Doctor Who_ The Adventures of Henrietta Street - Lawrence Miles [142]
The Doctor, say the stories, emerged from the transition on the slope of a hill much like that on which the Church of Saint Simone had been built. He was weak, at first, and finding nobody around him he was forced to sit down on the dead and blackening grass. Looking down into the valleys below, he saw the whole of the Kingdom of Apes laid out before him. He saw the English roads collapse into the architectures of Vienna and Rome, as dark-pelted animals lazily ripped apart the frescoes and cloisters. Beyond that he saw the coast, an ocean of slurry with a harbour created out of the presence of Sabbath and his ship. He even saw the Square – alarmingly described as being much like the Place du Carrousel in Paris, site of the guillotine in years to come – where an enormous throne of bone and dirt had been erected, and where the Doctor could ostensibly see the bloated King of Beasts himself, howling out orders to his minions.
It was while the Doctor sat and observed these things that he found somebody approaching him. A man was walking towards him across the grass of the hill, a man with a blue-and‐white rosette on his lapel. The four versions of the story differ wildly as to what the man had to say, one claiming that he simply congratulated the Doctor on his wedding, the next maintaining that he’d come to announce the beginning of the final, apocalyptic battle. The third version, its provenance unknown and its text found only in the ‘Sabbath Book’, is stranger still. It records the conversation in detail, incomprehensible as much of it is.
DOCTOR: Have we met? I’m sorry, my memory isn’t what it was. I shed most of it a long time ago.
THE MAN: Met? Oh, I’d say so. Believe it or not, we used to know each other quite well.
DOCTOR [with recognition?]: Good grief.
THE MAN: Ah. Spoken like the man I used to know.
DOCTOR: You’ve lost that terrible beard, then.
THE MAN: But of course. I have whatever it is you lack. And vice versa. Have you forgotten? Oh, I’m so sorry. You’ve forgotten everything, haven’t you? [Irony?]
DOCTOR: You’re behind all this? No, of course you’re not. Not your style at all.
THE MAN: Here, Doctor, I’m simply a guest. Thank you for the invitation, by the way. Most touching. Admittedly, I would have preferred something more personal…
DOCTOR: And would you mind telling me what that rosette’s meant to be?
THE MAN: A sign of my allegiance to the great Whig cause. I’ve become an exponent of democracy.
DOCTOR: Why does that not sound convincing?
THE MAN: My dear Doctor, I’m telling you the truth. I told you. I have to offer the universe whatever you can’t. If you’ve decided to take on the colours of your new sweetheart, then it’s up to me to side with the Opposition. Perhaps one day you’ll consider destroying the universe. Then I’ll be in the awkward position of saving it.
DOCTOR: You don’t expect me to believe that, surely?
THE MAN: Your friend in red came closest to the truth. What does she call you, again? Her ‘elemental champion’? Very perceptive of her. There are only four of us left now, you know. Four of us in all of the universe. We have certain standards to uphold.
DOCTOR: Then I suppose you’re going to say that you don’t want to kill me.
THE MAN: It’s hardly the time for that any more, wouldn’t you agree? While our kind still walked tall, we had the whole of space and time as our battlefield. These days, I’m afraid our little duels would be utterly meaningless. You’ve met Sabbath, of course.
DOCTOR: Yes. He reminds me of you. I think.
THE MAN: How interesting. He reminds me of you. Our replacement, Doctor. The new breed. All our kind in one, and a mere human being, too. We can hardly return to our old routines, with his kind