(In a storage bay in an anonymous building, a man in traditional brown coat is stocktaking.)

[Laboratory]

(Meanwhile, two women in white lab coats have a Nestene energy unit on a table.)

SALLY: Janice, have you got a screwdriver?

(She adjusts a device she has aimed at the energy unit.)

[Storage bay]

(The warehouse man has arrived at crate AAA/RH/2961. He goes to a telephone.)

WINSLET: Hello, Doctor Arnold?

[Laboratory]

JANICE: No, Winslet, it's Janice. Doctor Sal's a little tied up at the moment.
SALLY: Tell him not now, Winslet.
JANICE: Not now, Winslet.

[Storage bay]

WINSLET: Wait a minute. Doctor Arnold specifically asked me to find any other containers with the same serial number as the one that contained that sphere thing.

[Laboratory]

WINSLET [OC]: Said it was very important. Now I've been doing that over and above everything else I'm supposed to be doing down here.

(Janice holds out the phone so Sally can hear while she works on a laptop.)

[Storage bay]

WINSLET: I've given it my full attention. Taken me the best part of two weeks. And, as a matter of fact, I have found a large number of crates with the same code.

[Laboratory]

WINSLET [OC]: Triple A stroke RH stroke 2961.
SALLY: Thank you, Winslet. No time.

[Storage bay]

WINSLET: Some of them have the letters A U T O N

[Laboratory]

SALLY: Winslet, not now. I have a satellite downlink, an expensive satellite downlink, due any

(The screen flashes downlink via UNIT tracking station AURI Warehouse modem Active. She ends the call.)

SALLY: Oh God, I'm tired.
JANICE: We could always use some of next week's satellite window.
SALLY: You must be joking. I'm going to beat this thing if kills me.

(Janice looks at the gizmo.)

JANICE: I can't believe you used Meccano.
SALLY: Nothing wrong with that. Ah, here we go.

(Receiving. Janice hears voices from the energy module.)

JANICE: Anything?
SALLY: Still just background radiation. Let's see if I can filter out some to the extraneous stuff.
JANICE: (to module) Ah, nobody loves you.

(They laugh, then a high-pitched sound makes them plug their ears. It dies away, and a light starts pulsing inside the energy unit.)

SALLY: Janice, get your notepad. Note the time.

(Came alive at 10.05.)

SALLY: My God, what have I done?

(Bright regular pulsing at 10.07. Winslet hears a noise from one of the Auton crates.)

JANICE: Perhaps we should shut it off now.
SALLY: It's picked up on something. Or something's picked up on it.

(Alien symbols on the computer screen.)

SALLY: It's having a conversation. It's transmitting. Terminating the satellite link. That's it.

(But the energy unit keeps pulsing. Janice leans in to it.)

SALLY: Janice, keep away!

(The energy unit emits a bright light. A fist punches out from an Auton crate.)

[Storage bay]

(UNIT soldiers arrive outside the anonymous building. Sally and Winslet are in white forensics suits. The phone rings.)

SALLY: Doctor Arnold.
MAN [OC]: Code Seven now on site.
SALLY: Protocol one nine zero. All non-essential personnel are evacuated to safe house with full decontamination. Listen, do you have any idea what

(Call ends.)

SALLY: Heard those nasty rumours about containment teams?
WINSLET: You don't think

(UNIT enters the warehouse.)

SALLY: They'll be here any minute now. Winslet?
WINSLET: What?
SALLY: I'm sorry I said you had bad breath.
WINSLET: When?
SALLY: When did you have bad breath, or when did I say it?
WINSLET: Doesn't matter.
SOLDIER [OC]: Don't move!

(Sally and Winslet put their hands up.)

[Outside the building]

(A metal shutter rises to reveal a distinguished older man who was originally intended to be Lethbridge-Stewart but alas it was not to be - think Bill Nighy, although sadly it isn't - and his shorter companion. They are greeted by a man in a dark suit.)

RAMSAY: The laboratory's been secured, sir. If you'd like to come this way.

[Laboratory]

(Janice is lying on the floor staring upwards.)

LOCKWOOD: This is where it was.

(The shorter man checks Janice.)

