Disclaimer: I don't in any way own the series Doctor Who . Those are the sole property of the BBC.
Note: CUSpacecowboy to answer your question "Born Again" was a mini-episode that took place between "The Parting of the Ways" and "Christmas Invasion".
Return to Satellite 5 AU: "Bad Wolf", "The Parting of the Ways" and "Born Again".
Chapter Two: Wolf Moon Rising
Jack moaned as he opened his eyes: everything was blurry at first. He could hear a couple of female sounding robotics talking, and as they came into focus the voices matched the attempt to make them automatically correct. As if that wasn't bad enough the room was hospital white.
"Why can't they send us someone interesting. Or not so fashion not." The purple droid with small plastic breasts and pen tip shaped head complained.
The shorter blue droid with plastic hair in a bowl cut, large anime type blue shaped eyes and large plastic breasts studied the 51st century man critically. "Well he is kind of cute. With a good strong jaw and nice hair."
Jack realized that he was looking up from a reclined position and the droids were hovering over him.
"Hmm. Maybe but it's kind of old fashion." The purple still didn't sound convinced that the man wouldn't be a lot of work.
The ex-time agent tried to get up but whatever it was the had transported him there had done a number on him. He felt weak, groggy and just a bit mystified as where he was. "Yeah ladies... it's a pleasure to meet you but where is here?"
Being robots they went with what was programmed into them as they turned back into the room. The purple seemed be continuing with what was next on its internal list. "Your image needs updating and we are here to give it to you."
Jack was finally able to sit up and proceeded to try to get a better answer, "Wait a minute, I was in the TARDIS with the Doctor... woah... what do you mean? What's wrong with my clothes?"
The bobbed plastic-haired droid turned back to address Jack's last question. "Where to start." It seemed to contemplated its answer, "You're sporting a very twentieth to early twenty-first century attire. I mean, really, what's with the denim? Was it some ancient hand me down?"
Jack looked down at his jean clad legs as he slipped off the bed . "No, I got them from a small shop in Cardiff. Actually a place called um 'The Top Shop'."
The shorter droid glided over to him, forcing Jack to walk further into the stark white room. "Huh, that explains its classic design."
"That may be, but it shouts 'Oklahoma Farm Boy'. He really needs some color. We have our work cut out." The tall disagreeable droid obviously was not satisfied with its partners optimistic programming.
Jack indignantly stood with his hands on hips not knowing what to say, if anything, to the fashion robots. It wasn't like they were human and there was a chance to be able to win in a verbal discussion. Jack began to put the pieces together. 'I'm in a reality show.'
The more personable of the two made a staying gesture as if to a dog. "Now don't move while the Defabricator does its magic."
Jack stayed put not wanting the Defabricator to do any damage to his body. His curiosity got the better of him though, 'cause he did not want to be surprised. "So a Defabricator. What does that do?"
Unfortunately for Jack the two droids activated the machine before he could finish. The futuristic device hummed and a bright beam of light spread over Jack's body. The material began to disintegrate, leaving the ex-time agent naked. Jack kept a look of nonchalance on his face; the experience of standing naked before people, or droids as the case may be, wasn't the first.
"All right... Defabricator. Perfect name for it. So I'm naked to like a million viewers?" Jack couldn't help asking. He had an irrepressible need to be admired.
The two female robots clapped their hands together and intoned at the same time. "Precisely."
Grinning widely Jack glanced down at himself then back up. "Ladies... your viewing figures just went up."
The Doctor stood near a door brandishing his sonic screwdriver; the blue light flickered as it whirred and buzzed as he attempted to unlock it. "Why can't I open it?" He asked the bubbly blonde.
The blonde woman gave the Doctor a sympathetic look, "That's because it's deadlock sealed. It's the result of Big Brother Five hundred and four. All the contestants walked out...?" She explained even as the brooding man walked away. "You have ta remember that right."
The Doctor had to get out of the confining space. He needed answers, which he wasn't about to find by staying in the human reality show. He inspected around a mirror. "And this?"
The woman skipped over, her pigtails bobbing with the action. "It's exoglass. The manufacture says it can almost withstand a nuclear bomb." She was curious about the man; she'd never seen anyone so intent on leaving. He seemed to vibrate with contained energy, which was in equal parts terrifying and contagious.
"You shouldn't tempt me," the Doctor said absently as he scanned the area around the mirror with his sonic screwdriver. His stomach churned unpleasantly but he ignored it, not having time to be sick... besides Time Lords didn't get ill.
Hesitantly, the blonde went over and leaned against the wall, still watching his every movement; as fascinating as the man was, the bubbly woman had other things on her mind. She whispered to the Doctor in a conspiratorial voice, "You've been on the outside. We're not supposed to talk about it, but I was wondering. Do the people watching like me? I'm Lynda with a 'Y' the other Linda damaged a camera and was forcibly evicted. She only had an 'I'."
The Doctor nodded his head with a small grin on his face, even as his stomach clenched in discomfort; he made believe that he was following Lynda's meandering talk. He wasn't going to discourage the young woman, seeing as she had been the only one of the three occupants to even attempt to answer his questions. Her next inquiry had him begin rethinking it though.
