Summary
While the Doctor and Peri are in the TARDIS discussing 'what-if's' to do with collapsing time-streams, they are interupted by a voice of a being who claims to have "created the creator", a being who has had a guiding and protective interest over the Doctor that goes back to before he left Gallifrey. The 'being' claims to have made the Universe in a science lesson and placed a barrier around it to protect it from others of its kind (and itself). Halfway through its existance it would need to have its heart replaced and to this end he gave a Key into the charge of a Guardian of the Universe sealed inside. Unfortunately the Guardian split into two (Black and White) and were too busy fighting each other to complete their purpose, and so the being had choosen the Doctor who he had watched out for that he would be able to complete the task and renew the Universe's Heart. The key to the Heart had already been used once before, having been collected by the Doctor (who having once held the Key retains the power to open the lock of the heart). The White Guardian once before had been given a dud key that only lasted a few years and not the intended half-life of the Universe. The time had come for the Heart to be replaced. With the Doctors agreement the TARDIS doors open on a place of grey, where passing through the door, avoiding dark rooms with walls of sharp teeth, and dark fears -an illusion of foes fought (Daleks, Cybermen, Davros and a postmistress from Littlehampton), they find on a pedesstal in an empty room a brown parcel. The underneath reveals a small hatch which has a number of rusty cylinders in it with the letters E,V,E,R,Y,R,R,E,A,D and Y barely visible. The Doctor replacies the old batteries with new ones he has been given and states aloud that this knowledge alone is dangerous. The being hears him and agrees ...
Back in the TARDIS the Doctor is trying to read a book but is interupted by Peri who wants to ask him something about Time - but she's forgotten what it was.
Characters
- Sixth Doctor
- Peri
- White Guardian
- Black Guardian
- Unnamed Creator of the Universe and Guardians
References
- The origin behind the Black and White's is explained.
- The 'being's watchfulness over the Doctor explains amongst other things, the staser jam that allowed him to leave Gallifrey in the first place, survival in space when crossing the space between the Urbankan ship and the TARDIS and, finding the recorder in the TARDIS used to combat Omega.
- 'Ever-ready' is the well known name of a household battery.
Notes
- This short story was the runner-up in the Over 15 Category in a competition run by Doctor Who Magazine in 1986 and printed in DWM 114.
- Written by reader Ian Marchant (who failed to enclose his address), the story ran to nearly 3 pages and was illustrated with two illustrations by regular magazine artist John Ridgway.
Continuity
- The equally matched forces of the Black and White.
- This story occurs some time after the quest for the Key to Time.
- The Doctor retains some of the power from having previously held the fully assembled Key to Time.
- The Sixth Doctor stil carries a cricket ball around in his pocket (a reference to the Fifth Doctor love of cricket).