LOCKWOOD: Dead? Dead. Make a preliminary examination. The usual tests. Open your box of tricks.

(Liquid disappears through a crack in the wall.)

LOCKWOOD: Did you know her?

[Storage bay]

WINSLET: Do you think we could put our hands down now?

(Sally tuts and lowers her hands, and a soldier steps forward menacingly with his gun ready. She puts them up again.)

LOCKWOOD: Doctor Sally Arnold? Facility director and head of research?
SALLY: Pleased to meet you. May I ask
LOCKWOOD: And who is that?
SALLY: Winslet. Graham Winslet, archivist.
LOCKWOOD: Hmm. Non-essential. What are you doing here, Mister Winslet? You should have been evacuated.
WINSLET: I'm afraid I wasn't ready in time.
LOCKWOOD: Oh.
WINSLET: Sorry.
LOCKWOOD: Sorry.
RAMSAY: All right, lads.

(The soldiers lower their weapons and back away.)

LOCKWOOD: You'd better let them have a general sniff around, Ramsay. Is there a guard on the main entrance?
RAMSAY: Already taken care of.
LOCKWOOD: Diligent as always, Ramsay.

(Ramsay snaps his fingers and the soldiers follow him out. Sally and Winslet lower their hands.)

LOCKWOOD: I hope you didn't burn your clothes. It would be such a waste.

(Pink goo runs down the side of a box as the soldiers search.)

[Laboratory]

(Soldiers carry Janice out inelegantly.)

LOCKWOOD: Is this yours, Doctor.

(A makeshift bed.)

SALLY: Yes. Useful when I'm working late.
WINSLET: Which is most nights.
LOCKWOOD: Particle traces on here? (Matthews nods.) What about the woman?
MATTHEWS: Massive localised energy release. Knocked out her entire nervous system.

(Yes, that is Reece Sheersmith - Andrew Powell from the PROBE Winterborne stories and Rasmussen from Sleep No More.)

LOCKWOOD: Did the thing just explode?
MATTHEWS: No. If it just exploded, there'd be more debris left.
LOCKWOOD: What are you saying?
MATTHEWS: That it did something a bit cleverer than just exploding.
LOCKWOOD: My name is Lockwood. I am the head of this containment team. This is a code seven situation, so your death certificates have already been prepared by UNIT. With luck, we won't find it necessary to issue them. This is Doctor Daniel Matthews, my assistant. Let me remind you that under the terms of your contract with UNIT, you're obliged to give me the fullest cooperation during this investigation. Mister Winslet, perhaps you'd like to go and put your clothes back on and wait in your office.
WINSLET: Right.

(Winslet leaves.)

LOCKWOOD: Did you think my men were going to shoot you?
SALLY: Er, at one point, yes, it did cross my mind.
LOCKWOOD: You thought you'd glimpsed the forbidden fruit, that we were here to stop the truth getting out.
SALLY: Something like that.
LOCKWOOD: Perhaps we are here to stop something getting out. Was she a friend?

(Sally nods, close to tears.)

MATTHEWS: I knew her too. It was years ago.
LOCKWOOD: She's in shock. She's no use to me at the moment. Take care of her, Doctor Matthews.

(Lockwood leaves.)

SALLY: I feel stupid.
MATTHEWS: It's just shock.
SALLY: Yes.

[Winslet's office]

(Winslet is putting on his trousers when Lockwood enters.)

LOCKWOOD: Carry on. You've worked here for six years, according to your records. Very fastidious, not a great socialiser.
WINSLET: Seven years.
LOCKWOOD: Seven. Yes. How come you didn't make it to the safe house?
WINSLET: I told you, I wasn't ready in
LOCKWOOD: In time. Yes, I know. But why weren't you ready in time?
WINSLET: I don't know.
LOCKWOOD: Not like you.
WINSLET: How would you know?
LOCKWOOD: Not like your personality profile, on the computer at UNIT HQ, Geneva. Been there?
WINSLET: Geneva? No.

[Sally's room]

(A small hotel-type room, bed, sink, chair and presumably a bathroom attached. She has just finished getting dressed, and picks up a red book from the bed. She reads the notes Janice had made when the energy unit lit up, throws it back on the bed and splashes cold water on her face.)

