The Plain People--Chapter Four

DOCTOR WHO : THE PLAIN PEOPLE
Chapter Four : "Too Many Doctors Spoil The Broth"
by Joel Aarons

 "Horror grips us as we watch you die
All we can do is echo your anguished cry
Stare as all human feelings die
We are leaving, you don't need us..."
"Wooden Ships" - Crosby, Stills & Nash (Crosby/Stills)

 Tegan thought he was joking. She glared at the Doctor but he just looked back in a vague and confused way. "Tegan, what's ... what's happening to me?"

 When the Doctor asked her what was happening, Tegan got very worried indeed. She pulled him towards a chair. "Listen, Doctor, you'd better sit down."

 The Doctor sat down, but didn't seem to notice her. He put he hand to his forehead, and then drew it sharply back as if shocked. He looked at his hand, and then tentatively touched his temple again. Tegan looked on alarmed.

 "Doctor? Doctor, are you alright?!"

 The Doctor, seemingly satisfied that neither his hand or his temple were any great danger, slumped in his chair. "I don't know, Tegan. There's something here, something at the tip if my mind ... " he broke off staring into space "... if only I could remember!"

 "Maybe we should get back to the TARDIS and get you sorted?" suggested Tegan.

 "The TARDIS, yes ..." the Doctor rose unsteadily to his feet, and then sat abruptly down. "No, no I have to know what's happening here. Look, find Sgt. Benton and get him to contact the Brigadier. Things may be worse here than I feared ..." The Doctor then sat back, closed his eyes, and drifted into (what seemed like) sleep.

 "Sgt. Benton?" wondered Tegan. She realized he must have meant Turlough, but in his confused state just got it wrong. It was just like when she and Nyssa caught him wandering the TARDIS corridors after he fell from the ...

 Tegan's eyes widened.

 No, not again! It couldn't be ... She found a blanket and made the Doctor comfortable before heading off to find Turlough. She glanced back at the Doctor before she left. He looked so sweet and peaceful ... she shook her head. She'd been feeling strange all day. It was like she was thinking someone else's thoughts ...

 

Turlough stood slowly -- watching the two new figures. They advanced menacingly towards him and the girl. Turlough scrambled through his pockets trying to find something he could attack the scarecrows with. What he found, though, was a battered tin whistle he still had from his time at the Boarding School. With nothing to lose, he drew in a deep breath to blow ...

 

Filler groaned as he shifted the walkie talkie to his other ear. "... Yes ... yes, I understand Minister, however I assure you the situation here is grave and I really must insist ... but ... well, maybe if you could contact the Brigadier, sir and let him know ... yes sir, I understand he's in an important meeting but ... I understand sir, but ... right, well if you could just let him know when he's out ... yes, thank you, sir." Filler switched it off before the Minister could get in another word.

 The Doctor, Jo's Doctor, looked on with an almost pitying look. "I did try to warn you old chap."

 Bill leaned on Bessie, giving the Doctor a tired grin. "Yes Doctor, I do believe you did."

 The Doctor, wearing an eyeglass, was fiddling with a small gadget of some sort, making adjustments with a screwdriver. He snapped the back of the device shut, and dropped the glass into his hand. He put a conspiritorial arm around the American man.

 "Why don't we try and sort it out ourselves before the red tape gets untangled." Filler looked curiously at the Doctor's device in his hand. "What is that, Doctor?"

 The Doctor smiled broadly. "Just something to track down high power energy emissions. The Master is probably too clever to let something so obvious slip, but just in case ... "

 He broke off as a loud whistle pierced the calm of their Amish surroundings. Both men looked at each other for a moment, before racing off in the direction of the barn ...

 

The noise was deafening. The scarecrows didn't seem alarmed, so much, as confused. It gave Turlough the time he needed. He grabbed one of the "wooden" scarecrows turned the cross so he was holding the straight piece of wood in both hands, and then raced forward, knocking both figures to the ground.

