released as *Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 30* in the UK.