The Doctor Was Involved in the Dummy Massacre (short story)

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This article needs a big cleanup.

The user entries are back to front: the ones first released were at the bottom of the page on the tie-in website, so as we structure our summaries earliest first, then those entries should be at the top of the table, not at the bottom.

These problems might be so great that the article's factual accuracy has been compromised. Talk about it here or check the revision history or Manual of Style for more information.

The Doctor Was Involved in the Dummy Massacre
Main character(s):	Webmaster
Featuring:	Rose Tyler, Ninth Doctor
Main enemy:	Killer Dummies
Main setting:	Earth, 2 April 2005
Key crew
Publisher:	BBC
Writers:	see credits
Writers:
Release details
Genre:	Science fiction
Release date:	3 April 2005
Website:	Who is Doctor Who?
Format:	Online short story
Who is Doctor Who? fiction
← Previous	Dummy Massacre
Next →	Rose sighting confirmed

The Doctor Was Involved in the Dummy Massacre was the third short story exclusively published on the Who is Doctor Who? website on 3 April 2005 by the BBC webteam. This short story revealed more information about the Dummy Massacre in Rose. This short story was set a week after the events of Rose and the previous short story on the website, Dummy Massacre, giving more detail about the aftermath of the "Dummy Massacre"; while this story was released at the same time as the television episode The End of the World, it didn't tie into it as that episode was set in the year 5,000,000,000.

Plot

The Who is Doctor Who? website is updated, a week after the Dummy Massacre; "everyone in the know", apparently, knew of the Ninth Doctor's involvement in the Dummy Massacre, which is why it is all the more strange he wasn't captured on CCTV cameras around the "Killing Grounds". That being said, one piece of evidence did slip through the Doctor's supposed suppression of the footage, that being a video of Rose Tyler eating at a restaurant in Kennington, seemingly with her boyfriend, Mickey Smith. However "Mickey" was not actually him, but, as the webmaster speculates, perhaps some sort of special model or Advance Guard of the Killer Dummies. As the webmaster observes, the Doctor was briefly visible towards the edge of the frame of the footage, and questions if the Doctor was there to prevent the attack, or perhaps more insidiously, to contribute to it. But regardless, there is one thing for certain, that Rose hadn't been seen since.

In another section of the website, the webmaster writes about the conspiracy that has been growing since the Dummy Massacre, that despite the seventy-eight fatalities and the three hundred casualties and the countless pieces of video footage and eyewitness accounts, the coverage of the attack is vanishing from the World Media. And, as the webmaster puts it, those strong enough to remember what they saw with their own eyes can "only watch in horror" as cynical hands divert people's attention to home security, terrorist threats, public order, and consumerism, disregarding the greater threat. People are in denial.

The webmaster continues onto the subject of Clive, the man who "tirelessly" devoted his life to his search for the Doctor, and his reward? Death, as the webmaster sardonically answers. He died during the Dummy Massacre, and the webmaster reveals that he visited Clive's widow — Maggie — and, after discussion with her, agreed to take on Clive's mantle to prove the truth to the world. The webmaster is at peace with the idea that he too could pay with his life for his efforts, but values the truth above all.

Finally, the webmaster addresses the claims that "millions" of people heard a "ghostly disembodied voice" last weekend, although these claims are unverified. The webmaster is still interested in the claims despite the possibility of them not being true and asks his readers to contact the site with their stories.

