Devour

The Doctor and Jess look down into the abyss leading into the Nihil's TARDIS

The Master (Cameron Hughes)

Devour is the sixth episode of the first season of the BloodLoomis Productions Lego Doctor Who Series which was first uploaded on 2nd January 2015. This episode is the first to be written by James Stone, and features the debut of both the Master and the Daleks in the series, albeit in an either weakened or illusory state.

In the episode, the Doctor and Jess find themselves inside a metal ship on the edge of a blue sun. The ship is in fact, a decaying TARDIS, which has been inhabited by a disembodied intelligence called the Nihil, who wants to drain the Doctor of his lifeblood and commandeer his TARDIS.

The episode received positive reviews, with particular reference to its script.

## Plot

The Doctor and Jess are running from an Egyptian mummy. They get back to the TARDIS and plan their next destination. They are drawn off course however, and arrive on the surface of a metal ship. The ship is a blank slate, with few indications as to who it belongs to. A hole opens in the surface, and the travellers head inside.

They find the interior of the ship to be a maze of corridors and stairways. The Doctor concludes that the ship is in fact a TARDIS, due to it being slightly larger on the inside. Inside a room within the ship, they find a weakened Dalek, that has had all its energy sapped. Jess is locked outside the room, and the Doctor is confronted by an image of the Master. The Doctor manages to open the door and save Jess from a Weeping Angel.

The two make their way up a flight of stairs and realise that the rooms and stairs are moving around. Whilst trying to make their way around a pit, the Doctor and Jess are separated when Jess falls down a hole in the floor. She wakes up in a white void, and is taunted by an unseen force which calls itself the Nihil, an incorporeal being that seeks to drain both the Doctor and Jess of their lifeblood they pick up by travelling the universe.

The Doctor runs through the ship, before running into Jess, who has been taken over by the Nihil. It taunts him and explains that it has been inhabiting the TARDIS, luring people in to drain their lifeblood. The Doctor sacrifices himself to help Jess, grabbing hold of the Nihil. Jess wakes up in the Doctor's TARDIS, and is ordered by the Nihil to pull the dematerialisation lever, setting him free to roam the universe. The Doctor, on the brink of death, tells Jess to do it. Once pulled, the lever takes them to the dawn of time, where the Nihil is ripped apart by unseen creatures. Parts of the TARDIS are converted to energy, reviving the Doctor and instilling Jess with every star in the universe. The two of them go to a beach to rest, and eat sorbet as they muse about what the Nihil was attacked by.

### Continuity

The adventure in Egypt was first referenced at the end of the previous episode. The Doctor mentions the events of *The TV Movie* when talking with the image of the Master. He also references Skonnos when describing the way the rooms change, similar to the Nimons' maze. The Vultures are the creatures that are responsible for the Nihil's death.

## Production

### Writing

James Stone expressed an interest in writing an episode of the series, and pitched the idea of a Dalek story that turned out to actually feature a different villain. This turned into 'Devour' eventually, although it went under many alternate titles: 'Desecration of the Daleks', 'Relative Dimensions', 'The Ship On The Edge Of The Sun' and 'Transcendental'.

### Filming

The story used an official set in the Egypt scene: the Pharaoh's Forbidden Ruins *Adventurers* set. The mummy was added during filming.

## Trivia

* This is the first story to be written by James Stone.
* The Master here is presumably the first incarnation, as he doesn't recognise the name 'the Master'.