Frontios

Part One

[Under the Research room]

(In the green light of a mine or tunnel, a man who will discover to be Captain Revere hands over the piece of ore he has dug out. Everyone say Hi to Peter Gilmore, who takes it away to a group wearing B7 Federation uniforms as Revere watches the ground near his knees start to sink.)

BRAZEN: The answer's buried here somewhere. The Captain will find it.

(The sinking ground makes a pit prop move. Brazen rushes to hold it.)

BRAZEN: Get out, everybody! Come on, move. Captain Revere!

(The roof falls and buries Revere.)

BRAZEN: Block and tackle! Quickly!

(There is another roof fall. The body disappears.)

BRAZEN: I want no mention of this to anyone. Do you hear me? Not to anyone!

[TARDIS]

(Turlough is listening to the sounds of banging from the interior. Then it goes very quiet.)

TEGAN: The Doctor's all right. He gets like this sometimes. Nothing to worry about.

(The banging starts up again.)

TURLOUGH: Well, I suppose it's none of my business. I think he must be coming.

(The Doctor bursts in.)

DOCTOR: Not hat people, are you? Either of you?
TEGAN: What?
DOCTOR: Wear them much, I mean. I only do when I go out. It's silly to have this thing getting in everyone's way.
TEGAN: I don't believe it.

(The Doctor takes the hat stand.)

TEGAN: There's so much to do aboard this ship and all you're worried about is tidying away the hat stand.
DOCTOR: Well, I have to start somewhere.
TURLOUGH: Doctor? Something's happening to the controls.

(A monitor on the console says - Boundary Error. Time Parameters Exceeded.)

DOCTOR: Ah, we must be on the outer limits. The TARDIS has drifted too far into the future. We'll just slip into hover mode for a while.

(Tegan looks at the monitor on the other side of the console.)

TEGAN: We're in the Veruna system, wherever that is.
DOCTOR: I had no idea we were so far out. Veruna. That's irony for you.
TEGAN: What is?
DOCTOR: Veruna is where one of the last surviving groups of mankind took shelter in the great er. Yes. Well, I suppose you've got all that to look forward to, haven't you.
TEGAN: In the great what, Doctor?
DOCTOR: All civilisations have their ups and downs.
TURLOUGH: (reads) Fleeing from the imminence of a catastrophic collision with the sun, a group of refugees from the doomed planet Earth
DOCTOR: Yes, that's enough, Turlough.

(Tegan has turned on the scanner to view the planet.)

TEGAN: You mean some of the last humans are on this planet?
DOCTOR: Yes.
TEGAN: Can we land? Can we visit them?
DOCTOR: Laws of time.
TEGAN: Since when has that ever stopped you?
DOCTOR: Now, we mustn't interfere. Colony's too new, one generation at the most. The future hangs in the balance. Now, I've got another one of these somewhere. Put them side by side, we'll have a pair.

(The Doctor carries his hat stand out of the console room.)

[Research room]

(The troopers close a panel in the flooring. A silver-haired man is not pleased.)

RANGE: There is enough distrust already of the long path back to knowledge. An enquiry into Captain Revere's death is vital.
BRAZEN: I said, there's no requirement for an investigation. A distillation vessel exploded here in the research room.
RANGE: And that's your childish reason for closing down the whole of the research room?
BRAZEN: Captain Revere was quite specific. The research centre was to be closed down in the event of his dying. I've nothing else to say on the matter.

(They go through into the research area proper, where a man is sitting by a very large circuit board whilst wearing headphones.)

RANGE: You're throwing away forty years work. Don't you care?
BRAZEN: Simply obeying orders.
RANGE: Look, we lost all our technology when our ship crashed here. Now don't you think our struggle has been hard enough without this added foolishness?
BRAZEN: The only foolishness that I know is to disobey an order. Right, enough of that, Cockerill.
RANGE: What, you're abandoning the communications scan too?
BRAZEN: Everything.
COCKERILL: Forty years and nothing's come through on that set. I don't think it's any great loss.
BRAZEN: Nobody asked for your opinion on the matter. Get back to corridor duties.

(Cockerill salutes and leaves.)

RANGE: On whose authority?
BRAZEN: Plantagenet himself.
RANGE: Oh, the boy's distraught.
BRAZEN: Are you suggesting that the son of Captain Revere is unfit to rule?
RANGE: Look, as Chief Science Officer
BRAZEN: Oh, don't go waving your title at me. From now on this research centre is under military jurisdiction.
RANGE: But the research into the bombardment. Now you must see the urgency of that?

[Outside the Research room]

RANGE: Look, the attacks are coming almost daily.
BRAZEN: There'll be no more talk about this in front of our people, Mister Range. The desertion rate is already unacceptable. Now, with or without your permission, this research room will be sealed.

[TARDIS]

TEGAN: I can't believe it.
TURLOUGH: It would be interesting to go down, wouldn't it. Er, Doctor, we were
DOCTOR: Impossible. Time's up.
TEGAN: What happens to them, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Knowledge has its limits. Ours reaches this far and no further.

(The TARDIS judders.)

DOCTOR: Stabilisers are failing. Have to get out of here.
TURLOUGH: It's a meteorite storm.
DOCTOR: The TARDIS should be able to resist this sort of thing. The console's jammed!
TURLOUGH: We're being dragged towards the planet!
TEGAN: How?
DOCTOR: Gravitational pull?

(By the crashed spaceship, workers scurry to shelter as alarms blare.)

TEGAN: Doctor, do something.
DOCTOR: Don't panic.

(A well-placed thump gets the time rotor moving.)

[Outside the Medical centre]

(The TARDIS materialises as the meteorite shower ends. A young woman runs out to check on the ones who didn't make it back inside. Range joins her.)

DOCTOR: My least favourite sort of weather.

(A woman groans nearby and he runs to help her.)

DOCTOR: Come along.

(Turlough helps him get her to her feet.)

TEGAN: This way.

(Tegan goes to open the main hatch while the young woman and Range also get another person to their feet.)

[Medical centre]

(A rough and ready stone-built place with one patient lying on the top of a basic metal bunk bed. The floor is very uneven. One wall has a two tone portrait of a man's face on it. This is the Beloved Leader, and the picture is all over the colony. It is also the face of the man who died in the first scene.)

TEGAN: In here. Over here.
DOCTOR: It's all right.

(Turlough and Tegan help their person into the other bunk bed. Range sits his patient down on a step in the flooring.)

RANGE: We shall need the emergency supplies.
DOCTOR: Leave it to me.
RANGE: Oh, thank you, sir.

(The Doctor helps Range carry the patient forward to another section where there is a padded examination couch.)

DOCTOR: I shall need some antiseptic and bandages.
RANGE: Antiseptic.
DOCTOR: To clean this wound.

(The Doctor takes off his jacket and hands it to Range.)

RANGE: Look, I'm the Chief Science Officer. Who are you?
DOCTOR: It would help if we could see what we're doing.

(Range snaps his fingers and beckons an orderly, who holds up a green lamp.)

DOCTOR: Phosphor lamps.

(Turlough takes it from the orderly.)

TURLOUGH: These are a terrible fire hazard in this sort of container, you know.
DOCTOR: Better hold it steady then, hadn't you.
TEGAN: How does it work?
TURLOUGH: Well, it's electron excitation. If you give them a shake, they get a bit brighter.
DOCTOR: Stop that, would you? Is this the best you can do?
RANGE: Yes, I'm afraid it is.
DOCTOR: We need some proper lighting. Turlough, the TARDIS. I'll need the portable mu-field activator.
TURLOUGH: Doctor, you did say
DOCTOR: And five of the argon discharge globes.

(Turlough hands the lamp to Tegan.)

DOCTOR: Oh, and all medical supplies.
TURLOUGH: Anything else?
DOCTOR: Yes, you'd better give him a hand, Tegan.
TEGAN: Right-o, Doctor.

(Tegan gives the lamp to Range.)

(The young girl brings a tray of instruments.)

RANGE: This is my daughter, Norna. And you
DOCTOR: Time for social niceties later. Better get started, hmm?
NORNA: Yes, well, you'll want soap and water first.
DOCTOR: Yes, good idea.

[TARDIS]

(Tegan runs to the interior door.)

TEGAN: This door's locked!

(Turlough checks the edges. No hinges.)

TURLOUGH: No, it isn't. This could be serious.

[Medical centre]

RANGE: It's very good of you to help us, Mister, er
DOCTOR: I'm not helping, officially. And if anyone happens to ask whether I made any material difference to the welfare of this planet, you can tell them I came and went like a summer cloud.

(Some people appear in the hatchway.)

RANGE: They're curious to know who you are.
DOCTOR: Perhaps you could ask them to move. They're rather blocking the air. It's interesting. How often do you have meteorite showers?
RANGE: Intermittently. Although the attacks have become more frequent over the last few weeks.
DOCTOR: Yes. The attacks?
RANGE: Oh yes. We're at war.
DOCTOR: Really? With whom?
RANGE: Well, that has yet to be determined. As you can see, we're helpless.
DOCTOR: Not if I have anything to do with it. How do you do? I'm the Doctor.
RANGE: Oh, hello. My name is Range. I'm the Chief

(The Doctor spots something over Range's shoulder.)

DOCTOR: Hello. You've been keeping us unnecessarily in the dark, Mister Range. You didn't tell me you had a hydrazine steam generator.

(It looks like an old-fashioned boiler to me.)

[State room]

(The metal panels are rusting. Brazen marches in and speaks to a young man lounging in a seat on an upper level. Everyone say Hi! to Jeff Rawle. You'll know the face if not the name.)

BRAZEN: There's a development, sir, which I am not happy with.
PLANTAGENET: Development? Yes?
BRAZEN: An arrival, simultaneous to the last bombardment. Three persons of undetermined origin.
PLANTAGENET: So, it's come at last.
BRAZEN: Yes. This could be the beginning of the invasion.

