Doctor Who: the Eternal Champion recap....(Part 3)

First, we get to meet Betty's biological sister......

Inquirer

Found that Neysa had stowed away, wanting to thank the Doctor and all of us for getting her free of the Master. We'd left her to go with the Enterprise to be looked after (and eventually returned to her home).....but..... She slipped through the cracks during all that last minute madness on getting the Enterprise folks away.....

Back to Betty, Ragan, and siblings we go.

Rather took a while for them to hash out what was coming along with Betty and Ragan and what Betty's biological sister got. Ragan wanted to take the Blake 7 videos (eh....I got to say I didn't expect all this B7 stuff today....) Betty wanted her Doctor Who stuff (great research material, that). While I'm very much interested in the Doctor and all that (very much interested).....I'd feel like I'd be....violating his privacy by trying to watch those videos. Better to let the Doctor tell about himself. That and I feel that Betty and Ragan are the best people for this task. I have no desire to undercut them there and we all agree that they are the best for intelligence on situations we'd probably not have otherwise. Now, it's not always going to be 100 percent, but.....it's a far better thing than none at all....in my professional opinion.

Anyway, after that was settled, the cats brought in (and wards set to keep them out of dangerous areas and such), Ragan getting a special hat (genuine Indiana Jones....trust Sigin to have a flair for stuff like that), and a few other things....we went off then on a much needed vacation.....and a bit of a shopping spree. See, I'd been needing to get a few things to better....well.... I'm retired but it would be kind of nice to have some tools of the trade of my old job.....just in case.....

Well, had a fun time getting the last item on the list (a automatic phone dialer which didn't work properly.....but made for a great phone tapper defeating device). That done, we then see the sights in San Franscisco! I and the Doctor finally get together for an official date..... Still smile a special smile at those memories. The man has.....charm....and much more....

.......

Er...where was I?

Anyway, that said, that's when we ran head on into the first of what I can only term as....movie crossovers into real life! Or rather, real life imitating the movies! See, on Betty's world the movies Sneakers and Enemy of the State were never made! See, the writers would have get a shallow grave somewhere remote if they'd tried..... A.....conspiracy was....happening.

......

I and the others of my family....and the community that I'd belong to (and still do in a sense) in the Military Intelligence are related to the NSA. That is, the agency that I worked for in the Military had roots in the NSA back Home (back during those mad days after the Enemy attacked, the Military inherited the NSA's assets and people....the largest and perhaps finest collection of code crackers and code makers of the time). I actually take pride in that heritage and we all lived by a code of conduct. A sense of right and wrong one must follow. A matter of honor....

Some in this world hadn't learned.....or had conveniently overlooked it.

Frankly, it horrified me what those SOBs were doing. I and Elrondir took more than a bit of pleasure in stopping those SOBs......

Long short, we ran into a man who was Martin Bryce (aka Martin Bishop from Sneakers). His and the other Sneakers movie counterpart was more handsome according to some standards I have onfile..... We met him just as he got thrown out of that car (see the movie....I'm not repeating all here for you) after that meet with Cosmo (old friend turned enemy when a prank blew up in his face....Martin got away....Cosmo got arrested....went to jail). We soon aided those people. We went off to get the Item, and not only get it but made sure that Cosmo got his!! Guy's had a lot of stuff in his computer files....Elrondir did an alteration here and there and.....oh boy! Cosmo better have turned himself in for the Witness protection he'd need. Not the best of solutions....but at least he's getting some grief for those deaths he'd caused and such!! Soon after in getting the Item back (a super code breaker ahead of it's time.....very ultra-obsolete now-a-day by Military standards....still available to lower security and counter intrusion needs in the Civilian realm) and woke the Sneakers all up (knocked them out magically.....would have gotten in the way....trust me)....just as Abbot showed. Sneakers and the "good guy" NSA agents got into an argument about who should get the Item and why. Frankly, I didn't think any side should have had it...... Too dangerous. Abbot might, somehow, get intercepted and that Cabal within the NSA (the people Abbot's faction was fighting against). During no period did I think that Abbot would use it for evil means. Heard his voice when we quized him earlier..... Gut instinct: he's sincere. Bishop.....well, he'd mean well, but he'd soon, I'm sure, use the Item to do all sorts of jackass things. Go back to old jokes that got him in so much trouble as before. He'd be dead within a week if he'd bankrupt the Republicans. Oh, not for the bankrupting, but for having sent up a flare telling that Cabal that somebody had the Item. I'm pretty sure that they'd find him rather quickly....or would n't stop until if it took a bit of doing.....

