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Goths and Robbers was the fourth short story in the Short Trips anthology Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership. It was written by Diane Duane. It featured the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan Jovanka.
Summary
The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan land in Ravenna, Italy and are brought before Flavius Theodoric. Instead of the usual imprisonment, however, Theodoric welcomes them as friends. They learn that he has met them before, though it hasn't yet happened for them.
The Doctor and his friends are appalled that Theodoric has killed Odoacer, the king of Italy, though Theodoric felt it was necessary.
The Doctor and his companions leave in the TARDIS to meet a younger Theodoric. They encounter him when he is a young boy named Rithros, who is a hostage of the emperor of Constantinople. They help him find his missing rabbit, but then they are captured when the emperor's daughter, Ariadne, accuses them of stealing the Crown of Byzantium. They are imprisoned, but Rithros informs them that Ariadne's son, Prince Leo, stole the crown to put the blame on Rithros.
Rithros helps them get to the TARDIS, and they retrieve the crown from its hiding place and put it in Leo's room. Before they leave Rithros, Tegan tries to convince him not to do anything in anger, hoping that when they go back to Theodoric, he won't have murdered Odoacer.
However, when they arrive back in Ravenna, Odoacer is still dead. Theodoric explains that if he hadn't killed Odoacer, Odoacer would have killed him.
Characters
- Fifth Doctor
- Nyssa
- Tegan Jovanka
- Sergeant
- Odoacer
- Flavius Theodoric
- Princess Ariadne
- Prince Leo
- Guard-leader
Worldbuilding
- Tegan finds a jar of Rassilon's Universal Solvent.
- Theodoric serves bread, beans and chicken.
- Nyssa calls Tegan the High Queen of Brisbane.
Notes
- Duane included a mention of Belgravia, a deliberate reference to her prior short story A Dinner in Belgravia, published in the charity anthology The Cat Who Walked Through Time.
- This story is a "pure historical" featuring no science fiction elements apart from the presence of the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and the TARDIS.
Continuity
- Theodoric refers to Boudica's destruction of London, which the Doctor contributed to several times during his fourth incarnation. (PROSE: Good Queen, Bad Queen, I Queen, You Queen, AUDIO: The Wrath of the Iceni)