Doctor Who: The Fall Of Harriet Jones...And The Rise Of Harold Saxon

I've given up asking my muse why she does these things. She's like the tide: it comes in and goes out, and no-one can stop it. This one (slightly expanded) covers exactly how the Doctor brought Harriet Jones down - and, for once not seeing the consequences, paved the way for her successor, Harold Saxon...a.k.a. the Master.

Exterior of the Sycorax spacecraft

As the Doctor wins his duel

"Bravo!" Harriet cried.

"That says it all. Bravo!" Rose agreed.

"Ah, not bad for a man in his jim-jams," the Doctor said merrily. Rose helped him put on the dressing gown. "Very Arthur Dent," the Doctor observed. "Now, there was a nice man." He was, Rose thought, implying Arthur Dent was real, not fictional. Then again, who knew? "Hold on, what have I got in here?" He reached into a pocket. "A satsuma. Ah, that friend of your mother's," he declared. "He does like his snacks, doesn't he? But doesn't that just sum up Christmas? You go through all those presents and right at the end, tucked away at the bottom, there's always one stupid old satsuma. Who wants a satsuma?"

Unseen by the Doctor, the Sycorax leader got up, grabbed his sword and ran at the Doctor's back, in flagrant disregard for the Rites of Combat. He was defeated and, by the Rites, should have accepted that. Instead he was taking an opportunity to strike at his enemy.

But the Doctor didn't have to see him to know what he'd do.

He threw the satsuma at a control on the spaceship hull, the piece of the wing on which the leader was standing opened up, and he fell screaming to his death.

"No second chances," the Doctor said coldly, unmoved by the leader's death. "I'm that sort of a man."

Note to self, Rose thought, almost shocked at the ruthlessness of the act, do not mess with the Doctor.

Aboard the Sycorax spacecraft

"By the Ancient Rites of Combat," the Doctor commanded sternly to the assembled Sycorax warriors, "I forbid you to scavenge here for the rest of time. And when you go back to the stars and tell others of this planet, when you tell them of its riches, its people, its potential...when you talk of the Earth, then make sure that you tell them this." He sounded grim and earnest as he finished, "It. Is. Defended."

Near the Powell Estate

As the Sycorax are about to leave

The Sycorax teleport deposited the Doctor, Rose, Mickey, Harriet and Alex onto a housing estate. Practically-minded as ever, Rose asked, "Where are we?"

Mickey answered, "We're just off Bloxsome Road. We're just round the corner, we did it!" he cheered, laughing.

Cautious for once, the Doctor held out a hand and admonished, "Wait a minute, wait a minute..."

But the huge spacecraft did exactly as the Doctor had commanded: it left, about to break orbit. He grinned. Love it when they do as they're told.

"Go on, my son!" Mickey jeered loudly. "Oh, yeah!"

In celebration Rose leapt onto Mickey's back for a piggyback ride, crying, "Yeah! Don't come back!"

Echoing the Doctor's words, Mickey agreed, "It is defended!" The two laughed and hugged as Rose got down. Then she dashed to Alex and hugged him, too. He looked bemused, but pleased. It isn't every day an attractive young woman takes it into her head to hug you.

Then again, he mused, it isn't every day we see alien invaders being repelled.

The deaths were tragic, true, but I think on the whole we can write up this day as a win.

Wonder if Ms. Jones will include it in her autobiography...if she's ever allowed to write it?

Harriet faced the Doctor, smiling broadly. At first she'd had her understandable doubts, but no more. "My Doctor."

"Prime Minister," he returned with a smile of his own. "Still have doubts?"

"Definitely not," she grinned. "Different appearance, yes, but I gather from the UNIT files you've done this before."

"Yep," he nodded. "It's a trick my people have. Instead of ageing, we regenerate every so often when the current body reaches its natural end. Or when we're ill. Or forced to, as I was back when I became UNIT's first Scientific Adviser."

"One more for my banned-by-Parliament autobiography," she quipped, and hugged him. "Absolutely the same man."

"Mmm, it's often a problem," he agreed, "usually I have to prove myself with some daring deed. Like today," he smiled.

