Horror of Fang Rock

Part One

[Lamp gallery]

(A blazing object streaks through the atmosphere and lands in the sea near a lighthouse. One of the keepers, a young man, watches it through a telescope on the small gallery running round the outside of the lantern room. Although it is night, the lantern is not lit. All the men speak with 'yokel' accents, presumably meant to be West Country.)

VINCE: Ere, Reuben. Come and look, quick.
REUBEN: What is it, boy?
VINCE: This light, shot across the sky. Went under the sea, it did, and the sea was all glowing. Over there.

(Reuben looks through the telescope.)

REUBEN: Nothing there now.
VINCE: Not now, maybe. I told you, it went under the sea.
REUBEN: It could have been a, what do they call them, meteor.
VINCE: Mmm. Weren't far off.

(The third keeper joins them.)

BEN: Oh, sightseeing now, are we? Hoping to spot some of them bathing belles on the beach, eh?
REUBEN: Vince here's been seeing stars.
VINCE: I saw a light. Clear across the sky it came and went under the sea.
BEN: Shooting star, eh?
VINCE: Weren't no shooting star. I've seen them before.
REUBEN: Bring you luck, boy, that will. Bit of luck coming for you.
VINCE: On this rock? Not till my three month is up.

(Reuben goes inside and gets the light working.)

BEN: Well, whatever it was, it's gone now. So long as it isn't a hazard to navigation we don't have to bother with it.
VINCE: It were all red and glowing.
BEN: Aye, well, I've heard enough about now, lad. I'm off downstairs for my supper. You just forget it.

(But something is approaching the lighthouse from the sea. We are looking through a single round aperture surrounded by blue.)

[Crew room]

REUBEN: The old days were simple enough. You just filled her up, trimmed the wick, and that old lamp just went burning away steady as you like.
BEN: It wasn't only the lamp that burned sometimes though, was it. What about all those fires they had, eh? Towers gutted, men killed.

(Ben and Reuben eat their meal.)

REUBEN: Well, carelessness, that was. That or drink. Oil's safe enough if you treat her right.
BEN: Now listen, Reuben. I've seen the inside of some of them old lighthouses
REUBEN: I served twenty year in one.
BEN: Like the inside of a chimney, they was. Grease and soot everywhere, floor covered with oil and bits of wick.
REUBEN: Never, mate. Never.
BEN: And as for the light. Oh dear oh me. You couldn't see it from the inside, never mind from the out. Great clouds of black smoke, soon as they were lit.
REUBEN: If your electricity's so good, why are they going back to oil? You tell me that.
BEN: Ah, now that's an oil vapour system. That's a different thing altogether. They're going back to that as they reckon as how that's cheaper, see.
REUBEN: Course it's cheaper.

(The speaking trumpet whistles. Reuben gets up to answer it.)

REUBEN: Time they've paid out all that coal. Ahoy.

[Lamp room]

VINCE: That you, Reuben? (listens) King Edward, eh? Well, your majesty, will you tell the principal keeper that there's a fog coming up here like nobody's business.

[Crew room]

(Reuben hangs up the brass and rubber tube contraption back on the wall.)

REUBEN: Vince says there's a fog coming up.
BEN: Fog? There weren't no sign of that earlier.
REUBEN: He reckons it's a thick 'un, Ben.
BEN: I'd best go and see for myself. After all, the boy's only learning.

(The TARDIS lands in swirling fog a short way from the lighthouse.)

[Lamp gallery]

BEN: I never seen a fog come in like that afore. And thick!
REUBEN: Worst thing for sailors that ever was.
BEN: Do you feel that cold too?
REUBEN: Aye.
BEN: That come from Iceland, I reckon.
VINCE: It's come from where I saw that thing fall.
BEN: Oh, get along with you, boy. It's about time you got that siren started.
REUBEN: He might be right, Ben. It do seem unnatural.
BEN: Not you, too? And I want a blast every two minutes, and I don't mean ten.

(Vince ducks back inside the lantern room.)

REUBEN: Another thing with oil, it gives a better light in fog.

(The foghorn starts up.)

BEN: Oh, rubbish. Electricity's just as good, and a darn sight more reliable.

(The light stops.)

REUBEN: Reliable?

[Outside the TARDIS]

(The Doctor and Leela are still in late Victorian or Edwardian-style garb. Leela wears a sailor-style top, long skirt and straw boater.)

LEELA: You said I would like Brighton. Well, I do not.
DOCTOR: Does this look like Brighton?
LEELA: I do not know.
DOCTOR: It's not even Hove. It could be Worthing.
LEELA: The machine has failed again?
DOCTOR: Oh, not really, not failed. We're on the right planet, in the right time, roughly in the right general direction, assuming this is Worthing.
LEELA: You cannot tell.
DOCTOR: Because the localised condition of planetary atmospheric condensation caused a malfunction in the visual orientation circuits. Or to put it another way, we got lost in the fog. Never mind. Easy enough to pop back in and try again. That's odd.
LEELA: What is?
DOCTOR: A lighthouse without a light.

[Lamp gallery]

(The foghorn is still going as Ben checks the generator in the basement of the lighthouse. It all seems to be chugging away all right, and the light comes back on.)

VINCE: Hey, good old Ben. Didn't take him long, did it.
REUBEN: Working, not working, working again. You never know where you are with it, do you.

[Crew room]

(Ben enters.)

VINCE: I just came down for my heavy jersey. It's freezing up there.
BEN: It's worse in the generator room, even with the boiler.
VINCE: Well, you repaired her, anyway.
BEN: No. Lights came on by 'emselves.
VINCE: What, for no reason?
BEN: It's got me flummoxed. There's something going on here tonight, something I don't understand.

(Ben prepared to make an entry in the log book.)

[Fang rock]

LEELA: Look, the light is shining in that tower.
DOCTOR: Oh, good. We'll just knock on the door, get directions and we'll be on our way.
LEELA: What is that noise?
DOCTOR: Foghorn.
LEELA: What?
DOCTOR: I said it's a foghorn! It warns the ships off these rocks. Mightn't spot the light in this fog. You know what ships are. We saw some on the Thames, remember?
LEELA: I feel something wrong here.

[Lamp room]

(Vince brings Reuben a woollen cap.)

VINCE: Old Ben's worried.
REUBEN: So he should be. His precious electricity.
VINCE: Writing it all down in the log, he is. Says he can't understand it.

(And the light stops again.)

REUBEN: Done it again, see?
VINCE: He'll be spitting blood, won't he.

[Generator room]

(Ben goes back down to the generator room, where the drive belt is going round quite happily. But there is something else there, and it backs Ben up against the wall. Glass smashes.)

BEN: Argh!

[Lamp room]

(Vince sounds the foghorn again.)

VINCE: Over two minutes.
REUBEN: Reckon it's not coming on this time.
VINCE: Make no difference, not in this weather. Have their bows right onto Fang Rock afore they see our old lamp.
REUBEN: Aye, this is a queer 'un. No cause for it.
VINCE: It's cold air and warm air mixing, that's the cause.
REUBEN: I've been thirty years in the service, Vince. One look at the sky and I know when fog's coming. Today was clear as clear.
VINCE: Maybe I'd best go down and see if Ben needs a hand.
REUBEN: You do that, boy. T'ain't natural.

[Generator room]

(The Doctor opens the door and whistles.)

DOCTOR: Keeper?

(The Doctor and Leela enter.)

DOCTOR: The generator's working. I wonder what's happening to the power?
LEELA: I'm not a teshnician.
DOCTOR: It could be shorting out, I suppose.
LEELA: And I suppose you are going to mend it?
DOCTOR: What, without asking permission? I wouldn't dream of it. Let's talk to the crew first. This way. Teshnician?

[Staircase]

DOCTOR: Anyone at home?
VINCE: That you, Ben?
DOCTOR: No, it isn't.
VINCE: 'Ere, who are you, then?
LEELA: I'm Leela.
DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor. How do you do. You seem to be having some trouble here.
VINCE: How'd you get here?
LEELA: We came in the TARDIS.
DOCTOR: We're mislaid mariners. Our craft's parked on the other side of the island.
VINCE: Oh. Oh, you got lost in the fog, did you?
DOCTOR: Yes.
VINCE: Oh, you'd best come up to the crew room.
DOCTOR: Good.
VINCE: Where was you heading for?
DOCTOR: Worthing.
LEELA: Brighton.

[Crew room]

VINCE: You did get lost, didn't you. I'll get you some vittles soon as we're sorted out. You'll not want to go on in this fog. Small craft, is she?
DOCTOR: Yes.
LEELA: No.
DOCTOR: Well, small in some ways.
LEELA: Yes, but big in others.
DOCTOR: What's the trouble here?
VINCE: The generator keeps playing up. Lights go off then they come on again for no reason.
DOCTOR: Tricky things, the early generators.
VINCE: Oh, ours is the latest modern design, sir. Still, it's driving Ben wild.
DOCTOR: Ben? Who's Ben?
VINCE: He's the engineer.
DOCTOR: Just the two of you, are there?
VINCE: Three, sir. Old Reuben's up in the lamp room. Killing himself, he is. Fit to bust.
LEELA: He's crippled?
VINCE: No. Oh, I mean, no, he's one of the old-fashioned sort, you see. Never been really happy since they took out the oil. Hates electricity.

(The Doctor is reading the log.)

