Battlefield

Part One

[Garden centre]

(A retired couple are browsing amongst the flowering trees and shrubs for sale.)

DORIS: Alastair, Alastair?

(Everyone say Hi! to the age-defying Angela Douglas.)

BRIGADIER: Mmm?
DORIS: What about this one?
BRIGADIER: Oh fine, if you like it, Doris.
DORIS: Oh, show some enthusiasm. It'd look great by one of our azalea beds. What do you think?
BRIGADIER: Yes. I'll plant it when we get home.
DORIS: Oh, thank you.
BRIGADIER: The exercise will do me good. Now, where's that salesman got to? Typical lack of efficiency.
DORIS: Back in your soldier days you just had to give an order and stand back.
BRIGADIER: Of course. Sergeant Benton, tree planting party, at the double!
DORIS: Sir! You don't regret it, do you?
BRIGADIER: What, giving up teaching?
DORIS: No, leaving United Nations Intelligence Taskforce.
BRIGADIER: No, my blood and thunder days are long past.

[Lake Vortigern]

(Somewhere in varying light levels, the red gem in the hilt of a large sword flashes.)

(A Range Rover and a truck stop on a track overlooking the lake. They are UNIT vehicles. The Eastern European sergeant driver of the Range Rover uses the field telephone.)

ZBRIGNIEV: Come in, Salamander six zero. Over.

(Static.)

ZBRIGNIEV: Come in Salamander six zero. Over.
RICHARDS [OC]: Salamander six zero reading you strength one. Over.
ZBRIGNIEV: Stand by, six zero. Brigadier, I've made contact with Lieutenant Richards. Six zero, the Brigadier is coming now.

(The Brigadier is a no-nonsense woman of part African or Caribbean descent. Everyone say Hi! to Angela Bruce.)

BAMBERA: Salamander six zero, please clarify your situation. Over.
RICHARDS [OC]: Massive electrical disturbance. Over.
BAMBERA: Salamander six zero, you're breaking up. Over. (static) Salamander, do you copy?

(She gives up and walks round to the passenger side.)

BAMBERA: Get that vehicle on the road ASAP.
ZBRIGNIEV: They've gone.
BAMBERA: Must be the storm.
ZBRIGNIEV: I don't like this weather.

(They drive off, leaving the truck.)

[Spacecraft]

(The sword is stuck into something at an angle which points the throbbing gem towards a skylight. There is a cylindrical console and a crystal ball, which lights up with the face of Jean Marsh wearing a crown, last seen on Who with William Hartnell, twice.)

MORGAINE [in ball]: At last, he is revealed to us.

(A lightning storm is visible over her face.)

[TARDIS]

ACE: Professor, why is it dark in here?
DOCTOR: Quiet, Ace. I'm working.
ACE: Oh, is that why it's dark?
DOCTOR: Yes.
ACE: What's that noise?
DOCTOR: A cry in the dark.
ACE: A distress signal?
DOCTOR: A cry for help. Perhaps a summoning.
ACE: Where's it coming from?
DOCTOR: Earth. Rippling out through the cosmos, forward in time, backwards in time and sideways in time.
ACE: Sideways in time?
DOCTOR: Yes, sideways in time, across the boundaries that divide one universe from another.
ACE: Weird. This cry, who's it for?
DOCTOR: For? I don't know.
ACE: Perhaps if we went there? Where's it coming from again?
DOCTOR: Earth. A few years in your future.
ACE: It's giving me the creeps. What does it mean?
DOCTOR: We'll know in a moment, once we've deciphered it.
VOICE [OC]: Merlin. Merlin.
ACE: Wherever it is it's coming from, I don't think we want to go there.
DOCTOR: Too late. We've already arrived.

(The TARDIS materialises by a sign post - Lake Vortigern 4 Km.)

[UNIT Range Rover]

(Brigadier Bambera tries the field telephone again.)

BAMBERA: Salamander six zero, this is Seabird one. Are you receiving me? Over.

(Static.)

ZBRIGNIEV: Brigadier.
BAMBERA: What now?
ZBRIGNIEV: Hitchhikers.

(The Doctor and Ace have their thumbs out.)

BAMBERA: Oh, shame.

(They drive straight past.)

[Track]

ACE: Don't stop, then! I don't care!

(Ace sticks her thumb out at another Range Rover coming their way.)

DOCTOR: I don't think this'll stop either.
ACE: Don't be such a pessimist, Professor.

(The Range Rover with Carbury Trust painted on the side stops and bearded Irishman James Ellis calls over to them.)

WARMSLY: Where are you heading?
DOCTOR: North east.
WARMSLY: Right, climb aboard. Come to see the dig, have you?
DOCTOR: Ah, archaeological dig?
WARMSLY: Yes, actually. Oh, sorry, Haven't introduced myself. I'm Peter Warmsly. I'm site manager for the Carbury Trust Conservation Area.

[Carbury Range Rover]

(The Doctor gets into the passenger seat and Ace gets in the back.)

ACE: I'm Ace, and this is the Doctor.
WARMSLY: The dig, as a matter of fact, is a hobby. A battlefield.
ACE: What battlefield?

(Something dives towards Earth. There is a whoosh overhead.)

PETER: I hate that sound, don't you. Sometimes at night I lie there listening, thinking it might be
DOCTOR: The beginning of something terrible.

(The object crashes into the side of a small hillock. BOOM!)

ACE: What was that?
PETER: The military use the area as a firing range. Never understood why.
DOCTOR: Blowing the occasional chunk out of the earth keeps them amused.
ACE: It didn't sound like a shell.

(What looks like a knight in full armour rises from the crash site.)

[Overlooking the lake]

(Bambera gets out of the UNIT Range Rover and surveys the scene by the lake. There are several trucks with camouflage netting on them, and UNIT soldiers running around. This location is played by Hambleton Woods,Rutland)

BAMBERA: Oh, very good. Why not drive the missile into the lake?

(They drive on and Warmsly stops in the same place. The Doctor and Ace get out and Warmsly drives on. The Doctor then checks the wind direction with his finger and gets out a gizmo with an antenna with a large knob on the end.)

ACE: Professor?
DOCTOR: Yes. The transmission's definitely coming from over there.
ACE: Professor.

(Ace turns the Doctor around and the beeping from his gizmo gets faster.)

ACE: It's a missile convoy.
DOCTOR: A nuclear missile convoy.
ACE: How do you know?
DOCTOR: It has a graveyard stench.

[Convoy]

(As two more space knights dive towards the Earth, Warmsly is haranguing a soldier.)

WARMSLY: Warmsly's the name and I demand to see to somebody in charge.

(Bambera and Zbrigniev walk past the convoy truck, which has knocked over a Carbury Trust sign.)

BAMBERA: What was that?
ZBRIGNIEV: Low flying jet?
BAMBERA: Not this far south. Raise Division. Get them to check flight paths.
ZBRIGNIEV: I'm sorry sir but we cannot get a signal out.
BAMBERA: Well, see what you can do, Zbrigniev. All this noise is making me nervous.

(The soldier comes up to Zbrigniev and salutes.)

SOLDIER: There's a Mister Warmsly who wants to speak to an officer.
ZBRIGNIEV: Brigadier! There's a Mister Warmsly who wants to speak to somebody in charge.
BAMBERA: You talk to him, Zbrigniev. I've got enough troubles.

(Bambera goes inside a mobile command post. The Doctor and Ace duck under a barrier across the track as something crashes to earth nearby.)

ACE: Didn't sound like a shell. More like a couple of rockets.
DOCTOR: Close.

(They hide from running soldiers.)

DOCTOR: What we need is something to help us.

(He searches his pockets.)

DOCTOR: Wait a minute. Ah yes, of course! I never thought I'd need these again.

(The Doctor takes a pair of passes from his hat and gives one to Ace.)

DOCTOR: This should remove a few obstacles.
ACE: Who's Elizabeth Shaw? I don't even look like her.
DOCTOR: Oh, never mind. Just think like a physicist.

(The knight, who is carrying a large gun as well as wearing a sword, walks away from its crash site.)

[UNIT Mobile Command post]

DOCTOR: Now, what seems to be the problem?
BAMBERA: Excuse me?
DOCTOR: Well, you've had an explosion in your electronics, haven't you?
ACE: An electro-magnetic pulse effect.
BAMBERA: Make yourself at home.
DOCTOR: Caused by?
ACE: A nuclear explosion, usually.
BAMBERA: I think I would have noticed a nuclear explosion.
DOCTOR: Yes, well, they are conspicuous.
ACE: Well, if there was no nuke, where did the energy pulse come from?
DOCTOR: Exactly.
BAMBERA: All systems failures were the result of a minor technical difficulty.

(Bambera holds up the UNIT passes.)

BAMBERA: I don't know where you got these from, but I intend to find out. Show these two out.
DOCTOR: I'd just like to say three things.
BAMBERA: What?
DOCTOR: Yeti, Autons, Daleks. Cybermen and Silurians!

[Outside the Mobile Command post]

(The Doctor and Ace come outside.)

ACE: That was five things.
DOCTOR: She didn't even notice. Among all the varied wonders of the universe there's nothing so firmly clamped shut as the military mind.

[UNIT Mobile Command post]

BAMBERA: Well done, Zbrigniev. Two civilians waltz up with a pair of antiquated pass cards and you let them in. Why?
ZBRIGNIEV: Sir.
BAMBERA: You know something. What is it?
ZBRIGNIEV: Off the record, sir.
BAMBERA: Off the record.
ZBRIGNIEV: When I served under Lethbridge Stewart, we had a scientific advisor called the Doctor.
BAMBERA: The man outside.
ZBRIGNIEV: No, sir, but
BAMBERA: But?
ZBRIGNIEV: He changed his appearance, several times.
BAMBERA: A disguise.
ZBRIGNIEV: No, sir. The word was he changed his whole physical appearance.
BAMBERA: His whole appearance.
ZBRIGNIEV: And his personality.
BAMBERA: How could he be the same man if his appearance and personality have changed?
ZBRIGNIEV: I don't know, sir.
BAMBERA: What do you know, Zbrigniev?
ZBRIGNIEV: Just that whenever this Doctor turns up
BAMBERA: Yes?
ZBRIGNIEV: All hell breaks loose.

