When the internet starts killing people, the Doctor and Donna have to log on, level up, and try not to throw a laptop out a window.
Short Synopsis
People across the world are being murdered by online rage. Literally. Someone (or something) is feeding on humanity’s digital hate—turning tweets into death threats, and death threats into… well, actual deaths. The Doctor and Donna must dive into the internet’s nastiest corners to stop it. Which means Donna Noble finally gets to yell at trolls—and the Doctor has to face the one enemy even he can’t outwit: bad Wi-Fi.
Extended Storyline
After a series of mysterious deaths linked to online abuse (and at least one poor bloke who died after reading the comments section), the Doctor and Donna Noble crash-land—digitally speaking—into the modern age of social media warfare. Jenny T. Colgan wastes no time reuniting the iconic duo with all the chemistry, chaos, and caffeine deprivation that made their Doctor Who era sparkle.
Our story begins as the Doctor investigates a bizarre pattern: people across the globe are dying after furious online exchanges. At first, UNIT blames stress, heart failure, or perhaps an unusually aggressive Wi-Fi signal. But the Doctor quickly spots the real cause—a virulent digital pathogen infecting human emotion itself. It’s feeding on hate, rage, and self-righteous indignation. (In other words, the internet’s natural resources.)
Donna, of course, is having none of it. She’s furious that something has weaponized social media—her social media, where she posts cat photos and passive-aggressive memes about her mother. Together, the Doctor and Donna trace the phenomenon to a series of strange “hotspots” across the globe—each one radiating psychic energy like a really angry router.
Their investigation whisks them across continents: from London’s tech start-ups to the blood-red sands of Kenya, where the first major outbreak occurred. Along the way, they pick up a handful of characters, including journalists, scientists, and at least one man who insists that turning the internet off and back on again might fix everything. (Spoiler: it won’t.)
The Doctor eventually deduces that the “hate plague” isn’t metaphorical—it’s biological. A species of data-parasites is using human online interactions as a feeding ground. The more people argue, rant, or rage-post, the stronger the creatures become. And in true Doctor Who fashion, they’ve decided to expand their buffet from Twitter to the entire human race.
Donna’s fiery compassion becomes the story’s backbone—she refuses to let anyone dismiss online cruelty as “just words.” She confronts trolls, politicians, and the occasional alien swarm with equal ferocity. (“You think you’ve seen monsters? Try customer service at Nerys’s phone company.”)
The Doctor, meanwhile, grows increasingly uneasy. This isn’t just another alien invasion—it’s a reflection of humanity’s worst impulses, magnified to planetary scale. And unlike most enemies, this one doesn’t need to conquer the world; it just needs people to keep being awful to each other. Which, let’s face it, is a low bar.
The climactic showdown takes place on a storm-lashed island housing the core of the infection: a biological server pulsing with venomous code and emotional energy. Donna ends up plugged directly into the network—channeling her empathy (and sheer temper) to rewrite the creature’s code. The Doctor works feverishly to sever its global link, dodging psychic feedback loops and pop-up ads that are probably sentient.
In one of those classic, heart-wrenching finales that Jenny Colgan writes so well, Donna nearly dies saving everyone—her humanity proving stronger than the virus. The Doctor, devastated yet proud, resets the system, purging the entity from Earth’s digital space.
Afterward, the world breathes easier, unaware that they were nearly wiped out by hashtags. The Doctor and Donna share one final moment of quiet friendship: two travelers who’ve seen humanity’s worst and still somehow believe in its best.
And then Donna says she’s deleting her social media accounts. Forever.