Doctor Who_ Christmas on a Rational Planet - Lawrence Miles [98]
‘Something about... "this old body of mine is wearing a bit thin". And I said, there’s no such thing as magic. Are you listening?’
The street stayed solid as the Doctor approached Catcher’s house, as if responding to his will. In those places that must have been on the edges of his vision, shadow-puppets and cave paintings were scratching themselves onto the walls of houses.
‘I’m listening,’ said the Doctor.
‘There’s no such thing as magic,’ repeated the shadow.
‘You said so yourself. Remember?’
Eighth Man Bound is played by an ‘Initiate’, who sits at the centre of a circle of his Academy classmates, the circle being known as ‘The Inquiry’. A suitable ambience is created, usually with a simple symbiosonic generator. The Inquiry then attempts to create an identity crisis in the mind of the Initiate; a common tactic is to repeatedly chant the Initiate’s name, until that name becomes meaningless – perhaps even horrifying – to its owner. The Initiate’s personality is violently dissected, his memories questioned and disassembled.
Occasionally drugs are used to affect his psychological state.
The Doctor nodded. ‘Of course I remember. I said it on the Avalon colony, just after I’d been attacked by a fire-breathing dragon. I said it again at Devil’s End. And again on the prairies of Pakha.’
‘ "This a bit old body wearing of mine is thin". So he gets himself a new one? Do me a favour! And d’you still believe it, Doc? D’you still believe what you said about the magic, now that you’re older, and there’s a hundred planets where they reckon you’re a top-of-the-range sorcerer? Now that you’ve taken your first steps towards Merlinhood, like?’
The Doctor sighed. ‘You’re very tiresome.’
‘Leave it aaaahht, Duchess! He really is a witch-Doctor, isn’t he? You fabricated us, remember?’
‘Only as a convenience.’ The Doctor indicated the darkness around him. ‘If I don’t give some form to this... madness...
then I’ll probably lose my mind. And, frankly, I’ve given the Valeyard enough escape opportunities as it is.’
‘Is that all we are to you, then? Just "form"? Just shadows?
Just things that help you get a grip on reality? Is that all any of us ever were? Do me a favour. Stone the crows.’
In most species, the Initiate’s experiences in the circle would be enough to trigger a nervous breakdown. However, Time-Lord bodies are tailored to rebuild and regenerate themselves in times of crisis. The stress of the Eighth Man Bound ritual causes chemical reactions in the Initiate which fool his biology into thinking that something has gone very, very wrong. As The Inquiry’s inquisition continues, the Initiate’s body enters a state of flux, its genetic structure becoming unstable and preparing to regenerate.
‘Cor blimey, Duchess, we’re in a right old state and no mistake.’
‘Stop it,’ said the Doctor, stopping in front of the door to Catcher’s basement. ‘You’re embarrassing me.’
‘Accidentally pricking yourself with infected needles at precisely the right time. Being snatched from the jaws of doom by stupid twists of fate. Serendipity and synchronicity.
NOTHING IS RANDOM, AND NOTHING IS LEFT TO
CHANCE. Going to bother knocking? Leave it aaaaaaaahhht!’
The trick of Eighth Man Bound is for the Initiate to keep himself in this state of flux for as long as possible, balanced
‘between bodies’, as it were. While a Time Lord is in this state, there is an unusual rapport between his conscious mind and the genetic data that has been programmed into his body.
For a few brief moments, the Initiate will glimpse his biological destiny, seeing snatches of his own future regenerations. Eighth Man Bound is a game of exploration, in which the Time Lord – deprived of his original identity – goes in search of the alternative identities he may one day possess.
The Doctor reached out for the door.
‘Ironic, isn’t it?’ a shadow suddenly said. ‘I mean, the way you gave up your umbrella just when it would have been useful.’
‘Thank you for pointing that out,’ the Doctor hissed.
‘Almost as if you wanted to get