State of Decay

Part One

[State room]

(In a pastoral setting, a single castle tower rises from the only rocky outcrop in sight, looking like a fossilised Thunderbird 3 to me. The two rulers of the region sit on thrones in their dark, gothic room. A third man stands to the side. A guard approaches and bows.)

HABRIS: It is the time of selection, my lord.

(A man with deeply shadowed eyes, an artificially curled beard and wearing a golden crown replies.)

ZARGO: Choose well, Habris. Let them be filled with life.

(The man with no crown is less ostentatious.)

AUKON: It is spirit that the Great One prizes.

(The woman with the smaller crown is very imperious.)

CAMILLA: Yet flesh and blood has its place.
AUKON: I still look in vain for the first of the Chosen Ones. The Great One will need new servants at the Time of Arising. Remember that, Habris.
HABRIS: My lord.

(Habris leaves.)

[Tavern]

(The entire population is gathered in a large building, sitting at tables in one half of the space. It is rough wooden furniture and there is sawdust on the flagstone floor.)

IVO: Get back. We don't want you two.

(He goes over to a woman at a table.)

IVO: You, get in the line. And you.

(He surveys his motley selection of peasants then goes over to his wife and son.)

IVO: Go on, get back to the wall.

(His son obeys and his wife smiles. Habris enters.)

HABRIS: These are the best?
IVO: Yes.

(Habris selects two men and two women, then points to Ivo's son.)

HABRIS: You, come here.
IVO: He's not for the selection.
HABRIS: I have to obey procedure.
KARL: Why? Why do you obey them? You're not evil.
HABRIS: Enough.
KARL: You eat with us sometimes. I've seen you give my father wine. My mother, my family.

(Habris knocks Karl down.)

HABRIS: Do you understand?
IVO: It has to be done.

(Karl tries to run for it.)

HABRIS: Stop him!

(Guards block Karl's exit.)

HABRIS: I can promise nothing, you understand.

(The five chosen ones are escorted out.)

IVO: It's finished. Go!

[TARDIS]

ROMANA: Well, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes, I'm fine. The TARDIS is feeling a bit queasy.
ROMANA: Really?
DOCTOR: Yes. So would you be if you were warping about in E-space.
ROMANA: We are.
DOCTOR: Yes, but not you personally.
ROMANA: But we are personally trapped.
DOCTOR: There's a low probability we can slip off home through another CVE.
ROMANA: So we are trapped.
DOCTOR: Please, don't keep saying that.
K9: Master.
DOCTOR: Not now, K9. Not now.

(Romana turns on the scanner.)

ROMANA: We are. Marooned in the Exo-space time continuum.
DOCTOR: Well, it might be quite nice here.
ROMANA: It might be.
DOCTOR: Yes. We won't know until we've seen the sights, met a few more people.
ROMANA: Supposing there aren't any other planets here.
DOCTOR: Come on, E-space isn't that small. Something's bound to turn up.
ROMANA: You are incredible.
DOCTOR: Yes, I suppose I am, really. I've never given it much thought.
K9: Master.
DOCTOR: Not now, K9. What is it?
K9: There is one isolated planet at extreme limit of scanner range.
DOCTOR: Well, why didn't you tell me? Is it inhabited?
K9: Habitable.
DOCTOR: Atmosphere?
K9: Atmosphere and gravity approximate closely to Earth normal. Day equivalent to twenty three point three Earth hours, year to three hundred and fifty Earth days.
ROMANA: How did you know?
DOCTOR: Oh, knowing's easy. Everyone does that ad nauseam. I just sort of hope.

(The TARDIS zooms off to the planet, which is apparently orange-brown from space.)

DOCTOR: What do you make of it, K9?
K9: Localised concentration of metal artefacts suggests high technology.
DOCTOR: Civilisation?
K9: Low energy levels suggest primitive life forms.
ROMANA: Sounds as if it's come and gone.
K9: Anomalous data.
DOCTOR: Well, at least there's life.

[Woodland]

(The TARDIS lands in Burnham Beeches, a popular Hammer Horror films location.)

DOCTOR: Yes, very nice.
ROMANA: Why here?
DOCTOR: Well, I put us down close to K9's energy concentration.

(He uses his telescope.)

DOCTOR: Ah. There! Look. Protective castle, village dwellings huddled like ducklings round their mother. Typical medieval scene.
ROMANA: K9 said high technology.
DOCTOR: Computers aren't infallible.
ROMANA: Shush.

[TARDIS]

DOCTOR: It's awfully nice out there, K9. Protective castle with village dwellings huddled like ducklings round their mother. Classic medieval scene. You'd better stay here. Come on, K9. Someone's got to stay on guard, and you can compute a reverse transition from existing data. You love doing that, eh?

[Outside the console room]

(Adric comes through an inner door.)

DOCTOR [OC]: Bye, bye, K9.

(K9 plugs himself into the console.)

[Woodland]

DOCTOR: On the other hand, they may have opted deliberately for a semi-rural culture. It's a mistake to judge by appearances. Hello.

(The man puts his hands over his ears, then eyes and mouth.)

DOCTOR: Hello. Maybe you can help us?

(The man takes his shovel and runs.)

DOCTOR: We were wondering if. Should have asked him the name of his tailor.
ROMANA: You mustn't judge by appearances, Doctor.
DOCTOR: No.
ROMANA: He's probably the Astronomer Royal.

[Tavern]

(The men are eating from wooden bowls.)

IVO: Get a move on, you lot, or you'll be late! You. (to Habris) Increase the food allowances, you'd get better results. They're too weak to work harder.
HABRIS: I am the one who has to report to the Tower.
IVO: You're the one who has to tell them about poor harvests.
HABRIS: I'll see what I can do.
IVO: Huh. That's what you said about my son.
HABRIS: When there's news, I'll tell you.
IVO: News? When is there ever news?
DOCTOR: Hello.

(Ivo makes the ears, eyes, mouth gesture and bows. The Doctor tries to copy him.)

IVO: You're not from the village.
HABRIS: Or the Tower.
ROMANA: That's right.
IVO: It isn't possible. There's nowhere else. How can you be here?
DOCTOR: Well
HABRIS: My lord.
DOCTOR: No, no, no, please, just the Doctor will do. This is Romana.
HABRIS: My lord, how may I serve you?
DOCTOR: How may you serve me? Well.
HABRIS: Your lord's command.
DOCTOR: No, no. We were just wondering if there were any other scientists
IVO: Scientists?
DOCTOR: Yes, scientists. You know, witch-wiggler, wangateur. Fortune teller? Mundunugu?
IVO: Ah! Oh, such things are forbidden. We know nothing of them here.
HABRIS: If my lord will excuse me, my duties.
DOCTOR: Yes.

(Habris leaves.)

DOCTOR: I take it you don't get many strangers here.
IVO: Strangers?
DOCTOR: Yes, visitors. Foreign devils. You know, people you don't know.
IVO: Everyone here is known.
ROMANA: Well, what about people from the next village, or the nearest town?
IVO: There is only the village and the Tower, nowhere else.
DOCTOR: Who lives in this Tower of your?
IVO: Why do you ask what everyone must know? Are you sent to test me? I am Ivo, head man of this village like my father before me and his father before him. The Lords know I'm loyal.
DOCTOR: Please, don't shout. Splendid, I'm sure. So you serve the Lords, but what do the Lords do for you?
IVO: They protect us from the Wasting.
DOCTOR: Did you say the Wasting?
IVO: I have work to do.
ROMANA: Come on, Doctor. This is silly.

(Ivo starts tidying up the chairs.)

DOCTOR: Oh, come on, Ivo. These Lords of yours, how long have they ruled over you?
IVO: Forever.
DOCTOR: Really. As long as that? Well, that's a long time.

(The Doctor and Romana leave. Ivo shuts the door behind them, goes to a box on the wall and takes out a walkie-talkie.)

IVO: Kalmar. Kalmar, can you hear me? (burble) Two strangers, here, in the village. (burble burble) That's right, strangers. They were asking about scientists.

[TARDIS]

(Adric enters the console room from inside the TARDIS and makes straight for the outside door.)

K9: Halt! Your presence here is unauthorised. Explain.
ADRIC: You remember me, K9. Adric.
K9: Immature humanoid. Non-hostile.

(K9 sucks his laser in.)