JANICE [OC]: I can't believe you used Meccano. Perhaps we should shut it off now. (screams)

(Matthews enters.)

MATTHEWS: All right?
SALLY: Fine. Thanks.
MATTHEWS: You should finish your tea. It's hot and sweet. It's good for shock.

(He sits on the chair.)

SALLY: How did you know Janice?
MATTHEWS: Oh, at university.
SALLY: Did you like her?
MATTHEWS: It was a long time ago.
SALLY: Is your Mister Lockwood always so cold?
MATTHEWS: Lockwood? He's a breed apart. But I've worked with him long enough to know he's the best there is.
SALLY: I see. Do you have any idea what's happened here?
MATTHEWS: Yes, we have plenty of ideas.
SALLY: Like what? Oh, need to know, is it? Why is Lockwood so convinced there's no contamination risk? I mean, that thing exploded. I don't know what was inside it.
MATTHEWS: If you didn't know what was inside it, why did you subject it to transmissions from UNIT's most powerful deep-space scanning satellites?
SALLY: Because. Because it was the only course of relevant experimentation left. I'd drawn a blank with the damn thing, thought it was dead. I tried every test I could think of. That is my job, Doctor Matthews. Assess and catalogue. I knew it was of extra-terrestrial origin. Wasn't just a meteor. It appeared to be manufactured, so I speculated
MATTHEWS: Oh, you speculated.
SALLY: Yes. We don't exactly have information here at our fingertips, I'm afraid. This place was a sort of forgotten Aladdin's Cave until about five years ago. It was a mess. Mountains of old paperwork. Winslet hasn't even got a tenth of the way through it. We're working blind-folded most of. Are you saying you know more about it? Where do you get your information?
MATTHEWS: I think you're ready to speak to Lockwood.
SALLY: Are we in danger?
MATTHEWS: It's possible.

[Winslet's office]

LOCKWOOD: So where were you when it all happened? Storage bay one, you said just now.
WINSLET: Yes.
LOCKWOOD: And you heard the alarm, and you thought, oh, I think I'll just stay here and pick my nose, is that it?
WINSLET: No, no.
LOCKWOOD: Well then, what?
WINSLET: Doctor Arnold was conducting her experiment in her laboratory on this alien artefact, serial code triple A stroke RH stroke 2961, and she asked me to find any other containers with that code.
LOCKWOOD: Because she thought there might be more of them?
WINSLET: Or anything that would help her identify what she was dealing with.
LOCKWOOD: She wasn't dealing with anything, Mister Winslet. She was tampering with the unknown, which is always pretty dangerous. Did you find any other crates with the same code on them, by the way?
WINSLET: No.
MATTHEWS [OC]: Greyhound One to Greyhound Leader.
LOCKWOOD: Greyhound Leader.
MATTHEWS [OC]: We have a problem.

[Storage bay]

(A soldier is lying on his back, staring at nothing.)

LOCKWOOD: Same as the woman?
MATTHEWS: I should say so.
SALLY: Mister Lockwood, what is going on?
LOCKWOOD: Just Lockwood. No Mister.
SALLY: What is going on?
RAMSAY: Exits are already secured. What are we looking for?
LOCKWOOD: I don't know, exactly. Whatever it is, it can't be very big.

(Matthews looks at a plan of the building.)

MATTHEWS: Well, he didn't see it coming.
LOCKWOOD: Where is it going?
MATTHEWS: Well, presuming it started here
LOCKWOOD: Oh, let's presume. Too many variables give me a headache.
SALLY: It's going through the storage bays, whatever it is you're talking about. Look. Well, what are you talking about?
LOCKWOOD: Carry on, Ramsay, and see that Doctor Arnold is kept out of harm's way.

(Ramsay and Sally leave. Goo is slithering up into a small vent and along a duct.)

(Standing on a metal staircase.)

