Dr Who and The Glade of the Gods

I'm not a fan of Dr Who. I'm an appreciator in the way one can appreciate the efforts of cat breeders without getting all wound up in it. I'm really only a fan of Tom Baker's Who; the rest are simply not alien no matter how hard they try, so I can't get carried away with it.

{{ The template goes back to Hartnells Doctor and the characteristics he set out- eccentric, often grumpy and childish, arrogant yet brilliantly intelligent, compasionate, caring but also dangerous and unknown.
Its that last bit, being unknown that set the character apart, the Doctor has an alien morality and a different long term outlook on life, death and existence. And thats the alien bit.

Each actor that has taken on the role tends to play a Doctor where one or more of these original traits are emphasized, the rest remain present but will be reduced in comparison. So the 2nd Doctor is more childish and manipulative, the third more dangerous and arrogant, Tom Bakers 4th is alien and eccentric to the maximium, and so on into modern Who where 11 is very like the 2nd, childish at times yet dangerous at turns but with a lot of eccentricities in his behaviour. 12 has the 1st's coldness and alien detachment, yet also the compassion and childish joy of the 4th.

Its an odd role in that a lot of it depends not only on what is on the page but in what parts of their own personality an actor brings into the role. A large gap in the character of the Doctor is the Who? bit, and thats the bit the actor has to provide and bring to the role. Who their Doctor is in large part down to the actor.}}

Pettytyrant101 wrote:{{ The template goes back to Hartnells Doctor and the characteristics he set out- eccentric, often grumpy and childish, arrogant yet brilliantly intelligent, compasionate, caring but also dangerous and unknown.
Its that last bit, being unknown that set the character apart, the Doctor has an alien morality and a different long term outlook on life, death and existence. And thats the alien bit.

Each actor that has taken on the role tends to play a Doctor where one or more of these original traits are emphasized, the rest remain present but will be reduced in comparison. So the 2nd Doctor is more childish and manipulative, the third more dangerous and arrogant, Tom Bakers 4th is alien and eccentric to the maximium, and so on into modern Who where 11 is very like the 2nd, childish at times yet dangerous at turns but with a lot of eccentricities in his behaviour. 12 has the 1st's coldness and alien detachment, yet also the compassion and childish joy of the 4th.

Its an odd role in that a lot of it depends not only on what is on the page but in what parts of their own personality an actor brings into the role. A large gap in the character of the Doctor is the Who? bit, and thats the bit the actor has to provide and bring to the role. Who their Doctor is in large part down to the actor.}}

Hey you! Get back onto your Who Thread! This is no place for anyone who actually knows something about Who! Ffs!

Btw my Who is definitely not a human, an entirely different species, but remarkably humanoid. My Doctor has two hearts, you know...

