The Deadly Assassin

Part One

Through the millennia, the Time Lords of Gallifrey led a life of peace and ordered calm, protected from all threats from lesser civilisations by their great power.
But this was to change. Suddenly and terribly, the Time Lords faced the most dangerous crisis in their long history ...

[TARDIS]

(Now alone in the wooden console room, the Doctor has a vision.)

DOCTOR: The Panopticon.

(In his vision, a large group of Time Lords are reaching out or clawing at him. Then he sees the Lord President of the Council, in his white and gold regalia, through the sights of a weapon.)

DOCTOR: No! No!

(The Doctor sees himself shooting the Lord President. He falls against the wooden panelling of the console room in horror. )

[Gallifrey - sector 7]

(A Gallifrey guard rushes in, joined by others from different directions.)

TANNOY: Sector seven, sector seven, alert. Unauthorised capsule entry imminent. Repeat, unauthorised capsule entry imminent. Stand to on sector seven.

(The TARDIS materialises.)

[TARDIS]

DOCTOR: Right outside the Capitol itself. I'm in trouble now.

(He activates the viewscreen.)

DOCTOR: The Chancery guards. Pft. What a welcome home.

[Gallifrey - sector 7]

(A Time Lord and a Guard Commander approach the TARDIS.)

HILDRED: It looks
SPANDRELL: Yes?
HILDRED: If I didn't know better, Castellan, I'd swear it was a Type Forty.
SPANDRELL: It is.
HILDRED: But that's impossible.

[TARDIS]

HILDRED [on viewscreen]: There are no Type Forties in service. They're out of commission, obsolete.
DOCTOR: Obsolete? Twaddle. Take no notice, my dear old thing.
SPANDRELL [on viewscreen]: Nevertheless, Commander, this is a TARDIS. It's in an unauthorised zone. I want the occupants arrested.

[Gallifrey - sector 7]

SPANDRELL: The barrier on this model is a double curtain trimonic, so you will need a cypher indent key to get in.
HILDRED: Very good, Castellan. I'll send for one.
SPANDRELL: After you have arrested the personnel, impound the machine.
HILDRED: Of course, Castellan. Will you want me to question the
SPANDRELL: Eventually, yes, but not on a Presidential Resignation Day, Hildred.

[TARDIS]

DOCTOR: Presidential Resignation Day!

[Records room]

(Spandrell interrogates the computer.)

SPANDRELL: Data retrieval. Request information on all Type Forty TT capsules currently operational.
COMPUTER: Negative information. Type Forty TT capsules are deregistered and non-operational.
SPANDRELL: Report number of de-registrations.
COMPUTER: Three hundred and four.
SPANDRELL: Report number of registrations.
COMPUTER: Three hundred and five.
SPANDRELL: Report reason for numerical imbalance.
COMPUTER: One capsule removed from register. Reference, Malfeasance Tribunal order dated three zero nine nine zero six.
ENGIN: Can I be of any further help, Castellan Spandrell?
SPANDRELL: One minute, Engin.

(Spandrell taps his communicator brooch on his glove.)

HILDRED [on screen]: Commander Hildred, Sector seven.
SPANDRELL: Malfeasance, Hildred.
HILDRED [on screen]: Malfeasance?

[Gallifrey - sector 7]

SPANDRELL [on screen]: The occupant of your Type Forty is a convicted criminal. Approach with caution.
HILDRED: Very good, Castellan. Set your stasers.

(The guards draw their hand weapons and adjust the setting.)

[TARDIS]

(On the viewscreen, a guard brings Hildred a box containing various keys with which to try and open the TARDIS.)

DOCTOR: I must get past them and warn the President.

(He opens a part of the console which is a small writing desk, and takes out a pen and paper. After writing a note, he gets a small Gladstone bag from another room and takes a hookah pipe from it.)

DOCTOR: Cash and carry, Constantinople.

[Gallifrey - sector 7]

(Hildred succeeds in unlocking the TARDIS.)

HILDRED: Right, follow me.

[TARDIS]

(The console room is in semi-darkness.)

HILDRED: Don't move. I said, don't move.

(The Doctor's coat and scarf are arranged on a high backed chair to look as if he is sitting there. Hildred takes the note and reads it, then spots the Doctor on the viewscreen.)

HILDRED: There he goes! Quick!

[Gallifrey - sector 7]

(The Doctor summons the lift, but it arrives containing a guard. The guard starts to escort him back to the TARDIS, when he is shot in the back by a shadowy figure who leaves quickly.)

DOCTOR: Hey, just a minute! Excuse me!

(The Doctor gets into the lift, activates it and gets out before the doors close, then hides as other guards find their fallen comrade.)

HILDRED: Coyned. He's got into the tower. You'll have to check every floor.

(He uses his communicator.)

HILDRED: All guards report to main tower, sector seven. Dangerous intruder at large.

[Records room]

(Engin has called up the Malfeasance Tribunal verdict.)

ENGIN: The Tribunal chose, in view of the extenuating circumstances, to impose a lenient sentence.
SPANDRELL: What?
ENGIN: (louder) The Tribunal chose
SPANDRELL: What sentence?
ENGIN: Oh, I beg your pardon. Banishment to Earth.
SPANDRELL: Earth?
ENGIN: Sol Three, in Mutter's Spiral. Rather an interesting little planet, I understand. Several of our
SPANDRELL: Is there anything further of relevance I should know, Coordinator Engin?
ENGIN: I see there is an addendum. Ah, yes. The sentence was subsequently remitted at the intercession of the CIA.
SPANDRELL: Celestial Intervention Agency. They get their fingers into everything. Is he mixed up with them?
ENGIN: There's nothing further on the file.
SPANDRELL: Oh yes, they'd see to it that there wouldn't be. Can you get me his extract biog?
ENGIN: Yes, certainly. Won't take a moment.

