October 23, 2026
Two Doctors have an unlikely encounter in this prequel to the new Tales of the TARDIS story collection by Beth Axford.
In 2023, Tales of the TARDIS brought together Doctors and companions from times gone by to revisit a selection of classic Doctor Who adventures. Author Beth Axford now invites us to step through the doors of the Remembered TARDIS once again in Doctor Who: Tales of the TARDIS, eight brand new stories collected from across time and space - now available in hardback, ebook and audio download.
To celebrate the release of Tales of the TARDIS, you can read a new prequel story written by Beth Axford below, exclusive to the Doctor Who website. In 'Nine Minutes Past Four', two very different but freshly-regenerated Doctors are summoned to help the Remembered TARDIS. Only through working together and remembering their shared past can they hope to move forward and become the Doctors they were born to be...
Nine Minutes Past Four
A Prequel to Tales of the TARDIS
By Beth Axford
Regeneration was a lottery.
But still, the Doctor was sure this wasn’t quite right. He had walked into the TARDIS, but this was not his TARDIS. This new place was golden and rosy with a lilac haze; warm and inviting. But not my TARDIS, the Doctor thought.
He was still wearing his velvet jacket and his nightshirt, and he was still freshly regenerated. He spun around in his new body, trying to figure it out.
‘Ha! Why is a mouse when it spins?’
Then, he stopped. ‘No. Still don’t know the answer.’
The Doctor looked around. This place was simply brimming with stuff! And some of it, he recognised. A blue crystal from Metebelis III, an old recorder he had once used to help him think, and ah! The food machine! He’d wondered where that had gone…
The walls were covered in round things and hexagon things and lit-up things. A jukebox sat in one corner next to a chalkboard covered in scribbles. Books, sonic screwdrivers and various items of clothing were dotted around haphazardly, filling the space; it was a hoard the Doctor only half recognised. A mess, but it seemed intentional. Nothing about the crammed place made him uncomfortable - in fact, it had quite the opposite effect.
It made him feel at home.
Above him hung a control console, reaching down from the ceiling like a chandelier. And close to where the Doctor had seemingly arrived was a digital clock with a time frozen into it: 16:09 PM. That was apparently the time, and time did not seem to be moving here inside this jumbled concoction of a place.
‘Are you… a TARDIS?’ he wondered aloud. ‘I think you could do with a bit of a spring clean, old girl!’
A cough came suddenly from behind him, and the Doctor turned to find a dark figure. A figure wearing a weathered, brown, too-big leather jacket. His hair was closely cropped, and his eyebrows were furrowed. He was almost the opposite of the Doctor, who was fizzing with energy and grinning all over the place.
An excited ‘Hello!’ exploded from the Time Lord as he greeted the new arrival. The man settled his blue eyes on the Doctor, an expression of recognition setting in on his face.
‘Ah,’ he said. ‘It’s you.’
‘Well yes,’ the Doctor said. ‘I am me! The definite article, you might say!’
The man raised his eyebrows as he spoke again, his Northern accent becoming apparent: ‘Have you ever thought about what the others might think of that?’
‘Why would I think of the others when I’m me now?’
The Doctor was greeted with a hard stare in return. On closer inspection, there was something in the man’s eyes that the Doctor recognised. He knew this man. How did he know this man? Regeneration could so easily mess with one’s head…
And then it clicked.
‘Oh,’ he said, beaming a toothy smile. ‘You’re me!’
‘Unfortunately, yeah,’ the new Doctor said. ‘New face. But still… you.’
‘You’ve just regenerated too?’
‘...Yup.’
‘Fascinating.’ The Doctor continued grinning. ‘I must say, Doctor, I can’t remember being you. So you must be a future me! I can see it in your eyes.’
‘Oi!' the Northern Doctor said, pulling an expression of offence.
‘What happened to me that I became you?’
‘You got old. Grew up.’
‘But I’ve tried very hard not to grow up!’
‘Yeah, well. I didn’t exactly have a choice. Is it freezing in here or is it just me?’
‘No, it’s boiling.’
There was a pause. Then, ‘It’s a lottery,’ they said in unison.
The curly-headed Doctor pointed at a rainbow scarf hanging from a nearby hat stand. ‘You could do with something like that to keep you warm, you know. A splash of colour!’
‘I don’t really do colour.’
‘Yes,’ the Doctor laughed. ‘I can see that.’
It didn’t always please the Doctor to get a glimpse of his future self. To see what might come later, how the years may have treated them. And this man - this man with his Northern lilt and funny ears and frowning face - he was the Doctor too. And even though he was brand new, he was so very old. Not old like a Time Lord old. No, it was something else. What had aged him so?
