Doctor Who fic

[tree_and_leaf]

I really ought to have been reading Latin, instead of writing this. Ah well…

Title: Another Time, Another Time
Characters: The Fifth Doctor, the Brigadier, with a certain cricketing enthusiast off-stage.
Summary: I saw Len Hutton in his prime/ Another time, another time. What if the Doctor did take the Brigadier on a trip in the TARDIS after all?
Length: 500 words
Disclaimer: I don’t own Doctor Who, or the unseen guest star (whose identity is left as a rather easy puzzle for the reader). The title is, of course, derived from Harold Pinter’s poem (quoted above in its entirety!), and the Doctor quotes from Francis Thomson’s “At Lords”
Warning: Contains cricket geekishness.



“The Varsity Match…?” said the Brigadier, gazing at the signboard outside Lords in surprise. “It’s not that they're not a hotbed of talent, but I’d have thought with a time-machine, you could have found a more historically significant game. Headingley in ’48. Manchester or the Oval 1902. The Bodyline series. Jardine. Bradman. Or WG Grace. Or even have been at Headingley in 1981, rather than out chasing Autons. Life is very unfair, at times.”

“Oh my Hornby and my Barlow long ago…” said the Doctor, as if to himself. “WG Grace was unbearable, you know. And I can’t say I approve of leg theory – mind you, I’m a bit sorry for Larwood. You can’t tell people to succeed at any cost and then complain that they didn’t do it nicely.”

“How true,” muttered the Brigadier. “Very well then: why this game?”

“To be perfectly honest, I was trying to get to the end of the 1912 Ashes series.” His voice was almost convincingly airy, but the pale skin was slightly flushed.

“Doctor, that was in Melbourne. In January or February. This, I hardly need point out, is St John’s Wood in June.”

“Yes, I know,” said the Doctor, looking slightly ruffled. “The TARDIS seems to be developing a strange obsession with London. But anyway, Australia’s horrid in summer, and there’s nothing decent to drink at this time of the century, and this is a rather good match. If a little melancholy, in a ‘what might have been’ sort of way.”

“Yes.” The Brigadier sighed. “In three years – You know, I’m not entirely sure I care for time travel.”

“Watch out for the third man in for Oxford,” the Doctor advised him. “Smallish, blond, very characteristic late cut. Should have played for England, but as it is, this is the last time he’ll set foot on the wicket at Lords.”

“Oh dear. Did the poor devil - ?”

The Doctor looked slightly surprised. “Oh no, nothing like that. He’ll come through the war in one piece – more or less. But he took to solving crimes, and – well, I do sometimes wonder what would have happened if he hadn’t fallen off a wall in 1920…”

“And you’ve never felt tempted –”

“Of course not,” said the Doctor, just a shade too quickly. “That would be completely irresponsible, and might cause a temporal paradox. It might even lead to a rupture in the fabric of space time…”

“I see. You have.”

The Doctor ignored him. “It’s only a game. A human game, at that, and it’s not as if I really care whether England get whitewashed by Australia or not.”

A passerby, who had heard the last part of the remark, tutted audibly. The Brigadier smiled. “Doctor, you can’t fool me, you know. You may be an alien, but you went native a long time ago, at least as far as cricket goes.”

“Nonsense. I have a firm sense of priority – goodness, is that the time? Come on, or we’ll miss the toss…”



ETA: And if you know who went in third for Oxford, then you will enjoy nineveh_uk's excellent cricketing ficlet, which could be regarded as a sequel. Or possibly a prequel. It's all a bit wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey, if you try to look at it like that.

Comments

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I like it :-)

[tree_and_leaf]

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[spacerhino.livejournal.com]

And you're right; Australia really is disgusting during the summer lol. As a fan of cricket (and of the 5th Doctor) I really did enjoy this-- thanks :)

[tree_and_leaf]

Thanks - I may be slightly projecting my dislike of hot weather!

[white_hart]

Lovely :-)

And I worked out who the guest star was before I even clicked on the cut ;-)

[tree_and_leaf]

Very glad you enjoyed!

And I worked out who the guest star was before I even clicked on the cut ;-)

It won't come as a great surprise to anyone who knows me - even the characteristic late cut is not required!

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

Now you have me wondering which book it was in that the batsman fell of a wall- was it the first one?

[tree_and_leaf]

Actually, that's taking a slight liberty - and referencing one of nineveh_uk's fics, where he is picked to go to Australia, but breaks his ankle in an undescribed accident (and England lose 5-0), because surely even the England selectors wouldn't have been daft enough to leave him out of the team unless forced...

He does, canonically, fall off a wall, but it's in the Oxford one, and he cracks his ribs rather than doing his ankle. (Is that sufficiently elliptic, I wonder?)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

He also falls over a brass bedstead in the second one.

[dr-biscuit.livejournal.com]

Yes, but it's the simultaneous bullet that really causes the problem at that point!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Well yes ... but he does complain about the knobs on the bedstead the next morning.