(Engin goes to a storage area and Hildred enters.)

HILDRED: Castellan, I have to report the intruder in Sector seven
SPANDRELL: Well?
HILDRED: Evaded us. And he shot one of my guards.
SPANDRELL: I see. Such efficiency.
HILDRED: But we have him trapped in the communications tower, Castellan.
SPANDRELL: Well done, Hildred. An antiquated capsule, for which you get adequate early warning, tranducts on the very perimeter of the Capitol. You are informed that the occupant is a known criminal, whereupon you allow him to escape and conceal himself in a building a mere fifty three stories high. A clever stratagem, Hildred. You're trying to confuse him, I take it?
HILDRED: I apologise, Castellan. He won't evade capture a second time.
SPANDRELL: In the light of your impressive record so far, I would make no rash commitments.
HILDRED: I found this in the capsule.

(Spandrell takes the Doctor's note and reads it.)

SPANDRELL: To the Castellan of the Chancery Guard. I've good reason to think the life of His Supremacy the President is in grave danger. Do not ignore this warning. The Doctor. And he signed it over the Prydonian Seal.
ENGIN: Apparently he is or was at one time a member of that noble Chapter.
SPANDRELL: How can you tell?
ENGIN: Well, the biog data extracts of Time Lords are colour coded according to Chapter.
SPANDRELL: I didn't know that.
ENGIN: No? Well, your duties usually involve you with more plebian classes, don't they, Castellan.
SPANDRELL: A Prydonian renegade, eh? I have to refer this to Chancellor Goth.

[Gallifrey - sector 7]

(The Doctor sneaks back into the TARDIS, watched by the shadowy figure.)

FIGURE: Predictable as ever, Doctor.

[Chancellery]

(Spandrell is showing the note to Bernard Horsfall, a series regular.)

SPANDRELL: He's a Prydonian renegade, sir, and as you know, when a Prydonian forswears his birthright, there is nothing else he fears to lose.
GOTH: So you think there is a real danger, Castellan?
SPANDRELL: He has already killed one of the guards. I think he's ruthless and determined. A typical CIA agent.
GOTH: But if he is a member of the Celestial Intervention Agency, why should he wish to harm the President?
SPANDRELL: He could have been suborned. If he's being false to his Prydonian vows, his fidelity is already suspect.
GOTH: But this note? Why warn us in advance?

(Goth sits in a fur-covered chair.)

SPANDRELL: Perhaps to get us nervous, or just looking the wrong way. Prydonians are notoriously
GOTH: Devious? Not true, Castellan. We simply see a little further ahead than most. Anyway, what is it you want?
SPANDRELL: Permission to withdraw fifty guards from the Panopticon to search the communications tower.
GOTH: A great loss of pomp and circumstance.
SPANDRELL: I'll feel much happier once he is in custody.
GOTH: Very well, Spandrell. I should like to see this TARDIS. Extraordinary to think an old Type Forty is still operational.
SPANDRELL: It's in Sector seven, cloisters.
GOTH: Then we'll have to hurry. I have an audience with the Cardinals in a few minutes.

[TARDIS]

DOCTOR: Now, where's the local news programme? Ah.

(A young man in brown and cream appears on the viewscreen.)

RUNCIBLE [on viewscreen]: Around me in these high galleries of the Panopticon

[Panopticon]

RUNCIBLE [OC]: Already the Time Lords are gathering, donning seldom worn robes with their colourful collar insignia. The scarlet and orange of the Prydonians, the green of the Arcalians, the heliotrope of the Patrexes, and so on.

[TARDIS]

RUNCIBLE [on viewscreen]: And the one question that is on all their lips, the question of the day, as His Supremacy leaves public life, is who will he name as his successor?
DOCTOR: Oh no, it's Runcible. Runcible the Fatuous.
RUNCIBLE [on viewscreen]: In a moment, I hope to talk to Cardinal Borusa, the leader of the Prydonian Chapter, the Chapter that has produced more Time Lord Presidents than all other Chapters together, and perhaps get an answer to this question.

[Panopticon]

(A figure in rich purple sweeps down the steps.)

RUNCIBLE: Cardinal Borusa, if you can spare a moment, sir.
BORUSA: Yes?
RUNCIBLE: Public Register Video. If I could ask you a few questions?
BORUSA: Good gracious. Runcible, is it not?
RUNCIBLE: Yes, sir.
BORUSA: One of my old pupils at Prydon Academy.
RUNCIBLE: May I congratulate you, sir, on your elevation to Cardinal?
BORUSA: Thank you, Runcible. Good day.
RUNCIBLE: No, no, wait, sir. Please, if I could ask you a few questions.
BORUSA: Runcible, you had ample opportunity to ask me questions during your mis-spent years at the Academy. You failed to avail yourself of the opportunity then and it is too late now. Good day.

[TARDIS]

RUNCIBLE [on viewscreen]: I'm afraid Cardinal Borusa cannot, at this present moment in the time band, commit himself. However, it is certainly no secret that a very senior member of the Prydonian Chapter, and the present number two in the Time Lord Council, Chancellor Goth, is the widely fancied candidate.
DOCTOR: Oh, get off.
GOTH [on viewscreen]: There's no way this Doctor can enter the Capitol from the tower, is there?

