2. From the Beginnings of Time.

The Doctor prepares the Tardis for another destination.
"From the beginnings of time?" He announces flamboyantly. He plans to take Chloe back even further in time. He pulls the dematerialisation lever. The Tardis grinds and the monitor screen shows a dark blue.

"What's out there, Doctor?" asks Chloe.
"I'm not sure just looking at the image. Let's go to the door and see."

They walk to the Tardis door.
"How do you cope with not knowing what's out there?" Chloe asks.
"Oh," the Doctor says nonchalantly. "I just brace myself."

They open the Tardis door and look out into dark blue beyond. No stars are shining.


Chloe reaches out into the darkness. Her hand touches something soft and she withdraws her hand, wishing she'd never touched it. .

Voices. She can hear muted voices. "Doctor, can you hear voices?" she asks.
"Yes," the Doctor replies, puzzled.
"I'm sure there weren't voices at the beginnings of time," Chloe whispers.

The firmament appears to rend before them as they stand in the Tardis doorway. .

"Did you get lost?" a cheerful cloakroom attendant asks as she stands looking at them.
"Nice private space there you've found!" she giggles. "Hope you've got tickets! I'll be inspecting them shortly." She has a whining, high-pitched voice, but is pleasant and laid back. .

The Doctor fumbles for his psychic paper but can't find it at that moment. .
Chloe smiles pulling the Tardis door closed behind them. She notices a display stand nearby selling posters of the universe. "It's alright, my friend is due to speak."

The Doctor looks at Chloe. She has certainly dropped him right in it! .
The cloakroom attendant looks at the Doctor. "For such a young-looking person, you're doing well to have something to say here. Most of the speakers are much older."
She walks away to serve the next person in a queue who's waiting to deposit his coat.

"Speak?" the Doctor says, puzzled. He doesn't explode, but he doesn't like to be dropped in it.
Chloe points to the poster stand. It's entitled From the Beginnings of Time with pictures of two planets colliding.
"You know all about this," Chloe says. .
"Ah," the Doctor says, smiling. "And so do you, now!" He points at Chloe and laughs as if he was contemplating dropping her in it! .

A lady from the stand approaches them. "Would you like one of our posters?" She unrolls one of the posters displaying an artist's impression of such a planetary collision.
"Yes," Chloe says. "It's beautiful." She rolls the poster up, puts it under her arm, grabs the Doctor by the arm and rapidly walks him away into the crowd.
"That will be so useful," she says.

"But it's wrong," the Doctor says as they walk.
"You can correct it," Chloe says.

They approach a stand with many colourful paints. The resident artist looks up and stands to greet them. "Congratulations," he says. "I'm so glad you got one of my posters."

"Tell me, what year is it now?" the Doctor asks. He hopes to discover just when they are so that he can plan his lecture better if he has to speak.
"You're a bit out of it, aren't you?" the artist says quizzically.

The Doctor notices a newspaper hiding behind the artist and starts to plan how to take a look when he can.

"Do you have paints we could borrow?" Chloe asks.
"Yes," the artist says.
"Could we borrow them for a moment, please?"

Chloe takes the paints offered and guides the Doctor around the back of the stand to a small table.
"Where is it wrong?" she asks.
She unrolls the poster and sticks it down on a board.

The Doctor takes the paint brush and dabs at the unrolled poster. After a few minutes, Chloe can see the change is much more accurate.

After returning the paints, they take the still affixed poster to the lecture theatre where people are starting to congregate.

They overhear someone saying that the speaker has been ill and may not come.

The cloakroom attendant has finished her role in the cloakroom and is examining tickets at the lecture theatre door.
"You've got your equipment there, I see," she says brightly. "Go around to the front and set it up there."

It certainly looks like the Doctor will be speaking! .

"You'll be fine," Chloe says. "You know far more than anyone else here, you'll run rings around them!"

"I'm not doubting my ability to speak," the Doctor says. "But I might change all the theories they have in one lecture!" .
"Maybe just speak from the picture," Chloe suggests. "Claim it was the artist who inspired you?"
"Very funny," the Doctor says. "I'll just have to try to remember what they thought in the early 1970s."
"How did you find the date?" Chloe asks.
"Oh," the Doctor says casually, "from a newspaper." .


After the Lecture.

"Why did they laugh at you?" Chloe asks. She would have just told them what she had seen and that would have been that.
But would it?
"They aren't ready to hear anything that is very different from their current views," the Doctor says. "Very few people are, and they're no exception."
"But I thought your changes to the poster image were great," Chloe says. "They were certainly correct and accurate."

"They may be accurate, and they may accept that, but that poster was to portray what might happen to any other planets when they collide, not Earth! There's little acceptance out there that the Earth might even possibly have collided with more than a few light meteors. It's beyond their comprehension."
"Never mind," Chloe says. "Should we go now?"

Getting away quickly isn't likely after a storm-producing lecture. Several distinguished-looking professors are heading their way.

"Chloe, you head for the Tardis and I'll have to catch up," the Doctor says.

But Chloe has no intention of - as she sees it - leaving the Doctor to the lions. She heads straight for the professors and engages them in conversation, hoping the Doctor will head for the Tardis instead. .
The Doctor wants to listen in to what she says to the professors, but a well-meaning couple approach him and congratulate him on bringing a new theorem into the melt. By the time he has disentangled himself from them, the professors have surrounded him. .

"Interesting new theory," one white-haired professor says, generously.
Their initial opposition to anything new doesn't surprise him. It's important to question anything new.
Before they start to unpick his theory, the Doctor decides he ought to depart.

"Excuse me please, I need the cloakroom," the Doctor says as he runs for the actual cloak room, and into the Tardis. .

"Chloe, something odd happened to bring us here," the Doctor says.
He starts pressing lots of buttons and looking at the Console monitor.

"Yes!" the Doctor says. "No! We were out by rather a long time! Maybe it's time to take you home." He starts setting up their home journey. Two mistakes in one outing brings his attention to ensuring a safe and timely return.

"No, Doctor," Chloe says. "The Voice Control may have been on. You told it where to go – you said From the Beginnings of Time, and the Tardis took us to that lecture of that title." She giggles. .


Chloe coped much better here. The next outing is an unusual treat!