Accidental Man of Mystery » Doctor Who

Doctor Who : The Roads Time Can Take

Arthur Conan Smith — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:09:58 +0000

The TARDIS materialises on an innocent street corner and nobody notices.
Nobody but Alison Cheney. “Is that…”
The Doctor had dropped her back off in Lannet when all the death and destruction that followed him had become too much.
“I’m sorry, guys, I’ll be right back, alright?” She puts down the glass she’s holding and doesn’t even listen to her customers’ replies as she walks out of the pub.
“That’s him, alright.” He’d promised never to come back. But there he was. The big, bold blue police box that nobody ever seemed to notice was there, standing on the corner of her street.
The doors open and he steps out– No. That is not her Doctor. This guy’s skinny, with an odd-shaped face and puffy hair and a bowtie.
He doesn’t notice her and runs off. Should she… Yes.
“Doctor!” She shouts out to him.
He stops dead in his tracks and turns around. “Yes, hello, who are you?”
“I’m Alison. Alison Cheney? You remember me.”
“You do look vaguely f– Oh. Oh! Ah. Yes.” He staggers back, like there’s something wrong.
“Doctor?”
“Yes?” He looks at her like he’s forgotten what they were talking about, until he seems to remember. “I’m sorry. I’m not.. I’m not the Doctor you know.”
“He.. you.. did tell me about regeneration.”
“Ah, did I? Hmm. This is.. even more complicated. Than that.”
She just looks at him.
“I’ve really got to..” Her eyes stare straight into his. “See, first I was him, yeah? Then, I wasn’t. And then I was never going to have been.. him. The me you know.”
“How does that..”
“Work? Beats me.”
“So how do you remember me?”
“I.. Okay, it’s like this. That Doctor.. that me.. the one you travelled with. He happened. For all intents and purposes, as far as the universe is concerned, he happened. He happened just as much as you do and I am.”
“Right. But you’re not him.”
“Never have been. I remember you and the things you did with him like I do everything. I can see every road Time can take. But it’s like reading a map. Like reading a script.”
“So none of it..”
“You happened, Alison Cheney, believe me. You were out there, with him. With the could’ve been me that wasn’t.” He grabs her by the shoulders. “Just.. not me. So I’m sorry.”
An explosion shakes the town and they look at the sky. Smoke and blue lights.
“Wanna come?” He grins.
She hesitates but grabs his hand anyway and they run. Like she could say no.

Doctor Who : Lannet, Lancashire

Arthur Conan Smith — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 22:33:31 +0000

Guide Note: Alternate ending is in the next post.

Doctor Who : Regeneration

Arthur Conan Smith — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:45:27 +0000

The TARDIS is screaming at him in his head as he steps inside. Gallifrey burns behind him. “I had to.”
The ship had defaulted back to the infinite white console room. Using up all it had just to stay alive.
The Doctor takes off his uniform and drops it into the shapeless space around the console.
He flips some switches and touches his face and his eyepatch. The holes and scars aren’t just physical.
The capsule dematerialises just as Gallifrey does. Gone forever before and after.
Tumbling through the Vortex, the ship screams silently on.
“Is it?” He looks at his hand, which is turning a pale white. “It’s Time, isn’t it?”
The Moment had broken him in every way but one. Until now. The final breaking point.
His hearts stop beating and he collapses. His bones break before they hit the floor.
The ship drops out of the Vortex and screams on as it hurdles towards a dead planet.

Doctor Who : “Will we be okay?”

Arthur Conan Smith — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:02:33 +0000

The Doctor brushed his long curls aside. “Will we be okay?”
The tall leather-clad Doctor stepped forward. “You will be.”
The War had been a losing battle. He’d been given access to the Moment, and he knew the Time was coming when he’d have to face the Could’ve Been King and his Army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres, the Nightmare Child, the whole lot, and use it.
“That’s not what I asked, though.”
“I know.”

He Does Not Die

Arthur Conan Smith — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:59:08 +0000

He is the Master, and he is Death’s Champion, and he is the embodiment of all that is evil, and he is sheer unbridled class.

