Herod stalked into his chambers. Those damned priests knew of the coming of the Alphanum. At long last he would have his revenge. All he had to do was find a way to interrogate the Time Lord he had in custody.

“Imagine my surprise,” a voice said from behind.

Herod jumped, startled but not altogether surprised. He turned, and there was the Time Lord, leaning against the doorway.

“To find a living, breathing Halcyon right where my TARDIS stalled.”

“I had wondered how long it would take you to escape the archaic prisons here.”

“Yeah, me and doors. Not usually a prob.”

Herod’s eyes flicked toward where he had hidden the Time Lord’s sonic device.

“Ah, thank you. I was wondering how long it would take me to get you to reveal where you’d hidden my screwdriver. We’ll go back to that. What are you doing here?”

“First, may I have the good pleasure to know which of the Chancellery Guard I am addressing?”

The Time Lord cocked an eyebrow. “Chancellery Guard? Oh, my friend, you have no idea, do you?”

“Speak plainly.”

The Last Thing Herod Knows

“What’s the last thing you know about the Time War?”

Herod ran a finger through the point of his beard. “I was there at the fall of Alpha Detorum. I watched as the Daleks eradicated our eternal enemies and smote the unworthy from the heavens.”

The Time Lord clenched his jaw tightly. “I was there as well. Fifteen billion innocent lives wiped from existence because you betrayed your species.”

“They were not my species.”

“How can you say that? Alphanum and Halcyon lived for centuries in harmony.”

“Until Rassilon and the Other arrived and offered your people the whole of time and space. And when we voted, Halcyons and Alphanum agreed that the cost was too great. Our gardens would not be desecrated.”

Herod began stalking back and forth as his ire mounted. The Time Lord shifted from one foot to the other.

“A means of safe passage through the vortex, and you stole it.”

The Time Lord at least had the decency to look ashamed. “Not our finest hour,” he said in barely a whisper. Then his eyes went hard. “But what’s done is finished. The Time Lords and the Alphanum forged an alliance, and it was your people who joined the Daleks against us in the Time War.”

Herod shook with anger. “Who are you, he who watched your worlds destroyed by the Skaro Degradations? Tell me your name.”

“I’m the Doctor. And I’m the very last of the Time Lords.”

The Time Lord stood straight. A heaviness that had not been there before settled onto his shoulders.

“Last?”

There Is a Child

The Doctor chewed his lip before seemingly coming to a decision.

“There’s a fixed point in time approaching. I don’t know what it is, but it’s caused my TARDIS to stall out here. I’m leaving now. I don’t care why you’re here, but I’m going.”

“There is a child,” Herod heard himself say as the Doctor turned away.

The Time Lord stopped and slowly turned back.

“The locals believe it to be sent from their god. Well, the truth is, it is the last of the Alphanum.”

“Oh.”

Herod nodded. “If the war is over and you are the last, I assume the Daleks won.”

“Nobody won. Everybody died. Everybody save us.”

The Doctor turned away again.

“I will find the child.”

This time he kept walking. “And I will stop you. That’s your only warning.”

Herod trembled with anger. Then he realized the Doctor had left without his sonic device. Rushing to the place where he had hidden it, he opened the small box to find it was empty.

Herod laughed bitterly. When had the Time Lord managed that?

Doctor Who: First Christmas. This is Part 11, A Warning. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.