70 - The Sleep of Reason

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The near future: a man in a psychiatric hospital claims to be an

alien time-traveller called ‘the Doctor’. He once adventured across

countless galaxies, ﬁghting evil.

The past: an asylum struggles to change Victorian attitudes to

the mentally ill. It catches ﬁre in mysterious circumstances.

Now: a young woman takes an overdose and slips into a coma. She

dreams of death falling like a shroud over a benighted gothic building.

Caroline ‘Laska’ Darnell is admitted to the Retreat after her latest

suicide attempt. To her horror, she recognises the medical centre

from recent nightmares of an old building haunted by a ghostly dog

with glowing eyes. She knows that something is very wrong with

the institute. Something, revelling in madness, is growing ever

stronger. The mysterious Dr Smith is fascinated by Laska’s waking

dreams and prophetic nightmares. But if Laska is unable to

trust her own perceptions, can she trust Dr Smith?

And, all the while, the long-dead hound draws near. . .

This is another in the series of adventures for the Eighth Doctor.

The Sleep of Reason

Martin Day

Contents

Prologue

Dreams Never End

[The Secret of Patient # 1759] 6

1 Do You Remember the First Time?

[A Brief History of Self-Harm] 9

2 Suicide Isn’t Painless

[In Fact It Hurts Like Hell] 16

3 Architecture and Morality

[Angel of Death] 22

4 There’s a Ghost in My House

[Frontier Psychiatrists] 35

5 Caroline Says

[I’ve Got My TV and My Pills] 47

6 Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity

[Communion] 55

7 I’ll Be Your Mirror

[Reﬂect What You Are] 67

8 Cellar Door

[The Place You Fear the Most] 81

9 The Stolen Child

[World Full of Weeping] 94

CONTENTS 2

10 Mad World

[The Start of the Breakdown] 105

11 Spy vs Spy

[Life’s a Riot] 113

12 A Million Manias

[Torment] 124

13 My Life in a Bell Jar

[Where is My Mind?] 129

14 Basket Case

[Where’s Your Head At?] 136

15 A Hideous Strength

[Dominion] 143

16 The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum

[Kill Your Sons] 146

17 Matters of Life and Death

[Chiaroscuro] 157

18 The World, the Flesh and the Devil

[O King of Chaos] 164

19 No Alarms

[No Surprises] 168

20 No One Here Gets Out Alive

[A Person Isn’t Safe Anywhere These Days] 178

21 The Sweet Unknown

[Mausoleum] 186

22 Time’s Tides

[The Sleep of Reason] 191

23 There by the Grace of God

[The Dream of Reason] 198

CONTENTS 3

24 This is the Way the World Ends

[The Tooth] 208

25 Soldier Girl

[She’s Leaving] 211

26 Good Riddance

[Time of Your Life] 220

Epilogue – P.S. Goodbye

[Cuckoo’s Nest] 221

Credits 223

Thanks to Ian Abrahams (always Mausoleum’s biggest fan), Ian Atkins,

Bob Baker, Terry Barker, Paul Cornell, Diane Culverhouse, Russell T

Davies, Paul Ebbs, Sarah Emsley, Sandy Hastie, Mike Heales, Jill James,

Rebecca Levene, Sean McCormack, John McLaughlin, Steven Moffat, the

late Dennis Potter (who would, of course, have made a much better job of

chapter one), Eric Pringle, Jac Rayner, Helen Raynor, Justin Richards and

Keith Topping.

Dedicated, as always, to Helen

Beware the Sholem-Luz –

Made mighty by madness,

Birthed in ﬁre,

Reborn in terrible destruction.

Grafﬁto etched into wall of

Bethlehem Royal Hospital (‘Bedlam’), c.1790

Prologue

Dreams Never End

[The Secret of Patient # 1759]

‘It’s the stars I miss the most,’ the patient announced suddenly.