[Medical centre]

DOCTOR: It's very interesting.
RANGE: It used to generate a basic form of energy, but we no longer have any fuel. This planet is without wood or any combustible material.
DOCTOR: What about the colony ship? Must have been brimming with gadgetry.
RANGE: Oh, systems that could rebuild a civilisation for us. Failure-proof technology.
DOCTOR: What happened to it all?
RANGE: It failed. And nothing survived the crash.

(Tegan runs in.)

TEGAN: Doctor! Doctor, something's happened to the TARDIS.
DOCTOR: Hmm?
TEGAN: The interior door's jammed.
TURLOUGH: As if some tremendous forcefield's pulled it out of shape.
TEGAN: It couldn't be the impact of landing, could it?
DOCTOR: The TARDIS? No, no, no. Probably just some spatial anomaly. You're getting carried away again, Turlough. One thing at a time. Where's the mu-field activator?
TURLOUGH: I'm trying to tell you. It's behind
DOCTOR: It's behind the interior door. Yes, of course. Excitation.

(The Doctor shakes the phosphor lamp.)

TURLOUGH: You told me not to do that.
DOCTOR: Oh, it's risky, but then so is operating in this gloom. Have you ever tried putting a higher voltage across one of these things?
TEGAN: Doctor, the TARDIS!
DOCTOR: Yes. There must be something on this planet capable of sustaining a steady voltage.

(Tegan and Turlough go to the now empty examination couch where Norna is folding cloths.)

TURLOUGH: How can you work, do research, without electricity?
NORNA: Well, we used to use an acid jar charged by wind power.
TEGAN: Acid jar?
NORNA: A sort of large battery.
TURLOUGH: That's a thought. With some sort of interrupter to raise the voltage.
NORNA: It's in the research room, but I'll need some help carrying it.
TEGAN: Okay, come on.

[Outside the Medical centre]

TURLOUGH: We seem to have lost our news value.
TEGAN: There's a counter attraction. Look.
NORNA: Food's rationed on Frontios. It's why the colony ship's guarded. We'll have to be careful, the ship's out of bounds.
TURLOUGH: It sounds dangerous.
NORNA: Do you mind?
TURLOUGH: No, it isn't that, it's just that I wouldn't want us to get
NORNA: Quick, hide.

(Turlough and Tegan hide behind boxes and barrels. Brazen and Plantagenet come out of the colony ship.)

BRAZEN: Stand straight, sir. They look to you.
PLANTAGENET: Norna? You're needed in the hospital, surely.
NORNA: I've come to ask for more bandages and water.
BRAZEN: Do you think we have unlimited supplies?
NORNA: You have supplies. What's the use of hoarding them? Leader Plantagenet, the wounded need your help.

(Plantagenet speaks to a trooper, who for some reason are referred to as orderlies.)

PLANTAGENET: Make sure this woman has access to the medical supplies room.
ORDERLY: Yes, sir.

(Brazen and Plantagenet walk on with their escort. Norna goes to Tegan and Turlough.)

NORNA: Come on.

(Tegan and Turlough wait until Norna enters the colony ship, then make a noise. The trooper turns back to investigate and they slip inside with Norna. Brazen goes over to the orderly.)

BRAZEN: Orderly, are you responsible for this noise?
ORDERLY: No, sir.
BRAZEN: Somebody is.

(Brazen goes inside the colony ship, and the orderly takes up his guard position at the entrance.)

[Colony ship]

(Massive metal bracings and catwalks, and nothing else.)

TEGAN: It's huge.
NORNA: It brought thousands of people from Earth, remember.
TEGAN: Thousands?
NORNA: Well, the crash killed most of them and then there was an outbreak of disease. Someone's coming.

[Medical centre]

RANGE: Well, Captain Revere assumed that the barrage was some sort of softening up process. Heralding an invasion, he said.
DOCTOR: Hmm, someone else thinks this is their territory.
RANGE: Frontios was quite deserted when we arrived.
DOCTOR: So you did nothing to provoke an attack.
RANGE: No. The few that survived the crash had no time for anything but bare survival. We worked to raise food.
DOCTOR: Dangerous, surely, out in the fields with the risk of bombardment.
RANGE: Oh, there was no bombardment then. We had ten years of clear skies to stock the wreck of the colony ship with food, and then it began. Yes, the first missile a little over thirty years ago.
DOCTOR: Thirty years? Your unknown invaders are certainly taking their time.
PLANTAGENET: Unknown no longer, perhaps. Could it be that one of them calls himself the Doctor?

[Outside the Research room]

NORNA: They've sealed the room!
TURLOUGH: Now what?
TEGAN: We go back?
NORNA: No, there's another way in. This way.

(She leads them up a ladder.)

[Medical centre]

DOCTOR: Look, I'm not really here at all, officially. And as soon as I've helped Mister Range with arrangements, I'll be on my way.
PLANTAGENET: Do you feel free to come and go as you please?
DOCTOR: Going, yes, coming, no. We were forced down.
PLANTAGENET: I see. You landed during the bombardment and yet you appear unharmed.
DOCTOR: I'm sorry, we didn't know there was a war on. At first we thought it was some sort of meteorite storm.
PLANTAGENET: And what do you think now?
DOCTOR: I think your shelters are totally inadequate and your warning system does nothing but create panic.
PLANTAGENET: I did not ask
DOCTOR: Your population has already fallen below critical value required for guaranteed growth and you're regularly losing new lives. I think, and you did ask what I think, I think your colony of Earth people is in grave danger of extinction.

[Top of the Colony ship]

(Norna leads Tegan and Turlough out onto the hull.)

NORNA: Be quiet. They can hear us walking on the hull of the ship.

[Medical centre]

PLANTAGENET: Who are you to give me advice! I am the son of Captain Revere. The people of Frontios will not be cowed by these mewling words of defeat, Doctor. We may lack the outward appurtenances of might, but we carry our strength within us. We will win the war with the invisible aggressors whose missiles batter on our planet, and we will win the greater battle, the struggle for the future of our race.
DOCTOR: Absolutely. I wish you all the luck in the world. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to give you anything much in the way of help.
PLANTAGENET: We're under no illusions about that, Doctor. We can see for ourselves the results of your help.
RANGE: The Doctor has helped. He's been caring for the sick, and he's going to arrange for some proper light by getting that thing
PLANTAGENET: The hydrazine engine! This invader has interfered with the great gift my father bestowed upon the people of Frontios.
DOCTOR: I'm sorry, I was working out a way of getting some decent light in here.
PLANTAGENET: We people of Frontios are vulnerable, Doctor. Desperate, frightened even. But we are not fools.

[Top of the Colony ship]

(Turlough and Norna struggle with a hatch while Tegan keeps watch. Brazen comes out onto the hull with two orderlies.)

TEGAN: They're coming.

(The hatch opens.)

TURLOUGH: Come on.

(They go inside.)

BRAZEN: Check the solar drive panels. They've got to be hiding somewhere.

(Turlough closes the hatch behind him just before the orderlies walk past.)

[Research room]

(Tegan, Norna and Turlough enter through a large ventilation pipe. Turlough closes the grill behind them. The girls go to the large jar filled with green liquid and wires sticking out of the top, and start to carry it between them. It is very heavy.)

TEGAN: It smells lethal.
NORNA: It is.
TURLOUGH: So please don't spill it.

(Turlough lets down a block and tackle.)

[Top of the Colony ship]

BRAZEN: Guard the hatch. I'll inform the leader.

[Research room]

(The acid jar is ready to hoist up to the ventilation pipe.)

TURLOUGH: Be careful.

(The jar hits the upper railing and tilts, spilling acid onto the flooring.)

TEGAN: Turlough!

(The acid eats a large hole in the floor.)

[Top of the Colony ship]

(Turlough sees the guards and goes back to the hatch where the girls are with the acid jar. They lift it through the hatch. Meanwhile, Cockerill comes out and speaks to the orderlies.)

COCKERILL: I got it, but only just.

(He hands the orderlies some food.)

TEGAN: How are we going to get past them?
TURLOUGH: I'll think of something.

(Cockerill and the orderlies settle down to eat.)

TEGAN: Are you sure this is going to work?
TURLOUGH: Have you got a better idea?

[Outside the Colony ship]

BRAZEN: Ah, Warnsman.
WARNSMAN: Sir?
BRAZEN: I don't like the look of this sky.
WARNSMAN: No, sir.
BRAZEN: Keep good watch.
WARNSMAN: Very good, sir.

[Medical centre]

PLANTAGENET: No craft the size of yours is capable of traversing the universe.
DOCTOR: If I had a spare millennium I might bring you up to date on time mechanics. Unfortunately, we have this lighting problem and a ward full of people needing medical attention.

(Brazen enters and whispers to Plantagenet.)

RANGE: Another bombardment.
DOCTOR: What, again?
RANGE: There's the darkening of the sky. Oh, it's all right, the Warnsman will sound his klaxon at the first sign.
PLANTAGENET: You came with two accomplices. They have been seen on the colony ship, aided by your treacherous daughter.

[Outside the Colony ship]

(Tegan climbs down a ladder to ground level while Turlough lowers the acid jar.)

ORDERLY: Hey, you're not allowed up there.
TURLOUGH: Look out!

(The Orderly gets hit by the acid jar and goes flying sideways.)

[Medical centre]

RANGE: Paranoia. Your minds are being eaten away by the scale of the disaster we call Frontios. Can't you see this man is here to help us?
PLANTAGENET: I say treachery, Mister Range. Are you guilty too?

(Range walks away, shaking his head.)

DOCTOR: You know, we can sort all this out in no time at all if everyone just stays calm. Now please, come and see the TARDIS. As an invasion weapon it's about as offensive as a chicken vol au vent.

[Outside the Colony ship]

TURLOUGH: The bombardment's started again.
NORNA: We've got to get him back to the medical centre.
TURLOUGH: Come on.
(Turlough helps the dazed orderly while the girls carry the acid jar.
The Doctor comes out of the hospital area.)
DOCTOR: It's lack of armaments can be an embarrassment at times. Just a minute. Get back!
BRAZEN: Don't be alarmed. We haven't heard from the Warnsman yet.
DOCTOR: Oh, well, this way.

