Doctor Who: A New Beginning: A Crashing Time
TARDIS – Indefined time (Enroute: Christmas, Trenzalore [600 YofD {Year of the Doctor}] – Unknown Destination)
Clara Oswald didn’t know what to think. The Doctor had regenerated, and then the TARDIS was crashing into something (into what, the Doctor hadn’t answered) and then had asked her if she knew how to fly it. She didn’t know! There was the time with the pocket universe, and possible echo memories of a Gallifreyian echo, but she wouldn’t be of much help.
The TARDIS was still making those noises, the Doctor was still struggling with the controls and Clara still didn’t have a clue how to help.
“Clara, help please! Regeneration is tricky. It can mess up memories and it needs time to take and to recover from,” the Doctor said.
Clara carefully moved towards the Doctor. “What do you mean, recover from?” she asked.
“You try rebuilding every cell in your body,” the Doctor said. He swung the screen around. “Castrovalva!”
The TARDIS responded to the Doctor’s command. The screen filled with information.
“So we go there?” Clara asked.
“No! The place was a trap. One of my previous selves was there just after a regeneration, but so was the Master!”
“The Master?” Clara asked. Even as she asked, some echo memories came back of a goateed man who had almost hypnotised her echo into doing his bidding. ‘I am the Master, and you will obey me!’ She shuddered.
“You remember?” the Doctor asked.
“Not a particularly good memory.” Clara looked at the screen again, and found something else of interest. “Zero Room?”
“Yes, a Zero Room was re-installed on the TARDIS after the last one was ejected just prior to arrival at Castrovalva. We need to find it!” The Doctor collapsed. “Quickly.”
“Zero Room. Locate the Zero Room, in relation to the Console Room!”
The screen then read Error: Manual Location Required.
“What does that error mean?”
“You have to find the Zero Room manually. It’s a simplistic environment isolated from the rest of the universe. It can’t be located by the Architectural Configuration System.”
“Blimey, the Time Lords have to have things needlessly complex don’t they?” Clara asked.
“Ah! Quick, the TARDIS may help!”
“Right,” Clara said, as she took the Doctor into her arms.
It didn’t help that the TARDIS was shaking as Clara carried the Doctor further away from the Console Room. “What would it look like from outside?” she asked.
“Large double doors, silvery. You will know it when you see it.”
“Great!” Clara murmured.
Less than five minutes had passed before Clara found the Zero Room. She put the Doctor on the floor and pushed the doors wide. She immediately dragged him in. (It seemed that he was unconscious.)
She looked around. It was a large space with white roundled walls. The roundles were at least the size of the Console Room. She also felt a sense of peace. “Ok, Doctor, we’re here.”
The Doctor stirred. “Very good, Clara. Now return to the Console Room. The TARDIS is still crashing! Be sure to close the doors.”
“Longest crash I ever heard of,” Clara said. “Right!” She bounded out of the Zero Room, closing the doors behind her.
By the time Clara returned to the Console Room, the Cloister Bell was ringing, and steam had permeated the room. “Are we crashing into Trenzalore’s star? Or any other star?” she asked in panic.
The screen said. Not a Star
“A Gas Giant then?”
Not a Gas Giant
“Mercury? Venus?”
Not Mercury or Venus
“Right.” She called on her memories of the Gallifreyian echo. “Rematerialising now!”
Alarming noises sounded as the Time Rotor came to a standstill, and the usual landing noise seemed to have a screeching effect. “That doesn’t sound good!”
She approached the doors and clicked her fingers. The doors opened showing, water. Clara reached out and touched it. “Ow!” The water was cold. More than that, it had pressed hard upon her fingertip. “Right, we’re far underwater,” she guessed. She brought her finger to her mouth. The water was salty. “Sea water. We’re under an ocean?”
She closed the doors and went back to the Console. The Scanner confirmed her suspicions, they were deep under an ocean. It also indicated that the TARDIS was resting against a shipwreck. “Is it Trenzalore?”
Not Trenzalore
“Earth?”
Not Earth.
“Neither Trenzalore, nor Earth. Where are we?”
Metabelis III
TARDIS, Metabelis III Ocean
“Metabelis III,” Clara considered. She didn’t know anything about that planet, other than that the Doctor had obtained some mysterious crystals from there at some point. “Information: Metabelis III.”
Metabelis III: Crystals allow for various mind powers. Warning! Depending on time period, there may be aggressive Giant Spiders. The Doctor’s third incarnation may be present. There are human colonists.
“Right, I’ll tell the Doctor,” she left the Console Room and headed back in the direction of the Zero Room.
It took less time for Clara to return to the Zero Room. ‘Is the TARDIS bringing the rooms closer together, or uncomplicating the corridors?’ she pondered.
She found the Doctor. “We’ve landed at the bottom of an ocean, on Metebelis III.”
There was no answer.
“Doctor?”
The Doctor stirred. “Quiet, Clara.”
Clara whispered. “We have crashed on the bottom of an ocean, next to a shipwreck. On Metabelis III.”
“Metabelis III?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t go out, there could be anything there.”
“I couldn’t if I wanted to, the water is right up to the threshold.”
“Right,” the Doctor said as he dropped off again.
Clara returned to the Console Room. There was not much to do. She switched on the scanner, and scanned the shipwreck. The results were inconclusive. “There isn’t much information,” she considered.
She sighed. “Keep scanning. Ding or something when something changes!”
Clara waited. She paced (if it could be called that) between the console room and the Zero Room. There was no difference in the scan, and the Doctor hadn’t regained consciousness. ‘This could last for days. I don’t know how to fly this ship!’ she thought, when she had returned to the Zero Room for the second time.
