Twice Upon a Time
I realise it's been more than a month, and this is... Well, it is what it is. It was a lovely, lovely episode, but rounding up the end of an era is hard. So this isn't that, it's just a heap of scattered thoughts strung together. I will also post a take that is all poetry, but this one is probably better for talking about. :)
( Twice Upon A Time )
( Twice Upon A Time )
1). On the subject of the 1st Doctor and the !controversy!
Well, personally, I wouldn’t mind if they omitted it, but it’s cool. So. But a few things:
Wrt One then he may just be speaking of humans more generally, it's unlikely that he'd ever think of Time Ladies in such terms (higher species and all that).
If one is offended, I agree that it is perfectly possible to read him not as sexist, but as “speciesist” let’s say. And yes, the Doctor totally used to be that. As in, I Am An Awesome Genius Time Lord, All Puny Humans Should Do As I Say, Allow Me To Gently Bully And Patronise You.
Or, The First Doctor is acting like someone with the Values Dissonance of the early 20th century because he's *with* someone of the early 20th century. The 1st Doctor assimilates, blends in accordingly. I basically read him as a teenager who is trying to be edgy and hip and fit in with the cool kids.
Although…
My thoughts are that the point of the attitude may have been a little more meta...
Yes, my personal favourite. I think I’m slowly coming over to the Chill Out camp. AKA, in DW, the needs of the meta outweigh the needs of the logic.
(For example, I have finally given up on the whole metaphysical analysis thing. Who cares how many copies/clones/souls/echoes/whatever of people are knocking about? Makes an 'ehhhh' noise and a sort of noncommittal wiggley hand gesture. Fuck it, embrace them all! More! You exist, and you exist, everybody exists! Every time something different happens, because of reasons! Basically, everyone in-universe wait until the end of time, see what happens then; okay? Till then *anything* goes. What is needed for the symbolism of *this* story?
Basically, picture my OCD brain as Doctor Strange and my gradually chill-ing self as the Ancient One:
“That doesn't make any sense.”
“Not everything does. Not everything has to.”)
So yes, I think that this IS another case where Moffat prioritises ideas over plot/logic -and I’m not saying that as a bad thing. It is a way of writing; not one I would choose, but I accept it.
Reading his comments about it, I think I got it. What he was trying to do is simulate the EXPERIENCE of watching old-school DW. AKA, there are some uncomfortable bits, you learn to accept those bits and facepalm briefly, but you move on and they don’t ruin the experience for you. I mean, I don’t remember, but the Tomb of the Cybermen probably has some issues because 1967. Of course it would. But *every* time I watch that discussion Two and Victoria have, I *shall* go “daaaaauum”, and congratulate Matt Smith on his excellent taste.
2). Twelve’s humour is in top form in this episode. Favourites include, but are not limited to:
Trolling One with the sunglasses,
“You know that I'm dying, and if you don't want me to go off and die somewhere else where you can't watch, you're going to have to stop shooting at me!”
His increasingly ridiculous attempts to distract One in what basically was a spitting image of me trying to babysit my sister when she was a very disobedient baby. (“Oh, look at the astral map! Look at all the lovely blinking lights. Look at that.”)
Bill making the “windows are the wrong size” comment and him dropping behind to check, like “…they are? Huh.”
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Sidebar: The IMP of the Pandorica??I think I died. Like - THE IMP, TREMBLE ALL YOU PEOPLES! It's accurate though, Eleven is impish. <3
In which you almost made me die laughing. I just imagined a tiny, adorable Eleven jumping about while shouting that.
(Although, every time they pull the Oncoming Storm card, I am just begging for a “Ka Faraq Gatri”, a “Karshtakavaar”, come on.)
Please . . . just see me.
Oh for the love of God. How am I supposed to ignore this?
In case you’re interested, the aforementioned inspiration that ambushed me basically was Vision and Seeing in the Twelfth Era (in Short Fic Form). I connected EVERYTHING, it was quite satisfying.
By the title of Just See Me in my deviant gallery. Yeah, the originality is strong with this one, I know.
Now, I think he got it wrong. The message wasn’t that he could do *anything*, that he should save someone and to hell with the consequences.
Just save someone, because there is no such thing as unimportant.
I think it was also a hint that he should LISTEN to his companions because “there is no such thing as unimportant”. Aka always remember Donna Noble and don’t fucking do that again, and thus the contrast of Ten in the Runaway Bride and 11 in a Christmas Carol for example, regarding “importance”, and obviously the contrast of Clara’s ultimate fate. Doctor, you idiot. There, there, you’re learning.
