Earth- February, 1978
So deeply was he engrossed in the book he was currently reading, that it took the man several seconds to realize something was amiss.
His head popped up and his eyes went wide.
"No," he uttered in disbelief. "No, no, no!"
Book forgotten, he raced out of the library he had been in and headed for the main control room of his ship, the TARDIS.
"What's going on?" the Doctor yelled to no one in particular, as he was the only one currently aboard.
As he plowed into the console room, he saw the time column was active, indicating that the ship was currently traversing the time vortex.
"No, stop! I didn't tell you to go anywhere!" The Doctor protested as he attempted to stop the TARDIS from going to wherever it was going.
After a moment, he realized that it was futile. The old girl was not to be deterred.
After a moment, the ship stopped all on its own.
The Doctor accessed the computer to see where they had landed. Normally he would just waltz right out, but he was being cautious this time. The TARDIS didn't make a habit of going off on her own like that.
"Well I'm on Earth," he said as he checked the display. "1978. But I'm not in the U.K. Very strange."
Straightening up, he headed for the exit, grabbing his coat along the way. As soon as he opened the door he frowned. He had been here before. And in fact very recently. He had a feeling there was something significant about that, and that whatever it was, it wasn't good.
"On water, man! It runs on Water!"
"Yeah Hyde, We've heard this before," Eric Forman said to his friend Hyde.
The two of them, along with their friends Michael Kelso and Fez where currently in his basement partaking in one of their favorite recreational activities. Namely, getting high.
"But don't you understand the significance of that?" Hyde exclaimed.
"Hah!" Kelso laughed. "You said significance!"
"Yeah?" demanded Hyde. "What's so funny about that?"
"Uh, I don't know," Kelso said, his face taking on a puzzled expression.
"Hey Eric," Fez began. "This is some good stuff. I'm starting to hear bells."
"That's the doorbell dummy!" He started to rise to go answer it.
"Can't one of your parents answer it?" Hyde asked.
"They're visiting my aunt Bea today remember?"
"Oh yeah."
Eric made his way to the front door, rubbing his eyes in a futile effort to make them seem less bloodshot.
He hoped he didn't look too stoned. Perhaps he should just ignore whoever was out there. It was a Saturday afternoon. It couldn't be all that important. He was just about to head back to the basement when the doorbell rang again.
Sighing in resignation, he reached for the door and opened it.
When he saw who was standing there, his face went white. "You," he whispered. And then he fainted.
The Doctor stared at the young man passed out on the floor before him.
He had definitely seen this man before. Although he appeared several years older than the last time he had seen him. He looked to be about 18 or so. From the current state of things, it didn't look as if he was very good at reunions.
"Eric," he called out, suddenly remembering the man's name. He kneeled by him and shook his shoulder. "Eric," he shouted again. "Are you okay?"
Eric began to come around just as the sound of footsteps began to approach them.
"Hey, what's going on here?" Hyde said aggressively as he saw a strange man kneeling over his friend. Kelso and Fez were behind him.
"He passed out," the Doctor replied without glancing up.
"He did?" Hyde asked. "What a wimp!"
"It's him!" Eric exclaimed as his eyes sprung open. "It's the time traveling British space alien."
"What are you talking about…?" Hyde's voice trailed off as he got a good look at the strangers' face. "Doctor," he uttered in awe.
"That's me," the Doctor grinned as he popped up.
"We all thought we had imagined you," Eric said as he slowly got to his feet.
"Nope! I'm as real as they come."
"Guys, who is this?" Fez questioned. He hated to feel left out of the loop.
"Oh, that's right," Eric said. "You weren't there the first time."
"He's the Doctor!" Kelso said, a large smile plastered across his face.
"What are you doing back here?" Hyde asked.
"I don't know," the Doctor said truthfully. "My ship brought me here without my permission."
"You're ship flies itself?" Fez asked.
"Not usually," the Doctor admitted. "But when it does, it's usually not a good sign." He paused for a moment. "How long is it since I was last here?"
"About five years," Eric replied.
"What's changed in the last five years here?" the Doctor asked.
"Lots of stuff," Kelso said. "We're in high school now, Forman got his dad's old car, Jackie and Donna grew boobs, Hyde taught us how to-"
"No, No. I mean has anything of any significance happened."
"Hah!" Kelso laughed. "You said significance."
Hyde punched him in the arm.
"Ow!" Kelso yelled. "Those are pretty significant," he said as he rubbed his arm.