His thoughts were interrupted by the materialisation of two comfy chairs, appearing from thin air beside the two men. The Doctor decided to settle into one, smiling again at his later self. But the other Doctor was distracted, frowning and patting his coat up and down.
He seemed to be looking for something.
‘Where did I put it…?’
He had almost given up when a whirling noise sounded through the place. The room began vibrating so hard that a pot crammed with cylindrical devices crashed over, and down towards the Doctor’s feet rolled the exact sonic screwdriver he had been looking for. The two Doctors looked around, then up at the control console on the ceiling.
The older Doctor reluctantly thanked the room. Then, he held out his sonic screwdriver and pushed a button. The ruby red end lit up and the silver device whined as he scanned around them.
‘We’re definitely inside a TARDIS,’ he concluded.
‘Our TARDIS?’
‘Sort of, yeah.’
The younger Doctor pondered this. ‘It looks as if someone has cobbled it together from memory!’
‘Memory…’
The same thought seemed to appear in their heads at the same moment, then escaped their mouths at the exact same time:
‘It’s a Remembered TARDIS!’
The Remembered TARDIS vworped wildly in confirmation.
‘But why are we here?’ the older Doctor said quietly. ‘Why us, specifically?’
‘Maybe we’re being remembered.’
‘Or,’ the Doctor said with a deep breath, ‘it needs us for something.’
The room flickered and whirled. Pieces of the Remembered TARDIS faded in and out of existence as if they weren’t quite real, and a wailing noise filled the control room like it was groaning in pain.
The curly-haired Doctor jumped up. ‘We seem to each be at crucial points in our timeline,’ he wondered. ‘Just post-regeneration, at our most vulnerable. But I feel normal. Lively! I could take on the universe!’
The older Time Lord stared blankly while his counterpart ranted.
‘Where’s your joie de vivre, Doctor? What happened to us?’
The TARDIS continued to wail, its lights sparkling and flashing. The seated man remained stoney-faced.
‘Don’t you have your own regeneration to worry about?’
‘Well, I think perhaps that’s why we’re here. To remember how to be the Doctor. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t the first idea who I am now!’
There was a pause. A gloom seemed to fill the older Doctor’s eyes. ‘I know who I am,’ he said sternly.
The younger Time Lord decided, in that instant, that this simply wouldn’t do. He sat down again, leaning towards his older self.
‘Do you remember when we left Shoreditch with Susan?’ he said. ‘And those fantastic teachers… What were their names?’
The other Doctor concentrated hard. ‘History and… science…’
‘Barbara and Ian! Yes. We were careless at the beginning, weren’t we? We travelled around, trying not to get involved, watching from the sidelines. Barbara and Ian helped us see the real difference we could make in the universe. I think it was always within us, but our friends helped to change our trajectory, gave us the push we needed.’
‘And your point is…?’
‘Do you have an Ian or a Barbara? A Susan?’
A pause. ‘Not anymore.’
‘Then perhaps you have to make a new friend, Doctor. To show you what we’re capable of.’
‘I know that,’ the Doctor said darkly. ‘I know what we’re capable of.’
‘Good things, old chap. Wonderful things!’
The older Doctor looked as if he didn’t believe this.
‘And what are you doing?’ he said to his younger self. ‘Running away? Leaving Sarah and the Brigadier behind, as if they mean nothing to you?’
‘I was just going for a quick jaunt!’ the Doctor protested. ‘Testing out the new body!’
To demonstrate his point, he jumped back up and began running on the spot.
‘You’re not the Doctor the Time Lords exiled to Earth anymore. So you want to race off, run away from what they did.’
Now, it was time for the younger Doctor to listen. He sat once again, frown lines setting in. His older self continued: ‘But the Earth was there for you when you needed it. The Brigadier, everyone at UNIT. Liz, Jo, Sarah. Don’t you think you owe them a proper goodbye, at least?’
‘I hate goodbyes.’
‘So. Don’t say goodbye.’
A sparkle of understanding danced between them.
And then, as if on cue, the Remembered TARDIS groaned deeply. The room became bathed in light, then began flickering again.
‘Curious…’ the Doctor said. ‘Did you see that? She got brighter, then she faded again. She can’t seem to keep hold of her remembered form…’
A drawer popped open from the wall beside them, seemingly arriving from nowhere.
‘That must be what it needs from us. Memories to sustain it.’
Inside the drawer were the white organic innards of the ship; alive but mechanical, pulsing with the life of the TARDIS and its remembered being, ready to be used.
‘Are these your telepathic circuits?’ the younger Doctor asked aloud. ‘You want our help?’
