Doctor Who_ Camera Obscura - Lloyd Rose [119]
‘Yeah. Well, you have. I’ve listened mostly.’
‘Well, as long as probability is functioning, then yes, both of us will likely be long dead before this ball could ever go through the wall. We can’t physically wait long enough for the odds to come up. But if the wave function collapses, if “long enough” becomes “now”...’
‘But what could make that happen?’
‘That’s the question.’
Fitz looked closely at the Doctor’s face, trying to discern whether he were having him on. The Doctor turned to meet his gaze. His eyes had that flat, faraway look that always gave Fitz a tiny shiver.
‘Well,’ Fitz said, ‘I’ll leave you to it.’
The Doctor nodded and turned back to the ball. Fitz returned to the kitchen.
Thump. Thwack. Pause.
‘But if the wave function collapses...’ the Doctor murmured.
The ball went, through the wall.
‘Ouch!’ said Fitz.
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Thanks to:
Justin Richards, excellent and patient editor
Todd, for the joke about Fitz and the ball, and more listening while walking by large bodies of water
Jon Blum, who when I told him the story of the magician who hid his heart in a tree suggested the Doctor’s heartless immortality, and whose last-minute readthrough turned the final draft to the penultimate one
Bob Williams, for telling me where to find a camera obscura on film (Michael Powell’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’)
Jon Lellenberg for the loan of his books on nineteenth-century London
Ed Schneider, for technical support
Charlotte, for the gift of the book on English carnivals
Chuck Jones, in memorium
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About the Author
LLOYD ROSE is the pen name of Sarah Tonyn who, with her two sisters Nora Penefrin and Doe Pamine, has left the treacle well to take up residence in the charming English village of Adverse Camber. Someday they hope to go to Moscow.
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Published by BBC Worldwide Ltd
Woodlands, 80 Wood Lane
London W12 0TT
First published 2002
Copyright © Lloyd Rose 2002
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Original series broadcast on the BBC
Format © BBC 1963
Doctor Who and TARDIS are trademarks of the BBC
ISBN 0 563 53857 0
Imaging by Black Sheep, copyright © BBC 2002
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Mackays of
Chatham
Cover printed by Belmont Press Ltd, Northampton
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Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Epilogue