 The figures, groaned, but made to get up. Turlough then noticed a control device on the neck of the men and copied the Doctor's trick of tapping the device. Both figures slumped to the ground. Turlough drew in an uncertain breath and went to tend to the girl. Bending down to examine her, he heard her mutter something about Ogrons and Daleks, and calling out softly for someone called Mike. How the girl could know about Ogrons and Daleks, Turlough decided to ask later. He shook her gently, and when this didn't rouse her, he slapped her lightly on the cheek. She opened her eyes and looked at him in confusion. "What ... what happened?"

 "You were hurt," replied Turlough, a little quickly. "Are you okay?"

 The girl struggled to sit up. "Just about ..."

 Suddenly the barn burst open and two men raced in. Turlough grabbed the wooden cross again, but the tall older man, wearing the ridiculous fancy get up, disarmed him quickly. He looked at Turlough curiously for a second, and then went over to the girl. She had a small smile on her face as the man helped her up. "You need to teach me that Venusian Judo of yours, Doctor," she whispered "I do seem to wind up in trouble a lot."

 The man hugged affectionately her. "Then who would I save? I'd be out of a job ..."

 The other, younger man with a square jaw, helped Turlough to his feet.

 "He helped me," explained the girl. "I think he's okay."

 "Bill Filler," said the young man, by way of introduction.

 "Turlough." was all Turlough could manage.

 The other two came up to join them. The girl stuck out her hand. "Jo Grant and this here is the Doctor."

 Turlough raised his eyebrows a fraction. "He is not the Doctor."

 The Doctor rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Well in that case, my young chap, who exactly do you think I am?"

 

The dark figure watched the exchange on the monitor and slammed a gloved fist into his palm. "The fools! This will ruin everything. If the boy leads the Doctor to his future self, then they might ... " he broke off, as a thought crossed his mind. "No, actually this might be exactly what I need ..."

 The man snapped his fingers and Anthony appeared in the doorway. "Yes, Master?"

 "Anthony, follow them into the village. Report back everything they say and do."

 Relieved that, for once, he wasn't asked to do more killing, he readily accepted and raced off. The Master chuckled. This might just all work out after all.

 

"TURLOUGH! TURLOUGH!!!!" Tegan glanced around, hoping to find someone to direct her to her ... companion, when she noticed a curious thing. The village was empty. There was not a sole person in sight. She closed the door behind her, and went off to find the boy. Unbeknown to her, two figures crept after her ...

 

The Doctor bent down to examine the fallen attackers. He removed the implant from one of them and studied it. "Some kind of mind control ..." he muttered.

 Turlough gave a forced laugh. "Oh very good, exactly as the Doctor said. You're so fake its incredible!"

 The Doctor gave the boy a hard stare, before turning to Jo and Filler. "Right, this is what I want you to do. Take the energy detector and walk around the village. If you find anything, don't investigate, just back to me, alright."

 Jo looked worriedly at the Doctor. "What about you?"

 The Doctor smiled and then looked over at Turlough. "There are things I need to discuss with this chap. Go on then, off you go."

 Giving the Doctor a last worried look, Jo allowed her to be led away by Filler. The Doctor's smile hardened as he turned to Turlough. "Now then, exactly why are you so sure I am not who I say I am?"

 Turlough smirked. "Because I know the Doctor. I travel with the Doctor. And you're, well, you're nothing like him."

 The Doctor buried his head in his hands for a moment, and then looked up at Turlough. "That doesn't necessarily prove anything. Are you the same as you were ten years ago?"

 "Well ..."

 "There you are then. What you need, old chap, is a crash course in bio-regenerative processes. What I want in return is for you to tell me why you and the, er, Doctor came here."

 

"... Sarah, Sarah, I'm sorry. I was too late. I couldn't stop it ... I sent you in there, you and Harry ... " The Doctor woke with a start and looked around him. The blanket was discarded on the floor and Tegan was nowhere to be seen. The Doctor stood, breathed in and out and then made for the door. There was something familiar about all this ...

