Victorian Interlude

"Every time we go anywhere, something awful happens. Daleks, Cybermen, and Yeti. Why can't we go anywhere pleasant, where there's no fighting? Just peace and happiness?" - Victoria Waterfield, Fury From the Deep.

...

She found herself thinking a lot of the Doctor as of late.

Ever since that horrible day when the skies changed, amidst the swirl of blinding colors and the most ungodly, unearthly deafening noise. The clouds dissipated and the sky seemed to tear itself apart. Then the sun was gone. In its place, the sky was filled with planets.

The Earth had been stolen.

Dragged across space to a distant corner of the galaxy, the world barely had time to panic, to wonder what had happened and who had such powers to do such a thing.

Then the Daleks came.

Her thoughts had immediately gone to the Doctor, her prayers to the desperate hope that he would come to save them. To save her.

After all, who better than that strange wonderful man to send those terrifying metal-encased monsters running back to wherever they had come.

And she had no doubt that he could do it. For she had seen it before, what seemed like so long ago now. When she had first met him.

Her father, together with a colleague of his, had been performing experiments with time travel and had somehow inadvertently established an interdimensional link to another world. To the planet Skaro, where these monstrous alien Daleks had come from.

She was imprisoned and had only been kept alive to ensure that her father continued with his experiments.

...

She stood at the window of her small room, wearing an elegant floor-length lace-trimmed dress. The room itself was practically empty, with just a simple neatly made bed, a single chair, and a small wooden table on which was a metal tray. The only thing out of place in the room was a strange device in the corner closest to the door and a digital readout panel mounted to the wall about four feet above it. It was not something one was usually likely to see in a Victorian home in the late nineteenth century.

She was feeding the birds outside, pushing pieces of toast past the metal bars on her window, when the door swung open and a Dalek entered.

She swallowed, attempting to control her fear as she pressed herself against the wall.

The single eyestalk on the dome atop the metal creature scanned her for a moment before turning and focusing on the plate of eggs and toast on the tray on the table nearby.

"You have not eaten," the Dalek stated in a shrill monotone voice, "You will eat. That is an order." When she did not reply, it turned towards her and added, "Answer!"

She nodded, terrified, and it took all she could muster to scream out a single word. "Yes!"

The Dalek noted her position within the room, as well as the crumbs at the window sill. "You will not feed the flying pests outside," it told her. "Answer!"

She nodded again and managed another "Yes!"

"Move to the machine," demanded the Dalek, waving its metal clamp-like claw towards the anachronistic machine in the corner. "Move!"

She was trembling as she slowly made her way to the device, stepping onto it as it began to emit a high-pitched whine.

The digital display lit up, strange mysterious symbols that she did not recognize.

The whine died away as the machine performed whatever task it was meant to do.

"Move," ordered the Dalek. When she did not move fast enough, it repeated the order. "Move!"

She hurried to where she had been previously standing, at the far side of the room near the window.

The Dalek examined the digital display. "The weight of your body has fallen by seventeen ounces," it told her, "Your heartbeat is too rapid. Your nervous system is in disorder."

"What do you expect?" she muttered. Finding a small ounce of courage within herself, she continued, "What do you expect? For pity's sake, let me go!"

The metal eyestalk turned towards her. "Speak when you are told to speak!" replied the Dalek as it deactivated the machine. "More food will come. You will eat it, or you will be fed by force!"

With that, the Dalek left the room, the door closing behind it.

...

It was no different this second time. She was imprisoned within her own home, a Dalek outside the door, preventing any attempt to flee.

That familiar terrifying shrill voice.

"You will remain in your home. Any resistance will be met with force. Disobey, and you will be exterminated!"

The only difference was that she was now much older. Back then, she was very young, a mere teenager. One that had led a sheltered life which was the norm for women from wealthy British families in that period of the nineteenth century.

She was so much older now. Had seen so much within her lifetime. It was as if that first encounter with the Daleks had been her initiation into the weird and wonderful that she was to eventually experience in her travels with the Doctor. A terrifying, horrible initiation. For it was her first encounter with the Daleks that had made her an orphan.

