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legends-of-time · 4 months

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Thorn Bush (Doctor Who Story)

Chapter 44: Idiot's Lantern

Masterlist

New York, 1951 AD/CE

Kathy tries to blink the sleep away as she looks around the room in confusion, trying to work out where the beeping is coming from. A small groan of annoyance comes from her side and she looks down to see five-year-old Anthony Pond still snuggled up next to her as well as a book open on her lap.

Oh yes, she remembers now. Rory and Amy had wanted a night out with just the two of them as Kathy's in New York visiting so Kathy's babysitting their son for them. Anthony had insisted it was childish to be read a bedtime story in bed so Kathy had offered the compromise of sitting on the settee instead.

She gently eases herself away from the boy, placing him horizontally on the settee while she investigates the noise. It's a call coming through on her scanner. The machine's still going and is multi-purpose now, especially with the help of River dropping off different parts so that Kathy can update it and provide maintenance.

"Hello?"

"Kathy?" It's Vastra. She lets out a quiet sob and Kathy knows what this is, she's been waiting for it. Jenny's not been well for a while and getting older to do it must be— "She's gone."

Kathy's hearts shatter at her words. Of the original Paternoster Gang, Jenny, Kathy and Vastra were the only ones left after Stax's passing and now it's only Kathy and Vastra and while the Silurian has a longer life span than humans, she too will one day go.

Kathy looks over her shoulder to see little Anthony sleeping still. To think that he will be gone from her life in a flash too. At least with his parents, after they're gone, she'll still see younger versions of them but for how long will that be? The same with all the other companions of the Doctor.

The Doctor was right. Immortality isn't living forever, it's everyone else dying.

——

London, 1953 AD/CE

Rose Tyler in her pink poodle skirt and Jean jacket thanks the woman with the pushchair and heads back down the road she had just come up. Thank god it is the beginning of summer, and not raining otherwise she'd be soaked by now.

She and the Doctor were heading for 1950s New York but instead ended up in London. It wasn't long before they realised something was going wrong but in the midst of it all, he'd run off, taking the moped to give chase to the police car from the Connolly's house before she could stop him. Rose was left behind in the Connolly house with the panicking Tommy and Rita on the grandmother's kidnapping. While Eddie seemed rather pleased and relieved by the police finally taking the Gran away.

She'd decided to do her own investigation after she spotted a weird sort of red electricity coming out of the telly in the Connolly's lounge and going up the Ariel before disappearing. She couldn't help but wonder if the company that provided, Magpie's Electrics, has something to do with taking people's faces. Rose thinks both Kathy and the Doctor would be rather proud of her for doing her own deducing.

Rose turns the corner and sees the sign for the television shop she was heading for when a voice speaks up behind her, "'Magpie's Electricals'."

Rose spins round to see Kathy who's dressed in a dark red skirt, similar to Rose's, but with black polka dots on it. Her shirt is also dark red with short sleeves with a string of pearls and matching earrings and her hair is curled and put up in an elegant bun with a black, netted, hat on top of her head. She also has red lipstick, black high heels, black lace gloves, and black stockings.

Her friend looks away from the shop's sign and grins at the blonde before continuing, "AKA, the man who seemed determined that everyone have one of his TV's, even if it meant taking a massive loss."

Rose beams, unfazed by her friend's sudden appearance and wealth of prior knowledge. It's just common practice now. "You would know that, wouldn't you?"

Kathy shrugs with false innocence. "Spoilers."

"Well, come on, then." Rose chirps brightly, offering out her arm for Kathy to link hers with. Instead, Kathy halts her by grabbing the girl's arm.

"Wait, Rose," Kathy says, pulling the girl back. She digs through her pockets, pulling out her sonic screwdriver, silver with metal claws and a red light on the end. She places it carefully into Rose's hands. "Take this."

"What for?" Rose asks curiously, holding up the tool in question.

"You're going to need it." Kathy stares at the shop, seemingly running through the options in her head. Weighing up the pros and cons. "Once we're inside, the door is going to be locked by Magpie. Then something will attack us."

Rose gives both the Time Lord/Human/Apalapucian next to her (she wishes there was a shorter name to describe what Kathy is) and the shop an anxious expression. "Should we wait for the Doctor, then?"

"No. There's no time. He's busy with his own problems right now." Kathy turns to Rose, staring steadily at the companion. Rose looks back wide eyed, ready to listen. "You have to listen to me. The thing inside, it's going to try to attack us both, but it's only going to get one of us. I want you to run when I tell you to. Run to the door, use the sonic to open it, and then find the Doctor. Go back to the vegetable stand where the police car vanished. Demand to see the Doctor. They'll let you in."

"What?" Rose blinks in bewilderment, frowning at the instructions. "I'm not leaving you behind to get hurt. If we're going in, we're sticking together."

"No. You're doing as I told you." Kathy grips Rose's shoulder firmly, looking stern. "You have to do this, Rose."

Rose frowned heavily at her. It's not like Kathy to be so worried about her safety, no more than usual anyway. "You alright?"

It's Kathy's turn to frown. "'Course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You just seem off." Rose observes. "Is it the TV knowledge? What's happening?"

Kathy shakes her head. "Don't worry, it'll be alright. I just don't want you to get hurt." To worry Rose even more, Kathy grips her shoulder more tightly. "All the hints I can tell you is that you're needed for something else. You need to use my sonic for an event later."

Rose blinks slightly. "What do you mean?"

"Just remember," Kathy takes the device, holding it up to Rose's face, "this tool, when wielded well, can become your greatest weapon. Especially against electricity." She winks, handing the sonic back to Rose. "Just run when I say and use the screwdriver to unlock the door."

Kathy then spins around and walks swiftly to the front door of the shop, going inside. Rose follows closely behind. The door jiggles a bell, letting Magpie know the two females are here as it closes behind them. He seems to be working on something. A small device of sorts. But he quickly puts it away upon their wandering gazes.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry, ladies. I'm afraid you're too late." He tells them politely, though looking rather nervous and his toe sounding rather urgent. "I was just about to lock the door."

"Yeah? Well, we want to buy a telly." Rose says to him steely. She makes sure to keep close to Kathy. She is not willing to allow her friend to jump into danger like she normally dies. Rose will make sure she herself is the one hurt this time. Not Kathy.

"Come back tomorrow. Please." Magpie tells them, seeming to be jittery by having them there in the shop.

"You'll be closed, won't you?" Rose asks, looking puzzled by his words.

"What?" He questions, blinking in bewilderment as to what the girl means.

"The coronation is tomorrow." Kathy reminds him, gazing carefully at the man. "You'll be closed up along with all the other shops, yes?"

"Yes, yes, of course. The big day." Magpie replies, distracted. "I'm sure you'll find somewhere to watch it. Please go."

They both walk up together to his counter, leaning on it to stare at him.

"Seems to me half of London's got a television, since you're practically giving them away." Rose comments conversationally.

"I have my reasons." Magpie responds, looking down at the counter.

Rose narrows her eyes, suspicious.

"Not good ones, I'm afraid." Kathy notes, staring steadily at the man. She watches as he stares up anxious at her. "Magpie, she's not going to let you go if you do this. She's just using you. She'll never let the suffering stop. She'll only let it kill you in the end." He looks startled by her words. Truly frightened by the foreboding of them.

Suddenly a telly behind them can be heard giving off feedback with a high-pitched ringing and static. A female appears on screen, staring darkly at them.

"Hungry." She calls out, looking as though she were starving. "Hungry."

"What's that?" Rose asks, staring at the screen.

"It's just a television one of these modern programmes." Magpie dismisses, hurriedly going around the shop's counter and over to the door. "Now, I really do think you both should leave... right now."

"Not until you've answered our questions." Rose states firmly, turning around from the counter to face Magpie. "How come's your televisions are so cheap?"

"It's my patriotic duty." He responds, brightening. "Seems only right that as many folks as possible get to watch the coronation. We may be losing the Empire but we can still be proud. Twenty million people they reckon'll be watching. Imagine that. And twenty million people can't be wrong, eh? So why don't you get yourself back home and get up, bright and early, for the big day." He tries to wave them out, opening the door for them.

"Magpie, we all know this has nothing to do with the coronation." Kathy responds evenly, turning around to face the man as well. "You've been selling tellies for another reason entirely, and it is for no good intentions whatsoever." She then turns to the screen, glaring at the woman on the telly. "Isn't that right, Wire?"

"Oh, what a clever woman." The Wire retorts wickedly.

"Oh, my god. Is she talking to you?" Rose asks, looking alarmed at the woman on the screen actually responding to Kathy. She sees Magpie slowly locking the door and it sets her on edge even more.

"Yes, I'm talking to both of you, little one." The Wire says smartly back. "Unreasonably chilly for the time of year, don't you think?"

"What are you?" Rose asks, getting closer to the screen. Kathy holds out an arm, pushing Rose back away from the screen.

"I'm the Wire." The woman speaks from the telly. "And I am huuuungry!"

Kathy throws Rose aside before the electrical tendrils can get the girl. The electrical tendrils from the telly grab onto Kathy's head instead, pulling all her brain's mental signals and energy out of her, grabbing her face along with them.

"Run, Rose!" Kathy manages to scream before she loses her mind fully.

"Kathy!" Rose cries out in alarm from the ground where she had fallen, watching in horror at the sight of her friend's face being pulled away from her body.

"Run!" Kathy screams as more electrical tendrils start to come from the telly, searching for another food source.

Rose jumps up in alarm as the tendrils begin to weave towards her, searching. She runs to the door, pushing Magpie out of her way before the tendrils can reach her. Magpie doesn't fight at all. Merely leans against the wall and looking stricken. Rose aims the sonic at the door and manages to unlock it. She rushes outside in the cold night air, leaving her friend's screams behind her.

——

Inside an office, Detective Inspector Bishop and the Doctor stand before a map of London in the corner, criss-crossed by coloured pins and string. The Inspector’s desk is littered with pictures of the people whose faces have been stolen while the map indicates where they had been found.

The Doctor studies it carefully, wearing his glasses as the Inspector explains what's been happening.

"We started finding them about a month ago." The Inspector explains. "Persons left sans visage. Heads just... blank."

"Is there any sort of pattern?" The Doctor asks, walking over to the desk and picking up a file, a picture of a woman without a face on top of it. He flips through the paperwork but finds nothing of interest.

"Yes, spreading out from North London. All over the City. Men, women, kids, grannies. Only real lead is there's been quite a large number in—"

"Florizel Street." The Doctor interrupts, recalling the house he and Rose had been in earlier that day. He hoped Rose had headed back to the TARDIS, when he was done here he'd go find her.

The Inspector looks over at the man, surprised then there's a knock on the door.

"Excuse me, sir. There's a girl out here demanding to see the Doctor." The man tells them. "She's raving on about her friend in trouble or something."

"Let her in." The Inspector instructs.

The officer opens the door more, allowing a frantic Rose to burst into the room. Tears stream down her face and she rushes over to the Doctor, who looks at her in shock due to the state the girl is in, hugging him.

"Doctor, I'm so sorry." Rose cries.

The Doctor pulls away, gripping onto her shoulders. "What is it? What's wrong?" He asks briskly.

Another knock comes at the door. The same officer from before sticks his head into the room once more. "Found another one, sir." He declares as he leads in a figure covered in a grey blanket that hung to their knees, a red skirt peeking out underneath over black stockings and black high heels shuffling beside him.

"Oh, er, good man, Crabtree. Here we are, Doctor..." The Doctor lets go of Rose and walks over, apprehensive of the person underneath. The grandmother on Florizel Street hadn't been dangerous, but that doesn't mean that they can't become dangerous. "Take a good look. See what you can deduce."

Crabtree pulls the blanket off the person's head, revealing light brown hair the Doctor recognises instantly. His eyes widen in surprise and horror as he stares at Kathy, without a face. Of all the things he had expected, it hadn't been her.

"Kathy?" He exclaims. She stands before him, facing him with blank features. She no longer holds the light blue eyes that he's become familiar with. Everything is completely wiped clean. Only her skin is left covering the area where her features had been, with her light brown hair hanging around the blank skin.

"You know her?" The Inspector asks from behind him.

"Know her? She's..." His voice breaks off, staring at his friend in disbelief.

"I recognise her, Detective Inspector. Been snooping around and making a fuss." Crabtree says. His words sound faint, the underwater kind of sound. "They found her in the street, apparently, down by Damascus Road."

The Inspector's reply fades into the background as the Doctor moves a trembling hand towards Kathy's blank face. He gently brushes a lock of hair out of her blank face. Fury boils up within him. He grits his teeth, glaring darkly.

He glances over to Rose, sees her tear-stained cheeks and the sheer horror on her face and he knows he needs to calm down otherwise he'll begin yelling at her. Something for which she doesn't deserve. She cares for Kathy just as much as he does. He knows that.

"Are you all right?" He asks her kindly.

"Yeah." Rose answers, nodding and wiping away her tears.

"What happened?" The Doctor questions.

"We went to Magpie's to investigate." Rose explains. "She... she warned me beforehand that something was going to attack us. But I didn't think... I didn't think it would be that."

"What was it?" The Doctor asks her, feeling more urgent in finding out how to save Kathy.

"It called itself 'The Wire.' It lives inside the telly. It looked like a woman, but I'm not sure if it even was." Rose lowers her head shamefully and stares sadly at the ground. "I'm sorry, Doctor. I should have known better. She always does that. Pushing me out of the way. It should have been me. I should have—"

"No. Don't blame yourself, Rose." The Doctor insists sternly. "Kathy would never want you to get hurt. We both know that." He looks back to Kathy, fixing on one detail he'd heard the officers saying behind him earlier, discussing where they had found Kathy. But he had not caught exactly what had been said. "Where did you find her?"

"Just... in the street." The Inspector answers.

The ice-cold anger builds up again. The Doctor grits his teeth tightly. "In the street." He repeats darkly, finding those words disgusting, finding the very idea of someone doing that to Kathy infuriating. His hands tighten into fists as he gazes at the blank face of Kathy. "They left her in the street. They took her face and just chucked her out and left her in the street. And as a result, that makes things... simple. Very, very simple. D'you know why?" He whips around, looking to the Detective Inspector.

"No..." The Inspector responds now looking nervous, almost scared but the Doctor doesn't find it in him to care.

"Because now, Detective Inspector Bishop, there is no power on this Earth that can stop me!" The Doctor snarls loudly. He turns, briefly squeezing Kathy's shoulder in reassurance to the woman, before walking swiftly passed her. "Come on!"

——

The Doctor marches through the early morning streets with the Inspector and Rose following behind. It is hard for them to keep up with the fast pace the Doctor is travelling. He has his long legs to give him the extra boost in hurrying through the neighbourhood. He reaches the Connolly house in no time. The Inspector and Rose come up behind him as he starts to ring the doorbell rapidly. Tommy is the one to answer this time.

"Tommy, talk to me." The Doctor says to the boy, his voice sounding so deadly earnest that it unnerves Rose slightly. "I need to know exactly what happened inside your house."

Tommy glances over his shoulder and then steps outside, closing the door behind him. But Eddie opens it back up harshly, glaring at the Doctor. "What the blazes do you think you're doing?" He growls lowly at his son.

"I want to help, dad." Tommy replies.

The Doctor stares bitterly at the man. Rose glares along with him. "Mr. Connolly." The former bites out as a warning.

Eddie steps into his face. "Shut your face, you, whoever you are." The man spits at him. "We can handle this ourselves!" Eddie turns back around to his son, getting into the boy's face now. "Listen, you little twerp. You're hardly out of the bloomin' cradle, so I don't expect you to understand, but I've got a position to maintain! People 'round here respect me. It matters what people think!"

Tommy stares at the man for a moment, looking at him in question then the boy seems to realise something, his eyes lighting up when he sees the truth standing in front of him. "Is that why you did it, dad?" He asks.

Eddie moves away slightly, looking shocked by the boy's question. "What d'you mean, did what?"

"You ratted on Gran." Tommy says angrily. "How else would the police know where to look? Unless some coward told them."

"How dare you!" Eddie snarls at him, getting up into the boy's face again. "You think I fought a war just so a mouthy little scum like you could call me a coward?!"

Tommy shakes his head, narrowing his eyes. "You don't get it, do you? You fought against fascism, remember? People telling you how to live, who you could be friends with, who you could fall in love with, who could live, and who had to die. Don't you get it? You were fighting so that little twerps like me could do what we want, say what we want. Now you've become just like them. You've been informing on everyone, haven't you? Even Gran. All to protect your precious reputation."

"Eddie, is that true?" Rita asks, emerging at the doorway to the scene standing outside. She stares at her husband horrified.

Eddie looked like a deer caught in the headlights. "I did it for us, Rita." He explains. "She was filthy! A filthy, disgusting thing!"

"She's my mother." Rita retorts in disbelief. "All the others... you informed on all the people in our street, our friends."

"I had to." Eddie counters, faltering. He stares around, looking at anyone as if they might defend what he did. He only receives hard stares. He looks back at Rita. "I-I did the right thing."

"The right thing for us or for you, Eddie?" Eddie looks down, shamefaced at her words. Rita turns her attention to her son. "You go, Tommy. Go with the Doctor and do some good. Get away from this house. It's poison." She glares back at her husband. "We had a ruddy monster under our roof, all right, but it weren't my mother!" Rita slams the door in Eddie's face.

"Tommy?" Rose calls gently, holding her hand out towards the boy in encouragement. He takes a last look at his father, banging on the door to get his wife to let him back inside, then takes the offered hand.

——

The foursome head down the street, going past the long tables in the streets and people running about happily, getting ready for a street party after the coronation of the Queen. Rose still holding Tommy's hand, who is staring at her as the people around them set up for the impending street party.

"Tommy tell me about that night. The night she changed." The Doctor asks, sympathetic but urgent.

"She was just watching the telly." Tommy answers.

The Doctor slows down as he spins in a circle, looking up at all the of the TV aerials on Florizel Street.

"That's what that energy came out of." Rose says. "There was this woman who talked to us, then she tried to get me, but Kathy pushed me out of the way."

"You said it." The Doctor breathes in realisation. "You guessed it straight away." He grins at her, Rose smiling widely back. "Of course you did. All these aerials in one little street. How come?"

"There's a shop up the road, Magpie. He's selling them off really cheap. She replies.

Tommy nods in agreement. "That's where we got ours from. Gran was always watching it."

"Is he now?" The Inspector remarks.

"Come on!" The Doctor cries and he races off, the others following.

——

The Doctor busts the window of the front door as soon with his elbow as they arrive at Magpie's shop. Not even bothering to use the sonic screwdriver. There are a few more things he would like to smash, but he knows he needs to keep his head level if he wants to save Kathy.

The Doctor goes up to the counter, and slams his hand repeatedly on the bell, shouting angrily for Magpie. But clearly, the man is elsewhere.

The Doctor then goes around to the back of the counter. Urgently, he rifles through drawers and papers. Instantly he found something severely wrong. Something that should not be anywhere near the era. A portable telly. Small, brown, and, after giving it a lick, he can tell it is made of iron and Bakelite. He holds it up to the light.

"Well, I know for one thing that that shouldn't be invented yet." Rose notes as the Doctor sits the device down on the counter and scans it with his sonic. "What's it doing here in 1953?"

"No idea." The Doctor mutters. His sonic starts to pulse loudly, picking up another frequency within the shop. He holds it up in the air. "It's not the only power source in this room."

Suddenly, every TV screen flickers into life. Then, images begin forming on the screen, crackling through the static. People's faces. All of them looking frightened and shouting out for help, but with no sound coming from them whatsoever. Tommy spots his Gran, looking at her face in horror.

"Doctor..." Rose gasps in horror as she stares at a screen in the bottom corner.

The Doctor walks over, crouching by the screen, gazing at her black and white face. Kathy gazes out, looking more worried than frightened. He can see her lips moving, repeating the same names over and over again. 'Doctor, Rose. Doctor, Rose.'

