The End (short story)

The End was the thirteenth short story in the Short Trips anthology Short Trips: Life Science. It was written by Alexander Leithes. It featured the Eighth Doctor.

Summary
The world-weary Eighth Doctor and his time-travelling friends of various races join together to found the Institute of Time. One of the time-travellers asks the Doctor if the Institute will still be standing at the end of the universe. The Doctor takes a trip in the TARDIS to find out. Arriving near the end of the universe, the Doctor finds the Institute in ruins. All of his friends have killed themselves because they know they have no place in the next universe. The Doctor finds his first incarnation standing in the ruins and talks with him. The First Doctor tells his future self not to give up; there are plenty of new planets to visit. With a new sense of adventure, the Eighth Doctor travels back in time to the founding of the Institute, but does not tell his friends what he saw.

Characters

 * Eighth Doctor
 * First Doctor
 * Radregh
 * Hactrix
 * The Hive
 * Kom
 * Reesha

Worldbuilding

 * Radregh is an Alsheen.
 * The Doctor had dreamt of building the Institute since his first incarnation lived on Gallifrey.
 * The Doctor wonders if his lack of memory means he will soon regenerate.
 * The Hive asphyxiated itself on Marlboro cigarettes.

Continuity

 * The Doctor says there was a rule among the Time Lords that they mustn't travel beyond a certain point in time. Although he can remember the rule and the time, he cannot remember why the rule was made. (TV: Frontios) Later in his life, the Tenth Doctor travels to the year 100 trillion, and mentions that not even the Time Lords had ever travelled this far. (TV: Utopia)
 * The Doctor would later try again to visit the end of the universe, following the trauma of Alex Cambell and Lucie Miller's deaths, but was stopped on behalf of the Time Lords by Straxus, as per the aforementioned rule. (AUDIO: The Great War)