TARDIS – Indefined time (Enroute: Christmas, Trenzalore [600 YofD {Year of the Doctor}] – Unknown Destination)
Clara Oswald didn’t know what to think. The Doctor had regenerated, and then the TARDIS was crashing into something (into what, the Doctor hadn’t answered) and then had asked her if she knew how to fly it. She didn’t know! There was the time with the pocket universe, and possible echo memories of a Gallifreyian echo, but she wouldn’t be of much help.
The TARDIS was still making those noises, the Doctor was still struggling with the controls and Clara still didn’t have a clue how to help.
“Clara, help please! Regeneration is tricky. It can mess up memories and it needs time to take and to recover from,” the Doctor said.
Clara carefully moved towards the Doctor. “What do you mean, recover from?” she asked.
“You try rebuilding every cell in your body,” the Doctor said. He swung the screen around. “Castrovalva!”
The TARDIS responded to the Doctor’s command. The screen filled with information.
“So we go there?” Clara asked.
“No! The place was a trap. One of my previous selves was there just after a regeneration, but so was the Master!”
“The Master?” Clara asked. Even as she asked, some echo memories came back of a goateed man who had almost hypnotised her echo into doing his bidding. ‘I am the Master, and you will obey me!’ She shuddered.
“You remember?” the Doctor asked.
“Not a particularly good memory.” Clara looked at the screen again, and found something else of interest. “Zero Room?”
“Yes, a Zero Room was re-installed on the TARDIS after the last one was ejected just prior to arrival at Castrovalva. We need to find it!” The Doctor collapsed. “Quickly.”
“Zero Room. Locate the Zero Room, in relation to the Console Room!”
The screen then read Error: Manual Location Required.
“What does that error mean?”
“You have to find the Zero Room manually. It’s a simplistic environment isolated from the rest of the universe. It can’t be located by the Architectural Configuration System.”
“Blimey, the Time Lords have to have things needlessly complex don’t they?” Clara asked.
“Ah! Quick, the TARDIS may help!”
“Right,” Clara said, as she took the Doctor into her arms.
It didn’t help that the TARDIS was shaking as Clara carried the Doctor further away from the Console Room. “What would it look like from outside?” she asked.
“Large double doors, silvery. You will know it when you see it.”
“Great!” Clara murmured.
Less than five minutes had passed before Clara found the Zero Room. She put the Doctor on the floor and pushed the doors wide. She immediately dragged him in. (It seemed that he was unconscious.)
She looked around. It was a large space with white roundled walls. The roundles were at least the size of the Console Room. She also felt a sense of peace. “Ok, Doctor, we’re here.”
The Doctor stirred. “Very good, Clara. Now return to the Console Room. The TARDIS is still crashing! Be sure to close the doors.”
“Longest crash I ever heard of,” Clara said. “Right!” She bounded out of the Zero Room, closing the doors behind her.
By the time Clara returned to the Console Room, the Cloister Bell was ringing, and steam had permeated the room. “Are we crashing into Trenzalore’s star? Or any other star?” she asked in panic.
The screen said. Not a Star
“A Gas Giant then?”
Not a Gas Giant
“Mercury? Venus?”
Not Mercury or Venus
“Right.” She called on her memories of the Gallifreyian echo. “Rematerialising now!”
Alarming noises sounded as the Time Rotor came to a standstill, and the usual landing noise seemed to have a screeching effect. “That doesn’t sound good!”
She approached the doors and clicked her fingers. The doors opened showing, water. Clara reached out and touched it. “Ow!” The water was cold. More than that, it had pressed hard upon her fingertip. “Right, we’re far underwater,” she guessed. She brought her finger to her mouth. The water was salty. “Sea water. We’re under an ocean?”
She closed the doors and went back to the Console. The Scanner confirmed her suspicions, they were deep under an ocean. It also indicated that the TARDIS was resting against a shipwreck. “Is it Trenzalore?”
Not Trenzalore
“Earth?”
Not Earth.
“Neither Trenzalore, nor Earth. Where are we?”
Metabelis III
TARDIS, Metabelis III Ocean
“Metabelis III,” Clara considered. She didn’t know anything about that planet, other than that the Doctor had obtained some mysterious crystals from there at some point. “Information: Metabelis III.”
Metabelis III: Crystals allow for various mind powers. Warning! Depending on time period, there may be aggressive Giant Spiders. The Doctor’s third incarnation may be present. There are human colonists.
“Right, I’ll tell the Doctor,” she left the Console Room and headed back in the direction of the Zero Room.
It took less time for Clara to return to the Zero Room. ‘Is the TARDIS bringing the rooms closer together, or uncomplicating the corridors?’ she pondered.
She found the Doctor. “We’ve landed at the bottom of an ocean, on Metebelis III.”
There was no answer.
“Doctor?”
The Doctor stirred. “Quiet, Clara.”
Clara whispered. “We have crashed on the bottom of an ocean, next to a shipwreck. On Metabelis III.”
“Metabelis III?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t go out, there could be anything there.”
“I couldn’t if I wanted to, the water is right up to the threshold.”
“Right,” the Doctor said as he dropped off again.
Clara returned to the Console Room. There was not much to do. She switched on the scanner, and scanned the shipwreck. The results were inconclusive. “There isn’t much information,” she considered.
She sighed. “Keep scanning. Ding or something when something changes!”
Clara waited. She paced (if it could be called that) between the console room and the Zero Room. There was no difference in the scan, and the Doctor hadn’t regained consciousness. ‘This could last for days. I don’t know how to fly this ship!’ she thought, when she had returned to the Zero Room for the second time.