ADRIC: That's better.
K9: Your presence is still unauthorised. Explain.
ADRIC: I stowed away.
K9: Stowed what away?
ADRIC: Myself. I'm a stowaway.
K9: Stowaway. One who hides in a ship to obtain free passage.
ADRIC: I thought I'd join up with the Doctor and see the universe. Where are we?
K9: An unidentified planet in what is referred to as E-space.
ADRIC: What space?
K9: E-space, to distinguish it from the larger N-space of our own origin.
ADRIC: Oh, I see. That problem again.
K9: These concepts are unknown to me. Doctor master will explain.
ADRIC: Where is he?
K9: Doctor and mistress Romana have gone in search of astro-navigational data. When I have finished my calculations
ADRIC: You just stay here and get back to your sums and I'll go and find them.
K9: Stop! Your expedition is dangerous and unnecessary.
ADRIC: Listen, K9, I'm a stowaway. I shouldn't be here at all.
K9: Correct.
ADRIC: Then the sooner I leave, the better.
K9: The conclusion is logical.

(The doors open.)

ADRIC: Gotcha.

[Woodland]

ROMANA: How much further are we going?
DOCTOR: These people are more complicated than you think, you know. Only to the next village.
ROMANA: There isn't another village.
DOCTOR: Hmm.
ROMANA: What's that noise?
DOCTOR: Oh, just bats. They come out at night, you know. What do you mean, there isn't another village. Of course there's another village. There's got to be another village. Just a minute. Maybe you're right. K9's orbital scan. The settlement was the only thing to show up on it.
ROMANA: Doctor.
DOCTOR: Hmm?
ROMANA: Look.

(They are surrounded by cloaked figures, who move in menacingly.)

ROMANA: Say something.
DOCTOR: Hello. I'm the Doctor and this is Romana. Er, we were just passing your charming planet and we thought we'd just, er, well, drop in. Look, I know this may seem a silly sort of question, but we were wondering if you could tell us something about E-space. E-space? Perhaps not.

[State room]

ZARGO: What do you mean, vanished?
HABRIS: We scoured the village.
ZARGO: Then the rebels must have them.
CAMILLA: Strangers at a time like this. Why did you not seize them when they first appeared?
HABRIS: I had no orders, my lady, and there was something about them. They were no peasants, that I swear. They were Lords.
ZARGO: We are your Lords, Habris. There are no others.
HABRIS: Forgive me.
ZARGO: More patrols immediately. They must be found.
HABRIS: At once, my lord.
AUKON: Wait.
HABRIS: Master?
AUKON: I will discover the whereabouts of these strangers. Spare your guards.
ZARGO: But strangers, Aukon.
AUKON: If they are still on this planet, my servants will find them.

[Rebel's cave]

(It is getting darker as the Doctor and Romana are escorted along a well-trodden path, past some remains of broken tech and into a cave. Inside, an old man stands as they enter. He has been operating a bank of equipment.)

DOCTOR: Well, it's quite a technocotheca you've got here.
ROMANA: Doctor, what's a technocotheca?
DOCTOR: I don't know. I think it's some sort of museum.
ROMANA: Oh.
VEROS: Look at their faces. Look at their clothes. They're strangers.
TARAK: We found them in the forest. He calls himself Doctor.
KALMAR: Doctor? That's a word I've seen in the old records. It's a title used by scientists. Are you a scientist, Doctor, like me?
DOCTOR: Well, I've dabbled a bit.
TARAK: He was asking about scientists in the Centre. All right, it's time for some answers.
DOCTOR: What, do you mean who are we, where do we come from that sort of thing?
TARAK: It'll do for a start.
DOCTOR: Come on, let's not talk about us. This looks much more interesting.

(The Doctor sits at the bank of equipment.)

DOCTOR: I see you've got some of it working.
KALMAR: We have a generator. It gives us power for air, light and heat, and the communicators.
TARAK: But no weapons, eh, Kalmar.
KALMAR: When we have rediscovered basic scientific principles, we shall be able to make weapons of our own. But it takes time.
TARAK: How many of us have lived and died because everything takes time.
ROMANA: How long have things been like this?
KALMAR: Forever. The Lords rule in the Tower, the peasants toil in the fields. Nothing has changed in a thousand years.
TARAK: But it will change when we overthrow the Lords.
DOCTOR: What? Isn't that a bit dangerous? I mean, a chap in the village told me the Lords protected you from the Wasting.
KALMAR: You know about the Wasting?
DOCTOR: Well, only by hearsay. What is the Wasting?
TARAK: The Wasting?
DOCTOR: Yes.
TARAK: The Wasting is

(Kalmar stops him.)

TARAK: The Wasting.
DOCTOR: Ah.

[Tavern]

(Marta, Ivo's wife, is slicing roots into a cooking pot when Adric sneaks in. He hides behind a pillar and tries to reach out for a piece of bread. She grabs his arm.)

MARTA: Got you! Who are you? How did you come here?
ADRIC: Oh, I walked.
MARTA: I don't know you.
ADRIC: Well, I don't know you, either.
MARTA: But that's not possible.
ADRIC: I'm looking for two friends of mine. I don't suppose you've seen them, have you? Tall man with curly hair and a silly scarf. There'll be a girl with him.
MARTA: There were two strangers here earlier, a lord and a lady.
ADRIC: Any idea where they could be?
MARTA: They went to the Tower.

(Ivo grabs Adric from behind.)

IVO: What are you doing with my bread? Who are you?
MARTA: He's looking for the two strangers.
IVO: Let him look somewhere else, then.
MARTA: No, you can't let him go out now. It's not safe. Let him stay the night at least. Maybe his friends will come for him.
IVO: And what if someone from the Tower comes, eh?
MARTA: What, now? That's hardly likely. Here, boy, you take this.

(Marta helps Adric put on a rough local style jacket.)

MARTA: It belonged to my son.
ADRIC: Whatever you say. Well, if I'm staying.

(Adric helps himself to a bowl of stew.)

ADRIC: You wouldn't have any cheese, would you?
MARTA: Cheese?
ADRIC: Never mind.

[Rebel's cave]

DOCTOR: How long ago was that?
TARAK: Years ago. Some of us were on the run from Zargo and his men. We escaped into the wasteland and discovered this, all kinds of wonderful things just thrown about, half hidden. There was even food, mountains of it.
KALMAR: Some of us could still read. It's forbidden, but the knowledge was passed on in secret.
DOCTOR: What? Reading forbidden?
KALMAR: All science, all knowledge is forbidden by the Lords. The penalty for knowledge is death.
ROMANA: No schools of any kind?
KALMAR: Children start in the fields as soon as they can walk, stay there till they grow up, grow old and die.
TARAK: Those that escape the selection.
ROMANA: What's the selection?
TARAK: Some are taken to the Tower to serve the Lords.
KALMAR: So they say.
ROMANA: I see you've got a lot to rebel against.
DOCTOR: Just a minute. Got it. Ha, ha!

(A monitor lights up green.)

DOCTOR: Now we'll find out something. I

(The monitor goes blank again.)

DOCTOR: Oh, must have been out of guarantee. Instruction manual would be helpful.
ROMANA: Nonsense, it's just a standard Earth-type databank. I'll have to crack the entry code, but. Earth type!
DOCTOR: Ah, lovely old technology. Back on twentieth century Earth, the engineers used to just

(The Doctor hits the monitor and a menu pops up. File name Hydrax. 1. Ships manifest and cargo. 2. Flight plan from Earth. 3. Crew of exploration. 4. Vessel Hydrax en route from Earth destination Beta Two in the Perugellis sector.)

DOCTOR: Definitely an Earth device.
ROMANA: Ship's manifest and cargo, flight plan from Earth. So it is Earth. Crew of exploration vessel Hydrax en route from Earth destination Beta Two in the Perugellis sector.
DOCTOR: Instead of which they finish up here.
ROMANA: Hmm, they must have gone through a CVE as well. Ship's officers, Captain Miles Sharkey, Navigational officer Lauren MacMillan, Science officer Anthony O'Connor. Identification pictures follow. It's still legible.
DOCTOR: Yes, not bad after a thousand years in memory.

(And up come the pictures.)

