Doctor Who: The Dark Dimension
Part I: May Memory Restore Again and Again
“Something has gone very wrong with time, Rachel. I don’t know exactly how or when, but I know. And we must do all that is in our power to fix it.”
- The Fourth Doctor speaking to Rachel and the Brigadier, after the Chronovore alters the Doctor’s personal history.
On Earth in the year 2148, humanity is nearly extinct. One of the few remaining rebel groups treks across the wasteland. Their leader, Summerfield, discovers a body on what appears to be a battlefield. Turning it over, she recognises that it is the Eighth Doctor. The group holds a funeral for the Doctor, sending his body off to sea, setting it on fire. Summerfield tells the group that they must “finish what he started”, and begin tracking the creature that killed him.
They track the being down, finding it to be made entirely of chronal energy, a Chronovore. Hypothesizing that sending it into the time vortex would kill it, Summerfield sends it back in time with an improvised time corridor. Unbeknownst to her, the being survives the journey, and arrives in England in 1937, where it takes over the body of Professor Oliver Hawkspur, a professor of Physics. Hawkspur sets off, travelling to the Pharos Project, averting the Fourth Doctor’s fatal fall. Suddenly, there is a white flash.
On Earth in 1993, the Fourth Doctor, travelling with his companions Dr. Rachel Vance and the Brigadier, realises that his personal history has been altered, but is unsure as to how. The Earth of this alternate 1993 is far more chaotic, as it is seen that Hawkspur has altered history to put himself into power on Earth, allying himself with a myriad of the Doctor’s foes. The Doctor recalls his personal history, finding memories forming of his second and third selves battling Hawkspur and losing.
During his work for the Celestial Investigation Agency, the Second Doctor is helping a group of refugees flee from the Sontaran-Rutan war. While evacuating one group, he finds that the battle has abruptly stopped, and is confronted by a squadron of Sontarans. In order to save the human refugees, the Doctor allows himself to be captured. The Sontarans take him to their ship, where Hawkspur reveals that he has put an end to the war, and has rallied the two against a common foe, the Doctor.
The Third Doctor is working with UNIT, researching psychic energy, and decides to visit Professor Herbert Clegg, a man who has developed psychic powers. While en-route, he is contacted by the Brigadier, who tells him that UNIT is under attack from giant spiders. Returning to assist UNIT, the Doctor is met by Hawkspur. Hawkspur tells the Doctor that he intercepted the package containing the Metebelis crystal, and has given it to the Eight Legs, in exchange for an alliance. Hawkspur grabs the Doctor and they disappear, leaving UNIT to be overrun.
Part II: The Smallest Colour of the Smallest Day
“I’ve lived many lives, but what I’m remembering, they’re not lives I’ve lived. Perhaps they are the lives I might have lived, had things gone differently. No, the lives I should have lived. If we can, we must save them.”
- The Fourth Doctor realises the significance of his new memories.
The Fourth Doctor, Rachel and the Brigadier hide in an abandoned London Underground station while Hawkspur’s forces patrol. The Doctor begins to receive visions of himself, but with faces he cannot recall.
The Fifth Doctor lands on the planet Androzani Minor, suddenly finding that Peri is missing. He searches the caves for her, but is captured by General Chellak after a short pursuit. Chellak takes him to Trau Morgus, who controls the mining business on Androzani Minor. Morgus keeps the Doctor under guard by androids until his “benefactor” arrives. The benefactor is revealed to be Hawkspur, who has aided Morgus by altering events to increase demand for Spectrox. In exchange, Hawkspur wanted Morgus to capture the Doctor when he arrives.
The Fourth Doctor realises that Hawkspur is capturing his past selves for some unknown reason, and begins to create a plan to free them. He tells Rachel and the Brigadier of another version of himself he saw that might be able to give them an advantage.
The Seventh Doctor arrives on the planet Karn, having received a call from across the universe. However, he finds nobody there to greet him, and decides instead to investigate the nearby castle. The castle itself is of Gallifreyan design, and the Doctor finds a cache of weapons designed by Morbius. The Doctor decides to return to the TARDIS to get equipment to safely dispose of the weapons, but is confronted by Hawkspur en-route. It is clear to the Doctor, however, that Hawkspur is unaware of the weapons, and is there for him. The Doctor manages to escape, fleeing to Earth in 2164, during the Dalek invasion of Earth. However, he finds that Hawkspur has followed him there, and takes him after the Doctor is cornered by a squadron of Special Weapons Daleks.
