Donna finally gets her relaxing beach holiday with The Doctor.
Requested by @fangjy so long ago that I can’t even remember when it was. Sorry that it took so long. Xx
[Image Description at end of post.]
“I can’t believe you actually pulled it off! A beach day with no aliens! Touch wood.” She tapped her hand on her forehead.
The Doctor frowned a little, but was distracted by her next comment.
“Well, apart from you, obviously.”
“Hey! To me, you’re the alien one!”
Donna blinked at him, deciding whether to take offence at that comment. Before she could formulate a response, The Doctor had bounded off across the sandy shoreline that spread out in front of them, searching for the perfect spot to pitch their sunbeds.
Donna sighed, pulling the TARDIS doors shut behind her and hitching her bag higher on her shoulder as she resigned herself to following him until he was satisfied that they were in optimal position to enjoy the sunshine. What was another few minutes trekking after him when she’d already waited this long, especially if it kept him quiet – even for just five minutes – while she relaxed?
At least, that’s what she’d told herself.
Nearly two hours later, when they were still hauling their deckchairs across the sand and the sun was almost directly above them, she was beginning to question the wisdom of this course of action.
The Doctor paused again, staring intently at an a invisible imperfection on ground in front of him, and then another just to the right, before dropping so suddenly that Donna’s heart lurched, and she almost dropped her bag. The Doctor, meanwhile, had pulled out his glasses from the suit jacket that he was still wearing, and was “umming” and “ahhing” as he watched the sand he’d scooped up trickle through his fingers.
Donna rolled her eyes impatiently. This was the fifth time he’d done this in the last ten minutes.
“Doctor, can you just pick a spot, already? There’s nothing wrong with here, or back over there, or the last twenty places you inspected before that! If I wait much longer to put some sunscreen on I’m going to start clashing with my hair!”
The Doctor looked at her, startled.
“But I…”
“Yes?”
“I just wanted to make sure it’s perfect for you!”
Donna’s ire faded just a tad.
“Spaceman, you’ve already gotten us here in one piece – the only thing that would make it more perfect would be to actually have some time relaxing before sunset.” She smiled at him. “And also, hopefully making it back to the TARDIS still in one piece. That would be good too.” She added hastily, remembering their recent close call on a planet that The Doctor referred to as Twel X Seven.
She preferred calling it Planet Of The Lobster Chefs.
“What are you looking for anyway?” Donna asked, dropping her bag and deckchair somewhere off to the left and moving closer to crouch beside her favourite of the aliens she’d encountered.
(Well, her current favourite alien. He’d been briefly overtaken by one that had morphed into her favourite actor, but then he’d turned out to be shape-shifting yellow slime, so The Doctor had quickly retaken the top position.)
“There’s something not quite right about the sand, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. It doesn’t make sense. For all intents and purposes the crystals look like your standard quartz sediment, touch of magnetite, some calcium-carbonate, all pretty standard, but it doesn’t taste right.”
“Taste right?”
“Yeah.” The Doctor said distractedly, frowning at the sand again as his tongue darted out to lick the grains left on his fingertip.
With considerably effort, Donna managed not to gag, and instead focused her gaze just as intently on the sand in front of them. Still seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she paused to consider her next actions.
“Doctor, is it life threatening?”
“Probably not.”
She raised an eyebrow at him.
“Nearly definitely not.”
“Well, those are pretty good odds, don’t you think? Nearly definitely not going to get killed by grains of sand that look, feel, and act pretty normal?”
“Yeah…”
“So can we please put our deckchairs up now?”
“Yeah.” The Doctor agreed, not hiding his disappointment very well at all. Donna narrowed her eyes at him.
“An hour relaxing with me and then you can go investigate on your own to your hearts’ content.”
The Doctor’s demeanour brightened considerably.
“You mentioned sunscreen?”
Donna rolled her eyes as she stood, grabbing the nearest chair to begin wrestling with.
“In the bag. You can do my back first.”
The Doctor managed nearly three-quarters of the allotted hour sitting with Donna before the whirring of his sonic caused her to send him off on his own early. Twenty minutes later, when The Doctor returned with seaweed caught in his hair and a dejected pout, Donna’s hysterical laughter made up for the fact he was now missing his left flip-flop.
[Image Description for photo at top of post: a collage of six photos in a grid. The first photo shows two deck chairs on the beach under a palm tree. The second photo is of a pair of navy blue swimming trunks with bananas printed on them. The third photo is a close up of a ginger lady wearing a floppy sunhat. The fourth photo is a screenshot of the Tenth Doctor against a sandy background. The fifth photo is a blue beach bag with a dress falling out of it. The sixth and final photo is of a bottle of sun-cream and a pair of swimming goggles. End Description.]
Inspired by a conversation with @imnotacommittee following THIS video from Georgia Tennant’s Instagram story yesterday (Thu 3rd Jan 2019) about whether Alec and Roderick would be as patient with their little princesses.
We concluded that Alec would unhappily be coerced into tea parties with Belle, and Roderick would make it his life’s mission to memorise the names of all 42 of Abigail’s doll collection...
BBC sent me an email containing a link to listen to Matt Smith on Desert Island Discs, so of course I looked to see if David Tennant had done one too. He has, so I made a playlist of the songs he chose.
Over and Done With - The Proclaimers
Oliver’s Army - Elvis Costello
Me and the Farmer - The Housemartins
Dignity - Deacon Blue
The Starship Enterprise - Eddie Izzard (Live Stand Up)
Ruby - Kaiser Chiefs
White Wine In The Sun - Tim Minchin
Greetings To The New Brunette - Billy Bragg
David’s book choice was “A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu” by Marcel Proust, and his luxury item was a solar-powered DVD player loaded with all seven series of West Wing.
Source: Desert Island Discs, Sunday 27 December 2010.
