The TARDIS falls through a gap in the time vortex which leads the crew to find themselves in a parallel version of London, England in the year 2006. It's a slightly more advanced era where Zeppelins fly overhead and the populace wear special ear pods where information can be downloaded via the Cybus corporation. A multi-million pound conglomerate owned by the crippled genius John Lumic. Lumic is involved in his own personal business project which involves an alternate version of Rose Tyler's father, Pete who has become a millionaire in this reality and who Rose is hell bent on meeting. Lumic wishes to convince the President of Great Britain that his new project which involves the human brain being transferred to a robotic body of pure steel would mean that people need never die. A fate that Lumic is facing as he is suffering from a critical illness. But a project that the President dismisses as unethical and immoral. All the while homeless people on the street's of London are being coaxed in to vans by mysterious men in uniforms and never seen again. Before long the Doctor discovers that Lumic now shunned has far greater and sinister designs. One's which involves an army of his monstrous creations. Which the Doctor discovers to his horror are an alternate version of some of the most terrifying enemies from his past.