N/A - This was written all the way back in 2008...
The first time the Doctor is amazed. Most Time Lords never get to meet their future incarnations. Well — amazed doesn't cover it. Amazed and exasperated, maybe. Amazed and embarrassed and a bit annoyed, definitely. Could he appeal to the great council asking for different regenerations, he wonders. Surely, having to be these people should be considered a cruel and unjustified punishment.
The dandy and the clown, he's already met them, and he can't help but roll his eyes at their bickering — children, the both of them. And then there's the Mad Hatter and the cricket fan and the loud and yellow one and the small man with the question marks and the one with hair way, way too long.
And they all travel with humans. That alone is a bit disconcerting, he has to admit. He has nothing against humans — oh, they're quite interesting creatures. Have the most peculiar customs, and they can be found everywhere in the galaxy — from the moment they evolved and — well, as far as he's gone, anyway, they are always there. With their little fights and their little squabbles and their strange, strange behaviour. Fascinating creatures — that's why he always goes back to Earth, after all. Susan quite likes them, too.
But travelling with them! Well, yes, of course, they're not as pompous as the Time Lords, but they have more than their share of unwarranted arrogance and stupidity and narrow-mindedness. Dealing with them on a personal level is never very interesting — he doesn't know why Susan insists on going to that School — there is nothing she can learn there, of course — most of the time she corrects her so-called teachers' mistakes.
This lot of humans isn't that bad, he has to admit as he observes them, a bit at a loss. Some of them are a bit on the loud side, some of them seem to be a bit clueless — that girl running around with explosives is certainly one to keep an eye on — but all in all, a regular group of humans. Not important, not particularly interesting, not particularily clever or brave or unique in any way — just… humans. Whatever he is doing with so many of them is beyond him. Is this his future?
Apparently, it is. And more than that — only now, when another blonde girl arrives and sits next to him, upset, he notices there are at least two more versions of him around. One is tall, wearing a suit. He's standing next to the short one with the horrible sense of dress — well, really, they all have a horrible sense of dress, but that question-mark themed jumper is nothing he'll ever be caught in! — so there're two of him standing next to each other. And just for a moment, the Doctor catches his eyes, and then shudders. Did he just imagine it, or is there something in them that makes him want to run away and hide? Something he can never quite imagine he would become. So he doesn't look at him at all. Instead, he looks at the rest and realises there's another one of his future selves, one who refuses to leave the Tardis. How ridiculous of him, really. That's what got his blonde human companion so upset, and now another one gets up to try and talk some sense into him — loud and Australian she is, but he has to admit he likes her spirit, going to shout at an incarnation of his she hasn't even met yet. He's a little bit less appreciative the next minute when he realises he would have to deal with her on a regular basis one day, but decides not to dwell on it — it's going to be the cricket fan's problem, if he managed to fit human to regeneration correctly.
Actually, the Doctor has an idea of his own of how to make his idiotic future self come out — but one of them, these humans, stops him as he gets up. No, Doctor, she says. Let her try. I don't quite think you can help, whatever it is that's going on. He's about to protest — he sits here with his past selves connecting the different versions of the Tardis for a reason he can't understand, and isn't even allowed to go and shout at himself? But then he remembers his past encounter with his future selves — the dandy and the clown, and there they are, arguing with each other over Rassilon-knows-what! — he has to admit she has a point, he never got along too well with himself.
So he stops and keeps on helping her. She is quite the lovely girl, even if human, and deep down the Doctor wonders whether he should feel bad at liking his future companions better than he does his future selves, but then decides it is, after all, only natural.
The Doctors next to him work with each other — well, in between bickering with each other, at least. Susan seems to have struck a new friend — a boy, seems to be just a bit younger than her, but only seems to be, of course, as she's Gallifreyan and might be young but never in the scale of the humans. It's not until he gets close to the couple and listens to their conversation that he realises the boy isn't even human. But they are working with him, and with the one with the long brown curls and his human friend, the lovely girl who stopped him, and he slowly realises where they are and what is going on.
They are outside of time. This was never meant to happen, of course. The Time Lords must have pressed the wrong button to allow this accident to happen — and to keep on happening for each regeneration. He can quite understand the insufferable behaviour of the shouty yellow one now - being out of time and space isn't just upsetting — it's also very, very boring. After the first time you know the problem and know the solution and all that is left is going through the motions. As if having to spend all that time with your past and future incarnations isn't bad enough. He imagines that by the time he gets to be the shouty one — must be a rather late regeneration, that one — he would be so unpleasant as well.
But they have a solution — of course they have it, they've always known what to do, because he now learns it from them. A paradox, he notes, how curios! Tinker with this, connect the Tardises there, and each version of the Tardis with himself inside can dispose of the extra energy that would have been disastrous otherwise onwards to the next Tardis and exit this grey hell.
Meanwhile the Australian is back, greeted by an explosion from that violent young woman — he'll have to have a word with her one day, preferably before he travels with her — and his last incarnation walks in to talk with the one who refuses to show himself. And indeed, it isn't a minute before they get out. And they both join in, all cheerful and smiles, especially the new one — short haircut and a disgusting leather jacket — no class whatsoever, really. But the blonde girl seems to like him, a lot. And then there's the other one, too. Oh, he looks all nice and cheerful, bouncing around helping everyone with his sonic toy. But the Doctor doesn't quite take to looking into his eyes.
He is quite appalled at learning the energy build-up means that while the rest of them would leave in peace back to where they came from, this one, the latest one, far in his future, with that thing in his eyes, would have on his hands much more energy than the Tardis could ever handle. And no one knew where he'd land — or at what state. He just smiles and shrugs it off, but his eyes… oh, his eyes. At least, he seems to be alone - no human will be endangered by travelling with him into the unknown.
Never mind, no time to worry about it now, because they are the first to leave, after a few goodbyes from future companions and regenerations — and he can't help but noticing they all seem to hug Susan rather fondly and ignore him, and the only one paying any attention to him does so just in order to declare there's nothing wrong with him. With a blink of an eye, they're back where they started, the Doctor and Susan. That old yard in London. And because he knows he'd better get used to humans — after all, it seems as if he'll be spending with them the vast majority of his future — he decides, on a whim, to take these two rude teachers, the ones who follow Susan the very next day — on for a ride. He never quite realises how long he himself would keep on travelling with them, long after his own granddaughter is gone, because eventually they end up going to London, 2164. The Doctor wonders whether seeing his future was what made Susan make her decision. Or his.