Her father had given his life to save the Doctor. Despite this, she did not resent or blame the Doctor in any way for his involvement. It was quite likely that the Daleks would have killed her father anyway once his experiments were complete. And killed her as well.

...

"Where is my father?" she asked, but her heart sank at the look on the Doctor's face. However, she still needed to know the answer. "Is he dead?"

"Yes," replied the Doctor sadly, "Yes, I'm afraid he is. But he didn't die in vain." He gestured to where the Dalek city stood in flames. "I think we've seen the end of the Daleks forever." He turned to the young man with them who wore a Scottish kilt. "Jamie, we must get along to the TARDIS. It's over there."

"We can't leave her alone, Doctor," whispered Jamie, in what he had thought was out of her range of hearing.

"We're not going to leave her," the Doctor told him, "She's coming with us."

...

Not that she had much of a choice in the matter at the time. Stranded as she was on an alien world, her only way back home was with the Doctor. Although there wasn't anything left for her to go back to.

Her mother had died when she was very young. She had no siblings, no other close family that she knew besides an aunt. No ties, no home other than a large old empty Victorian house.

There wasn't anything left that she wanted to go back to. She was lost, and relied on the Doctor to give her life a sense of direction.

It wasn't very long before she had begun to view the Doctor's wondrous travel machine, the TARDIS, as her home.

...

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor turned to her.

"There we are," he said, "Well, what do you think?"

She glanced around the large control room, a sudden contrast to the outward appearance of the strange blue box. "I don't know," she replied slowly, "I can't believe it. It's so big. Where are we?"

"Oh, it's the TARDIS," replied the Doctor proudly, "It's my home. At least, it has been for a considerable number of years."

She glanced at the central control console. "What are all these knobs?"

The Doctor glanced at the console. "What, these?"

"Instruments," piped in Jamie, "These are for controlling our flight."

She glanced at him and chuckled. "Flight?"

Jamie nodded. "Well yes. You see, we travel around in here through time and space."

She began to laugh and the Doctor glanced at her.

"Oh no, no, no, no, don't laugh," he said kindly, "It's true. Your father and Maxtible were working on the same problem. But the TARDIS is a rather special model, which enables me to travel through the universe of time."

"How can you?" she asked, "I mean, if what you say is true then you must be, er, well... how old?"

The Doctor thought for a moment. "Well," he replied slowly, "If we count in Earth terms, I suppose I must be about... four hundred... yes, about four hundred and fifty years old." He nodded as he noticed the surprised glance between her and Jamie. "Yes, well, quite." He paused and turned to Jamie as he added, "Now, I think Victoria might find that dress a little impractical if she's going to join us in our adventures. Jamie, show her where she can find some new ones, will you?"

She glanced down at the long flowing laced dress that she wore. It was what any proper mid-Victorian lady would wear. A thick lace-trimmed overskirt, with an underskirt and three layers of petticoats. Her skirts were held out from her body by what seemed like a basket-like cage which admittedly took up a great deal of room. There was definitely the risk of others tripping over her skirts, not to mention herself despite how used she was to wearing them. If any further adventures were similar to her encounter with the Daleks, then she conceded that perhaps these were not the most practical of garments.

"Aye, right. This way, Victoria," said Jamie as he gestured towards the doors that led further into the TARDIS. He turned back to the Doctor. "Try to give us a smooth take off, Doctor. We don't want to frighten her."

The Doctor glared at him. "A smooth take off? A smooth take off! What a nerve!"

...

Jamie had returned to the control room after leaving her in the TARDIS wardrobe room, with a vast collection of clothing to choose from. She remembered feeling so overwhelmed, not just by the immense wardrobe, or even the amazing size of the TARDIS interior, but by the sudden change her life had just taken.

