From Eternity was the second short story in the Short Trips anthology Short Trips: Monsters. It was written by Jim Mortimore. It featured an unspecified Doctor.

Summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor is interviewing an entity who has committed terrible crimes, the Time Lords are aware of the entity, and its ultimate fate is in the balance.

The entity explains that, in its first experience with intelligent life, they were unable to establish contact, and the life eventually devolved into a primitive state, later followed by their sun's implosion.

When the entity next encountered intelligent life, the entity was able to establish contact, but once again the civilisation decayed and the sun imploded. It concluded that some kind of infection was at work; that of war.

The entity next contacted the Iarcho. It tried to warn them of the infection, of war, but they didn't take notice. It killed several of them as a warning, but still their society decayed; the entity destroyed their sun.

At this point the entity realised that for it time moved in reverse to the rest of the universe. What it saw as de-evolution was actually evolution.

It admits its guilt to the Doctor and hopes for redemption.

Time for the entity eventually progresses to the beginning of the universe, which was its end. Instead of nothingness, however, it experiences a new universe.

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Entity asks the Doctor to define several words including parents, promise and love.
The Entity doesn't know how old it is.
The Entity states that it's impossible for the Time Lords to put it under an compulsion or restraint.
The Entity doesn't rest.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor's incarnation is not clearly specified in this story. The only clues given are the Entity's description of the Doctor: "harshly, angular face" and "thumb-tucked arrogance".
A version of the story was self-published by the author in the anthologies The Book of Shadows and The Sun in the Bone House.
This story is presented entirely from the Entity's point of view.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor would later meet another entity which experiences time in reverse in COMIC: Room with a Deja View. The Doctor, along with his grandchildren, would experience time in reverse himself in COMIC: Time in Reverse.

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Short Trips short stories

BBC Books

Short Trips	Model Train Set • Old Flames • War Crimes • The Last Days • Stop the Pigeon • Freedom • Glass • Mondas Passing • There are Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden • Mother's Little Helper • The Parliament of Rats • Rights • Wish You Were Here • Ace of Hearts • The People's Temple

More Short Trips	Totem • Scientific Adviser • Missing, Part One: Business as Usual • Moon Graffiti • One Bad Apple • 64 Carlysle Street • The Eternity Contract • The Sow in Rut • Special Weapons • Honest Living • Dead Time • Romans Cutaway • Return of the Spiders • Hot Ice • uPVC • Good Companions • Missing, Part Two: Message in a Bottle • Femme Fatale

Short Trips and Side Steps	The Longest Story in the World • A Town Called Eternity • The Not-So-Sinister Sponge • Nothing at the End of the Lane • Countdown to TV Action • The Queen of Eros • The Android Maker of Calderon IV • Revenants • Please Shut the Gate • Turnabout is Fair Play • Do You Love Anyone Enough? • Dr Who and the House on Oldark Moor • Gone Too Soon • Reunion • Planet of the Bunnoids • Monsters • Better Watch Out, Better Take Care • Face Value • Storm in a Tikka • Playing with Toys • Vrs

Big Finish Productions

Zodiac	The True and Indisputable Facts in the Matter of the Ram's Skull • Growing Higher • Twin Piques • Still Lives • Constant Companion • Virgin Lands • The Switching • Jealous, Possessive • Five Card Draw • I Was a Monster!!! • The Invertebrates of Doom • The Stabber • Introduction and links

Companions	The Tip of the Mind • The Splintered Gate • The Man from DOCTO(R) • Apocrypha Bipedium • A Boy's Tale • Kept Safe and Sound • The Lying Old Witch in the Wardrobe • Hearts of Stone • Distance • Qualia • Curriculum Vitae • Notre Dame du Temps • The Little Drummer Boy • Hidden Talent • The Canvey Angels • Balloon Debate • A Long Night

A Universe of Terrors	The Exiles • Mire and Clay • Ash • Face-Painter • Losing Track of Time • The Discourse of Flies • The Fear • Mauritz • The Comet's Tail • Long Term • Soul Mate • Whiskey and Water • The Death of Me • This is My Life • Gazing Void