(They meet Turlough.)

DOCTOR: Oh dear, what have we here?
PLANTAGENET: It's the Warnsman.
BRAZEN: Take him to the medical shelter.
DOCTOR: Now, what's this?
NORNA: The battery for the lighting.
DOCTOR: Brilliant! Take it inside. Hurry along.

(Two orderlies obey.)

DOCTOR: Now, where's the mu-field activator?
TEGAN: We told you, Doctor. We couldn't get any further than the console room.
TURLOUGH: Doctor, can't we continue this conversation under cover?
DOCTOR: Yes, indeed, in the TARDIS.

(A meteorite lands nearby and everyone scatters. The TARDIS crew take cover on one side, Brazen and Plantagenet on the other.)

BRAZEN: This bombardment could be a tactical diversion on the part of the Doctor.
PLANTAGENET: No, I think not, Brazen, but he has some connection with these attacks.

[Medical centre]

NORNA: Careful.
RANGE: Gentle with that now, gentle. Over there.

[Outside the Colony ship]

DOCTOR: A swift exit, I think. We've had enough of this planet.

(Another strike drives them back into their hiding place.)

[Medical centre]

(Plantagenet is clutching his chest.)

BRAZEN: Are you hurt?

(More wounded are brought in so Plantagenet lowers his arms.)

[Outside the Colony ship]

TEGAN: It's getting lighter.
DOCTOR: The attack's nearly over. Let's get out of here. Come on, the TARDIS.
TEGAN: The TARDIS, what's happened?
TURLOUGH: It's gone!

(All that is left is the hat stand.)

DOCTOR: The TARDIS has been destroyed.
Part Two

[Outside the Colony ship]

TEGAN: The TARDIS can't just disintegrate.
TURLOUGH: I'm afraid it has.

(Plantagenet approaches with one armed and the rest unarmed orderlies.)

DOCTOR: Oh, marvellous. You're going to kill me. What a finely tuned response to the situation.
BRAZEN: Best to despatch him now.
NORNA: Wait!
PLANTAGENET: Get out of the way.

(Norna stands in front of the Doctor.)

DOCTOR: Be careful, Norna.
NORNA: Why did Captain Revere dedicate the whole of his life to analysing the rocks of Frontios?
BRAZEN: Remove her!
PLANTAGENET: No, wait. Why do you ask when the reason is well known? My father sought the precious minerals beneath the soils.
NORNA: What precious minerals? Did he find any?
PLANTAGENET: He knew there must be some reason for the perpetual carnage our neighbours inflict upon us.
NORNA: Well, if the Doctor is an invader, he has the answer to that question.
RANGE: Oh, Norna, I need some help with the lighting.
PLANTAGENET: No, wait. (to Tegan) You go.
TEGAN: I don't know anything about lighting.
BRAZEN: Get on with it.
DOCTOR: Best do as they say. We'll be safe as long as we remain calm. Now trust me.

(Tegan and Range leave.)

PLANTAGENET: Well, Doctor. Can you enlighten us as to the reason for these bombardments?
DOCTOR: In time, if you let me investigate. If, on the other hand, you're going to kill me, you'd better get on with it.
PLANTAGENET: Kill him.
NORNA: No!

(Norna tries to wrestle the rifle from the orderly while two others hold the Doctor.)

DOCTOR: This wasn't what I had in mind at all.

(Turlough backs away and grabs the hat stand. There is a small explosion as he pulls it out of the ground and everyone scatters. Turlough then brandishes the foot end at the orderlies.)

NORNA: What was that?
DOCTOR: Oh, just residual energy from the TARDIS.
PLANTAGENET: What is it?
BRAZEN: The thing that brings down the bombardment.

[Medical centre]

(The acid jar is topped up.)

RANGE: That's enough.
TEGAN: That battery'd better work after all our efforts.
RANGE: It's in good condition. We just have to hook it up.
TEGAN: The Doctor is safe, isn't he?
RANGE: For the time being, though death is a daily occurrence on this planet, as you can see. The constant state of panic and the growing number of Rets.
TEGAN: Rets?
RANGE: Retrogrades. It's what we call the deserters. More of them leave every week to hunt out in the wastes like animals.
TEGAN: Orderlies shoot deserters?
RANGE: If they have to. Oh yes, it's a waste of life, but discipline is paramount.
TEGAN: But every death increases the danger of extinction!
RANGE: Do you think I'm not aware of that?

(Tegan goes to crank up a phosphor lamp, and the patient on the mattress on the floor touches her ankle.)

MAN: Water.
TEGAN: Water. He needs some water.

[Outside the Colony ship]

PLANTAGENET: Now at last the colonists of Frontios are face to face with their persecutors. For my father's sake, Doctor, I should like that question answered.
DOCTOR: What, the precious rocks under the soil business? Well, so would I. Whatever's going on here has put paid to my TARDIS.
PLANTAGENET: You deny you're at war with us?
DOCTOR: If it is war, and I'm not so sure about that, then you and I, Plantagenet, are in the same shell hole. Now, does anyone know where these are coming from?

(The Doctor picks up a piece of meteorite, which ought to be still red hot after it's trip through the atmosphere, but isn't.)

NORNA: Well, we know it's one of the other planets in the Veruna system.
PLANTAGENET: Without instruments, it's impossible to tell which one.
DOCTOR: This rock analysis. You've been investigating the whyfors. I think you should be looking into the where froms. Mister Range tells me you have a research room.
BRAZEN: The research room was sealed up, by the orders of the late Captain Revere.
DOCTOR: Well, if you want answers, you'd better unseal it.
PLANTAGENET: There's nothing in that room that could possibly be of any use to us.
TURLOUGH: That's not true. It's full of invaluable equipment.
DOCTOR: You've been inside it?
TURLOUGH: It's where we found the battery.
DOCTOR: The trouble is, if these good people don't want us inside.
TURLOUGH: Yes, Doctor. I think I know how to change their minds.

(Turlough threatens Plantagenet with the hat stand.)

PLANTAGENET: Order the research room to be opened.

[Medical centre]

(Range gives the man some water.)

RANGE: Thank you. You can get back to your work now.
TEGAN: It's no good, is it.
RANGE: I'm afraid not.

[Outside the Research room]

(Orderlies remove the grill from the door.)

TURLOUGH: Hurry up!
DOCTOR: Yes, er, careful with that thing.

(The Doctor and Norna go into the research room, followed by Brazen and Plantagenet, who surreptitiously takes a crowbar from an orderly as he passes.)

[Research room]

(Plantagenet keeps the crowbar concealed from Turlough as he enters.)

DOCTOR: Well, here we are then. This should keep us busy.

(The Doctor brings a small microscope to a bench while Norna gets a rack of test tubes.)

DOCTOR: Turlough, you can help.
TURLOUGH: Er, I don't know a lot about chemical tests.
NORNA: I do.
DOCTOR: Good, good. I want to run a series on halides and silica. And do stop waving that thing around.

(Plantagenet raises the crowbar.)

NORNA: Look out!

(Then collapses, clutching his chest. Turlough blocks Brazen with the hat stand.)

TURLOUGH: I wouldn't. What did I do?
DOCTOR: I think this joke's gone far enough.

(The Doctor takes the hat stand and puts it down. Then he goes over to Plantagenet.)

[Medical centre]

(The dead man is stretchered out. Range uses a keypad to unlock a filing cabinet, removes a flimsy and writes on it.)

WOMAN: Mister Range!

(The acid jar is boiling. Range dashes over and removes the rod. Tegan takes the opportunity to go to the filing cabinet. She sees a folder labelled 'Deaths Unaccountable'.)

TEGAN: Deaths unaccountable?

(She closes the drawer, then turns to see Range is fully occupied with getting the battery working again. She tries to open it again.)

TEGAN: Rabbits.

(She punches the keypad at random. No luck.)

[Research room]

(The Doctor has removed Plantagenet's jacket and bared his chest. There is a red mark in the middle of his pale flesh.)

DOCTOR: Medical centre, quickly!
BRAZEN: So, he was hit.
DOCTOR: Delayed effect of a glancing blow.

(Two orderlies carry Plantagenet away. The Doctor hands the meteorite to Norna.)

DOCTOR: Now, I want you to stay here and start those tests.

[Medical centre]

(Tegan is trying to prise the filing cabinet open with a screwdriver.)

RANGE: What do you think you're doing?
TEGAN: I'm, I'm trying to get the drawer open, if you really want to know.
RANGE: Curiosity is dangerous on Frontios.
TEGAN: Not as dangerous as ignorance.
RANGE: What do you know? What have you seen?
TEGAN: Deaths unaccountable.
RANGE: You must forget that you saw that.
TEGAN: There's something going on here, isn't there. Some racket you're into.
DOCTOR: Tegan! Ah. Those wires.
TEGAN: What about them?
DOCTOR: Rip them down.
TEGAN: I've only just put them up.
DOCTOR: Jolly good. Now you can rip them down again. Damp cloths. Anything damp.
BRAZEN: This way. Over here.

(Plantagenet is laid on a mattress on a metal frame.)

[Research room]

TURLOUGH: I wouldn't put up with it.
NORNA: We have to. We don't have the technology to go anywhere else.
TURLOUGH: Yes, I'm beginning to know the feeling.

(He moves the hat stand to the corner.)

[Medical centre]

BRAZEN: What's the matter with him?
DOCTOR: Fibrillating.
TEGAN: What?
RANGE: It's his heart. The Doctor's going to get it going again.

(The Doctor puts the damp cloths either side of Plantagenet's ribcage then puts the bare ends of the wires to them.)

DOCTOR: Are we ready?
RANGE: Ready.
DOCTOR: Now!

(Range pushes the electrodes into the acid jar.)

[Research room]

(Norna is doing the tests the Doctor requested.)