[Lethbridge- Stewart's garden]

(At home in Fulmer, Buckinghamshire, the Brigadier is planting their newly purchased flowering tree. Doris answers the cordless phone on the garden table.)

DORIS: Alistair! Telephone for you.
BRIGADIER: Who is it?
DORIS: Hello, can you tell me who's speaking? Okay, fine. thank you. Geneva!
BRIGADIER: Oh, probably just another peace conference. Tell them I've retired. Tell them I'd decided to fade away.
DORIS: No, I'm terribly sorry, I'm afraid he's unavailable. Okay, yes, I will. Thank you. Bye, bye. Alistair, that was the Secretary General.
BRIGADIER: Doris, I don't care if it was the King. I'm still retired.
DORIS: He said something about the Doctor being back. Alistair, who is the Doctor?

(The Brigadier looks at his newly planted three.)

BRIGADIER: I wonder how high it will get?

[UNIT Range Rover]

(Bambera drives past the TARDIS, which has a knight hiding behind it.)

DOCTOR: We could have walked to the hotel, you know.
BAMBERA: No problem. I thought you'd like to see Vortigern's Lake.
DOCTOR: Vortigern. That's an interesting name.
ACE: Yeah, fascinating.
DOCTOR: What's your name, by the way?
BAMBERA: Brigadier Winifred Bambera.
ACE: Winifred?
DOCTOR: There are many secrets in names. Vortigern is old British for High King.
ACE: Your convoy's stranded by the lake of the High King.

(Another knight, this time with a visible chin, examines a fallen sign saying MOD Firing Range - Keep Out.)

[Gore Crow Hotel]

(Played by Hambleton Old Hall, Rutland. Bambera stops next to a 2CV outside the hotel entrance. A young woman of Asian extraction gets out of it and the Doctor raises his hat to her. Bambera drives off again. The Doctor and Ace go inside to the bar, where a woman is reading a Braille book. A man is clearing glasses from a table.)

PAT: Can I help you?
DOCTOR: Yes. I'd like to book a room. One for myself and one for my young friend here.
PAT: Yes, sir. Long journey?
DOCTOR: Er, quite a distance, as it happens.
PAT: Then you'll be having a drink, sir.
ACE: Yes, please.
DOCTOR: Why not. What do you have?
PAT: What we have, sir, is possibly the finest beer in the area, even if I do say so myself. Perhaps the best in the country.
DOCTOR: Really?
SHOU: He makes it himself in a converted barn at the end of the garden.
PAT: It's in the CAMRA guide. We call it Arthur's Ale.
SHOU: Vodka and coke, Pat.
DOCTOR: Glass of water, please. Ace?
ACE: Oh, vodka and
DOCTOR: Ace?
ACE: Lemonade, please.
SHOU: Good choice.
ACE: Lemonade?
SHOU: Anything but the beer.
DOCTOR: Hello, I'm The Doctor, and this is my friend
SHOU: Ace.
PAT: There we are, sir. Five pounds, please.
ACE: How much?
DOCTOR: Remember, we are in the future.

(The Doctor tips a bag of various objects onto the counter.)

DOCTOR: There, a five pound piece.
PAT: Thank you, sir.

(Shou picks up a thing with moving legs.)

DOCTOR: Do you mind? It's a very valuable piece of coinage.

[Track]

(The UNIT Range Rover comes down the track and past the TARDIS.)

SOLDIER [OC]: Assume maximum alert. If the Doctor is involved, look out for a police telephone box.

(The Range Rover comes to a sudden halt.)

BAMBERA: Look out for what?

(She reverses back to the TARDIS and gets out.)

BAMBERA: Oh, shame.

(She draws her pistol and starts to go around the TARDIS, then steps back and turns. The knight with the full helmet has a large weapon pointed at her. Just then, three other knights with visible chins appear and draw hand weapons. One shoots and his shot hits the TARDIS. Bambera dives for cover as the first knight turns and shoots him, then fires her pistol. The first knight and another then use their swords. She fires again at the third knight. A second knight joins in the sword fight, and the first one dodges so that they crash into each other, knocking themselves out. He picks his large weapon and leaves.)

[Gore Crow Hotel]

SHOU: So you've met Peter?
DOCTOR: Mmm. Very knowledgeable fellow.
SHOU: Hmm, it's one way of putting it. He's got this thing about King Arthur. Digs things up out of the ground by the lake.
DOCTOR: Well, he is an archaeologist.
SHOU: Can't see it myself, all that patient scraping about. You know, I get the urge to bung half a kilo of TNT down the hole and bring it all up in one go.
ACE: Now you're talking!
DOCTOR: The point of archaeology is to carefully recover the past, not disintegrate it.
SHOU: Wouldn't make much difference. The only half decent thing Peter's ever found is that scabbard.

(An old brass-edged scabbard hanging by the fireplace, which has 1684 carved into it. The Doctor goes over to examine it.)

ACE: You could use something with more brisance.
SHOU: More brisance? Than trinitrotoluene? Like what?
DOCTOR: How remarkable.
ACE: Tell you outside.
SHOU: Why outside?
ACE: He gets upset when I talk about explosives.

(Ace and Shou leave. The blind woman speaks.)

ELIZABETH: Interesting, isn't it?
DOCTOR: Yes.
ELIZABETH: I wish I could see what it looks like. I can feel its presence sometimes. Touch it.

(The Doctor touches the scabbard.)

DOCTOR: My, it's hot. No, no. Now it's cold.
ELIZABETH: Every so often I get the strangest feeling about it.
DOCTOR: What kind of feeling?
ELIZABETH: Oh, that it's waiting for something. Stupid, really.
DOCTOR: Waiting for something, or someone.

[Track]

(The two stunned knights get up and run off. Bambera comes out from behind the TARDIS and goes to the Range Rover. The rear nearside tyre is burning.)

BAMBERA: Oh, shame.

(She takes the field telephone from the vehicle and starts walking.)

[Lethbridge- Stewart's garden]

(The Brigadier comes out of the house wearing his old Army uniform and carrying a briefcase.)

BRIGADIER: I'm surprised it still fits.
DORIS: I should have thrown it out while I had the chance.

(The briefcase contains the Brigadier's service revolver and 35 rounds of ammunition.)

DORIS: And that, too. You could have said no.
BRIGADIER: I could have, Doris, but I still have my duty.
DORIS: This isn't duty. You want to go. I mean, do I? All this means so little to you.
BRIGADIER: I will be coming back.
DORIS: You don't need to go. You don't need to go on playing soldier any more.
BRIGADIER: I'm not playing.

[Spacecraft]

(Morgaine watches in the crystal ball as the four knights converge on each other.)

MORGAINE [in ball]: There is the enemy. Kill him.

(They start shooting at each other. The lone knight's big weapon fells a small tree.)

[Gore Crow Hotel]

(Bambera walks up the drive as Warmsly drives past and parts in front of the hotel and storms inside. Elizabeth is cleaning the bar.)

WARMSLY: Elizabeth! Ah, I need to use your telephone. The one in my car isn't working.

(She pushes a candlestick phone to him. He speaks at it.)

WARMSLY: Yes. Call. External. Sedgewick. Carbury Trust.
DOCTOR: Mister Warmsly, just the person.
WARMSLY: There's a convoy just off the road by the lake with a nuclear missile in.
TELEPHONE: There is a fault on the line. There is a fault
WARMSLY: Yes. Off.
DOCTOR: This scabbard.
WARMSLY: The line's dead.
DOCTOR: This scabbard. Where did you find it?
WARMSLY: Here, locally. Why?
DOCTOR: Where?
WARMSLY: For the scabbard's worth
BOTH: Ten of the sword.
WARMSLY: Said Merlin. Yeah. Hey, careful with it. It was found here, at the dig by the lake.

(The Doctor takes the scabbard from the wall.)

DOCTOR: What period?
WARMSLY: Does it matter? Eighth century AD.

(Warmsly hangs it back up.)

DOCTOR: No, no, no. It's been waiting around longer than that.
WARMSLY: Waiting for what?

[Spacecraft]

MORGAINE [in ball]: Waiting for me!

[Lethbridge-Stewart's garden]

(A helicopter lands on the beautifully striped lawn. Doris comes out of the house with his swagger stick.)

DORIS: Alistair, I found this. You'd forgotten it.
BRIGADIER: Oh, thank you.
DORIS: You will be careful.
BRIGADIER: Of course. I've always been careful. Don't worry. I'll sort all this out and then come home.
DORIS: Okay. They're waiting for you.

[Hotel garden]

ACE: Well, it was obvious I was never going to be the world's greatest artist. Anyway, Mrs Parkinson the art teacher asked me what it is, right, so I told her it was a lump of school plasticine. Well, I couldn't tell her what it really was.
SHOU: The home made gelignite.
ACE: So, we're in the school corridor by now and Mrs Parkinson asks me to put what she thinks is school plasticine back in the art room.
SHOU: So what did you do?

(One of the warring knights takes out a hand grenade and pulls out the pin with his teeth.)

ACE: I tossed it over my shoulder, like that.

(The knight throws the grenade.)

ACE: Landed right in the middle of class one C's prize winning pottery pig collection.

(The grenade lands at the sole knight's feet.)

ACE: And boom!
SHOU: Boom?
ACE: Boom!

(The grenade goes BOOM, throwing the sole knight into the air.)

SHOU: It's hit the brewery!

(There is a smoking hole in the barn roof.)

ACE: We'd better get the Doctor.

(The Doctor comes out of the hotel.)

DOCTOR: Good idea. Did you see it?
ACE: Yeah.
DOCTOR: And?
ACE: It looked like a bloke.
DOCTOR: A bloke, flying through the air?
SHOU: And then through a wall.

[Outside the brewery]

DOCTOR: You two, stay here.
ACE: Be serious, Professor.
SHOU: What's going on?
ACE: You'd better ask the Professor.
SHOU: What's going on?
DOCTOR: Shush.

[Brewery]

(It is dark inside. There are a few aluminium kegs by the door.)

ACE: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes.
ACE: I can't see anything.

(Groan.)

SHOU: What was that?

(The Doctor finds the light switch. The knight in the full helmet is sitting against a vat.)

ACE: Is it an android?

(The Doctor touches it carefully.)

DOCTOR: No, it's a human.

(The Doctor takes off the helmet to reveal a blond man, who opens his eyes and stares.)

