chapter 1 what if part 1
A little thought on the bus as I came back from college - what if the doctor got on this bus with Christina on the next stop and this is what started in my head. - i dont own doctor who and the transcript is from www. chakoteya doctorwho /
I had just parted with my best friend Pabbie (Paula) at the bus interchange in Newcastle's city center and was on my way home I was having a bizarre feeling that this was the last time I was going to see her again, and unknowingly I was right. I was going over doctor who episodes in my head and feeling happy that in about 30 days season 7 would start, I read a chapter of fan-fiction I was reading on my tablet and then sat and looked out the window. I was sitting in the single seat behind the driver when this woman got on not far from home and across the road from IKEA. Strangely she looked like the woman from doctor who, but I waved it off and continued to look out the window and listen to hat was going on inside the bus.
CHRISTINA: Hello. I'm so terribly sorry. That card paying device thing. That's a Lobster card, am I right?
DRIVER: Oyster card.
CHRISTINA: Ah. Well, that's the problem, you see. I only use my Oyster when there's an R in the month.
DRIVER: It's April.
(Christina takes off her earrings.)
CHRISTINA: Diamonds. Genuine. Drive.
DRIVER: Works for me.
(Christina takes her seat. A man in a long brown coat and wearing plimsolls get on board.)
DRIVER: You're just in time, mate.
(The man swipes his card and the doors close. The bus moves off. The man sits next to Christina and offers her a piece of his chocolate egg.)
DOCTOR: Hello, I'm the Doctor. Happy Easter.
Just that made me look behind me and my eyes widened. I quickly look back out the window and wounder if I had gone mad. But no I knew it was him, behind me sat the doctor, and this was the beginning of the episode - the planet of the dead, a episode I didn't know quite well… and I was stuck here in this universe… with no way back, and if the doctor not take me then it was a life on the street or off to Cardiff or banoman road in London.
DOCTOR: The funny thing is, I don't often do Easter. I can never find it. It's always at a different time. Although I remember the original. Between you and me, what really happened was.
(Beep, beep.)
DOCTOR: Oh. Sorry, hold on to that for me. Actually, go on, have it. Finish it. It's full of sugar and I'm determined to keep these teeth.
(The Doctor produces a hand-held gizmo which has lit up.)
DOCTOR: Ah. Oh, we've got excitation. I'm picking up something very strange.
CHRISTINA: I know the feeling.
I sink in my seat and for the first time was truly scared.
DOCTOR: Rhondium particles, that's what I'm looking for. This thing detects them. Look, this should to round, that little dish there.
CHRISTINA: Right now, a way out would come in pretty handy. Can you detect me one of those?
(The West Indian couple sitting a little way behind on the other side talk.)
CARMEN: Lou, can you hear them?
LOU: Hear what, sweetheart?
CARMEN: The voices. So many voices calling to us. Calling so far.
DOCTOR: Ah, the little dish is going round.
CHRISTINA: Fascinating.
DOCTOR: And round. Whoa.
(Fritz!)
(The blonde woman in front brushes the sparks off her hair.)
ANGELA: Excuse me. Do you mind?
DOCTOR: Sorry. That was my little dish.
CHRISTINA: Can't you turn that thing off?
DOCTOR: What was your name?
CHRISTINA: Christina.
DOCTOR: Christina, hold on tight. Everyone, hold on!
(There is a sudden jolt and everyone is thrown around.)
CARMEN: Oh, the voices. The voices. They're screaming.
(Windows break and sparks fly.)
NATHAN: (young white man) What's going on?
(A bright light floods the bus then more jolting.)
I slide of my seat and into the little space it had for your feat to freely go. I curled up tightly and or the first time was glad to be 4f.9i.
(The bus has stopped. Golden light shines in. The Doctor goes outside, followed by Christina.)
DOCTOR: End of the line. Call it a hunch, but I think we've gone a little bit further than Brixton.
I stay in the bus still curled up in my little space too frightened to uncurl. But I knew the doctor would ask if I'm ok… he was just that kind of person. But I do turn my head to watch from the inside. And if he doesn't come to see me first I'm sure my curiosity I'll win.
LOU: We should get out. Even if that's the Sahara, we can't stay on board this thing.
CARMEN: I'm not going out there. They're still calling. All around us. The voices are crying.
LOU: What voices, sweetheart?
CARMEN: The dead. We're surrounded by the dead.
ANGELA: It's impossible. There are three suns. Three of them.
BARCLAY: (a young black man) Like when all those planets were up in the sky.
NATHAN: But it was Earth that moved back then, wasn't it?
