(AN) Hello and welcome to my first ever Doctor Who fanfiction.
This story is an adaptation of Doctor Who: Genesis; a story in DaDoctorWhoFan's What if Doctor Who Wasn't Axed series, which explores a rich and detailed alternate timeline where Doctor Who wasn't axed and continues to this day. The series has a large fanbase, a Discord server and a wiki.
In this timeline Doctor Who becomes a co-production with Paramount Pictures, which leads to a movie franchise; Doctor Who: Genesis serves as the 50th Anniversary movie, and is the fifth movie in the franchise.
Before this, there was a Gallifrey spin-off known as Panopticon, which ran for seven series' between 2008-2013 (Series 6 and 7 both aired in 2013) The last two episodes of Series 7 are important to the plot of Genesis, so there's some flashbacks.
I have the blessing and full permission of DaDoctorWhofan to create this adaptation.
Disclaimer; I don't own Doctor Who. All characters and locations are owned by the BBC. What if Doctor Who Wasn't Axed is created and owned by DaDoctorWhofan.
Doctor Who: Genesis
Prologue
The Doctor was dead; sacrificing his thirteenth incarnation had meant the final end of the renegade Time Lord, who had stolen a faulty Type-40 TARDIS years ago with his granddaughter Susan in order to explore the universe. The Thirteenth Doctor resembled a man with thinning, light-grey hair. He wore a brown suit over a black overcoat with a white shirt and black tie with brown trousers and black shoes.
The Doctor slowly regained consciousness; initially unable to remember anything, when suddenly, the memories came flooding back, causing his eyes to shoot open in shock.
Flashback
A battered and bruised Doctor was clinging to the edge of a hanger door on a Dalek mothership. The Daleks had allied themselves with the Valeyard, who had attempted to use a device in order to gain immortality. The Valeyard stood over the Doctor, grinning wickedly, when suddenly, the Doctor grabbed the Valeyard's leg and pulled hard.
Both Time Lords fell into the vacuum of space. The Doctor felt the breath being crushed from his lungs; his head felt light. The Doctor's vision went blank before he slipped into unconsciousness.
The Doctor soon heard the voice of the Rogue in his head. "It's no good, he was on his last life," the voice said in a distraught manner, "The Doctor is dead."
End Flashback
The Doctor slowly staggered to his feet and began walking around the dark void he now found himself in. The Doctor suddenly began to think of another memory.
Flashback
Young Gallifreyans walked through a corridor of the Prydonian Academy; all clad in red Prydonian robes. Three boys walked in a small group; all looking eighteen or nineteen years old: the boy in the middle was tall and had short, untidy, light-brown hair; the boy on his left was also tall and had long, dark brown hair.
"Hey, Theta Sigma," called out the boy on the left to the middle one, "Remember to try and stay on Borusa's good side today, I think you're testing his temper."
"Borusa can get as angry as he wants, Zita Ita," snarked Theta Sigma, "He's just like everyone else on this planet: stubborn and too much of a coward to challenge the old ways."
The three boys laughed and continued to joke as they left the corridor.
End Flashback
The Doctor smiled as he remembered that little joke.
"But why did I think of that memory in particular?" asked the Doctor in confusion.
Golden particles suddenly appeared in front of the Doctor, causing him to briefly shield his eyes from the sudden light. The particles began to form themselves into a humanoid figure, who soon became solid. He was an obese man with dark skin and thinning grey hair. He wore black and gold Gallifreyan robes with the Seal of Rassilon on the front. This was the Keeper: former Keeper of the Matrix, and someboddy whom the Doctor had never seen eye to eye with.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Where am I?" he asked.
"You're dead, so am I," informed the Keeper in a matter-of fact tone, "So where do you think you are, Doctor?"
"The Matrix." replied the Doctor slowly.
"Your time has come," said the Keeper, "All thirteen lives have been used up, and now your consciousness is simply data floating around in this super computer. You can have anything you imagine, be anywhere you imagine at just a thought."
The Doctor began to feel another memory forming in his head.
Flashback
Theta Sigma entered a large classroom. His teacher, Borusa sat behind a desk at the front of the room. He was a man with short, dark-brown hair that had a few grey patches. Borusa also wore Prydonian robes
"Please sit down, Theta!" ordered Borusa in a stern manner.