Tenderly, the Doctor touches his hand to the screen. "We're on our way." He whispers to the screen. Kathy simply continues to repeat the names, unknowing of his presence.

Rose kneels down to stare sadly at the screen. "I'm so sorry, Kathy." She whispers. "We'll save you. I promise."

"What do you think you're doing?"

They look over to see Magpie standing in the doorway of a back room. He looks at them in bewilderment. But he spots Rose, however, his eyes widen slightly.

The Doctor shoots up from his crouch, storming over to the man and glaring furiously at him. "I want my friend restored!" He shouts into the man's face. "And I think that's beyond a little backstreet electrician. So tell me, who is the Wire?"

"Yoo-hoo!" calls a female voice. "I think you're looking for me." The Doctor turns going over to the main centre telly to see a woman smiling wickedly back at them all. "Ohh... this one's smart as paint."

"Is she talking to us?" The Inspector asks.

"Yeah, she does that," Rose replies, backing warily away from the televisions.

"I'm sorry. I'm afraid you're brought this on yourselves." Magpie says over by the doorway, backing up as close as he can get to the wall. "May I introduce you to my new... friend."

"Jolly nice to meet you." The Wire greets pleasantly.

"Oh, my god, it's her, that woman off the telly." The Inspector says, looking alarmed by what is happening.

"No, it's just using her image." The Doctor tells him. He gazes fixedly at the woman on screen. "So, you're the Wire?"

"That is correct." The Wire speaks, giving her a wicked smile. Her image slowly blossoms into full colour. "And I will gobble you up, every last morsel. And when I have feasted, I shall regain the corporeal body, which my fellow kind denied me."

"Good Lord. Colour television!" The Inspector gasps.

"So your own people tried to stop you?" The Doctor questions.

"They executed me. But I escaped, in this form. And fled across the stars."

"And now you're trapped in the television." The Doctor retorts.

The Wire's smile fades along with the colour, going back to black and white. "Not for much longer." She grits out.

"Doctor, is this what got my Gran?" Tommy asks.

"Yes, Tommy." The Doctor responds, his voice hard in an angry tone. "It feeds off the electrical activity of the brain, but it gorges itself, like a great overfed pig, talking people's faces, their essences. It stuffs itself."

"Oh, yes. And that lovely woman from earlier, ooh, how delicious she was. Such a mind on her. So... brimming with power." The Wire purrs wickedly, mocking. The Time Lord grits his teeth, hands tightening into fists as they shake while Rose squeezes her eyes closed to stop the tears spilling.

"But Gran never came here." Tommy argues.

"Doesn't matter. Wherever there's a TV, it can feed." The Doctor explains.

"And you let her do it, Magpie." The Inspector accuses, looking at the still cowering shop owner.

"I had to." Magpie replies pathetically. "She allowed me my face. But only if I'd serve. She's promised to release me, at the Time of Manifestation."

"What does that mean?" Tommy questions.

"The appointed time. My crowning glory!" The Wire answers slyly.

"Doctor! The Coronation!" The Inspector realises.

"Well, obviously the Coronation!" The Doctor retorts rattily. He turns to the Wire. "For the first time in history, millions gathered 'round a television set." He raises a brow at the Wire, getting closer to the screen. "But you're not strong enough yet, are you? You can't do it all from here. That's why you need this." He waves the portable television in his hand at her. "You need something more powerful. This will turn a big transmitter into a big receiver."

"What a clever thing you are." The Wire retorts sarcastically. "But why fret about it? Why not just relax, kick off your shoes, and enjoy the coronation? Believe me, you'll be glued to the screen."

Rose jumps back as soon as she sees the wicked smile from the Wire. The electrical tendrils miss her face by inches but it grabs onto everyone else's. The Doctor, Tommy, and the Inspector all groan in pain as their faces begin to stream towards the screen.

"Doctor!" Roses cries out in alarm as she listens to them all cry out in pain. What should she do? They are all frozen to the spot as the Wire feasts on them. She has no idea what to do! How can she save them? Then, Kathy's words float into her mind.

"Just remember. This tool, when wielded well, can become your greatest weapon. Especially against electricity."

The sonic! Of course!

Rose hurriedly pulls out Kathy's sonic from her coat pocket and jumps forward. She aims it at the Wire and lets it pulse loudly at the entity. The Wire screams in agony, immediately letting go of the Doctor, Tommy, and the Inspector. They all fall to the floor behind Rose. She stops her assault with the sonic against the Wire, opting to check up on the people who had been hurt by the electrical energy.

Rose hears Magpie rush behind her, grabbing the portable television and taking off with the Wire, who has jumped into the device. Rose wants to give chase, but she can't leave the Doctor.

She slaps the Doctor's face lightly. "Doctor, wake up. Come on! They're getting away." Rose urges.

It takes another slap, harder this time, for the Doctor to gasp and bolt upright. His eyes immediately scanning the room. "Where's Magpie?" He asks.

"He took off with the Wire in that portable telly." Rose responds.

He blinks and stares at the silver sonic still clutched in her hands complete with its red light and metal claws.

"Where did you get that?" The Doctor questions.

"Kathy gave it to me before she– well, you know," Rose explains. She stares down at the sonic, feeling a swell in her heart. "She knew this was going to happen. That's why she gave it to me. She knew I was needed here to save you." Rose beams at him. "She's amazing as ever."

"Ha! You bet she is!" The Doctor exclaims cheerfully, looking over to the screen which still has Kathy's face. She's still calling out their names, still worrying over their safety. He leans forward, giving the part of the screen where her forehead is a quick kiss before standing up. "And you are brilliant!" He kisses Rose on the forehead too. She laughs in response; simply glad to have helped the Doctor and Kathy.

They see that the Inspector had not been as lucky. The man's face is wiped away, leaving him blank. However, Tommy still has his so Rose and the Doctor quickly wake up Tommy before all three of them dash out and look frantically up and down the street.

"We don't even know where to start looking it's too late." Tommy despairs.

"It's never too late," the Doctor replies instantly, "as a wise person once said Kylie I think... But the Wire's got a big plan..." Rose can see the millions of thoughts now flashing through his mind as he rattles off new ideas while pacing, "so it'll need... yes, yes, yes, it's got to harness half the population... millions and millions of people... and where are we?"

"Muswell Hill." Tommy replies, confused as to why the Doctor doesn't know this.

"Muswell Hill?" The Doctor's eyes widened in realisation. "Muswell Hill! Which means..." He runs around Tommy, standing at the end of the street and looking out towards a large building on the horizon.

"Oh, I know this!" Rose exclaims happily. "Alexandra Palace!"

The Doctor beams at her, gesturing to the building in the distance with both hands. "Alexandra Palace." He confirms. "Biggest TV transmitter in North London! Ohh! That's why they chose this place!" He grabs Rose by the hand and pulls her back inside the shop. "Tommy?"

"What are you going to do?" Tommy asks, following them in.

"We're going shopping."

The Doctor gathers up the different electronics he needs from both Magpie's shop and the TARDIS. With all the supplies together, the group rush off to Alexandra Palace. The Doctor builds the device as Rose and Tommy run carrying it. It is difficult building on the go, but the Doctor manages.

They reach Alexandra Palace and see Magpie climbing up the main broadcasting tower. The trio speed up their pace, rushing into the building. The Doctor plugs the device into the station's systems, making sure it is functioning properly. He orders both Rose and Tommy to keep watch over it and to not let anyone stop them for anything. The Doctor then grabs a long feed of copper wiring, making sure that it is connected to the device before running out of the room with the wiring unravelling behind him as he goes.

——

Kathy gasps as her eyes shoot open. She spins on the spot, frowning at the sight of the office she is in. She feels so relieved as she reaches up, running a hand through her hair and touches her face to find a nose and mouth. Oh thank god, she's back in her body.

She sticks her head out into the hallway, seeing a man stride down it. He blinks when he sees her, he obviously recognises her but is surprised to see her.

"Hello, sorry." Kathy apologises. "I was just wondering, can you help me? I don't seem to know where I am."

——

Kathy leans up against the wall outside of the secret police house where they had been keeping the faceless people. She stares up at the golden sky. The sun is just starting to set and she lets out a relived sigh as she feels the last rays of the sun.

She hears the many people beside her rejoicing in gaining back their faces, their lives. She smiles at that. Kathy is glad they are all okay as she knows the Doctor and Rose are okay as well. She had been so worried though during her moments trapped within the Wire's system.

Kathy stares down the street when she hears Tommy running up to hug his Gran. She sees both the Doctor and Rose walking towards her. Each with the biggest smiles on their faces as they briskly walk towards her. She smiles back at them, allowing her mind to drift away from her worries and just enjoy the moment. She runs up, hugging them both in delight and laughing with them.

"Don't worry me like that!" Rose scolds her, giving her a smack on the arm.

Kathy laughs, pouting and rubbing at the spot as if it really hurt. "Sorry. But I didn't want you to get hurt, and I couldn't have you go losing your face as well." She replies.

Rose smiles softly, handing her back the sonic. "Yeah. I know that now." She says. "You really are amazing with those possibilities. You always know how to solve everything."

"Well... not everything," Kathy says quietly, thinking sadly about how lost she's felt, and will feel, when she has adventures with the Doctor in their future that she doesn't know. She shakes her head. "Anyway, how about we go enjoy that fantastic street party? I always wanted to go to one."

"Sure thing." The Doctor says brightly, slinging an arm around her shoulders. Kathy smiles at him, linking her arm with Rose's as they travel happily down the street.

——

"And then there was this bus, so I might've stolen it?" Kathy remarks conversationally as she stuffs another sandwich into her mouth.

Rose laughs. "No way! You stole a bus?!"

"I had to!" Kathy retorts once she finishes the sandwich. "The swarm was returning and I had to save everyone from choking!"

She's telling the Doctor and Rose about how she encountered the Fumifugium during 'The Great Smog' of 1952 in London while the street party is in full swing around them. Beer, sandwiches, orange squash. Kids, old people. Everyone having a whale of a time. The Doctor, Rose and Kathy are helping themselves.

Rose had spent a large portion of the journey back to Florizel Street trying to convince them to go to the Mall, where the official street party is happening, but when Kathy had declared she wanted to be at a proper street party and the Doctor retorted that this is real history, she had relented.

"A species that lived and thrived in smoke..." The Doctor muses to himself.

"I can't believe it!" Rose scoffs, laughing as she swipes up another cupcake.

"Oi!" Kathy cries but she's not offended. "It's true! Scouts honour."

"You're not a scout!" The Doctor retorts.

"And?"

Rose laughs, bending over as she does causing the Doctor and Kathy to start off as well.

The party is brilliant. People laughing and dancing all around. The best food and drinks are passed about. Kathy laughs as the Doctor keeps feeding her and Rose different sandwiches that he picked up at random and asking to decide which one is the best. Eventually, Rose decides enough is enough and responds by shoving a cake into his face, making him get covered in icing. Kathy and Rose hold onto each other as they burst with laughter at the disgruntled expression he makes with the cake all over him.

Then, as the night falls over them, and the lights people placed up overhead across the street light up, the Doctor, Rose, and Kathy enjoy dancing with everyone. Rose and Kathy have their own brief moment spinning each other around and giggling up a storm. Before the Doctor grabs Rose and they dance while Kathy has her own spin with Tommy.

Rose pulls her aside and asks, "Are you okay?"

Kathy frowns. "'Course I am. Why do you ask?"

"It's just before we went into Magpie's shop? You were a bit off." Rose explains.

Oh. Of course, she wouldn't let this go.

"Yeah, Rose. Sorry about before. I've just lost someone I've known for many decades and, well, I wanted to be able to save someone." It feels stupid now she says it out loud. Jenny's death wasn't her fault.

"Mortality's not your fault you know." The Doctor pipes up, clearly having heard the end of the conversation as he walks up to them with his glass of squash.

Kathy laughs tearfully. "I know. Just gotta get that in my head sometimes."

The Doctor nods understandingly and wraps her up in a hug. Kathy soon feels another set of arms joining them and a flash of yellow and pink out of the corner of her eye. She smiles softly and her hearts fill with love.

——

A/N:

I cut out the bit where Rose tells Tommy to go to his dad as I don't personally like the message it sends when it comes to victims and their abusers. Tommy shouldn't have to forgive his dad just because he's family.

Also, Kathy stealing a bus... 😅 and also the chapter with the longest time not from Kathy's perspective.

Please leave comments on how you're enjoying this story and what you think.

#doctor who

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lesbiten · 3 years

Text

how long do silurians even live for because i was under the impression they lived longer than people

#but with jenny telling vastra she wanted to 'grow old together' with her its like #do silurians......have similar lifespans to people?#or maybe they dont and vastra just hasnt told jenny that L #i dont know. im going to be spending way too fucking long on the dw wiki tonight arent i #time to read everything about silurians ever #simon says

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riversofmars · 3 years

Note

OMG Vastra and Jenny's wedding! Please write that! Maybe they 'never' got around to it because multiple Doctors and multiple Rivers showed up and therefore don't remember. Haha. Pretty please?

OMG I love this! Yes, of course I will! It's utter chaos, I hope you like it. I was having a good laugh while writing :D

Rating: G

Word Count: 2200

Read on AO3 or blow

The Big Day

“Strax!“ Madame Vastra’s voice carried through the corridors of 13 Paternoster Row.

“Yes, Ma’am?“ Strax stuck his head into Vastra’s study, and the lady of the house looked around.

“There you are. I need you to get Jenny as well,“ she instructed.

“Now, Ma’am?“ Strax frowned.

“Yes, Strax right now,“ she retorted with a sigh.

“You do realise what day it is?“ The butler prompted. It had taken him a while to find her as the study was not where she was supposed to be.

“Yes, Strax I am fully aware what day it is. But the fate of London, planet Earth and, frankly, Time itself makes no exceptions, not even for one’s wedding day,“ Vastra groaned in annoyance. She had been in her bed chambers getting ready for the big day when her advanced hearing had picked up on a series of alarms sounding from the study. She had considered ignoring them, this was meant to be the happiest day of her life after all, but her sense of duty had gotten the better of her.

“Very good, Ma’am…“ Strax nodded. “But perhaps we might try to… solve the problem by ourselves? I’m afraid Miss Jenny might be awfully disappointed if she were to see you before the ceremony,“ the commander pointed out. While he couldn’t pretend to understand the meaning behind all these seemingly random Earth traditions, he appreciated that they bore some significance to Jenny.

“Strax…“ Vastra sighed, she didn’t need him making her feel any more guilty than she already did. All she wanted was for this to be the perfect day for Jenny and already things were going wrong.

“Earlier she threw a shoe at me when I requested her help in serving tea,“ Strax explained.

“Do you think maybe that has something to do with the fact that you asked her to work on her wedding day?“ Vastra couldn’t help a smirk of amusement, she would have enjoyed seeing Strax trying to duck a shoe flying his way.

“I hadn’t considered it, Ma’am,“ the Sontaran mused. “I shall file that under human mating rituals: no work on the wedding day.“

“Right, okay, I suppose I should apply the same principle to fighting alien incursions. Let’s see if we can deal with this discreetly, without Jenny…“ Vastra decided, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“Perhaps I might be of some assistance!“ Strax and Vastra whirled around to see Professor River Song flash a stunning smile at them. She shook out her hair that fizzed with the energy of vortex manipulator travel.

“Professor Song!“ Vastra took a moment to recover from the shock. She stared in surprise at the archaeologist who smoothed down a beautiful navy gown. Guests weren’t meant to arrive for another few hours. Vastra herself hadn’t even changed yet.

“Sorry, I am a bit early but I was in need of a quick getaway and set the coordinates in a hurry… but sounds like I might have been just in time?“ River grinned.

“Well, uh…“ the lady of the house struggled for words.

“So what seems to be the problem, I’m happy to help,“ the professor carried on pleasantly as she looked around the study. “I’m sure there are things you’d rather be doing right now.“

“How about some tea?“ Strax interjected.

“Champagne if you don’t mind. Or is it a bit early for that too?“ River retorted.“What time is it anyway?“

“You see, that seems to be the problem,“ Vastra said, pointing to a clock on the mantelpiece. It had stopped.

“I thought something didn’t feel quite right,“ River checked the time on her vortex manipulator as well.

“It’s not just the one clock, I have checked them all, they’ve just stopped,“ the Silurian carried on.

“Well then, there is nothing for it, we must locate the source of the time distortion so we can get on with this lovely day. You’re only meant to get married once. Getting caught in an alternate reality or a time loop or something to that effect would be awfully inconvenient,“ River clapped her hands together with enthusiasm. As someone with first-hand experience of weddings outside the fabric of time, she felt best equipped to deal with things.

“And how would you suggest we start?“ Vastra asked.

“Well, there really only is one question we need to ask ourselves… where is my plus one? I am fairly certain one of them is responsible for this,“ River put her hands on her hips. “He’s not arrived yet, has he?“

“Which one of them did you bring?“ Vastra questioned, and the professor ran her hand through her hair.

“Ah well, I thought I would see whichever one of them turns up…“

“Oh…“ Realisation dawned on Vastra what sort of temporal disturbance they might be dealing with.

“Was I supposed to bring one in particular?“ River asked, and the Silurian shook her head.

“Well, no. No, it’s just…“

“Ah…“ River came to the same conclusion as the detective. “Yes, I see what you mean…“

“It would make sense…“ Vastra crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“Could you please stop communicating telepathically?“ Strax intervened, and the two women looked around to him.

“More than one Doctor in the same place and time,“ Vastra explained while River produced a scanner from the small clutch bag she was holding.

“Dimensional engineering isn’t just useful for TARDISes, you know,“ she smirked in response to their confused expressions and started running a scan. “The disturbance isn’t far from here, in fact… just…“ She pointed to the ground beneath their feet. “Below us.“

“The Siluritum,“ Vastra sighed. Of course. The cavern below 13 Paternoster Row was where they would be having the ceremony and reception.

“Come on!“ River grinned, heading towards the door. “Or would you rather stay and continue getting ready…?“ She turned back to Vastra, looking her up and down.

“I would rather make sure my wedding does not equate to the end of the universe,“ the detective retorted as she followed.

“What should I do, Ma’am?“ Strax piped up.

“Reassure Jenny that everything is absolutely fine and that everything is going off without a hitch,“ Vastra decided it was best to keep her bride in the dark for as long as possible. Surely, the situation would be easy enough to rectify and with any luck, she would never need to know. “Do NOT let her venture downstairs.“

“But what if she…“ Strax carried on, and Vastra interrupted him:

“Use your initiative Strax: lie.“

“This way…“ Vastra indicated, and River followed. As they descended the stairs to what any ordinary visitor would have presumed the basement, the air was not only getting hot and moist as Silurians preferred it, it also seemed to be fizzing with energy. Reality was slightly out of whack, and the first TARDIS came into view at the bottom of the stairs.

“Now this is going to be fun,“ River commented as they stepped into the impressive cave - decorated for the occasion with the most luscious flowers - and they spotted another dozen TARDISes. There was room enough but evidently not time and reality enough to accommodate them or their numerous owners.

“Alright, can everyone just calm down so we can work this out?!“ One of the Doctors shouted in a thick Scottish accent. “As the oldest one here, I can assure you, none of you are meant to be here, I’d remember!“

“If our time streams are crossed, you wouldn’t remember, actually!“ Another Doctor shot back, who River liked to refer to as Pretty Boy.

“I think this is all some big misunderstanding,“ yet another Doctor - donning particularly well-grown celery for the occasion - pointed out.

“You’re gonna have to help me here…“ Vastra mumbled to River as they hovered in the doorway.

“Who are all these people?“ A young girl enquired of the Doctor next to her.

“Susan Foreman, Doctor’s granddaughter…“ River whispered to Vastra who looked back at her bemused.

“Does that make you a step-grandmother?“

“Shut up…“ River elbowed the Silurian who smirked but then she pointed out all the companions' names to her as they watched them bicker.

