The Adventures In Space and Time of John Watson

by Drake Brecht

The Doctor is troubled. He's just finished an adventure with John Watson, the famous nineteenth-century novelist. So how come there is also a blogger from the twenty-first with the same name and life story? Investigating this mystery, The Doctor comes-across the re-emergence of an old foe, who's going to higher extremes than ever before to erase him from existence.

1. The Story So Far

"The Adventures In Space and Time of John Watson"

Chapter I: "The Story So Far..."

Some things were meant to happen. In all of space and time, every now and again, strange and inconceivable events saved the Universe.

For example, Dr. John Watson M.D. was feeling rather sad. It had been over a year since his friend and lodger, Sherlock Holmes, had killed himself by jumping from the roof of St. Bart's Hospital. Their final case, which had become known as "The Final Problem", saw Holmes save John's life sacrificing himself in order to complete the task of assassins sent by the evil Jim Moriarty, whom had recently proven Holmes a fake. John believed that. Nothing anyone could say would convince John that what Sherlock told him before jumping was a lie. Moriarty died that day, too, in an attempt to checkmate Holmes. But Holmes simply forfeited the match, leaving only John and grieving friends.

That was 14th January 2012. Now it was 2013. And John was finally moving-on.

The Doctor was curious. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong. He had just finished an adventure with Dr. John Watson, M.D., who was lonesome after the death of his friend Sherlock Holmes. But as a Time Lord, the Doctor could see things others could not. For example, the line between fiction and reality was in constant flux, which is why he sometimes was able to interact with people anyone would call a fantasy.

But that didn't bother The Doctor. Watson's reality was simply the current state of the Universe. What was worrying - very, very worrying - was the fact that two Watsons now existed in the world. The one he had first met lived in the nineteenth century. But The Doctor knew of another, who occupied the twenty-first. Same city, same name, same situation. Repeating itself across time.

He didn't understand it. It wasn't possible. There was no way it could be possible. And yet it was happening. At the conclusion of his first adventure, eighteenth-century Watson had refused to travel with him. Together, they'd thwarted an evil scientist named "Dr. Simeon", who was being commanded by the brain of Moriarty, after he'd been resurrected by sentient snow. Watson was convinced that it could have done the same for Holmes, who'd died with him. To this end, The Doctor had rushed back to the TARDIS to investigate the mystery. Watson being active in this century, and knowing of another somewhere else in time, was mystifying and potentially very dangerous. Studying everything he knew about John Watson, he'd resigned himself to the TARDIS library to read the books of his adventures. His current book was "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes". It was a collection of the very first Sherlock Holmes stories to appear in the Strand magazine, rather than being long, self-contained novels. Lots of mini-adventures, which were linked by a strange series of events. Invisible mysteries: The Doctor's favourite kind.

All of this was about to reach its explanation, across a huge adventure The Doctor hadn't yet experienced. As he speed-read through all the pages of Watson's work, a small lamp above the door of the study lit-up. The Doctor saw it. He always saw it. But he didn't want to. Even if the matter of who could possibly be calling him did come to mind. Not that it was all that uncommon. It could be any number of people, mostly royalty or world leaders. Also River. But the main reason The Doctor would have preferred it hadn't had alerted him was because it was simply a distraction from him attempting to save the Universe from a terrible paradox of which he may not have even heard.

As it happens, there truly was some magic in the vortex that night. An impossible coincidence was about to happen and fill The Doctor with joy.

In spite of everything, he answered the phone. Rushed all-the-way to the console room to do it, but he still did it. Even when in doubt, he was ready to answer a call for help. Little did he know, but he was about to receive a call from the very man he was searching for.

"Hello?" asked The Doctor.

"Hi," began the person on the other end. "This is Doctor Watson from two-two-one-B Baker Street, something's wrong with the -"

The Doctor gave no time to reply. He hung up immediately, and began jamming the console with all his might. The past few minutes had proven to him that he and John Watson were still connected. And that lead him to a fantastic thought: he could save the day after-all...