May 08, 2025
In Lagos, Nigeria, a young boy writes an essay about the time he met a mysterious man called the Doctor...
In The Story & the Engine, the Doctor travels to Lagos, Nigeria and meets his friend Omo (Sule Rimi). While the rest of that story is yet to be told, episode writer Inua Ellams has penned an exclusive prequel to the adventure for the Doctor Who website, with artwork by Bunmi Agusto.
Written from the perspective of Omo as a schoolboy, we discover how he and the Doctor met in the midst of a terrible forest fire in Etsako. Read the exclusive story below...
The Story & the Engine debuts on Saturday 10th May on BBC iPlayer in the UK and Disney+ where available.
What I Did On My Holidays By Omo Esosa
Class 2G, St Cathrine Missionary Primary School, Apapa, Lagos State, Nigeria.
23 August 1965.
Once upon a time there lived a boy called Omo. He was just like me. In fact, he was me, and he did not want to leave Lagos. I did not want to. I wanted to work in my father’s barber shop every day, listening to all the stories. I wanted to run around with my dog, Bingo. I wanted to hear Fela Kuti and his band, Koola Lobitos, rehearsing. I wanted to go to Bar Beach with Jide and Antonia so we could practice backflips in the water. I wanted to win the annual bubblegum blowing championship at Sister Anna’s house, but no! No matter how much I begged Mum and Dad, they didn’t listen and sent me off to Grandma and Grandad in Etsako.
Etsako is a village in Edo State, and Edo state is far away! So far that my bum went numb in the car. We left early in the morning. The roads went from grey, nice and smooth to red, dusty, and bumpy. I tried to sleep, but the car kept bumping into my dreams. After 7 loooong hours, we started slowing down to drive past some mean-looking soldiers at a checkpoint. This checkpoint wasn’t there two years ago when we last came. But Grandad was there waiting for me. It was night, and the night was hot. I got out and ran to greet him, then remembering my manners, turned to salute the soldiers, but Grandad said they were not real soldiers, they were bad men, and I should steer clear of them.
Grandad and Grandma actually live in a small bungalow surrounded by proud trees that cast plenty of shade. The room I was staying in had a ceiling fan and a white net around the bed to protect me from hungry mosquitos that like Lagos-blood. I like pretending I’m inside a cloud before I sleep. There was a small shelf with papers and pens for homework. Granddad said he would test me on mathematics every evening, that if I thought I was escaping ‘intellectual rigour’, I had another thing coming. I told him I didn’t know what intellectual rigour meant, and he said this was the problem with young people. Grandma told him to shush, and wrapped her big arms around me, calling me her small husband. It was so nice to see her. She always smells of sweet sweat and shea butter. That night, she fed me a small hill of rice and spicy stew, then sent me to sleep.
I knew exactly what to do. Two holidays ago, I actually did the same things: as soon as the cock crows, get up and sweep the ground outside the house, fetch water from the river from our shower, feed the chickens, eat breakfast, help Grandad on the farm, go to the market with Grandma, come back in time for my afternoon siesta, then gather in the village centre for storytelling and food. I didn’t want to leave Lagos, but actually, I like how simple life gets, and how fast my muscles grow from working on the farm! Big biceps, like yams! But soon as I finished sweeping, Grandma said I should eat first because reaching the river takes more time, because of those men. ‘Which men?’ ‘The fake soldiers. They were hired to guard the river’ Grandma said. ‘The river doesn’t need guards. That’s stupid.’ I said. ‘It’s the oil they are pumping from it.’ Grandma said. ‘We don’t like it, and the generator that powers the drill is so loud, it disturbs the peace, for the hunters, animals, everybody, even plants don’t like it,’ she said, frowning. ‘Oil? The river? And generators? I haven’t actually heard any….’ BrrruOOOmmmm!’ Suddenly that sound thundered the air. The chickens pecking around outside, flapped and fluttered to their coops. Other birds took off from the bush nearby, and from the bedroom, Grandad shouted some bad words that I won’t write here, because you will give me an F.
After breakfast, I left for the river with a cup of hot milky tea, drinking slowly. When I arrived, there she was! The woman of my dreams. (Okay, she looked a year older than me, only 12, not a woman, and I didn’t dream of any women, but I started dreaming of her after that. Anyway!) She was wearing blue earrings that shimmered like a secret in the forest. There was a bucket beside her on the ground, and she had pushed her fingers through the metal fence blocking us from the river. She was bent over, trying to uproot the fence, pulling with all her might! ‘That won’t work’ I said. She let go and spun round to find who was talking. ‘Your muscles aren’t big enough’ I said. She kissed her teeth and looked me up and down. ‘You must be Omo, the Lagos boy.’ ‘So my reputation actually precedes me?’ I said smiling. She kissed her teeth even louder. ‘Actually, your Grandma told us you were coming. If you’re not going to help, go away.’ She turned and continued pulling the fence, using the same bad words Grandad shouted. Even though I knew it was pointless, I walked up beside her, grabbed the fence and started pulling.
