Doctor Who_ Island of Death - Barry Letts [11]
„So what is “this thing”,‟ said Sarah. „What is going on?‟
The Doctor was peering with a slight frown at a dial on the console, where a needle flickered to and fro. „Mm...‟ he said,
„The relativity circuit of the temporal balancing governor has been playing up a bit... Oh well! In for a penny...‟
The doors closed, the centre of the control column started to move up and down (albeit a little shakily), and the TARDIS
started to sing the song with which it always started and finished its journeys, like the desperate cry of some alien elephant in agony.
It stopped.
„Bombay!‟ said the Doctor, tuning in the monitor that would show them what awaited them outside. „That‟s odd,‟ he said, as a wide landscape of dried-up grass appeared, punctuated by a twisted tree. „I programmed in the co-ordinates of VT, as they call it.‟
„VT?‟ asked the Brigadier.
„Victoria Terminus Station. Think of St Pancras filled with a Wembley football crowd. Some people live their whole lives there. Nobody‟ll notice us tucked away in the corner.‟
„Come on then,‟ he added, striding towards the opening door. „No sense in hanging about.‟
Sarah waited for the Brigadier to go out in front of her. Let them find out where the TARDIS had landed! But before she‟d gone two steps, she heard a shout of alarm and the pair of them erupted back through the door, the Doctor making a dive for the controls.
The door slammed shut, and the entire TARDIS lurched as something - what, for Pete‟s sake! - hurled itself at this intruder into its domain.
Sarah, thrown to the floor by the shock, cast a look at the monitor. „That‟s a lion!‟ she said.
„A very large lion,‟ said the Brigadier, grimly picking himself up.
„But there aren‟t any lions in India.‟
„Of course there are,‟ said the Doctor impatiently. „We must be in Bombay Zoo.‟
„Rubbish!‟ said the Brigadier.
„Aha! Got it! The temporal governor‟s stuck again. We‟re still on the Greenwich Meridian!‟
Sarah‟s mind did a quick flick through her admittedly small stock of geographical facts. „So we‟re in Africa?‟
„Well of course we are!‟ said the Doctor, busy checking the relevant sections of the errant circuit. „As far as the time dimension was concerned we haven‟t moved at all. Didn‟t they teach you anything at school?‟
And there she was thinking she‟d been so clever!
„Just let me know when we get there,‟ said the Brigadier, parking himself in the only chair in the control room, stretching out his legs and closing his eyes.
„No need to be sarcastic, Lethbridge-Stewart. We‟ll be at VT
Station in two shakes of a sluggerlug‟s tail.‟
I‟m just not going to ask. I wouldn‟t give him the satisfaction, thought Sarah, as the TARDIS started trumpeting again.
Jeremy had often been abroad. Even before his father died (when he was only six), they used to go to his flat in Cannes every summer; and Mama had kept up the custom, even though, as she said, it was more like Margate these days.
But this time a flight of over fifteen hours was followed by a jolting, sticky coach ride from the airport, which took them through acres and acres of shanty town. The „houses‟ seemed to be custom-built out of cardboard and scraps of corrugated iron, and the atmosphere stank of fresh poo! He longed for Hampstead. He‟d been so happy there! Well mostly.
Especially after the daily celebration and the love-in. Why did they have to leave?
„Pretty idle lot, the natives,‟ he said to Paul, the long-time Skangite with hair down to his shoulders and a thin straggly beard, who sat next to him on the coach. „You‟d think they‟d want to smarten the place up a bit, wouldn‟t you?‟ he went on.
His remarks were met with a slight frown. „They do their best, chum,‟ said Paul. „And if that‟s your idea of loving kindness for our brothers and sisters, strikes me you‟ve missed the point.‟
„What did I say?‟ thought Jeremy glumly, as Paul turned away and looked out of the window again. They were all the same, this lot. Self-righteous bunch. He never seemed to do anything right.
He slumped down in his seat, and tried to comfort