Chapter 1 - Landings
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, nor will I ever. But I can dream.
It's an easily accepted fact that sometime, somewhere, someone in the universe is having a crisis. Some of these crises are, in honesty, quite small and may result in burned toast or angry letters sent to newspaper editors. Occasionally burned toast can result in a larger catastrophe, but more often than not crises of universe-disturbing proportions are triggered by far more persistently unpleasant phenomena like supernovae or Dalek invasion forces.
A disproportionate amount of both kinds of crises tend to occur in the presence of a certain blue police box (causing the toast kind to be greatly preferred, but no less likely).
But despite the number of incarnations of the particularly troublesome Time Lord the TARDIS had housed, and consequently how many there were running amok throughout the universe at any given time, the Doctor had never once before been in what was best dubbed "simultaneous supernova-level crisis mode".
Which was why she knew that something was very, very wrong.
- 1 -
"I can't find my shoes," Ian Chesterton muttered, wandering into the TARDIS console room indeed lacking the aforementioned footwear. Clad only in grey socks, he wiggled his toes slightly, tapping them on the metallic floor.
"Hm?" the First Doctor asked, hardly looking up from the control panel, where he was analysing something that looked terribly important, but quite possibly wasn't.
"I said I can't find my shoes. Or my bedroom for that matter."
Susan gave a laugh from across the room. "She's probably hidden them!"
"She?"
"The TARDIS!"
"Right, right, of course," Ian said, looking confused.
"Can't you ask her to give them back?" Barbara added absentmindedly, entering the room herself. She had a stack of books in her hands, the top one open (and providing the current distraction).
"But why would the TARDIS want to hide my bedroom in the first place? I haven't made her angry, have I?"
"Nonsense, I'm sure she's just trying to get my attention," One said.
"Your attention?" Ian asked, looking a bit perturbed as to why no one else was taking interest in his predicament and consequential shoeless state.
"Well she's not about to hide my bedroom, hm?"
It occurred to Ian that he had not, in fact, noticed the Doctor going to sleep. Not often, at least. Another thing to get used to about this whole situation, he supposed.
"Well what does she want? I, for one, would like my shoes."
There was a sudden jolt as the console room seemed to leap upwards in the air for a moment, scattering books and people alike, then return to its normal position.
"Grandfather," Susan said cautiously as Ian lifted himself from the floor and Barbara regained her balance, "Grandfather, what if she's trying to warn us?"
"Warn us? What of?" Barbara asked.
One turned back to the console, looked at it for a moment, tapping his fingers in thought. He narrowed his eyes in concentration. "I'm not entirely sure, my dear, but there's one thing that comes to mind."
"What's that?"
"We appear to have landed somewhere."
- 2 -
"Ninety-eight... ninety-nine... one hundred! Goodness, you've done it!" Two laughed, applauding. "See Zoe, I thought he was right!"
She shrugged, masking a smile as Jamie fell into a heap on the floor. The young Scot had been lifting himself - and maintaining elevation - off the floor with his hands as a challenge after she'd expressed some doubt as to his claims about his arm strength.
"Alright, alright. Yes Jamie, I suppose you're stronger than you look,"
"Is that supposed tae be an insult?" he moaned from the floor, rubbing his arms.
"Not at all," she said coolly. "Just an observation."
"Well in that case it's a very good one," the Doctor laughed. "Bravo, Jamie, bravo."
"I don't suppose we're headed anywhere more exciting?" Zoe asked, clearly not as entertained as the others were by the fact that they had resorted to daring each other over feats of strength when they could be out exploring the universe.
Two chuckled. "Not in particular. Is there someplace you're thinking of?"
Zoe was about to answer when the TARDIS was rocked with a sharp, jolting movement. As soon as everything was settled, there was a distinct lack of motion.
"Have we stopped?" she said instead.
"Looks like the TARDIS might'a chosen for you!" Jamie said, still lying down.
"Oh, do get up," she replied, glancing towards to Doctor for an answer. "Shall we have a look?"
"I don't see why not! Coming, Jamie?"
"Jus' gimme a momen'..."
- 3 -
"Is something wrong?" Three asked, looking across the room to where Sarah Jane sat, staring off absent-mindedly.
"Oh?" she said. "No, not at all. Just thinking."
"About what, dear girl?"
"Well, you know... traveling... it's all been wonderful. Just very very busy."
The Doctor chuckled. "Busy's not a bad word, if occasionally a bit of an understatement. Wouldn't you agree?"
"Oh certainly! On both counts."
"Would you go so far as to say it's a good one?"
She grinned. "Yes."
They remained in silence for a moment, and she was just about to speak again when there was a sudden crashing, clunking noise and everything in the console room shifted a bit to the left, then a bit to the right, and back to center.
