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OUT OF TIME
A THIRTEENTH DOCTOR SCRIPT STORY
By Windmill Turning, 2022
~
A strange and beautiful green forest.
The TARDIS materialises.
The Thirteenth Doctor and Yaz step out, haggard after so much danger.
In awe and delight, they walk out into the ancient, stately trees.
A thylacine with three pups appears, looks curiously at them. The little family lopes off into some fern fronds.
YAZ
This place is amazing.
The Doctor beams in agreement, wonder wiping weariness from her face.
Suddenly, as they walk, the landscape surrounding them transforms.
Now they are in a desert at sunset. Two green parrots land on the ground in front of them, sing their song joyfully. Human voices from far away join in.
Before they can fully take it in, the scene changes again.
This time, they are in a meadow. A bee moves from flower to flower, getting heavier and heavier with pollen.
Across the meadow comes a woman. Old and wise and gentle and grey.
THE CARETAKER (cheerfully)
Hello!
THE DOCTOR (cheerfully back)
Hello!
THE CARETAKER
Welcome.
THE DOCTOR
Where are we?
THE CARETAKER
This is Out-of-Time.
YAZ
Out of time?
THE CARETAKER
(To the waving flowers)
A place for endlings, for last-speakers, for those leaving and left behind.
(To the Doctor and Yaz)
A place for those about to lose something.
Yaz looks shocked and confused. The Doctor looks worried.
THE CARETAKER
I have cared for this planet for millennia, so that those beings can have some consolation.
It finds and brings them here. Lifts them out of time and space, and weaves around them - for as long as can be sustained - a wholeness, in whatever form is needed.
THE DOCTOR (understanding)
The animals, the plants, the voices, the songs. All facing extinction.
THE CARETAKER
Yes.
The Doctor looks stricken, forlorn.
THE CARETAKER
You’re right.
There’s an end coming for you.
That’s why you’re here.
I don’t know what it is.
But if you can connect - there will be comfort.
The Doctor and Yaz turn to each other.
Awkwardly at first, painfully, but staying with each other’s gaze.
A new scene forms around them.
~
Yaz and the Doctor find themselves on a beach.
They are still staring, searching, softening, summoning courage. But finally…
YAZ and THE DOCTOR (Simultaneously, in their own ways)
I love you.
Smiles burst. Bodies touch. Hearts mingle.
There are truths told, fears voiced, and sufferings borne - both past and to come. Days pass together.
~
The Caretaker is walking up the beach, towards the happy pair.
The Doctor is building an elaborate sandcastle.
THE CARETAKER (calling)
Hello again! Need anything?
YAZ
Can we hire a couple of snorkels?
THE CARETAKER (clearly tickled)
I’ll see what I can do.
YAZ
How long have you been here?
THE CARETAKER (half smiling, faraway and old)
A long time. Many lifetimes.
YAZ
You must have seen a lot of lives come and go from this planet.
THE CARETAKER
I have.
(a beat)
My own lifetimes too.
THE DOCTOR
Your lifetimes?
THE CARETAKER
I’m one of those beings who changes form from time to time. From woman to man, both, in-between, Scottish. All the possibilities.
The Doctor has stopped piling sand.
YAZ
Were you born here?
THE CARETAKER
No, I was brought here. Like everyone else.
YAZ
What did you lose?
THE CARETAKER
I lost my child.
The Doctor is very still now.
YAZ
What happened?
THE CARETAKER
I don’t know.
When they stole my child, they stole my memories too.
But to torture me, they left the feelings behind.
The love that created the child, their being inside me, the pain of their birth,
and the joy in their life.
But no form, no face, no name.
The Doctor is alive to all of this, dawning.
THE DOCTOR (rising from the sand)
Where did you lose them? When? Why?
THE CARETAKER
I don’t know, that was taken from me too.
THE DOCTOR
And from me.
The Doctor moves closer to The Caretaker, searching her face.
THE CARETAKER
Then we aren’t alone.
The Caretaker takes the Doctor’s hand.
A warm, golden light spreads through them both and into each other’s dual hearts.
It’s the same as regeneration power, but life-giving, not death bringing.
They look at each other, recognition flooding between them.
Parent and child embrace, for a long time.
When they finally part:
THE DOCTOR
Yaz, this is my mum.
THE CARETAKER (twinkling)
And, sometimes, your dad.
THE DOCTOR
Family.
The Doctor and The Caretaker take Yaz’s hands.
A warm light travels through Yaz too, and surrounds them all.
~
The TARDIS door is open. The Doctor is going back and forth, loading in various treasures she’s fossicked, including a rather large piece of driftwood.
Yaz and The Caretaker chuckle.
THE CARETAKER
Got everything?
THE DOCTOR (disappearing, hands in heavy pockets, muffled)
Think so…
Yaz and The Caretaker exchange a knowing glance.
YAZ
Time to go.
THE DOCTOR
SOS calls to the TARDIS. Can’t ignore them.
The Caretaker hugs Yaz. It’s deep and kind and familiar.
YAZ
Don’t feed the Dodo blueberries again.
THE CARETAKER laughs heartily.
She opens her arms to The Doctor. They hug. Tears.
THE DOCTOR
A place of endings became a place of beginnings.
THE CARETAKER
I’ll be here, whenever it’s time to come back.
YAZ (wiser)
To come home.
The Doctor nods. She and Yaz step into the TARDIS.
The Doctor takes one last look back at her mother’s face as she closes the door.
THE CARETAKER calls to her
Travel hopefully.
The Doctor starts, recognising the phrase.
Not everything has been lost.
As she continues looking out, the TARDIS dematerialises.
THE END
~