GC9GMXC The Ruddy Doctor 14: The Dream Lord (Unknown Cache) in East Midlands, United Kingdom created by RuddRobins

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A cache by RuddRobins Message this owner

Hidden : 10/24/2021

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Geocache Description:

Welcome to the Ruddy Doctor Caches, a series of puzzles linked together loosely with a whimsical story following the various regenerations of my favourite Time Lord.

The puzzles are nestled away in passages linking the various Doctor’s regeneration scenes, so you’ll need to skim at least through to find the goods and the occasional clue. You can assume coordinates are N 52° 53.XXX' W 001° XX.XXX' and will need you own pen and tweezers. All were conceived and placed by Doctor RuddRobins + checked and difficulty assessed by Mrs RuddRobins.

The notes at the end are random Docfacts not needed to complete the puzzle. I hope you find it all mildly amusing and it keeps you out of trouble for at least a little while J

The Ruddy Doctor 14: The Dream Lord

[Tardis]

DOCTOR: Everything's off. Sensors, core power. We're drifting. The scanner's down so we can't even see out. We could be anywhere. Someone, something, is overriding my controls.

(A little man in a red bow tie and tweed jacket suddenly appears on the stairs behind the Doctor.)

DREAM LORD: Well, that took a while. Honestly, I'd heard such good things. Last of the Time Lords, the Oncoming Storm. Him in the bow tie.

DOCTOR: How did you get into my Tardis? What are you?

DREAM LORD: What shall we call me? Well, if you're the Time Lord, let's call me the Dream Lord.

DOCTOR: Nice look.

DREAM LORD: This? No, I'm not convinced. Bow ties?

(The Doctor throws his sonic screwdriver through the Dream Lord.)

DREAM LORD: Interesting. I'd love to be impressed, but Dream Lord. It's in the name, isn't it? Spooky. Not quite there.

(He pops up behind them.)

DREAM LORD: And yet, very much here.

DOCTOR: I'll do the talking, thank you. Amy, want to take a guess at what that is?

AMY: Er, Dream Lord. He creates dreams.

DOCTOR: Dreams, delusions, cheap tricks.

DREAM LORD: And what about the gooseberry, here. Does he get a guess?

RORY: Er, listen, mate. If anyone's the gooseberry round here, it's the Doctor.

DREAM LORD: Well now, there's a delusion I'm not responsible for.

RORY: No, he is. Isn't he, Amy.

DREAM LORD: Oh, Amy, have to sort your men out. Choose, even.

AMY: I have chosen. Of course I've chosen.

(Amy is standing close to the Doctor, but she hits Rory.)

AMY: It's you, stupid.

RORY: Oh, good. Thanks.

(The Dream Lord pops behind them again.)

DREAM LORD: You can't fool me. I've seen your dreams. Some of them twice. Amy. Blimey, I'd blush if I had a blood supply or a real face.

DOCTOR: Where did you pick up this cheap cabaret act?

DREAM LORD: Me? Oh, you're on shaky ground.

DOCTOR: Am I?

DREAM LORD: If you had any more tawdry quirks you could open up a Tawdry Quirk Shop. The madcap vehicle, the cockamamie hair, the clothes designed by a first-year fashion student. I'm surprised you haven't got a little purple space dog just to ram home what an intergalactic wag you are. Where was I?

RORY: You were

DREAM LORD: I know where I was. So, here's your challenge. Two worlds. Here, in the time machine, and there, in the village that time forgot.

One is real, the other's fake. And just to make it more interesting, you're going to face in both worlds a deadly danger, but only one of the dangers is real. Tweet, tweet. Time to sleep.

(Birdsong.)

DREAM LORD: Oh. Or are you waking up?

(The Doctor tries to stay awake, but finally fails.)

[Care home lounge]

(The Dream Lord walks in wearing a dark suit and tie, with an x-ray in his hand.)

DREAM LORD: Oh, this is bad. This is very, very bad. Look at this X-ray. Your brain is completely see-through. But then, I've always been able to see through you, Doctor.

AMY: Always? What do you mean, always?

DREAM LORD: Now then, the prognosis is this. If you die in the dream, you wake up in reality. Healthy recovery in next to no time. Ask me what happens if you die in reality?

RORY: What happens?

DREAM LORD: You die, stupid. That's why it's called reality.

AMY: Have you met the Doctor before? Do you know him? Doctor, does he?

DREAM LORD: Now don't get jealous. He's been around, our boy. But never mind that. You've got a world to choose. One reality was always too much for you, Doctor. Take two and call me in the morning.

(The Dream Lord vanishes.)

RORY: Okay, I don't like him.

AMY: Who is he?

DOCTOR: I don't know. It's a big universe.

AMY: Why is he doing this?

