Most unfortunately I don't own Doctor Who. But I am going to see the exhibition when it comes to Glasgow next month!!!
PS A cookie for anyone who spots the episode I am referring to. Clue: it isn't a Hartnell one!
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The first thing Ian did when he woke up in the morning was tear a page off the little calendar he kept on the bedside table. Unless it was somebody's birthday/wedding anniversary/other important occasion he rarely paid any attention to the date. But the date of that chilly Friday morning made him stop and think.
31 December 1999.
"It's rather strange, isn't it?" Ian had said to Barbara over breakfast. "That we've seen and been at so many different historical dates but never this one."
"Maybe he didn't want to spoil it for us," his wife had replied, smiling into a cup of tea, with a little lemon and no sugar. She is thinking about the closest they ever got to the year 2000, a time just before Susan left, when the TARDIS had taken them to Paris in 1979. When they were there the Louvre had made headlines and a count with a strange, Italian sounding name and his wife had disappeared. But that didn't matter to Ian or Barbara, not when they went on that midnight walk through the streets of Paris. They couldn't sleep and the moonlit city was too beautiful to resist. It had started to rain, turning her hair into nothing less than a mushroom cloud but that had only added to the enjoyment.
Ian is thinking about asking the Doctor one time why they couldn't see the new millennium.
"I think, Chesterton, I shall keep that one for when the time is right. Can't spoil it thirty odd years in advance," he had harrumphed but there was a distinct smile on the old man's face.
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As the day wore on, the Chestertons were busy talking to friends and relatives on the phone. They had spoken to Susan, their daughter and her children. Harriet, who was twelve, was very excited about the approaching century but their younger granddaughter Louise, was more concerned about the fact that Gladiators, her favourite programme was finishing. And they spoke to Andrew, their son, whose wife was expecting a baby in March. And they spoke to various other people, all full of good wishes about the once-in-a-lifetime experience. "I wonder," Ian had said thoughtfully as he encountered Barbara trying to pull a book about the Aztecs out of the living room bookshelf, which was packed so tightly it was hard to get certain volumes out, "What he would make of all this? All of the preparations and celebrations." There was no need to ask who 'he' was. "He might think it silly" Barbara replied, finally managing to extract her book, "but then again he might find it charming. You could never tell with the Doctor."
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At precisely 11.39pm that night, two figure were seen crossing the street to the block of flats where the Chestertons lived. One was a tall skinny man with a trench coat and Converses and the other was a young woman with short blonde hair and a black parka.
"Come on Doctor," the woman hissed, shining a torch on the list of residents on the wall of the building.
"Give me time, Rose!" he protested. "Why do we need to hurry up? They've gone out, we saw them go!"
"Well, a, we're gonna end up missing the celebrations at this rate and b, it's freezing!" The man rolled his eyes, but stuffed a package into the letterbox for flat 3. And they left the same way they had come.
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Ian and Barbara had gone to Hampstead Heath for the New Year celebrations. It was only ten minutes from the flat and, as Barbara had suggested at half past eleven that night, it was only once in a millennium. As the countdown began, Ian could feel Barbara's hand tightening in his and smiled. They had seen so much and done so much but right now they were feeling as excited as they had been at times on the TARDIS.
And as the countdown turned from one to zero, the twentieth century became the twenty first, 1999 became 2000 and it was a whole new second, minute, hour, day , week, month, year, decade, century, millennium, Ian turned to his wife and kissed her, transporting them back to that night in Paris, fifteen years ahead of their own time, where the rain was coming down in gallons and Barbara's hair was frizzing wildly and they stood kissing each other in the downpour on the Left Bank of the Seine and having the time of their lives. They didn't know yet, that when they eventually got back to their flat, there would be a package jammed in the letter box, a package which would make Barbara laugh and cry at the same time and Ian feel totally stunned but unable to stop smiling, because it contained an old cardigan and this note:
Dear Ian and Barbara,
In case you're wondering why this letter sounds different., it's because I'm different. Regenerated - changed bodies, facial features, personality, but technically I'm still me. Still the same man you travelled with.
I found this when we were having a clear out of the back end of the TARDIS the other day and assumed it was Barbara's. So I am returning it with best wishes for the new millennium. Personally I've seen a few but this one has a special quality about it - the preparations for this one have been outstanding.
And it's lovely to see you're still together (although personally I could see it coming a mile off).
So, happy 2000 Mr and Mrs Chesterton.
The Doctor.