Apocrypha Bipedium (short story)
Apocrypha Bipedium was the fourth short story in the Short Trips anthology Short Trips: Companions. It was written by Ian Potter. It featured the Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard.
Summary
Vicki and Troilus are on the move. Having escaped from the fall of Troy, they and their people have been wandering in search of a place to settle.
The Doctor is trying to get Wilf back home. The TARDIS dematerialises, and he thinks they've arrived in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1572, but it turns out they've arrived in ancient Asia Minor.
A herdsman sees them arrive, and they tell him they are sea travellers. He takes them to his encampment where, the Doctor learns, Vicki and Troilus have stopped. He realises he has to keep Wilf away from Vicki. If Wilf learns who Vicki and Troilus are, he might be influenced in his later writing of the play Troilus and Cressida.
However, the herdsman has seen the TARDIS and recognises it. He tells Vicki, who thinks that this Doctor is a younger version of the Doctor she knew. She soon suspects that this Doctor is a robot, like the robot Doctor she had previously experienced. She and the rest of her people make plans.
The Doctor is making plans too. He wants Charley to get Wilf drunk so that he won't remember anything the next day.
As they are all enjoying the wine, Vicki's people attack. Vicki in particular attacks the Doctor, trying to find the wires controlling him.
They all soon realise their mistakes, and the Doctor explains everything. He then learns, to his embarrassment, that, although Shakespeare wrote the play Troilus and Cressida, it was Geoffrey Chaucer who came up with their story. Vicki also tells the Doctor that, in Shakespeare's play, Cressida ends up with Diomede. The Doctor is then forced to admit he never read the play.
The TARDIS crew departs, with hopefully no harm done, and Troilus, Cressida and their people are on their way to ancient Britain, on the advice of Wilf, to settle there.
Characters
References
- The Doctor mentions Zodin.
- Flavia has written a book on the Doctor's exploits for Time Lord children.
- Geoffrey Chaucer invented the story of Troilus and Cressida.
- The Doctor mentions Walter Raleigh as one of the things Wilf is not allowed to talk about when he returns home.
- The Doctor has written a book under the name of Ka Faraq Gatri.
- The Doctor has never read the play Troilus and Cressida.
Notes
- This story is told through excerpts from several supposed source documents, including Vicki's diary, Charley's diary and a book for Time Lord children written by Flavia.
- This story was reprinted in Short Trips: Re:Collections.
Continuity
- Vicki writes in her diary about Agamemnon, Menelaus, Helen and Aeneas. (TV: The Myth Makers)
- Vicki also mentions Dido (TV: The Rescue) and the Monk. (TV: The Time Meddler)
- The Doctor worries about Vicki seeing Wilf because she had seen him on the TARDIS' Time-Space Visualiser. (TV: The Chase)
- Vicki reminds the Doctor that "Diomede" was the name Steven Taylor used in Troy. (TV: The Myth Makers)