4

Jennifer knew enough about Anglo-Saxon history, had seen enough speculative drawings in books or on the internet, to guess the people before her could be Anglo-Saxons, or Jutes, or Frisians. One thing for sure, she found it fascinating looking at them.
   A male, dark haired, bearded, in a tunic and trousers of possibly calf skin, and a leather cap, stepped forward from the group gathered at the front of a squat building with a thatch roof twenty feet or so from the Tardis. The group, both males and females, with some children to be discerned behind the legs of the foremost, were huddled close together, conceding a respectful distance t9 the Doctor and Jennifer. The dark haired male responded to the Doctor’s ‘hello’ with some kind of hand sign in greeting as he approached.
   “You have found your female quickly, Lord of Time. You were not gone long in your magic box.”
   “You would be surprised, Aidan. I was gone longer than you might imagine. But I was away in a place beyond time. It’s an uncanny business which I can’t explain to you. It’s not for your ears, I’m afraid. The other gods would not like it much if I told tales.”
  “As the gods bid, Lord of Time.” Aidan gave a slow nod, as did the rest of those gathered, in remarkable unison, clearly deferent. 
  “Lord of Time?” Jennifer said quietly giving the Doctor an amused side glance. ‘So you’re not just the Doctor here!”
  “Be silent, girl,” the Doctor said with surprising sharpness. “I speak with the Head man. I will speak to you when necessary. Now Aidan, I see it’s not quite noon, judging by the sun. I would retire to a place where the girl can rest before we take her up to the glade.”
  ‘Yes, yes, of course. Come with me, Lord of Time. A place is nearby.”
  Aidan turned away and the Doctor and Jennifer followed. Jennifer barely disguising her smile. The way the Doctor had spoken to her had caught in by surprise, but she had seen enough episodes of Doctor Who toquickky decide the Doctor was playing a role for the benefit of the villagers. 
  Aidan brought then to a long low hut and beckoned them to the door.
  “Now, young girl, go inside and betide there awhile,” the Doctor sternly told her. “I must speak as a man to Aidan. On important matters.”
  Jennifer followed the instructions and entered the shadowy hut. There were stools and a heavy wooden table and what might have been beds or grain cribs. She walked across to a stool by what was clearly a fire pit and here she perched to wait for the Doctor to finish his ‘important’ conversation with Aidan. She had not to wait too long. 
   The Doctor came in, closing a rickety timber door behind him. 
   “Aidan has gone off to organise a suitable final meal for you. Before I take you up to the glade where they think you’ll be spiritedly away by the Gods of the Glade.”
   “Spirited away? I thought I was going to be sacrificed.”
   “No, I’m not sure that will be the case.”
   “Why did you say I would be sacrificed?”
   “For two reasons. One, it was a simple tale to tell a girl I just met. And two, I was in a little bit of a hurry. I chosen a simple easy to understand tale. Coordinating one’s place in parallel time streams, even with the help of the Tardis, can be tricky. So I couldn’t spend too much time selecting my girl.”
  “You did not seem to be in a hurry.”
  “Just a ruse. I did not want to seem fidgety. But I was very conscious of the time. While you nodded, I did a quick analysis of your personality. You seemed the type I needed. Confident. A quick discerner.”
  “How?”
  “This.” The Doctor presented what looked like a small wallet to show her. It had a flap. A little screen presented itself briefly to her before the Doctor snapped the flap closed again. “Very useful bit of technology. It told something about you. Your IQ. Your natural trust level. Imaginative. Though you’re having a t.v. show about a someone something like me was twist of pure luck. That helped immeasurably. That was peculiar. Totally unexpected. But it helped. Even a Time Lord needs a little luck occasionally.”
   “Or a Lord of Time?”
  “Ha! Sounds quite Dark Ages in my opinion, do you think? I adapt to circumstances when and where I can. You are quite an intriguing human. You have not seemed altogether fazed at anything so far. Your t.v. show seems to have prepared you for meeting me. Is that the explanation?”
   “Yes. If you ever see the show you’ll understand. What’s really going on, Doctor? Where will I be spirited away to?”
   “Not sure at all.”
  “How do you know I won’t be sacrificed?”
   “Who is going to sacrifice you?”
   “I hadn’t thought of that. The villagers?”
   “No. They don’t do that kind of thing.”
   “So... I don’t know what I should ask...”
   “I’ll give you some background. It is the tradition of the villagers that they go up to the glade of the gods and leave a young female there on the day before her wedding, leaving her there before the others return  to the village before dark. In the morning, the girl returns to the village having been inspired after some fashion by her communion with the gods of the glade. It is usually not long after her wedding that she shows herself to be pregnant. That’s the way of things.”
   “So the gods make them heavy with child? That kind of thing?”
   “Yes. God or gods, it’s not ever clear. It has been going on for many, many years. Until six months ago. Since then three girls on the night before her wedding have disappeared, not to return. Leaving her prospective husband in a state of sad perplexity. Maybe happy the gods have selected his prospective bride to be spirited away to wherever the gods have their habitation, yet sad because by all accounts they were quite fond of their prospective bride.”
   “And the girls?”
  “The girls?”
  “Yes, the girls. How do they feel about getting spirited away?”
  “Now, young lady, how on earth would I know! But we may well soon find out. Later tonight when we go up to the glade. Just so you know. I will pretend to retire from the glade, but cunningly I will secrete myself nearby and watch what happens. That’s my plan.” 
  “Your whole plan?”
  “I can’t really plan for unforeseen circumstances, so it must suffice.” 
  “What if the gods come and kill me? You said you thought they may be something else. Monsters? Aliens? Dangerous vicious creatures of some kind?”
  “I’ve found no evidence of a kill at the stone upon which the maids sit. No evidence at all of violence.”
  “What about what happens to me after I’ve been taken away?”
  “Another question I have no way of answering.”
  “It’s all a little nerve wracking. That’s what I’m thinking now. What will you do when whoever they are or whatever they are come to get me?”
  “Yet another question...”
  “Okay, you don’t know. I want a knife then.”
   “You want a knife.”
   “Yes.”
   “For self defence?”
   “Yes.”
   “You’ll not go stabbing and jabbing before you’ve given the gods an opportunity to show themselves for what they are, will you?” 
   “That’s a question I can’t answer just now, now can I!” 
   “Well, young lady, I’m just not sure that a knife will be necessary.”
   “For someone who doesn’t know what we’re actually dealing with, how can you possibly know?”
   “You’re self possession is quite amazing,” the Doctor averred, admiringly, though his expression one of genuine mystification. “Let’s not be hasty. Frankly, I’m not sure about you and your knife. I can’t know how reactionary you might be. Have you any martial arts skills?”
   “No, Doctor, no karate or jujitsu or - just to be thorough - no superpowers; or none that i am aware of. Doctor, no knife, no girl.”
   That settled the matter.

