Please note that this story was originally intended to be last years 50th anniversary story, but I felt it too dark in tone so it was shelved. It has now been re-engineered and restructured to appear now.
On board the Starship Nautilus, command ship of the anti-alien company called Eyeglass, a man with long, grey hair tied into a ponytail strode across the shuttle bay of the ship. He was handed a huge, canon-like weapon by a young lieutenant standing at his side.
He continued to walk, his footsteps echoing on the polished, metal floor until he reached a huge, giant of a man standing with his arms folded. He wore blue armour and had an array of weapons strapped to his person. A blue hood covered most of his head, but white, skull-like features and yellow eyes could be seen peering out.
“Do you understand your mission?” asked the General.
Paragrim smiled, his teeth dripping with saliva. “We’ve been over this already.”
“But do you understand your mission?” asked the General again.
Paragrim took the canon from the General and nodded. “For what you’re paying me…you can trust me to understand the mission.”
“Find the Doctor-”
Paragrim sighed. The General just wouldn’t have it any other way.
“-and kill him. Remove him. Do anything. Just make sure he’s dead.”
“None of this makes sense, Helix. Already you have him as your prisoner. Why not just kill him now?”
“Because,” said the General, feeling like he’d gone over this over and over again, “his very presence here has disrupted my plans. I need you to go back before he came here.”
“Messing with time,” tutted Paragrim. “A very tricky business.”
“This is the last roll of the die,” said the General, getting more and more agitated. “I have no more plans up my sleeve. Not this time. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” said Paragrim quietly.
“DO YOU?!”
“YES!”
“Just stop him, or me or you bringing him on board from Mars.” The General calmed himself and then smiled. “I hope your new shuttle will be to your liking,” said the General, pointing to a small, brown, slightly curved ship sitting near to the shuttle bay doors.
Paragrim smiled and walked over to the ship, running his bony hand along it’s surface. Paragrim was a bounty hunter. Loathed as Eyeglass were to actually employ such a being, they had found Paragrim to be extremely useful when interrogating a previous prisoner - the Doctor’s friend Aleena.
Granted he had single-handedly helped to destroy one of their ships and kill a member of their crew, but now the General just wanted results. The Doctor had become a pain and he needed him out the way. And Paragrim was the man to do it.
“Hello, my beauty,” said Paragrim quietly to the shuttle. “You and I are about to have some fun together.”
Some time ago…
On board the TARDIS was a different TARDIS crew. A recent one, but an old one.
On board the TARDIS the Doctor, Danny and Caroline had set up a giant projector screen in the console room. Danny was busy scoffing his face with popcorn whilst Caroline sucked furiously on a straw that had already drained a glass of lemonade. The Doctor was hunched forward, concentrating on the film.
The screen showed a white-haired gentleman crossing the terrain of some alien planet, pursued by grey, metallic, cylindrical robots.
“This is strangely familiar,” said the Doctor, scratching the top of his head.
“It’s crap,” said Danny, finishing the last of the popcorn. “A bad, bad B-movie.”
“I don’t know,” said Caroline, noticing her empty glass, “I thought it was just getting really good. That was until one of them hid inside the robot. That was a bit daft.”
“As daft as the rest of it, perhaps,” laughed Danny, throwing a newly-discovered piece of popcorn at the screen.
The three time travellers were distracted by a beeping sound coming from the console.
The Doctor leapt to his feet and checked the scanner readout. “Proximity alarm!” he said.
“Meaning?” said Caroline, running to join him.
“Meaning-”
There was a huge boom and the TARDIS lurched violently to the side. Caroline, Danny and the Doctor were all thrown to the right and the Doctor crashed unceremoniously through the projector screen.
Somewhere in the depths of the TARDIS there came a loud, booming bell, tolling low and sounding ominous.
“The cloister bell!” said the Doctor, getting himself back onto his feet.
“What’s going on?” asked Caroline, joining the Doctor beside the console again.
The readouts were going haywire. Lights were flickering and the chronometer was spinning wildly.
“I’m trying to get a fix on what hit us.”
“Something hit us?” asked Danny, rubbing his bruised head.