TURLOUGH: Why didn't you dig deep bunkers? The Arardjacks of Heiradi hollowed out a huge subterranean city under their planet during the Twenty Aeon War.
NORNA: There was a quarry where the stone came from to build the medical shelter. We converted that into a place to get away from the bombardment.
TURLOUGH: Sounds very sensible.
NORNA: We always used to go there to shelter. Then all that got stopped.
TURLOUGH: Why?
NORNA: Captain Revere made a law against it.
TURLOUGH: Oh, as simple as that. He made a law.
NORNA: Forbidding any digging under the ground.
TURLOUGH: Surely there must have been a reason?
NORNA: Captain Revere never gave reasons. Except once. When I was very small, I was sitting on his knee in the state room, and I asked him why we couldn't go underground anymore. And he said. It was a child's answer, it seemed quite sensible at the time.
TURLOUGH: What did he say?
NORNA: He said the earth was hungry.

[Medical centre]

DOCTOR: Again!

(Plantagenet's back arches with the jolt of electricity.)

[Research room]

TURLOUGH: There.
NORNA: That's not a pressure filter.
TURLOUGH: Oh, sorry. I was just wondering. These rocks.
NORNA: What about them?
TURLOUGH: Well, they're all labelled with dates. They must have come from somewhere.
NORNA: They did. The quarry.
TURLOUGH: Yes, but some of the dates are recent. You told me that quarry had been closed for years.

[Medical centre]

BRAZEN: You've killed him.

(Plantagenet opens his eyes.)

DOCTOR: I admit it was touch and go for a minute.

[Research room]

(Turlough is on the upper catwalk, examining the block and tackle.)

NORNA: What are you up to?
TURLOUGH: Well, they obviously didn't install this just for us.
NORNA: It's for lifting equipment.
TURLOUGH: What equipment? What's so heavy in here that needs a block and tackle?

[Medical centre]

DOCTOR: Try to get some rest.
PLANTAGENET: Rest. Death is the only kind of rest you bring to Frontios.
BRAZEN: Don't exert yourself, Leader. We have everything under control.
PLANTAGENET: I have responsibilities. Frontios depends upon me.
BRAZEN: Nevertheless, I should take the Doctor's advice.
PLANTAGENET: You've changed your mind about him too?
BRAZEN: I wouldn't commit myself on that, however it was the Doctor that saved your life.
TEGAN: The Doctor's all right. You must have realised that by now.
PLANTAGENET: You saved my life? Is this true?
DOCTOR: Not a word to the Time Lords.

[Research room]

(Turlough tests out the area served by the block and tackle.)

NORNA: Very ingenious.
TURLOUGH: No, not really. The block and tackle is a simple enough invention.
NORNA: I mean you and your excuses to get out of helping.
TURLOUGH: How long ago were you in the Research room?
NORNA: When I was very small. I came with my father when he was still Captain Revere's personal science assistant.
TURLOUGH: And was that up there then?
NORNA: No.
TURLOUGH: Exactly. These floor plate are solid metal. Heavy, solid metal. Norna, come here. We are about to find out where Captain Revere got his rock collection. That hook goes in here.

(Turlough lifts a small flap in a floor plate.)

[Medical centre]

PLANTAGENET: So you see, Doctor, Frontios is not the easiest planet to rule.
DOCTOR: After thirty years of bombardments, yes, I take your point.

(Tegan brings another pillow to prop Plantagenet up.)

TEGAN: Your friend Brazen doesn't trust us an inch.
PLANTAGENET: Ah, he's a good man, if a little narrow in his outlook.
TEGAN: He's planning to move you to your quarters in the colony ship.
PLANTAGENET: The colony ship? No, I must stay here with my people.
DOCTOR: The democratic touch, eh?
PLANTAGENET: Hardly democracy, Doctor. I must remain in public sight. If the people of Frontios think for one moment that I am dead, there will be anarchy.

[Research room]

(Turlough is hauling on the rope as Norna steadies the floor plate.)

NORNA: Come on, pull.
TURLOUGH: What do you think I'm doing?

(They move it to one side.)

NORNA: I wonder what's down there?
TURLOUGH: Let's take a look.

[Medical centre]

DOCTOR: Now, what's making you so vulnerable to attack is the thin atmosphere on Frontios.
PLANTAGENET: Why do they come so frequently now?
DOCTOR: Yes, I have some theories about that, and with your permission I'll return to the Research room and confirm them.
PLANTAGENET: Thank you, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Tegan.
PLANTAGENET: Your assistant may stay here with me. That way we'll all trust one another.
DOCTOR: Then perhaps you'll come with me, Mister Range.
RANGE: Yes, of course.
DOCTOR: Good. See you later.

(Brazen summons an armed orderly.)

BRAZEN: Keep an eye on them.

(The orderly leaves.)

[Under the Research room]

TURLOUGH: Careful. Come down slowly. This rock, it's sort of moth-eaten.
NORNA: Hey, look. There's a way through. Don't tell me you're frightened.
TURLOUGH: No, it's just like something I remember.

[Colony ship]

DOCTOR: You know, Mister Range, if I'm right these so-called missiles of yours are nothing more or less than natural meteorites.
RANGE: Meteorites? In such quantities?
DOCTOR: Oh, it's unusual, I grant you, but one of the planets in the Veruna system may have disintegrated with long term fall out.
RANGE: Surely Captain Revere could have detected that?
DOCTOR: I think he did.

[Medical centre]

(Plantagenet is sleeping.)

BRAZEN: He'll fill out, find his strength. I saw his father grow the same. The odds were terribly against us, you know, but he held this colony together with a will of steel.
TEGAN: I'm beginning to understand the problems of this planet, what with all the deaths accountable and unaccountable.
BRAZEN: What do you know about deaths unaccountable?
TEGAN: Just a phrase I heard.
BRAZEN: Heard where?
TEGAN: I don't know. I just heard it somewhere.
BRAZEN: Or in some records.
TEGAN: You know about the data store then.
BRAZEN: Data store, eh? Right, show me.
TEGAN: Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I just came across it in a book somewhere.

(Brazen drags Tegan away as Plantagenet wakes and hears their raised voices.)

TEGAN: It sounds like a title. Deaths Unaccountable. You can't do that to Mister Range's records!

(Plantagenet rolls off his mattress.)

[Outside the Research room]

DOCTOR: What puzzles me is how it managed to crash in the first place with all that autonomous guidance on board.
RANGE: The systems failed.
DOCTOR: What, before the crash?
RANGE: Yes. Without the failure, there would have been no crash. The guidance systems, everything, all went together.
DOCTOR: Did they now. I see why you call it the day of catastrophe.

[Research room]

RANGE: They've gone! Exploring, by the look of it.
DOCTOR: Ah, the rock analysis. They look like Widmanstaatten patterns to me, which would seem to confirm that

(The Doctor joins Range at the hole in the floor.)

DOCTOR: What's the matter?
RANGE: I'm afraid they may be in danger down there.
DOCTOR: Turlough wouldn't risk an unsafe tunnel.
RANGE: No, not that. I've suspected for a long time that Captain Revere ordered the quarry closed because of something he found.
DOCTOR: What sort of something?
RANGE: A geological feature, perhaps. Something beneath the surface it might be dangerous to disturb.

[Medical centre]

(The filing cabinet is open.)

BRAZEN: So, it's Mister Range who's been spreading these rumours.
TEGAN: What rumours?
BRAZEN: Disinformation about the status quo. (to Orderly) You, keep an eye on things down here.

(Brazen leaves.)

PLANTAGENET: Help. Help!

(Tegan runs over to Plantagenet, who is lying on the floor. When she gets there it sinks a little.)

TEGAN: Plantagenet!

(Plantagenet disappears into the rock.)

[Under the colony]

NORNA: Bring the light here a minute. The walls are quite different here.
TURLOUGH: It's smooth, like glass. Perhaps we ought to go back.
NORNA: In a minute. I want to see where this leads to.

[Research room]

(The Doctor is on the ladder down into tunnels. Range hands him a phosphor lamp.)

RANGE: Are you sure, Doctor? I want to help.
DOCTOR: You will, Mister Range, by staying here. These sort of adventures depend on a well-manned home base.

[Cavern]

(Turlough and Norna enter a cavern with shiny walls, a pile of balls of different sizes and other strange objects.)

TURLOUGH: Can we go back now? Please?
NORNA: Oh, come on, chicken.
TURLOUGH: I'm not frightened! I'm just thinking.
NORNA: I'll leave you to it, then. I'm going on.
TURLOUGH: No, wait, I'm coming.

(Turlough follows Norna. Two sections of 'wall' turn round to reveal that they have large heads with antennae, and limbs. They shuffle off after Turlough and Norna.)

[Medical centre]

(Brazen gingerly examines the floor where Plantagenet vanished.)

TEGAN: It's true. As if something was sucking him through the floor. I must get the Doctor.
BRAZEN: I don't think so. We're going to need you here.

(A group of colonists burst in.)

BRAZEN: What's the meaning of this crass behaviour? Cockerill, what's going on?
COCKERILL: I'm trying to control the crowd, sir. There's unrest about the leader.
BRAZEN: You're an Orderly, aren't you? So keep order! That's the meaning of the word. Go on, out.

(Cockerill ushers the people out.)

COCKERILL: They think Plantagenet's dead.
BRAZEN: Come on!

[Outside the Medical centre]

BRAZEN: You've come to show them that he's alive, I suppose, eh? What do you think this is, waxworks museum? Some right Retrograde material amongst you lot. Go on, get back to your business. Let Plantagenet and myself get back with ours.

[Under the colony]

(The Doctor hears a noise behind him and hides. It is Range, with another phosphor lamp.)

RANGE: Doctor, are you there?
DOCTOR: I thought you were supposed to be guarding the rear.
RANGE: It's my daughter, Doctor. I can't let you take all the risk.
DOCTOR: Oh well, a risk shared is a risk doubled. Come along.

[Medical centre]

(Tegan tries to sneak out.)

ORDERLY: Hey!

