The ‘Doctor’ struck a pose, clutching his lapels and tilting his head back.
Beside her, the real Doctor shook his head. ‘This is a pantomime.’
On stage, a young girl with thick dark hair joined the elderly-looking Doctor, who placed a protective arm around her and said, ‘Well, child, shall we explore this strange new world, hmm?’
The girl said, ‘Oh yes, let’s, Grandfather!’
Nyssa felt herself react as if from an electric shock. She turned to the Doctor and saw that Adric and Tegan were also staring at him in amazement.
The Doctor looked extremely uncomfortable. He drew breath as if he was about to explain. Then he pointed, a sudden jerk of his finger towards the side of the stage – to a man carrying a tray of foodstuffs.
‘Hunka burgers,’ said the Doctor. ‘All part of the experience of live drama. This will be my treat.’
And with that he rushed off down the steps.
Tegan shook her head. ‘That’s one way to get out of a difficult conversation.’
Nyssa turned to Adric, who had travelled with the Doctor the longest – as he liked to remind her and Tegan. ‘Did you know he had family?’
Adric shifted uncomfortably in his seat. ‘I suppose it never came up,’ he said.
Nyssa returned her gaze to the stage, where the ‘Doctor’ was leaving his granddaughter to confront the Megrati, who was dominating the two Lemarians with his whip.
‘You, sir, will desist from this monstrous behaviour!’
And with that he snatched the whip from the Megrati’s hand and threw it aside.
The audience gave a collective gasp.
Adric said, ‘He’s a bit different.’
Tegan said, ‘I didn’t like him at first, but he’s growing on me.’
The stage Doctor was now breaking off the chains of the Lemarian slaves and berating the Megrati.
Tegan laughed. ‘I think I would have liked this old Doctor. You tell ’im, Doc!’ Then her smile fell. She looked to be considering her words. She said, ‘When he changed, from curly hair to our one… For the longest time, I thought it was kind of creepy.’
‘I felt the same,’ said Adric. ‘I’d got to know him. That other him. I liked him. When he regenerated, it took me a long time to accept that he was… well, him. The Doctor.’
Nyssa said, ‘I wonder if he knows what effect it has on others. He’s a Time Lord. To him regeneration is natural. Maybe he forgets what it’s like for those of us who only ever have one face, and one body.’
Tegan shook her head. ‘If it’s weird for us, it must be worse for him. Imagine what it must be like: losing almost everything that made you who you were, and suddenly being someone new.’
On stage, the Megrati was walking off with its head hung low while several Lemarians jeered at it. Models of space saucers on strings appeared from over the backdrop, swung from side to side, then flew off out of sight in an apparent depiction of the Megrati hordes leaving the planet.
‘I think I do remember something about this,’ said a voice behind them.
The Doctor climbed over the back of their seats a little awkwardly with four greasy blue somethings in buns in his hands. As he took his seat he went on, ‘It was over very quickly. There was already a resistance faction among the people. I just gave them a helping hand. The Lemarians were brave, and in the end they succeeded. They drove out the Megrati.’
‘In their spacecraft on strings,’ Tegan laughed.
The Doctor smiled. ‘You’re meant to use your imagination.’
‘Although,’ said Adric, ‘they’ve done a good job with that TARDIS prop. Except for that funny thing on the doors, the white circle.’
The Doctor explained, ‘That’s a St John ambulance symbol, the TARDIS had one of those at the time. But you’re right.’ He paused and leaned forward, staring at the blue box. ‘In fact, it’s a very good copy…’
Tegan said, ‘Has anyone else noticed his voice? Is it just me, or does he sound Scottish?’
‘What’s Scottish?’ asked Nyssa.
The Doctor turned his attention to the actor, who was now retreating to the TARDIS and saying, ‘Perhaps I’ll return in a hundred years and see how your world is flourishing. So you’d better get on with rebuilding it, hadn’t you, hmm? You’re safe now from the Megrati…’
The actor paused. He turned his head to the sky, as though looking for something, then turned back to his audience. ‘You have my word.’
