Journal Entry, April 10, 1827

Proffesor Haunley let me look through the most recent of the Royal Astronomical Society's journal. Mother still doesn't know of my intrest in them. I grow weary of her trivial attempts to teach me to be of more higher class. I don't understand why she does not wish for me to learn more about the stars. They are fascinating! Proffesor Haunley says that there are millions upon millions of other worlds out there daring to be explored! Mother says that I am discrediting the divine creator himself to talk of such nonsense. She says that the stars are tiny and they only serve as a light to shine on us from heaven. She tells me that the more I talk of such frivalous nothings, the closer I am to hell and Satan himself. I do not believe this. If there truly is a divine creator, does no one believe that he wouldn't have just stoped at the stars? If I had the power to create what he supposedly has, I would not just create enough for those on Earth to see. Why there must be so much more to see out there that none of us down on this planet can begin to imagine.

If only I had a way out there.

Her quill hovered over the parchment. Escape. That was what heaven sounded like to her. But her mother barely let her step outside the confines of her own home. Dare she be seen walking around at such a ripe age without a good strong husband by her side. She was slowly passing her prime, mother often said. It would soon be too late for children. At the age of twenty-five a woman should be settled. And she blamed it all on her silly fascination with the night sky. It was always,

"A woman shouldn't dwell on imagination. Too much thinking will scare all the men away. You wouldn't want that now would you?"

Or,

"I don't know why you stuff you mind with those horrid thoughts. It's very unatractive. You must be poised and proper if you ever want a man to look your way."

It wasn't that she was unatractive. She was always told how beautiful she was. This never concerned her as she straed at her reflection in the mirror each morning. Fair skin and hair as light as the sun at mid-day. She had clear blue eyes and soft rosy lips. There was nothing particularily striking about her face. Her mother always said if she'd just put down her silly books, she might catch a man's eye.

She was beginining to think that there was no man on Earth who would prove her mother wrong. If she was to find a suiter, he would have to love her for more than sophisticated expectations. She had been to enough of her mother's upper-class gallas to know that men were disgusting creatures. Demons of the worst kind who preyed on the weak and vulnerable. Mother never saw it this way. They always lived in two seperate worlds it seemed. But where would mother fit into the future? Times were changing fast. Soon even she wouldn't be able to turn the other cheek.

She rose to her her feet and croosed her room to the window. The light danced on the floor below her and as she stepped into it, her long dress seemed to sparkle like a chandelier. She watched as the reflection of each tiny crystal bead was cast onto the walls. Even if she was not to watch the night sky, she felt she carried the stars with her every waking moment. Her hands reched for the silver locket that hung on a long chain, resting just abover her waist. It was quite large for a locket and it was different in the sense that it did not open like a regular locket. Rather it had a silver stopper in it for which to open it from its top. But she could never open the wretched thing. It always felt so cold in her hands.

The locket was given to her by her grandfather. How she missed him so. He was the best man she had ever known. He was her reason for her fascination with stars. He never quieted her imagination. He always told her great stories of astronomers and philosophers who dared to think outside common knowledge and fought for a future that was brighter and more brilliant than was ever percieved by the church itself. He had studied alongside Proffesor Haunley for years and let her join him on his visits to his office. Each time she was awestruck by the infinite possibilities that seemed to be flowing around in that simple room. So much to learn and absorb. So much to wonder about.

She watched the people down on the street below her window. How foolish it seemed to stay in ones own mind when there was still so much to explore. Would no one rescue her from her tedious existance?

A crash behind her startled her so suddenly that she was nearly hurtled to the ground. She whipped her head around to search for the source of the commotion. The door had been blasted open by a man carrying the strangest of instruments.

"If you're going to keep beeping like that at least lead me somehwere promising! Yes, hello." He raised head to stare at her. Her eyes were wide. She had never seen anyone the likes of him and she assumed he must be foreign given his odd accent and his unfamilliar clothing.

"Have I startled you? Sorry about that, can't help it. I'm searching for something...but I don't know what it is yet. I landed here and it just started beebing." He held up the strange instrument. "This is my timey-wimey detector. it goes ding when there's stuff...Except it never does tell me exactly what sort of stuff." She continued to stare at him as she crossed the room to her desk.

"How very inhuman of you to enter a woman's chambers without having the decency to knock first. Highly unlike a proper gentleman." She picked up her journal and closed it immidiately.