TARAK: Those faces!
DOCTOR: Yes, long since dead.
TARAK: I was a Tower guard before I joined Kalmar. I saw them every day.
DOCTOR: What?
TARAK: But, as you say, it can't be.
DOCTOR: Who did you see every day?
TARAK: The three who rule. The King, his Queen.
DOCTOR: That's two.
TARAK: And Aukon, the councillor. No, I'm sorry, I see their faces everywhere. If you knew these people, Doctor
DOCTOR: Well, I think it's time we got to know them, don't you, Romana?
VEROS: They're supposed to be our prisoners, or have you forgotten that?
KALMAR: No. While I lead, I will make the decision. They are free to go.
DOCTOR: Thank you.

[Woodland]

(Night is falling.)

ROMANA: It's getting dark suddenly.
DOCTOR: Night must fall, Romana, even in E-space.
ROMANA: Doesn't feel natural. There's that noise again.
DOCTOR: Never mind. It's bats. Quite harmless.

(A roost of bats fly at them. One bites the Doctor on the neck. His blood is apparently blue.)

DOCTOR: Ow! Well, in theory. That one was a bit carnivorous.
ROMANA: Do you mind if we get a move on?

(A huge number of bats fly against the green sky. The Doctor and Romana run through the trees.)

DOCTOR: Come on!

(They lie on the ground to avoid being mobbed.)

ROMANA: Look!

(The sky is full of bats now.)

Part Two

[Woodland]

(The bats fly off into the green sky.)

HABRIS: You are awaited at the Tower. Come.

[State room]

(The sky suddenly lightens again as the Doctor and Romana enter the empty chamber.)

HABRIS: Stop. Wait here. Do not move.

(Habris leaves.)

DOCTOR: Funny about the windows.
ROMANA: What windows?
DOCTOR: Yes, and then there's the general architectural style. Would you call it rococo?
ROMANA: No, I wouldn't.

(Quite right, it is more Romanesque. The Doctor taps a large wooden pillar.)

DOCTOR: Just testing a theory.
ROMANA: Oh. Doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes?

(Zargo and Camilla have entered from behind a tapestry.)

ZARGO: Greetings.
DOCTOR: Greetings. How do you do? I'm the Doctor.
ROMANA: I'm Romana.
ZARGO: We know who you are.
CAMILLA: We know everything here.
DOCTOR: Gosh.
ZARGO: What we do not know is why you are here.
DOCTOR: Oh, er, well, we were just admiring your tower. Weren't we admiring the tower?
CAMILLA: It was built many generations ago, before living memory.
ZARGO: You are space travellers?
ROMANA: Doesn't that surprise you?
ZARGO: Nothing surprises us. A little refreshment?

(Camilla and Zargo gesture towards a table that Aukon has loaded with fresh food. Camilla hands the Doctor and Romana glasses of wine.)

ZARGO: May you both enjoy your visit.

(Camilla holds up a tray of sliced salami or some similar meat product. The Doctor and Romana both shake their heads.)

CAMILLA: As we will enjoy having you.
DOCTOR: Well, you certainly do very well for yourselves here.
ZARGO: We struggle to retain some remnants of civilisation. On an isolated, primitive planet like this, it isn't easy.
DOCTOR: No, no, indeed. Still, you do better than the peasants. Bull's blood, I think.
CAMILLA: The peasants are simple folk. Richer fare would only distress them.
DOCTOR: Quite right. Probably give them indigestion. There's nothing worse than a peasant with indigestion. Makes them quite rebellious. I hear you've been having trouble that way.
CAMILLA: There are always a few ungrateful ones who do not appreciate all that we do for them.
ROMANA: And what do you do for them, apart from saving them from gluttony?
ZARGO: We protect them.
CAMILLA: There are many dangers on this planet.
DOCTOR: Ah well, toodle-oo.

(The Doctor and Romana chink wine glasses. Romana's glass slips in her hand, breaking, and she spills her drink over the Doctor's coat.)

ROMANA: Ow!
DOCTOR: Sorry. Are you all right?

(Romana sucks her cut thumb.)

ROMANA: Yes, it's nothing. It's a tiny cut.
CAMILLA: You've hurt yourself. Let me see. Please, let me see.

(Romana snatches her hand back.)

ROMANA: Really, there's no need to make such a fuss over a few drops of blood.
ZARGO: Doctor, you still have not told us why you came here.
ROMANA: Bad luck, mostly.
DOCTOR: Yes, we were blown off-course.
ROMANA: A universe off-course.
DOCTOR: We were hoping you'd tell us how you got here, or better still, how to get back.
ZARGO: I fear we cannot help you. Our records say we came from some distant planet. A freak accident.
CAMILLA: We can never return home. Our technology is lost.
DOCTOR: Such a pity.
CAMILLA: However, there are compensations.

[Tavern]

(Marta is dishing up the stew into bowls on a tray Adric is holding.)

ADRIC: So every so often these guards just turn up, sort out a few young people and take them to the Tower?
MARTA: It is the custom.
ADRIC: And they become guards?
MARTA: A few. But most of them, no. Yesterday they took our son.
ADRIC: Why do you stand for it?
MARTA: It is our place to serve. Besides, resistance would be useless.

(Marta takes the tray and shares out the bowls to the people at the tables.)

MARTA: Our son, Karl, tried to run.
IVO: Karl will be chosen for a guard. I have Habris' word on it.
ADRIC: Someone should stand up to these Tower people.
IVO: Those who speak out against them die, silently, at night.
MARTA: There were rumours that there were a band of rebels in the wastelands, but no one knows for sure. Our son Karl tried to join them
IVO: Enough, woman! And you, boy, get on with your work. If your luck holds, they may not notice you.
ADRIC: Look, you've been very kind and I'm grateful, but if the Doctor doesn't turn up soon I shall go and look for him.
MARTA: No, you must stay here.
ADRIC: Why? What can I do here?
IVO: Survive, if you're lucky.
MARTA: Work, sleep, serve the Lords faithfully and well, and they'll allow you to live until you die, worn out. That's all there is for us.
ADRIC: Not for me.

(Habris and his guards burst in.)

HABRIS: All of you!
IVO: What are you doing here, Habris? The selection was yesterday.
HABRIS: There's to be another.
MARTA: So soon? It's against all custom.
HABRIS: The orders are from the Tower. Do you question them? And you.

(Habris drags Adric to the line of villagers.)

HABRIS: Lord Aukon himself is here.

(Aukon enters and inspects the line.)

AUKON: Interesting.

(He goes back to Adric.)

AUKON: A mind that shields itself. One who pretends to be a dull and stupid peasant, but who is different.
ADRIC: Who, me?
AUKON: You. You, come with me.
ADRIC: Why?
AUKON: Spirit too, I see. Excellent.
ADRIC: Come with you? What's in it for me?
AUKON: Wealth, power, dominion over this world, and over many others.

[State room]

DOCTOR: Surely you realise something here must be wrong?
ZARGO: Wrong?
DOCTOR: Yes.
CAMILLA: What is, is.
DOCTOR: No. What is, is wrong. Look, societies develop in varying ways. Yours just seems to be sinking back into some sort of primitivism. Wouldn't you say so?
ROMANA: Oh, yes. In terms of applied socioenergetics, it's losing its grip on level two development.
DOCTOR: On level two?
ROMANA: A society that evolve backwards must be subject to some even more powerful force restraining it.
DOCTOR: An even more powerful force?
ZARGO: How very mysterious.
DOCTOR: Well, mysterious or not, those rebels seem to think the power emanates from you.
CAMILLA: They flatter us.
ZARGO: In any society there is bound to be a division. The rulers and the ruled.
DOCTOR: A division? Yawning chasm, I'd say. Wouldn't you?
ROMANA: No, I'd say a sociopathetic abscess.
DOCTOR: Oh, I wish I'd thought of that. That's a good diagnosis. Yes, I've never seen such a state of decay.
CAMILLA: Be careful, Doctor. We have acquired great powers.
DOCTOR: Ah.
ZARGO: There must be rulers. A ship of state must have a pilot.
DOCTOR: What did you say?
ZARGO: Ship of state.
CAMILLA: No.
DOCTOR: Ship of state?
ZARGO: A metaphor.
DOCTOR: Ah. It's just odd, you see, that he should mention that, because Romana and I have just been at your ship's old manifest and I can't remember what the ship was called but Romana might be able to remember. What was it called, Romana?
ROMANA: Hydrax.
DOCTOR: Yes, Hydrax. Does that mean anything to you? Hydrax? Hydrax?
ZARGO: Where did you see this?
CAMILLA: Be silent.
ZARGO: Those records were destroyed.
CAMILLA: I said be silent.
DOCTOR: No, please don't be silent. It's so fascinating.