The Fourth Doctor realises that the faces he does not recognise are his future selves from the “correct” timeline, and that Hawkspur is intervening in history to capture every version of the Doctor from shortly before their regeneration. What Hawkspur intends to do with them, however, he does not know. He tells Rachel and the Brigadier to organise with the local rebel bands to stage an assault on Hawkspur’s fortified Houses of Parliament, from which he rules the world. While they object, the Doctor tells them that they will have a better chance of defeating Hawkspur if they know his plans, and they cannot do so without one of them confronting him.
The Doctor leaves, letting himself be captured by a patrol, who take him to Hawkspur.
Part III: Time is the School in Which We Learn
“A wise man from this planet once said ‘Time is the fire in which we burn’, Doctor. I am your fire Doctor. A testament to all of you and your kind’s damage to time itself. And now, I am here, and I will burn Gallifrey to ash, and I will make you, every version of you that ever has or will exist, watch as I destroy the Time Lords.”
- Hawkspur reveals his plans.
The Fourth Doctor is brought before Hawkspur. Hawkspur reveals that he (the Chronovore) manifested as a result of the damages to the Web of Time, and it is his purpose to rectify them. The Time Lords, he elaborates, are the cause of almost all of the damages, and so he intends to completely obliterate Time Lord society. As many of the species of the universe also hold grudges against the Time Lords, he has gathered them into a coalition to destroy them.
The Fourth Doctor is taken to a prison cell, where he finds four (Second, Third, Fifth, Seventh) of his other selves. The Fourth Doctor reveals that he is native to this timeline, unlike the others, and has the memories of each of them being captured. He also tells them that Hawkspur is unaware of the weapons on Karn, and suggests that they use the knowledge of the weapons as a distraction to get Hawkspur away from Earth momentarily.
The Fourth Doctor has another vision, this time of the Eighth Doctor. The Eighth Doctor arrives on Earth in 1986, fleeing the Chronovore. He soon finds that the Cybermen that are invading have a design much different to how they should from his memories. As he rushes to disarm the Z-bombs that the Cybermen plan to use to destroy Earth, he is captured by a group of Cybermen. He is taken aboard one of their vessels, where the Cyber-Commander comments that this is “the second Doctor that they have captured” and decides to kill the first. Hawkspur appears, having been informed of the Doctor’s capture. The Cyber Commander reveals that as they have captured two people that match the descriptions given, they have “disposed” of the first one they captured. Hawkspur rages at them, stating that he required both the First and Eighth Doctor, but will now have to make do with just the Eighth.
The Eighth Doctor is brought to the cell by Hawkspur. While Hawkspur is in earshot, the Fourth Doctor mentions the weapons on Karn. Hawkspur returns to the cell, taking the Fourth Doctor, demanding that he show him where the weapons are on Karn. They appear on Karn, where the Doctor begins to lead Hawkspur to the castle, via a circuitous route, hoping to buy as much time for his alternate selves as possible.
Back in the cell, the Second Doctor feigns injury to lure in a guard. When the guard enters, the Third Doctor takes him out with Venusian Aikido, and the five Doctors still in the cell escape. The Fifth Doctor tells the Eighth that they have been told to give a signal to the rebels, that will lead to an assault that should allow for them to escape the building. The Seventh Doctor sneaks into a communications room, broadcasting a coded message. Shortly after, the rebels attack, leading the guards in the building to defend it, leaving the Doctors free to work unimpeded. The Fifth and Seven Doctors go to a medical room to grab supplies for the rebels, instead finding their Sixth self, who has been injured by a gunshot. The Seventh Doctor recognises this as the injury that led to the Sixth Doctor regenerating.
The Second and Third Doctors begrudgingly work together to find their captured TARDISes. They find that the vault containing them is still under guard, but the Second Doctor distracts them by playing his recorder, allowing the Third Doctor to take them out and open the vault. Meanwhile, on Karn, the Fourth Doctor leads Hawkspur into the castle, revealing the cache of weapons. As Hawkspur takes stock of them, the Fourth Doctor is rescued by the Third Doctor in his TARDIS. Hawkspur rages again as he realises the deception.
The other Doctors take their own TARDISes, with the Sixth Doctor momentarily patched up by the Fifth and Seventh. The Fourth Doctor returns to Rachel and the Brigadier, who reveals that although they have the upper hand for now, there is still work to be done is defeating Hawkspur.
Part IV: Time is the Fire in Which We Burn
“A small sacrifice to make, for my own continued existence, don’t you think? I know now that my future is in safe hands.”
- The Fourth Doctor realises what he must do to defeat Hawkspur.
