Image of the Fendahl

Part One

[Laboratory]

(Earth, now. We are in a geology lab, with maps on the wall, row of test tubes, rock samples, filing cabinets and sets of drawers. An old skull, without its mandible, sits on a stand.)

COLBY: Oh, don't just sit there, Eustace, say something.
THEA: Why don't you just publish and get it over with.

(Everyone say Hi! to Wanda Ventham.)

COLBY: Why should anyone believe it? I found him and I don't.
THEA: Are you questioning my technical competence.
COLBY: Of course not. The volcanic sediment is twelve million years old. I accept without reservation the results of your excellent potassium-argon test.
THEA: Thank you.
COLBY: What I don't accept is that Eustace here got himself buried under a volcano at least eight million years before he could have possibly existed.

(Another white-coated scientist enters.)

STAEL: Colby, Doctor Fendelman is waiting for the corrected coordinates.
COLBY: Here you go.
STAEL: Thank you.
COLBY: Oh, and Maxi, end the day with a smile.
(Maximilian Stael leaves. Colby winks at Thea.
Outside, in the dark, n owl hoots nearby as an unshaven man with a rucksack makes his way through the trees. He comes upon a patch of misty ground and begins whistling the theme to The Sting, I think. A ragtime tune, anyway.)

[Fendelman's lab]

(Elsewhere in the splendid oak-panelled building is a far more sophisticated laboratory, with a bank of computers whose lights are blinking in unison, banks of monitors and a control console. Stael hands its occupant the clipboard with the corrected coordinates on it. This is an older man with a possibly South American accent. Say Hi! to Denis Lill.)

FENDELMAN: Yes. Good, good. Right. Stael, we can begin.

(The two men sit at opposite banks of equipment.)

FENDELMAN: Phase one power.
STAEL: Phase one power.
FENDELMAN: Phase two power.
STAEL: Phase two power.

(In the geology lab, the top of Eustace's skull begins to glow. Thea, who is on her own, goes to look at it.)

FENDELMAN: Switching to main computer control.

(Readouts appear on two monitors.)

FENDELMAN: Activate full power run-up sequence.
STAEL: Activating full power run-up sequence, now.

(The hum grows. The lights go out completely in the geology lab, but the skull keeps glowing and its image starts to merge with Thea's face.)

[Woodlands]

(In the woods, the man is running away from something. He drops his rucksack so he can go quicker, but he is tiring.)

MAN: I can't, I can't.

(He screams and falls. In the lab the skull is pulsing brightly. Thea puts her hands to her head and gently falls sideways.)

[Fendelman's lab]

STAEL: Full power.
FENDELMAN: Excellent, Stael. We can begin the scan. Commencing scan, programme one.

[TARDIS]

(Leela is stroking K9's head. She has her hair pinned up and is wearing a light brown version of her leather costume.)

LEELA: Professor Marius would not be very pleased.

(The Doctor has K9 open and lots of wires strewn across the floor.)

DOCTOR: Nasty. Very nasty.
LEELA: Will he be all right?
DOCTOR: Shush. I don't know. It will be all right. It just has a little corrosion in its circuits.
LEELA: I can call K9 he if I want to. You call the TARDIS she.
DOCTOR: Never.
LEELA: Never. You do. I've heard you. You called it she just a moment ago. And another thing. It is quite clear to me that you cannot control this old machine either.
DOCTOR: What did you say, Leela?
LEELA: Leela said
DOCTOR: I heard what you said.
LEELA: Then why ask?
DOCTOR: Leela, I understand the TARDIS perfectly. There's not one single part of her that I haven't adjusted or repaired at some time or another.
LEELA: Don't cry about it.
DOCTOR: Furthermore, I am in complete and constant control of her.

(They get thrown sideways.)

LEELA: Complete and constant? What is it? What's wrong?
DOCTOR: Someone's using a sonic time scan. Come on, old girl. Don't let us down now. Come on.
LEELA: What's happening?
DOCTOR: We're being dragged towards a relative continuum displacement zone.
LEELA: A what?
DOCTOR: A relative continuum displacement. It's like a hole in time.
LEELA: What will happen?
DOCTOR: I wish I knew.
LEELA: Can we get free?
DOCTOR: That depends on this misunderstood, unmanageable old machine.
LEELA: I meant no disrespect.
DOCTOR: She's turning.
LEELA: I could have been mistaken.
DOCTOR: She's done it. Well done, old girl. You're wonderful. Wonderful. She's wonderful. Isn't she wonderful? TARDIS wonderful!
LEELA: Doctor, you did not tell me. Can she really understand what we say?
DOCTOR: Yeah, well, she just generates a low intensity telepathic field, and obviously primitive thought patterns like yours appeal to her.
LEELA: They do?
DOCTOR: Yes.
LEELA: Oh. Oh.
DOCTOR: That's odd.
LEELA: What, my thought patterns?
DOCTOR: What? No, no, no. I can't calculate the coordinates.
LEELA: What are we going to do?
DOCTOR: We'll just have to trace the scan back to its source.
LEELA: To destroy it?
DOCTOR: We have to stop it being used, certainly, otherwise it'll cause a direct continuum implosion and destroy the planet it's operating from.
LEELA: Well, do we know which one that is yet?
DOCTOR: It can't be. Oh, no.
LEELA: What? What is it?
DOCTOR: Not that one.
LEELA: What one?
DOCTOR: Not there.
LEELA: Not where?
DOCTOR: Earth.
LEELA: Earth?
DOCTOR: Yes. Your ancestors have a talent for self-destruction that borders on genius.
LEELA: Listen, Doctor, I do not like the way you keep talking about my ancestors.
DOCTOR: I like your new dress.
LEELA: Thank you.
DOCTOR: It's a pleasure.

[Kitchen]

(Next morning, Thea is sitting at a big table in a flag-stoned old kitchen, reading the newspaper. Fendelman enters.)

FENDELMAN: Ah, Thea. You are feeling better this morning?
THEA: Yes, I'm fine, thanks, Doctor Fendelman. I still don't remember what happened, though. But I do remember it was your turn to make breakfast this morning, Max.
FENDELMAN: Ah yes. I'm afraid that was my fault. We have been working all night, haven't we, Max. We have only just finished. And the results, I think the results will amaze even Colby. Where is he, by the way?
THEA: He's out, exercising Leaky.

[Woodlands]

(Leaky is a golden Labrador dog.)

COLBY: Leaky! Here, boy! Leaky, come on. Leaky, now what have you got there? More bones, is it, you old bone hunter you.

(It is the body of the man from last night. Church bells ring out in the distance. It must be Sunday.)

[Kitchen]

FENDELMAN: But Colby's methodology cannot be faulted. The excavation of the skull was brilliant. The reconstruction was first class work.
THEA: But he cannot accept the evolutionary implications.
FENDELMAN: And you, Thea? Can you accept them?
THEA: Chronology is my field, Doctor Fendelman. I'm a technician, not a human palaeontologist.

(Colby rushes in.)

COLBY: There's a corpse by the wood.
FENDELMAN: What sort of corpse?
COLBY: A dead one. What other sort is there?
FENDELMAN: Male or female?
COLBY: Oh, male.
THEA: Do we know him?
COLBY: I never saw him before.
FENDELMAN: How did he die? Are there signs of violence?
COLBY: Well, not exactly. By the look of him, he didn't die easily.
STAEL: It is never easy to die.
COLBY: Well, thank you, Max. I'm going to call the police.
FENDELMAN: No, a moment, a moment. No, we must consider.
COLBY: What's to consider? There's a body out there. We can't just leave it. Or are you breeding vultures in that secret lab of yours, hmm?
FENDELMAN: This is no time for discourtesy, Adam.
COLBY: I'm sorry. It was a shock. He looks terrible. He must have been terrified when he died.
FENDELMAN: Adam, Adam, just think for a moment. These woods, they are supposed to be haunted. Now can you imagine what would happen if there were news of a mysterious death in them?
THEA: Well, there'd be a certain amount of publicity.
FENDELMAN: Publicity? It would be a circus. They attract enough lunatics already without advertising for them.
COLBY: I don't see that we've much alternative.
FENDELMAN: Adam, Adam. Our work is at a critical stage. Your discovery could be one of the most important milestones in human development. Your work will fundamentally affect how man views himself. We cannot be interrupted at this moment of destiny.
COLBY: Yes, but
FENDELMAN: And besides, we wouldn't want your Nobel Prize to be jeopardised by an unfortunate coincidence, now would we?
THEA: What are you suggesting?
FENDELMAN: I'm not suggesting anything. Adam will recover and then he can show us the body. Then we will decide, eh? We could arrange for it to be found somewhere else.
THEA: But that's illegal!
FENDELMAN: A small deception only.
THEA: Adam, you can't possibly
COLBY: It wouldn't make much difference.
FENDELMAN: There, you see? We work something out, eh? Stael. (sotto) Get on to London. Tell Hartman I want a security team here within two hours. Tell him I want the best men we have and I want them armed. Then I shall want you to do a post- mortem on that body.

