_Stories are no fun if you go in knowing every detail. I prefer to go in knowing just a little bit. Well, maybe the broader picture. Well_ maybe it is okay to know a little bit about what_s going on._

He turns to face the rain splattered window. The occasional flash of lightning illumines the reflection of his angular face and piercing eyes. Inside it_s a castle_huge oak beams and masonry. Outside it_s a castle in the sky, surrounded by ominous thunderclouds floating high above everything.

He turns back toward the room. He is slouching, hands jammed into the pockets of his great coat. The candlelight has him limned in silhouette_he is tall with tufts of hair going in all directions. He sounds like a young man and yet looks around like someone very old indeed. _My story__ He sucks air in. _You don_t want to hear that._

_I_m a traveler. I have a funny old blue box. I travel around. Explore. Help people. Maybe defeat the odd monster. Really that_s all._

He chuckles softly. The thunderclouds echo it.

_Well, all right, I_ve travelled a bit. The truth is I_m old. Some would say impossibly old. But what_s old? When I was a younger man I was much older. Now that I_m old I_m much younger. Don_t worry about it. You really don_t need to know that much._

_Anyway__ he stretches out the last syllable for effect. _I travel around space. And time. My people had a knack for that. You don_t want to know about them. Sometimes I travel with others. I_ve travelled mostly with humans. I like them. They_re such a hopeful species. But they_re a bit like being with mayflies_their stays seem relatively brief. But you know what? I wouldn_t give that up for the world. Take the last person I travelled with, Martha__ The lightning flashes and you can see his face break into a wide grin.

_Martha she was great. She was training to be a Doctor. A medical Doctor. She was smart. And funny. And enthusiastic. She had buckets of enthusiasm. And she stood up to the most horrific things. Witches. Essences that stole peoples souls. Evil creatures who live in metal tanks. Oh, she was incredible…”

He slows down and looks away. “But she wanted things_well, things I couldn_t give her. She_s gone now, but she_ll be back I_m sure._

_I_ve been alone since. There_s been some missed opportunities here and there. Who knows, someone will come along. Someone once told me I need someone to help me stop myself_ That was a woman named Donna Noble. She was a handful. Appeared in my ship on her wedding day. Turned out her fiancee was in league with an ancient spider empress. I wonder how she_s getting on?_

He turns back toward the window, gazing at the stratospheric cloud discharging electricity but never looking at it. _It_s funny how these people get under your skin. There was one. Her name was Rose__

He trails off. There is silence, then thunder.

_I don_t think of myself as lonely. I_m used to it. Well, used to it more these days. I_m the last of my people. A Time Lord. For a little while recently, there was one more Time Lord in the universe. Of course, with my luck it turned out to be one of my oldest enemies. He was insane. Became Prime Minister of Great Britain. That_s how crazy he was. He came within nanoseconds of winning everything and destroying the Earth and possibly the universe. I was helpless. I only managed to stop him because of Martha. It was the last thing she did before she left. _

He turns back and sits on the window sill, head lowered. _But my enemy_you know, he was my friend a very, very long time ago_he died. He died to spite me if you can believe it. And now I_m the last again. The last Time Lord._

There is an huge clap of thunder and his face suddenly changes from its somber expression to something seemingly carefree.

_Well, I suppose I better be going. Nice to talk to you. Whatever you are__

He walks out of the room. There is a sharp grating noise that sounds like an ancient engine pulling reality apart. And then there is silence. And thunder. And an otherwise empty room.

The Story So Far… (Series Three)

�2008 Graeme Burk; Doctor Who �BBC