Subject: That's a good idea. A replacement #13 Continuity Council plot:
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Posted on: 2021-09-30 14:14:50 UTC

The Agent, as seen at the end of Agent II, is putting together a team. One by one, he talks to the Time Lords of HQ, and each time we hear a little more of his plan: he is trying to build a Continuity Council, which will keep an eye on the multiversal issues that Upstairs don't want to hear about. As he visits each Time Lord, we see a self-contained story from that Time Lord's past. The other Time Lords cameo in each other's stories to greater or lesser extent.

The first person the Agent visits is the Aviator. The flashback shows the Aviator's previous regeneration arriving on Gallifrey, and being looked after by the previous Agent and the Disentangler. They raise her almost like a child, and help her to gain entry to the Academy. In gratitude, the Aviator agrees to join the Council.

As the Agent goes to leave, he mentions that he's going to see the Detective next. The Aviator says that he definitely won't be interested, and the Agent asks how he knows. "I know him really, really well," the Aviator says. "He's not the joining kind."

Skipping the Detective, the Agent goes to find Morgan. Her flashback is of a recent incident where her TARDIS landed in a version of the PPC where everyone was a Time Lord, and all the Flowers were herbs; the whole story is a buildup to a big "Thyme Lords" pun. "I don't want to go through that again," she says. "I'm in."

The Agent goes to see the Reader next - the PPC's youngest Time Lord. We see her childhood, with the Aviator acting as his (at the time) babysitter, and end with the beginnings of the Time War just as he reached adulthood. She joins the Council for the Aviator's sake.

The Agent finds the Librarian next, and the flashback shows his struggles with the Riddle of the Osirians - a puzzle which consumed him and drove him from Gallifrey, across the galaxy, and into the PPC. It ends with the Aviator casually solving said riddle at a glance, leaving the Librarian utterly at loose ends. He joins up, effectively, for something to do.

The Agent tracks down the Fisherman in Medical. We see his attempts to clear a herd of multiversal creatures called Ypurs out of HQ, the rogue portal that dropped him into Aperture Science, and his struggles to escape both GLaDOS and the rampaging beasts. "After that," he says, "I could do with a job where I just have to sit down and bicker."

"I like to think we'll be more productive than that," the Agent says, but the Fisherman just quirks an eyebrow: "Have you met many Time Lords?"

Now the Agent goes back to his own RC, where the Disentangler is waiting for him. He has been putting off asking her to join the Council, and her flashback reveals why: it was a similar scheme, back during the Time War, which led to their flight from Gallifrey, and the Agent chosing to give up his memories to the Chameleon Arch after they reached the PPC. Back in the present, the Disentangler points out that she went along with it then, and that she's not going to let him do something this obviously crazy, pointless, and worthwhile without her.

The first meeting of the Continuity Council begins, with all seven Time Lords in attendence. They are just about to start discussing when the doors swing open and the Notary steps in.

"Did you forget about me, Agent?" she asks in an icy tone.

The Agent drops his head onto the table. "Believe me, if I could, I would."

We see the Notary's actions as a bureaucrat during the Time War, and her conflicts with all the other Time Lords at the time. We also finish up an uncommented-on background story: throughout the Gallifrey segments (which have happened in chronological order) there have been background events and throwaway sequences which establish that the Time Lords were working on a knockoff Key to Time as a weapon. In the Notary's story, we see that the prototype fake Key was a crystal tetrahedron, and that it was stolen by a white-robed Time Lord: the Mysterious Somebody.

None of this is commented on by the agents. Rather, as the Notary settles down at one end of the Council table, the Aviator looks over at the Agent. "I've been meaning to ask: this Key to Canon you've had so much trouble with. Is it any relation to the Key to Time the Fourth Doctor had to hunt down?"

The Time Lords look at each other, and then the Notary sniffs in disdain. "I don't know where this Key to Canon came from," she says, "but I'm certain it's nothing to do with the Time Lords. I assure you, I would have heard about that."


Post-credits scene is unchanged. I like this a lot more: it lets me reference actual stories rather than vaguely making stuff up. (The Reader, Morgan, Fish, and Librarian are all drawing on pre-existing stories, and I suspect there's material that could be adapted for Ave's as well.) Also, it means the Council literally never does anything. I love it.

As for Liu Siyuan: entirely your fault! ^_^ I think he's the character thrown furthest OOC by the PPCCUU, and it's all because you wanted him as Jacques' jealous ex. This is movies - you can't just be jealous, you have to be psychotically obsessed and willing to break the entire multiverse. Obvs.

hS

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