[TARDIS]

(The TARDIS has materialised.)

LEELA: Earth?
DOCTOR: Earth.
LEELA: Is this the place of the sonic time scan?
DOCTOR: Oh, yes. Oh, well, more or less. I haven't pinpointed it definitely, but it's certain to be around here somewhere.
LEELA: Come on then.
DOCTOR: No, no, no. The one who leads says come on. Come on.

[Pasture]

(The TARDIS is in the middle of a cow pasture. Jerseys are cropping the grass as the church bells ring.)

DOCTOR: Good morning, ladies. Now, which one of you has the time scanner, hmm?
LEELA: This doesn't look like the place, Doctor.
DOCTOR: I did say more or less, though this does look rather less than more. You know, I don't think these cows know anything about the time scanner. Never mind. It's a beautiful day. The exercise will do us good. Come on.

[Fendelman's lab]

(Fendelman reads a blue punch-tape printout. Stael enters.)

FENDELMAN: Ah. Look, it's there, Stael. If we can get a visual representation of this area here, then we shall see the living owner of that skull.
STAEL: I have completed the post-mortem.
FENDELMAN: And?
STAEL: I cannot find the exact cause of death. There is a small blister at the base of his skull, but that can't have killed him.
FENDELMAN: Natural causes, then.
STAEL: There is something strange.
FENDELMAN: Oh, what's that?
STAEL: The outward signs are that the man died quite recently. His watch is still working, he has a Thermos of tea in his pocket which is still hot, yesterday's newspaper. The mud on his boots is still
FENDELMAN: Yes, yes, yes, Stael, get on with it.
STAEL: The body is decomposing.
FENDELMAN: Already?
STAEL: It's falling apart as you watch.
FENDELMAN: The cause?
STAEL: I don't know, but it's as though all the energy has been removed. All the binding force has gone and all that remains is a husk.
FENDELMAN: Are the security team in place?
STAEL: Yes.
FENDELMAN: Good. You will dispose of the body, Stael, and nobody must know of this. Nobody at all.

[Woodlands]

(The Doctor is asleep at the base of an oak. The church bells are still ringing.)

LEELA: Doctor? Doctor!
DOCTOR: Hmm?

(Leela has an old man at knife-point. A bicycle lies at their feet.)

LEELA: He came armed and silent.
DOCTOR: You must have been sent by Providence.
MOSS: No, I was sent by the Council to cut the verges.
LEELA: Your Council should choose its warriors more carefully. A child of the Sevateem could have taken you.
MOSS: Escaped from somewhere, hasn't she? If you're her doctor, you shouldn't let her wander around loose. She could do someone a damage.
LEELA: He was not hunting us?
DOCTOR: No. Would you like a jelly baby?
MOSS: You've both escaped from somewhere, haven't you.
DOCTOR: Frequently. What's the nearest village?
MOSS: Fetchborough, about a mile down that way.
DOCTOR: Fetchborough. Tell me about the ghosts.
MOSS: Don't know what you mean. Ain't nothing like that around here.
LEELA: He is lying.
DOCTOR: The strangers, then.
MOSS: What, Fendelman and that lot up at the Priory?
DOCTOR: Yes, Fendelman. Tell me about him.
MOSS: Well, he's foreign, isn't he. Calls hisself a scientist. They do say he's one of the richest men in the world. You wouldn't think so to look at him, scruffy devil. They say he made his money out of electronics, but that don't seem likely 'cos he ain't Japanese.
DOCTOR: Japanese?
MOSS: No. His people dig up bodies.
DOCTOR: They do? Splendid.
LEELA: Grave robbers.
DOCTOR: Or archaeologists. Where is this Priory?
MOSS: Yon side of village.
DOCTOR: And it's haunted, of course.
MOSS: Oh aye, but it's the wood more than the
DOCTOR: Shush. Don't you worry. What's your name?
MOSS: Ted Moss.
DOCTOR: Ted Moss? Hmm. Don't you worry, Mister Moss. We won't tell a soul, living or dead. Come on, Leela.

(Ted eats his jelly baby.)

[Kitchen]

(Mrs Poo from To the Manor Born is being talked at by a Security guard in uniform with a rifle over his shoulder. Say Hi! to Daphne Heard.)

MITCHELL: Just relax and stay there. We'll get it sorted out.
MARTHA: Don't 'ee tell me what to do in me own kitchen.
MITCHELL: This isn't your kitchen, Grandma.
MARTHA: I bain't your grandma. Don't 'ee grandma me.

(Colby and Thea enter.)

COLBY: Hey, what's going on here? Who are you?
MARTHA: This fellow's trying to stop me comin' in the house.
MITCHELL: My name is Mitchell. I'm the security team leader. And no one is allowed in or out without clearance. This loony old trout seems to think she's an exception.
MARTHA: Loony old trout?

(Martha lays about Mitchell with her handbag.)

COLBY: Oh, gently, Mrs T, gently. Remember your varicose veins.
MITCHELL: I've had it with you now, you old stoat. Any more trouble and I'll have you outside and set the dog on you.
COLBY: Hey, now, just a minute.
THEA: You can't talk to her like that.
MARTHA: Oh, don't 'ee mind him, my lovelies. Sooner or later he'll be sorry. Later or sooner, he'll regret. Well, I'll be going now, Professor. You can tell Doctor Fendelman I'll come back when the others is gone. I don't hold with the likes of 'ee. There isn't a dog born that as attack me, boy. They got more sense than most people.

(Martha dumps her wicker basket in Mitchell's arms and leaves.)

MITCHELL: Now I can see why they burnt witches.
COLBY: Cheaper than oil. I don't know who you are, friend, but I hope you can cook.
MITCHELL: I told you who I am.
COLBY: You meant all that stuff about restrictions?
MITCHELL: Of course.
THEA: You said no one could come in or out without authorisation.
MITCHELL: No.
THEA: Does that apply to us?
MITCHELL: Yes, Miss Ransome.
THEA: Oh, that's ridiculous.
COLBY: Authorisation from whom?
MITCHELL: I think you'd better have a word with Doctor Fendelman.
COLBY: Stay here, Thea. I'll go.

[Fendelman's lab]

(Colby knocks and enters.)

COLBY: Doctor Fendelman?

(There is no one there. Colby obviously has never been in here before.)

COLBY: What on Earth's he playing at?

(Fendelman enters.)

FENDELMAN: You are impressed?
COLBY: Oh, I don't know. I always say if you've seen one jukebox, you've seen them all. This is archaeology?
FENDELMAN: Oh, this is the ultimate archaeology, Adam. It was data from here which led me to the excavation sites in Kenya. And when we had excavated the skull and assembled it and Thea had dated it, then the real work of this machine could begin.
COLBY: And that is?
FENDELMAN: About ten years ago, when I was working on a missile guidance system, I noticed a sort of vibration. A sort of sonic shadow.

[Outside Fetch Priory]

(Inside the ornate gates, a guard patrols with a Doberman Pinscher. Leela and the Doctor are hiding in the bushes.)

DOCTOR: What is it?
LEELA: There's a guard. I shall kill him.
DOCTOR: No.
LEELA: Why not?
DOCTOR: You'll upset the dog. Listen, Leela, you simply must stop attacking people.
LEELA: Why?
DOCTOR: Because you'll get us into trouble.
LEELA: Do not worry, Doctor. I shall protect you.
DOCTOR: What? You'll protect me? Come on, we'll circle round the back. Come on!

[Laboratory]

COLBY: Crazy as a bed bug. He actually believes that he can see into the past with that electronic fruit machine he's got down there.
THEA: Did he demonstrate it for you?
COLBY: Did he demonstrate it? Of course he didn't demonstrate it. How could he? I mean, the whole thing's a load of old rubbish. He thinks because he can pervert the laws of the land, he can do the same for the laws of physics.
THEA: Well, it's a bit late to be self-righteous about perverting the laws of the land, isn't it.
COLBY: What? Yes. Yes, I suppose it is.
THEA: Did he, er, did he give any reason for not demonstrating it?
COLBY: Apparently it only works after dark.
THEA: Hmm. Minimising solar disruption, perhaps.
COLBY: What?
THEA: Well, Fendelman's no fool when it comes to electronics. He was one of the authentic geniuses in the field until he developed this interest in the origins of man.
COLBY: You mean until he flipped his lid. Oh, come on. We'll go and get the supper.

