A/N: Okay, this is my first shot at a Doctor Who fic, so bare with me as I get comfortable with writing the characters!
Disclaimer: Doctor Who is the property of the BBC, and I am not the BBC.
……
Donna Noble had travelled to many places with the Doctor, across galaxies to far-away planets and stars and even through time. She was beginning to expect the unexpected. However, when she had opened the TARDIS doors that morning and found herself stepping out into wet Cardiff in the year 2008, she found herself more surprised than if the Doctor had taken her to some planet called Klog where it actually did rain cats and dogs. Cardiff was hardly very exciting or exotic… The Doctor had explained that every now and again he needed to take the TARDIS to refuel- or something, Donna hadn't been paying that much attention- in Cardiff because of some time rift… Donna had got the general idea of what he was saying, even if she hadn't been listening properly.
So, the pair had spent the day wandering around Cardiff bay, leaving the TARDIS to do whatever it was supposed to do for a few hours. The rain had eased off and although a dark cloud still remained hovering in the grey skies, it had been quite warm and pleasant and Donna was happy that, for once, the Doctor had landed the TARDIS somewhere where there had been no trouble.
Having spent the day strolling peacefully alongside the murky waters instead of running for her life, Donna was in quite a reflective mood; something which didn't happen often. Or rather, it hadn't happened often before she had met the Doctor. She had tuned out the Doctor's excited babble about the banana flavoured ice-cream he had just had as they walked back to the TARDIS.
'…And there were actual chunks of banana in it!' the Doctor was saying, as he rummaged for the TARDIS key in his many coat pockets. 'Real banana- in an ice-cream! Never mind the fact that the potassium and energy stores in it are good for you- and by you, I mean humans- it tastes fantastic!' He found the key and inserted it into the lock, opening the blue door with a neat click. Donna stepped in without a word, causing the Doctor to frown slightly.
'Are you alright, Donna?' he asked carefully, following her in and closing the door. Donna was stood by the console, looking up at the ceiling. 'Donna?'
'What? Yeah, I'm fine. I just… It's been a while since I spent a day not worrying about some alien conspiracy,' she said vaguely, looking back down at the Doctor.
He smiled slightly. 'I guess it has been…'
'But that's about to change?'
The Doctor was grinning properly now. 'Oh yes! Or, as soon as I figure out where we're going.' He bound up the grating to the console, his trainer-clad feet creating a metallic clang. 'All sorts of places to go… Anywhere in the Universe, anywhere at all, any time at all. Decisions, decisions,' he flicked some switches and a few lights flickered on the panel. 'There's always somewhere medieval- or the Dark Ages! Haven't been there in a while, not after that whole incident at the Battle of Hastings… Or, I know-,'
'Do you ever get tired of people walking in here and going "Oh my god! It's bigger on the inside!"' Donna interrupted him. He stopped what he was doing.
'What?'
'I dunno, I was just wondering. I thought I was getting used to it, but really it's so weird…'
The Doctor straightened up. 'Dimensional physics being what it is Donna, I think it'd be weirder if we stepped in here and it was smaller than it is on the outside. Wouldn't that be a little bit more worrying?'
'If I knew anything about dimensional physics it might be,' she replied. 'Where to then, Spaceman?'
'Hmmm, right, I've just decided that it might be a good idea if we go to-,' but he didn't get to finish his sentence because, suddenly, the TARDIS was on the move, making the decision for them. Both the Doctor and Donna were thrown painfully onto the grating as the TARDIS engines whirred into sudden action.
'What the bloody hell was that for?' Donna demanded from her awkward position on the floor, all traces of her reflective mood gone. 'Are you trying to give me a concussion?'
'I didn't do it!' the Doctor told her, indignantly. 'It was the TARDIS, she just went without me doing anything!' He jumped to his feet and grabbed onto the console as this TARDIS shook him about furiously. Donna repeatedly tried to get onto her own feet, but found herself unable to as she was tossed about like a single bean in a can. She managed to poke her fingers through the metal grating and was gripping it tightly, the metal digging into her flesh. She let out a frustrated sound, something between a snarl and a shout.