Entries

The collection of entries is arranged in order, oldest first

Dummy Massacre entries

#	Character	Summary
1	SharonValerii	Sharon saw Rose outside of University just the other day, seeming a bit preoccupied with a rather oldish fellow with some large ears and a leather coat. Sharon asks if Doctor Who? thinks he has kidnapped Rose, lamenting that maybe she should have done something and hoping that Rose is alright.
2	Artie D	Artie says that Rose looks like a girl he entirely failed to get off with at a party in Islington when she swan off after this other chap came up and said something about a different planet.
3	John Smith	John had a wrong-number phone call from somebody called Rose Tyler the other Wednesday afternoon, claiming that she was calling from the year five billion, which he found absurd, dismissing her as an obvious nutter
4	Steve Woolfall	Steve saw a girl that looked like Rose in the Grosvenor Museum in Chester this afternoon with a chap that reminded him of that Casanova bloke. Steve concludes that it might not be the same girl but that it is strange.
5	Ryan Norman	Ryan tells Doctor Who? to admit that the CCTV "evidence" presented of the restaurant was clearly falsified, unless the site has been hacked. Ryan suggests that "they" could be tracking him and everyone else, before advising to stay safe.
6	Emma.Walters	Emma saw Rose in a shopping centre called meadowhall at 9:00am, raiding the coffee.
7	Eden	Eden saw Rose walking out of the lush shop with 20 bathboms and a man with short brown hair
8	Ivan Livermore	Ivan finds it incredibly strange as he realises that Rose looks exactly like a girl in a rare picture of Charles Dickens which he has amongst his collection, adding that the unidentified girl in the photo has been quite a matter of contention and the similarity is uncanny. Ivan assumes that the two are distant relatives.
9	Steve	Steve says that Rose's picture looks identical to a girl called Rose who he met back in 1987.
10	SkipN	SkipN saw Rose last year walking in Boston near the Charles River.
11	Jonny Hall	Jonny saw Rose, screaming with bruises all over, roaming the streets of Linclon at half past nine, rushing and running with a man. Adding that the incident was at 8:00 pm
12	David Mc Giveron	David was on a family outing to the Lake District when he got split up from the rest of the group during their walk. Wandering into an abandoned quarry, he met a girl, identical to the one in the picture, who said her name was Rose and asked him if he had seen a man in a leather jacket before running off.
13	David Collins	David saw Rose in a photo in one of his history lessons at school. His teacher told him that the photo was from the year 1806 when he asked.
14	Richard Hawton	Richard says that Rose looks so much like his student teacher who he remembers from 1976, but reasons that it surely cannot be her.
15	Scott Nisbet	Scott says that Rose looks just like a drawing of a girl in a white dress from a history textbook at home. Pointing out that the picture comes from the early 19th century, Scott concludes that it must be a family lineage or something.
16	bobby	bobby tells Clive, who he assumes has got a lot of archived stuff with the Doctor's image, to go and look at the Bayeaux Tapestry, pointing out that the Doctor is standing next to a blue box with a figure remarkably like Rose.
17	Mark Young	Mark, who collects old Daguerreotype photographs from the 1840s, found a family portrait with a striking resemblance to Rose. Mark would not have considered it worth mentioning were it not for the fact that her face only appeared in the picture since yesterday.
18	Alexander	Alexander saw Rose in an old family wedding photo from the 1920s. She was accompanied by a strange man in a leather jacket. Alexander is confused since it looked like she was walking towards an old 1950s police box.
19	Nigel Dawson	Nigel saw Rose yesterday outside Wetherby Whaler, eating something out of a newspaper and walking towards the bridge.
20	Mr Mystery	Mr Mystery says that he has seen Rose before, but cannot say where or when, for he is Mr Mystery.
21	Ryan Daly	Ryan saw Rose walking up his street at 20 Hundred Hours / 8:00pm. Ryan shouted "Hey you!" when she spat out some gum, but she ran off.
22	thomas	thomas says that the camera footage on the site is clear forgery, the clock times on the cameras are only one second apart, yet different things are going on in each frame. thomas tells Doctor Who? to admit they are part of the conspiracy.
23	polly loughlin	polly saw Rose in a photo at her friend's house. When she asked her how she knew Rose, her friend thought she had gone mad.
24	S C Wallace	S C Wallace saw Rose right outside WHSmith, adding "and WOW! !"