This line is wonderful on oh so many levels. And not just because now I'm imagining Bill, Nardole & Twelve watching Bake-Off
Busy man my ass. See, he totally has time to watch movies -he just prefers watching cooking shows and Disney.
(His browser history was an endless loop of the Frozen soundtrack/mental image of 12 singing outside the vault “MISSY, DO YOU WANT TO BUILD A SNOWMAN?”)
4). Regarding Rusty
I’ve always thought that poor Twelve was overly harsh with himself in Into The Dalek. I mean, yeah, I get it. But saving Gallifrey *has* changed him. His hatred doesn't and can’t just go away like the poor man wants, he isn't a saint, but think back to 9 and 11's first Dalek episodes, where they were both reduced to bodily beating them and screaming in rage. 12 is at least willing to consider the possibility of a good Dalek -although he *is* gleefully "see? I told you so" to getting-slapped-by-Clara levels when it isn't. But he does try to communicate, to change it.
“I am not a good Dalek. You are a good Dalek.”
Also, and I am not the only one to notice, this line can be quite ambiguous in its meaning: The Doctor had taken it to mean the whole “divine hatred” bit from Asylum of the Daleks (-one of my absolute favourite bits btw) just directed towards the Daleks. But you know, hatred against evil shows something. So it could also mean, in perfect honesty, that defining a good Dalek as well, good, a Dalek who rejects their programming and does good things, the Doctor is that. Because he *could* be a traditional Dalek after all he has been through, he does have that darkness in him, but consistently chooses to be good.
After all, as Clara had pointed out, “what they learned”, the whole point, was not that the Daleks are irreversibly evil. It was that a good Dalek is possible -if rare and very difficult to acheive.
Because “By any analysis, evil should always win. Good is not a practical survival strategy.”
And the Daleks are terrific at surviving. One has a very good point. The Daleks are the natural, absolute extension, the logical endpoint of the evil EVERYONE is capable of in the name of logic, survival, winning. Evil is natural. Goodness is always a choice and not an easy one.
(So yes, I am losing myself in semantics here but what I’m trying to say is that maybe, Rusty did not mean the same thing as the Dalek who confronted Nine, even if he took it to mean that. You know, like the thing they did with “Doctor of War”?)
Because people don't believe there could be any such thing as a good Dalek.
And insert you own obvious comment about the Doctor’s often mythological figure, the parallels between Daleks and Time Lords ever since the Time War (who can tell the difference any more/genocides/hybrids) and the Doctor’s renegade status and rare position as a Time Lord who interferes, here.
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Moffat does away with the big drama, and just tells the story of a man (two men, no three men) scared of dying and change.
Oh boy. The things I do for you, DW.
I had this bloody great epiphany about Heaven Sent as a metaphor for regeneration, and thus ALL the connections to this episode. Well, no fucking duh, thank you, Captain Obvious: “Burning the old me to make a new one”. But it’s beyond that, hear me out.
-“Can’t I just sleep/ever rest?”
-The speech to the future Doctor -though this is not as gloomy.
-They use the music for his regeneration; it’s not just because it’s gorgeousness and gorgeosity made flesh, though yes, it is.
-When 12 has his freakout in The Doctor Falls, and it is worded very similarly and shot in almost exactly the same way as his freakout in Heaven Sent. It’s basically Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, or me when I woke up on Mondays last year. “Oh God. No. No. Why? Make it stop, why won’t it stop?” EXISTENTIAL HORROR, people, in both cases, plain as day.
On that, I was puzzled by those who drew parallels between 10 and 12. Okay, those are inevitable for very obvious reasons; but not in the way you think, people!
Ten was afraid of death and saw his regeneration as such. Twelve’s problem is that he wants to die at this point, and at first doesn’t see the change as death; not enough at least. Well, I think that every incarnation has a right to their opinion as long as it’s not taken to extremes, these are both valid viewpoints; and there are probably more (I can justify this with quotes and references from many different Doctors if requested and/or elaborate on my own complicated views if so asked.)
---I *will* mention however, that this is why I think 11’s is the best one and will probably remain so for a long time: there is a perfect, divine balance between life and death, fear and acceptance, happiness and sadness, the Doctor as an entity who will keep going and Eleven as the incarnation who dies but finally finds peace and completion there so he greets it with a smile. (I could justify this too with loads of examples and quotes, but I don’t think it’s necessary). I’ll just mention that I think the Moffat vs Matt viewpoint amazingly worked in its favour.
