Hey, everyone. It took me a bit to decide whether I should do a rewrite of All the World's a Stage but going by this prologue, you can guess what that answer was. I want to do it because, to me, the original version was lacking in some areas. There were some things left unexplained, the plot point regarding the glass creatures was rushed, etc. I hope that this would be an improvement.
Mass Foundations: All the World's a Stage
Prologue: Opening
"Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."
—Murphy's Law
A spaceship, either very cleverly or very clumsily disguised as a police box, tumbled through the space-time vortex. As it landed on a street in London, a strange wheezing and groaning sound echoed in the night. Inside was a large control room sprawling beyond the deceptive doors; its many surfaces and devices awash in a golden glow. Everyone who passed through those police box doors for the first time all commented on the most remarkable thing about the box: not the many dials or central component of moving glass, but how much bigger it sprawled on the inside.
By the many-sided room was a pale, tall man with a thin face and a mop of wild silver hair. His hair went along quite well with his thick eyebrows, sharp blue eyes, and a hooked nose. His dark coat and trousers would give anyone the impression that he was a rock star still on tour. That old man was a time traveler, a Time Lord from the lost planet Gallifrey, and he was known as the Doctor.
"Whew! That was quite an adventure there, Doctor."
He wasn't alone. He turned away from the monitor. In front of him was a lithe young woman, short and rosy-skinned. Her brown hair held by a headband, she wore a red dress and a pair of sneakers with matching colors.
"Indeed, Clara. At least we made it the night before the parent-teacher conference, no?" The Doctor grinned rather awkwardly. "Never a fan of them myself. I wasn't so well-behaved when I was a child."
Clara Oswald, the young woman, rolled her eyes. "Of course. Can't say I'm surprised." She walked to the only exit.
"Try not to get yourself into trouble while I'm away," she called out like a parent requesting their child to behave. "And don't be late, okay?"
With that, she stepped out of the TARDIS and closed the door behind her.
The Doctor smirked and crossed his arms. "Ah, you know me better than that, Clara. I always find trouble, wherever that may be," he said to no one in particular.
As if on cue, frantic numbers flashed on the screen. The alarms blaring out caught the Doctor by surprise. Before he could analyze the data, the whole room—no, the entire TARDIS—shook violently, as if in the middle of an earthquake. He could barely keep his balance as he held onto the console.
Sparks flew in all directions, and loose wires dangling about. The lighting flickered a fiery red before everything turned pitch black.
In hindsight, the Time Lord wished he hadn't said those words.