Then a thought struck her, and she looked up, to where the Sycorax ship was departing. "Are there many more out there? I seem to recall a scientific principle - the Principle of Mediocrity, I think? It suggests that if life can arise on one world, it can arise on many more. Then again, you're an alien, aren't you? Thus there are three species at least. So surely there are more."

"Mmm, yes, not just the Sycorax. The only thing the Principle gets wrong is the assumption that Earth is typical. It's not. Life-bearing planets are common, but not in these parts. Earth is very much an exception. That's why you've attracted so much attention - and why UNIT exists. Hundreds of species. Thousands of them. Every day you're sending out probes, messages and signals. This planet's so noisy," he observed. "You're getting noticed, more and more." Now she looked pensive. "You'd better get used to it."

At this stage, she thought, being noticed is the last thing we want. We're simply not ready to repel a technologically advanced aggressor - that was proven today, with the deaths of two brave men. We might have lost fully a third of our population.

Because we aren't ready.

Or...are we?

Torchwood

As it happened, they were.

Captain Jack Harkness asked, "Gwen, we ready?"

Gwen Cooper nodded soberly. "We're ready, bach. All five emitters are aligned."

"Target confirmed," Ianto Jones (no relation to Harriet) agreed.

"Tosh," Jack told Toshiko Sato, "that's your cue."

Toshiko nodded and addressed her mobile. "Ready to fire on command."

Bloxsome Road

Then there was a cry of "Rose!"

"Mum!" Rose called joyfully.

"Talking of trouble..." the Doctor quipped.

The two ran towards each other, Jackie holding out her arms in relief and welcome. "Oh my God! Rose!"

"He did it, Mum!" Rose bubbled as they embraced.

A mobile rang; Alex answered.

"You did it, too!" Rose cried happily. "It was the tea! Fixed his head!"

"That's all I needed," the Doctor agreed, smiling, "cup of tea!"

"I said so!"

"Typical British attitude, innit," Mickey joked, "a cup of tea fixes everything. Even a wonky Time Lord."

"Oh, you!" Jackie chuckled, each arm around the young ones' waists.

"And look at him!" Rose indicated the Doctor.

"Is it him, though?" Jackie doubted. "Is it really the Doctor?"

The Doctor shrugged. "More or less."

But Jackie knew he was kidding. Didn't matter anyway - those creepy aliens were scarpering, the world hadn't lost a third of its people, and best of all, her Rose was alive and well!

Jackie noticed Harriet. "Oh my God, it's the bleedin' Prime Minister!" she gasped

"Come here, you," the Doctor smiled, offering a hug which Jackie gladly accepted. Yes, it's him - he smells the same. Ooh, he looks sexy. In fact all four hugged; the joy was contagious.

"Are you better?" she asked him.

Alex walked towards the Prime Minister. "It's a message from Torchwood." He paused briefly. "They say they're ready."

Harriet closed her eyes. Of all the things she'd ever done, this would surely be the worst.

If she did it.

But if what the Doctor had said was true, and she had no reason to doubt it, then there were many other species out there...some, perhaps, worse than the Sycorax. More, he'd only forbidden them to scavenge here. Even if they kept their word, what about the others?

As the Prime Minister, her first duty was to the people of Britain. That was her guiding principle from when she'd been merely a humble backbencher for Flydale North. But now, she saw, she had an even greater responsibility, to the people of the world. Contrary to popular cynical belief, there were a few politicians who weren't in it purely for the money or the perks. Some - a few, admittedly - really cared about their constituents. Harriet Jones was proud to be one of them. Under her aegis the United Kingdom was now stronger than ever.

So she would act from a position of strength, but only because she truly believed she had no choice.

She gazed at her friends. They might understand.

"Tell them to fire," she instructed Alex quietly.

Alex walked a little distance away and ordered softly, "Fire at will."

Torchwood

"The PM's aide says to fire at will," Toshiko said quietly, putting her mobile away.

Jack sighed. "And Torchwood has always obeyed the orders of the ruling monarch or the PM. Fire," he told Ianto.

Ianto adjusted the focus of what they called the Device, salvaged from a ship which crashed on Earth a decade ago. Then he triggered it.