She absently ran a finger over the fabric of a shear pink dress which was trimmed with teardrop-shaped pink beads, thinking that her life was forever changed. That her past was gone, and moving forward, she needed a way to express her acknowledgement that she herself had changed. That she was no longer the scared little girl that she had been, or the stuffy proper English lady that she undoubtedly would have become.

She was different, and whatever was to become of her, it would largely be the result of that moment.

Victoria Maud Waterfield. In the TARDIS. With Jamie and the Doctor.

...

The Doctor and Jamie were examining the scanner screen when she returned to the TARDIS control room.

After a brief moment, she let out a rather discreet cough. "Ahem."

They turned towards her to see that she was now clad in a simple dress that ended just above the knee. She was later informed by the Doctor that the dress had originally been worn by a girl named Polly, from a period in Earth's history practically a full century after her own time.

"Och, that's far better," said Jamie with a smile.

The Doctor however had noticed the two bright spots that were her cheeks.

"Now Jamie," he told him, "Ladies weren't used to showing so much of their legs during Queen Victoria's reign." He turned to her and added, "Don't worry, dear, you look very respectable."

She shook her head, still blushing as she gestured to the doors leading further into the TARDIS interior, more specifically towards the wardrobe room.

"All you have there are children's clothes like this." She held the end of her short skirt, as if pulling on it in an attempt to lengthen it. "I wore such skirts when I was little. You've made me look like... like Alice in Wonderland!"

The Doctor smiled, and she assumed that, with her wide blue eyes and long fair hair, she must have looked very much like Alice to him.

Jamie began to laugh, and she realised that his kilt wasn't any longer than her new dress.

The Doctor gestured to the scanner display. "We're about to land," he announced, "Atmosphere's breathable. Gravity's similar to Earth. We won't need space-suits."

"Aye," replied Jamie as he checked that his sharp dirk was still in its spot in the sheath within his long checkered sock. "I'll no' be sorry to stretch my legs, Doctor."

"I can't go out like this," she protested, "What if someone saw me?"

"Then ye'll just have to stay here... Alice!" teased Jamie with a broad grin at her outraged expression.

...

No desires to go back, she had no choice but to go forward, sharing in the adventures with Jamie and the Doctor. Jamie was like an older brother, protective and caring, despite his generous amount of teasing. And the Doctor was like a father figure, or at the very least, a rather odd uncle that usually ingratiated himself into many of the family special occasions.

...

"Are you happy with us, Victoria?" asked the Doctor.

"Yes, I am," she replied. After a moment, she added, "At least, I would be if my father were here."

"Yes, I know," he said, "I know."

"I wonder what he would have thought if he could see me now," she continued.

"You miss him very much, don't you?"

"It's only when I close my eyes," she told him, "I can still see him standing there, before those horrible Dalek creatures came to the house. He was a very kind man, I shall never forget him. Never."

"No, of course you won't," replied the Doctor, "But, you know, the memory of him won't always be a sad one."

"I think it will," she said quietly, "You can't understand, being so ancient."

He blinked. "Eh?"

"I mean old," she quickly added.

The Doctor nodded, smiling slightly, "Oh."

"You probably can't remember your family," she said.

"Oh yes, I can when I want to," he told her, "And that's the point, really. I have to really want to, to bring them back in front of my eyes. The rest of the time they sleep in my mind, and I forget. And so will you." He noticed her doubtful glance and added, "Oh yes, you will. You'll find there's so much else to think about. So remember, our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing. There's nobody in the universe can do what we're doing." He patted her arm gently and smiled at her. "You must get some sleep and let this poor old man stay awake."

...

As wonderful and exciting as her adventures with Jamie and the Doctor were, they certainly weren't without their fair share of dangers. However, if anything, her first encounter with the Daleks had prepared her for the existence of extraterrestrial life. So she was generally able to take it in stride when she was faced with the likes of Cybermen, Ice warriors, and alien controlled robotic Yeti.

However, after a while it all eventually began to take their toll, and as much as she loved being with Jamie and the Doctor, she soon came to realize that she just wanted a chance to settle down.

