Echoes (ST short story)



Echoes was the second short story in the Short Trips anthology Short Trips: The Centenarian. It was written by Gary Russell. It featured the Third Doctor.

Summary
At Christmas, 1911, Peggy Grainger and her five-year old brother Edward encounter a strange man called the Doctor, who has inexplicably appeared outside the room of their cousin, Helen. After explaining that he is tracking alien anomalies, the Doctor is concerned to learn that Helen has been hearing strange voices in her head, which the girl believes to belong to her imaginary friend, Ahnji. The Doctor realises that Ahnji is in fact an extraterrestrial life form composed entirely of sound, who has come to Earth to rescue his people after they inadvertently became trapped in the wax surface of a graphaphone record in Helen’s possession. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to play the record backwards, freeing Ahnji’s people and enabling them to return to their rightful home. After instructing Edward to destroy the record, the Doctor leaves Peggy to look after Helen.

Characters

 * Third Doctor
 * Edward Grainger
 * Peggy Grainger
 * Lawrence Grainger
 * Helen
 * Ahnji

Continuity
to be added