49. The Early Doctor
1. The Mists of the Past.
The Doctor and Chloe are in a posh Galactic restaurant - it's a treat meal out!
The Doctor has been treating Chloe to occasional excursions in his Tardis since her early years (ref. 28). Naturally, the Doctor knows all about Chloe's past life!
"Doctor, just how much of your early life do you know about?" Chloe asks.
They both recently started looking into the origins of the Doctor but failed to discover very much (ref. 48).
The Doctor replies as he always does just now to this question. "I only remember what I remember, and nothing more, unfortunately." Somewhere in the mists of his past he knows there must have been at least one memory wipe. These are not always totally successful, but these wipes appear to have been! Now he wants to know more.
"I have an idea how we might discover more," Chloe says. "More than they might possibly have got to know when they asked you about anything when you first met a Gallifreyan."
This surprises the Doctor. "Oh, how do you make that out?"
He has never expected to discover anything about his life before his nightmare stepmother, Tecteun, discovered him on a distant planet near some sort of rift or portal.
It feels like Chloe's moment to press her idea forwards.
"Doctor, can we both hug the Tardis pillars?" Chloe asks. Her idea needs more development, but it's a simple start. "When we get back to the Tardis we can do it!"
The Doctor's dubious. He knows that when Chloe hugs a Tardis pillar she meets the Tardis Consciousness - something he's only done a very few times but with him she had been vitriolic and unstable.
"Tomorrow, maybe?"
"What's your need to delay?"
Not looking forwards to an occasion doesn't excuse him from doing things. He sighs and resigns himself to having to meet his Tardis Consciousness again but hopes it will be less of a trial this time.
Meeting the Tardis Consciousness.
Chloe has done this many joyous times before and sincerely looks forward to the occasion. She has developed an extremely good rapport with the Tardis Consciousness after reading the Tardis Maintenance manual and thanking the Tardis much more than the Doctor had ever had time to. .
"Come on, Doctor, let's meet the lady now!"
They both hug the Tardis pillars.
The pillars become squishy, and they both see a forest of very tall trees, and each other.
The Tardis Consciousness appears to them.
"I'm only here for Chloe," she says rudely. . "The Doctor never shows me nearly so much kindness and love."
"I'm sorry. Can you show us the early Doctor?" Chloe asks rather simply, rather taken aback by the rudeness.
The Tardis Consciousness smiles a thin smile, as if there's far more to the answer than possibly meets the eye. It's under sufferance.
"For you, I'll try."
They find themselves back in the Tardis Control room, letting go of the pillars.
The Tardis grinds.
Where the location normally shows on the otherwise mostly black monitor screen there's a misty area. No name shows.
Chloe turns to the Doctor. "What does that mean?"
"The Tardis won't or can't tell us. This may not be safe."
"Safe in what way? Physically unsafe here?"
"Unsafe for us to know, maybe?" the Doctor conjectures.
"At least the date display works!"
They go to the door and look out. It's night time.
Chloe looks up at the night sky. "Why is the sky just a dark grey mist? We can't see any stars. Shouldn't we see them?"
"This must be one of the many places that's in a nebula, so the stars beyond its own sun just can't be seen."
They step out of the Tardis onto a sumptuous soft damp moss. The smell is strong and luscious.
"It's very soft underfoot," Chloe observes.
The Doctor seems to be in a dreamy state but pulls himself into the present to reply. "This is strangely familiar, but I don't recall ever having been here before! That's odd!"
Maybe a mind wipe didn't remove the sense of smell memories?
As they walk slowly and carefully through the gloaming, a small mud hut looms out of the darkness, barely visible by the slight glow from the night sky.
Chloe turns to the Doctor. "What should we do?"
"What do you suggest?" The Doctor wants Chloe to continue developing her ability to think on her feet. His instinct is to wait until morning, whenever that might be, yet the Tardis has set them down in the middle of the night. There must be a reason for that. Does he trust the Tardis? The Doctor continues to ponder.