(Habris enters.)

HABRIS: My lord, it is time.
ZARGO: How dare you interrupt us!
HABRIS: Aukon has seen the sign. The Arising is at hand.
CAMILLA: The Arising? Leave us.

(Habris leaves.)

ZARGO: We must go to him.
CAMILLA: We shall resume this later. If you need anything, there are guards outside the door. Many guards.

(The doors slam shut behind Zargo and Camilla.)

DOCTOR: You know something? I don't think they want to be followed. Let's sit down.

(The Doctor tries Camilla's throne, then Zargo's.)

DOCTOR: Oh yes, this is much more comfortable. What were those Hydrax officers called?
ROMANA: Captain Miles Sharkey, Navigation Officer Lauren MacMillan, Science Officer Anthony O'Connor.
DOCTOR: That's very good. Have you ever heard of the Brothers Grimm?
ROMANA: This is no time for fairy tales.
DOCTOR: They also discovered the Law of Consonantal Shift. How language changes over the years.
ROMANA: You mean the hard sounds softening, B's becoming V's and so on.
DOCTOR: Hmm.
ROMANA: Camilla, Aukon and Zargo. Wait a minute. Sharkey, Zharkey, Zarkey, Zar, Zargo. The same name passed down through generations.
DOCTOR: That's right. And MacMillan becomes?
ROMANA: Camilla.
DOCTOR: And O'Connor becomes?
ROMANA: Aukon. The descendants of the original ship's officers.
DOCTOR: Yes. And this is the original ship. The pilot here, co-pilot there. No, no, no, pilot there, co-pilot here. Instrument banks there, control panels there.
ROMANA: You mean this is the Hydrax, the explorer ship?
DOCTOR: Yes. Do you fancy exploring it?
ROMANA: Mmm.

(The Doctor gets up.)

DOCTOR: Inspection hatch.
ROMANA: Ahem. Doctor?

(Romana has found something by the side of the wooden throne.)

DOCTOR: Shush. Inspection hatch.
ROMANA: Doctor.
DOCTOR: Hmm?

(The Doctor goes to where Romana is pointing.)

DOCTOR: Romana, I've found the inspection hatch.

[Resting place]

AUKON: When my servants were seeking the Doctor, I sensed another alien mind not far away. I traced it to the village and here he is. The first of the Chosen Ones, at last.
ZARGO: But he is an alien. He must have come with the two strangers.
CAMILLA: The Chosen Ones were to be from amongst the peasants.
AUKON: We have bred dullness, conformity, obedience into those clods for twenty generations. Unfortunately, we have also bred out just those qualities we need for other purposes.
ZARGO: This disturbs me, Aukon.
CAMILLA: We have been talking to this Doctor and his companion.
ZARGO: The Doctor's mind is powerful, but he is dangerous. He must die.
AUKON: Not before I have questioned him.
ZARGO: I say he is dangerous and must die. The boy too. We need no aliens to join us. Let him feed the Great One with his blood.

(Adric stares blankly ahead as Zargo waves his dagger in front of his eyes.)

AUKON: The boy is still young. His mind is strong, clear, but malleable. We can make of him what we wish.
CAMILLA: Aukon is right. What does it matter where he comes from? Once he is initiated, he is ours. We must increase our numbers as the Great One commands or he will be angry. And such a handsome child.
AUKON: I will take him to be prepared. Come.

(Meanwhile, the Doctor and Romana make their way through the innards of the space rocket.)

[Rebel's cave]

KALMAR: They're taken, then. Captives in the Tower, all three.
TARAK: What are we going to do about it?
KALMAR: What do you mean?
TARAK: This Doctor is our only gleam of hope in a thousand years. Are you going to let Zargo and the rest destroy him?
KALMAR: Perhaps they won't harm him.
TARAK: They'll kill him, Kalmar. Him and the girl. You know their powers. They'll sense he's a danger to them and they'll destroy him.
KALMAR: Perhaps. It's out of our hands now.
TARAK: It needn't be.
KALMAR: What can we do?
TARAK: Attack the Tower, rescue them.
KALMAR: A handful of men with knives and bows and spears, and the power of the three to face if we do get past them?
TARAK: Will you stay here forever fiddling with this technological junk?
KALMAR: We need knowledge to attack the Lords. We must wait until we are ready.
TARAK: Wait? For how long? A few more generations?
KALMAR: If necessary, yes.

(Veros turns to the other rebels in the shadows.)

TARAK: And you think the same? Will anyone come with me to the Tower? Or must I go alone.
VEROS: Kalmar is right. It's too soon.
TARAK: Too soon. Kalmar, you are right.
KALMAR: I am?
TARAK: To attack the Tower now would be suicide.
KALMAR: Glad you realise it.
TARAK: But if I go in alone, rescue the Doctor, bring him back here, he will have discovered their weaknesses, and with the knowledge he can give us, then will you attack?
KALMAR: How will you gain entrance to the Tower?
TARAK: I was a guard once, remember?
KALMAR: So?
TARAK: So, I can be one again.

[State room]

HABRIS: I swear to you, my lord, the state room was guarded at all times.
ZARGO: Then where are the Doctor and the girl?
HABRIS: My lord, they are aliens. Who knows what powers they might have?
ZARGO: Absurd. They are weaponless. Find them, Habris, or you shall go to feed the Great One.

(Habris makes the ears, eyes, mouth gesture.)

ZARGO: Search the Tower. Search the lands around.
HABRIS: My lord.

(Habris leaves.)

CAMILLA: You're wrong.
ZARGO: What?

(Camilla is standing by the inspection hatch.)

CAMILLA: The Doctor is not weaponless. He has the greatest weapon of all. Knowledge.

[Flight deck]

(The Doctor and Romana reach the top of a very long ladder.)

ROMANA: We must be right inside the turret.
DOCTOR: Yes. It's an Arrow class scout ship, Romana. It detaches from the main vessel for local exploration.
ROMANA: I wonder why they didn't rip out all these instruments, too.
DOCTOR: Well, why bother? No one comes here. Look! There's even a bit of power left in the energy cells.
ROMANA: So it could still fly?
DOCTOR: Possibly.
ROMANA: Could we possibly jet our way out?
DOCTOR: Getting out is not exactly the object of our mission, is it?
ROMANA: It proved your point that this is a spaceship.
DOCTOR: Shush.

(Faint slow rhythmic thumps.)

ROMANA: Sounds like a faint engine noise.
DOCTOR: Shush.
ROMANA: What is it?
DOCTOR: More evidence.
ROMANA: Of what?
DOCTOR: I have a suspicion, but it's too horrible to think about.

(In a castle corridor, Veros pounces on a lone guard and drags him into a side room.)

[Fuel tanks]

(The Doctor and Romana make their way down the ladder all the way to the bottom. Now we know why Romana is in knickerbockers and striped socks for this story.)

ROMANA: Now where are we?
DOCTOR: Right in the bowels of the ship. Disused fuel tanks, I think.
ROMANA: I can hear that sound again.
DOCTOR: Yes.
ROMANA: What are we looking for?
DOCTOR: A way out.
ROMANA: Ah.
DOCTOR: I doubt very much if the creature lives in the Tower, but since the Tower feeds it I imagine it lives close by.
ROMANA: Creature? What creature?
DOCTOR: We'll know that when we find it.
ROMANA: That's nice.

(The Doctor finds the light switch. The sides of the tank are lined with mummified bodies wrapped in rough cloth.)

DOCTOR: They've been completely drained. Pipe leading.

(The Doctor opens a hatch in the floor. The area below is full of a dark liquid.)

DOCTOR: I was wrong, Romana. The fuel tanks aren't disused. Only this isn't rocket fuel, it's blood.

[Resting place]

(The Doctor and Romana have climbed further down into the rocky outcrop that the Hydrax is sitting on.)

DOCTOR: You all right?
ROMANA: No, I'm frightened.
DOCTOR: Good, good. We'll soon be there.
ROMANA: That's what frightens me.
DOCTOR: Come on. Ah!
ROMANA: What is it? What is it?
DOCTOR: You jumped on my toe.
ROMANA: Oh, I'm so sorry.
DOCTOR: Shush.
ROMANA: What?
DOCTOR: It's that sound again.
ROMANA: That's not an engine.
DOCTOR: No. The sound of a giant heartbeat.
ROMANA: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes?
ROMANA: Look.