[Gallifrey - sector 7]

SPANDRELL: Not unless he's got the help of an accomplice.
GOTH: From within?
SPANDRELL: Perhaps he's gone to the tower to shake of his pursuers while somebody inside lifts the barrier.
GOTH: What an inventive suspicious mind you have, Spandrell. So this in an old Type Forty.
SPANDRELL: Its shape was infinitely variable.
GOTH: Remarkably good condition. What are you going to do with it?
SPANDRELL: I hadn't thought. I was more interested in its operator.
GOTH: Well, I shouldn't leave it here in case he tries to sneak back. Transduct it back into the Capitol.
SPANDRELL: Very well, sir.
GOTH: Oh, and, er, keep me informed about your progress on the conspiracy.
SPANDRELL: Of course. Transduct this to the museum.

(A guard goes to a wall panel and the TARDIS pixilates.)

[Museum]

(The TARDIS pixilates onto a plinth and the Doctor comes out.)

DOCTOR: What a way to travel. But which way the Panopticon?

(The Doctor stops at a display of Time Lord regalia, a lovely gold robe and headdress.)

[Adytum]

FIGURE: So, he is within the Capitol.
MAN: All his actions are exactly as you predicted, Master.
FIGURE: I know him.
MAN: He is resourceful. He will gain the Panopticon without further help.
FIGURE: Of course, he knows he is entering a trap.

(The shadowy figure looks like a corpse, dug up after several weeks in the soil. Yuk, basically.)

FIGURE: But how can he resist such a bait?
MAN: The hope of preventing an assassination.
FIGURE: Quixotic fool. He will die quickly. Make certain he dies very quickly.

[Gallifrey - sector 7]

SPANDRELL: Well?
HILDRED: We checked the tower, Castellan. Nothing.
SPANDRELL: Nothing?
HILDRED: Fifty two floors. Nothing. He never left the lift. We think he doubled back.
SPANDRELL: To the capsule?
HILDRED: Out here. There's nowhere else for him.
SPANDRELL: Come with me, and bring the tracker.

[Museum]

(The Doctor's clothes are now on the display. A guard uses the hand-held tracking device to trace the Doctor's path from the TARDIS door to the regalia display.)

GUARD: Castellan.
SPANDRELL: Now he could get into the Panopticon.
HILDRED: But everyone has to show a pass. The door guards will never let any
SPANDRELL: Do you think they will stop Gold Usher? Would you? Get over there and try to find him.
HILDRED: Very good, Castellan.
SPANDRELL: And Hildred, try to be discreet.

[Time Lords robing room]

TIME LORD 1: You know, I remember the inaugural of Pandek the Third.
TIME LORD 2: Really?
TIME LORD 1: Yeah. Nine hundred years, he lasted. Now there was a President with some staying power, what?

(He puts his gown on a coat hook, and a hand takes it away.)

TIME LORD 2: What?
TIME LORD 1: Staying power. Where the dickens is my gown?
TIME LORD 2: Nine hundred years, eh?
TIME LORD 1: I could have sworn it was here a second ago.
DOCTOR: Here you are, sir.

(The Doctor, in a plain tee shirt, helps him into the gold robes.)

TIME LORD 1: Ah, thank you. Most kind. Yes, very different from the fellows nowadays, what? They're chopping and changing every couple of centuries.
TIME LORD 2: You're not gold, are you?
TIME LORD 1: Not what? This isn't my gown! That fellow's given me the wrong gown.
TIME LORD 2: What fellow?

[Panopticon gallery]

(We look down from the camera view on the gallery onto the circular central dais. The cameraman looks round and starts back in horror, then gets taken out by a shadowy figure.)

[Records room]

SPANDRELL: There may be something in his history. Some clue. If only I could convince the Chancellor the threat is serious.
ENGIN: It would have to be very serious before they'd delay the ceremony. The President must be on his way to the Panopticon by now. Can I have the data, Castellan?

(Spandrell peers into the data tube.)

SPANDRELL: This has been in the reader recently.
ENGIN: Surely not.
SPANDRELL: No mica dust.
ENGIN: What? There are millions of extracts in the archives. It's hardly feasible
SPANDRELL: I live with the dirt of the past, Coordinator Engin, and I can tell you that the old crimes besmirch the fingers.
ENGIN: Well, if it has been withdrawn, there'll certainly be a record.
SPANDRELL: I shall want to know who had it.
ENGIN: Yes.
SPANDRELL: But let's see the extract first.
ENGIN: A pleasure, Castellan.

(Engin places the data tube into a console.)

[Panopticon gallery]

(A weapon has been put together and is placed on the railing next to the camera. Through the sights we see the Doctor in his stolen orange robe hobnobbing with other Time Lords.)

FIGURE: Heh, heh, heh. The innocent to the slaughter.

[Panopticon antechamber]

GOLD USHER: You have everything, sir?
PRESIDENT: I think so.
GOLD USHER: The list?
PRESIDENT: What? Oh, the resignation honours list. Yes, here it is. Some names here that will surprise them.

(Gold Usher hands the President his Rod of office.)

[Panopticon]

(Guards enter.)

DOCTOR: Runcible, my dear chap. How nice to see you.
RUNCIBLE: What? Oh, I don't believe we've, er. Oh, I say. Weren't you expelled or something? Some scandal?
DOCTOR: Oh, it's all been forgotten about now, old boy.
RUNCIBLE: Oh, really? Well, where've you been all these years?
DOCTOR: Oh, here and there, you know. Round and about.

(The Doctor bends over to keep his face hidden from the searching guards.)