 

Turlough struggled to keep in pace of the long strides of the man who claimed to be the Doctor. They were on their way to find Tegan and ... well ... the Doctor. Turlough was not convinced that the man in front of him was the Doctor was well. The regenerative powers he casually described were nothing short of preposterous. Much more likely, however, was this man was the Master, the evil renegade Tegan and the Doctor described. Hence his familiarity with the Doctor and the TARDIS. As they walked on, though, Turlough thought back to their conversation.

 "You're not human are you?" asked the imposter-Doctor. Turlough started. "I mean, you're not from this planet, this time, are you?"

"How can you tell?"

 "Certain mannerisms, certain characteristics, not hard to look for if you're looking for it."

 Turlough didn't know what to say to that.

 "Where are you from?" asked the man.

 Turlough nearly said, but he'd kept it from so many, even the Doctor. He merely told the Doctor the spatial co-ordianates, not mentioning where it was they were going. The Doctor seemed puzzled, but he did not press. Now this man asked him, and if he didn't tell the Doctor, there was no way he was going to tell him -- so he clammed up.

 The imposter looked at him thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. "Secrets are all very well. But I learned not so long ago that secrets can cage you up more than any prison." The man looked off in the distance. "For a long time I wouldn't even speak of who I was and where I was from. I was denying my own heritage, my own culture. The Time Lords are lazy, boring and cretinous -- but they are my family. Even though they have imprisoned me here, on this planet, in one place -- in one time, I find it hard to totally disown them. If I were on the high council, I might have done the same thing ..." The man looked back at Turlough. "Don't let your life become one big secret. Because, sooner or later, people will not care and neither will you."

 Turlough pondered this as they reached an ancient-looking yellow roadster. The man concentrated for a moment, and then waved Turlough towards him. "Come along, this way." Turlough couldn't hold back a grin. If this man turned up not to be the Doctor after all, he was doing a damn good job at it ...

 

After failing to find Turlough, or any other semblance of life, Tegan returned to the room where she left the Doctor. Only to find him missing.

 "Oh that's great! That's bloody marvelous!" she fumed. "Can't you just stay in one bloody spot for one bloody moment?!" She stormed out of the door only to run into Turlough and a man she found strangely familiar.

 Turlough brushed past her. "Where's the Doctor?"

 She glared him. "How would I bloody know? He's made off somewhere, we have to find him."

 The tall man nodded. "If we are both here together, without him realizing it, its no wonder he's feeling a little off."

 Tegan stared at the man. "You're the Doctor!"

 Turlough allowed himself a small shock to the system, after which he collapsed into the chair defeated.

 The man smiled. "And you are?"

 "Tegan, Tegan Jovanka."

 "Nice to know someone around here recognizes me."

 Tegan pulled out of her pocket a small disc, and when she switched it on, a small holo appeared of the tall Doctor with his arm around a small blond girl and a weird kind of alien with one monstrous eye. The Doctor smiled gleefully. "Yes, yes, that's Jo and myself on Peladon. Dear old Alpha said I could keep it."

 Tegan smiled slightly. "The Doctor ... well, my Doctor said I could hang on to it as a souvenir."

 "By all means, but we must be off. Don't want to keep myself waiting ..."

 "My dear Doctor, how could I postpone the pleasure."

 They all whirled around to see a small man, dressed in black, with an evil pointed beard. Tegan did not recognize him, but she recognized the TCE he held in his hand. Well, if this was what the Doctor was like before, there was no reason why this couldn't be the Master ...

 The Master grinned at all of them, and ushered them all into the next room where there was a beautiful Victorian dollhouse. Tegan could see very clearly a twisted small figure slumped into a miniature armchair.

The Master laughed out loud. "I've done it Doctor. I've done it to your future, and I will do it to you now. Finally, I have destroyed you!"

 Inside the dollhouse, the fifth Doctor lay dead, shrunken and shriveled. The Doctor looked on in total shock.

 "It must be a trick," muttered Turlough.

 The Doctor put a hand to his head and then looked back at the dollhouse. "This is no trick. That's me in there. The Master has finally won . . . "

 "And as the final curtain falls behind my eyes . . .
Oh when I'm old and wise . . ."
"Old and Wise" - Alan Parsons Project

 So ends this chapter....

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