“Unfortunately, yes.”
Finally the scanner image cleared. It showed the multicoloured tunnel of the space/time vortex and travelling just in front of them was the scorched and battered hulk of a small, brown shuttle.
“Did it purposely ram us?” asked Danny.
“I’m not sure,” said the Doctor. “But it’s caught us in it’s time-wake.”
“It’s what?” asked Caroline, trying to wrap her head around what was going on.
“I think it was an accident, but we’re now both caught in a time-wake. Hang on. The readings are registering Aurellion. That’s Paragrim inside that shuttle! We’re slipping through the vortex to a specific date.”
“And that is?”
The Doctor checked the readouts, which had now stabilised. “Oh no…”
“What is it?”
“November 23rd, 1963. Shoreditch, London.”
If anyone had been paying attention they would have noticed the small, brown shuttlecraft that had whizzed over head after exiting the time vortex. However, this particular afternoon was becoming foggy and the night was drawing in, so nobody, other than a window cleaner had noticed the strange object.
The shuttle crash-landed relatively gently through the roof of a warehouse.
Paragrim stepped out of the shuttle and kicked it’s hull. “Rubbish. First time out and we crash!”
A few moments later he was outside on the street. It was getting dark by now and the fog had rolled in even more. He switched on his detector. A Time Lord trace was nearby. A few miles to the west.
“It must be the Doctor!” he said, delight in his voice. “It doesn’t look much like Mars though. Must’ve been knocked off course. No matter.” He smiled. “As long as the Doctor is here, it doesn’t matter when it is.”
Having one last look back at the shuttle, he headed off into the fog.
A little way off fifteen year old Susan Foreman was sat on a school desk with a little pocket radio held up to her ear. She was slim with short, dark hair and dark eyes. The radio was playing a 1960’s jangly guitar song and she made strange movements with her hand, almost like dancing, but not quite. It was almost alien.
The door behind her, unbeknownst to Susan, had opened. Standing in the door was two of her school teachers - Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. Ian was very clean cut with a neat haircut and a serious face, but with a twinkle in his eye. Barbara looked very proper with a beehive haircut and dark, mysterious eyes.
They had grown concerned over Susan. Her homework was suffering and Barbara had felt that there was something not quite “right” about her. And so they had decided to confront her head on.
“Susan?” called Barbara.
Susan noticed the sound behind her, looked a little embarrassed and put the radio down. “Oh, I’m sorry, Miss Wright. I didn’t hear you coming in. Aren’t they fabulous?”
“Who?”
“It’s John Smith and the Common Men. They’ve gone from 19 to 2.”
Barbara looked a little confused, unable to grasp the day to day chat of who was in the charts.
Ian, noticing Barbara’s confusion, laughed. “John Smith is the stage name for the honourable Aubrey Waites. He started his career as Chris Waites and the Carollers, didn’t he Susan?”
Susan raised her eyebrows. “You are surprising, Mr. Chesterton. I wouldn’t expect you to know things like that.”
“I have an enquiring mind.” He nodded towards the still-playing radio. “And a very sensitive ear.”
Realising the loudness of the radio she switched it off, apologising.
Susan’s eyes then were drawn to a leather-bound book that Barbara was holding. On it were the words “HISTORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION”
“Is that the book you promised me?”
“Yes,” said Barbara, handing the book over.
“Thank you very much. It will be interesting,” she said, turning it over and looking at the back cover. “I’ll return it tomorrow.”
“Oh, that’s not necessary. Keep it until you’ve finished it.”
Susan grabbed her bag. “I’ll have finished it.”
Both Ian and Barbara glanced at each other in surprise.
Ian cleared his throat. “Where do you live, Susan? I’m giving Miss Wright a lift. I’ve room for one more.”
Susan looked a little sheepish. “No thank you, Mr. Chesterton. I like walking through the dark. It’s mysterious.”
“Well be careful, Susan,” said Barbara, looking noticeably concerned. “There’ll probably be fog again tonight.”
They both watched Susan packing things into her bag. “I like walking through the English fog. It’s so dark and mysterious.”