I decided for them.

Burned it up right before them. Left with them still stunned and swearing.

Love doing that....

The others liked it to, actually. The Doctor definitely liked it!

Our good deed for the day done and not really having any desire to further muck about in such dark matters, we'd kind of outstayed our dubious welcome....and it best we left.

Still having a desire to play and DM a Torg game (Betty had wetted my interest), we went forward in time to DC where a friend who'd helped with making the revised rules was. Betty was able to get the samples. Great. We then proceeded to continue our interrupted vacations and....well....the Doctor and I went back to dating.....long walks.....diners. That's went we (I and the Doctor) fell across yet ANOTHER crossover. This time Enemy of the State, some of the same players I'm sure (the Cabal was involved). We proceeded to do what we could to stop loss of life and protect those innocent from being hurt! We shut down that one bastard and his cronies who'd killed Hammersly and then frame Dean for crimes he'd not committed..... with the aid of Brill (boy....that guy was hard to get to come along when we went into his place....) See, Brill had equipment that I had....but it was set up.... Mine wasn't.... Simple. Saw reason and all that after we explained and showed what was at stake. Even put in a good word or three (nothing to give Brill's position away.....just good words) for his old friends back in the NSA...

Anyway, in the mop up, I've got to say, I rather enjoyed Sigin swooping down on one baddy and safely carrying him and his jeep back to us. Smashing the still running engine had been a nice touch.....

We'd left Renolds (the bastard) dopey on spells to make him spill all he known....and be happy about it. Do hope that Abbot can use all of it to smash that Cabal. That and help Dean clear his name.

Never will know for sure. After leaving a few gifts (a donation of money from the leftover funds AND the interest of some decades of deposit.....got to love the TARDIS...as well as some stuff to tell about how WE knew about some of what was going on).....we left back to the Doctor What's universe (after dropping off Leela to her home planet, her duty to her world calls) to aid Leela with Xoanon and all that. She and the other humans on that unnamed planet would be needing our help according to what Betty and Ragan had said.

We arrive. We meet Leela. WE.....got a few curve balls.....some of them LARGE ones. Things like Leela calling the Doctor the Evil One despite that in the TV show it being the fourth Doctor. My Doctor is in his third Regeneration, but Leela's people had a legend about that stuff.....sort of. Net effect was that she had recognized the Doctor, and it took a bit of doing to get her to trust us. Time enough for the hunting party going after Leela to capture Sigin when he'd not been able to hid well enough. Poor hunters and tribe..... Never pays to get a dragon angry at you. He'd had things well in hand with his dragon form and magic when we caught up with him (scared the crap out of them.....keep them from attacking or interfering in us helping).

....

Well, sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do, even if ordinarily it would be a bad thing.

More and more curve balls when we finally get up to the mouth of that Idol which lead to Xoanon. The Sevateem's jungle enclave, Xoanon, and his silvery ship somehow were now in Nantucket!! Not only any Nantucket, but I saw it was the Nantucket from Island in the Sea of Time! Yeah, the book! That, and when the blasted anti-grav transport deposited us right in the freaking middle of town....we not only meet the natives.....but a group of Champions (led by Queen Aster herself) leading.....Roland the Gunslinger and his gangs to the very Dark Tower.... Er, who is Roland? Ever read King's The Gunslinger series?

No?

Nor that other book?

Well, read them sometime. I'm not going to ruin it for you.

The blasted anti-grav transport gets fixed finally by the Doctor with minimal interference (it pays to have a fan in the crowd with influence and enough brains to believe the Time Lord when he says we need to stop some danger ASAP). We don't stick around much to speak with the other Champions....because they were from the FUTURE! About ten year in the future, by Terra Prime calender. Wouldn't due to have a time paradox hit us with everything else!

We bamboozled our way past the worshipful Tesh despite them knocking Leela and Betty out by making them that after they'd messed up when they'd done that. Told them we needed to take Leela to the "holy of holies" in order to cleanse her and make her suitable for Xoanon. WE got up to the "holy of holies", the Sacred Heart (Xoanon's computer core) and the Doctor was able to (with considerable pain) gauge the poor dears insanity (uh....I'm always a bit sympathetic to those who've lost their marbles and can't help themselves in the harm they met out). That done, we gather needed materials. We avoid capture. Leela and B'elanna head off back to the Enclave to stop the Phantoms who'd broken through the barrier protecting the Sevateem. Stop that and the insanity that Xoanon inflicted whenever he'd take over somebody over there at random it seem. Wishing them luck as they leave, the two go. The Doctor plugs in to suck out the part of the leftover personality that's driving the poor super computer batty...... WE......we....

