I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You: Doctor Who: The Nemesis Who Stole Time-Part 5

Greetings, Whovians!

Welcome to I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You, the blog that puts the sonic in your screwdriver.

I am Dave-El and today is Doctor Who Saturday and the return of the my multi-Doctor epic, The Nemesis Who Stole Time.

Before we get to today's installment, I want to cover a couple of things. When I first set out to do this, the idea was to do my version of a 50th Anniversary Special that would give (in at least some small way) the spotlight back to each Doctor. My original premise was to let my imagination run free but with one caveat: this could all be done on TV as if this story were really going to be done as an actual television production. This meant not using any characters where the actors who portrayed them are dead.

Obviously, I must have changed my mind because (spoilers if you haven't read Part 4) the version of the Master who shows up is the one portrayed by Roger Delgado who died 40 years ago. (Or it could be the version performed by Anthony Ainley but he too is sadly no longer with us. But no, I'm thinking Delgado.)

Well, the concept of the Delgado version of the Master being portrayed anew is not out of the question completely; although less nuanced than Delgado, Ainley's time as the Master was a continuation of that original persona. In short, the role could be recast.

But as I move forward with this story, there was someone I really, really wanted to include. But the actor is also departed and quite frankly, I can't see being recast, at least not at this date. So the desire to see this character involved in this story trumped the limits of my self-imposed rules. So if someone enters this narrative and their portrayer is deceased, it is not to be ghoulish but the stems from the joy of seeing that character in action again.

One more thing: As I noted before, what I post here is essentially a raw work. Yes, I go back over and tweak things here and there but the goal is to get this out of my head and onto the computer screen. That means occasionally there are some things that are unexplained or just plain plot holes. A good example is this: what were three people doing with 3 fragments of the Key to Time on Calisto B in Part 3? (Wow, that's a lot of 3's.) Well, I address that in Part 5 and tie it into the Slitheen who had stolen a key fragment on Earth in Part 2.

As of this part, I'm dispensing with the copied lines from previous parts as if it were an edited "Previously on Doctor Who..."montage. Instead, here's a nice and simple recap.

Or click these links to go straight to...

The 11th Doctor and Clara encounter the White Guardian who tells them The Great Negation, a unstoppable force of ultimate destruction, has been unleashed on the universe and only the Key to Time may be able to stop it. But the Key has been destroyed, shattered into fragments across time and space.

The Doctor adapts a Hypercube, a form of Time Lord technology, and linked to the TARDIS to seek out the fragments. Meanwhile, a mysterious force is reversing the Doctor's regenerations, back to the 10th then the 9th and now the 8th Doctor. Key moments in the Doctor's timeline are being stolen resulting in the deaths of Wilfred Mott, Donna Noble and Rose Tyler and the sacrifice of Lady Romana.

The Doctor and Clara are currently joined by River Song, Jack Harkness and Martha Jones-Smith in the quest for the Key to Time and the answer to the Doctor's reversed regenerations. Little do they know but the Doctor's longtime nemesis, the Master, is behind the Doctor's personal crisis and the threat of the Great Negation.

And now, part 5 of....The Nemesis Who Stole Time!

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Scene: Deep space. A planet against a field of stars is being subsumed by a growing shadow.

White Guardian (VO narration): Some worlds found names for their terror. The Final Shroud. The Last Nightfall. The Shadow of Death.

Graphic appears: The Rutan Homeworld. The planet grows darker as we see the green luminescent tentacled form of a Rutan, floating in the void as its world dies.

White Guardian (VO narration): The Time Lords named it The Great Negation: a force of ultimate destruction, nullifying all things in its path.

The Rutan turns towards a burst of light behind it.

White Guardian (VO narration): Even hope could crumble before the unstoppable force of the Great Negation. But hope would not go down without a fight.

A Sontaran flies through space in a single occupant craft as a force beam shoots forth and surrounds the Rutan in a protective energy field.

Sontaran (voice distorted by his helmet and space communications): Rutan! I am sending this message thru the force beam. Do not be alarmed! Even as your planet falls, I and other Sontarans are securing what surviving Rutans we can find!

Rutan (tentacles gesturing towards the Sontaran): But Sontaran, we are at war. Why are you doing this? Why are you saving us?

Sontaran: Because it is the destiny of the Sontarans to be victorious on the field of battle over the Rutans. We will not be denied our destiny by this strange and dishonorable darkness.

The scene expands as we see the Sontaran extend his forcebeam through the atmosphere of a small planet below. We see other Sontarans doing the same thing.

Sontaran (removing his helmet): Rutan, may your race be bountiful and regain the former stature of your civilization. One day we shall meet once again on the field of battle and the Sontarans will destroy you all.

The Sontaran turns his craft to join the other Sontarans as they fly back into space while our view descends to the Rutans hovering over the surface of their new world.

White Guardian (VO narration): Maybe, just maybe, hope could survive The Great Negation. And where there is still hope, there is life.

Scene shift: A mid-19^th century home, very large and opulent. We see a woman in a long, beautiful dress (but we don’t see her face) as she runs out the back door into the garden, a man follows her. He’s in a proper gentlemen’s suit although it is a bit in disarray (tie undone, collar up, etc).

