The Old Man and the Police Box

The Old Man and the Police Box
Type:	Children's story
Place of origin:	Earth
Made by:	John Smith

The Old Man and the Police Box was a children's story written by John Smith, a human persona created by the Seventh Doctor. The story, about an old English inventor who brought civilisation to a planet named Gallifrey, seemed to express memories that Smith had forgotten, though it was unclear which parts of it were true.

Writing

Smith had always felt that he had a novel in him, ever since he had gone dancing with Verity by the shore in the moonlight and she had whispered something in his ear. When he finally decided to write, the first half of the story came to him easily, but he found it annoyingly childish and decided not to show it to Joan Redfern. Smith later felt that his writing was improving, and was much happier with the second half.

Plot summary

An old man with silver hair lived in England in the time of Queen Victoria. He had the idea to invent a shelter for policemen, with a telephone inside that people could use to call for help. Since there needed to be room within the shelter, the old man invented a way to fit a large space inside it, and since it had to be able to chase criminals, he gave it the ability to disappear and reappear elsewhere.

The old man was clever but lonely, and so, before telling anyone about his invention, he used to it to explore the universe. He discovered a planet called Gallifrey, inhabited by a primitive tribe. They worshipped the old man as a god, but he told them not to, and instead offered to teach them new ideas. He taught them how to travel space and time, and about law and books and civilisation, and how to build police boxes.

The Gallifreyans built towers and cities, and became lords and ladies. The inventor advised them on how best to make their world as civilised and law-abiding as England. However, they took his ideas too seriously, and became dull and static. The old man invented a way for them to begin another life when they died, and gave them a second heart in the hopes that it would make them more joyful, but his efforts were ineffective. The Gallfreyans stopped having children, and their culture became more stagnant.

The old man, disillusioned, took one of the police boxes and returned to Earth. He knew that the Gallifreyans would chase him, because he had broken one of the laws he had originally introduced, but he decided that freedom was better than ebing in charge.

Behind the scenes

In reality, Smith's story was plotted by Paul Cornell's friend Steven Moffat, and represents his first involvement with a licensed Doctor Who story (preceding Moffat's 1996 short story Continuity Errors by a year). In the afterword, Cornell said, "He's always had some radical thoughts about Who, and it was good to be able to give expression to some of them." Within the context of the Virgin New Adventures, Smith's story can be seen as an attempt to engage with the Cartmel Masterplan by suggesting a secret origin for the Doctor, in keeping with Marc Platt's suggestion that the Other "may not even be Gallifreyan himself". Moffat would go on to become the show's head writer, and while episodes such as Listen and Hell Bent would include allusive hints about the Doctor's past and possible human nature, the specific ideas of The Old Man and the Police Box would not be developed further.