"What I mean is has anything strange happened recently. Unexplainable events, people going missing, or showing up dead. Maybe alien sightings."
"Well there's always you," Hyde accused.
"I mean besides me," the Doctor sighed becoming a bit exasperated.
"Nothing," Eric said definitively. "This isn't exactly the most happening place on Planet Earth you know."
Just then, through the still open front door, Eric saw a car pull into the driveway.
"Damn! It's my parents," he panicked.
"Good," the Doctor said. "Maybe they'll have a better sense of whether anything funny has been going on around here."
"No, bad idea," Eric said, looking around frantically.
"Quick," he said as he pushed the Doctor towards the front door. "You have to get out of here."
The Doctor was about to protest when Eric shifted gears and started pulling him back into the house. His parents were already getting out of the car. There was no way the Doctor would be able to slip by them.
"Here," he said. "Give me your coat." And without asking for permission he took the Doctor's coat off of him. "Hey!" the Doctor protested loudly as he had his coat ripped from him. "Careful with that. Janis Joplin gave me that coat!"
Eric tossed it to Kelso, who casually draped it over the stair railing leading to the second floor.
"Come over here," Eric said, once again dragging the Doctor by the arm.
"Sit on the couch," he said as he practically threw the Doctor into the living room couch.
"I must say this is not the type of hospitality that I'm used to," the Doctor said angrily. "Although, often times I have a gun or three pointed at me so I suppose this isn't too bad. Perhaps if I had a cup of tea-"
The Doctor was interrupted by a shout coming from outside.
"Why the hell is the front door open? Do you realize how much it costs to heat this house? You could at least have the sense to close the front door."
Just then, Red Forman and his wife Kitty entered the house. "Eric," he said angrily, "why in the hell is the-" he paused mid sentence when he saw they had company.
"Who are you?" he asked the man sitting on his couch in a voice that was only slightly less angry.
"Hello," the Doctor said cheerfully as he popped up from the couch. "I'm John Smith." he walked over to where Red and Kitty were standing and offered his hand.
Red looked at the man for a moment and then down at his hand. He made no move to shake it. "And why are you in my house?" He asked.
"I'm with the FBI," he said as he pulled out his psychic paper from his suit jacket pocket.
"I knew it!" Hyde said, a look of triumph on his face.
"I was wondering if you folks have seen anything strange going on around here in the past few months."
"The FBI huh?" Red said as he looked closely at the I.D.
"What sort of things are you talking about?"
"Oh you know," the Doctor said vaguely as he waved his arm about. "Anything not normal."
"Well in the past month, my mail hasn't been delivered on three separate occasions, but I don't think that's what you're interested in. You notice anything strange recently Kitty?"
"The only thing different that I've noticed recently is that Eric's been doing a very good job of keeping the driveway shoveled out."
Eric rolled his eyes. Those were the type of things that only a mother would notice. His eyes widened suddenly. "Hey wait a second; I haven't shoveled the driveway in days. I thought Dad was doing it."
"Yeah right," Red scoffed. "Why should I have to shovel the driveway? That's what I have you for."
Eric looked to his friends. "It wasn't me," Kelso said.
"I didn't do it," Hyde said.
"My doctor says I can not shovel snow because of my bad back," was Fez's answer.
"Then who's been shoveling the snow?" Kitty wanted to know.
"Snow that shovels itself," the Doctor said as he headed for the front door. "Now that's strange."
Everyone followed the Doctor outside as he made his way towards the driveway. No one commented or even seemed to notice the blue box that was sat next to the basketball hoop.
"Why would the FBI be interested in snow?" Red asked as the Doctor kneeled down in the driveway.
Sure enough, the whole of the driveway and even a little bit of the sidewalk in front of it was without snow. It didn't look as if someone had shoveled it either. There were no piles of snow around it; it just wasn't there.
The Doctor ignored the question for a moment. Standing back up, he went over to a patch of snow by the side of the house and scanned it with his sonic screwdriver. Then he picked up a bit of the snow and licked it.
"It seems to be regular snow," he said to his attentive audience.
He went back to the driveway and started to scan the ground. "Hmm," he said after a moment. He adjusted the setting on the sonic and scanned again. "Oh, this is very not good," he said with a deep frown on his face.
"What?" Red demanded. "What's wrong with my driveway?"
"It's not your driveway that concerns me," the Doctor said as he returned his sonic to his suit pocket. "It's what's beneath it."
