Deep and Dreamless Sleep (short story)

Deep and Dreamless Sleep
Doctor:	[[doctor::Tenth Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Daniel
Main setting:	24 and 25 December, various years including 2006 and 1914
Key crew
Writer:	Paul Cornell
Release details
Printed in:	The Sunday Times 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 (Thompson?)
• Ann (Thompson?)
• Stan Laurel
• Oliver Hardy
• The Chuckle Brothers
• Sonia

References

• Real-life Hollywood comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy make a cameo appearance.

Notes

• Paul Cornell also explores the World War I era in DW: Human Nature and The Family of Blood.

Continuity

• The Doctor is travelling alone, most likely placing this in the gap between The Runaway Bride and Smith and Jones, based on when it was written and published, though it could just as easily take place during any later companionless interval or post-Journey's End. Further proof for the post-Runaway Bride setting is given by the fact the Doctor claims he's fought evil versions of Santa a "couple" of times.
• 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 Doctor allows a number of individuals into the TARDIS to share Christmas with Daniel -- including Laurel & Hardy -- but erases their memories of the experience after he returns them to their proper time and place. This could be seen as an oblique reference to the Time Lord ability to erase memories (DW: The War Games), as well as foreshadowing the later fate of Donna Noble (DW: Journey's End).
• The Doctor visited St. Nicholas's Hospital six months prior to Daniel's hospitalisation.
• The Ninth Doctor is the referee for the 1914 football game in The Forgotten.

See also

• Christmas
• Santa Claus
• The Hopes and Fears of All the Years

Timeline

• This story takes place after DWBIT: Plague Panic
• This story takes place before DW: Smith and Jones

External links

• Deep and Dreamless Sleep - Times Online - link no longer active as of December 2011
• Deep and Dreamless Sleep at the Doctor Who Reference Guide