People of Earth, -

No. Too formal.

Dear *Insert Your Name Here*,

... This is difficult. There's so many of you! Okay, look, we'll start over. I'll get it right this time. Bear with me...

To all the people who need me.
To all the people who need to feel alive.
To all of you who dream at night of a blue box, and the magic inside.

I am sorry.

I'm sorry that you can only dream. I'm sorry that I can't reach you.
I'm sorry that I can't take you on the trip that would change your life.

I'm sorry that you are still waiting, and that you'll carry on waiting, for the rest of eternity.
I'm sorry that you look up at the stars and feel more sorrow than joy, because your life could be so much stranger, darker, madder, better than it is.

I'm sorry that you have to get jobs and pay mortgages and go on relatively safe holidays.
I'm sorry you're not in the chase with me.

But boy, would it be good to have you.

I can see it all again now, the look of utter disbelief on your brilliant faces as possibilities begin to open up around you for the first time.

We feel the wind rushing, really rushing as we run for our lives, to save a planet, a galaxy, even just one person.
The absolute thrill of the chaos and the wonder and the danger.

The way your very soul lights up with every challenge you encounter.
Your growing confidence as you discover things about yourself you would never believe, as you make choice after choice, and it's all coming up trumps.

I can see you improving, your minds clearing from all that dense Earthy atmosphere. I can see your spirit glittering with goodness, with good acts.
Proving yourself to the Universe. The power of the human.

I can almost feel the bonds we would develop, you and I.
The undeniable glory of our friendship, our companionship, the triumphs and the downfalls, the sideways smiles and the half-hidden tears. All to be shared.

I can see your eyes shining like they always do when they look at me. Like I'm the last walking God on your planet. Like there's nothing beyond me.
Well, you're wrong. But you'll think it anyway, because after all... I'm a mad man with a box, and mad men with boxes are apparently irresistible.

Just know from me, that in the depths of your heart, there is something infinite.
Something that makes you different from most other species, something that makes you my only choice in this Universe.
Something ultimately, indomitably good.

It must be hard to see that for yourselves, amidst the smoke of industry and the babble of seven billion voices.
The routines, and the petty things that become so important.

I know why you love me, you beautiful earthlings.

You love me because I have the Truth. I can show you why you are here.

I waft away all the things that seem so important, and actually have no significance whatsoever.

I remind you.

And that's the only credit I'm taking for anything. I'm not a God, and I'm not a hero, and I'm not even a very good Time Lord.
I have chosen to exist only to hold a mirror up to mankind, and let you see what you truly are.

And you are spectacular.

You will never see me in the flesh, and it's something that I regret deeply.

I know that your hearts surge at the thought of just one look, just to have met eye to eye with a man you would die for - a man who you've never met.
But you have to understand, it's so much bigger than that.

I love you.
All you individual people, every girl and boy, woman and man, transvestite, transsexual, banker, artist, astronaut, sales assistant, politician, baby, old codger.

I love you all with the entire force of the Best of Human Kind. I would do anything just to keep you going.
Because you are so worth the fight.

So the next time you're having a bad day - the next time you argue, the next time you cry...
The next time you shout, stress yourself out, decide to do what's best for you and not for someone else... remember me.

Every day of your life, I want you to remember.

Remember the power that's inside of you.

Remember that just because you can't prove yourself a hero in a magical box in outer space, it doesn't mean you aren't heroic.

Good for the sake of goodness. That's what you have achieved. Goodness that forgets itself.
Goodness that expects nothing in return.

Somewhere, in the far reaches of a billion parallel worlds, I am holding your hand tight as we run across the sky. And I will never let it go.

When you next look up at those stars, remember that too.
And oh, how we run. You just watch us.

Good luck, and I'll be with you,

The Doctor.