Graphic reads: Northhampton,1847

Sir Charles: Fräulein River! Wait!

The woman turns around and it is River Song.

River: Oh, Sir Charles, my time here has been wunderbar but I’m afraid I must bid you Wiedersehen und Abschied.

Sir Charles (raising and aiming a pistol towards River): I am less concerned about the loss of your most charming company, Fräulein River, than I am about what you may have...procurred from my person and deposited in your (ahem!) bosom

River (looking sheepish, withdraws a piece of crystal from the bodice of her dress): Oh, Das kleine ding? This little thing?

Sir Charles: I am begining to suspect,“Fräulein“, that the veracity of your claim to be an expert in German art and sculpture may be questionable.

River: You’re...beginning...to think? Well, every man has to start somewhere, I suppose!

Sir Charles (getting angry): I am losing patience with you.

River: As I am with you. Martha?

Sir Charles glances behind him and sees Martha Jones standing behind him.

Sir Charles: What? The maid...

Martha: I don’t think so!

Martha punches Sir Charles who falls down unconscious.

Martha: I’m tired of every trip to the past, I’m thought of as the hired help

River: Well, you were a great help to me.

Martha: You found another crystal fragment?

River: Indeed I did! Martha, the Doctor’s not the only one looking for these.

Martha: I know! The Slitheen on Earth...

River: The pirate traders we took the fragments from on Calisto B...

There’s a sudden pop in the air as Jack Harkness materializes via his vortex manipulator.

Jack: Hi, guys! Miss me?

Martha: Oh, were you gone?

Jack: Oh, ha, ha.

River: You found another fragment of the Key to Time!

Jack: Yeah, in that farm house 2 kilometers down the road...and 2 and half years in the future.

Down a lush grass covered slope, Clara Oswald pokes her head around a shrubbery.

Clara: Hey, guys! It happened again.

River: Oh dear.

The three begin to trudge down the hill towards Clara.

Martha: What was his injury, Clara?

Clara: A bee sting.

Jack: And was there a statue nearby?

Clara: Yes. Well, I guess. Kind of. Maybe.

River: That’s not much help.

Clara: Well, come see for yourself.

The four gather together as they see the 7^th Doctor who is sitting on the ground, the last vestiges of regeneration energy falling from his body. He’s rubbing his neck as he stares incredulous at the small hideous statue-like object in front of him.

7^th Doctor: A Gartenzwerg? Really? A garden gnome was a Weeping Angel.

The Doctor rises to his feet to greet his companions.

7^th Doctor: Hello? Say, have you all gotten taller?

Clara: Ah, no. You’re a bit….

Jack: Shorter.

7^th Doctor: Oh, yes, I see. Well, that’s what I get for letting my guard down. I can’t believe I let a very important fact get past me.

Clara: What fact, Doctor?

7^th Doctor: Sir Charles Isham brought back 21 of these garden gnomes from Germany in 1847.

River: And…?

7^th Doctor: Look around these gardens, River. There are 22. Well, I’ve learned my lesson: always count the garden gnomes. All right, back to the TARDIS.

River: We found two more fragments.

7^th Doctor: Excellent. I think.

Clara: What’s the matter?

7^th Doctor: I knew this was going to be a next to impossible mission when you and I began this, what, 4 bodies ago? And we’re not the only ones looking for the remnants to the Key to Time.

Martha: Yeah, we kind of worked that out.

The five enter the TARDIS. The interior has not changed much as the 7^th Doctor had the décor of the TARDIS established before he regenerated to the 8^th.

The Doctor takes the fragments from River and Jack, placing them in the Hypercube imbedded in the TARDIS console.

7^th Doctor: Whoever our unseen enemy is, he only needs to keep just one part of the Key to Time out of our grasp. If the Key is not complete, it will not function. Assuming it will function at all after being shattered across time and space.

River (looking at a console read out next to the cube): Doctor, analysis shows we have enough fragments to assemble 89.2% of the Key.

Then the time rotor begins to move.

Jack: Well, Doc, looks we have another travel hotspot to go to.

7^th Doctor (looking peeved): Yes, I suppose so.

The Doctor marches off to stand alone in another part of the TARDIS console room. Clara follows.

Clara (concerned): Doctor?

7^th Doctor: I don’t like it, Clara. The Great Negation, the quest for the Key fragments, my regenerations being reversed….it just riddled with too much…

Clara: Coincidence?

7^th Doctor: Coincidence. I don’t believe in coincidence. And yet…

The Doctor turns his head towards the TARDIS console as the time rotor pulses in a steady rhythm.

7^th Doctor (barely above a whisper): It’s come to this. What have I done to you, old girl?

Clara (worried): Doctor, what do you mean…?

7^th Doctor (looking at Clara with sad eyes): The White Guardian’s plan, my dear Clara, does not come without a price.

Scene shift: a suburban street, early morning. A thick fog envelopes everything. Trees and houses are like ghosts. We see a man, walking uncertainly through the fog.

Man in the fog: Where…am I?