How You Get There was the thirteenth short story in the Short Trips anthology Short Trips: A Day in the Life. It was written by Simon Guerrier. It featured the Seventh Doctor and Bernice Summerfield.
Summary
The Doctor, having just visited a scientist named Emmett at the hospital psychiatric ward, waits for a bus in a heavy downpour. While he waits, he chats with a woman named Elsie about her husband and about how buses come in threes. He tells her he knows someone who thinks he can control the weather.
On the bus, the Doctor entertains a boy and his mother with magic tricks and strikes up a conversation with a teenager. The storms worsens, and the Doctor lightens the mood on the bus by leading everyone in song.
The bus reaches the end of the line, and everyone gets out. Some of the passengers are heading to the pub, and invite the Doctor, but he has work to do. He needs to get across the Vauxhall bridge to Millbank Tower, but a police officer tells him the bridge is about to go. The Doctor hurries across, barely making it, as the bridge is washed away.
Inside the building, a scientist-turned-terrorist named Endwell holds Benny and Ross Brimmicombe-Wood at gunpoint, having shot Ross in the leg. Endwell has co-opted Emmett's weather machine, causing the violet rain storm, and recruited several scientists to his cause. Benny is relieved to hear the Doctor enter the room, but now Endwell doesn't know who to cover. Benny throws her handbag at him, but misses and breaks the window. The storm sucks Endwell out to his death, and the other occupants of the room must find something to hold onto. Benny helps Ross, but the Doctor is pulled towards the window. A scientist tries to stop the weather machine, but the control lever breaks, and Benny makes her way to the machine. She is faced with several wires. The Doctor tells her to cut the blue wire, and the machine stops. He then tells her to cut the green wire, and that they have one minute to get out of the building.
Ross is taken to hospital, and as Benny and the Doctor leave the scene, several of the scientists have begun to clean up the mess.
Characters
- Seventh Doctor
- Bernice Summerfield
- Elsie
- Mother
- Charlie
- Tyler
- Adam
- Endwell
- Emmett
- Dale Wingsworth
- Ross Brimmicombe-Wood
References
- Elsie's husband is in the hospital.
- Tyler listens to Ugly It Up, whose lead singer is Jabba Jones.
- Fans from a rained-out cricket match board the bus.
- The Doctor leads the bus passengers in "The Wheels On The Bus".
Notes
- This story was reprinted in Short Trips: Re:Collections.
- The events of this story, The Last Broadcast and The Terror of the Darkness take place in London on the same day.
Continuity
to be added