Doctor Who: Orb of Destiny

Doctor Who: Orb of Destiny

By Todd Dias

For many countless eons, they have watched over creation, guiding many a people along, like the Muses of Greek Mythology, in their first stumbling steps towards civilization and giving inspiration to the myths and legends of peoples the Universe over. These immortals are like guardian angels to the rest of civilization. Including Time Lords. Where Gallifreyans merely observe, the people known as the Mvier are an active part in the shaping of things. They helped humanity grow from just another anthropoid to a cultured race. They helped bring about the divide in the collective consciousness that lead the Time Lord race to become a highly powerful, highly intelligent race. But they too are a passive race when it comes to challenging evil. Their task is but to inspire civilizations and aid in the creation of ideals that challenge evil but they never take it on themselves. They have no power to do so, for you see theirs is a creative force which is derived from a Sacred Orb, which was given to them by the Guardian of Light in Time. This Orb was entrusted to them for their benevolence. The Orb contains an awesome power indeed comparable to the Key to Time, the difference being that the Orb gives the Mvier the longevity, and their creative, magical power, but it is not ultimately controlled by them. The Key to Time once possessed grants absolute controllable power to the person who possesses it. All the same, the Orb in the wrong hands would be disastrous nonetheless. Its mysterious powers could be harnessed for evil.

Like the Time Lords, the Mvier keep themselves hidden away on their home planet of Mveera but unlike the Time Lords they have no defenses. They rely on their own stealth and a naïve belief that no one would want to attack them. But this as we shall see is not so.

For a relatively shorter period of time, but relative to them a very long time, the Sontarons and the Rutans have been at war. Nobody really knows why a race of clones and a race of amorphous blobs would want to fight to the extinction of the respective species. The Doctor once conjectured that it was something as juvenile as a bar fight over a table, but for whatever reason their war has been going on for so long that the reason itself has passed from memory of an actual event into racial myth.

As part of their failed attempt to invade Gallifrey in a bid for supremacy, the Vardons searched the Universe for the Time Lords but before they found Gallifrey, they found Mveera. They made note of it, and the power its people commanded but ultimately found Gallifrey a more viable option. Their mentality was that Gallifrey must have a greater reward of power because of its elaborate defense system. Still their eyes were on the Mvier as a second target. The Vardons were defeated by the Doctor but their discovery did not go unnoticed. For you see, the Vardons were being used by the Sontarons. The Sontarons made sure they knew everything the Vardons did and this included the knowledge of the Mvier. In cases of centuries of conflict, espionage is well to be expected. The Rutons thus also knew of the Mvier through their spies. But it doesn’t stop there. The Sontarons soon learned that the Rutans knew of the Mvier, and soon there was a mutual knowledge of each others knowledge. And a race to Mveera began. But the Rutans and Sontarons were not alone.

En route to Mveera, the TARDIS flew with The Doctor and Ace.

“You can’t be serious.”

“What?”

“Guardian angels…that’s ridiculous, Professor.”

“Well it’s just an analogy. What they really are is a sort of evolutionary vanguard… people who aid in the development of species that have the potential to grow into civilizations. They monitor us, give reminders here, inspiration there and are truly amazing people.”

“So why are we going there? Can’t the “evolutionary vanguards” take care of themselves?”

“We’re going, Ace, because they are in danger and they are not even aware of it. For all their power they have no concept of violence or even, when it comes to it, evil.”

“You mean they’re goodie-goodies,” Ace asked cynically.

“I prefer to refer to them as benevolent, Ace, but benevolence won’t save them.” The Doctor got that dark look in his eyes that Ace had grown to be wary of. So she decided to try and lighten the mood in her own idiom. “So who are these toe-rags that are coming to cause trouble?”

“’Toe-rags’” the Doctor smiled, “is a good way to describe them. Just two races out to destroy each other. Nothing more than an annoyance, but if they get their hands on the source of the Mvier’s power, things could really become unpleasant.” The Doctor had deliberately kept Ace in the dark about the Orb as it is a closely guarded secret. No outsider was to know about it.

Approaching Mveera, the Sontaran spherical ships volleyed with Rutan fleet as each tried to be the first to reach the planet. As one got the advantage, the other quickly made up the difference. So slowly but surely they both reached the planet’s orbit and there began anew the struggle to be the first to set out onto the planet.