LOCKWOOD: What have we got?
MATTHEWS: We haven't got any of the right equipment, for a start. This was a code seven, contamination risk.
LOCKWOOD: Yes. Bit of a balls-up, isn't it. I should have twigged there was no danger of contamination the moment I saw the code.
MATTHEWS: Triple A
LOCKWOOD: RH 2961. Seems no one here knew what it meant. But I didn't expect it to turn into a bug hunt either. This is something new.
MATTHEWS: Should we call for back-up?
LOCKWOOD: To pick over our remains. (laughs)
MATTHEWS: Great sense of humour, Lockwood. Great.

[Winslet's office]

(Sally is tapping her fingernails against the metal desk lamp.)

SALLY: Sorry. What did he say?
WINSLET: Who?
SALLY: This Lockwood.
WINSLET: Not much.
SALLY: What do you think of him? I think he's a bit high-handed.
WINSLET: Sorry about Janice.

[Storage bay]

LOCKWOOD: We've got to find a way to track the damn thing.
MATTHEWS: There's nothing feasible with the level of equipment we've got here.
LOCKWOOD: What is it they say about a bad workman?
MATTHEWS: Oh, you're calling me a bad workman.
LOCKWOOD: (laughs) What do you want to do, Dan?
MATTHEWS: Join the search. See what else has got hidden away here, what it might be after.
LOCKWOOD: Our esteemed Doctor Sally Arnold apparently instructed Mister Personality Winslet to conduct a thorough search for anything else with the same code.
MATTHEWS: Would he draw back? I still think it's worth double-checking. I never trusted the brain cell count in research establishments.
LOCKWOOD: All right, Have Ramsay bring Sally Arnold to her laboratory. I shall be waiting to give her my charm offensive.

[Winslet's office]

(Knock on door.)

RAMSAY: Doctor Arnold? Come with me, please. You just sit tight, Mister Winters.
WINSLET: Winslet. Graham Winslet. Archivist.
RAMSAY: Whatever.

[Corridor]

SALLY: So he's finally deigned to speak with me, has he?
RAMSAY: Who would that be, Doctor?
SALLY: Your boss, Lockwood.
RAMSAY: I believe he does want a word with you, yes, Doctor.
SALLY: I suppose all this is pretty routine for you, Sergeant.
RAMSAY: That's right, Doctor.
SALLY: Where exactly are you taking me?
RAMSAY: Your laboratory, Doctor.
SALLY: This is the long way. Come on, I'll show you a short cut.

(Winslet hears a noise coming from the vent in the office wall. A faint light is throbbing there.)

[Laboratory]

(Lockwood is looking at Sally's laptop. Ramsay shows Sally in then leaves, shutting the door.)

LOCKWOOD: Do sit down. What did you make of these symbols?
SALLY: What did I make of them? I've never seen anything like them.
LOCKWOOD: All right, all right. Did you think, oops, dear me, what have I done? Because I'd like to put to you that is what you should have been thinking, given that something is now crawling around the building apparently with the intention of wiping out my team.
SALLY: Something? What is this something?

(Lockwood points to the stain where the energy unit was.)

LOCKWOOD: That.

(Winslet stands by the vent as goo slithers out.)

SALLY: You mean it didn't just vaporise when it exploded.
LOCKWOOD: Doctor Sal is thinking. Doctor Sal, that's what all your chums call you, isn't it? The insightful UNIT research scientist? Gifted, highly qualified? A working class comprehensive school girl who ended up with degrees in medicine, physics, chemistry and biology.
SALLY: I see you've read my file.
LOCKWOOD: You're a bit of a maverick in the scientific community. Not afraid to put forward new and untested ideas. I suppose that accounts for the stupidity of your actions here.
SALLY: It's easy to be wise with hindsight.
LOCKWOOD: Wisdom does not come into it. Some excrement has hit the fan, and you, Doctor Sal, were the idiot who turned the fan on.
SALLY: I was doing my job. It's a job which I happen to consider important. I can't help it if UNIT doesn't fund us properly. I work with the best information that I have available to me.
LOCKWOOD: In my opinion, underfunding of this facility makes it a dangerous liability. However, these are not matters for mere slaves of the UNIT bureaucracy like ourselves. I'm here to pick up the pieces. I'm your alien artefact serial code triple A RH 2961. You connect me up to the widest range of deep-space signals available to mankind. Why?
SALLY: Because it hadn't responded to any other kind of test.
LOCKWOOD: God save us from mavericks. You can test a gun all you like, but it doesn't work until you pull the trigger.
SALLY: You're saying I pulled the trigger?
LOCKWOOD: It recognised one of the signals from out there in deep space. It came alive and received instructions. Now, what kind of an instruction is please vaporise? Not a very friendly one. And this artefact was undoubtedly talking to a friend, so perhaps it was instructed to do something else.