Bloxsome Road

The Doctor and his friends were startled to see and hear a green-white beam lance up from somewhere nearby (ostensibly a disused warehouse, but in fact it was far, far more). Four other beams joined it from around London, from similarly unobtrusive locations - in a perfect pentagon. The beams coalesced and formed a final beam, which targeted the departing Sycorax ship even as it reached orbit.

It transfixed the ship, skewering it like an insect specimen, and blew it apart.

The three humans with the Doctor stared, stunned, uncomprehending as yet.

"What is that?" Rose asked. "What's happening?"

But the Doctor knew.

That was an Acadian Energy Beam. The only type of craft which had ever resisted it was a Dalek Battle Saucer.

The explosion was spectacular.

Now they understood, and were appalled.

The Doctor had seldom felt rage. But now he did. "That was murder!"

"That was defence," Harriet countered calmly. "It's adapted from alien technology. A ship that fell to Earth ten years ago."

"But they were leaving!" he growled. "Exactly as I required! By the Ancient Rites of Combat, they were doing the honourable thing by leaving!"

Now Harriet made her point, her justification. "You said yourself, Doctor, they'd go back to the stars - and tell others about the Earth. Now I grant you that some of them will doubtless have benign intentions." She shrugged. "Who knows, they may come for a holiday, and why not? This is a beautiful world, and we don't mind peaceful visitors. But some...tell me the truth, Doctor: Are there other hostile species out there? Ones who might want to exploit us and our world - as the Slitheen did?" She looked wry. "I really must get that Act of Parliament revoked now I'm the PM."

"There are," he conceded. "But I suspect they're in danger from you!"

"I'm sorry, Doctor," and she meant it, "but you're not here all the time as you were in the '70s. You come and go. It happened today," she pointed out, "Mr. Llewellyn and the Major. Those brave men, whom I fully intend to honour posthumously, were murdered. They died right in front of me while you were sleeping -"

"Oi!" Rose protested. "He wasn't just sleeping, he nearly died! The regeneration went wrong -!"

"Rose, it doesn't matter why he wasn't here," Harriet sternly interrupted. "The fact of the matter is: he wasn't here when we needed him. In which case, we have to defend ourselves."

"Britain's Golden Age," the Doctor sneered.

"It comes with a price," Harriet conceded.

"I gave them the wrong warning," the Doctor said flatly. Had Harriet known him better she would've known that was a danger sign. "I should have told them to run as fast as they could! Run and hide because the monsters are coming. The human race!" he finished savagely. For all that he loved humans and felt they were worth defending until they could defend themselves, they could be so brutal at times.

"Those are the people I represent," the PM told him. "I did it on their behalf. Sometimes even a benevolent leader must do terrible things, Doctor. Despite what you may think, I am not evil."

The Doctor appraised her with all his centuries of experience. "No," he allowed fairly, "you're not, are you? I've dealt with evil people, Harriet. But I've dealt with misguided people, too, doing the wrong thing for the right reasons," like me, when I ended the Time War, "and you definitely fall into that category. Not evil, no." He finished bleakly, "But capable of it."

"I hope and pray the Device will never be needed again. But if it is...it's there."

"I should have stopped you." His voice was still flat.

"What does that make you, Doctor?" she demanded. "Another alien threat?"

Now a little more of his sheer rage showed. "Don't challenge me, Harriet Jones, 'cause I'm a completely new man!" He got in her face and warned, "I could bring down your government with a single word."

Unwisely (as the Brigadier might have told her) she was unimpressed. "You're the most remarkable man I've ever met," she said sincerely, "but I don't think you're quite capable of that."

"No, you're right," he decided, "not a single word." Then after a brief pause he finished, "Just six."

"I don't think so."

"Six words."

"Stop it."

"Six." He held her gaze for a few seconds. Then he walked to join Alex and took his Bluetooth set out of his ear, handing it to him. Very quietly he spoke six words. They were apparently inconsequential, hardly world-shaking, certainly nothing along the lines of "I have a dream" or "Never in the field of human conflict..." or "We choose to go to the Moon and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard".

But in the field of politics, he knew, especially human politics, six words could make all the difference. They were:

"Don't you think she looks tired?"

He walked past Harriet with barely a glance. He gathered his friends by eye and walked away.

Anxious now, Harriet looked at Alex and rushed to him. "What did he say?"