DOCTOR: Yes, I know the type. In the early days of oil, he'd have said there's nothing like a really large candle, eh?
VINCE: Aye, that's Reuben right enough.
DOCTOR: Where's Ben now?
VINCE: Eh?
DOCTOR: Ben. Why isn't he working on the generator?
VINCE: Well, he is, sir. You must have seen him.
DOCTOR: No. No, I didn't.
VINCE: Oh, he must have stepped out for a moment and you missed him in the fog.
LEELA: If he had been there, I would have heard.
VINCE: I'd better go and look for him.
DOCTOR: No, that's all right, that's all right. What's your name?
VINCE: Vince, sir. Vince Hawkins.
DOCTOR: I'll go, Mister Hawkins. I'm something of an engineer myself. I might be able to help. You look after the young lady.
VINCE: Right you are, sir.

(Leela shuts the door after the Doctor. The foghorn sounds.)

VINCE: This is quite a treat for me, miss.
LEELA: Is it?
VINCE: Oh, don't touch that, please, miss. Oh yes, it's a lonely up in the lighthouse, you see. I go out sometimes and talk to the seals, you know, just to get a change from Reuben and Ben.
LEELA: Seals are animals?
VINCE: Well, yes.
LEELA: That is stupid. You should talk often with the old ones of the tribe. That is the only way to learn.
VINCE: I'll get you a hot drink, miss.
LEELA: I could do with some dry clothes more than a hot drink.
VINCE: Oh, I'm afraid we don't have nothing suitable for a lady.
LEELA: I'm no lady, Vince. The clothes you are wearing will be most suitable.

(Leela removes her skirt and shakes out the underskirts.)

VINCE: These are men's clothes, miss. Working clothes.

(Vince turns round then averts his eyes.)

VINCE: I'll, er, I'll find you something, miss. I'll go and find something.

(He leaves as she starts to unfasten her blouse.)

[Generator room]

DOCTOR: Ben?

(He shouts outside.)

DOCTOR: Ben? Ben! No Ben.

(The Doctor closes the door again.)

DOCTOR: Curiouser and curiouser.

(He goes to the far side of the generator.)

VINCE: Well done, sir. You're an engineer and no mistake. Doctor, where are you?
DOCTOR: I'm over here.
VINCE: Oh. Found the trouble, then?
DOCTOR: Yes, I always find trouble.
VINCE: Oh, Ben'll be pleased.
DOCTOR: I doubt it.
VINCE: Oh, he will, sir. He couldn't make head nor tail of what were wrong. I wonder where he's got to.

(Leela comes down the stairs dressed in trousers and jersey, with a belt and her knife.)

DOCTOR: He's over there, dead. He's been dead some little time.
VINCE: What? Ben. Oh, no!
LEELA: What killed him?
DOCTOR: As far as I can tell, a massive electric shock. He died instantly.
VINCE: The generator? But he were always so careful.
LEELA: It was very dark.
VINCE: He had a lantern. Oh, I don't believe it.
DOCTOR: Vince, you'd better go and tell old Reuben what's happened. Go on.
VINCE: Right, sir.

(Vince goes up the stairs.)

LEELA: You do not believe the machine killed him? Then what?

(The Doctor ducks through an archway. There's the sound of metal on stone then he comes out with a shovel.)

DOCTOR: I thought there might have been something nasty in the coal hole. There's something nasty somewhere.
LEELA: A sea creature?
DOCTOR: What, that can open and shut doors and doesn't so much as leave a wet footprint, and has the ability to drain off electricity?

(The Doctor picks up a mangled piece of molten metal slats.)

LEELA: What is wrong?
DOCTOR: That's Ben's lantern.

[Lamp room]

(Reuben crosses himself.)

REUBEN: Ben knew every blessed inch of that there machine. Don't make sense, boy.
VINCE: That's what this Doctor says. Electric shock.
REUBEN: Foreign, is he?
VINCE: I don't think so. Though tis true the young lady speaks a bit strange. Why?
REUBEN: Could be spies.
VINCE: Spies! What would spies want on Fang Rock?
REUBEN: There's the Frogs, the Russkies, Germans too. Can't trust none of them.
VINCE: Oh, they ain't spies.
REUBEN: All this started just about the time they got here. Don't you forget that.
VINCE: You don't think, you ain't saying that they might have done for Ben?
REUBEN: I'm saying there's strange things afoot here tonight, and them two could be at the bottom of it. Reckon I'll just go and take a look at 'em.
VINCE: 'Ere, Reuben.
REUBEN: Aye?
VINCE: You'll have to send a message to the shore station. We'll want a relief boat to take Ben away.
REUBEN: Aye, I'll see to it, boy, soon as it's light. Where is he?
VINCE: Generator room. Oh, I know it don't sound respectful.
REUBEN: That it don't.
VINCE: It's only till the boat gets here.
REUBEN: He won't rest easy, you know, boy.
VINCE: Eh?
REUBEN: If Ben was killed by that damn blasted machine, there'll be anger in his soul. And when they die like that, they'll never rest easy.

[Crew room]

(Leela is tucking into a plate of the crew's stew.)

DOCTOR: This is very interesting, Leela. It's called a Marconi Wireless Telegraph. You can send messages a long way with this.
REUBEN: You leave that be, if you don't mind, mister.
DOCTOR: Sorry. Shouldn't you be using it to report Ben's death?
REUBEN: Wireless won't bring Ben back, will it.
DOCTOR: No.
REUBEN: I'll use the semaphore in the morning.
DOCTOR: You do know how to operate it?
REUBEN: Course, we all does, but Ben
DOCTOR: Was the expert.
REUBEN: I'll use the semaphore tomorrow. Likely the police will be wanting to see you.
DOCTOR: Oh, very likely.
REUBEN: Do you mind?
LEELA: What is it for?
REUBEN: Shroud.
LEELA: What is that?
REUBEN: In England we have proper customs. It ain't fitting for a body just to be left.
DOCTOR: Reuben, do you think we had something to do with your friend's death?
REUBEN: I know what I know, and I know what I think.
DOCTOR: Incontrovertible.
REUBEN: And don't start talking your own lingo to each other, either. I won't have that.
DOCTOR: What are you going to do, clap us in irons?
REUBEN: I'm senior in this station now.
DOCTOR: Reuben, we're only trying to help.
REUBEN: Vince and me will manage, thank you, mister. I'll just go and tend to Ben.

(Reuben leaves with cloth, needle and thread.)

DOCTOR: Stubborn old mule.
LEELA: Doctor, do you think this creature, whatever it is, will return?
DOCTOR: I don't know.
LEELA: Well, if it is out on the rocks, we must take weapons and hunt it.
DOCTOR: I don't fancy playing tag in the fog with something that can do that. I think I'll go and have a word with Vince.

(Leela takes a large knife and sneaks downstairs. Reuben is behind the generator, tending to Ben's corpse, as she opens the door and goes outside.)

[Lamp room]

DOCTOR: A fireball? A fireball?
VINCE: Yes.
DOCTOR: What time was that?
VINCE: A couple of hours ago, just getting dusk. It went into the sea, over there.
DOCTOR: How far away?
VINCE: A mile or two, near as I could tell. Don't know how big it was, you see. And then the fog came down and it got cold all of a sudden.
DOCTOR: Yes. Yes, I noticed the cold. You're a good lad, Vince.
VINCE: Thank you, sir.

(Out on the rocks, Leela picks her way carefully to the shore, where she finds dead fish floating in the water. Then there is a crackling sound near by, like electricity.)

DOCTOR: Of course, on Pharos they had slaves to keep the bonfires going.
VINCE: I suppose it's all different abroad. Didn't know they still had slaves, though.
DOCTOR: Oh yes, and I'll tell you something else now. On Gallifrey

(Reuben enters.)

VINCE: Gallifrey?
DOCTOR: Yes, Galli.
REUBEN: I'll take over here, boy. Time you got some supper.
VINCE: Oh, I'm all right.
REUBEN: Long night ahead of us. Expect you'll be tired, mister.
DOCTOR: Oh no, not a bit of it. Don't mind me.
REUBEN: I, er, stoked the boiler, and made Ben decent. Off you go, boy.

[Staircase]

(Vince hears a crackling sound.)

VINCE: Is someone down there? Ben?

(Outside, something hiding in the rocks is watching Leela.)

[Generator room]

(Vince looks down at where the corpse should be, and runs for the speaking tube. He blows hard to make it whistle in the other rooms.)

VINCE: Reuben! It's Ben! He's walking!

[Lamp room]

REUBEN: What's that? Pull yourself together, boy.

[Generator room]

VINCE: I tell you, he's not down here now. He's gone! You said he would. You said he wouldn't rest

(Leela burst in.)

LEELA: Did it come in here? What is the matter?

[Lamp room]

REUBEN: Vince!
DOCTOR: Reuben, there's a light out there.
REUBEN: What?
DOCTOR: There's a light out there.

[Generator room]

(Leela throws down the empty shroud.)

LEELA: The dead do not walk. That is not possible.
VINCE: Well all I know is I heard a dragging sort of noise and when I came down here, he'd gone.
LEELA: Well, there was something out on the rocks just now.

(The speaking tube whistles.)

VINCE: Hello? Right. It's Reuben. He says there's a ship off the rocks. She's going to strike.

[Lamp gallery]

(Reuben is using the telescope.)

REUBEN: You'm right. Steam yacht, by the look of it.
DOCTOR: And going fast.
REUBEN: He's a fool to be going at all on a night like this.

