"She was sixteen when she wandered off away from the T.A.R.D.I.S. after I met Ben and Polly. It was 's been over fifty years and by the looks of this photograph, she hasn't aged a day." the Doctor said.
"Doctor, how can that be?" Kate asked.
"I don't know. Time travel, maybe. But here's the problem, I'm the only active Time Lord on this side of the universe."
"What about the Master?" Clara asked.
"The Master doesn't really time travel." the Doctor said.
"Who's the Master?" Vicki asked.
"The Master is a rival Time Lord of mine. Whereas I want to restore peace and balance to the universe, he strives for the exact opposite. As far as he's concerned, I'm his lone worthy opponent. It's why he won't kill me." the Doctor said.
"Is he your brother?" Troilus asked.
"What makes you say that?" the Doctor asked.
"Your tone of voice."
"Well, the last time I met the Master, it was at the end of my time as the Tenth Doctor. Strange, I don't recall ever meeting him as the Eleventh Doctor. But back to Dodo Chaplet. There is one other possibility."
"Your future self?" Clara asked.
"No. The Monk. He may have fixed his own T.A.R.D.I.S. It's time I locate him."
"The Monk? But I thought his T.A.R.D.I.S. was broken when we last saw him."
"It was. He fixed it. I broke it again, but it appears he has fixed it again."
Kate Stewart remembered something one of the members had told her during proceedings. The Ice Warriors had an alien member with a T.A.R.D.I.S. in their possession. He had landed on their planet by accident, and the Ice Warriors had kept him and said that they would release him only to the Doctor.
"Well, Doctor, if you're looking for him. He may be in Mars. The Ice Warriors mentioned having a Time Lord there after he crash-landed on their planet."
"Oh, dear, and how are the Ice Warriors treating him?"
"Fine. They're actually waiting for you to come by."
"Why?"
"They feel that it is best for a member of his own race to come and retrieve him."
"Alright, I'll go and get him after I figure out this business with Dodo."
"Doctor, I've had to hold this question in for the last few minutes, but who is Dodo?" Vicki asked. "I never traveled with her."
"You see, Vicki, after you left, I continued traveling with Steven. We ended up on the eve of St. Bartholomew's Massacre. Oh, Steven nearly had a heart attack when he discovered in the river a deceased abbot who was a dead ringer for my first incarnation." the Doctor.
"Euhhh, Doctor." Troilus spoke,
"Hehe, that's exactly what Jamie said after I commented that some broken Cybermat converters had had a 'complete metal breakdown'. But anyway, we met this woman named Anne Chaplet. We had to leave her behind. But at our very next stop, we ran into her descendant named Dorothy, or Dodo for short."
"And then what happened, Doctor?" Vicki asked.
"Well, nothing much. We traveled together with Steven to various places, but right after Steven left, I met Ben and Polly. Dodo disappeared at the end of my first adventure with Ben and Polly."
"So, what's wrong with that, Doctor?" Clara asked.
"Well, that's just it. I don't remember anything unusual happening. I mean, Clara, sometimes I'm drawn to a particular person as a companion like you. You have echoes of yourself throughout space and time. But Dodo was just an ordinary girl."
Just then, Kate received a phone call. It was Polly Wright.
"Hello, Polly. Slow down. What do you mean, she just showed up on your doorstep? I know you're concerned, but the Doctor's actually here." Kate replied.
There was some muffled response.
"Yes, yes, he's actually here. I'll put him on the line." Kate said,
"Doctor, Dodo, she's here. She just showed up, claimed she needed a place to crash. She said she had nowhere else to go at the moment." Polly said.
"Hello to you too Polly. How's Ben?" the Doctor asked.
"Ben is fine. He'll be overjoyed to see you. But Doctor, please come by soon. I don't know what to do. Is this some alien plan? I'm sorry for being so paranoid, but that's from our days of adventuring." Polly frantically continued.
"I don't blame you about being paranoid. I'll show up there soon. What's your address? Baker Street? I was just there." the Doctor said, hanging up the phone.