RUNCIBLE: Is there something the matter?
DOCTOR: Oh no, just a twinge in the knee.
RUNCIBLE: Well, if you will lead such a rackety life. Have you had a facelift?
DOCTOR: Several, so far.
RUNCIBLE: Yes, well, nice to have met you. I must get on. I'm doing the PR videocast.
DOCTOR: Yes, and splendidly too, if I may say so.
RUNCIBLE: Oh, do you think so?
DOCTOR: Oh, it's a gift. Somehow you have a wonderful way of making the whole thing come alive.
RUNCIBLE: Oh, that's very nice of you.

(Organ chords start up.)

RUNCIBLE: Oh, that'll be the President now. He's just arrived at the Panopticon.

(The Doctor remembers the assassination vision, and looks up at the gallery.)

RUNCIBLE: Are you sure you're all right?
DOCTOR: What? Yes.
RUNCIBLE: Come on, you stupid yoik.
DOCTOR: What?
RUNCIBLE: I should be getting a signal from my camera technician up there.

(The Doctor looks across and sees the rifle on the railing.)

DOCTOR: No!

(He barges his way through the assembled Time Lords, and the headdress falls off.)

DOCTOR: Let me go! Let me go!
RUNCIBLE: (to camera) Just a little disturbance here in the Panopticon, as the President starts to ascend. Already the members of the High Council, led by Chancellor Goth, are moving forward to greet His Supremacy.

(Goth enters.)

[Panopticon gallery]

(The Doctor enters and looks down into the main chamber. At the back of the Panopticon a panel tilts down and becomes a set of steps, down which the President walks to the dais, followed by Gold Usher. Someone in the auditorium raises a hand weapon. The Doctor picks up the rifle and shoots. The President falls to the floor!)

Part Two

[Panopticon gallery]

(As Goth and other Time Lords gather around the fallen President, the Doctor tries to flee.)

HILDRED: There he is.

(The Doctor is knocked down and hit over the head.)

[Panopticon]

TIME LORD: What a terrible thing to happen.
RUNCIBLE: Did you see what happened, sir?
TIME LORD: It's terrible, terrible.
RUNCIBLE: But is the President dead?
BORUSA: We live in evil times.
RUNCIBLE: Ah, Castellan Spandrell. Perhaps you can tell me what has happened?
SPANDRELL: Will you all stand back, please. We've got the criminal.

(Guards bring in the Doctor.)

TIME LORD: Is that him?
BORUSA: A Prydonian.
HILDRED: He was in the gallery, sir, still holding this.
DOCTOR: Extraordinary. The roof's still on. I could have sworn it fell on me.
SPANDRELL: Get him to a detention room.
DOCTOR: No, no, wait, wait, I
GUARD: Move it.

(The Doctor is hustled out. Goth has taken the President's rod.)

GOTH: Castellan!
SPANDRELL: Sir.
GOTH: The President is dead. The trial will start immediately.
SPANDRELL: I need more time.
GOTH: Time for what?
SPANDRELL: There are unanswered questions.
GOTH: That, presumably, will be the purpose of the trial.
BORUSA: Such haste is against all our traditions of fairness and justice.
GOTH: This is a constitutional crisis. The President died without naming his successor. An election must be held within forty eight hours.
BORUSA: But that is a separate matter.
GOTH: No, Cardinal! The Time Lords must not be seen to be leaderless and in disarray. The assassin must be tried and executed before the election.

[Detention room]

(A cage on top of a pillar, accessible only by a retractable walkway that passes through a weapons detector. The Doctor is chained with his hands above his head. Hildred uses a weapon-like device to encourage the Doctor to talk. In other words, torture.)

HILDRED: You will confess, Doctor.
DOCTOR: All right. All right, I'll confess.
HILDRED: Very sensible.
DOCTOR: I confess you're a bigger idiot than I thought you were. Argh.
HILDRED: There are fifteen intensity levels in this device, Doctor. At the moment, you're only experiencing level nine. Much easier to talk.
DOCTOR: I've got nothing to say.
HILDRED: Oh, you'll think of something, soon.

(Hildred turns up the intensity.)

DOCTOR: Tweedledum.
SPANDRELL: Turn it off.

(Hildred obey.)

DOCTOR: Tweedledee.
SPANDRELL: I must apologise for my subordinate. He lets his enthusiasm run away with him.
DOCTOR: I see. The hot and cold technique.
SPANDRELL: We are simply seekers of the truth, and we haven't got much time. Chancellor Goth has ordered your immediate trial.
DOCTOR: I'd like to help you. How about a signed confession?
SPANDRELL: That will help. I hate going to court without possessing the full facts. Motive, for instance.
DOCTOR: Now that's a sensible question. Why should anyone want to assassinate a retiring President?
SPANDRELL: A personal grudge?
DOCTOR: I never met him.
SPANDRELL: I know. I have seen your biog.
DOCTOR: And you still think I did it?
SPANDRELL: I think you're going to be executed for it. They are preparing the vaporisation chamber now. You have about three hours to live, Doctor.
DOCTOR: What? Well, that's monstrous. Vaporisation without representation is against the constitution.
SPANDRELL: You are an embarrassment.
DOCTOR: You realise I've been framed, don't you.
SPANDRELL: Framed?
DOCTOR: Yes, framed. It's an Earth expression. It means that someone's gone to a great deal of trouble to get me into this mess.
SPANDRELL: Why did you come back here?
DOCTOR: To try and save the President's life. If you remember, I left a note for you.
SPANDRELL: Yes.
DOCTOR: Which, presumably, you did nothing about.
SPANDRELL: All that I could. So you knew the President was going to be assassinated?
DOCTOR: Yes. In a way, I experienced it.
SPANDRELL: Go on.

