So, honestly, Shakespeare Code is getting skipped (even though it is a fantastic episode) because it would be a repeat of canon, so on we go to Gridlock. That being said, if anyone would like to read those stories like Unquiet Dead, Dalek, Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways, New Earth, and Shakespeare Code, please do reach out to me. If I get enough interest (or, indeed, any interest), I'll be happy to post them. Here we go!

"Right!" The Doctor announced. "You've seen the past, so how about the future? Or a different planet?"

"Can we go to yours?" Martha asked, and Barry winced as the Doctor's smile froze.

"Probably not a good idea," he put in quickly. "The Doctor told me he stole the TARDIS. Don't want him to end up in prison."

"Plus I ran away from the Presidency," he admitted. "Twice. And…well, loads of stuff, really. Not exactly a model citizen, me."

"Sounds amazing, though," Martha said wistfully. "The planet of the Time Lords."

"It is," the Doctor agreed, looking deep into the control column. "The sky's a burnt orange, with the Citadel enclosed in a mighty glass dome, shining under the twin suns. Beyond that, the mountains go on forever. Slopes of deep red grass, capped with snow."

He shook himself. "But, let's not go there! Rest of the universe to explore! How about New New York?"

While he babbled about New Earth and New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York, he flashed Barry a look that said, very clearly, thank you. Barry nodded slightly.


"Oh, that's nice," Martha commented sarcastically as she exited the TARDIS to a grimy, rainy alleyway. "Time Lord version of dazzling."

"A bit of rain never hurt anyone," the Doctor shrugged. After a little looking around, he enthusiastically deduced that they must be in the undercity.

"You'd enjoy anything," Martha grinned at him.

"That's me," the Doctor agreed. "And the rain's stopping. Better and better."

As they emerged from cover, though, vendors flipped open panels on either side, and began clamoring for their attention. It reminded Barry of a trip he'd taken to New York (the original), with people constantly yelling to, above, and about each other. It had been with Joe and Iris—no, with Henry—Barry sighed.

"Happy, Happy, lovely happy Happy!"

"Anger. Buy some Anger!"

"Get some Mellow. Makes you feel all bendy and soft all day long."

"Don't go to them. They'll rip you off. Do you want some happy?"

"No, thanks."

"Are they selling drugs?" Martha asked.

"I think they're selling moods," the Doctor raised his eyebrows.

"Same thing, isn't it?"

"Chemical mood patches," Barry raised his eyebrows, unsure of whether to feel sick or impressed. As they watched, a young woman came up to one of the vendors, asking for a Forget patch to forget that her parents had driven off on "the Motorway."

"So that's the human race five billion years in the future. Off their heads on chemicals."

"Disgusting," Barry agreed, sending a death glare at the vendors.

While he was occupied with his thoughts, a couple leapt out of the fog, one of them wrapping an arm around Martha's throat and holding a gun to her head.

"Hey!" Barry yelled and ran forward, grabbing the gun and throwing it away, then pulling Martha towards him in the space of an eyeblink.

"Thanks," she breathed, rubbing her neck, and he nodded.

"Sure, no problem."

"Who are you?" the Doctor snapped. "What do you want with Martha?"

"I'm really sorry," the woman said, holding her hands up. "We just needed three people, that's all. We were never going to hurt you, honey, I promise."

"And you couldn't just ask?"

Barry raised his eyebrows and folded his arms.

"Well…" they shared expressive looks. "We really, really needed three."

"We would've let you go once we got through the Motorway," the woman promised. Barry, Martha, and the Doctor exchanged looks.

"Why don't you tell us more about this Motorway?" the Doctor suggested.


They sat together on a group of folding chairs as the couple, Milo and Cheen, explained about the Underpass, where everyone who was anyone went in the hopes of a better life, and how they'd been planning to use Martha as their third person so they could take a shortcut through the fast lane. Cheen sat on Milo's lap, while the Doctor leaned against the wall.