Theta sat at one of the empty desks and watched as Borusa stood up, grabbed the pile of papers, marched over to Theta and chucked them at him. "Look at those grades!" he barked furiously, "Look at not only the appalling effort you've been putting in, but also the fact that you don't even seem to care."
"What's the point of learning all this stuff if we're not allowed to explore or help!" argued Theta, "Who cares how well-
"SILENCE!" demanded Borusa before glaring at Theta, "You'd better change your act, or you'll be going right back to where you belong: somewhere that you worked so hard to leave, I might add."
End Flashback
The Doctor had been so delighted at the prospect of imagining himself anywhere that he made himself a grand library with every book imaginable. The Time Lord was currently sitting in an armchair and reading The Time Machine by H.G. Wells.
The Doctor looked up and sighed as the Keeper suddenly appeared in a flash of golden light.
"Out of anywhere you could imagine yourself, anywhere at all, and you chose a library." said the Keeper in bewilderment.
"Aren't I allowed to retire in peace?" asked the Doctor in annoyance, "I'm dead. I didn't think it could get any worse, and now here's the Keeper, here to pester me."
"I simply came to inform you that something has developed in the real world." informed the Keeper.
The Keeper waved his hands and a glowing, golden fissure opened up. The Doctor suddenly stood up and came to stand next to the Keeper.
"This is a fissure into the real world," explained the Keeper, "just take a look."
The Doctor gazed into the fissure.
Several people stood in an operating lounge on Gallifrey: there was a woman with short dirty-blonde hair; a man with short, dark-brown hair and a beard; another woman with long, dark hair that was tied back into a ponytail; a portly man with short white hair and a man with short grey hair. The Doctor recognised them as Cordale, Will Adams, Zenla and two incarnations of the Rogue respectively.
"Can you two please explain what's going on?" asked Will, who had a Scottish accent.
"Well, it turns out that in the Sereti Dimension, I was the Doctor before being ascended into my current form." informed Phaedra.
"Well I'm not a Vex, I'm not the Doctor. What am I for?" asked Will in confusion.
"No, you were just Will Adams," explained the Rogue, "Until twelve years ago when I brought you to Gallifrey. Originally you were just here to deal with the threat of the Bannermen. We scanned Earth and we found you, a Chimeron, something that would be extremely useful in our ongoing conflicts with the Bannermen, but when your use came to an end after the Bannerman genocide, there were talks of returning you to Earth. But myself and my head scientist at the time, Caldira were devising ways of experimenting with Time Lord biology; we created the Valeyard for example. The Doctor was someone who we were aware was in his final incarnation, and we needed a backup option in case anything happened, so we selected you. To keep you in use we drugged you with an extract of the Doctor's DNA. For the last ten years you've been drugged every single day by Frances under my direct orders. It was thought that if we had a DNA match of the Doctor coupled with his body print from the Matrix, they would come together and resurrect him."
Will stood there in stunned silence, not knowing what to think. "S-so… all this t-time… you've been using me?" said Will in anger.
Will fell to his knees and began sobbing.
"After the Doctor's funeral, I got Frances to knock you out, kidnap you and take you to my personal laboratory," the Rogue was saying to Will, "We attempted resurrection, but it failed as there wasn't enough of the Doctor's genetic template there. However, now we have two receptors that can be used to take the Doctor's consciousness from the Matrix and resurrect him."
The Time Lord turned to Zenla. "Restrain Will and strap him to a chair." he ordered.
Zenla walked over to Will with an apologetic expression before wrapping her arms round his middle and dragging the struggling Time Lord over to one of the chairs. Will was shoved into the chair. Zenla placed straps around his wrists and ankles.
Phaedra walked over to the chair next to Will and sat down. Straps suddenly wrapped themselves around her wrists and ankles.
The Rogue rolled a large machine over to the space in between the chairs, he then took out some normal looking implants and attached them to Will and Phaedra, connecting them to the machine.
The Sereti Rogue walked over to the machine and flicked a few switches. The machine lit up and began humming softly.
"I've calibrated the machine to Vex biology," explained the Sereti Rogue before turning to the other Rogue and Zenla, he then nodded, "It's time."
The Rogue and Zenla walked over to the machine and placed their hands on to it, a few moments later, they removed their hands and saw two orange handprints embedded into the machine.
The screen on the centre of the machine lit up with green text that read 'Matrix interface' before changing to 'DNA match'
The Rogue grinned in triumph before pressing a button on the machine.