(How are you getting on with the things I lent you, BTW?)

[dr-biscuit.livejournal.com]

Hopelessly! (Should write long essay on why I am too lazy to enjoy myself). Must find friends with VCR! Please do let me know if someone needs them more, as I'm being terribly slow!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

There's no-one in the queue for them - and while I'd like them back at some point, there's no hurry!

[tree_and_leaf]

PICKWICK!

Sorry - just noticed your icon, and love it.

[dr-biscuit.livejournal.com]

Picwick love! I found this icon when I got the job in Swindon, but I love it so much I use it anytime a do something daft!

[tree_and_leaf]

In fact, it's the brass knobs that really seem to annoy him, if I recall correctly (men with guns presumably being all in a day's work...)

[legionseagle.livejournal.com]

But surely, as the man concerned also had his collar-bone broken for him by the miscreant Goyles and/or the bed with brass knobs on, and three days later was heartily tramping over the Yorkshire moors without a murmur (at least until the peat-bog incident) there must be more to his non-selection than a mere broken ankle? It was, at that date, a six-week voyage to Australia and surely the selectors could have gambled on the beneficial effects of sea air and his own remarkable - almost Slayer-like - healing powers had that been all.

I suspect the Doctor knows more than he might be saying, and that an analysis of why the inhabitants of the planet Krikket did not attack Earth much earlier would bear careful analysis.

[tree_and_leaf]

Now there's a thought - and it would explain why the Doctor is being so remarkably shifty here....

[snorkackcatcher]

Good fun. Sadly, it was spotting the reference to this fic that clued me in on who the guest star was ... I really must get around to reading some Wimsey!

[tree_and_leaf]

Yes - you must!

The batsman with the characteristic late cut is a bit of a self-indulgent in-joke, really (although this does apply to an awfull lot of fanfic...)

Oh, brill.

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

And I always thought that he'd perhaps had a bad medical chit from Freke that swayed the selectors....

Re: Oh, brill.

[tree_and_leaf]

Along the lines of 'physically fit but liable to end up curled in a ball muttering about shells if placed in a traumatic situation (such as fast bowling)'? It's a thought.

Very glad that you enjoyed, anyway.

[dr-biscuit.livejournal.com]

Yes.” The Brigadier sighed. “In three years – You know, I’m not entirely sure I care for time travel.”

Lovely! Even got the reference to nineveh_uk's fic (which is also brilliant), and I heartily endorse avoiding Australia between Dec and Feb.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I missed the nineveh_uk reference ...

[tree_and_leaf]

I'm not sure if it was concious or not, actually - I must try and find that fic again, though.

[dr-biscuit.livejournal.com]

Unless of course, you go to the Melbourne 'Boxing Day' test match. In my hometown one traditionally takes leftover pudding and a hangover to the MCG, where one hopes at least one session will be played.

There's a wonderful and evocative, if melancholy song penned by a medic turned musician I know:
"Gutters washed out in the wet grass.
Boxing Day, the rain top-scores again.
Balls of screwed up wrapping paper, broken toys, unconscious relatives
And rain...
Somewhere it's still yesterday, somewhere it's a winter's afternoon."

*gets misty-eyed*

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

"When an old cricketer leaves the crease, you never know whether he's gone,
If maybe you're catching a fleeting glimpse, of a twelfth man at silly mid-on.
And it could be Geoff, and it could be John,
With a new ball sting in his tail.
And it could be me, and it could be thee,
And it could be the sting in the ale.........a sting in the ale"

[tree_and_leaf]

That is very evocative indeed - and it sounds like a good tradition, rain or not...

[tree_and_leaf]

I'm glad you enjoyed it - and didn't take it as Australia bashing! :)

The Brigadier is older than a lot of the people the Doctor travels with, and he's a soldier. I think he'd find the end of the Edwardian era very melancholy indeed - and he doesn't strike me as the sort of person who'd be so overwhelmed by the coolness of time-travel to forget that.

[themolesmother.livejournal.com]

Oooh, the Doctor and the Brigadier with a side order of Wimsey. Not a cricket fan but I got the point. Enjoyed this greatly.

MM

[tree_and_leaf]

Very glad to hear that, especially as you're not into cricket! Nice to see you around, too - hope you're well.

[carlanime.livejournal.com]

“Watch out for the third Oxford batsman,” the Doctor advised him.

And I fell off my chair in a dead swoon.

[tree_and_leaf]

Heh. That was the effect I was going for, all right ;)

Though I'm now giving thought to a Wimsey/ Who cross-over. Though probably not with Five, despite the potential for bonding over cricket - the trouble is, my mental image of Peter basically isFive, minus the question-marks, and I think I'd find it confusing...

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

You know you want to...

[There's a Campion fic out there that uses the device of the Fifth Doctor and Albert Campion being the same person and thus taking the confusion and running with it.]

[tree_and_leaf]

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak....

[owl]

Love it! And the guest appearance!

[tree_and_leaf]

Hurrah!