That Time I Nearly Destroyed the World Whilst Looking for a Dress (short story)

That Time I Nearly Destroyed the World Whilst Looking for a Dress was the seventeenth short story in the Short Trips anthology Short Trips: Past Tense. It was written by Joseph Lidster. It featured Polly Wright.

Summary
Polly Wright now controls the successful record company GEZ, thanks to a scandal involving her former boss, a distraught Take That fan, an orange and a piglet. As one of society’s hottest starlets, Polly attends high profile events, rubs shoulders with the most popular celebrities, and brings in shedloads of money. But while attending a celebrity funeral, she is surprised to encounter a seemingly omnipotent alien being, who sends her back in time to find a dress to wear at a forthcoming New Year’s Eve party.

Polly finds herself in a cell with the legendary Maid Marion – her exact double - and then meets Ian, Susan, and Ian’s double, Robin Hood. Then, when the Doctor arrives, Polly meets another version of Susan, and then finds herself in the seaside resort of Keelmouth, just as the Doctor is confronted by an angry man named Prentice.

The villain vows vengeance on the Doctor, and sends a beam of energy that transports his granddaughter Susan into the past. Polly continues to jump through time, disrupting events as she goes; after arriving in Colditz during World War II and encountering Ace, she then finds herself at a pivotal cricket match, where a previous version of herself and her then husband get into an argument with Peri, Erimem and Tegan.

Distracted by the confusion, Graham Dilley drops the catch that history notes he made and then, when two versions of the Fifth Doctor appear and inadvertently come into contact with each other, the resulting Blinovitch Limitation Effect causes an energy release that threatens to consume the universe. Once again Polly time jumps, and joins Bernice Summerfield for a drink. Finally, Polly comes face-to-face with the Time Lords; they inform her that she has been manipulated by the alien ‘goddess’ into altering Earth’s history, and go on to tell Polly that they will use one of their agents to rectify events, ensuring that the Web of Time is restored.

Some time later, after the agent has carried out his assignment, the operative – actually the Second Doctor – and his companion, Jamie, are reunited with Polly, who has just met her old friend and fellow TARDIS traveller, Ben Jackson. As the five of them celebrate, Ben and Polly admit that they love each other, sealing their future together with a passionate kiss.

Characters

 * Second Doctor
 * Polly Wright
 * Ben Jackson
 * Jamie McCrimmon

Continuity
to be added