"Ursula, get your stuff. Mr. Skinner, are you coming? Not to the Chinese, if you don't mind, just sort of...walking out." Funny. Although it automatically means Skinner's death, clearly. Skinner smiles brightly and says that he's ready to go; Victor calls him back for just a second. "We're walking out," Skinner explains, and Victor teases him with the information. Before the internet, fandom had no vulgate: just cardinals, chef-to-server ratios. Bosses and bitches. Information and the proper use of it was the order of the day, if you wanted to stay connected. You had to follow the rules. It killed the show, in the end, for sixteen years. Or as my friend Ken said best, because he knows what he's talking about and I don't: "You find the fans and then you get hit with the ultimate temptation: access. You become part of larger fandom and suddenly ideas become facts, theories become reality, opinions become standardized. This is wonderful. Why? Because everybody says it is. That? Oh that's rubbish. Why? Because everybody says it is. Opinions, interests, and personalities become part of the larger fandom: absorbed. And it stops being an interest or a fun hobby, becomes part of you, and you of it. How often do you see arguments about a shared hobby turn into outright anger, even hatred, amongst fans? At a convention, an internet site or a pub? Most Doctor Who fans, by and large, escape the Absorbaloff trap because the series itself celebrates individuality and thinking outside of the conventional; grace allows you the virtue of saving yourself by remembering what you are in the first place: that small boy who started this journey all those years ago. If fandom can stop, step back, and remember itself as a group of similar-minded friends, then LINDA stays united forever." I like the last bit best, but you already knew that. "I've got numbers for Bridget!" Victor promises. "I've kept records, I've got old numbers." He rummages in his bag. "We could track her down. Together! You and I!" Loneliness. They exchange glances; Skinner falls for the oldest trick: "That's more like the old team spirit. You two have a nice time." Ursula tells Skinner she hopes he finds Bridget, and Elton promises to email him. Victor calls Skinner forward, to the sudden desk, and reaches out.