Voices entries

#	Character	Summary
1	Mrs. Smith	Mrs. Smith says that she hears voices all the time, adding that she is 81.
2	Mrs Baggs	Mrs Baggs admits to having heard voices, but dismisses them as coming from the "silly radio dramas" her husband listens to.
3	Sarah	Sarah has heard the voices and is pleased to know that she is not alone as her family thought she was going crazy.
4	Jonny	Jonny found the voices disturbing and quite frankly strange.
5	Emma Stagg	Emma heard a voice saying "I see dead people" on Tuesday.
6	Guy Anwar	Guy was sitting at home trying to write his latest short story when he heard these strange voices telling him "Is this live?". He thought he was imagining it, as in his story he was writing about a dentist being nailed to an electronic crucafix.
7	Whatsamacallit	Whatsamacallit heard the voice through the radio saying that they were in danger.
8	Malthusias	Malthusias recalls hearing the voices with shock, initially believing they were the only one to do so. They heard screaming, which was suddenly cut off, and then a few minutes later a frightened voice asking "Am I here?". Though Malthusias does not believe in ghost, they had to sleep with the light on that night in light of all those people who died.
9	112	112 suggests that something was radio transmitting to the dummies.
10	Andy Whitehead	Andy heard in a press release from the police that there was supposed to be a security guard down in the basement of the now destroyed department store building, whose body was never found. Andy suggests that the security guard was captured by the unidentified criminals who blew up the building last weekend and that the interference came from his walkie-talkie, which he turned on and asked obvious questions into the radio such as "where are we going?" to let his fellow security guards know that he had been captured. Believing it to be a joke, he may have asked "Is this live?". If a maintenance man or another security guard also had a radio, and was in the basement at the time, when viewers were watching the event on TV it would be possible to have heard the broadcast from the second radio. Andy ponders on what fate befell the owner of the radio.
11	Markusdragon	Markusdragon remembers the voice being distinctly Irish and hopes that it does not happen again, quipping that Guinness is the only Irish spirit he wants hanging around in his head.
12	Madman	Madman says that he hears voices every night.
13	David McGiveron	David heard the disembodied voice, accompanied by what sounded like a crowd of people shouting and calling out. He suggests that it was a future echo of the disaster, and the crowds were really the hundreds of frightened victims screaming in terror.
14	kenickie	kenickie thought it was just him since he told loads of people he had heard the voices but no-one believed him. He thought he was going mad (again).
15	Frank	Frank says that the voices were strange and not quite human, as though they were a message from above.
16	Magz	Magz heard ghostly laughing and cheering. Almost as if some evil entity knew what was about to happen.
17	poingman	poingman suggests that the mysterious voice is tied with Loki from the old Norse myths and that the Doctor is a trickster, a troublemaker of immense power and fickle humour like the old Greek pantheon. poingman fears for those who see the Doctor.
18	M. Scott	M. Scott turned on the television after getting back to their hotel in London. They heard a faint whispering despite the sound being off. They went over to the windows and the whispering started again and they heard "Who can it be now?" Then "Where art thee gone unto nevermore." After all the strange goings on their third day of vacation, M. Scott had a difficult time sleeping that night.
19	Paradox	Paradox offers a story or a riddle to those who wish to know of the Doctor. In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth and he saw it was good, the heavens groaned out in rapture as millions of angels saw with delight, all but one, the morning star; Lucifer, he sighed as he saw what Elohim was doing, creating a new race to enslave to his will, and with a great uproar he rebelled. A thousand years have passed and now he walks in the night observing the enslaved, especially one girl, Rose Tyler. In conclusion, the Doctor is the devil, Marilyn Manson + Pac-Man = Evil.
20	Gerard Shannon	Gerard says that it is strange the voices happened before the Dummy Massacre, suggesting that whatever was controlling the dummies was picking up interference, and that it might have been what finally killed them.