"Well, we can't help you," he folded his arms. "Sorry, bye."

He turned and strode off…only to bump into what looked like a bipedal cat in a grey nurse's gown and hat, who'd just teleported into the street, carrying a gun. Martha gasped, but Barry was not particularly impressed: he'd met cat nuns before, right here on this planet.

"Doctor!"

"Sorry, do I know you?" he asked, looking her up and down.

"You haven't aged at all," she breathed. "Time has been less kind to me."

"Novice Hame!" he exclaimed, going in for a hug, then pulling back as he recalled how she'd been breeding humans for experimentation.

"I've sought forgiveness, Doctor, for so many years, under his guidance," she told him. And if you come with me, I might finally be able to redeem myself."

He threw a look over at Barry and Martha, who shrugged.

"Okay, one sec," he shrugged back. Striding over, the Doctor banged on the closed hatch, and when the pharmacists opened up again, he angrily ordered them to close up shop and move out, or he would be cross.

"Right! That's that then," he said, spinning around to face his friends so that his coat swirled around his ankles. "Allons-y, you lot."

They huddled close, and Hame pressed a button on her wrist strap.

"Transport," she ordered.

With a flash of light, they were gone from the alley, leaving behind a bewildered couple who slowly wandered off.


The unlikely foursome groaned and picked themselves up off of the floor, the Doctor, Martha, and Barry grumbling over the rough teleport.

"Where are we?" Barry asked.

"High above, in the over-city, in the Senate of New New York," Hame explained. "Doctor…this is why my lord called for you."

She fiddled with her bracelet, and the lights came on.

"Oh my God," Martha breathed, with Barry nodding in silent shock. Around them were two rows of stone bleachers, rising up in majesty so that those seated could look down upon petitioners and pass judgment from on high. Artificial lights provided most of the illumination, with a single, narrow window casting a vertical stream of light onto the floor. These particular inhabitants, though, wouldn't be passing judgment anytime soon.

They were standing in a room full of skeletons.

As they looked around in horror, Hame explained about the Bliss plague, coming from a new mood patch. and that "they" had just had time to shut down the Motorway. As Barry thought about his friend Bliss back on Earth, the Doctor, quite pertinently, asked who "they" were.

Doctor, came a voice, accompanied by what felt like a faint pressure against his forehead. It took Barry a moment to realize that the voice had entered directly into his brain without going through his ears.

"The Face of Boe!" the Doctor exclaimed, running around the corner.

I knew you would come.

"No way!" Barry yelled. "Wow! I haven't seen you in ages!"

Good to see you again, Barry Allen. Hello, Martha Jones.

"I was made his nurse, as penance for my sins," Hame explained.

"Old friend, what happened to you?" the Doctor asked gently, kneeling in front of his tank.

Failing, he sighed. Hame explained that he'd protected her from the Bliss virus, but had been forced to connect his own life force to the city to stop it from falling into the sea.

"So the two of you stayed here, on your own for all these years," the Doctor breathed, rising to stand next to her.

"We had no choice," she said, but he put a hand on her arm and spoke gently.

"Yes, you did."

Save them, Doctor. Save them.

The Doctor worked feverishly at a computer, Boe continuing to siphon off his life force while Hame, Martha, and Barry passed him electronic components, operated the controls he told them to, and otherwise stood around feeling helpless.

"I could try to channel my lightning…" he offered, but the Doctor shook his head, not even glancing at Barry as he flipped several switches. "No, no, no, transformers are blocked, I need something already in the system, or else to wire you up somehow, I need, I need…"

Doctor, came Boe's voice.

"Yeah, hold on, not now!" the Doctor snapped without looking around.

I give you my last.

A surge of power lit up the computer, and the Doctor jumped to his feet.

"Hame, Martha, Barry, look after him. Don't you go dying on me, you big old face. You've got to see this. The open road. Ha!"

