"Hide" an alternate ending and missed opportunity

Spoilers!

Please beware, I am using original dialogue and plot from the episode “Hide” in season 7 of modern Doctor Who.  I have rearranged things a bit, and added some bits of dialogue, but most of it is intact in some form or another from the episode.  I begin my alternate ending at about thirty minutes in.  I will write some small bit of lead-up, to show the context of my changes, but the rest after that is my engineering or my reproduction of events between my changes.  Enjoy!

“Hilla!” the Doctor cried as he ran from the collapsing edge of the universe.  “Hilla!  Hilla Tacorian!”  A cracking sound stopped him dead in the misty woods, and he looked round carefully, but saw nothing save the moss, tree trunks, and mist.  The sound came from all round.  He took a few experimental steps, but the sound echoed again, louder this time.

He felt a thrill of fear down his spine as he carefully walked forward, looking round all the while.  That wasn’t unusual in itself.  He was often scared, but this was different.  That sound could be made by any number of things, all of them equally able to hide in a predator’s dream like this dark wood.  It could be anything from a wild animal that got trapped there with their lost time traveler, to a hostile alien that had chased the woman into this pocket universe, or even another lost soul in need of just as much help.  Without knowing what it was, he didn’t know what to do.

Maybe it was just Hilla, he tried to convince himself.  The echoing sound of her running through the woods.  But then, he reminded himself, she is running from something.

The sound approached from behind.  The Doctor closed his eyes.  “One,” he whispered.  Still closer.  “Two....”  He braced himself.  “Three!”  He whirled, the tails of his coat flying round, but saw nothing behind him.  The sound had stopped, replaced by the echoing plea for help from the woman he had come to save.

It faded away, and he was left with the silent woods and the sinister movements of the hidden creature again.  “Where are you?”  He caught a glimpse and ran the other way.  But no matter which way he went, he always seemed to see it ahead of him. 

Finally, he stopped.  “What do you want?  To frighten me, I suppose, hey?  I guess that’s what you do.  You hide, you’re the bogeyman under the bed, seeking whom you may devour....”  Saying that out loud did not actually make him feel any better.  And they say to face your fears, hah.  He circled on the spot, trying to see what was out there, but only caught snatches, and always the sounds.  He couldn’t leave without Hilla, or the whole trip was wasted, so he had to swallow his fears.  Easier said than done.

When it sounded like the creature was right behind him, the Doctor spun round and shouted in fear before he could stop himself. 

Still, hearing the sound of his voice had helped a bit, so he tried again.  “You want me to be afraid ... and well done.  I am the Doctor ... and I am afraid.  So,” he kept going, to fill the silence between haunting sounds, “why am I still here, huh?  Why not just eat me?”  He stood and spread his arms, inviting.  That was actually comforting.  Now, he was getting something that led somewhere other than fear.  “Huh?  Come on....”  He felt courage returning, the courage that came from increased understanding.  “Because you still need me.  Yeah, you need me to piggyback you across.”  He laughed.  It was still a nervous sound, but now he knew he was at least somewhat safe.  (Everything is relative.)

“Aaah....  To which I say....  Come on, then, big boy.”  He looked round uneasily still but didn’t back down from his decision.  “Chase me.” 

Suddenly, as he whirled away to run, a woman in white emerged from the mist right in front of him.  They nearly crashed together, but he snatched her arm to help keep them both upright and unharmed.  “Hilla Tacorian, I presume?”  Before he’d finished, he was already stumbling back for the harness.

“Who are you?” she demanded.

The Doctor whirled round yet again, taking a few steps back toward her to explain as quickly as possible to try and forestall any questions.  “Collapsing universe, you and me dead, two minutes, no time, complete sentences, abandon planet.”  He tried to run off again.  He had wasted so much time already on the creature.

“Wait!”  He paused.  “There’s something in the mist.”

What he’d experienced was too profound for any longer explanation, and it hadn’t dispelled his fear any.  So, he simply said, “I know.  Run.  Run!”

And they did.  Leaping over logs and dodging the great trunks, Hilla followed the Doctor as he ran back for the harness that would pull them to safety.

