Travelling with the Doctor was never the same, you never had the same experience and it was always different whenever and wherever you landed and this was no exception. This time, the Time Lord had insisted on making your next adventure a complete surprise and so once the TARDIS landed, he gestured to the doors with a grin.

"Go on then." He urged leaning slightly on the console, his hands behind him but not on any of the levers or buttons as he watched you step outside. Once he himself was ready, he followed you with that smile still on his face. "What do you think? Not bad considering our last few trips haven't always been on point...I mean remember how we were meant to visit Metrebelis VI and instead almost lost our heads because we crashed the coronation of that king on Siralos? Anyways!" He said clasping his hands together. "Welcome to Tiaanamat!" he said gesturing a hand forward. "That there is Akhaten..." He said pointing over to it

He glanced at the familiar place. "Brought Clara here once AND my granddaughter...not together though Clara and I did have to stop it from feeding on people, hopefully we didn't land on that day because I do not want to run into myself." You had met Clara a few times but this time, she had opted to stay on Earth after hearing of the Doctor's plan to visit Akhaten as she brought up what she had done to stop the parasite though insisted she would resume her travels once you and the Doctor came back to get her.

As the Doctor moved forward, he took in the sight of all the alien races that had also come to watch, he scanned the area with the sonic screwdriver and read the readings, he grumbled. "Okay! Bit of bad news, it's before Clara and I came but because I can't risk altering what she and I did here, you and I can't go stop that parasite god..." he huffed. "Which means..." He said glancing back at the screwdriver. "As much as you probably want to, we can't." He said pocketing his useful tool.

Moving through the marketplace, the Doctor explained all the species he recognised with a lot of enthusiasm which was definitely the complete opposite of how he had just acted. "Though just wait until you hear the Long Song, it's a song without end or was...well will be when I bring Clara here." He explained.

When you asked what the Festival of Offerings even was, this put the Doctor back into a good mood as he got to explain the concept to you like an overexcited child who was showing their parents a drawing.

"Well people from all over bring something of value...gadjets...trinkets...anything valuable to them and they offer it to the old god as the Queen of Years since the Long Song to it...and if we're on time which we should be, we'll be able to watch it."

When you brought up Susan, his granddaughter, he nodded his head.

"Bought me a diary as a present...didn't use it so she did, I'd have been oh...? around 500 years old back then, I also didn't look this young back then either." He watched you laugh. "Oi, don't be so cheeky." He said. "I might still have it actually." he realised. "Been around that long I don't even remember, I should snoop through my old things more often actually, you'd be surprised at the amount of stuff I keep in the TARDIS over the years or maybe you won't." He said moving through a small entrance that lead to a row of seats that faced Akhaten, it wasn't busy yet but the Doctor knew what was coming,

"The Queen of Years stands there and sings her song...everyone else joins in and offers something to Akhaten, Akhaten takes their offerings and goes back to sleep instead of consuming all life around it and right in the heart of it is a Mummy which serves as its alarm clock so the song ends? that wakes up and Akhaten and it feeds like the parasite it is but these people don't know that so every thousand years, they come here and the cycle continues." He straightened his bow tie. "Until Clara stepped in and stopped the Queen of Years we met from being sacrificed, I did my part but it was all Clara actually and she was brilliant." He explained as other aliens arrived.