'Doctor!' she cried dangerously.
'I'm trying, I'm trying,' he shouted back, whacking the console with his emergency hammer in his right hand, gripping tightly to a lever with his left. Then, suddenly, the TARDIS came to a stop. All the engines shut down and everything was still.
Donna was finally able to stand up and she did so, blowing her red hair out of her face angrily. 'So?' she asked. 'What happened this time?'
The Doctor was looking at the monitor, black-framed glasses perched on his nose, concentrating on the strange white swirls that flowed around the screen. 'Ah,' he said finally. 'That's what it was.'
'What?' Donna asked again, her patience fading. The Doctor tucked his glasses safely back into his pocket and looked at his companion.
'There was a bit of a problem, back at the other end in Cardiff,' he started. 'From what I can tell, there was a sudden blast of energy through the time rift- nothing to worry about, it happens sometimes- but the TARDIS sort of… rode the energy to avoid us exploding into smithereens. She was still connected, see, so it was her only option. Really quite clever, I wonder where we've ended up…'
Donna sighed, once again she had followed what the Doctor had said, just about understanding what had happened, but not why. He laughed suddenly.
'What's so funny? Or is it just some weird alien reaction to be tossed about inside a wooden box?' she snapped.
'My TARDIS is not a wooden box, thank you very much,' the Doctor told her, looking hurt and the green centre of the machine pulsed. 'It's just funny, the TARDIS didn't know where to go, and she grabbed the only co-ordinates she could get.'
'And?'
'Well, the only thing she could pick up on that was anything like a familiar co-ordinate was the local post code for that area of Cardiff.'
Donna looked at him blankly. Why was that funny? Aliens… she thought.
'Well, I thought it was funny,' he said.
'Ha,' Donna replied dryly. She really wasn't amused; her fingers were red and sore from clinging to the metal grating and she could feel bruises upon bruises swelling up all over her body.
'Anyway,' the Doctor said, clapping his hands together excitedly. 'Shall we go outside and take a gander?'
'Where are we?'
'No idea,' he said happily, heading for the door, which he held open with a hand. A thick beam of golden sunlight fell though the open door. 'After you.'
'Oh no, I'm not going out first, not again. I learnt my lesson from that planet with no gravity.'
'Oh yeah, Quogmare Point A- the planet itself is so small that it is attracted to the gravity of its three moons which keep it suspended in place. The Quogmarans have adapted to life without gravity though, it's really quite a good job the planet is so highly magnetized because-,'
His rambles were cut off by Donna clearing her throat.
'Right, I'll go first then,' he said, getting her non-verbal message to get a move on. He took a step out and was immediately hit by the stifling heat. As a Time Lord, he felt that the air was hot and slightly sticky, but it didn't affect him very much.
Looking around, he could see that the TARDIS had landed in a quiet alleyway, amongst some stout buildings that appeared to be made out of sand. The sunlight from the two suns in the pale yellow sky surrounded the area so much that all of the shadows made by the Doctor and the buildings looked faded and out of proportion. However, there was gravity and the atmosphere seemed perfectly safe for a human.
'You can come out Donna, it's fine,' he called back through the TARDIS door, mentally scanning through a list of probabilities of exactly which planet they had landed on.
'Wow,' Donna said as she emerged from the TARDIS, using her right hand to shield her eyes. 'I'm really going to need my sunglasses here.'
'I think you'll do just fine without them,' a deep, rumbling voice came from behind the TARDIS. 'Where you're going anyway.'
The Doctor and Donna were barely able to turn and find the source of the voice before they found their arms twisted roughly behind their backs and some strange hand cuffs being placed around their wrists. The speaker stepped out from his hiding place behind the TARDIS.
'Now I know where we are!' the Doctor exclaimed jubilantly. 'And it's not good…' he frowned, his excitement gone.
'No,' the speaker said. 'It's not.'
……
A/N: Okay, so that was an introductory chapter- probably the first of about six chapters following a typical sort of Doctor Who storyline. I'd love to hear people's thoughts!