The Remembered TARDIS whirled and buzzed, flashing its lights once again. The other Doctor approached the circuits cautiously and placed a hand gently into them, then jumped away as if he had been burnt.
‘It’s alright, Doctor,’ the younger man said. ‘Just a little reminder! A reminder of what we’re capable of. I think she’s helping us to remember so we can fuel her with our memories!’
‘What if I don’t want to be reminded?’ the older man said.
The younger Doctor removed his velvet jacket, clear headed now.
‘Then you must be brave, old chap. That’s what we’re all about.’
Yes, they were fresh from regeneration, but the Remembered TARDIS needed them, and they needed each other.
So the Doctor placed his hands into the telepathic web, and warmth flooded from his hands to his arms and into his mind as the memories came to him.
‘Ooh, it tingles!’ he giggled. ‘C’mon now Doctor, it really is quite cosy. Maybe we’ll find out the answer to my question!’
‘What question?’
The Doctor put on a crazed grin.
‘If the square on the hypotenuse equals the sum of the square on the other two sides, why is a mouse when it spins?’
The other Doctor raised his eyebrow, but finally joined his younger self, fingers in the TARDIS’s circuits, connecting them all. This time, he did not flinch.
The Doctors saw their entire history.
Their lives jolted through them like an electric shock! Every good day, every bad day, every person they’d ever encountered. Every face they’d ever had. Every friend who had ever travelled with them. The Daleks, the Cybermen, the Master. The memories poured out of their mouths as they felt it all.
‘Gallifrey…’
‘Susan…’
‘Liz… Jo…’
‘Nyssa!’
‘Ace!’
And not just their memories, but moments to come. Their future. Everything they were yet to see and hear and feel rushed through their minds and hearts. Every cell reminded of who they were, who they are, and who they will be. More and more memories exploded from them.
‘Clara!’
‘Martha!’
‘Yaz!’
‘Belinda!’
The Remembered TARDIS shifted and whirled around the two Doctors, restructuring and repurposing as the memories refuelled it. And it was bursting with colour now; the flashing lights brightened, the orange glow deepened, and the fading items began to solidify. The Doctors were remembering who they were, and the Remembered TARDIS was returning to life.
Finally, the TARDIS made of memories settled down. The remembrances came together, completing the puzzles inside the Doctors' minds. They knew what they were supposed to know, and nothing more; the memories of moments to come were buried deep, and only left behind to serve as a reminder when the Doctors needed them most.
The Remembered TARDIS made a high-pitched BRRRING in appreciation as the entire place became saturated with colour. And then a message came to the two Time Lords, arriving in their brains like a psychic letter:
‘She isn’t completely refuelled. She needs the others!’
‘We can make contact,’ boomed the younger Doctor. ‘Bring them here to tell their stories. That will fuel her!’
Neither of the men would say it, but they were thankful to be here. They had brand new lives ahead of them - and though they wouldn’t remember this, the experience would sit inside their hearts and journey onwards inside them, wherever they might next find themselves. And they could share it with all their other selves.
So the Doctors focussed their minds on a message:
Come, Doctor! Come, friends! Come and help us!
They called out to their fellow regenerations and their many companions. All over the universe, pulling them in to help heal the Remembered TARDIS, pulsating through the fabric of time and space. The recipients wouldn’t be aware of the message, but they would find themselves in the Remembered TARDIS exactly when they needed to be here.
The message left them, and when the two Doctors were satisfied that their mission was fulfilled, they removed their hands from the telepathic circuits, hands fizzing.
‘Nothing like a post-regeneration conundrum to fix!’ said the pyjama-wearing Doctor, another huge grin on his face. ‘I think I know who I might be now. And what about you, Doctor?’
The gloom hadn’t left the older Doctor's eyes, but there was something new, too. A resolution. He paused before he spoke.
‘I know who I want to be.’
‘And that’s probably the point!’ the younger Doctor replied.
Sounds came rushing into the Remembered TARDIS as if they were moving, noises that heralded their goodbye. The Doctor looked down at his hands and realised he was beginning to fade, and he could see that his older counterpart was disappearing too.
They were being sent back to their timelines.
‘Well, I suppose this is goodbye!’ the Doctor said. ‘I hope you find something to bring the colour back to your life, Doctor. A Sarah Jane or a Jamie McCrimmon…’
The other Doctor nodded and gave a small wave as he faded. Nothing else needed to be said. Apart from, perhaps, one thing:
‘We never find out, by the way!’
‘Find out what?’
And for the first time, the other Doctor smiled.
‘Why is a mouse when it spins!’
Then, the Doctors faded completely, leaving the Remembered TARDIS to await its next guests.