As such, he does not die. He just simply does not.

He can be killed, sure. You could burn him to a crisp or throw him off a cliff or push him into the Eye of goddamn Harmony and kill him. But he doesn’t die.

He’s too classy to die. He is un-alive for long periods of time, living-impaired, if you will, sure, but he doesn’t ever die.

For he is Death’s Champion. He is the Master.
And he just doesn’t.

Is River Song The Rani?

Arthur Conan Smith — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:52:54 +0000

The Rani, chameleon arched to protect herself from the Time War, gets into a spaceship crash, meets a strange young man who calls himself the Doctor, a name that sounds familiar.. somehow.

Like he’s from a past she can’t remember.

But she’s certain she’s never met this man because a face with eyes like that? She’d remember. And she falls in love.

When the Doctor finds out who she really is, he has two choices. Break the Web of Time by telling her, fixing her, leaving. Or keep up the pretense because, after all, he knows when and where she’s going to die.

In the Library, as River Song.

Doctor Who : “Think of Us.”

Arthur Conan Smith — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:15:59 +0000

“Doctor.”
He looks behind him, for the source of the whisper, and his world vanishes.
In front of him, floating in mid-air, hair waving like she’s underwater, is his granddaughter.
“Do you think of us?”
“Of course I do.”

“After we leave.”
“What..”
She turns into Katarina, whose face is lifeless, empty. Dead.
“After we die.”
“Katarina…”
“After we sacrifice ourselves for you.”
The floating girl’s face becomes that of the beautiful, but harsh Sara Kingdom.
“After you kill us…”
She ages beyond her years, her skin breaking away to reveal her aged broken bones.
“…to save yourself.”
“I don’t…”
She becomes Dodo.
“After we can’t stand the voices any longer.”
She turns into Zoe, who looks confused.
“After they take us away from you…”
Jamie McCrimmon, also confused. Angry.
“…and you away from us, Doctor.”
His eyes glisten, a tear drops.
Jamie becomes Jo, who’s older than he remembers her.
“After you never stop to think.”
Now she’s Leela, the savage.
“After you leave us in a world we can’t begin to comprehend.”
Romana, the equal. The one he loved.
“After you leave us in a world we can’t depart.”
She becomes Adric, the one he couldn’t save.
“Do you think of us, Doctor?”
Adric becomes Tegan, the loud one, but she whispers.
“After all we see.”
Now she’s Erimem, the royal one.
“After you’ve changed our world.”
Erimem becomes Peri.
“And changed our lives.”
She becomes Evelyn, whom he cherished.
“Do you think of us, Doctor? After we wither away and die?”
He sinks to his knees as she becomes… he can’t quite recall.
“After you lose us.”
Ace, the strong one.
“After you’re not sure what to do with us.”
She turns into Izzy, the geek.
“After you leave us in bloomin’ Stockbridge.”
Destrii, the alien one, first human, then amphibian.
“After I never get an ending.”
Charley Pollard, the Edwardian adventuress.
“And you lose us.”
His friend and mortal enemy.
“After you kill us all.”
Rose Tyler, the brilliantly ordinary one.
“After you send us away.”
Martha Jones, the one he didn’t. Couldn’t.
“After you make us fall in love with you.”
Donna Noble, who he couldn’t fix.
“Do you think of us, Doctor?”
“Always.”
Donna becomes Wilfred Mott, and the Doctor weeps, silently.
“Please, Doctor. Think of us.”
He becomes a silent red-haired girl, a blonde boy, a fair-haired woman and so many other people he doesn’t recognise.
Not yet.
“Think of us, Doctor.” All of them at once.
“I do, I do.”
“Never forget us.”
“I wouldn’t, I couldn’t.”
He tries to move his hand through his hair, but finds it’s not his own hair. It’s somebody else’s. As is his hand.
“Ah.”
His world fades back. The TARDIS.

Doctor Who : A Religious Experience

Arthur Conan Smith — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:54:58 +0000

(click the image to read, here there be large images)

Taking the opportunity to once again link to my favourite Doctor Who comic.