The Muses	Introduction • Teach Yourself Ballroom Dancing • The Brain of Socrates • Mordieu • An Overture Too Early • Hymn of the City • Confabula • The Astronomer's Apprentice • Katarina in the Underworld • The Glass Princess

Steel Skies	Corridors of Power • A Good Life • Reversal of Fortune • Monitor • Dust • Light at the End of the Tunnel • No Exit • House • Deep Stretch • Inmate 280 • Doing Time • The Ruins of Heaven • Cold War • O, Darkness • Greenaway • Eternity

Past Tense	The Immortals • Far from Home • All Done with Mirrors • CHAOS • Ante Bellum • The Thief of Sherwood • Come Friendly Bombs... • Graham Dilley Saves the World • Bide-a-Wee • Mortlake • White Man's Burden • Of the Mermaid and Jupiter • The Man Who Wouldn't Give Up • One Small Step... • To Kill a Nandi Bear • Fixing a Hole • That Time I Nearly Destroyed the World Whilst Looking for a Dress

Life Science	Syntax • Primitives • The Northern Heights • Observation • Mortal Thoughts • Lant Land • A Star is Reborn • The Southwell Park Mermaid • The Destroyers • The Reproductive Cycle • Jonah • Scribbles in Chalk • The End • The Age of Ambition • Echo • A Rose by Any Other Name

Repercussions	The Time Lord's Story • The Ghost's Story • The Rag & Bone Man's Story • The Seismologist's Story • The Dead Man's Story • The Inquisitor's Story • The Gangster's Story • The Bushranger's Story • The Schoolboy's Story • The Juror's Story • The Farmer's Story • The Republican's Story • The Assassin's Story • The Diplomat's Story • The Steward's Story • The Tramp's Story • Repercussions...

Monsters	Best Seller • From Eternity • Last Rites • The Touch of the Nurazh • Flashpoint • These Things Take Time • Categorical Imperative • Trapped! • Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life • Screamager • The Colour of Monsters

2040	The Nuclear Option • Separation • Thinking Warrior • Observer Effect • Artificial Intelligence • Daisy Chain • Sustainable Energy • Culture War • The Baron Wastes • /Carpenter/Butterfly/Baronet • Outsourcing • Anteus • The Last Emperor • The Ethereal

A Christmas Treasury	Last Christmas • UNIT Christmas Parties: First Christmas • In the TARDIS: Christmas Day • Water's Edge • A Yuletide Tail • Spookasem • Christmas Special • Never Seen Cairo • The Man Who (Nearly) Killed Christmas • Last Minute Shopping • Every Day • The Eight Doctors of Christmas • The Little Things • UNIT Christmas Parties: Christmas Truce • The Clanging Chimes of Doom • Perfect Present • Present Tense • Goodwill Toward Men • It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow • All Our Christmases • Lily • ...Be Forgot • The Feast of Seven... Eight (and Nine) • UNIT Christmas Parties: Ships That Pass • Evergreen

Seven Deadly Sins	The Duke's Folly • That Which Went Away • Angel • Suitors, Inc. • The 57th • Telling Tales • Too Rich for My Blood • Seven Deadly Sins

A Day in the Life	After Midnight • Sold Out • Undercurrents • The Five O'Clock Shadow • The Sooner the Better • Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast • The Heroine, the Hero and the Megalomaniac • Waiting for Jeremy • A Life in the Day • Morphology • Making History • One Wednesday Afternoon • How You Get There • The Last Broadcast • The Terror of the Darkness • Visiting Hours • Before Midnight

The Solar System	Mercury • Venus • Earth • Mars • Jupiter • Saturn • Uranus • Neptune • Pluto • Sedna

The History of Christmas	The Lampblack Wars • Home Fires • The Feast • Rome • Set in Stone • The Thousand Years of Christmas • Presence • Danse Macabre • The Church of Saint Sebastian • The Prodigal Sun • Be Good for Goodness's Sake • Ode to Joy • Nobody's Gift • The Innocents • Comforts of Home • Christmas on the Moon • The Anchorite's Echo • The Revolutionaries • The Gift • Callahuanca • Not in My Back Yard • She Won't Be Home • Saint Nicholas's Bones • The Long Midwinter

