Shiny black shoes walking down a crowded hall; Finch pauses and looks up at the Doctor, leaning over the stairwell and openly sizing him up. I love this! Finch stares at him, and then goes on his way; the Doctor continues up the stairs. They meet in the swimming-pool room, on opposite sides of the pool. Things get very damn hardcore. "Who are you?" Brother Lassa. The Doctor introduces himself, and asks, "Since when did Krillitanes have wings?" Nearly ten generations, Finch explains, ever since their ancestors invaded Bessan, where the people have lovely wings: "They made a million widows in one day, just imagine." Yuck. Finch draws one of several thousand parallels between himself and the Doctor, quite deliberately: his human shape is nothing more than a "personal favorite." And the others? Finch's brothers remain in bat form, with only human-shaped glamours: "Scratch the surface and the true Krillitane lies beneath." They begin to circle, to meet at one side of the water. "And what of the Time Lords? I always thought of you as such a pompous race. Ancient, dusty senators, so frightened of change and chaos...and of course, they're all but extinct. Only you. The last." Watching him do this, knowing where he's headed...Finch is kind of awesome. Watch: he takes you by the hand and leads you there so well you could almost agree. "This plan of yours," the Doctor demands, "what is it?" The Doctor doesn't know? "That's why I'm asking." Things get more hardcore; they're just facing off now very intensely. "Well, show me how clever you are," says Finch. "Work it out." The Doctor shakes his head, with that towering rage building and burning: "If I don't like it, then it will stop." Finch marvels -- "Your people were peaceful to the point of indolence. You seem to be something new" -- and asks whether the Doctor would declare on them. "I'm so old, now," the Doctor says. Incredibly quietly. "I used to have so much mercy." They look at each other appraisingly and aggressively, and finally the Doctor gives Finch his first and final warning, and turns to leave. "But we're not even enemies," Finch says evenly. "Soon you will embrace us. The next time we meet, you will join with me. I promise you." He walks past the Doctor with a knowing grin. (And then produces a tiny blonde girl named Kacey from upstairs.)









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