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Oct. 25th, 2015 03:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolariTonight's episode of Dr Who reminded me of a story idea I got during last season, with the "I'm checking up on your companions" remark.
Doctor pops into Clara's kitchen unannounced, sneaks around and catches Clara on the phone with someone other than Danny Pink, and she immediately hangs up on them hearing the Doctor. He asks who she's talking with, and she lies: Danny Pink. "Oh, well, no problem. How about a trip to Metebelius III? They have the bluest crystals in the universe. Can't imagine why I haven't been there in so long."
Clara actually says no...and this takes the Doctor aback. "Fine, I'll...check out those spiders myself...OH. THATS WHY I NEVER WENT BACK." They have a somewhat uncomfortable goodbye, and on the way into the TARDIS, Clara begins dialing a number again. He becomes curious.
Being the kind of jerk he was last season, he attempts to eavesdrop on her call, only to get a burst of static. The call is encrypted! He attempts to trace the call only to see it's bouncing all around the globe via fiber, satellites, copper wire, everything. All in an attempt to obfuscate where the calls are coming.
Obviously Clara is under control of whatever nefarious force she's talking to - only one organization on earth could help him figure out what's going on. UNIT. He pops into Kate Stewart's office and asks for help tracking a possible alien invasion force trying to hide communications on Earth. As he describes what he finds, Kate becomes more and more worried, but not about the organization - but about the Doctor. She begins trying to swerve him away from investigating the calls. He realizes that whatever got to Clara has obviously gotten to her, too.
He begins visiting various points around the Earth where the calls are being routed, a real life public call box, a small green automated switchbox in a suburban area, a pay phone in a pub, a lone pay phone in the middle of a desert...each time, the he just gets encryption static.
He realizes that all encryption can be broken, it's just a matter of time. He records thirty minutes of signal from the lone payphone in the middle of the desert, and sics the TARDIS computer on it...by setting it to go back to January 1st 1550 and giving it four hundred or so years to decrypt it. He steps out of the TARDIS, and it dematerializes to 1550.
Then he looks around - if he sent it to this spot in 1550, why isn't it here in 2015? Then stupidly realizes "it wasn't here when I got here, so obviously it didn't land here. I THOUGHT I FIXED YOU!" He looks around, and sees a glimpse of blue among the red desert, about two miles or so away. "THERE YOU ARE!"
He begins slogging through the desert towards, mumbling to himself. "Who could be trying to take over the earth's communications? Why? Daleks? They've already taken over the earth in 2150. Cybermen maybe...they do like their handlebar antenna. Sontarans! They fought with UNIT before, maybe they'd infiltrate this time instead of of fight! That must be it!"
By the time he makes it to the now dust covered TARDIS, he's convinced something horrible is about to happen. He walk in and asks to see the results of the decryption. It's incomplete...it's much more complex than just a simply two way stream of information...twenty times in fact. EXACTLY twenty times more. And there's video information as well. But, it's all earthbound. Not off planet at all. The Doctor is dejected - "Oh, I did want to see those Christmas Puddingheads again."
The TARDIS has manage to decrypt some words in the stream. "Doctor" "TARDIS" "Clara" "Tegan" "Coal Hill School" "Blue Crystals" "Eye of Orion"
...."Blue Crystals?"
THE SPIDERS! THE SPIDERS ARE BACK! THAT MUST BE IT. They travel through portals, so they wouldn't NEED an invasion from space. But he needs more information. Knowing that there are possibly twenty streams and video, he tries to narrow down information coming from just one stream if at all possible and sends the TARDIS back to 1550 again without him before realizing "Oh, now I've got to walk again...."
He spots the TARDIS, again, about two miles away, and while walking, talks himself into a frenzy (where we'd explain what Planet of the Spiders was and how he would plan to defeat them again ("They nearly killed me last time, and that's when I decided scarves would be great fashion accessories, lets not do that again").
He gets there, and the TARDIS has managed to decode several audio streams, as well as two video streams. He asks for a playback of one of the audio streams. The TARDIS refuses...he keeps asking it too, and it still won't. He yells at it once, and suddenly the Cloister Bell alarm goes off.
"They've gotten to you, too, haven't they....there must be something in the signal, something that reprograms minds, and Ive just given it 1000 years to work on you...."
Suddenly the cloister bell stops and everything returns to normal.
"........no?"
Nothing.
"If you won't play it for me, take me to someone who can explain."
The TARDIS takes off, and lands him back in Kate Stewart's office. "But she's affected by whatever this is!" The doors fly open - the TARDIS wants him to go out to her.
