Inside the coach is Pauline Collins, who's been on the show before, and was offered a Companion role in 1967, which she turned down. She's lovelier than the portraits of Victoria that we've seen. Which implies that she's ugly, it occurs to me: she's not. She is a pretty lady. Reynolds tells them to approach the carriage and "show all due deference." The Doctor salutes the Captain, and he and Rose approach. One of the footmen opens the door, revealing Queen Victoria. "Rose, might I introduce her Majesty Queen Victoria, Empress of India and Defender of the Faith," grins the Doctor, and Rose curtsies: "Rose Tyler, Ma'am. And my apologies...for being so naked." Rose laughs, but Victoria isn't interested: "I've had five daughters. It's nothing to me." She asks for the Doctor's credentials and is surprised -- as is the Doctor, so where did the thought come from? -- that he's been appointed by the Lord Provost as her Protector. The Doctor takes a second, and then poorly feigns having known this: "Then let me ask: why is Your Majesty traveling by road, when there's a train all the way to Aberdeen?" Victoria says simply that there was a tree on the line, and when the Doctor wonders if it was an accident, she nearly cracks a smile: "I am the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Everything around me tends to be planned." So an assassination. Rose gapes: "What, seriously? There's people out to kill you?" And the Queen's pretty awesome: "I'm quite used to staring down the barrel of a gun." Indeed. I appreciate this episode doing the work to make you just adore Victoria; she is a total fucking bad-ass. ...To a point.