Farewells	The Mother Road • Father Figure • The Bad Guy • Separation Day • The Very Last Picture Show • Into the Silent Land • Wake • The Velvet Dark • Life After Queth • Black and White • Curtain Call • Utopia • The Wickerwork Man • The Three Paths

The Centenarian	Prologue • Echoes • Direct Action • Dream Devils • Falling from Xi'an • Log 384 • The Church of Football • Incongruous Details • Ancient Whispers • First Born • Dear John • Checkpoint • Childhood Living • The Lost • Old Boys • Testament • Forgotten

Time Signature	An Overture Too Early • The Ruins of Time • Gone Fishing • The Avant Guardian • Second Contact • Resonance • Walkin' City Blues • The Hunting of the Slook • The Earwig Archipelago • DS Al Fine • Certificate of Destruction

Dalek Empire	Kalendorf • Natalie's Diary • Alby • Private Investigations • Suz • The Best Joke I Ever Told • Hide and Seek • The Eighth Wonder of the World • Mutually Assured Survival • Museum Peace

Destination Prague	Midnight in the Café of the Black Madonna • Room for Improvement • Life from Lifelessness • The Long Step Backward • Strange Attractor • Gold and Black Ooze • The Dogs of War • Sunday Afternoon, AD 848,988 • Nanomorphosis • Spoilsport • War in a Time of Peace • The End of Now • Suspension and Disbelief • Leap Second • Lady of the Snows • The Time Eater • Fable Fusion • Men of the Earth • Across Silent Seas • The Dragons of Prague • Omegamorphosis

Snapshots	Golem • Indian Summer • All of Beyond • The Eyes Have It • The Misadventure of Mark Thorne • Attachments • There's Something About Mary • My Hero • Plight of the Monkrah • Remain in Light • In Case of Emergencies • Puppeteer • Osskah • Piecemeal • The Report • You Had Me at Verify User Name and Password • She Knew • The Glarn Strategy • Salva Mea • The Sorrows of Vienna • Fanboys

The Ghosts of Christmas	Faithful Friends: Part One • But Once a Year • For the Man Who Has Everything • Tell Me You Love Me • The Cutty Wren • Do You Dream in Colour? • The Nobility of Faith • 24 Crawford Street • The Sommerton Fetch • Faithful Friends: Part Two • Dear Great Uncle Peter • Do You Believe in the Krampus? • They Fell • The Christmas Presence • Snowman in Manhattan • The Crackers • Jigsaw • Dr Cadabra • Far Away in a Manger • All Snug in Their Beds • Decorative Purposes • The Stars Our Contamination • Keeping It Real • Christmas Every Day? • Faithful Friends: Part Three

Defining Patterns	Machine Time • The Time and Tide • Losing the Audience • One Card for the Curious • Séance, or Smoking is Highly Addictive, Don't Start • The Celestial Harmony Engine • Mutiny • Numb • Closing the Account • The Great Escapes • Loose Change • Lepidoptery for Beginners • One Step Forward, Two Steps Back • Homework • The Devil Like a Bear • Stanley • Twilight's End • The Book of My Life • Defining Patterns

The Quality of Leadership	From Little Acorns • One Fateful Knight • The Slave War • Goths and Robbers • Good Queen, Bad Queen, I Queen, You Queen • The Price of Conviction • God Send Me Well to Keep • Peaceable Kingdom • Rock Star • On a Pedestal • Clean-up on Aisle Two • The Spindle of Necessity • Epilogue

Transmissions	Doctor Who and the Adaptation of Death • Policy to Invade • Only Connect • Gudok • Generation Gap • Lonely • Blue Road Dance • Tweaker • Link • Driftwood • Methuselah • Nettles • Larkspur • See No Evil • iNtRUsioNs • Breadcrumbs • Transmission Ends