[Records room]

(Spandrell plays back the questioning on his glove communicator.)

DOCTOR [on screen]: Well, this is the bit you won't believe. People talk of a premonition of tragedy, but I actually saw it happening. I saw the President die as vividly, as clearly as I can see this room now.
SPANDRELL [OC]: And where were you when this happened?
DOCTOR [on screen]: In the TARDIS, travelling in vortex, after I'd heard the Panopticon summons.
SPANDRELL: What do you think?
ENGIN: Precognitive vision is impossible.
SPANDRELL: He knows that, and he knows that we know it, and yet he maintains it happened.
ENGIN: And that's why you believe him?
SPANDRELL: I'm beginning to.
ENGIN: Nobody else will.
SPANDRELL: I think he's being framed.
ENGIN: Framed?
SPANDRELL: An Earth expression.
ENGIN: Oh.
SPANDRELL: You were going to check for me who had withdrawn the Doctor's DE.
ENGIN: Nobody. I'm afraid you were wrong about that, Castellan.
SPANDRELL: I don't think so.
ENGIN: The machine is infallible. Data extraction is impossible without an operating key like this.

(Engin keeps his on a string attached to his belt.)

ENGIN: And the code of the particular key is recorded here, opposite the archive number of the data extract.

(Engin inserts his key.)

ENGIN: Now, as you can see, my key is the only one entered against the Doctor's DE.
SPANDRELL: And how many of those keys are there?
ENGIN: They're only issued to High Councillors. Nobody else is allowed to inspect the DE's of Time Lords, except for yourself, Castellan, in the line of duty.
SPANDRELL: The record could have been erased, I take it.
ENGIN: You obviously have no idea of the complexity of excitonic circuitry.
SPANDRELL: No, I haven't, but if somebody knew what he was doing?
ENGIN: It would require a mathematical genius with a phenomenal grasp of applied excitonics.
SPANDRELL: Really? There can't be many of those on the High Council.

[Chancellery]

BORUSA: We should allow time for reflection, for passions to cool.
GOTH: A wise and beloved President brutally shot down in his last hour of office? No matter how much time we allow, that fact won't alter.
BORUSA: A violent action is causing an equally violent reaction.
GOTH: Oh, I understand that, Cardinal, but there is another consideration. Quite possibly, after the election, I shall have the honour of being President of the Council.
BORUSA: You're being over-modest, Chancellor. I'm sure of it. Just as I'm sure that the President would have named you as his successor.
GOTH: Who knows what was in the President's mind? But it is the custom, as you know, for an incoming president to pardon political prisoners. Is he to set free the murderer of his predecessor, or break with custom? Either course would be difficult. I intend to avoid the dilemma by seeing this affair through before he takes office.
BORUSA: Chancellor, all presidents are faced with difficult decisions. It is by their decisions that they are judged.

[Panopticon]

(Goth is seated, as judge. Borusa stands next to him and other Time Lords are around. Hildred is standing, giving evidence while the Doctor is sitting at a table and making notes.)

HILDRED: The prisoner eluded us at that time. Later I went with Castellan Spandrell to the Capitol Museum where the TT capsule had been transferred. Erogen tracer immediately became active. I concluded the prisoner must have been in the vicinity sometime previous.

(Actually, the Doctor is sketching, not taking notes.)

RUNCIBLE: He seemed nervous, well, apprehensive. He was looking around all the time that we were talking. Then, just before the President appeared, he turned and started to run across the Panopticon. After that, I thought he said

(Another cartoon sketch later.)

TIME LORD: He pushed past me in a loutish and unmannerly way. Never in all my years of attendance at the Panopticon can I recall such
GOTH: If you could confine yourself to this incident, sir. What happened next?
TIME LORD: Well, I caught him by the arm to remonstrate with him, and he shouted 'Let me go. They'll kill him.'
GOTH: Are you quite sure of that?
TIME LORD: What?
GOTH: Are you perhaps getting a little hard of hearing these days?
TIME LORD: Well, er, at my age one can expect these things. I've been having a bit of trouble with my hip lately.
GOTH: Let me put it to you. Could the accused have said, 'Let me go, I will kill him'?
TIME LORD: Well, yes, I suppose it is possible. He could have said that.
GOTH: Thank you. Has the accused anything to say before sentence is pronounced?
DOCTOR: Yes. Article Seventeen.
GOTH: Article Seventeen?
DOCTOR: I offer myself as a candidate for the Presidency.

(General mutterings of disbelief.)

GOTH: The application is frivolous.
DOCTOR: No, sir. I invoke Article Seventeen of the Constitution which is a guarantee of liberty and says, in part, that no candidate for office shall in anyway be debarred or restrained from presenting his claim.
GOTH: The guarantee of liberty does not extend to murderers.
BORUSA: As a jurist, Chancellor, I must point out that until the accused is pronounced guilty, he is protected by Article Seventeen.
GOTH: He is abusing a legal technicality.
DOCTOR: No, sir, I am claiming a legal right.
BORUSA: Chancellor, this court must be adjourned until the election is over.
GOTH: Very well. But do not think you will escape justice. Castellan Spandrell?
SPANDRELL: Sir.
GOTH: See that the accused gets no opportunity to leave the Capitol.
SPANDRELL: Yes, sir.

(Goth, Hildred and others leave.)

SPANDRELL: Forty eight hours, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Well, it's better than three.
SPANDRELL: What are you going to do?
DOCTOR: Suppose, suppose I can convince you I didn't do it?
SPANDRELL: All right, convince me.