(Winslet touches the goo, which turns into another pulsing energy unit in his hands then vanishes.)

SALLY: So you're saying it atomised in order to reform itself into something that could move?
LOCKWOOD: And kill. You saw nothing.
SALLY: I saw a flash. I heard Janice and I blacked out.
LOCKWOOD: It's the mobility that's important. It's going somewhere. It wants something.

(Winslet's plasticised hand drops open at the knuckles to reveal a gun.)

[Storage bay]

(Ramsay drops to one knee and points at something next to a box. Matthews comes to see.)

MATTHEWS: That'll be us in the shit, then.

(Winslet is prowling.)

[Laboratory]

LOCKWOOD: Are there any other artefacts in the warehouse like this one?
SALLY: I don't know. Maybe. I asked Winslet to look for anything with the same coding.
LOCKWOOD: Yes, I know.
SALLY: You obviously know what it was.
LOCKWOOD: Is. Yes, I'm afraid I do.
SALLY: Well?
LOCKWOOD: It's an energy unit. It's part of the Nestene Consciousness. It has an affinity for plastic. It's hostile, and God help us if you have any more artefacts coded triple A RH 2961.

[Storage bay]

(Ramsay is pointing is gun at one right now. Matthews is about to uncover it when Ramsay's R/T beeps.)

SOLDIER [OC]: Greyhound Five to Greyhound One.
RAMSAY: Receiving.
SOLDIER [OC]: There's no radio contact with Greyhound Four.
RAMSAY: Winslet's office. Check it out and report back.

(Matthews uncovers the crate, with AUTON stencilled on the lid.)

[Laboratory]

MATTHEWS [OC]: Greyhound Leader. Greyhound Leader, come in.
LOCKWOOD: Go ahead, Dan.
MATTHEWS [OC]: We've found a crate coded triple A RH 2961, and it's marked Auton.
SALLY: Auton.
LOCKWOOD: Is that the only one?
MATTHEWS [OC]: So far.

[Storage bay]

(Winslet is listening.)

LOCKWOOD [OC]: Has the crate been opened?
MATTHEWS [OC]: No.
LOCKWOOD [OC]: Any sign of activity?
MATTHEWS [OC]: No.
LOCKWOOD [OC]: Where are you?
MATTHEWS [OC]: Storage bay one.
LOCKWOOD [OC]: Keep an eye out for more. I'm on my way down. Out.

[Laboratory]

LOCKWOOD: You recognised that word. How?
SALLY: Auton. I remember Winslet saying it over the phone just before. He'd found some crates marked Auton.
LOCKWOOD: He told me he didn't find anything.
SALLY: I didn't pay much attention at the time, but I distinctly remember him saying it.
LOCKWOOD: Stay here.
SALLY: Wait a minute! What is going on? What is Auton?
LOCKWOOD: It's none of your concern.
SALLY: Isn't it? I am right in thinking you blame me for all this, aren't I? Well, if it's my fault, then I at least think I have the right to know what Auton is.
LOCKWOOD: Autons are plastic automata which can be controlled by the Nestene Consciousness. They're deadly and virtually indestructible, and it seems you've got one in your storage bay, Doctor Sal.
SALLY: Storage bay one? Let's go.

[Storage bay]

RAMSAY: Doctor Matthews?
MATTHEWS: Security door.

(They start to clear the heavy containers in front of the big door. Winslet watches.)

LOCKWOOD: Dan?
MATTHEWS: Here.

(The door is now clear, and the plaque on it reads AAA/RH/2961.)

