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{{Infobox Story SMW
{{Infobox Short Story|
|range                  = Short Trips (series)
name=The Gift|
|series in range        = Short Trips: The History of Christmas
series=[[Short Trips (series)#In print|ST short stories]]|
|series number in range = 15
doctor=[[First Doctor]]|
|number in series      = 19
companions=[[Susan Foreman|Susan]]|
|doctor                 = First Doctor
year=|
|companions             = [[Susan Foreman|Susan]]
writer=[[Robert Dick]]|
|featuring              = Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart{{!}}The Brigadier
publication=''[[Short Trips: The History of Christmas]]''|
|featuring2            = Doris Lethbridge-Stewart
prev=The Revolutionaries (short story)|
|setting                = [[December]] [[1995]]
next=Callahuanca (short story)|
|writer                = Robert Dick
|}}
|anthology              = Short Trips: The History of Christmas
{{dab page|The Gift}}
|release date          = 26 November 2005
'''''The Gift''''' was the nineteenth short story in the [[Short Trips (series)|Short Trips]] anthology ''[[Short Trips: The History of Christmas]]''. It was written by [[Robert Dick]]. It featured the [[First Doctor]] and [[Susan Foreman|Susan]].
|series                = [[Short Trips (series)#Big Finish Productions|Short Trips short stories]]
|prev                   = The Revolutionaries (short story)
|next                   = Callahuanca (short story)
}}{{dab page|The Gift}}
'''''The Gift''''' was the nineteenth short story in the [[Short Trips (series)|Short Trips]] anthology ''[[Short Trips: The History of Christmas]]''. It was written by [[Robert Dick]]. It featured the [[First Doctor]], [[Susan Foreman|Susan]], and Brigadier [[Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart]].
 
== Summary ==
== Summary ==
General [[Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart|Lethbridge-Stewart]] (retired) has waited until his wife [[Doris Lethbridge-Stewart|Doris]] has gone out of the house on some last minute shopping before he takes his boat out on the lake. It is his Christmas present from Doris, bought against her wishes, and he is using it without her knowledge one day early. Suddenly he sees a [[Susan Campbell|young woman]] in the water and pulls her out. When he takes her home and puts her to bed Doris is keen to call the emergency services. Lethbridge-Stewart refuses, wanting to deal with it himself, but before their argument is concluded they are interrupted by the arrival of the [[First Doctor|Doctor]] looking for his granddaughter.  
General (Brigadier) Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart has [[Retirement|retired]] and convinced his wife, Doris, to buy him a boat for Christmas. On Christmas Eve, whilst Doris is doing some late-night shopping, Alistair takes the boat out for a pre-Christmas test drive (unbeknownst to his wife). During his trip, Alistair spots a young girl in the water. Taking her back to his house, an argument ensues with the recently returned Doris over whether they should call the emergency services or whether Alistair should deal with the situation himself. Their disagreement is interrupted by the arrival of an old man looking for his granddaughter. Despite never meeting this incarnation, Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart believes that the old man is the Doctor.
 
At first the Doctor appears very concerned for Susan's well-being; however, after hearing Doris protest about ever buying the boat for Alistair, the Doctor appears to forget all about Susan and becomes more interested in Alistair's boat. When the Doctor suggests the boat be sold, Alistair gets very upset and leaves the house in a rage.


Lethbridge-Stewart recognises him immediately, even though he has not met this incarnation before, but does not let on because the Doctors he did meet warned him about inadvertently telling someone about their own future. Initially the Doctor is very concerned about Susan, particularly when he finds she was in the middle of the lake and was rescued by a boat. Doris complains about the boat, saying she wishes that she had not bought it. She says that her husband is seventy years old and has led a life of adventure, he does not need to create artificial excitement with a speedboat. Lethbridge-Stewart is surprised and shocked by his wife's fear. The Doctor quickly forgets about Susan and tells Lethbridge-Stewart to sell the boat if it frightens his wife that much. Lethbridge-Stewart refuses and storms off.  
Without Alistair present, Doris suggests to the Doctor that he indeed knows her husband before today's encounter. Confiding in Doris, the Doctor confirms that he recognises Alistair as one of his oldest friends, despite not having physically met Lethbridge-Stewart in his own timeline. Realising that this whole “Susan” incident was just a ploy to meet Alistair, Doris asks the Doctor how her husband will die. Unable to answer her question directly, the Doctor tells her that all of his incarnations will be present at the funeral and will behave themselves (though some will argue at the wake). However, when Doris asks the Doctor to take the boat away with him, he replies that he is unable to do so, as such a decision cannot be made by him. However, the Doctor implies that this is his Christmas gift to the Lethbridge-Stewart family: the gift of choice.