"Right you lot, I'm travelling to Ben and Polly's house. It's on Baker Street. Come on the four of yea, let's go!" the Doctor exclaimed.
"Wait, Baker Street?" Clara said. "Ben and Polly live on Baker Street. Are you serious?"
"Yeah, I'm serious" the Doctor said.
"All this time, two of your former companions lived on the same street as me." Clara said disbelievingly.
"Yeah, well, consider Ben and Polly the proto-typical versions of Rory and Amy or would Rory and Amy have been Ben and Polly 2.0?"
The T.A.R.D.I.S. materialized in the sitting room of Ben and Polly. Dodo was there, stretched out. She was passed out on the couch. Her black hair lay strewed about. It reminded the Doctor of the death position of the Victorian Clara.
Just then, Dodo opened her eyes.
"Doctor?"
"Hello, Dorothy."
"How's your tooth?"
"Well, I wish I could say I've avoided the American West since then but that would be a lie."
"You've changed your appearance."
"Yes, Dodo. I never brought this up but I'm a Time Lord. It's a biological process, full cell replacement, including the brain. But, what happened?"
"I don't know, Doctor. I remember leaving you to get some rest and relaxation. I know I went back to my aunt's place, finished my schooling, and was off to a university, and then I remembered being in the London Underground and after that I can't remember. What happened?" Dodo asked.
"Fifty years happened, and you haven't aged." the Doctor said.
"That's impossible." Dodo said.
"Yeah, well. He's dubbed me the impossible girl." Clara snarked.
"Clara, please" the Doctor said.
"Who are you? All of you?" Dodo asked.
"Right, obviously, you need to be caught up." the Doctor said. "These are my companions, Clara, Vicki, and Troilus. Vicki was your predecessor, and left to be with Troilus here." The Doctor pointed to both of them. Troilus raised an eyebrow.
"Aren't you going say it?" Troilus asked.
"Say what?" Dodo replied.
"Say that my name resembles the character in Shakespeare's play?" Troilus answered.
"Sorry, I skipped all of Shakespeare in Literature class. It's boring. Why, were you named after him or something?" Dodo responded. "Oh, dear, I feel rather faint. My vision's going all weird. I'm seeing things. And what's her name?" She said, pointing at Clara.
"Oh, her?" the Doctor said. "Her name is Clara."
"Clara!? The one who squirted me with water from those … fake … flowers?" Dodo nodded off.
"Oh, dear. Something has addled Dodo's mind." the Doctor said.
"Well, Doctor, U.N.I.T. has much better facilities than Ben and Polly's couch. I hope you don't mind if we take it from here." Kate said.
"Is she going to be alright?" Ben asked. "I mean, we are very concerned for her."
"I mean, it's not every day that someone you thought you would be time-traveling with appears on your front door without aging." Polly commented.
"Doctor, will all of your former companions be making an appearance?" Vicki asked. "Because we're up to how many have we met now within the last 36 hours? Eight. With several others being mentioned."
"Yes, you do seem to be right. And no I don't think all of my former companions will be appearing. That would be too contrived. Hmmm, that leaves only Steven Taylor unaccounted for."
"Steven Taylor?" Troilus asked. "That man with the slicked-back hair?"
"Out of all the companions from my first incarnation, he's the only one who hasn't appeared yet."
"What about Susan?" Vicki asked.
"Oh, Susan doesn't count as a companion. She's my granddaughter. She's family. And in all of my years, I've determined the difference between her and my companions. Family is someone you care for, someone that you raise or who raises you. A companion is a cherished assistant, someone who knows your little idiosyncrasies, who's completely independent, who could survive on their own. My companions all change me fundamentally."
"What an accurate differentiation." Kate noted.
"Yes, I know. When you've experienced a great deal in life, you tend to be able discern differences in meanings that, to most people, are fundamentally the same. For instance, there's a different between a great athlete and a successful athlete. A successful athlete excels at the game. A great athlete evolves the game."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Clara asked.
