Girl Power! (short story)

Girl Power!
Main character(s):	Missy
Featuring:	Twelfth Doctor, Nardole
Main setting:	St Luke's University, The Vault
Key crew
Writer:	Jacqueline Rayner
Release details
Part of:	The Missy Chronicles
Release date:	22 February 2018
The Missy Chronicles
← Previous	The Liar, the Glitch and the War Zone
Next →	Alit in Underland

Girl Power! was the fifth short story published in The Missy Chronicles.

Summary

The world would be a better place with women in charge and Missy goes online with the past to prove it...

Plot

Missy is inside the Vault at St Luke's University, watched over by the Doctor and Nardole. Over the course of her time locked in the vault, she requests many items from the Doctor, through Nardole, including hairspray, books on the history of the Earth, and sweets. Nardole submits these requests to the Doctor to approve of or reject, before Nardole orders the items. Not everything goes to plan, as a tiger causes a stir on campus when it eats several chickens, which causes yet another stir when the chickens are replaced with robotic chickens by the delivery company.

After receiving Great Women in History by Dr E. Smythe, Missy begins requesting more outlandish things, such as mercury, a helmic regulator, and several smartphones. Nardole begins to suspect that Missy has plans and suggests that the Doctor stop approving her requests, but the Doctor shrugs off his concerns, wishing to see what Missy is planning.

Missy sends out several invitations to famous, historical women, like Marie Antoinette, Boudica, Messalina, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Florence Nightingale, through a space-time telegraph. Alarmed, Nardole again attempts to convince the Doctor that Missy's plans must be stopped, but the Doctor insists on letting things go on.

Missy soon drafts a mission statement, declaring that the women of the world should rise up against the men, and claim their rights as the leaders of the world. She sends this manifesto to many historical figures, much to Nardole's chagrin. She eventually creates a Spacebook profile and begins a group chat with several women throughout history, using the smartphones she sent them.

In the chat, Missy tries to convince several people to help her by rising up and rebelling against the men. The Doctor, using the username "Circe" arrives, and manages to foil Missy's plan, causing everyone else to leave the chat. He walks Missy through what he believes her evil plan was: she added several Tudor women to her group in an effort to prevent the reign of James I, who created the charter for St Luke's University, thus preventing her imprisonment in the Vault.

However, Missy lets slip that she simply wanted to help the women of the world, which stuns the Doctor. She tries to take it back, but the Doctor realises that she has changed somewhat. Missy then swears off ever trying to help the human race, and things go back to the way they were, with Missy beginning a new campaign, targeted at the rats of Earth.

Characters

• Missy
• Twelfth Doctor
• Nardole
• Grace O'Malley
• Lucretia Borgia
• Jane Austen
• Agatha Christie
• Boudica
• Messalina
• Catherine Parr
• Katherine Howard
• Anne of Cleves
• Jane Seymour
• Anne Boleyn
• Catherine of Aragon
• Marie Antoinette
• Eleanor of Aquitaine
• Calamity Jane
• Nell Gwyn
• Pope Joan

Worldbuilding

to be added

Notes

• The entire story takes place through electronic communication such as text messages, emails, social media accounts, and group messaging.

Born, Died, Died, Died, Died, Died, Died, Died, Died, Died, Died, Died, Died, Died, Took over some bloke's body, Died, Died, Died, Became a human, Stopped being a human, Died, Died, Became a woman, Ruled!Missy

• This story is notable for listing how many times the Master has died prior to becoming Missy. However, the list is unclear on several points, such as whether "Took over some bloke's body" is intended to refer to the theft of Tremas's body or Bruce's. Additionally, the list is made virtually useless for counting the number of the Master's actual incarnations because it does not list instances of the Master changing bodies without dying — such as regenerating as part of a disguise, or the numerous bodies stolen by the Master while in the form of the Deathworm Morphant, which changes did not usually involve the prior death of the previous host.

Continuity

• Under her other names on Spacebook, Missy includes Professor Thascales, (PROSE: The Nameless City, TV: The Time Monster) Colonel Masters, (TV: Terror of the Autons) Reverend Magister, (TV: The Dæmons) Sir Gilles Estram, (TV: The King's Demons) and Mister Saxon. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
• Under her life events on Spacebook, Missy posts that she "took over some bloke's body", (TV: The Keeper of Traken, Doctor Who) became human, (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm) and stopped being human. (TV: Utopia)
• The Doctor recalls when the Tremas Master attempted to prevent the signing of the Magna Carta. (TV: The King's Demons)
• Missy gets a pair of time tweezers, which make eyebrow hair grow backwards in time and can have a side effect of making one's past self grow a beard, explaining the Saxon Master's beard first seen in TV: World Enough and Time ^[+]Loading...["World Enough and Time (TV story)"].