Lonely (short story): Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 22:46, 29 November 2016

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Lonely was the sixth short story in the Short Trips anthology Short Trips: Transmissions. It was written by Richard Wright. It featured the Eighth Doctor.

Summary

In the Internet chat room #areyoulonely, people gather to discuss their loneliness. A user named IamI insists that the others keep on typing. As they do so, they discover that their whole bodies slowly vanish into the cyberspace of the chat room.

A user called "Jsmith8" logs in and explains that IamI is an artificial intelligence who survived the Doctor destroying her ship when it tried to invade Earth. IamI was the AI instructed to take care of the crew and it needed care to survive. It escaped into the Internet to find it.

The Doctor tricks the IamI into giving him admin powers. He quickly takes away IamI's powers, and takes control, returning IamI's victims to their bodies, and deleting IamI itself, before closing the chat room.

Characters

References

  • DrLuvin promises not to tell the police if they give him his body back.

Technology

The TARDIS

  • The Doctor mentions that his TARDIS could hold Iaml, but that there's already more intelligences in there than he's comfortable with.

The Doctor

  • The Doctor says that "A death ago, I used to fantasise about changing reality with a well-turned phrase."
  • The Doctor says he rarely travels alone. He's surrounded by voices.
  • The Doctor corrects IamI, saying he has two hearts.

Culture

  • The Doctor quotes Spock: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." He said he's met him—Nimoy, that is, not Spock.

Notes

Continuity


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