[Lamp room]

REUBEN: Warning devices, Vince.
VINCE: I got 'em.
REUBEN: Take over the siren. She'll strike any minute.

[Steamer]

WOMAN: Help! Please, somebody, help me!
MAN: Steer the boat!

[Lamp gallery]

REUBEN: It's too late. They're too close to alter course. She's going to strike!

(Reuben fires a red flare to illuminate the scene of the disaster and inform the mainland. With screams and cries from its passengers, the bow of the ship rides straight onto the jagged rocks. A second flare goes up as the first one fades.)

Part Two

[Lamp gallery]

REUBEN: Too late, she's struck.
LEELA: They will all die, then.
REUBEN: If there's any survivors, we'll find them on the east crag.

[Lamp room]

REUBEN: Keep that siren going, mister. Hey, Vince! Bring that
DOCTOR: (to Leela) Keep that siren going.

(With a sulk, Leela pulls the foghorn lever.)

[Generator room]

REUBEN: Bring that rope, mister.

(The Doctor ducks to get a coil of rope, and there's an electric crackling nearby.)

REUBEN [OC]: Bring that rope!

(Up in the lamp room, Leela finally lets go of the foghorn lever, and the lamp starts turning.)

[Fang Rock]

(Vince and Reuben carry lanterns, the Doctor carries the rope.)

REUBEN: Ahoy!
VINCE: She's on again now.
REUBEN: Damned electricity. Wouldn't happen with oil. Ahoy!
DOCTOR: No, I don't suppose it would. It seems to need electricity.

(Bored, Leela goes out onto the lamp gallery, then shivers. She looks down and sees a glowing green ball with four tentacles behind it slithering along below.)

[Crew room]

(Vince leads the ungrateful survivors in. They are two men and a woman, all wearing cork life-preserver jackets.)

PALMERDALE: Why did it take you so long? We were nearly killed on those rocks!
VINCE: You'll be all right, sir. Come over to the stove and dry yourself out.
REUBEN: We was going to throw. No cause for jumping like that.
SKINSALE: Oh, his Lordship was anxious to get ashore.
REUBEN: See to the young lady, Vince.
PALMERDALE: Oh, get me a brandy.
VINCE: Here, ma'am, let me help you.

(They help the civilians off with their life-preservers.)

ADELAIDE: Thank you.
REUBEN: Well, get her a blanket, boy.
ADELAIDE: Oh no, I'm all right, really.
PALMERDALE: Well I ain't. I'm soaked to the skin.
SKINSALE: Ah, but sea water's healthy, Henry.
PALMERDALE: I need a drink. Catch my death like this. Get me a brandy, young fella.
VINCE: You don't need no brandy, sir. Hot soup's the ticket for you.
PALMERDALE: Don't tell me what I need. Dammit, hasn't anyone a flask round here?
REUBEN: You see to them, Vince. I'd better get up to that lamp.
VINCE: Here, ma'am. Come over to the stove and get warm. Excuse me, sir.

(Vince puts a chair by the stove for Adelaide. Palmerdale is not amused.)

ADELAIDE: Thank you. What's your name?
VINCE: Hawkins. Vince Hawkins.
ADELAIDE: Thank you, Hawkins.

[Lamp gallery]

DOCTOR: What was it like?
LEELA: I could not see clearly. It shone like, like a fungus in the forest.
DOCTOR: Luminous. Do you think you could show me the spot?
LEELA: Yes. Yes, I think so. Don't tell the others. We don't want to start a panic.
REUBEN: What do you reckon be going on, mister?
DOCTOR: When I find out, I'll let you know.
REUBEN: I wouldn't try to find out. Tain't wise.
LEELA: What do you mean?
REUBEN: Reckon I know what you've seen. They always said the Beast of Fang Rock would be back.
DOCTOR: The Beast of Fang Rock.
REUBEN: Aye.

[Crew room]

(Vince is pouring soup into a mug. Skinsale is reading the log book.)

PALMERDALE: Look, I need some dry clothes and I need them now.
VINCE: All in good time, sir. Just give the young lady some soup then I'll attend to you.
PALMERDALE: I'll catch my death of cold standing around like this.
SKINSALE: You shouldn't be so impulsive, Henry.
PALMERDALE: When I want your opinion, I'll ask for it. What about brandy? Well, surely in the medical supplies you keep brandy.
VINCE: No liquor allowed in a lighthouse, sir. Against regulations.
PALMERDALE: Oh, to hell with the regulations!

(The Doctor and Leela enter.)

DOCTOR: Where's Harker, your coxswain?
PALMERDALE: He stayed behind to secure the boat.

(The Doctor sits and puts a foot up on the table.)

DOCTOR: I'll wait.
SKINSALE: He'll, er, he'll be up directly.
DOCTOR: Good.
SKINSALE: It was his seamanship got us ashore.
DOCTOR: And whose seamanship was it got you on the rocks?
PALMERDALE: Are you in charge here?
DOCTOR: No, but I'm full of ideas.
VINCE: Beg pardon, sir. Time I stoked the boiler.
DOCTOR: Yes, of course, Vince. Off you go. Leela?
LEELA: Yes?
DOCTOR: You'd better go with him.
LEELA: Yes, Doctor.

(Vince and Leela leave.)

ADELAIDE: So, you're a doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes.
ADELAIDE: And you send women to stoke boilers?
DOCTOR: One of the keepers was electrocuted earlier this evening, and since then Vince doesn't like going down there.
SKINSALE: Yes, disturbing thing for a young fellow, first sight of death. I remember in India
PALMERDALE: Not one of your army stories, Jimmy. They're even more boring than your House of Commons anecdotes.
DOCTOR: Just a moment! We haven't been introduced.
SKINSALE: Oh. Well, this is Miss Lessedge, Lord Parmerdale's secretary. The wet gentleman is Lord Palmerdale, the financier. I'm Skinsale, the member for Thurley, Doctor er.
DOCTOR: Where were you heading?
SKINSALE: What?
DOCTOR: When your yacht struck?
PALMERDALE: Southampton. I've a special train waiting to take me to London, and I must be there before the 'Change opens.
ADELAIDE: If only we'd stayed in Deauville none of this would have happened.
PALMERDALE: We had a little flutter at the casino, though in Jimmy's case it was more of a plunge, what?
SKINSALE: Oh, I don't know. You lost your yacht.
PALMERDALE: Insured.
DOCTOR: What about the rest of the crew? Were any other boats launched?
SKINSALE: We didn't wait to see. His Lordship was in rather a hurry to leave the sinking ship.
PALMERDALE: It's imperative that I reach London before the market opens.
SKINSALE: Oh, is that the reason
DOCTOR: Ah, you want to get to London?
PALMERDALE: Yes! Yes.
DOCTOR: You've no chance in this fog.
SKINSALE: (laughs) The wheel of fortune, eh, Henry?
PALMERDALE: What?
SKINSALE: Perhaps you didn't win all you thought at the casino.

[Generator room]

(Vince is shovelling coal while Leela watches.)

LEELA: Listen.
VINCE: What? I don't hear nothing, miss.
LEELA: There! Something's being dragged over the rocks.
VINCE: Ben. He'll be coming back, coming back for us.
LEELA: Go up and tell the Doctor to come down, and do not let the others know. Go and get the Doctor. Do not tell the others. Here, give me that instrument. Go!

(Vince runs up the stairs as the door opens and a figure in a life-saver backs in, dragging something.)

LEELA: Do not move!
HARKER: What?
LEELA: I said, do not move.
DOCTOR: It's all right, Leela, he's a friend, aren't you, Harker.
HARKER: Yes, sir. Oh, poor wretch.
LEELA: What is it?
DOCTOR: It's all that's left of Ben. Where did you find him, Harker?
HARKER: In the sea, sir. Came floating in as I was tying up. What the sea can do to a man.
DOCTOR: It wasn't the sea that did that.
HARKER: What, sir?
DOCTOR: There's some hot soup in the crew room, Harker.
HARKER: Right.
DOCTOR: The others are already there.

(Harker leaves.)

DOCTOR: Quick, get that door closed.
LEELA: Do you think the beast ate him?
DOCTOR: What beast?
LEELA: The Beast of Fang Rock.
DOCTOR: There's no such animal.
LEELA: But Reuben said there was.
DOCTOR: Leela, the people round here have been fisher folk for generations. They're almost as primitive and as superstition-ridden as your lot are.
LEELA: So how do you explain the body?
DOCTOR: Post-mortem.
LEELA: What is that?
DOCTOR: Something wants to make a detailed study of human anatomy.
VINCE [OC]: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Quick, get it out.

(They take Ben's remains to the coal hole. Vince comes down the stairs.)

VINCE: You there, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes, I'm here, Vince.
VINCE: You found out what that noise was?
LEELA: Yes, it was only Harker. He was carrying Ben's body.
VINCE: So it's true. He was walking.
LEELA: Oh, do not be stupid, Vince. I told you before, the dead do not walk.
VINCE: He must have been to have got out there in the first place.
LEELA: I don't know how he got outside, but he did not walk!