BARCLAY: Oh, man, we're on another world.
DRIVER: It's still intact, though. Not as bad as it looks, and the chassis's still holding together. My boss is going to murder me.
ANGELA: Can you still drive it?
DRIVER: Oh no, no, no. The wheels are stuck. Look at them, they're never going to budge.
I take my winter coat off thankful that I have a thin blouse under my cardigan not that my snow boots I'll help. I sigh and walk outside to see the doctor examining the sand I carefully walk over to him.
(Christina gets a pair of sunglasses from her rucksack.)
CHRISTINA: Ready for every emergency.
(The Doctor sonics his spectacle lenses black and examines the sand grains.)
DOCTOR: Me too.
CHRISTINA: And what's your name?
DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor.
CHRISTINA: Name, not rank.
DOCTOR: The Doctor.
CHRISTINA: Surname?
DOCTOR: The Doctor. - I almost want to but in and tell her its just the doctor but refrain so that he's doesn't start asking me questions.
CHRISTINA: You're called the Doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes, I am.
CHRISTINA: That's not a name. That's a psychological condition.
DOCTOR: Funny sort of sand, this. There's a trace of something else. (he tastes it) Glah. Not good. - I make a face at that.
CHRISTINA: Well, it wouldn't be. It's sand.
DOCTOR: No, it tastes like. Never mind.
CHRISTINA: What is it? What's wrong?
BARCLAY: Hold on a minute. I saw you, mate. You had that thing, that machine. Did you make this happen?
DOCTOR: Oh, humans on buses, always blaming me. Look, look, if you must know, I was tracking a hole in the fabric of reality. Call it a hobby. But it was a tiny little hole. No danger to anyone. Suddenly it gets big, and we drive right through it.
DRIVER: But then where is it? There's nothing. There's just sand.
DOCTOR: All right. You want proof? We drove through this.
(He throws a handful of sand into the air and a wibbly thing appears both there and -)
CHRISTINA: And that's?
DOCTOR: A door. A door in space.
DRIVER: So what you're saying is, on the other side of that is home? We can get to London through there?
DOCTOR: The bus came through, but we can't.
DRIVER: Well then, what are we waiting for?
(The driver runs towards the wibbly thing.)
"No!Don't!" I shout just as the doctor shouts -
DOCTOR: No, no, don't.
DRIVER: I'm going home, mate!
"He said don't" I shout at the same time as him.
DOCTOR: I said don't.
(The driver enters the wibbly thing and screams. We see him burn briefly and his smoking bones totter out of the tunnel before collapsing.)
BARCLAY: He was a skeleton, man. He was bones. Just bones.
I was shaken, so shaken intact that I run back into the bus and only briefly do I see the doctors worried gaze on look at me.
DOCTOR: It was the bus. Look at the damage. That was the bus protecting us. Great big box of metal.
CHRISTINA: Rather like a Faraday cage?
NATHAN: Like in a thunderstorm, yeah? Safest place is inside a car, because the metal conducts the lightning right through. We did it in school.
CHRISTINA: But if we can only travel back inside the bus? A Faraday cage needs to be closed. That thing's been ripped wide open.
DOCTOR: Well, slightly different dynamics with a wormhole. There's enough metal to make it work, I think. I hope.
CHRISTINA: Then we have to drive five tons of bus, which is currently buried in the sand, and we've got nothing but our bare hands. Correct?
DOCTOR: I'd say nine and a half tons, but the point still stands, yes.
CHRISTINA: Then we need to apply ourselves to the problem with discipline. Which starts with appointing a leader.
DOCTOR: Yes. At last. Thank you. So.
CHRISTINA: Well, thank goodness you've got me. Everyone do exactly as I say. Inside the bus immediately.
NATHAN: Is it safe in there?
CHRISTINA: I don't think anything's safe any more, but if it's a choice between baking in there or roasting out here, I'd say baking is slower. Come on. All of you. Right now. And you. The Doctor.
DOCTOR: Yes, ma'am.
CHRISTINA: (to Barclay) Up. Come on.
I'm sitting with my legs drawn to my chest when they all walk back on, I feel the doctors worried gaze back on me but I dont look up.
CHRISTINA: Point five. The crucial thing is, do not panic. Quite apart from anything else, the smell of sweat inside this thing is reaching atrocious levels. We don't need to add any more. Point six. Team identification. Names. I'm Christina. This man is apparently the Doctor.
DOCTOR: Hello.
CHRISTINA: And you?
NATHAN: Nathan.
BARCLAY: I'm Barclay.