“See you in the morning,” continued Barbara, almost sounding like she was asking a question.
“I expect so. Good night,” said Susan, her mind not really on the conversation.
Ian and Barbara stepped out of the classroom and headed down the corridor towards the staff room.
“You see,” said Barbara, “there is something funny about her. Refusing a lift and everything.”
Ian smiled as he grabbed his briefcase from under a comfy chair and checked he had everything.
“I wouldn’t worry too much about it, Miss Wright,” he said, “you know how teenagers can be these days.”
A few minutes later they were ready to go. Ian locked the staff room door, turned, and standing there, in front of him and Barbara, was the imposing figure of Paragrim, pointing a huge blaster directly at the pair of them.
“What on Earth-” began Ian.
“Where is the Time Lord?” he asked.
“Ian…” said Barbara, clearly terrified and moving closer towards her colleague.
“Where is the Doctor?” asked Paragrim again. “There are traces of Time Lord energy here. He was here.”
“Listen,” said Ian, trying to sound as brave as possible, “I don’t know who you are or what you want, but we’re the only ones here.”
“Susan…” said Barbara quietly.
“I saw her leave when I looked out of the window,” said Ian quickly. “She’s safe.”
“Then you two are useless to me.”
Paragrim pulled the trigger on his blaster and two bolts of energy erupted from it’s barrel knocking both Ian and Barbara to the floor.
“I will find you, Doctor,” growled Paragrim, stomping off down the corridor. A Time Lord had been here, but it had obviously just left.
A few moments later the TARDIS materialised in the corridor, it’s blue light blinking as it faded into view.
The door clicked open and the Doctor stepped out.
“Ah, familiar territory,” he smiled.
“You’ve been here before?” asked Caroline, stepping out into the corridor to join the Doctor.
“A few times actually. First time I registered my granddaughter here in 1963.”
Caroline had given up trying to understand much about the Doctor now. She knew he could regenerate, was a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey and spent an enormous amount of time and energy running away from a list of enemies as long as her arm. The fact that he also had a granddaughter that he and Danny had never met didn’t really phase her.
“I wonder what Paragrim’s doing here,” said the Doctor, stepping around the box and…spotting the two prone forms of Ian and Barbara on the floor. “Oh no.”
“What is it?” asked Danny, emerging from the box.
“Trouble. Big trouble. Severe trouble.”
“What do you mean?” asked Caroline, running to the two teachers and checking their pulses. “I think they’re alive.”
“This is November 23rd 1963. Paragrim has been here.”
“That’s obvious,” said Danny, nodding towards the bodies.
“You don’t understand. These two - Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright - are meant to be on there way to Totters Lane right now. They follow my Granddaughter back to the junkyard and eventually come travelling with me.”
“So….what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that Paragrim has caused time to be changed. Ian and Barbara will never meet me now.”
“But nothing’s changed with you,” said Caroline.
“Not yet,” said the Doctor, looking very nervous, “but it’s only a matter of time before things begin to change. Time has to catch up to me first.”
“Then what do we do?” asked Danny, looking a little helpless.
“Paragrim needs to be stopped. He’ll be tracing Time Lord signatures. He’ll follow Susan and find me - the old me - and no doubt execute us both!”
“Then we’ve got to stop him.”
“We’ve got to get these two into the TARDIS first. They need medical help. Give me a hand,” said the Doctor as Danny and Caroline helped to drag the two teachers across the floor and into the time machine.
Once they were safely inside the three of them stepped out again.
“I need you two to run to Foreman’s Yard on Totters Lane. Get to me or Susan and tell them to be careful. Tell them to take off and run.”
“But isn’t that going to disrupt time even more?”
“No. Right now this whole timeline is in flux. Our one advantage is that we can do anything we want now. Paragrim has messed with this point in time so we can mess to try and put it right. But it’s only a matter of time before it unravels and I need to find a way to put it right.”
“So where’s this Totters Lane?” asked Caroline, grabbing her jacket from inside the TARDIS.
“Not far from here. Follow the road signs. I’ll join you there soon. You need to find either a dark-haired teenager or a white-haired old man.”