In short, Moffat had emphasized -though I don’t know how sincerely, since avoiding another mass fan heartbreak and whining after The End of Time Incident is in the best interests of everyone- that the change is not death and that the Doctor does not see it that way, hence the general optimistic tone of the episode. While Matt Smith has stated in two separate occasions in different conventions that he played it like a death scene, but a peaceful and content one like that of a very old man, and with the mindset -as directed from Moffat- that the Doctor will live on.---
But in short, FUCK YES, Heaven Sent parallels, a story about different incarnations of the Doctor dying, but the Doctor as an entity, an idea, accomplishing his goal.
I had thought of that anyway, but my epiphany was this: The symbolism is that the Doctor actually sees his continuing existence as an eternal struggle of HS proportions -okay, at least a depressed, post-TDF Twelve does. But the alternative is death, one will say. Yes, and death is tempting, and comparatively easy, and at hand, and so it was in Heaven Sent.
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--Because in the past, the Doctor has demonstrated that he’d really rather not to, but he *is* willing to give his life if he considers a secret important enough. And here, who knows who is asking and what they could do with the information, with any true answer he could give, if they are desperate and dangerous enough? The Time Lords almost destroyed the universe once, what’s a planet or two to be sure? He may be angry, but he’s not gonna have that on his conscience. Also, grief and spite, a lot of it.
--Because if your theory that he concluded the prophecy was only true “from a certain point of view”, and that *he* was the Hybrid is correct, he would most probably die if he confessed anyway.
Also, I mean, okay, you can die, or you can shatter your knuckles repeatedly on a wall, get fried, spend a day and a half in agony crawling to reach the teleport, then electrocute yourself so severely it literally burns you up for fuel. I mean, Christ, no matter how horrendously the Veil wounded him, there’s a difference.
And what possible benefit could, say, Doctor clone 1,376 hope for? Nothing. He hadn’t even made the tiniest dent in the wall by the year 7,000. Why should he do all this so that a hypothetical future version may, maybe, win, when he can just lie down and end it? He has every right to, this is hell. It’s all the same for him anyway. It will literally make absolutely no difference to him. Hell, there’s no real guarantee that it will make any difference to anybody else either in the long run, it will prolong his suffering, and condemn countless others to the same fate.
(Without hope, without witness, without reward?...)
So in TDF-TUAT, we basically have one of those countless Doctors rebelling. It’s not worth it, hey, *I* did the best I could, fuck this; really, future Me(s), you ought to be grateful. It could be worse, Pyrrhic victory, how do you like not getting the secret/getting spectacularly blown up, bastards? This is good, this is enough, now end it.
And what persuades him to go on, at such heavy personal cost, no less? His friends who don’t want him to give up, who remind him that there *is* other kindness in the world, and the drive to help and care for somebody else, now refined (“just save someone”). To will the good of another, or “the silly old universe”, all of it.
(Also known as the episode in which the Doctor officially becomes a Bodhisattva.)
So he goes, all right, fine. I *will* go through this all over again. You’re going down, wall, let’s do this. I will die, but I will not let the Doctor die; even though that would be easier.
And thus, in my opinion, 12’s last words have a *triple* meaning:
“Doctor…I let you go.”
a) Breaking the fourth wall (pun intended). Obviously, this is Capaldi speaking too. Also, yes, a conscious opposition to Ten as you said.
b) Yes, he lets go of this face, this personality, this him. The Doctor lets go of everything that is Twelve even if it is, as always, difficult.
c) Watch it while thinking of the scenario above: This incarnation is dying indeed, was always going to die, no matter what he did. But he makes the choice, chooses life one more time, decides that it’s worth it, he punches the goddamn wall and doesn’t drag his next self down with him, he stops trying to end it. So as Twelve dies, he lets the Doctor go -and allows her to live.
And....I think that's all. (collapses)
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So... have you watched The Good Place? (Don't go looking for spoilers, you MUST be unspoiled.) If you feel like a sitcom about philosophy. Set in heaven.
So in TDF-TUAT, we basically have one of those countless Doctors rebelling. It’s not worth it, hey, *I* did the best I could, fuck this; really, future Me(s), you ought to be grateful. It could be worse, Pyrrhic victory, how do you like not getting the secret/getting spectacularly blown up, bastards? This is good, this is enough, now end it.
I like this. I like it A LOT.
I will die, but I will not let the Doctor die; even though that would be easier.
