Fic: And another missing scene
19 Nov 2009 02:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisbluespiritThe Cute Coda from Strange Weapons!
I kept saying I had an overly cute ending, and here it is. You can see why I removed it in the end. Originally, Strange Weapons was supposed to be the concluding part of a potential UNIT trilogy, but by the time I came to post it, I had pages and pages of 1980s UNIT scenes, so, I had to abandon this. I was going to come back to it with Stardust, but wasn't sure I'd sold it enough in the other two and left it. (Which is a shame because before Evelyn had a solid reason for telling the Doctor not to take Tilly and in the posted version, she may seem to be being rather sentimental about the whole thing.) And I would probably rewrite it a bit now.
I did say that it was much, much too cute, didn't I? (It came to me in the cinema. I don't think that's an excuse, though).
***
Coda: 1997
“Dr Webber,” said Bambera, running into Nat. “I wondered if it was you when I saw the name on the programme.”
He grinned then. “You didn’t read it very carefully, then, did you? If it says the eminent Dr Webber or something along those lines, it’s not me they mean.”
“Well, you are here, and this is an international conference on the subject of investigation into the existence of extraterrestrial life among other things.”
He nodded. “And you’re here in charge of UNIT. Congratulations.”
“So what’s the joke?” she demanded.
Nat’s grin grew. “Well, if you’d paid a little more attention, you’d have noted the use of words like ‘she’ and ‘her’. It’s not me speaking, it’s Tilly.”
“You’re not serious?”
He nodded.
“You are?”
He said, “Thanks to working as UNIT’s scientific adviser, what little credibility I ever had is finished -.”
“Come off it, Webber.”
“Well, I couldn’t stop looking into other life-forms once I started,” he said. “Unfortunately it doesn’t do much for the reputation. However, I’ve acquired a wife with an unconventional genius for coming up with impenetrable theories about the relationship of time and space. Although I’ve never been able to cure her of the obsessive tidiness.”
Bambera said, “If the position ever becomes vacant again -.”
“I’d be interested, but I think she might kill me,” he said. “Only to save time before someone or something else does, of course. I nearly didn’t survive last time.”
“Now that I can believe.”
“Thanks, anyway, Captain.” He paused and coloured, suddenly looking a lot more as she first remembered him. “Sorry. Brigadier, I should say.”
She paused and there was the impatient eye roll that he remembered. “You never could work out what to call me.”
***
*whistles to cover the embarrassment*
I kept saying I had an overly cute ending, and here it is. You can see why I removed it in the end. Originally, Strange Weapons was supposed to be the concluding part of a potential UNIT trilogy, but by the time I came to post it, I had pages and pages of 1980s UNIT scenes, so, I had to abandon this. I was going to come back to it with Stardust, but wasn't sure I'd sold it enough in the other two and left it. (Which is a shame because before Evelyn had a solid reason for telling the Doctor not to take Tilly and in the posted version, she may seem to be being rather sentimental about the whole thing.) And I would probably rewrite it a bit now.
I did say that it was much, much too cute, didn't I? (It came to me in the cinema. I don't think that's an excuse, though).
***
Coda: 1997
“Dr Webber,” said Bambera, running into Nat. “I wondered if it was you when I saw the name on the programme.”
He grinned then. “You didn’t read it very carefully, then, did you? If it says the eminent Dr Webber or something along those lines, it’s not me they mean.”
“Well, you are here, and this is an international conference on the subject of investigation into the existence of extraterrestrial life among other things.”
He nodded. “And you’re here in charge of UNIT. Congratulations.”
“So what’s the joke?” she demanded.
Nat’s grin grew. “Well, if you’d paid a little more attention, you’d have noted the use of words like ‘she’ and ‘her’. It’s not me speaking, it’s Tilly.”
“You’re not serious?”
He nodded.
“You are?”
He said, “Thanks to working as UNIT’s scientific adviser, what little credibility I ever had is finished -.”
“Come off it, Webber.”
“Well, I couldn’t stop looking into other life-forms once I started,” he said. “Unfortunately it doesn’t do much for the reputation. However, I’ve acquired a wife with an unconventional genius for coming up with impenetrable theories about the relationship of time and space. Although I’ve never been able to cure her of the obsessive tidiness.”
Bambera said, “If the position ever becomes vacant again -.”
“I’d be interested, but I think she might kill me,” he said. “Only to save time before someone or something else does, of course. I nearly didn’t survive last time.”
“Now that I can believe.”
“Thanks, anyway, Captain.” He paused and coloured, suddenly looking a lot more as she first remembered him. “Sorry. Brigadier, I should say.”
She paused and there was the impatient eye roll that he remembered. “You never could work out what to call me.”
***
*whistles to cover the embarrassment*
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Date: 19 Nov 2009 03:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 Nov 2009 04:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 Nov 2009 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 Nov 2009 04:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 Nov 2009 09:27 pm (UTC)Yes, as far as I'm concerned, this is where Nat and Tilly ended up after Stardust, eventually (no doubt with many twists and turns along the way, because, well, it's Nat and Tilly). Somewhere around the corner, Tilly and Ancelyn were probably comparing notes on just what a crazy place late-20th century Earth actually is...
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Date: 20 Nov 2009 07:52 pm (UTC)And, yes, this is where they end up, more or less, and I had this in my head from the start, so everyone wondering whether Tilly should go home felt very odd. And I imagined this taking place immediately prior to Battlefield, but I never know what date that is (I must have been reading something to make me use 1997, or I'd have set it earlier), but I think Tilly'd take a while before she'd talk to Ancelyn about anything much, because he tends to do compliments and 'flowery', which would earn him her instant suspicion and mistrust. (There's nothing worse than flattery, flummery and gush, you see. You shouldn't have to say things. :lol:)
And I'm still sticking to my theory that Bambera and Ancelyn run off to the other dimension in Bessie, because where else are they all in New Who? ;-D
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Date: 21 Nov 2009 07:47 pm (UTC)Yeah, I think of Battlefield as being mid-90s too, as it was clearly set in the near future, as of 1989, but obviously pre-NuWho. When I was writing Battlelines, I assumed that Battlefield took place in 1995 or 1996 and Battlelines was taking place in 1997, but Who rarely deals in dates when it comes to UNIT stories...
Yes, you're probably right; Tilly would probably think of Ancelyn as one of those "fast" upper-class types she's heard about who get housemaids _in trouble_ etc...
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Date: 21 Nov 2009 08:21 pm (UTC)Oh, I don't think quite that, but she'd be instantly all on guard because of the compliments. If she had longer and saw that was just how he was, she'd be all right. Although, thinking about it, he might well be... :lol: (Ish)
And, yeah, they all ran away in Bessie. Obviously. (I'm not sure whether it was
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Date: 22 Nov 2009 01:43 am (UTC)I don't know about Ancelyn, you know; you hear some things about these medieval chaps - be careful, Tilly!
And I would generally put things like the £5 coins down to the idea that the Whoniverse is _not quite_ our universe (I mean, BBC3 TV and manned Mars missions in the early 70s (I too tend to date the Three UNIT stories to the date they were broadcast, whatever nonsense the BBC might try to suggest), etc.), but King Charles is more problematic, considering that the Queen is still on the throne in NuWho... Oh, I'm sure you could make up some convoluted explanation for that, though...somehow...
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Date: 22 Nov 2009 06:47 pm (UTC)If Ancelyn was with Bambera, he'd more than have his hands full, I feel. ;-)