FOREWORD
My nom de plume didn't come from a vacuum. I took my name from Professor Bernard Quatermass, the main character of a trilogy of groundbreaking science fiction TV serials from the 50s, along with a fourth from the 70s (which is non-canon as far as this work is concerned, despite taking place earlier). Without Quatermass, we may not have had Doctor Who, amongst so many other shows. The creator of Quatermass, Nigel Kneale, however, held so many other later science fiction shows in contempt that one wonders if he had sour grapes.
Quatermass is mentioned more than a few times in Doctor Who. 'Bernard' and the British Rocket Group are mentioned in Remembrance of the Daleks, while eccentric UNIT scientist Malcolm Taylor calls a unit of measurement a 'Bernard' after Quatermass in Planet of the Dead. He also appears in spinoff media, and it was a brief mention in the novel Beautiful Chaos that helped spark this story.
As with my other Doctor Who stories so far, I'm choosing to use a classic Doctor, this time the Third. This will also be the first ever Quatermass crossover on this website, as far as I can tell. I've decided to set it after the events of The Green Death.
Anyway, now for the disclaimers. Firstly, there will be spoilers for both Quatermass and Doctor Who, especially for Doctor Who: The Green Death.
Secondly, I do tend to do heavy annotations. I don't want to hear any bellyaching.
Finally, the following is a fan-written work. Doctor Who and Quatermass are the properties of their respective owners. Please support the official release. Otherwise, the Ammonids will take you over…
QUATERMASS AND THE DOCTOR
The traditional gentleman's club that the man was currently residing in was a fairly exclusive one, linked obliquely to the Royal Society. It had been founded partly by Isaac Newton, more as a place for the cantankerous scientist and his cronies to try and plot the downfall of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and his version of calculus. Leibniz did fall, but not his version of calculus, which was used to this very day(1).
The walls were panelled in beautiful, dark wood, portraits gazing sternly down at those who dared to use their club. Many scientists of an illustrious kind haunted this club's halls and rooms. Of them, there was one whose star had once shone brightly, only to recede into relative obscurity. Not that this was particularly rare in this club, but still, it is he whom this story focuses on.
The man sitting in an armchair reading had a warm face, a somewhat large nose and a moustache. He was dressed rather unremarkably, at least for a club like this, dressed well but not enough to draw notice. He was perhaps in his sixties by now, and long and dark experience was etched into the lines of his face(2). His name was Professor Bernard Quatermass, former head of the British Rocket Group, veteran of three alien invasions of varying stripes, and well-acquainted with the uncanny and the unknown.
He was currently perusing a journal article (in many other such clubs with less scientific bents, he would have been reading a newspaper) when out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a familiar figure. He lowered the journal, and looked at the newcomer. He wore a dark velvet jacket, a ruffled cravat, had a shock of white hair, and an aquiline face with a prominent nose. He looked troubled, sad even. "Doctor," Quatermass called quietly.
The Doctor (he sometimes went by the name of John Smith, but most called him the Doctor) turned, and smiled, albeit in a still slightly pained manner. "Ah, Bernard, it's good to see you, old chap," the Doctor said. "How are you? And how is your daughter and her family?"
"They are fine," Quatermass said. "Paula's second husband is a fine man(3), and their daughter, Hettie, is a handful. But aren't all grandchildren?"
"I was a grandfather," the Doctor said. "But my granddaughter is now living elsewhere."
"Past or future?" Quatermass asked. He knew that the Doctor claimed to be a time-traveller, and while he found it somewhat hard to believe, he accepted it for the moment. He had seen stranger things in his life than time travel.
"The future. Of Earth. They all leave, in the end," the Doctor mused, sorrow evident in his eyes as he sat down opposite a long-time friend.
It was at times like this that Bernard Quatermass, despite feeling his own age, glimpsed something of the true age of the Doctor. The man claimed to be centuries old. At times like this, in his eyes and bearing, you could believe it.
Eventually, Quatermass asked, "Did Miss Grant leave you?"
The Doctor nodded. "For Professor Clifford Jones."
Quatermass chuckled. "The environmentalist? Well, I guess she could do worse. I heard a little about what happened with Global Chemicals in Llanfairfach, that Jones was involved. And now Global Chemicals HQ has blown up. Your doing?"
"Of a sort," the Doctor said.