(Tegan grabs a couple of power cables.)

BRAZEN: Now, now. We'll have none of that activity here.

(Tegan touches the ends of the cables together. There is a big flash. Brazen covers his eyes in pain and she dashes past him and shuts the doors.)

BRAZEN: Quickly, stop her. She's getting away!

[Outside the Medical centre]

(Tegan puts an iron bar through the door handles and runs off. The colonists are raiding the food store.)

TEGAN: The looting's started already.

[Tunnels]

NORNA: Look, come on. Stop daydreaming.
TURLOUGH: It's more like a nightmare.
NORNA: What is?
TURLOUGH: I keep glimpsing something out of the corner of my eye.
NORNA: Yes, they're funny, these reflections.
TURLOUGH: And there's a word that goes with it. Tractators. That's it.
NORNA: Oh, come on. Just a little bit further.
TURLOUGH: Tractators. Tractators.

[Research room]

TEGAN: Doctor?

(Tegan takes a phosphor lamp and looks down the hole.)

TEGAN: Doctor? Is there anybody down there?

[Tunnels]

DOCTOR: Shush.
RANGE: I can't hear anything.
DOCTOR: Listen.
TURLOUGH [OC]: Argh!
RANGE: I heard that.

(Turlough comes running, wild-eyed and staring, straight into the Doctor' arms.)

DOCTOR: Turlough, Turlough.
TURLOUGH: Tractators. I've seen them!
DOCTOR: Mister Range, look after Turlough. I'm going on alone.

[Outside the Medical centre]

BRAZEN [OC]: Get this door open.

(The Orderly batters at it with a barrel.)

[Tunnels]

(Range sits Turlough down. Tegan enters.)

TEGAN: So here you are. Is he all right?
RANGE: Yes, I think so.
TEGAN: What happened?
RANGE: I don't know. The Doctor's gone to investigate.
TEGAN: You take care of him. The Doctor'll probably need some help.
RANGE: No, wait!

(But Tegan runs on.)

RANGE: What happened in there? Please tell me. Is my daughter safe?

[Cavern]

(Norna is held in a purple forcefield by a whole bunch of the giant woodlice. The Doctor enters unnoticed.)

DOCTOR: So they're Tractators.

(Tegan enters from the other side.)

DOCTOR: No, Tegan, get back!

(She obeys, and the Doctor ducks down behind a pile of globes. When he puts his head up again, a Tractator gets him in a purple field and drags him out to join Norna.)

Part Three

[Cavern]

(Tegan shakes her phosphor lamp then throws it. There is a big green flash and the Tractators scatter, releasing the Doctor and Norna from the forcefield.)

TEGAN: Are you all right?
DOCTOR: Get her out of here. I'll hold them off.
TEGAN: But
DOCTOR: Out!

(The Doctor gives Tegan his lamp.)

[Outside the Medical centre]

(The Orderlies finally batter their way out.)

BRAZEN: All right, listen you lot. The Retrograde element is out in strength. Emergency discipline procedures apply from this moment on. Desertion, looting and insubordination will suffer the highest penalty. Right, first we find the Doctor.

(He sees the looters.)

BRAZEN: All right, you lot. You've got one minute to clear this area!

[Tunnels]

(Turlough is still staring at nothing when Tegan and Norna enter.)

RANGE: Norna! Oh, thank goodness you're safe. Where's the Doctor?
TEGAN: I'm going back for him.
NORNA: No, it's too dangerous.
TEGAN: We can't leave him there.
RANGE: You stay here with Turlough. I'm coming with you.
TEGAN: No, thanks all the same, but the Doctor's my responsibility.
RANGE: No!

(Tegan leaves.)

RANGE: It's foolish to go into those tunnels alone.

(Range gets another lamp from a backpack.)

RANGE: Look after the boy. I won't be long.

(Range follows Tegan.)

NORNA: No!

[Cavern]

(The Doctor is hunting through his pockets for something useful, then hides behind a giant globe with little globes stuck on it as the Tractators return. The Tractators make the globe move with their purple forcefield.)

DOCTOR: Oh, no. On the other hand, with a touch of spin.

(He aims the globe at the Tractators and hits them. The forcefield vanishes.)

DOCTOR: How's that?

[Tunnels]

TEGAN: Don't tell me you're lost, Doctor. Because if you are, so am I.

(The Doctor sees a green glow come round a corner.)

DOCTOR: Ah, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.

(Then he is enveloped in purple.)

DOCTOR: It's like walking through treacle.

(He falls forward and starts to be dragged backwards.)

TEGAN: Hold on, Doctor, I'll give you a hand.
DOCTOR: No, stay back!

(Tegan grabs his hand.)

TEGAN: It's all right, Doctor, I've got you. What's happening?
DOCTOR: Some sort of gravity beam from the Tractators.

(Range runs up.)

DOCTOR: No, no, stay back. Get everyone back to the research room!

(The Doctor and Tegan are pulled back very quickly. Range runs off.)

TEGAN: Why don't you do something?
DOCTOR: Oh, I am. Lots of things. Nothing that quite fits the gravity of the situation.

[Tunnel]

TURLOUGH: My home. Tractators. I've seen all this before.

(Range enters.)

RANGE: Quick, we must get him to the surface and get help.
NORNA: He's speaking, father. I think it's important.
TURLOUGH: They were there, waiting. Destroying us from inside.
NORNA: Sounds like something coming up from his past, like a memory picture.
TURLOUGH: Once, long ago, on my home.
NORNA: You remember them?
TURLOUGH: We remember them! The people of my planet will never forget!
RANGE: It's more than his past. It sounds like deep ancestral memory.
TURLOUGH: Tractators! Once, long ago, my home was. An infection!

[Tunnels]

DOCTOR: Give me that.

(The Doctor takes the lamp.)

TEGAN: What are you going to do?
DOCTOR: Wait until we're closer.

[State room]

BRAZEN: You, Cockerill? This is looting. Anything to say?
COCKERILL: What? It's all over, can't you see that?
BRAZEN: For you, yes.
COCKERILL: For Frontios. Plantagenet's been eaten by the earth.
BRAZEN: Is that what they're saying?

[Tunnels]

DOCTOR: Hold on. Now!

(The Doctor throws the lamp. There is a flash and a yelp, and the gravity beam is released. The Doctor and Tegan stand.)

DOCTOR: Better get out of here.

[State room]

COCKERILL: The line of leadership is destroyed, and now it's every man for himself.
BRAZEN: Where'd you glean all this information?
COCKERILL: It's common knowledge.
BRAZEN: Common knowledge? You sound like a Retrograde.
COCKERILL: We're all Rets now, Brazen.
BRAZEN: Take him away.

[Cave]

RANGE: Steady, young man. Not much further to go.
NORNA: Wait a minute, father.

(Norna picks up a large square of plastic.)

NORNA: It's a map.
RANGE: That's Captain Revere's writing.
NORNA: Then that proves it. He must have known about the caves and tunnels.
RANGE: And more than that, perhaps.
NORNA: You don't suppose he knew about the creatures?
RANGE: Well, he must have suspected something if he was down this far.
NORNA: Well, why not tell the people of Frontios?
RANGE: The conspiracy of silence. I've been collecting evidence all these years
NORNA: You don't think they're connected, the unaccountable deaths and these creatures?
RANGE: There is a connection. That girl Tegan told me she saw. Come on, we must hurry.
TURLOUGH: The earth is hungry. It waits to eat.
NORNA: He's forcing himself to remember.
TURLOUGH: I can see them. They are the appetite beneath the ground.

[Outside the Colony ship]

COCKERILL: You're letting me go?
BRAZEN: I don't need you.
COCKERILL: This colony is finished, and everyone knows it except for those who are too stupid to think for themselves.
BRAZEN: You've got enough food there to last a few days. What then?
COCKERILL: I don't know.
BRAZEN: It's not easy to live inside the system, but to live outside of it takes more than you've got.

(A group of colonists attack Cockerill for his box of food.)

BRAZEN: Leave him be. He's made his choice.

[Cave]

RANGE: We must get help.
NORNA: This may be the help we need, father. It's here that he remembers best. You can see them under the ground? What are they doing?
TURLOUGH: Growing. Breeding. Spreading the infection.
NORNA: How do they do that?
TURLOUGH: I can't see it. There's a wall.
RANGE: An emotional block. Something he doesn't want to face.
NORNA: Try to get through the wall.
TURLOUGH: Black walls. Smooth. They shine like glass.
NORNA: You can see through glass. Look through it.
TURLOUGH: No! It's evil! I can't look!

(Turlough falls to his knees.)

RANGE: Right, that's enough. We must get him out of here.

(Up above, the ground around Cockerill begins to sink.)

[Below the Research room]

(Brazen looks down the ladder at Range.)

BRAZEN: Ah, Mister Range. We've been waiting for you. I've a file here. It's contents amount to a charge of sedition. Bring them along to the State Room.

(Orderlies come into view at the bottom of the ladder.)

[Outside the Medical centre]

(Cockerill comes round, but cannot move.)

COCKERILL: Help me! Please, someone, help me.

(The looters shake their heads.)

COCKERILL: Help me!

(Cockerill is slowly sucked into the ground.)

[Cave]

TEGAN: If only we knew more about these creatures.
DOCTOR: I suspect Turlough can help us with that, as soon as we get back

(There is the sound of the Tractator's gravity beam.)

DOCTOR: Get back.
TEGAN: I heard you the first time.
DOCTOR: Against the wall. There are more of them.
TEGAN: What's it doing?
DOCTOR: There's someone up there it wants to get down.

[Outside the Medical centre]

COCKERILL: Help me! Help me!

(Cockerill disappears into the ground.)

[Cave]

DOCTOR: I'm going to try an experiment.

(The Doctor takes a cricket ball from his pocket.)

TEGAN: Too late, it's seen us.

(The Doctor and Tegan retreat into the tunnels.)

[Outside the Medical centre]

(Free from the gravity beam, Cockerill gets up.)

