The Doctor (in his Seventh incarnation, Sylvester McCoy) is returning home to Gallifrey with the remains of his arch-nemesis, the Master. Forced off course, the TARDIS arrives in San Francisco on New Year’s Eve 1999, where the Doctor is critically wounded in a gangland gun battle. At the local hospital, Dr Grace Holloway (Daphne Ashbrook) fights – and fails – to save his life.
Later, in the morgue, the Doctor (number Eight, Paul McGann) wakes up a new man. But he is not the only one – the Master (Eric Roberts) has also found himself a new body. As the clock counts down to the start of the new millennium, can the Doctor stop his oldest enemy destroying all life on Earth?