#THIS TIME ROUND: THE END? by Paul Gadzikowski DOCTOR WHO characters and concepts copyright BBC tv THIS TIME ROUND concept by Tyler Dion, after Keille When the Doctor, Leela, Captain Kirk and Mr. Chekov entered This Time Round, there were no other patrons. "It's dead in here," said the Doctor to the night's bartender. "I know," said Adric. "Hardly anyone comes by here recently. What'll you have?" "Four gargleblasters." "I'll have four gargleblasters too," said Chekov. Two rounds raised the mood considerably. Chekov and Adric hit it off. "I dunno," Chekov said at one point, "it may be better to die young vith no dewelopment than to last the whole franchise vith no dewelopment." "No development?" said Adric. "Then what's with the lieutenant's stripe?" "Oh, this." Not only did Chekov's tv-series-style uniform tunic have one strip of unbroken braid on each cuff, it was red rather than yellow. "This is for Gadzikowski's latest story, for after SELA." "This is the wrap party, can't you tell?" said Kirk into his mug, waving ironically at the empty tavern. "Wrap party?" said Adric. "Not finishing a story until the week its predecessor finishes being serialized on adwc isn't like him." "This one was delayed by a combination of writers' block and artistic crisis," said the Doctor. "To make a long story short: REACH OUT AND KILL SOMEONE is told as a series of four-panel comic strips." "Like the ones he has at http://members.iglou.com/scarfman/sketches.htm?" "Exactly. But serializing a story. Starting the first Friday in February." "Can't post those to adwc." "No," said Kirk, "but he can post pointers, as he did for the ones you mentioned." "And THIS TIME ROUND pieces," said the Doctor. "He's always doing that to prod the readership." "Maybe," said Leela, "people won't pay his cartoons much attention, or he'll think people aren't." She sounded hopeful. "That's not a wery nice thing to say." "Well, this place is going to stop existing if *someone* isn't writing regularly about it again soon!" THE END