“Doctor, you didn’t mention you used to be so handsome…“ Amy Pond was currently in the process of eyeing up several of the Doctor’s previous incarnations while their Doctor just groaned in annoyance, and Rory Williams tried his best to keep her from making acquaintances.

“Handsome? Really?“ Donna Noble shot back, obviously disgusted at the very thought while Pretty Boy smugly straightened his tie.

“So they’re all you?“ Sarah Jane Smith asked, bewildered.

“It would appear so…“ her Doctor retorted, tangling his long scarf around him, while soothing down a suit. To their credit, everyone had dressed up for the occasion.

“Doctor, what are we doing here?“ Liv Chenka threw her hands up in the air, fed up with the bickering.

“We’ve been invited to a wedding,“ her Doctor replied with a wide grin.

“Who’s wedding?“ Ace McShane interjected.

“I don’t know but I love a good wedding, don’t you?“ her Doctor grinned, straightening his hat.

“You don’t even know Vastra and Jenny yet!“ The Doctor that River liked to nickname “Eyebrows“ shot back.

“Is that who’s getting married? Lovely, best put that on the card…“ Pretty Boy instructed Donna who rolled her eyes at him.

“Do you think perhaps it’s time to…“ Vastra looked at River.

“What?“ The professor had been engrossed in watching the spectacle in front of them but the detective certainly had a point. “Oh yeah, yes, let's!“

“Excuse me, everyone!“ Vastra called out and everyone looked around. Before the Silurian could carry on, however, there was an energy discharge, knocking everyone off their feet. Suddenly, another TARDIS appeared in their midst.

“Sorry, sorry! Are we late?“ Another Doctor, northern with blond bobbed hair, stuck her head out.

“Now, this is getting more interesting by the minute!“ River raised her eyebrows intrigued, as she clambered back to her feet.

“River!“ the blond Doctor exclaimed, a wide grin spreading across her face. The other Doctors - surprisingly even the ones that didn’t really know who she was - mirrored the expression upon lying eyes on their wife..

“Professor!“ Vastra elbowed River who took delight in the attention suddenly devoted to her. The air was humming with energy, if another TARDIS decided to pop up now, things would surely go very wrong indeed.

“Right, everyone, this is getting a tiny bit complicated…“ River announced, though somewhat half-heartedly as she made eyes at her numerous husbands and wife, so Vastra decided it best to take things in her own hands:

“And by tiny bit complicated the professor means to say you are disrupting the very fabric of time.“ She put her hands on her hips, her voice stern. “In my house. On my wedding day. And as I would like to actually get married later today, it would be nice if time could carry on and not break, not today.“

“Oh right.“ The Doctors exchanged concerned glances.

“Yeah, I suppose that wouldn’t be very good, would it…“

“So if you wouldn’t mind parking your TARDISes elsewhere,“ Vastra carried on and there were more nods from various Doctors:

“Right.“

“Sure.“

“Naturally.“

“But… which one of us gets to stay? We’re all invited,“ it was the oldest Doctor that spoke up. She was looking at River with stars in her eyes, and it melted the professor’s heart. She evidently hadn’t seen her in a long time and was keen to stay.

“Ah yes, that may have been an oversight on my part…“ River admitted sheepishly as she had sent a message on the psychic paper. One that had clearly reached all of them.

“Well, I think there’s only one thing for it,“ a voice sounded from the doorway, and everyone whirled around. Jenny crossed her arms in front of her chest in amusement as she watched the peculiar scene in front of her.

Everyone was at a loss for words but Vastra in particular. Jenny was wearing a stunning wedding dress of white lace, her hair was pinned up with white flowers and her bright smile was the most dazzling thing of all.

“Darling, it’s…“ Vastra was going to say that everything was alright and dealt with. She was going to say that it was far too early for her to be down here. She was going to say that they shouldn’t be seeing each other yet, but all she could manage was: “You look beautiful.“

“And you’re not changed yet,“ Jenny smirked. “You better, as soon as time carries on.“

“We will have this sorted in a minute, Jenny, I’m so sorry about this.“ River said but the bride just laughed.

“I should have expected today wouldn’t go off without a hitch,“ she commented. “Just as… extraordinary as the rest of our life.“ She smiled at Vastra who gave a soft chuckle as well.

“You said there was one thing for it? What solution did you have in mind, my love?“

“Well I suppose, to keep things fair, we will have to repeat the ceremony a few times, won’t we. So everyone can attend.“ Jenny grinned as Vastra’s face fell.

“Are you serious?“

“Well, it’s only fair. Don’t tell me it’s such a hardship to keep kissing me,“ Jenny winked to a chorus of cheers. She wrapped her arms around her wife-to-be who allowed herself to be pulled into a hug.

Suddenly there was another discharge of energy.

“Alright everyone, move your TARDISes!“ Vastra exclaimed, and the Doctors jumped into action. “It’s gonna be a long and beautiful day.“ She smiled at Jenny and pressed a loving kiss to her lips. The first of many they would share that day.

#Doctor who #fanfiction #prompt #river song #thirteenth doctor #madame vastra #jenny flint #fluff #crack #banter #space wives #yowzah #paternoster gang #dw fanfic #femslash #multiple doctor #strax

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thewatsonbeekeepers · 4 years

Text

Chapter 8 – Dream a Little Dream of Me: parallels with Doctor Who

What’s queer film and TV without a bit of Doris Day in your chapter title?

This was never intended to be a chapter by itself, but having seen @tjlcisthenewsexy’s fantastic video on Wholock parallels here X I had to start writing. Full credit for inspiration here to @tjlcisthenewsexy, who has definitely had many of these ideas independently, and I would fully recommend watching the video before you read this. I personally only really buy Moffat era Who as a direct parallel to Sherlock, largely because Moffat wrote both, but also because 2010-17 matches up exactly with our boys. Lots of people have drawn parallels between 2005’s Bad Wolf Bay scene (by Russell T Davies) and the tarmac scene – those parallels are definitely there, but I think they’re more due to common tropes in love-declaration scenes than from intent.

The Doctor Who episodes I’m largely going to be drawing on here are Amy’s Choice, Last Christmas, The Name of the Doctor and A Good Man Goes to War. Others will feature, but if you want a really strong grip on what I’m talking about, I’d recommend taking a look at all of these, or at the very least Amy’s Choice! But now – on with the show.

Time travel has always been possible in dreams. This line comes from The Name of the Doctor, which came out in 2013. The dream in question is a psychic telepathy connecting five of our main characters whilst they sleep, controlled by Madame Vastra. Much has been made of Madame Vastra being an explicit Sherlock mirror (X) with Jenny as her wife and explicit John mirror, so using a dream state to connect people across time should already ring TAB bells. But crucially, we’re not just focusing on telepathy here – we’re focusing on the ability of 19th century characters to use a dream state to connect with the 21st century. Given that we never see where River Song is connecting from, it’s safe to say that it is the 19th – 21st connection between the other characters that is important, like in TAB. The use of the word ‘always’ is really important here – it’s not saying that time travel is possible in dreams in the Whoniverse, but that it has always been possible. There’s an implication here that before time travel was invented, in a non science fiction world, dreams can still do this – and that’s what helps us to jump across to TAB.

In the dream sequence in TNotD, Jenny is supposed to lock up before they go into their trance, but she forgets. Intruders break in, but because Jenny and Vastra are unconscious they can’t defend themselves and so Jenny is murdered. This is the spur for everybody to wake up, to save themselves. Pretty much all of our dream states in Doctor Who are focused on the possibility of dying in the outside world, but TNotD is the one which articulates the problem of EMP theory most specifically. Jenny, our John mirror, dies because her protector’s unconsciousness means that she can’t protect her wife. (Vastra’s Silurian abilities very much put her into the role of protector here – she could save Jenny where Jenny couldn’t save herself, and frequently does.)

Between the time travel and Jenny, then, TNoTD is probably the best framework we get set up for TAB. This came out only a few months before s3, in which EMP began, so it’s safe to say that these ideas are well-formed in Mofftiss’s heads at this stage. However, if we jump all the way back to 2010 and Amy’s Choice, we can see that this has been in the works for a lot longer.

The first point of note here is the casting of Toby Jones as the Dream Lord.

Casting the same actor to play dream merchants, knocking characters unconscious and altering their memories and psyches? The universe is rarely so lazy. Other mirrors in this episode are easy to pull out. The Doctor and Sherlock have long been read as mirrors for each other – characters who have existed for a long time and are constantly evolving through adaptation, super-intelligent loners, but in case that wasn’t obvious, Moffat went to a reasonable effort to style them very similarly when both tenures began.

Both of these are very conscious remodellings of old characters. Much was made of Matt Smith being the youngest Doctor ever (26!), and Cumberbatch’s youth set him apart from the Rathbone/Brett image in everybody’s heads. There’s something young and modern here – but both still dress like they’re slightly ‘out of their time’, which of course they are. Coming to terms with modernity is the central challenge that Sherlock is going to have to face. And then, of course, there’s the hair – instantly recognisable to the character in both cases, yet remarkably similar.

If the Doctor and Sherlock are mirrors, Amy as the Doctor’s companion should be linked to John. Amy ran away on the night before her wedding, and whilst she is reasonably happy with Rory in the long term of the series, this episode is about her making the decision between domesticity and adventure – a pretty clear link to John in s3 and 4. This episode is particularly important for TST however, because Amy is heavily pregnant in the domestic dream – but she is far from enthused, torn between domestic life with Rory and wanting to run off with the Doctor. However, I grant the similarity with Martin Freeman isn’t striking.

Do note, however, the similarly uncomfortable dynamic in both of these photos – hilarious.

The parallel dream!verses created broadly represent John’s dilemma from TST, and if we followed Amy’s Choice as it seems on the surface, we would end up with a pretty straight reading of TST – John spends too much time with Sherlock, they’re all in danger, Mary dies and John is suicidal because of it. Broadly speaking, this works – Rory is killed in the dream (with a really nice visual parallel to TST) and Amy crashes a bus and kills herself because she doesn’t want to live without Rory. Amy picks the domestic sphere and although it takes several more series to play out in full, this is broadly the direction the series takes us in.

In both scenes, Sherlock and the Doctor are left standing off to the right, unsure of what to do – if you watch both scenes in parallel, it’s striking. There’s a great article here talking about how the angle demonstrates the Doctor to be powerless for the first time, amongst other things. X Amy asks the Doctor what is the point of him, and John’s declaration that Sherlock has broken his vow carries similar weight – they were supposed to save them.

The title of the episode is Amy’s Choice, and this, we’re led to believe, is the moment when Amy chooses Rory. I don’t believe this. The Doctor/Rory conflict goes on for a lot longer than this, and it’s far too early in their first series to resolve it. It would leave a lot of later episodes without nearly so much tension. It’s true that Amy does have some agency in choosing – the science is questionable, as the Doctor says they’ve all tapped into some space LSD equivalent from an unmentioned offscreen adventure which has induced a mutual psychic trance, which means that we’re not sure how much agency each of the characters has in this dream. It’s not seeded, and so it sounds like a fudge – deliberately. Because a pseudoscientific explanation like this can’t explain the Dream Lord himself, Amy and Rory point out, and the Doctor admits that the Dream Lord, the architect of the dreams themselves, was actually the Doctor’s psyche. The space LSD sounded like a fudge – and Amy and Rory expose that it wasn’t just a fudge on Moffat’s part, it was a fudge on the Doctor’s part.

And, crucially, what was the first thing the Doctor said about domestic!dream, long before he realised he created it?

“Oh, you’re okay. Oh, thank God. I had a terrible nightmare about you two. That was scary. Don’t ask. You don’t want to know. You’re safe now.” X

Later, when asked how he knew that the Dream Lord was him, the Doctor merely says that no one else hates him so much. Domestic!verse, then, is a manifestation of everything that the Doctor dreads – it’s his worst nightmare, being conjured by his subconscious. That nightmare involves Amy’s suicide, Rory’s death because the Doctor can’t protect them – this maps pretty neatly onto EMP theory and TST. Although John doesn’t kill himself, he is rendered suicidal in the domestic nightmare that is left behind. As the previous chapter discusses, Sherlock not being able to protect John is definitely a nightmare, but the nightmare also maps onto reality – John is suicidal, but he’s struggling to work out why, so he has to construct it through a heterosexual lens. John’s potential death and love for Mary are the two things that form the worst nightmare in both dreams, and the nightmarish sense is highlighted in TST by the deep waters metaphor.

At the very end of the episode, the Doctor’s reflection is still the Dream Lord, suggesting that this isn’t some psychic drug phenomenon, an explanation which was frankly crap. The Doctor’s dark side is still inside him. This feels like an allegory for mental illness, and mental illness crops up aplenty in Moffat’s depictions of the Doctor, particularly the later we get – the seeds of it are here. Again, although Sherlock is being killed rather than killing himself, we have seen the suicidal side of him before and it is made clear in TAB that his opinion of himself is low. EMP s4 is about him coming to terms with how he views himself, and the cognitive dissonance that we see in Amy’s Choice is a nice separation of the psyche in two that foreshadows the immense splintering that’s going to come in EMP, but particularly between John, Mycroft and Eurus.

Another nice parallel between s4 and Amy’s Choice is the idea of predictability. Way before we know that this is the Doctor’s dream, the Doctor displays a remarkable ability to finish what the Eknodines say before they do, an ability which becomes an obvious hint in hindsight. Moving over to TLD, Sherlock has similarly ridiculous powers to predict what other people will do; because this underpins TLD, it jumps out as being something that rings very false to me, almost like a parody of who Sherlock Holmes is meant to be, and so we should pay attention to it. An uncanny ability to predict what others will do – yup, that’s a dream world.

One key similarity that Amy’s Choice has with EMP theory is that a false dream premise is set up in both. Amy’s Choice suggests that there are two worlds, and only one is a dream; their survival depends on recognising which is the real one. This is, of course, a lie – both worlds are dreamed, and that false premise is created to trap them in the Doctor’s psyche, presumably until the Doctor dies (although the threat is never clearly explained). TAB sets up a real world in the form of the modern day and a false Victorian age, but the supernatural graveyard scene is the first hint that the reality/dream binary is not real, just like Amy’s Choice. This one scene is not an anomaly – the chronology of the ‘man out of my time’ scene coming after Sherlock gets off the tarmac suggests that such mixing is still going on, and we shouldn’t trust our senses. In case that point needed hammering any more, however, Steven Moffat gave us A Good Man Goes To War.

This episode is the culmination of a series in which Amy is actually an almost-person, and Amy has been dreaming all of their adventures with a flesh avatar actually having them with Rory and the Doctor. Here it is Amy, rather than the Doctor, who is dreaming, which is a little ambiguous, but there are two key aspects that parallel Amy’s Choice. The first is that, like Amy’s Choice, the flesh avatar/dream person threat doesn’t just go away. These words of Madame Kovarian are extremely important:

Fooling you once was a joy, but fooling you twice, the same way? It’s a privilege. X

Exactly what the Dream Lord does in Amy’s Choice. Furthermore, although there’s a later meta in blindness across Doctor Who and Sherlock which at some stage really needs writing, many people have made the point that Sherlock is associated with blindness throughout series 4, and so we should note that the architect of the dream people/flesh avatars is Madame Kovarian, better known (and usually credited) as the Eyepatch Lady. However, there’s one other key message they’re giving us, which comes at the end of the clip linked above – the baby’s not real. Both Amy’s Choice and A Good Man Goes To War feature Amy’s child, and in both cases the plot revolves around the emotional recognition that that world isn’t real. Given that we know that Amy is a John mirror, and that her choice between the domestic and the adventurous is consistently paralleled to John’s choice in Sherlock, this is a pretty huge indicator that something is up with Rosie even if we didn’t know it already. Indeed, the cot and mobile that the child has in Amy’s Choice are similar to Rosie’s. That baby never stood a chance.

The last episode I want to briefly invoke is Last Christmas. If we’re looking for dreams, this episode really goes above and beyond. The premise is that there is an alien species called the dream crab which latches onto your face and dissolves your brain whilst putting you in a dream so that you don’t notice. To make this more confusing, it often places dreams within dreams to confuse you – whilst you’re dying. This episode came out on Christmas Day 2014, so a year after series 3 aired but before TAB, so in Sherlock-time we’ve just entered the mind palace. The title, Last Christmas, is pretty helpful here I think – of course it has relevance within the episode, but this episode should also get us thinking about what was going on this time last year, when Sherlock was airing.

We’re no stranger to dreams within dreams at this stage, but it’s interesting how the saving-the-companion vibe is still going strong here. Ostensibly, that’s not what the episode is about at all – it’s a classic everyone-trapped-on-a-base-working-together episode, but the last five minutes tacked on the end suggests that it’s far more about the Doctor’s relationship with Clara, the episode’s companion, than one might think. In this clip (X) the Doctor thinks he’s broken out of the final dream but goes back to visit Clara and realises that she is now old, and that he’s missed her life. It culminates in him apologising for getting it wrong, for not coming for her in time, for failing her; we get more of this with Clara’s actual death later in the show, but given that it’s a kid’s show and Christmas, this scene is a touch lighter than that. It’s then that Father Christmas comes in to tell the Doctor that he’s still dreaming, he can still save her – and his first word when he wakes up is “Clara”. None of the others trapped in the dream have needed his help to wake from the vision and survive; Clara, who as the companion is our John mirror, specifically needs saving, and the Doctor needs to wake up from his dream within a dream to do that.

Nick Frost’s appearance as Father Christmas gave us all a good laugh, but he was also used as the indicator that the world we were perceiving was a dream world. This was made a bit of a joke of early in the episode – in a sci-fi world like this, are we seriously looking for what’s not realistic as the code to crack the dream? The exact same joke is made in Amy’s Choice, and here we’re hitting a pretty silly version of the show where they joke that just about the only character who can’t be real is Father Christmas. These hints about looking for what’s not real, though, should be taken as just that – hints. From the emergence of ‘something’s fucky’ theories early on in s4, this has been the abiding reasoning for the various forms of EMP theory that have sprung up, and they’re not wrong. However, if I had to put my money on a figure like Santa Claus, something iconic which functions as a kind of dream thermometer, I’d be guessing:

You were there before me. The fucky skull that glows, almost like a warning that this is too mad. Crucially, in Last Christmas they explain that Santa is a warning that your brain is sending you, picking the most unbelievable thing possible so that you know you’re trapped, dying in your brain. Santa Claus? Well, it’s a kid’s show, and it’s Christmas. But if I were picking a dream siren to tell me I was dying, I like to think that my subconscious would pick the glowing skull on the wall; without explanation, it’s an awful lot more direct.

There is more reference than necessary made to dream crabs making one blind, and between Madame Kovarian and the blind Doctor in the later dream episode Extremis, there’s a lot more to unpack there, but I’m going to leave that for sometime down the line, or for someone else to jump into if they would like. I also want to throw out a thought I haven’t quite come to terms with yet – the elephant in the room in Amy’s Choice. Arwel Wyn Jones would be proud of the script for Amy’s Choice – twice, it mentions the elephant in the room, and so I feel I have to do the same. The first time, you could blink and miss it – the Doctor calls pregnant Amy ‘elephanty’. But the second time, we get this exchange:

DOCTOR: Now, we all know there’s an elephant in the room.

AMY: I have to be this size, I’m having a baby.

DOCTOR: No, no. The hormones seem real, but no. Is nobody going to mention Rory’s ponytail? You hold him down, I’ll cut it off? X

The elephant in the room – that the baby’s not real? Possibly, but not what we normally take it to mean. Rory’s ponytail also has not shaving for Sherlock Holmes vibes, but again it’s not quite concrete in my mind. These little bits at the end aren’t quite tied up, and I would love to hear what people have to say about them. That, however, is for another day! The next chapter in this series will be jumping back into episode-by-episode analysis with TLD – see you there.

