Life on Mars and Doctor Who talk about time.
I've got a craving to write a Life on Mars scenelette, except the more I think about it and try to rationalize it, the more plot it gets.
Basically, what I want is a simple conversation about time. I want Sam to finally talk honestly to someone who takes him seriously. (Yes, I know Annie sometimes believes him, but it never gets to the wholly-and-completely level.)
The conversation would be a simple laying out of what's going on with him, the phenomenon as a whole. It'd touch on all those points I kept hoping Gene would pick up on, anyone would pick up on, and just call Sam on them. People need to talk more, and listen more.
So I figure the best person to listen to this would be a time traveler. And to be honest, my first thought wasn't the Doctor. It was Rose. Or someone Rose-like. Maybe because she's just so much heart and compassion and she'd understand the whole getting-stuck-in-the-wrong-'verse* situation. Except, of course, putting Rose there would be incredibly tricky. (ETA: Actually, not at all. Just not that Rose)
There's a few ways we can get someone like this in the picture.
The first is an original character, just some random time traveler. If we want to keep it in the fandom, there's always the Time Agency. (There's also a dozen other scenarios, like a sort of time explosion getting Character there, or an out-and-out alien, like in Neil Gaiman's How to Talk to Girls at Parties.)
If we want this to be more obviously in the Doctor Who fandom, it could be a companion of the Doctor's. For once, a trip goes without greater hitches than the Companion getting momentarily separated from the Doctor, and thus going to a pub and meeting Sam. This could very well be Rose, though not necessarily.
And finally, it can be the Doctor himself, alone. In this case, the realization of just what Sam's situation is would be bigger, more immediate and more fully understood than with a Companion.
In these latter two cases, it would be decided by the other character that Sam's either a) doing just fine in 1973 or b) can't or mustn't go back to his own time. Maybe because it was all meant to be in the first place, because there's been no paradox as yet (despite Sam meeting baby!Sam), or more simply because there really is just no way to fix it. Especially because Sam's in both times simultaneously, making this not your average time-flunk. Now that's a paradox to ruffle the Doctor's hair.
We could add a bit of explanation or speculation to this last glitch, maybe introducing the Stone Angels of Blink (which I've always called "Quantum Angels" because gods know what their real names are). Maybe an Angel didn't quite get him, or it was an immature one, or something like one, that got him back in time but not entirely. The failed Angel attempt may also explain why, once he does get back to his own time, he doesn't feel alive, like he's not really there or truly alive.
Anyway, there's be discussion about how Sam got there, whether he could go home, whether there is or isn't a paradox, if he's going mad, if it's all meant to be and, finally, if he's stuck there.
* And the wonderful metaphors we could do with songs and verses with this concept. Even adding The Planet of the Ood's "Your song will end."
Basically, what I want is a simple conversation about time. I want Sam to finally talk honestly to someone who takes him seriously. (Yes, I know Annie sometimes believes him, but it never gets to the wholly-and-completely level.)
The conversation would be a simple laying out of what's going on with him, the phenomenon as a whole. It'd touch on all those points I kept hoping Gene would pick up on, anyone would pick up on, and just call Sam on them. People need to talk more, and listen more.
So I figure the best person to listen to this would be a time traveler. And to be honest, my first thought wasn't the Doctor. It was Rose. Or someone Rose-like. Maybe because she's just so much heart and compassion and she'd understand the whole getting-stuck-in-the-wrong-'verse* situation. Except, of course, putting Rose there would be incredibly tricky. (ETA: Actually, not at all. Just not that Rose)
There's a few ways we can get someone like this in the picture.
The first is an original character, just some random time traveler. If we want to keep it in the fandom, there's always the Time Agency. (There's also a dozen other scenarios, like a sort of time explosion getting Character there, or an out-and-out alien, like in Neil Gaiman's How to Talk to Girls at Parties.)
If we want this to be more obviously in the Doctor Who fandom, it could be a companion of the Doctor's. For once, a trip goes without greater hitches than the Companion getting momentarily separated from the Doctor, and thus going to a pub and meeting Sam. This could very well be Rose, though not necessarily.
And finally, it can be the Doctor himself, alone. In this case, the realization of just what Sam's situation is would be bigger, more immediate and more fully understood than with a Companion.
In these latter two cases, it would be decided by the other character that Sam's either a) doing just fine in 1973 or b) can't or mustn't go back to his own time. Maybe because it was all meant to be in the first place, because there's been no paradox as yet (despite Sam meeting baby!Sam), or more simply because there really is just no way to fix it. Especially because Sam's in both times simultaneously, making this not your average time-flunk. Now that's a paradox to ruffle the Doctor's hair.
We could add a bit of explanation or speculation to this last glitch, maybe introducing the Stone Angels of Blink (which I've always called "Quantum Angels" because gods know what their real names are). Maybe an Angel didn't quite get him, or it was an immature one, or something like one, that got him back in time but not entirely. The failed Angel attempt may also explain why, once he does get back to his own time, he doesn't feel alive, like he's not really there or truly alive.
Anyway, there's be discussion about how Sam got there, whether he could go home, whether there is or isn't a paradox, if he's going mad, if it's all meant to be and, finally, if he's stuck there.
* And the wonderful metaphors we could do with songs and verses with this concept. Even adding The Planet of the Ood's "Your song will end."