The audience applauded and cheered, and it seemed the play was over. The ‘Doctor’ took a bow, and the other cast members joined him on the stage. As they enjoyed the adulation, the ‘Doctor’ beamed at the audience, his eyes picking over the seats. But when his eyes found the seats where the time travellers were sitting, he did an odd thing.
He smiled.
Nyssa thought for a moment he was smiling directly at her. But then she caught a movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to look at the Doctor.
He was smiling, too. And now he lifted his Panama hat, doffing it towards the man on stage.
Then a terrible thunder shook the seats underneath them. Part of the stage fell forward, nearly crushing the actors. There were cries of terror from the audience and from the surrounding streets.
‘An earthquake!’ yelled Tegan.
‘If we’re lucky,’ said the Doctor. ‘No, don’t run. We’re safer here, I think.’
Adric pointed into the sky. ‘Look!’
Nyssa had seen many types of spacecraft during her travels with the Doctor. She had even seen warships. But she had seen nothing like the enormous craft descending from the sky above; hundreds of metal darts, each more than three miles long and bristling with weapons. So huge, even though the ships were a hundred or more miles above them.
Nyssa recognised them as full-size versions of what the audience had just seen hanging on strings as part of the performance. The audience recognised them, too, and stared in dumb-founded horror.
The Megrati had returned.
The gun ports on the Megrati ships turned downwards, ready to fire.
Nyssa said nervously, ‘Are you sure we shouldn’t run?’
The Doctor said, ‘I doubt there’s time.’
Then, a reddish yellow ball of energy materialised on stage. When it faded, in its place was a Megrati. Not some man in a rubber suit, but the real thing. Green scales rippled over a muscly, eight-foot frame. Saliva dripped from its oversized, chipped fangs. In one hand it held a whip. In the other a large and threatening blaster.
The crowd reacted in terror.
‘Who summons me?!’ cried the Megrati.
And now the crowd looked bemused.
The Megrati snarled in frustration. ‘Before you die, before we take our revenge on you, I will know, who summoned the Grand Megrati!’
The stage Doctor placed himself in front of the Megrati and said, ‘That was me. I detected your invasion fleet when it was still twelve parsecs from here. I sent you that invitation – not a summons – because I thought you and I should have a chat when you arrived. Then I came here, thought I’d join the party while I waited.’
The Megrati looked this strange figure up and down. ‘Who are you?’
‘Oh, how soon you lot forget. Have a guess.’
The Megrati uttered a roaring laugh. Then the roar became a snarl, and it raised its whip hand.
The stage Doctor’s hand shot out and gripped the Megrati’s wrist. The alien brought its blaster up, but the Doctor kicked out and the weapon flew from its hand.
The Megrati snarled, ‘Who are you?’
The stage Doctor said, ‘I’m the man who’s going to stop this before it starts. You are going to turn your fleet around, now, and leave.’
‘You’re a madman,’ said the Megrati.
‘If not, I will destroy your fleet.’ The stage Doctor reached into his jacket and produced something that he pointed into the sky. ‘Beginning with your Command Ship.’
The Megrati said, �
��You are one man. Against an army. You cannot defeat us.’
‘You wouldn’t be the first to think so.’ The stage Doctor looked up at the largest of the warships in the sky above. The Command Ship. Then he looked back at the Megrati.
‘MCD engines, yes?’ he asked.
The Megrati hesitated, then growled, ‘Yes.’
The stage Doctor nodded. ‘Megamonolithic Crystal Drive. The poor sentient being’s answer to Hyperdrive. Terribly good at getting you from one side of a galaxy to another…’
The object in the stage Doctor’s hand now emitted a shrill tone, and glowed a vivid emerald green.
Nyssa recognised the tone of a sonic screwdriver. Her heart leapt. The stage Doctor went on, ‘But MCD crystals are highly susceptible to targeted sonic beams.’
There was an explosion at the rear of the Command Ship. Its engine casings erupted, shattered by eruptions of white hot power. The vessel pitched upwards, its hull straining, groaning like some great wounded animal.