How the Doctor Changed My Life	Homework • Change Management • Curiosity • Potential • Second Chances • Child's Play • Relativity • Outstanding Balance • The Last Thing You Ever See • The Shopping Trolleys of Doom • The Final Star • The Man on the Phone • The Monster in the Wardrobe • Suns and Mothers • Taking the Cure • Those Left Behind • Evitability • £436 • Time Shear • Running on Empty • Swamp of Horrors (1957) - Viewing Notes • Insider Dealing • The Andrew Invasion • Stolen Days • Lares Domestici

Christmas Around the World	Planet of the Elves • Exclave • A Visit from Saint Nicholas • Instead of You • Christmas Every Day • Mirth, or Walking Spirits • Do You Smell Carrots? • The Doctor's Cross Word • Dateline to Deadline • Autaia Pipipi Pia • No Room • Interesting Times • Revellers of Doom • Lost and Founded • The Best of Days • Conscription • Christmas in Toronto • Companion • Illumination • White on White

Indefinable Magic	Phoenix • The Power Supply • Favourite Star • Hiccup in Time • Shamans • The Fall of the Druids • Priceless Junk • Have You Tried Turning It Off and Then Back On Again? • The Reign Makers • Pass It On • The Science of Magic • Hello Goodbye • Trial by Fire • Death Sentences • Once upon a Time Machine • Mardi Gras Massacre • Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Re:Collections	I Was a Monster!!! • Apocrypha Bipedium • Face-Painter • The Glass Princess • The Ruins of Heaven • The Thief of Sherwood • The Age of Ambition • The Dead Man's Story • Flashpoint • Thinking Warrior • All Our Christmases • Suitors, Inc. • How You Get There • Venus • The Lampblack Wars • Life After Queth • Checkpoint • The Avant Guardian • Museum Peace • Midnight in the Café of the Black Madonna • The Glarn Strategy • Dear Great Uncle Peter • Losing the Audience • The Spindle of Necessity • Lonely • Lares Domestici • Lost and Founded • The Fall of the Druids

Retrieved from "https://tardis.wiki/w/index.php?title=From_Eternity_(short_story)&oldid=3710041"