#emp theory #wholock #tjlc #thewatsonbeekeepers #meta #my meta #mine #bbc sherlock #chapter eight: dream a little dream of me #tjlc is real #johnlock #sherlock holmes #doctor who #steven moffat #mark gatiss

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thelittlesttimelord · 4 years

Text

The Littlest Timelord: The Death of the Doctor Chapter 20

TITLE: The Littlest Timelord: The Death of the Doctor Chapter 20 PAIRING: No Pairing RATING: T CHAPTER: 20/? SUMMARY: The Doctor’s death is looming on the horizon and Elise is growing every day. What the Doctor doesn’t know is that he has 200 years to teach Elise all he knows. Amy, Rory, and River let Elise in on their secret, because River knows she will keep it. What will Elise do when he’s gone?

River walked down the corridor of Stormcage dressed in Regency era clothing as alarms went off around her. She picked up the guard’s phone. “Oh, turn it off. I'm breaking in, not out. This is River Song, back in her cell.”

The alarms stopped going off.

“Oh, and I'll take breakfast at the usual time. Thank you.”

She hung up and saw two figures standing there.

One was smaller and the other was dressed like a Roman.

“Oh, are you boys dressing up as Romans now? I thought nobody read my memos,” River said.

They stepped out of the shadows.

It was Rory and Elise.

“Doctor Song. It's Rory. Sorry, have we met yet?” he asked, “Time streams. I'm not quite sure where we are.”

“Yes. Yes, we've met. Hello, Rory. Hello, Ellie.”

Elise had grown once again in her absence.

“What's wrong?” Rory asked.

River let out a shuddering breath. “It's my birthday. The Doctor took me ice skating on the River Thames in 1814, the last of the great Frost Fairs. He got Stevie Wonder to sing for me under London Bridge. And of course you were there, little star.”

“Stevie Wonder sang in 1814?”

“Yes, he did. But you must never tell him.”

“We've come from the Doctor too.”

“Yes, but at a different point in time.”

“Unless there's two of them.”

River smirked. “Now, that's a whole different birthday.” She pulled out her diary as Rory said, “He needs you.”

River found the entry she was looking for. “Demon's Run.”

“How…how did you know?” Rory asked.

“I'm from his future. I always know. Why on Earth are you wearing that?” “The Doctor's idea.”

“Of course. His rules of engagement. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”

“…Look ridiculous.”

“Have you considered heels?”

“They've taken Amy. And our baby. The Doctor's getting some people together. We're going after her, but he needs you, too.”

“I can't. Not yet, anyway.”

“I'm sorry?”

“This is the Battle of Demon's Run. The Doctor's darkest hour. He'll rise higher than ever before and then fall so much further, and I can't be with him till the very end.”

“Why not?”

“Because this is it. This is the day he finds out who I am.”

“Come on, Elise. She’s obviously not going to help.”

Rory stalked off, back to the TARDIS.

“I’m sorry,” River told Elise.

“Happy birthday, mum.”

“Thank you, little star.”

Elise ran after Rory.

“Was that Rory I saw?” a voice asked.

River turned to face the redhead. “Yes, it was. What are you doing here?”

“You didn’t think I wasn’t going to visit you on your birthday? I’m hurt.”

River laughed and hugged the redhead.

They sat down on River’s bed.

“Now, tell me what’s been happening.”

“Well, it all started when…”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The TARDIS landed and they split up.

“Elise, go with Vastra and Jenny,” the Doctor told her.

Elise had been rather fascinated with Vastra, even though her first interaction with the Silurians had been less than pleasant.

They made their way to the control room and surprised the two men at the controls.

“Go on, resist. I am ever so hungry,” Vastra threatened.

“Now, dear. Which button controls the lights?” Jenny asked.

One of the men pointed and Jenny pressed that button, causing all the lights to go out. They gave the Doctor enough time to execute his plan, then turned the lights back on. Vastra and Jenny tied up the two men.

“Clever, isn't he?” Jenny asked as they watched the soldiers and the Headless Monks kill each other.

“And rather attractive,” Vastra added.

“You do realize he's a man, don't you, ma'am?”

“Mammals. They all look alike.”

“Oh, thank you.”

Elise laughed. They were just like River and her father. She hoped she found someone she could banter with like that one day.

“Was I being insensitive again, dear? I don't know why you put up with me,” Vastra said.

“Vastra!” Elise yelled, seeing one of the soldiers going for the door lock.

Vastra spun around and stung him with her tongue like Alaya had done to Mac.

“Stop. Wait. Listen to me,” the commander said, “I am disarming my weapon pack. Monks, I do this in good faith. I am now unarmed. All of you, discharge your weapon packs. The Doctor is trying to make fools of us. We are soldiers of God. We are not fools. We are not fools. We are not fools. We are not fools.”

The soldiers and him repeated the phrase over and over again.

“Colonel Manton is regaining control,” Vastra said.

“Where's the Doctor gone?” Jenny asked.

Strax appeared next to Manton. “This base is now under our command.”

“I have a fleet out there. If Demon's Run goes down, there's an automatic distress call.”

“Not if we knock out your communications array. And you've got incoming…” the Doctor said.

“Danny Boy to the Doctor. Danny Boy to the Doctor.”

It was the Spitfires!

“Give 'em hell, Danny Boy.”

“Target destroyed.”

“Yes!” Elise cheered, clapping.

Vastra smiled at the small Timelord. Elise was beaming from ear to ear and her eyes were sparkling.

The Doctor joined them in the control room. “What did you think?”

“That was amazing!” Elise praised him.

The two high-fived.

The Doctor sat in the chair while they waited for Colonel Manton. He was marched in by Strax at gunpoint.

“All airlocks sealed. Resistance neutralized.”

“Sorry, Colonel Manton. I lied. Three minutes forty two seconds,” the Doctor said.

“Colonel Manton, you will give the order for your men to withdraw,” Strax ordered.

“No. Colonel Manton, I want you to tell your men to run away.”

“You what?”

“Those words. Run away. I want you to be famous for those exact words. I want people to call you Colonel Run Away. I want children laughing outside your door, because they've found the house of Colonel Run Away.” The Doctor stood up and got in his face. “And, when people come to you, and ask if trying to get to me through the people I love…is in any way a good idea, I want you to tell them your name. Oh, look, I'm angry. That's new. I'm really not sure what's going to happen now.”

A woman’s voice spoke. “The anger of a good man is not a problem. Good men have too many rules.”

The Doctor turned.

It was the eye-patch lady Amy spoke about.

“Good men don't need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many,” the Doctor said.

“Give the order. Give the order, Colonel Run Away,” the woman told him.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When they came to the room where Amy was being held, they found Amy and Rory kissing while crying.

“Ew, kissing and crying. I'll…I'll be back in a bit,” the Doctor said.

Elise agreed. They turned to leave when Rory said, “Oi, you two. Get in here, now.” They came down steps and walked over to Amy, Rory, and their baby.

“My daughter. What do you think?” Rory asked.

The Doctor smiled. “Hello. Hello, baby.”

Rory knelt down so Elise could see her.

“She’s so tiny!” Elise said.

“Melody,” Amy told them.

“Melody? Hello, Melody Pond,” the Doctor said.

“Melody Williams,” Rory corrected.

“…Is a geography teacher. Melody Pond is a superhero,” Amy said.

The Doctor sniffed Amy. “Well yes, I suppose she does smell nice. Never really sniffed her. Maybe I should give it a go. Amelia Pond, come here.”

The two of them hugged.

“Doctor.”

“I'm sorry we were so long.”

“It's okay. I knew you were coming. Both of you. My boys.”

“Oi!” Elise said.

Amy laughed. “And you, little miss.”

“It's okay. She's still all yours. And really, you should call her mummy, not big milk thing. And it’s Elise, not Blue Eyes.”

“Okay, what are you doing?” Amy asked.

“I speak Baby.”

“No, you don't.”

“I speak everything, don't I, Melody Pond?” The Doctor messed with his bowtie. “No, it's not. It’s cool.”

Amy laughed.

Vastra entered the room. “Doctor? Take a look. They're leaving. Demon's Run is ours without a drop of blood spilled. My friend, you have never risen higher.”

River’s words echoed in Rory and Elise’s head.

He'll rise higher than ever before and then fall so much further.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The Doctor parked the TARDIS and Rory, Amy, and Melody immediately left.

Evidently, Melody didn’t like the TARDIS noise.

“Is Melody gonna travel with us?” Elise asked as the Doctor carried a wooden cot. She wouldn’t stop asking questions about Melody.

“Maybe not until she’s older.”

“So does this mean she’s like my cousin or something?”

“Well not technically.”

“So, just a friend then?”

“Open the other door, would you?”

Elise opened the other door and the Doctor carried the cot out.

“She's not hungry, she's tired. Sorry, Melody, they're just not listening,” he said.

“What's this? Melody?” Amy asked.

“Very pretty, according to your daughter.”

“It's a…it's a cot,” Rory said.

“No flies on the Roman. Give her here,” the Doctor said.

Amy handed Melody to the Doctor. “Hey, there we go.”

The Doctor placed her in the cot.

“But where would you get a cot?” Rory asked.

“It's old. Really old. Doctor, er, do you have children?” Amy asked, “Besides Elise.”

Elise was too old to have even slept in it.

“No.”

“Have you ever had children?”

The Doctor ignored the question. “No, it's real. It's my hair.”

“Who slept in here?”

“Doctor, we need you in the main control room,” Vastra said over the intercom.

“Be right there! Things to do. I've still got to work out what this base is for. We can't leave till we know.” He started to walk off, but Amy went after him.

“But this is where I was? The whole time I thought I was on the TARDIS, I was really here?” she asked.

“Er, Centurion, permission to hug?”

“Be aware, I do have a sword,” Rory said.

“At all times.”

They hugged.

“You were on the TARDIS, too. Your heart, your mind, your soul. But physically, yes, you were still in this place.”

“And when I saw that face looking through the hatch, that woman looking at me.”

“Reality bleeding through. They must have taken you quite a while back. Just before America.”

“That's probably enough hugging now,” Rory told him.

The Doctor pulled away.

“So her Flesh avatar was with us all that time. But that means they were projecting a control signal right into the TARDIS wherever we were in time and space,” Rory said.

“Yeah, they're very clever,” the Doctor said.

“Who are?” Amy asked.

“Whoever wants our baby,” Rory said.

“But why do they want her?”

“Exactly,” the Doctor said.

“Is there anything you're not telling us?” Rory asked, “You knew Amy wasn't real. You never said.”

“Well, I couldn't be sure they weren't listening.” The Doctor started to walk off.

“But you always hold out on us. Please, not this time. Doctor, it's our baby. Tell us something. One little thing,” Amy said.

“It's mine,” the Doctor told them.

“What is?” Rory asked.

“The cot. It's my cot. I slept in there.” He smiled and left them with their baby and Elise, who hadn’t taken her eyes off Melody.

“Oh, my God. It's the Doctor's first stars,” Amy said. Amy wiped Melody’s face with the prayer leaf Lorna had given her.

“Drop your weapons. State your rank and intent,” Strax said, “I found it listening at the door.”

It was the soldier from earlier.

Lorna.

#eleventh doctor #eleventh doctor imagines #eleventh doctor fanfiction #doctor who #Doctor Who fanfiction #doctor who imagine #river song #river song imagine #amy pond #amy pond imagine #madame vastra #jenny #strax #the littlest timelord #the littlest timelord: the death of the doctor #a good man goes to war

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asarahworld-writes · 5 years

Text

One Trip

After a canonical adventure with Bill, Twelve ends up meeting a eighteen year old Rose, and they end up travelling together, despite the Doctor’s better judgment. Pretty soon his timeline starts reforming, and the Doctor begins to forget the previous timeline. By the time he’s mostly forgotten, Bad Wolf starts appearing again. Over a series of adventures, Bad Wolf continues to appear, and things escalate. By now, the Doctor can no longer remember why it’s a bad thing…

@doctorroseprompts It’s the Paternoster Gang rather than Bill, but I didn’t want to do Bill a disservice by grossly mischaracterizing her when I haven’t seen her episodes at the time I started this.

AO3 link

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She’s eighteen and so beautiful (and far too young for him) and he watches jealously as she takes Mickey’s hand. His eyes cloud as she pecks the boy’s cheek, angrily thinking that he doesn’t deserve her. They’re young and happy, carefree even, not giving the world around them a second thought. One day, soon for her but far in the past for him, he’ll take her hand and they’ll start to run. Not normally the type of man to reminisce, he smiles softly as he starts to remember the adventures they’d shared.

He’s running, she’s halfway down the block about to cross the street, unable to see the truck turning the corner. He slams to the pavement, his body shielding hers from gravel and other road debris. Mickey stands beside them, looking surprised and thoroughly shaken, but he barely registers in the Doctor’s mind. He’s far more concerned about Rose.

“Are you all right?” He asks urgently, helping her back to her feet. She winces as she gets up and he feels guilty for brief rush of pleasure he’d felt as she’d touched his hand. He reaches out to touch her shoulder, jerking back when Mickey slaps his hand away. “I’m a doctor,” he growls, examining Rose. Nothing, thankfully, is broken (though he suspects a serious sprain) and he promptly tells her so, pointedly ignoring the younger man. She thanks him for saving her life and he awkwardly tries to brush it off, desperately pretending not to know her. He can see the TARDIS a few feet behind her and knows that he needs to leave.

But Rose is here and she’s cautiously asking if he’d like to get chips, in return for saving her life. He looks at her, and he must have some strange expression on his face because she is smirking as if he’d answered ‘yes’. Mickey protests, saying that he’s a stranger, an old bloke who might spirit her away and kill her. Well, three out of four isn’t bad. There’s no denying the fact that he was so much older than either of them. Or that he had invited Rose to travel (alone) with him across the universe. (Or that she had died, killed by the Time Vortex running through her head.) But he wasn’t a stranger, not from his perspective. They walk to the chippy and the Doctor sees new timelines forming in his head. Timelines where his Ninth (tenth, the part of his mind that was the Warrior asserts) self never met Rose Tyler. He pushes the thoughts away.

Rose reaches for her chips, wincing once more and the Doctor realizes that she must be in pain. Without thinking, he calls the TARDIS and she materializes around them and he quickly asks for her to bring forward the medbay. Very begrudgingly, she acquiesces, gently reminding the Doctor that her Wolf was not yet ready to meet him. The Doctor ignores her, scanning her shoulder with the sonic and sighing when the TARDIS confirms his suspicion. He tapes her shoulder with a forty-second century wrap, the sprain should heal within the next few hours.

“Where are we?” Rose is looking at him, confused and scared, though to anyone else who didn’t know her she’d be doing a fine job of masking those emotions.

“It’s called the TARDIS, it’s a spaceship. Is that all right?” He says, not wanting to overwhelm her, though knowing that she’ll be able to take it in.

“Is it alien?” She looks around, at the foreign equipment, at the walls, and (finally) at him.

“Yes,” he says quietly, anticipating her next question from his original timeline.

“Are you an alien?”

He nods, not quite able to believe that she was here, in the TARDIS.

Rose looks at him, clearly trying to decide if he was telling the truth. “What’s your name?”

“I’m the Doctor.”

“The Doctor? Doctor what?” Some things, it seemed, were set in stone, the Doctor thought.

“Just the Doctor,” he beams, not quite believing the scene in front of him. Rose Tyler was in the TARDIS (with the Doctor, like she should be).

“Is that supposed to sound impressive?”

He lowers his hand from where it had been resting against his mouth. “Perhaps.” And perhaps he wasn’t as against flirting as he’d once thought.

“People just call you ‘the Doctor'?” Rose asked.

“Usually. I am, as you can see, a man of intrigue and mystery,” the Doctor couldn't help but grin.

A wheezing groan fills the air. The TARDIS had moved. Automatically, he takes Rose’s hand and runs to the console room. London, 1895. On the doorstep of 13 Paternoster Row. A knock sounds at the door.

“Open the door immediately or I shall open it by any means necessary!” The shout made by the Sontaran is just credible enough that the Doctor obeys. “Ah, Doctor. You had better go on in, Madame heard your TARDIS land.” Strax frowns, peering into the ship. “Where’s the boy? I see you’ve brought a new one along.”

The Doctor looks back at Rose. She would never be content to stay in the TARDIS while he went in. “Her name is Rose,” he breathes, savouring how her name rolled off his tongue.

“Where’s the other one?” Strax asks, remembering that his companion had been a young boy called Clara.

The Doctor ignores him, locking the door of the TARDIS. Rose looks from Strax to the inside of the house. “Where are we?”

“You know how I said that the box was a spaceship?” The Doctor asks, and Rose nods. “It also travels in time.”

“Is he an alien?”

“Yes.” Rose would be fine with this. “The lady of the house is not human, either.”

“Not human…but not an alien?”

She was brilliant. “She’s a Silurian. The first intelligent species on Earth. A highly advanced civilization that went into hibernation in anticipation of a meteor strike that never happened. What did happen was the rise of the planet of the apes. You lot evolved into humans.”

“Doctor,” a feminine voice enters the room and Rose looks up to see the Silurian woman. Her…scales were olive-coloured, and instead of hair she had three crests atop her head. At the sight of Rose, however, she hisses. “Strax did not mention the human. Where is Clara?”

“I don’t know.” His tone makes it clear – he does not wish to discuss her. Not when he has such a, dare he even think it, fantastic companion with him now.

“Who is this? Strax, why did you not say that there was a stranger in our midst?” Vastra calls for the alien.

“She is a companion of the Doctor,” the alien says, rather scathingly.

Vastra circles back to Rose. “Well, child?”

Rose looks to the Doctor, she trusted him (he’d saved her life), who simply watched her. The alien woman appears rather posh and so she elects to do a small, rather awkward, curtsey. “Hello.”

“Your new companion is remarkably calm.” Vastra eyes the Doctor. His companion. Perhaps she could travel with him. They could have a whole year together before she went back to meet the Ears. He shrugs, bringing his hand back to his mouth.

There is something…off, about his companion. Nothing wrong in the way that Clara’s echo had been, but Vastra has a feeling that the Doctor is up to something. There is something different about this girl, and Vastra is determined to learn what that is. There is a look in the Doctor’s eyes as well, softening whenever he looks at the young girl; if she hadn’t been so surprised, Vastra might have seen it for what it was – love.

There’s a knock at the door and a young, attractive woman bearing a tea tray enters the room.

“Well, what is your name?” The alien asks, accepting a cup of tea from the young woman. Silently, she hands tea around the room and Rose gratefully accepts, taking a calming drink before answering.

“’M Rose,” she says, and she sees a hint of something flash across the alien’s face. The woman takes a seat beside the alien, whispering to her. The Doctor jerks his head and the alien and the woman abruptly cuts off their private discussion, looking again at Rose with hard eyes. It’s only as Jenny takes her place beside her that Vastra realizes what the emotions are currently displayed on the Doctor’s face.

“Rose,” Vastra rolls the name over her tongue. “If you would excuse us for a moment.” The poor child nods and Vastra marches the Doctor out of the room, nearly slamming him against the wall. “Who is she,” she hisses. That the Doctor has become more reckless every time she sees him is concerning.

“Rose Tyler,” the Doctor answers, surprisingly open. Vastra frowns.

“Who is she to you,” she amends. She knows what a person in love looks like, and the Doctor has clearly fallen hard for the ape. He looks at her like she’s the centre of his universe, but the woman looks at him as if he’s a stranger. Woman. She’s barely a woman, no more than twenty, Vastra thinks.

The Doctor looks back to the door. “It’s a long story.”

“Then make it short,” Vastra presses. As bad as it is for the Doctor to travel alone, it’s not worth the risk to reality for the Doctor to interfere with his own past.

“I can hide her memories. Have a few more adventures with the love of my lives. I’m old, Vastra, and yet the rest of my lives have just begun anew. And already it’s been far too long since I’d last seen her. Two regenerations.”