[Woodlands]

(Night has fallen and the owl is hooting again.)

DOCTOR: The house must be that way. Now come on.

[Priory grounds]

(In the Priory, Thea sneaks down the corridor and knocks on the door. There's no answer, so she enters and turns on the lights, then goes to where Fendelman usually sits and turns on the device. The humming starts up and the skull in her lab begins to glow.)

DOCTOR: All right, now whatever you do, stay close to me, you understand? Leela?

(A guard walks past his hiding place.)

DOCTOR: Leela! She's done it again.
(Thea is cranking up the power. Leela is outside a lit cottage. The image of the skull appears over Thea's face.
Something approaches the Doctor, who is standing motionless. Leela opens the cottage door and someone fires a double-barrelled shotgun.)
Part Two

[Priory grounds]

(Leela ducks back to the side of the door as the shotgun fires. Meanwhile, the Doctor is trying to move.)

DOCTOR: Come on, legs. Come on, you can do it. Pull yourself together. Come on now, lift.

(Finally the Doctor manages to turn around and walk away, stiff-legged.)

DOCTOR: Left, right, left. That's it, legs, run! Run! Run! Run! Run!

[Cottage]

(A old man reloads the shotgun. On the table are some tarot cards, including Death, Hanged Man reversed, Moon crossed with the Lovers, the Devil and some others. An owl sits on a perch. The man goes to the door. Leela enters and disarms him.)

LEELA: That shot will be your last.
MOSS: I didn't know it were you.
LEELA: Well you know now.
MOSS: You was trespassing.

(A younger man enters.)

TYLER: So were you, Ted Moss. Now put the gun down, miss.

(He sticks something in Leela's back.)

TYLER: I said, put the gun down, miss.
LEELA: Kill me, and your friend dies too.
MOSS: She's a nutter, she is, Jack. She means it.
TYLER: He ain't no friend of mine, so that's a chance I'm prepared to take. The gun, miss.

(Leela puts the gun on the floor. Tyler only has a walking stick, by the way. He hands it to her and picks up the gun, then unloads it.)

LEELA: You
TYLER: Right. Now, perhaps you would explain what you're doing in my gran's cottage.
MOSS: She was
TYLER: Both of you.

[Fendelman's lab]

COLBY: Thea, what on Earth are you doing? Fendelman will go barmy, barmier if he found you messing. Thea?

(He realises she is in a trance.)

COLBY: Thea! What's wrong, Thea?

(Mitchell the security guard is in the kitchen, reading the Sun and having a drink when there is a strange humming, rustling noise outside. It seems to walk along to the door, which then opens. Mitchell readies his rifle.)

COLBY: Thea!

(A man screams as Colby turns off the machine.)

COLBY: Thea, wake up!

(He slaps her and she finally comes to herself.)

THEA: Adam, what are you doing?
COLBY: Come on, come on, let's get out of here.
THEA: What are you doing here?
COLBY: That scream, it came from the kitchen.
THEA: What scream?
COLBY: Never mind.

(He drags her out and switches off the lights.)

[Kitchen]

(Mitchell is lying on the floor by the range.)

COLBY: It's Mitchell. That expression, it's the same as the other one.
THEA: There's a blister on the back of the neck. Could be a birth mark, I suppose.
COLBY: How can you be so dispassionate? The man's dead, Thea.
THEA: Adam. Adam.

(Thea collapses as the Doctor enters.)

COLBY: Thea?
DOCTOR: Don't touch her. I said don't touch her!

(He goes to Mitchell's body.)

DOCTOR: How many deaths have there been?
COLBY: Deaths?
DOCTOR: Like this.
COLBY: Two. Now, look
DOCTOR: No, no, no, no, no, you look.

(Thea is surrounded by a golden glow. Strange giant maggot-like creatures appear to be sitting on her body, which cobra hoods round their 'heads', then they disappear again.)

COLBY: What was it?
DOCTOR: They look like embryo Fendahleen to me.

(The glow has gone, and Thea wakes up.)

DOCTOR: Come and sit down. You'll be all right.
COLBY: Embryo what?
DOCTOR: Embryo Fendahleen. A creature from my own mythology. Supposed to have perished when the fifth planet broke up. At least, so they said.
COLBY: A creature from mythology? Do you know what you're talking about?
DOCTOR: Well, you saw it. If it survived twelve million years, it's energy reserves must be enormous.
COLBY: Twelve million? Why did you say twelve million?
DOCTOR: What? Well, about twelve million. That's when the fifth planet broke up. There are four thousand million people here on your planet, and if I'm right, within a year there'll be just one left alive. Just one.
COLBY: What are you, exactly? Some sort of wandering Armageddon peddler, hmm?
DOCTOR: Who's in charge round here?
FENDELMAN: I am.

(Stael and two security men follow him in.)

DOCTOR: Ah, Doctor Fendelman, I presume. Is that really your name, Fendelman? Now listen, Fendelman, I want you to do two things. Dismantle the scanner and run some tests on Miss Thea. Start with an x-ray of her skull. Now

(The Doctor looks down the barrel of Fendelman's revolver.)

FENDELMAN: I will give the orders around here. Take him away. Lock him up somewhere.
DOCTOR: Is this the way you treat all your houseguests?
FENDELMAN: Only the uninvited ones whom I suspect of murder.
DOCTOR: But she needs help!
FENDELMAN: Take him away!

(The security men drag the Doctor out. Stael goes over to Mitchell's body.)

STAEL: It is just the same as before.
FENDELMAN: This is a terrible thing. Terrible.
COLBY: This time I will call the police. Come along, Thea.
FENDELMAN: As you wish, Adam. But how will you explain to them that you did not call them before?

[Lumber room]

DOCTOR: Tell Fendelman there isn't time for all this!

(The guards switch on the single light before locking the Doctor in the small room. There are lots of wooden cases here. The Doctor tries his sonic screwdriver on the massive old lock on the gothic pointed shape door.)

[Cottage]

TYLER: That do seem a bit far-fetched.
MOSS: Ain't a word of truth in it, that's why.
TYLER: You wouldn't recognise the truth if you fell over it.
MOSS: Hey
LEELA: Why should I lie to you?
TYLER: Fear.
LEELA: Does it seem to you that I am afraid?
MOSS: Well, you ought to be. I said you ought to be.

(Moss puts his hand on Leela's shoulder and gets an elbow in the ribs for it, knocking the wind out of him. He doubles over in pain.)

MOSS: Oh, God.
LEELA: I must go now.
TYLER: Hang on a minute. Er, please. (to Moss) You, on your way.
MOSS: I want to see Mother Tyler.
TYLER: Well Mrs Tyler don't want to see you.
MOSS: Now where is she?
TYLER: I don't know.
MOSS: She's got something for me and I paid good money for it.
TYLER: You'll get your money. Now get out. Out!
MOSS: (to Leela) I'll see you later.
LEELA: Get some practice first.

(Moss leaves.)

TYLER: Nasty piece of work. Him and some others from the village, they er. Well, I'm not sure exactly, but the thing is that I think my Gran's involved in whatever it is. Now, she's a good old girl but, well, she was brought up in the old ways, you see.
LEELA: The old ways?
TYLER: Yeah, the old superstitions and that. See, he called her Mother Tyler. Now that ain't 'cos he likes her. That's, that's the old religion. Look, there's something nasty going on. Do you know what it is? Have you been sent with this Doctor bloke to sort it out?
LEELA: Well, the Doctor came to stop the sonic time scan.
TYLER: Oh. What's one of them?
LEELA: He said it would cause a, a direct continuum ex, implosion.
TYLER: Damn, girl, you don't half tell some whoppers, don't you.
LEELA: Whoppers?
TYLER: Aye. Don't matter.
LEELA: Listen. I'm sure the Doctor can help you. Oh, he's very difficult sometimes, but he has great knowledge and gentleness.

(In the lumber room, the Doctor kicks a cardboard box and throws his screwdriver across the room in frustration. Then someone unlocks the door from the outside and it swings open. He picks up his screwdriver, switches off the light and leaves.)