[Crew room]

PALMERDALE: You secured the boat safely?
HARKER: Yes.
PALMERDALE: Good. When you've rested, we'll make for the mainland.
SKINSALE: Are you mad?
PALMERDALE: I've made up my mind. It's the only way.
SKINSALE: It's out of the question, Henry. Good Lord, in this fog?
PALMERDALE: It can be no more than five or six miles. A seaman like Harker would have no trouble.
SKINSALE: Reason with him, Adelaide. Make him see sense.
PALMERDALE: You can stay here or do as you wish, but my mind is quite set.
HARKER: So is mine. I'm not taking a boat out in this.
PALMERDALE: What's that?
HARKER: Not after what I've seen tonight, and that's flat.
PALMERDALE: Damn your insolence! You're an employee. You'll do as you're told.
HARKER: Will I?
SKINSALE: Hang him from the yardarm, Henry. It's mutiny.

[Generator room]

VINCE: You said he was dead. How did he get in the sea?
DOCTOR: Obviously I was wrong. The shock simply stunned him, he partly recovered, staggered out onto the rocks, fell into the sea and was drowned. You get on about your work, Vince. There's nothing supernatural going on round here.
VINCE: Well, I saw him. He weren't breathing, that I swear.
DOCTOR: Electricity has strange effects, Vince.
VINCE: Oh. Electricity.
DOCTOR: Hmm.
VINCE: I'm sorry, sir. I reckon I made a bit of a fool of myself just now.
DOCTOR: That's all right, Vince.

(Vince goes back to the boiler.)

LEELA: Why did you not tell him the truth?
DOCTOR: Because I don't know what the truth is, yet.

[Crew room]

PALMERDALE: As I see it, the accident was entirely due to the inefficiency of the lighthouse service.
SKINSALE: My dear fellow
PALMERDALE: So they have the responsibility of seeing I reach the mainland.
SKINSALE: That argument won't wash, Henry. You can't possibly blame the lighthouse people.
ADELAIDE: His Lordship is right. If the light had been working
SKINSALE: We would still have hit the rocks at the speed we were travelling.
HARKER: You're right there, sir. We should have been going dead slow in them conditions. Weren't Captain's fault, neither.
PALMERDALE: That's enough, Harker. The fact remains that the light was not working. Oh, there'll be an enquiry, I assure you.

(The Doctor rushes in and takes something from the sideboard.)

DOCTOR: The inquiry's already begun. Move over.
SKINSALE: What inquiry? What are you talking about?
DOCTOR: Just you stay here, all of you. Harker, you try and get some rest.

(The Doctor leaves.)

SKINSALE: He speaks with an amazing air of authority. I wonder who the devil he is?
PALMERDALE: If you ask me, I don't think he's quite (taps his head) Those eyes.
ADELAIDE: The girl is very strange, too.
SKINSALE: I don't know about strange, but she's not a bad looker.
ADELAIDE: Perfectly grotesque, in my view. Were you a long time in India, Colonel?
SKINSALE: Long enough, my dear, to learn to appreciate nature.
ADELAIDE: Lord Palmerdale, as we seem compelled to spend the night in this frightful place, do you think there's a private room where I might sleep?
PALMERDALE: How should I know? Fat chance I have of sleeping tonight with a fortune slipping through my fingers.
SKINSALE: Well, if this contraption works, I'll see what the proprietors have to say.

(He picks up the speaking tube and blows.)

[Lamp room]

(Reuben answers the whistle.)

REUBEN: Ahoy there. What is it? (listens) There's bunks in the sleeping quarters. She's welcome to any of them.

(He hangs the tube up.)

REUBEN: Trouble with the gentry, they always want running after.
VINCE: Here, Reuben.
REUBEN: What?
VINCE: Someone down there. Look. See them lights?
REUBEN: I reckon it's that Doctor and his girl.
VINCE: No call for them to be out there.
REUBEN: Can't say I didn't warn 'em. I told them.
VINCE: What about?
REUBEN: The Beast.
VINCE: Oh, that old tale.
REUBEN: More than a tale, boy. That girl saw it tonight. I heard her telling the Doctor. Shining, she said it was, just like they reckon.
VINCE: She couldn't have seen it.
REUBEN: Last time that beast was seen on Fang Rock, eighty year ago now, two men died that very same night.

[Fang Rock]

LEELA: Somewhere around here.

(The Doctor puts a compass down on a rock. The needle spins.)

DOCTOR: What? A strong electrical field. Strong enough to kill a man on contact. Interesting. Probably explains the phosphorescent glow. And fish at a distance of several yards.
LEELA: What? What do you think it is, Doctor.
DOCTOR: I don't know what it is, Leela. I think it's desperate and I think it's cunning, and I think it's time we were getting back.

(They leave the shoreline, and something lights up the rocks from below with a green light.)

[Crew room]

(Skinsale comes down the stairs and closes the door.)

SKINSALE: Well, I think Adelaide should settle now.
PALMERDALE: Oh, splendid. That's the main thing, isn't it, that my secretary should sleep.
SKINSALE: You'd do well to get some yourself.
PALMERDALE: Here, in this hovel?
SKINSALE: It's quite a snug little bivouac. I've slept in worse places than this in the army.
PALMERDALE: Ah, but that was before you resigned and went into politics. Acquired a taste for high living then, didn't you.
SKINSALE: What, feeling a little frustrated, old chap, are you?
PALMERDALE: Why the hell shouldn't I when I've been cheated like this?
SKINSALE: I kept my side of the bargain. I gave you the information you wanted. I was a fool and a scoundrel, but I did it, and you tore up my IOUs.
PALMERDALE: What use is your blasted information if I can do nothing with it?
SKINSALE: Quite. Rather amusing, isn't it?
PALMERDALE: I could still expose you.
SKINSALE: Yes, but if the information's never used, where's the proof I ever gave it? And you're forgetting something else.
PALMERDALE: What?
SKINSALE: I'm an officer and a gentleman, Henry. You're a nobody, a jumped-up little money-grabber for all your title. Besmirch my good name and I'll sue you for every penny you've got. So goodnight to you.

(Skinsale relaxes in a chair in front of the stove and closes his eyes.)

[Generator room]

LEELA: Do you thing the creature will come back?
DOCTOR: I do. I think he was taking Ben's body away for examination when you saw it.
LEELA: Into the sea?
DOCTOR: Under the sea. Earlier tonight Vince saw what he called a fireball fall into the sea not far away.
LEELA: Another TARDIS.
DOCTOR: Not another TARDIS. A spaceship, perhaps. Yes, an alien creature which has never before encountered human beings might just behave that way.
LEELA: But why come here? There's nothing on this foggy rock.
DOCTOR: There's electricity. Perhaps that's what attracted it.
LEELA: An alien creature
DOCTOR: Yes.
LEELA: Travelling through space
DOCTOR: Yes.
LEELA: And yet desperate, you said. Why?
DOCTOR: Yes. Just a minute. It's behaviour pattern is furtive.
LEELA: What is furtive?
DOCTOR: That means it keeps out of sight while it spies out the land, hoping to mount a successful attack.
LEELA: Then we are not facing an enemy that is bold.
DOCTOR: No, but cunning. I don't think this fog's a freak of the weather.
LEELA: What are you talking about?
DOCTOR: I think it's been contrived to isolate us. That creature, or whatever it is, will be getting bolder by now. It's seen this primitive technology, it's had time to calculate the physical strength of its enemies. I think we're in terrible trouble.
LEELA: Do not be afraid, Doctor. If what you say is true, we must arm ourselves and post guards.
DOCTOR: What about the others? They'll think we're mad if we start talking about creatures from outer space.
LEELA: But we're from space. We're not of this Earth.
DOCTOR: Shush. Don't tell them that, whatever you do. What do you mean, do not be afraid.

[Crew room]

(Palmerdale finishes writing something and folds the paper in half. He tiptoes over to where Harker is sleeping in another chair.)

PALMERDALE: (sotto) Wake up, man. Wake up.
HARKER: What?
PALMERDALE: (sotto) Will you wake up?
HARKER: What is it? What do you want?
PALMERDALE: (sotto) Can you use a Morse apparatus?
HARKER: Of course I can. Can I what?
PALMERDALE: (sotto) Use a Morse telegraphic apparatus like that one over there.
HARKER: Of course I can.
PALMERDALE: (sotto) Good. Now, I want you to send a coded message for me. It's to be passed on to my brokers in London.
HARKER: Send a message? What for?
PALMERDALE: (sotto) That's none of your business. Just do as I tell you. It's a business matter. There's a great deal of money involved.
HARKER: Money?
PALMERDALE: (sotto) Oh, don't worry, you'll be handsomely rewarded. I had urgent reasons for getting back to London. Vital business affairs. This will have to do instead.
HARKER: I remember. You was mad to get back to England.
PALMERDALE: Was I?
HARKER: I remember on the bridge, when the fog was coming down, Captain begging for permission to slow down, you telling him full ahead and damn the consequences. He should have slowed her, ignored you anyway.

(Skinsale wakes.)

PALMERDALE: It was his duty to obey my orders.
HARKER: He was old and weak. He was scared he'd never get another ship.
PALMERDALE: Do as I tell you and you'll be well paid.
HARKER: And when she struck it was get the owner away and the owner's fancy woman and the owner's fine friend. Never mind the poor sailors.
PALMERDALE: I'll have no more of this. There's no time.
HARKER: They're dead because of you.

(Harker grabs Palmerdale round the throat and pushes him against the sideboard.)

PALMERDALE: Harker, get off!

(Skinsale comes to the rescue.)

SKINSALE: Don't be such a damn fool, man. Harker!

(The Doctor enters.)

DOCTOR: Let go, Harker!
HARKER: There are good seamen dead because of you! You deserve to die.
DOCTOR: Come on, sit down. Sit down. All that can wait. Gentlemen, I've got news for you. This lighthouse is under attack, and by morning we might all be dead. Anyone interested?

