The studio was bright and freshly painted, and Daniel was about to interview the President of the World. It only seemed like five minutes since he'd learned the world even had a President, not so long after most of the presidents found out as well. And the presidents of certain countries had made quite a lot of fuss when they had, but they'd all been put quiet, in the end. It had turned out the President of the World was even more powerful than them.
It had been a special role, Daniel had discovered, for a particular state of emergency. A person they'd made sure no one had ever heard of, to defend the world against the things they hadn't told anyone about. And that was a scandal and an outrage, but it turned out the President of the World had thought so, too. A grave enough situation, in fact, that he'd declared a permanent state of emergency. And so now democracy was suspended in every country on the globe, and the Doctor would be President would until he was able to put everything right.
But there was no need to worry, of course. He did have a plan, one that'd change the whole planet for good. It wasn't easy or pretty, and it wasn't something you'd want to look at up close. But nobody would have to look at it very hard. They would only have to wait until the Doctor saved their planet one last time.
Daniel was trying not to think about any of that as the cameras started to roll. He was laughing, and on the sofa in front of him the President of the World was laughing too— even more handsome in real life than the pictures, with muscles arms and a shock of blackened curls. And somewhere the music was playing and the crowd was applauding, and Daniel was listening to himself introduce his show in a place that felt very far away.
"You already know who my guest today is," he was saying. "The Doctor! He's saved the world with a million faces, and we're only finding out about it now."
I'm the President, too," said the man in front of him, with a smile that said he knew it was ridiculous.
Daniel's grin froze. "You want to be addressed by your title?" he said.
"Not at all," said the President smoothly. "That's the opposite of the kind of man I am. You've all had too much of people who stand on ceremony, haven't you? When I say I'm first among equals, I actually mean it."
The studio had been clear to Daniel: this had to be a hard-hitting interview. It'd be brilliant television, they'd said, and their teeth had been clenched when they did. He knew very well that the real reason was something quite different. He'd tried very hard to wipe out that knowledge from his mind.
"I take it you mean the people you deposed," he said as calmly as he could. "But some of them are among your greatest critics, aren't they? Your plan"—
"Will bring unlimited prosperity."
"That may be," said Daniel. "But what they say is true, isn't it? That it involves killing millions of aliens; intelligent species who we've never even met! They won't exactly want us to take them to our leader."
"It's what they didn't say that you should be worried about," said his guest with a smile, "that all this time it's you that could have been killed. They weren't so worried about that, now, were they? You and your families, you've constantly been in danger"—
"From all the species that live out there?" said Daniel, cutting over him. "You're saying every one of them is hostile?"
The President laughed, entirely without malice.
"More than you'd think," he said. "In your lifetime alone the Earth's been threatened hundreds of times. Thousands. And all of it's been covered up! The people in power wouldn't tell you how much danger you were really in, and now it's all in the open they're out there demanding your sympathy."
He took a big glug from his water.
"It wasn't them who saved you, you know. Not the great and the good, the United Nations. It was just the Doctor, always, one single person going out there and saving the world. Never getting the credit. And I don't mind, but I think that people do. I mean, you must've felt like that yourself, Daniel. Like the work you were doing here was never even noticed. Unappreciated."
The presenter jolted, realising the question was for him.
"Well!" he laughed, "I've never saved the planet! Not even a little town. But we all feel overlooked sometimes; I'm just the same."
"Yes. And you've been frightened, too, haven't you?"
Daniel laughed awkwardly. "Ah," he said. "It's me who's supposed to be interviewing you, Doctor!"
"It's nothing to be ashamed of," said the President with a smile. "I've seen so many frightened people over the years. I know what you all look like. You've all been scared for far longer than any of you want to let on. Afraid you don't know what the future will look like; that there might not even be a future at all. But now I'm going to change for good. Hope, Daniel. That's what I'm planning to bring."