[Laboratory]

(Thea and Colby enter.)

COLBY: I should have gone to the police right away.
THEA: Then why didn't you?
COLBY: Thea, I've always been ambitious. That's a weakness in anyone.
THEA: Yes, particularly scientists.
COLBY: When Fendelman offered me unlimited funds, I jumped at the chance. I owe him a great deal. And when he asked for the body to be moved, it seemed so unimportant.
THEA: But now that Mitchell's dead.
COLBY: Yes.
THEA: Well, then, phone the police.

(Colby gets a telephone out from under the bench, but there's no dialling tone.)

COLBY: The line's disconnected.
THEA: Disconnected?
COLBY: Yes, as in cut off.

(Thea takes the phone from him.)

THEA: Adam, can't you be serious just for a minute?
COLBY: I am serious. The place is surrounded by guards, we're beset by a wandering lunatic and we have a pair of corpses on our hands. And on top of all that, the telephone seems to be very dead. Thea, we're trapped.
THEA: It was planned.
COLBY: By Fendelman.
THEA: No. No, not by Fendelman. He's just part of it, doing what was planned for him. Don't you see? For him. That would fit. That would explain it.
COLBY: Explain what?
THEA: Adam, you haven't asked me whose plan it is. Why don't you ask me? Go on, ask me who planned it.
COLBY: Stop it. Stop it!
THEA: I did. Do you understand? I did.
COLBY: Now be reasonable, Thea. How could you have? You're as sane as anyone here. Except. Come on. Come on.

[Kitchen]

(Thea sits quietly while the men argue.)

COLBY: You must think my head zips up the back.
FENDELMAN: (fondling his revolver) Be reasonable, Colby. Why should I disconnect the telephone?
COLBY: For the same reason you've got the place surrounded by thugs.
FENDELMAN: And what reason is that?
COLBY: Because you're mad, Fendelman. You're mad.
FENDELMAN: In that case, you are hardly behaving in a manner conducive to your own safety. I should be humoured, surely. Sit down, Colby. This skull that you found is, I believe, extraterrestrial in origin.
COLBY: An alien space traveller? Hence the guards. Next of kin come for the remains? You're expecting an attack by little green men from, er, Venus?
FENDELMAN: Don't talk like a fool, Colby! You're not a fool!
COLBY: No, I'm not. That skull is human. It's a skull like yours and mine. Modern man. Homo sapiens!
FENDELMAN: Exactly. It is also twelve million years old. Millions of years older than the earliest of man's known ancestors.
COLBY: You think we're all aliens?

[Cottage]

TYLER: Let's go, then. Find this Doctor of yours. Perhaps he can sort it out and make some sense of it all. If he's half as clever as you say
LEELA: Shush.

(Leela goes to the window, then Tyler to the side of the door.)

TYLER: Yeah, if he's half as clever as you say he is, he ought to be able to sort it out.

(And pulls the door open quickly to reveal Martha Tyler, his gran, terrified.)

[Corridor]

(The Doctor makes his way towards the voices.)

STAEL [OC]: You should not have come here.
MOSS [OC]: Well, I had to warn you.
STAEL [OC]: There are security guards now.

[Fendelman's lab]

MOSS: City boys. I know how to get past them.
STAEL: It was a stupid risk. Fendelman is already suspicious and uneasy. Why do you think he sent for the guards?
MOSS: I had to warn you about the Doctor.
STAEL: What doctor?

[Corridor]

MOSS [OC]: Well, there's this bloke calls himself a doctor. Tall, curly hair. He's got a girl working with him. And I told him where to find this place. Well, I didn't realise. I tried to stop him after. They know all about us.

[Fendelman's lab]

MOSS: 'Tis true. They're investigators. They come to investigate.
STAEL: I will deal with them. Now go, quickly.

[Corridor]

STAEL: Are all our friends prepared?
MOSS: They're waiting for the word.
STAEL: When the time comes, we must be twelve.
MOSS: We know you lead the coven now, but we know the old ways. Thirteen be the number.

(Moss leaves.)

STAEL: A place must be left for the one who kills.

[Kitchen]

COLBY: Circumstantial. It's all circumstantial.
FENDELMAN: It is the only logical explanation, Adam. Man did not evolve on Earth, of this I am sure. There is something else that I have not told you. With the scanner, I have traced what I now believe to be the moment of death of this alien traveller. At that moment, there is an enormous surge of power the like of which I have not seen before. It was this that first attracted my attention. It is an inpouring of energy. A concentration of power as though to store. Now I ask myself, where would this power be stored? And why? These questions I could not answer until I had x-rayed the skull.
COLBY: You x-rayed the skull? When?
FENDELMAN: Stael and I have been doing experiments in secret for some time.
COLBY: Thank you.
FENDELMAN: No, no, no, you are right. But from the beginning I had the feeling that this was so important that it must be kept secret. And now we have these murders and this mysterious intruder.
COLBY: He said something about x-rays.
THEA: Will you excuse me?
COLBY: Oh, I'm sorry, Thea. Are you still feeling ill?
THEA: No, it's all right. I'm just a little tired. I think I'll go and lie down.
FENDELMAN: You are looking very pale, my dear. Perhaps you have been working too hard. I will ask Stael to look in on you later.

(Thea pauses at the door, then leaves.)

FENDELMAN: There is no doubt that this intruder has been spying on us.
COLBY: Yes. Well, after the x-rays, what did you find?
FENDELMAN: I will show you. Come.

[Cottage]

(Martha is wrapped in a blanket, but she is still shaking.)

TYLER: Gran, can you hear me?
LEELA: Drink this, old woman. It will warm you.
TYLER: What happened, Gran?
LEELA: Do not ask her that. It's because she does not want to remember that she is like this. You are safe now. You are safe. Nothing can hurt you. I will let nothing hurt you.
MARTHA: I, I seen it. In my mind. Dark. Great dark. It called me. In my mind it called me. Hungry. It were hungry for my soul.
TYLER: What's it mean?
MARTHA: Everything. There'll be nothing left.
LEELA: The Doctor will know.
MARTHA: No life left. Help me! Help us!
LEELA: I must find the Doctor. Stay with her!

(Leela leaves.)

MARTHA: It were hungry for my soul.

[Fendelman's lab]

(Fendelman points to a series of cracks in the skull x-ray that look very like a pentagram.)

FENDELMAN: There. Do you see it?
COLBY: It looks like a pentagram. It's the way the fragments have been assembled.

(Fendelman takes it from the light box.)

FENDELMAN: No. It is part of the bone structure itself. I believe it to be a form of neural relay, and this is where the energy is stored. It is interesting, is it not, that for as long as man can remember, the pentagram has been a symbol for mystical energy and power.
COLBY: All right, let's assume that's the how. You're still left with why.
FENDELMAN: A beacon.
COLBY: What?
FENDELMAN: Suppose the energy is still within this neural circuit and can only be released by the intelligent application of applied advanced technology.
COLBY: You mean the release of that energy would act as a signal that there was intelligent life on this planet?
FENDELMAN: And at last, mankind would meet its
COLBY: Next of kin?
FENDELMAN: Destiny, Adam. Its destiny.

(Outside the main Priory entrance, Leela sneaks up on a guard and knocks him out.)

[Lumber room]

THEA: Hello? Are you there? Please, I need help.

[Fendelman's lab]

(Thea crosses the hallway and enters, sees the x-ray on the light box and turns it on. She puts her hands to her head. Stael enters.)

STAEL: Thea.
THEA: Max! You frightened me. Do you have to creep about like that?
STAEL: I apologise. What are you doing here, Thea?
THEA: I was, I was looking for the stranger. Do you know where he is?
STAEL: It is not important.
THEA: Well it is to me. I must find him. I think he can help me.
STAEL: Why should you need help, Thea? Anyway, the stranger has escaped. He can do nothing. It is too late. Too late for all the meddling fools.
THEA: What are you talking about, Max? Get out of my way.
STAEL: There's no need to be afraid of me, Thea.
THEA: Please, Max!
STAEL: It is fitting that you should be the key to my power.
THEA: Max, don't be such a fool.
STAEL: The chosen one.

(Stael takes Thea in his arms and puts a cloth over her mouth. She passes out, so presumably it had chloroform on it.)

STAEL: The chosen one.

[Laboratory]

(The Doctor enters and listens at the door before eating a jelly baby and exploring.)

DOCTOR: Ah. Parastatic magnetometer. How very quaint.

(He picks up a small rib bone from the bench and sniffs it.)

