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‘Introductions. First, this is Admiral Summerfield.’

A short, blond man looks up from behind the counter. He is wearing a black military jacket of some kind. He gives a small smile. ‘And Tony.’ A taller, bearded man in a red T-shirt smiles and says ‘Hi’. ‘I’ve told you a bunch about them, so, here they are. Admiral, where’s Graeme?’

The blond man rummages behind the counter for a moment. ‘Here you are, son,’ he says. Joel’s hand appears in frame. Isaac passes him something, and he holds it up in front of the camera. It’s a white plastic spatula, glued down the middle. ‘The Doctor put him back together with some of my aeroplane glue. So he’s fine.’

The camera swivels round to cover one of the coffee shop’s tables. ‘Please, no autographs,’ says an English voice, belonging to a woman in her thirties. On the table in front of her is an empty coffee cup, a battered exercise book, and a large pile of yellow stick-on notes. She pretends to hide behind her fingers. The rough-chinned man with her smiles at the camera.

‘Okay,’ says Joel, ‘this is Jason Summerfield-Kane, and this is Bernice Kane-Summerfield. Say hello to my folks.’

‘Hello to my folks,’ they chorus. Jason buries his face in his hands while Benny waves at the lens.

‘And what are your plans?’ says Joel, in his best interviewer voice.

‘We’re off back to the twentysixth century tomorrow,’

says Benny. She peels another of the yellow notes from the book. ‘I’ve got to finish my degree. But we’re planning to visit.

A lot. With our son... when he comes along.’

Jason grins, showing off his gold tooth. ‘We’ll have to work on that one a bit,’ he says, wiggling his eyebrows.

Benny, blushing under the camera eye, gives her husband a look. ‘So long as a certain someone doesn’t lose the boy again.’

Jason smirks. ‘I suppose I’m lucky Benny came back, after having a chance to sleep with the Doctor.’

‘You’re not still going on about that!’ says Benny exasperatedly. ‘It was about as erotic as hugging a gasping fish.’

‘Oh yeah?’ says Jason. ‘Well’ there was this time that I met this —’

Benny puts her hand over the camera lens. ‘This isn’t suitable for parents.’

Joel pulls back. ‘And next we have Christopher Cwej and Roslyn Forrester, who I’m not supposed to tell you much about except that they’re from the future. I guess C19 will cut out any bits of this tape which contain stuff you shouldn’t know, anyway.’

The large, muscular man with the fair hair waves enthusiastically, while the short black woman just smiles in amusement. At first you might take them for an odd couple.

But their familiarity is of a different kind, the easy comfortableness of two old, good friends.

‘Tell us your plans for nineteen eighty-four,’ says Joel.

‘Well,’ says the woman, ‘I plan to put a telescreen in each home and control your every thought.’

Chris groans. ‘We’re leaving with the Doctor, of course,’

he says. ‘After we see the new year in. We had a great time.

Everybody here is really cool, Mr and Mrs Mintz, so don’t worry about a thing!’

‘That would certainly reassure me,’ comments Roz, ‘if my son fell through a crack in time. Tell me, Mr Cwej,’ she says, turning to her friend, ‘what do you think about fatherhood?’

‘Well, I —’ He stops, peering at her. ‘Er. You don’t —!’

She smiles at him. He looks as though he’s about to faint.

Roz turns and looks into the camera with a satisfied expression. ‘Got him,’ she says.

Static.

‘Sorry about that,’ says Joel. ‘Had to change the battery.’

The camera moves around again and focuses on a small, dark-haired man’ sitting at the table closest to the front of the shop. Admiral Summerfield has joined him. They are drinking coffee together.

The man reaches up to tip a hat that isn’t on his head, and settles for a shy wave at the camera. ‘This is the Doctor,’

says Joel, ‘who’s going to tell you how I ended up in nineteen eighty-three. Aren’t you, Doctor?’

‘’Scuse me,’ says someone behind Joel, accidentally jostling him as they