“Wild Blue Yonder” is episode two of the 2023 specials of the new Doctor Who.
At the end of the previous episode, “The Star Beast”, Donna spilt coffee on the TARDIS console. Which promptly caught fire. The TARDIS dematerialised and, after a brief stop in an apple tree in England, 1666 with a man underneath it that the Doctor realises is Sir Isaac Newton, it flies off again and crashes into a metal wall.
Donna comes out, the Doctor tackles her and fire comes out of the TARDIS doors. The doors shut and the Doctor checks inside. He says he can fix it. The TARDIS can regenerate if he ticks into gear. The Doctor fiddles around with the sonic screwdriver and the TARDIS keyhole and starts it mending. The Doctor wonders where they are. A spaceship perhaps. They go have a look.
Outside the room they crashed in there’s a very long corridor and something in the distance. The Doctor wants to take a look. It seems something is watching them. Then they hear the TARDIS dematerialising. They run back as it leaves. The Doctor can’t call it back as the sonic is in the keyhole. They’re arguing and Donna is panicking about getting home. The Doctor says there’s one hope. The TARDIS has a mechanism that makes it go away if there’s danger. It comes back when the danger is gone. The Doctor turned it off years again, but maybe it came back on. Donna decides if there’s something on the ship so bad the TARDIS ran away, they should go kick its arse. They head off into the ship, which is reconfiguring, and the Doctor finds a hover car.
The thing in the distance is what looks like a very old robot. Which is moving very slowly. The end of the corridor has a cockpit and a command chair. The Doctor turns on the panels and detects no lifesigns. The ship is powered down. An airlock opened three years ago, then closed. The Doctor also finds a camera and a drone. They are in a very big spaceship. In space. With no stars.
The ship is lost. It fell through a wormhole. To the edge of the universe. There’s nothing. Donna asks why there’s no starlight. Because it hasn’t reached them yet. The Doctor has never been this far out. No-one has. They hear a sound but find nothing. The ship reconfigures again with another strange word.
The Doctor wants to restore power. He leaves and Donna remains in the room they’re in. Then the Doctor rejoins her. Then Donna rejoins him. There are two Doctors and two Donnas, and the duplicates seem to have the originals’ memories. Which makes them difficult to tell apart.
They’re stuck on a spaceship at the very edge of existence with a reconfiguring ship, a very slowly moving robot and two creatures that appear to be slowly becoming perfect duplicates of the Doctor and Donna. This can get creepy.