(A pipe full of red liquid leading downwards.)

DOCTOR: Do you know what that is?
ROMANA: A feeding system for something that lives on human blood.
DOCTOR: Exactly. Come on.
ROMANA: What is it?
DOCTOR: Do you know, it just occurs to me. There are vampire legends on almost every inhabited planet.
ROMANA: Really?
DOCTOR: Yes. Creatures that stalk in the night and feast on the blood of the living. Creatures that fear sunlight and running water and certain herbs. Creatures that are so strong they can only be killed by beheading, or a stake through the heart.
ROMANA: Or? Please, say something.
DOCTOR: Whatever it is, we want to find it, don't we?
ROMANA: No.
DOCTOR: Good. Come on then.

(They walk on a little way. Ahead, the ground is gently pulsing in time to the beat.)

ROMANA: Where are we, Doctor?
AUKON: You are in the resting place.

(They turn around to see him.)

DOCTOR: Where?
AUKON: The resting place.
DOCTOR: Ah.
AUKON: I am Aukon. Welcome to my domain.
Part Three

[Resting place]

DOCTOR: Well, I'm glad to catch someone at home. Are we in time for a guided tour?
AUKON: You're a fool to mock, Doctor. There is power here such as you have never dreamed of. Can you not feel it?

(The Doctor wets his finger and holds it up.)

DOCTOR: No.
AUKON: Power, Doctor! It is the only reality. Why fight it when you could share it?
DOCTOR: Me?
AUKON: When I sent my winged messengers to hunt you down, I sensed the power of your mind. We seek such minds for our great purpose.
DOCTOR: What purpose?
AUKON: At the time of Arising, we servants will swarm. You could be one of us.
DOCTOR: I could? Well, you know, I've never been a great one for swarming. It's awfully kind of you to offer, but where were you thinking of swarming to?
AUKON: Out of this universe and back to our own.
ROMANA: You know the way out of E-space?
AUKON: That is the secret of him who brought us here.
DOCTOR: Ah ha! So there was a guided tour.
AUKON: We were summoned, the whole ship, to be his servants.
DOCTOR: Was that when you were just plain Science Officer O'Connor?
AUKON: What?
ROMANA: He was O'Connor?
DOCTOR: Yes. Those officers aren't the descendants of the originals, they are the originals.
AUKON: He has given us unending life. He summoned us here speaking to the others through my mind. We fed and nourished him until now he is ready to arise.
ROMANA: (sotto) Suppose we pretended to cooperate till we get the data on E-space?
DOCTOR: (sotto) Yes. No. Too dangerous.
AUKON: Consider well, Doctor. Won't you join us, like your other companion?
DOCTOR: Who's he talking about?
ROMANA: Can't even count on this planet.
AUKON: The boy will be the first of the Chosen Ones.
ROMANA: Boy? What boy?
AUKON: He came here looking for you. The name he used was Adric.
ROMANA: Adric?
DOCTOR: Adric?
AUKON: You will all serve the Great One, Doctor, one way or another. If you do not join us, you will feed him with your blood.
DOCTOR: No. There is a third choice.
AUKON: What is that?
DOCTOR: I can destroy the Great One. Off you go, Romana!

(Romana runs.)

AUKON: Stop, Doctor! By the power that is mine, I command you.

(The Doctor is forced to his knees by the power of Aukon's mind.)

DOCTOR: I will not serve. I will not serve.
AUKON: Come, Doctor.

(Romana breaks off a sharp stalagmite and throws it at Aukon. It breaks, and so does his gaze at the Doctor.)

DOCTOR: Cover your eyes, Romana. That might be all right for half-starved peasantry, Aukon, but it doesn't scare Time Lords.
AUKON: Time Lords! The ancient enemies!
ZARGO: Always so anxious to leave, Doctor?
CAMILLA: Now is the time of our feast.
ZARGO: We shall drain the blood from your bodies slowly.
CAMILLA: Drop by drop.
AUKON: Silence! I hear you, O great One. Your ever faithful servant Aukon awaits your command. Yea, O Great One. Preparations are complete. Sacrifice will be made. At the time of your Arising, you shall drink the blood of Time Lords!

(Romana and the Doctor cover their eyes as Aukon turns back to them. He pulls their hands away.)

AUKON: You have been chosen. You have both been chosen.

(Tarak, now dressed as a guard, watches as the Doctor and Romana are marched through a castle corridor. Zargo and Camilla take a different turn and, using a keycard held by a guard, open a metal door and go through. The guard retrieves the keycard and puts it back in his belt.)

[Inner sanctum]

CAMILLA: Courage. It will not fail.

(They wash their hands in a metal bowl.)

ZARGO: Aukon still retains the power he promised to share. He swore to us.
CAMILLA: It hardly matters now. The time of the Arising is at hand, and all are equal before the Great One.
ZARGO: And this Doctor, what is he doing here at this time?
CAMILLA: We have him safe now. Tomorrow, his spirit will be one with ours. Come, we must rest. And when we wake, we shall feed.
ZARGO: Why am I still afraid?

[Cell]

(A guard paces outside the small metal room, and another one inside watches the Doctor and Romana like a hawk.)

DOCTOR: There was once an old hermit from the mountains of south Gallifrey.
ROMANA: Did he lead a very sheltered life?
DOCTOR: Yes. Yes, he did. He used to tell me ghost stories. I like a ghost story. Do you want to hear one?
ROMANA: No.
DOCTOR: It's about a race of giant vampires.
ROMANA: Vampires?
DOCTOR: Mmm. They came out of nowhere, and swarmed and swarmed
ROMANA: What did they do, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Swarmed. That was the word he used.
ROMANA: Oh.
DOCTOR: They swarmed all over the universe. And they were so strong that one single vampire could suck the life out of an entire planet.
ROMANA: One single vampire could suck the life out of an entire planet?
DOCTOR: Yes.
ROMANA: Rubbish.
DOCTOR: Well, he wasn't a scientist. There are other ways of looking at life, you know. Anyway, according to the story, we Time Lords hunted them down across the universe in a war so long and so bloody that we were sickened of violence forever.
ROMANA: So they were all destroyed?
DOCTOR: One of them escaped, I think.
ROMANA: And?
DOCTOR: Just vanished into thin air. Poof.
ROMANA: Like the Hydrax into E-space.

[Outside the cell]

TARAK: I've been sent to relieve you. Give me your keys and report to Habris.
GUARD: Why?
TARAK: Don't argue with me, argue with Habris.
GUARD: I know you. You're Tarak. Tarak the traitor. You ran out to join the rebels.

(Tarak fights the guard.)

[Cell]

ROMANA: When was all this supposed to have happened?
DOCTOR: Hmm? When was all what supposed to have happened?
ROMANA: The legend.
DOCTOR: Oh, that. Oh, in the misty dawn of history, when even Rassilon was young.
ROMANA: I once worked in the Bureau of Ancient Records, for a time.
DOCTOR: So?
ROMANA: Oh, nothing. It's just that I once came across a reference to something called the Record of Rassilon in one of the old data books.
DOCTOR: And? Shush.

(The noise from the fight outside has reached them. Tarak wins.)

ROMANA: And it was an emergency instruction. A copy of the book was to be installed in certain time vehicles.
DOCTOR: What time vehicles?
ROMANA: Oh, I don't know. I forget.
DOCTOR: What time vehicles?
ROMANA: Type Forty, I think.
DOCTOR: Psst. The TARDIS is a Type Forty.
ROMANA: Is it? Oh.
DOCTOR: Yes. Psst. You are wonderful.
ROMANA: Me? Wonderful? I suppose I am. I've never really thought about it.

(The Doctor beckons to the guard, who kneels to listen and gets knocked out for his trouble. Then Tarak bursts in, hitting the Doctor hard in the face with the door and stunning poor old Tom, who falls to his knees and misses his cue.)

TARAK: Quick, the corridor. Where's the Doctor? Are you all right?
DOCTOR: Yes, I'm fine.
TARAK: Down the corridor to the left.

[Rebel's cave]

(Veros wakes.)