The TARDIS materialized in the heart of Mveera. It seemed to Ace to have the aesthetic of a Tibetan Monastery with all the Mountains and the barebones living quarters of the Mvier. The Doctor explained that they lived a life of self-less service believing in the greater good over the individual. They were approached by an elderly elvish-looking creature with an innocent half-smile on his face. “Welcome, friends. What brings a Time Lord and a humanoid to our humble home?”

“How’d they know you are Time Lord, Professor,” Ace whispered to the Doctor.

“Few races know of us,” answered the acutely-hearing Mvier, “few races need know of us. But we know a Time Lord when we see one.”

“As to the latter, you are correct,” responded the Doctor. “As to the former, you seem to be having trouble keeping yourselves hidden if Sontarons and Rutans are fighting at your doorstep.”

“They, I can assure you, are no threat, my young Time Lord friend. They couldn’t possibly know of…our secret.” He looked at Ace with mild apprehension as he said this last part.

“And I can assure you they do. I must see the Orb.”

“Orb?” thought Ace aloud and caught looks from the Mvier and the Doctor both which suggested in varying degrees and reasons that she should have stayed quiet.

“The Sacred Orb of Mveera. I have come from the High Council to see it is safe.” The Doctor produced the Seal of Rassilon to corroborate his claim. “You would not like me to invoke the 3^rd Treaty of Rassilon, would you?”

The Elder decided that it was best to grant this request. He bid them wait outside while he prepared the Orb.

“Professor,” Ace whispered, “What are you up to? The High Council didn’t send us. Or was I asleep during the summoning again?”

“I must see the Orb,” the Doctor replied. “Trust me.”

At this point the Sontarons and Rutans both arrived on Mveera, and began moving their troops to out maneuver each other on as they approached the temple-village.

The Elder beckoned for the Doctor and Ace to enter the inner chamber that housed the Orb. Ace was blown away by a sense of harmony as they approached a rich tapestry on the far wall. In the centre of it the was sphere the size of an English football. It glowed with a living energy. The Doctor approached it in a reverent manner, and knelt before it it and said: “Sacred Orb of Mveera, I come before you as your humble servant.”

The Orb now seemed to radiate with even more life, which seemed to excite the Elder. The Doctor retained his impassive face and humble stance. “Doctor, you are here at last, at the time of crisis.”

“Incredible,” Ace heard the Elder whisper in awe, “the Orb has not spoken in centuries.”

“You walk the path of destiny, Doctor,” the Orb intoned cryptically. “Do you intend to see it through?”

“To the end,” the Doctor affirmed.

“Then rise, and do as you must.”

The Doctor rose and moved closer to the Orb. Despite hearing the Orb implicitly giving the Doctor permission to do just what he was doing, the Elder felt the sway of millennia of dogmatic devotion, and could not allow an outsider to directly approach the Orb. Even the Mvier as noble as they are have faults, the Doctor thought sensing the sentiments of the Elder who was moving to stop him. “I must insist, Doctor that you not touch the Orb.’

“Do you want the Sontarans or the Rutans to have it?”

“There is no way they could know about it, let alone be able to get to it.

“That’s where you’re wrong. They’re on their way here, they…”

The Doctor was interrupted by the sound of an explosion. “Umm, Doctor,” Ace said, “I think they’re here”

“Good.” The Doctor said as he grabbed the Orb from its centre and walked out of the inner chamber. Ace, trusting the Doctor’s motives without really knowing what they were, blocked the Elder from stopping the Doctor as he left with the Orb. “He knows what he’s doing…I hope.”

Outside the Rutan-host were fighting with the Sontaran troops marring the stark yet sublime beauty of the temple-village. The Doctor came out and yelled: “STOP!!!!” The authority in his voice caught their attention, and kept it by saying in an equally authoritative tone. “I am the Doctor, President-Elect of the High Council of the Time Lords, and I order you to stop!! That’s better. I hold the Sacred Orb of Mveera. It is I who will decide to whom it will go. ”

A Rutan representing the collective came forward and said “Doc-tor…you will give the Orb to us to bring to the Queen of Ruta, the Great and Majestic Matrix!“

The Sontarans were not so formal. “We claim the Orb for the Sontaran Empire!!”

This started the conflict up again, but the Doctor was quick to halt it: “Stop!! I have made my decision!” He lifted the Orb high over his head, closed his eyes and allowed the Orb to work through him. This was the result.

