Doctor Who: The Eight Doctors

by Terrance Dicks

  With a yell of alarm, he took a flying leap towards the door of his TARDIS, opened it and disappeared inside.

  Undeterred, the giant bird of prey snatched up the TARDIS in its giant claws and carried it away.

  A few minutes into its flight the blue thing made a strange sound and disappeared from between its claws. With an indignant squawk, the bird flew off to look for easier prey.

  ***

  Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor was unsurprised to see the controls moving of their own accord. He was being summoned, perhaps for the last time.

  When the TARDIS landed he opened the doors and stepped out, finding himself, as he had expected, before Rassilon's tomb. He looked first at the frieze, and was pleased to see

  Borusa's space still blank. Perhaps he had at last earned the peace he had scorned in the days of his madness.

  The Doctor felt rather than saw the brooding presence of Rassilon.

  'Well, Doctor, you are whole again.'

  'With your help, Lord Rassilon.' he said, softly. 'I rather think you have guided me every step of the way.'

  'As you once said yourself, Doctor, a man is the sum of his memories, and a Time Lord even more so. You needed your other selves, just as they needed you. For a time I needed you - to make one or two small improvements in the patterns of history.'

  The Doctor bowed his head. 'I am honoured to serve you.'

  Rassilon laughed. "The game is over now, Doctor.'

  'Is the game ever over, Lord Rassilon?'

  'For you a new game is beginning, Doctor. One you must play alone.'

  The Doctor contemplated the infinity of choices before him.'Where shall I begin?'

  'Surely you have unfinished business on the planet Earth?'

  Memories came flooding back.

  'That poor girl - I abandoned her, deserted her when she needed me!'

  The laughter of Rassilon rolled around the vault like thunder.

  'No, you didn't Doctor. Not yet!'

  Suddenly he was back in theTARDlS and theTARDIS was inflight.

  The Doctor was standing with his hands resting on the console, memories of his other selves flooding through his mind.

  He had all their memories, his memories now.

  He had a lot to live up to.

  The TARDIS landed and the Doctor prepared to open the door. Something soft struck against his foot. He bent down and picked up a plastic shopping bag.

  ***

  Sam turned away from the police box just as the Doctor, still clutching the plastic bag, staggered into the yard.

  'There he is,' she whispered.

  Ignoring them, the Doctor made his way to the door of the police box and leaned against it for a moment.

  Somehow the action seemed to give him strength. He fished a key from his pocket and opened the door.

  'Doctor?' said Sam. 'Are you all right?'

  He turned and stared at her, the blue eyes wide and unseeing. There was a livid bruise across one side of his forehead.

  'You've been hurt,' said Sam. 'What happened?'

  'Sorry,' said the Doctor. 'Must get away...wrong time... wrong place...'

  'Oi, you!' screamed a voice from the gate.

  Baz stood in the doorway, with Pete, Little Mikey and Mo behind him.

  'Where d'you think you're going with my gear, Doc?'

  Ignoring him, the Doctor turned to Sam.

  'Goodbye.'

  He stepped inside the police box, closing the door behind him. Baz rushed forward and hammered on the door. There was a strange wheezing, groaning sound and suddenly he was hammering on nothingness.

  Slowly Baz turned round, stunned, as they all were, by the impossibility of what he'd just seen. But he still had a good grasp of his priorities.

  'I'm a dead man without that gear,' he said conversationally.

  He slipped a hand inside his jacket and took something out. There was a click, and the long thin blade of a flick-knife sprang from his fist.

  'Hey!' shouted Trev in alarm.

  Baz was too far gone even to notice. 'I brought this with me - for the Doctor!'

  'Well, he's gone now,' said Sam.

  'You've missed your chance.'

  'Ah, but you're still here,' said Baz.

  'And you started all this, didn't you Sam?'

  The blade of the knife gleamed as he advanced towards her.

  ***

  The wheezing, groaning sound came again, and suddenly, impossibly, the police box was back. The Doctor stepped out, the plastic bag in his hand.

  There was a wail of police-car sirens from the street. Ignoring the sound, Baz whirled round and ran towards the Doctor and the plastic bag, the knife in his hand pointing skywards.

  As Baz reached him, the Doctor raised the plastic bag and swung it down, skewering it on the point of Baz's knife, just as policemen started running into the yard.

  'Excellent!' cried the Doctor, and went back into the TARDIS. Sam suddenly sprinted across the yard, leaping through the closing doors as the police box faded away.

