The Enfolded Time (short story)

The Enfolded Time
Main character(s):	The Brig
Main setting:	Brendon Public School, 1 January 1990
Key crew
Publisher:	Candy Jar Books
Writer:	Andy Frankham-Allen
Release details
Part of:	The HAVOC Files
Release date:	12 April 2016
The HAVOC Files
Next →	Legacies

The Enfolded Time was a story which was original to the anthology The HAVOC Files. It asserted that due to the Doctor's frequent visits to the 1970s and 1980s in his faulty TARDIS, the two decades were merged into one and 20 years of Earth history took place over the course of 10.

Summary

After a New Year's gathering in his home on the grounds of Brendon School, Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart is visited by a young man called Albert Wilson. Just as the two men are about to meet, Lethbridge-Stewart finds himself in an odd place where he encounters various versions of him, from the last twenty years. Including Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart of the Fifth Operational Corps and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart of UNIT. They attempt to explain to him what is happening, but he finds it hard to follow.

Eventually he meets the Accord, a transdimensional being who is trying to repair the damage caused to Earth, to strengthen it before a forthcoming war that is going to spread all across time and space. The Accord explains that, due to the Doctor's regular visits to Earth from 1969 to 1989 in his damaged TARDIS, the timeline of Earth was disrupted, enfolding time in on itself so that twenty years occurred over a ten-year period. Nobody on Earth was aware of the problem, as they were an intricate part of it. The Accord explains that once Lethbridge-Stewart is returned home, an awareness will occur across the globe. For a brief moment everybody will recognise the discontinuities of the last twenty years.

Lethbridge-Stewart is returned to Earth, and for a short time forgets where he has been. He meets Albert Wilson and learns that Albert is his son, a result of his tryst with Doris back in Brighton in 1968. It is only recently that Albert learned of Lethbridge-Stewart, and now that he has his own child on the way, Albert wishes Lethbridge-Stewart to be part of their lives.

A phone call from the United Nations reminds Lethbridge-Stewart of his recent trip to the domain of the Accord. Discrepancies have been discovered in various UNIT reports. Lethbridge-Stewart arranges a meeting to discuss the development of new dating protocols.

Characters

• Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart
• Major William Bishop
• Albert Wilson
• The Accord

References

to be added

Notes

• This is the first appearance of Albert Wilson, the illegitimate son of Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart and Doris Wilson, following their brief encounter in Brighton in 1968. He grew up believing George Wilson was his father until Doris revealed the truth shortly before the events of this story.

Continuity

• The Eighth Doctor had claimed responsibility to the UNIT dating controversy, blaming it on temporal slippage. (PROSE: Interference: The Hour of the Geek)
• George Wilson was first mentioned in PROSE: The Scales of Injustice.
• The Gwanzulum once tried to infiltrate the Home-Army Fifth Operational Corps. (COMIC: Planet of the Dead)
• In 1983, Alistair met his younger self from 1977 and had his memories of encountering aliens restored. (TV: Mawdryn Undead)
• Alistair mentions "all that business with the dinosaurs in 1974". (TV: Invasion of the Dinosaurs)
• Albert mentions that George Wilson had an older sister named Barbara who died in a car accident in 1951. (TV: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith)
• At the end of the story, a dating protocol is established for the enfolded time. The protocol was briefly mentioned in TV: The Day of the Doctor and is an attempt at resolving in-universe the longstanding UNIT dating controversy.