The Rutans saw the Orb disappear, and then reappear in the hands of the Sontaran commander, who ordered his troops to return their ships and head for home victorious. The Sontarons saw the Orb fly out of the Doctor’s hands into the Rutan-Host scout ship, the Rutan-Host themselves dematerialize, and their ship take off. Each of them believed the other had the Orb and they began to pursue each other away from Mveera To Ace and the Mvier the Orb left the Doctor’s hands to return to the tapestry. They saw the Sontarans and the Rutan-host expedite from Mveera with great fervor. The Doctor looked pleased. He twirled his umbrella in triumph.

“Doctor, what did you do?” Ace asked incredulously.

“I used the Orb to heighten my Time Lord mind-power to convince them that other has the Orb. They will chase each other to the ends of the Universe and eventually forget all about the Orb and resume their age old war far away from the Mvier.”

“We cannot thank you enough, Doctor,” the Mvier Elder exclaimed. “You are indeed a man of destiny, as the Orb proclaimed.”

The Doctor and Ace said their goodbyes to the thankful Mvier, and they entered the TARDIS.

“Professor, what was all that talk of destiny? It’s not like you to believe in some mumbo jumbo like being bound to a certain fate.”

“Destiny just means being sent along on a journey with certain provisions and adversity to face. We are all called to do something with what we are given, something that gives our lives meaning and purpose.”

“But the Orb said you particularly walk the path of destiny. It was you who would be the one to save them from invasion. Why? Because you’re a Time Lord?”

“Ace, I am far more than just a Time Lord. You should know that by now.” He said this and smiled. He tapped her nose paternally and began the dematerialization sequence.

Doctor Who: Nemesis

Doctor Who: Nemesis

By Todd Dias

Part One: Rescue and Reunion

Through Time and Space the TARDIS flew, navigating stars and celestial dynasties with ease. If the Doctor ever stopped wandering, it would feel like an eagle, used to flying through the wide-open country of an Arizona sky, suddenly caged.

The Doctor was sitting cross-legged, with his eyes closed, meditating. He had in recent times, well within the last few decades relative to him, started to return to some of his old mentor’s teachings having succumbed to feeling a certain amount of angst accumulated over many centuries. Eight incarnations of sentient life can really wear a Time Lord down.

“Sometimes,” the wise old man had said, “our greatest enemy is ourselves”. What he meant was that we are apt to be dominated by identifying with our thoughts and emotions. The Doctor was now mindful of his thoughts and feelings allowing them to be what they are, and knowing that they are no more who he is than the breath of which he was also watchful. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” the Doctor said aloud, repeating his mentor’s words verbatim as he concluded today’s session. He laughed, having now felt relaxed and took a cup of tea freshly dispensed from the food synthesizer.

“Well where are we off to now, old girl? I suddenly feel an urge to visit an old friend. Perhaps, Steven Taylor on that whatzitcalled planet, or Earth and visit the old brig, or…” The Doctor’s thoughts were interrupted by a flashing alarm on his console.

“Uh-oh, somebody’s in trouble, old girl…another TARDIS…well I know just what to do.” He flicked a few switches here and pressed buttons there, and pulled a large lever marked Vortex-tractor initiator. The Doctor’s TARDIS pulled the other TARDIS through some kind of opening…a CVE into another Universe, the Doctor thought the Doctor absentmindedly. Then he realized who it must be.

The two TARDISES formed a link and the Doctor’s company came aboard. The Doctor was overcome with joy as he came to the door.

“Romana!! K-9!! How long has it been? This is a splendid turn of events! I was just sitting here having some tea…oh dear me, where are my manners, would you like any tea…some cakes? I made a fresh batch today.”

“Doctor?”

“It is the Doctor-master, mistress, only his physiognomy has changed due to…”

“Yes, K-9, I know that he’s regenerated…

“4 times since we last met…”

“I merely meant that your new incarnation is quite…different.”

“Different in a good way I hope,” said in an innocent and somewhat insecure manner.

Romana couldn’t help smiling at the sad puppy face of the boyish young man the Doctor had become.

“Of course, Doctor.”

“But how are you doing these days…how goes the business with the Tharils?

“That’s what brings us back to N-Space. We’ve made some headway but it is a complicated problem that requires infrastructure to maintain the changes we’ve implemented, and that means we need help from the Time Lords.”

“I see.” The Doctor knew the Time Lords were not going to be easily persuaded. More to the point he knew Romana knew this but must make her case anyway, knowing also that she could be tried and convicted for her intervention which stood as a direct violation to Gallifreyan law. Now it was Romana’s turn to play the sad face game.

“I could use your help.”

