DS Al Fine (short story)

DS Al Fine was the tenth short story in the Short Trips anthology Short Trips: Time Signature. It was written by Simon Guerrier. It featured the Eighth Doctor.

Summary
White Tulip and Black Rose have been killing everyone who has come into contact with Isaac's music: Ambassador Nikolai Faro, the members of Isaac's orchestras in England and the Democratic Republic, the living city Boro Berikuka, and Arto and Turis. Now they attack the Doctor in his TARDIS, but he is prepared for them. Their attacks don't connect, and he uses the sonic screwdriver to destroy them.

Taking their place is someone he didn't expect: Flora Millrace. She explains that she once invented a machine that could detect a piece of music as it was hummed, and she showed it to Faro, who had Isaac's music running through his head. The song broke the machine, and when Flora tried to recreate the music, it created a rip in time. She learned that the music was too dangerous, so she created the two grey men to destroy anyone who had contact with the music.

She tries to fight the Doctor, but he has a tune in his head that counters Isaac's music. He then proposes an alternate solution, one which breaks the rules, but it is necessary to save lives.

William needs a new hobby and goes to a fishing shop. There he meets a strange man called the Doctor who is about to offer to take him fishing. However, Flora shows up and offers to go fishing with the Doctor instead. She gives William a recorder for his new hobby.

Characters

 * Eighth Doctor
 * John Benton
 * Flora Millrace
 * Detective Inspector Manlow
 * Black Rose
 * White Tulip
 * Preng
 * Arto
 * Turis
 * Sixth Doctor
 * William
 * Woman

Worldbuilding

 * The Doctor has a record player from New Orleans, a record from St Kilda and a rug from Assyria.
 * Alexander Flowers is one of the members of Isaac's English orchestra.
 * The Doctor finds Benton in Aegina.
 * Flora modelled White Tulip and Black Rose after The Identikit Man.

Continuity

 * The Doctor knew the grey men would be coming for him so he was prepared. (PROSE: The Hunting of the Slook)
 * Torcaldi was destroyed by Flora's recreation of Isaac's music. (PROSE: The Ruins of Time)
 * The Doctor remembers scattering Isaac's ashes. (PROSE: Second Contact)
 * Flora still has the Second Doctor's recorder. (PROSE: The Avant Guardian)
 * The Doctor mentions the Time Lord in the pinstripe suit from his exile on Earth. (TV: Terror of the Autons)
 * The Doctor and Flora travel back to the events of PROSE: Gone Fishing.
 * Benton found the music in the Doctor's lab some time after he regenerated into his fourth incarnation. (PROSE: An Overture Too Early) He says he tried to give the Doctor the music during "that time with the Zygons". (TV: Terror of the Zygons)