ANCELYN: Merlin. Against all hope.

(Doris sighs as the Brigadier takes off in the helicopter.)

SHOU: Merlin?
ACE: You've got it wrong, mate. This is the Doctor.

(Ancelyn removes his plate armour to reveal chain mail.)

ANCELYN: Oh, he has many faces, but in my reckoning, he is Merlin.
DOCTOR: You recognise my face, then?
ANCELYN: No, not your aspect, but your manner that betrays you. Do you not ride the ship of time? Does it not deceive the senses being larger within than out? Merlin, cease these games and tell me truly, is this the time?
DOCTOR: Time for what?
ANCELYN: Thou dost not know? Truly?
ACE: Do you think he'd be asking if he did, tin head?
ANCELYN: Why, the answer to Excalibur's call. The time of restitution. The time when Arthur rises to lead the Britons to war.
DOCTOR: Vortigern's Lake, of course. Can you walk?
SHOU: Can someone answer a simple question?
ACE: What's wrong, Doctor?
SHOU: Can someone tell me what on Earth is going on?
DOCTOR: Well, if my hunch is right, the Earth could be at the centre of a war that doesn't even belong to this dimension.

(Bambera enters with a sub-machine gun.)

BAMBERA: Freeze! Everyone stand nice and easy.
DOCTOR: Listen, Winifred. We've got to be somewhere urgently, so please get out of the way.
BAMBERA: You're all under arrest. You and your freaky friends.
ACE: Who are you calling freaky?
DOCTOR: I can sort this out. Look, if I can just explain.

(Boom! and the other group of knights enter.)

MORDRED: Kill them! Kill them now.
Part Two

[Brewery]

BAMBERA: I'm an armed military officer. You are under arrest. Lay your weapons down and put your hands in the air.
DOCTOR: Winifred, this is not the way.
BAMBERA: Put the guns down!

(The Doctor knocks her gun down with his umbrella and walks up to the knight in charge.)

DOCTOR: Listen, now that we're all here, let me introduce myself. I am the Doctor and this is

(Bambera fires a shot that bounces off the knight's armour. The knight laughs and raises his visor.)

ANCELYN: Mordred.
MORDRED: Ancelyn. Fitting that you should die amongst peasants.
ANCELYN: Look again, Mordred.
DOCTOR: Do you recognise me?
MORDRED: Merlin!
ACE: Not again.
MORDRED: You were bound. My mother sealed you into the ice caves for all eternity.
DOCTOR: I am the master of time. I cannot be bound so easily.
MORDRED: Master of lies.
ANCELYN: Beware your tongue, Mordred. Have you so easily forgotten Baden, hmm? The way he cast down your mother with his mighty arts.
DOCTOR: Yes, remember Baden and my mighty arts. Do you think I would use mere trickery against someone as formidable as you? Go, before I unleash a terrible something on you.
ANCELYN: Go, Mordred, while you still live.
MORDRED: There will be a reckoning, Ancelyn. I have sworn it. As for you, Merlin, my mother has waited twelve centuries to face you. You will bow down before her this time.

(The knights leave the way they came, presumably through a hole blown in the wall.)

ACE: Who was he?
DOCTOR: That was Mordred, and his mother is Morgaine, a mighty sorceress.
SHOU: You know these guys then?
DOCTOR: Never met them before.

[Helicopter]

(The Brigadier's French lady UNIT pilot uses the radio.)

LAVEL: ATC Docklands, this Uniform November niner zero. Request clearance for London Central. Over. Thank you, Docklands. Over. We are clear all the way to London, sir.
BRIGADIER: Right, I want an exclusion zone around the whole of the Carbury area, extending for one mile. One and a half kilometres outside the limit of radio jamming.
LAVEL: I'm sorry, sir, but the bulk of the European UNIT commitment is handling the Azanian ceasefire.
BRIGADIER: Well, who's left?
LAVEL: The Czech engineering group. Flood relief in the low countries. They can be at the site by tomorrow.
BRIGADIER: Put it into motion.
LAVEL: Sir.
BRIGADIER: Oh, and Lavel?
LAVEL: Sir?
BRIGADIER: The officer who requested the information on the Doctor, this Brigadier Bambera. Good man, is he?

[Hotel grounds]

DOCTOR: Brigadier Bambera, if we're going to work together, you've got to stop shooting at everything that moves.

(The Doctor, Ace and Shou Yuing walk on. Bambera stops Ancelyn, who has taken off the chain mail to reveal a padded jacket.)

BAMBERA: Not you. I want to talk to you.
ANCELYN: I am Ancelyn ap Gwalchmai, Knight General of the Britons. I do not talk to peasants.

(Bambera grabs Ancelyn.)

BAMBERA: You'll talk to me.

(Bambera and Ancelyn fight.)

ACE: Professor!
DOCTOR: Oh, ignore them. They're just establishing their credentials.
ACE: They've got a funny way of doing it.
DOCTOR: Don't worry about them.
SHOU: What should we worry about?
DOCTOR: Sorcery.

(In the spacecraft, we now see the body of a knight slumped across the stone pedestal the sword is sticking out of.)

[Castle]

(Lightning flashes around the tower and battlements of a empty building nearby, with boarded up windows. Played by Wolthorpe Towers, Stamford, Lincolnshire.)

MORDRED: Here is the convocation. This we make the meeting place. The point between two worlds.

(Two globes either side of Mordred light up.)

MORDRED: Two universes. Two realities.

[Gore Crow Hotel]

(Night has fallen. The scabbard is quivering on the wall as the Doctor looks out of the curtains in the bar.)

DOCTOR: No one's to go outside.
ELIZABETH: I heard gunshots earlier.
DOCTOR: Exactly.
PAT: Why not?
DOCTOR: There are things out there in the dark you wouldn't want to meet.

(Bang!)

WARMSLY: What was that?

(Bambera brings Ancelyn in from the grounds, handcuffed.)

BAMBERA: Come on, move it, will you. Get in. Brigadier Bambera.
DOCTOR: What happened to you?
ANCELYN: She vanquished me, and I threw myself on her mercy.
BAMBERA: As of now, I'm in charge. Everyone remain calm. We'll soon have everything under control.

(The Doctor notices the scabbard.)

DOCTOR: I doubt that.

[Castle]

MORDRED: By this sword, brother to Excalibur, I part the curtain of night.

[Gore Crow Hotel]

WARMSLY: What's that noise?
PAT: What noise?

(The scabbard flies across the room and sticks point first into the upright timber by Warmsly. Glasses fall off the shelves behind the bar.)

WARMSLY: That noise!
DOCTOR: Which way does that wall face?
WARMSLY: Excuse me, but three inches to the left
PAT: North, towards the lake.

[Helicopter]

(The Brigadier is taking a nap.)

ATC [OC]: Docklands ATC to Uniform November niner zero. Clear for final approach. Over.
LAVEL: Roger, Docklands ATC. Commencing approach now. We'll be landing in London shortly, sir.

[Castle]

MORDRED: Across the abyss, life calls to life, biomass to biomass, energy to energy. To Avallion I summon thee from beyond the confines of this universe.

(Mordred stabs his sword into the floor. There is a small explosion. The Brigadier suddenly wakes. Mordred laughs.)

[Gore Crow Hotel]

(More glasses fall and the lights flicker.)

BAMBERA: Another storm. Just what we need.
DOCTOR: Stay where you are.

(The chandelier is swinging in a circle. A few more glasses fall.)

WARMSLY: An earthquake?

(Ace and Shou run in.)

SHOU: Doctor!
BAMBERA: What's going on, Doctor?
DOCTOR: I don't know, but I've got some nasty suspicions.

(The Doctor pulls the scabbard from the post and tries to hold on to it. Mordred finishes his long laugh and walks out of the circle of light.)

SHOU: An earthquake? In England?
DOCTOR: No. Someone is creating a rip in the fabric of time and space.
ANCELYN: She is coming.
BAMBERA: What are you talking about? Who's coming?
ACE: You can feel it?
DOCTOR: Yes. I'm uniquely sensitive. Argh! Gah!

(The Doctor falls to his knees, still clutching the scabbard for dear life.)

ACE: Doctor! What is it?

[Castle]

(Morgaine appears in the circle vacated by Mordred.)

MORDRED: Immortal Morgaine, ageless and deathless.
MORGAINE: Mordred.
MORDRED: Mother, Merlin is here.
MORGAINE: Yes, I can feel his presence.
MORDRED: He has a new countenance.
MORGAINE: He has worn many faces. Merlin, hear me.

[Gore Crow Hotel]

DOCTOR: (through gritted teeth) I hear you.

[Castle]

MORGAINE: Do not stand against me this time, for your soul's sake.

[Gore Crow Hotel]

DOCTOR: I cannot allow your interference.

[Castle]

MORGAINE: Then, Merlin, let this be our last battlefield.

(She raises her arms, the lightning flashes, and over in the hotel the lights go out and people scream.)

[Gore Crow Hotel]

(The next morning is fine. The Doctor collects Ancelyn's sword and Bambera's beret from the grounds and tiptoes through the bar where the two antagonists are sleeping, resting against each other. Putting them on the bar, he picks up an empty crisp packet, inflates it and bursts it. Bambera and Ancelyn leap to their feet ready for action.)

DOCTOR: Good morning.

[Helicopter]

LAVEL: How did it go, sir?
BRIGADIER: Oh, usual bureaucracy. Inch thick forms and half a pint of blood.
LAVEL: That's London for you.
BRIGADIER: Funny how it looks beautiful at sunrise.
LAVEL: Never noticed. Seen one heliport and you've seen them all. Where now, sir?
BRIGADIER: Carbury, where the action is.

[Dig site]

(The broken down UNIT convoy is very close to the open archeological trenches.)

DOCTOR: And you excavated all this yourself?
WARMSLY: Labour of love, really.
DOCTOR: Impressive.
WARMSLY: And I did have some help from Shou Yuing.
DOCTOR: And where did you find the scabbard?
WARMSLY: By that marker.
ACE: How long did it take?
WARMSLY: Oh, about ten years so far.
ACE: Ten years?
WARMSLY: Archeology is a precise and delicate skill. History has to be eased out of the earth one painstaking layer at a time.
ACE: I still think ten years is a bit of a long time.