Left alone, Doris tells the Doctor that she knows he recognised Lethbridge-Stewart. The Doctor agrees, saying that Lethbridge-Stewart is his oldest friend and it doesn't matter that he has yet to meet him for him to know this. In a flash of insight Doris realises that part of the Doctor's business is with the boat. She asks how Lethbridge-Stewart will die but the Doctor merely replies that all of his incarnations will be present at the funeral and will behave themselves (though some will argue at the wake). Doris asks him to take the boat when he leaves but the Doctor tells her he cannot make her choices for her; his gift is telling her that there are choices, which is more than he should really do. By the time Lethbridge-Stewart returns the Doctor and Susan have gone and he sits long into the night holding Doris's hand.
When Alistair returns, the Doctor and Susan have left, leaving the Brigadier and Doris to make the decision together.


== Characters ==
== Characters ==
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* [[Doris Lethbridge-Stewart|Doris]]
* [[Doris Lethbridge-Stewart|Doris]]


== References ==
== Worldbuilding ==
* [[First Doctor|The Doctor]] states that all of his incarnations will attend the Brigadier's funeral; this implies that he has already attended the funeral as the First Doctor in his own timeline, even though they technically have not met yet.
''to be added''


== Notes ==
== Notes ==
''to be added''
* The novel ''[[No Future]]'' claims that the Brigadier was born in [[1930]], and in this story Doris says that the Brigadier is over seventy, suggesting a setting in the [[2000s]]. However ''[[Not in My Back Yard (short story)|Not in My Back Yard]]'' another story in the same anthology dates this adventure to [[Christmas]] [[1995]].


== Continuity ==
== Continuity ==
* It's possible that the Brigadier recognized the First Doctor from seeing him on the scanner during the events of [[DW]]: ''[[The Three Doctors (TV story)|The Three Doctors]]'', or from their very brief meeting during [[DW]]: ''[[The Five Doctors]]''. It is, however, not clear where this falls in the First Doctor's timeline; as his only companion shown is Susan, it could even be set before the events of [[DW]]: ''[[An Unearthly Child (TV story)|An Unearthly Child]]''.
* Doris refers to this being the Brigadier's second [[retirement]], after his brief return to duty in [[TV]]: ''[[Battlefield (TV story)|Battlefield]]''.
* The Doctor tells Doris that all his incarnations will behave themselves at the Brigadier's funeral, but some of them will argue at the wake. Arguments have been a staple of any multiple-Doctor story: the [[Second Doctor|Second]] and [[Third Doctor|Third]] Doctors quickly got on each others' nerves in [[DW]]: ''[[The Three Doctors (TV story)|The Three Doctors]]'' and ''[[The Five Doctors (TV story)|The Five Doctors]]'', only working together in the former due to the authority of the [[First Doctor]]; in [[DW]]: ''[[Time Crash (TV story)|Time Crash]]'', the [[Fifth Doctor|Fifth]] and [[Tenth Doctor|Tenth]] Doctors briefly bickered, the Fifth calling the Tenth a "skinny idiot babbling about everything he sees," while the Tenth derided the Fifth for going "hands free" (ie. no [[sonic screwdriver]]) and wearing a [[celery|decorative vegetable]] in his lapel. In [[EDA]]: ''[[The Eight Doctors (novel)|The Eight Doctors]]'', it is mentioned that the [[Seventh Doctor]] wasn't well liked by any of the others. Conversely, the Second and [[Sixth Doctor|Sixth]] Doctors got along quite well in [[DW]]: ''[[The Two Doctors (TV story)|The Two Doctors]].
* The Brigadier says that he and the First Doctor almost met during the events of ''[[The Five Doctors (TV story)|The Five Doctors]]''.
 
