Thought I better set the scene for all you chappies.
If you are interested in scene setting read here. If you are not interested in scene setting just skip this twaddle and go straight to the story.
If you thought that Doctor Who finished in the late eighties with Ace and the Doctor wandering off into the middle distance nattering on about burning skies and sleeping rivers or with that rather ghastly 1996 tele movie with the leather jacket clad Master/carbon copy Terminator, you just weren't digging deep enough.
While some uncouth unsavoury people may consider the director general of the BBC who cancelled Doctor Who a short sighted hunchbacked web footed untalented little twerp who was rapt that they could now divert all the Doctor Who budget into 'The Bill', there were others who just thought he was a complete twonker. And fortunately these people were a little shirty about Doctor Who's demise and decided to do something about it. You either would or would not believe the way Doctor Who continues in all sorts of fascinating ways created by all sorts of fascinating people - from books to audio adventures. In fact in the audio books an odd thing happened. The Doctor Who actors realised that once they were freed from those ridiculous costumes with the question marks all over them they could create interesting characters (Although Sylvester McCoy took this opportunity to develop R rolling into the linguistic equivalent of an Olympic sport but that is another story).
This little story's concept is nicked from the BBC audio adventure 'Death Comes to Time'. No offence to all and sundry, but I am taking a few minor liberties with the concepts, characters and such forth. By minor liberties I mean not killing off the Doctor (while I thought that was very dramatic, it was a little bit of a downer) and not turning Ace into the next best hope for the future of the galaxy (dang disturbing if you ask me).
Just to fill you all in 'Death Comes to Time' involved loads of ultra smug and ultra powerful Time Lords battling an ultra nasty Time Lord with a naff haircut, a grape coloured uniform and a penchant for universe domination, to make sure the balance of the universe remained, er balanced I presume. In other words: The usual. The only odd thing about this story was that by the end of the story, nearly all the good guys had been killed except for Ace and the Brigadier and it was all getting a bit depressing by my standards.
The point of all this is that this story created a rather funky bunch of renegade Time Lords (the Doctor's posse), including Stephen Fry as The Minister of Chance (You have to wonder about the Time Lord naming thing don't you - The Doctor, The Master, The Minister, The Wanker?).
So you have this bunch of renegade, but very virtuous Time Lords protecting the balance of the universe or some such. During the story we learn that while these Time Dudes, while being wise and virtuous, have all sorts of amazing powers, they can't use them or they completely tip the scales that balance the balance of the universe. This is one of those 'you can have the power, but you can't use it or it will result in DIRE consequences, so don't even think about using it - right, got it. Here is the power, but don't ever ever ever use it, no matter how amazingly tempting it is to use it in a fit of anger' sort of powers.
And guess what? You will never guess what happens. Go on - guess? It is just too out there - Young Stephen uses it in anger. This resulted in lots and lots of people dying, the Doctor getting very angry and Sylvester McCoy shouting a bit with a rather strangled accent. In short: The usual.
What rather intrigued me about all this was the concept of an ex all powerful guardian of time who has lost it and must now face the consequences.
The place: A planet
The time: Sometime, probably a long way in the future or the past, I am not good with these sort of things. Lord knows how a Time Lord would cope (pretentious name 'Time Lord' if you ask me anyway. From what I have seen they are a bunch of poncy self righteous dudes with a penchant for frock wearing and bad hats, but then again I am a self righteous dude with a penchant for frock wearing and bad hats so I can't talk)
The people: Take an educated pot shot, if you have made it to this point you can probably work it out
The story: Who knows (get it?)
.
The Doctor looked pensive. "We need help," he announced. "I need to find an old friend. I am just not too sure that he wants to be found."
"Who do we need to find?" asked Ace.
"The Minister," replied the Doctor.
Ace looked a bit confused. "Do you mean your Time Lord mate who er...?"
"Yes, that one," sighed the Doctor.
"But I thought he was dead?"
"You thought I was dead too! That is the problem with the younger generation: Always jumping to conclusions. No, he is not dead. Merely in purgatory."
"But after what he did..?"
The Doctor flashed her a dirty look. "Its all relative Ace, lunch time doubly so" he snapped. "In fact, relatively speaking, he is my cousin. And if I was back on Gallifrey they would probably have me sent to Shada before my feet could touch the ground. I need his help."
"So where are we going then?" asked Ace.
The Doctor looked down at the console. "A prison I believe."
.
"Oh God, not another quarry. What the heck is it with you and quarries? The entire wonders of time and space to choose from and ten to one you will end up in a quarry," exclaimed Ace as she surveyed their muddy surroundings.
"Well yes. It is a quarry Ace, but this time it is meant to be a quarry." He looked at her with irritation. "And no, it's not Wales. or Dorset. It's Santiny. It is an genuine alien quarry," he said proudly.
"OK. It is an exotic alien quarry on an exotic alien planet that just happens to look rather like Wales," she grumbled. "But it's still dank, wet, muddy and depressing."
The Doctor surveyed the scene. "I think it is meant to be," he mused.
.
[The storyteller made himself comfortable by the fire. "Let me take you back a bit," he said.]
.
The rain was pouring down. The guards had their raincoats, but the prisoner was soaked to the bone. His hair was plastered down by the rain. It dripped off him as he walked. But he didn't seem to care. He still put one foot in front of the other, his hands bound behind him, his head bowed, the placard around his neck proclaiming his crime.
.
The old woman came from the crowd on the street. She spat in his face but he did not react. "You killed him," she screamed. "You killed them all."
He did not look up from the ground.
"I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I am very sorry. I just wanted it to stop."