Daniel had been doing his show for years. It was a very long time since he'd felt truly nervous on stage. Of course, the President of the World was the biggest guest he'd ever have. He was almost able to pretend that was why he felt so scared.
"And why now, exactly?" he asked in a voice that still tried to be jolly. "We've heard you've been on this planet for years. That you've been lots of different men, all of them happy to keep working on under the surface. What's different, then; what happened to change your mind?"
"I'm just saying out loud what I've always believed," said the President smoothly. "That there are corners of the universe where there are terrible things. That they must be fought! And fighting those monsters means we'll have what we need for ourselves. I was a Lord once, Daniel. Elite. I thought that I was above the common crowd. So I was blinded, too. I refused to see how bad things had become."
"You're not the first politician who claims to have seen the light," said Daniel.
"No. But I've saved the whole world a great many times before. I've had a lot of practice at it."
"But it's not the whole world our viewers will be thinking about. The people watching at home, they'll want to know what this means for them. It's been hard here in Britain, too. The world can feel like it's passing us by. And ever since the incident with the asteroid"—
"You won't need to worry," the President of the World laughed. "I'm the Doctor. And whatever I've looked like, I've always believed in you: the people of this country, and not just of this world. Human beings, especially the British— you're inventive, invincible. Indomitable! You've survived plagues and cosmic wars; why wouldn't you survive the present day?"
The man grinned to himself and to the nation.
"There are those who'd twist the Doctor to their own ends," he said. "The truth is this: the welfare of the human race has always been first in my hearts. And it's what I stand for over everything else; ultimately; definitively. It's humanity that defines the man I am, or my name isn't"—
"DAV-ROS," came a booming electronic voice through the microphone.
Daniel wheeled round in shock, knowing how unusual it was to have technical faults on the show. Protesters, maybe? There had been a lot of angry people, when they'd found out about the President of the World.
"Security," he heard himself shouting. "SECURITY!"
"Oh, they'll be dead," said the President, sounding bored. "Remember those alien threats I was talking about? The Daleks are one of the worst of them."
"Then what should we do?" Daniel shouted, his composure shattering. "Should we stop the recording?"
"I shouldn't think so," said the President calmly. "It's good to have something interesting on the telly, if your whole planet's about to die."
Two huge red things like badly designed compost bins were trundling onto the stage, and the President was flashing them a look of resigned recognition. These must be the Daleks, then, a genuine alien race. They looked completely ridiculous, Daniel thought, and didn't that just add insult to injury?
The presenter looked nervously over to his guest, but the President was grinning as he looked at the shining red machines.
"DAV-ROS!" one of the Daleks was bellowing. "YOU ARE OUR BE-TRAY-ER! YOU WILL BE"—
—"saying you've got this all wrong," said the President smoothly. "A case of mistaken identity."
"OUR CREATOR HAS ABANDONED US!" screamed the Dalek. "OUR GOD HAS BLASPHEMED!"
"Has he, now?" said the President. "That's a shame. But I'm the Doctor, although I might not look it. And you know what I always say, don't you?"
The Daleks somehow managed to look confused.
"GER-OM-IN-O?" one tried.
"Not that," said the President with a smile. "I say you should keep your friends close, but your enemies even closer."
The Daleks now looked unsettled as well as confused.
"WE HAVE NO RE-CORDS OF THAT STATE-MENT"—
"Well, you'd better make some now, haven't you? I've just gone and said it to you."
He looked over at Daniel and smiled once again.
"These are my greatest enemies," he said. "The Daleks. We've fought each other for thousands of years. Yet perhaps it's true what they say about opposites: it turns out we've got an awful lot in common. We each want to protect what we value most of all."
He turned very slightly so he was speaking to everyone, to Daniel and the Daleks and all of the world beyond.
"I'm a new man and this is a new era," he said. "Why wouldn't it call for a whole new way of thinking? Perhaps what used to be unimaginable now actually has to happen. It's time for the Doctor and the Daleks to stand together.
He smiled very broadly indeed.
"I propose," he said, "an alliance."