"Nothing, really," Alex managed, bemused.

"What did he say?"

"Uh, nothing," he protested feebly, "I - I don't know."

"Doctor!" Harriet cried. Rose looked back, but the others did not. "Doctor, what did...what was that? What did you say? What did you say, Doctor? Doctor!"

She received no reply.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, devastated. Again, she meant it. But as would soon become clear, the damage was done.

For the Doctor was a master of psychological manipulation via voice. Primarily, intonation was everything. An innocent phrase, spoken in just the right way, could mean - or could be interpreted to mean - something completely different from the way it sounded. Even now, Alex was thinking whilst walking away: He has a point.

That was exactly what he was supposed to think.

Jackie's flat

As they're enjoying Christmas dinner

"Prime Minister, is it true you're no longer fit to be in position?" a reporter asked. The BBC News 24 caption read: PM HEALTH SCARE - Unfit for duty? The scrolling banner read, among other things: HARRIET JONES "UNSTABLE AND FAILING FAST".

"No! Now can we talk about other things?"

But he was persistent. "Is it true you're unfit for office?"

"Look, there is nothing wrong with my health! I don't know where these stories are coming from!"

But in fact she knew too well who had started them. The meme 'She's not fine' had taken on a life of its own once Alex had idly mentioned the matter to a colleague, spreading rapidly as memes tend to do. The Opposition had seized upon it.

And a certain up-and-coming politician waited in the wings. Oh, yes. This'll do nicely. Oh, what a gift you've given me, Doctor.

"And a vote of no confidence is completely unjustified!" Harriet added.

"Are you going to resign?"

"On today of all days, I'm fine. Look at me, I'm fine. I look fine, I feel fine."

But the Opposition insisted overwhelmingly on the vote. Forced into it, the Speaker complied.

They weren't to know they were being subtly manipulated by someone who had waited for just this chance. And for the Doctor to be ultimately behind it was a truly delicious irony. The vote, which went against Harriet, was more than enough to be compelling, and so, tiredly, she went to Her Majesty and requested the formation of a new government. Her last official acts as PM were:

To order the burial with full military honours of the two dead men (albeit with no bodies);

And the Act of Parliament banning her autobiography was revoked by Royal Command.

(A certain politician said offhandedly, "Oh, why not? Might even be entertaining." He hit his wife.

Indoctrinated as she was into abject submission, she writhed, pleading, "Again, Harry. Again, please."

He chuckled and hit her again. Even while bleeding, she smiled.)

But now she had the chance, Harriet found herself at a loss as to what to write. Alex, who had inadvertently brought about her downfall, proved very valuable. The 600-page manuscript was accepted by Gollanz, and became a best-seller - though she steadfastly maintained that the motive was revealing the truth, not making money. Through this fortune and finding Mr. Copper (who revealed in confidence, trusting her, that he was from Sto, not Earth), she established the Mr. Copper Foundation, and acquired technical expertise, building the Subwave Network.

She had a lot of time to think - more after her mother peacefully passed away in the small but well-furnished mansion Harriet had bought for her, complete with care staff. They'd reported no trouble rehoming the three cats and three kittens, or the talkative parrot. The proceeds from its sale went to Flydale North; it seemed fitting.

Harriet thought often. She'd had a brilliant career after an undistinguished start as a humble backbencher (included in her autobiography), brought to an end by a mere six words. Not a scandal, not a crime, not parliamentary abuse of her position.

Just six words.

She'd gotten Alex drunk one night (whilst drinking alcopops with the alcohol sneakily removed) and he'd confessed what the Doctor had said.

Try as she might, Harriet couldn't find it in herself to blame him (she put those in, too).

But neither could she shake the conviction that she'd been right.

Oh well. Maybe my successor will do better.

He did, but not in the way she thought.

When the Emergency General Election was held (Rose, Mickey and Jackie would have voted against her had they not been in a parallel universe, unable to forgive her for her act of mass murder, however justified it might have been), he won by a landslide, becoming the new PM.

Now, he thought with relish whilst having celebratory sex with his subverted wife (and, when the mood took him, beating her), the real work can begin. The Toclafane are coming.

And, Harold Saxon thought gleefully, let the human disgrace suffer!

THE END