The Eye of Harmony

Three and Sarah Jane

from Guardians of the Universe: Time and the Trickster

Chapter 65: Wedding of Rose Tyler: Restoring Balance by Lumendea

Doctor Who episodes | Story: 033 | season 4 [6/9]   ↳ The Moonbase

DOCTOR WHO

Like a man named Jeff who got through orientation, saw one alien corpse twitch unexpectedly on a metal table, immediately decided “absolutely not,” and simply never came back to work again, yet continues receiving paychecks for YEARS because nobody at Torchwood has enough organizational stability to notice.

And the funniest part is I genuinely believe this could happen because which of these chucklefucks is realistically auditing employee attendance.

Jack Harkness absolutely would not notice. Half the time he barely seems aware of what day it is.

Toshiko Sato would probably notice discrepancies eventually but immediately assume Jack knows about it because surely there’s no way the organization is that dysfunctional. Surely Jeff is on some classified long term assignment. Surely there is a system here. There is not.

Owen Harper is simply not paying enough attention to anything around him for this to register as unusual unless Jeff is actively on fire.

Gwen Cooper might question it at first, but she’s also new enough to assume this is one of those weird Torchwood things she just hasn’t acclimated to yet. Like “okay apparently there’s a Jeff who’s never here but everyone acts like that’s normal, maybe he’s undercover in space or trapped in another dimension or something.”

"He's still out there, somewhere. And I'll find him, Gramps. Even if I have to wait a hundred years, I'll find him."

You KNOW classic SF used the limited displays of CRT television and the static of transmitted signals the way theaters use stage makeup and lighting to make inexpensive props look great fine— take advantage of the medium! But it's hard to imagine how it looked if you've only seen Blu-ray HD restorations.