MAN: He outlived the hunger of the earth. A man who can do that can do anything!

[State room]

(A woman sits at a desk in front of Plantagenet's 'throne'.)

DEPUTY: Do I understand then, Mister Range, that you admit to keeping private and secret medical records?
RANGE: I'm the Chief Science Officer.
DEPUTY: Of course. And these records purport in part to contain a history of mysterious disappearances?
RANGE: The records are accurate. Ever since our first arrival on this planet there have been cases
DEPUTY: We all know the myths going about the place, Mister Range. No need to elaborate them here.
RANGE: But are they myths? That's the point.
BRAZEN: Address the Deputy, Mister Range. It's the facts we're after, not a public debate.
RANGE: But these are the facts. Bodies of the dead that have not been recovered, work personnel in the quarry unaccounted for. I even have one reliable eyewitness account of a corpse disappearing into the earth.
DEPUTY: Quite, but for some reason you chose to keep these happenings secret.
RANGE: No, the State made them a secret. I merely collected the records.
BRAZEN: I'm a plain speaking man, Mister Range. You've been collecting this garbage in order to subvert law and order on Frontios, haven't you? Now admit it.
RANGE: Plantagenet accuses me of that?
DEPUTY: That is correct.
RANGE: Then where is he? I know why he isn't here. The Doctor's friend told me what she saw in the medical shelter. Frontios buries its own dead. That's what they say, isn't it?
DEPUTY: So runs the myth.
RANGE: She saw that myth. She saw Plantagenet being eaten by the earth.
TURLOUGH: Eaten by the earth.
DEPUTY: He has some contribution to offer?
TURLOUGH: They live in the ground below, pulling us to them in our times of weakness.
DEPUTY: Please, we have work to do
TURLOUGH: Dead or alive, their forces dug at our bodies.
BRAZEN: What do you know about this?
NORNA: Leave him alone.
RANGE: He's in shock. He needs warmth and rest.
BRAZEN: And I need answers, Mister Range. (to orderlies) Wait outside, you two.

(The orderlies leave.)

BRAZEN: Off the record, I think. They, you say. Who are they?
RANGE: I warn you as a medical man, he's in no state to be questioned.
BRAZEN: And you're out of order, Mister Range. If there's a grain of truth in this story of yours, then these are important matters of State. Do you expect me to delay the investigation just because this young man is feeling delicate? Your name's Turlough, eh? Well now, Turlough, I want to hear all about this.

[Tunnel]

TEGAN: We've got to find the way out.
DOCTOR: Well, sometimes it's easier to look for the way in and then work backwards.
TEGAN: Oh, come on Doctor, all these tunnels look the same.
DOCTOR: Oh, but they aren't.

(The Doctor picks up chippings from the floor.)

DOCTOR: What do you make of these?
TEGAN: Just loose chippings.
DOCTOR: Hmm. These chippings have recently been machined from these walls.
TEGAN: They have machines?
DOCTOR: Functionally advanced ones, at that. They're creating an extensive and elaborate tunnel system. Oh, insect-like they may be, but they're no ordinary insects. They have highly refined powers of abstract reasoning. These Tractators must be very intelligent beings indeed.

[Tractator's lair]

(A huge area with metal bracings and a spherical cage in which a man is sitting with his back to us. The Tractator leader speaks.)

GRAVIS: It is time we fetched this Doctor to us. Send the machine.

[State room]

BRAZEN: Organised, intelligent. Huh, not much of an enemy profile. What I want to know is what they are about and why.
NORNA: Please, he's in a state of shock.
RANGE: When deep ancestral memory pictures break through the conscious mind like this, dangerous instabilities are created. Now, leave the boy alone, If anybody is on trial here, it's me.
BRAZEN: Not a trial, Mister Range, a pooling of information. Something we should've done decades ago.
RANGE: When you had the chance.
BRAZEN: No. Because you had all the information locked up. If you'd shown us that, then Captain Revere, who with his bare hands held this shambles we called Frontios together, might still be alive.
NORNA: Captain Revere knew about the creatures. He must have done. It's his fault. Why didn't he tell us?
BRAZEN: And add to the rumours and unrest? You can't broadcast socially sensitive information unless you're in control of the facts.
NORNA: But if we'd known for sure
BRAZEN: We'd have done what? These Tractators that the boy talks about, they could explain the unspeakable events that we have witnessed.
RANGE: Not witnessed, Brazen, if we're being particular about this. You and I have not actually seen it happen.
BRAZEN: I have, Mister Range. Come with me. I want to show you something.

[Tunnel]

(The Doctor wets his finger and checks for a breeze.)

DOCTOR: You're never without a sense of direction while there's an air flow. Air flows from A to B. Usually you want to be at B. Or at A.
TEGAN: I don't want to be at A or B, thank you very much. I just want to be out of these tunnels and back in the
DOCTOR: Yes, well, I think you can forget about the TARDIS. It's probably scattered in little pieces across the whole of Frontios. Yes.

[Research room]

(Brazen shines a light down into the hole. It illuminates a body-shaped depression in the ground.)

BRAZEN: There. You see?
RANGE: But the State funeral? We all saw the body.
NORNA: But not the face.
BRAZEN: Carcasses are plentiful on Frontios. There had to be a corpse, just to keep public order.
NORNA: It was here he disappeared?
BRAZEN: Sucked into the earth in front of my eyes. He was badly injured by the falling boulders and rubble, but he would've lived.
TURLOUGH: He may still be alive.
BRAZEN: Alive?
NORNA: What do you mean?
TURLOUGH: The Tractators need living flesh. They need minds as well as bodies.

[Tractator's lair]

(The Gravis speaks to the prisoner in the cage.)

GRAVIS: The work of excavation is our task. Beneath the soil we can expand and populate the whole of Frontios. Do you understand? It is important that you understand. Speak.
PLANTAGENET: We will defeat your goal.
GRAVIS: You do not know our goals. I have described our means. Once we have full control of Frontios, our plans are only just beginning.
PLANTAGENET: You are evil. We will fight you to the last.
GRAVIS: This is not a war, Plantagenet. It is a cooperation. You will see.
PLANTAGENET: The colonists of Frontios will never cooperate with you.
GRAVIS: And yet they do. We Tractators have devised an economical technology of excavation, but it needs a captive human mind to drive it.
PLANTAGENET: Captives? Slaves?
GRAVIS: You will see. You will see. Our old driver is nearing the end of his useful powers, but now we have another to take his place. Do we not, Plantagenet?

[Outside the State room]

BRAZEN: I want a strategic force of five hand picked men equipped for a below-ground sortie. We'll have the briefing in here within the quarter hour.
DEPUTY: Very good, Chief Orderly.

[Tunnel]

DOCTOR: Wait. That's the sound.
TEGAN: What is it?
DOCTOR: The machine that did this.

(The noise gets louder.)

DOCTOR: It seems to be coming this way.

[Research room]

(Range hands a phosphor lamp to each Orderly before they go down the ladder.)

BRAZEN: That weapon's no good for tunnel work, Jensen. Oh, and I'll take the rations. We are going to be privileged to sit down and eat with Plantagenet on our return.

(Meanwhile, at the work bench.)

NORNA: You didn't let anybody down.
TURLOUGH: It doesn't matter. It's not my sort of thing, anyway, mooching around in caves and tunnels underground.

(By the ladder.)

RANGE: No, not Turlough.
BRAZEN: We need someone who knows the terrain.
RANGE: His mental state won't be reliable beneath ground. I'll come with you.
BRAZEN: I'd prefer you to stay here with your daughter. The Rets are on the rampage. Things could get nasty outside, too.
NORNA: I don't need looking after.
BRAZEN: All right, Mister Range, I'll accept your offer.
NORNA: Bye, father.

(Norna kisses Range. He picks up a lamp and goes down the ladder. Brazen follows him.)

[Tunnel]

(The machine can still be heard, whirring away nearby.)

DOCTOR: Tractators dead ahead.
TEGAN: This is ridiculous, running about like rabbits in a hole. If you ask me
DOCTOR: No one is, Tegan, so shush.

(The whirring gets louder, but they also hear a beep and turn to look.)

[Research room]

NORNA: Don't torture yourself. Nobody expects you to go back down there.
TURLOUGH: No, of course they don't. I'm Turlough.

(He holds out his clenched fists to Norna.)

NORNA: What's this?
TURLOUGH: Decision time.

(She picks his left hand, which holds a slightly bent square token with a hole in the middle.)

TURLOUGH: That's it then. I'm going.
NORNA: No, don't be silly.
TURLOUGH: You can't argue with fate. Here. It's a two corpira piece. You blow through it for good luck.

(They shake hands.)

NORNA: Wait a minute.

(She holds up the second coin that was in his right hand. Turlough goes down the ladder. Meanwhile, two men peer down through the ventilation grill.)

[Tunnel]

DOCTOR: Excavating machine or Tractators. Take your pick.
TEGAN: After you.

[Tractator's lair]

DOCTOR: It's a bit of a problem this, Tegan.

(The tunnelling machine comes up behind them. The head of a man is wired up inside it.)

TEGAN: That's horrible. It's a corpse.
DOCTOR: Not exactly. There's a living mind enslaved in the middle of that lot.
TEGAN: That face. I recognise it from somewhere.
DOCTOR: It's Captain Revere.
Part Four

[Tractator's lair]

GRAVIS: Two specimens have come down to us from the world above in an undamaged state. This is a rare pleasure.
DOCTOR: How do you do. I'm the Doctor. Oh. Er, this is Tegan.
GRAVIS: We know you, Doctor, at least by reputation.
DOCTOR: Then perhaps you won't mind telling us who you are.
GRAVIS: I am the Gravis.

[Research room]

(Norna is chopping up her food ration. She sees a man coming in and along the upper catwalk, grabs him and throws him to the floor. He lies still so she goes to check on him and he grabs her.)

NORNA: Help!

(He holds her throat as he pushes her up against the wall.)