We run into trouble. Xoanon resists to long and too strong. The Doctor gets what he'd been after. Only in the course of things, the computer core got cracked and Xoanon was now not only still insane....but in some considerable pain. Was looking like I'd have to play a leathal hand to Xoanon by introducing him to the worst computer virus ever seen (i.e. the Scott Chen virus, would burn out every circuit in a computer). Even that might not be fast enough to halt the explosion of the nuclear engines. Xaonon was going to be free of his miser one way or another....see. Only the mutters of the Doctor about that blue crystal he'd been carrying around saved the day.

It has healing abilities. Can clear one's mind, Betty and Ragan say. Sigin was able to use it to uncrack the core and bring sanity to an insane situation....and Xoanon. We gather up the Doctor (who's out of it from that struggle with Xoanon) and the others back at the Enclave and vamoose along with Leela (she had gotten to rather like us and what she'd see out beyond her village) to back to Dr. What's Gallifrey (we'd gotten translocated to another universe here and needed to get back there to see if we could interest Romana in aiding us in the future)...

The Doctor had only recovered recently when he had a vision of the Lord President of Gallifrey being assassinated. Betty said that it was something out of the episode The Deadly Assassin and knew what was going on....

Uh....it.....kind of was like what she remembered in the TV show....but.....

No, first thing first.

We quickly decide after the Doctor comes out of it that we must use this to "rope in" Romana in aiding us. See, we needed to maximize our chances against our opponent. We need Romana! We know that her abilities were what could or would make a difference if it came down to "crunch time" and things started to go wrong. A man's life was at stake, so the Doctor did something of a replay of the vision episode in front of Romana, in her duties as a Traffic Official, as she was greeting us. We ran off, giving off enough information as we run for Romana to know what was up. We were on our way to stop the assassin. We also hoped that Romana wouldn't just pass the buck to Security and leave it at that. Leela stayed behind to perhaps give her a push, verbally, if needed.

Well, we heard her down there warning the President and I see that Leela was able to get the guy to safety behind something (and not letting the President out until it was all clear....nice job).<P.

Boy, I would just hate to think what Diana Walker would handle these poor excused of guards! She.....well..... I'd feel sorry for them but Walker wouldn't hurt them.....much. Creator knows that this joke they call Security needs a major overhaul!!

Hey, it is the way Walker is, and she's not one to lead a "quiet life of desperation." She'll use a bit of rough measures to get her point across, alas. Given the things she'd gone through back Home before coming into the Military.....

Sigh.....

She kind of makes me pause sometimes, but they took care of her cyber-psychosis before letting her into Basic.

Nevermind.

I cast a spell on the Master (that walking corpse), just to make sure that he doesn't somehow wake up after a stun (and recover from one stopped heart) and walk away.

All is confusion for quiet a while as they try to sort things out and figure out who is who and what is going on here. The Master is dragged off to the Mindprobe (right after I give him a somatic gesture that some would call a....fertility gesture).

"NO!" the Master screams as he's taken off, "Not the Mindprobe!!"

Betty, Ragan, and the others look at each other. The Doctor looks pale, but just shakes his head sadly.

Later, I'm not sure what exactly what is revealed by that thing, but next thing I see is that a Chancellor Goth AND a Cardinal Borusa are being arrested as well (they'd been kind of looking for a place to run....but I credit the Security enough for brains to secure the area so nobody can leave without....escorts). That, and a bunch of unconscious people being carried on what I'd called "zero g" stretchers.

I feel that the Doctor (after hearing what Betty had told him about Blake and his gang) wants to help the guy and has used every ounce of political favor garnered for saving the President to get Blake....and these others who'd the Master had spirited away under lock and key (and unconscious) back in his TARDIS in a remote corner free....and away from Gallifrey.

I mention quietly, remembering the rather dire situation that Ragan told me of in that TV show at it end, that while those in the Military have their own version of the Prime Directive (a bit more flexible than Star Fleet.....but not enough for this)....it's remarkable what one can do when retired and a civilian! We have a few retirees back on Terra Prime with some....er...connections. They know military training (something that could help Blake's resistence movement). Equipment....maybe even volunteers if the right words are spoken. Who knows. Have to put some feelers out, I and Elrondir, back on Terra Prime about that. Blake (and Avon, from what I'm told) will need all the help they can get.