[Lamp room]

(Vince is on watch as Reuben enters.)

REUBEN: Time that boiler was stoked, boy.
VINCE: 'Ere, Reuben. You don't really think what happened before, back in the twenties, you don't really think it's happening again, do you?
REUBEN: There's three of us, there were three of them. Two dead and one mad, and Ben's dead, isn't he? Boiler, boy. Hey, you're shaking too much to lift a shovel. You stay here, boy. I'll do it.
VINCE: If you're sure. I'll do it if you like.

[Crew room]

DOCTOR: Understand this. No one, but no one, is to leave this lighthouse for any reason. Is that clear?
PALMERDALE: No, it's not clear. Mysterious mumbo-jumbo. Just what is this threat that's supposed to be lurking outside?
REUBEN: You've seen it, then. The Beast's back.
SKINSALE: What beast?
REUBEN: There's always death on this rock when the Beast's about.
PALMERDALE: Preposterous rubbish. What is the fool saying?
REUBEN: I'm saying it's happened before, it'll happen again.

(Reuben leaves.)

PALMERDALE: Superstitious idiot. If we're expected to take notice of some fisherman's tale

(Leela puts her knife to Palmerdale's chest.)

LEELA: Silence! You will do as the Doctor instructs, or I will cut out your heart.
DOCTOR: You heard what she said.
LEELA: Doctor, it's getting cold again.
DOCTOR: Are you sure?
LEELA: Yes. Last time it came like this, like a cold wave.
DOCTOR: I believe you're right.
SKINSALE: I don't feel anything.
DOCTOR: Leela's senses are particularly acute, and if she says it's getting colder, it's getting colder!
ADELAIDE: What's going on?
SKINSALE: Nothing for you to worry about, Adelaide.
(The lights dim.
Downstairs, Reuben finishes stoking the boiler and checks the dials. The lights come back on and he goes to Ben's remains and crosses himself, then leaves.)
ADELAIDE: I don't understand. Lord Palmerdale, what is happening?
PALMERDALE: Nothing, my dear. Absolutely nothing is happening here.

(The lights go out, and Reuben screams, his voice echoing up the lighthouse. Adelaide runs for Skinsale's arms.)

SKINSALE: What the devil is that?
Part Three

[Generator room]

(The Doctor and Leela run down the stairs.)

DOCTOR: Reuben?
LEELA: It must have taken Reuben, like the other.

(The door is open.)

DOCTOR: Don't talk to any strangers.

[Crew room]

ADELAIDE: But what was that ghastly scream?
PALMERDALE: Oh, control yourself.
SKINSALE: Come along, there's no cause for alarm.
ADELAIDE: Something terrible has happened, I know it. It was in my stars. I should have listened to Miss Nethercott.
SKINSALE: Oh, come now. That's absolute nonsense. You're overwrought. Come along now, pull yourself together. You'll be all right.

(Harker takes a lamp and leaves.)

PALMERDALE: Harker! Where are you going?
HARKER [OC]: Below.
PALMERDALE: Insubordinate ruffian. If there is something on this rock, we should stick together.
SKINSALE: What, on the principle that it may satisfy its appetite before it reaches you, eh?
ADELAIDE: Oh, stop it!
PALMERDALE: Fool. Now look what you've done.

[Generator room]

HARKER: Doctor? Where are you?

(He calls outside.)

HARKER: Hello? Doctor, are you there? Doctor?

(He steps back inside and sees a figure in the far end.)

HARKER: Reuben? Is something wrong? Reuben?
REUBEN: Leave me be.
HARKER: Are you all right, man?

(Pale-faced, Reuben goes slowly up the stairs.)

HARKER: Doctor? Ahoy there!

(Up in the lamp room, Vince is keeping the foghorn going. The lamp starts turning again.)

[Crew room]

SKINSALE: There, they've repaired the lights. It's all right. There's nothing to worry about.
PALMERDALE: Listen!
SKINSALE: What?

(Heavy footsteps on the stairs.)

PALMERDALE: There's someone outside.
ADELAIDE: Oh, Colonel, please
PALMERDALE: Shush.

(Skinsale opens the door a crack then looks out.)

SKINSALE: Hello? Doctor? Harker? Oh. It's all right. It's just the old chap.
PALMERDALE: Eh?
SKINSALE: The keeper.
PALMERDALE: What was that cry? Did he say?
SKINSALE: He went straight on up. Looked done in, I thought. Adelaide, you ought to lie down.
ADELAIDE: Up in that room? Alone? Have you taken leave of your senses?

[Generator room]

(Harker is about to stoke the boiler when the Doctor and Leela come back in.)

DOCTOR: Well, there's nothing out there now. Were you calling?
HARKER: Yes, sir.
DOCTOR: Get that door shut. Do you know what I think?
LEELA: That the creature killed Reuben.
DOCTOR: Probably, probably.
HARKER: Reuben's all right, miss.
DOCTOR: This electrical
LEELA: What did you say?
HARKER: I said Reuben's all right. I've just seen him.
LEELA: Are you certain?
DOCTOR: Got it! U by Q over R.
LEELA: Doctor, did you hear that?
DOCTOR: Shush.
LEELA: What are you doing?
DOCTOR: Thinking.

(The Doctor touches the generator and gets an electric shock.)

DOCTOR: Yes, it's certainly been here. You see, in the space surrounding an electrically charged body there occurs an electric potential which is proportional to the charge Q, and inversely proportional to the distance R from the centre. Where is he?
HARKER: What?
LEELA: Who?
DOCTOR: Reuben. I thought you said you'd seen him.
HARKER: Er, yes, sir, going up stairs, looking as if he'd seen a ghost.
DOCTOR: Then why didn't you tell me?
HARKER: I told miss, sir.
DOCTOR: Why am I standing here wasting my time trying to work out its size?
HARKER: I don't know, sir.
DOCTOR: If Reuben's seen it, he can tell us.
LEELA: That is what I thought, but of course I am only a savage.
DOCTOR: Come on, savage. Harker?
HARKER: Yes?
DOCTOR: Try and find some way to secure that door, hmm?
HARKER: Yes, sir.

[Crew room]

PALMERDALE: I don't suppose in your service in the Engineers they taught you anything useful, like how to operate one of these gadgets, Jimmy?

(Palmerdale points to the Marconi telegraph.)

SKINSALE: Do you suppose if they did, I'd send a message for you?
PALMERDALE: We could make a killing, old boy. I'd split the profit.
SKINSALE: I'd be ruined, and you know it. You seem to think that money's the only thing

(The Doctor and Leela enter.)

DOCTOR: Where's Reuben?
PALMERDALE: Reuben.
SKINSALE: Well, he was out there a short while ago. Looked a bit groggy, I thought.
DOCTOR: Groggy?
SKINSALE: Yes.
ADELAIDE: Doctor, what was that terrible cry?
DOCTOR: Thank you very much. Come on, Leela.

(Leela and the Doctor leave.)

ADELAIDE: Well, really. His manners are quite insufferable.
SKINSALE: Things on his mind, by the look of him, eh, Henry?
PALMERDALE: We all have.

(Palmerdale leaves.)

ADELAIDE: As for the girl, I think she's tied to him by a piece of string.
SKINSALE: Where do you suppose his Lordship's gone?
ADELAIDE: Is it important? None of us can leave this dreadful place.
SKINSALE: Some men make me nervous when I'm with them. Salisbury, Bonar Law. With your employer, it's the opposite effect. I get nervous when he's out of my sight.
ADELAIDE: Oh, Colonel, you're not leaving me all alone.
SKINSALE: It's all right. Back in a tick.

[Staircase]

(The Doctor knocks on a locked door.)

DOCTOR: Reuben? Reuben, are you in there?

[Bunk room]

DOCTOR [OC]: Can you hear me?

(Reuben glows green.)

DOCTOR [OC]: Reuben, open the door. I want to talk to you.

(And returns to normal.)

[Staircase]

DOCTOR: Solid oak.
LEELA: Why does he not answer?
DOCTOR: Because he's not listening.
LEELA: Not listening?
DOCTOR: Shock can close the mind, Leela. He could be like that for hours. Days, even.
LEELA: Days? What are you going to do?
DOCTOR: Someone's got to keep this place running. Go and tell Harker to stay where he is and keep the boiler pressure up.
LEELA: Keep the boiler pressure up. Keep the boiler pressure up. Keep the

(Leela goes down the stairs.)

[Lamp room]

PALMERDALE: So, it's a lonely life you chaps lead here, eh?
VINCE: You get used to it, sir.
PALMERDALE: I suppose they don't pay you too well, either.
VINCE: Oh, it's not so bad. You get your keep and it's steady work.
PALMERDALE: Still, you'd not be averse to earning a little extra, say fifty pounds?
VINCE: Fifty pounds!
PALMERDALE: I have to get a message to London rather urgently. I assume you know how to use that equipment downstairs?

(Skinsale is listening on the stairs.)

VINCE: Yes, sir, but it's the official telegraph.
PALMERDALE: Look, when I say fifty pounds, I mean fifty pounds now. It's all I happen to be carrying. There'll be as much again for you when I get back to London.

(Palmerdale holds out the folded white banknotes.)