15 minutes later, we were sweating, sitting on the ground, breathing heavily. She wiped the sweat from her forehead, and said ‘Call me Blue’ stretching out her hand. Her real name was only for school and her family, who were trying to stop all this. They were writing petitions to stop the oil pumps and sending them to the government in Lagos, but Blue thought it was taking too long. She wanted action! And was doing it all by herself! So, I decided to help.
It became our thing. We met every morning, shared my cup of hot milky tea, pulled the fence until we got tired, walked for 45 minutes to where we could actually fetch water, then walked all the way back to the village, balancing the buckets of water on our heads. On the eight day, the fence came up! Imagine! Blue looked at me, shocked, started laughing and kissed her biceps. We pulled until there was enough space to crawl under and drag our buckets with us.
The forest on the other side was just like the forest behind us, except for the sound of the generator. It was getting louder. Blue began collecting stones to throw at the generator. ‘That won’t do anything!’ I said. She knew it was powering the oil drill, and once told me she wanted to smash it. She kissed her teeth again, her favourite form of communication, and went ahead. She was so fearless! The closer we go, the louder the regenerator became, until we saw it in a clearing close to the river. It was so big! Big as two cars on top of each other! It was red and yellow, belching black smoke and shaking the trees and bushes. Blue threw her first stone. It hit the side of the generator then bounced off pathetically. (I think that is the word) ’See, I told you!’ I said. She pulled back her arm to throw another, when the generator suddenly coughed, twice, then died. ‘See! I told YOU!’ she said, stepped forward to look at what she had done, when we heard voices. I grabbed her waist and pulled her down to the ground. The voices got louder and louder, coming closer and closer. There were three men, soldiers from the checkpoint, the fake ones.
‘This na waste of time. Leaving checkpoint to off the generator?! We must eat in peace!’ said one. ‘But if anyting happen, na us dem go blame’ another said ‘Wetin fit happen? Person no fit tear fence!’ said the first one, and I thought Blue would stand up to block their path and say she had torn the fence, but she stayed on the ground beside me. ‘Fence or no fence, this na de job we must do, and the faster we reach checkpoint and eat, de faster we go come…’ their voices were fading away. When I was sure they were gone, I tapped Blue. She stood up, brushed down her dress and walked to the generator.
It sat there, like a hot monster waiting to roar again, and the stone Blue threw looked even smaller and useless beside it on the ground. Blue was bending to pick it up as I walked to see the river behind the generator. When I got there, I screamed.
Blue came running behind and stopped when she saw what I saw. She quietly slipped her hand into mine and stood, shaking with anger. Whoever the oil drillers were, they had gone, probably for food, and left everything by the river: drills, cars, equipment and pipes. But oil was bursting from their hole in the ground, shooting into the sky, a fountain on black, thick, smelly liquid that was falling down on everything around, splashing on the plants, trees, and the soft sand on the riverbank where I used to practice backflips near the water. All of it was black and grey and thick and oily and revolting (I think that is the word). We looked down, and our feet were covered in oil too. Blue screamed, took two steps back, tripped over a tree branch, fell on her back, and when she stood up, she too was covered in oil. It was then I realised I had made a mistake. The guards and the fence were not to protect the river, but to stop us from seeing this, the oil spoiling everything.
I turned to tell Blue but she was walking, quickly, up the riverbank, back to the generator. I caught up with her, and she had a look in her eyes and her earrings were shining like blue flames. ‘Blue. Blue? Blue! I think…’ ‘Yes. They kept us out to hide this oil mess’ She interrupted. ‘Ok. We should go back and tell the adults’. ‘I am almost 13! I’m an adult, what will telling me do?’ she asked. ‘A real adult, Blue!’ ‘They’ll just write another petition, and these idiots will keep pumping!’ ‘But we can’t fight those men!’ ‘No’ Blue said, ‘But we can fight the machine’. She was walking around the generator now, looking for something. She took two steps back to look at the top, then asked me to link my fingers together and give her a boost up. ‘Blue, what are you…’ ‘Quickly, Omo!’
On top, she walked straight to the pipe where smoke comes out of the generator, and started throwing stones into it. ‘Find more!’ she shouted from the top. I’m not a mechanic, I don’t know how engines work, but I knew this would not be good for the generator, and that made me smile. I ran around filling my pockets, I took off my shirt and used it a sling, gathering many stones until I thought it would tear, then passed it up to Blue who poured them down the pipe. Three shirts later, the pipe was almost full. I was gathering more to fill it up, when I heard the fake soldiers coming back. I was on the ground, but Blue was still up there and they saw her.
‘Hey! You there! Wetin you dey do? You dey mad?!’ They shouted. They were so angry! She dropped to the ground and tried to run away, but one of them easily caught her, kicking her legs so she fell. I was so shocked, I had not said anything and just when I was about to shout, Blue shouted first. ‘Get the adults!’ ‘Wetin you talk? Eh? Pesin follow you here? Another one dey here?’ the fake soldier asked. He was shaking Blue hard, and looking around for me but Blue was right. We needed help. I crawled away from the fake soldiers, backwards, towards the village. When I was far enough, I stood up and started running for the fence, and then… BRRRUUUOOOMMMMMM!! The generator roared back on!
