Ghost of Christmas Past (short story)

 was the eighth short story in Twelve Doctors of Christmas, featuring the Eighth Doctor.

Summary
The Doctor's TARDIS is caught in a bout of temporal turbulence, caused by a skirmish between the Temporal Powers. The TARDIS becomes caught between two opposing timelines, and the Doctor slips the TARDIS out of the vortex and back into real time. The Doctor finds himself in a time loop, in temporal orbit around Earth on Christmas Eve, 2016. After a strange knocking sound on the TARDIS door, the Doctor investigates mysterious noises around the ship. He eventually finds a hypercube sent by Susan, which had taken centuries to get to him. Susan tells him of her accomplishments, and the birth of her son, Alex. The Doctor realises that the TARDIS had chosen to stay in the time loop so that the Doctor could receive the message. The message fills the Doctor with hope, in such a dark time of his life. He then dematerialises the TARDIS, heading towards another adventure.

Characters

 * Eighth Doctor
 * Susan

Worldbuilding

 * The Temporal Powers have a small skirmish.
 * The Doctor receives a Hypercube from Susan. The hypercube is wrapped in paper, with the Doctor's real name written on it in Old High Gallifreyan.

Continuity

 * The TARDIS console has girders above it, and each room contains the Seal of Rassilon. (TV: Doctor Who)
 * The Doctor has decided to help where he can in the Last Great Time War. (TV: The Night of the Doctor)
 * For a moment, the Doctor wonders whether he is running towards Gallifrey. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
 * A hypercube knocks on the TARDIS door. (TV: The Doctor's Wife)
 * Susan has made some effort at rebuilding Earth after the Dalek invasion. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth; PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks; AUDIO: An Earthly Child)
 * The Doctor remembers seeing Susan again. (AUDIO: An Earthly Child, Relative Dimensions, To the Death)
 * Susan tells the Doctor that she and David Campbell have had a child called Alex. (AUDIO: An Earthly Child)