(She squats in a trench and uses a brush to remove some soil from carved stones.)

ACE: What's this?
WARMSLY: Ah, now that's a bit of a mystery. No one's been able to decipher the carving.
DOCTOR: It says, Dig Hole Here.
WARMSLY: Extraordinary. What does it say that in?
DOCTOR: My handwriting. Ace, we need a hole.

(Ace gets a canister of Nitro Nice from her jacket pocket.)

ACE: Right. How long?
DOCTOR: Er, sixty seconds should be long enough.
WARMSLY: Long enough for what?

(The Doctor leads Warmsly away as Ace sets the timer.)

DOCTOR: Nothing to worry about. My young friend's something of an expert.
WARMSLY: What, in archeology?
DOCTOR: No, explosives.
WARMSLY: What?

(Ace runs up to them.)

DOCTOR: Down!

(Boom! as they dive into another trench.)

DOCTOR: Ace?
ACE: I think the timer needs work.
DOCTOR: One of these days we're going to have a nice long talk about acceptable safety standards.

[Helicopter]

BRIGADIER: Has Major Husak reported in yet?
LAVEL: No, sir. London says that the area of radio interference is expanding.
BRIGADIER: Well, see if you can raise him from here. Can you speak Czechoslovakian?
LAVEL: Only when I'm drunk, sir.

[Woods]

(Bambera and Ancelyn are jogging through the trees.)

BAMBERA: He'd better not be gone when we get there.
ANCELYN: You cannot hold the Doctor. He goes where he will.
BAMBERA: Shut up and run, Ancelyn.
ANCELYN: My lady.
BAMBERA: You call me my lady once more and I'll break your nose.

[Helicopter]

LAVEL: I can't see anybody around.
BRIGADIER: Looks like some damage to that barn.
LAVEL: I can see a possible landing zone. Everything looks peaceful.
BRIGADIER: Yes, very peaceful. Are you armed, Lieutenant?
LAVEL: Yes, sir.
BRIGADIER: Well, check it's loaded and take us in.

[Churchyard]

(Morgaine and Mordred are standing amongst the graves of Saint Andrews Church, Hambleton.)

MORGAINE: What can you see?
MORDRED: A flying machine. Tis like an ornithopter but with whirling blades for wings.
MORGAINE: The people of this world are obsessed with machinery.
MORDRED: It would seem so.
MORGAINE: Well then, let us teach them the limitations of their technologies.

(Morgaine fires energy bolts from her claw-like fingernails and the helicopter starts smoking.)

[Helicopter]

(Smoke comes into the cockpit.)

LAVEL: Malfunction, sir.
BRIGADIER: What?
LAVEL: It felt like something hit us. This could be rough.

(The helicopter flies downwards.)

[Dig site]

(Ace peers into the massive hole she has made.)

ACE: What's down there?
WARMSLY: Don't ask me. I've only been excavating this site for ten years.
DOCTOR: With a bit of luck, a tunnel.
ACE: A dark, mysterious one?
DOCTOR: Probably.
ACE: Leading to unknown dangers?
DOCTOR: Indubitably.

(They slither down the side of the pit.)

ACE: Oh, wicked!
DOCTOR: Peter, Ace and I are going to investigate this tunnel. You stay here and guard it. Don't let anyone come in here.
WARMSLY: What am I supposed to do, lecture them on archeology?
DOCTOR: Yes.

[Helicopter]

BRIGADIER: Can you get us down?
LAVEL: Down is not the problem.

(The helicopter is close to the tree tops.)

[Tunnel]

ACE: It's damp.
DOCTOR: Well, we are under the lake.
ACE: And this wall's made of concrete.
DOCTOR: Hmm. It's gone soft with age. This was built in the eighth century.
ACE: But they didn't have concrete in those days.
DOCTOR: No, they didn't.
ACE: Thought so.

(The tunnel seals behind them.)

ACE: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Don't worry, Ace. It's only a trap.

[Clearing]

(The Brigadier and Lavel run from the helicopter, which then explodes.)

BRIGADIER: Five million pounds worth of aircraft, and we've lost it.
LAVEL: If they make us pay for that
BRIGADIER: We'll be poor for the rest of our lives.

(Lavel's leg hurts.)

BRIGADIER: Pulled a ligament?
LAVEL: Oh good. I thought it might be something serious.
BRIGADIER: I'll see if I can get some help from the village.
LAVEL: But sir, we don't know what the situation is here.
BRIGADIER: The situation, Lavel, is normal. It doesn't get much worse than that. You know, I think I'm rather enjoying this.

(The Brigadier takes his service revolver from its holster and heads off.)

[Churchyard]

(Mordred is reading the names on the war memorial.)

MORDRED: Tis a shrine to those fallen in battle.
MORGAINE: So, they are not the savages you led us to believe. You fought on their soil without proper respect for the dead.
MORDRED: Mother, I
MORGAINE: You have dishonoured us, Mordred. What is victory without honour? Leave us!

(Mordred walks through two lines of knights. The Brigadier walks up the road by the church.)

MORGAINE: What manner of man are you?

(Morgaine and the Brigadier meet at the church gate. The Brigadier points his revolver at her.)

MORGAINE: A warrior, no less. How goes the day?
BRIGADIER: I've had better.
MORGAINE: I am Morgaine, the sun killer. Dominator of the thirteen worlds and Battle Queen of the S'Rax. What say you?
BRIGADIER: I am Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Surrender now, and we can avoid bloodshed.

[Dig site]

(Bambera and Ancelyn arrive.)

BAMBERA: Where's the Doctor?
WARMSLY: Did you know that it takes one year to uncover one centimetre on a site this big? But now, delay not. Take the sword and fling him far into the middle mere. Watch what thou seest and lightly bring me word.

(Arthur, Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King.)

[Spacecraft entrance]

(Ace is sitting in a giant carved fishes mouth, which is the entrance to the rest of the craft but has a metal door across it.)

DOCTOR: Ancelyn's people must have built this tunnel.
ACE: Looks fishy to me.
DOCTOR: This is no place for humour.
ACE: Professor?
DOCTOR: Hmm?
ACE: Where does Ancelyn come from?
DOCTOR: Another dimension. Sideways in time from another universe.
ACE: Not a local boy, then.
DOCTOR: The question is, how do we get through here?

[Graveyard]

BRIGADIER: Let me see if I've understood you correctly. You are holding a Remembrance ceremony for the dead of our World Wars, a ceasefire to remain in force for the duration of said ceremony, right?
MORGAINE: Your words are strange, but that is the meaning, yes.
BRIGADIER: Right. What must I do?

[Spacecraft entrance]

ACE: No coded pattern?
DOCTOR: No hidden switches.
ACE: Well, how are we going to get through the door, then?
DOCTOR: Open up. It's me.

(The door rises.)

[Graveyard]

MORGAINE: I wish you to know that I bear you no malice.
BRIGADIER: I understand.
MORGAINE: But when we meet again, I shall kill you.

(And she does/did, in The Dalek's Master Plan. The knights follow Morgaine out into the village.)

[Spacecraft entrance]

ACE: I refuse to ask how you did that. How did you do that?
DOCTOR: Well, it came to me that it wasn't Ancelyn's people who built this tunnel. It was Merlin.
ACE: But everyone thinks that you're Merlin.
DOCTOR: Exactly. Door keyed to my voice pattern. Just the sort of thing I would do.
ACE: Are you Merlin?
DOCTOR: No. But I could be, in the future. That is, my personal future. Which could be the past.
ACE: Right.

[Outside Gore Crow Hotel]

(Shou Yuing comes out to her car as the Brigadier runs up.)

BRIGADIER: I'm commandeering this car, miss.
SHOU: Sorry?
BRIGADIER: The keys, please
SHOU: What?
BRIGADIER: The keys. Thank you.
SHOU: Hey, just a moment. This is my car.

(Shou gets into the passenger seat as the Brigadier starts the engine.)

[Spacecraft]

(The Doctor leads the way up a spiral staircase.)

ACE: This is a spaceship?
DOCTOR: More than that. It's a craft for travelling between dimensions.
ACE: It's more like being in some huge animal. Who built it?
DOCTOR: It wasn't built, it was grown.
ACE: Who grows spaceships?
DOCTOR: Very advanced bioengineers.
ACE: Ask a stupid question. Well, if they're grown, how do they fly?
DOCTOR: Magic.
ACE: Oh, be feasible, Professor.
DOCTOR: What is Clarke's law?
ACE: Any advanced form of technology is indistinguishable from magic.
DOCTOR: Well, the reverse is true.
ACE: Any advanced form of magic is indistinguishable?

(They arrive at the chamber with the knight and the sword in the stone.)

ACE: From technology.
ACE: Seen one spaceship you've seen them all.
DOCTOR: Don't be so cynical, Ace.

(They have reached the main chamber with the sword.)

ACE: Wow.
DOCTOR: Impressive.
ACE: That's Arthur, King of the Britons, isn't it?
DOCTOR: The legendary Arthur, yes. From another dimension, where the man was closer to the myth. But what is he doing here?
ACE: Not a lot. Is he in suspended animation?
DOCTOR: Who knows?
ACE: In eternal sleep until England's greatest need.
DOCTOR: Ace, don't touch that.
ACE: Oh, it's all right, Professor. It's not like I'm King of the Britons, is it?

(Ace pulls the sword from the stone and falls backwards.)

DOCTOR: No, Ace!
ACE: Gordon Bennett!
DOCTOR: I hope you haven't disturbed anything.
ACE: It disturbed me.
DOCTOR: Well, I only hope you haven't disturbed anything else!
ACE: Like what?
DOCTOR: Like that. Look!
ACE: Where?
DOCTOR: I think I saw something over there.

(A green thing with a snake's head glides into the room.)

DOCTOR: Ace, I think it's time for plan B.
ACE: We run?
DOCTOR: Yes, run!
ACE: There's no way out!
DOCTOR: Now is not the time to panic!

(The energy snake knocks the Doctor across the room.)

ACE: Doctor!
DOCTOR: Now we panic!
ACE: It's some sort of automated defence system, isn't it.
DOCTOR: Yes. When I say run, run!

(The snake hits the Doctor again, and Ace runs to what looks like an escape hatch.)

DOCTOR: Not that way!
ACE: Doctor, it's a dead end!