VINCE: A hundred pound! That be a fortune. I don't want to get mixed up in nothing wrong.
PALMERDALE: Look, I'm a businessman. How could there be anything wrong?
(Skinsale goes back down the stairs. Vince takes the money.
Meanwhile, a green luminous blob is travelling up the outside of the lighthouse towards the lamp.)
PALMERDALE: Here's the message. I've written it in code.
DOCTOR [OC]: Vince?
PALMERDALE: Don't worry, nothing's wrong.
DOCTOR [OC]: Vince!
VINCE: Yes, sir?
PALMERDALE: (sotto) Remember, say nothing.

(Palmerdale goes out onto the gallery. Vince returns to the foghorn as the Doctor enters.)

DOCTOR: You all right?
VINCE: Yes, I'm fine.
DOCTOR: Good. I want to talk to you, Vince.

[Generator room]

HARKER: There. That ought to do the trick, eh, miss?

(Leela hefts a large hammer.)

LEELA: Solid oak.
HARKER: Hickory, more likely, miss.
LEELA: Oh, Harker, I have a message from the Doctor. He said Reuben will not answer, so you must stay here and keep the boy pressure up.
HARKER: Er, boiler pressure, miss?
LEELA: That is what I said.
HARKER: Right you are, miss.

[Lamp room]

VINCE: What do you reckon Reuben saw, Doctor?
DOCTOR: I don't know, Vince, but I think we'll find out by sunrise.
VINCE: Well, if it's the Beast come back, well, last time they found two of the keepers dead and t'other mad with fear. Well, Ben's dead, in't he? Reuben's mad. There's only me left now.
DOCTOR: That's superstitious nonsense, Vince.
VINCE: Is it? Look what happened to Ben!
DOCTOR: There are eight of us here. If it attacks again, we'll be ready and waiting. All the advantage is with us. Eight to one.

(The blob is just below the lamp gallery where Palmerdale is hiding, unable to hear the conversation inside. The green glow lights up his white dickie, and he looks down over the railing. Suddenly his body is covered by green flashes.)

[Crew room]

ADELAIDE: You've no right to say such things, Colonel. Lord Palmerdale has always been the kindest and most considerate of employers.
SKINSALE: Oh, to you, no doubt, though my experience of him has been somewhat different.
ADELAIDE: You have enjoyed his friendship. Indeed, more than just his friendship. He's been most generous to you as I now know.
SKINSALE: A sprat to catch a mackerel.
ADELAIDE: What is that supposed to mean?
SKINSALE: He intends to make far more money out of me than I've ever had from him.
ADELAIDE: Oh, nonsense.
SKINSALE: Oh, it's true.
ADELAIDE: Lord Palmerdale is already a millionaire. How could you possibly bring him further financial advantage?
SKINSALE: Because your precious employer is a crook and a skunk, my dear, with no scruples about destroying my honour.
ADELAIDE: How dare you! I refuse to listen to another word. Furthermore, I shall find his Lordship and tell him just what a perfidious so-called friend you are!

(Adelaide slams the door behind her.)

SKINSALE: I thought you might.

(Skinsale examines the Marconi Telegraph.)

[Staircase]

(Carrying the large hammer, Leela returns to the locked door and knocks.)

LEELA: Reuben? Reuben, hear me. If you do not unlock this door now, I shall smash it down. Do you understand?

[Bunk room]

(Reuben is standing still, and glowing green.)

LEELA [OC]: Reuben!

[Lamp room]

DOCTOR: So then, Harker keeps the boiler stoked, and you stay on the siren.
VINCE: All right, Doctor, if you think that's best.
DOCTOR: I do.
VINCE: You sure it'd be no good me having a word with Reuben?
DOCTOR: No, no, no. You stay here, Vince. Do what you've got to do.

(Thud! of hammer on oak door.)

DOCTOR: Stay here, Vince.

[Staircase]

(Leela has smashed through one of the door panels.)

LEELA: Come out, old one!

(Reuben isn't glowing any more. Leela is about to take another swing when the Doctor grabs the hammer from her. She gasps.)

LEELA: You do not want the old one?
DOCTOR: He'll come out when he's ready.
ADELAIDE: Is his Lordship up here?
DOCTOR: No. There's no one in the lamp room except the keeper. Go back to the crew room.
ADELAIDE: I must find him.
DOCTOR: Get back to the crew room!

(Reluctantly, Adelaide goes down the stairs.)

DOCTOR: The Malicious Damage Act 1861 covers lighthouses.
LEELA: What?
DOCTOR: Nothing.

[Lamp gallery]

VINCE: He's gone, sir. Your Lordship?

(Vince looks quickly then goes back inside to use the speaking tube, but thinks better of it. Instead, he takes the fifty pounds from his pocket, puts the notes on the grill floor and strikes a match to burn them. )

[Staircase]

DOCTOR: Leela, get Harker up here, then try and find Palmerdale.
LEELA: The cowardly one?
DOCTOR [OC]: Yes.

[Crew room]

ADELAIDE: Doctor!
DOCTOR: Shush.

(He checks that Leela has gone down the stairs.)

SKINSALE: What's all this about, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Survival, Colonel.
SKINSALE: Survival?
DOCTOR: Yes. Yours, mine, all of us.
SKINSALE: Oh, this mysterious beast that eats lighthouse keepers.
DOCTOR: Do you find that difficult to accept, Colonel?
SKINSALE: Oh come, Doctor, I'm a man of intelligence, of education.
DOCTOR: Quite so, quite so, and I don't believe in mythical sea creatures either.
ADELAIDE: Then why do you suggest that we're in danger?
DOCTOR: Because somewhere out there is a hostile alien from a distant planet, and I believe it intends to destroy us.
SKINSALE: A hostile alien from a distant planet?
DOCTOR: Yes.
ADELAIDE: You call yourself a doctor? That's the most insane suggestion I've heard in my life.

(Leela and Harker enter.)

LEELA: Doctor, I cannot find the cowardly one.
DOCTOR: I've never been more serious, Colonel. We are facing an enemy of greater power than you can dream of.
SKINSALE: I do appreciate the scientific romanticism of Mister Wells, Doctor, but

(The tube whistles. Harker answers it.)

HARKER: Yes?
DOCTOR: Herbert may have a few unimportant facts wrong, but his basic supposition is sound enough.
HARKER: Doctor?
DOCTOR: You think your little speck in the galaxy's the only one with intelligent life, hmm? Yes? (listens) How very interesting.
ADELAIDE: What's interesting?
DOCTOR: That was Vince.
ADELAIDE: What's happened?
DOCTOR: He says he thinks Lord Palmerdale's fallen from the lamp gallery.

(Adelaide screams, Leela slaps her.)

SKINSALE: Fallen? But the railing. You can't, well, he can't have fallen.
DOCTOR: I agree. The question is, do we go out and see?
SKINSALE: Well, of course! I mean (pause) You really believe in this thing, don't you.
DOCTOR: I do. Leela, stay here. Come on.

(Out on the staircase, Reuben watches the men leave. Leela shuts the door.)

ADELAIDE: I told him we shouldn't have come, but he wouldn't listen. He laughed when I said Miss Nethercott had seen tragedy in my stars.
LEELA: In your stars?
ADELAIDE: If only we'd stayed in Deauville. I knew something ghastly would happen. Her predictions are never wrong.
LEELA: I understand. She is your shaman.
ADELAIDE: What? No, Miss Nethercott is an astrologer. The finest. I consult her every month.
LEELA: A waste of time. I too used to believe in magic, but the Doctor has taught me about science. It is better to believe in science.

[Generator room]

(The men return, the Doctor carrying Palmerdale's body in from outside.)

DOCTOR: Harker, secure the door. Come with me, Skinsale.

[Crew room]

(Footsteps on the stairs.)

LEELA: Shush.

(Leela opens the door, knife ready. The Doctor carries the body in, followed by Skinsale.)

ADELAIDE: Oh, no!
LEELA: Quiet! Has she never seen death before?

(Skinsale shakes his head.)

ADELAIDE: I can't bear it!
SKINSALE: Adelaide, come along. You must be brave. Adelaide.
ADELAIDE: Take your hands off me! You did it! You killed him!
SKINSALE: Me? Oh, don't be so ridiculous.
ADELAIDE: You went out after him, you followed him and then you pushed him.
SKINSALE: I was never in the lamp room.
ADELAIDE: Then where were you!
SKINSALE: True, I followed him, but only to find out what he was up to.
ADELAIDE: You did it, I know you did it.
LEELA: Enough!
DOCTOR: And what was he up to?
SKINSALE: He was trying to bribe that young keeper to telegraph a message to his brokers.
DOCTOR: Ah. And so you came down here and wrecked the telegraph.
SKINSALE: It was the only way I could think of stopping him. I'd have been dishonoured, ruined.
DOCTOR: Of course. So to protect your honour, you've put all our lives in danger.
SKINSALE: What?
ADELAIDE: You mean we've no way of contacting the mainland now?
DOCTOR: Oh, no. We're on our own now.

[Generator room]

(Harker hammers a piece of wood underneath the door handle to stop it turning. He hears footsteps, and turns.)

HARKER: Hello, shipmate.

(Reuben comes down the stairs.)

HARKER: How are you feeling now?
(Reuben smiles.
In the lamp room, Vince pulls the foghorn lever, but nothing happens.)