“Of course, Romana…it won’t be easy but we’ll do what we can. Together. Now I was serious about tea and cakes.” He extended his arm and the pair of them plus K-9 came into the living area of the Doctor’s TARDIS for tea. The Doctor set course for Gallifrey but he made sure that course was long and winding as he and Romana would need time to formulate a plan of action.

Part Two: Homecoming.

Within the dimensionally transcendent walls of the TARDIS, Romana and the Doctor discussed strategy.

“I really do feel that we should introduce the case my way,” the Doctor said.

“Still the same, aren’t you, Doctor, patronizing and egotistical.”

“Not at all. I just know how to deal with the High Council. I’ve been offered the Presidency numerous times, you know? Once we’ve got your hearing, the floor is all yours. I won’t be anything but an advisor, which you probably won’t even need.”

Romana sighed. “I’m sure you’ll be all you need to be, Doctor. I just don’t know if I am up to the direct approach. I may not look it but I am getting on in years. I’ve been able to control my regenerations such that I am able to keep roughly the same body.

“It always was such a pretty one too. It suits you, it really does.”

Romana laughed. “That’s not what you said when I first took it on.”

“Well I was young. I hadn’t yet developed a sense of style. And I didn’t appreciate good company while I had it.”

They were now looking at each other in the eye for a long time, communicating on a number of physical, subliminal and even psychic levels. Suddenly Romana looked away remembering her responsibilities.

“What is your proposal, Doctor, besides giving the Castellan a fright by materializing in the Panoptican?”

“Well you have to admit we would have their attention.”

“What’s to stop us from being arrested on the spot?”

“This.”

“A copy of the Seal of Rassilon?”

A kind of badge of a Presidential Candidate. I made sure they gave me one last time.”

“But, even if you are a candidate, what makes you think they’ll listen.”

“I have one or two friends on the High Council. A little nepotism here, a small measure of influence there, add a surprise entrance and bingo, we’ve got ourselves a hearing.”

“You do know how to stir things up, I’ll give you that much.”

The TARDIS materialized in the Panoptican. Alarms rang and the Doctor and Romana were greeted by a patrol of the Chancellery Guard.

The Doctor was delighted. “Well this is a splendid welcome, isn’t it Romana?”

“Who are you?” the leader asked aggressively, or as aggressively as young Gallifreyans can.

The Doctor looked genuinely hurt. “Don’t tell me you don’t recognize me, after all this time…,” he reached to pull something out of his pocket his tone suddenly turned serious as he produced the seal of Rassilon and said, “Perhaps you’ll recognize this.”

“Forgive me, my lord…”

“Announce us to Chancellor Flavia, if you would be so kind.”

“Of course, my lord.”

Romana pulled the Doctor aside as they walked towards the Chancellor’s office. “Why the Chancellor, why not the President?”

“The Chancellor is one of the friends I alluded to. We don’t want to bother the President just yet. We need to gather our supporters first. “

They entered the Chancellor’s office. If Chancellor Flavia was at all shocked to find that the alarms were about the Doctor’s arrival she hid it well. “Doctor this is indeed a pleasant surprise, but you could have chosen a more civilized approach to get in touch with me.”

“Well, you know how bureaucratic the Council is about getting an audience, even with friends, (We are friends are we not? Oh good) well I’d have to wait a quarter of a century while the ink dries on the paperwork”

“Surely that is an exaggeration, Doctor.”

“Yes, I suppose so, but the matter is grave.”

“What is the matter?”

“Allow me to introduce Lady Romanadvoratrelundar to present the case of the Tharils.”

Romana began speaking at length about the Tharil and the work she had been doing to help with their plight. As she began speaking, though, a cold chill went down the Doctor’s spine as he felt the presence of a familiar but elusive evil nearby. But he turned his attention to what Romana was saying. The Tharils, she told the Chancellor, are leonine mesomorphs who are time-sensitive. They can traverse the Time Winds unscathed. In a time long ago they abused this power creating an Empire based on slavery and conquest. Now they are the ones who have been enslaved and exploited for their ability to traverse the Time Winds. Romana had worked hard to liberate the Tharils and had helped set up a government for them but she was unable to stop the slave-trade. Worse yet the slavers were able to use the Tharils to gain access to CVEs to travel to N-Space. With this power at their hands all of this Universe could be at risk.

“So there you have it, Madam Chancellor, we need to outlaw the enslavement of the Tharil. I’ve done all I can but this requires infrastructure that I alone cannot provide.”

“We certainly have the ability to monitor the situation but as to involvement, that requires a decision from the High Council. I shall put forward a motion for a hearing as soon as possible.” Knowing the Doctor as Chancellor Flavia did, she knew it would be best to make sure that this happened as immediately as was prudent. She knew how impetuous he was.