“This is crazy!” said Danny, arms outstretched.
“Go!” said the Doctor.
As soon as they had left, the Doctor stepped back into the TARDIS and closed the doors. He rested his head against the inner door. How could things have gone so wrong?
“Excuse me?” came a familiar voice from long ago.
The Doctor turned and standing there, next to the sofa was Ian and Barbara, both of them looking groggy and rubbing their heads.
“Ah,” said the Doctor.
“I’d quite like to know what’s going on here,” said Ian.
Caroline and Danny had virtually sprinted from Coal Hill School towards the junkyard. When they were halfway down Totters Lane they spotted a space. A space in between two houses. There was a gate with the words I.M. Foreman. Scrap Merchant written on them.
“There it is!” exclaimed Caroline.
The fog was thick now, but the spotted a dark-haired girl pushing the gates open and entering the yard.
“Go, go, go!” said Danny. “And keep your eyes peeled for Paragrim.”
They pushed the wooden gates open and stepped inside. The junkyard was full of…well, full of junk. Old children’s toys, rocking horses, bed frames, wooden pallets, lampshades, tins, bottles, plastic dummies with their heads bashed in…everything. There was a set of wooden steps leading up from the ground floor and sat next to the steps was a familiar shape - the TARDIS.
“Hey,” said Danny, “do you think-?”
“It must be the older Doctor’s TARDIS,” said Caroline, narrowing her eyes. She reached out to the box and touched it. “It feels alive. Just like our TARDIS.”
Danny copied Caroline and touched the box. “This is just bizarre.”
“Do you think she’s inside?” asked Caroline.
“There’s only one way out as far as we know. She must be inside. Let’s go in.”
They were about to push the door open when they heard the sound of the creaking gates and then the cough of a man.
“Hide!” said Danny.
The pair of them scuttled behind a couple of upright pallets and watched on. An old man with long, white hair stepped into the junkyard. He wore an Astrakhan hat, scarf and a cloak. He coughed again, cleared the air with a handkerchief and then crossed over to the TARDIS. He pulled out a key and then shone a pen-like flashlight at the lock.
He pushed the door open slightly and a girl’s voice came from within the box.
“So there you are, Grandfather!”
He was about to go in when the gate of the junkyard was pushed open, almost off it’s hinges, and the great figure of Paragrim clomped into the junkyard.
“Look out!” said Danny, leaping from his position behind the pallets and pushing the old Doctor out of the way.
“Doctor!” growled Paragrim as he aimed his gun at the old man.
“Unhand me, young man!” scolded the Doctor. “What is going on here?”
The door of the TARDIS opened and Susan stood there, looking down curiously at her Grandfather sprawled on the floor, and then up to the imposing hulk of Paragrim. She put her hands to her mouth and screamed.
“Get back inside, child!” said the Doctor.
“Wait! Wait!” said Caroline, running out from her hiding place to join Danny.
Paragrim aimed his gun and took a shot. It just missed the Doctor’s head and instead fried a stuffed rabbit next to Danny’s.
“Come on!” said Danny as he helped the old man to his feet, grabbed Caroline’s hand and dragged them both inside the box.
Inside the TARDIS was completely different to what Caroline and Danny had been expecting. Instead of the stone, green-tinted church-like console room, it was brightly lit with white walls and dark roundels adorning them. On the other side of the console room was a bank of computers. The central console looked smaller, standing in the centre of the room and it’s time rotor didn’t run all the way up to the ceiling. Instead a large, cumbersome looking device hung from the ceiling above the console.
“Close the doors, Susan,” said the Doctor, as he tried to compose himself.
“Completely different,” said a shocked Caroline.
“Now,” said the Doctor, turning and his heels to face them, “can you kindly explain to me what is going on and who that gentleman outside is?”
Caroline looked at Danny and then back to the Doctor again.
“What do we say?” asked Danny.
“The Doctor - our Doctor - said that time is in flux and we can do anything we like.”
The old man watched them curiously, listening to their every word.
“So,” continued Caroline, “I guess we just tell him the truth.”
“The truth?” said the old Doctor. “I would expect nothing less.”