[Operations centre]

(There is a spiral design on the floor of this chamber.)

GRAVIS: This is our centre of operations. You see, Doctor, I do not fear you will take this information back to Gallifrey. You will never leave Frontios now.
DOCTOR: Hmm. Well, you could be right, Gravis.
TEGAN: Considering the state of the TARDIS.
GRAVIS: TARDIS? You have a TARDIS?
TEGAN: Not any more.
DOCTOR: Ah, not any more than any other Time Lord. You like travel?
GRAVIS: Only those who have been isolated for millennia truly appreciate the power of mobility. Yes I should like to see your TARDIS.

(Meanwhile, an Orderly walks into the research room and takes some of the food Norna was cutting up, then leaves without spotting Norna being held by the man.)

GRAVIS: We have been marooned out here on Frontios for nearly five hundred years, as I'm sure the Time Lords already know.
DOCTOR: Yes, I'd better put you right on one thing, Gravis. The Time Lords didn't send me to investigate. Gallifrey operates a policy of strict non-intervention these days. And besides, Frontios is completely outside our normal sphere of influence.
TEGAN: You're practically telling him to carry on as is.
DOCTOR: We mustn't take the narrow viewpoint, Tegan. After all, Gravis and his friends were here long before the Earth colonists.
TEGAN: You can't side with them. They built the excavating machine.
DOCTOR: Slight communications problem here, Gravis. My assistant hasn't been programmed in the ways of the world. Please forgive the naivety.

[Research room]

(The man eats whilst holding a weapon on Norna. Above, Cockerill enters quietly through the grill. He jumps the man and struggles with him until his colleague hits the man over the head.)

NORNA: But Cockerill, you're an Orderly.
COCKERILL: Retired from active duty.

[Operations centre]

(Tegan is in a Tractator beam.)

TEGAN: Doctor, you can't let them do this to me.
DOCTOR: I'm terribly embarrassed about all this.
GRAVIS: Not at all, Doctor.
DOCTOR: It must be the humidity causing the malfunction. These serving machines are perfectly reliable on Gallifrey.
GRAVIS: The guard Tractator here will restrain it while I show you more of our work here. It is certainly a very convincing replica of the humanoid life form.
DOCTOR: Oh, you think so? I got it cheap because the walk's not quite right. And then there's the accent, of course. But, when it's working well, it's very reliable. Keeping track of appointments, financial planning, word processing, that sort of thing.

[Research room]

(Cockerill is handing out weapons. One man reaches for the food.)

COCKERILL: Leave it. There's time enough for that when we've taken the ship.
NORNA: Listen to me. This isn't the way to do it. Please, stop him, somebody!

(Cockerill leaves.)

NORNA: Why is he doing this?
RETROGRADE: Look, the earth began to suck him down and then returned him. Cockerill's the man to save this planet.

(Cockerill returns.)

COCKERILL: All clear. Ready?
NORNA: No, you don't understand.
COCKERILL: Keep her quiet.

[Tractator's lair]

(The Doctor closes Captain Revere's eyes.)

GRAVIS: Once mind functions are extinct the entity is no longer useful as a motive force.
DOCTOR: Yes, he seems dead enough.
GRAVIS: A waste, but we had the best of him. You can watch us fit the replacement.

[Tunnel]

(Range hesitates.)

BRAZEN: Come on, Mister Range. I've got five good men dependent on you.
RANGE: I'm lost. I don't know the way.
BRAZEN: I'm sure we can pick up the trail again. I'll trust your judgement.
RANGE: Let's rest for a while, hmm?
BRAZEN: Better for morale if we keep on the move, eh? We can take it slowly. Quiet. There's someone coming.

(They press themselves up against the tunnel walls.)

BRAZEN: Turlough.
RANGE: But you're supposed to be with Norna. You've left her alone!
TURLOUGH: I thought you might need me.
RANGE: Well, what about Norna?
BRAZEN: We do need you, to show us the way.
RANGE: I'm going back. Someone should be with her.
TURLOUGH: No it's too dangerous!
BRAZEN: Leave him be. He's not the man for the job. You show us.

(Turlough leads them to the Operations Centre where the sole Tractator holds Tegan captive.)

[Tractator's lair]

(The Doctor examines the tunnelling machine.)

GRAVIS: We will now demonstrate how the drive mechanism is installed.
DOCTOR: Ah, yes, if I could just inspect the linkages.
PLANTAGENET: Why, Doctor?

(A linkage attaches itself to the Doctor as the closest living person available.)

DOCTOR: Oh! Yes, it's very efficient, Gravis. You certainly know your mechanics.

(The Doctor frees himself and moves away.)

DOCTOR: No shortage of spare parts either, eh?
GRAVIS: Not on Frontios.
PLANTAGENET: If it weren't for the bombardment
DOCTOR: Oh, but it is for the bombardment, isn't it, Gravis? No accident that.
GRAVIS: The existence of a heavy asteroid belt in the Veruna system was fortuitous, but the rest, Doctor, has been our gravitational engineering.
DOCTOR: You know, I guessed as much. Useful asteroid belt up there, some additional gravity beams down here, and you're knocking them over like ninepins.
PLANTAGENET: I curse the unhappy chance that brought us to this planet.
DOCTOR: Oh, not chance, eh, Gravis?
GRAVIS: You're right, Doctor. Our skill steered the ship here.
PLANTAGENET: You?
DOCTOR: Their gravity beams again. Which explains why the colony ship's systems failed before the crash.
PLANTAGENET: But at the beginning there was no bombardment.
DOCTOR: Oh, they gave you ten years to establish yourselves, and then they started making their collection.

[Tunnel]

(Range is grabbed by a Tractator gravity beam.)

RANGE: No. No!

[Tractator's lair]

(Plantagenet is now linked to the machine.)

GRAVIS: We are almost ready, Doctor. I shall demonstrate the final adjustment.

(The Gravis goes behind the machine.)

DOCTOR: (sotto) I'm here to help you.
PLANTAGENET: I don't believe you.
DOCTOR: (sotto) You'll have to trust me. When the time comes, do exactly as I say.
PLANTAGENET: Yes, but when will the time come?
GRAVIS [OC]: Doctor!
DOCTOR: I was rather wondering that myself.

[Operations centre]

BRAZEN: Get down.

(The Tractator turns its gravity beam towards Turlough.)

TURLOUGH: It's seen me. It knows I'm here! Help! Help!
(Brazen tries to hand onto Turlough's leg.
In the tunnel, the Tractator releases Range and leaves. Range runs.)
TURLOUGH: It's tearing me apart!

(Brazen loses his grip on Turlough. Tegan goes to him as the Orderlies run forward to beat the Tractator with their batons.)

TEGAN: Idiot! The Doctor had a plan. You've ruined it now!
TURLOUGH: Save the bickering until we're out of here!
TEGAN: He's probably in great danger. Mister Brazen! The Doctor needs your help! This way!

[Tractator's lair]

GRAVIS: Let us show you how we smooth our walls, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Yes. Yes, I've been wondering why you need such a fine polish. More of your gravitational engineering, I suspect.
GRAVIS: You're getting ahead of yourself, Doctor. We will have to know one another much better before I can discuss that stage of our plans.
DOCTOR: Do you know I think I can guess, Gravis. The tunnels act as wave guides. You're concentrating your gravitational forces.
GRAVIS: Possibly.
DOCTOR: Why? The combined power would be astronomical.
GRAVIS: Yes. When the tunnel system is complete, and the work is nearly done.

(Brazen runs in with Tegan and Turlough.)

DOCTOR: No, no, no, stay back.

(Brazen goes over to the tunnelling machine.)

DOCTOR: Please, there are far too many of them.
BRAZEN: How do we get him out of this, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Well, theoretically it's highly complex. Practically
GRAVIS: No, Doctor! I forbid you to touch the machine!

(The Doctor pulls off a linkage, and the Gravis gets zapped by a bolt of electricity. It reels around a lot and the other Tractators seem lost.)

TEGAN: What's happening to them?

(The Gravis falls on its face.)

(Up in the Research room, Norna has been left gagged and tied to a set of railings. She uses her foot to drag the knife she was cutting the food with to within her reach.)

BRAZEN: Is he dead?
DOCTOR: No, no, just stunned. We'll have to work quickly.

(They pull the linkages off Plantagenet, and one attaches itself to Brazen.)

DOCTOR: Careful!

(The Doctor pulls it off, and Brazen drags Plantagenet from the machine while the Doctor holds the linkages.)

DOCTOR: Quick! Come on, you two! We're getting out of here.

(But Turlough just stands staring at the machine, its linkages flailing around seeking a host.)

TEGAN: Turlough! Turlough!
DOCTOR: Get off, Turlough! Pull yourself together!

(Brazen grabs Turlough, but Turlough pushes at him and he ends up in the seat. The linkages move quickly.)

DOCTOR: Brazen!
TEGAN: Doctor, the Gravis!

(The Gravis is getting up off the floor. The Doctor is holding back Turlough.)

BRAZEN: Get out of here, sir, while there's time!
DOCTOR: Give me your hand!
BRAZEN: Go! That's an order.

(Brazen screams as the machine assimilates its new host. The Doctor drags Turlough out of the chamber.)

[Research room]

(Cockerill addresses his motley crew of Retrogrades and Orderlies.)

COCKERILL: Look, men, this is the beginning of a new Frontios. I never wanted to be a second Plantagenet, but it seems there's no choice.
NORNA: We won't need a second Plantagenet.
COCKERILL: What do you mean?
NORNA: He's still alive. Chief Orderly Brazen and my father have gone to rescue him.

(She goes to the tunnel entrance.)

RETROGRADE: What, down there?
COCKERILL: I don't believe you.

(Range is coming up the ladder.)

RANGE: It's no good. Tractators everywhere. Frontios is doomed!