[Adytum]

FIGURE: Well?
MAN: The trial was adjourned, master. He pleaded Article Seventeen.
FIGURE: He remains as ingenious as ever.
MAN: He will not escape.
FIGURE: Escape? Escape is not in his mind. Now he is hunting you.
MAN: It was a mistake to bring him here. We could have used anyone.
FIGURE: No, we could not have used anyone. You do not understand hatred as I understand it. Only hate keeps me alive. Why else should I endure this pain? I must see the Doctor die in shame and dishonour. Yes, and I must destroy the Time Lords. Nothing else matters. Nothing!

[Corridor]

(The Doctor is examining the rifle he used. Hildred is keeping guard.)

SPANDRELL: Don't get any ambitious ideas.
DOCTOR: I just wanted to check it was the same staser. You see that symbol at the end of the corridor?
SPANDRELL: What about it?
DOCTOR: You try and hit it.
SPANDRELL What?
DOCTOR: Go on. You try and hit it.
SPANDRELL: Just the kind of hooliganism we're always running the Shabogans in for.

(Spandrell takes aim and fires.)

SPANDRELL: Miles away.
DOCTOR: The sights. So you see, I couldn't have shot the President if I tried. And equally, I couldn't hit the assassin. That's why they were fixed.
SPANDRELL: The assassin, according to you, being one of the High Council.
DOCTOR: Yes. Yes, he was in the party surrounding the President. I saw him draw a staser and step forward. I aimed a bolt at him, but at that time I didn't know the sights had been fixed.
SPANDRELL: One of the High Council. It's getting better and better.
DOCTOR: What is?
SPANDRELL: Your story. But still a story. Where's the evidence, Doctor?
DOCTOR: I'll tell you where the evidence is.
SPANDRELL: Where?
DOCTOR: In the Public Register camera. I was standing right beside it.
SPANDRELL: Doctor, you may yet end up as President. Hildred?
HILDRED: Yes, Castellan.
SPANDRELL: Take the Doctor to the Panopticon.
HILDRED: Now, sir?
SPANDRELL: Of course now. And I want Commentator Runcible there too. And wait for me.
HILDRED: Very good, Castellan.

[Chancellery]

GOTH: That's an unusual request. You want the Panopticon open at this hour?
SPANDRELL: For further investigation, sir.
GOTH: I see. Well, if there is anything further to be discovered, Castellan.
SPANDRELL: Thank you, sir.
GOTH: You're keeping a close watch on the Doctor, I hope?
SPANDRELL: Someone is with him all the time.
GOTH: Good. You know that, apart from myself, he is the only other candidate in this election?
SPANDRELL: Is that so.
GOTH: A murderer and a renegade. That exposes the highest office in the land to ridicule. Well, my first action as President will be to have Cardinal Borusa draft an amendment to Article Seventeen. I shall see that this sort of thing never happens again.

[Panopticon]

(There is a neat chalk outline of where the President died on the dais.)

RUNCIBLE: It's not really my field, of course. The technician would normally be responsible.
SPANDRELL: Your technician disappeared. Probably scared to death of being involved. All I want to see is the last sequence leading up to the assassination.
RUNCIBLE: I expect that will be in the last band of the drum.
SPANDRELL: Splendid. So perhaps you'll be good enough to fetch it.
RUNCIBLE: Yes, all right, Castellan.

(Runcible leaves, but there is already someone up in the gallery with the camera.)

DOCTOR: About there.
SPANDRELL: Then the bullet would have passed over and to the left.
DOCTOR: Yes.
SPANDRELL: Let's see.
HILDRED: Castellan.
SPANDRELL: What is it?
HILDRED: I thought I saw a movement up there.
SPANDRELL: Oh, that's Runcible. Might be something across here.

(The Doctor and Spandrell examine the panels at the back of the Panopticon for his stray shot. Hildred joins them.)

[Panopticon gallery]

(Runcible enters the gallery and starts to open the back of the camera.)

HILDRED [OC]: Here, Castellan.

[Panopticon]

(Hildred has found the weapon trace to the left of the staircase.)

DOCTOR: Is that it?
SPANDRELL: Stasers don't do a lot of damage, except to body tissue. Looking at the President, you couldn't say whether he was hit in the head or the leg.

(Runcible removes the recording drum from the camera, looks down into the camera tube and screams, then faints.)

HILDRED: That was Runcible!

[Panopticon gallery]

(Someone is removing the discs from the recording drum.)

SPANDRELL [OC]: Runcible, are you all right?

(The figure hisses and leaves. The Doctor, Spandrell and Hildred answer as Runcible starts to stir.)

DOCTOR: Well, at least he's alive.
SPANDRELL: Come on, what happened?
RUNCIBLE: Horrible. Horrible.
SPANDRELL: What are you talking about?
RUNCIBLE: My technician.
SPANDRELL: Where?
RUNCIBLE: In the camera.

(The body of a miniature man is in the tube.)