(The door closes, trapping Ace inside.)

ACE: (silent) Doctor!
DOCTOR: Hang on, Ace.

(Water floods into the escape hatch. Ace is screaming for the Doctor and hammering on the door.)

DOCTOR: I'm coming!

(The water is up to Ace's chin.)

ACE: Doctor!

(The snake hits the Doctor again, this time knocking him out.)

Part Three

[Spacecraft]

(The Doctor wakes, and staggers to the control panel. He pulls out a small pyramid with seaweed on the end, and Ace is ejected out through the top of the escape hatch as the snake knocks the Doctor down once again.)

[Dig site]

(Warmsly is giving Ancelyn a tour of the site.)

WARMSLY: Yes, this site is where Arthur is supposed to have met Mordred in the final battle, and this lake, where Bedivere threw Excalibur.
ANCELYN: What do you know of Excalibur?
WARMSLY: King Arthur's sword, Excalibur, wrought by the lonely maiden of the lake, who rose up out of the water holding the sword Excalibur aloft.
ANCELYN: This lake?
WARMSLY: Thou rememberest how, in those old days, one summer noon, an arm rose up from out the bosom of the lake clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful, holding the sword. And how I rode across and took it, and have worn it, like a king. It's all a myth, really. Honestly, women in water holding swords?

(Bambera stares as a sword rises point first from the waters, followed by an arm clothed in black nylon belonging to a spluttering Ace.)

BAMBERA: Look!
WARMSLY: It's that wretched girl!

(Ace runs onto the shore.)

BAMBERA: What are you doing in the lake?
ACE: Drowning. Here, you can be King of England.

(Ace hands the sword to Ancelyn.)

ANCELYN: It's Excalibur.
ACE: That's what I said, Shakespeare.
BAMBERA: Where's the Doctor?
ACE: In a spaceship, down there! He's in trouble. We've got to help him.

(The Brigadier and Shou arrive in her 2CV.)

SHOU: Oi!
ANCELYN: Truly, the time of restitution has come.

[Spacecraft]

DOCTOR: Come out, come out, wherever you are, you little tapeworm.

(The energy snake knocks the Doctor over and he drops the control unit. He makes a grab for it and ends up lying next to Arthur. Then someone's foot treads on the control unit, breaking it, and the green snake vanishes.)

DOCTOR: (cough) Oh.
BRIGADIER: I just can't let you out of my sight, can I, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. So you recognise me, then?
BRIGADIER: Yes. Who else would it be?

[Gore Crow Hotel]

(Elizabeth's white stick hits a foot. She feels up the chain mail arm to the steel plated shoulder.)

ELIZABETH: Who are you? What do you want? Pat! Come quickly, Patrick!

[Dig site]

(Gazing down at the tunnel entrance.)

BAMBERA: Two people were down there and you didn't tell me.
WARMSLY: Well, I
BAMBERA: Down there, in a trap.
ACE: Yeah. Let's you in but it doesn't let you out.
WARMSLY: Yes, well, Ace got out all right.
BAMBERA: But the Doctor is still down there.
SHOU: And the Brigadier.
BAMBERA: I am the Brigadier.
BRIGADIER: So am I.

(The Brigadier comes out of the tunnel.)

ACE: Hey, I thought it let you in but it doesn't let you out.
DOCTOR: It let me out.
BAMBERA: Brigadier, I thought you'd retired.
BRIGADIER: So did I, Brigadier. Now, is the perimeter secure? This whole area is crawling with armed extra-terrestrials and they're hostile.
DOCTOR: Same as ever, eh, Brigadier?

[Churchyard]

MORGAINE: He has possession of Excalibur. Knight Commander.
COMMANDER: My lady.
MORGAINE: Take your men along that road. Seek out those who hold Excalibur and take the sword from them.
COMMANDER: And if they resist?
MORGAINE: Give them an honourable death.

[Dig site]

ANCELYN: My lord Merlin.
BRIGADIER: Merlin?
ANCELYN: Oh, he has many names.
BRIGADIER: He has many faces. And he has many companions. This must be the latest one.
BAMBERA: We've checked the perimeter. Doctor Warmsly is staying with the vehicles.
BRIGADIER: Oh, thank you, Bambera. Oh, see if you can get a blanket for this young lady, will you?
BAMBERA: Yes, sir. Perhaps I should make some tea, too.

(Bambera leaves.)

BRIGADIER: Well, are you all right, Miss?
ACE: Just call me the latest one, and I can get my own blanket.

(Ace and Shou Yuing leave.)

BRIGADIER: Oh dear. Women. Not really my field.
DOCTOR: Don't worry, Brigadier. People will be shooting at you soon.

[Gore Crow Hotel]

(Mordred sips at a pint of beer. There are already 5 empty beer jugs on the bar. Pat brings an empty barrel up from the cellar.)

PAT: Elizabeth?
ELIZABETH: Pat, is that you?
PAT: You all right?
ELIZABETH: Yes, I'm fine. I'm all right.
MORDRED: Your wife?
PAT: Yes.
MORDRED: With your aspect, it is well that she is blind.

(Mordred walks away from the bar with his drink, laughing, as Lavel enters.)

LAVEL: Do you have a phone?
MORDRED: So, what have we here?

(Lavel turns and draws her pistol.)

MORDRED: Ah, there is light in this grey world.
LAVEL: Don't move.
MORDRED: Am I to do nothing?
LAVEL: Yeah, you can get the tab if you like.
MORDRED: Light and fire. Come, drink with me!
LAVEL: I said, don't move.
MORDRED: Oh, I would wish for kinder words.

(Morgaine enters.)

MORGAINE: Mordred. Who is this?
MORDRED: A warrior maid.
MORGAINE: A warrior? Good. I would learn the strength of their forces.
LAVEL: Stay back or I'll shoot.

(Lavel fires and Morgaine catches the bullet, crushes it and drops the dust onto the floor.)

MORGAINE: Be silent.

(Lavel drops her gun, hypnotised.)

MORGAINE: Rest here and tell me.

(Lavel kneels at Morgaine's feet and the sorceress puts her hands on Lavel's head.)

MORGAINE: Ah.

(Lavel screams.)

MORGAINE: Quietly, my child.

(Morgaine releases Lavel, who collapses.)

MORGAINE: Now we know, Mordred.
PAT: You can't leave her like that.

(Morgaine zaps Lavel and turns her to ashes.)

MORGAINE: Did my son drink well? Oh, I see that it is so. I must get the tab.
PAT: Get away from here, you

(Morgaine places her hand in front of Elizabeth's eyes.)

ELIZABETH: I can see. Patrick, I can see!

[Dig site]

(The Brigadier, the Doctor, Warmsly, Ace and Shou take the Carbury Range Rover.)

BRIGADIER: Oh, Bambera, take the other car, will you?
BAMBERA: Yes, sir. Come on, Ancelyn. Looks like we get the deck chair.
ANCELYN: My lady is vexed.

(The Range Rover drives off.)

DOCTOR: We might run into trouble.
BRIGADIER: Oh really, Doctor? You do surprise me.
ACE: Winifred isn't following.
BRIGADIER: Good lord, is that her name?

(In the 2CV.)

BAMBERA: Now I'm vexed.
ANCELYN: What do you seek?
BAMBERA: Stay out of this. You don't even live here.

(Ancelyn holds up the car keys.)

ANCELYN: Perhaps these?
BAMBERA: (snatching them) No.

[Carbury Range Rover]

(The Knight Commander deploys his men either side of the track as the Brigadier drives up.)

DOCTOR: Something's wrong.
BRIGADIER: What?
DOCTOR: We haven't been attacked yet.

(A knight throws a grenade which explodes next to the Range Rover. The vehicle swerves but keeps going. The Knight Commander signals his men to open fire.)

BRIGADIER: Down!

(He drives through two knights on the track. They shoot out the rear window but the Brigadier keeps going.)

SHOU: Are they gone?
WARMSLY: Who were they?
BRIGADIER: Now, Doctor, we've been attacked. Happy?
DOCTOR: Yes.
BRIGADIER: Oh, good.
DOCTOR: As long as Morgaine's people are shooting at us, she won't be using more obscure methods of attack.
BRIGADIER: Such as?
DOCTOR: I don't know, and I don't want to find out.

[Castle]

(Morgaine puts her hand to Mordred's head.)

MORDRED: The Knight Commander will stop them.
MORGAINE: Stop Merlin? No, I will deal with Merlin in my own manner.

[Citroen 2CV]

(Bambera had a field telephone with her. It is very static-laden.)

BRIGADIER [OC]: Over.
BAMBERA: Copy you, Greyhound. Will act accordingly. Over. You're from an alternative dimension?
ANCELYN: Yes.
BAMBERA: Good. You don't have cars there?
ANCELYN: No.
BAMBERA: Good. Hold on to this wheel.

(Bambera opens the sun roof, takes her sub-machine gun, stands up and fires at the knights on either side of the road.)

COMMANDER: Magnificent!

[Carbury Range Rover]

(Parked up.)

BAMBERA [OC]: This is Seabird. Piece of cake, Greyhound One. We'll be with you shortly.
BRIGADIER: Much relieved to hear it, Seabird.
ACE: Professor, there's a whole pile of tinheads setting up on the road down there.

(The Doctor is on the roof. Ace throws him the binoculars.)

DOCTOR: Brigadier, tell Bambera she's in trouble.

[Citroen 2CV]

BAMBERA: So, you married or what?

(Then she sees the line of knights across the track, and turns hard left.)

[Carbury Range Rover]

(Ace eyes the smoke drifting between the tall pines nearby.)

ACE: We've got to help them.
BRIGADIER: Well, what do you want us to do? The area's swarming with Morgaine's troops.
ACE: Doctor?

(The Doctor shakes his head.)

ACE: No.
BRIGADIER: Better get back to the hotel.

(Ace gets into the Range Rover and they drive away.)

[Outside Gore Crow Hotel]

(UNIT are setting up a base. Major Husak leads Elizabeth out by the elbow to a truck, before she shrugs him off.)

ELIZABETH: I can do it myself.
PAT: You'll have to excuse my wife. Half an hour ago she was blind. Now, just who are you?
HUSAK: Major Husak, sir.
PAT: Hmm. You're not English, are you.
HUSAK: No, sir. If you'd please get into the vehicle.