  ***

  There was a good deal of confusion in the statements of the police officers who arrested Baz and his mob. Some said there had been a police box in the yard, some said there hadn't. Some actually said there had been a police box and then it had just vanished, but that was ridiculous.

  The girl had certainly disappeared but the police theory was that she was simply scared. She'd turn up again when things calmed down a bit and Baz was safely locked up, no matter what those two teachers thought.

  The one thing everyone remembered was Baz standing with a bag of drugs held up high on the point of his flick-knife with little white rocks and powder in his hair.

  One of the policemen said he looked just like the Statue of Liberty.

  ***

  Samantha Jones shot into the TARDIS, skidded across the floor and cannoned into the Doctor, who was just setting the controls. They both ended up on the ground, and by the time the Doctor was on his feet, the TARDIS was in flight.

  He helped Sam up, and she looked around the control room. 'Ah!'.

  'Look, I expect you're feeling a bit confused and frightened,' said the Doctor. 'Don't worry. Everything's all right. You're quite safe. Let me try and explain -'

  Sam cut him off. 'Don't bother. This is the control room of a space ship, right?"

  'It's a control room,' said the Doctor loftily. 'You should see my new control room, now that's really something.'

  'But this is a space ship?'

  'The TARDIS travels through time and space,' said the Doctor. 'And it's dimensionally transcendental. That means it's -'

  'Bigger on the inside than the outside,' said Sam impatiently. 'I can see that for myself. What did you say it was called?'

  'The TARDIS - the initial letters of

  Time And Relative Dimension In Space.

  The name was coined by my granddaughter, Susan.'

  Sam gave him a look. 'Sure it was. And you're an alien?'

  'I'm a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey,' said the Doctor, quite eager now to shock. 'It's in the constellation of Kasterborus, 29,000 light years from Earth. And as for my being an alien - well, to me you're an alien. Actually I'm quite used to humans, I lived on Earth for a while.'

  Sam studied him thoughtfully.

  'Well, as aliens go you're an improvement on the little green guys with pointy heads.'

  'You're very kind.'

  'Am I being abducted?'

  'Certainly not.' No one asked you in here. You forced your way in. If anyone's being abducted, it's me.'

  Sam continued her own train of thought.

  'If I'm being abducted, okay, it's an experience. But no funny stuff.'

  'I beg your pardon? I said the Doctor, outraged.

  'No medical examination, no experiments. Nothing weird.'

  The Doctor was losing patience.

  'The weirdest thing around here, young woman, is you. I'd better get you home.'

  Sam shook
her head.'Nope.'

  'What do you mean, "nope"? Don't you want to go home?'

  'I want a trip first. Somewhere. Anywhere in the universe.'

  'This isn't a tour bus -'

  Sam pointed to the centre column of the control console. It was rising and falling steadily.

  'I take it that means we're moving?'

  'It does.'

  'Where to?'

  'Since you jogged me when I was setting the coordinates - I've no idea.'

  'Never mind Are we heading for another place, another time?'

  'We are.'

  'Okay, take me there - wherever.

  Show me you're telling the truth. For all I know this is all done with mirrors and we're still sitting in the junkyard.'

  'What about your parents, friends, Coal Hill School, all that?'

  Sam thought for a moment. 'You say this thing travels in time?'

  "That's right:

  'Well, you can take me back ten minutes after we left. Or even before we left so it never happened.'

  'Well, possibly... Though that might be a bit tricky.'

  'You do know how to work this thing?'

  'Of course I do! Well, usually...'

  'OK then, just one trip. Deal?'

  'Deal,' said the Doctor resignedly. He looked at her in mild amusement.

  'You're taking it all very calmly.'

  'Why not? I've seen the movies and the shows on telly. Aliens and UFOs are everywhere these days.'

  The Doctor shook his head. 'I've had a lot of human companions over the years but never one like you.'

  'Thanks for the compliment!'

  'I'm not sure it was one. I think they must be breeding a new kind of human female.'

  'What's your name?' asked Sam.

  'You can call me the Doctor.'

  'That's not a name it's a title. What's the rest of it?

  'Smith. Doctor John Smith.'

  Sam laughed. 'I don't believe it.'

  'What's so funny? It's a perfectly

  good name.'

  'Of course it is! It's just that, well - you're Smith and I'm Jones. Samantha Jones.'