“So you keep going back on her timeline every few regenerations and show her the universe over and over again? I am no expert on the human brain, but it seems to me that you would be constantly re-writing her future, while retaining the memories for yourself. And then what? How young is she now? How young will she be the next time?”

“And what would you do if it was Jenny,” the Doctor flipped the question. “If you had control over time itself and she was long gone, but you had the chance to have her back?” He knew the answer. Jenny had died, in this very room, when the Great Intelligence had tried to wipe out his entire timeline. An angry Silurian was not to be trifled with. But neither was a Time Lord.

“How dare you,” Vastra hisses and the Doctor takes a step back. “My Jenny died. She was murdered by the Great Intelligence before Clara reset the timelines.”

_Clara. _Again with Clara. Who was this mysterious Clara and why did he have a niggling feeling in the back of his mind that he ought to know who she was?

“Yes, and I lost Rose Tyler to a parallel universe. Jenny is with you every hour of every day – I have not seen Rose Tyler in millennia.” The Doctor fires back. Vastra had brought up valid points to his situation, but the Doctor did not want to listen.

“You can not go around plucking people from their timelines, especially when it affects your own,” Vastra counters. “From what I understand, you left her happy.”

“It broke the both of my hearts to do that,” the Doctor admits quietly.

“But you gave her yourself,” Vastra says gently. “How many people could do that?”

The Doctor turns, leaving the room. After a moment, the Detective follows. The Doctor was in love, besotted to the point that he was endangering his self.

One trip. One trip, and he'd take her home. One trip and he'd lock away her memories of this him. One trip to steal a day from his past self (more literally stolen from Rickey), to have one more memory of Rose Tyler. He takes Rose by the hand to escort her back aboard the TARDIS, puts the ship back into the Vortex, and asks to see her injured shoulder. Rose immediately shrugs out of her hoodie and it hits the Doctor like a ton of bricks that she's the most beautiful sight that he has ever beheld. How he ever could have forgotten her beauty is a mystery. He does a quick scan with his screwdriver, the test results appearing on the console viewer. Completely healed.

“That was the past,” the Doctor says, with an air of nonchalance. “How does the future sound? Or even better, an alien world. You met an ancient inhabitant of the Earth, and her wife. So for something different,” he grins suddenly. “First door on the left is the wardrobe. The TARDIS likes you, she doesn't normally move rooms around.” To say that he stretched the truth… the TARDIS loved Rose like no other companion.

Rose was gone twenty-four point one two minutes exactly. When she returned, gone was her pink on pink shirt. That the ship had picked the outfit was clear – her shirt was a shimmering lacey sort of material, layered over thick silver tights. Her soft trainers had been replaced by a pair of worn but sturdy boots. “You look, nice,” he stumbles over the words, silently cursing himself. She looked stunning, as ever, and the Doctor marvelled at her exquisiteness. He holds out his arm, rather stiffly, his hearts pounding in his throat as she takes it.

“Have we really moved again? Where are we? _When _are we?”

“It's called Woman Wept. About two thousand years in your future,” [six hundred years forward from his last visit to the planet] the Doctor snaps and the TARDIS doors open.

“It's beautiful,” Rose doesn't let go of his arm as she steps outside. Privately, the Doctor thinks that the beauty of the planet pales in comparison to the young human [too young, the voice in the back of his head says] at his side [like she should be, he bites back]. He allows Rose to lead him across the planet, taking in not only the sight of Rose but her experience of the new planet.

Unbidden, his first memory of seeing Rose on an alien world comes to the front of his mind. Well, among alien people, he amends, remembering Platform One. They walk in silence, and the Doctor looks at Rose, knowing but still needing to guess what she’s thinking.

“People don’t live here, do they?” Rose asks.

“Depends what you mean by people. But, no, the planet hasn’t been colonized yet.”

“I mean people. What do you mean?” Again, she says something so like her proper introduction into his life that it jars the Doctor, snapping him back to the danger of the reality he is living. The touch of her hand in his overrides his rational mind and he easily answers that ‘people’ includes most sentient life forms. Like Vastra and Strax (and himself).

“Aliens. Sentient beings who lived on the Earth before the rise of apes. Humans. Nonhumans,” the Doctor strives for nonchalance.

Rose looks out at the glacial mountains. “What’s your planet like?”

Of course she would want to know. But with Gallifrey…missing, he felt even less like speaking of his homeworld than usual. “Twin suns set over the red fields, with a warm breeze rustling. The trees were silver and when the morning light hit them, the world looked like it was set afire.” He stopped his oddly poetic description, looking down as her free hand covered his.

“Sounds beautiful.” Rose’s face is alight with curiosity and wonder.

The Doctor shrugs. “The planet was nice enough, I suppose. I haven’t been there since… since the War.” The War. Yet another thing he did not want to think of. The Time Lords would be beyond furious with his actions. The way he was twisting the timelines right now was chaotic at best, universe-ending paradoxical at worse.

“I’m sorry,” Rose’s hand gently squeezes his own.

“Still, I’ve got the TARDIS. A whole universe to explore,” he grins. “Not a bad life.”

“There’s me,” Rose says softly. The Doctor looks at her face, trying to keep the more-than-friendly concern from showing.

“It’s been more than sixteen hours since you came onboard, you must be tired,” he deflected. “The TARDIS will have a room for you.”

The ship hums, both in agreement and chastising him. It’s dangerous keeping her with him, no matter how much they both have missed her.

#ficandchips #doctorroseprompts #twelve x rose #one trip

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storytelling-timelord · 3 years

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🩰Anon: So, I’ve got 2 things for you. One, a way to possibly get yourself motivated to do stuff: listen to Doctor Who asmr. I know it sounds weird, but they have some that make you feel like you’re in the TARDIS and they sometimes include Doctor Who soundtracks with it. So, maybe that’ll inspire you? Also, if you had to meet any alien besides the Doctor, who would you want to meet and why? I would personally want to meet Vastra and Strax! They just seem so cool! 1/2

🩰Anon: Yeah, so Vastra, Jenny, and Strax! I would love to ask Vastra about what prehistoric Earth was like when she and the Silurians we’re around. I think they’re all really cool and I would love to help them solve a crime!

Asmr has always made me uncomfortable because a lot of times when you watch asmr videos they go to recording themselves eating and I can’t watch or hear someone eat because it makes me so uncomfortable and I’m saying this only because when I first read this, all I could think about is Matt Smith and Karen Gillian eating custard and fish fingers in front of a microphone 😂 NEEWAYZZZZ an asmr about the TARDIS and all that sounds so cool omg where would I find videos like that? YouTube?

Vastra and Jenny (and Strax) would also most definitely be my choices too because I love them so very much and I’m actually struggling to come up with an answer that I would rather meet besides them 😂 my first thought was Captain Jack before I remembered he’s not a freaking alien and I’m just dumb 😂 so yeah I would probably visit Vastra and Jenny and bask in the amazing-ness of their relationship 😌

#🩰 anon

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undertheinfluencerd · 3 years

Link

https://ift.tt/3nfWqUU #

BBC’s Doctor Who is a big old ball of timey wimey things, and it can get difficult to keep up with all the various plot lines and character arcs that run through whole seasons and even individual episodes. In nearly sixty years, various showrunners and writers have come and gone from the sets of the legendary series, not to mention the various actors who play the Doctor after each regeneration.

RELATED:Â Doctor Who Companions, Ranked From Most To Least Likely To Die In A Horror Movie

In the complexity of time streams and other wibbly wobbly stuff, certain stories get a great introduction to the audience, but are forgotten or dropped by writers sometime down the line. It’s a pity because so many of these have the potential for spinoffs and several-part episodes, but the good news is that the nature of Doctor Who always gives hope that these forgotten arcs may be revived at some point.

8 The Silurian Pact

The Doctor protects planet Earth, no matter what. So, when he brokers a deal with aliens instead of driving them away, it is a big deal. In season 5, two episodes showed a giant, sleeping Silurian colony under the Earth. In ‘The Hungry Earth’ and ‘Cold Blood’, the Silurians wanted a fair share of the planet above the surface, which would have surely caused war between them and the humans.

The Doctor then made a pact with the civilization that theyÂ will go back into hibernation for a thousand years, and upon the end of their slumber, they will share the Earth equally with the humans. It would have been interesting to see howÂ the planetary cohabitationÂ would have played out, but audiences got nothing after the two-parter episode of Doctor Who.

7 The Face Of Boe

The noble Boekind played a huge part in Doctor WhoÂ â He was present in several episodes, the most notable one being ‘Gridlock’ where he sacrifices his own life to save the city of New New York. In ‘The Last of the Time Lords’, Jack unwittingly revealed his own future, when he mentioned his nickname “the face of Boe” to Martha and the Tenth Doctor.

RELATED:Â 10 Ways Chris Chibnall Is The Best Doctor Who Showrunner

Since then, theories have abounded on how the immortal Jack Harkness became a large head, and if he was immortal then how did he die in ‘Gridlock’? The connection was meant as a joke, but has been acknowledged by the actors, producers, and writers too. What remains is how and when Jack transforms into the Boekind.

6 Clara And Me’s Adventures

After Clara’s death in season 9, the Doctor pulled her out of her time stream just moments before the fact, which meant that she technically survived. TheÂ wise Clara OswaldÂ then took off with a TARDIS with her buddy Ashildr/Me, who had been rendered immortal by the Doctor and his Mire repair kit.

The show didn’t really bother following up on the other TARDIS flying around the universe with Clara and Me in it, nor was there a further mention of their adventures. Theoretically, Clara would also have to re-enter the timestream where she died, which would leave Me all alone in a very potent machine. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

5 The Alliance Of The Big Bads

In his uncountable years of time travel, the Doctor made some big enemies, the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Sontarans, the Judoon, and the Autons being some of them. In season 5, all the bad guys rallied together to defeat their greatest enemy, and they even succeeded to an extent: The Doctor was locked away in the Pandorica.

However, these villains never thought of teaming up again to bring down their biggest foe ever again, which would seem to be an obvious course of action for all these groups wanting to do away with The Doctor.

4 The Sandman’sÂ Cliffhanger

Season 9 saw the formidable Sandmen, deadly foes made from the sleepÂ dust in humans’ eyes in a Morpheus pod.Â Rassmussen, the creator of Morpheus himself was a Sandman, who edited footage and was ready to broadcast it to the whole universe, thereby turning them into Sandmen too.

RELATED:Â 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Time Lords OnÂ Doctor Who

The episode ended withÂ Rassmussen getting ready to do the deed, but then there was no follow up. One can only imagine that the Twelfth Doctor stopped him behind the scenes, because viewers saw none of it.

3 The Reapers

Meddling with time is essentially what Doctor Who is about, which justifies the large number of historical episodes. But when Billie Piper’s Rose changed a fixed point in time by saving her father from a car accident, massive creatures called the Reapers descended upon the town, attacking citizens at random.

There was nothing wrong with the premise in general, but these creatures, who were likened to bacteria gathering around a time wound, never returned again. With the sheer number of times the Doctor and his companions have changed huge, historical events, it’s strange that the Reapers didn’t show up to at least one of those occasions.

2 Rose And Meta-Crisis Ten’s Life

In season 4 of Doctor Who, viewers saw the sad but iconic scene where the Tenth Doctor is left heartbroken because Rose needs to return to her own universe, where the Meta-Crisis clone of him awaits her. At least Rose had her happy ending with a version of the Doctor, but so little is known about her life with Ten’s clone in her alternate universe.

In a deleted scene, the Doctor hands a piece of the TARDIS to his clone and permits him to grow his own, so its entirely possible that Rose and her Doctor are out there, flying around in their TARDIS and continuing their timey wimey adventures, which the audience may never know about.

1 The Doctor’s Daughter

Everything about Jenny, the Doctor’s daughter, was primed for a spinoff or at least an appearance in later episodes, but she only made it to one single episode, never to be heard from again. It may have seemed like a stretch, but fans were hoping with River Song’s drawn out plot point, Jenny may get a resurgence too.

AfterÂ her death on Messaline, Donna and the Doctor leave, butÂ JennyÂ suddenly comes back to life and flies off into the universe for her own adventures. It’s odd that the Doctor never found out about her survival, or even bothered looking for her.

NEXT:Â 10 Actors Who Could Replace Jodie Whittaker As Doctor Who

#marvel #avengers #marvelcomics #spiderman #mcu #ironman #comics #captainamerica #thor #avengersendgame #marvelstudios #xmen #dc #marveluniverse #art #cosplay #tomholland #hulk #disney #comicbooks #dccomics #peterparker #tonystark #blackwidow #marvellegends #endgame #deadpool #marvelcinematicuniverse #loki #bhfyp

The post Doctor Who: 8 Storylines The Show Dropped | ScreenRant appeared first on undertheinfluencerd.net.

#entertainment, screenrant #tumblr #aesthetic #like #love #tumblrgirl #follow #instagram #photography #instagood #likeforlikes #s #likes #art #cute #o #girl #followforfollowback #a #tumblrboy #grunge #fashion #photooftheday #tiktok #l #photo #sad #k #frases #f #bhfyp

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jennyandvastraflint · 5 months

Note

Would you do 6) eu characters for the kmk ask game, please? And maybe also (or alternatively) 16) characters that appear in Moffat who and/or 19) Characters you have written fic for?

Just pick as many as and whoever you like for each category <3

Thank youuuu! Since I am lazy and don't have pictures of more EU characters, just have the Bloomsbury Bunch XD (Art credit for the Bloomsbury Bunch goes to the A Photograph to Remember poster by @pookachuka)

Thomas Foster is just such a sweetie pie, he's a struggling artist and a bit of a dreamer, and his boyfriend Stonn keeps him grounded a bit. I really wanna boop his nose <3

Then there's Vella, my beloved cranky Silurian who totally isn't Vastra's ex... I want to punch and boop her in equal measure, but I think booping her would mean I'll lose at least one finger (worth it.) Still, I wanna punch her for a) being mean to Jenny and b) locking Jenny and Strax up for a bit... Also she should definitely get some therapy to sort out her inferiority complex

And then there's Stonn who is a Sontaran and Tom is his boyfriend. Unfortunately, he has discovered capitalism and is pretty annoying about that... I wanna punch him on the probic vent (or maybe boop him) like Jenny did when she tricked him and knocked him out XD

Here's characters I've written for! It's missing a few, but I honestly couldn't be bothered to search more pictures on my phone. I haven't technically PUBLISHED anything featuring Tom and Stonn YET, but I do have a really fun WIP (the Mamma Mia one)

Of the others, I think Missy needs to be punched a lot. I would like to travel with her, but I feel like she'd kill me in ten seconds and I am a bit inclined to live on.

I'd like to travel with Thirteen and Yaz, but I also wanna boop them, so they go in the middle somewhere. I think they'd be loads of fun, even though I'd fill the Dan role in that team XD

Then we have Jenny and Vastra, themmmm! I wanna boop them one billion times. I do kinda wanna travel in the TARDIS with them, but I also think I couldn't realistically put up with That amount of flirting XDDD Like I love them but PLEASE GET A ROOM XD

Similar for Haruka and Michiru, I wanna boop them so much and it would be maybe kinda interesting to travel with them in the TARDIS, but again, these lesbians know no shame and I'd rather not XD Also chances are I'd turn out to have a pure heart and they'd sacrifice me or something idk.

I wanna boop Seven and Janeway. I do actually trust them with a TARDIS (sort of) I've just realised, though Janeway would use it to violate the Prime Directive and do loads of time travel shenanigans with it. I think Janeway cannot be trusted with a TARDIS she is too ADHD for that (actually isn't the Doctor too...) Seven would like the TARDIS I think, they'd get along. Actually, I'd love to travel with them. Please imagine they're beneath Jenny and Vastra on the line between TARDIS and boop XD

And Strax my babygirl the queen the moment the icon. I love him and he deserves to be booped one billion times he is so sweet I love him. Would not trust him to navigate a TARDIS really, and I also don't wanna punch him. Sooooo <3

I hope you enjoyed these, friend!

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bleep-blop-lizard-hop · 7 years

Text

Femslash February 2018 #1

Well here you go, my first entry for Femslash February of twentyGAYteen! Technically this was a last minute Christmas story idea that I had loooong after Christmas is over, but better late than never I guess. Enjoy!

@idemandaspinoff Especially written with you in mind, my friend =)

Jenny’s first Christmas in 13 Paternoster Row was significantly different compared to her previous experiences as a child. Instead of being with her family in their small dingy tenement flat, she was now co-inhabiting a large luxurious townhouse with an ancient lizard woman from the dawn of time. Ever since her parents threw her out into the streets after they discovered her “preferences in companionship”, Jenny had spent several Christmases desperately huddling inside a hovel to protect herself from the severe winter weather, while fighting hunger and disease. Fortunately, things eventually changed when a fateful series of events led to her being rescued from the squalor of homelessness by a Silurian called Madame Vastra, who begrudgingly hired Jenny to be her resident maid at the urgings of a strange man known as the Doctor. Jenny was utmost grateful to have a roof over her head once again, but it was difficult to adjust in the beginning due to the fact that her new reptilian housemate was the equivalent of a raging racist, towards humans at least, and would always treat her like an inferior animal. The Silurian had also loudly expressed her intense disdain regarding the human holiday of Christmas, which was the reason why Jenny had opted to celebrate it privately in her own room with a miniature Christmas tree, some tinsel, candles, and cookies that she bought from the local bakery. This year, however, it was the complete opposite as the rocky relationship between Jenny and Vastra gradually became smoother to the point where Vastra finally granted Jenny her permission to openly practice the traditions of Christmas. So with the entire house freely at her disposal, it was with great gusto that Jenny dedicated all of her time and energy to setting up the necessary decorations on Christmas Eve. Firstly, she erected a real genuine Norwegian Spruce tree in the middle of the sitting room before strewning it with abundant ornaments and tinsel. Secondly, she then got to work hanging intricately woven wreaths on the walls of the house, attaching stockings to the fireplace, and lining the whole length of the stairway banister with shiny glittering garland. Next, she went into the kitchen to mix batter from scratch for cookies, and popped them into the oven before heading off to another task. The last remaining thing on her list was to hang a piece of mistletoe at the very top of the living room doorway, which she was able to accomplish using a wooden ladder and a hammer. Jenny smiled triumphantly as she looked around at everything she did to successfully create a proper festive and joyous atmosphere in their usually drab home. Fully satisfied, Jenny then figured that she deserved a reward and walked back into the kitchen for a glass of delicious, refreshing eggnog.

It was close to noon when Madame Vastra herself emerged from her bedroom, adorned in her typical attire consisting of a sumptuous dark purple taffeta gown with black lace trimmings that was well suited for a lady of her stature, and began to make her way downstairs to the ground floor. Moving down along the stairway, the keen-eyed detective’s attention soon got caught on the vast array of jubilant decorations that was displayed throughout the house; Bright tinsel, green wreaths, golden bells, red bows and holly, it was unlike anything that the culturally unaware Silurian had ever seen before. Truth be told, Vastra had no idea what to expect when she gave Jenny her consent to beautify the house for Christmas, but was nonetheless delightfully curious at what she found that morning. She was also greatly pleased by all the visual evidence of her young maid’s stellar work ethic, as she was most certain that Jenny had been awake since the crack of dawn to get everything in correct ready order. Vastra then reached the bottom of the stairs just in time to spot Jenny as she was leaving the kitchen, and immediately proceeded to approach her.

“I see that you’ve been awfully busy this morning, Miss Flint,” said Vastra genially, which was a marked improvement from her earlier hostility toward the human girl. “I must say that I’m rather impressed.”

Jenny was quick to greet her mistress with a warm smile, and replied, “Aye, and good morning to you, ma’am! I’ve already put the kettle on in the kitchen and tea should be ready any minute now.” Suddenly, for a brief moment, the girl’s cheerful demeanor faltered as she nervously bit her lip and fiddled with her fingers as if contemplating something. There was a note of reserved hopefulness in her tone when she said, “If you don’t mind me asking, ma’am…..what do you think of the Christmas tree I brought?”

