Through Thick and Thin
Shareen and the Proms
Thanks to SorryProfessor for following this story
The Noisettes' Never Forget You drifted through the TARDIS' console room as Shareen jammed along to the song with her guitar, singing away,
"I wouldn't change our thing, so glad you're back again.
I'll never forget you.
They said we'd never me it, my sweet joy.
Always remember me.
I'll never forget you.
At times we couldn't shake it, you're my joy.
Always remember me."
Just then, the Doctor came strutting in. "Havin' fun?" he asked dryly.
"Oh, yes, thank you." Shareen replied sweetly, setting her guitar down on the jump seat. "Thought I'd check out the acoustic in here. Where's Donna?"
"Watching telly." the Doctor replied, going over to the console and messing about with some controls.
Suddenly, an alarm started beeping. "What did you do, Peacock?" Shareen rolled her eyes.
"I dunno, I just had to take the shields down for a mo." the Doctor replied. He checked the monitor to see the message 'Alert: teleport breech.' "What?" the Doctor stared. "What?!" Then there was a flash light and an uninvited guest appeared in the TARDIS; a small alien about 3ft 8in tall with dark clothing, pink-brown skin and three tentacles growing out of it's head. "Oi! Get outta my TARDIS!" the Doctor glared. "I let the defences down for one second." he grumbled to Shareen.
"What the hell is that thing and where did it come from?!" Shareen questioned.
"Must speak to the Doctor." the alien said in a deep voice.
"I don't care. You're a Graske, and a Graske is trouble." the Doctor retorted. "Out!" He nodded with his head to the side.
"But that noise..." the Graske looked around, trying to find the source of the music he was hearing, "beautiful sound in the air, what is it?"
"That's the Noisettes." Shareen replied. "It's music."
"Music, is what?" the Graske asked
"Well," the Doctor began, kneeling down to be on the same level as the Graske, "if you take an instrument, like Shareen's guitar over there..." he nodded to the instrument in question, "... and play it, you get musical sounds, and if you put together different musical sounds, you can make a song. Music is integral to many cultures an' civilisations, not least Humans."
"Music? Sounds wonderful." the Graske said
"Aye, it does." Shareen grinned. "I'm an amateur musician myself. Nothing like havin' a good ol' jam to ya favourite song!"
"But you're still not stayin'." the Doctor told the Graske sharply, jumping to his feet again.
"No. Graske came to warn you." the Graske said.
"Warn us about what?" Shareen asked.
"About that!" the Graske replied, pointing to a spot behind the Doctor.
The time travellers turned in time to see a small hole appear in the air, looking like a window. "Oh! Now... that looks like a space portal." the Doctor observed.
"Told you! Danger!" the Graske said.
"Nah, it's harmless." the Doctor said as he went closer to the portal to examine it. "Just a hole in space."
"Depends on what's on the other side." Shareen said as she joined him. "For all we know, it could be a hole to Mordor or something."
"Hmm, good point." the Doctor conceded. "Let's have a look..." He crouched down and peered through the portal. On the other side was what appeared to be some sort of theatre with hundreds, maybe thousands of people gathered together, all staring up at him. "Where's that, then?" he wandered. "Who're all those people?"
The audience all laughed at.
Shareen crouched down beside him and peered through the portal too. "Hang on, that looks like... Yes, I think that's the Albert Hall. Er, 'Scuse me, but is that the Albert hall?" she called through the portal.
More laughter and cheering came from the audience, though it came out rather muffled to the time travellers.
"She said, 'Is that the Albert hall?'" the Doctor called, raising his voice.
The audience replied something, though it was still too muffled for either the Doctor or Shareen to hear.
"We said, is that the Albert Hall?" the Doctor shouted.
"Yes!" the audience shouted.
"Oh, brilliant. Hello!" the Doctor called to the audience, some of whom shouted 'hello' back. "I said, hello!" the Doctor called.
A collective murmur came from the audience.
"No, no, no, sorry, sorry, you'll have to shout. I said, HELLO-AH!" the Doctor shouted to them.
"HELLO!" the audience boomed in response.
The Doctor laughed while Shareen rolled her eyes at him. "You're enjoyin' this, aren't ya?" she asked dryly.
"Oh, yes!" the Doctor grinned and turned back to the portal. "Listen. My name's the Doctor, I'm a Time Lord, but that is an awful lot of people. What're you all doing there?"
"Going to a concert, ya plonker." Shareen snorted. "I went to one there once with Rose, Trisha an' Suki."
"Ooh!" the Doctor raised a forefinger. "Wait a minute, it's the Proms. Is that the Proms? Are you in the Proms?" he asked the audience.
"YES!" they all chorused.
"Ah, so that must be the orchestra down there." Shareen noted, spotting an expansive orchestra on stage.
"Oh! I love the Proms, I was at the very first Proms." the Doctor said, scratching behind his ear. "1895, I played the Tuba. I was brilliant."
"If you say so, Peacock." Shareen snorted.
The conductor of the orchestra shouted something up at them. Shareen couldn't quiet catch it, but the Doctor could. "Hmm, yes, I don't see why not." he said.
"What?" Shareen asked him.
"Well, Ben, the conductor down there, just asked if you could join 'em on stage for a duet."