He walks out and tells Kate "I've decrypted the signals...but...I can't listen to them. I know there are twenty (Kate looks dejected), I know they are video signals (Kate looks resigned), and I know it's the SPIDERS (Suddenly Kate just looks very confused).
"Spiders?"
"SPIDERS! COME, I'LL SHOW YOU!"
He hustles Kate back into the TARDIS. "She's here - play her back what we've decrypted! She can explain it."
Nothing.
".....please?"
Suddenly the monitor goes live: the recording is Clara talking into what appears to be a video phone. "He's gone...was going on about blue crystals and spiders. I think I've managed to distract him, though."
We hear an older but familiar voice on the other end: "That can be so hard to do when he gets on a tear about something. Good work."
Kate interrupts the playback. "Stop. Stop the playback. Doctor...come with me."
She walks out back into her office. The Doctor keeps looking at her back, watching for the Queen Spider that's obviously taken her mind. "What I'm about to show is not something ever really meant for your eyes. I'm going to ask you to please keep this to yourself, and not mention it to anyone you may see in the transmission. This is not only above top secret, but only for the eyes of the people involved. And since you're unfortunately involved...it's not a complete breach of protocol...although maybe some ethics."
She flips a switch - all windows slam shut with thick metal shutters. Her Big Screen TV separated into twenty different squares, which, very slowly begin to fill in ("Our decryption routines are rather complex for this, so it takes time for the keys to assert themselves"). One is Clara, talking about their latest adventure...she actually seems...happy...and reminiscent?
Suddenly another square decrypts. "You are so lucky, Clara...it was hell at first, but eventually, I came back for more trips in that deathtrap myself." It's Tegan Jovanka, now much older, but much wiser.
Another square fills in - Jo Grant: "He only came back for me thirty years later! He said I looked like I'd been baked."
Another square fills in - Dorothy McShane, aka Ace: "I haven't seen the Professor for so long. I wonder what he's been up to all this time?"
Another square fills in - Ian Chesterton: "Gallivanting about making trouble for someone no doubt."
At that point another square fills in, but Kate turns the viewer off right away. "You don't know that one yet...you don't think they stop talking about you when you leave them, do you? They need a release, a support group. Something to keep them sane when they go back to their mundane lives. Only UNIT has the resources to coordinate this - and encrypt it...and, until anow, keep it from you."
"But no spiders?"
"No spiders."
"Good, I hate spiders."
Doctor pops into Clara's kitchen unannounced, sneaks around and catches Clara on the phone with someone other than Danny Pink, and she immediately hangs up on them hearing the Doctor. He asks who she's talking with, and she lies: Danny Pink. "Oh, well, no problem. How about a trip to Metebelius III? They have the bluest crystals in the universe. Can't imagine why I haven't been there in so long."
Clara actually says no...and this takes the Doctor aback. "Fine, I'll...check out those spiders myself...OH. THATS WHY I NEVER WENT BACK." They have a somewhat uncomfortable goodbye, and on the way into the TARDIS, Clara begins dialing a number again. He becomes curious.
Being the kind of jerk he was last season, he attempts to eavesdrop on her call, only to get a burst of static. The call is encrypted! He attempts to trace the call only to see it's bouncing all around the globe via fiber, satellites, copper wire, everything. All in an attempt to obfuscate where the calls are coming.
Obviously Clara is under control of whatever nefarious force she's talking to - only one organization on earth could help him figure out what's going on. UNIT. He pops into Kate Stewart's office and asks for help tracking a possible alien invasion force trying to hide communications on Earth. As he describes what he finds, Kate becomes more and more worried, but not about the organization - but about the Doctor. She begins trying to swerve him away from investigating the calls. He realizes that whatever got to Clara has obviously gotten to her, too.
He begins visiting various points around the Earth where the calls are being routed, a real life public call box, a small green automated switchbox in a suburban area, a pay phone in a pub, a lone pay phone in the middle of a desert...each time, the he just gets encryption static.
He realizes that all encryption can be broken, it's just a matter of time. He records thirty minutes of signal from the lone payphone in the middle of the desert, and sics the TARDIS computer on it...by setting it to go back to January 1st 1550 and giving it four hundred or so years to decrypt it. He steps out of the TARDIS, and it dematerializes to 1550.
Then he looks around - if he sent it to this spot in 1550, why isn't it here in 2015? Then stupidly realizes "it wasn't here when I got here, so obviously it didn't land here. I THOUGHT I FIXED YOU!" He looks around, and sees a glimpse of blue among the red desert, about two miles or so away. "THERE YOU ARE!"