“Well,” said Caroline, sitting down on an ornate, wooden chair, “Danny and I are from your future.”
“A dream?” laughed Ian, his head still pounding from the effect of the laser blast.
“Yes,” said the Doctor, edging carefully towards the console.
“Do you really expect us to believe that?” asked Barbara.
“Um,” the Doctor thought for a moment, “well, no. No, of course not.”
“What was that…that thing standing in the corridor?”
The Doctor rubbed the top of his head. How was he going to explain all of this? Even when he first met Ian and Barbara - really met them in the junkyard - he had a hard time explaining things. But this time it was even more difficult. They hadn’t seen the police box and they hadn’t ran inside it. They had been knocked unconscious by a bizarre alien and woken up in this console room.
“Listen,” said Ian, “I expect you to tell me everything that’s going on here, or do you want me to fetch a policeman?”
“Ian, please, you have to listen to me,” said the Doctor, his arms outstretched, pleading to the school teacher.
“How do you know my name?” asked Ian.
“And where are we?” asked Barbara.
“You’re somewhere safe.”
“That’s not a very clear answer,” continued Barbara. “Safe from what?”
“That man who shot you.”
“That wasn’t a pistol,” said Ian. “It looked like a bright light. Like a torch.”
“No,” said the Doctor, “it was a highly powered laser gun. Set to the stun setting.”
“Don’t be so ridiculous,” laughed Ian.
“Those sort of things haven’t been invented,” added Barbara.
“No,” said Ian, closing in on the Doctor. “Those sort of thing’s are reserved only for comic books and fantasy.”
The Doctor bit on his finger nail, a habit he’d picked up over this incarnation. And then he gasped, grabbing his chest and crouching down to the floor in pain.
“Ian,” said Barbara. “Ian, help him.”
“It could be a trick,” said Ian, moving cautiously towards the Doctor.
“No,” said the Doctor. “It’s fine. It’ll pass.”
Sure enough the pain passed and soon the Doctor was being helped over to the sofa by Ian and Barbara. He sat for a few seconds, getting his breath back and then looked up at the two confused school teachers.
“Would you believe me if I told you that you were in a time machine?”
“What?” said Barbara.
“And that you - the both of you - and I would one day become good friends?”
“Don’t be absurd,” said Ian, “you’re a mad man.”
“Ian,” said Barbara, nervously, “I don’t like this. We need to get out.”
“Will you let us out of here?” asked Ian.
The Doctor shrugged. “No.”
“You can’t keep us prisoner here!”
“No, but I do have a plan.”
The older Doctor and Susan were busy having a hushed conversation near to the back of the console room. The Doctor kept looking over at Danny and Caroline and then back to Susan again.
“Do you think he believes us?” asked Caroline.
“I don’t see why he shouldn’t. He knows it’s possible.”
The Doctor cleared his throat and stepped over to Caroline and Danny. He raised his head and looked down his nose at them. “Well, for your sake, young man, you’ll be pleased to know that I’ve decided to believe your story.”
“Oh, thank god!” said Caroline.
“I have many questions that need answering, and I know that you’ll be reluctant to give me any clear answers.” He took the scarf from around his neck and draped it on the arm of the chair Caroline was sat in, “And I’m afraid we have no time for those answers. I just have to trust the both of you.”
“Grandfather,” said Susan, appearing at the Doctor’s side, “what are we going to do? In the long term, I mean?”
“Well, my dear, it seems to me that our friend with the gun is still outside. He’s probably trying to find a way in.”
“Then what shall we do?” she asked.
“I propose to let him in.”
“What!” said Caroline, Danny and Susan in unison.
“That’s crazy!” said Danny.
“Not as crazy as you may think,” continued the Doctor, crossing to the console. “If what you say is true, then this Paragrim fellow has come to kill a future version of me. Unfortunately he has found himself in my future’s past. If he kills me now it might just put things right.”
“No, Grandfather…” said Susan, with a pained expression.
“What do you mean?” asked Caroline.
“Time is already in flux, young lady. If he kills me, then your Doctor will cease to be and time will - hopefully - reset itself to before this Paragrim fellow collided with your TARDIS in the future.”