‘Your crew will have time to abandon ship,’ said the stage Doctor.
He lowered the sonic screwdriver, and released his grip on the Megrati. It backed away from him, continuing to look up.
The Command Ship rose slowly in the upper atmosphere. Smaller explosions erupted sporadically along the hull. Escape pods appeared in swarms from openings along the vessel’s underbelly and sped away towards other ships in the fleet.
‘My ship!’ the Megrati protested. ‘How did you do that?!’
Nyssa heard her Doctor, next to her, say quietly, ‘Sympathetic destruction.’
On stage, the Doctor in the frock coat said, ‘Sympathetic destruction! The crystals in your engines are networked to the crystals that power the rest of the ship. I set up a resonance and they vibrated to destruction. Once that starts, there’s nothing you people can do about it but get to the lifeboats.’
The Megrati fumed.
‘Now,’ said the stage Doctor, determinedly, ‘give the order. Call off your attack and leave. Or I’ll do the same with every ship you’ve got.’
For a moment, the Megrati didn’t speak. It looked again to the heavens, where the Command Ship was now a lifeless, scarred hulk, drifting away.
Then it lifted a scaly wrist and spoke into a communicator band. ‘Fleet… Stand down. Agrylus, you are now the Command Ship. Teleport me aboard.’
The Megrati snarled at the stage Doctor as it waited to leave.
The stage Doctor said, still loud enough for everyone to hear, ‘Never return. If you do, there won’t be any warnings next time. And you’ll have no fleet left.’
The Megrati made no reply. A moment later it was enveloped in the same reddish yellow energy field in which it had arrived, and it faded away.
Everyone looked up. Sure enough, the Megrati ships were turning to leave.
A voice in the crowd cried out, ‘Do it! Don’t let them get away! Do the same to all their ships!’
There was immediate support from pockets of the audience.
‘You’ve got them at your mercy!’
‘Kill them!’
‘Deal with them once and for all!’
The stage Doctor turned to the crowd with such a look that they fell quiet. Then he sighed. ‘Is that what you want? Is that what you really want? Shall I kill them?’
No one answered.
‘After all,’ the Doctor continued, ‘like you say, that would deal with them once and for all… Hey, maybe you’re right.’ He held out his sonic screwdriver. ‘So come up here. Take this from me. And you can do it yourself. Well?’
No one moved. Then a movement right beside her made Nyssa jump. But it was only her Doctor, leaning forward, elbows on knees, hands crossed, as raptly interested in what would happen next as anyone.
After a long moment, the stage Doctor smiled. ‘Well, then. They’re leaving… and so am I.’
Nyssa’s Doctor sat back with a broad grin on his face.
The stage Doctor went to the TARDIS and opened the doors. He paused on the threshold and said to his audience, ‘I’ll see them safely out of this star system… In the meantime, why not carry on with your party? You’ve got something to celebrate.’
As the majority of the audience burst into applause, Nyssa smiled. Whatever face the Doctor wore, she thought, he is always the Doctor.
The stage Doctor gave a deep, theatrical bow.
His white wig dropped to the stage, revealing a tidy, shorter crop of dusty-grey hair underneath.
He straightened, a bit awkwardly, and backed towards the police box.
With just a quick smile towards the rear seats, he ducked inside and closed the door.
Adric said, ‘He’s left his granddaughter behind.’
Tegan sighed and gave him a shove. ‘Adric, you dill.’
Then the air was filled with an all too familiar groaning, rasping sound. And the TARDIS faded from the stage.
* * *
‘However scared you are, Clara, the man you are with right now, the man I hope you are with… Believe me, he is more scared than anything you can imagine right now and he – he needs you.’
The Eleventh Doctor, Deep Breath (2014)
* * *
In Deep Breath, Clara struggles to come to terms with the Doctor’s latest regeneration. Although she’s seen the Doctor’s previous incarnations, it’s still a shock that the young-looking man she knew – and loved – is dead, and in his place stands an older-looking man with angry eyebrows and a Scottish accent.