He begins slogging through the desert towards, mumbling to himself. "Who could be trying to take over the earth's communications? Why? Daleks? They've already taken over the earth in 2150. Cybermen maybe...they do like their handlebar antenna. Sontarans! They fought with UNIT before, maybe they'd infiltrate this time instead of of fight! That must be it!"
By the time he makes it to the now dust covered TARDIS, he's convinced something horrible is about to happen. He walk in and asks to see the results of the decryption. It's incomplete...it's much more complex than just a simply two way stream of information...twenty times in fact. EXACTLY twenty times more. And there's video information as well. But, it's all earthbound. Not off planet at all. The Doctor is dejected - "Oh, I did want to see those Christmas Puddingheads again."
The TARDIS has manage to decrypt some words in the stream. "Doctor" "TARDIS" "Clara" "Tegan" "Coal Hill School" "Blue Crystals" "Eye of Orion"
...."Blue Crystals?"
THE SPIDERS! THE SPIDERS ARE BACK! THAT MUST BE IT. They travel through portals, so they wouldn't NEED an invasion from space. But he needs more information. Knowing that there are possibly twenty streams and video, he tries to narrow down information coming from just one stream if at all possible and sends the TARDIS back to 1550 again without him before realizing "Oh, now I've got to walk again...."
He spots the TARDIS, again, about two miles away, and while walking, talks himself into a frenzy (where we'd explain what Planet of the Spiders was and how he would plan to defeat them again ("They nearly killed me last time, and that's when I decided scarves would be great fashion accessories, lets not do that again").
He gets there, and the TARDIS has managed to decode several audio streams, as well as two video streams. He asks for a playback of one of the audio streams. The TARDIS refuses...he keeps asking it too, and it still won't. He yells at it once, and suddenly the Cloister Bell alarm goes off.
"They've gotten to you, too, haven't they....there must be something in the signal, something that reprograms minds, and Ive just given it 1000 years to work on you...."
Suddenly the cloister bell stops and everything returns to normal.
"........no?"
Nothing.
"If you won't play it for me, take me to someone who can explain."
The TARDIS takes off, and lands him back in Kate Stewart's office. "But she's affected by whatever this is!" The doors fly open - the TARDIS wants him to go out to her.
He walks out and tells Kate "I've decrypted the signals...but...I can't listen to them. I know there are twenty (Kate looks dejected), I know they are video signals (Kate looks resigned), and I know it's the SPIDERS (Suddenly Kate just looks very confused).
"Spiders?"
"SPIDERS! COME, I'LL SHOW YOU!"
He hustles Kate back into the TARDIS. "She's here - play her back what we've decrypted! She can explain it."
Nothing.
".....please?"
Suddenly the monitor goes live: the recording is Clara talking into what appears to be a video phone. "He's gone...was going on about blue crystals and spiders. I think I've managed to distract him, though."
We hear an older but familiar voice on the other end: "That can be so hard to do when he gets on a tear about something. Good work."
Kate interrupts the playback. "Stop. Stop the playback. Doctor...come with me."
She walks out back into her office. The Doctor keeps looking at her back, watching for the Queen Spider that's obviously taken her mind. "What I'm about to show is not something ever really meant for your eyes. I'm going to ask you to please keep this to yourself, and not mention it to anyone you may see in the transmission. This is not only above top secret, but only for the eyes of the people involved. And since you're unfortunately involved...it's not a complete breach of protocol...although maybe some ethics."
She flips a switch - all windows slam shut with thick metal shutters. Her Big Screen TV separated into twenty different squares, which, very slowly begin to fill in ("Our decryption routines are rather complex for this, so it takes time for the keys to assert themselves"). One is Clara, talking about their latest adventure...she actually seems...happy...and reminiscent?
Suddenly another square decrypts. "You are so lucky, Clara...it was hell at first, but eventually, I came back for more trips in that deathtrap myself." It's Tegan Jovanka, now much older, but much wiser.
Another square fills in - Jo Grant: "He only came back for me thirty years later! He said I looked like I'd been baked."
Another square fills in - Dorothy McShane, aka Ace: "I haven't seen the Professor for so long. I wonder what he's been up to all this time?"
Another square fills in - Ian Chesterton: "Gallivanting about making trouble for someone no doubt."
At that point another square fills in, but Kate turns the viewer off right away. "You don't know that one yet...you don't think they stop talking about you when you leave them, do you? They need a release, a support group. Something to keep them sane when they go back to their mundane lives. Only UNIT has the resources to coordinate this - and encrypt it...and, until anow, keep it from you."
"But no spiders?"
"No spiders."
"Good, I hate spiders."
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Date: 2015-10-25 05:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-11-07 03:43 pm (UTC)