Elsewhere, in the Great City, a solitary figure in robes, lurking in the shadows, was also made aware of the Doctor and Romana’s arrival. “So, Doctor, you’ve returned at last.”

Part Three: Phantom Menaces

It took some days for the Chancellor to arrange a session of the High Council. If anyone expected that this would be the usual sort of meeting that was more about pedantic posturing than with issues of vital living importance than they were in for a surprise. As it was more than one Cardinal was nervous at the onset of the proceedings. Every time the Doctor returned from his wanderings, all order in the Gallifreyan society was shaken to its core, and for a people that regards order in the highest, this surely was a matter of much agitation.

The proceedings began and Romana gave her statement. There was an immediate response that she was breaking the Cardinal Law of Gallifrey. But Romana had won over a few supporters saying that they allow the Doctor to roam the Universe yet will not allow a Time Lord to aid in matters concerning time. A debate ensued. The Gold Usher was naturally the mediator but the Lord President too seemed to remain in reserved judgment

The Doctor was uncharacteristically silent during the proceedings, he seemed preoccupied. He was in fact getting the sense that something was going on. He couldn’t put his finger on it. But what he could see was one Time Lord in particular who obviously prepared very hard for this debate as he was most vocal. If he didn’t know better he could have sworn he’d squared off with him before…but that was impossible.

The Proceedings were running hot but Romana held her own. Finally a recess was called to allow the Lord President to gather the evidence and make an address, perhaps to open up new questions to pose to Romana and the opposition.

“You kept your word, Doctor.” Romana was surprised that he hadn’t tried to jump in.

“What’s wrong?” she asked seeing a pained look in his eyes.

“I’m not sure. I get the sense that something isn’t quite what it seems. That Cardinal, I’m certain I’ve run into before…as an adversary.”

“Oh Doctor you’re just paranoid.”

“I wish that were so, but my feelings tell me something is wrong.“.

“Why don’t you go for a walk or something? Clear your head.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ve been meaning to go to the Zero Room in the Zarzonian quarter and relax. My own was jettisoned years ago.”

The Doctor walked to towards the Zero Room, but the sense got stronger and stronger until he rounded the corner at there was the leader of the opposition…lying dead.

Part Four: Mind-war

The Chancellery Guard was prompt in arresting the Doctor. The Doctor put up no defense, his mind was still trying to piece together what his feelings were telling him. He knew who this person was, both the killer and the victim but it just did not add up, it was just impossible.

He caught a glimpse of Romana as he was taken away. The concern in her eyes was heartbreaking. The Doctor withdrew into himself as he was placed in his cell allowing his mind to regroup for what he needed to do. When the time came he sat on the floor and meditated reaching out with his mind. It was greeted by another mind, the mind he was looking for, one he was intimately familiar with for part of him was who he was. The mind he connected to was the Valeyard’s.

The Valeyard was the distillation of the Doctor’s dark side. He was believed killed when, after he tried to prosecute the Doctor and steal his regenerations, they fought in the Matrix. What the Doctor didn’t know was that he had taken over the Keeper of the Matrix’s body and was subsequently stealing body’s in the High Council manipulating it. He had the Lord President under his thumb, and was just vying for power and waiting for the Doctor to return so he could at last take on a stable body. Now the Doctor knew who his opponent was, but how could he prove it?

The next day the Doctor received a surprise visitor. It was the Lady Inquisitor at his last trial. She came to offer legal aid to the Doctor. She might believe me, thought the Doctor, so he told her.

“Doctor, we both know that the Valeyard was killed in the Matrix.”

“I tell you my mind touched his. He’s up to something and he wants me out of the way.”

“It’ll be difficult to prove.”

“Not if you give me access to the Matrix itself.”

“I’m truly sorry, Doctor but that is something I simply cannot do.”

Later on Romana came and told him something that shocked everybody but she knew somehow wouldn’t surprise the Doctor: The Lord President was implicated in the killing of the Cardinal. Evidence in the matrix was brought to light that the Doctor was working for the Lord President to execute the Cardinal to keep the High Council from fragmenting. The Doctor would, according to an elaborate plan documented in the Matrix, later be acquitted.

“It sounded ludicrous but because it was in the Matrix they believed it,” Romana said with disgust.

“It’s in the Matrix because he put it there,”

“Who?”

