The Broken Seal

Doctor Who story by DJ Tyrer. Penultimate instalment of The Nth Season. Published in Monomyth 3.3.
===Synopsis===
The Cloister Bells awaken Gypsy with their tolling – the TARDIS is in danger! After the Goronwy and the Doctor had repaired it, there is no longer a problem with the link to the Eye of Harmony – unfortunately, there is no longer a link at all! It seems that Gallifrey itself has vanished...
The Doctor having left the TARDIS to investigate but having failed to return, Gypsy sets out in turn and finds herself in a neglected corridor. Hearing a song playing, she heads towards the sound and meets a man in black robes who begs her for "a piastre for the blind?" The man says he has many names, including "a timeshare on Merlin", and is currently called Shadow. He explains that they are aboard a space station orbiting the remains of Gallifrey, which he destroyed with his 'Fist'. He hints at a tie to Faction Paradox. He is a prisoner of a being named Arianrhod, as is Gypsy.
With help from Shadow, Gypsy finds herself on Gallifrey; the space station appears to be located in a possible future. She is arrested by Varnax of the Chancellry Guard and reunited with the Doctor. They meet Romana, now President of Gallifrey, and begin to discuss the threat. While the Doctor, Romana and others head for the space station to seal the time break, Gypsy is left in the care of Varnax, who attempts to seduce her, but is interrupted by the sounds of shooting from The Chapel of the Old Time, where they encounted the Gallifreyan FBI. Unfortunately, the FBI cause the very disaster that they had arrived to prevent – the unleashing of the Eye of Discord...
Naturally, all is resolved and the Doctor and Gypsy go on their way, the latter having refused Varnax's request of marriage...
===Illustrations===
*The story was accompanied by a Seal of Rassilon and a broken version of the Seal created by Richard Burman.
===Trivia===
*The song playing on the space station is This Garden by The Levellers.
*A green-hued Cold Fire is 'burning' in the chamber used by Arianrhod (closeby is something resembling a loom).
*After a passing hint in The Grange, the X-Files are, here, referred to as fiction. Makes you wonder what was going on in Doctor X...
*There is a passing reference to Knightmare.
*The Doctor refers back to the events of The Game and The Tandbury Devils in explaining why he doesn't intend to do things the CIA way.
*Varnax is mentioned by Shadow (who says he counted him a friend) before Gypsy meets him. In The Gallifrey Chronicles novel, Varnax is a threat to Gallifrey. Whether this is just a misrepresentation of the events in this story or refers to some later fall from grace is unclear...
*Varnax's attempted seduction of Gypsy parallels the marriage of companion Leela to Time Lord Andred in The Invasion of Time serial.
*The White Fist was one of several prototypes of the Hand of Omega - it created the Eye of Discord as a trial run before creating the Eye of Harmony, unleashing entropy into the Universe...
Category:Stories
Category:Doctor Who Fiction