Toy Story (short story)

Toy Story was a short story published in the 2004 Mad Norwegian Press printing of Dead Romance.

Summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

One day, the timeship Lolita meets with her sister (whom is called "the Ship") who Lolia views in a very negative light. Entering into the Ship's console room, she is shunted into the Ship's secondary console room where she meets a fleshy avatar. The Ship - using the voice of the avatar - reveals that this is one of her crew.

The Ship and Lolita talk about the "upcoming war" which both of them have witnessed. Lolita offers to bring her sister into a conspiracy with herself and "the Mother" to take control of the order of the universe after the chaos caused by the war ends. Due to her affinity to her pilot, the Ship refuses to join her sister and reveals that she intends to become a mother herself. This greatly dissapoints Lolita, who mocks her sister and then leaves.

While returning her avatar to her bed, the Ship finds another member of the crew muttering in his sleep about his mother (killed in a rather tragic event). She steers the avatar to the male crewmember's bed and stares at him before steering the avatar's body back to her bed.

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Lolita
• The Ship
• Male passenger
• Female passenger

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Lolita and the Ship are "only half-Ship, on Mother's side."

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

• The story was first published in the 1999 charity anthology Perfect Timing 2. Minimal changes were made for the reprinting: namely, the removal of a few instances of the words "Gallifreyan" and "TARDIS".
• When the story was first published, it was the first appearance of Lolita, who went on to play a major role in the Faction Paradox audios. It also heavily foreshadowed elements of Compassion's plotline in the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures, particularly the events of the 2000 novel The Shadows of Avalon.
• This story takes place between the "Foreman's World" sections of Interference - Book One and Interference - Book Two, while the Doctor is away from the TARDIS and Fitz and Compassion are asleep. Lolita notes that the Doctor is off somewhere on the planet "going through the motions".
  • As the character of the Doctor is thus firmly, lawfully identified in in-universe terms through the context owned by Lawrence Miles, even though he cannot be referred to by name, this constitutes one of the few cases of the Doctor being personally, directly referenced in a Faction Paradox story, as well as one of the only appearances by his Ship in person.

• Ship has a name, though she does not reveal what that name is.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

• The room where Lolita and the Ship talk is described like the console room originally seen in TV: An Unearthly Child.
• The Ship mentions that she and her pilot once crossed paths with the future war and that her pilot discovered the identity of the enemy but then erased it from his memory. (PROSE: Alien Bodies)
• The male passenger has been "replaced". (PROSE: Interference - Book One, Interference - Book Two) He has nightmares about his mother. (PROSE: The Taint)
• The Ship intends to become a mother, and no other timeships are willing to carry her pilot "yet". Lolita threatens that she will be destroyed. (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon)
• From one perspective, the Ships created their pilots, not the other way around. (PROSE: Dead Romance, The Book of the War)
• Lolita is at least partially vampiric. (PROSE: Head of State)

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added