Prelude Part One Unfinished Symphony Episode Seven
Hallelujah-Part Two
London-November 22,1963
He was tired.
This day had not gone in any way, shape or form as he had imagined. When he had awoken he had decided that Susan was right, he had not given 20th century London a proper chance and he was going to rectify that. His activities to this point had been confined to adjusting the TARDIS to accept his commands more efficiently so they could leave this time. Since the old model 40 and him had never been properly bonded it was a guessing game on where and when he would arrive. He hadn't studied TARDIS engineering in the academy thinking who in this day and age actually worked on their TARDIS.
An assumption he had been carefully and skillfully been punishing himself for since they had arrived in this dismal age. Susan had insisted on attending school like a normal human girl and he had not had any luck in convincing her otherwise. It was in her nature he supposed, to know other races, get close, empathize and then bond. She couldn't help it, even if she didn't know why she was drawn to it, but it was damned annoying if you asked him.
Which no one had.
So this morning he had gone out, wandering the streets of 20th century London to see what had swayed his granddaughters mind as it had. She had talked about the music and something called The Beatles, which he had assumed was a form of insects, but she assured him they were a singing group. So he had gone out to see what this music was like when he had heard the news. And he realized
He had completely forgotten what the date was.
When he had picked the early sixties on Earth he had of course done research into the planet's history. He had found it a nice, little class four planet on the verge of becoming a five. No serious alien contact and no way their Gallifreyian pursuers would think of looking for them here. They would assume he would take her to a Galactic hub, somewhere where they could blend into the rest of the crowd and be lost in the millions of travelers that passed through such places every day. They would be on every spaceport, every transmat and every long range ship in the sector looking for them.
Earth was perfect in that it would still be a few years before anyone realized their potential and nothing of any great significance would occur for easily a decade. It was the perfect place to hide Susan. Except he had forgotten what the date.
He had forgotten this was the Friday President Kennedy was killed.
He had made a note of it somewhere in his mind but that had been forgotten in the urge to get that damned machine working again. And here he was, standing in front of a wall of primitive televisions, watching the news as the world crawled to a halt in shock. Within an hour they had a suspect, within two hours they had him in custody. He watched as they marched the man into police headquarters. He watched Lee Harvey Oswald turn to the camera and smile, not a hint of remorse for what he had done in his dead eyes.
That was when he knew he need to get away from here.
He knew that Earth had great potential and would one day join their galactic neighbors, but he had forgotten how savage and brutal a race they could be. And here, watching the people in the street burst into tears at the loss, he realized he wanted none of it. He broke through the crowds, swinging a path with his cane as they all came moving towards the window. Their emotions were smothering him, a collection of sorrow and disbelief that bordered on ignorance. All of them so shocked, yet all of them possessing the same murderous impulse just beneath their skin. It took all his control to push past them without screaming at them, he vowed then they had to leave.
As he made his way towards the junkyard the TARDIS had landed in, ready to argue with Susan through the night that they had to leave. She would cry and she would fight, but in the end she was his responsibility. And they were no longer safe here.
It had already grown dark as he made his way through the various rows of discarded junk, he hand the TARDIS key and a pencil flashlight in one hand as he began to unlock the familiar wooden box. As he turned the key he could hear Susan exclaim, “There you are grandfather!”
He heard a females voice from the shadows proclaim, “Susan!” and then another deeper voice shush her. He looked over as two forms stood up, his hearts were pounding in his chest. For a moment he was so sure they were agents of the court, sent for Susan. All this work for nothing, ideas and plans flew through his mind in an instant when a man and woman stepped towards them.
Humans.
The man looked embarrassed as he said, “Excuse me.”
He had to get rid of them, fast. He flashed the light in the man's face and asked, “What are you doing here?”
Again, with hesitation he said, “Uh, we're looking for a girl.”
The Doctor arched his eyebrows and asked, “We?”, since the woman hadn't stepped up to join them.
She moved forward and uttered a pleasant, “Good evening”, as if she was caught snooping around in junkyards in the dark all the time.
Hoping his tone carried enough authority he asked, “What do you want?”
The man said, “Um....one of our pupils, Susan Foreman, came into this yard.”, he sounded like he wished he was anywhere but here.
The old man smiled and decided the best way was to make them convince themselves they were wrong. He said in a coy voice, “In here? Are you sure?”
The woman answered, “Yes. We saw her from across the street.”
“One of their pupils, not the police then.', he muttered aloud.
The man paused for a moment, “Er...I..I beg your pardon.”
Pouncing on the hesitation the Doctor demanded, “Why are you spying on her? Who are you?”
The man gained a small amount of composure as he said, “We heard a young girl's voice call out to you...”
Damn. He looked away as he said, “Your hearing must be very acute. I didn't hear anything.”
The woman would have none of it, she pointed at the police call box and said, “It came from in there.”
And in a panic the Doctor said, “You imagined it!” And instantly wished he could take it back.
The woman's eyes grew wide as she said, “I certainly did not!” She was going to be the problem he quickly deduced.
He grabbed the man's arm and led him away from the woman, “Young man...Is it reasonable to suppose that anyone would be inside a cupboard like that, hmm?”
The man had grown bold from the woman's outburst ans answered with, “Would it therefore be unreasonable to ask you to let us have a look inside?”
