Doctor Who: The Nemesis Who Stole Time #11

 

 Hi, there!

Dave-El here and welcome to I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You, the blog with more cleaning power for that extra shine!

It's that day between Friday and Sunday that is mistakenly referred to as "Saturday". But we know it's really DOCTOR WHO SATURDAY!*  Yes, Doctor Who Saturday is your oasis in the desert between the end of Series 7 and the 50th Anniversary Special in November.

*Yes, I know today is Sunday. Sorry.

Today, we are up to Part 11 of The Nemesis Who Stole Time.

Before we can get to that, let's look at....

The RECAP
The Doctor's regenerations are reversing. So far he's reversed back to Doctor #5. Which would be disconcerting in and of itself but there's trouble brewing. Big, BIG trouble.

There's a dark and terrible force known as The Great Negation that's eating the universe. The Doctor's long-time foe The Master thought he was controlling that force in yet another bid to rule everything. But the real power behind The Master was a mystery villain known only as The One who we have learned is a time controlling Super-Dalek. And where you find one Dalek, you'll find...let me count, 1...2...3...a kajillion!

 The LINKS

Part One 
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five

Part Six 
Part Seven

Part Eight

Part Nine
Part Ten

The DISCLAIMER

And now....

The Nemesis Who Stole Time

Part 11

_________________________________

 

 

The opening scene is just white, bright and featureless. The 11^th Doctor’s walks into this blank white background. Throughout the following dialogue, our angle on the Doctor changes as we move around him in a complete circle while the Doctor’s appearance keeps changing.

11^th Doctor: The universe is doomed. Yet to save it, you would have me stab it through the heart.

10^th Doctor:  I’ve faced impossible decisions before. I have the blood on my hands to prove it.

9^th Doctor: I escaped from Gallifrey to live among the fantastic wonders of the universe.

8^th Doctor: I did not leave my home just to sit back and watch those wonders perish forever.

7^th Doctor: And I certainly did not embark on my journey to be a part of the murder of all creation.

6^th Doctor: Yet there is no other way. All paths, all potentialities lead to end of all things except for one slim possibility.

5^th Doctor: A possibility that hinges on doing the impossible and shredding the very reality we’re trying to save.
 

11^th Doctor: We must do this terrible thing. Or else…  

The movement in a circle comes back to where we started with the 11^th Doctor’s standing sidewise. But now we see the White Guardian standing facing him.

White Guardian: Or else…the universe is doomed.

Scene shift: Against the white backdrop, we see Clara standing apart from the White Guardian as the Doctor paces and gestures animatedly as he keeps shifting in appears. Clara observes this with a look of curiosity and more than a little worry.
 

Clara (VO): The Doctor and I were brought to a strange place, the home of the White Guardian. She warned us of a terrible danger to the universe, the Great Negation.


Meanwhile, the Doctor keeps…changing. I’ve seen the TARDIS archives. As a Time Lord, the Doctor can regenerate his body. For some reason, the Doctor keeps shifting through various forms from his past yet he seems unaware of the change. I wonder..

 A hand on Clara’s shoulder and a voice: Clara.

Clara reacts with a start. It’s the White Guardian.

White Guardian: I need to speak with you.

Clara looks back and forth between the two Guardians. The other one is still engaged with the form shifting Doctor.

Clara: How…how are you here and over there?

White Guardian: I am not over there. I will be over there. I am with you now.

Clara: Wait! What?

White Guardian: My apologies, Clara Oswald. My present is what you see as your past. Right now I am rudely keeping you and the Doctor waiting so I need to make you understand this as concisely as I can.

Clara: Make me…understand…

Clara notices the Doctor and the other Guardian have not reacted to her speaking to this Guardian.

Clara: Let me guess: they can’t see us.

White Guardian (nods): We are momentarily out of sync with their point in time.

Clara: Right.

Clara looks around at the impossibly blank white limbo around her.

Clara (throws up her hands): Go ahead. Give it your best shot. Make me understand.

White Guardian: I am about to tell you and the Doctor that the Universe is facing a great calamity. Another matter of grave importance, however, is the Doctor’s own destiny.

Clara: Which has something to do with his changing appearances.

White Guardian: Events of the Doctor’s future are bleeding through to my realm.

Clara:  His future? But I’ve seen pictures in the TARDIS. Those (gesturing towards the Doctor) are from his past.

White Guardian:  The events to come are most unusual. In fact, they will be rather…

Clara: Tricky?

White Guardian: Tricky? Hmm! A most apt word.

Clara:  Feel free to use it again.

White Guardian: But Clara, you will have an important role.

White Guardian reaches out and touches the side of Clara’s face.

White Guardian: You must stay with the Doctor. Stay, you clever girl, and remember. Remember his future.

Clara: Remember…his future?