Vastra merely responded by slightly tilting her head aside and raising a hairless eyeridge in puzzlement at her maid’s question, before following Jenny into the sitting room where the fully bedecked Christmas tree was standing in all its splendid glory.

After soaking in the dazzling sight, Vastra then turned to Jenny and regretfully spoke,“Hmm, well, I must admit that I really don’t have the first clue as to what dictates a proper, or improper Christmas tree.” The Silurian could see the acute desire for her validation clearly written on Jenny’s face, and decided to try her best anyway. “However, from what I can observe of it, this particular tree is of the ideal height, with proportional symmetry throughout its body, and possesses a faintly pleasant aroma of spruce. I will also add that you, Miss Flint, have a very keen eye when it comes to decorating and the strategic placement of ornaments for maximum aesthetic beauty,” concluded Vastra while giving Jenny a broad, indulgent smile.

“Thank you….I’m so glad you like it, ma’am,” proclaimed Jenny who was practically beaming with pure joy at receiving her mistress’s approval. She had prided her haggling abilities in order to get the tree for a good bargain at the market. “ This would’ve never happened if you didn’t allow me to…..I’ve missed this, Christmas and everything.”

A wistful expression flitted across Jenny’s face as she found herself reminiscing about old memories of long gone Christmases from her distant childhood past. Jenny’s parents were deeply religious, god-fearing people who raised their brood of children with a strict and disciplinary hand. Christmas was the sole exception, however, as it was always the one time of year where her parents became more lenient and affectionate with their children in the spirit of the holidays. Jenny and her siblings would spend an entire day crafting makeshift ornaments with various spare materials that they scavenged from around the house, which they then hung on the modest sized Christmas tree that their father would bring home. They also had to improvise by using their own dirty tattered socks as stockings, but it never failed to excite them when jumping out of bed on Christmas morning to discover that their socks had been stuffed with treats of tangerine and peppermint candy. Soon, the real fun began with the arrival of numerous different relatives who would come bearing gifts, food, and interesting stories. All packed tightly in the Flint’s small tenement apartment, Jenny’s family feasted and drank the night away while uniting their collective voices into loudly singing Christmas carols, with varying degrees of pitch quality. Although her family didn’t possess much wealth, it was Christmas that provided them with an opportunity to simply forget about their worries and celebrate the positive things in their lives. A painful aching sensation occured within Jenny’s heart as she remembered the simpler, happier times of her former life before losing everything that she knew and loved. It was too late to change the past, and the scars will remain forever permanent.

Expertly sensing her young maid’s somber mood, Vastra reached over to gently hold her hand and said, “Oh my dear girl, who am I to play the….”, the Silurian momentarily paused to search for the right term before continuing with, “.... Scrooge, and prevent you from celebrating your own sacred holiday? I will apologize for my misguided and prejudicial remarks about your human customs of Christmas in the past.” Vastra’s gaze never left Jenny with every word that she spoke, as she was genuinely remorseful and willing to make amends. “ I’ve learned the error of my ways, and only want you to be happy in your festivities.”

Visibly touched by her mistress’s kind words of reassurance, Jenny was able to produce a watery smile as she replied,“Thank you, ma’am, you have no idea how much this means to me! Let me go to the kitchen and pour you a cup of tea with breakfast, eh.”

Before Jenny could step foot outside the sitting room, Vastra commanded her stop after noticing something peculiar on the doorway.

“Not so fast, Miss Flint….,” exclaimed Vastra, who then moved forward and craned her neck to get a better view of the doorway. “That is mistletoe, if I’m not mistaken?”

Jenny’s eyes subsequently followed Vastra’s line of sight before she answered,“Umm….er, y-yes it is, ma’am.”

“Mmm, how very interesting…..the Doctor once told me about your people’s strange tradition of engaging in romantic physical contact under these mistletoe,” remarked a newly intrigued Vastra, whose curiosity prompted her to ask Jenny, “Why is that exactly?”

“I-I don't really know, ma’am, that’s just how things have always been done,” responded Jenny to the best of her ability, being not quite sure of it herself. Suddenly realizing what the presence of mistletoe entailed, Jenny hastily scrambled to explain her mistake. “ I….God, that was bloody stupid of me to put that up there…..It’s not as if anybody in this house is going to walk underneath it….Except for us, you and me, I reckon,”acknowledged Jenny in a quiet tone, her mouth becoming surprisingly dry.

Confused by her maid’s strange behavior, Vastra tilted her head at an angle and inquired, “Miss Flint, are you trying to say that this rule doesn’t apply to two women standing under the mistletoe?”

A part of Jenny knew that the liberally inclined Silurian would ask that question, coming from an exceptionally more tolerant and open-minded society that held none of the Victorian stigma against same-sex relationships. Ever since Jenny had confessed to Vastra about her “preferences in companionship”, the lizard woman would often express her frustration at how backwards and foolish the rest of humanity was to be offended by something as trivial as homosexual love. Although Vastra had already proven herself to be a trustworthy ally, homosexuality was still a highly sensitive subject that Jenny would prefer to avoid discussing with her employer.

“I...um...that...Aye, ma’am, it’s simply unheard of, I’m afraid,” Jenny haltingly uttered.

“Ah, I should have guessed! You primitive humans and your equally limited definition of love,”Vastra hissed indignantly before boldly declaring, “Poppycock….I suppose that we have no choice, but to start our own tradition and tear down that wholly unnecessary gender barrier!”

“W-What?”

Jenny could hardly believe her ears at what her mistress was suggesting! Here was this ridiculously eccentric lizard woman, who had the absolute gall to demolish centuries of formally established societal conventions in the name of what….sexual equality? Furthermore, what really worried Jenny about this whole scenario, was the fact that Vastra had just basically implied the idea that the two of them should kiss under the mistletoe. Jenny hadn’t forget how much trouble that got her in, the last time she did that with another girl; She had been forced to carry that heavy burden of shame and self-loathing everywhere she went, but she couldn’t stop her relentlessly unnatural attraction to the fairer sex of her species, no matter how hard she tried. Then Madame Vastra came along, and despite her shockingly alien appearance, Jenny had considered her to be extraordinarily beautiful. Indeed, Jenny could feel herself being inexplicably drawn to the mysterious Silurian from the very first moment that they met. The memory of a green, sword-wielding reptilian humanoid charging into an alleyway, and slicing through a gang of violent thugs to rescue Jenny was like something straight out of a fairytale. Jenny’s admiration for Vastra continued to grow with each passing day as she got to learn more about her elusive employer, being able to witness the strength, intelligence, and honesty of her character firsthand. Although Vastra eventually dispelled her anti-mammal prejudices to truly respect Jenny as a human, and accepted her queer identity as a “Tom”, the realist within Jenny was convinced that there was absolutely no chance of Vastra ever reciprocating the same feelings for her. However, now that she know Vastra wouldn’t be opposed to the prospect of kissing her, that caused a small yet precious sliver of hope to form in Jenny’s mind. On the other hand, Jenny was also certain that she wouldn’t be able to handle it if Vastra actually kissed her, and the mere thought of it was enough to make her face blush crimson with embarrassment.

Picking up on her maid’s apparent bewilderment, Vastra acquired a benevolent smile as she moved closer to Jenny’s side, and held onto both her hands.“I want to share this holiday with you, Miss Flint, and it would please me immensely if you could bestow a kiss upon me.,” clarified Vastra in a smoothly earnest tone.“It wouldn’t do us well to defy the bidding of the mistletoe, don’t you agree?”

The Silurian’s superior height enabled her to effectively crowd Jenny within the doorway, whose body was becoming increasingly hot and bothered in her flustered state.

Realizing that she had been trapped between the advances of a lizard woman and a hard place, Jenny had no choice, but to comply with her mistress’s request. “Err, yes, of course….if you’re really sure about this, ma’am,”said Jenny, which earned her an affirmative nod from Vastra who then closed her eyes. Lavishing her parched lips with her tounge, it took Jenny several minutes to muster the courage that allowed her to lean over and plant a quick, chaste kiss onto Vastra’s scaly cheek.“There, was that good enough for you, ma'am?”

“It would seem that you’ve missed your mark, dear girl,”spoke Vastra cryptically with a mischievous gleam in her blue eyes.

“P-Pardon, ma’am?”

Vastra didn’t say a word, but gently raised her hand to the back of Jenny’s neck before suddenly pulling her into a sensuous kiss that could be described as a firm press of their lips. As soon as their mouths made contact, Jenny could’ve sworn that the entire world had abruptly stopped rotating on its axis, along with her heart.The young girl herself was equally as frozen, a wide-eyed expression of pure shock on her face while her muddled brain struggled to register her reptilian mistress’s brazen action. In truth, Jenny had often dreamed about this exact situation during those especially restless nights where her longing for the Silurian would manifest into visual fantasies within her subconscious. They were supposed to only be hopeless fabrications of her imagination, and Jenny would’ve been a fool to label them as more than that. Never in a million years did Jenny expect that Vastra would make such a bold move towards her when she was just a human, seemingly unworthy of the proud Silurian’s attentions; Surely this didn’t mean anything other than a platonically enthusiastic gesture of goodwill for the Christmas holiday. The fog that clouded Jenny’s mind eventually disappeared within minutes, thus allowing her to actually feel how cool and smooth Vastra’s lips were against her own. The wet tip of Vastra’s forked tongue slipped out to briefly tease the entrance of Jenny’s mouth, which resulted in a pleasurable sensation of heat spreading across Jenny’s chest as her eyes fluttered shut, and she began to simply enjoy the moment for what it was. The two women remained in that blissfully intimate position for a little while longer, before Vastra withdrew her head and they became separated.

“That was a rather….enlightening experience,” Vastra surmised, sounding most delighted as she observed her young maid’s countenance. Wearing a charming grin, she then extended her hand to tuck a loose strand of dark hair behind Jenny’s ear, and lightly spoke, “This tradition of kissing under the mistletoe, I think I actually quite like it. We should certainly partake in it again next year, if it’s alright with you, Miss Flint?”

Still considerably lightheaded from the kiss, Jenny could only respond with a vigorous nod of her head, secretly craving to repeat the gratifying experiment with her mistress.

Pleased with that answer, Vastra’s eyes twinkled as she exclaimed,“Excellent! I’ll be looking most forward to that.”

That said, Vastra then exited the sitting room to embark in the direction of the kitchen, leaving a stunned and speechless Jenny standing there in her wake. Slowly, the girl brought up her hand to graze her fingers over her tingling lips, while the warmth of a fire continued to linger within her belly. Realization soon dawned upon her that celebrating Christmas with the lizard woman of Paternoster Row was going to involve one hell of a twist that she never saw coming…..not that she’s complaining, of course.

#västra and jenny #madame vastra #Jenny flint #dw femslash #paternoster gang #Femslash February 2018 #My fanfic #My story #My writings #13 Paternoster Row Oneshots

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legends-of-time · 7 months

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Thorn Bush (Doctor Who Story)

Chapter 26: The Paternoster Gang

Masterlist

1880s AD/CE

She hisses and snarls at these- these- apes? Va'stra narrows her eyes at them. They look like apes but smell different and look a lot less hairy than they used to be. These apes had killed her sisters by damaging their pod and now awoken from hibernation, in her rage, Va'stra has already killed five of them. She snarls, ready to attack the rest of them when—

"No, no, no!" A male ape and a female ape come running into view.

The male wears a stripy fabric with a cloth wrapped around his neck while the woman wears layers and layers of fabrics that Va'stra is unsure how to describe them. They seem different to the apes despite looking similar. All the same, Va'stra narrows her eyes at the unknown creatures.

The male suddenly flashes some object at the apes. "Mr John Smith of Scotland Yard and this is my assistant, Madame Davis. We'll deal with this."

The apes nod hurriedly before fleeing. Va'stra growls at the two that had interrupted.

The female, Madame Davis the male had called her, raises an eyebrow. "Now, Vastra, I know your angry but please listen to us."

Va'stra growls at this woman. Why had this female called her this and with almost familiarity?

——

They explain that those innocent tunnel workers she seeks revenge on had accidentally killed her sisters and had awoken Va'stra. They'd been constructing an "extension of the London Underground" and had no idea of Silurian hibernation.

Va'stra hadn't calmed hissing angrily at them but Kathy and the Doctor quickly argue that it isn't wise to seek revenge on these apes, humans they'd called them, as during the Silurian sleep, they'd been developing and dominating the planet. Va'stra quickly realises she's quite outnumbered and agrees to cease her attacks on the tunnel workers.

Va'stra had wanted to rejoin her people but her life ahead has been filled with too many fixed points for her to be able to rejoin them. The Doctor had expressed his understanding of not being able to be with his people, explaining the horrors he's experienced. This leaves Va'stra and the Doctor with a bitter understanding but one that helped ease the former's guilt all the same. While the Doctor stays for a short while, he leaves and it's Kathy who stays with her to help her accept her grief and start to heal as well as learning how to adjust to Victorian London.

Over the years, Kathy, as she says she prefers to be called, keeps to her word and is there to help Vastra, as she goes by now, to integrate into humanity's Victorian culture. She meets Kathy's son and daughter-in-law, the latter she begrudgingly accepts despite her being an ape. Kathy informs her that she can't go into detail about Ashildr to the Doctor until after a certain point in their timeline. Kathy had also gone into detail about the Doctor's species as well as her own background of rebirth and future knowledge.

Vastra initially spends time performing as The Sensational Scaled Siren for Henry Gordon Jago, and also performs in Jago's "Monstre Gathering".

Under Kathy's encouragement, after Vastra had found lodgings above a gin palace in Cheapside (Vastra had wanted to move in with Kathy, Carlyle and Ashildr but Kathy had argued that Vastra needs to learn to stand on her own feet but they'll be there to offer support), Vastra takes on a human called Jenny Flint as her maid. Kathy explained that Jenny had also herself been ostracised by society for who she was. Kathy had saved Jenny from being molested by a gang and being a part of a mating ritual. Kathy explains that Jenny will need shelter and protection, which she insists Vastra can provide.

Vastra reluctantly admits to herself that there's something about this ape that's actually quite appealing. This confuses her as Vastra has not previously been fond of human society. She goes to Kathy in her confusion and stress but Kathy quickly reassures her everything is alright and that she should inform Jenny, who, she insists, feels the same. To Vastra's relief, Kathy is right and the two soon develop a romantic relationship. It's not long before they marry with Kathy, Carlyle and Ashildr in attendance.

Vastra joins Kathy in becoming a member of "polite Victorian society", due to their saving the Queen from a Zygon plot. Vastra gained the title of "Madame" and they take up residence at Paternoster Row (Kathy had insisted).

After spending some time as a bank robber, Vastra eventually became a detective and consultant to Scotland Yard, solving cases that they could not. Due to her proficiency in the field, some referred to her by the title of "the Great Detective". All this under Kathy's encouragement. This is what Vastra liked about her friend, she never pushed Vastra to do anything, only encouraged her.

Their adventures don't always go off without a hitch. When they visited Egypt, Vastra was mistaken for a god and Jenny and Ashildr had almost ended up as sacrifices but thankfully Kathy had stepped in though she had ended up injured enough to have to use her time vortex energy to heal herself. The occasion they battled some Neomorph Cybermen in Japan went better.

——

1888 AD/CE

A horse drawn cab pulls up and a woman gets out. Her figure is largely hidden by a veil and a dark dress.

"Thank you, Parker. I won't be needing you again tonight." She tells him.

"Yus, my lady." The driver replies, heading off as the woman enters the home.

She enters the entrance hall and puts a Samurai sword back on its stand.

"Well," the woman turns to look at who'd spoken revealing it to be Kathy with Jenny lingering behind her, "you're back early. I'm assuming it went well?"

The woman under the girl smirks. "Jenny, send a telegram to Inspector Abberline of the yard. Jack the Ripper has claimed his last victim."

"How did you find him?" Jenny questions.

The woman throws back her hood to reveal that she is Vastra. "Stringy, but tasty all the same. I shan't be needing dinner."

Kathy raises an eyebrow. "Lovely..."

"Congratulations, ma'am." Jenny compliments. "However, a matter has arisen in the drawing room."

"A matter?"

"Seems someone is here to collect that debt you owe." Kathy remarks pointedly.

Vastra charges past them, into the drawing room to see the TARDIS parked inside.

The door opens and Eleven pokes his head out. "Ah, Vastra. Kathy said you wouldn't be long. I need your help."

Vastra nods. "Of course. Pack the cases, Jenny. And we're going to need the swords." Her maid/wife runs off to do just that.

"Can I come?" Kathy asks.

The Doctor's head snaps toward her. "Uh, no, I'm, you're already inside." He says hurriedly, darting back inside.

Kath frowns but then shrugs and smiles at Vastra. "Best not interact with my future then."

Vastra smiles but knows Kathy is suspicious as is she herself. "Seems so. I'll be sure to keep any spoilers to myself."

——

Two days after the Battle of Demons Run, Vastra walks over to Kathy whose sitting on a box, clearly still weak from what Kovarian and her people have done to her. Vastra is surprised to not see Carlyle lingering near his mother, he's hardly left her side.

"Kathy?" Vastra calls softly so as to not startle her.

Kathy looks up and gives the Silurian a warm but weak smile. "Vastra. I assume Strax has made a full recovery from his wounds?"

"Yes. I assume you already knew that." Vastra remarks with a smile, trying to lighten the mood that had fallen on them ever since the battle to protect baby Melody had been for nothing as the baby had already been lost. Kathy has been consumed by guilt because of it though River's arrival eased it a bit.

Kathy huffs a slight laugh. "Maybe."

"You always seem to know everything."

Kathy's smile falls. "Not everything. I don't understand how I didn't realise." She murmurs the last bit to herself.

"You weren't to know the changes that have occurred because of your presence." Vastra tries to reassure her friend.

"Mmm..."

"The station is being evacuated. We're all being returned to our proper times and places." Vastra then says, deciding to move into a different topic.

"Yes, I believe I am waiting for you back in 1888." Kathy replies. She stands up but then creases over in pain, clutching her stomach and waves Vastra away before standing up straight when the pain has eased. "I know you've already promised but you must not mention my involvement in this to the me that's with you in 1888."

Vastra nods. "I know. I wouldn't know how to explain all this even if I could."

"Better to live in ignorance." A smile appears on Kathy's face though Vastra knows it's false. "You should ask Strax to go back to 1888 with you."

"Of course you would say that, wouldn't you?" Vastra remarks.

The two share a light laugh at that, sharing some joy amongst the sadness.

——

1890 AD/CE

Kathy walks into the park at night. She casually strolls along and, once seeing that the coast is clear, jumps up and grabs a ladder, which she pulls down. Kathy climbs the ladder and once she's at the top of the ladder, she waves at passers-by, but they do not see or hear her. Kathy can't but grin to herself before beginning the ascent up the spiral staircase. The ladder retracts as she climbs.

Marching up the stairs, going past the clouds and fog, the rooftops disappear from view. Kathy comes to the top to see a large cloud surrounding the bottom of the TARDIS. The ship hums pleasantly, with the lights glowing peacefully from the blue box. Kathy grins and, after a brief hesitation, steps onto the cloud. It is no ordinary cloud despite its appearance. The density is much different than that of an average Earth cloud. Perfectly okay to hold a ship up in the sky, and more than suitable to allow a person to walk around on the cloud. Kathy walks across the swirling cloud and to the ship, snapping her fingers and the door swings open and she steps inside.

The console room reflects the later days of Eleven. Gone are the warm oranges and yellows to a more sombre colour palate, wiping away the memories of the Ponds. It's stripped it back to the bare minimum compared to his old console which was bright, spacious and full of wacky buttons and switches.

"Do you ever knock?" Kathy turns to see the rather sad figure of Eleven sitting in an armchair in the corner, wearing Amy's glasses and reading a book.

