After the arrival of Prometheus on Blu-ray this week, a recent rewatch of the David Tennant episodes (notably the specials) and more than a bit of idle speculation, I got to wondering... In some alternate universe once shared by Engineers and Time Lords, a derelict spacecraft on a world dubbed LV-426 is still sending out a distress signal - or is it a warning? The 10th Doctor, travelling alone, bored and insatiably curious - how could he possibly resist investigating when the TARDIS alerts him to the signal?
Landing on LV-426, the Doctor dons his Sanctuary Base 6 orange and yellow spacesuit and exits the TARDIS onto the hostile surface, using a hand tracker to locate the derelict beached and broken on a rocky reef; he finds a crack in the skin of the craft and clambers inside.
Within, he finds the Engineer in his cockpit, the chest of its pressure suit exploded from within; wary but still curious, the Doctor notices the hole burned through the floor and cautiously climbs down - but he loses his footing and slips down into the cavernous hangar below.
In the belly of this beast are thousands of egg-shaped objects, protected by the blue haze of a stasis field, which reacts when the Doctor tumbles underneath it; he finds himself staring directly at one of the egg-shaped objects, which has turned translucent, something fluttering wetly within. The Doctor scrambles back, belatedly realizing that curiosity has its limits, but it's too late - the top of the leathery egg creaks open, centuries of dust cascading from the four fleshy petals, and something slurps and slithers within. A moment of tense stillness, and then an obscene creature from his worst nightmares explodes forth, streamers of slime trailing from scuttling spider legs and thrashing snake-like tail - it clamps onto the Doctor's helmet, a tube-like protuberance melting through his faceplate with some kind of acid. The Doctor gasps as hostile alien atmosphere breaches his environmental integrity - and the creature's ovipositor tube strikes out and slithers down his throat; it squeezes the rest of its body through the hole in the melted faceplate, clutching the Doctor's head in its vice-like grip and snaking its tail tightly around his throat.
Clutching his helmet, the Doctor staggers and collapses, lying there amongst the slimy tendrils interconnecting the eggs, mercifully slipping into a coma as the creature attached to him lays its seed within him...
I'm presuming that when the deed is done and he recovers, the Doctor could withstand LV-426's hostile atmosphere long enough to return to his TARDIS, but what then? It seems that victims suffer amnesia after the attack, so he might not think to run a check on himself, which means that chestbursting is inevitable. But would he survive the trauma long enough to regenerate? We know that the Alien exchanges genetic material with its host - what Time Lord powers would the newborn acquire? And if it's tainted the Doctor's DNA with its own, then how would it affect him if he was lucky enough to regenerate? I don't think we'd get Matt Smith...
Landing on LV-426, the Doctor dons his Sanctuary Base 6 orange and yellow spacesuit and exits the TARDIS onto the hostile surface, using a hand tracker to locate the derelict beached and broken on a rocky reef; he finds a crack in the skin of the craft and clambers inside.
Within, he finds the Engineer in his cockpit, the chest of its pressure suit exploded from within; wary but still curious, the Doctor notices the hole burned through the floor and cautiously climbs down - but he loses his footing and slips down into the cavernous hangar below.
In the belly of this beast are thousands of egg-shaped objects, protected by the blue haze of a stasis field, which reacts when the Doctor tumbles underneath it; he finds himself staring directly at one of the egg-shaped objects, which has turned translucent, something fluttering wetly within. The Doctor scrambles back, belatedly realizing that curiosity has its limits, but it's too late - the top of the leathery egg creaks open, centuries of dust cascading from the four fleshy petals, and something slurps and slithers within. A moment of tense stillness, and then an obscene creature from his worst nightmares explodes forth, streamers of slime trailing from scuttling spider legs and thrashing snake-like tail - it clamps onto the Doctor's helmet, a tube-like protuberance melting through his faceplate with some kind of acid. The Doctor gasps as hostile alien atmosphere breaches his environmental integrity - and the creature's ovipositor tube strikes out and slithers down his throat; it squeezes the rest of its body through the hole in the melted faceplate, clutching the Doctor's head in its vice-like grip and snaking its tail tightly around his throat.
Clutching his helmet, the Doctor staggers and collapses, lying there amongst the slimy tendrils interconnecting the eggs, mercifully slipping into a coma as the creature attached to him lays its seed within him...
I'm presuming that when the deed is done and he recovers, the Doctor could withstand LV-426's hostile atmosphere long enough to return to his TARDIS, but what then? It seems that victims suffer amnesia after the attack, so he might not think to run a check on himself, which means that chestbursting is inevitable. But would he survive the trauma long enough to regenerate? We know that the Alien exchanges genetic material with its host - what Time Lord powers would the newborn acquire? And if it's tainted the Doctor's DNA with its own, then how would it affect him if he was lucky enough to regenerate? I don't think we'd get Matt Smith...
