"Doctor," Amy Pond was saying as he emerged from the bowels of the centre console.
He tried to mumble a response, but the sonic screwdriver wedged between his teeth made it somewhat difficult. Frowning, he took it out and said, "Yes, Amy?"
"I was thinking, you know, I mean, it's all pretty cool."
Reilly pulled himself up, wandering around the console, checking readouts and adjusting controls as he said "What is?"
"This," she said, throwing a hand around the cavernous TARDIS control room, "you, the TARDIS, time and space and Daleks and all that stuff. Terrifying, but still pretty cool."
The Doctor grinned at her. "Told you."
"But," she said, and his face froze, "I was wondering if maybe we could go somewhere a little closer to home?"
"What, like Mars?"
Amy cocked an eyebrow.
"Aberdeen? Croydon? Give me a hint here, Amy."
Amy smiled. "How about New York?"
The Doctor's face lit up. "Wonderful! New York City. I tell you what, I love New York. All New Yorks. Last time I went to the real, there was a bit of an issue... but still, Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, the Brooklyn bridge, Central Park. Manhattan Island. It's all pretty fantastic."
He lunged towards a lever, pulling it down.
"Wait!" Amy cried, laughing. "I meant, like, sixties New York, you know. Not now New York. Although I would like to see now New York."
"New York City, in the swinging sixties. I've always meant to go. Never got around to it." The Doctor said with a whoop. "Aw, brilliant!"
As he whirled around the console, Amy clung on tight; the TARDIS began to shake, rocking back and forth. Sparks flew from the console as the entire room bounced this way and that. The time rotor began to pulse up and down, and the constant thrum of the engines began to fluctuate in pitch as they hurled the ship through time and space.
Finally, the rocking stopped, the time rotor slowed and finally stopped, and the throbbing of the engines began to subside.
The Doctor checked the swivel screen mounted to the console, and groaned slightly. "Well, right city. Wrong decade, I'm afraid. February twenty first, 2010. Sorry, I seem to have given you now New York after all. Shall I try again?"
But Amy was already grinning. "Time and space machine, Doctor. I shouldn't have to be reminding you that. We can go to the sixties later."
She bounded towards the TARDIS doors, swinging them open, then came to a dead stop, mouth hanging open. The Doctor followed her out, looking around for what had shocked her so. They appeared to have come to a rest on a rooftop, somewhere in midtown Manhattan; in the distance, he could make out the green expanse of Central Park, and he could see the Empire State Building. Running his eyes across the skyline, he began to identify the towers...
His jaw dropped.
"Are you sure this is 2010?" Amy asked, her voice faltering.
The Doctor just blinked slowly, running a hand through his hair. "Positive. I mean, it has to be. I've had issues before, but not during a simple trip like this. On a trip like this... the scanner might be out by a few picoseconds, but nothing like this. Not whole decades."
There, reaching before them into the cloudless heavens, were two identical, enormous white skyscrapers, one of them topped by a spindly communications spire. The twin towers of New York City; the World Trade Centre.
His hearts ticking into overdrive, his mind racing, the Doctor said slowly: "Oh, this isn't right."