"What was that?" she asked, getting to her feet.
"If I were to venture a guess, I'd say it might be something a bit busy. What do you say we check and see?"
"Sounds good to me!"
- 4 -
"Incompatible?" Four said, glancing at the data sheet in his hands. "How can it be incompatible?"
"Let me see, " Romana asked, tossing some blonde hair over her shoulder as she leaned over the Doctor's own.
"There's nothing to see, it's just-"
"-look, you've forgotten the carry the ϕ," she said.
"What ϕ?" he asked.
"Well that's the problem! The ϕ that's supposed to be over the ϐ. Honestly, didn't you pay attention in Temporal Instability Manipulation 101?"
"No, I just called it 'TIM'." The Doctor smiled, then shook his head. "But that's irrelevant, there's no ϕ that's supposed to go there."
Romana pushed past him, looking instead at the data screen. "Watch, the simulation will run perfectly if you just... there!"
As she pressed the screen, the TARDIS shook as if by some unknown force.
"Now look what you've done!" Four said, dashing to the controls. "That just caused the TARDIS to shake as if by some unknown force!"
"Nonsense," Romana huffed. "That's hardly a result of my editing." She glanced at the console. "We've landed!" she added, surprised.
"But where?" Four asked, grinning once again.
- 5 -
"Go fish," Nyssa said, looking pointedly at Adric.
"Go what?" he asked, confused.
"Fish."
"Why?"
"Just take a card from the middle," Tegan sighed, glancing over her shoulder at Five, who was reading a book.
"What's that got to do with fish?"
"Nothing," Nyssa said.
"Well that's odd," Adric said, obeying and taking a card all the same.
"I believe it's because the cards in the center are referred to as the pool," Five added absentmindedly.
Before more questions could ensue, there was a huge shaking movement. The five looked at each other, before noticing the lack of movement on the console.
"We landed?" Tegan asked, confused. "What's with that?"
"No idea," the Doctor replied. "Let's go have a look."
- 6 -
"And those, in short, are the basic tenants of temporal physics," Six said with finality, crossing his arms. Peri stared at him blankly.
"Real clear, Doctor," she said finally, trying to remember what had even spurred this topic of conversation.
"Well I'm glad you... was that sarcasm, young lady?"
"No."
"Of all the..." Six went to cross his arms again, realized they hadn't yet moved, and simply gave a confused huff.
"Are we nearly... wherever we're planning on going?" Peri asked, wishing for the millionth time that the TARDIS had windows. She wondered if that was possibly, it being so weird on the inside compared to the outside. She'd have asked the Doctor, but he'd probably just lauch into a long-winded lecture on dimensionally transcendental travel laws and her question would remain unanswered.
"If you mean the intended destination of 1920's New York... we must be. Can't take that long from our previous position... I wonder," he said, dashing to the console.
"We're still moving!" Peri pointed out, only to have a sudden jolt appear to cut whatever engines the TARDIS might be running. Did living ships still have engines? "Okay, not anymore, but my point stood at the time."
Six stared at the scanner as if it has personally affronted him. Whatever was outside was certainly not what he'd expected.
"We're heading outside now, Peri. Do try to keep up."
She rolled her eyes. Whatever was going on, it didn't make much more sense than the lecture earlier. Just a usual day then.
"I said, try to keep up!"
- 7 -
"Professor?" Ace asked, poking her head into the console room.
Seven was standing near the controls, absentmindedly tapping a dial. "Yes, Ace?"
"Where're we headed next?"
"I was thinking perhaps we'd let the TARDIS decide this time."
Ace got a sheepish look on her face, then slipped away before the Doctor could catch it. She wasn't entirely convinced he hadn't.
As she wandered back down the hallway, she muttered to herself. "I hope wherever it is they have duct tape..." Glancing behind her, she surreptitiously dashed into a side closet, shutting the door behind her.
Once inside she pulled the object she'd been hiding under her jacket into the light. Well, lack of light, for the time being.
Carefully, for fear of damaging it further, she felt around the jagged edge where she'd snapped it. Not long ago, she'd swiped some of the Professor's little chemistry doohickeys - at least she assumed they were the Professor's, but it was always possible someone else had left things lying around the TARDIS - from a storeroom to experiment with. She admitted that she actually had no idea what the tool she'd broken was supposed to do, which was why she hoped to fix it quickly... and quietly.
Suddenly, there was a terrible jerk and she found herself banging against the door of the closet, which popped open and unceremoniously dropped her onto the hallway floor, several brooms, mops, and assorted buckets raining down on her.
Seven's head appeared in the entrance to the all almost immediately, having clearly heard the crash.
"Are you hurt?" he asked, dashing over to her position on the floor and helping her up.