DOCTOR: Hmm. Twelfth century.

(Then he takes the cloth off Eustace the skull.)

DOCTOR: Oh. Oh. Would you like a jelly baby? No, I don't suppose you would. Alas, poor skull.

(Eustace begins to hum, pulse and glow. The Doctor stiffens and reaches out to it against his will. As he puts his hand on it, the sound suddenly becomes almost a shriek and the Doctor gasps in pain.)

Part Three

[Corridor]

(Leela enters the kitchen and follows the sound of the energy hum through the Priory.)

LEELA: Doctor? What's the matter? Where is he? Doctor!

(The Doctor screams.)

[Laboratory]

LEELA: Doctor?

(She turns on the lights and runs to him.)

DOCTOR: No, no.

(Leela kicks the wheeled chair out from under him. The Doctor falls on top of her, breaking his contact with the skull.)

BOTH: Are you all right?
LEELA: You are very heavy.
DOCTOR: How did you find me?
LEELA: Well, I just felt something was wrong so I followed the feeling.
DOCTOR: Yes.
LEELA: I did!
DOCTOR: Yes, of course you did.
LEELA: Hey.
DOCTOR: What?
LEELA: Have I saved your life?
DOCTOR: Yes. I was careless. Come on, get up. Come on.

(The skull is dull and quiet again.)

DOCTOR: You're becoming a metracion generator, aren't you.
LEELA: Is it alive?
DOCTOR: Yes. It's using appropriate genetic material to recreate itself.
LEELA: What is it?
DOCTOR: Shush. I think it's the Fendahl. It grows and exists by death.
LEELA: Most creatures do. That is what you told me.
DOCTOR: The Fendahl absorbs the full spectrum of energy, what some people call a life force or soul. It eats life itself.
LEELA: That must be what the old woman saw.
DOCTOR: What?
LEELA: Huge and dark, she said. Hungry for her soul.
DOCTOR: And she's still alive?
LEELA: Yes.
DOCTOR: Take me to her.
LEELA: What about that?
DOCTOR: It's indestructible.
LEELA: Well, what about the sonic time scan?
DOCTOR: No, no, first thing's first. Fendelman can operate that before the implosion for about a hundred hours, give or take a few minutes.
LEELA: But he might already have used his hundred hours.
DOCTOR: That's a risk I'll have to take. Come on, let's go.

(The Doctor throws the rib back onto the bench.)

[Fendelman's lab]

(There is a counter displayed on one of the monitors - 98:56:43.7.)
COLBY: What's that for?
FENDELMAN: That is a running log. Some of the scanner components have a limited life.
COLBY: Ninety eight hours fifty six minutes forty three point seven seconds. You've been busy with this equipment.
FENDELMAN: It has been a joy.
COLBY: A labour of love, even. If man really is descended from aliens like this, why haven't we found evidence of it before?
FENDELMAN: Because we were not looking.
COLBY: Oh, come on.
FENDELMAN: No, we were not looking for this kind of evidence, and without the scanner we would not have found this. Adam, in all research there must be a single discovery. What is it the Chinese say? That a journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step.
COLBY: This isn't a step, it's a jump. And to rather an illogical conclusion.
FENDELMAN: You shall see. I have already reprogrammed the computer. This time it will give a visual interpretation of what the scanner picks up. On this screen, Colby, you shall see the true genesis of homo sapiens.

(The log starts running forward.)

[Chapel]

(Thea is lying on the ground, her wrists tied in front of her. Stael prepares a hypodermic.)

STAEL: Thea.
THEA: Max.
STAEL: I'm glad you are awake, Thea. I want you to understand why I brought you here. You are the medium through which the ancient power of this place is focused.
THEA: What are you doing?

(Stael injects her then sits her up.)

STAEL: The scanner awoke the power. You know about the scanner, of course. I've been watching you for some time, you see. Through you, I shall conjure and control the supreme power of the ancients.
THEA: Oh, Max, don't be so ridiculous.
STAEL: You will sleep now, while we prepare.

(Stael walks away.)

THEA: Max! Max, you're a fool.
STAEL: I shall be a god.

[Cottage]

(Martha is asleep in the chair when Leela enters with the Doctor.)

TYLER: Is this him? Is this your man? Oi, do you know what's going on? My Gran in hell of a state.

(The Doctor claps his hands. )

DOCTOR: Come on, Mrs Tyler, wake up.

(Leela shakes Martha.)

LEELA: Come on, old woman, wake up. Wake up now.
TYLER: Oi, what do you think you're doing? Leave her alone.
DOCTOR: Do you know what's wrong with her?
TYLER: Well, no, but
DOCTOR: I do. Make some tea.
TYLER: Tea?
DOCTOR: Tea. She does drink tea?
TYLER: Well, yeah.
DOCTOR: Off you go and make some. Use the best china. Four cups laid out on a tray. Off you go. Oh, and some fruitcake.
TYLER: Anything else?
DOCTOR: No.

(Tyler goes into the kitchen.)

DOCTOR: I love fruitcake. Come on, Mrs Tyler. This is no way to behave when you've got visitors. We've come for tea.
LEELA: And fruitcake.
DOCTOR: And fruitcake.

[Fendelman's lab]

FENDELMAN: There, Colby, do you see it?

(Stael enters, takes in the scene and produces a small revolver.)

STAEL: Turn it off!

(Colby and Fendelman do not turn round.)

FENDELMAN: Where have you been, Stael. I needed you here.
STAEL: Turn off the scanner!

(Colby turns around.)

COLBY: Doctor Fendelman, I think you have an industrial relations problem.
FENDELMAN: What are you talking?

(Fendelman turns and sees what Colby means. His own larger revolver is nearby, and he picks it up and slips it in his lab coat pocket.)

FENDELMAN: Have you lost your mind?
STAEL: The scanner.
FENDELMAN: No.
COLBY: Relax, Max. I'll do it.

(Colby turns off the scanner.)

FENDELMAN: Why, Stael?
STAEL: I am not yet ready. My followers are not yet here.
COLBY: Followers? Well, that's impressive.
STAEL: Shut up, Colby, or I will kill you now. Outside, both of you.

(They walk to the door.)

FENDELMAN: Is this some sort of joke, Max?
COLBY: Oh no, Max isn't famous for his sense of humour, are you, Maxie?
STAEL: I shall not warn you again, Colby.
COLBY: You're going to kill us anyway, aren't you?
STAEL: That depends on whether I enjoy having you worship me.

[Cottage kitchen]

DOCTOR [OC]: Then you mix the peanuts with the treacle

[Cottage]

(Tyler enters with the tea tray, as ordered.)

DOCTOR: Throw in the apple cores very hard, put the lot in a shallow tin and bake in a high oven for two weeks. (sotto) It's too late. She's slipping away. Come on.
MARTHA: Here, just a minute.
DOCTOR: What is it?
MARTHA: That ain't the way to make a fruitcake.
DOCTOR: Mrs Tyler! (laughs)
MARTHA: Here, well, if you'm going to stay, you may as well sit yourselves down. I'll have the tea ready in a jiffy.
TYLER: It's here, Gran.
MARTHA: But that ain't the best china, John. And there's fresh cake in the other tin. Why, I'm sorry. When did I ask you to tea? I ain't never seen you afore in my life.
DOCTOR: You were slipping away, Mrs Tyler.
MARTHA: Slipping away?
DOCTOR: Yes, psychic shock. I needed something normal to bring you back to reality. How long have you lived here, Mrs Tyler?
MARTHA: Why should I tell 'ee ought?
DOCTOR: Tell her I'm trying to help.
TYLER: He's only trying to help, Gran.
MARTHA: You mind your place, John.
TYLER: Oh, now, no, we won't have none of those games. Now, Ted Moss and his cronies is up to something. It's something bad, and you're involved. Now, you tell him what he want to know.
MARTHA: I ain't involved in anything. I were consulted. A lot of people consult me. You know I've got the second sight.
DOCTOR: Yes. So you've lived in this cottage all your life, haven't you, Mrs Tyler.
MARTHA: Why should I tell 'ee ought?
DOCTOR: Well, telepathy and precognition are normal in anyone whose childhood was spent near a time fissure, like the one in the wood.
TYLER: He's as bad as she is. Here, what's a time fissure?
DOCTOR: It's a weakness in the fabric of space and time. Every haunted place has one, doesn't it? That's why they're haunted. It's a time distortion. This one must be very large. Large enough to have affected the place names round here. Like Fetchborough. Fetch. An apparition, hmm?
MARTHA: How do 'ee know so much?
DOCTOR: I read a lot. What did you see in the wood, Mrs Tyler?
MARTHA: I didn't see ought with my eyes.
DOCTOR: Then with your mind. Did it have a human shape?
MARTHA: No.
DOCTOR: Mrs Tyler, I must know. Did it have a human shape?
MARTHA: No, it didn't.
DOCTOR: Mrs. Jack, do something for me.
TYLER: If I can.
DOCTOR: It could be dangerous.
TYLER: How?
DOCTOR: I want you to keep an eye on the Priory. I must know who comes and goes. We'll be back tomorrow sundown.
TYLER: Right.

