Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ DOCTOR WHO: APOUKALUPSIS (Revelations) ❯ TARDIS A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY ( Chapter 4 )

Episode4

TARDIS A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY

The companions are settling to the Tardis way of life, to the best of their abilities. But a sudden urge to experiment the capabilities they have over time goes very haywire. To top it all, the Doctor goes missing.

New companions settling in the Tardis-life. While the Doctor teaches them about the Tardis, they seem more interested in the time traveling capabilities and the butterfly effect (cue killing a butterfly gag). They say what's the point in understanding the Tardis if they cannot see and experience the change of time firsthand. Both of them come up with a plan to experiment on changing specific but minor details in their life by going back or forward in time and plead with the Doctor, who reluctantly agrees and comes with. They learn that the Doctor used to have a Tardis room that used to be close to the Eye of Harmony, called Will and Relevancy Matrix, where he can run a test on how events can unfold without them actually ever happening. It used to be a training guide that interfaces with the drivers psychic makeup and train them to factor in time properly while mapping ways for travel, but the Doctor never completed the training and the Tardis had to archive the room. However, the new Tardis can make close replicas of old archived rooms, with most of their function intact. Layla chooses to change her past while Daniel changes his future. As the change occurs, it seems things have gone very wrong with their lives and the collective lives of others around them. To add icing to this bitter cake, the Doctor has gone missing. However, the new Tardis interactive protocol and assistive mapping is still on and they can still direct the Tardis to go back/forward and fix what has happened. But however hard they try, they cannot reset anything. As per the Doctor's warnings, they could not even indulge in these scenarios or interact with anybody or they could break 'Time'; its like the princess jumping out of the Mario game to warn you that she is going to get kidnapped. Things can turn very wibbly-wobbly. They cannot break the progression of a simulation of their own life when they are connected mentally to the Matrix. Unlike a 'continuity engine' this is all too real. There are no Time Ghosts in here. And jumping into the simulations would turn those lives very real. ALL they could do is observe from a viewing pane within the Tardis time bubble within the room as everything around them goes wrong. In a Groundhog Day styled way, the Tardis enables them to start the chain of events multiple times from the beginning, while they stay in the viewing pane of the time bubble, and see versions of themselves in the outside and the surrounding going all wrong, whatever they choose to do. Episode ending with the companions learning a lesson in the natural progression of time and events. Episode has a lot of scenes where the Tardis interacts back with the Doctor, as if deliberating and co-consulting a plan. Turns out this was a Simulation room test that The Doctor and the Tardis had planned all along, not the Will and Relevancy Matrix room. That very morning, for the first time , the Doctor DID actually start the training within the Matrix, and had foreseen the companions' request to experiment with time. Hence he had to come up with a plan to humble them down. The drawback is that you can only use the Will and Relevancy Matrix ONCE, as a driving training, and turns out the Doctor uses it for the companions. Although he starts the training, he never completed it.

[Unscripted dialogues]

Scene:

Doctor: Your mind is a home - with upstairs and downstairs.

Layla: Huh? Doctor, what do you...

Doctor: No matter what species you are. No matter how many appendages you keep or how strong a psychic imprint you can have. No matter what you can keep compartmentalized, or how many compartments you have. There is always an upstairs and downstairs.

Upstairs, in your consciousness, are regular things that are well-lit and regularly swept. Habitual. Factual territories. And downstairs is the unknown that you dread and overcome.

But there is always a middle.

Daniel: The subconscious.

Doctor: Exactly. Where reflexes and muscle memories work. The place that tells you to dread the light of the burning fire, The place that tells you to retract even before getting pinched. The place that tells you to have muscle memories about things that you did lifetimes ago. This is the most important place of all. The place that grows and experiences proactively. The place that makes you imagine a generic taste of a food that you probably have never even eaten before. The place that makes you remember the after-taste of your favorite food, even after a century or so. The place that tells you to start swinging your arms and paddling your legs, micro-seconds after you hit the water. That tells you to break open a biscuit and lick the cream as soon as you get it. Instincts. That is what resides in there.

Layla: Doctor, why you telling me all this for?

Doctor: Because, Layla Robbins...you have a beautiful mind. Beautiful, beautiful mind. With thoughts that would never even occur to everybody. You are energetic and enthusiastic. But that means there are depths to our brain. To how it all works.

Layla: So?

Doctor: So, where there are depths. There are shadows. Things you dread. Things you dare not venture. Hung up in little black boxes, in a corner of your mind. When you operate strong psychic fields, your thoughts would be at least five times faster or stronger than usual. You would feel compelled to turn your head towards that darkness. You would feel empowered enough, and as a reflex, you might just turn towards the little black boxes you keep. And before you know it, it’s already open, and everything comes pouring out. That could be dangerous when operating the Will and Relevancy Matrix. Keep your subconscious in check at all times.

Layla: Why you telling me this and not him?

Daniel: Oh, don’t be so daft. You know why.

Layla: No I don’t.

Doctor: Because Daniel is not as imaginative as you.

Daniel: Oi!

Doctor: And that’s a good thing. His mind isn’t deep enough to cover darkness. His thoughts, his expression, his projection of himself are all superficially aligned. Consciously, or subconsciously, he takes matter much simply, than you do. There are no inner thoughts or demons that can act as psychic repellent.

Layla: So all I have to do is be careful, right?

Doctor: Yeah.