The Library of Time (short story)

The Library of Time
Main character(s):	The Doctor’s TARDIS
Key crew
Writer:	Jonathan Morris
Release details
Printed in:	Doctor Who and the Library of Time
Release date:	4 February 2021

The Library of Time was a short story published in Doctor Who and the Library of Time. It was written by Jonathan Morris.

Plot

The TARDIS reflects on how she keeps track of all her adventures with the Doctor. She reveals she’s not just the Doctor’s oldest and most cherished companion, she’s also her librarian. After each trip, she likes to make a detailed record of the events by writing them down and adding them to her library, which the Doctor visits occasionally though she’s unaware of the books about her adventures.

The TARDIS reveals she uses books as they’re more reliable, though the records themselves are not entirely objective. She claims that the library is a great way to spend her spare time in the gaps between adventures. There is one problem though, which is that her library keeps getting bigger as the Doctor has even more adventures. Being dimensionally transcendental however, the TARDIS will never run out of room.

Characters

• The Doctor’s TARDIS

References

• The TARDIS has a telepathic link to the Doctor and her friends,
• The TARDIS mentions her architectural reconfiguration system.

Notes

• This story served as the introduction to Doctor Who and the Library of Time.
  • By being released as an introduction to a number of previews from the Target novelisation range, the implication is that the Target novelisations exist in-universe, and were written by the TARDIS, as her first-hand account of the Doctor's adventures.
• The 2019 short story Citation Needed previously revealed that the TARDIS library's Encyclopedia Gallifreya is sentient and works to describe the Doctor's ongoing adventures, for as long as they've been travelling. As in this story, the Doctor never pays them any notice. The Encyclopedia Gallifreya hopes more than anything for the Doctor to read them again.
• Relatedly, the 2021 audio story Bessie Come Home would later reveal that another of the Doctor's vehicles, Bessie, is also sentient. Like the TARDIS in The Library of Time, this would be narrated by Bessie. In much the same way, it would focus on her own journey, rather than the Doctor's perspective.

Continuity

• The TARDIS recalls the Doctor falling into the swimming pool whilst in the library. (TV: The Eleventh Hour)