There
was once a man. The most amazing man. A man who’s saved many civilizations and
improved so many lives. I imagine he’s
still out there somewhere, gallivanting around the universe with his
screwdriver. I met him once, a long time
ago, in the summer of 1963.
As
I stared with interest at the police box that stood in front of me, a young man
wearing a bow tie stepped out and walked towards me.
'Well,
don’t just stand there gawping at my blue box. This is the 1960s, isn’t it? You
must have seen plenty of them before.'
'I’ve
never seen any on this street, though.' I replied.
The
strange man took out a wallet and told me he was ‘PC John Smith’. Of course, I didn’t believe him for one
minute, although to be fair, his ID inside the wallet did seem to confirm
it. Then he asked me the strangest of
questions.
'Have
you seen a young brown haired woman anywhere? Has a craving for soufflés?'
'Soufflés?
No, I don’t think I have. Sorry.'
'Ah.
I’ll be off, then. Sorry to disturb you.'
He
walked towards the blue box and It was then that I heard the strange wheezing
noise. Fearing this man was in trouble, I ran inside after him and closed the
doors behind me.
'What
on Earth is this place?' I wondered out loud, as I looked around the strange
environment I had found myself in. It was moments before I noticed the young
man standing in front of me, grinning as if this was all perfectly normal. This
police box seemed to be bigger on the inside, with strange markings on some
round, twisting things above.
'This
is the TARDIS. Bigger on the inside and all that. Now, question is, why did you
follow me in here?'
'I
heard a strange noise. I thought you might be in trouble.'
'Ah.
Typical companion. Well, seeing as
you’re in here now, I may as well tell you who I am. I’m not PC John Smith. I’m
the Doctor. I’m from a species called Time Lords. I’m the last Time Lord. And
you are?”
'Oh,
I’m David. David Chesterton.'
'That’s
strange. Really strange. I had a companion with the surname Chesterton. Ian
Chesterton, to be precise. Are you related?'
'I’m
his brother. You know, Ian? He’s never told me about you. Are you close?'
'Erm,
I wouldn’t say close as such. It’s complicated. Probably best you don’t know.'
I
had already forgotten my surroundings intrigued that this man, somehow knew my
brother. He moved over to what appeared to be a control panel set within the
centre of the room and continued to adjust them while I continued with my
questioning. 'Complicated?'
The
Doctor’s face twisted into a strange, guilty expression. 'Well, let’s just say
I…borrowed him.'
'Borrowed
him? Doctor, what did you do to my brother?'
'I
borrowed him. You know, like a library book. Only I didn’t check him out
anywhere. In fact, maybe borrowed isn’t such a good phrase to use after all.
Sounds too library planet-esque.'
'There’s
a planet based around a library?'
'Yes.
Although, it’s not exactly the best place to visit. Unless you like flesh
eating shadows living inside books.'
'Well,
that sounds like an ideal holiday location.'
'Are
you sure?' the Doctor frowned at me.
'Sarcasm.'
'Oh,
of course. How could I be so stupid? Why are humans so complicated? Anyway,
shall we explore?'
'Explore?'
I asked at the sudden change in direction in which the conversation was going.
'Yes,
explore. Through those doors' he smiled and indicated the doors in which I had
entered and he promptly ran over towards them.
'Hang
on! What's to explore?'
'Another
world. Another time.' he whispered.
It
suddenly dawned on me that something had occurred during our conversation and that the Doctor was expecting something
to have happened beyond the doors.
'What?
We don’t know what’s out there.' I was confused.
'You
sound just like your brother. Come on, David. Exploring is cool. Especially
when anything can be out there. ANYTHING!'
The
Doctor ran outside and I followed obediently, like an intelligent dog without
its lead.
~~~
We
found ourselves amongst a large group of people striding past, wearing strange,
dark glasses with blue streaks running over the rims.
'They’re
wearing multi-glasses.' The Doctor explained. The same way he explained that we
had somehow travelled though time to the future in such a matter-of-fact way
that he simply expected me to accept it regardless. He continued:
'They
project things in front of their eyes.
Weird sensation. I personally think that bow ties are much cooler.' he
said adjusting his tie as if to make a point. 'Virtual Angry Birds is the
nearest contender. Especially the bow
tie DLC pack.' he continued and smiled.
'Why
would anybody wear them?' I asked.
They
all looked rather stupid to me; they stuck out like sore thumbs. According to
the Doctor, Google had started it all with glasses they released in 2013 and
now, in the year 2043, every company was now producing them. Yet people were
wearing them for some strange reason.
'They can do everything, David. Right in front of your eyes, too. Humans from the twenty first century onwards love things happening right in front of their eyes. That’s why 3D took off.'
'3D took off? But there’s no 3D stuff where I come from.'
'There will be in the 21st century. Nearly every movie from 2008 onwards was released in 3D. 3D TV is a bit limited, though, unless you have Sky and you’re David Attenborough’s biggest fan.'
'David who?'
'I’ll explain later. Now, shall we explore a bit more? Do explore-y things?'
'Explore-y things? Have you been drinking?'
'Well, explore, then. Blimey. Try to create a new word and you get no thanks in response.'