(The Doctor leaves.)

MARTHA: Here, girl.
LEELA: Yes?
MARTHA: Take this. 'Tis a charm will protect 'ee.

(Martha gives Leela a leather pouch.)

MARTHA: I cast it for Ted Moss, but 'tis too late for him.
LEELA: Thank you.

(Leela leaves.)

MARTHA: John.
TYLER: Yes, Gran?
MARTHA: I seed that figure he spoke of in a dream. 'Twere a woman.

[Chapel]

(Colby and Fendelman are tied to columns, and Thea is lying on a pentagram in front of the altar.)

FENDELMAN: How long have you been planning this, whatever it is you're planning?
STAEL: Ever since Mrs Tyler's visions began to come true.
FENDELMAN: Visions? Oh, come now, Max. You have a first class brain. Use it!
COLBY: First class brain? He's an occult freak. One of those feeble inadequates who thinks he communes with the devil. Oh, is that it, Max? Gonna summon up the devil, huh?
STAEL: Unlike you, I am not a crude lout, Colby. The grimoires do not impress me. Mrs Tyler's paranormal gifts and the race memory she draws on, these were the signposts on the road to power.
COLBY: Spare us the after dinner speech.
STAEL: I look forward to your terror, Colby.

(Stael leaves.)

FENDELMAN: I trusted him.
COLBY: I didn't, and I'm going to end up just as dead as you, if that's any consolation.
FENDELMAN: But why is he doing this?
COLBY: Fendelman, it doesn't matter why. What matters is he's doing it, to us, unless we can get free before his so-called followers arrive. Hey, what about the security guards?
FENDELMAN: In my absence, they are to take their instructions from him.

[TARDIS]

(In flight.)

DOCTOR: The fifth planet's a hundred and seven million miles out and twelve million years back, so we've no time to lose.
LEELA: Do you think this thing, the Fendahl, comes from the fifth planet?
DOCTOR: Well, it came from it a long time ago, before your species evolved on Earth.
LEELA: How did it travel?
DOCTOR: What?
LEELA: Well, you said there's only one. It could not build a spacecraft. How did it get to Earth?
DOCTOR: Well, it. Well, it probably used that enormous stockpile of energy to project itself across space.
LEELA: Oh, you mean the way lightning travels.
DOCTOR: No. Yes, well, something like that. Humans speak of astral projection, travelling psychically to different planets. That could be a race memory.
LEELA: Race memory?
DOCTOR: Yes. You see, sometimes people dream they've been to other places. It's, er, dj vu. No?
(On Earth, Tyler watches a white van come up the gravel drive to the main house. Ted Moss and three other men get out.
Leela is sleeping on the console room floor. She wakes and has her knife ready when the Doctor enters.)
DOCTOR: No, no, no. Put it away, put it away. It's a good thing your tribe never developed guns. They'd have woken with a start one morning and wiped themselves out.
LEELA: There was something chasing me. I, I couldn't move. Just a dream, I suppose.

(The Doctor breaks the three plastic cards he was carrying.)

LEELA: Hey, what's wrong?
DOCTOR: I've been checking the old data banks. There's no record at all of a fifth planet.
LEELA: Does that matter?
DOCTOR: Well of course it matters! We Time Lords are a very meticulous people. You have to be when you live as long as we do. All information is recorded.
LEELA: Perhaps there wasn't any.
DOCTOR: What?
LEELA: Information.
DOCTOR: What?

(He switches on the scanner. The view is green and swirling.)

DOCTOR: Of course. That's why there's no record of the planet.
LEELA: Why?
DOCTOR: That impression's produced by a time loop.

(Lights are flashing red and yellow on the console.)

LEELA: Time loop?
DOCTOR: Yes, a time loop. All memory of a planet's been erased by a circle of time, making data and its records invisible. Only a Time Lord could do that.
LEELA: That's very clever.
DOCTOR: That's criminal! We've been on a wild goose chase. We'd better get back. Let's hope we're not too far round that time loop.
LEELA: Is there anything I can do?
DOCTOR: Yes. No, no. I'll just set the coordinates and we're on our way.

[Cottage]

(Martha is laying out the Tarot cards again. Her crystal ball sits on its stand next to an unlit candle.)

MARTHA: The Tower, struck by lightning.

(Tyler enters.)

TYLER: Still no sign of him. Sundown, he said.
MARTHA: I didn't reckon he'd be reliable. Never trust a man as wears a hat.
TYLER: Well, Granddad always wore one.
MARTHA: And a wicked old devil he were, too.
TYLER: I wear one.
MARTHA: Ah, but I give it to 'ee. That's different. Here, put this in your pocket.
TYLER: More charms! Look, I'm not one of your punters, Gran.
MARTHA: But 'tis Lammas Eve.
TYLER: Look, you know that I don't believe in all that.
MARTHA: Most round here do. And when most believe, that do make it true.
TYLER: Most people used to believe that the Earth was flat, but it was still round.
MARTHA: Ah ha, but they behaved as if 'twere flat. Here, just for me.
TYLER: All right, then, if it makes you happy.
MARTHA: Oh, I want they two cartridges.
TYLER: What, you going rabbiting, Gran?

(He gives her two shotgun cartridges.)

MARTHA: I'm going to fill 'em with salt.
TYLER: Salt?
MARTHA: Salt's the best protection there be.
TYLER: Evil spirits again, eh, Gran?
MARTHA: You can laugh, John, but I know the old ways. Better than them up at the Priory, any road. You'd best get up there. We don't want 'em meddling in things they don't understand.

[Chapel]

(A figure in a hooded cloak and thick gloves places Eustace and his stand on the altar, and bows to him. Then he removes his gloves and puts them on the altar too. Stael has brought a console down from Fendelman's lab and lays a set of wires out.)

CORBY: What is that?
FENDELMAN: A remote control unit connected to the scanner.
CORBY: He's linking up that old bone with your scanner? Why?
FENDELMAN: The power source! Colby, I think I know.

[TARDIS]

LEELA: We're going to be late.
DOCTOR: Well of course we're going to be late! It's obvious we're going to be late! I'm sorry. I'm sorry. The question is, where is it getting the power from? Inducted biological transmutation takes a lot of power. There isn't that sort of power available in the Priory.

(He hits the console.)

LEELA: What is it? Have you hurt yourself?
DOCTOR: I've got it. It is available in the Priory. The skull's absorbing the energy released when the scanner beam damages the time fissure. Why didn't I think of that before?
LEELA: Even you can't think of everything.
DOCTOR: I can't?
LEELA: No.
DOCTOR: No. Well, I should have thought it. I was frightened in childhood by a mythological horror.
LEELA: Oh.
DOCTOR: Too frightened to think clearly.
LEELA: Tsk, tsk, tsk.

[Chapel]

(Nine robed figures stand around the pentagram.)

STAEL: The waiting is over. Prepare yourselves.

(Everyone kneels.)

FENDELMAN: Don't do it, Stael!
CORBY: Shut up, you fool. Let him electrocute himself.
FENDELMAN: He will kill us all. Listen to me, all of you! He is a madman!

(The TARDIS must have landed back in the field, because the Doctor and Leela are walking through the woods.)

FENDELMAN: You must stop him! Stop him now, before he plunges everything into chaos and death!
COLBY: I'll plunge you into chaos and death if you don't shut up.
FENDELMAN: You don't understand. I see now what will happen.
STAEL: You do?
FENDELMAN: Max, listen. The Doctor asked if my name was real. Fendelman. Man of the Fendahl. Don't you see? Only for this have the generations of my fathers lived. I have been used! You are being used! Mankind has been used!

[Fendelman's lab]

(Tyler and Martha enter.)

TYLER: Ain't in here, either.
MARTHA: Oh, the house is empty, then. Oh, I don't hold with all this. 'Tis agin nature.

(There is a gunshot somewhere in the house.)