The Fourth Doctor picks up Rachel and the Brigadier, to whom he explains that he and his other selves are splitting up for the moment, but are going to reconvene on Earth in 2148, which they have identified as the point where the Chronovore is most vulnerable.
Hawkspur returns to his fortress, finding that all the Doctors have escaped. He tracks them to 2148 Earth, where he originally killed the Eighth Doctor, creating this new timeline. Hawkspur travels there, finding the seven Doctors waiting for him. As he goes to attack the Second Doctor, he finds himself trapped inside an energy field. The Fourth Doctor explains that they knew he would follow them there, and improvised a device to trap him in chronal energy. Hawkspur attempts to teleport out with his abilities, but is unable to. The Fifth Doctor activates a device, causing the TARDISes to transmit beams of chronal energy into Hawkspur, hoping to obliterate him from the timestream, removing any effects of his ever existing.
However, the energy empowers Hawkspur, who is then able to break out of the energy field. He declares that the Doctor will not live to see Gallifrey burn, and disappears. The Second Doctor suddenly disappears too, and the Doctors realise that Hawkspur is erasing the Doctor from history. The Fourth Doctor realises that Hawkspur could be destroyed by a time ram from a TARDIS, but doing so would destroy the version of the Doctor that did so, and their TARDIS too. The Eighth Doctor initially volunteers, but the Fourth Doctor says that he must do it instead, as this version of him would vanish when the timeline is destroyed. The Fourth Doctor bids farewell to his other selves, Rachel and the Brigadier, returning to his TARDIS. There, he performs a time ram on Hawkspur, obliterating the Chronovore, and erasing the changes he made to history.
The Eighth Doctor wakes up in his TARDIS with Rachel, retaining his memories of the event. However, he realises that his existence is still at stake, as while the Fourth Doctor no longer survives his fall from the Pharos Project, he is not regenerating, as the Watcher seems to be absent from history. He echoes the words of the alternate Fourth Doctor he met, and tells Rachel that he must leave her, on Earth, remarking that he may return for her some day, but that he will be different.
The Eighth Doctor travels across his own time stream, observing the events leading up to his fourth regeneration. Due to his existence still being undecided, he cannot properly be perceived by the Doctor or his companions, instead appearing as a ghostly white figure. The Eighth Doctor intervenes to ensure that events play out as they should, finally arriving before the Fourth Doctor, dying. The Doctor’s injuries are stopping the regeneration process from beginning, but the Eighth Doctor realises that he can cause it by providing “a little push” as K’ampo had for his third regeneration. However, as the Doctor is unskilled, he cannot do so without causing himself to regenerate.
The Fourth Doctor sees his future self, remarking “It’s the end, but the moment has been prepared for”, as the form of the Eighth Doctor becomes clearer to him. The Eighth Doctor provides the ‘jump-start’ for his fourth regeneration, and returns to his own TARDIS, weakening as his own regeneration process begins. As he collapses on the floor of his TARDIS, he is engulfed by white light, then awakens renewed in a new body. The Ninth Doctor is here.
AVERY BROOKS is THE NINTH DOCTOR
Cast of The Dark Dimension:
The Fourth Doctor – Tom Baker
Professor Oliver Hawkspur – Malcolm McDowell
The Eighth Doctor – Siddig El-Fadil
Dr. Rachel Vance – Gillian Anderson
The Brigadier – Nicholas Courtney
The Second Doctor – Patrick Troughton
The Third Doctor – Jon Pertwee
The Fifth Doctor – Peter Davison
The Sixth Doctor – Christopher Lloyd
The Seventh Doctor – Hugh Laurie
The First Doctor – William Hartnell (archive footage)
The Ninth Doctor – Avery Brooks
So, this timeline is one year old, and the timing of this ended up working really well. Biggest Doctor Who yet, and I'm pretty happy with the story. All the Doctors get a chance to shine if the actor wants it. Also, as you can tell, you sort of shifted me over with the First Doctor. While he only appears tangentially, as the First Doctor is killed, I thought I'd bring him in anyway. Also, you finally know who the Ninth Doctor is, and why Avery Brooks couldn't play Sisko when he was offered the role. I'd be more than happy to hear your feedback on the story. There's a few pretty blatant references to OTL's Star Trek Generations with the episode titles and the quote Hawkspur gets. I've also tied up the "what is the Watcher?" question, which may annoy some of you, but I think it bookends the story nicely. Hawkspur stops the Doctor from dying there, and the Doctor decides to die there twice. There's a lot of stuff here that will be important down the line, but that's all to come. Next update, casting for Season 28 of Doctor Who. Then a bit of a break from Who and Trek for a couple of updates.