“That’s a lot of if’s and buts,” said Danny. “It’s too risky.”
Suddenly the air was filled with the familiar sound of a wheezing and groaning. The shape of a blue police box appeared in the middle of the console room.
The older Doctor looked horrified. “Ah, the stupid fellow. What’s he doing?”
The door clicked open and the bald-headed Doctor stepped out followed by a bemused Ian and Barbara.
“What are you doing?” asked the older Doctor. “It’s dangerous enough to land another TARDIS within another, let alone the same TARDIS.”
“This time line can’t get screwed up anymore,” said the bald Doctor.
There came a huge thump of the console room doors. And another. And then another.
“He’s trying to get in, Doctor,” said Caroline.
“Granddad here was about to let him inside,” said Danny, thumbing towards the older Doctor.
“A splendid idea,” said the bald Doctor.
“You’re all crazy,” said Susan. Her eyes suddenly fixed on her two school teachers who were feeling around the exterior of the blue police box. “What are they doing here?”
“Who are they?” asked the older Doctor.
“Two of my school teachers.”
“This is fantastic!” said Ian. “It can’t be real. None of it can be real.”
There came another thump.
“We need to decide on what to do.”
Another thump.
“Open the doors. If he kills my older self then time won‘t be able to cope with the change. It‘ll be like an elastic band snapping back.”
Another thump.
“Don’t be stupid!” hissed Danny.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
“Open the doors!” yelled the bald Doctor.
The old Doctor stepped forward, pulled a lever on the console and the large, chunky doors swung open. The huge, imposing figure of Paragrim stepped into the console room, stared around the room and then aimed his gun.
“Which one is the Doctor, I’m reading three Time Lord signatures?” he growled.
“We both are,” said the bald Doctor.
Paragrim’s mouth curled into a slight smile. “How?”
“You crashed into my TARDIS in the vortex and accidentally landed during the lifetime of my first incarnation. You’ve already badly damaged the timeline.”
“You have a choice, sir,” said the older Doctor. “You can destroy both of us or one of us. Either way this time will continue to unravel and soon even you may be erased from time.”
“Or,” continued the bald Doctor, “you can turn around, go back to your ship and we can try and heal time ourselves.”
Paragrim laughed. “I’m being paid to kill you, Doctor. Who cares which one dies?”
“Because time is already screwed up!” said Caroline. “Can’t you understand that you big, lumbering idiot?”
Paragrim growled and aimed his gun at the dark-haired woman. Susan shouted and tried to knock his arm out of the way. Paragrim staggered back slightly, raised his gun and aimed at Susan instead, blasting her full on in the chest.
“Susan!” said the older Doctor, crouching beside his dying granddaughter.
The room began to shake. Ian and Barbara fell to the floor and Caroline and Danny started to fade away.
“Doctor….what’s happ….us?” asked Danny.
“This timeline is damaged beyond repair,” said the bald Doctor, who was now starting to fade.
The room shook again.
Paragrim aimed his gun at the bald Doctor. “Make it stop!”
“It’s too late,” shouted the bald Doctor. “You’ve damaged things too much.”
He shot his gun but mis-fired and he hit the central column in the console.
“How dare you!” bellowed the older Doctor. “Do you know what you have done?”
“I don’t care what I’ve done.”
The bald Doctor was starting to fade. “It’s over,” he said. “Our presence in this timeline is making things fall apart. I need to get my TARDIS out of here before it tears yours apart.”
“No, my friend…” said the older Doctor, visibly shaken at Susan’s death.
“You can continue. With me gone, things might be okay. Take Ian and Barbara and show them the universe. Maybe one day you’ll become another version of me. But for now time will have to continue on a different path.”
“Unacceptable,” said the older Doctor.
“But you have to!”
“What I have to do, young man, is put things right.”
“How?”
Caroline and Danny were now mere faded shadows and Paragrim was starting to fade away.
“We said that if I died then things would repair themselves. That can still happen.”