"No," she moaned. "What was that?"
"Some sort of a temporal disturbance, I haven't yet - oh! Look, it's my hypo-spangulator!" he said, picking up the broken tool Ace had been hoping to repair earlier. "Shame, looks like the impact snapped it. I've been looking for it everywhere. No loss - it'll be fixed up in no time!" He suddenly got a strange look on his face. "Ace, what were you doing in there?"
"Shouldn't we check on that disturbance, Professor?"
"Right, right! Outside, then. No time to snooze!"
- 8 -
Samantha Jones was not having a very good morning. She'd awoken earlier than intended to a terrible low noise that consisted of buzzing and squealing inexplicably layered on each other.
She'd discovered only shortly after that it was the TARDIS's equivalent of a smoke alarm.
Not long after, she'd grumpily stumbled into the room the noise seemed to be coming from, only to see the Doctor holding what appeared to be a futuristic fire-extinguisher.
"Doctor, just because you don't need to sleep..."
"I was only making toast!" Eight had said. "The artron energy must have-"
"-At this hour?"
"What hour?" he'd asked, confused. The subsequent haphazard lecture on the mysterious nature of time travel and its effects on breakfast had also not been what she'd wanted. Nor was the necessary cleanup of the mysterious charred spots in the sink and on the counter. Not to mention there was no breakfast yet to speak of, as the aforementioned toast was unceremoniously burned to a crisp.
Sam shook her head and sighed sleepily, now leaning against the wall in the kitchen - sometimes the Doctor was capable of cooking a five-course dinner with a whisk and a frying pan, sometimes he couldn't heat up bread. Just another mystery she'd never understand.
There was a sudden jolt and the floor felt as if it had fallen out from under her. As soon as it had stopped, she gave Eight an accusatory glance as if to ask "What now?". He returned the glance, grinning, and dashed from the kitchen, coattails flying.
Sam groaned and pushed herself off the ground, supposing she should follow him.
As she entered the massive expanse of the console room, she noted two things. Firstly, the Doctor was hopping from from control to control to diagnostic... thing... with a bit more concern than usual, and second, the center of the console had ceased moving up and down.
"We've landed?" she asked.
"Apparently."
"Where?"
"Haven't the faintest."
She stood in silence for a moment. "I guess this means I should get dressed, doesn't it?"
"A wise idea."
- 9 -
"And that," said Jack Harkness, laying a Queen and King card on the TARDIS floor, "means I win. Three games in a row!"
The Ninth Doctor groaned as Rose leaned over to examine the ace, Jack, and ten lying in the center.
"A royal flush, " he said. "I should've known."
Jack grinned, leaning back against the wall with his hands behind his head. "You're looking a bit royally flushed yourself, Doctor. What're we up to now, best 4 out of 7?"
"I think I'm done," Rose said, tossing her cards down in the center. They were a far less fortunate eight and nine. The Doctor followed suit, tossing in a six and two.
"Why'd you stay in on that hand, Doc?" Jack smirked, cleaning up the pile.
"I was distracted," he muttered, glancing back at the nearby TARDIS console.
"Distracted?" Rose asked as Jack continued to chuckle.
"Something's not right."
"Is it ever?" Jack asked, moving on to shuffling the cards and shoving them back in the box.
"Careful with those!" Nine admonished. "Picked them up in 19th century France."
Jack glanced down. "Really?"
"Paris. Look, now you've bent one," Nine muttered.
"Sheesh, calm down. Something got you on edge? Don't worry Doc, you'll always have Paris."
Nine rolled his eyes, then got up. Though he hadn't admitted it directly, he did have a strange feeling of apprehension. Things were not as they should be.
"I think we're landing," he said, confused.
"Landing?" Rose asked.
The sudden lurch the time machine gave confirmed his suspicions as the three travelers were flung backwards into the railing behind them. The not yet closed card box scattered its contents across the floor again.
As soon as the shaking stopped, they got to their feet again. Jack looked at the mess, amused.
"Fifty-two pick-up?" he said, raising an eyebrow. His humor was lost on the other two, racing towards the door.
"C'mon!" Rose called. "Let's get a look outside!"
Jack shrugged, grabbing his coat off the railing. Time to see what was up, then.
- 10 -
"So what's this one, then?" Martha asked, pulling another book from the stack she'd accumulated. Ten was lazily spinning back and forth in the chair by the console, explaining to her what some of the books she'd snatched from the TARDIS library were about - if he felt at liberty to. Thus far "History of the 22nd Century" and a suspiciously cheesy looking novel with a title in Gallifreyan had been rejected.
"That?" he said, leaning forward. "Oooh, that's a bit your speed. Medicine."
"Seriously?" she asked, popping it open. There was a diagram of indecipherable squiggles and blobs and what appeared to be five eyeballs.