I looked above me. In the sky were millions of cars which flew amongst hovering traffic lights and pedestrians flying across the cars waiting for the green light. On the ground were a few parked cars, in all colours of the spectrum some were even multi-coloured. The Doctor and I continued to walk down the street, when we noticed something odd. All the cars above us had stopped moving forward and were now instead, all moving backwards. The pedestrians on the ground appeared to be mimicking them, as did the pedestrians in the air. Everything was moving backwards. Everything, apart from the Doctor and myself.
'Doctor, what’s going on?' I asked curiously.
'Time appears to be moving backwards.' He told me simply, whilst indicating me to follow.
'They can do everything, David. Right in front of your eyes, too. Humans from the twenty first century onwards love things happening right in front of their eyes. That’s why 3D took off.'
'3D took off? But there’s no 3D stuff where I come from.'
'There will be in the 21st century. Nearly every movie from 2008 onwards was released in 3D. 3D TV is a bit limited, though, unless you have Sky and you’re David Attenborough’s biggest fan.'
'David who?'
'I’ll explain later. Now, shall we explore a bit more? Do explore-y things?'
'Explore-y things? Have you been drinking?'
'Well, explore, then. Blimey. Try to create a new word and you get no thanks in response.'
I looked above me. In the sky were millions of cars which flew amongst hovering traffic lights and pedestrians flying across the cars waiting for the green light. On the ground were a few parked cars, in all colours of the spectrum some were even multi-coloured. The Doctor and I continued to walk down the street, when we noticed something odd. All the cars above us had stopped moving forward and were now instead, all moving backwards. The pedestrians on the ground appeared to be mimicking them, as did the pedestrians in the air. Everything was moving backwards. Everything, apart from the Doctor and myself.
'Doctor, what’s going on?' I asked curiously.
'Time appears to be moving backwards.' He told me simply, whilst indicating me to follow.
I
duely followed him and we jumped on top of a black hover car just as it was
about to reverse out of a parking space and take off into the sky. The hover car moved backwards at such a speed
that I almost fell off. After a while, the hover car seemed to
strangely devolve into just a car as we found ourselves back on the ground, in
what the Doctor had told me was twenty-first century London. We remained on top of the hover car that was
just now an ordinary car as it whizzed past twenty-first century London and
into a place that looked far more familiar to me, that of 1960s London. It was then that I noticed him. My brother,
Ian Chesterton, walking into a scrapyard entitled “IM Foreman” with a woman.
'Ah,
the good old days!' the Doctor muttered, sounding strangely like an old man.
After
a long period crossing through time, the car yet again transformed, this time
into a horse and carriage.
The
Doctor told me we were now in eighteenth century London, which explained the
old fashioned buildings and people wearing top hats and bonnets. Further into
the past we travelled, until the horse and carriage was replaced by a galloping
horse; a horse in which we found ourselves standing on, although we didn’t stay
standing up for long as we immediately dropped down into a seated position.
After
we rode backwards through the BC years, the horse became a triceratops.
'We
have to find a way to reverse the process.' The Doctor said to me, 'If we go
any further back, we’ll end up in the big bang and all the people from 2043
will die. Even I will die. Although, at least my last moments would be riding a
triceratops again!'
'Again?'
I asked.
'Oh,
did I tell you I rode a triceratops…on a spaceship?'
'I
love how you say that casually, like riding a triceratops is totally normal.'
'It
is totally normal.'
'So,
you say we need to go forward? Well, how about we make the triceratops go
forward?'
'Of
course. Why didn’t I think of that?' he said slapping his forehead, 'Sometimes
my mind seems to be thicker than a thin tree branch. Sometimes even thicker
than that. Why am I so thick sometimes? Last time I rode a Triceratops, my
friend’s dad threw a ball. Do you have a ball?'
'It’s
not really the kind of thing I carry about, to be honest.'
'Okay.
So no ball. In fact, we don’t even need the Triceratops.'
'We
don’t?'
'No.
We have legs, remember?'
'So?'
'Just
run forwards.'
And
so we ran through the years, as the horses and the horse and carriages and the
cars around us followed our direction. Eventually, we found our way back to
2043 and everything was normal. However, there was still one more thing we had
to deal with.
'So,
who did this I wonder?' the Doctor looked at me and smiled, 'I think it’s about time we found out. Don’t
you, David?'
~~~
The Doctor had used the TARDIS to latch onto the source using the power needed to rewind back time. Well, that’s what he told me, anyway. It was a bumpy journey, one that sent us flying all over the place. I think I ended up landing in the TARDIS recycling bin. That bin couldn't have been emptied for years, it was piled to the rim with so rubbish. I don’t think the Doctor had any knowledge of who binmen were. Either that or there are no binmen in space.
As
the Doctor latched the TARDIS onto the power source he blurted out, 'If my
calculations are right, we should be landing anytime….soon!'
'Erm,
Doctor, I think we may have landed already.'
'Have
we?' a look of disappointment crossed his face, before it became fraustration.
'Well,
that weird grinding noise has stopped.'
'So
it has. Well, don’t mind me, David. I’m clearly going deaf. Which isn’t a bad
thing, because there was plenty of deaf Time Lords before the time war.
Although, those deaf Time Lords who sang “Walk this way” whenever they decided
to go anywhere were cringe worthy. Anyway, let’s find out who caused the wibbly
wobbly timey wimey backwards thing, shall we?'
~~~