TYLER: That sounded like a shot. Here, are there any cellars?
MARTHA: Oh, there are cellars all under here, but they haven't been used for years.
TYLER: Yeah, well they're being used now.
MARTHA: Come on, boy. Ow!
TYLER: You all right, Gran?
MARTHA: Well, what do you think?

[Chapel]

(Blood trickles down from a small hole in Fendelman's right temple. Stael is smiling.)

COLBY: You murdering lunatic.

(The Doctor opens the Priory gates and walks through. Stael turns some of the lights out.)

STAEL: The way to power is open!

[Outside Fendelman's lab]

(Martha has sprained her ankle.)

MARTHA: Oh, dammit, boy, that hurt.

(In the lab, the equipment starts up. Down in the Chapel, Thea wakes in the spotlight, and easily removes the rope from her wrists.)

MARTHA: Listen, John. There's summat comin'. Can you hear it? Summat comin'.

(The pentagram glows gold.)

DOCTOR: Are you all right?
TYLER: Damn, I'm glad to see you. You're not a moment too soon.
MARTHA: No, a moment too late. Listen.

(Something large is leaving a slimy trail on the polished wooden floorboards.)

DOCTOR: Come on, let's get out of here.
LEELA: Doctor!
DOCTOR: What?
LEELA: That dream! I can't move!
TYLER: My legs. I can't move my legs!
MARTHA: Look! Look!

(The giant Fendahleen is slithering towards them like a man-sized hooded cobra.)

Part Four

[Outside Fendelman's lab]

LEELA: What's happening? Why can't we move?
DOCTOR: Shush. It's psychotelekinetic. It controls your muscles telepathically.

(The Doctor takes the shotgun from Tyler.)

TYLER: It's only loaded with rock salt.
DOCTOR: No matter. It's confused that I can still move. Shut your eyes. Shut your eyes! Now concentrate on your legs, and when I shout, run!

(The Doctor moves towards the Fendahl, takes aim and fires the first barrel. The Fendahl backs away, squealing. He fires the second barrel.)

DOCTOR: Run! Come on!
LEELA: I can't.
TYLER: I'm trying.
LEELA: I can't move my legs.
DOCTOR: Run for your life!
TYLER: Come on, Gran.
DOCTOR: Rock salt.

[Chapel]

(Thea transforms into a golden figure in billowing robes, and slowly tilts up into a standing position.)

COLBY: Thea? Thea!

(The figure with its large painted eyes turns to point at Ted Moss.)

MOSS: No! No! Don't do that! Don't do that! Argh!

(Moss collapses, then turns into a mini-Fendahleen. Transformed Thea turns to another of the coven.)

COLBY: Move, man! Why don't you move?
STAEL: This is not how it should be.

(The golden woman smiles.)

[Corridor]

(The group have got away.)

DOCTOR: Well done. Well done. That sort of control's almost impossible to break.
TYLER: What was it?
LEELA: The Fendahl.
DOCTOR: No, it wasn't. It was a Fendahleen. It was the same think that killed the hiker and Mitchell. It can only have been created out of pure energy while the skull was restructuring Thea's brain.
TYLER: What's he talking about?

(The Doctor spots a power cable on the floor.)

DOCTOR: What's that for?
TYLER: Oh, I dunno, but it comes from Fendelman's laboratory.
MARTHA: It goes down to the cellar by the look of it.
DOCTOR: That's it! Leela, you'd better come with me. Jack, stay with your grandma. We'd better find out what's going on down there.

(The Doctor gives Tyler his shotgun back, and leaves with Leela.)

TYLER: You're all right, Gran.
MARTHA: You know summat, John? There's going to come a time when I'll be too old for this sort of thing.

[Chapel]

(The golden woman has Stael and two coven members still kneeling at her feet. Colby is looking upwards. The room is filled with a high pitched noise. It hurts the Doctor's ears as he enters with Leela, comes down the steps and hides behind a column. They move forward to the next one, and Leela cuts Colby free. )

COLBY: Hmm?
DOCTOR: Shush. Shush. Get him out of here as soon as you can. Whatever you do, don't look at her eyes. Shush. Don't look at her eyes.
COLBY: What about the others? We can't just leave them.
LEELA: Leave that to the Doctor. Come on.
STAEL: Help me.
COLBY: Come on, man. Get out while you still can!
LEELA: Get out of here! Will you get out!

(Colby and Leela leave.)

STAEL: Help

(The Doctor grabs the terrified man from behind.)

DOCTOR: Come on. Come on. It's too late. You've seen her eyes.
STAEL: The gun.
DOCTOR: What?
STAEL: Give me the gun.
DOCTOR: It won't have any effect on her.
STAEL: It's on the altar. It's not for her. It's for me.

(The Doctor goes round to the altar and takes the revolver from next to the ram's skull. He walks back and puts it into Stael's hands.)

DOCTOR: I'm sorry.
STAEL: Thank you.

(The Doctor leaves quickly. There is a single gunshot as he reaches the door.)

[Corridor]

(Colby and Leela run up to Martha and Tyler.)

TYLER: What's happened? What's happening now?
LEELA: There are Fendahleen everywhere.
MARTHA: You all right, Professor? You look a bit peaky.
COLBY: This is all your fault, do you know that? Stupid old witch.
TYLER: Hey, you watch your mouth, boy.
MARTHA: Oh, don't worry, John. He's only frightened like the rest of us.
LEELA: Quiet. Listen.
COLBY: Look, don't you threaten me, you swede-bashing cretin.
LEELA: Listen! You nearly got us all killed down there. Now be quiet, or you'll get yourself killed up here!

(The Doctor enters.)

LEELA: Oh, I'm glad to see you.
DOCTOR: Put that away. You almost got us killed down there.
COLBY: It has been mentioned.
DOCTOR: Shush. (to Martha) The darkness, is it all around us?
MARTHA: No. Only down there, where you just come from. But it's getting darker slowly.
DOCTOR: Come on. Let's have a look at the one I assaulted.
MARTHA: Oh, must we?

(Round the corner lies the big Fendahleen, looking rather dead.)

DOCTOR: Hmm, beautiful.
COLBY: Beautiful?
DOCTOR: Yes, sodium chloride. Obviously affects the conductivity, ruins the overall electrical balance and prevents control of localised disruption to the osmotic pressures.
LEELA: Salt kills it.
DOCTOR: I just said that. Probably the origin of throwing it over your shoulder. Come on.

[Fendelman's lab]

(The Doctor switches off the scanner.)

DOCTOR: Whew. Well, I've saved the planet, but we're too late for the Fendahl.
LEELA: Well, if we can kill one, we can kill the rest.
DOCTOR: Oh no, that was just a lucky shot up the throat. It's not a throat of course
LEELA: Look, Doctor, good marksmanship is not a matter of luck.
DOCTOR: True, but that was just an isolated Fendahleen, comparatively weak. What's in the cellar is the Fendahl, the gestalt.
TYLER: The what?
COLBY: A gestalt is a group creature. It's made up of separate parts, but when they join together they make a new and much more powerful creature.
TYLER: He reads a lot, you know.
DOCTOR: Shush. Got it. According to the legends of Gallifrey, and the superstitions of this planet, it's fairly certain that the Fendahl is made up of twelve Fendahleen and a core.
COLBY: Thea.
DOCTOR: Well, yes, what was Thea. It's no longer Thea no more than. I killed one, and Stael shot himself. There are only ten left.
LEELA: Are you saying the Fendahl is not yet complete?
DOCTOR: Yes, we've still got a chance. Jack?
TYLER: Yeah?
DOCTOR: Any more of those salt-filled cartridges?
TYLER: No, there are just two shot filled ones.
DOCTOR: I need rock salt, quickly.
MARTHA: 'Ere, have you two got they charms I give 'ee?
LEELA: Yes.
MARTHA: Give them to me.
TYLER: What is it?

(Martha gives the little pouches to the Doctor.)

MARTHA: Rock salt.
DOCTOR: Mrs Tyler, you're wonderful. Jack, fix those cartridges. Now, Mrs Tyler, I need as much salt as you can find. Rock salt, table salt. Fill as many containers as you can. Off you go.
MARTHA: Yes, right.

(Martha leaves.)

DOCTOR: Jack? Now listen very carefully. Go out into the corridor and keep watch. When you see the Fendahleen, don't hang around. Give it both barrels and run. Off you go.

(Jack leaves.)

DOCTOR: Leela?
LEELA: Yes?
DOCTOR: Go with him.