LOCKWOOD: I suppose you didn't know about this, either.
MATTHEWS: We're probably looking at top-grade signal shielding here.
RAMSAY: How do we get it open?
MATTHEWS: The question is, do we want to get it open?
LOCKWOOD: Retina scan lock.
MATTHEWS: It's bound to have your retina print on its memory.
LOCKWOOD: Hmm. But what about the entry codes? I don't suppose you have the code book for this?
SALLY: I didn't even know it was here.

(Lockwood closes his eyes briefly.)

MATTHEWS: Can you do it?
LOCKWOOD: We have to know what we're dealing with. Ramsay, I'd like some of your men here, just to be on the safe side.
RAMSAY: Sir. This is Greyhound One to Greyhound Six and Seven. Report to Storage bay one immediately.

(Winslet is looking at other crates marked Auton. Somewhere an energy unit pulses. He tries to resist.)

SOLDIER: Sergeant.
RAMSAY: Defensive positions.

(They build a barricade of containers. Matthews checks his gun.)

SALLY: What are you expecting?
MATTHEWS: Er, you know that danger you were asking me about earlier?

(Lockwood enters a code into a pad then puts his face against the retina scanner. The door unlocks and starts to slide sideways. Winslet trembles.)

RAMSAY: Keep them peeled, lads. Keep them peeled.

[Secure storage]

(Sally removed the cling film from a dead energy unit on a bench.)

SALLY: Another one.
LOCKWOOD: Was the first one just like this?
SALLY: Identical. Why?
MATTHEWS: What's the matter?
LOCKWOOD: I'm not sure. There's something different. Not quite what I expected. A metamorphosis?

(They uncover some other equipment - the gizmo from part four of Spearhead from Space - and the energy unit starts pulsing.)

SALLY: The same as before. Something's communicating with it.
MATTHEWS: The other energy unit.

(A crate rocks. Something else starts pulsing.)

LOCKWOOD: We've got to get out of here. Now!

(He carries the other piece of equipment out. In the storage bay, an Auton sits up in its crate.)

[Storage bay]

LOCKWOOD: Take this.

(Lockwood hands the equipment to Sally and instructs the door to close. They hide behind the barricade. Another Auton wakes, then a good half dozen or so walk through stacks of cardboard boxes towards them.)

LOCKWOOD: All right, Ramsay. They're not after a conversation.
RAMSAY: Open fire!

(The gunshots make the Autons stagger. More break out of their crates and join in the gun fight.)

SALLY: We're not going to get out of this alive, are we?
LOCKWOOD: I'm open to suggestions.

(Sally points somewhere.)

LOCKWOOD: Why not? Let's try it. Ramsay?
RAMSAY: Go! Go! Go! Go!

(They run.)

SALLY: No, this way. Down here, this way.

(An Auton struggles with Matthews. Ramsay joins it, pulling boxes down on it. But another Auton turns up.)

RAMSAY: This way, Doctor Dan!

(Elsewhere, Lockwood hands the equipment to Sally and gets his R/T out.)

LOCKWOOD: Here. They're jamming us. Which way is the exit?
SALLY: Over this way.

(Meanwhile, Ramsay and Matthews find Winslet lying in a crate.)

RAMSAY: Poor bastard.
MATTHEWS: He's still alive. They must have copied him. That's what they do. They're using the real Winslet as a source of information, like a template.
RAMSAY: Lockwood tell you this? (Matthews nods) So they could copy anyone. We'd never know the difference. Move it.

(Elsewhere -)

SALLY: This is the only way to the exit. They've got us trapped. And what is this thing?
LOCKWOOD: I don't know, but I've got a good feeling about it. Can you get us to your laboratory?
SALLY: Er, yes. We can cut through here.

[Laboratory]

SALLY: Barricade the door.
LOCKWOOD: Help me with this.

[Storage bay]

(Ramsay and Matthews meet the remaining soldiers.)

RAMSAY: Hold it, hold it. Couldn't you stop them?
SOLDIER: Not a chance.
RAMSAY: Have they taken the exits?
SOLDIER: Yes.
RAMSAY: Shit.

(Autons attack. Soldiers die. Matthews' face is scorched by a hit and Ramsay gets him into a side room.)