(The Brigadier and Co arrive.)

BRIGADIER: Everything under control?
HUSAK: No, sir.
BRIGADIER: Don't worry, Major. You'll soon get the hang of it. Oh, this is the Doctor. Yeah, well, don't let him baffle you. And this is Peter Warmsly.
HUSAK: Ah, Mister Warmsly. If you'd join Mister Rawlinson in the vehicle, we'll evacuate you from the area.
PAT: Excuse me, there are a few questions I want answered.
WARMSLY: And I have absolutely no intention of being evacuated. This area is where I live.
DOCTOR: You're very angry.
PAT: Of course we're angry.
DOCTOR: And you want to leave.
WARMSLY: No, we do not want to leave.

(The Doctor gives Pat a Look.)

DOCTOR: Of course you want to leave.
PAT: Of course we do.
DOCTOR: I wouldn't stand for any nonsense, if I were you.
WARMSLY: Look, Doctor, the situation is perfectly simple. We are very angry and we

(Warmsly gets the Look.)

WARMSLY: Want to leave. Is that right, Pat?
PAT: Don't get in our way.
DOCTOR: I wouldn't dream of it.
PAT: Just no reasoning with these people.

(Pat and Warmsly go to the truck.)

HUSAK: At the risk of being baffled, sir, I have one more evacuee on my list. A young lady.

(Ace and Shou Yuing are nowhere in sight.)

DOCTOR: She seems to have disappeared.
BRIGADIER: Well, there you have it, Major.

(Major Husak salutes the Brigadier, then turns and reluctantly salutes the Doctor before leaving.)

DOCTOR: You've got enough weapons here to fight a war.
BRIGADIER: That's the general idea.
DOCTOR: It'll be useless, Brigadier.
BRIGADIER: Not this time, Doctor. Over here!

(A soldier brings a small ammunition box.)

BRIGADIER: Open that box, will you?

(The Brigadier takes out a large bullet.)

BRIGADIER: Armour piercing, solid core, with a Teflon coating. Go through a Dalek.
DOCTOR: A non-stick bullet.
BRIGADIER: UNIT's been very busy, Doctor. We've also got high-explosive rounds for Yeti's and very efficient armour-piercing rounds for robots. And we've even got gold-tipped bullets for you know what.
DOCTOR: No silver?
BRIGADIER: Silver bullets?
DOCTOR: Well, you never know.
BRIGADIER: Quartermaster Sergeant! Silver bullets. Have we any?

(The evacuation truck drives off. Ace peers round the wall. She is holding Excalibur.)

ACE: You can come out now, they've gone.
SHOU: That was close. I nearly got evacuated.
ACE: You may wish you had.

[Gore Crow Hotel]

(Ace and Shou enter as the Doctor pays his respects to the remains of Lt Lavel.)

ACE: What's that?
DOCTOR: A shadow.
ACE: Professor, we've sussed out where the legend of King Arthur came from.
BRIGADIER: I'm sorry, miss, er, young lady, but the Doctor and I have important matters to discuss.
ACE: We reckon that when Ancelyn's lot dumped the freeze-dried king in the lake they must have told the story to some local.
SHOU: But they couldn't handle the more outr aspects.
ACE: So they translated it into terms they could understand. And so old frozen chicken becomes King of the Britons.
BRIGADIER: Doctor, I really must
DOCTOR: No, Brigadier, this is important.
ACE: Since that's Excalibur
DOCTOR: It must be the source of Arthur's power.
ACE: And a vital control element to the spaceship under the lake. It wasn't stuck in the stone, it was plugged in.
DOCTOR: Could be.
ACE: I bet Ancelyn knows. Knew.
BRIGADIER: Major Husak is leading a detachment to recover the bodies of Brigadier Bambera and Ancelyn.
ACE: What good are their bodies?
BRIGADIER: UNIT looks after its own, alive or dead, and I want these ashes buried with honour.

[Track]

(The truck stops by a burning tyre and a blue beret. Husak radios in.)

HUSAK: Husak to HQ. The Seabirds are still operational. I repeat, the Seabirds are still operational.

[Gore Crow Hotel]

BRIGADIER: Doctor! Bambera and Ancelyn are alive.
DOCTOR: They're alive?
BRIGADIER: And Major Husak said they seem to be heading north from here.
DOCTOR: Towards the missile convoy.
BRIGADIER: Yes. Bambera's own unit is there.
DOCTOR: But if they lead Morgaine's troops
BRIGADIER: It's a fully armed nuclear missile.
DOCTOR: If there's an accident. We'd better stop any engagement. Have you got a helicopter available?
BRIGADIER: Oh, better than that, Doctor.

[Outside Gore Crow Hotel]

(Soldiers take a tarpaulin off a bright yellow roadster with the number plate WHO7.)

DOCTOR: Ah ha! Bessie!
BRIGADIER: Well, I knew how fond of it you were, so when you last went on your travels I had it put in mothballs.

(The Doctor tries the bulb horn.)

ACE: Does it run on petrol or steam?

[Woods]

(Ancelyn briefly fights a knight before raising his sword for the coup de grace with a yell.)

BAMBERA: Ancelyn! Ancelyn! Can't you do anything quietly?

(The knight runs away.)

BAMBERA: You're going to bring Morgaine's whole army down on us.
ANCELYN: Let them come. Do you not know I am the best knight in the world?
BAMBERA: Ancelyn.
ANCELYN: Yes, my lady?
BAMBERA: In this world we have a great and honourable tradition of tactical withdrawal.
ANCELYN: Ah, you wish to run away. Well, there can be but thirty of them at the most.
BAMBERA: If you don't start running, I'll kill you myself. Now come on!
ANCELYN: Winifred?
BAMBERA: What?
ANCELYN: Art thou betrothed?

(Two knights appear from the trees.)

BAMBERA: Not now, Ancelyn!

[Outside Gore Crow Hotel]

DOCTOR: Ace, things may get dangerous, so I want you to have this.
ACE: It looks like a piece of chalk.
DOCTOR: It is. I got it from the dartboard. But it will protect you against Morgaine's sorcery.
ACE: A piece of chalk?
DOCTOR: A piece of chalk. At the first sign of anything strange, I want you to draw a chalk circle, and you and Shou Yuing stay inside it along with Excalibur.
ACE: Right, Professor. Chalk circle. Sure.
DOCTOR: And remember, stay inside the circle. Don't leave it until I return.
ACE: Doctor, you are coming back, aren't you?
DOCTOR: Trust me. Ready, Brigadier?
BRIGADIER: Ready.
ACE: Naught to sixty in twenty minutes.
SHOU: As fast as that?
DOCTOR: Appearances can be deceiving, Ace.

(The Doctor puts a round device on the steering wheel and turns a lever a lot. Then he starts the engine.)

DOCTOR: And remember, look after Excalibur and stay in the circle.

(Bessie zooms off, spitting gravel and leaving literally burning rubber behind.)

ACE: Gordon Bennett.
SHOU: Wicked.

[Castle]

(Morgaine is scrying with her crystal ball.)

MORGAINE: Merlin, you fool. To place such a trust in children. I swear that you shall rue this day, if you live.

[Gore Crow Hotel]

(Ace opens a small box.)

SHOU: What are they?
ACE: Silver bullets.
SHOU: Really?

(Thunder crashes overhead.)

SHOU: What did the Doctor say? At the first sign of something strange
ACE: Looks like Colonel Blimp has a fancy taste in hardware.
SHOU: You don't like him much, do you?
ACE: I like to be treated as a person, not A latest one. Anyway, I don't trust him to guard the Professor's back. That's my job.

(More thunder.)

SHOU: Do you think that counts as strange?
ACE: Where's the chalk?

[Castle]

MORGAINE: With fire, I shall summon you. With silver I shall bind you.

(Morgaine pulls the silhouette of a large creature with big teeth and horns out of her crystal ball and onto the stone wall.)

[Gore Crow Hotel]

(Ace finishes drawing a chalk circle on the flagstones. Shou, the scabbard, and Excalibur are in it with her.)

ACE: Do you think we should sprinkle holy water or something?
SHOU: I don't know. It's not my mythology.

(The room goes dark except for a light straight down on the circle.)

SHOU: Ace?
ACE: Yeah?
SHOU: What's happening?

[Overlooking the dig site]

(A battle is raging in the trenches when the Doctor stops Bessie. The Brigadier is using the field telephone.)

BRIGADIER: Doctor, I've just received the most peculiar from the hotel.
DOCTOR: Does it say anything about Ace and Shou Yuing?
BRIGADIER: No. All it said was, night has fallen here.
DOCTOR: I'll deal with that later. First, I've got to put an end to this bloodshed.
BRIGADIER: Oh, how, Doctor? Stand in the middle and shout stop?
DOCTOR: Good idea.

[Gore Crow Hotel]

ACE: Stupid.
SHOU: What did you say?
ACE: What?
SHOU: Nothing.
ACE: This is stupid.
SHOU: What did you call me?
ACE: I said, this is stupid. You deaf or something?
SHOU: No you didn't. I heard you. You called me stupid.
ACE: I'm not a freak.
SHOU: What?
ACE: I said, I'm not a freak. I'm Ace. Are you dumb or what?
SHOU: I'm not stupid.

(The two girls square up to each other.)

ACE: Then why do you keep saying stupid things?
SHOU: That's good, coming from a reject like you.
ACE: Listen here, toad-face. Just you shut your mouth or I'll knock your teeth in!

(Shou backs up to the edge of the circle.)

SHOU: I bet nobody likes you.
ACE: Shut up.
SHOU: First chance he got, the Doctor went off without you.
ACE: Shut up! Shut up!
SHOU: I bet even your parents hated your guts!

(Now Ace backs up to the edge of the circle.)

ACE: Shut up, you yellow, slant-eyed

(Then realises she is about to leave the circle. They hug each other.)

ACE: Someone's playing games with our minds.

[Castle]

MORGAINE: Oh, they breed their children strong on this world. Huh. No matter. There shall be an end to these games.

[Dig site]

(The fighting is nearly even, but UNIT are taking the worst of it. Bambera pushes Ancelyn out of the line of fire.)

BAMBERA: Get out, they're coming this way!
ANCELYN: Mordred! Face me, Mordred! Mordred!