(The Doctor turns back to the scanner equipment. Downstairs, Fendahleen are appearing on the altar next to the glowing skull. The Doctor takes apart some of Fendelman's electronics.)

COLBY: Did you say that about twelve million years ago, on a nameless planet which no longer exists, evolution went up a blind alley?
DOCTOR: Yes.
COLBY: Natural selection turned back on itself and a creature evolved which prospered by absorbing the energy wavelengths of life itself?
DOCTOR: Mmm.
COLBY: It ate life? All life, including that of its own kind?
DOCTOR: Yes. In other words, the Fendahl. And then the Time Lords decided to destroy the entire planet, and hid the fact from posterity. They're not supposed to do that sort of thing, you know.

[Corridor]

LEELA: Listen.

[Fendelman's lab]

COLBY: So when the Time Lords acted, it was too late. The Fendahl had already come here.
DOCTOR: Yes, probably taking in Mars on it's way through.
COLBY: Then it got itself buried, but not killed.
DOCTOR: The Fendahl is death. How do you kill death? No, what happened was this. The energy amassed by the Fendahl was stored in the skull and dissipated slowly as a biological transmutation field. Now, any appropriate lifeform that came within the field was altered so that it ultimately evolved into something suitable for the Fendahl to use.
COLBY: Are you saying that skull created man?
DOCTOR: No, I'm saying it may have effected his evolution.

[Corridor]

TYLER: I can't hear nothing.
LEELA: Shush. There's something coming this way.

[Fendelman's lab]

DOCTOR: That would explain the dark side of man's nature. But it's just a theory.
COLBY: A pretty wild one.
DOCTOR: It's more fun that way.

[Corridor]

LEELA: Now, Jack, as soon as you see it, fire, and we shall run.
TYLER: Look!

(The golden woman appears in the corridor, with a giant Fendahleen behind her.)

LEELA: Don't look at her, Jack! Fire the gun!
TYLER: I can't.
LEELA: Don't look at her!
TYLER: I can't.
LEELA: Jack, give me the gun.
TYLER: I can't.

(Leela karate chops the back of Tyler's neck, and he falls. Leela tries to aim the shotgun without looking at her target.)

[Fendelman's lab]

DOCTOR: Almost there. Oh, if you want an alternative explanation, the Fendahl fed into the RNA of certain individuals the instincts and compulsions necessary to recreate. These were fed through the generations till they reached Fendelman and people like him.
COLBY: Well, that's possibly more plausible.
DOCTOR: Or on the other hand, it could all be just a coincidence. Finished.

(A shotgun fires.)

DOCTOR: Find Mrs Tyler. Give her a hand with the salt. Time's running out.

(The golden woman returns to the pentagram in the chapel.)

[Corridor]

DOCTOR: Leela! Leela!

(Tyler, Leela and a dead Fendahleen lie on the floor.)

LEELA: What happened? Did I hit it?

DOCTOR: Yes. Yes, you did. You're quite right, Leela. Good marksmanship isn't a matter of luck. Come on.

(The golden woman transforms herself into a Fendahleen.)

[Fendelman's lab]

(Martha pushes in a trolley loaded with a wicker basket and nine or so bottles.)

MARTHA: Here you are. That's all the salt I can lay me hands on.
DOCTOR: Shush. Right, battle stations. Jack, you and your grandma, back to the cottage.
TYLER: Right, we'll get
DOCTOR: Shush. You know what to do.
TYLER: Right.
DOCTOR: Good man.

(Martha and Tyler leave as Colby enters.)

COLBY: Oh, where are you going?
TYLER: We're going back to the cottage.
MARTHA: You'll catch us up.
COLBY: Oh, don't worry. I'll probably overtake you.

(Colby hands over a large box with a radioactivity symbol on the side.)

DOCTOR: Lead lined?
COLBY: Yes.
DOCTOR: Perfect. Right, now this is what I want you to do. Give Leela and me time to get down to the cellar, and then switch on the scanner beam. With luck it should confuse things down there long enough for us to grab the skull and get away.
COLBY: Well then what?
DOCTOR: Listen. This is important. Be sure to operate the scanner beam for only two minutes, then switch if off and you go.
COLBY: But why?
DOCTOR: Because I've rigged that to set off a controlled implosion three minutes after you switch off the scanner. We need three minutes to get clear.
COLBY: A big bang?
DOCTOR: Pretty big. Big enough to blow this place to atoms.
LEELA: Then why don't we leave the skull here?
DOCTOR: Oh no, too dangerous. It could pop up anywhere and start the whole thing over again. Come on.

(Leela picks up the wicker basket which she has loaded with the flasks of salt, and kisses Colby on the cheek.)

LEELA: Good luck.

(Colby shuts the door after them and checks his watch. The Doctor reenters.)

DOCTOR: Psst. Remember, three minutes.

(The Doctor holds up four fingers then leaves. After a short time, Colby switches on the scanner. The count passes 9 seconds as Leela and the Doctor arrive at the cellar door.)

[Chapel]

(The place is filled with smoke. A Fendahleen stands at the bottom of the stairs.)

LEELA: Look out, Doctor!

(They throw flasks at it, and miss.)

DOCTOR: No, better save some for later.
LEELA: Do not worry.

(They get to the bottom of the stairs as the count passes one minute. The Doctor goes to the altar and opens the radiation box, then puts on the protective gloves. Small Fendahleen hiss at him as he puts the skull into the box and closes it, removes the glove and leaves. One minute fifty one and counting.)

[Fendelman's lab]

COLBY: Five, four, three, two, one.

(He switches off the scanner.)

COLBY: You've got three minutes, Doctor.

(Colby runs out of the lab.)

[Chapel]

(Leela is carefully sprinkling salt by the pentagram.)

DOCTOR: Come on, I've got it. Let's get out of here.
LEELA: Something's happened.
DOCTOR: He's switched off the scanner beam. We've got three minutes. Come on!

(Leela throws a flask over her shoulder as they run up the stairs.)

[Corridor]

(A ghostly figure blocks their way.)

LEELA: Look!
DOCTOR: No, don't!

(The Doctor knocks the basket out of her hand, scattering salt on the carpet. With their eyes cast downwards, they walk through the image.)

LEELA [OC]: We've done it!
DOCTOR [OC]: Come on, run!

(The ceiling starts to fall in. The golden woman returns to the pentagram.)

[Outside the Priory]

DOCTOR: Leela, where are you?
LEELA [OC]: Here!
DOCTOR: Then come on! Run!

[Cottage]

(Tyler and Martha are hiding under the table.)

TYLER: You all right, Gran?
MARTHA: Yes.
TYLER: Well, keep your head down, then. Hey, somebody's coming.

(Colby runs in and joins them in the impromptu bomb shelter.)

COLBY: Any minutes now.

[Priory grounds]

(The building is lit up red from the inside. The walls buckle inwards.)

DOCTOR: Down!

(Leela and the Doctor take cover behind a fallen tree, and the building explodes in a ball of flames which expand at first, then contract back to the point of origin, burning furiously.)

LEELA: What now?
DOCTOR: We leave. Vanishing priories take a lot of explaining.
LEELA: Will the other be all right?
DOCTOR: Yes. Probably at Mrs Tyler's now, eating plum cake off her best china.

[Cottage]

(They all heave a sigh of relief.)

TYLER: I'll put the kettle on, Gran, eh?
MARTHA: Yes.

[TARDIS]

(In flight.)

LEELA: What are you going to do about the skull?
DOCTOR: Hmm? Oh, find a star about to go supernova and dump it in the vicinity.
LEELA: That will destroy it?
DOCTOR: Oh, yes. I don't think even that can stand the temperatures generated by a supernova. Ah!
LEELA: What?
DOCTOR: Found one, in the constellation of Canthares. Just set the coordinates, and we're on our way.

(Leela is back in her dark brown leathers with her hair down.)

LEELA: Then what are we going to do?
DOCTOR: I like your new dress.
LEELA: It's the old one.
DOCTOR: Oh, yes. It has a certain, je ne, je, er.
LEELA: What?
DOCTOR: What?
LEELA: You didn't finish.
DOCTOR: Didn't finish what?
LEELA: Your sentence. It's a very annoying habit, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Oh, yes, yes. Well, it's about K, K
LEELA: K9?
DOCTOR: K9. Yes. I'd better finish repairing him.
LEELA: Ah! You called him him. You called him him!
DOCTOR: I can call K9 him if I want to. He's my dog. Aren't you, K9?

(K9's head moves up and down, squeaking.)

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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