Doctor Who: The Twin Dilemma Read Online Free PDF

his mind.
    The words continued to pour from Peri's mouth until the Doctor could stand it no longer. But it was too late. He could no longer hide behind his ignorance. The black, protective void that had shielded his mind had been ripped away, like a band aid covering a particularly nasty sore. He now remembered everything and he hated himself for it.
    The Doctor clamped his hands to the side of his head and screamed and screamed and screamed. Peri thought the Doctor was having another fit and picked
    up the mirror in case he again became violent. But instead he turned on the console and started to set switches, twist knobs and pull levers. A new fear entered Peri's head. She wondered if the Doctor still knew how to operate the time-machine. Worse still, she remembered that the Doctor had once said the TARDIS had a self-destruct device and feared he might operate it by mistake.
    'Please be careful.'
    'Careful? Careful! I tried to kill you! I am a living peril!' Each sentence built in volume until he was shouting, his voice thick with emotion. 'I do not know how to ask your forgiveness,' he wailed.
     
    'You're forgiven, Doc. Just don't destroy the TARDIS by mistake.'
    The Doctor was no longer listening. Once more he was at work, this time making fine adjustments to the coordinates he had set.
    'The universe is at risk with me in this state,' he muttered. 'I must cleanse my mind ...' He paused dramatically, like a Victorian actor.
    Peri braced herself, ready for anything. 'Self-abnegation,' was the cry from the Doctor. He looked around, as though waiting for a burst of applause from the stalls. 'Self-abnegation in some hellish wilderness!' Each word rolled and thundered around the console room. 'Ten days - ten years - a thousand! Of what account is time to me?'
    Poor Peri gave up. She couldn't keep pace with the Doctor's changing mood. She now wished he had killed her. At least that would have been quick. 'A thousand years?' she enquired. 'Aren't you forgetting? I'm from Earth. Our allotted span is about seventy years, and I've already had twenty of them.'
    The Doctor looked haughtily at his companion. ‘I was speaking figuratively. It shouldn't come to that.'
    'Look, Doc, I really do forgive you. I now understand what you're going through. You're not in control of yourself. All you need is rest. A short holiday.'
    'I need a hermitage.' He hadn't heard a word Peri had said. 'Some utterly comfortless place where we can suffer together.'
    'Hang on.' For Peri this wasn't good news. 'Why should / be made to suffer. It was you who tried to kill me. I am the innocent party here.'
    'Who in this life is ever purely innocent?' The Victorian actor had gone. In his place was an old Testament prophet, determined to see no-one have a good time. The Doctor's voice had also dropped a full octave for this role. If it hadn't been so frightening, Peri would have found it all rather impressive.
    'You have been chosen,' the Doctor boomed, jabbing a rigid index finger at Peri, 'to minister to my needs... They will be very simple... But nothing must be allowed to interfere with my period of contemplation.'
    'This isn't fair!' Peri was now on the verge of tears. 'And who is supposed to have appointed me your servant?'
    'Providence!'
    'Look, Doctor, you're in a crazy state of mind. If you want to go anywhere, go to your home planet. They can help you there.' Then even more desperately she added, 'I don't think you realise how mentally unstuck you've become.'
    'I have already spoken!'
    Then if you want somewhere really desolate, I suggest you try the Bronx or downtown New York.
    Because while you're enjoying a thousand years of desolation, at least I'll be able to get a train home!'
    The Doctor didn't hear the sarcasm. Already he seemed to have entered a trance-like state. 'I have decided on my place of hermitage,' he mutterd. 'It is in the far corner of the Baxus Major galaxy.'
    As he spoke he struck the main control on the console and the TARDIS