A groaning is heard from inside the hut. A figure emerges and sees the Doctor and Chloe in the night-time gloom.
"Is either of you two a doctor?"
Chloe turns towards the Doctor, but before she can say anything the Doctor says, "Not that sort of Doctor!" Yet on occasion he has been called upon to perform many essential operations and has acquired at least some medical knowledge along the way.
"Could you help us?" the figure asks with an urgency in his voice.
The manner of difficulty isn't apparent, but in view of the plea Chloe feels she must be affirmative.
"Of course we can," she says. Surely this must be what they're here for!
The figure leads the way into the mud hut where a woman is in the late stages of giving birth by candlelight.
After the birth has completed, the dawn is approaching, and Chloe has a question.
"What will you call your boy?"
"What was your name? We'll call him after you, doctor." .
"Oh, I'm just called the Doctor." .
"You must have another name, though?"
"Always the Doctor!" Chloe says. .
The Doctor looks sharply at Chloe as if she's said something out of order *.
The man seems disappointed.
"What's your name?" Chloe asks.
"Ox," the man says."
The Doctor chuckles briefly but stifles it to avoid being rude. He'd once accidentally thought he had an enemy called Ox, but it had turned out not to be an enemy after all (ref. 5). .
As the dawn breaks and the first rays of the local sun appear from beyond the horizon, they can see Ox more clearly. He looks most unwell, as if he hasn't long to live.
The Doctor looks at him keenly. "Are you unwell?" he says, asking the obvious to try to elicit an acceptive response.
"Oh, I've been unwell for years now. I'll be fine!"
But Ox seems in denial of his poor health, insisting that he'll be alright.
As they return to the Tardis, Chloe has a question. "Doctor, you were a boy in your earlier years, but later you were a girl. How does that work?"
"Something must have happened to need me to regenerate," the Doctor says as they enter the Tardis. It's a guess, but he knows it's easy enough to change everything in a regeneration.
"What was all that about?" the Doctor asks. Had he simply been requested to be there to assist at a birth?
"Let's ask the Tardis Consciousness. Let's both hug a pillar each."
As they hug the pillars they go squishy, and a forest of tall trees opens up before them. The Tardis Consciousness approaches them in a long flowing green dress.
"Why did you take us there?" the Doctor asks gently.
"You asked. That was your birth," the Tardis Consciousness replies evenly, rather too unemotionally. .
The Doctor's eyes widen in terror. Anything might have been upset! **
Sensing that the Doctor might not be as thankful to only know after-the-event, Chloe feels she must thank the Tardis Consciousness fully. "Wow! Thank you! That was a beautiful event to see!"
The Doctor's more disappointed not to know the place of his birth but prevents himself from pressing this question too much. The Console room monitor screen would have shown all the available information without him having to ask now.
He's grappling with the time elements of this - had he saved himself? He doubts this as the birth had been simple. Ox had lacked confidence, maybe the result of his illness? He spends quite a while pondering whether he had actually been required there. No, it had been straightforward and that was adequate.
The Doctor turns towards Chloe. "You knew my name, my original name. How did you know it?" he asks urgently.
"How do you mean, I knew your name? What original name?" Chloe's puzzled.
"You said it! Only people who are very special to me know my original name!" The Doctor's still urgent.
Chloe looks at the Doctor and smiles. It suits her to be special to him, but she's unsure quite what he's on about.
"Doctor, I love being special to you. Can we keep it that way?" She places her hand on his arm to assure him of her best intentions.
Chloe wants to find out more for the Doctor. She turns back to the Tardis Consciousness. "How long does the Doctor stay here?"
"Not long, it's a savage place. Less than four years."
"What happened then?"
"There are other things you should see," the Tardis Consciousness says mysteriously. She makes a sweeping gesture with her arm, the tall forest disappears, and they again find themselves stepping back from hugging Tardis pillars.
What else might they see?