“But Paragrim is fading away. He can’t kill you now.“
“He doesn’t have to. I shall fly my TARDIS into the vortex to the point of his ship hitting your TARDIS. If I can stop the collision from happening, then everything will return to normal.”
“It’s too risky. We can’t be certain it will work.”
Suddenly the Doctor grabbed his chest and faded away. He was gone.
“I’m afraid, young man, that I have no choice.”
The older Doctor surveyed the room. Caroline, Danny and Paragrim were gone. The blue police box was glowing orange and smoke was coming from it’s interior.
“What’s going on?” asked Barbara, not knowing whether to cry or run.
“My ship can’t handle the changes to the timeline.”
The console room shook again.
“I need to put right the damage to time.” And then the Doctor had a terrifying though. “I only hope I can guide the ship there.”
The Doctor worked furiously, imputing coordinates and charting his eventual destination. Ian and Barbara had banged on the console room doors to be let out. He didn’t have time for them and simply let them go, whilst Ian threatened to bring a policeman back with him.
Finally he had set the correct coordinates. Now the other TARDIS was glowing white-hot. If it exploded in here then his ship would also be utterly destroyed.
At least this way he could destroy this Paragrim fellow for good.
Giving one more look at Susan, he pulled the dematerialisation lever.
In the spiralling multicoloured maelstrom of the time/space vortex, Paragrim’s ship was once again heading towards the bald Doctor’s blue, spinning police box.
Like a bolt of lightning, the older Doctor’s TARDIS shot through the vortex and towards Paragrim’s ship. All it needed was timing.
In the console room the old Doctor watched on the small, TV monitor.
He glanced down at Susan. Peaceful and still. “Farewell, my child,” he said.
The box hurtled into Paragrim’s ship, exploding and shattering two thirds of the bounty hunters vessel. And then it dropped out of the vortex and spiralled towards a moon.
In the console room of the bald Doctor everything was normal. Nothing had changed. But they felt a shudder through their TARDIS.
“What was that?” asked Caroline, getting up from the sofa and passing the projector screen.
“An explosion in the vortex,” said the Doctor, checking the readings. “Whatever it was has crash landed on that moon.”
A few moments later the TARDIS materialised on the dark, grey moon. The Doctor, Caroline and Danny had donned orange spacesuits and were slowly making their way towards the crash sight.
In a small crater was the blackened remains of Paragrim’s ship, still smoking. There was the hint of a body, but it was unrecognisable.
“Poor fellow,” said the Doctor.
“How was he time travelling?” asked Caroline.
“Must have been an experimental craft,” said the Doctor. “Come on, there’s nothing more to see here.”
“Something feels odd,” said Caroline.
“What do you mean?” asked Danny, turning to go.
“Like something should have happened. I feel like I’m missing something.”
“Yeah, we’re missing that crappy film,” laughed Danny.
Caroline whacked him on his back as they made their way back to the TARDIS.
The Doctor was about to go when he noticed something. It was the remains of some kind of sign within the wreckage. He picked the fragment up and looked at it. On it were the remains of the words “-UBLIC CALL B-”
He frowned. And the remains of the sign crumbled to dust. They were gone.
He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end, dismissed the strange possibilities and then made his way back to the TARDIS.
And once they entered the box…they forgot.
Some time later the Doctor, now without Caroline and Danny, stood on the surface of the moon looking at the blackened remains of the ship. Ever since the General had told him that Paragrim had gone back to try and change things he had been concerned. And so he traced Paragrim’s time tracks and tracked it to here.
There was something itching at the back of his mind. Something about him encountering Paragrim some time before, but it was lost in his memories. Time had caused himself to forget.
Probably for the best, he thought to himself.
But one thing was certain: Paragrim, Eyeglass and the General were finally gone.
November 23rd, 1963
Ian and Barbara never encountered Paragrim. He had never come to Coal Hill School. Instead they had continued with their plan to follow Susan home.
And that’s when they had met the Doctor. And so began the adventure of a lifetime…
THE END
Next week: The Doctor, Tylaya and Maxus land in a normal suburban street in a normal town. But there is something wrong with Number 17 High Peak Avenue. "Number 17" begins Saturday 7th June 2014.
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