Torchwood (Entry Two of The Diaries of a Teenage Time Lady)

The Idiot's Lantern

Done in one day! Woohoo!

It's a family trip to not-New York, the Coronation's about to happen, and the psychic paper says something interesting. ;)

Enjoy "The Idiot's Lantern!"

***

Rose stepped out of the TARDIS, smoothing out her full, pink skirt and looking around. "I thought we'd be going for the Vegas era," she called back into the TARDIS. "You know, the white flares and the, grr . . . " She smirked, stepping further out and looking around. "Chest hair."

The Doctor poked his head out with a frown, his hair slicked back. "You are kidding, aren't you?" he raised an eyebrow. "You want to see Elvis, you go for the late fifties, the time before burgers, when they called him the Pelvis and he still had a waist. What's more - " He disappeared for a moment before Rose heard the revving of an engine. She burst out laughing when the Doctor rode out on a moped, Anna in a sidecar attached to it, giggling hysterically. "You see him in style!" the Doctor crowed, stopping and winking at Rose. "You going my way, doll?"

"Is there any other way to go, daddy-o?" Rose countered, grinning and putting on her shades, catching the crash helmet the Doctor tossed to her. "Straight from the fridge, man!"

"Hey, you speak the lingo!" the Doctor grinned as Rose climbed on behind him.

"Oh, well, me, mum, Cliff Richard movies every Bank Holiday Monday," she shrugged.

"Ah, Cliff," the Doctor smirked. "I knew your mother'd be a Cliff fan."

"Where we off to?" Rose asked, putting her arms around the Doctor's waist as he drove off.

"Ed Sullivan TV Studios," the Doctor answered. "Elvis did Hound Dog on one of the shows. There were loads of complaints. Bit of luck, we'll just catch it."

"And that'll be TV studios in, what, New York?"

"That's the one."

The Doctor stopped at the end of the street, a familiar-looking red bus going in front of them. Anna frowned. "But wasn't that from London?"

"Ha!" Rose burst out laughing when she saw the Union Flags being strung up along the street. "Digging that New York vibe!"

"Well, this could still be New York," the Doctor tried to recover. "I mean, this looks very New York to me."

"Does New York have a London festival, then?" Anna peered up and down the street.

Rose just giggled as the Doctor sighed and parked the moped. "What are all the flags for?" she asked.

"There you go, sir," a television salesman was telling a customer as the trio walked down the street. "All wired up for the great occasion."

"The great occasion?" the Doctor asked as they walked up. "What do you mean?"

The man blinked at him. "Where've you been living, out in the Colonies? Coronation, of course."

"What Coronation's that, then?"

The man snorted. "What do you mean? The Coronation!"

"It's the Queen's," Rose's eyes brightened. "Queen Elizabeth."

"So it's 1953?" Anna asked, looking around.

"Last time I looked," the man nodded. "Time for a lovely bit of pomp and circumstance, what we do best."

"Look at all the TV aerials," Rose pointed around the street. "Looks like everyone's got one. That's weird. My nan said tellies were so rare, they all had to pile into one house."