Nice one. And then Thirteen. :)
And thus, in my opinion, 12’s last words have a *triple* meaning:
Niiiice.
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(bathes happily in all the praise)
So... have you watched The Good Place? (Don't go looking for spoilers, you MUST be unspoiled.) If you feel like a sitcom about philosophy. Set in heaven.
No, no I have not; I probably should. I should watch a lot of things. I’ll finish Community first.
Funny anecdote time:
Back in December, I made a conscious decision to start regularly watching stuff again. See, there was a problem (apart from me watching something, and then spending a week on TvTropes, imdb, reading reviews, watching reviews, Wikipedia, downloading the soundtrack, art, etc. Which unfortunately persists):
You know how people eat while watching stuff -and be careful, because obesity!- tv, Netflix, whatever? Well, I don’t eat while watching stuff. I watch stuff while I eat; that is the primary, important activity. Lunch, dinner, but I want to do something during that.
However, I consider watching films and tv shows an equally important activity that deserves all my attention. I don’t do causal. So I would constantly put off watching the things on my list because I felt like I wasn’t paying enough attention, that I’d miss things. Dinner time= generally “light” watching time, aka reviews, random youtube videos etc.
But I finally concluded that this is ridiculous, since a) I don’t exactly stuff the food into my eyes and ears, my lack of attention is illusory, and b) even though I do watch films at other times (for example, splatters are not exactly “movie-with-food” material), those times are simply not enough for all the things on my list. So there. It’s much better now.
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Well, it's best done as a binge watch, so if you ever have a spare day and lots of goodies, curl up & treat yourself. It's not The Best Thing Ever OMG, but just a delightful thing. (Again, don't look it up.)
See, there was a problem (apart from me watching something, and then spending a week on TvTropes, imdb, reading reviews, watching reviews, Wikipedia, downloading the soundtrack, art, etc. Which unfortunately persists)
LOL
But I finally concluded that this is ridiculous, since a) I don’t exactly stuff the food into my eyes and ears, my lack of attention is illusory, and b) even though I do watch films at other times (for example, splatters are not exactly “movie-with-food” material), those times are simply not enough for all the things on my list. So there. It’s much better now.
Cool. Happy viewing.
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Aye. That's Twelve all over.
On that, I was puzzled by those who drew parallels between 10 and 12.
I think people drew parallels because Twelve handled it so much better. As you say, Ten just wanted to stay Ten, but Twelve just wants to *stop*. But the obvious mirroring between 'I don't want to go'/'I let you go' are too clear for even the average viewer to miss. Obviously their issues are different, but the act of resistance was similar.
I *will* mention however, that this is why I think 11’s is the best one and will probably remain so for a long time
100% agreed.
While Matt Smith has stated in two separate occasions in different conventions that he played it like a death scene, but a peaceful and content one like that of a very old man
And that's what he was... He had been Eleven for more than a thousand years at that point, and he'd been facing his (final) death for a long, long time, and had made peace with it. He can let go, partly because More Life at this point is just a ridiculous gift, a surprise he wasn't expecting. Twelve then goes on to have to deal with the fallout, but Eleven was Eleven to the last. ♥
But in short, FUCK YES, Heaven Sent parallels, a story about different incarnations of the Doctor dying, but the Doctor as an entity, an idea, accomplishing his goal.
I am liking this.
Yes, and death is tempting, and comparatively easy, and at hand, and so it was in Heaven Sent.
Ooooh yes. Very nice. And we even get Clara to come & kick him into shape. (A lot of theorising in various places that one of the reasons he changes his mind is because he can now remember Clara continually telling him to just get on with it.)
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Oh, average viewers… Such creatures really do exist, don’t they? For the longest time, I thought they were mythological beings, like unicorns!
No, but I mean, they did it back with TDF too. (shrug) I know.
Then TUAT of course, did confirm it: "...Capaldi himself said it? Like, what did you expect after all that happened in that finale? He's so obviously trying to die, you guys."
100% agreed.
(performs complicated high-five/secret handshake combination.)
And that's what he was... He had been Eleven for more than a thousand years at that point
And so it came to pass that in 2013, I founded the proud, personal tradition of wearing a bow tie every Christmas.
And we even get Clara to come & kick him into shape. (A lot of theorising in various places that one of the reasons he changes his mind is because he can now remember Clara continually telling him to just get on with it.)
Aww. Oh yes, I did touch on that further down, but not like this. Yes. <3
I think it’s a combination of restored memories + meeting One and his friends again + yet more people to save + the Christmas Armistice, come on + getting to save someone + there can be other kindness.
