topics: |  fiction | india |

[The doctor and Donna land up in Calcutta of the 1940s. They meet up with Brit colonials and with crocodiles and Mahatma Gandhi and investigate rumours of ghostly people-stealers in calcutta.

Script for an episode in BBC Doctor Who series.]

Donna: ‘I could murder a curry. I’m starving.’...

The Doctor looked at her as if she was a prize pupil who had handed in a sub-standard piece of work. Then inspiration struck him, and he was off again, bouncing round the console, slapping and poking and twiddling things.

‘Curry, curry, curry,’ he muttered. ‘If I can just… yep, there we go.’ The grinding bellow of the TARDIS’s engines started up and the Doctor straightened with a grin. ‘Donna,’ he said, ‘prepare yourself for a taste sensation.’

In a narrow alley between two tenement blocks, dust began to swirl. The trumpeting groan of ancient engines rose out of nowhere, and as they built to a crescendo the faded outline of an old blue London police box began to solidify. No one saw the box arrive except for a famished yellow cat, which ran for its life. For a few seconds the box stood, immobile and impossible, dust settling around it. Then the door flew open and the Doctor sprang out, still in his blue suit and trainers, and now also wearing a red plastic sun visor on a piece of black elastic.

‘Come on, Donna,’ he shouted. ‘You were the one who couldn’t wait to stuff
your face.’

‘And you were the one who said I should dress for a hot climate,’ she
retorted, emerging from the TARDIS in a flowery long-sleeved sundress,
sandals and a widebrimmed hat. She looked around. ‘Where are we?’

‘Calcutta,’ he said, ‘1937. Brilliant city, full of bustle and colour. Still
ruled by the British Raj, but it’s the heart of India. Centre of education,
science, culture, politics—’

‘What’s that smell?’

She was wrinkling her nose. The Doctor sniffed the air.

‘That,’ he said, ‘is the scent of burning cow dung.  Bellisimo. Come on.

[but actually it's 1947, and violent riots are engulfing the city.	
Most of the characters are British, either soldiers or government officials
trying to control the violence. ]