Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
It’s Day 10 of ‘Bradley’s Basement’s Advent Calendar 2017.
Today we continue the ‘The Fifth Doctor’s Story’ in ‘The Five Doctors At Christmas’ by venturing into ‘Part Ten’. Last time, the TARDIS materialised in New York City for Christmas. The Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Billy stepped out to find themselves as heroes of New York. But is the praise too good to be true? 🙂
‘The Fifth Doctor’s Story’ of ‘The Five Doctors At Christmas’ is set after ‘Chieftain’s Caves’.
Enjoy!
Check out what my Day 10 of my ‘Bradley’s Basement’s Advent Calendar for 2015 and 2016 were about!
Tim. 🙂
Part Ten
The Doctor, Nyssa and Billy found themselves in their New York apartment on the east side of Manhattan. It was a very luxurious apartment. The Doctor was examining the furniture and mantelpiece within the apartment, which had a box of toffees conveniently laid out for them.
“This is nice,” Billy said. “I never expected us to be living in luxury in New York. We seem to be lucky.”
“Yes,” Nyssa replied. “And because we’re heroes! I couldn’t believe the news stories Mr. Marest was showing us to keep us up-to-date on what we’d done to gain this position.”
Apparently, according to the news stories, the Doctor, Nyssa and Billy had saved New York from an armada of Daleks and Cybermen attacking the city before Christmas began. It took them three days to defeat the monsters, but they fortunately won.
“Yeah,” Billy said. “And we haven’t done anything to save New York from Daleks and Cybermen. Perhaps it happens in the future. I mean…our future…when we save New York.”
“It must be,” Nyssa concurred. She then turned to the Doctor, who was standing by the mantelpiece, looking thoughtfully at the box of toffees he had just opened. “What do you think, Doctor?” she asked. “Is all of our saving New York about to happen in our future?”
The Doctor didn’t say anything for a while, as he was considering his thoughts on the matter. He eventually gave his answer.
“I’m not convinced we saved New York from Daleks and Cybermen, Nyssa; Billy,” he replied. “In fact, I’m not convinced that we are in New York.”
“What?” Billy said, surprised. “How can you be so sure? We saw the news stories. They looked real with all that real-life footage they got of us fighting Daleks and Cybermen. That’s got to be us!”
“News stories can be faked, Billy,” the Doctor stated. “Digital footage can be faked. Someone could be conjuring up something to make us appear as heroes to the citizens of New York. Again…if this is New York at all!”
“Yes,” Nyssa then piped up. “I can see what you mean, Doctor. I wasn’t sure about that theme song they put on for us when announcing our heroism in saving the city. It felt…too energetic for my liking. Making us look energetic. As if we excessively fight Daleks and Cybermen with ‘POW’ and ‘ZAS’!”
“Just like they do for the ‘Batman’ TV series with Adam West,” the Doctor added. “We can’t be that convincing.”
“‘Batman’ TV series with Adam…who?” Billy asked.
“Way before your time, Billy,” the Doctor told him. “Don’t worry about it.”
“In any case,” Nyssa then pointed out. “What evidence do you have that all of this is an illusion and not real New York as it seems to be.”
The Doctor was rather glad that Nyssa had asked that question at that moment. At that cue, he picked up the toffee box from the mantelpiece, opened it and showed it to Nyssa and Billy. He placed it on the coffee table before Nyssa and Billy sitting on the sofa.
“Look at these toffees in this box,” the Doctor told them. “Tell me if you find anything unusual about them?”
Nyssa and Billy examined the toffees inside the box before them. They took a while before making any conclusions.
“I can’t see anything wrong with them,” Billy stated. “They look like ordinary toffees to me.”
“Really?” the Doctor said unconvinced. “Look again!”
Billy took another look. He still couldn’t find anything wrong with them. But then Nyssa noticed something.
“The texture of those toffees is all wrong,” she said. “It’s rather thin layered. Not strong as a normal toffee would be.”
She then picked up one of the toffees and examined it closely in her hand. She then took a piece of the toffee from the box and began to pop it inside her mouth.
“Don’t swallow that piece, Nyssa,” the Doctor told her, “Whatever you do.”
Nyssa took the Doctor’s advice as she made sure she didn’t swallow the toffee piece she had popped into her mouth. She felt the texture of the piece with her tongue. It had a tangy taste about it. Eventually, she took the piece out of her mouth and placed it onto the table with a tissue underneath it.
“Doctor,” she then looked up at him. “These toffees are imitations, aren’t they?”
“Exactly,” the Doctor replied. “They’re made of wax these toffees.”
Billy brightened up. “What?! Like in that film with Laurel & Hardy called ‘Sons of the Desert’? Where Stan Laurel ate an apple that was made of wax?”
“Spot on, Billy,” the Doctor declared. “And I imagine these waxworks of toffees are meant to poison us. Or knock us out completely for whoever wants us to be taken away to their base of operations.”
“You seem to have worked this out thoroughly, Doctor,” Nyssa observed.
“I have, haven’t I!” the Doctor replied. “And it’s all very disturbing, I assure you.”
“What can we do now then?” Billy asked. He and Nyssa didn’t feel comfortable living in luxury in their apartment now.
“Well,” the Doctor then suggested. “The first thing we need to do is not to eat anything that’s in this apartment. Secondly we keep our wits about us. That in mind, we can…”
At that moment, the Doctor trailed off mid-sentence. He seemed to be distracted by something. Nyssa and Billy noticed this and went over to the Doctor with concerned faces.
“Doctor, are you alright?” Nyssa asked him. “What’s wrong?”
“Hey, Doctor,” Billy waved his hand over the Doctor’s face. “Wake up! Wake up for us!”
But the Doctor didn’t respond.
“The Doctor’s caught in a trance, Billy,” Nyssa observed. “It’s like he’s in some kind of telepathic conversation.”
And indeed he was. For in the Doctor’s mind, he could see a young-looking man with dark spiky hair, wearing glasses and a pinstripe suit before him. The young man seemed in earnest as he relayed his message to him.
“Listen to me,” the young man said excitedly. “Listen to me, Doctor! This is me…well you…I mean, you in the future. Anyway, you’ve encountered me before during that time crash with our TARDIS!” He paused for a bit and then continued. “You need to beware of two things. One: the man in disguises. B…no, two: the little boy Simon is the key!”
“Simon?” The Doctor uttered the word stiffly in his trance. “Who’s Simon?”
But at that moment, the young-looking man in pinstripe was gone from the Doctor’s mind. And very soon, the Doctor, Nyssa and Billy were gone too as they were teleported out of their New York apartment…
TO BE CONTINUED…
© Tim Bradley, 2017
Bradley's Basement 