“The Valeyard…a distillation of my darker nature. He wants two things: to rule Gallifrey and no doubt he is a candidate for Presidency. Now that the President’s out of the way he’ll have it, but he needs something else. Me. He needs my regenerations. I need access to the Matrix so I can confront him.”

“Well, there is always the usual approach,” Romana laughed. The Doctor knew what she meant. The Doctor exchanged with Romana a familiar bag of jelly babies for K-9’s whistle. Romana used the Doctor’s favourite trick of misdirection consisting in distracting the outer guards by offering them jelly babies while K-9 came in quietly blasted the inner guards setting the Doctor free. The Doctor put on a Red Uniform and pretended to escort Romana out.

“We still make a good team! Thanks for the rescue. Now comes the hard part: gaining access to the Matrix.”

“How do you plan on doing that?”

“I’m afraid we haven’t the time for subtle methods. K-9, blast anyone who moves against us….low setting, please. I have enough to answer for as it is.”

“Affirmative, Master.”

“Romana, I need you to find the Chancellor and bring her to the Panoptican.”

“Is this wise, Doctor? Surely he wants you to connect with him in the Matrix.”

“True but this way I am dictating the circumstances. If he wants a confrontation, it’ll be on my terms. Chancellor Flavia will be there to witness anything that happens and will have the authority to do whatever necessary should things go awry.”

“Good luck, Doctor.”

“And you, Romana.”

The Doctor and K-9 moved with stealth through the halls. They met with little resistance until they got to the Panoptican. The Guards didn’t stand a chance against

K-9’s superior firepower. The Doctor generally preferred not to rely on these methods but in times of desperation sometimes it was all he had to fall back on. The Doctor found the connection to the APC and linked himself with the Matrix, just as Chancellor Flavia arrived.

“What is he doing? Stop!”

“Trust me, Madame Chancellor,” Romana urged, “the Doctor knows what he is doing. Be patient and all will be revealed.”

And so it was, as the Valeyard met the Doctor inside the Matrix the APC screen displayed them both.

“So Doctor, you have been forced to use the Matrix and now you are mine. I have grown in strength now, enough to do this.” The Valeyard used the sheer force of will, mind-power and the connectivity of the Matrix to force his essence upon the Doctor. A battle of wills ensued. The Doctor tried to push back the Valeyard with all his might with some success but the Valeyard kept coming back. Sheer force of will wasn’t going stop either one. Only mind-power and the right focus.

“Give it up, Doctor, you know I am the very personification of your evil.” The Doctor focused upon the good in his nature but the Valeyard used the Matrix to show him all the destruction the Doctor has caused, the lives lost. Images showed the total destruction of the Daleks and the Cybermen, but also of those closest to him that had been sacrificed. Adric’s faced burned in the Doctor’s mind. Through the Valeyard’s mind-power and manipulation of the Matrix the Doctor was forced deeper and deeper into his darker nature which underlies all his noble acts and values. But here at the brink of darkness and obliteration, the Doctor found the truth of his being. The words of his mentor came back to him. The whole is greater the sum of its parts. The Doctor was more than any violent act in his crusade against evil. In fact he was more than his crusade against evil. He thought of all the people whose lives he’d touched, and how they had each benefited from their time together. With his mind-power he projected the faces of all his companions. He concentrated his mind on the people and that things that have given his life meaning, his mentor especially, and found within him the strength to utterly defeat the Valeyard, who, as the antithesis of these things, could not could not cope with such an absolute flooding of the positives of the Doctor’s life. The Valeyard’s marauding essence disintegrated. The Doctor disengaged from the Matrix.

“Are you alright, Doctor?” Romana said.

“Perfectly,” the Doctor exclaimed, sounding as cheerful as ever. “In fact so wonderful I think that I shall be off. How about it, Romana? How does attending an Operetta in gay ol’ Paris sound?”

“I’d love to Doctor but I have responsibilities.”

“Indeed you do,” sighed the Doctor glumly. So glumly Romana almost reconsidered.

“Talking of responsibilities, once again there is a vacancy in the summit of the High Council…”

“Oh no, we all know how this scenario plays itself out. Tell you what, Romana here is a far better candidate than I am, and before you object Romana, being President has the advantage of influence over policy in areas regarding, say, time-sensitive leonine mesomorphs. Good it’s settled. I’ll be off.

“Doctor,” Romana called him back.

“Yes.”

“Thank you,” she exclaimed sincerely and hugged him.

“It was lovely to see you again, and you too K-9.”

After a long goodbye, the Doctor entered his TARDIS and a wheezing and groaning sound resounded and then faded away.