So when they landed on Earth in the late 1960's, she ultimately decided to stay behind, despite the fact that it was a century after the time period she had been born to. She became the foster daughter to a wonderful couple, Maggie and Frank Harris.

...

The Doctor had noticed the tears welling up in her eyes.

"You don't want to come with us, do you, Victoria?" he asked kindly.

"I don't know," she said slowly, finding it difficult to look at him, "I don't really want to leave you."

The Doctor nodded. "Well, I suspected as much."

"Would you mind?" she asked hesitantly.

"Victoria, you can't," protested Jamie.

"Just a minute, Jamie," the Doctor told him firmly. He turned back to her and added, "You mean you want to stay here and settle down? Well, if you want to, you must."

"I'm so sorry..."

"No, that's all right, my dear." The Doctor paused for a moment before turning to Maggie. "Mrs Harris, I wonder if you'd mind if Victoria stayed with you for a little while. You see, she's got no parents or home and it is a bit difficult."

"Well, of course," said the kind woman. She turned to Victoria and added, "We'd be delighted to have you for as long as you want to stay."

"Oh, would you?"

Maggie Harris nodded with a smile. "Yes."

"Thank you very much," said the Doctor, "Jamie and I will stay for another day, just in case you want to think again."

"Look, we'll talk it over later," said Jamie.

"Now, Jamie," the Doctor told him, "She must make up her own mind. It's her own life. It's her decision. We must not interfere."

"Aye," muttered Jamie.

The hurt look on his face had tore at her heart.

...

Jamie McCrimmon. Even now, after all these years since they've gone their separate ways, she thought quite fondly of Jamie. She had thought of him as a protective brother, but they had gotten rather close in the short time they had been together. She was certain that, had she stayed aboard the TARDIS, they would have become something more.

...

"You're still not sure, are you?" Jamie had asked later that night.

"Yes, I'm sure now," she told him, "But it doesn't make it any easier leaving you and the Doctor."

He nodded. "Aye, we've been together a long time now. Has the Doctor said anything to you?"

She shook her head. "No. But you know what he's like. He wouldn't. He believes in people making up their own minds."

"Oh, Victoria. Do you think you'll be happy here?"

"I think so," she replied, "The Harrises are very nice people."

"Yes, I know that," said Jamie, "But they're not from your time, are they?"

"I wouldn't be at ease back in Victorian times," she said, "I had no parents or family left there anyway."

"Aye, that's true," he sighed, "Oh, well." He turned to leave.

"Jamie."

He stopped and glanced at her. "Yes?"

"You wouldn't go without saying goodbye, would you?"

"Och, no, of course not!" He paused for a moment, as if there was something more he wanted to say. However, it seemed his courage failed him and he shook his head. "That won't be till the morning anyway," he told her, "Goodnight, Victoria."

"Goodnight, Jamie."

The next morning, she had watched as Jamie and the Doctor entered the TARDIS. She cried as that wonderful blue box faded away.

...

Time passed, and she was happy with her new life. It hadn't taken her very long to become accustomed to a century much more technologically advanced than that which she had come from. She attributed this fact to her time aboard the TARDIS. To her travels with Jamie and the Doctor, and the wonderful amazing things she had seen.

She missed those times, but she did not miss the danger. The horrors of terrible monsters and alien creatures intent on death and destruction.

She settled into her new life, wondering if she would ever see the Doctor and Jamie again, but expecting that she never would.

Until one day, a few years after she had left the TARDIS, she found the tall blue box parked outside her home.

Her heart skipped a beat and she stood there for a moment, staring wide-eyed at the familiar police box.

They had come back to her.

However, she soon discovered that much had changed within the alien time machine.

Jamie was no longer with the Doctor, having long since been sent back to his own time and place in history.

And the Doctor himself was different. Not older as she would have thought, but physically different. His appearance had changed, and she did not recognize this new Doctor. This strange man in a dark brown felt jacket and cream-colored panama hat. There had not been a single cloud in the sky, yet he carried a brightly colored umbrella with a red question mark shaped handle.

