Essay Competition (short story)
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Essay Competition was the eighth short story exclusively published on the Who is Doctor Who? website on 8 May 2005[source needed] by the BBC webteam to coincide with the broadcast of Dalek and Father's Day.
Plot
Mickey writes on Who is Doctor Who? about how, now is he is known to not be a murderer, people around the estate are being helpful to him. Jackie, in particular, had been going through some of her old possessions whereupon she had found an old wedding video from the 1980s; upon his inspection of it, he discovers that Rose and the Ninth Doctor were visible in some shots. Unsure of what they were doing in their own past, he suspects that the Doctor may be meddling with how "history should be".
Onto another subject, Mickey reveals that the winner of last week's Geocomtex essay competition is fourteen-year-old Adam Mitchell, a "star" with computers.
Adam has a desire to meet aliens and to see the stars, to be in space looking down at Earth. He wants to known what life is like out there, to travel, and to learn from them; he doesn't believe aliens are evil, but just more advanced that humans. His father has arthritis, which despite humanity's science, is currently incurable and only able to be made to hurt less, but with an alien's understanding of metabolism and experience with wear and tear of bodies, would be able to cure it. With all it takes to travel beyond their planet, aliens would have much knowledge to impart to humanity.
Adam doesn't believe it would be cheating, just a short cut, and belives humanity could make a trade by sharing works, such as those by William Shakespeare. Even if they didn't want anything in return, Adam writes that — like file sharing — it can feel good to "show off" something you own by sharing it, knowing that you got there first.
Adam concludes, writing that that is why he wants to meet an alien. To learn from them, to travel with them, to "see what they see", and to be their best friend.
Characters
(In order of appearance)
- Mickey
- Suzie[nb 1]
- Sarah Clark[nb 1]
- Stuart Hoskins[nb 1]
- Rose Tyler[nb 1]
- Jackie
- Ninth Doctor
- Adam Mitchell
Referenced only
Worldbuilding
- The wedding video was filmed on 7 November. On frame has the timestamp of 15:25.
- Adam and his parents are from Nottingham.
- Mickey thinks that Adam has a "bright future" ahead of him.
- Adam wishes that Mickey hadn't have spoken to his mum, seemingly embarrassed.
- Adam thinks aliens would, presumably, have faster computers and better public transport.
- Adam's mum thinks that his dad has gout.
- Adam doesn't think that aliens are gods.
- Adam thinks aliens could control ageing and their appearance.
- This is a small disclaimer about the photographs on the site not necessarily being in the webmaster's copyright, although no infringement is intended.
- There is a small icon for Campaign for Real Aliens and the "website of the month" distinction from Conspiracy GOLD.
- There is an advertisement for GEOCOMTEX.
Notes
- Despite the real readers of the Who is Doctor Who? website being able to submit entries to the previous week's "competition", given it was clearly fiction — such as the "prize" being technology by a company that doesn't exist — the user entries presumably had no real chance of winning, with Adam's essay likely being planned from the beginning.
- The character of Adam's mum — Sandra Mitchell — is heavily implied in other DWU fiction to be the character of the same name from the BBC television series Children's Ward, in part due to the actor Judy Holt portraying both characters. This story is seemingly at odds with this as Adam is stated to be from Nottingham, not Manchester, the setting of Children's Ward and the hometown of Adam as depicted in The Time Traveller's Almanac and The Time Lord Letters.
- Additionally, the novelisation of Dalek depicts Adam's home town being Milton Keynes, at odds with both this short story and the implied shared universe with Children's Ward.
Continuity
- This story is a sequel to Dalek and Henry Van Statten, as well as being a sequel to Father's Day.
Gallery
Rose at the wedding.
The Doctor at the wedding.
External links
Footnotes
Notes
Sources
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