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{title dab away}}
 {{real world}}
-{{TitleShortStory}}
+{{Infobox Story SMW
-{{Infobox Short Story|
+|range                  = Short Trips (series)
-name = From Eternity|
+|series in range        = Short Trips: Monsters
-series=[[Short Trips (series)#In print|ST short stories]]|
+|series number in range = 9
-doctor="[[The Doctor (From Eternity)]]"|
+|number in series       = 2
-companions = None|
+|doctor = The Doctor (From Eternity){{!}}The Doctor
-year=|
+|enemy=[[The Entity (From Eternity)|The Entity]]
-writer=[[Jim Mortimore]]|
+|Setting = [[Gallifrey]]
-anthology=''[[Short Trips: Monsters]]''|
+|writer=Jim Mortimore
-prev=Best Seller (short story)|
+|release date= 30 September 2004
-next=Last Rites (short story)|
+|anthology = Short Trips: Monsters
-|}}
+|series=[[Short Trips (series)#In print|''Short Trips'' short stories]]
+|prev = Best Seller (short story)
+|next=Last Rites (short story)
+}}
 '''''From Eternity''''' was the second short story in the [[Short Trips (series)|Short Trips]] anthology ''[[Short Trips: Monsters]]''. It was written by [[Jim Mortimore]]. It featured an [[The Doctor (From Eternity)|unspecified Doctor]].
 == Summary ==
-On behalf of the Time Lords, the Doctor interrogates a being responsible for deaths beyond counting. The entity believes itself to have been the first intelligence born into the Universe, and it spent aeons of darkness alone until it saw the first speck of physical matter come into existence. As further aeons passed, it saw the first stars blossom, and eventually it made contact with an intelligent species, only to see the species devolve into savagery, gradually becoming less sentient until all that was left was primordial ooze. When the same happened to the next Minds that the entity encountered, it concluded that this bizarre infection was built into the nature of the Universe, and, fearing that it would be alone for all of eternity, it tried to warn species of the danger they faced. When they failed to respond to the threat, the desperate entity tried to force them to do so by presenting them more immediate dangers. The first species it destroyed was the Iarcho, and many more followed until it finally learned the truth from the Time Lords: it perceives Time backwards, and has been witnessing evolution and progress in reverse. Unable to correct its past (or rather future) mistakes, the entity accepts that it has performed monstrous acts for which it can never atone, and accepts that it will spend the rest of its long life alone until it dies at the beginning of the Universe. But when this finally occurs, the entity discovers that this Universe is just one of many, separated by dimensional membranes that occasionally collide and interact, creating new Universes and new Minds whenever they touch. The entity is at peace, knowing that its long periods of loneliness are merely a phase that will be interspersed with moments of brief and intimate contact with other Minds.
+The Doctor is interviewing an [[The Entity (From Eternity)|entity]] who has committed terrible crimes, the [[Time Lord]]s are aware of the entity, and its ultimate fate is in the balance.
+The entity explains that, in its first experience with intelligent life, they were unable to establish contact, and the life eventually devolved into a primitive state, later followed by their sun's implosion.
+When the entity next encountered intelligent life, the entity was able to establish contact, but once again the civilisation decayed and the sun imploded. It concluded that some kind of infection was at work; that of war.
+The entity next contacted the [[Iarcho]]. It tried to warn them of the infection, of war, but they didn't take notice. It killed several of them as a warning, but still their society decayed; the entity destroyed their sun.
+At this point the entity realised that for it [[time]] moved in reverse to the rest of the [[universe]]. What it saw as de-evolution was actually evolution.
+It admits its guilt to the Doctor and hopes for redemption.
+Time for the entity eventually progresses to the beginning of the universe, which was its end. Instead of nothingness, however, it experiences a new universe.
 == Characters ==
@@ Line 20: / Line 37: @@
 * [[The Entity (From Eternity)|The Entity]]
-== References ==
+== Worldbuilding ==
-''to be added''
+*The Entity asks the Doctor to define several words including [[parent]]s, [[promise]] and [[love]].
+*The Entity doesn't know how old it is.
+*The Entity states that it's impossible for the [[Time Lord]]s to put it under an compulsion or restraint.
+*The Entity doesn't [[rest]].
 == Notes ==
-* The Doctor, in an unspecified incarnation, is working with the [[Time Lord]]s as they interview a creature that goes through time backwards. This is either the [[First Doctor]] (before the events of ''[[An Unearthly Child]]''), the [[Second Doctor]] (following the events of ''[[The War Games]]'') or a future incarnation of the Doctor back on Gallifrey.
+* The Doctor's incarnation is not clearly specified in this story. The only clues given are the Entity's description of the Doctor: "harshly, angular face" and "thumb-tucked arrogance".
+* A version of the story was self-published by the author in the anthologies ''The Book of Shadows ''and ''The Sun in the Bone House''.
+*This story is presented entirely from the Entity's point of view.
 == Continuity ==
-* The Doctor would later meet another entity which experiences time in reverse in [[COMIC]]: ''[[Room with a Deja View]]''. The Doctor, along with his grandchildren, would experience time in reverse himself in [[COMIC]]: ''[[Time in Reverse]]''.
+* The Doctor would later meet another entity which experiences time in reverse in [[COMIC]]: ''[[Room with a Deja View (comic story)|Room with a Deja View]]''. The Doctor, along with his grandchildren, would experience time in reverse himself in [[COMIC]]: ''[[Time in Reverse (comic story)|Time in Reverse]]''.
-* ''From Eternity'' occurs before [[PROSE]]: ''[[Lungbarrow]]'' (flashback).
-* ''From Eternity'' (not counting flashbacks) occurs before [[PROSE]]: ''[[The Longest Story in the World (short story)|The Longest Story in the World]]''.
 == External links ==
 ''to be added''
+{{ST prose}}
+{{TitleSort}}
-{{prose stub}}
-{{TitleSort}}
-[[Category:Doctor Who short stories]]
 [[Category:Stories with unknown or disputed Doctors]]
-[[Category:Stories released in 2004]]
+[[Category:Short Trips: Monsters short stories]]
-[[Category:ST short stories]]

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From Eternity (short story): Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 21:22, 13 February 2024

Summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

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