.
If you are interested in scene setting read here. If you are not interested in scene setting just skip this twaddle and go straight to the story.
If you thought that Doctor Who finished in the late eighties with Ace and the Doctor wandering off into the middle distance nattering on about burning skies and sleeping rivers or with that rather ghastly 1996 tele movie with the leather jacket clad Master/carbon copy Terminator, you just weren't digging deep enough.
While some uncouth unsavoury people may consider the director general of the BBC who cancelled Doctor Who a short sighted hunchbacked web footed untalented little twerp who was rapt that they could now divert all the Doctor Who budget into 'The Bill', there were others who just thought he was a complete twonker. And fortunately these people were a little shirty about Doctor Who's demise and decided to do something about it. You either would or would not believe the way Doctor Who continues in all sorts of fascinating ways created by all sorts of fascinating people - from books to audio adventures. In fact in the audio books an odd thing happened. The Doctor Who actors realised that once they were freed from those ridiculous costumes with the question marks all over them they could create interesting characters (Although Sylvester McCoy took this opportunity to develop R rolling into the linguistic equivalent of an Olympic sport but that is another story).
This little story's concept is nicked from the BBC audio adventure 'Death Comes to Time'. No offence to all and sundry, but I am taking a few minor liberties with the concepts, characters and such forth. By minor liberties I mean not killing off the Doctor (while I thought that was very dramatic, it was a little bit of a downer) and not turning Ace into the next best hope for the future of the galaxy (dang disturbing if you ask me).
Just to fill you all in 'Death Comes to Time' involved loads of ultra smug and ultra powerful Time Lords battling an ultra nasty Time Lord with a naff haircut, a grape coloured uniform and a penchant for universe domination, to make sure the balance of the universe remained, er balanced I presume. In other words: The usual. The only odd thing about this story was that by the end of the story, nearly all the good guys had been killed except for Ace and the Brigadier and it was all getting a bit depressing by my standards.
The point of all this is that this story created a rather funky bunch of renegade Time Lords (the Doctor's posse), including Stephen Fry as The Minister of Chance (You have to wonder about the Time Lord naming thing don't you - The Doctor, The Master, The Minister, The Wanker?).
So you have this bunch of renegade, but very virtuous Time Lords protecting the balance of the universe or some such. During the story we learn that while these Time Dudes, while being wise and virtuous, have all sorts of amazing powers, they can't use them or they completely tip the scales that balance the balance of the universe. This is one of those 'you can have the power, but you can't use it or it will result in DIRE consequences, so don't even think about using it - right, got it. Here is the power, but don't ever ever ever use it, no matter how amazingly tempting it is to use it in a fit of anger' sort of powers.
And guess what? You will never guess what happens. Go on - guess? It is just too out there - Young Stephen uses it in anger. This resulted in lots and lots of people dying, the Doctor getting very angry and Sylvester McCoy shouting a bit with a rather strangled accent. In short: The usual.
What rather intrigued me about all this was the concept of an ex all powerful guardian of time who has lost it and must now face the consequences.
The place: A planet
The time: Sometime, probably a long way in the future or the past, I am not good with these sort of things. Lord knows how a Time Lord would cope (pretentious name 'Time Lord' if you ask me anyway. From what I have seen they are a bunch of poncy self righteous dudes with a penchant for frock wearing and bad hats, but then again I am a self righteous dude with a penchant for frock wearing and bad hats so I can't talk)
The people: Take an educated pot shot, if you have made it to this point you can probably work it out
The story: Who knows (get it?)
.
The Doctor looked pensive. "We need help," he announced. "I need to find an old friend. I am just not too sure that he wants to be found."
"Who do we need to find?" asked Ace.
"The Minister," replied the Doctor.
Ace looked a bit confused. "Do you mean your Time Lord mate who er...?"
"Yes, that one," sighed the Doctor.
"But I thought he was dead?"
"You thought I was dead too! That is the problem with the younger generation: Always jumping to conclusions. No, he is not dead. Merely in purgatory."
"But after what he did..?"
The Doctor flashed her a dirty look. "Its all relative Ace, lunch time doubly so" he snapped. "In fact, relatively speaking, he is my cousin. And if I was back on Gallifrey they would probably have me sent to Shada before my feet could touch the ground. I need his help."
"So where are we going then?" asked Ace.
The Doctor looked down at the console. "A prison I believe."
.
"Oh God, not another quarry. What the heck is it with you and quarries? The entire wonders of time and space to choose from and ten to one you will end up in a quarry," exclaimed Ace as she surveyed their muddy surroundings.
"Well yes. It is a quarry Ace, but this time it is meant to be a quarry." He looked at her with irritation. "And no, it's not Wales. or Dorset. It's Santiny. It is an genuine alien quarry," he said proudly.
"OK. It is an exotic alien quarry on an exotic alien planet that just happens to look rather like Wales," she grumbled. "But it's still dank, wet, muddy and depressing."
The Doctor surveyed the scene. "I think it is meant to be," he mused.
.
[The storyteller made himself comfortable by the fire. "Let me take you back a bit," he said.]
.
The rain was pouring down. The guards had their raincoats, but the prisoner was soaked to the bone. His hair was plastered down by the rain. It dripped off him as he walked. But he didn't seem to care. He still put one foot in front of the other, his hands bound behind him, his head bowed, the placard around his neck proclaiming his crime.
.
The old woman came from the crowd on the street. She spat in his face but he did not react. "You killed him," she screamed. "You killed them all."
He did not look up from the ground.
"I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I am very sorry. I just wanted it to stop."
.