7. Activating the Watch.
Alyssa returns to the tented village and finds John and Clive shut in their bedroom. She takes John to the Tardis.
John is again presented to the fob watch.
Still no action! Alyssa is desperate. .
She decides that she must take a serious risk. She leaves John playing with a tile game in the rest room and goes to the Console room, taking the fob watch with her.
"Doctor," Alyssa says to the fob watch, "I'm going to take this boy back in time to meet you, so you'll meet yourself. If it isn't you, then all will be okay. But if it is you, then serious issues might arise." She's fearful, yet she doesn't like to have to admit that she doesn't know what to do.
All she has to do is press the right button in the right way on the fob watch to open it!
Unfortunately it isn't obvious! .
In the rest room.
"Alright, John," Alyssa says. "I'm taking you back to see ..." She wonders how she can possibly tell the child what she's about to do. "To see the Doctor!"
"I don't need a Doctor," the child objects. .
"This is a very friendly Doctor," Alyssa says, hoping desperately for a good reception by the Doctor, but then recalling that it won't be! .
They walk to the Console Room. Alyssa taps buttons on the console and images flash across the Console screen to confirm just when in the Doctor's earlier timeline they will land, and where.
Finally, she pulls the dematerialisation lever and the awful grinding noise is heard.
The boy covers his ears, but when the noise stops, Alyssa goes to him and hugs him.
She opens the Tardis door, and they step outside. They've landed in one of the Doctor's Tardis corridors, just slightly earlier in his timeline.
"All you have to do is go down that corridor and touch the Doctor. It's easy!" .
"Off you go!"
The boy sets off walking down the corridor while Alyssa listens to discover what happens when the child reaches the earlier Doctor's Tardis Console room!
It seems to take ages. Alyssa retreats into her, later, Tardis and asks it to listen out for any sounds.
Eventually, Alyssa hears a loud screech! . Then she knows that John is definitely the Doctor! .
When the child returns, running, Alyssa removes the later Tardis from the Doctor's earlier Tardis where she'd landed. Then she sends John to play in the rest room again.
Alyssa again visits the Tardis Consciousness, hugging a pillar in the Tardis Console room. She steps through the tall trees and finds the Tardis Consciousness, standing unsteadily near a tree.
Alyssa approaches and pauses.
"All I have is a fob watch," Alyssa tries to contain her disappointment.
However, the Tardis Consciousness knows about fob watches!
Alyssa just hadn't mentioned a fob watch before! .
"All you have to do is open it. I think it's that button there ... twist it. But open it near the child. John is the child you need. You know that now."
"Thank you, Tardis." Alyssa can hardly wait!
She steps back from the pillar and goes to the rest room where John is sitting playing.
The catch is finally pressed and twisted in the right way, and the fob watch opens. A yellow mist creeps out of it and Alyssa is ecstatic.
John breathes in the yellow mist and the light returns to his eyes.
The Doctor is back! But as a small child! .
THE END
The Doctor's likely to regenerate very soon! .
The previous episode in this series is called "Alien at Cricket" (ref. 64).
The next episode in this series is called "Anti Cybermen."
I hope to add further episodes soon.
Sparse References.
Reference 1 Episode Maintenance Mission in this series,
where the Doctor had produced the game like Rummikub from the Console to allay his new companion's fears.
Reference 41 Episode Alyssa's Stowaway in this series,
where a friend of Alyssa's stole from the Cybermen's treasury vault, bringing a Cybermen's space fleet in anger.
Reference 49 Episode In Search of the Early Doctor in this series,
where the Doctor assists at his own birth! .
Reference 58 Episode Krillitane Interview in this series,
where Alyssa had an experience of perception filters.
Reference 60 Episode Out of the Cyberman in this series,
where a Gallifreyan friend of Alyssa's, Simeon, had found a way out of the Cyberman's suit by regenerating.
Here the Cybermaster will not make himself regenerate in a way that will get him out of the suit. He is far too dedicated! And therein lies his downfall.
At points in the story where there is humour, an additional full stop is added. .
ANOTHER END