(Mordred is staying out of the fighting.)

ANCELYN: Is your army not enough to give you courage?
MORDRED: Courage? Ha, to face you, Ancelyn, who fled the field at Camlan? Ancelyn the Craven, I call you.
ANCELYN: What care I for the words of a half-man who cowers from a woman's wrath.

(Mordred and Ancelyn yell and rush each other. The Doctor runs between them.)

DOCTOR: Stop! I command it! There will be no battle here!
MORDRED: This is no battle. Tis but a ruse, a diversion. My mother hath summoned the Destroyer, the Lord of Darkness, Eater of Worlds. Look to your children, Merlin, for soon they shall be no more.
DOCTOR: Ace, what have I done?

[Gore Crow Hotel]

(Morgaine is standing just outside the circle.)

MORGAINE: I am Morgaine of the Fey. I am power beyond your imagining. Surrender to me what is mine by right of conquest. Give me Excalibur.
ACE: Never!
MORGAINE: Then you shall be given over to the Destroyer.

(The blue-faced, horned beast appears.)

MORGAINE: And become his handmaidens in hell. Bwahahahaha!
Part Four

[Dig site]

DOCTOR: Tell Morgaine to call off the Destroyer.
MORDRED: Surrender to our justice and the children will live.
DOCTOR: Your justice? Tell her to call it off or I will decapitate you.

(The Doctor uses his umbrella and hand to pull Mordred's sword against his throat.)

[Gore Crow Hotel]

(Morgaine walks around the outside of the circle with her crystal ball.)

MORGAINE: Now we shall see what is happening. Oh. He must care for you very much to threaten my son so. Fear not. It is a deception.

[Dig site]

MORGAINE [OC]: He is bluffing.
MORDRED: We know you of old, Merlin. You will not kill.
DOCTOR: I wouldn't count on it.
MORDRED: Come then, look me in the eye. End my life.

(The Doctor removes the sword and Mordred laughs.)

MORDRED: It is a weakness, this lack of spirit.

(The Brigadier puts his revolver to Mordred's head.)

BRIGADIER: Try me.

(Mordred's smile fades.)

[Gore Crow Hotel]

MORGAINE: Ware this man, Mordred. He is steeped in blood.

[Dig site]

DOCTOR: Brigadier, this is not the way.
BRIGADIER: I'm sorry, Doctor. Can Morgaine hear me?
MORDRED: Yes.
BRIGADIER: Listen to me, Morgaine. Leave my world or your son dies.
MORDRED: Deathless Morgaine.

[Gore Crow Hotel]

MORDRED [OC]: Save me!
MORGAINE: Die well, my son.

[Dig site]

MORDRED: Mother!

[Gore Crow Hotel]

MORGAINE: Knight Commander.

[Above the dig site]

COMMANDER: Your Majesty.
MORGAINE [OC]: Recommence your attack.

[Gore Crow Hotel]

MORGAINE: Take no prisoners.
ACE: No!

[Above the dig site]

COMMANDER: We shall make honour our standard. Put down your guns, draw your swords. Good steel will be our conscience. Do them honour. Kill them all.

(Morgaine's troops go running down the slope.)

[Dig site]

ANCELYN: This is our path, to fight and die.
BAMBERA: That's what we're paid for, so let's do it with some style!

(The battle is rejoined. Bambera picks up a fallen knight's sword and has a go herself.)

MORDRED: My mother will destroy you.
BRIGADIER: Just between you and me, Mordred, I'm getting a little tired of hearing about your mother. Get in.

(The Brigadier pushes Mordred into the back of Bessie and climbs in beside him.)

DOCTOR: Hold tight.

[Gore Crow Hotel]

(Morgaine watches the little roadster on her crystal ball.)

MORGAINE: Your friends will soon be dead.

(The ball floats away from her hand.)

MORGAINE: Now, give me Excalibur.
ACE: If you're so powerful, why don't you come and get it?
MORGAINE: An excellent suggestion.

(But she cannot push her hands past the circle.)

MORGAINE: The sword is protecting you.
ACE: The Doctor was right. You can't touch us while we're in the circle. Not while we've got the paper knife.
MORGAINE: This is true. I cannot break such an enchantment.
DESTROYER: But I can.
ACE: If you're so bad, why haven't you done anything yet?
DESTROYER: First I must be freed. This mortal has me chained.
MORGAINE: With silver.
DESTROYER: It burns.
MORGAINE: Good.
DESTROYER: She fears me.
MORGAINE: I fear nothing.
DESTROYER: Then free me, and let me claim this world.
MORGAINE: Perhaps.
ACE: What does he want the world for?
DESTROYER: Why, to devour it. What else?

(Green energy flickers between the Destroyer's claws.)

[Outside Gore Crow Hotel]

(Bessie stops by the main entrance as green explosions start to happen inside.)

DOCTOR: Ace!
BRIGADIER: Doctor, no!

(The Doctor is knocked off his feet, and Mordred and the Brigadier are thrown out of Bessie.)

DOCTOR: Morgaine! If they're dead

(The Doctor goes into the hotel while Mordred runs away.)

BRIGADIER: Decisions, decisions.

[Gore Crow Hotel]

(The main bar is a charred wreck.)

DOCTOR: Ace!
BRIGADIER: Doctor, I'm afraid that Mordred m
DOCTOR: Ace? Shou Yuing?
ACE: We're here, Professor.

(The Doctor helps them get a easy chair off their backs.)

DOCTOR: What happened?
SHOU: The hotel fell on us.
ACE: There was this woman with a pet demon, and I seem to remember a chalk circle that was supposed to protect us from harm.
DOCTOR: Yes, I get the idea, Ace. Where's Excalibur?
SHOU: Er, the woman seemed to want it very badly.
ACE: Very, very badly.
SHOU: So we gave it to her.
DOCTOR: Good.
ACE: But it's not our fault. I mean, if I'd had some Nitro, then maybe I could. What do you mean, good?
DOCTOR: Exotic alien swords are easy to come by. Aces are rare.
BRIGADIER: Doctor? What do you make of this?

(A shimmering curtain in the room.)

DOCTOR: I don't know. Which way did Morgaine leave?
ACE: A flash of light and gone.
DOCTOR: I wonder.

(He pushes a table leg into the curtain.)

[Castle]

MORGAINE: Where is my army?
DESTROYER: Gone the way of all flesh.

[Dig site]

(So have a lot of UNIT troops. Bambera gazes at the face of a dead knight while Ancelyn cleans his sword.)

ANCELYN: A good fight.

(Bambera gives him a Look.)

ANCELYN: You are hurt, my lady.
BAMBERA: I told you not to. Oh, never mind.

(Ancelyn dabs tenderly at her injured hand.)

[Gore Crow Hotel]

ACE: Where is she now?
DOCTOR: At the other end of that interstitial vortex.
ACE: So what's our next move?
DOCTOR: Well, first we go through this. Brigadier, I'll go first. Ace
ACE: Stay here.
DOCTOR: Correct. And you. Now, high drama is very similar to comedy. It's all a matter of

(The Doctor hands the scabbard to Ace and pirouettes his way into the vortex. The Brigadier copies him.)

DOCTOR: Timing.

(Mordred hides from patrolling soldiers then makes his way to the castle.)

CHOU: They're going to be killed. You saw the Destroyer.
ACE: Morgaine could control the Destroyer. She had it chained up with silver chains. Get it?
SHOU: The silver bullets!
ACE: Keep an eye on the vortex.

(Ace holds the scabbard and searches in the rubble.)

SHOU: It's fading.
ACE: Got them!
SHOU: It's going. What're you going to do, throw them through?
ACE: Do me a favour. Geronimo!

(Ace throws herself into the vortex.)

[Castle]

DESTROYER: You would do well to release me, Morgaine.
MORGAINE: Release you?
DESTROYER: Merlin is mighty and cunning. I cannot destroy him while I am chained.
MORGAINE: What matter? I have Excalibur. Without it, Arthur sleeps forever. Merlin cannot find me ere I leave. See! The gateway home is almost complete.
DESTROYER: He comes even as we speak.
MORGAINE: How? He cannot come through the vortex. You have allowed him access. Why?
DESTROYER: So that you would be forced to release me.

(The Doctor and the Brigadier arrive.)

DOCTOR: Morgaine.

(The Brigadier fires all his rounds into the Destroyer. They have no effect.)

DOCTOR: Brigadier.
BRIGADIER: Well, nothing ventured, Doctor.
DESTROYER: Nothing gained.

(The Destroyer lassoes the Brigadier with green energy and throws him through the planks nailed across the windows, out onto the grass.)

DOCTOR: That was uncalled for.

(The Doctor makes for Excalibur, but Morgaine grabs it first.)

MORGAINE: Your move, Merlin.

(They circle each other.)

DOCTOR: You haven't won the game yet, Morgaine.
MORGAINE: I could always defeat you at chess, Merlin.
DOCTOR: Who said anything about playing chess? I'm playing poker.

(Ace twirls in and knocks Morgaine down before falling over herself. The Doctor catches Excalibur.)

DOCTOR: And I have an Ace up my sleeve.
ACE: Very funny.
MORGAINE: Destroy him.
DESTROYER: Release me.
DOCTOR: What is it to be, Morgaine? Who do you fear more?
MORGAINE: This is no idle threat, Merlin. Give me Excalibur or I will loose the Destroyer upon the world.
DOCTOR: Don't be a fool.

(Morgaine makes a gesture, and the Destroyer pulls the chain links apart, then rips off the silver breast plate.)

ACE: Nice work, Doctor.
DOCTOR: But I thought she was bluffing.

[Outside the castle]

(The Brigadier come to. Mordred kneels over him.)

MORDRED: Where is she?
BRIGADIER: To whom are you referring?

[Castle]

(The Destroyer rips at the silver chainmail.)

DESTROYER: Free!
DOCTOR: You fool, Morgaine.

(Morgaine snatches Excalibur.)

DOCTOR: Do you think this'll solve anything?
MORGAINE: Yes. Too late, Merlin. The gateway is open. I am gone and you have lost.
ACE: Doctor, I've got a silver bullet!
MORDRED: Mother!
MORGAINE: Mordred?
DOCTOR: About time.

(The Doctor takes back Excalibur as Mordred joins Morgaine between the glowing spheres.)

