But Once a Year (short story)
But Once a Year was the second short story in the Short Trips anthology Short Trips: The Ghosts of Christmas. It was written by Colin Harvey. It featured the Seventh Doctor and Ace.
Summary
Wheelchair-bound David Merrison has come to dread the yuletide festive season, ever since a frightening, black-clad creature began abducting his brothers and sister from their London townhouse every Christmas.
Fearing that this year will be his turn to be taken, David investigates a strange noise in the middle of the night, and is surprised to encounter a strange man called the Doctor, and his friend, Ace. As midnight strikes the creature reappears, but instead of David, it captures Ace, stuffing her inside its sack before disappearing back up the chimney. Searching through the archaeological artefact collection of David’s grandfather, the Doctor finds an alien skull; he determines that artefact is still alive, and is feeding off David’s fear to give itself physical form.
When the Doctor smashes the skull, the ersatz creature is destroyed, and its victims are finally released from within its sack; as an overjoyed David is reunited with his siblings, Ace explains that they had been put to work in the alien’s spaceship, which was located in another dimension. The Doctor and Ace bid farewell, leaving the Merrisons to become a family once more.
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