Yet it was his eyes, although different than the Doctor she had known, that convinced her that this was indeed the person that had taken her away from the Dalek homeworld after her father had died. It had sparkled with a brilliant intelligence and a kind warmth that she had seen so many times in the eyes of the man she had known.

This was indeed the Doctor.

And with her consent, he had taken her on a brief visit back to her own time, to the late 1860's of Victorian London.

...

She was uncomfortable wearing the many layered skirts of the old lace-trimmed dress that she had worn what seemed like so long ago. She had discovered the dress still hanging within the TARDIS wardrobe room where she had left it, and was surprised to find that it still fit.

"Are you glad to be back in your own time, Victoria?" asked the Doctor as they walked together, along the streets of Victorian London.

She glanced around at their surroundings, taking in the sights and sounds of a city that she had thought she would never see again. At least not like this. Not the way she remembered.

"I miss it sometimes," she admitted with a smile, "But I'm happy in the twentieth century with my adoptive parents."

"I'm pleased," the Doctor told her. After a brief moment, he added, "We are here for some rather important business."

She nodded. "Yes, I know," she replied, "There are papers to sign, letters to be sent, monies to be transferred..." She trailed off.

"Are you sure it won't upset you?" he asked.

The concern in his eyes held the same warmth of the Doctor she remembered.

"Father is dead," she said calmly, "He died on Skaro, a victim of those horrible Dalek creatures."

"Yes, well, you know that," replied the Doctor, "And I know that. But as far as the authorities of this time believes, he died in a house fire in Canterbury."

"I'm his sole heir," she continued, "I can do with his money and his properties what I want."

The Doctor nodded. "It must be your own decision, Victoria."

"I trust you, Doctor," she told him, "I'll do what you want me to do. And after that..." She trailed off again.

He glanced at her. "Yes?"

"I'd like to see my aunt," she said, "It's been so long since I last saw her. She's all the family I have left in this time."

"Of course," replied the Doctor.

...

It was a welcome diversion, but she no longer belonged to that time and place. The twentieth century had become her home.

The Doctor returned her to her adoptive family, and then went on his way.

She never saw him again after that, or that blue police box of his.

However, separated as she was from the Doctor, it soon proved hard for her to separate herself from alien influence. The alien entity that they had known simply as the Great Intelligence, in control of the robotic Yeti, once again found her, manipulating her and the New World University she had established in the early 1980's.

In the mid-90's she was able to fight against the alien intelligence with the help of UNIT and Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, as well as a reporter named Sarah Jane Smith.

...

"Victoria Waterfield," said Sarah Jane Smith, "That's you on the list, isn't it? At the London Event?"

Victoria was caught off guard. The London Event was the code name given to the second attempt of the Great Intelligence to attack Earth, its legion of robotic Yeti roaming within the London underground. That had been where the Doctor, Jamie, and herself had first met Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, then a colonel within UNIT.

"You must have been very young then," added Sarah Jane Smith.

Victoria nodded, recovering her composure enough to give a teasing smile as she said, "Considering I was born over a hundred and forty years ago."

Sarah Jane half laughed. "Peanuts, I used to know someone..." She trailed off, as if embarrassed and continued, "No. Sorry, I mean, you don't look a day over..."

Victoria chuckled. "I don't feel a day over..."

...

And now, in the early part of the twenty-first century, the Daleks had stolen the Earth. Planets filled the sky, and the future of humanity looked horrendously bleak.

However, just when there seemed there was no hope in sight – that there was no possible way the situation could get any better – the terror was mercifully short-lived. In a streak of temporal displacement, the Earth was pulled back to its rightful place in the galaxy, and the Daleks where sent running.

There was absolutely no doubt in her mind that the Doctor had been involved.

That whatever appearance that wonderful man now had, and whatever companions accompanied him on his travels, she had no doubt that it was the Doctor who had once again saved the Earth from a horrible fate.

She did not need any visual confirmation for this. She knew it for a fact. She knew it in her heart.

The Doctor was still the closest family she had, in any time period.