[Laboratory]

SALLY: Lockwood. Lockwood!
LOCKWOOD: Just resting my eyes, as your grandmother used to say.
SALLY: How did you know that?
LOCKWOOD: Your psychoanalysis tests. We're all on the great UNIT database. Not even our personalities is safe from trespass.
SALLY: Has anyone ever told you you're a very bitter, cynical, person, Lockwood?
LOCKWOOD: Don't presume to psychoanalyse me. That's one degree you don't have, Doctor Sal.
SALLY: Only my friends call me that.
LOCKWOOD: Then I'll refrain.

(Another energy unit appears and Auton-Winslet communes with it.)

SALLY: What do they want?
LOCKWOOD: I suspect they want what's in that tank in that sealed chamber.
SALLY: Which is?
LOCKWOOD: Would you take a look at this? There must be some simple reason why it isn't working.

(He slides the equipment over to her.)

LOCKWOOD: And in answer to your question, the thing in the tank is a mystery to me, as yet.
SALLY: Well, it looks like some sort of transmitter but

(Lockwood has gone off into a trance again.)

[Room]

(Matthews is in pain.)

RAMSAY: Okay, it's not as bad as it looks.
MATTHEWS: How does it look? I feel like I've had a shave with a cheese grater.
RAMSAY: Off the wall humour in the face of excruciating pain? We'll make a soldier of you yet, Doctor Dan. Shh.

[Storage bay]

(Auton-Winslet tries the retina scanner then chuckles.)

WINSLET: Lockwood.

[Room]

RAMSAY: Bloody place is crawling with them.
MATTHEWS: Do you think Lockwood made it?
RAMSAY: Yeah. He's indestructible, isn't he?
MATTHEWS: Yeah. What about the others?
RAMSAY: Didn't stand a chance.
MATTHEWS: Oh Christ, I think I'm going into shock.

(Ramsay puts his jacket around Matthews.)

MATTHEWS: Oh shit, Ramsay. How the hell are we going to get out of this one?

[Laboratory]

SALLY: Hello? Whatever this is, it's got a flat battery, so I'm recharging it, all right? Oh for God's sake, Lockwood.

(Tapping on door.)

WINSLET [OC]: Doctor! Doctor Arnold! Doctor, are you in there? Doctor Arnold!

(Lockwood is still in a trance.)

SALLY: Winslet, where the hell have you been?
WINSLET [OC]: Hiding, Doctor. Those dummies. What is going on? Everyone out here is dead.

(Sally moves the barricade and opens the door. Auton-Winslet's gun hand is open.)

LOCKWOOD: It's me you want. Kill her and you'll have to kill me.
WINSLET: You're very perceptive, Lockwood. Something different about you. In some ways you're quite like us.

(Two Autons march in.)

[Room]

(Ramsay sees the procession.)

RAMSAY: They've captured Lockwood and that Doctor. Best you don't move.
MATTHEWS: Do you know how many times he's saved my life? We both know how much pain he goes through for us. He wouldn't let us down, would he?

[Storage bay]

LOCKWOOD: What are you going to do with it when you've got it? That sad remnant in there. Just a bit of slurry, isn't it? Left-over scrapings from a body you tried to create yourself decades ago. I expect it's got a bit of mildew..
WINSLET: You will open the retina scan door.
LOCKWOOD: (to Sally) Well, don't you wish you'd been a little more pleasant to me?
SALLY: What?
LOCKWOOD: If I don't help him, he's probably going to kill you. Right? I can't say I really care. Of course, then he'll kill me. Then what will you do? Cut my head off and use my retina print? You still won't have the code.

(Winslet grabs Lockwood by the back of the neck. Ramsay and Matthews take aim from behind some containers. Winslet gets instructions.)

WINSLET: You are like us. You're linked to something.
SALLY: What does he mean?
LOCKWOOD: You should be attending to your battery charger, Doctor Sal.

(Ramsay and Matthews start shooting. Sally runs away.)

SALLY: Come with me.
MATTHEWS: We're not leaving him.
SALLY: Yes, you are, if you want to save him.
WINSLET: Leave them. They're unimportant.

(Winslet forces Lockwood's head onto the retina scanner.)

[Laboratory]

(The gizmo is fully charged and works nicely on an Auton that walks in.)