Eleven had arrived not too long ago, requiring somewhere to retreat as he mourns the loss of the Ponds. Vastra, Jenny and Strax have been trying constantly to get the "old" Doctor back by explaining weird happenings that could pique his interest. However, most of them were unimportant or mediocre, but no matter how often the Doctor told them he has retired, they keep trying. So does Kathy though she takes an entirely different approach, patience.

"If I knocked, you wouldn't let me in." Kathy remarks with slight cheek. It's funny trying to comfort and help the Doctor after the loss of the Ponds considering there's so much of them she hasn't experienced yet. It makes her feel almost guilty even though she knows it's silly to.

"I suppose you're right." The Doctor admits with a sigh.

Kathy shrugs, presenting a false carefree nature as she wanders over to the console. "If only you'd listen to me on other matters." She strokes the console, which earns her a happy hum. Kathy can feel the section she's touching warm slightly as if the TARDIS is greeting her.

"I told you. I have retired from the universe. I'm done saving it." The Doctor retorts.

"My memory serves otherwise." Kathy says, referencing her memories of interacting with future hims in the future though this Doctor doesn't know about the extra faces.

"The future can always change."

"Wouldn't that cause some paradoxes? Amy and Rory wouldn't have wanted this. They wouldn't want you to give up on the universe." Kathy argues as she strolls around the console.

"It's the universe who took them from me." The Doctor angrily retorts.

"It's also the universe who gave them to you." Kathy counters. There's a brief silence as the Doctor seems to think on her words before shaking his head and turning away. Kathy sighs before speaking again, "Do you know what the month and year is?"

"I suppose you'll tell me." The Doctor replies with a bite. When he'd initially arrived, the tone of his voice had been hurtful but Vastra had reassured her his anger is not really directed at them.

"It's June, 1890."

"And?"

"Well, I was at the Savoy, you see..." Kathy hesitates before continuing, "as I knew a certain couple, having been dropped off as an anniversary present, would need some help with a Zygon ship under the Savoy."

The Doctor's face drops at that. Kathy can almost see the memories flicker over his eyes.

"I know you've lost them as well as others but are you really going to condemn everyone else?"

"Yes." The Doctor retorts.

——

1892 AD/CE

Kathy often returns for more talks. It varies on how receptive the Doctor is.

"Ran into Jack the other day."

"How is the Time Agent?" The Doctor asks, looking almost fond as he thinks of his friend.

"Got into a fight on Ellis Island. He got shot, so did I. Wasn't the best day I've had."

——

In London in the time of Queen Victoria, there were many tales of a remarkable personage known as the Great Detective. I refer, of course, to Madame Vastra, the lizard woman of Paternoster Row and her extraordinary adventures, her friend, the unageing mysterious Katherine Davis who's often joined by two other companions who do not age, Ashildr Einarrsdottir and Carlyle Arantxasson, her beautiful assistant, Jenny Flint, and their mysterious henchman, Strax, whose countenance was too abominable to be photographed. There are also accounts of another member of the Paternoster Gang, a shadowy figure whose assistance was only sought in the direst emergencies.

Strax is putting handcuffs on a man at the end of another solved case. "Prepare for obliteration, Earthling scum."

Kathy presses her lips together as she tries not to laugh. Kathy had been thrilled when Jenny and Vastra had returned from Demon's Run with Strax in tow. She's sure future her must've been insistent about it. She frowns sorrowfully as she thinks of what her friends went (or will) go through. Losing a child like that must be heartbreaking. Kathy already knows what it's like to lose a child and hopes she'll be a comfort to Rory and Amy in the future.

"Actually, Mister Strax, if you could just take him aside for a moment, I have some officers on the way." Inspector Gregson hurriedly interrupts.

"As you wish. Humans." The Sontaran butler huffs as he drags the criminal out of the house's entrance hall that they stand in.

Jenny sighs like you would as a mother to a misbehaving child. "Sorry. He is new." She apologises to the Inspector.

"Funny looking fellow but, Turkish, is he?" The Inspector remarks as he watches Strax leave.

"Oh no, Strax is a genetically modified clone warrior from outer space." Kathy bluntly explains.

The Inspector blinks numbly. "Ah. Makes sense. Well, what a case. Identical twins, poison undetectable to science, an ancient Egyptian curse. Once more Scotland Yard is in your debt, Madame Vastra, Madame Davis. Where would we be without you?"

"Quite some distance from a clue, one imagines." Vastra remarks. Ain't that the truth.

"You might be right." The Inspector shifts uncomfortably before asking, "Does it ever hurt?"

Kathy winces at this. Oh, dear.

"Does what hurt?" Vastra asks innocently.

"Your skin condition. Always wondered."

"It's not a condition, Inspector. It's just skin." Jenny tells him.

The Inspector is doubtful. "Are you sure?"

Vastra now does the tired, irritated sigh of a parent to the Inspector. "I am, as I may have failed to mention, an intelligent reptile from an ancient civilisation long preceding mankind. Many of us slumber under the Earth's crust."

"Madame Vastra was accidentally awoken by an extension to the London Underground." Kathy adds casually.

"Well, that would account for it." The Inspector says, but Kathy knows he's lost and is just going along with it.

"I was not initially keen on the society of apes," Vastra continues to explain, "but I made the most elementary of errors. I fell in love." Vastra and Jenny gaze into each other's eyes. Kathy smiles softly at them.

"What, with the Turkish fellow?" The Inspector asks.

"No. Not with the Turkish fellow." Vastra and Jenny step closer to one another, gazing at each other.

Kathy watches as it dawns on Inspector Gregson as he begins to splutter, "Good lord. Good lord."

"Come along, my dear." Vastra offers her arm to Jenny.

Jenny accepts. "Yes, my darling." They both depart, leaving a bewildered Inspector and an amused Kathy.

"Good lord." The Inspector continues, the man looks like he's going collapse out of shock.

Kathy bursts out laughing and continues to giggle as she follows after Vastra and Jenny.

——

They continue to laugh as they journey in the carriage. Strax is outside driving it. He's been learning well after Kathy began to teach him despite him complaining about needing help from a weak weasel creature.

Jenny soon sobers as she broaches the topic. "Still no word from the Doctor, then?" Vastra and Kathy soon sober themselves.

Kathy shakes her head. "Hardly get a conversation out of him when I visit these days and he hardly ever comes down now."

"He can't sulk in his box forever." Jenny huffs.

"Heartbreak is a burden to us all. Pity the man with two." Vastra reproaches her wife softly.

Jenny nods and turns to the window next to her, lifting the curtain to view the world outside the carriage. "It's starting to snow." She observes.

Vastra looks out of the window next to her. "But it can't be." She argues.

Kathy joins them and knowingly looks up to the sky where it's all clear despite the snow.

"Well, it is nearly Christmas." Jenny counters.

"But the clouds."

"What about them?"

"There aren't any." Kathy tells her. "Winter is coming." She needed to say something ominous and she can't help herself.

——

A/N: I had to do a chapter on these guys.

Yes, one of those scenes features a future Kathy just after A Good Man Goes to War. Hints of what's to come.

The opening has Vastra meet Kathy with Ten. I haven't listened to the audio dramas or read the comics but from what I read it doesn't seem to be very clear on which Doctor Vastra meets first though she does meet Nine and Rose at one point between being woken and A Good Man Goes to War. I had Ten with Kathy as I wanted a Doctor before Eleven to meet Vastra as I wanted Vastra to have experience with the changing faces of the Doctor before Eleven's regeneration into Twelve. Ten seemed the best fit as Kathy knows him better than Nine right now. I like to think this happened at some point during the gaps between Ten's companions.

To explain Carlyle's last name, I imagine when meeting Ashildr, or soon after, Carlyle said he want a last name (last names were not a thing in England till the 11th century) and one like Ashildr's. Vikings' last names literally meant son/daughter of one of the parents (usually the father) and didn't change on marriage. Since Carlyle is much closer to his mother than his father, I think he'd choose her name and her new life name Arantxa fitted better.

And now onto The Snowmen episode.

Please leave comments on how you're enjoying this story and what you think.

#doctor who

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the-desolated-quill · 7 years

Text

A Good Man Goes To War - Doctor Who blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen A Good Man Goes To War. I remember at the time thinking it was dumb, but I had forgotten just how dumb it actually was until now. I’ve seen bad Doctor Who before. I’ve seen stupid Doctor Who before. But A Good Man Goes To War reaches new levels of bollocks I didn’t even think was possible to reach. It’s really quite astounding.

So Amy is trapped on Demon’s Run with Eye Patch Lady about to steal her child. And already we’ve hit our first problem. I’ve mentioned in the past how rubbish Moffat is at writing female characters, and this episode is where its most obvious. Eye Patch Lady is taking her baby away and all Amy does in response is throw sassy putdowns at people. Now if someone were to take away my child, I’d be in fucking hysterics. I’d be shouting and screaming and trying to put up a fight. But as I’ve said in the past, Amy isn’t a character. She’s a plot device. And Moffat writes her as such. She is pretty much nothing but a walking womb.

Meanwhile the Doctor is travelling around time and space and calling in markers in order to save Amy. And here is our second problem. Does this sound like the Doctor to you? Expecting favours from people as a repayment for helping them out in the past? Again, I find myself asking, has Steven Moffat ever actually watched Doctor Who before? The Doctor helps people because it’s the right thing to do. He doesn’t do it with the cynical expectation that they’ll return the favour at some point down the line. It’s just wildly out of character for him.

I suppose I’d be a little more comfortable with it if we actually got to know the Paternoster Gang. Find out how they met the Doctor and why they feel they owe him a favour, but we don’t. For some strange reason people really seem to like the Paternoster Gang, but for the life of me I can’t see why. They’re complete non-entities. There’s nothing remotely interesting about them. Strax is basically just the shit comic relief, diminishing any possible threat the Sontarans could have in future stories with every unfunny one liner, and we learn precisely fuck all about Madame Vastra or Jenny other than they’re gay (on a side note, why do they keep casting Neve McIntosh to play Silurians? Don’t get me wrong. She’s a good actor, but the Silurians aren’t like the Sontarans. They’re not clones).

At this point it seems appropriate to talk about LGBT representation. Specifically how rubbish Moffat is at doing it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful that Moffat is willing to put gay characters into his stories, but the way he does it is a tad dodgy to say the least. See, when you’re writing a gay character, there needs to be a lot more to them than just being gay. Russell T Davies understood that perfectly. There were a number of queer characters during his tenure as showrunner, most notably Captain Jack Harkness, and they were all written fairly well for the most part. What I especially appreciated was how their sexuality was never the primary focus. Rather it was just another aspect to their character. Look at Jack Harkness. He’s openly pansexual, but they never make a big deal out of it. It’s just casually mentioned and treated as any other character trait. Plus there’s a lot more to Jack than just being pan. He’s an outgoing adventurer. He seeks redemption for his conman days. He puts on a cheery facade to hide the dark traumas he went through during his long, immortal life. This is good LGBT representation because what it does is it normalises his sexuality. The show treats him as any other character. There’s nothing special or different about him. He’s no different from a heterosexual person. He just has different sexual preferences, and that’s fine. There’s nothing wrong or strange about that, and so the show doesn’t treat it as such. I think that’s a really good message to send to kids.

Then we come to the Moffat era. Madame Vastra and Jenny are gay. That’s their sole defining character traits. That’s not representation. That’s tokenism. Whereas the queer characters of the RTD era felt like real people, the ones in the Moffat era feel like cardboard cutouts with the word ‘gay’ written on their foreheads. And it just gets worse when those two Cleric marines show up:

“We're the Thin Fat Gay Married Anglican Marines. Why would we need names as well?”

Ugh! Okay, let me tell you precisely why I hate this line so much. It’s incredibly important, particularly in a kids show, to represent and normalise the LGBT community. My issue is this. If being gay is perfectly normal (which of course it is)... why is Moffat drawing so much attention to it? That would be like me making a big fuss about the colour of the sky. The only reason you would do that is if there’s something unusual about it, which is precisely the opposite thing you should be conveying. It’s heavily implied that the Thin Fat Gay Couple are the only ones who are gay, and that’s treated as a novelty. They’re such a novelty in fact that they don’t even have names. The reason I hate this so much is because they’re not characters in their own right. Rather they’re the equivalent of a carnival sideshow attraction with Moffat as the ringmaster inviting spectators to pay tuppence to poke the freaks in the cages. Rather than putting in the effort to write gay characters that are actually well developed and complex, he’s just using these shallow caricatures to boast about how seemingly progressive he is. He’s more bothered about winning brownie points and massaging his own ego rather than providing compelling representation for minority figures.

He treats his female characters the same way. He boasts about how strong Amy and River Song are, but they’re really not. Yes they’re seemingly independent at first glance, but they very frequently fall into the same, tired old sexist tropes we’ve seen dozens of times before and we never actually learn anything significant about them outside of their lives with the Doctor. Look at this very episode. Amy loses her baby, but she never reacts in a believable or empathetic way. She just resorts to her sassy putdowns and pointing guns at people because that’s the only way Moffat knows how to write women. In fact Amy isn’t even that independent. In a rather telling scene, the Doctor asks Rory’s permission to hug Amy as though she’s Rory’s property as opposed to the strong, independent woman she apparently is. Moffat keeps insisting he’s a feminist and yet he doesn’t see anything wrong with a woman not being able to hug another man without her husband’s permission first.

This is the biggest reason why I hate Moffat as a writer so much. It goes beyond the plot hole riddled stories, the convoluted series arcs and the bad characterisation. Moffat is a man more concerned with looking progressive rather than actually being progressive.

So anyway, the Doctor and Rory (who is dressed in his Roman gear for some stupid reason) manage to save Amy without a single drop of blood being spilt (you know, if you don’t count the Clerics that got killed by the Headless Monks during the Doctor’s deception or the millions of Cybermen that the Doctor kills just to make a point. Brief side note, why would the Cybermen know or care where Amy is? Okay their Legion monitors everything in that particular quadrant, but somehow I doubt that extends to pregnant women. Plus it’s highly unlikely the Cybermen would want to divulge any information after you’ve just blown them up).

Actually it’s a shame that the Headless Monks were wasted on this stupid series arc because I actually thought they were a pretty cool idea. The theology is well thought out and it could have potentially served as a damning criticism of organised religion (thinking from the heart as opposed to the head. I like it). Instead we get treated to more bollocks. So the Monks, Clerics, Silence and Eye Patch Lady have all teamed up to kill the Doctor because apparently he’s a very bad man. Why do they think that?

I don’t know! I’ve got no fucking idea! I mean I’m not going to pretend that the Doctor is a saint, but if you want us to believe he’s a dangerous warrior, you’re going to have to show us some actual evidence. And that’s the problem. There isn’t any. Yes the Doctor has killed, but it’s always been for the greater good. To help others who couldn’t defend themselves. He may not be perfect, but he’s a good man at heart. Unless you give me a compelling reason to believe otherwise, I’m just going to snort and roll my eyes. Obviously Moffat isn’t giving us the full story until much later, but all it does is negatively impact this one. Basically, in this episode, the only reason we’re given as to why Eye Patch Lady thinks the Doctor is evil is ‘trust me. He just is.’ Not good enough.

Also, if you want to kill the Doctor, WHY NOT JUST KILL HIM?! He’s standing right there! Don’t let him finish his monologue! Just shoot the fucker! (Also raise your hand if you saw the Flesh baby plot twist coming. If you didn’t, you’re lying).

And it just gets worse when River shows up at the end to lecture the Doctor about how he’s too violent.

Now I’ll repeat that.

River Song, the gun toting archaeologist who massacred a bunch of Silence in her last appearance and clearly enjoyed every minute of it, is chastising the Doctor for being too violent. Fuck off!

And then the moment none of us have been waiting for. Who is River Song? She’s Amy’s daughter.

Um... I mean... OOOOOOH! Well I did NOT see THAT coming! And here’s me thinking she was Rassilon’s second cousin! Silly me!

Yeah, not only was this head thuddingly obvious what with the aquatic surnames and everything, but also Moffat gave the game away right at the beginning. Melody Pond. get it? Give me fucking strength.

What’s even weirder is that the focus is all out of whack. The reveal is directed more at the Doctor than Amy and Rory (you know, her parents). But why would the Doctor care? And more to the point, why should we care? Okay, River Song is Amy and Rory’s daughter. That’s some interesting information, but that’s hardly mid-season finale material. What we really care about is who River is in relation to the Doctor. And I suspect that’s what the Doctor is more concerned with too. And while I think of it, how is the Doctor learning about River’s true parentage constitute as ‘his darkest day?’ He doesn’t seem to take the news badly or anything. In fact the opposite.

It’s all so mind-bogglingly stupid. A Good Man Goes To War represents the point where Moffat officially starts to disappear up his own arsehole, weaving a convoluted web of bullshit whilst forgetting all the ingredients that make a good story. The answers we’re provided for some of the series arc mysteries are painfully obvious, unsatisfactory and just plain daft, none of the characters act like actual people or behave in a believable way, and crucially I don’t give a shit about anything that’s happening onscreen because at no point does Moffat ever give me a reason to care. Better get used to this folks because these issues are going to become the staple of the Moffat era going forward.

#a good man goes to war #steven moffat #doctor who #eleventh doctor #matt smith #amy pond #karen gillan #rory williams #arthur darvill #river song #alex kingston #bbc #review #spoilers

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riversofmars · 4 years

Note

OR Thirteen wants to marry River - her previous self did the marrying but thirteen wants to do it herself thd proper way so travels to ask the ponds permission for their daughters hand in marriage ❤️

Thank you for a brilliant prompt! It got a little out of hand but what else is new lol. River is finally getting the wedding she deserves. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Ship: River/Thirteen

Rating: G

Word count: 4500

The Wedding of River Song

“So where are we going?“ River followed the Doctor around the TARDIS console as she was setting coordinates.

“Wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you.“ The Doctor grinned and pulled the lever to set them going.

“Well, will you at least tell me how to dress?“ River pouted crossing her arms in front of her chest. Her wife usually gave her some indication as to what sort of outfit would be suitable. Turning up to a safari in an evening gown was a mistake she intended to only make once. Today, for Valentine’s Day, however, the Doctor was being very secretive indeed.

“Don’t worry about that, got that covered as well…“ The Doctor winked and River sighed:

“Sweetie…“

“Just trust me, okay? It’s not quite time for our date yet. We need to make a quick couple of stops.“ The Doctor revealed as the TARDIS landed.

“It’s Valentine’s Day and you’re telling me you’ve got some other engagements before our date?“ River retorted trying her best not to show her annoyance too much.

“Yeah. Sort of.“ The Doctor scratched the back of her head, feeling a little nervous.

“Do you see how that doesn’t exactly thrill me?“ River raised her eyebrows with a sigh. The Doctor had never been particularly good at doing romance. She had gotten a little better since she had turned into a woman. She had, after all, made the effort to save River from the Library and reunite them in linear time but romance still wasn’t her strong suit.

“Well, yes but it’s not like you’ll be waiting in the TARDIS while I arrange things… plus, you’ll have company, don’t worry, you’ll have a good time!“ The Doctor grinned at her with excitement. She was bursting to tell her what she had planned but then, it wouldn’t be a surprise. After all this time, after everything they’d been through, she deserved something special and she was determined to give it to her. She was not about to ruined it when she had gone through so much effort to make today happen.

“Doctor…“ River groaned in annoyance, all she wanted to do was go for a candle light dinner. Was that really too much to ask?

“You trust me right.“ The Doctor stepped up to her wife and took her hands in hers.

“Unfortunately.“ River rolled her eyes.

“And you love me?“ The Doctor continued, her expression hopeful.

“I’m afraid so.“ River gave her a half-smile. She just couldn’t stay angry with her for long.

“Then do this for me, for Valantine’s, trust me that I’ve got something brilliant planned, just need to sort a few things out, okay?“ The Doctor smiled pressing a kiss to the top of her hands.