When we were filling the pipe with stones, I thought the generator would not work. I thought if it did, it would come on only for a minute. I thought after that minute, it would cough two times, and die. I was wrong, because it more than died. It exploded! A great ball of fire shot into the sky and blasted across the forest, rocking me off my feet. Everything went black. When I opened my eyes later, something like a loud bell was ringing in my ears. I tried to block it out, and when I looked at my hands, there blood on it. I stood up, my legs were shaking, but all I could think of was Blue. I started stumbling back to the river to find her, hoping she was fine. I picked up speed, started running, but then I heard another generator coming on! I kept running, looking around because I hadn’t seen another generator near, but this other one had a different sound, it came in waves. I focused on putting one foot ahead, reaching the place of the first generator, and when I arrived the new generator was there!
Except, it was not a generator. It was a big blue cupboard. The door was wide open, and there was a man outside, kneeling down on Blue! Energy came out of nowhere, and I ran full speed at him shouting ‘LEAVE HER ALONE!’ But when I reached them, he wasn’t actually kneeling on her, but beside her, checking her breath. He looked at me. ‘Are you her friend?’ ‘I… yes’. ‘Well, don’t just stand there, come on. Put pressure here, it will stop the bleeding. Don’t worry. I’m the Doctor, she’ll be okay, but we have to act fast!’.
This Doctor did not look like any doctor I knew. His accent was strange, he was wearing lots of rings on his fingers, like a queen, but was looking around like a soldier.
‘The forest is on fire, the flames will spread because of the oil.’ this Doctor said. ‘We have to move her.’ ‘Won’t we need an ambulance?’ I asked. ‘The TARDIS. It’s a ship’ I looked down at the riverbank. ‘I can’t see any ship, and the water is…’ When I turned around he was walking to the blue cupboard, carrying Blue. ‘What are you doing? Bring her back!’ ‘We have to move fast. I don’t think the TARDIS likes raw 19th century crude oil so close to her core.’ Honestly, I didn’t understand a single word he said and was starting to get tired and angry. ‘You didn’t understand a single word I said, and are getting tired and angry, but trust me’ he said, entering the cupboard.
But it wasn’t a cupboard, it was bigger on the inside than on the outside! ‘I have a healing pod for her, but you have to stop the fire.’ ‘Healing pod? What’s that? Wait me to stop the fire?! What can I do? I’m just a child!’ ‘Some of the best people I know are children!’ he said. ‘Go to the village, tell people! Make them listen! I’ll bring Blue back soon. Go!’
I ran out of the cupboard (I know how this sounds crazy, don’t give me an F) and kept running. It was getting dark and I knew people would be gathering for food and stories, looking for Blue and me. I went straight to the centre of the village shouting ‘FIRE! HELP! FIRE! THE FOREST IS ON FIRE!’ Grandma and Grandad were there. ‘Omo! Where’ve you been?’ ‘Long story but we need buckets! Now! Come!’
By the time we got back and crawled under the fence to reach the clearing where the generator was, the fire had grown and was getting worse. We had to go round to get water from the river, but oil made the riverbank slippery and we kept falling and spilling our buckets of water. I started running back and forth, filling my cup with water to throw at the flames. The people were asking ‘Omo, what are you doing?’ ‘What I can!’ I said running back and falling down. It was hopeless! None of us knew what to do, so I just started shouting ‘Doctor! Doctor! Doctor help!’
And suddenly, I heard the other generator that wasn’t a generator. It was the blue cupboard! The TARDIS! His ship! And it was FLYING! High over the forest! The door was open and the Doctor was standing with a hose pipe, spraying water, spraying and spraying and spraying until all the flames were out!
I followed the sound of the TARDIS to another smaller clearing in the forest, leaving the adults behind. They were looking at parts of the generator Blue and I blew up. The Doctor was in the clearing, throwing things on ground. He heard my footsteps and turned. ‘Seeds’ he said. ‘They are juiced up, pre-oxygenated, and will grow super fast.’ ‘So you’re a farmer as well?’ And he started laughing. ‘No, just the Doctor. Call me that’ he said, stretching out his hand. I shook it. And it was warm but firm and kind, and I felt very very safe. ‘Blue is in her bed, sleeping, perfectly fine. And I know you have plenty questions for me, Omo, but I have even more for you. Where does someone go to find answers?’
And the only answer that came to me in the middle of that burnt forest, with the seeds already starting to grow and the sun deciding to rise as the smoke and steam cleared, was ‘My father’s barber shop in Lagos! All we do is talk. But it’s a long way away.’ The Doctor smiled ‘Not a problem. We have all the time in the world’.
And this is how I met the Doctor on my holidays.
The Story & the Engine debuts on Saturday 10th May on BBC iPlayer in the UK and Disney+ where available. Find out more about Season 2 here.