[Tunnel]

TURLOUGH: Doctor, I remember everything. I must tell you!
DOCTOR: Yes, all in good time, Turlough.
TURLOUGH: I know what they are.
PLANTAGENET: And I know what they're trying to do.
DOCTOR: Well, that sounds promising. Put the two things together, we may find a way of stopping them.
TEGAN: The excavating machine, it's going berserk.
DOCTOR: I think it's time we left. Come on.

[Tractator's lair]

GRAVIS: My machine! My machine! We will find you, Doctor. You will pay dearly for this disruption to our plans.

[Cave]

(A natural formation.)

TEGAN: No sign of them.
DOCTOR: Well, these aren't Tractator tunnels. We should be safe here for a while. Keep watch that end.

(An Orderly obeys.)

DOCTOR: Now, what do we know about these creatures?
PLANTAGENET: The tunnel system is a gigantic ring, smooth and mathematically precise.
DOCTOR: Yes they're building a gravity motor.
TEGAN: A motor?
TURLOUGH: That's what they do to planets. They're going to drive Frontios.
DOCTOR: Hmm, steer it through the galaxy under the power of gravity.
TURLOUGH: To steal and plunder wherever they go.
DOCTOR: And breed. Infesting new planets. Nowhere in the universe will be safe from them.

(At the cave entrance, the Orderly puts down his lamp to rub his hands. It gets dragged away by a gravity beam.)

TEGAN: But if their excavating machine is wrecked, they can't complete the ring.
PLANTAGENET: They have another. All they need is a driver.
TURLOUGH: And anyone of us will do for that.

(The Orderly screams.)

TEGAN: That's the Orderly.
DOCTOR: No, no, Tegan, it's too late! Follow me.

[Another cave]

(Tegan spots a section of familiar roundels in the rock wall, then another section, and a column.)

TEGAN: The TARDIS! Bits of it anyway. Doctor, look what I've found!

(The Tractators have found her.)

TEGAN: Oh no, not you again.

(She backs away towards a piece of the TARDIS with a door handle in it. The Gravis comes up to her.)

GRAVIS: Perhaps I have been deceived. I think we have found our new driver.

(Tegan opens the door and dashes inside.)

[TARDIS]

(Some of the console room wall is rock face, but the console itself is intact.)

DOCTOR: Glad you could join us.
TEGAN: Doctor! There you are.
DOCTOR: Turlough, Plantagenet and I have been working out a plan.
TEGAN: Well, it had better work because they're right outside.
DOCTOR: Oh, I rather hoped they would be.
PLANTAGENET: Turlough has remembered the secret of the Tractators.
DOCTOR: Hmm. Apparently they're not really dangerous.
TURLOUGH: It's the Gravis they draw their strength from. Without him, they're harmless burrowing earth creatures.
TEGAN: They certainly fooled me.

(The Doctor ducks underneath the console.)

TURLOUGH: So, all we have to do is find a way of isolating the Gravis from the others.
TEGAN: That should be fun. He's not trying to take off, surely?
TURLOUGH: Unfortunately not.

(Turlough puts the Doctor's hand on a control.)

TURLOUGH: None of the controls are functional.
TEGAN: You mean, it just looks pretty.
PLANTAGENET: That's the idea.
DOCTOR: Well, that's it. Now, this should either sort out this whole Tractator problem and repair the TARDIS.
TEGAN: Or?
DOCTOR: Or it won't. I suggest you all get under cover.

(Tegan, Turlough and Plantagenet hide below the other side of the console.)

GRAVIS [OC]: It is useless to hide!

[Outside the TARDIS]

GRAVIS: We have you completely in our control now.

(The Doctor opens the door and looks out.)

DOCTOR: Yes, quite. I'd, er, I'd like to negotiate a surrender.
GRAVIS: There is nothing to negotiate.
DOCTOR: Oh, absolutely. You can have it all. Frontios, its unhappy occupants, the lot. I don't think it's fair for us Time Lords to interfere.
GRAVIS: You admit you were sent?
DOCTOR: Why should we let a bunch of stuffed shirts deprive you of your own form of transportation? Hmm? However primitive.
GRAVIS: Primitive?
DOCTOR: Well, in comparison to Gallifreyan time technology, of course. But then, what isn't?

(The Doctor opens the door further to reveal the console.)

GRAVIS: The, the TARDIS!
DOCTOR: What, this? Oh, yes, well, as I was saying, you can have Frontios, all the fixtures and fittings appertaining thereunto, and I'll pull my TARDIS together and get off your patch.
GRAVIS: I should like to see it, this TARDIS.
DOCTOR: Well, it's not all here at the moment, you understand. It's, er it's been spatially distributed to optimise the, er, the packing efficiency of, er, the real time envelope.

(The Gravis enters the TARDIS. The Doctor follows and shuts the other Tractators out.)

[TARDIS]

GRAVIS: The power of travel is beautiful, Doctor. Very beautiful.
DOCTOR: Yes, yes, indeed. Well, as you can see, from this panel, Gravis, I control all of the main TARDIS functions. The time coordinates, spatial coordinates, all inoperative at the moment, of course, because the spatial distribution circuits are switched in.

(The Doctor casually indicates a switch. The Gravis presses it.)

DOCTOR: Ah. Now, you really will have to be more careful, Gravis. Now the autoscan's picking up all the locations of the concealed TARDIS components. Oh, well, not to worry. I shouldn't think it's even within your powers to reassemble them. Besides, what would you want with an old Type Forty Time and Relative Dimension in Space machine, hmm?
GRAVIS: But I do want it, Doctor. The TARDIS. Infinite travel within my grasp.
DOCTOR: Oh. No, Gravis, please. Take everything else but leave me the TARDIS.
GRAVIS: I will have it.
DOCTOR: Oh no, Gravis, please, I beg you! Spare me the TARDIS!
GRAVIS: I will have it!
TURLOUGH: (sotto) What's he doing, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Shush. This isn't the time to disturb his concentration.

(The Gravis waves itself around. There is a rumbling.)

PLANTAGENET: Doctor, what have you done?

(The Doctor joins them under the console.)

DOCTOR: Brace yourselves.

[Research room]

(The room shakes.)

NORNA: What was that?
RANGE: The end. The end of Frontios.
NORNA: Or the beginning, Father.

[TARDIS]

(The Gravis is still working his gravitational skills.)

TEGAN: The TARDIS can't stand this, Doctor.
DOCTOR: It's kill or cure.

(The rock faces are replaced by TARDIS panels.)

TEGAN: The TARDIS is coming together!
TURLOUGH: That's impossible.
DOCTOR: For you and me, maybe, but when the Gravis really wants something.
TURLOUGH: The TARDIS will be repaired?
DOCTOR: With a bit of luck, any moment the plasmic outer walls of the TARDIS will seal.
TURLOUGH: We'll be in our own dimension.
DOCTOR: If your theory is correct, Turlough, the vital link between the Gravis and his Tractator chums. Hold on!

(The light gets brighter. The rocks are replaced by TARDIS walls and the Gravis collapses. The light returns to normal and the shaking stops.)

PLANTAGENET: Is he dead?
DOCTOR: Oh, no, no, but quite harmless, and as long as we keep him isolated from the other Tractators, he'll stay that way.
TEGAN: We can't go dragging around the universe with a dormant Gravis on the console.
DOCTOR: Well, the first thing we'll do is drop him off on some uninhabited planet.

[Outside the Medical centre]

(Fully recovered and back in uniform, Plantagenet and Range are walking.)

PLANTAGENET: Brave man, this Doctor, travelling with the Gravis on board.
RANGE: Oh, it's quite harmless now. I inspected the creature myself.

(Turlough has collected the hat stand.)

TURLOUGH: Now all we need is a console room to go round it.
RANGE: Well the Doctor and Tegan are due back any minute.
TURLOUGH: He's got a present for you.
PLANTAGENET: A present? But it is enough that he has given us our freedom.
RANGE: Yes, no more terror descending from the sky.
TURLOUGH: Not unless you count the TARDIS.

(The TARDIS materialises. The Doctor and Tegan come out.)

DOCTOR: Well, that's that. The Gravis is safe and well on the uninhabited planet of Kolkokron, exercising his animal magnetism on the rocks and boulders.
TEGAN: There's nothing but rocks and boulders out there. All the planets are deserted according to the TARDIS scanner.
RANGE: Well, that's better than being among enemies, as we thought.
PLANTAGENET: So, the last of mankind is after all quite alone.
DOCTOR: Alone but in good hands, Plantagenet. Speaking of which, I know it's not much, but, a farewell token.

(The Doctor presents the hat stand to Plantagenet.)

PLANTAGENET: Frontios is honoured, Doctor. But surely you'll stay a while longer and enjoy some of the new colony we're building?
DOCTOR: Oh no, no. Far too much repair work of my own to be done. Besides, time and the time laws don't permit it. There's an etiquette about these things which we've rather overlooked, I'm afraid.
RANGE: But Doctor, you've done so much for us.
DOCTOR: Yes, quite. Don't mention it.

(The Doctor goes into the TARDIS.)

NORNA: After all he's done, he just says don't mention it?
TEGAN: He means it, literally.
TURLOUGH: Don't mention it to anyone.

(Tegan and Turlough go into the TARDIS and it dematerialises.)

[TARDIS]

DOCTOR: Now listen, you two. If the Time Lords ever hear about our little trip to Frontios, there'll be serious trouble.
TURLOUGH: What would have happened if we hadn't been there, Doctor?
TEGAN: Well, the TARDIS engines would be working properly, for one thing.
DOCTOR: Oh, there's nothing wrong with them.

(He hits the console.)

TEGAN: Then why are they making that funny noise?
TURLOUGH: We're going far too fast, Doctor. Stop the engines!
DOCTOR: No, no, no, leave them. They're all right.

(There is a whumph! sound and the TARDIS judders. Everyone hangs on to the console.)

TURLOUGH: What's happening?
TEGAN: The Gravis?
DOCTOR: Oh no, this is something much more powerful. We're being pulled towards the middle of the universe. I'm trying to pull against it.
TEGAN: Against what?
DOCTOR: I don't know. I think we're about to find out.

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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