"Am I well-liked?" Lynda asked nervously waiting for the Doctor's reply.
The Doctor restrained himself from rolling his eyes. Humans worried about the silliest things. "I don't know." He said bluntly hoping that would end that line of questioning. The Doctor wasn't in the best of moods to answer questions that didn't help him figure out what was going on, and his physical problems made him even more irritable.
The woman called Lynda with a "Y" wouldn't let the matter go. She'd been on the reality show for a while and the blonde woman felt like she was mostly ignored. Sure she followed the rules, not wanting to be kicked off, but still… "But Doctor." What a strange name,Lynda thought before continuing, "Does that mean I'm invisible? Like I'm not even noticed? I mean some contestants go a long way 'cause they're non-entities. Doctor, does anybody like me?" The bubbly woman finally ran out of air and her voice quavered at the last question.
The Doctor stopped his inspection of the wall to give the blonde woman his full attention, realizing that she'd had a brave act on the whole time. She was just a frightened human with a load of insecurities. The Doctor knew that if he was going to be able to escape he'd need someone help and so far Lynda had been the most helpful. The Time Lord quickly thought of something to say to boost the human woman's confidence. "Hmm… You're friendly. Yeah, friendly and cute. Yup, all the viewer's think you're cute." The Doctor gave Lynda a wide grin.
Lynda looked a bit dazed then grinned back, her face flushed a light pink at the compliment. "Wow! Really? They think I'm cute?" She continued to grin foolishly at the Doctor's words and giggling. "I've never been called that before. I am cute? No foolin'?"
The Doctor, still grinning, nodded. "Yeah. Quite cute!" He went back to investigating the mirror.
Lynda gazed at the Doctor as if he had delivered Christmas early, and, before he could deflect her, the blonde woman had given him a big hug. "Thank you!"
"Yeah." He extracted himself quickly as a worse feeling of nausea than before crashed into him. He'd had a sick feeling when he'd first arrived, and it had continued longer than he thought it should ,but what he had just felt went beyond transport sickness. The Doctor was becoming suspicious of these symptoms, but he didn't have time at the moment to explore the possible reasons.
The Doctor refocused his mind back onto escaping. Distancing himself from the bubbly blonde, the Doctor took in the solid black windows. He could tell that whoever had designed the set wasn't going with anything natural. "Shouldn't there be a garden on the other side of the windows?" He strolled over with long strides, needing to put more distance between himself and Lynda besides needing to further examine the fake veranda.
Unfortunately for the Doctor, Lynda followed behind him like a lost puppy. "Garden? Why would anyone put a Garden on a set? Especially since nobody has them anymore." Her eyes widened in wonder as a thought struck. "Doctor, do you have a garden!" Lynda's voice rose several octaves in delight at the prospect of the man before her being able to have such an exotic thing.
The Doctor was busy looking over the wall, trying to find the slightest crack or seam to which he could use his sonic screwdriver on. "A Garden no… Well more like a rainforest in the TARDIS." The fuzziness in his brain, courtesy of the transmat, finally lifted; he turned back to his new friend as if struck by a revelation. "It's back. My memory. Ha." Though how he could have forgotten Rose, Jack and the TARDIS was a bit pitiful for a Time Lord like himself.
Lynda clapped her hands in delight for the leather-clad man's returned memories, "You're getting better. So how did they pick you."
The Doctor stood there with a contemplative look on his face. The memories of just before he'd arrived at the Big Brother House flashed through his mind: the planets that the three of them had visited Sarkios, Raxacoriofallapatorius and then back to Earth... all the adventures they had been through. He remembered that they had just left Kyoto, Japan circa 1336. They'd barely escaped because of Jack. The Doctor felt the warmth of once again being in sync with Rose and of holding her warm human hand.
"We were in the TARDIS and then there was this blinding light that had emininented through the wall of TARDIS. It sucked Rose and Jack into it. I couldn't get to them. They… we were pulled out of the TARDIS." The Doctor blinked back to the present, his blue eyes fell on Lynda with sudden intensity. "Then I was falling out of the cupboard."
Lynda shivered slightly at the look on the Doctor's face. He seemed very put out about the whole thing. It was a little frightening. "That's generally the way the house mates are chosen. The transmat beam just picks you up from whatever you were doing."
The Doctor looked around the room once again, "Oh, Lynda with a Y… friendly, cute Lynda…" He walked back into the middle of the room, "that should have been impossible."
The Doctor paced back and forth, all the while the rage steadily built, spewing forth in his clipped Northern accent. "It wasn't like I was just passing by. Oh, no, some inferior alien transmat does not get inside the TARDIS. That was a powerful beam, that was. There is no such thing as coincidence. There is definitely something bigger going on.I don't like when people try to play games with me or my friends. We're not somebody's chess piece, either."
Over a hundred thousand viewers watched as the man calling himself the Doctor came directly to the camera hidden behind the mirror. "Okay folks at home, I'm giving my notice. I'm going to get out of the Big Brother house one way or another." The Doctor pointed a threatening finger into the hidden camera. "No one's going to stop me from finding my friends. And, fair warning, I'm gonna find you." The last came out in a snarl.
TBC…