Characters

(In order of appearance, oldest first)

Webmaster/Mickey Smith Ninth Doctor Rose Tyler Mickey Smith (Auton) Mrs. Smith Mrs Baggs Sarah Jonny Emma Stagg Guy Anwar Whatsamacallit Malthusias

112 Andy Whitehead Markusdragon Madman David McGiveron Kenickie Frank Magz poingman M. Scott Paradox Gerard Shannon

more to be added

Referenced only

Bernard Ho Daffodil Harriet kaite B Maggie Mrs Baggs's husband

more to be added

Worldbuilding

• The webmaster mentions that the Doctor was not captured on the CCTV cameras of the "deadly shopping mall".
• Kennington is located in South London.
• Rose is nineteen years old and Mickey is twenty.
• The webmaster is unsure about the fate of the "special model" of the Killer Dummy that took Mickey's appearance, that if it still was dangerous.
• The webmaster also refers to the Dummy Massacre, once, as the London Attack.
• The webmaster refers to when Rose disappeared as "the night of the accident".
• The webmaster shares a picture of Rose.
• The webmaster thanks Bernard Ho and Daffodil for their help.
  • The webmaster also thanks Harriet and kaite B for additional pictures.
• The webmaster speculates the reason that people are so willing to forget the attack is that they are uncomfortable and scared that there is "something" out there that the media won't let them know about.
• People had vowed to boycott shops with dummies on display, but within the week people are back in the shops, wilfully ignoring their previous claims, although the webmaster knows that even the shops aren't completely forgetting the attack as all the dummies are missing hands.
• The webmaster finds it an honour to take Clive's mantle.
• The webmaster believes that he is being bombarded with proof of the supernatural.
• This is a small disclaimer about the photographs on the site not necessarily being in the webmaster's copyright, although no infringement is intended.
• There is a small icon for Campaign for Real Aliens.
• Mark Young is able to remember a version of history where Rose was not in a photograph in his collection.

Notes

• This page of the website had links to clips of the "Dummy Massacre" taken from behind the raw unedited footage used in the episode Rose as well as some recycled footage from the episode, but the Web Archive wasn't able to archive the individual pages that hosted the footage properly, given the way the BBC set up the website, so the footage is lost media.
• Despite this story not tying into The End of the World, John Smith's entry claims that Rose accidentally called him first, before Jackie.

Authorship

The "main" story was written by the BBC webteam.

However, most of the contributors of the rest of the content remain effectively anonymous, as they either used unidentifiable handles, invented fake names, wrote from the perspective of established fictional characters or entered names which are too common to trace. However, some can be positively identified.

• Steve Woolfall, a Doctor Who fan, used his real name for his story.

Continuity

• The Rose being nineteen aligns with her birthdate being given as early 1986 in sources such as The Unquiet Dead, Dalek, Army of Ghosts, etc, although it contradicts other sources that give her birthdate as 27 April 1987, in sources such as Father's Day, Rise of the Cybermen, and Rose Tyler.
• This story, and Dummy Massacre, is set in the aftermath of Rose.
• Mickey Smith taking over Who is Doctor Who? would become an ongoing storyline in later stories published on the Who is Doctor Who? tie-in website, from this story to Lifeboat Museum and beyond. The short story The Secret Lives of Monsters, although it has a few minor contradictions with the tie-in website, does mention that the in-universe website continued to be updated after Clive Finch's death. Even the short story Mickey's Blog, which alternately asserts that Mickey never took over Who is Doctor Who? and instead ran a blog, followed a very similar plot to the tie-in website.
• In this story, Mickey suspects that the Doctor removed the footage captured by CCTV cameras of himself, however the short story Operation Mannequin reveals that many cameras malfunctioned during the attack.
• The details about Clive corresponds with his appearance in Rose.
• Rose sends a phone call from the year five billion. (TV: The End of the World)
• Rose is seen with Charles Dickens. (TV: The Unquiet Dead)
• Rose is spotted in 1987. (TV: Father's Day)
• Rose is spotted with a "Casanova" lookalike, a likely reference to the fact that David Tennant, who was rumoured to take over from Christopher Eccleston in the role, had previously played Casanova. David Tennant did indeed play the Tenth Doctor, beginning with the minisode Born Again.
• An entry by Guy Anwar was previously present in Have You Seen This Man?.

Gallery

• 

  A frame of CCTV footage.

• 

  Another frame of CCTV footage.

• 

  One more frame of CCTV footage.

• 

  A picture of Rose Tyler.

External links

• The Doctor Was Involved in the Dummy Massacre at Who is Doctor Who? via the Wayback Machine