He's Behind You (short story)
He's Behind You was the first short story published in The Wintertime Paradox.
Summary
to be added
Plot
It has only been a few weeks for Rose Tyler since the Battle of the Game Station. Only a few weeks since the Ninth Doctor regenerated into the Tenth, a man Rose is still getting used to. As the two discuss Rose's experiences, or lack thereof, in her primary school Christmas play, the Doctor decides to take Rose to Masque Magestrix to see The Saga of the Time Lords, an inaccurate retelling of Time Lord history, particularly the claim that the saga is unfinished. Though the silly hats are accurate.
When the Doctor uses his psychic paper to get them in however, the paper indicates Rose as the galaxy's pre-eminent expert on Gallifreyan culture (and lupine mortality). Offered a backstage tour, the two are given teleportation locks. Before the Doctor can finish explaining what they are, Rose is teleported away into a room full of Dalek props where she is greeted by Shara Betomax.
Throughout the Masque Magestrix, a message is conveyed. The correct audience has been detected.
As Rose and Shara have tea, the latter's assistant, Gabadine Tho, has a violent reaction to the term "Time Lord" revealing herself to be an Auton. Without wasting a moment, Rose and Shara flee for their lives, assaulted by the play's deafening opening score, into a green room.
As Rose explains the Autons to Shara, her mind flashes back to the mishap with the psychic paper, realising that they've stumbled into a trap for Time Lords. Using Shara's knowledge of the playhouse's layout, the two try to make their way for the teleportation controls but are barred by Autons at every point before the Doctor teleports in. After being told what's happening, the Doctor realises that the Autons have been undercover for so long that acting out the script is now part of the plastic. It's time to improvise.
Dressed in High Gallifreyan robes, Rose is ushered onto the stage, quickly getting Remiere Dupont's attention whose plastic morphs into a combat configuration. Following the Doctor's notes, Rose speaks of the Time Lords, even adding in some of the Ninth Doctor's earlier disparaging comments about his race's arrogance. And finally, how the Time Lords fell.
As the Autons melt, the Doctor and Rose take their leave, even if the Doctor is pretty sure that Shara is an Auton, Rose assuring the Doctor that as long as he's still around, the saga of the Time Lords is still being written. Taking her hand, the Doctor disagrees. The saga is still being written but by both of them.
After
In the ruins of the theatre, the Girl with the golden mask and the Boy with the silver mask regard the scene and how chaotic Time Lords can be. Though the Boy believes the Time Lords will be their own end, the Girl believes she can do it faster.
Characters
"After"
References
The Doctor
- The Doctor writes fan fiction, which he compares The Saga of the Time Lords to.
- In his youth, the Doctor played a female version of Omega in a school play.
Species
- Draconians and Judoon are in the audience.
Notes
to be added
Continuity
- Rose recalls the battle against the Dalek Emperor, (TV: The Parting of the Ways) whose true conclusion the Doctor eventually told her. (TV: Doomsday)
- "Brother Braxiatel" is a character in The Saga of the Time Lords. (PROSE: Theatre of War, AUDIO: Zagreus, et al.)
- Rose recalls her prior encounter with the Autons and how they need the original in close proximity to create a duplicate. (TV: Rose)
- The Eleventh Doctor would later encounter Autons so perfect that they believed their own cover story. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)
- Time Lord society endured for ten million years before the Last Great Time War. (TV: The Ultimate Foe)
- The Doctor and Rose believe that the Time Lords are extinct, (TV: Dalek) while the Boy and the Girl know that they still live. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
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