"Well," he said, "not human medicine."
"Any advice on Time Lords in here, then?" she asked, skimming through the pages. "Might come in handy with the state you've been getting yourself into lately."
Ten's face fell. "No, not in there. Probably not many places anymore."
She looked up. "Oh, God, I'm sorry, I didn't... I just thought..."
His face perked up again, quickly masking any other emotions. "No no no no, good train of thought, good good good, caution is good. Just don't take me to a hospital and you should be good all around. I hate hospitals."
"You know, I think you've mentioned that..."
"Have I?" he grinned. "What a surprise."
"Y'know, for a doctor, that's a bit of a quirk."
"I'll leave the hospital bits to you, Dr. Jones."
Martha was about to retort with an appropriate response, but the sudden movement of the console jerked her feet out from under her. Next thing she knew, she was on the ground, as were the books she'd been holding.
"What was that?" she spluttered instead.
"I don't know..." Ten murmured, leaping up to glance at the screen in front of him. "What do you say we find out?"
"Fine by me!"
- 11 -
"We are not playing Monopoly!"
"Amy..." Eleven pleaded. "I found the racecar this time!"
"The last time we played a board game you accused it of hating you."
"RISK doesn't understand history - it wanted me to invade Russia and that never works. Really, Y'know this one time... hang on, what about Cluedo?"
There was a sudden clunking noise and the TARDIS seemed to leap in midair. But Eleven found the conversation at hand more important.
"Or even cards, I've always rather liked cards..."
"Has anyone noticed the TARDIS has stopped moving?" Rory called from the other side of the console room. That grabbed the Doctor's attention.
"Really? Oh, landing, I like landing, much better than boring old cards anyway. Except that one game I played with Louis the Fourteenth and he was a dirty cheater. Shall we check it out?"
"The cards?" Amy asked, confused.
"No, the landing. Got to be something special, old girl doesn't often stop for no reason like that."
A/N: Hello everyone! Welcome to my personal tribute for the 50th anniversary. I realize that, depending on where you live, it may actually be tomorrow (wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey zones and all...), but as of this chapter's uploading it is October 4th, 50 days to the anniversary.
First things first - I want this fic to be able to be enjoyed by all in the fandom, so if there's every anything anyone (especially new series fans, I think) doesn't understand, just ask me! Shoot me a PM or ask in a review or something. On the flip side - the Whoniverse is massive, and I'll admit I'm far from comprehensive with certain Doctors in particular. If any of you notice a discrepancy or error, do tell me. It just wouldn't be a tribute if it's wrong in some way.
That said, here's some info on our Doctors and companions that should help a bit. Episodes and personnel both, to give you an idea of what they'll personally have experienced at this point.
One, Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton, and Barbara Wright: somewhere between "The Aztecs" and "The Sensorites" (Season 1)
Two, JamieMcCrimmon, and Zoe Heriot: between "The Invasion" and "The Krotons" (Season 6)
Three and Sarah Jane Smith: traveling between "Death to the Daleks" and "The Monster of Peladon" (Season 11)
Four, Romana II, and K-9 Mark II: between "The Creature from the Pit" and "Nightmare of Eden" (Season 17)
Five, Nyssa, Adric, and Tegan Jovanka: between "Black Orchid" and "Earthshock" (Season 19)
Six and Perpugilliam "Peri" Brown: between "Timeslash" and "Revalation of the Daleks" (Season 22)
Seven and Dorothy "Ace" McShane: sometime after "Survival" (obviously before "The Enemy Within" which, yes, I will refer to as such because Eight deserves a good episode name for his only televised adventure) (post-Classic series cancellation)
Eight and Samantha "Sam" Jones: ...chosen because she's early enough in Eight's run that there are slightly fewer paradoxes. I'm not sure about when. Probably sometime after "Seeing I", but maybe a bit further. For anyone who doesn't know, Sam is a companion from the Eighth Doctor Adventures novels, as Eight's stories are practically all off-screen. I went with the books as opposed to the audios as it's possible they could occur in the same continuity, but "The Eight Doctors" most certainly kicks off first.
Nine, Rose Tyler, and Jack Harkness: between "Boom Town" and "Bad Wolf" (Series 1 - and note, this means Jack is not yet immortal. Important, that.)
Ten and Martha Jones: between "Family of Blood" and "Blink" (Series 3)
Eleven, Amy Pond, and Rory Williams: between "The Curse of the Black Spot" and "The Doctor's Wife" (Series 6)
Also, I want to extend personal thanks to everyone that's already heard me ranting about plotting this monster - Olive and Silver (as I know them) get some credit already for their suggestions this chapter.
Hope to see the rest of you all on this journey as well!