MORGAINE: You live.
MORDRED: In spite of thee, false parent. Witch!
MORGAINE: I thought you dead.
MORDRED: Thought? Or wished it so.
MORGAINE: Mordred, no. That was not the way of it. No.

(Morgaine and Mordred vanish through circle of light.)

ACE: Doctor, can I have a word?
BRIGADIER: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Brigadier, you're going the wrong way. Ace!

(The Doctor sends the Brigadier back outside then grabs Ace, who is picking up the box of silver bullets and follows him.)

DESTROYER: At last.

[Outside the castle]

DESTROYER: Devour.
BRIGADIER: What was that?
DOCTOR: That, Brigadier, was the beginning of the end of the world.
BRIGADIER: Same as ever, eh, Doctor?

[Castle]

DESTROYER: I hunger.

[Outside the castle]

DOCTOR: It's no good. It's not good at all.
BRIGADIER: I can have an air strike here in minutes.
DOCTOR: It's no good, Brigadier. Conventional weapons won't harm it.
BRIGADIER: No, I didn't think so.
DOCTOR: Ace, give me the silver bullets.
ACE: How did you know?
DOCTOR: Silver bullets'll do the trick.
ACE: How did you know I had them?
DOCTOR: It's all a matter of timing, Ace. Give me your gun.

(The Brigadier hands over his revolver.)

BRIGADIER: What, those will stop the Destroyer? What, you just shoot the bullets into it?

(The Doctor loads the revolver.)

DOCTOR: Simple, isn't it? Just like most killings.
BRIGADIER: Good lord, is that a spaceship?

(Ace and The Doctor turn and looks up, and the Brigadier chops the Doctor across the throat, knocking him out. He grabs back his the revolver.)

ACE: You scumbag!
BRIGADIER: Sorry, Doctor, but I think I'm rather more expendable than you are.

[Castle]

DESTROYER: This world shall be mine. And then another, and another.

(Green explosions come out of the castle. The Brigadier walks in.)

DESTROYER: Ah, little man. What do you want of me?
BRIGADIER: Get off my world.

[Outside the castle]

(The Doctor wakes to the sound of an explosion.)

DOCTOR: We've got to stop him.

[Castle]

DESTROYER: Pitiful. Can this world do no better than you as their champion?
BRIGADIER: Probably. I just do the best I can.

(The Brigadier fires the silver rounds into the Destroyer's exposed chest and the creature explodes.)

[Outside the castle]

(Ace and the Doctor see the building reduced to ruins.)

ACE: No chance. He's had it.

[Dig site]

BAMBERA: Sergeant, where's that coffee? Sergeant!

(Mordred comes round the back of a truck and puts his sword to Bambera's throat.)

MORDRED: The battle's not over yet.

[Outside the castle]

(The Doctor finds the Brigadier amidst the burning ruin and cradles him in his arms.)

DOCTOR: You stupid, stubborn, pig-headed numbskull. You were supposed to die in bed. I could have handled it, done your job.
BRIGADIER: Nonsense, Doctor.
DOCTOR: You're supposed to be dead.
BRIGADIER: Oh, really, Doctor. You don't think I'd be so stupid as to stay inside, do you?
DOCTOR: Well
BRIGADIER: Really, Doctor, have a little faith. Ace?
ACE: Yes, Brigadier.
BRIGADIER: I'm getting too old for this sort of thing. He's all yours from now on. I'm going home to Doris.
DOCTOR: Doris?
BRIGADIER: Yes, my wife.
DOCTOR: Ha, ha, ha. So she caught you in the end.
BRIGADIER: Yeah.
ACE: Oi, shouldn't we be getting back?
BRIGADIER: Yes, Ace is right. I suspect there's some clearing up to be done.
DOCTOR: Yes, just a small nuclear missile bogged down in a nature reserve.

[UNIT Mobile Command post]

(Prelaunch sequence complete, says the computer screen. Enter failsafe release code. Mordred has Bambera at swordpoint.)

BAMBERA: It's a nuclear missile. The blast will kill you as well.
MORGAINE: We shall be long gone ere that happens. Now tell me, what is the secret incantation?
BAMBERA: I don't know what you're talking about.
MORGAINE: The magic words. The failsafe release code.
BAMBERA: I've no idea.
MORGAINE: Oh, I doubt that. What is the code?

(Morgaine stares into Bambera's eyes.)

[Spacecraft]

DOCTOR: Ancelyn, replace Excalibur and Arthur will arise.
ANCELYN: I think the honour belongs to the Brigadier.
BRIGADIER: Oh, the Doctor should do it.
ANCELYN: No, my lord. You were the victor.
ACE: Give me that.
DOCTOR: Ace, have you no sense of occasion?
ACE: No.

(So the person that pulled it out puts it back in, and the spacecraft powers up.)

ANCELYN: Listen, she is alive.
ACE: Which is more than can be said for Arthur the freeze-dried.
DOCTOR: This is very odd.
ACE: Well, you put him there.
DOCTOR: I will put him there.
ACE: What's wrong, Doctor?

(The Doctor removes Arthur's helm, and sand pours out. There is also a note.)

ANCELYN: Where is the King?
ACE: Doctor, this is for you.
DOCTOR: What does it say?
ACE: Dear Doctor. King died in final battle. Everything else propaganda.
DOCTOR: Who signed it?
ACE: The Doctor.
DOCTOR: Ah well, that sorts that out.
ACE: PS, Morgaine has just seized control of the nuclear missile.
DOCTOR: Tut. I could have given myself more warning. Brigadier, you and Ace see to this ship.
BRIGADIER: Explosives, Doctor.
ACE: Now you're talking.
DOCTOR: Yes, we'll give Arthur a warrior's burial.

[UNIT Mobile Command post]

(Mordred lays Bambera's body on the ground by the Mobile Command post, then Ancelyn charges in. The two rivals fight, parting briefly as the Doctor walks between them and goes inside.
The countdown passes 60.)
MORGAINE: Too late, Merlin.
DOCTOR: Is it? Not while there's an abort button.

(Morgaine and the Doctor struggle.)

DOCTOR: If this missile explodes, millions will die, you will die.
MORGAINE: I shall die with honour.

(45, 44)

DOCTOR: All over the world, fools are poised ready to let death fly. A spark could turn into an inferno.
MORGAINE: What do I care? This is war.
DOCTOR: Is it? Death falling from the sky, blind, random, anywhere, anytime. No one is safe, no one is innocent? Machines of death, Morgaine, are screaming from above, of light brighter than the sun. Not a war between armies nor a war between nations, but just death, death gone mad. The child looks up in the sky, his eyes turn to cinders. No more tears, only ashes. Is this honour? Is this war? Are these the weapons you would use? Tell me!
MORGAINE: No.
DOCTOR: Then put a stop to it, Morgaine. End the madness.

(4, 3, 2. Morgaine presses the red abort button at 1.)

MORGAINE: Then tell Arthur to face me with honour in single combat. Tell him to show himself. It's time he ceased hiding behind your coat tails, Merlin.

[Dig site]

(The spacecraft explodes in the lake. Ace leaps up and down.)

ACE: And you said two kilos wouldn't be enough.
BRIGADIER: Hey, mind you don't get your feet wet.

[UNIT Mobile Command post]

DOCTOR: Arthur is dead.
MORGAINE: No.
DOCTOR: He's dead, Morgaine.
MORGAINE: Merlin, prince of deceit. Another trick.
DOCTOR: No.
MORGAINE: I don't believe you.
DOCTOR: Don't you?
MORGAINE: It can't be.
DOCTOR: He died over a thousand years ago.
MORGAINE: Arthur, who burned like star fire.
DOCTOR: Gone.
MORGAINE: And was as beautiful. Where does he lie? I would look at him one final time.
DOCTOR: He's gone to dust.
MORGAINE: Then I shall not even have that comfort. I shall never see him again. Arthur. We were together in the woods of Celadon. The air was like honey.
DOCTOR: I'm sorry, Morgaine. It's over.

(The Doctor removes the key from the firing controls and puts it in his breast pocket.)

[Dig site]

(Mordred finally bests Ancelyn.)

ANCELYN: I do not fear death, Mordred. You have slain my beloved. There is no life without her.
MORDRED: So be it. Tis time!

(The Doctor stops Mordred swinging his sword. He forces him to his knees and puts his fingers on Mordred's forehead.)

DOCTOR: Time and Time Lords wait for no man.

(Mordred falls unconscious. Bambera gets up, and so does Ancelyn.)

DOCTOR: Ah, Brigadier. Before Mordred recovers, lock him up. And while you're at it, lock up his mother.

[Lethbridge-Stewart's garden]

DOCTOR: Peaceful, isn't it?
ANCELYN: The silence after a battle, Doctor.
BRIGADIER: I'm sorry, I'm not being a very good host. Are you all right out here?
DOCTOR: Oh, just admiring the garden.
BRIGADIER: I don't suppose you've seen Doris, have you?
DORIS: Bye!

(The Brigadier goes to her.)

DOCTOR: I think the battle may be about to begin.
BRIGADIER: You going somewhere, dear?
DORIS: Out.
BRIGADIER: Out?
DORIS: Out, with the girls.

[Lethbridge-Stewart's driveway]

(Ace is polishing Bessie's bonnet.)

DOCTOR: I thought you said this was a piece of antiquated junk?
ACE: Did I say that, Professor?
DOCTOR: Yes.
SHOU: We'll try not to break too many speed records.
BAMBERA: Or traffic laws.
DORIS: Hey, what's that?
ACE: Do you want to drive, Doris?
DORIS: Oh, no. Er, I'll drive on the way back, okay?
DOCTOR: Allow me.

(The Doctor hands Doris into the passenger seat.)

DORIS: Thank you, Doctor. Whee!
BRIGADIER: Er, exactly how far are you intending to go, Doris?
DORIS: Well, I don't know, but there's lots of work to be done in the garden. Roll the grass.
BRIGADIER: What about supper?
DORIS: Oh, that's a good idea. Have something really delicious ready for us when we get home, okay?

(Ace drives Bessie away with a honk of the horn.)

DORIS: Oh, wicked!
ANCELYN: Ah, are they not magnificent?
BRIGADIER: Yeah. Are you any good with a lawn mower, Ancelyn?
DOCTOR: I'll cook supper.

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.

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