An Unfulfilled Dream (short story)

was a Brief Encounter short story published in DWM 178.
It was told, unusually, from the Doctor's point of view and featured Katarina from a point in time before she met the First Doctor in the television story The Myth Makers.
== Summary ==
While in ancient Greece, the Seventh Doctor stops at a house for a drink of water, where he unknowingly meets someone who was once very important to him.
== Plot ==
The Seventh Doctor, tired of trying drinks from the food replicator with his companion all night, steps outside the TARDIS into a village in Ancient Greece. He talks to a young girl who tells him that she is to become the handmaiden of a priestess because her family do not have enough money. After being given a glass of water by the girl's mother, he gifts the family a gold coin in exchange, that will allow them to buy enough food to last them a year. As he leaves, he asks the girl her name, and she tells him that it is Katarina. The Doctor realises that he has, again, failed to save the life of somebody who trusted him.
== Characters ==
* Seventh Doctor
* Katarina
== Worldbuilding ==
* The Doctor mentions that his companion is hungover after a night testing drinks from the TARDIS replicator.
* The Doctor gives the family a gold coin in exchange for his drink of water.
== Notes ==
* This story was the winner of the all-age category in a 1991 DWM competition to write a story for the Brief Encounter series.
* This story is a "pure historical" featuring no science fiction elements apart from the presence of the Doctor and the TARDIS.
== Continuity ==
* The Doctor recalls meeting the older Katarina in Troy (TV: The Myth Makers) and her death in 4000. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)
== External links ==
Category:BE stories
Category:Stories set in Greece
Category:Brief Encounter stories
Category:Seventh Doctor short stories
Category:1991 short stories
Category:Stories set in 1240 BC