In fact, wait, tumblr:
“Can I just say how immensely glad I am that Twice Upon a Time did *not* go out of its way to force Twelve into regenerating? I’m not even sure I can put into words how much that means. […] There was no threat. No bad guys. Just a few people who were very afraid to die, and very afraid to keep going. And the fact that it did this without the need to Raise the Stakes or make it bigger or better or more explosive or more impressive is a relief - a bit of an anticlimax is, after all, good for the hearts.
For them to move through this story, to show the Doctor even the faintest fraction of hope, for him to show the sort of kindness only he can show - that fundamental message he chose his own face for, to just save someone, just one person and have that be enough - and through that show that even on the battlefield, even when the war looms, and wars upon wars after that, that in that one moment there can be kindness and goodness and hope is staggering.
For them to do this, for a man that has wanted nothing more than to stop, means so much. That they don’t use some big ridiculous threat the Doctor must agree to survive to protect the world from, to let it, at the end of it all, remain his choice whether he lives or dies, his decision, his agency, in the face of his own fears…I can’t tell you how much that means.”
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As Moffat (I think) once put it, there are thousands of fans, but millions of viewers. However the fans are the loudest ones.
And so it came to pass that in 2013, I founded the proud, personal tradition of wearing a bow tie every Christmas.
*thumbs up*
I think it’s a combination of restored memories + meeting One and his friends again + yet more people to save + the Christmas Armistice, come on + getting to save someone + there can be other kindness.
That's a good list. And then Thirteen will hopefully (presumably) be about learning to love life again. Twelve managed to get over the final hurdle, but he still described it as treadmill.
For them to do this, for a man that has wanted nothing more than to stop, means so much. That they don’t use some big ridiculous threat the Doctor must agree to survive to protect the world from, to let it, at the end of it all, remain his choice whether he lives or dies, his decision, his agency, in the face of his own fears…I can’t tell you how much that means.
Hear hear!
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At which point I HAVE to rec you Tiny Twelve (There is a Tiny Eleven also - a whole host of tiny Doctors in fact. Utterly delightful fic.)
By the title of Just See Me in my deviant gallery. Yeah, the originality is strong with this one, I know.
Duly noted.
I think it was also a hint that he should LISTEN to his companions because “there is no such thing as unimportant”.
Oh yes.
Busy man my ass. See, he totally has time to watch movies -he just prefers watching cooking shows and Disney.
True.
His browser history was an endless loop of the Frozen soundtrack/mental image of 12 singing outside the vault “MISSY, DO YOU WANT TO BUILD A SNOWMAN?”)
And she'd say 'Yes, the big SCARY ONE!'
I’ve always thought that poor Twelve was overly harsh with himself in Into The Dalek.
He's at the very start of his journey of self-discovery, of course he's harsh. And he has to go through all that in order to get to the other side. *pets*
Also, and I am not the only one to notice, this line can be quite ambiguous in its meaning
Oh the multiple interpretations and meanings of 'good'...
Because “By any analysis, evil should always win. Good is not a practical survival strategy.” And the Daleks are terrific at surviving. One has a very good point. The Daleks are the natural, absolute extension, the logical endpoint of the evil EVERYONE is capable of in the name of logic, survival, winning. Evil is natural. Goodness is always a choice and not an easy one.
Thank you! I knew the points tied together, but my brain broke, so I just sort of waved in that general direction and hoped people could put it together.
Rusty did not mean the same thing as the Dalek who confronted Nine, even if he took it to mean that. You know, like the thing they did with “Doctor of War”?
One of the best repeated lines in the (new) show is 'I win'. It comes back and changes meaning and it generally wonderful.
And insert you own obvious comment about the Doctor’s often mythological figure, the parallels between Daleks and Time Lords ever since the Time War (who can tell the difference any more/genocides/hybrids) and the Doctor’s renegade status and rare position as a Time Lord who interferes, here.
Indeed.
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Oh my God. Tableflipping Rassilon on a motorbike, yes. I hate you, why would you do this to me. This is gold. Squee!
(Well, there is an adorable 2-page fic where Eleven gets accidentally shrunk and has to hide in River’s hair. I can’t find it online right now, but since I download the fics I like, do say if you’re interested. Fortuna favet adparatis. )
Thank you! I knew the points tied together, but my brain broke, so I just sort of waved in that general direction and hoped people could put it together.
