Breadcrumbs was the sixteenth short story in the Short Trips anthology Short Trips: Transmissions. It was written by James Moran. It featured the Fourth Doctor and Romana II.
Summary[]
The Doctor is stranded on a small desert island. He sighs at his predicament, acknowledging that he needs to find a way off the island. If nothing else, he knows whatever he attempts will work.
Romana wishes to go on a holiday, implicitly signaling this to the Doctor. To her growing frustration, he's more interested in mysterious signals appearing throughout the universe. Eventually, she requests to take a solo break of two weeks, making a bet with him that he won't be imperilled in the interim. If he succeeds, she'll pay for a meal at a restaurant on Surrifleq 9; if not, he'll be footing the bill.
With significant difficulty and the painful realisation that he can't function without Romana, the Doctor tracks down and collects the signals. As well, he needs a Centauran matter disperser which, when rewired, will let him combine the signals and determine their origin. G'rlanix, a member of the Doctor's network, is in possession of a matter disperser, but since he's violent and bad-tempered, having murdered their mutual friend, the Doctor decides to steal it instead of asking to borrow it. He visits a weapons museum during a silent gunfight between G'rlanix and a group of thieves, escaping with the disperser by the skin of his teeth. The TARDIS isn't spared, however, its console being damaged by a parting shot from G'rlanix.
The Doctor deletes the sensor logs, covers up the damage to the console, rewires the disperser, and picks up Romana, who's surprised he made it through the two weeks unscathed. On a cold, dusty planetoid plagued by tiny wormholes, they collect the final signal, finding that the signals are pieces of the Doctor. The reconstituted Doctor sheepishly asks Romana if she's checked the sensor logs, interrupting the Doctor, desperate to know what's happening, to tell him everything will be fine.
Despite Romana's prior warnings, the Doctor is sucked into a wormhole with the disperser. He's sent to a small desert island some time in the past, having no idea where he is or how he'll get back to Romana. Struck by inspiration, he returns the disperser to normal, stuffs it with sand and rocks, and shoots himself with it, spreading pieces of himself—the signals—through space for his past self and Romana to locate and collate.
The past Doctor and Romana combine the signals, bringing the present Doctor back to the planetoid. Worried that Romana has learned he lost the bet, he asks her if she's checked the sensor logs. As they return to the TARDIS, the past Doctor on the island, she expresses annoyance that the efforts to collect the signals were pointless. He counters that they weren't—it's just that paradoxes make things complicated.
Asked by Romana where he was deposited by the wormhole, the Doctor offers to tell her over dinner. She agrees, so long as he pays for it; upon finding that the sensor logs had been deleted, she concluded that he had lost the bet.
Characters[]
- Fourth Doctor
- Romana II
- G'rlanix
Worldbuilding[]
- Romana bounces a beach ball to hint that she wants a holiday.
- The loser of the bet will pay for a meal at an expensive restaurant on Surrifleq 9.
- Centauran matter dispersers are able to fragment anything, including people. When G'rlanix's is rewired by the Doctor, it does the opposite.
Notes[]
- On 23 December 2012, an audio reading of this story, read by John Banks, was released to Big Finish Productions subscribers whose subscription included Wirrn Isle.
Continuity[]
- Romana recalls holidaying in Paris 1979, which she claims to have happened a year ago. (TV: City of Death)
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