Release Message:  When the Doctor (Richard E. Grant) lands his TARDIS in the Lancaster town of Lannet, in the present, he finds that something is terribly wrong. What alien force has invaded the town? Why is it watching barmaid Alison Cheney? And what plans does it have for the future of the planet Earth?

Description:  A flash-animated series based on the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was produced to coincide with the 40th Anniversary of the series and was originally posted in six weekly parts from 13 November to 18 December 2003 on bbc.co.uk's Doctor Who website. The Doctor, a time-traveling alien explorer, is sent by his people, the Time Lords, to liberate a small town in England from the tyrannical rule of a race of alien lava creatures called the Shalka. This full-length animated adventure, originally broadcast on-line on the BBC's official Doctor Who web site, is the first adventure of the ninth Doctor, Richard E. Grant. The series begins as an unexplained meteor crashes into the side of a New Zealand volcano, unleashing the snake-like Shalka, an alien species with a deadly scream. Thousands of miles away in a Lancashire town, the TARDIS materialises on a Saturday night. The streets are empty, the pubs are deserted and random, unexplained pools of lava keep appearing on the ground. Time isn't on the Doctor's side and neither, it seems, are the town's inhabitants; with the possible exception of feisty barmaid Alison. When the TARDIS disappears in a pool of lava and the Doctor and Alison are confronted by the hunting Shalka, it seems that there's just no way out.