SALLY: My God, it works.
MATTHEWS: What the hell is that?
SALLY: I've got no idea.

[Secure area]

(Winslet rolls up his sleeve and pushes his arm into the tank. It emerges covered in pulsating slime which is then absorbed into him. An ultrasound makes Lockwood wince in pain.)

WINSLET: Lockwood. UNIT's creature.

[Storage bay]

(Lockwood staggers out and falls to his knees. Winslet gestures to the Autons to lower their weapons.)

WINSLET: You cannot resist us. You can fight, but you can't win. Soon. Soon all the chaos will be over and you'll be at one with us.

(The Autons collapse. Sally enters with the gizmo.)

LOCKWOOD: Marvellous. The return of the maverick.

(She points the gizmo at Auton-Winslet.)

SALLY: Who the, what the hell are you? Think how many people you've killed. Why'd you do it?
WINSLET: Because that's what we do.

(She uses the gizmo on him, but he resists. Gloop pours out of his mouth and he backs into the secure area. Sally advances for the kill.)

LOCKWOOD: Don't do it. Don't go in there. It's too dangerous. Just keep the door covered. We'll lock it, get the experts to deal with this thing. Maybe find out some of its weaknesses for next time.
SALLY: Next time?
LOCKWOOD: They've tried before. They'll try

(A blinding white light. Human Winslet wakes in the crate.)

[Secure area]

(Gloop is pulsing on the floor.)

SALLY: My God.

(Then it whizzes into an air vent.)

RAMSAY: Bloody hell.
MATTHEWS: Where does that lead?
SALLY: Straight to the surface.
LOCKWOOD: Call for back-up.
RAMSAY: Greyhound One.

[Storage bay]

(Lockwood examines the Third Doctor's gizmo.)

LOCKWOOD: Hmm, not a bad bit of workmanship, Doctor John Smith.
RAMSAY: Just returned from the outlying area, sir.
LOCKWOOD: How far did you go?
RAMSAY: We estimated a fifty mile radius. Moorland, mainly. A few farmhouses, cottages, and suchlike.
LOCKWOOD: Nothing?
RAMSAY: Not a trace.
LOCKWOOD: You've done a good job, Ramsay. I can ask for no more. Pack up and go.
RAMSAY: Sir. See you back at base, sir.
LOCKWOOD: You're a good chap, Ramsay. I used to think your sort only existed in black and white war films

(Ramsay salutes and leaves. Matthews enters with a large bandage on his face.)

LOCKWOOD: Always salutes when he can't think of anything to say, have you noticed? How's your face?
MATTHEWS: It's a life-enriching experience. We found particle traces of the Nestene creature in the external air vents.
LOCKWOOD: It's out there somewhere.

[Sally's room]

(On the front of the red book is written - Janice's book of 50 million interesting things I did in the warehouse today.)

LOCKWOOD: Put it in the bin, Sal.

(Sally puts in in her zip bag.)

LOCKWOOD: Memories can eat away at you, if you let them.
SALLY: Come to escort me to my debriefing?
LOCKWOOD: Yes. I also came to thank you.
SALLY: Thank me for being the idiot who threw excrement at the fan, or whatever it was you said?
LOCKWOOD: For being insightful, gifted, a bit of a maverick. You saved my life, Doctor Sal. I think I'm going to enjoy working with you.
SALLY: Working?
LOCKWOOD: Yes. High-handed of me, I know, but I've had you reassigned to my team.
SALLY: I'm not sure I know what to think about that. You're saying I have no choice.
LOCKWOOD: Wretched, isn't it?
SALLY: I don't think I'm ready for your kind of work.
LOCKWOOD: Why not?
SALLY: I caused everything that happened here. I killed all those people.
LOCKWOOD: It was out there, waiting to happen. You made a mistake. We all do that.
SALLY: A mistake?
LOCKWOOD: Yes. We can never know the future, but we mustn't let the past haunt us.

(Lockwood, Matthews and Sally leave the anonymous building, and the shutter rolls down on the entrance.)

Transcript originally provided by Chrissie. Adapted by TARDIS.guide. The transcripts are for educational and entertainment purposes only. All other copyrights property of their respective holders.