Will and Phaedra began screaming in agony; their skin beginning to bubble and melt away. Their skin then turned bright red and a defining chime tolled from the machine. A beam of golden light shot out of both of them and came together in the middle.
The Doctor and the Keeper looked through the portal in horror. Golden regeneration energy began pouring out of the fissure.
"Your body won't adapt properly at first, even after regeneration," informed the Keeper, "Just give it time as your consciousness will be linked to the Matrix this time. As such, in the first days of regeneration you might not see people as they should be seen, instead you may see them as people you once knew, taken from the Matrix. Be careful and good luck."
The regeneration energy suddenly engulfed the Doctor and pulled him into the fissure, making the Time Lord yell in surprise; the copy of The Time Machine fell to the floor with a thud. The fissure then closed and the Keeper vanished.
Flashback
Theta Sigma felt miserable as he exited the citadel and stumbled across the surface of the planet, Theta looked at the horizon: the sky was overcast.
Theta eventually arrived at his house: a small shack on the outskirts of the citadel. Theta passed the front door and headed to the back, which was an overgrown garden covered in weeds. Theta sat down in front of a tree, took a book out of his bag and began reading.
End Flashback
On present day Gallifrey, the golden light from the machine began to fade away and a new figure lay on the floor. The figure looked like a hybrid of Will and Phaedra. The figure was wearing the Thirteenth Doctor's clothes.
The Rogue pressed a button on the machine and a beam of green light shot out and hit the figure in the chest, causing their eyes to shoot open.
"Hello, Doctor." greeted Zenla, smiling with tears of happiness swimming in her eyes.
"Zenla, how nice to see you again." greeted Connie; their voice sounding as if Will and Phaedra were talking at the same time.
Later on, Connie was taken to the infirmary so that the Sereti Rogue could run some tests.
"This is not good," remarked the Sereti Rogue as he finished his tests and looked at Connie, Zenla and the Rogue, "the Doctor's DNA is struggling to interface with the existing DNA from Adams and the Vardon the Sereti Dimension version of the Doctor's eleventh self ascended with. Connie has less than twelve hours to live before they regenerate, burning away all traces of Will and Phaedra, and fully becoming the Doctor in their fourteenth incarnation."
Connie joined in with the final battle against the Vex.
Eventually, thanks to Connie, the Vex and surviving Time Lords came to a peace agreement. The Rogue spoke with Connie.
"I won't be joining the fleet," said the Rogue, "I'll be forging my own path."
"Oh," said Connie in surprise, "well, good luck, Rogue."
The two then shared a hug.
Frances, a short woman with short grey hair was giving a speech to the fleet.
"Gallifrey is no more," Frances was saying, "The Vex are no more, Unity are no more, the Seal are no more."
Connie landed her shuttle in a field. Connie stumbled out of the ship and pressed a button, causing the shuttle to fly away, Connie then collapsed on to the grass; their whole body burning up.
In a dark room, Connie lay on a hospital bed. Will and Phaedra stood next to the bed.
From a distance, the Thirteenth Doctor and the Keeper watched.
Phaedra turned to Will. "Is it our time now?" she asked.
"Yes, I think so." replied Will, smiling.
He and Phaedra touched hands and a beam of golden energy formed between the two. The Thirteenth Doctor shot a beam of golden energy from his hand, which joined Will and Phaedra's. A third beam of energy shot out of Will and Phaedra's hands and into Connie.
In the real world, Connie lay in the grass as their body was engulfed by golden regeneration energy. Connie's body began to morph; changing into a new body. The flames burned away as the faces of Will and Phaedra faded away. The new Doctor appeared as a middle-aged woman with short, curly light-brown hair.
The new Doctor sat up with a concerned look on her face. "Something's not right." she said.
(AN) And that was the prologue to Doctor Who: Genesis. I hope you all enjoyed, and remember to Read and Review.
Even though this was the 50th Anniversary movie, there won't really be returning Doctors and companions as such, with the exception of Thirteen and one other incarnation, but that's just the way DaDoctorWhoFan wrote it, so sorry to those expecting a Five Doctors-like story. It was down to realism; most of the Doctor Actors just looked too old by 2013 and de-aging CGI is too expensive.
Next time: the main story kicks off. Until then, this is TimeLordMaster108 signing out.