Unnatural History (novel): Difference between revisions

In [[2002]], the [[Eighth Doctor]] comes to the apartment of dark-haired Sam, an alternate [[Sam Jones]] who never travelled with him, attempting to tell her about her life as blonde Sam. Sam brushes him off and goes to work, where she receives a call from her mother insisting that she come home and listen to what the Doctor is telling them. After work, Sam’s parents show her postcards and letters they’ve been receiving from blonde Sam for the past five years. She agrees to talk to the Doctor, who explains more about blonde Sam, and how she had recently fallen into a “dimensional anomaly” in [[San Francisco]] and been replaced by dark-haired Sam. Sam initially does not believe him, insisting that this is a prank, but when she runs she is threatened by [[Boy (Unnatural History)|a child wielding a knife]]. The Doctor tries to talk him down, but the boy stabs him. Sam takes the Doctor back to her apartment, attempts to treat his wound, and agrees to go with him to San Francisco.  

Meanwhile, [[Fitz Kreiner]] is in San Francisco, investigating various supernatural phenomena in the area. [[Eldin Sanchez]], who publishes [[Interesting Times]] (a paranormal zine), gives Fitz a few leads, including a woman named [[Kyra Skye]], who has been tracking new ley lines around the city.  

Sam and the Doctor fly to San Francisco. Fitz and the Doctor discuss the ongoing crisis and whether they can get back “their” Sam. Fitz suggests calling in [[UNIT]]; the Doctor says he already called [[Adrienne Kramer]] and was not able to secure her or UNIT’s help. The three go to the scar in reality, which the Doctor reveals to be a byproduct of [[Doctor Who (TV story)|his adventures on New Year’s Eve 1999]]. He has placed the [[TARDIS]] around the scar as a stopgap measure, but the TARDIS will be destroyed by the scar if they don’t find another way to seal or contain it in the next three days. He asks Sam to get closer and investigate herself. As she gets closer, she has flashbacks of her other self’s similar experience when she first visited the scar. She accuses the Doctor of trying to get her to fall into the scar to get blonde Sam back and attempts to run. She is stopped by soldiers in grey uniforms. She, the Doctor, and Fitz successfully fight them off, but Sam hits her head and falls unconscious as she is carried away from the scene by the Doctor.  

While they regroup at the hotel, Sam, Fitz, and the Doctor realise that the boy who stabbed the Doctor is the same boy Fitz has been using as a source on supernatural phenomena. The Doctor, desperate, sends a [[hypercube]] to the Time Lords for aid. Sam asks Fitz if her other self and the Doctor are “shagging,” and Fitz says he isn’t sure. The three go and find the boy, who reveals himself as a member of [[Faction Paradox]].  

Sam and the Doctor get dinner while Fitz goes to meet with Kyra. Kyra and Fitz perform a ritual at a ley line, which causes strong energy readings and weather patterns. The Doctor hallucinates purple objects floating in the air at dinner, which Sam is able to calm him down about. Sam makes multiple attempts to flirt with the Doctor, including giving him a back rub, but he ultimately rejects her. The Doctor suggests that he and his unstable [[biodata]] might have been the reason Sam changed, and that his subconscious longing for a companion is what made blonde Sam who she was.  

The Time Lords do not respond to the hypercube, leaving the Doctor, Fitz, and Sam scrambling. Fitz and Sam stake out the scar, watching the grey soldiers. The soldiers appear not to know exactly where the scar is, only the general location. Sam and Fitz lose track of the soldiers due to their ability to be as nondescript as possible. Sam offers Fitz a cigarette, which he declines, stating that with blonde Sam gone one of them must be the nice one. Sam then gets mugged by a unicorn.  

The information Fitz received was apparently a trap, and the three are kidnapped. All three are blindfolded while a mysterious figure with seemingly too many hands experiments on them, removing the Doctor's ability to see the color purple and adding tags to all three's nervous systems. They are released on the street, with no clue as to where they were taken. Fitz mentions the ley lines, to which the Doctor reacts with excitement. They go to the site of Kyra's ritual, where they find a strand of the Doctor's biodata visible in space, with more apparently spread all across the city. They use the strand of biodata to remove their tags.  

Griffin, the man who captured them, reads a children's alphabet book, admiring the simplicity of its "A is for Ant" categorizations. He is what the Doctor terms an "unnaturalist," a higher-dimensional being who studies and categorizes "lower" life forms by altering their biodata. He separates a chimera into a goat, lion, and dragon.  

The Doctor meets up with the pack of unicorns, who confirm that Griffin has been capturing the various supernatural creatures drawn to San Francisco by the scar. Fitz realises that Griffin is likely using the same network of contacts about supernatural phenomena that he is, and that he can no longer trust most of his sources.  

Fitz, Sam, and the Doctor go and talk to Kyra and confirm that she has talked to Griffin. They explain what he is doing, and she agrees to help them. She gives Griffin a fake location where she claims to have found more strands of the Doctor's biodata, and they agree to meet there the next day. Fitz and Sam talk about Fitz's [[Revolution Man (novel)|experiences in China]] and how blonde Sam would attempt to be more kind and understanding, which would irritate Fitz.  

The Doctor, Sam, Fitz, and Kyra prepare a higher-dimensional trap for Griffin at the agreed meeting place. Griffin only appears amused by this. He offers to "fix" the Doctor's biodata, giving him a single history. Kyra attempts to interfere, and Griffin immediately kills her and escapes, having never been confined by the trap in the first place.  

The Doctor drops Sam and Fitz back off at the hotel for their safety. Sam kisses Fitz, appreciative of him because he is human and understandable to her. They have sex, but the Wild Hunt runs through multiple times while they are together, changing the exact events of the encounter. Briefly, Sam becomes a version of herself with a much stronger heroin addiction who has not been allowed to leave the hotel room since arriving in San Francisco.  

The Doctor and Sam gather a group of impossible creatures and encourage them to combine their strength against the Henches looking for them. They then go to Joyce's lab, who has not quite finished the tool they need yet. Sam discusses with Joyce and then with the Doctor whether the Doctor is capable of settling down somewhere.  

Joyce gives them the stabilizing device, and they return to the scar. The device does not work as hoped; it will only pull the TARDIS out of the scar, not heal it altogether. Griffin arrives at the scar threatening to stabilize both the Doctor and Sam's biodata with vials he synthesized from the samples he took. The Doctor threatens Griffin with the stabilizer, which has the ability to seriously harm him. Sam, believing her vial is what caused blonde Sam to be created, smashes the vial.  

At the bay, the Doctor tries to use the TARDIS to hold back the kraken. They use Sam to ride the Wild Hunt back to the scar, where Griffin is waiting for them. The Doctor tells Sam to execute plan number eighteen, which she doesn't know. She runs into the scar, becoming blonde Sam again. She pushes Griffin and his cabinet into the scar, which contains and seals it.  

In an epilogue, Sam goes and settles what is left of dark-haired Sam's life. In the postcard she left for herself, she was told to leave with the Doctor, and so she does. She also was told that her other self loves Fitz, which she decides not to act on. The boy tells the Doctor that it was Faction Paradox that ensured Sam had two sets of biodata. San Francisco still has impossible creatures, and the Doctor and Sam remain strange and anomalous.