History and manuscripts [LOCKED]
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The earliest discovered Shobogan broadsides featuring Rayla’s TARDIS have been dated back to 3402TL, seemingly placing its composition in the immediate post-Imperiatrix period.[2] Three distinct handwritten manuscripts exist of this early version, all with functionally identical lyrics but differing personal commentaries.[3] One manuscript, Assembled Shabooj'm Tales from the collection of Lady Portiatrathialla, bears a note from Lady Portia on its reverse stating that its contents are “about as true as you want [them] to be”.[citation needed]
Text of the ballad [LOCKED]
The lyrics to the full version of "Rayla's TARDIS" transcribed here are pieced together from the earliest recovered Shobogan ephemera and adapted from archaic Old High orthography to modern Gallifreyan sensibilities, for ease of reading. (Several variations on the order of these verses and the line-by-line phrasing of their content exist, and can be found transcribed in full at the corresponding Matrixsource page (Pythian Ballads/423). The text provided below only represents the most common denominator.)
Rayla was a pilot fine
A pilot bold was he
His TARDIS was the brightest craft
That ever might you see
Her heart was crystal, brightest glass
A wonder to behold
Her eye was bright, her walls were lined
In strokes of scarlet-gold
He's set a course for sights unseen
For gloried worlds aglow
And Rayla's gone out to the stars
As fast as he can go
They've come now to the end of things
And onwards still he's pressed
His ship, she's made a grievous noise
And rattled to a rest
"What halts you now, my TARDIS fair?
What makes you stop and stall?
Beyond this pass, the world's unknown
I wish to see it all."
"My pilot fine, we've crossed the line,
Where future bleeds to past
You've set us on a fatal flight
I fear will be our last."
"Go on, go on, my TARDIS fair,
Go on and take us far
Go forth and spin us to world's end
Go forth outwith the stars."
She's took the task most graciously
And pushed on through the flow
And as he’s asked, she's crossed that line
As fast as she can go
The next set of three verses are occasionally omitted from later versions of the ballad.
The first crack there that crossed her heart
It broke it right in two
The strings of time began to fray
But onwards still she flew
The next crack there that crossed her heart
It broke it all in three
The strings of time they snapped, unwound
Their golden filigree
The last crack there that crossed her heart
It broke her from within
She's fallen through the threadbare strings
And let the madness in[4]
The next set of verse is consistent across almost all versions:
His TARDIS bright, she's fallen sick
She's sick and like to die
She shudders, shakes and groans with pain
Her every breath a sigh
"What ails you now, my TARDIS fair?
What makes you sigh and shudder?
Take us forth, or take us home
To our world or another."
"My pilot fine, you've torn me hence
And brought us to our doom
My heart beats slow, my eye grows dim
My shell shall be our tomb.
Centuries I have flown with you
I'd never love another
(And) now we rest in dusty void
Like sister and like brother."
Occasionally the following verse is appended to this section:
The walls were thick with dust and rot
The air was thick with pain
And Rayla and his TARDIS too
Were never seen again[5]
All versions of the ballad finish with the more familiar nursery-rhyme form of the story, or some variant thereupon:
Rayla and his TARDIS too
Rayla took her somewhere new
Rayla broke his TARDIS's heart
(And) pulled his very world apart
Some editions substitute 'pulled' in the final line for 'tore' or similar descriptive language.[6] Apart from this, the rhyme remains unchanged over centuries' worth of repetition and retelling.
An earlier edition of the ballad (circa 11,300 TL) includes the following additional verse, interpolated between Rayla's final conversation with his ship and the closing verse:
There's rot all down the passageways
There's rot all through the halls
There's blood all in the Cloister-rooms
And writing on the walls[7]
This verse seems to imply a more grisly, visceral fate for poor Rayla, although the source and backstory of said fate are unclear and unexplained. Another additional verse can be found even earlier (5,200 TL), apparently intended to fit in between the second and third already-given verses.
"Rise up, rise up, my TARDIS bright
It's time for us to go
There's work needs done, our fate lies sealed,
Above, between, below."[8]
The phrase above, between, below occurs in several other folk songs of this approximate era, the first (and most notable) being Rassilon's Tower (PYTH208). Its presence seemingly indicates a Rassilonian element to Rayla and his TARDIS’s final destination. No literature of the period contains reference to anything that might indicate an element of truth to a true Rassilonian connection - although there is some predictive evidence to suggest that this variant is timeline-asynchronous and quite possibly a historical-futurist paradox (see ‘Real-World Parallels’, below).
The genre of cautionary tales warning young Time Lords against pushing the boundaries of reality is prevalent during the immediate post-Imperiatrix period Rayla's TARDIS is believed to have been composed in. Similar themes can also be found in The Could-Have-Been King (PYTH3), Frost in the Fire (PYTH45) and The Watchmaker (PYTH73).
The depiction of an early TARDIS model as able to speak in a linear, non-telepathic fashion is not uncommon in pre-Saranian literature, although it is almost certainly a stylistic choice.[9] Similar depictions are found in The Loom-Tree (PYTH274) and The Final Flight of the Eurydice (PYTH184), among others. Rayla's TARDIS is notable in that it is one of the few songs catalogued in the Pythian Archive to contain an explicit reference to a loving relationship between a TARDIS and her pilot, although the translation of the line in question (‘centuries I have flown with you, I’d never love another’, etc) has been subject of considerable debate over the centuries (see 'Controversies', below).
The usage of 'the end of the world' as a vague, ambiguous destination can also be seen in Zagreus (PYTH100). The end of the world is similarly portrayed as both a forbidden destination and an inevitable cause of destruction. The exact cause of the TARDIS's destruction in this case is left undefined and open-ended.
Finally, references to a TARDIS's 'eye' in early literature such as Rayla’s is almost always a thinly-veiled reference to its connection to the Eye of Harmony.[10] Going by date of earliest manuscript alone, it can be assumed that Rayla’s TARDIS is one of the first examples of this trend.
Modern translations and performances of Rayla’s TARDIS often elect to replace the line ‘I’d never love another’ in the TARDIS’s final dialogue-verse, swapping out the explicit reference to an emotionally-volatile relationship between a TARDIS and her pilot (‘love’) for the word serve. In his 29443 dissertation on the interdependency of Pythian Ballads, Archivist Lysander of the Cerulean Chapterhouse objects to this, calling such changes “a gross omission of the most integral part of [the ballad]”, proposing that the faux-sibling dynamic between Rayla and his TARDIS is the catalyst for the inevitable tragedy of their destruction.[11] Unsurprisingly, Archivist Lysander’s dissertation is not well-regarded in his field.[12][13][14]
It is also a controversial topic as to whether the ‘like sister and like brother’ line should be included in modern performances, seeing as it is a grotesque and somewhat dated reference to familial relations before the Great Schism.[15] Many modern performers consider this verse’s content to be wholly obscene, and often omit it in its entirety.
Real-world parallels [LOCKED]