White Guardian: It will make sense in time. (She lowers her hand from Clara’s face)

White Guardian: It is within my power to…alter the gift the Doctor shares with you.

Clara: The gift?

White Guardian: You are connected to the Doctor and the TARDIS.

Clara: The language translation…thing…

White Guardian (nods): Yes. But when the time comes, you will have a gift to share with the Doctor.

Clara: I don’t…

White Guardian: Your conscious memories of this conversation and your purpose will be buried in your psyche but will arise as needed.

Clara: So you’re giving me a mission I won’t know or remember until it happens? But that’s…that’s…

White Guardian: I believe the word is…”tricky”.

Suddenly Clara is startled again as the White Guardian’s hand is on her shoulder.

It’s the White Guardian and (for now) the 11^th Doctor.

11^th Doctor (concerned): Clara? Are you all right?

Clara turns her head away but the Guardian she was talking to has vanished. She turns back to the Doctor and this White Guardian.

Clara: Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Just lost in…thought.

11^th Doctor: Easy to do, I imagine, when there’s nothing to look at. Really, Guardian, get a decorator in here.

White Guardian gives Clara a knowing look.

White Guardian: Is there anything I can help with, child?

Clara looks at the White Guardian as if about to say something, then looks puzzled.

Clara: It’s just…It’s just I thought there was something….something I need to…remember.

White Guardian: Don’t fret over it, Clara Oswald. I’m sure it will come to you in time.

Scene change: a chamber or hallway of a very large, very old house with stone walls and marble columns. It is the place where the 5th Doctor materialized at the end of the last episode. It is dimly lit and at the moment, there is no movement.
 

Abruptly, an energy beam cuts through the air and explodes a part of the stone floor. We see Daleks gliding across the floor or floating above it. The air rattles with their incessant metallic screams.

“Intruder! Intruder!”

“The Doctor is present!”

“The Doctor is an enemy of the Daleks!”


 

Scrambling to stay ahead of the pursuing Daleks is the 5th Doctor.

5^th Doctor (breathless, pausing briefly behind a column): There are, I’m sure, better ways to get in my daily exercise!”

Scene change: the tentacled form of The One, also known as the Supreme Dalek Commander of Time, directs the actions of the Daleks.

The One: It is the Doctor...in his 5th incarnation. It is...of no consequence. The victory of the Daleks....MY victory...has already been won. There is...no more need...of the Doctor. DALEKS! DESTROY...THE DOCTOR!
 
Daleks: We obey.
 
Scene shift back to the interior of the stone house. The Daleks continue to their pursuit and their threats.

“The Doctor must be destroyed!”

“EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!”

Another ray blast shoots out as the Doctor runs from behind the column to hide by a section of stone wall. The 5^th Doctor looks around a corner; he spots the TARDIS but it’s surrounded by Weeping Angels. Their frozen faces are masks of rage and hate and looking in the Doctor’s direction.

5^th Doctor: Weeping Angels! (puzzled look) How do I know that? I’ve never encountered them before. Or have I? Perhaps it’s a bit of knowledge from those 500 years or so I’ve appeared to have lost.

Energy blasts strike nearby.

5^th Doctor: Uh oh.

Dalek: The Doctor has been located! The Doctor must be destroyed!

Other Daleks: Destroy the Doctor! Destroy the Doctor!

5^th Doctor begins running again and finds cover behind a marble column. He looks around the column and the Angels are still around the TARDIS but their positions have shifted and their looking in a new direction, towards the Doctor’s new hiding place.
 

5^th Doctor: Daleks to the left of me, Angels to the right and here I am, stuck in the middle with…well, nothing really. Only the most absurd stroke of luck can save me now.

Suddenly we hear the familiar VWORP! VWORP! of the TARDIS. The Doctor peeks around the column and his horrified to find the TARDIS is dematerializing without him.

5^th Doctor (exasperated): Oh, come ON! Really? Can things get any…

Then the Doctor notices the Weeping Angels have shifted again, still facing his direction but this time, they are pointing at him.

5^th Doctor (dejected): …worse.

Daleks are closing in on the Doctor.

Various Daleks speaking in turn:

"The Doctor’s escape has been neutralized!




You are the enemy of the Daleks!

You are the Destroyer of Worlds!

You must pay for your crimes against the Daleks!

You-

 Suddenly the VWORP! VWORP! of the TARDIS is heard once more as the outlines of its blue shape can be seen surrounding the Doctor who looks positively stunned by this turn of events.

Various Daleks speaking in turn:

The Doctor’s TARDIS has returned!


Exterminate!



EXTERMINATE!

Energy beams blast from the Daleks but the TARDIS has fully materialized around the Doctor and the energy beams bounce ineffectively off the TARDIS’s indestructible surface.