“You literally have a time machine, you could have sorted all of this out before now.“ River chuckled shaking her head at her. Why was she in love with such a chaotic idiot?

“Not really, it’s complicated, you’ll see. But there is something I need you to do as well, come on.“ The Doctor pulled her along to the door.

“You are making even less sense than usual, Sweetie.“ River huffed as she followed reluctantly. They stepped out of the TARDIS and found themselves in the front room of 13 Paternoster Row in 19th century London.

“Madame Vastra?“ River looked around confused as she spotted the mistress of the house head towards her with a smile. “Jenny?“ Vastra was accompanied by her wife and maid Jenny Flint who gave them a big smile as well. They had clearly been waiting for them.

“You’re a bit late, Doctor, we’ll have to rush to make the appointment.“ Vastra scolded but not unkindly.

“Sorry, it wasn’t easy to convince her.“ The Doctor smiled apologetically.

“Appointment. What…“ River looked from Vastra to the Doctor and back again. What was going on?

“Don’t worry, Professor, we will have a wonderful time, champagne?“ Vastra offered as Jenny went to the drinks cabinet and poured three glasses.

“Well, don’t mind if I do.“ River wasn’t one to refuse a glass of champagne but she was still confused as to what was going on. “Will someone tell me what’s going on here?“ She asked as she took the glass offered to her.

“Absolutely not.“ The Doctor grinned. “I’ll see you shortly.“ She kissed her wife’s cheek and before River could argue she skipped back into the TARDIS and threw the door shut.

“I feel like I’m missing something.“ River shook her head a little to herself as she watched the TARDIS disappear.

“Thus is the nature of surprises, Professor, but you will figure it out soon enough, I’m sure.“ Vastra smiled and took a sip of her champagne as well. “Strax, bring the carriage round, we must get going.“

——

“Is that…“ Amy stuck her head out of the kitchen. Was she imagining the wheezing and groaning noise that seemed to be coming from outside or could it be that finally, the Doctor was returning after faking his death? Rory had already walked up to the window and pushed the curtains outside to look out into the garden.

“I think it is!“ Rory looked around to her and a wide grin spread across Amy’s face.

“What are you waiting for?“ She pulled her shoes on quickly. “Come on!“ They rushed outside to find the TARDIS in their backyard.

“A whole year, Doctor…“ Amy called out when the door opened. “What…“ She lost her train of thought when she laid eyes on the blonde woman that stepped out of the blue box. Who was she? Had they been replaced?

“Ah yes, sorry, new face!“ The Doctor grinned when she realised why she was looking at her all confused. “Come here Amelia.“ Without waiting for a response she pulled Amy into a hug. “And Rory the Roman!“ She grabbed Rory by the jumper and pulled him in as well. The Ponds were too perplexed to protest.

“I… don’t understand.“ Amy looked the Doctor up and down when she pulled away. They had seen River regenerate so they knew it was very much possible, but this was a lot to take in.

“Yeah, sorry, this bit is going to be a bit complicated…“ The Doctor gave an awkward grin.

“River said you were alive, she didn’t mention you had… changed…“ Rory said trying his best to work through his shock.

“I haven’t yet, not for you, well technically… it’s complicated. You’ll see me again, the old me, about a year from now and you can’t tell him you’ve met me. Sorry. It’s just… in my time, where you are now, I can’t get to you, so I had to come to a time where I knew I wouldn’t run into myself and… I’m rambling, aren’t I, sorry, I… I’ve missed you both so much.“ The Doctor pulled them into another hug. She couldn’t put into words how much she had missed the two of them. Losing them in Manhattan had been one of the most painful experiences of her life. She knew she shouldn’t be going back in her timeline like this but she knew the Ponds wouldn’t be seeing her previous self for a while yet, the risk was relatively low. Also, there was no way she could do today without them.

“You really are… the Doctor?“ Amy grinned as the truth sank in.

“Yeah… very distant future but that doesn’t matter right now…“ The Doctor nodded.

“Have you finally, in the very distant future, realised it wasn’t very nice to keep us in the dark and waiting for so long? You better be taking us on an adventure, Doctor!“ Amy exclaimed having got over her shock. She gave her arm a playful slap.

“Yes, I am, sort of…“ The Doctor chuckled.

“Great! I’ll just grab our coats.“ Rory grinned making his way back to the house.

“But only if they’re fancy coats, you’re going to a wedding.“ The Doctor called out, stopping him in his tracks halfway down the garden path.

“Sorry, what?“ Amy didn’t know if she had heard her right and Rory came back.

“A wedding.“ The Doctor repeated. “My wedding, actually. To your daughter. She doesn’t know about it yet but… anyway, Mr Pond, how would you feel about me marrying your daughter? Again. Properly. I mean, that’s what you’re meant to do, right? According to Earth tradition, ask the father of the bride first?“ She grinned at Rory who looked back at her dumbfounded.

“I uh…“

“Okay, I’ll take that as a maybe… Amy?“ The Doctor looked to Amy hopefully who was as perplexed as her husband.

“Hang on… did you just say you want to marry River again?“ She asked, needing to confirm she was getting this right.

“Yes. Wasn’t exactly a dream wedding, was it, on top of that pyramid, in an aborted timeline and all that. River has never complained but… I did ask her a while back if she’d want to do it again, properly and she said yes, so… I mean, I didn’t exactly look my best on the day and look at me now.“ The Doctor grinned tossing her blonde hair in amusement.

“But you’re not wearing that, are you?“ Amy looked her up and down.

“What?“ The Doctor looked down herself.

“You look like you got that charming combo from a charity shop.“ Amy couldn’t help but point out.

“Well, I did.“ The Doctor retorted, she didn’t really see what was wrong with her outfit but she had anticipated this problem. “Well, I do have a suit in the TARDIS.“ She revealed. “You still haven’t said yes yet, either of you.“ She put her hands on her hips expectantly, looking back and for between her in-laws.

“Well, of course you can, you moron, let us get our Sunday best and let’s get going!“ A wide grin spread across Amy’s face. She was going to see her daughter get married!

——

“Where are we going?“ River looked out of the carriage window.

“To get you a dress of course.“ Jenny grinned with excitement.

“Well, I do have plenty of dresses, she needn’t have gone through all this trouble.“ River chuckled. “But I must admit, this is fun.“ It had been a long time since she had seen the Silurian detective and her wife, they were wonderful company.

“You haven’t got a dress like this.“ Vastra smirked and the carriage came to a halt.

“You haven’t seen the size of my wardrobe.“ River grinned but obliged and followed them out of the carriage. She nearly tripped over when her eyes fell on the shop they had stopped in front of.

“Is the penny dropping, Professor?“ Vastra laughed at the look on River’s face as they found themselves in front of a bridal store.

“You can’t be serious. She can’t be serious.“ River shook her head to herself, she couldn’t believe it. Her hearts jumped into her throat and she had to force herself to take a deep breath to calm herself. She hoped she wasn’t jumping to the wrong conclusions but how could she be?

“From what the Doctor said you have waited an awfully long time for this. Some things should be done the proper way.“ Vastra revealed confirming her assumptions. She took the professor’s hand to reassure her.

“Let’s get you a wedding dress.“ Jenny grinned and took her other hand as they walked her up to the door.

“I think I’d better, hadn’t I…“ River breathed, trying her best to keep her emotions in check.

——

“Alright, let’s get the flower arrangements done, come on people, chop chop!“ Nardole clapped his hands together.

“Who put him in charge?“ Heather mumbled and Bill laughed.

“I think it’s cause he used to work here once…“ She replied fastening the last garland of white flowers to the balustrade of the balcony.

“Just can’t get the staff these days.“ Nardole huffed carrying on with his mission to make sure everything was just right.

“Maybe that’s cause we’re not staff but the Doctor’s friends and guests?“ Clara offered ushering the next load of guests in. The guest list the Doctor had provided was quite the challenge to accomplish but what good was having a time ship if not to get your best friend’s friends together from all over time and space.

“You just see to it that you get everyone here on time.“ Nardole jabbed his finger at her making her laugh. Despite the stress of organising it all, there was a buzz of excitement in the air. Clara’s heart lifted for seeing so many familiar faces. She had seen so much of the Doctor’s past when she had been inside their time stream and she knew how important each and everyone of these people where to them.

“I think we’ve got everyone now.“ Me pointed out looking around. “A few more TARDISes wouldn’t have gone amiss though. Did we miss anyone?“ She looked to Clara who checked the guest list.

“No, I think now there is just one trip to Victorian London to do.“ She grinned. “Time to get changed!“

“This place is beautiful.“ Kate Stewart observed stepping onto the balcony accompanied by Osgood. Everyone was having a good look around before the ceremony started and the view from the balcony really was quite something.

“What is that music?“ Martha asked as she leaned onto the balustrade, marvelling at the twin towers in the distance. A mild breeze carried a melody with it leaving them in awe. The sun was just settling in the distance.

“Nobody really understands where the music comes from. It's probably something to do with the precise positions, the distance between both towers. Even the locals aren't sure.“ Everybody looked around to see the Doctor stepping out of her TARDIS. She was wearing a black tuxedo and bow tie, her expression was one of unadulterated joy as she beamed at the sight of all her friends gathered.

“Doctor!“ Bill exclaimed in excitement.

“Wow, that’s not what I expected.“ Martha was dumbfounded. Clara had told them the Doctor had changed faces but that was quite the change indeed.

“Is the tux too much?“ The Doctor asked, feeling insecure for a moment at everyone’s gaping expressions.

“No, it’s just right.“ Amy reassured her as her and Rory urged her to keep going.

“Is everybody here?“ The Doctor asked slowly as she looked around. She felt a little overwhelmed seeing everyone. So many friends that she hadn’t seen in such a long time and yet they had all wanted to come. She couldn’t express how grateful she was to all of them.

“I think we’re just waiting for the bride now.“ Tasha Lem spoke up. “How about everybody has a seat?“ She gestured to the rows of chairs to either side of the aisle.

“I best be on my way then.“ Clara grinned. “You don’t mind if we take your TARDIS, do you? Less bulky than the diner.“

“Sure, yes of course.“ The Doctor nodded with a smile as the TARDIS hummed in agreement. She couldn’t very well deny the Old Girl when River was her child in a way, too. Slowly, the Doctor walked to the front as Clara disappeared with her TARDIS. Her nerves were catching up with her now as she found herself the centre of attention. Tasha gave her an encouraging smile as the Doctor came to a halt in front of her.

“Are you quite alright, Doctor.“ She asked tilting her head a little and the Doctor forced a smile. This was a whole lot more nerve wracking than she had imagined. It had all sounded like such a great idea at the time.

“You’re not nervous are you?“ Jack teased leaning forward in his chair.

“No. I’m not nervous. Why would I be nervous. Not the first time I’m getting married, is it. This is perfectly fine, no big deal…“ The Doctor huffed trying to gather herself as she grasped her hands together in front of her to keep them still.

“Would you look at that, the Oncoming Storm, trembling in the evening breeze.“ Jack smirked.

“I’d like to see you do this.“ The Doctor shot him a glare.

“Maybe you will, one day.“ Jack laughed putting his arm around Ianto who was sitting next to him. “Or maybe you won’t, seeing as you didn’t pick me for best man…“ He feigned hurt. “Who is your best man anyway?“ He asked looking around. The Doctor was looking rather lonely standing at the front with just Tasha to officiate.

“Best lady, thank you very much.“ Missy walked along the side of the chairs towards the front checking her hair in a pocket mirror. Kate and Osgood exchanged concerned looks, Bill huffed:

“Who invited you?“

“Why, the Doctor of course.“ Missy smirked as she made her way to the front.

“Who’s that?“ Yaz asked leaning forward in her chair, sitting just behind Bill and Heather.

“That’s the Master, the Doctor’s oldest… I don’t even know what anymore…“ Bill replied. She couldn’t believe she was here and that the Doctor would actually have invited her.

“That’s not the Master…“ Graham looked on in confusion.

“Probably a younger version of the Master that you know.“ Kate explained and Ryan asked:

“What would make her invite her, she’s like her worst enemy.“

“Or oldest friend… It’s… complicated.“ Bill thought back to the time she had spent with the Doctor while he had tried to help Missy change. She couldn’t presume to understand the relationship between the Doctor and the Master. She hadn’t then and she didn’t now. But she trusted the Doctor and if she had invited her, she had done so with good reason.

“You made it.“ The Doctor stated as Missy came to a halt in front of her. She tried her best to ignore the concerned whispers amongst her friends. She had had to invite her. Things were complicated to say the least but she couldn't do this without her oldest friend. Things had gone too far with the Master she had last seen, she couldn’t forgive him, but with Missy… it had been the closest she had felt to the Master in millennia.

“Evidently.“ Missy hummed. “Well, I could hardly refuse my oldest friend.“ She looked her up and down. “You are old. Where am I in your time?“ She tilted her head, she could tell this Doctor was a whole lot older than the one she had last encountered on Skaro.

“That’s not important. I’m glad you came.“ The Doctor smiled, she didn’t want to dwell on what was yet to come for her, she just wanted to be happy for her being here.

“I wouldn’t miss the wedding of my best enemy, now, would I.“ Missy smirked as she looked at all the guest gathered on the balcony. Quite a few of them she remembered and was disappointed to find alive still. “But where is the bride?“

As if on cue, the TARDIS materialised at the far end of the aisle and the Doctor’s hearts nearly skipped their beats. The door opened and the Doctor let go the breath she was holding. It was Clara.

“No peeking, Doctor, I just need your in-laws.“ Clara grinned as she waved for the Ponds to go in while she went looking for her seat along with Vastra, Jenny and Strax.

“Clara, dear, don’t you look ravishing.“ Missy winked at Clara who turned a little pink but squared her jaw as she dropped into her seat next to Me. She wasn’t sure how she felt about the Master being here but it was the Doctor’s decision after all. The Ponds meanwhile disappeared into the TARDIS.

——

“I was gonna be cool and now I’m gonna cry.“ Rory took a deep breath, he had not been prepared for seeing his daughter in a wedding dress. They might not have been a traditional family but no matter what, she would always be his little girl, and this hit home. River was wearing a beautiful long wedding dress and her hair was pinned back with white flowers in it.

“And I thought I was going to be a mess.“ River chuckled and pulled her parents into her arms.

“Are you okay?“ Amy asked softly as they let go. She took River’s face in her hands, searching her eyes for an honest answer.

“I think so.“ River took a deep breath trying to compose herself. She couldn’t put into words how happy she was to see her parents again and how grateful she was to have them here now. It seemed as though the Doctor had put a lot of thought into planning this. The reality of it had yet to sink in. She couldn’t allow herself to think about it too much, she was worried that if she did, she would cry and ruin her make up.

“You’re not nervous are you?“ Amy chuckled.

“Where you in on all this?“ River asked, trying to wrap her head around it all.

“No, the Doctor only just picked us up! We will have to go back to our life to travel with her younger self again after this but… We wouldn’t miss this for anything in the universe.“ Amy kissed the top of her daughter’s head and gave her an encouraging smile.

“I am so glad you’re here.“ River smiled, her voice faltering just enough to betray the depth of her emotions. “So what do you think?“ She tried to play it off and took a twirl in her elegant white gown.

“Absolutely beautiful.“ Amy smiled, every inch the proud mother of the bride.

——

“Right okay, stay cool…“ The Doctor mumbled to herself taking a deep breath.

“You’ve never been cool.“ Missy teased and the Doctor groaned in annoyance:

“Fuck off, Missy…“

“Swearing now, too, Doctor? Things have changed, I’ll say.“ Missy chuckled, delighting in the Doctor’s obvious tension.

“I’m fully expecting you to have come with some evil ploy to ruin the day… but I’m still glad you came.“ The Doctor looked to Missy hoping she understood why she had asked her here.

“Well, if I hadn’t, who would have brought you these?“ Missy sighed as she pulled out a small box. She opened it to reveal two pale wedding bands.

“That’s…“ The Doctor’s eyes widened in shocked but Missy didn’t allow her to dwell on it and get overcome by emotion.

“Dark star alloy… beats whatever pathetic excuse for wedding rings you’d planned on.“ She waved dismissively. “I mean, I only met the Professor once that time in prison but I have an eye for these things… not sure yours will fit now though, you’re much smaller than I remember.“ She grabbed the Doctor’s hand to look at her fingers.

“I’m not small! Look who’s talking.“ The Doctor huffed, she was still taller than her. “Oi!“ She pulled her hand back.

“Be back in a minute.“ Missy winked and hit the button on her vortex manipulator, disappearing into thin air.

“I swear this place must be giving off the biggest concentration of space time anomalies this side of the known universe…“ Kate shook her head to herself.

“There we are.“ Missy reappeared only seconds later. “Don’t look at me like that, what’s time travel good for if you can’t even get your best friend’s wedding ring resized.“ She smirked as she checked the rings again.

“Thank you, Missy.“ The Doctor gave her a soft smile and reached out to give her hand a squeeze. She didn’t have the words to say how much this meant to her, she could only hope she knew. Missy didn’t respond at first, she didn’t seem to know what to say, perhaps, just for a moment, she was overcome with emotion herself, so she pulled something else from her pocket to move the conversation along.

“Got you this as well, you wanted to do this properly, didn’t you.“ She handed over a scarlet ceremonial scarf to Tasha. High Gallifreyan symbols were embroiled on it in golden cross-stitch.

“That’s from home.“ The Doctor realised it was the sort of scarf used to officiate weddings on Gallifrey. With the planet destroyed she hadn’t thought it possible to find one.

“Your keen observational skills amaze me.“ Missy tried her best with a sarcastic quip but she couldn’t quite deliver it under the circumstances. “Only borrowed though, who knows, maybe I’ll want to get married one day.“ She shrugged and went to check her appearance in her pocket mirror again, ensuring she wasn’t showing any undo emotions. The Doctor, in turn, swallowed her emotions as well, they both knew how much this meant to either of them, it didn’t need saying.

“Old and burrowed.“ The Doctor smiled nodding at the ceremonial scarf. “And something new.“ She pointed to the rings in her hand and then turned her attention to the TARDIS.

“And something blue.“ Missy smiled and gave the Doctor’s hand a squeeze, allowing herself one brief moment of letting her guard down.

——

“Right, I better go and sit down. Let the father of the bride do the walking.“ Amy took a deep breath. “Do not stumble and embarrass your daughter.“ She jabbed her finger at Rory who straightened his tie.

“You just had to say that, didn’t you, now I’ll be watching my feet the whole time.“ He huffed and River chuckled.

“How about you watch out for me instead, Dad, hm?“ She looped her arm around his.

“I think I can manage that.“ Rory smiled and pressed a kiss to the side of her head. The TARDIS wheezed and hummed behind them, drawing their attention to the console. There was a bouquet of exotic flowers sat on top of it.

“She’s really thought of everything, hasn’t she…“ River said softly as Amy fetched the flowers for her and handed them over. “I can’t believe she managed to do all this and keep it from me…“

“I think she’s had a lot more help than she would admit.“ Rory chuckled as Amy left the TARDIS. “Can’t pull off a Valentine’s surprise like this without accomplices.“ He smiled to his daughter who took another deep breath struggling for composure. “Ready?“ He asked.

“Ready.“ River smiled.

——

“Try not to cry, that would be so undignified.“ Missy mumbled to the Doctor but she never even took her words in. The moment River stepped out of the TARDIS, time itself seemed to grind to a halt, at least for the Doctor. The last rays of the slow Darllian sunset caught in River’s curls and the singing of the towers seemed to pick up with the light breeze. Their eyes met down the aisle and both the Doctor and River Song smiled, they didn’t need words, they both understood. An impossibly journey had brought them to this moment, surrounded by friends and family, a moment of pure joy and love that radiated through all of time and space. The Doctor thought of the towers as she listened to their enchanting melody. They’d been there for millions of years, through storms and floods and wars and... time… as she intended for her and her wife to be.

END.

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