So after what just happened...maybe a 12th Doctor and Clara adventure is in order, just until we see the new episodes in August?
Outside the Doors
Part 1
"You never taught me!" She cried, feeling like she was losing control of everything. "You always said you would, but the last time you did try, it went badly."
"How badly?" He asked, nervous about her, whoever she was. She stared at him in a helpless manner, as if she expected him to do or say something that would make things better, which he couldn't promise in that exact moment. He didn't even know where he was, or who he was, for that matter. He was hoping that she could help him.
"The TARDIS nearly blew up, I think. It's sort of blurred." She said. He was staring at her again, like he was trying to figure out just who she was. She didn't want to think about what this might mean.
"Right, no driving lessons." He grimaced, glancing over and studying the controls. "There has to be some reasoning behind them." He said to himself. "Anything that is constructed has to have some reasoning behind it, some creative force that is trying to create something that functions for the user's benefit."
"Yeah, in principle, I suppose." The young woman said.
"Okay, okay, I think I've gotten the hang of this thing." He said, laughing to himself after a minute. "The left one does the turns, the right one does…actually, I don't know what the right one does. I'll figure it out later."
"This is a nightmare." She said, rubbing her forehead and wishing that she could just wake up. Christmas had been a complete, utter disaster, with the turkey and her family and the Doctor…a mess.
"Maybe this button will do something." He pressed it, and the TARDIS jolted out of synch, causing Clara to shriek as she felt herself almost split apart. Even the Doctor, if she could call him that, looked alarmed at what had just happened.
"No, I think you're wrong!" She cried out, reality splitting at the seams. "He always—you always used to press this. I think." She pointed to one of the other controls.
"Stabilisers." He automatically said and blinked, looking up at her. "Stabilisers? Must be correct. I remembered something." He laughed, pressing the button. Everything went back to normal and the TARDIS, or whatever this machine was called, started to slow down slightly.
"What was that?" She asked.
"The dimensional curvature was disrupted, sorry about that." He automatically said and then laughed again. "I did it! I remembered something else. Time and relative dimensions, I think that's what this whole thing is about. We're getting there! Somewhere. Anywhere." He shrugged and, in a sing-song voice, he said, "Any place is better than here, and we've really got to go." He started flicking a few more switches and pressing buttons like he knew what he was doing.
"Go?" Clara said, reaching out and grabbing his hand to stop him. "We can't go anywhere, not while you're…all out of shape like this." She said, unable to find the right words for his condition.
"I think I can manage." He said, pulling his hand away from hers and then turning to examine the button that he had accidentally pressed before, the one that had disturbed the dimensional curvature. "All right, I need to put up a sign here that says, 'do not press this button'. I better remember that." He said.
"You can't even remember how to fly this thing!" She said. "How can you remember to put up a sign?" She gasped as he looked up at her; he seemed so much sterner than he used to. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that."
"It's all right, I suppose you're right about that." He muttered, shaking his head as he gestured at the console. "I know I should remember something more about all of this. It seems almost familiar to me, like I have done this before, but I can't for the life of me remember just what I did here to make everything normal again."
She almost seemed to be frightened of him, he realized, this young girl, even though there wasn't any reason why she should be. He had not done anything to harm her, had he? He hoped not, he didn't think so. She seemed to be a lot younger than he was, though. He felt old, for some reason, older than he looked. Perhaps she was afraid of old age, the authority, or the senility.
"Oh, no," She whispered, closing her eyes. It was just as she feared when he asked her if she knew how to fly this thing.
"Bits and pieces are all jumbled up together in here, inside my head." He tapped his skull. "I know that the right pieces are there, they have been popping out so that I can function properly and do what needs to be done, but they just need to be assembled properly to form a coherent whole, a shape that makes perfect sense to me." He sighed to himself and glanced at her. "By the way, what is your name?"
"Clara. Clara Oswald." She said, grimacing. Just as she feared. "And you are called the Doctor."
"The Doctor, eh? Funny name, a title. No other?" He asked.
"No other that I know of. You didn't need another. You were simply called the Doctor because that was who you are." She said, opening her eyes and staring at him. "My Doctor."
"Right," He said, glancing away from her, feeling nervous again in the presence of her helpless stare. "And what exactly am I in relation to you?" He asked. "Your…father? Grandfather? Uncle? Brother? Cousin? Friend?"
"Friend. Always a friend to me." She said, smiling. "My dearest friend."
"Right, a friend," He said, nodding, feeling better. "Right, Clara," pronouncing her name in a manner she was unused to, "So…where are we? Have we landed somewhere?"
"I'm not sure where we are." She said, glancing at the doors. "I think we left the field outside of my apartment building and traveled somewhere else, while all of that was going on." She frowned. "I think we've landed, but sometimes it's a little hard to tell. Shall we…go explore, and see?" She asked, holding out her hand to him.
"I suppose." He hesitated, not wanting to take her hand for some reason. Was she afraid that he would wander off and be lost without her outside of the TARDIS? He didn't need her protection then, he wouldn't wander off. "Do we do this often?" He asked. "Go outside the TARDIS and explore?"
"Every time, everywhere we go." She said, lowering her hand when he refused to take it.
"Right. Routine, just the thing I need." He said, rubbing his hands together. "Time to get back into the old routine and back to my old self again. Better safe than sorry, or sorry than safe?" He asked.
"Sorry than safe." Clara said.
"That's the ticket for me." He said, nodding. He strode forward, and pushed open the doors. That part felt familiar to him.
Uh...please comment, it is a new Doctor for me as well. Not too Eleven?