Butterflies in Effect

"Iolas Blue" is a rather neat name. The Iolas Blue in this story is a bit like Hari Seldon in that he has come up with a device, the accurately but boringly named Predicticon, that is able to predict the future. But instead of using it to find out when humanity will run into trouble and attempt to ameliorate it, Blue looked into the future to find out that what stood in the way of his megalomaniacal desire to rule the universe and discovered that it was the Doctor.

And so he plots a scheme to lure the Doctor and his companions (Zoe and Jamie) into his clutches so that he can dispose of them and thusly rule the universe unimpeded. The Predicticon comes up with a detailed schedule for this scheme which has 100+ steps including Jamie slipping on a puddle of oil and getting mild bruises as well as the Doctor reading out line 109 which reads "The Doctor reads out item 109."

Blue boasts about the Predicticon's power and illustrates it with the tale of Daniel Barnes, a rich and famous racecar driver today, and Blue's nemesis in school who bullied him. Blue transmats a futuristic thumb drive full of music to a woman and also takes a sandwich that has mayo infected with salmonella and transmats it to a deli. (Two more feet and I can fit it in the frig!) A customer eats it and becomes sick. He goes home and this prevents his wife from having a tryst with their neighbor. Had they schtupped, they would have had a son who would have gone on to be a renowned city planner. The planner would have devised an accident prevention system which would have saved the life of a fellow who was good at negotiating peace treaties.

Instead a war broke out between two races which destroys a planet that is split into several large pieces. The woman who got the thumb drive full of music cranked up the tunes which, in turn, kept her neighbor up all night. This fellow is tired at work the next day and makes many mistakes. One result is that an important guy in planetary defense is not at work when one of those pieces of that broken planet comes hurtling towards Daniel Barnes whose car is hit by the meteorite. R.I.P.

Whew!

No matter what the Doctor and his companions do, they cannot escape because the Predicticon has anticipated their every move. When the time comes for the TARDIS crew to meet their demise, nothing happens. The Predicticon admits that it has fooled Blue because he is rude, bitter, holds grudges, and is a murderer. Our heroes escape while Blue is left alone knowing only that he will die during a natural disaster.

A very fun little story! Blue is a comically evil pyschohistorian and I chuckled at his butterfly effect Rube Goldberg scheme.