So she only has a wait an hour to find out what will happen to her, while we have had to wait a good month?!

Out with it. When's the next installment?

I thought everyone had lost interest, so I did too.

Not sure what was going on a month ago that made us all ignore it....I actually didn't read it until now, and can't explain the delay along with others.

halfwise wrote:Not sure what was going on a month ago that made us all ignore it....I actually didn't read it until now, and can't explain the delay along with others.

Well, you should know by now, I only write to my fan base. And if I don’t know I still have a fan base, how do I know to keep writing?

5

   Jennifer did not know what she was actually eating in the earthen bowl Aidan had mustered up for them, but as the Doctor seemed disinclined to discuss the matter as he sat on a stool dourly and slowly spooning the same greasy concoction into a mouth surrounded by a dour expression, she instead contemplated the knife on the rickety table between them. It’s blade was about six inches long, two edged, blue in colour, with a haft wrapped in some kind of leather, she thought, which lengthened the weapon by another four inches. They had obtained it from the village smith, who was clearly perplexed by Jennifer’s request for said item. “Just for whittling,” she’d told the ruddy faced doughty. “You know, while I’m waiting for the gods to appear.” It had quickly seemed pointless to suggest she might use it if the gods were aggressive, gods being gods, and unlikely to be daunted by a girl with a knife. 
  “You know, Doctor, I don’t think this looks much like any old English weapon I’ve ever seen in books or on TV. So I guess we must be in a parallel universe, though I guess we did already know that.”
 “I did,” the Doctor commented, chewing and wincing at the same time. “I thought you did too, until now. Just a bit of rhetoric for conversational purposes? Yes, I think so. I think I might be just about finished.” He sat his bowl on the table. Licked his lips suspiciously, as well he might. 
 “I’m a bit worried about sticking it down my waist band.”
 “I’m a bit worried about you sticking it in an even more awkward place.”
 “We could be dealing with cannibals, you know.”
 “We could be dealing with anything. But I prefer to begin things peacefully when I meet new folk or races.”
 “I can put it in a little sideways, longwise at an angle, with the haft up my shirt. That’ll work. And it’ll be out of sight. Simple, practical, and unlikely to scare the gods. If they’re actual gods. As I figure it, if they’re real gods they’ll know I’ve got it anyway. Probably laugh at me for my temerity. Jehovah would, I imagine.”
 “I wouldn’t know. Haven’t met him in person as yet. Only know what I’ve read, not so sure he’s a laugher, though. Some accounts might be lost or burnt. I met Jesus once, but it wasn’t him in the end. I think we might just about be ready to go.”
 The Doctor stood up and courteously offered Jennifer a hand as she arose. They now stood face to face, quite closely. Jennifer smiled. “You’re quite handsome for an alien.”
 “Humanoid is the word I think you’re looking for. Off we go. Where’s the knife?”
 “Where I said I’d put it.”
 “That was a bit if sleight of hand, dear girl.”
 “It was a bit of sleight under the table top, dear alien.” And Jennifer smiled.
 The Doctor gave her a deeply appraising stare. “Full of cheek. Straight forward it seems, on the one hand. On the other hand, I really don’t know you are all that straight forward. Haste brought me to you, and you might just be the kind of girl haste sees you end up with. It could be worse. Come along now.” 
 “Not sure that really makes sense, you know.”
 “I meant: we are going now, let’s leave this place and go to another.”
  The Doctor turned and walked to the door. 
 Jennifer smiled to herself. ‘Ha ha’, she said. “You’re a funny Doctor.” The Doctor opened the door to let her through. “And you’re an old fashioned well mannered Doctor too.”
 “The best kind my dear. I am 800 years old, after all. Nothing new fashioned about a chap like me. Though young at hearts in some ways my dear, young at hearts.”
 And while he did not smile just then, his eyes did.

yay more Doctor!

Knife is best concealed at the small of the back. I don't recall airport security ever patting me down there.

Now for the record, while I write for my own entertainment, I do like to know folk are watching. I like people watching. So, my advice, someone put a smilee on. A yawning smilee will be enough. I’ve had worse... and I’m incorrigible. Being watched is what matters most, not giving others pleasure, being noticed is pleasure enough for the likes of me. Me and Trumpy are very much similar in that regard.

halfwise wrote:Knife is best concealed at the small of the back.  I don't recall airport security ever patting me down there.

It’s a glade not an airport, tho’... ... or is it? Funny in a way, vaguely.... but no spoilers, son!