SPANDRELL: Good grief. What's happened to him?
DOCTOR: Matter condensation. A particularly nasty sort of death.
HILDRED: No wonder we couldn't find him.
SPANDRELL: I've never seen anything like it.
DOCTOR: I have, I'm afraid.
SPANDRELL: You have?
DOCTOR: Yes. It's a technique the Master picked up somewhere on his travels.
SPANDRELL: Who's the Master?
DOCTOR: Who is the Master? He's my sworn arch-enemy. A fiend who glories in chaos and destruction.
SPANDRELL: A Time Lord?
DOCTOR: Yes, a long time ago. You know, a lot of things are becoming clearer.
SPANDRELL: Not to me.
DOCTOR: If the Master is here on Gallifrey, then this represents the final challenge. It explains why I was brought here. There are old scores to settle. And that's just a sort of greetings card.
SPANDRELL: Shut that thing up. Runcible, we are still waiting for you to find the last sequence.
RUNCIBLE: It's here, Castellan. You can tell by the numbers.
SPANDRELL: I can tell when I see it. Take it to Records. I'll have a look at it there. I want to know all you can tell me about this Master. And I warn you know, if there is some private feud between you, do not try to settle it on Gallifrey.
DOCTOR: It cannot be avoided. Like it or not, Gallifrey is involved, and I'm afraid things will never be quite the same again. Shall we go down?

[Panopticon]

SPANDRELL: If he's a Time Lord, there'll be a DE on him in the archives.
DOCTOR: Mmm, perhaps, perhaps.
SPANDRELL: What do you mean, perhaps? There's a full biog on every Time Lord.
HILDRED: Runcible.
RUNCIBLE: I'm sorry, so sorry.
SPANDRELL: What?
RUNCIBLE: I'm sorry, so sorry.

(Runcible falls to the floor, to reveal a very large stake sticking out of his back.)

[Records room]

SPANDRELL: Four cold-blooded killings in one day.
DOCTOR: Flea-bitings, Spandrell, flea-bitings. Things will get a lot worse.
SPANDRELL: Not here in the Time Lord Capitol.
DOCTOR: Well, it might rouse some of them from their lethargy. They live for centuries and have about as much sense of adventure as dormice.
ENGIN: Nothing, Castellan. There is no record of any Time Lord ever adopting that title.
DOCTOR: I told you so. If there had been a DE on the Master, the first thing he would have done would be to destroy it.
SPANDRELL: According to Coordinator Engin, the Time Lord data extracts cannot be withdrawn without the fact being recorded. I thought that yours had been scanned recently, but he assured me it was impossible.
DOCTOR: Rubbish. Anyone with a little criminal know-how could do it. I could do it myself.
ENGIN: More that criminal know-how, Doctor. Excitonic circuitry.
DOCTOR: Child's play to the Master. Do you think this stuff is sophisticated? There are worlds out there where this kind of equipment would be considered prehistoric junk.
SPANDRELL: What is the Master like on mathematics?
DOCTOR: He's brilliant, absolutely brilliant. He's almost up to my standard. What's that?
ENGIN: The APC control.
DOCTOR: APC?
ENGIN: Amplified Panatropic Computations.
DOCTOR: Brain cells.
ENGIN: Yes. Trillions of electrochemical cells in a continuous matrix. The cells are the repository of departed Time Lords. At the moment of death, an electrical scan is made of the brain pattern and these millions of impulses are immediately transferred to the
DOCTOR: Shush. I understand the theory. What's the function?
ENGIN: Well, to monitor life in the Capitol. We use all this combined knowledge and experience to predict future developments.
DOCTOR: Ah. Like the assassination of a President.
ENGIN: For some reason, that was not foreseen.
DOCTOR: Oh yes, it was foreseen, Engin. It was foreseen by me. How very clever. This time he's surpassed himself.
SPANDRELL: What are you talking about?
DOCTOR: Well, don't you see what he's done? We Time Lords are telepathic. That's simply a brain storage system. He intercepted its forecast that the President was to be assassinated and beamed it into my mind.
SPANDRELL: Is that possible?
ENGIN: No.
DOCTOR: Yes, yes. He could do it. You said my DE had been scanned.
SPANDRELL: Yes.
DOCTOR: Yes. He'd need a biography print to beam a message accurately over that distance. It makes sense, Spandrell.
SPANDRELL: Maybe, but why?
DOCTOR: I told you. Because he has an old score to settle.
ENGIN: Doctor, I simply cannot believe that anybody could do what you're suggesting. How can one intercept a thought pattern from within the Matrix itself?
DOCTOR: By going in there and joining it.
SPANDRELL: You mean a living mind?
DOCTOR: Well, in a sense that's all a living mind is, electrochemical impulses. If I went in there, I could discover where he intercepted the circuit.
ENGIN: I couldn't allow that. It's too dangerous. The psychosomatic feedback might kill you.
DOCTOR: I'm aware of that.
ENGIN: It's never been done.
DOCTOR: Well, it's better than being vaporised, and that's what's in store for me if I don't produce the Master.
SPANDRELL: Let him try it.
ENGIN: Well, all right.

(A couch slides out from under the APC.)

ENGIN: Lie down.

(Engin places electrodes on the Doctor's temples.)

DOCTOR: Is this what happens to the near-deceased?
ENGIN: Well, they're normally unconscious. I think there might be some pain.
DOCTOR: I'm ready when you are.
ENGIN: Are you quite sure?
DOCTOR: Get on with it.

(Engin powers up the APC. The Doctor stiffens in pain, then his mind goes hurtling down the vortex from the opening credits until he finds himself in -)

[Matrix]

(Betchworth quarry, with his scarf around his neck. Sinister laughter echoes all around. An alligator gaps in a nearby stream. The Doctor slithers down loose chalk and over a precipice until his feet find solid rock. He uses his scarf to lasso a stunted shrub to try and pull himself up. A Samurai warrior appears above him, draws his blade and cuts the scarf, sending the Doctor tumbling down the cliff.)

[Records room]

(The Doctor's face is covered in sweat.)

