FANFICCER'S FRIEND - PEAR O' DOC'S

From the TARDIS Data Core wiki:
In a deleted scene from "Human Nature", when the Tenth Doctor turned himself into John Smith, he left instructions for Martha Jones, one of which was to not let him eat pears, as he did not like them and did not want to wake up tasting that. 

The wiki states that this was deleted, but perhaps it was added in to those scenes from the video which Martha fast-forwarded through.

But this apparently wasn't just a pearsonality quirk of the Tenth Incarnation.  (Not sorry about that, Chief.)  Because in his mental note to his next incarnation, the Twelfth Incarnation advised never to eat pears.  Earlier in the episode “Hell Bent”, he had also given that advice to Clara before his mind was wiped of any memory of her.  His reasoning was that pears were too squishy and would make her chin wet.

This dislike of pears wasn't limited to Earth Prime-Time.  We can see it in BookWorld as well.

In 1995, Paul Cornell’s novel “Human Nature” was published in which the Seventh Incarnation (on TV played by Sylvester McCoy) followed the same basic storyline and gave similar advice to his companion, Bernice Summerfield (to be found only in BookWorld and the Audioverse… so far.)

That advice to Martha was for naught, though.  Later we did see him stalking about his room eating a pear.

One might think there was more to the story than just the fact that they were squishy and perpetrators of chin-wetting.  And if you’re a fanficcer, you could explore that possibility.  And I have a suggestion along those lines.

Originally, I was going to give you fanficcers the chance to write a story in which the Doctor – in any Incarnation and with any companion you chose – met a race of aliens who resembled pears.  And I may still run with that idea, but it does put me in mind of my dyslexia-challenged namesake, Tybo the giant humanoid carrot from the last episode of the original ‘Lost In Space’.

But it could be a story about pears being aliens infesting Toobworld.  They wouldn’t be a threat, even though they would be harvested and eventually eaten by humans.  In fact, they might have the same docile nature (and willingness to be eaten) as Al Capp’s schmoos, Larry Niven’s Bandersnatch, J. Michael Straczynski’s spoo, and Douglas Adams’ Dish of the Day.

It would still gross out the Doctor though, I’m assuming.  But rather than fighting the inevitable, he tried to dissuade only a few people along the way with his feeble reasoning and to personally vow to never, ever, eat them himself.

But I keep thinking there should be more to the story, perhaps some historical angle.  And do you know what first came to mind?

The death of Duane Allman back in 1971.

From Wikipedia:
Allman was killed in a motorcycle crash shortly after the release and initial success of At Fillmore East.  On October 29, 1971, while the band was on a break from touring and recording, Allman was riding his Harley-Davidson Sportster motorcycle at high speed on Hillcrest Avenue, in the western part of Macon. As he approached Bartlett Street, a flatbed truck carrying a lumber crane stopped suddenly in the intersection, forcing him to swerve sharply. He struck either the back of the truck or the ball on the lumber crane and was thrown from the motorcycle, which landed on top of him and skidded another 90 feet with him pinned underneath it, crushing his internal organs. He was alive when he was taken to a hospital, but despite immediate medical treatment, he died several hours later from massive internal injuries.  

Until I read that today, I was one of the many who bought into the legend that Allman was killed when his bike crashed into a truck full of peaches.  And that the following Allman Brothers album was entitled “Eat A Peach” as a rallying cry for revenge against the fuzzy fruit.  (I’m not sure but I think the title was a nod to one of Duane Allman’s quote, concerning the two-legged species of peaches.)

So what if the TARDIS landed in Macon back in 1971, going where the TARDIS thought the Doctor needed to go, not where he wanted to go?  And some malevolent force was weaponizing those alien pears, disrupting their placid existence.  During the battle with the enemy, the villain caused that truck to stop suddenly which led to the death of Allman.

"Eat A Pear" was suggested as an album title - considering the alien pears and the fact that the crash occurred on Bartlett Avenue.  But the Doctor might have suggested that "Eat A Peach" just flowed better.

Just an idea…..

BCnU!