  She held out her hand and they shook hands.

  'Fancy that,' said Sam. 'Smith and

  Jones. It's a sign.'

  'A sign of what?'

  'That we were just made for each other.'

  'I very much doubt it.'

  As she followed the Doctor out of the old console room and towards the new one, Sam put on her best Bogart accent.

  'Doc, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship!'

  Epilogue

  President Flavia stood in Temporal Control before the giant central monitor screen. Chief Temporal Technician Volnar adjusted controls and the screen came to life.

  A long, glowing line appeared. Pulsing points of light divided it into eight segments of varying lengths. Seven of the segments were blue, the eighth a vibrant red. It was noticeable that the left-hand segment was very long, while the red right-hand segment, the

  current one, was very short.

  The long line stretched across the screen in a proper, orderly fashion.

  The shorter red line at the end in its correct place, was blinking steadily, to show that this was the current incarnation.

  Volnar cleared his throat.

  'Madam President, this tempograph represents the current state of the Doctor's time-streams. As you can see, it has returned to normal. The Eighth Doctor has completed his visitations to his former selves, abandoned his temporal

  peregrinations and returned to his proper place in space and time.'

  He beamed at President Flavia, as if personally responsible for the return to order.

  'Thank you, Chief Technician,' said Lady Flavia. 'I am glad to hear it.'

  She stood for a moment, studying the steadily blinking red line. It was so short, compared with all the others.

  How long could the Doctor go on?

  She seemed to see the Doctor, a tall, handsome young man with long hair and bright blue eyes, smiling at her.

  But when had they met? Had it been during the shadowy Borusa interregnum, that dark period between her Presidencies?

  She saw the the dignified white-haired figure of Borusa at the speaker's podium in the Great Hall of the Panopticon. Was that the Doctor behind him, keeping modestly in the background, but the true saviour of Gallifrey all the same?

  It had all been a long time ago and the memory was fading, becoming dreamlike...

  One day, she was sure, the Doctor would return to Gallifrey. But not yet.

  He was young again, he was beginning a new incarnation, and all the cosmos lay before him.

  Wishing the Doctor well in his future adventures, Lady Flavia turned and left the Temporal Control Room.

  Appendix

  Extract from the Secret Scrolls of Gallifrey

  ...And so Lord Borusa came back to us in our time of greatest need and helped undo the evil of Niroc's corrupt High Council.

  Once more the Magnetron was used, this time to draw the Earth and its sun and its solar system back to its proper place in space and time.

  By the great skill of Borusa and his Temporal Engineers, time itself was folded back, so it was as though this great crime had never occurred.

  For this reason, the memories of those who took part in the strange events were blurred. All that happened seemed to fade from their minds. Thus the time of our great shame is almost forgotten.

  When all was done, Lord Borusa left us again, saying only that he had purged his crime and was going to share Rassilon's long repose.

  After the Borusa Interregnum new elections were held. There was a new High Council, and Lady Flavia began her long and successful reign as President of Gallifrey.

  Peace returned to the Capitol, and even the Shobogans were content with their lot.

  Strange rumours persist that the Doctor, then a prisoner of the Agency on their hidden space station, was at the same time present on Gallifrey, where he helped to shape events.

  Some say it was the Doctor who persuaded Borusa to return.

  None save Lord Rassilon himself knows if this is true...

  Also available from BBC Books:

  DOCTOR WHO

  THE DEVIL GOBLINS FROM NEPTUNE

  The Third Doctor and UNIT face the deadly Waro, hideous creatures from the fringes of the solar system.

  But what are the Waro after?

  IBSN 0 563 40564 3

  Other Eighth Doctor and Sam adventures are:

  VAMPIRE SCIENCE

  by Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman

  IBSN 0 563 40566 X

  THE BODYSNATCHERS

  by Mark Morris

  IBSN 0 563 40568 6

  Other Doctor Who adventures featuring past incarnations of the Doctor: THE MURDER GAME

  by Steve Lyons

  (Featuring the Second Doctor, Ben and Polly)

  IBSN 0 563 4O565 1

  Doctor Who adventures on BBC Video:

  THE WAR MACHINES

  An exciting adventure featuring the First Doctor pitting his wits against super-computer WOTAN - with newly restored footage BBCV 6183

  THE HAPPINESS PATROL

  The Seventh Doctor battles for the freedom of an oppressed colony where smiling is a sin

  BBCV5803