Scene change: Inside the TARDIS console room. The 5^th Doctor looks astonished by this turn of events. Then he turns to see a young woman standing at the console.

Clara: Ha! I can’t believe I did that!

5^th Doctor: What..?

Clara: In fact, I don’t believe it! Which button did I push? Talk about the most absurd stroke of luck.

5^th Doctor: Who…?

Clara: Well, you’re safe and sound, that’s the important thing. Whoa, are you wearing a stick of celery? What kind of fashion statement is-

5^th Doctor: Excuse me!

Clara (embarrassed): Oh, sorry. Babbling. Weird day. Well, weird day and 3 months.

5^th Doctor: It’s not that I’m ungrateful. You most certainly saved my life! But who…are you?

Clara: Ooh boy.

The camera angles move from Clara to focus on the unmoving Time Rotor and then we hear voices.

“You’ve been changing the settings! That’s all wrong!”

“My boy, if anyone’s got this ‘all wrong’, it’s you!”

The camera pulls out and it’s the 2^nd and 3^rd Doctors and they are arguing over the TARDIS console.

3^rd Doctor: Now see here, I had this working perfectly fine before you…

2^nd Doctor: Before I? BEFORE I? How do I become so dim in the future?

 View shifts to Jo Grant and Sgt. Benson as the 2^nd and 3^rd Doctors continue to argue. Behind Jo and the sergeant is the TARDIS’s monitor which shows the outside of the TARDIS being zapped by a strange glowing energy blob (as per the events of The Three Doctors). Jo worriedly keeps looking back at the monitor while watching the spectacle of the two Doctors arguing.

Sgt. Benson: So, Ms. Grant, they are the same person, right?

Jo Grant: Well, that’s how I understand it, Sgt. Benson.

Sgt. Benson: But that means he’s…arguing…with himself?

Jo Grant: Yes and quite spiritedly, too.

Sgt. Benson: Talk about being your own worst enemy.

Jo Grant: I wouldn’t be surprised if they…he…are actually enjoying…it?

Jo looks up at the TARDIS monitor.

Jo Grant (exclaiming): Doctor! Look!

3^rd Doctor (walking over to Jo): Yes, Jo, what is…what the…?

2^nd Doctor: Who…is that?

On the monitor, coming into view, is…River Song.

River Song: Hello, boys! I seem to be stuck up here!

3^rd Doctor: Who the devil are you?

2^nd Doctor: Oh, don’t be so rude. My dear, are you OK?

River: I’m…fine. Well, not really. Oh, I do so hate time eddys.

3^rd Doctor: Well, rude or not, I would still like to know who you are.

River: I’m River Song.

3^rd Doctor: And is that supposed to mean something me?

River: Well, it will. Or it has. Depends on your perspective I suppose.

Jo Grant: What are you doing in a….what did you call it?

3^rd Doctor: A time eddy. A temporal turbulence that can suspend a traveler in time.

2^nd Doctor: Hmph! Show off!

Jo Grant: Anyway, why are you in a time eddy?

Sgt. Benson: Does it have to do with that thing out there?

River: Oh no! My mission has nothing to do with Omega.

2^nd Doctor: Omega?

River: Whoops! Sorry, spoilers! OK, I know you have this problem which is threatening to destroy all of time and space but your help is urgently needed on another problem that is threatening to destroy all of time and space.

3^rd Doctor: Help? Help who?

2^nd Doctor (wandering over to the console): A good question…for once. Hey…

The 2^nd Doctor picks up a small bag from the console.

2^nd Doctor: When did this get here? Is it yours?

3^rd Doctor: No! It most certainly is not.

2^nd Doctor reaches into the sack and pulls out a small colorful piece of candy.

2^nd Doctor: Jelly baby?

Suddenly in a blink the 4^th Doctor is standing next to the 2^nd Doctor and he reaches for the sack.

4^th Doctor: Jelly baby? Don’t mind if I do. Would you like one?

4^th Doctor extends his arm to hand the sack to someone behind him: the 1^st Doctor.

1^st Doctor: Thank you, my boy!

Sgt. Benson: What?

 

Jo Grant: Who?

 

2^nd Doctor: Oh dear.

3^rd Doctor: This is…impossible!

4th Doctor (grinning broadly): Hello!

River (from the monitor): Don’t mind me. I’m just going to try and steady myself while you all sort this out. Oh, time eddys make me nauseous.

 Our view moves from the monitor to the walls of the TARDIS. Then walking into our view is the 5^th Doctor.

5^th Doctor: Impossible!

Scene widens and we’re still in the TARDIS console room but with the 5^th Doctor and Clara. We’re hear the dull echo of booming sounds from inside.

5^th Doctor: And yet…it makes sense.

