Deep and Dreamless Sleep (short story)

Deep and Dreamless Sleep
Doctor:	Tenth Doctor
Main setting:	24 and 25 December, various years
Key crew
Writer:	Paul Cornell
Release details
Printed in:	The Sunday Times
Release date:	24 December 2006

Deep and Dreamless Sleep was a Christmas-themed Tenth Doctor short story by Paul Cornell. It was published in The Sunday Times on Christmas Eve 2006. Because it was set on the same day it was published, its events are partially concurrent with The Christmas Invasion.

Plot

The Doctor attempts to see central London's Christmas lights on Christmas Eve, 2006. However the TARDIS lands in the bedroom of a boy called Daniel Francis Thompson. Daniel runs into the TARDIS, saying that he wants to see Christmas. He starts pressing buttons, taking both of them into time and Space.

They arrive in Ypres in Belgium at Christmas 1914. They see the German and British armies playing football. Ninety minutes later, at the end of the match, they return to the TARDIS and Daniel again says that he wants to see Christmas. The Doctor travels to many different times and places and gets lots of people to come to a party for Daniel. The Doctor notices that the guests seem to have difficulty focusing on him. At the end of the party Daniel again runs to the console, saying that he wants to see Christmas. They arrive at Bethlehem and see the Nativity scene.

Returning to the TARDIS Daniel begins to fade away. The Doctor, realising what is happening, uses the TARDIS to follow Daniel to where he really is, the A&E department of St. Nicholas's Hospital. As the Doctor watches, Daniel wakes up to see his parents and the Doctor knows he will survive.

Characters

• Tenth Doctor
• Daniel Francis Thompson
• Michael
• Ann
• Stan Laurel
• Oliver Hardy
• The Chuckle Brothers
• Sonia

Worldbuilding

to be added

Notes

• Paul Cornell also explores the World War I era in the television stories Human Nature and The Family of Blood.
• The story opens on Christmas Eve 2006, the same day as the events of The Christmas Invasion begin. Daniel's accident is said to have occurred on 24 December 2006 as well. This means there are actually two versions of the same incarnation of the Doctor in London simultaneously.
• The title derives from the lyrics of the Christmas carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem". Likewise, The Silent Stars Go By is also named after words coming from the same line ("Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by"). Cornell also used another lyric from the same verse when titling the short story The Hopes and Fears of All the Years.

Continuity

• The Ninth Doctor is the referee for the 1914 football game in COMIC: The Forgotten.

• The First and Twelfth Doctor's are also at the Ypres Christmas truce prior to their Regenerations. (TV: Twice Upon a Time)

External links

• Deep and Dreamless Sleep at the Doctor Who Reference Guide