There was a period of silence, before Quatermass said, "If her father's dead, perhaps you should give her away at the wedding in his stead."
The Doctor, despite himself, chuckled. "No, her father's still alive. So's her uncle. And I've already given her a wedding present. A crystal from Metebelis 3. I finally got there…though it wasn't as pleasant as I had hoped." He had a glass of brandy in his hand, and as he contemplated it, he said, "I shall miss her. Still, I'm sure Professor Jones will make her a fine husband. Good chap, has a fine head on his shoulders."
"So, what happened down there?" On his occasional visits to the club, the Doctor would regale Quatermass with tales of what he and UNIT had encountered. While not exactly proper, the truth was that, due to his own experiences, Quatermass had signed the Official Secrets Act, and was, theoretically, authorised to know what UNIT had encountered.
"Giant maggots and a megalomaniacal computer wanting to take over the world," the Doctor remarked casually.
Quatermass bit back a chortle. "Giant maggots?"
"Thanks to a lethal mixture of toxic waste dumped into an abandoned mine shaft. And the computer…" The Doctor frowned. "I have encountered more than a few megalomaniacal computers. I told you about WOTAN and the C-Day incident?" Quatermass nodded. "Well, WOTAN didn't have any personality, whereas BOSS…he was pretty much human in many ways. Capable of intuition, emotion, even humour. But he wished to enslave the human race and ruin the world through industry. I had to stop him. A shame, though. It only truly occurred to me how human he really was. He even believed he was friends with his creator, Stevens."
"Hmm. Our mutual friend Dr Jensen told me about an artificial intelligence she had worked on," Quatermass mused.
"Which is strange, as I'm still yet to meet her. I probably will meet her in a future incarnation, though heaven forfend if I ever start wearing a pullover with question marks and a straw boater!" the Doctor harrumphed(4). "I should send Liz her way."
Silence fell over the two friends. It was strange, Quatermass thought. He was feeling his age ever more of late, though he was still fairly active for a man his age anyway. But here he was, speaking with an alien who looked human, but claimed to be centuries old, with two hearts, and the ability to cheat death by changing his physical form to recover from mortal injury or illness.
After a moment's silence, Quatermass asked, "Did you ever find out what was it that fused my astronauts and turned them into an alien being?"
"Sadly, no, Bernard," the Doctor said. "Even with the symptoms and theories you gave me, there are a score of species it could have been. Even the Time Lords don't have information on everything in the cosmos, as much as they'd like to."
"Even so, I'd like to know what exactly happened to Carroon, Greene, and Reichenheim. You were able to identify the Ammonids for me, as well as the Zebibs, the ones who I had thought were Martians(5)."
"Yes. The Ice Warriors were the original native Martians, but many have come to Mars as well as Earth, like the Osirans, and the Ambassadors, not to mention the Zebibs. The Zebibs killed each other over their xenophobic urges. Humanity's development had been meddled with by many a being."
"Oh, I know! I remember the second time you came here, after that business at Devil's End! I still find it hard to believe. A group of powerful psionic aliens who happen to resemble our image of the Devil more so than the Zebibs, and who tampered with our evolution as a kind of scientific experiment. A chilling thought."
"Not as chilling as it was when Professor Horner broke open the Devil's Hump," the Doctor said dryly. "I was frozen, nearly to death. The other poor souls in there certainly were. But the Daemons and the Zebibs used similar psionic techniques."
"Only proving that, if you are right, it is a very strange universe indeed," Quatermass said. After a while, he decided to confide in the Doctor. "I keep having this dream. I hope it's not a premonition."
"Oh? What is that, then?"
"Well, I keep dreaming of some years from now, about five to ten years, where London has devolved into street violence, and money gets thrown at the space program rather than at society. Then, some alien influence starts harvesting us, and there's these punks or hippies called the Planet People causing trouble. We find a way to try and stop it, but I have to stay with a nuclear bomb. And then, I suffer from a heart attack, but Hettie, she is there to help me trigger the bomb. I wake up as the bomb disintegrates me(6)."
The Doctor steepled his fingers. "Are you asking me whether that comes to pass? It's very dangerous, asking about the future. Especially your own personal future."
"I don't mind dying if it was to save the world, or someone I loved. But does the world truly devolve into that horror?"
"Not in the time period you're suggesting. Oh, there are ups and downs, and still alien invasions, but unless something drastically goes wrong with the future, I doubt that will come to pass," the Doctor said soothingly.