* The Doctor tells Doris that they should get rid of their boat, but fails to comment further as he can't tell them their future. Doris dies in a boating accident in the early [[2010s]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Shadows of Avalon (novel)|The Shadows of Avalon]]'')
 
* The Doctor tells Doris that all his incarnations will behave themselves at the Brigadier's funeral, but some of them will argue at the wake. Arguments have been a staple of many multiple-Doctor stories: the [[Second Doctor|Second]] and [[Third Doctor|Third]] Doctors quickly got on each others' nerves in [[TV]]: ''[[The Three Doctors (TV story)|The Three Doctors]]'' and ''[[The Five Doctors (TV story)|The Five Doctors]]'', only working together in the former due to the authority of the [[First Doctor]]; in [[TV]]: ''[[Time Crash (TV story)|Time Crash]]'', the [[Fifth Doctor|Fifth]] and [[Tenth Doctor|Tenth]] Doctors briefly bickered, the Fifth calling the Tenth a "skinny idiot babbling about everything he sees," while the Tenth derided the Fifth for going "hands free" (i.e. no [[sonic screwdriver]]) and wearing a [[celery|decorative vegetable]] in his lapel. In [[PROSE]]: ''[[The Eight Doctors (novel)|The Eight Doctors]]'', it is mentioned that the [[Seventh Doctor]] wasn't well liked by any of the others.
 
* Multiple incarnations of the Doctor were present at the Brigadier's funeral, including at least the [[Second Doctor|Second]], [[Third Doctor|Third]], [[Sixth Doctor|Sixth]], [[Seventh Doctor|Seventh]], [[Ninth Doctor|Ninth]] and [[Eleventh Doctor]]s. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Shroud of Sorrow (novel)|Shroud of Sorrow]]'')
* The Brig thinks that Doris is able to manage him, unlike [[Fiona Lethbridge-Stewart|Fiona]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Scales of Injustice (novel)|The Scales of Injustice]]'')


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[[Category:First Doctor short stories|Gift]]
[[Category:First Doctor short stories]]
[[Category:Stories released in 2005]]
[[Category:Short Trips: The History of Christmas short stories]]
[[Category:ST short stories]]
[[Category:Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart short stories]]
[[Category:Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart short stories]]
[[Category:Stories set in the 2000s]]

Latest revision as of 20:21, 29 February 2024

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You may wish to consult The Gift for other, similarly-named pages.

The Gift was the nineteenth short story in the Short Trips anthology Short Trips: The History of Christmas. It was written by Robert Dick. It featured the First Doctor, Susan, and Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart.

Summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

General (Brigadier) Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart has retired and convinced his wife, Doris, to buy him a boat for Christmas. On Christmas Eve, whilst Doris is doing some late-night shopping, Alistair takes the boat out for a pre-Christmas test drive (unbeknownst to his wife). During his trip, Alistair spots a young girl in the water. Taking her back to his house, an argument ensues with the recently returned Doris over whether they should call the emergency services or whether Alistair should deal with the situation himself. Their disagreement is interrupted by the arrival of an old man looking for his granddaughter. Despite never meeting this incarnation, Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart believes that the old man is the Doctor.

At first the Doctor appears very concerned for Susan's well-being; however, after hearing Doris protest about ever buying the boat for Alistair, the Doctor appears to forget all about Susan and becomes more interested in Alistair's boat. When the Doctor suggests the boat be sold, Alistair gets very upset and leaves the house in a rage.

Without Alistair present, Doris suggests to the Doctor that he indeed knows her husband before today's encounter. Confiding in Doris, the Doctor confirms that he recognises Alistair as one of his oldest friends, despite not having physically met Lethbridge-Stewart in his own timeline. Realising that this whole “Susan” incident was just a ploy to meet Alistair, Doris asks the Doctor how her husband will die. Unable to answer her question directly, the Doctor tells her that all of his incarnations will be present at the funeral and will behave themselves (though some will argue at the wake). However, when Doris asks the Doctor to take the boat away with him, he replies that he is unable to do so, as such a decision cannot be made by him. However, the Doctor implies that this is his Christmas gift to the Lethbridge-Stewart family: the gift of choice.

When Alistair returns, the Doctor and Susan have left, leaving the Brigadier and Doris to make the decision together.

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The novel No Future claims that the Brigadier was born in 1930, and in this story Doris says that the Brigadier is over seventy, suggesting a setting in the 2000s. However Not in My Back Yard another story in the same anthology dates this adventure to Christmas 1995.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]