THE WOMAN WHO WANTED TO ALTER TIME
An after-hours conversation between Doktor Snake and Rachel
INT. TWO ROOMS — NIGHT
England and Boston.
Two people are speaking across the Atlantic.
On one screen, the Doctor holds out his hand to Rose Tyler.
The doors of the TARDIS stand open.
RACHEL
I would love to travel in time.
I’d go back.
DOK
Where?
What year?
RACHEL
2010
That’s when I came to the US.
I’d do things a bit differently.
Better yet—2012.
DOK
Why 2012?
RACHEL
I’d play the script exactly as it happened.
But I’d be dispassionate.
I’d still want to be where I am now. I wouldn’t want to lose the knowledge I gained.
I’d build myself in the background.
Then, when I reached this point, I’d use the wealth and knowledge I’d gathered to propel myself forward.
Dok considers this.
He sends her another scene from Doctor Who.
The Reapers descend from the sky.
Creatures drawn to a wound in time.
DOK
There might be a slight problem.
The Reapers.
RACHEL
Can we do it?
DOK
There’s no time like the present.
We can do it now.
You can do it now.
I can do it now.
Don’t look back.
Move forwards.
But how about 1883?
London.
Or Kenya in 1547?
Or 2193—to see what’s happening?
RACHEL
Make a believer out of me, Dok.
I have very little faith, Mr Optimism.
DOK
You’re a mystic.
Yet you don’t really believe.
I’m not a mystic.
Yet I see us coming together for a reason.
I’m optimistic—but only because I know determination and persistence work.
I don’t stop.
I move forwards and make things happen.
You want real magick?
Look at what just happened.
We have a story.
He plays the first scene again.
Rose enters the TARDIS.
A small blue police box containing impossible distances.
DOK
The Doctor asks Rose to go with him.
To travel the moonbeam roads.
She backs away.
He leaves.
She accepts her lot.
Then the Doctor returns.
Only seconds have passed.
This time, Rose runs towards him.
RACHEL
I don’t believe in this world anymore.
I’m asking you to make me a believer—to put my mind to work—because I know it’s all possible.
What I lack is desire.
DOK
That’s why we begin on Saturday.
RACHEL
I don’t think I want that desire back.
Desire is slavery.
I might not make sense.
Everything I believed in was a lie.
A pause across the Atlantic.
DOK
I’m not sure I have desire either.
I don’t think about it very much.
I just do things.
It’s as though I’m holding out my hand to you and saying:
Come on. Let’s have a bit of fun.
And you know what?
You always take it.
RACHEL
All right.
I’ll play along.
Let’s see what we find.
DOK
And would it be all right if I tried to make you the happiest woman alive?
A long pause.
RACHEL
In what way?
Dok laughs.
DOK
Classic Rachel.
RACHEL
I don’t understand.
What do you mean?
DOK
Nobody else would ask, “In what way?”
It brought a smile to my face.
It’s an entirely logical question.
And one that only you would ask.
RACHEL
So what’s your answer?
DOK
I’ve got no idea.
I’ll busk it.
Do it in the moment.
The doors of the TARDIS remain open.
Neither of them knows where it will land.
CODA: THE REAPERS
Rachel didn’t want to abolish her past.
She wanted to enter it carrying the consciousness she possesses now.
She would allow the same betrayals, losses and discoveries to occur—but somewhere behind the visible action, another Rachel would be quietly gathering strength, knowledge and wealth.
She wasn’t dreaming of revenge.
She was dreaming of immunity.
But there’s a paradox in that fantasy.
The woman capable of navigating 2010 without innocence could only exist because the original woman passed through 2010 without that knowledge.
Remove the wound and you may also remove the woman who learned how to survive it.
The Reapers aren’t merely monsters from Doctor Who. They represent the cost of trying to separate wisdom from the life that produced it.
So perhaps the past must remain closed.
The machinery, however, can still be built in the background.
It can be built now.
Rachel distrusts desire because desire once made her vulnerable. It attached her happiness to promises, people and futures which proved false. To want something was to place herself in its power.
Dok offers something subtly different.
Not desire.
Not faith.
An open door.
An experiment.
Come on. Let’s see what we find.
One wants proof before boarding.
The other starts the engine.
Somehow, they keep travelling together.
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