Deep and Dreamless Sleep (short story)
Plot
The Doctor attempts to visit London at Christmas 2006 to see the Christmas Lights. However the TARDIS lands in the bedroom of a boy called Daniel Francis Thompson. Daniel runs into the TARDIS, saying that he wants to see Christmas. He starts pressing buttons, taking both of them into time and Space.
They arrive in Ypres in Belgium at Christmas 1914. They see the German and British armies playing football. Ninety minutes later at the end of the match the two of them return to the TARDIS and Daniel again says that he wants to see Christmas. The Doctor travels to many different times and places and gets lots of people to come to a party for Daniel. The Doctor notices that the guests seem to have difficulty focusing on him. However at the end of the party Daniel again runs to the console, saying that he wants to see Christmas. They arrive at Bethlehem and see the Nativity scene.
Returning to the TARDIS Daniel begins to fade away. However the Doctor, realising what is happening uses the TARDIS to follow Daniel to where he really is, the A&E department of St Nicholas’s Hospital. As the Doctor watches, Daniel wakes up to see his parents and the Doctor knows he will survive.
Characters
- The Doctor
- Daniel Francis Thompson
- Michael (Thompson?)
- Ann (Thompson?)
- Stan Laurel
- Oliver Hardy
- The Chuckle Brothers
- Sonia
References
- Real-life Hollywood comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy make a cameo appearance.
Notes
- The Doctor mentions that he has fought evil versions of Santa a couple of times, however at the time this was published (24th December 2006) they had only been seen once; their second appearance in The Runaway Bride was published the next day.
- Paul Cornell later adapted one of his Virgin New Adventures novels into the episodes Human Nature and The Family of Blood, both of which also have a World War I motif.
Continuity
- The Doctor is travelling alone, most likely placing this in the gap between The Runaway Bride and Smith and Jones, based on when it was written and published, though it could just as easily take place during any later companionless interval or post-Journey's End.
- The story opens on Christmas Eve 2006, the same day as the events of The Christmas Invasion begin. Daniel's accident is said to have occurred on 24th December 2006 as well. This means there are actually two versions of the same incarnation of the Doctor in London simultaneously.
- The Doctor allows a number of individuals into the TARDIS to share Christmas with Daniel -- including Laurel & Hardy -- but erases their memories of the experience after he returns them to their proper time and place. This could be seen as an oblique reference to the Time Lords ability to erase memories (DW: The War Games), as well as foreshadowing the later fate of Donna Noble (DW: Journey's End).
- The Doctor had visited St. Nicholas Hospital six months prior to Daniel's hospitalization.
Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors
- London was in the midst of the Sycorax invasion during the timeframe of this story, yet no reference is made to this. Everyone is concentrating on saving Daniel's life.
- Since his newly-regenerated self is not far away, isn't the Doctor taking a chance going to London? The story opens with the Doctor indicating he know when he is, but not where he is. Clearly the visit to London was not intended; he presumably remembers where he was on this day, so as long as he stuck to the hospital, there was no issue.
