Doctor Who – By the Book
Episode 1 - "Hero in the Dark"
Chapter 1
Timothy Thompson, known simply as "Tim-Tom" to his friends, is a fairly ordinary young man. He is on both the basketball and swim teams after school, but still manages to find a slot on the "A/B" honor roll every 9 weeks. Mrs. Hart, Timothy's science teacher, says that out of all the students in the 5th grade, he has the best shot to do well in the science fair. What confounds his parents is just exactly how he does so well in school. Timothy, however, knows exactly why he's so brilliant – he reads.
Tim-Tom absolutely adores reading. In the mornings, he reads at the breakfast table (which his mother really loves - not). During the school day, he reads during and between classes. This pattern continues all day and into the evening, which is his favorite time to read. What Timothy has never told anyone is the reason for his love of reading - from a very young age, he was incredibly afraid of the dark. The easiest solution to that was to persuade his parents to let him keep the light on so that he could read. Out of this need to squash his fear, his love for reading grew, but the fear unfortunately remained.
"It is really quite silly" Tim-Tom would think to himself. "I'm already 11 years old, so being afraid of the dark is just plain silly." It didn't work, though. He could swear that each night, when his father came to turn out his light, the shadows would begin to move. He tried to tell his parents once, right after their new puppy disappeared, but Timothy's thoughts were quickly dismissed.
"Timothy Thompson, you are way too old to be inventing stories" his mother scolded.
"This wouldn't have happened if the Doctor was here" he thought. "He would believe me."
'The Doctor' was Timothy's favorite hero. He had all of the books, the comic books, the action figures and even a couple of t-shirts. Most of the kids in his class loved stories about the Doctor, but Tim-Tom really loved them. His friends even helped him make a TARDIS out of an old cardboard box that the new refrigerator came in. Last Halloween, he practically ruined his mother's favorite scarf and raincoat, trying to create his own version of the hero out of a combination of his favorite incarnations.
To young Timothy, his hero was power, confidence, justice, and more, all rolled into one manly package. This set of thoughts and ideals helped him sleep at night. All he need do was open one of his favorite adventures and imagine his hero coming to save the day. Sometimes, however, it just wasn't that simple.
Being a young man of 11 years, Timothy found it a hard pill to swallow that his fears would not fade. "Do 11 year olds sometimes cry themselves to sleep?" he wondered. In the past few weeks, the shadows seemed to be taunting him. Building a small tent out of his blankets and a stick, he had been finding comfort in reading his hero's adventures at a loud whisper. But tonight, it just wasn't helping.
As tears filled Tim-Tom's eyes, he listened to a sound he imagined to be similar to 1,000,000 cockroaches, scurrying from the light. He shuffled through his books until he found his favorite, trying to read his fears away, but the noise was getting worse.
Fearing the end was near, Timothy's anguished voice begged to the unknown "Please Doctor, come help me. I really, really need you."
Suddenly, the sounds stopped. Opening his eyes, he noticed the page he was reading from was not what he remembered it to be. The young man was quite shocked to read the words he now saw:
Don't worry Timothy; I can hear you and I'm on my way.