"Yes I get that a lot. I find it extremely hard to act human and honestly where's the fun in it anyway? Humans are so restricted." He smiled at her. "I'm the Doctor by the way. You haven't seen anything peculiar lately, have you?" She rested her hands at her waist and stood facing him.

"I must ask you to leave my bedroom at once at it is very unladylike for me to be entertaining a stranger, especially a man, Doctor...who?"

"Just the Doctor actually."

"Well Doctor, I think it would be best if you left at once."

"I can't actually do that though. Not untill I've found what I'm looking for." He began to wave his instrument around the room in the most spastic way. She watched his eyes as they darted around the room wildly. She tried to follow his gaze but he moved so quickly. If he was so sure that he was searching for something, why was it so hard to find?

His clothes were equally peculliar. He had on the strangest of shoes. They were similar to a pair of factory boots she had seen her gardener wearing one day. And odder yet were his trousers. They were perfectly normal in every respect but he had them rolled up quite a few inches above his ankles. His dress shirt had a very strange pattern on it and he had on a pair of very red suspenders. His coat resembled that of the proffesors. Twead with leather elbows. And he wore a red bowtie around his neck. The most strange about his apprearance however was his hair. Such long hair for a man and extremely unkempt. He must be from very far away indeed. She wondered what sort of town would consider this sort of behavior 'normal'.

"Ah ha!" He cried out suddenly. "No wait a minute! That can't possibly be right." She snapped momentarily out of her daze and saw that he was pointing his instrument at her. He began to walk towards her quickly. She just as quickly began to back away as he had an almost terifying gleam in his eye. Her back met the wall.

"I must inform you that I have many servants who will be here at a moments notice if I even utter a simple shout of distress!" She said sternly at him. He ignored her and instead began to bang the instrument against his hand before holding it out to her again. He was inches away from her. Far too close for comfort.

"How can that be possible?" His eyes met hers. She suddenly felt a strange drifting feeling. His eyes seemed to burn into her soul. Such old eyes for such a young face. His hand reached into his jacket as he brought out another instrument. Her breath quickened as she stared at it. He held it up to her face and suddenly there was a strange green light and a bizzare buzzing noise as it opened to form a small claw. "Human. Ordinary Human. Completely ordinary I might add." She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Excuse me? How dare you deem me as such! I am not as ordinary as you might think." He clicked the bizzare light stick back to its original shape and slipped it into his jacket.

"And what might I ask is so extraordinary about you? Other than the fact that my timey-wimey detector seems very interested in you, I must get that fixed, you seem completely normal. Course, normal is good. Normal is cool. I like normal. I deal with far to much of the abnormal."

"What exactly is it that you do, Doctor? Are you a Doctor of medicine?"

"More sort of a Doctor of everything."

"How can you be a Doctor of everything?"

"I have many years of experience. Enough years in fact to learn everything there is to know about anything." He stepped back from her. "But I must be on my may. So much to see. Lots of running." She grabbed his arm.

"Everything about anything?" She smiled hopefully. "Do you know anything of the stars?" He smiled widely.

"And what whould you care about stars?" She hurried across the floor to the window.

"Because they are fascinating! Truly wonderfull. They are the most beautiful things I have ever seen and I wish to learn everything about them. Yet they are so far from my reach and my mother always tells me how unuseful they are." She placed her hand on the glass.

"You feel trapped." She whipped her head around.

"How do you mean?" He stepped closer to her.

"There is an infinite world of knowledge out there and no one is letting you learn. I can't think of a worse way to live!" He smiled at her again. "Which is why I never stay in one place. It's nver good to feel trapped anywhere. You have to really see the universe to understand it." She stepped forward untill she was just inches away from him.

"How could you possibly see the whole universe?" She stared deeply into his old eyes searching for an answer.

"I could show you." She reached out to touch his face when suddenly one of her servants burst into the room.

"Miss! Thank goodness you're all right! The house is under attack! I must insist that you follow me to the cellar at on- excuse me sir who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor and might I ask good sir, what is it exactly that is attacking the house?" He began to shake. There was a thick line of sweat forming on his brow and she could see the fear etched in his eyes and laced in his words when he spoke.

"Creatures from Hell." The Doctor turned towards her and grinned.

"You see that's the thing about me. Danger always follows right behind."