The nurse turned to look at the man. He hadn’t said a word since she

had entered to clean his room, staring out of the window with haunted,

unreal eyes. If eyes are windows into the soul, the nurse couldn’t decide

if the man’s mind was empty and ill-formed – or so full of possibility that

he couldn’t even begin to articulate the dramas, real or imagined, that took

place there.

‘What do you mean?’ She’d been warned that this particular patient was

obtuse at best. Still, it was as well to get to know everyone – especially on

your ﬁrst day.

The patient sighed, long and deep, as if toying with the idea of not

breathing again. When he spoke he avoided direct eye contact, his ﬁngers

ﬁddling anxiously. ‘I don’t mean that I can’t see them, of course. One of the

advantages of being so far from anywhere is the absence of light pollution.

Do you know, an entire generation will grow up not being able to perceive

the true majesty of the sky at night, the glory of this galaxy’s spiral arms

etched into the dark?’

‘You’re assuming that people can even be bothered to look up at the sky.’

‘Indeed. This culture seems increasingly parochial. Not so much navel-

gazing as downward-gazing.’

There was a long pause as the nurse folded away some linen, wondering

if the man would ever explain himself further.

Finally more words came in a funereal whisper.

‘To travel out there, in the cosmos – and have that freedom taken from

you. . . Can you imagine what it’s like to see the stars not as a mere backdrop

to everyday life, but the very place where you roam? The almost limitless

freedom. . . It’s impossible to describe.’

PROLOGUE – DREAMS NEVER END 7

‘What do you like to be called?’ asked the nurse. She’d been warned

that this patient never responded to his name, but was so attached to his

alternative persona that almost nothing seemed to be able to get through

the barriers and defences he had meticulously constructed.

‘I am the Doctor,’ replied the patient.

‘Doctor of what?’

‘More than any mere human could ever know.’

‘You think you’re not human?’

‘You are a psychiatric nurse,’ said the man. ‘You of all people should

understand that appearances cannot always be trusted. Do most people

in here look “mad”?’ Something like a smile played across the man’s lips.

‘I don’t accept that term, of course, but before you began your work as

a nurse, did you not have some stereotypical picture of the mentally ill?

It might be a subconscious one, of course, and I’m sure it was modiﬁed

over the months and years of your training, but even so. . . How many of us

would look out of place in everyday life?’

The nurse indicated the man’s newspapers – apparently he had three

broadsheets and two tabloids delivered daily, though he also subscribed to

the National Enquirer, New Scientist and the Beano. ‘When I see the House

of Commons sometimes I do wonder about their sanity,’ she commented

with a grin.

‘I notice a former Member of Parliament has been found guilty of per-

jury,’ said the man. ‘To be in such a privileged position, and then have your

honour and dignity stripped away, one layer at a time. . . I know how he

feels.’

The nurse reckoned the MP deserved everything he got. She tried to

change the subject. ‘What did you do, when you travelled in the stars?’

‘Many things. I started as an observer, a traveller if you will, became

– if I might be arrogant enough to use the term – a hero, then. . . ’ He

paused again, staring at the bars on the window. ‘Then it all became rather

complicated.’

‘And how did you end up somewhere as dull as the Retreat?’

‘I have retired,’ announced the man grandly. ‘Illness and regret have

caught up with me. I now need to rest – unfortunately, I have absolutely

no choice in the matter. The rural isolation of the Retreat is as good a place

as any to while away my remaining years.’

‘And how long is that?’ asked the nurse, sitting on the end of the bed.

‘Oh, I expect I shall outlive this place – the bricks and mortar, I mean. I

shall certainly be here long after you’ve gone.’

‘You know that I’m new, then?’

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Thenearfuture:amaninapsychiatrichospitalclaimstobeanalientime-travellercalled`theDoctor'.Heonceadventuredacrosscountlessgalaxies,ghtingevil.Thepast:anasylumstrugglestochangeVictorianattitudestothementallyill.Itcatchesreinmysteriouscircumstances.Now:ayoungwomantakesanoverdoseandslipsintoacoma.Shedr...

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70 - The Sleep of Reason

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