Lethbridge-Stewart: When Times Change…

Andy Frankham-Allen
Lethbridge-Stewart: When Times Change…

He wasn’t having the best day. Sir Alistair reached for the water, but a coughing fit caused him to knock it over.
‘Damn it!’
The door to his private room opened and a young man entered.
‘Grandfather!’
Sir Alistair chuckled. ‘It was only a cough, Con, nothing to worry about.’
Conall Lethbridge-Stewart, his eldest grandson, regarded him with suspicion. Sir Alistair was, unfortunately, used to it. He’d battled on as long as he could, but he knew, deep down, that the end was approaching. A voice, edged with a soft Scottish burr, entered his mind.
‘You were supposed to die in bed.’
Conall placed the glass on the side and sat down. ‘I have something for you,’ he said, and reached into his pocket.
‘Oh yes?’ Sir Alistair peered closely at the postcard Conall was handing over.
He looked at it closely. No, it wasn’t a postcard. It was a photograph. A young blonde woman, dressed in some kind of trench coat and one those… Oh, what did the kids call it? Oh yes. A hoodie.
‘Who is this?’
‘Well…’ Conall smiled. ‘Let’s just say, she appeared in my living room with a big blue box.’
‘She…?’ Sir Alistair looked at the picture again. ‘Surely you don’t mean…?’
‘She left a message on the back.’
Sir Alistair turned the photo over and read the message. An apology for not being able to visit, something to do with crossing personal timelines, and a final line about how he… no strike that… she wanted him to see her new face before the end.
The look of surprise on his face must have been a picture, as Conall burst out laughing. ‘The women are taking over,’ he said.
Sir Alistair smiled at this, an image of his daughter jumping to mind, and Conall’s own sister and what she would go on to do. And now…
‘Well,’ Sir Alistair said, ‘if there is one thing I have learned after all this time, it’s that regardless of the face, the Doctor is always the Doctor. Even if she is now a woman.’
He reached over and poured two shots of whisky. He handed one to Conall and raised his own glass.
‘To the Doctor. Splendid person, all of them.’