Quatermass sighed, relieved. "Thank God for that," he murmured. "I mean, I don't care whether I die in my sleep, or saving someone or the world…but I was wondering, seeing that world in societal decay, whether it was worth saving?"
"Every world is worth saving," the Doctor said. "Recently, I went to a world called Spiridon, where there are thick jungles festooned with lethal plants, and volcanoes that erupt a form of liquid ice found only on that world. There's the planet Solos, where the atmosphere is mostly breathable to humans, save for a poisonous compound that arises in a mist during the day. The inhabitants mutate from a human-like being to a form of insect, and then to an energy being, all to deal with the strange seasons of that world. And then there's Peladon, who were still at a more or less medieval level of technology and society, though some did welcome aliens. And the Earth has gone through more than this. It will go through worse, and survive. Humans are tenacious beings. It's what I like about you."
Quatermass nodded. He would love to join UNIT, help stop alien invasions, but he had qualms about working with the military, especially after that mess with Colonel Breen taking over the British Rocket Group. Instead, he was mostly doing guest lectures on rocket engineering and xenobiology, though many of his own adventures had been covered up by the Official Secrets Act. Indeed, many of the public who remembered what had happened thought those misadventures to be hoaxes, or else other things. The creature Carroon had become was dubbed a biological weapon that had gone out of control, while the Ammonid plants were Communist infiltrators. Eventually, the government used Breen and that fool of a Minister's cover story that the Zebib ship was a Nazi weapon, with a nerve agent that had caused the mass hysteria within London.
As if sensing his thoughts, the Doctor muttered, "Of course, you also have this tremendous capacity for self-deception and delusion."
"Should I feel insulted?" Quatermass asked with a wry smile.
"Not you personally, old chap. You personify much of what is great about humanity," the Doctor said with a smile. "I know you haven't been as prominent of late, but I know that Professor Bernard Quatermass is definitely one of the best examples of the human race that is out there."
Quatermass smiled, despite himself. Not that he needed any validation, even from the Doctor. But it was nice to be recognised. He felt that he had been slipping into obscurity of late. But the Doctor's comments, far from being hollow flattery, actually made him feel better.
For the next couple of hours, they spoke of various things, like the controversial temporal theories of Professor Whitaker, the mental cleansing properties of the Metebelis crystal, and the failed Mars Probe expeditions undertaken by the British Rocket Group after Quatermass left them. Then, after all that, eventually, the two scientists stood, ready to leave. "Thank you for the talk, old chap," the Doctor said warmly, shaking Quatermass' hand.
"It was a pleasure, Doctor," Quatermass said, with a smile of his own. Then, the two titans of science, defenders of Earth, and friends made their way out of the club, and parted ways. Not for the first or the last time.
STORY ANNOTATIONS:
Well, nice bit of friendship between the Doctor and Professor Quatermass, helping each other out. Hope you liked this little oneshot.
1. Although Newton invented calculus first, Leibniz not only invented his independently, but his version was easier to use (astonishing as that may sound) and is the version we use today. Newton was, frankly and in spite of his indisputable brilliance, an egotistical bastard, and he often had disputes with other scientific minds of the day because of his ego.
2. This is an older version of the Andre Morrell version of Quatermass, seen in the TV version of Quatermass and the Pit.
3. Paula Quatermass (Professor Quatermass' daughter) had a boyfriend called John Dillon in Quatermass II, but in Quatermass/The Quatermass Conclusion, Quatermass' granddaughter is called Hattie Carlson. This was my attempt to reconcile this. Presumably Dillon either died, or else left Paula.
4. The Doctor is referring to the appearance of his Seventh incarnation, who did meet Rachel Jensen in Remembrance of the Daleks. Jensen and her offsider Allison obliquely refer to Quatermass during the events of that story.
5. The Ammonids were the official name given to the aliens in Quatermass II, though only called by that name in the recap voiceovers AFAIK. As the Martians of Doctor Who are nothing like the Martian insects of Quatermass and the Pit, I opted to call them a different name in the Whoniverse, with 'Zebib' being a mangled version of Beelzebub, a demon associated with insects.
6. Quatermass gives a brief summation of the fourth Quatermass serial, Quatermass/The Quatermass Conclusion. Here, it is non-canon.