VEROS: Still poring over those old scientific records, Kalmar?
KALMAR: No, something new. Look.
VEROS: Oh, you've improved the picture. What's that, more history?
KALMAR: Not history, Veros, the present. We're scanning the surrounding countryside.
VEROS: A scanner cover.
KALMAR: With a full choice of frequencies. I only discovered the facility by accident. There's not much to see on the visible spectrum now that night is falling.
VEROS: Something's moving. Can it detect life forms?
KALMAR: I'll switch in infrared. Yes, someone's heading this way.

(Veros picks up a spear and goes to the cave entrance.)

VEROS: It's Ivo, Kalmar.
KALMAR: Let him in.

(Ivo enters.)

KALMAR: It's dangerous for you to come here. Why didn't you use the communicator?
IVO: I have to talk face to face.
VEROS: Look, Ivo, Kalmar's discovered a scanner.
KALMAR: We cover all the surrounding area. Maybe reach the village and the Tower if I can boost the range.
VEROS: We'll be safe now. We'll have warning of an attack if the guards come snooping.
KALMAR: It's heat-sensitive. It measures the presence of life.
IVO: Then it can't help me find my son.
KALMAR: Karl?
IVO: He's dead. Those fiends drank his blood. But you're safe, aren't you. Technological rats living safely in their little hole.
KALMAR: I'm sorry.
IVO: Anyway, that's not what I came to talk about. Look, something's happening in the Tower tonight. Some kind of ceremony. They'll be busy, preoccupied.
KALMAR: No, it's too soon. We must have more information.
IVO: For me, Kalmar, it's already too late. I shall wait until tonight, gather my people together and attack the Tower.
VEROS: Ivo, no!
KALMAR: No, you mustn't.
IVO: You and your heroes can watch it on the scanner, Kalmar. But remember this. When they've finished with us, they'll come for you.

[Tower]

(Tarak leads the Doctor and Romana to a door.)

DOCTOR: Tarak, now listen. We're going back to our ship for some information. I want you to tell Kalmar. No, wait. Tell Kalmar to prepare an attack, but not to move until I join you, all right?
TARAK: Right.
DOCTOR: Good. Come on, let's go.
ROMANA: We've forgotten about Adric. He's still a prisoner somewhere. We've got to find him.
DOCTOR: Adric? Adric? Where can we start?
TARAK: Well, there is an inner sanctum. It's where nobody's allowed but the three.
DOCTOR: If that thing down there's what I think it is, and if it escaped into our universe, billions of lives would be lost. Could you take me there?
TARAK: Of course, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Come on. No, no. Romana, you take the TARDIS and I'll take the inner sanctum.
ROMANA: No, you take the TARDIS. I'll take the inner sanctum.
DOCTOR: Good.

(The Doctor leaves.)

ROMANA: Inner sanctum, please.
TARAK: Certainly.

[TARDIS]

(The Doctor returns safely.)

K9: Master, the young humanoid Adric
DOCTOR: Yes, I know, I know. What do you mean, letting stowaways aboard the TARDIS? It isn't a number nine bus, you know.
K9: Culpability factor zero, master.
DOCTOR: Yes, well, never mind about that. We've got work to do.
K9: Please specify task, master.
DOCTOR: I want you to help me tap the memory core of the TARDIS. Now, the information I want will be on the earliest section of the data core. It's called the Record of Rassilon and it's to do with (strokes his throat where the bat bit him)
K9: Master?
DOCTOR: Vampires.

[Tower corridor]

TARAK: That's the entrance to the inner sanctum. It's always guarded.
ROMANA: Time for the old prisoner trick, wouldn't you say?

(Romana raises her arms.)

TARAK: Come on!

(He marches her up to the door at knifepoint.)

TARAK: Come on! Lord Zargo wishes to see the prisoner.
GUARD: Zargo sleeps. It's forbidden to disturb him.
TARAK: I have my orders.
GUARD: And I have mine. No one must pass this door.
TARAK: I will take full responsibility. The code key, please.

(The guard hands it over. Tarak puts it in the reader upside down. It beeps.)

ROMANA: No, not like that.

(Romana turns it over and the door opens.)

GUARD: Just a minute. Who are you?
ROMANA: Do you know the Lady Camilla?
GUARD: Of course.
ROMANA: I just happen to be her blood group separator.
GUARD: What? Hey, you

(Tarak knocks the guard out.)

TARAK: Okay?
ROMANA: Well done.

[Inner sanctum]

TARAK: This way. We have to move quietly.
ROMANA: Shush. Let's hope they're sleeping.
TARAK: Let's hope they don't wake up. I've heard that when they wake, they wake hungry.

[TARDIS]

(K9 is plugged in to the console.)

DOCTOR: Well?
K9: Nothing.

(The Doctor flicks switches.)

DOCTOR: Well?
K9: Nothing.
DOCTOR: Nothing? What do you mean, nothing?
K9: Nothing, master. There is mention of the Record of Rassilon.
DOCTOR: Have you tried Rassilon, Record of?
K9: Access attempted under all permutations.
DOCTOR: Vampires.
K9: Information on vampires totally absent from TARDIS databanks.
DOCTOR: Okay, try your folklore section.
K9: My folklore section contains vampire lore from seventeen inhabited planets. I will begin with Earth, the legend of Count Dracula.
DOCTOR: No, thank you. Not Dracula. Emergency instructions.
K9: There are eighteen thousand three hundred and forty eight emergency instructions. I will now list them in code order. One
DOCTOR: No, no, no, thank you. No, thank you.
K9: There is a magnetic card system on this vehicle, master.
DOCTOR: Well, why didn't you say? Of course!

(The Doctor goes deeper into the TARDIS.)

[Inner sanctum]

(Zargo and Camilla lie with their arms crossed over their chests like tomb effigies.)

TARAK: We could destroy them now, while they're sleeping.
ROMANA: They can only be destroyed with a wooden stake.
TARAK: There's this.

(His knife.)

ROMANA: It's not a wooden stake, Tarak. We're supposed to be looking for Adric, remember?

(Romana opens a curtain and finds Adric lying on a bed, dressed like the three.)

TARAK: Your friend?
ROMANA: I'm just wondering if we've found him in time.

[TARDIS]

(The Doctor wheels in an ornate book trolley.)

DOCTOR: The Record of Rassilon.

(A punch card falls off. He picks it up and inserts it into the console.)

DOCTOR: Oh, good. The Record of Rassilon.

(A paper readout is printed.)

DOCTOR: Got it! Vampire army. Phew, listen to this, K9. So powerful were the bodies of these great creatures, and so fiercely did they cling to life, that they were impossible to kill, save by the use of bow ships. Bow ships? What are bow ships?
K9: Bow ships, unknown.
DOCTOR: Never mind. Yet slain they all were, and to the last one, by the Lords of Time. The Lords of Time destroying them utterly. Well, that's good news. However, when the bodies were counted (gasp) I knew it. Just like the legend said. When the bodies were counted, the King Vampire, mightiest and most malevolent of all, had vanished, even to his shadow, from time and space. Until now.
K9: Continue, master.
DOCTOR: Hence it is the directive of Rassilon that any Time Lord who comes upon this enemy of our people and of all living things, shall use all his efforts to destroy him, even at the cost of his own life.
K9: Query. How may this creature be destroyed?
DOCTOR: What? That's a good question. Let's see what it says about battle.

(He flicks through more punch cards.)

DOCTOR: Cattle, rattle, battle.

(Another readout.)

DOCTOR: Got it. Energy weapons were useless because the monsters absorbed and transmuted the energy using it to become stronger. Therefore Rassilon ordered the construction of bow ships. Ah. Swift vessels that fired a mighty bold of steel that transfixed the monsters through the heart. For only if his heart be utterly destroyed will a vampire die.
K9: Query.
DOCTOR: What? What is it?
K9: Is this data of practical value, master?
DOCTOR: Well, it might come in useful, if we can only lay our hands on a mighty bolt of steel.

[Inner sanctum]

ROMANA: Surely not so soon. The mutation must take some time.

(Adric's eyes open. Romana gasps.)

TARAK: Maybe he's still under hypnosis?
ROMANA: Adric, wake up.

(Zargo wakes.)

ROMANA: Wake up!

(Camilla wakes. Adric groans.)

ROMANA: I'm trying to rescue you. Come on.
ADRIC: It's like a kind of dream. Someone was whispering to me about power and eternal life.

(Zargo and Camilla sit up.)

ADRIC: They're going to initiate me at some big ceremony tonight.
ROMANA: Come on, Adric. We've got to get out of here.
ZARGO: I think not.
TARAK: Look out!