"Nothing, I just was trying to use a good example for once, not try to explain a metaphor, hopelessly ramble on it, confusing my companions, and then realize that the metaphor was never all that great of explanation to begin with" the Doctor said, poking fun at some of his past explanations. He chuckled at that thought.
"What's so funny, Doctor?" Polly asked.
"Sorry, I was once asked whether or not lakes were frozen on the planet Marinus and my response was redundancy at its finest."
Are the lakes frozen?
No, impossible at this temperature. Besides it's too warm.
"What a time we had on Marinus, one of the few times the adventure actually took us into different climates." the Doctor said.
"What does that mean?" Ben asked.
"Well, most of the time my adventures are largely contained to a small area on a planet. A single environment if you will. Now, Marinus and the search for its keys had us travel all over the planet. But enough rambling about that, Troilus, help me carry Dodo into the T.A.R.D.I.S. See ya, Ben and Polly."
"We're coming too" the two said in unison.
"Alright. Kate, how long does it take by car to get from Baker Street to U.N.I.T. Headquarters?"
"Why, Doctor?" Kate asked.
"Because if we show up there now, it just screams 'Look at me! We all just arrived in a T.A.R.D.I.S.!'" the Doctor said.
"Why not just transport her via car?" Vicki asked.
"We don't know what's wrong with Dodo yet. Let's say she has a limited amount of time for treatment. I would rather use as little as possible of her time transporting her, and more time treating her." the Doctor explained.
As everyone shuffled into the T.A.R.D.I.S., the Doctor commented that he couldn't remember the last time he had this many people travelling with him at once. In a matter of seconds on the T.A.R.D.I.S. timeline, it materialized at the U.N.I.T. hospital wing.
As Dodo was hastily put into a hospital bed and scanned, a familiar red-haired woman came up to the Doctor.
"Hello, Doctor. You look younger." Liz Shaw commented.
"Dr. Elizabeth Shaw, one of the best minds U.N.I.T. ever had, and an early co-worker of min here at U.N.I.T. Shame you left so soon, Liz, I would have liked to have traveled with you a bit, expanded your scientific mind and all that."
"It's quite all right, Doctor. I recognize you two, Admiral Ben Jackson and his wife Polly. Who are you?"
"My name is Clara Oswald, I'm the Doctor's companion. Though the way things have been going I'm not sure if I'm his future companion, present companion, or past companion." Clara replied.
"My name is Vicki."
"My name is Troilus."
"Troilus? Doctor, don't tell me you actually brought Troilus from Shakespeare's Greek play "Troilus and Cressida"?"
"And what if I did?" the Doctor slyly asked.
"Why?" Dr. Shaw asked.
"Because Vicki is both in love with him and wanted to accompany me on this particular adventure" the Doctor replied.
"Well, this is a first. Someone who put two and two together so quickly, that with a time traveler a guy named Troilus is probably the original." Vicki sweetly whispered to Troilus.
"Damn, I need a male friend who isn't the Doctor." Clara thought.
"And is the woman in the hospital bed, Dodo Chaplet?" Mrs. Shaw asked.
"I'm not an adult! I'm eighteen. At least, I think I am." Dodo scathingly replied, before falling back asleep.
"Sorry. Female." Dr. Shaw corrected.
"Yes. You see, it's all very confusing. Dodo remembers finishing up grade 12 and draws a blank in her memories. But you see, I dropped her off in 1966, and she finished grade 12 in 1969. And since then, she hasn't aged!" the Doctor exclaimed.
"She showed up on our doorstep not an hour ago." Ben said.
"Dodo seemed almost ready to collapse. She kept muttering a single phrase over and over and over again." Polly volunteered.
"And what was that?" Kate Stewart asked.
"It was 'the intelligent Toymaker'. Doctor, what does that mean?" Ben sounded worried.
"So he's back." the Doctor mentioned. "but where?"
"Who's back?" Vicki asked.
"The Celestial Toymaker." the Doctor replied. "Oh dear. I'll be right back. I have to pick up someone first."