(winks)
One of the best repeated lines in the (new) show is 'I win'. It comes back and changes meaning and it generally wonderful.
“You can’t win.”
“I know! And?!”
(leads an imaginary audience in a Slow Clap Deluxe)
It absolutely is, and now you leave me no choice but to suggest that at some point, you may also want to duly note my fic “Schrodinger's Time Lords”, an introspective character study of the Doctor and the Master.
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I had the same reaction. And then had to read the whole thing as quickly as possible, a lot of it on my phone.
Well, there is an adorable 2-page fic where Eleven gets accidentally shrunk and has to hide in River’s hair. I can’t find it online right now, but since I download the fics I like, do say if you’re interested. Fortuna favet adparatis.
I may just have to read that...
It absolutely is, and now you leave me no choice but to suggest that at some point, you may also want to duly note my fic “Schrodinger's Time Lords”, an introspective character study of the Doctor and the Master.
SO MANY THINGS, SO LITTLE TIME! (*makes careful note*)
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'Doctor? Sweetie?"
River's voice seemed like a great booming call to and he could feel the ground shake as she walked into the room. "Sweetie?" she called out again. The tiny Doctor waved his arms and yelled back.
"River! River, down here! River! Look! Look over here!" Eventually his admittedly squeakier-than-usual yelling got her attention, and she knelt down to get a better look at him.
"Oh for heaven’s sake, how did you manage this?" She huffed, partly in exasperation and partly in amusement. The Doctor ducked his head and hunched his shoulders, sulking just a little.
"I poked the big flashy lighty thing. To be fair, River, before you say anything, I had no way of knowing this would happen" he pouted. River rolled her eyes.
"Oh good God." She scooped him up -"Woah!"- and dumped him on her shoulder. "You can stay there till we figure out how to turn you back to a reasonable size, Sweetie. Don't want you getting stepped on. Now, let's find Mum and Dad, before they can get themselves in too much trouble."
She began to stride off, and the Doctor clung to her shirt desperately, suddenly more scared of heights than he'd been since his fifth body. The rocking, swaying motion of her walk made him feel simultaneously seasick and dizzy with vertigo. He huddled closer to her neck, curling up against the collar of her shirt, knuckles white as they gripped the material.
The world took on a distorted, disorienting appearance from his new vantage point -everything was so much bigger and more sinister looking, and all the sounds were louder and shook the air around him. If the Doctor was prone to being scared, then he certainly would be right now.
Not that he was, or anything.
And then River turned a corner and came face to face with some sort of horrifying guard animal, with dripping fangs, snapping jaws, and bristling fur. The Doctor took one look at it -all the more terrifying for it being preposterously bigger than him- and started scrabbling for somewhere to hide. He flicked his gaze around desperately, before his eyes landed on River's mass of golden curls.
Her hair was so...magical. And big.
He scrabbled his way up into her hair and nestled into the soft, safe bed of spun sunlight, hiding away in the curls. He heard the sound of gunfire and a body hitting the ground, but he wasn't coming out any time soon. It was safer here.
"You alright up there, Sweetie?"
The Doctor snuggled into her tresses some more. "Yup," he replied simply. River chuckled and shook her head gently.
---
“River!” Amy sprung up from her seat in the crude, metal-barred cell, and River shot the lock to let her and Rory out. They both hugged their daughter.
"Where's the Doctor?" Rory asked, looking around as though expecting him to melt out of the walls or explode out of the ceiling. River grinned and called out in a sing-song tone.
"Oh, Swee-tie!" There was movement amongst her curls, and then the Doctor poked his head out and waved at the Ponds.
"Hello!" He chirped. Amy and Rory gaped at him.
"He's tiny. He's the Doctor and he's tiny. He's tiny and...in your hair. The Doctor's in your hair," Rory babbled. River smiled sweetly.
"Yes, Dad. We'll figure out how to turn him back when we're not being chased by guards, shall we?" As if on cue, sirens began to go off through the complex. The Doctor squeaked, and ducked back into River's hair. She grinned. "Let's go."
---
Later, after they'd returned the Doctor to his proper size -by reversing the polarity of the neutron flow of the big flashy lighty thing that had shrunk him- and were safely back in the TARDIS, Rory had bustled off to make tea (trying to brush off the image of his son in law -which was still weird as hell- hiding in his daughter's hair), and Amy was teasing the Doctor, calling him 'Pixie' and 'Munchkin'. He didn't really notice.
He was busy running his fingers through River's big, magical, spun-sunlight hair.
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