Shareen stared. "What, seriously? They want me to go on stage with 'em?"
"Yeah." the Doctor nodded.
"Cosmic!" Shareen grinned. "What do I do?"
"Just go through the portal there." the Doctor told her. "It looks stable enough."
"Alright. Look out, Albert Hall, here I come!" Shareen grinned and jumped through the portal.
~8~
Shareen found herself on the stage at the Albert Hall. "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Doctor's companion, Miss Shareen Costello." a voice that sounded rather like Martha's called out.
The audience all clapped and cheered at Shareen's arrival. Shareen was taken aback slightly by the spotlight, but she quickly composed herself and gave them all a wave. Ben the conductor handed her mike and a music sheet. Shareen recognised the song as the one she'd seen Tallulah perform back in 1930 New York. A silence fell among the audience then Ben gave the signal to his orchestra and they began to play. The opening instrumental to the song echoed through the hall. Ben gave Shareen the wink and she began,
"I'm a country girl, I ain't seen a lot. But you came along and my heart went pop
Ya took a little streetcar to my heart. And an apple of love fell off my apple cart.
Ya looked at me, my heart began to pound.
You weren't the sorta guy I thought would stick around. But it don't have to be eternally.
My bad, bad angel put the devil in me. Ya put the devil in me.
Ya lured me in with ya cold grey eyes. Ya simple smile, ya bewitchin' lies.
One and one an' one is three.
My bad, bad angel put the devil in me. Ya put the devil in me."
The song finished and the audience erupted into whistles, cheers and applause. Shareen could only grin bashfully at the attention. She certainly hadn't expected an experience like this when she'd woke up that morning.
~8~
The Doctor had been watching the performance from the TARDIS. "Oh, come on, that was brilliant!" he grinned. "Ah! You see, Graske..." he called over his shoulder, "that's the thing about Planet Earth." He turned around to find that the Graske was nowhere to be seen. "What? What?!" he spluttered as he ran round the console just to check if the Graske was hiding behind it. "Where's he gone? Ooh!" He ran back to the portal. "Shareen, I've lost the Graske." he called. He must've slipped through the portal. Can you see him?"
~Albert Hall~
Shareen looked around the stage and sure enough, she saw the Graske scampering around next to the orchestra. "Yeah, he's here, Peacock." she called back to the portal. "An' he's got ya water pistol too." she remarked as the Graske squirted Ben with the water pistol the Doctor had used in Pompeii.
~TARDIS~
"Oh - oh - oh!" the Doctor groaned, patting his pockets. "He's stolen my water pistol!" he exclaimed. He saw the Graske squirt a cellist with the water pistol who used her cello to shield herself from the water. "Oi! Graske, stop it, behave!" the Doctor shouted. "Oh! He wasn't trying to warn me, he was trying to find a shortcut to Earth. If he escapes he'll go round the whole planet, causing trouble, stealing sweets, making smells..." he grimaced.
~Albert Hall~
"Leave him to me, Peacock." Shareen called. "Right, come here ya little bugger." she said to the Graske as she advanced dangerously on the little alien. She grabbed him by one of his head tentacles and frog-marched him back through the portal.
~8~
Shareen and the Graske reappeared in the TARDIS. "Not fair!" the Graske complained as Sharen let go of his tentacle and snatched the water pistol off him.
"Oh-ho-ho! I'll give you not fair." the Doctor retorted, operating controls on the console. "I'm gonna reverse flip that teleport an' send you all the way to the other side of the galaxy!" He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the Graske, who vanished in a blip of light. "Right," the Doctor said casually, flipping his sonic screwdriver in the air then catching it and pocketing it, "that was fun."
"And a bit mad." Shareen remarked. "Still, not every day ya get to on stage at the Albert Hall."
"I've got to close this portal before there's any more trouble. It's nice to see you all." the Doctor said to the audience. "But one more thing. Just remember, music isn't just orchestras and pop stars and... special people with albums and downloads and concerts. It's you. 'Cos music is all around you." he said poetically. "When you're on your own, just close your eyes, and you'll hear it. Music, inside your head. 'Cause everyone's a musician. Everyone's got a song inside them. Every single one of you. Bye!" He strode over to the console and turned a dial, causing the portal to shrink until it disappeared completely.
"Well, that takes care of that." Shareen said. "You'd better put the shields up before anyone else turns up in here."
Just then, Donna entered the console room. "Have I missed something?" she asked.
Both the Doctor and Shareen could only exchange amused looks.
Author's notes: Here's a little mini-chapter to provide some fun in-between the very intense second half of series 4. This chapter was based on the 2008 mini-sode Music of the Spheres though I've reworked it to give some spotlight to Shareen. Seeing as how it's been established that she has some musical talent, I thought the change makes sense. The song she performed at the Proms was of course My Angel put the Devil in Me from Daleks in Manhattan, more specifically the version featured on the series 3 soundtrack album. In fact, they didn't feature that song in the 2008 Proms. It was mostly instrumental pieces during that concert. Still a great concert, though. Freema Agyeman was the host for the concert, so I alluded to it by Shareen noting that the announcer sounds like Martha. Catherine Tate and Julian Bleach both briefly participated as hosts too, though those parts weren't during the Music of the Spheres bit. So, hope you like this little mini-chapter and see ya next time for Midnight.