ANGELA: Angela. Angela Whittaker.
LOU: My name's Louis. Everyone calls me Lou. And this is Carmen.
I hear her stop speaking and look up to see her looking at me "oh, er I'm Alexandra Sasha Holland but please call me Sasha." I told them meekly and go back to looking at my feet.
CHRISTINA: Excellent. Memorise those names. There might be a test. Point seven. Assessment and application of knowledge. Over to you, the Doctor.
DOCTOR: I thought you were in charge.
CHRISTINA: I am. And a good leader utilises her strength. You seem to be the brainbox. So, start boxing.
DOCTOR: Right. So, the wormhole. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was just an accident.
CARMEN: No, it wasn't. That thing, the doorway? Someone made it for a reason.
DOCTOR: How do you know?
LOU: She's got a gift. Ever since she was a little girl, she can just tell things. We do the lottery twice a week.
CHRISTINA: You don't look like millionaires.
LOU: No, but we win ten pounds. Every week, twice a week, ten pounds. Don't tell me that's not a gift.
DOCTOR: Tell me, Carmen. How many fingers am I holding up?
(He has his hand behind his back.)
CARMEN: Three.
(He changes it.)
CARMEN: Four.
DOCTOR: Very good. Low level psychic ability, exacerbated by an alien sun. What can you see, Carmen? Tell me, what's out there?
CARMEN: Something, something is coming. Riding on the wind, and shining.
DOCTOR: What is it?
CARMEN: Death. Death is coming.
ANGELA: We're going to die.
BARCLAY: I knew it, man. I said so.
NATHAN: We can't die out here. No one's going to find us.
CHRISTINA: This isn't exactly helping.
BARCLAY: You can shut up too. We're not your soldiers.
CHRISTINA: That's not doing any good.
LOU: Quiet.
NATHAN: Will we be bones, like the bus driver?
CHRISTINA: Stop whimpering, all of you.
DOCTOR: All right now, stop it. Everyone, stop it! Angela, look at me. Angela? Angela? Answer me one question, Angela. That's it. At me, at me. There we go. Angela, just answer me one thing. When you got on this bus, where were you going?
ANGELA: Doesn't matter now, does it?
DOCTOR: Answer the question.
ANGELA: Just home.
DOCTOR: And what's home?
ANGELA: Me and Mike. And Suzanne. That's my daughter. She's eighteen.
DOCTOR: Suzanne. Good. What about you?
BARCLAY: Don't know. Going round Tina's.
DOCTOR: Who's Tina? Your girlfriend?
BARCLAY: Not yet.
DOCTOR: Good boy. What about you, Nathan?
NATHAN: Bit strapped for cash. I lost my job last week. I was going to stay in and watch TV.
DOCTOR: Brilliant. And you two?
LOU: I was going to cook.
CARMEN: It's his turn tonight. Then I clear up.
DOCTOR: What's for tea?
LOU: Chops. Nice couple of chops and gravy. Nothing special.
DOCTOR: Oh, that's special, Lou. That is so special. Chops and gravy, mmm. What about you, Christina?
CHRISTINA: I was going so far away.
By now I was looking at him when he looked at me. "Home, to me mom and dad and the annoying little brother and my cat baghira." I told him close to tears.
DOCTOR:home, Far away. Chops and gravy. Watching TV. Mike and Suzanne and poor old Tina.
BARCLAY: Hey.
DOCTOR: Just think of them. Because that planet out there, all three suns, wormholes and alien sand, that planet is nothing. You hear me? Nothing, compared to all those things waiting for you. Food and home and people. Hold on to that, because we're going to get there. I promise. I'm going to get you home.
Some of them started to help try and dislodge the tires when I caught up with the doctor before he became too busy. "Doctor, there's something I need to tell you?"
"Oh? What is it? He asked entreaged
"Your not going to be able to get me back home you know." I told him truthfully. His eyes softened "course I am" he told me.
"No your not," I shook my head "I'm not from brixton you know. You won't be able to…" I took a deep breath and continued "you won't be able to because I'm not from this universe" I told him. His eyes widened
"Ho… how do you know that?" He asked.
"Because your here, and in my world… your just a TV show that's getting its 50th anniversary this November." I told him and he gaped at me. He then collected himself and hugged me tightly. "We'll talk about this when this is finished ok?" He asks me and I just nod into his shoulder as I hug him back. We let go of each other and with a smile get back to wok… well he does… I go and sit on the step of the bus.
will continue soon but i don't know if i should continue into the 11th doctor or no...
sashaxh XXXX