[ As if the Doctor could resist the call of a good doughnut, and perhaps noseying about — in person and not on his communications device. He does so like a good face-to-face encounter when given the choice.
When it's his turn to speak, he gets to his feet, stick-straight, and clears his throat. He opts for a more serious tone this time around, which might be surprising to some, but expected by others. This isn't, after all, a matter to take lightly. ]
Hello! Hello, can you all hear me? Yes, yes, good, right — I'm the Doctor. [ He gives a little wave with the hand not holding onto a chocolate glazed doughnut. ] Now, I've been with this crew since we first set foot on Gyeongje and recovered our very first orb, so I've seen the way these missions have changed a number of us. Of course, not only that but I've seen the different ways the orbs affect each world we've been to and what effects they've had on us as a team.
We've all got our strengths, certainly, and I think all of us have some form of good intentions but the problem is that we've got about sixty-some sets of intentions all going in all different directions.
There's a rule in time-and-space travel — which I suppose can lend itself to the sort of space traveling that we do — and that is to observe as much as you can without getting involved, and to interact with the world we visit by following its rules and customs. [ He's got his own set of personal rules too, but he won't recount them here. ] I've traveled for two-thousand-some years now, and I suspect I'll travel for hundreds of years more after this face, and while I've helped a good many planets I would never presume to know one better than its locals — and I think that's where some of us got a bit mixed up.
What happened before those last weeks in E-23b really shouldn't have happened, certainly not by our hand, and certainly not when we already had the orb with us. [ Not to speak of retrieving Viveca's body from the Chacier House which did wind up being a good thing in the end, but could have ended very, very badly for some of the team. It's the sort of risky calculation even the Doctor, for all his risktaking (and delighting in it), couldn't agree with. ] You see, while we do have our designated job to do, we are still tourists in a way, and we shouldn't forget that. Refocusing on why we were sent down to a planet in the first place, with the knowledge that removing the orb from that planet will allow it to recover and return to its former glory already — that's what we ought to do. Because — you see, because it doesn't actually need us as much as we think that it might.
And believe me, all right, I've made mistakes just like the ones we'd made on E-23b once or twice before. Hard not to when you think your experiences are universal. But they aren't, not always.
[ He, too, had to learn this the hard way. ]
Suppose what I'm saying is that in the event of something like this occurring again, we really ought to take the time not to get too caught up in it all, to remember that it's better not to make too big a splash, and to remember that the orb put in place on that planet is already the thorn we're to remove. Once we've removed it, well, then our job is done. Every planet will carry on without us, trust me, it will. I've seen it happen. And while it might feel like we're abandoning a planet to its own devices when some of you might think, 'shouldn't we do more to help?' what we're doing isn't pointless, and we are helping. I'd argue, we're helping the very best way that we can.
[ He pauses, and then lifts his doughnut up. ]
And these doughnuts are very, very good. Think I'll take another one before we're through here.
action —;
When it's his turn to speak, he gets to his feet, stick-straight, and clears his throat. He opts for a more serious tone this time around, which might be surprising to some, but expected by others. This isn't, after all, a matter to take lightly. ]
Hello! Hello, can you all hear me? Yes, yes, good, right — I'm the Doctor. [ He gives a little wave with the hand not holding onto a chocolate glazed doughnut. ] Now, I've been with this crew since we first set foot on Gyeongje and recovered our very first orb, so I've seen the way these missions have changed a number of us. Of course, not only that but I've seen the different ways the orbs affect each world we've been to and what effects they've had on us as a team.
We've all got our strengths, certainly, and I think all of us have some form of good intentions but the problem is that we've got about sixty-some sets of intentions all going in all different directions.
There's a rule in time-and-space travel — which I suppose can lend itself to the sort of space traveling that we do — and that is to observe as much as you can without getting involved, and to interact with the world we visit by following its rules and customs. [ He's got his own set of personal rules too, but he won't recount them here. ] I've traveled for two-thousand-some years now, and I suspect I'll travel for hundreds of years more after this face, and while I've helped a good many planets I would never presume to know one better than its locals — and I think that's where some of us got a bit mixed up.
What happened before those last weeks in E-23b really shouldn't have happened, certainly not by our hand, and certainly not when we already had the orb with us. [ Not to speak of retrieving Viveca's body from the Chacier House which did wind up being a good thing in the end, but could have ended very, very badly for some of the team. It's the sort of risky calculation even the Doctor, for all his risktaking (and delighting in it), couldn't agree with. ] You see, while we do have our designated job to do, we are still tourists in a way, and we shouldn't forget that. Refocusing on why we were sent down to a planet in the first place, with the knowledge that removing the orb from that planet will allow it to recover and return to its former glory already — that's what we ought to do. Because — you see, because it doesn't actually need us as much as we think that it might.
And believe me, all right, I've made mistakes just like the ones we'd made on E-23b once or twice before. Hard not to when you think your experiences are universal. But they aren't, not always.
[ He, too, had to learn this the hard way. ]
Suppose what I'm saying is that in the event of something like this occurring again, we really ought to take the time not to get too caught up in it all, to remember that it's better not to make too big a splash, and to remember that the orb put in place on that planet is already the thorn we're to remove. Once we've removed it, well, then our job is done. Every planet will carry on without us, trust me, it will. I've seen it happen. And while it might feel like we're abandoning a planet to its own devices when some of you might think, 'shouldn't we do more to help?' what we're doing isn't pointless, and we are helping. I'd argue, we're helping the very best way that we can.
[ He pauses, and then lifts his doughnut up. ]
And these doughnuts are very, very good. Think I'll take another one before we're through here.