(Tarak attacks Camilla, who easily twists his arm behind his back and makes him drop his knife, before throwing him to Zargo who takes him by the tunic.)

TARAK: No! No! No!

(Zargo lifts Tarak high into the air then throws him onto the stone bed. Tarak rolls off onto the floor. Zargo and Camilla go to him.)

CAMILLA: You killed him. The blood of the dead is stale and flat. I must feed on the living.
ZARGO: We still have these.

(Adric throws Tarak's knife into Zargo's shoulder. Camilla advances on him while Romana backs away. Zargo grabs her and removes the knife from his shoulder. There is no blood on it.)

Part Four

[Inner sanctum]

AUKON: No.
ZARGO: Go, Aukon. It is too late to interfere now.
AUKON: I said no. Get back. The boy is the first of the Chosen Ones, soon to be one of us. He is not for you.
CAMILLA: The girl, then. Let us have the girl.
AUKON: The girl is a Time Lord. One of the ancient enemies of the Great One. She is to be held for sacrifice at the time of Arising.

[TARDIS]

(Punch cards litter the floor. The Doctor stops pacing and kicks at a pile of them.)

DOCTOR: It's no good, K9.
K9: Master?
DOCTOR: Listen. I'm going to have to go to the rebels for help. But will they help, I ask myself.
K9: Probability of indigenous dissident group rendering effective assistance, very low.
DOCTOR: Shush. I'm thinking. I've got to make a very impressive entrance. Something that'll win them over entirely. Got it! Right, K9, we need a slight spatial movement and no temporary displacement. Very tricky, these short hops.
K9: Information, master.
DOCTOR: What is it?
K9: The relative smallness of E-space should render fractional increments more stable.
DOCTOR: But of course. Good boy, K9.

[Rebel's cave]

VEROS: We can't let Ivo and the villagers attack alone. They'll be slaughtered!
KALMAR: Will it help if we're slaughtered with them, just as we're winning back the old knowledge? I refuse to throw it all away.
VEROS: Ivo was right, then. You do prefer these toys to human life.
KALMAR: Because they are the slow secret of victory. Why do you think they are so afraid of science?
VEROS: The Doctor was a scientist. Like all the rest, he vanished in the Tower.

(The TARDIS materialises and the Doctor comes out.)

DOCTOR: Halt! Don't move. Look, I'm awfully sorry to drop in on you like this, but we do have a bit of a crisis on our hands.

[Inner sanctum]

(Romana and Adric's wrists are bound by chains.)

AUKON: We stand on the very threshold of our triumph. I have communed with the mind of the Great One and he is ready. Thanks to the blood and souls we have fed to him for so long, his body is healed of wounds, regenerated and whole once more.
ZARGO: And he will arise tonight?
AUKON: It is certain. When all is prepared we will go to the resting place and summon him.
CAMILLA: When he wakes, he will be hungry.
ZARGO: Ivo and his faithful villagers will be able to perform one last service for their masters.
CAMILLA: And when they are consumed
AUKON: We shall leave this miserable space trap for the real universe. Rich, fat worlds teeming with life. We shall suck their life blood until they are empty husks, and pass on to more worlds, and yet still more.
CAMILLA: Countless inhabited planets all waiting to feed our hunger.
ZARGO: I have served a thousand years for this.
AUKON: At midnight, our servitude will end and our glory begin. But the proper rituals must be carried out, or the Great One will be displeased. Zargo, Camilla, you will initiate the boy, after I have sacrificed the girl.

[Rebel's cave]

(The Doctor is giving a pep talk to the rebels, whilst borrowing from Henry V, Act 4 scene 3.)

DOCTOR: Lack of weapons. No experience. Odds almost insurmountable. But! He who outlives this day and comes safe home shall stand a-tiptoe when this day is named and rouse him at the name of E-space!

(Cheers all round.)

DOCTOR: Well, that's the problem. There's got to be an answer.
KALMAR: What?
DOCTOR: That's the question.
VEROS: We must join forces with Ivo and attack the Tower. Tarak was right!
DOCTOR: Yes, yes.
KALMAR: Where is Tarak now? We dare not attack the Tower until we are ready.
DOCTOR: You've got to be ready. You people have had a thousand years to rid yourselves of this evil and now all you've got are three hours.
KALMAR: Do you really expect us to believe that some great creature sleeps beneath the Tower and is about to awake and destroy us?
DOCTOR: Where do you think Zargo and his friends got their powers?
KALMAR: I don't know.
DOCTOR: No, and that's the very devil of it. If I had any instruments with me, I could show you.
KALMAR: The scanner.
DOCTOR: Scanner. Scanner?
KALMAR: The console you got working for us. I discovered another facility.
DOCTOR: Range?
KALMAR: It should reach the Tower.
DOCTOR: Right, Now, Kalmar, you'll see I'm telling you the truth. Gather round, gentlemen. Hang on a minute, hang on a minute. It'll take a moment or two for the picture to steady. There we are. Oh, it seems to scan right through the spectrum.
KALMAR: There's the Tower.
DOCTOR: Yes. The spectrum's a bit weak at the moment. Infra-red. Picking up sleeping life forms. Now we're going into x-ray. Watch the area below the Tower.

(An image of a giant bat-like creature with a humanoid head writhing around appears. There is a throbbing sound and the Doctor turns away.)

DOCTOR: Oh.
VEROS: What is it?
DOCTOR: The heartbeat of the Great Vampire. Well, Kalmar?
KALMAR: See if you can raise Ivo on the communicator.

[State room]

(Two guards stand with their backs to Romana and Adric, who are sitting on the thrones.)

ADRIC: So the vampires in the stories are just pale imitations of the real thing?
ROMANA: If the Doctor's suspicions are right.
ADRIC: Oh yes, the Doctor. Is he coming back from the TARDIS?
ROMANA: Well, we were supposed to join him there after we'd rescued you.
ADRIC: Only you didn't, did you.
ROMANA: Didn't what?
ADRIC: Rescue me. Tarak got killed, you got caught, and the Doctor's safely out of it. He can clear off in the TARDIS whenever he likes.
ROMANA: How dare you, Adric!
ADRIC: It looks as if this is one time the goodies don't win after all. Still, I'm all right, aren't I.
ROMANA: Oh yes, you are all right. You haven't done so much better yourself. You stow away in our TARDIS, you expect us to
ADRIC: Now look! I've been offered a partnership. Power and eternal life, they said.
ROMANA: They are vampires, Adric. Do you want to become one of them?
ADRIC: You said yourself, you're on the menu. If it's a choice between that and joining the diners, I mean, there's no sense in two of us getting the chop.
ROMANA: When the Doctor gets back from the TARDIS, he is going to need your help.

(The Three enter. Zargo and Camilla take back their thrones.)

ADRIC: Why am I being kept prisoner like this? She's the sacrifice, not me. I'm supposed to be a Chosen One.

(Aukon doesn't reply.)

ADRIC: I'm sorry, Time Lady. One of my family's died for your lot already. I reckon one's enough.
ROMANA: Adric, do you know what happens to vampires when they die?
ADRIC: But they don't die, do they, Aukon.
AUKON: Release him, and prepare him for the ceremony. Prepare the sacrifice also.

(The guards take Adric and Romana away.)

AUKON: It is time.

(Down in the Resting place, the ground is starting to crack as the beat gets stronger.)

[Rebel's cave]

(The rebels have provided a parchment map of the area. The heartbeat can still be heard.)

DOCTOR: Our HQ, the Tower. Now, we can take the Tower between us.

(All agree.)

DOCTOR: Yes, well, I'm pretty sure of that.
IVO: But what about Aukon?
DOCTOR: Aukon and his friends will be distracted by the ceremony.
IVO: But what about the guards?
DOCTOR: Well, there are ways of dealing with guards.
IVO: But how do we deal with that?
KALMAR: You said your people killed thousands of them.
DOCTOR: Yes, but that was after a long and bloody war, and they had bow ships that fire mighty bolts of steel and pierced each vampire's heart.
IVO: Maybe there's another way to kill them?
KALMAR: Well
DOCTOR: Their cardiovascular system's incredibly efficient. They can just seal over minor wounds. Yes, there's a very practical reason for the traditional wooden stake.
IVO: If we sharpened a tree trunk
DOCTOR: No, I doubt if even that would be big enough, and anyway, how could we propel it? Mighty bolt of steel.
IVO: A catapult?
DOCTOR: Of course. Of course! An arrow of steel, and I've been looking at it all this time. Right, gentlemen, let's gather round and finalise our plans. Now, we need a group of your best men, a sort of commando force.
IVO: You'll lead us then, Doctor?
ALL: Yes!
DOCTOR: No.

