Speech Day ( short story ) Speech Day was a story published in " The Doctor Who Stories " . Summary . Mr Tandry , the Headmaster of Mildfields School , excitingly announces to the staff that , former pupil and now Secretary of State , and tipped - to - be the next Prime Minister , will be returning to the school for the Commemoration Speech in this , the school ' s centenary year . The thing is none of the other staff can remember him ever being at the school . James Curtis , the Deputy Head , Mark Higson , Head of Maths , and even the school secretary of the last 27 years Miss Newkins have no memory of a young Harold . As the displays of old photos and bound anthologies of the school magazine " Mildfields Memories " are displayed , the teachers all look for something to jog their memories but are unsuccessful . When Harold Saxon arrives at the school for the speech , he makes a passing comment to Mr Curtis : " I remember you , Mr Curtis " , and makes a point of how he had bored him with Shakespeare and missed the point of Hamlet , posing the question , " You still think he can ' t kill his uncle because he ' s not sure of his facts ? Well , you live and learn " , before taking to the stage . The Headmaster gives his address first , a boring rehash of last year ' s speech . As Harry Saxon takes the stage , he supposedly turns his phone " off " , to avoid interruptions ; at the same time , Curtis begins to hear a faint buzzing in his ear , a rhythmic beat of white noise which inclines Curtis to turn his hearing aid off and lip - read instead . Curtis must have dozed off because he is alerted by the movement of people around him cheering and clapping loudly . To the sound of wild applause , Harold Saxon waves and takes to his seat before the hall is emptied and people proceed to the buffet that had been laid on . Curtis , having turned his hearing aid back on , is amazed to find the whole room talking about Saxon ' s achievements at the school which included the way he demolished the College opposition in a debate and how he was cross country champion for three years in a row — unheard of then and unequalled since . Even Miss Newkins and Higgins seem to have been bought into the memories , both fondly recalling the same two achievements — word for word , even though Higson hadn ' t started at the school at the time ; they were even able to identify Saxon in the school photos . When asked about the details of the debate , the answer Curtis gets is fuzzy and can ' t be recalled what Harold Saxon had actually said that demolished the opposition . When Curtis catches Saxon ' s eye he sees the smile drop for a moment and suddenly feels afraid . Going into his private office , Curtis makes a phone call to an old friend , Vivien Rook , voicing his concerns . She agrees to look into it a bit more for him and he hangs up to find Harold Saxon in the room with him , fingers drumming on the desk . From his pocket , he pulls a laser screwdriver , a device based on something he used as a boy scout for getting stones out of horses ' hooves and for implanting memories into " silly old men who don ' t respond to the Archangel sonic wave " . Some time later , when Vivien Rook rings James Curtis back after doing some background research that hasn ' t turned up anything , Curtis is very apologetic , and puts it all down to a senior moment . He relates the debate demolition and the three times cross champion achievements of Harold Saxon . His voice sounds somehow different to Vivien , especially when he ends with the words , " Who could forget Harry Saxon ? " References . " to be added "