Back on Earth, things were getting difficult for his helpful psychic.  He heard her calling out to him, echoing through the woods like all sound seemed to in this place.  Though already at full tilt, he pushed out a little more speed.  That was their way out.  If they missed the opportunity, there would not be another.  Underneath all that noise, they could hear the creature of the mist chasing after them with more persistence and energy than ever.

Suddenly, the edge of the wood reared up in front of them.  Arms wheeling, the Doctor stopped on the edge of the cliff, slowly dissolving under its own entropy.  “Okay,” he said, fighting the panic down.  “Not that way, which means....”  It’s gone.  He didn’t say that.  He didn’t accept that, yet.  “Probably....”  Back the other way.  Hilla, not sure what was happening, but knowing the Doctor was her only hope, followed.

“What’s wrong?” she asked as they ran.

“You know that exit I mentioned?”

“Yes?”

“I seem to have misplaced it.”  That must be it.  It can’t have gone off the edge of the universe already.

They both heard the monster ahead of them, and the Doctor wasn’t quite sure where to look for the harness, so they stopped, back to back, and circled slowly, cautiously.

“Doctor!” he heard faintly from a very specific direction.

He would have smiled if the situation didn’t have him so terrified.  Clever, clever girl.  “This way.”

Through the woods, the outline of the haunted house appeared, first vague but with increasing solidity.  “Doctor!  Come home!  We’re here!”

“Whoa!”  Hilla had just looked up from running when they paused and saw the house appearing.  “What’s that?”

“An echo house in an echo universe.  Clever psychic!  That is just top-notch.”  Even so desperate, he couldn’t help but praise her.

With the monster right on their heels, it seemed, they dashed for the front doors.  Emma’s oft-repeated, and increasingly desperate, cries spurred him on even faster.  He knew the strain was getting to her.  This had to be tremendous effort.  If they could get to the same room she was in on Earth, they could probably get back from there.  Entropy of the universe wasn’t the only clock.  She could only last so long.

They slammed and locked the doors behind them, then the Doctor put his ear to the door, listening to the scraping on the other side.  “It’s looking for a way in.”  As the weight of the creature crashed against the doors, they ran down the hallway.

***

Every second counted.  Clara knew it.  Emma screamed with the effort.  “I’m not strong enough!”

“Just a few more seconds!” Clara urged her, desperate to see the Doctor return.  He said the TARDIS couldn’t get into that universe.  If he didn’t come through before Emma closed it, what would happen to him?  She fought her helplessness as she listened to the psychic scream again.

***

Sure enough, the same door that opened the wormhole for his departure from Earth was a doorway back there in this echo house.  Once Hilla was through, the Doctor slammed the doors and pulled out his sonic screwdriver to lock it.  “Grab the rope!” he instructed as he did so.  “Give it three tugs.  Quick as you like!”

“What about you?” Hilla asked, even as she put the harness on.

The Doctor smacked his sonic screwdriver against his palm.  Stupid pocket universe.  He knew psychic technology was the only thing that would get him to and from this universe, but he had gone for his sonic screwdriver out of habit and hope.  Never mind that.  “I’ll be next!”  Off came the bowtie.  He had others. 

Hilla tugged on the rope as the Doctor secured the doors, and those waiting on Earth immediately set to dragging the harness, and its passenger, back through.  Clara stared eagerly at the glowing wormhole, hoping to see that old-fashioned coat and ridiculous hairstyle.

Instead, out came a different figure, who could only be Hilla Tacorian.  While the professor helped her up, Clara stared in horror at the wormhole she knew would be closing in just seconds.

***

Inside the house now, the monster approached the doorway and banged on it.  The Doctor looked up and laughed a little to himself.  “Ah, that’s what that noise was!  Lovely!”  He ran for the doorway to get the harness which Hilla should hopefully be throwing back for him now. 

It appeared out of the wormhole, and he snatched it, but before his arm was through the first loop, he paused.  His mouth dropped open as the banging sounded again.  “No....”  The door rattled in its frame.  The Doctor nearly dropped the harness as his mind raced off in a thousand directions.  “Stupid!”  He smacked his forehead and ran back for the doorway.

I have a few more changes to make, but this was getting long.  Tune in tomorrow for the second (and hopefully last) installment of my alternate ending!  Found here.