Avon? Wasn't that a name of a.....

Nevermind.

Anyway, we lift off and place our guests away inside the TARDIS while Betty, Ragan, and Leela are quietly in deep conversation with Romana. I see that the Rule shrunken TARDIS is with one thing with them.....

Romana had been....overlooked in her role in this affair. I......

I see that it's not only Earth that has problems..... Blake's universe has it in spades (and I'd thought that Home had been bad.....but Blake and how they framed him for.....),

Shit.

Well, Romana looks rather ticked off. Good for her! She has a right to be pissed off. And they only give her a pat on the head and a not so subtle order to get back to work?!

I'd be up in arms! This isn't the first time she's been slighted too if I'm reading her right.... And....oh....

Leela has enlarged the shrunken TARDIS and given it to Romana....who's eyes have lit up as....possiblities are weighed. What she'd get here....what she'd get out there.....

She looks inside, and blinks, apparently impressed by what she sees inside. She takes one last look at my friends....says something that sounds happy..... Then she is.....gone. Her TARDIS grinds out, off to what I believe will be Terra Prime.....

Frankly, I've been wanting to get back sometime and see the parents and their upcoming wedding! Not only will it be great to see it....but....well....

There are going to be a few contacts of mine that I'm sure I could use for Blake's problems.....if he's willing.

See, we first need to talk to Blake and see if he wants it. Might not want it, fearing yet another betrayal!

Creator, what a mess....

Odd to find it that way, but then again who knows what else I'll find in things and people from Dr. What's universe. Strange to think that Blake is from it, but.....Betty talked of there being tyrannies in the Doctor Who show.....

Sigh.

Whatever.

Anyway, the remnants of the rebel forces were able to play merry Hell on those Federation folk of Blakes reality.....enough for the Master to easily pick up those people and whisk them away in the confusion..... Whatever is left over (will be very little....I fear....and very confused....most likely) needs HELP!.

The best one we figure for this job will be Gilmuriel and E'eysha. They had suggested that the best course of action would be to basically lay it out in a plain, no sugar coated manner, and let Blake and the others decide whether to take up the offer for aid. No nudging (Betty had said taht Blake hated to manipulated....worse course of action for us to try). I myself wouldn't consider it manipulation or anything like that.....but then again....I'm not a diplomat.....really.

Gilmuriel and his wife do have training in such things (due to their station in life before becoming elves). They were the best people, oddly enough, to talk with Blake upon wakening.

That and then letting this Blake fellow talk to this Avon chap. Betty and Ragan said that it was needed. Hmm..

Would do to clear a few things up, to understate things....a bit.

I hope it works. We hear gunfire or fighting though......

Well, anyway, the elves are used to some rather Machiavellian characters in their dealings in the political game, so shouldn't be totally out to sea with trying to talk about this Federation of Blake with him. That and they haven't been slouching while elves and all that with the new elements (i.e. the high tech folk) on Terra Prime. They are good, actually, so we should be in good hands with them.

Right now, though, we've got things to do....

I seem to have two choices right now, myself....

There is, what I can see, a machine intelligence with some type of inhibitor device on him (or her....don't know what kind of personality is in there). I hear it muttering incoherently from here. See he's just slowly recovering.... Might go over and say "hi" and such. Compliment him on that cool see through casing and the blinking arrays and lights. Also has a somewhat retrotech look to it, somehow... Very chic!

Or....I better....

Just that I've got an odd sensation in my gut (odd having a gut, considering I'd only gotten it soon after my conversion to a Golem) that says something is....terribly wrong about one of our guests. It's not the way she dresses. The Master seems to have stripped them all and given them rather plain, serviceable clothing that's all alike. Rather, I get bad vibes from this short haired brunette.....

"I'm going to keep an eye on a guest," I call over to the elven diplomats of our group.

They nod, then head over towards Blake's room.....

Gilmuriel

"That's one thing I don't miss about being human," I say, looking at the snoring Blake.

Elves don't sleep, so they never snore. You can knock me out, but that's not sleep.

1. "He is rather loud," my wife agrees, shaking her head slightly.

Add New Option

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree

Display All 2 Links to this Episode