The Time Lord swore in his mind as he walked away. He needed these humans to leave, now. If he could get them out of here he could activate the TARDIS and damned where they showed up. It had to be a far sight better than here. He picked up an old picture frame from the refuse and commented, “I wonder why I've never seen that before. Now, isn’t that strange? Pretty damp and dirty...hmm...”
If the woman was put off by his odd behavior she gave no indication, she moved towards the old man and asked, “Won't you help us? We're two of her teachers from the Coal Hill School. We saw her come in and we haven't seen her leave. Naturally, we're worried....”
She was talking to him as if he was simple, that was a start. Ignoring her he went on looking at the frame, “Have to be cleaned...”, and the he looked to her, “Mmm? Oh, I'm afraid it's none of my business. I suggest you leave here.” He put the frame down and walked back towards the TARDIS.
The young man was now brazened by indignity, “Not until we're satisfied that Susan isn't here and, frankly, I don't understand your attitude…”
The Doctor regarded him with a look, “Oh, yours leaves a lot to be desired.”
“Will you open the door?”, the man asked, trying to keep his tone level.
“ There's nothing in there!”, the old man answered.
With a casual tone the man asked, “Then what are you afraid to show us?”
And that did it. He had taken Susan, fled Gallifrey, was being chased by god knows what and this human thinks he is afraid of him. Afraid? Him? In a tone he answered, “Afraid? Oh, go away!”
The man then turned to the female and said, “I think we'd better go and fetch a policeman.”
Perfect. The Doctor said, “Very well.”
The man looked back to him, “And you're coming with us.”
The Doctor smiled and thought there wasn't a force on Earth that could move him right now. Instead he answered chuckling, “Oh...am I? I don't think so, young man. No, I don't think so...”
The female whispered to her companion, “We can't force him!”
“But we can't leave him here! Doesn't it seem obvious to you he's got her locked up in there?”, the woman nodded, “Look at it!”
The Doctor walked away, pretending to examine an old mug as they argued amongst themselves. They began looking for a way into the TARDIS. After a moment they began calling into calbox for Susan. He said over his shoulder to the pair, “Don't you think you're being rather high-handed, young man? You thought you saw a young girl enter the yard. You imagined you heard her voice. You believe she might be in there. It's not very substantial, is it?” Come on humans...leave!
The female asked, “But why won't you help us”
He put down the jug and turned to them, “I'm not hindering you. If you both want to make fools of yourselves, I suggest you do what you said you'd do. Go and find a policeman.”
The man leered at him, “While you nip off quietly in the other direction”
The Doctor closed his eye and sighed, “ Insulting.”, he said and then looked at them, “There's only one way in and out of this yard. I shall be here when you get back. I want to see your faces when you try to explain away your behavior to a policeman.”
The man spoke defiantly, “Nevertheless, we're going to find one. Come along, Barbara.” And they took one step to leave.
Which was of course when Susan called out, “What are you doing out there?”, from inside the TARDIS.
Which was the exact he decided to abduct the humans against their will.
The Doctor watched Susan move through the Anemoi as they sang to her. It was truly an incredible sight. The winds were invisible, but you could just make out s they changed directions around her, a movement out of the corner of your eye that was followed by a tone. With hundreds, possibly thousands of them here it sounded like an orchestra playing, surrounding them all, but it was obvious Susan was their focus.
“Brilliant”, the Doctor said full of awe.
“How is she talking to hem? Telepathic?”, Donna asked.
The Doctor continued to watch but shook his head, “Telepathy depends on a chemical-organic transducer of electrical stimuli. They are made of pure sound, there is literally no mind to read.”, he paused and then looked at her, “I mean..”
Donna cut him off, “I understood what you said. No brain, no telepathy....well as we know it.”, she completely missed the look of shock on the Doctor's face, “So then how is she doing it?”
“It's her nature.”, he said cryptically, “She meets a race, bonds and then connects. Inherent ability of her race and its still damned annoying.”, he muttered.
“Her race?”, Donna asked, “Thought she was your granddaughter?”
The Doctor's face grew somber and she saw him mentally backtrack for a moment, “Not now.”, was all he said as he took a step forward towards Susan, “What do they say?”
Susan was entranced for a moment and then looked at him with a huge smile, “They were concerned you were another raiding party since they didn't recognize your voice. It's the only way they even know we are alive really is our voice. So they were worried, but I told them who you were...and they are celebrating with me.”
“Raiders?”, he asked in a serious voice.
She nodded as she danced, “Tagins, they come by every six months or so trying to grab some crystals. It had become a thing but we found a way to stop them.”
“Tagins?”, he said scratching his head, “Huge race, intergalactic bullies right?”
She nodded again, “You always loved to read up on new races.”
He ignored that and said, “How in the world could a camp of miners and you fend of a Tagin raiding party?”
And she topped and looked at him. The air grew still and the noise vanished. And as he looked into her eyes he understood exactly how they had fought them off.
“My friends helped me.”, she said with a smile.
The Doctor swallowed slightly as he realized, they were surrounded by a few thousand of Susan's 'friends'.
To be continued...
And again here is the scene in the flashback....first aired the weekend of September 22, 1963
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