DOCTOR: Maybe because he has no physical form. That gets you down after a while, so he's taking it out on folk like us who can touch and eat and feel. The puzzle is there’s more than one Dream Lord in the multiverse: although that's just written sand, man. There’s a lot of entities out there some embody powerful forces or aspects of the Universe and have existed since the dawn of time; they are depicted as among the most powerful beings in the some universes. They are distinct from and more powerful than most gods. They spend most of their time fulfilling their functions as embodiments of natural forces. They’re as old as the concepts that they represent. Their exact ages in years are unknown, but can be measured in billions of years. Personally I find I depair after my desires are satisfied too.

Despair, Desire, Destiny – Despair – Dream, Destiny, Desire

[Tardis]

(There's a thick layer of ice over everyone and everything now. First the Doctor, then Amy, then Rory wake up. Amy reaches for Rory's hand.)

DREAM LORD: So, you chose this world. Well done. You got it right. And with only seconds left. Fair's fair. Let's warm you up.

(The Tardis power is restored.)

DREAM LORD: I hope you've enjoyed your little fictions. It all came out of your imagination, so I'll leave you to ponder on that. I have been defeated. I shall withdraw. Farewell.

(The Dream Lord vanishes.)

AMY: What are we doing now?

DOCTOR: Me, I'm going to blow up the Tardis.

RORY: What?

DOCTOR: Notice how helpful the Dream Lord was? Okay, there was misinformation, red herrings, malice, and I could have done without the limerick. But he was always very keen to make us choose between dream and reality.

AMY: What are you doing?.

RORY: Doctor, the Dream Lord conceded. This isn't a dream.

DOCTOR: Yes, it is.

AMY: Stop him.

DOCTOR: Star burning cold? Do me a favour. The Dream Lord has no power over the real world. He was offering us a choice between two dreams.

AMY: How do you know that?

DOCTOR: Because I know who he is.

(KaBOOM. The Tardis is back to normal. Rory and Amy enter to see the Doctor looking at something small and yellow on his palm.)

DOCTOR: Any questions?

AMY: Er, what's that?

DOCTOR: A speck of psychic pollen from the candle meadows of Karass don Slava. Must have been hanging around for ages. Fell in the time rotor, heated up and induced a dream state for all of us.

(He takes it to the door and blows it into space.)

RORY: So that was the Dream Lord then? Those little specks.

DOCTOR: No, no. No. Sorry, wasn't it obvious? The Dream Lord was me. Psychic pollen. It's a mind parasite. It feeds on everything dark in you, gives it a voice, turns it against you. I'm nine hundred and seven. It had a lot to go on.

Notes

The Dream Lord was "awoken" by specks of psychic pollen from the Candle Meadows of Karass Don Slava that had become stuck in the time rotor of the Doctor's TARDIS console. This pollen induced a collective dream state for the Eleventh Doctor and his companions, Amy Pond and Rory Williams when warmed. The Dream Lord trapped the Doctor, Amy, and Rory between two worlds, one in a seemingly idyllic Upper Leadworth, five years in Amy and Rory's personal futures, and the other in a TARDIS hurtling toward a "cold star". He told them one of these worlds was a dream and the other was real. In each world, the three were to face "a deadly danger", and dying in the dream world would allow them to wake up in reality. In actuality, the Dream Lord had created both worlds; all the while they remained asleep in the Doctor's TARDIS.

The Dream Lord appeared to the Doctor and his companions in both worlds, taunting the Doctor on his insecurities and defects, and pressuring Amy to assess her own priorities and "dreams" for the future – whether she wanted a life of adventure with the Doctor, or to be settled safely with Rory and a family. He seemed to relish baiting the Doctor and his companions with remarks about their relationships. The Doctor recognised who the Dream Lord was because, in his own words, only one person in the Universe could hate him that much.

Whether or not the Dream Lord was truly defeated was open to interpretation. After he had found and removed the psychic pollen, the Doctor saw the Dream Lord's face in his reflection in the TARDIS' console, smiling slyly at him. Being a representation of the Doctor's inner darkness, the Dream Lord may never be truly defeated, but only hiding within him.

The Dream Lord drew his personality and observations from the "dark" aspects of the Doctor's subconscious. This included his innermost thoughts and doubts about the course of his life and perhaps cavalier treatment of others, including self-loathing, guilt, arrogance, selfishness and even lust. The Dream Lord had a bleak, cynical sense of humour, turning other people's remarks against them effortlessly and callously. He proclaimed the advancing army of Eknodines as "attack of the old people", and mimicked the Doctor when he jumped to Amy's defence. He was scornful of how the Doctor mostly chose younger people as his companions, as "the old man prefers the company of the young", and thus the Dream Lord did not consider the Doctor's companions as actual friends.

Physically, the Dream Lord appeared as a short, older man. When he faced the Eleventh Doctor and his companions, the Dream Lord's appearance was generally a parody of the Doctor himself, (being a psychic manifestation of him) consisting of a tweed jacket, striped shirt and bow-tie strikingly similar to the Doctor's. He frequently changed his clothes to make fun of whatever situation the trio was in.

Caches in this series

The Ruddy Doctor 0: Gallifrey Falls (GC9GNNW)