He slammed down the lever again, and Barry fancied that he heard the doors cracking open all the way across the city. Then he realized that it wasn't his imagination: the glass in Boe's cage was cracking, splintering, shattering. Barry swiftly caught every one of the shards before they could fall inwards, and they all helped lift the Face and gently place him on the floor.

"Is there anything we can do?" Martha asked, but the Doctor shook his head.

"My lord's last act was to save the city," Hame wept.

"No, don't say that," the Doctor protested, with absolutely zero conviction. "Not old Boe. Plenty of life left."

It is good to breathe the air once more.

"There's got to be something," Martha insisted. "You're his nurse, you're the Doctor, I'm almost a doctor…"

Everything has its time, and everything ends, Martha Jones, said the Face. The great eyes rolled to the Doctor. You know that, old friend, better than most.

Barry put his fist to his mouth as Boe spoke to all of them again.

I have seen so much. Perhaps too much. I am the last of my kind, as you are the last of yours, Doctor.

Vaguely, he registered Martha looking at her friend in shock, but his attention was fixed on the Doctor, his eyes almost as wide as Boe's.

"That's why we have to survive," the Doctor choked. "Both of us. Don't go."

I must. But know this, Time Lord.

Then the mouth opened, for the first time in so, so very long.

"You. Are not. Alone."

As the Doctor stared, the Face of Boe gave a great, final-sounding sigh, and the eyes closed for the last time. As Hame knelt and wept, Barry, Martha, and the Doctor stood together with their arms around each other.


They returned to the alleyway where the TARDIS waited, the mood sellers all having moved on, and the Doctor semi-cheerfully noted that every city needed a cat in charge. Barry imagined Central City run by cats, and grinned to himself.

"But what did he mean, the Face of Boe?" Martha asked. "You're not alone."

Barry turned to look meaningfully at the Doctor. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Don't play innocent with me," Barry told him. "You know what. She deserves to know, Doctor. If she's going to travel with us, she ought to know."

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, and Martha gave the Doctor an accusatory look.

"You don't talk. You never say!" she accused. "Why not?"

Above them, the words of a hymn seemed to come from the skies themselves, and the friends looked up in awe as the city came back to life.

"All right."

The Doctor pulled up a chair, and nodded for his friends to do the same.

"I lied to you, Martha," he admitted. "Because I liked it. I could pretend. Just for a bit, I could imagine they were still alive, underneath a burnt orange sky. I'm not just a Time Lord. I'm the last of the Time Lords. The Face of Boe was wrong. There's no one else."

"What happened?" she asked, and now all of the accusation had faded, replaced by horror and sadness.

"There was a war," the Doctor told her, eyes haunted and far away. "A Time War. The Last Great Time War. My people fought a race called the Daleks, for the sake of all creation. And they lost. We lost. Everyone lost. They're all gone now. My family, my friends, even that sky.

"Oh, you should have seen it, that old planet," he smiled tearfully, looking off into a distance neither of them could see. Barry listened intently. He'd been with the Doctor for over a month, relatively speaking, and he'd hardly ever heard his friend speak of Gallifrey.

"The second sun would rise in the south, and the mountains would shine. The leaves on the trees were silver, and when they caught the light every morning, it looked like a forest on fire. When the autumn came, the breeze would blow through the branches like a song…"

And they sat there, the three of them, as the Doctor spoke of Gallifrey and the sun rose on the city of New New York, coming to life around them once more.

In case anyone was wondering how Hame found the Doctor and co so quickly, it's because he wasn't moving around so much. Kind of a pity we didn't get to see Valerie and Brannigan, but there we are. Do feel free to imagine them soaring around New New York with their kitty cats.

Also, kudos to Martha for standing up to the Doctor in the canon episode. Yes, she fancied him, but she never let him walk all over her, either-she stood up to him no less than three times in her first four stories alone, went through all kinds of hell, and when she'd had enough, left the TARDIS on her own terms. IMO, Martha Jones was one of the best companions ever.

Next week: Daleks in Manhattan!