The Tramp's Story (short story)

The Tramp's Story was the sixteenth short story in the Short Trips anthology Short Trips: Repercussions. It was written by Joseph Lidster. It featured the Seventh Doctor.

Summary
One Christmas a tramp saves up enough money to buy himself a bottle of champagne. A passerby knocks it out of his hand before he can drink it. He wishes to end his life and stands in the middle of the road to be hit by a bus. He is saved by the Seventh Doctor, who claims to be trying to get one over on his enemy, Death.

The tramp joins the Doctor in several adventures. During one, he helps the Doctor stop from taking Antonio Salieri back in time to kill the infant Mozart.

The Doctor eventually admits that he wasn't trying to save the tramp; he was trying to save the bus driver, Rita. The tramp wants the Doctor to bring him back, but he can't.

The Doctor removes the tramp from history to protect the Web of Time and places him in an airship that endlessly loops through the heart of the time vortex. The tramp is the only passenger, along with the steward, who remains on board when the other passengers disembark.

Characters

 * Seventh Doctor
 * The Tramp
 * Death
 * Rita

Continuity

 * The Doctor thinks back to how he recently failed to save a boy and his parents on a burning world, (AUDIO: Excelis Decays) a young soldier who pushed him to safety as a building exploded (AUDIO: Project: Lazarus) and his "oldest friend", trapped in "a thousand lifetimes of darkness". (AUDIO: Master)