(Groans all round.)

DOCTOR: It's all right, it's all right. I've got other things to worry about. But, I can lend you a very useful tool. Armoured. Immune to hypnotism.
IVO: Yes?
DOCTOR: And a dead shot with a nose laser.
IVO: Good.
DOCTOR: K9.
K9: Reconfigured in aggression mode, master.

(Ivo and Kalmar look at each other.)

[Tower entrance]

(A lone guard patrols outside.)

IVO: Yes.

(He spots Ivo and Veros.)

GUARD: Guards!

(Two guards run along the stone corridor and get shot by K9. The Doctor and the rebels enter the Tower.)

[Outside the State room]

(Ivo and Veros take on two more guards. Everyone is armed with spears so the fights are at least equal. A third guard bursts out of a room and is shot by K9, and a fourth.)

VEROS: Doctor.
DOCTOR: Good, good.

[State room]

(The Doctor sits on Zargo's throne.)

KALMAR: Stay calm, Doctor.
DOCTOR: The others have gone, therefore the ceremony must have started. Now listen to me, all of you. I want you to hold this Tower until K9 gives the signal.
IVO: We will not take orders from that thing.
DOCTOR: One day you'll apologise for that.
IVO: Never!
DOCTOR: Shush. Never mind. Just trust me, it'll work. After K9's signal, you evacuate the Tower and make your way round to the caves. If you should find Romana and Adric, see if you can rescue them and get away from here as far and as fast as you can. Got it? Good. Go. Stop. Don't forget, K9 gives the signal.

(Outside, Habris sneaks away.)

[Resting place]

(Romana has been dressed in a white mediaeval style gown. She seems hypnotised.)

ADRIC: Listen, I've got a plan. Can you hear me?

(Habris enters.)

HABRIS: My lord.
AUKON: How dare you interrupt us!
HABRIS: We are attacked, my lord. The Doctor with rebels and villagers, and some strange mechanical beast that shoots men down.
ZARGO: We must go back.
AUKON: No. The time of Arising is now.
HABRIS: Then send your servants, my lord. Send the bats.
AUKON: I have need of them. The guards must hold the Tower to the last man.
HABRIS: We are outnumbered. Unless you aid us, we shall all be killed.

(Aukon looks straight into Habris' eyes.)

AUKON: Then die. That is the purpose of guards. Go.

(Habris leaves.)

CAMILLA: When they have taken the Tower, they will come to attack us.
AUKON: By the time the Tower falls, the Great One will have arisen. We shall be invincible.

[Spaceship]

(The Doctor climbs the ladder to a platform where three more ladders lead upwards.)

DOCTOR: Three scoutships, three chances. Now, which one first? This one.

[Outside the State room]

(Ivo deals with another guard and takes his knife, then Habris arrives.)

IVO: Habris.
HABRIS: Ivo.
IVO: This is for my son.
HABRIS: I tried to help him.

(Ivo throws away the knife and they go hand to hand.)

[Flight deck 1]

(The Doctor flicks switches.)

DOCTOR: Come on. Dead as a dinosaur. The circuits must be corroded. Have to try one of the others.

[Resting place]

(Romana stares at nothing as two guards put her on a slab and leave.)

AUKON: Now, the sacrifice is make ready.

(Adric pulls out a knife and tries to rush forward, but Aukon stops him with his mind. He drops the knife.)

AUKON: Seize him.

(The guards take Adric away.)

[Flight deck 2]

DOCTOR: Come on.

(Even kicking the console makes no difference.)

DOCTOR: One to go.

[Resting place]

AUKON: O Great One, hear us. We celebrate your Arising with the sacrifice of a Time Lord, one of the race of your enemies. Drink her soul and grow strong.

(Bats fly in from outside.)

AUKON: Come, O servants of the Great One, come. Drink the blood of the sacrifice.

[Flight deck 3]

DOCTOR: Come on. Come on! What happened to all that Earth craftsmanship, eh? Just because you've been laid up for a thousand years.

(He punches the console and it starts humming.)

DOCTOR: A scintilla of power left in the energy cells, a few drops of fuel. Oh, lovely Earth craftsmanship.

[State room]

(K9 is on Zargo's throne.)

K9: Leave at once. Evacuate the Tower. Evacuate.

[Flight deck 3]

DOCTOR: That should do it. Short trip, quick flip. Time to be going, Doctor.

(The rebels rush out of the State room, the first bat lands on Romana's white throat, and the Doctor rushes down the ladders.)

[Resting place]

(Everywhere starts to shake, and the bat flies off leaving two little puncture marks on Romana's neck. The three turn round to look at the spaceship's exhaust port behind them.)

AUKON: The ship!
ZARGO: What's happening?
AUKON: No!

(Romana wakes and Adric helps her away. The Doctor gets out of another exhaust port as one third of the rocket nose cone breaks off, fires its engine and lifts off, and runs over to Adric and Romana.)

DOCTOR: Romana! Right, time for me to tell you what happened.
ROMANA: You sent the scout ship on a little trip.
DOCTOR: Right. Yes.

(Meanwhile, the crust is broken.)

AUKON: He rises! See, the Great One rises!

(A giant claw comes out of the ground as the little scout ship reaches the top of its trajectory and starts to turn.)

AUKON: He comes! The Great One comes!
DOCTOR: Don't worry, don't worry. Have you ever heard the expression what goes up must come down?
ADRIC: No.
DOCTOR: I wish I hadn't.

(The scout ship starts its powered descent.)

AUKON: No! No!
DOCTOR: Get down! Get down!
(The pointed little ship pierces the ground by the giant claw. There is an inhuman gurgling and the claw goes back down again as the heartbeat stops.
The Three are not pleased, and advance on the Doctor, canines bared. They back the Doctor into a corner, then start aging in front of his eyes before finally crumbling to skeletons.)
DOCTOR: There was never really anything to worry about. Their time was up. Well done. Well done, well done, well done.
ADRIC: So that's what happens to vampires when they die.
ROMANA: Glad you didn't join them?
ADRIC: I'm sorry about that. It was just a bluff. It just so happens I was trying to rescue you.
ROMANA: But you didn't, did you.

(Ivo, Kalmar and Veros enter with K9.)

IVO: Well, we've dealt with the Tower, Doctor. Now, what about this monster?

(The Doctor points at the scout ship sticking out of the still ground.)

KALMAR: What did you do?
DOCTOR: Well, I just fired off one of the rocket ships, you see, and I arranged the controls so that it went straight up
ROMANA: And came straight down again.
IVO: But what about the lords, Zargo and the others?
DOCTOR: Ah. Well, they just went to pieces.

(They go over to the skeletons.)

KALMAR: Doctor.
DOCTOR: Yes.
KALMAR: As once scientist to another, congratulations.
DOCTOR: It was nothing.
IVO: There is one thing, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Yes?
IVO: I feel I really must apologise for the things I said about K9.
DOCTOR: Go on, then.

(Ivo does a double take, then kneels by K9.)

IVO: Well done, dog.
K9: Your thanks are recorded.

[Rebel's cave]

DOCTOR: There, that should do it.

(The scanner dies. He hits it.)

DOCTOR: There, that should do it. Well, Kalmar, there's all the knowledge you'll need in there. Use it well, and if that's what you want, you can be a high technological society in no time.
KALMAR: We'll do our best, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Good, good.
KALMAR: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes?
KALMAR: If we can get the main ship working
DOCTOR: Yes? Inside, you two. We just have to get on with this.
KALMAR: Is there any way out of this E-space? Perhaps one day we can get back to Earth.
DOCTOR: Well, I really don't know. You see, we came here by accident, but you were brought here by the Great Vampire's brain and his secret died with him. Kalmar, such good luck.
KALMAR: Thank you, Doctor.
DOCTOR: And you, young man, you're going straight home.

(The Doctor follows Romana and Adric into the TARDIS. )

ADRIC [OC]: But Doctor
DOCTOR [OC]: You're going straight back to the Starliner.

(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.

Back to top