In Doctor Who, regeneration involves a change of appearance and the healing of wounds and diseases. Apparently, it can sometimes involve a change of gender, but seems always to involve a change of personality – yet the regenerated person keeps the same memories. They are a different person and yet they are the same, which is why regeneration is such a strange and unsettling concept.
Yet it’s not a wholly alien concept. Regeneration happens on Earth, too. Perhaps fittingly, one of the first scientists to really investigate regeneration on Earth was himself a Scottish doctor.
In 1763, the Scottish surgeon John Hunter arrived in London after three years working for the British army in France and Portugal. Struggling to find work in the capital as a surgeon, Hunter worked in a dentistry practice instead. At the time, sugar was very cheap – largely because of the huge number of unpaid slaves involved in its production – and lots of people in London had bad teeth that caused them pain. Hunter’s dental practice didn’t just remove people’s bad teeth, it offered to replace them.
If you were poor but had apparently healthy teeth, Hunter’s dental practice would offer good money to buy them. The healthy teeth would then be extracted and transplanted into the toothless mouth of a rich person, who would pay handsomely for the service.
As accurate medical records were not kept at the time, it’s difficult to know how well the transplants worked, or how often they led to the spread of other diseases. But Hunter, as a surgeon, was interested in the principles of transplanting, and conducted a number of experiments. He successfully transplanted the claw from a cockerel onto its comb, and even tried implanting a human tooth into another cockerel to see if it was possible to do a transplant between different species of animal. Today, we might find those experiments crude, not to mention cruel, but Hunter learnt valuable lessons about the importance of transplanted tissue being fresh and of matching the size of transplanted organs.
This research paid off for him. In 1767, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society – which remains to this day an academy of the most distinguished scientists – and the following year he was made a surgeon at St George’s Hospital in London. He even became surgeon to King George III. But Hunter continued to study animals – and had access to the King’s menagerie of interesting creatures. When one of these died in 1776, Hunter became the first person ever to dissect an elephant.
Since his days in France and Portugal, Hunter had collected specimens of animals. As a distinguished surgeon, he was sent more
– including rare specimens of kangaroos collected from James Cook’s voyage to Australia in 1768–1771. He also collected specimens of unusual humans – bits of bone that showed examples of particular diseases or medical complications, and even the whole skeletons of people who were very short or very tall.
Hunter used his collection to teach both the public and the next generation of surgeons. After his death, his collection was given to the Royal College of Surgeons where, as the Hunterian Museum, it continues to be used to teach surgeons. The public can visit, too, and the cockerels on which he experimented with transplants are still on display.
Importantly, while other doctors of the time taught human anatomy, Hunter was keen on comparing the structure and function of animal bodies, too, and the different ways that bodies can adapt to or compensate for damage done to them. This comparative work led to major scientific advances: one of Hunter’s students, Edward Jenner, investigated a mild disease called cowpox, which dairymaids caught from their cows. Jenner’s interest was that these dairymaids seemed not to catch a more common and deadly disease called smallpox. He gave people cowpox – and they were then immune to smallpox. His discovery – vaccination – takes its name from ‘vacca’, Latin for cow.
We now know that when we get the mild disease cowpox, our bodies easily develop antibodies to neutralise it. Cowpox is similar in structure if not in effect to smallpox, so antibodies developed to neutralise cowpox will neutralise smallpox, too. Jenner’s vaccination – and the improved versions that followed it – led to the World Health Organization announcing in 1980 that smallpox was the first disease to be eradicated, via a vaccination programme carried out worldwide.
Comparative anatomy had other uses, too. In 1824, the doctor and geologist Gideon Mantell visited Hunter’s collection, and found that the teeth of a specimen of iguana there looked like tiny versions of giant fossilised teeth Mantell had acquired some years earlier. This led Mantell to name the fossilised creature he’d discovered Iguanadon – ‘Iguana-tooth’. Along with the fossilised remains of two other creatures, Iguanadon would later be used to define a new kind of animal: the dinosaur.
The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who Page 37