[Crew room]

SKINSALE: I did not harm him, Adelaide. I swear it.
ADELAIDE: Then who did?
SKINSALE: I don't know. Harker, perhaps.
ADELAIDE: Harker?
SKINSALE: Why not? He attacked Henry earlier, blamed him for wrecking the ship.
ADELAIDE: That's absurd.
SKINSALE: It's no more absurd than thinking that I might have
DOCTOR: Murdered him? I wish you had.
ADELAIDE: What do you mean?
DOCTOR: Well, if you had murdered Palmerdale, everything would have been so much simpler. Unfortunately, he was dead before he hit the ground.
SKINSALE: What?
DOCTOR: Electrocuted. He was killed by a massive electric shock, in exactly the same way the keeper was.
SKINSALE: In the lamp gallery? That's not possible. That would mean that this creature can climb sheer walls.
DOCTOR: Oh, not only can it climb sheer walls, it's amphibious, it has some affinity with electricity and the technological ability to adapt its environment to optimum thermal levels. Are you following me?
SKINSALE: No.
DOCTOR: It likes the cold.

(The speaking tube whistles. Leela goes to answer it.)

DOCTOR: Not enough data to place the species.
LEELA: Yes?
DOCTOR: But heat might be a method of defence.
LEELA: That was Vince. He said the boiler pressure has fallen, and the siren will not sound.
DOCTOR: Harker.

(The Doctor and Leela leave, then Skinsale and after a brief pause, Adelaide decides she doesn't want to be left alone.)

[Generator room]

(Harker's terrified face is staring at nothing.)

ADELAIDE: Oh, no!
DOCTOR: Get her out of here!

(Skinsale takes Adelaide back upstairs.)

LEELA: Like the others?
DOCTOR: Yes.

[Coal bunker]

(Reuben is lying there.)

DOCTOR: Rigor mortis.
LEELA: What is that?
DOCTOR: He's been dead for hours.
LEELA: But that is not possible. He was in his room.
DOCTOR: Not Reuben.
LEELA: But he was! I saw him.
DOCTOR: The chameleon factor, sometimes called lycanthropy. Leela, I've made a terrible mistake. I thought I'd locked the enemy out. Instead, I've locked it in, with us.
Part Four

[Lamp room]

(Vince is trying to get the fog horn to work when someone comes up the stairs.)

VINCE: Reuben! You all right now? You shouldn't have come up here. I'll hang on till morning. You go and get some sleep.

('Reuben' smiles and advances on the young man.)

VINCE: No, no.

(He falls. 'Reuben' takes hold of his arm, then puts his other hand on Vince's head. Vince screams.)

[Generator room]

(Leela is stoking the boiler. The Doctor finally comes out of the coal hole.)

LEELA: This alien must have great power to change its shape at will.
DOCTOR: It has. But it needed to study the human life pattern first.
LEELA: That is why it took the engineer.
DOCTOR: Organic restructuring is elementary physiology for Time Lords.
LEELA: Then there is nothing we can do.
DOCTOR: What?
LEELA: Well, if this creature is a Time Lord
DOCTOR: No, not a Time Lord. Elementary physiology for us is something that lesser species might master after a few thousand centuries.
LEELA: Oh. Then we have nothing to worry about.
DOCTOR: We don't?
LEELA: No. You will easily dispose of this primitive creature, Doctor. You are a Time Lord.
DOCTOR: Yes, but it took Reuben's form for a reason.
LEELA: To kill us stealthily, one by one. Doctor!
DOCTOR: What is it?
LEELA: Suppose we pretend that we still think Reuben is Reuben, and not the alien, then we can get close enough to it and kill it.
DOCTOR: No, no, no, no. We can't. If we got within touching distance of it, we're dead. It packs too many volts.
LEELA: What is it?

(The Doctor finds a metal cylinder by the base of the generator.)

DOCTOR: It's some kind of power relay.
LEELA: Does it belong to the alien?
DOCTOR: Yes, yes. Rule one after surviving a crash landing, set up distress beacon. To do that it would have needed a power source. That's why it came here. There must be a signal modulator somewhere, transmitting. To whom? To it's own kind. Leela, get the surviving humans to the lamp room.
LEELA: To the lamp room.
DOCTOR: Yes, that's the easiest place to defend.
LEELA: Oh, but Doctor, where shall we look for this mognal sigulator?
DOCTOR: I'll do the looking. Hurry, there isn't much time.

[Crew room]

(Skinsale is pacing, slowly.)

ADELAIDE: Do keep still! It's like some terrible dream.
SKINSALE: Pity it's not a dream. We'd stand a chance of waking up.

(Leela enters.)

SKINSALE: Is Harker dead?
LEELA: Yes. Like the others. The creature has got into the lighthouse. Now we must fight for our lives.

(Adelaide faints. Leela rolls her eyes. )

(In the bunk room, the Doctor is searching pockets when he hears slow, heavy footsteps. He hides in a bunk, pulling the curtain across. It is 'Reuben.' He enters and draws the curtain. The Doctor is hanging by his fingertips from the window ledge outside.)

SKINSALE: Come on, Adelaide, drink this. Come on, drink it.
LEELA: Hurry. The Doctor wants us to go to the lamp room.
SKINSALE: Why the lamp room?
LEELA: It is the easiest place to defend ourselves.
SKINSALE: Right. Come on, Adelaide.
ADELAIDE: No.
SKINSALE: Come on.
ADELAIDE: No.
SKINSALE: Come along.
LEELA: Back! Back! Get back!
('Reuben' enters, with that sick grin. The Doctor climbs back into the bunk room, first removing a small metal antenna from outside the window.
Adelaide screams, and gets electrocuted by 'Reuben' in the same way we saw him kill Vince.)
LEELA: Run! Run!

(Skinsale runs for the door as Leela throws a knife at 'Reuben'. He pulses green and it goes straight through.)

[Staircase]

SKINSALE: Adelaide, Doctor. It's got Adelaide.
DOCTOR: Where's Leela?
LEELA: Doctor, the creature! Behind us. We must find weapons.
DOCTOR: Shush. Now listen. When you reach the service room, you'll find a locker full of maroons. I want you to break them open and scatter the powder down the lamp room stairs. Vince'll help you. Off you go.
SKINSALE: Right.
LEELA: It's coming.

(The service room is always directly below the lamp or lantern room in a lighthouse. Skinsale and Leela run up the stairs. The Doctor sits on the stairs.)

DOCTOR: May I help you? Having trouble, Reuben, hmm? Not easy holding a human form stable, is it.
REUBEN: No longer necessary. We can abandon this ridiculous shape.
DOCTOR: Good idea. You'll find it a lot comfier.

(Reuben transforms into the glowing green ball.)

[Lamp room]

(Leela and Skinsale have found Vince.)

SKINSALE: Just like the others.
LEELA: Then there is nothing we can do. The maroons.
SKINSALE: This terrible thing will destroy us all. Poor chap.
LEELA: You must forget him now.

(Leela takes the maroons from their tin box.)

LEELA: It is time for us to fight.

(They start to prise them open when they hear a crackling sound.)

LEELA: Listen.

[Staircase]

DOCTOR: Now I remember. Reuben the Rutan.
RUTAN: You know our form?
DOCTOR: Well, when you've seen one Rutan, you've seen them all.
RUTAN: We are a Rutan scout. We are specially trained in the new metamorphosis techniques.
DOCTOR: Well, I expect you'll get better at it in time. What are you doing in this part of the galaxy anyway?
RUTAN: That doesn't concern you. You are to be destroyed.
DOCTOR: Got it! You're at last losing that interminable war with the Sontarans.
RUTAN: That is a lie!
DOCTOR: Is it? You used to control the whole of the Mutter's Spiral once. Now the Sontarans have driven you to the far fringes of the galaxy.
RUTAN: The glorious Rutan army is making a series of strategic withdrawals to selected strong points.
DOCTOR: Rutan, that's the empty rhetoric of a defeated dictator, and I don't like your face, either.
RUTAN: Your mockery will end with your race, Earthling, when the mighty Rutan battle fleet occupies this planet.
DOCTOR: Why invade an obscure planet like Earth? It's of no value to you.
RUTAN: The planet is obscure, but its strategic position is sound. We shall use it as a launch point for our final assault on the Sontaran rabble.
DOCTOR: But if you set up a power base here, the Sontarans will bombard it with photonic missiles.
RUTAN: That is unimportant. It will serve the cause of our final glorious victory.
DOCTOR: And what about its people?
RUTAN: Primitive bipeds of no value. We scouted all the planets of this solar system. Only this one suits our purpose.
DOCTOR: I can understand your military purposes, but why murder a hatful of harmless humans?
RUTAN: It is necessary. Til we return to our mother ship, and the mother ship informs the fleet, no one must know of our visit to Earth.
DOCTOR: But you crashed, didn't you, just as you made your discovery. You failed.
RUTAN: Failed? We are sending a signal to the mother ship with the power from the primitive mechanism below.

(The Doctor holds up the antenna.)

DOCTOR: You're not, you know.
RUTAN: It's of no importance. The ship will home in on the primary signal.
DOCTOR: I'm sorry to disappoint you. I fixed that as well, oyster face.
RUTAN: All your interference is useless. The beam was transmitting long enough for the mother ship to trace the signal.
DOCTOR: You can't be certain.
RUTAN: It will come.
DOCTOR: But by then, you'll be dead.
RUTAN: What could you Earthlings possibly do to us?
DOCTOR: Well, if you'll just step this way, I'll show you.

(The Doctor runs up the stairs. The Rutan lumbers up behind. Round is not a good shape for climbing stairs.)

