[Doctor Who] Chasing Time

Doctor Who – Chasing Time Part 1
Clara Oswald was ready to go home. She had had several adventures with the Doctor since he had picked her up from the Maitland’s. She entered the Console Room. “Are we almost there?” she asked.

“We are,” the Doctor said, confidently. The TARDIS then came to a halt. “We’re there.”


Clara exited the TARDIS find that she wasn’t where she expected to be. “Doctor!”

The Doctor emerged from the TARDIS and looked at the house which had a façade which was a mirror image of the one which the Maitlands resided in. “Let me check,” he said.

Clara followed him back into the TARDIS. “Where are we?”

“Somewhere in Birmingham, about a month early,” the Doctor said as he looked at the scanner.

“A month? That’s a lot of time to spend on the Slow Path,” Clara considered.

“Too long,” the Doctor said. “But we may be here for a reason.”

“Of course,” Clara said as she used her phone to look at a news website. She found that it didn’t list anything unusual.

“Anything?”

“No,” Clara said with a sigh.

“Let’s try anyway.”


The TARDIS materialised again, across the street a day later. “Obviously we need to be here,” Clara said as she emerged and looked at the house again.

“Maybe we need to talk to whoever lives there,” the Doctor said.


Clara looked towards the setting sun before ringing the doorbell. ‘Should have done this yesterday,’ she thought.

There was no immediate response. “Maybe no one’s home,” the Doctor said. “Maybe we should go back to yesterday.”

“No. I’ll ring it again,” she said. The pressed the button.


Soon the door was opened by an older teenage girl who reminded Clara of herself at that age. ‘Blimey, do I have to jump to conclusions here?’ she wondered.

“Hello,” the girl said as she twirled the end of her ponytail. “Who are you?”

The Doctor got out the psychic paper. “Smith and Oswald Detective Agency. We’ve heard that something out of the ordinary has been happening in this neighbourhood.”

“Really?” the girl said incredulously. “I thought no one was paying attention.”

“What do you mean?” Clara asked.

“My parents wouldn’t listen to me when I tried to tell them about it.”

“Well, we’re here now,” the Doctor said.

“Come in then.”


Lauren wasn’t sure what to make of both the Doctor and Clara. There was something, odd, about the both of them. “Would you like something?” she asked.

“Coffee,” Clara answered.

“Tea,” the Doctor added.

“Sure.”


Having made the hot beverages, Lauren decided to ask more. “So, Clara…”

Clara interrupted. “I heard about something unusual.”

“Is that it? I think there’s something more,” Lauren said.

“Of course, there’s more,” the other one, the Doctor, said. “But what can you tell us about what has been happening?”

“Sure,” Lauren began. She launched into a description of what she had found.


A Week earlier
Lauren arrived home early. It had been an ordinary day at school. She put her pack away and started making afternoon tea. Suddenly, she heard a strange noise. “Huh?” She stopped what she was doing and went to investigate.

Emerging into the back yard, she looked around. Nothing. ‘Strange,’ she thought before heading back inside. Once she had afternoon tea, she heard the sound again. It was the same, but she was sure it didn’t come from the backyard. “Then where is it coming from?” she wondered. She dashed out to the front yard. Strange multicolored lights could be seen nearby.


Later
“And that was just the start,” Lauren concluded.


“Multicolored lights,” the Doctor considered. “That could be anything.”

“What happened next?” Clara asked.

“The sound repeated several times before my parents came home,” Lauren answered, with a twirl of her ponytail. “Then it stopped,”

“Did you record it?” Clara asked.

“I did.”


Clara and the Doctor followed Lauren into her room. The walls were mostly bare, but she did have a nearly full bookcase, along with a toy box overflowing with stuffed animals of all kinds. Lauren opened her laptop. “Here you go,” she said and a strange sound came out of the speakers.

The Doctor was perplexed. He hadn’t heard anything like that before. He was sure.

“You don’t know what it was?” Clara asked.

“I was afraid of that,” Lauren said. “Do you have any idea?”

“No idea,” the Doctor admitted. “Play it again.”

“Sure,” Lauren said.

The Doctor listened again. He still wasn’t sure what it was. “I probably need to examine it in our, vehicle.”

“Oh,” Lauren said. “But I didn’t see any vehicle.”

“You’d be surprised,” the Doctor said.

“Huh?” Lauren asked.


Clara wasn’t sure why the Doctor wanted to show Lauren the TARDIS. ‘Probably just wants to show off.’

The Doctor opened the doors.

“Isn’t that a little small?” Lauren asked.

“Looks can be deceiving,” the Doctor said. “Take a look!” he said gesturing inside.


Lauren looked at the blue box dubiously. She took and deep breath and walked up to it. ‘Illusion?’ she thought as she looked inside. She then stepped inside. She looked around at the impossibly large space. “Bigger on the inside!” she said as she walked up to some sort of console.

“Is it?” the Doctor asked sarcastically behind her.

“Oh! You must have heard that before,” Lauren said as she turned back to him and Clara.

“Quite a lot,” the Doctor said. “It’s hardly original.”

“I guess there wouldn’t really be any other ways to say it,” Lauren considered.

“There would be many ways,” Clara said.

“Of course,” the Doctor said as he went up to the computers in the middle of the room.

Lauren followed him and Clara. “What is this place, then?”

“The TARDIS,” the Doctor explained. “Time and Relative Dimension in Space.”

“So, it’s something to do with time?” Lauren asked.

“It’s a time machine,” Clara explained.

Lauren thought about it briefly. “I suppose if it can be bigger on the inside, it can also travel in time.”

“Yes,” the Doctor said.

“Cool.” Lauren then thought for a moment. “So, we’re going back to when I heard the sounds?”

“Yes,” the Doctor said again.

“Is that a good idea?” Clara asked.

“We’re not going to cross paths with Lauren’s past self,” the Doctor said.


Clara still wasn’t sure it was a good idea. “Probably not, but…”

“Don’t worry,” the Doctor said, as he set the TARDIS in motion.

 

The Doctor wastes no time solving the mystery ... sort of ...