Clara (surprised, puzzled): It does? I mean, I’ve been in the middle of this since the beginning and I’m not sure it makes sense.

5^th Doctor: But if what you say is true…

Clara: If?

5^th Doctor: No offense but it would be scientifically unwise to wholeheartedly embrace this explanation without further consideration.

Clara: Well, don’t take too much time with that further consideration.

There’s an extra loud boom and the TARDIS console room shakes.

5^th Doctor: I suppose I see your point. So in the future, my future, you are an assistant to me…

Clara: Companion.

5^th Doctor: Right. Companion. Anyway, I….companion?

Clara: Moving on, please.

5^th Doctor: Right, right! So you share in the link between me and the TARDIS’s telepathic circuits.

Clara: To translate alien languages.

5^th Doctor: Right! But the White Guardian reversed that so information would flow from you to me.

Clara: When regenerations reverse, it messes up your memory. So my job was to…

5^th Doctor: Remember the future! So the TARDIS would link your memories to my mind…

Clara: Otherwise, you wouldn’t remember the timeline you originally came from.

5^th Doctor: Astonishing. So why can’t I remember?

Clara: What?

5^th Doctor: You’re back now, you complete the circuit from you through the TARDIS to me. But I still have no knowledge of the 500 years since Androzani, either my real time line or the altered one. Why?

Clara: I’m…I’m sorry, Doctor. I don’t know. I’m only now remembering all the pieces of what the White Guardian told me at the beginning.

5^th Doctor: I may have experienced an excessive trauma at the time of my regeneration reversing. I’m not entirely sure but perhaps a psychic shock could possible restore my memories.

Clara: A psychic shock?

5^th Doctor: You know, some kind of really…well, it’s like when a human gets startled and it cures their hiccups. Something surprising, unexpected…

Clara: Like this?

Clara, with no warning, grabs the Doctor by his jacket lapels and kisses him. Really really kisses him.

The Doctor steps back unsteadily.

5^th Doctor: Uh…yes…uhm…

Clara: Doctor?

5^th Doctor: That was—ahem!—quite…unexpected. I haven’t been that surprised since that time when Amy tried to… Amy?

The 5th Doctor looks confused for a moment, then elated.

5th Doctor: Amy! I remember my…future? Futures? Sorting real from alternate is rather…

Clara: Tricky?

5^th Doctor: Tricky, yes. (Winces in pain) And a bit painful.

Clara: Sorry.

5^th Doctor: I’ll be alright. Well, Clara, thank you for….

The Doctor awkwardly extends his hand and Clara shakes it. 

5^th Doctor: Good…good job. Excelling…thinking. 

Then a really loud boom and the TARDIS shakes violently.

5^th Doctor: Right. Daleks.

Clara: Doctor, you found a Key fragment!

5^th Doctor: Right! That’s how the TARDIS homed in on me.

The 5^th Doctor withdraws the crystal from his pocket and places it in the Hypercube.

Clara looks at the TARDIS console board and her eyes open wide excitedly.

Clara: Doctor, look! We now have 100% of all the fragments to the Key to Time!

5^th Doctor: Extraordinary! Against all odds, we found them all.

Clara: So off to save the universe?

5^th Doctor: Why not?

The Doctor pulls a level and instantly the TARDIS goes dark. We can barely see Clara and the 5^th Doctor through what little dim light is still available.

Clara: Uh, Doctor? I don’t think that was supposed to happen

5^th Doctor (frantically working the console): This…this can’t be happening. Oh no.

Clara: Oh no, you said “oh no”. "Oh no" is never good.

The Doctor looks up from the console with a distressed expression. Meanwhile, we still hear the shrill sound of energy blasts and the booming explosions outside the TARDIS.

5^th Doctor: The Hypercube…linked to the TARDIS…created a Coincidence Engine. It made sure we always went wherever the next Key fragments were.

Clara: Right. You said that it was risky, almost as bad a thing as the Great Negation.

5^th Doctor: Almost, yes. Lots of distortions to reality. So I tried to minimize those dangers as much as possible. The Coincidence Engine was absolutely focused on one and only one objective: finding the fragments to the Key to Time. Nothing else. Just that.

Clara: So…I’m not following.

5^th Doctor: We found all of them. The Coincidence Engine no longer has a purpose so it has shut down, taking the TARDIS with it.
 

Another blast heard outside the TARDIS and the console room shakes more violently before. Tiny cracks are forming in the walls of the console room.

Clara (looking about her, frightened): Shut down? Doctor, can’t you restart it?
 

5^th Doctor: No, Clara, I can’t. And I'm very sorry but...


The 5th Doctor looks about him, very distressed as more cracks form in the console walls with each successful blast from the Daleks outside.


5th Doctor: The TARDIS…is dead.

 --- To Be Continued ---


Next time: The End of All Things.