[Lamp room]

LEELA: Here he comes!
DOCTOR: I've brought someone to see you. Give me one of those fuses, quickly.
SKINSALE: Is this advisable, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Probably not, but we've no choice. I'm so sorry to bother you. Could you oblige me with a light?
SKINSALE: A what?
DOCTOR: A match.
SKINSALE: Oh yes, of course, here.
DOCTOR: Thank you. Move over.

(They all gather at the top of the stairs.)

LEELA: How did you hold it back on the stairs?
DOCTOR: Oh, a little militant chit-chat.

(The Doctor strikes the match on the stonework and lights the fuse. The Rutan hoves into view around the corner.)

DOCTOR: What kept you?
RUTAN: The time for talk is over.
DOCTOR: Correct.

(The Doctor throws the lit fuse down onto the gunpowder on the stairs. There is a massive flash! and the Rutan screams.)

LEELA: Where is it? Have you killed the thing?
DOCTOR: Unlikely.
SKINSALE: That's the most horrible thing I've ever seen. What the devil is it?
DOCTOR: It's an intelligent, highly aggressive species from Ruta Three.
LEELA: Was it a sea creature?
DOCTOR: It evolved in the sea, adapted to land. Any more gunpowder, Colonel?

(They go back to the box. There are still four flares.)

LEELA: We are lucky that it fears flame.
DOCTOR: Well, Ruta Three is an icy planet. Its inhabitants find heat intensely painful. Now, if we had a flame-thrower.
SKINSALE: Well, there is this, Doctor.
DOCTOR: What?
SKINSALE: I carried it up from the service room. It looks like a kind of mortar.
DOCTOR: It's an early Schermuly.
SKINSALE: An early Schermuly?
DOCTOR: Yes, an early Schermuly. A Schermuly box that fires a rocket and line.
SKINSALE: A projectile weapon.
DOCTOR: Yes. It won't do, though. Stay calm, Skinsale.

(The Doctor fetches a metal tripod with a cylinder on it from the gallery.)

DOCTOR: Here, take this.
SKINSALE: Right, got it.
DOCTOR: Loaded with a few odds and ends it should cover the stairs. Empty your pockets, and mine.

(They pour coins and knick-knacks into the cylinder.)

DOCTOR: Of course, it's not just this Rutan I'm worried about, it's the others.
SKINSALE: Others?
DOCTOR: Yes.
SKINSALE: You mean to say there are more of these beasts?
DOCTOR: There's a whole battle fleet out there. By the time the Rutans and the Sontarans
SKINSALE: Sontarans?
DOCTOR: Yes. By the time they've finished with it, this planet'll be like a cinder hanging in space.
SKINSALE: You mean to say that there's a whole battle fleet coming here?
DOCTOR: Yes. Unless, of course, we could knock out both the mother ship and the scout ship. If we could do that, they just might conclude that this section of space was too dangerous.
LEELA: How can we do that?
DOCTOR: I don't know. We've nothing here that would stop a Rutan spaceship in its tracks. Rutan ships have a crystalline infrastructure, you see. Shielded, of course. Still, landing on a planet like this, they might just cut off the energy fields to save power. No, I'd need an amplified carbon oscillator.
LEELA: What is an am, what did you say?
DOCTOR: It's like a laser beam but much more destructive.
SKINSALE: A laser beam?
DOCTOR: Yes.
LEELA: Yes, that's some kind of very powerful light, isn't it, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Well, yes, put in it's simplest terms.
LEELA: Why don't we use this?
DOCTOR: What?
LEELA: This.

(The lamp.)

DOCTOR: That? Are you suggesting I convert the carbon arc beam?
LEELA: Well, obviously.
DOCTOR: Leela, that's a beautiful notion. Unfortunately I'd need a focusing device, a fairly large piece of crystalline carbon.
LEELA: Crystallised carbon?
SKINSALE: A diamond.
DOCTOR: Yes.

(Skinsale unfastens his cufflinks.)

DOCTOR: No, that's too small. I'd need a much bigger one for the primary beam oscillator.
SKINSALE: Palmerdale.
DOCTOR: What?
SKINSALE: Palmerdale. He always carried diamonds.
DOCTOR: He did?
SKINSALE: He called them his insurance.
DOCTOR: The crew room.
SKINSALE: Yes.
DOCTOR: Yes. Yes. Well, let's get this working first.

(They take their little home-made cannon to the top of the stairs. The Rutan is making its way back up.)

[Staircase]

DOCTOR: Are you sure you've got it?
LEELA: Mmm hmm.
DOCTOR: Good.
SKINSALE: Doctor, I'm coming with you.
DOCTOR: That's not necessary.
SKINSALE: I want to. You'll need someone.
DOCTOR: All right. Remember, Leela, don't fire until you see the green of its tentacles.
LEELA: Doctor, how are you going to get past the Rutan?
DOCTOR: With discretion. Come on, Colonel.

[Crew room]

(The Doctor stands guard as Skinsale searches Palmerdale's pockets.)

DOCTOR: (sotto) Hurry. Hurry!

(The Rutan is still painfully inching its way back up, riser by riser. Skinsale is having no luck.)

DOCTOR: (sotto) Body belt. Body belt!

(Sure enough, underneath the shirt is a pouch tied around his waist. Skinsale removes a black velvet purse and takes it out to the Doctor. The Doctor shakes his hand, selects one diamond then throws the rest on the stairs before heading back up. Skinsale stoops to pick them up again just as the Rutan gets there. It throws a tentacle around the man's neck, and he screams. The Doctor pauses, then runs upwards.)

[Lamp room]

DOCTOR [OC]: Ready, Leela?
LEELA: Yes.

(She strikes a match against the wall.)

DOCTOR [OC]: Now!

(Leela lights the fuse, the Doctor runs in with the Rutan behind him. Bang, flash, Argh! from the Rutan.)

LEELA: Are you all right?
DOCTOR: You singed my scarf.
LEELA: And the Colonel?
DOCTOR: Dead with honour.
LEELA: Then at least we have avenged him.
DOCTOR: Yes.
LEELA: And the diamond?

(The Doctor opens his hand. Leela goes down the stairs to check on the damage as the Doctor turns off the lamp.)

[Staircase]

(The Rutan is retreating slowly, leaving bits of green behind as it deflates.)

LEELA: It is here, Doctor. I did it! Finished!
RUTAN: Your triumph will be short, Earthling. Our mother ship will blast this island into molten rock.
LEELA: Empty threats, Rutan. Enjoy your death as I enjoyed killing you.
RUTAN: We die for the glory of our race. Long live the Rutan empire!
DOCTOR [OC]: Leela? Leela!

(Leela runs up the stairs as the burst balloon slithers downwards.)

[Lamp room]

(The Doctor is inside the lamp fitting.)

LEELA: They are hard to kill, these Rutans.
DOCTOR: Been celebrating, have you?
LEELA: It is fitting to celebrate the death of an enemy.
DOCTOR: Not in my opinion. I haven't got time to discuss morality. Look out there.

(Another red ball blazes across the sky then hovers over the sea.)

LEELA: Is that the Rutan mother ship?
DOCTOR: It is. When it gets within range, this will lock onto its carbon resonator and knock out its anti-grav, I hope. We've got about a hundred and seventeen seconds to get out of here. Understand?
LEELA: Perfectly.
DOCTOR: Good. So when I switch on, you run for it, all right?
LEELA: Yes. It's getting nearer, Doctor.

(The Doctor manually aims the lamp reflector at the ship.)

DOCTOR: Come on. Whatever you do, don't look back. I said don't look back! Let's go. Now!

(The Doctor throws the lamp power switch and they run down the stairs. There is a whine as the energy builds. Leela ducks into the crew room to pick up her knife.)

[Generator room]

DOCTOR: Leela, come on!

[Outside the lighthouse]

(The area is bathed in a red glow.)

DOCTOR: Leela!

[Generator room]

(Leela pauses to put the knife in her boot top.)

DOCTOR [OC]: Leela!
LEELA: Come on!

(The Doctor runs in then follows her out.)

[Fang Rock]

(They take cover. Leela turns to see what is happening when a beam lances out from the lamp room and the Rutan ship goes KaBOOM! Gulls shriek at the disturbance and Leela turns away, closing her brown eyes in pain at the light.)

DOCTOR: That'll teach them.

(A shower of gravel lands on them.)

DOCTOR: I thought I told you not to look back.

(Leela takes the knife from her boot.)

LEELA: Slay me, Doctor.
DOCTOR: What?
LEELA: I'm blind. Slay me now. It is the fate of the old and crippled.

(The Doctor takes the knife from the blue eyed woman. Louise doesn't have to wear the contact lenses any more.)

DOCTOR: You're neither old nor crippled. The effects of the flash will pass.
LEELA: You are sure?
DOCTOR: Mmm. Blink. That's interesting.
LEELA: What is?
DOCTOR: Pigmentation dispersal caused by the flash. Your eyes have changed colour. Leela, stop blinking now. Let's go.
LEELA: What colour are they?
DOCTOR: Blue. 'Aye, though we hunted high and low, and hunted everywhere.'
LEELA: What?
DOCTOR: The Ballad of Flannan Isle, by Wilfred Gibson.
LEELA: Who?
DOCTOR: Wilfred Gibson. 'Aye, though we hunted high and low, and hunted everywhere, of the three men's fate we found no trace'

(He enters the TARDIS.)

DOCTOR [OC]: 'In any time, in any place. But a door ajar and an untouched needle and an over-toppled chair.'

(The TARDIS dematerialises.)

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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