ENGIN: It's stopped.
SPANDRELL: What?
ENGIN: Brain activity. Look, there's nothing.
SPANDRELL: You mean he's dead?
ENGIN: Virtually. I warned him the psychic shock of that environment
SPANDRELL: But he's still breathing.
ENGIN: Oh, motor functions often continue for some. He's back! His brain must have an unusually high level of artron energy.
SPANDRELL: What do you think happened in there?
ENGIN: I don't know.

[Matrix]

(The Doctor wakes with an oxygen mask on his face, an operating theatre light overhead, and a masked and gowned surgeon holding a very large syringe standing over him. The figure wears opaque round spectacles.)

FIGURE: You were a fool, Doctor, to venture into my domain.

(The figure leans over to inject him, the Doctor rolls away and down into a World War One battlefield with explosions all around. He runs off, and finds himself standing over at an intersection of railway tracks. There are three railway engines nearby, and each driver's face is concealed. A set of points moves, trapping his right foot between two rails. An approaching train blows its whistle. The Doctor struggles to free his foot as it bears down on him.)

Part Three

[Matrix]

(The Doctor throws himself sideways, foot still trapped, and the engine passes. Unscathed, he frees his foot easily.)

DOCTOR: It's an illusion. Dreams.

(The Doctor runs back into the quarry area and steps into a giant egg.)

DOCTOR: I deny this reality. The reality is a computation matrix.

(The quarry walls flex then turn into circuit boards. A dizzying vortex fills the Doctor's mind and he collapses. Under the burning sun, vultures circle. When the Doctor wakes, two eyes appear in the quarry wall.)

FIGURE [OC]: I am the creator here, Doctor. This is my world. There is no escape for you.
(The eyes fade. The Doctor makes his way to the sound of running water. He brushes away some sand to reveal a glass surface, and the image of a clown laughs at him. He covers it over with sand again.
The Doctor makes his way down a slope into a lightly wooded area, and a biplane circles overhead. The plane dives low and buzzes him then returns for a strafing run. The Doctor flees for his life. The plane makes a second run. )
FIGURE: Bwahahahaha!

(The plane flies off. The Doctor discovers that his leg is bleeding.)

DOCTOR: I deny it. I deny it!

(The bleeding eventually vanishes.)

FIGURE [OC]: You are trapped in my creation, Doctor. My reality rules.

(The Doctor's leg bleeds again.)

DOCTOR: All right, I'll fight you in your reality.
FIGURE [OC]: Then it will be a pleasure to destroy you. Be on your guard. Bwhahaha!

[Records room]

SPANDRELL: His respiration has increased.
ENGIN: That's an adrenaline response. And there's a massive blood sugar demand. That would suggest he's preparing either to run for his life, or to fight for his life.
SPANDRELL: But he can't, can he? Who or what is he fighting?
ENGIN: Presumably, another mind.
SPANDRELL: You mean there's another living mind in the Matrix?
ENGIN: I'm only speculating, Castellan.
SPANDRELL: Yes.

[Adytum]

(A person who is not the decaying figure lies on a couch with a red metal helmet concealing their head. It shows an eye's view of someone running through foliage.)

FIGURE: We have him now, but be wary. The Doctor is never more dangerous than when the odds are against him.

[Matrix]

(This person is a big game hunter with a concealed face. He wears a backpack and carries a rifle. He shoots at the Doctor but only hits the chalk cliff. The birds go crazy with the noise, and the Doctor runs, then tries to climb a slope. The hunter is waiting at the top. Another miss. The Doctor finds a place to hide behind a buddleia bush on the cliff face, but he does not notice that there is a giant spider sitting in its web behind him. The hunter makes his way across the valley towards the cliff as the spider lowers itself in front of the Doctor. The hunter puts down his rifle and raises his mask to drink from his water canteen, then consults a map.)

HUNTER: (sotto) Water. He's going to need water.

(The Doctor is chewing on a leaf. The hunter runs off, leaving his canteen and backpack. The Doctor comes out of hiding and crawls over to them, but the canteen is empty. He checks the backpack. A torch, some dynamite, and other items.)

DOCTOR: No anti-tank gun.
(The Doctor takes a hand grenade and a small reel of wire. He wedges the grenade in the fork of a small tree.
The hunter arrives at the nearest water, and pours the green contents of a small bottle into it, then moves away into the reed thicket. The Doctor arrives, and sees him go.)
DOCTOR: I wonder what he's been up to?

(The hunter returns to his backpack, walking into the wire attached to the grenade pin and pulling it out. Bang! )

DOCTOR: It didn't get him. If it had, this nightmare would have ended.
HUNTER: All right, Doctor. A good try, but not quite good enough.

[Adytum]

FIGURE: The fool! That could have been fatal. Physical deterioration increasing. He should have finished the Doctor off before now.

(The cloaked figure speaks to a guard seated in a chair.)

FIGURE: Stand. I have a task for you. There may be difficulties. Others may try to prevent you fulfilling my orders. You will ignore them and obey only me. You will let nothing stop you. Do you understand?
SOLIS: Yes, Master. I will obey only you.
FIGURE: This is what you will do.

[Matrix]

(The Doctor arrives at the pool and stoops to drink, then stops. He finds the discarded bottle and sniffs it.)

DOCTOR: So that's what he was up to.

(The Doctor breaks off a piece of reed. Back at the backpack, the hunter has dressed the wound in his side as best he can. He leaves in great pain. Meanwhile, the Doctor is cleaning out the middle of the reed then using it as a straw to suck up untainted water from the margins. He hears the hunter returning, and leaves.)

HUNTER: I'm very close to you, Doctor. You'd better start running. Do you hear me, Doctor?

(The Doctor hears him. He hides in a thicket and pricks himself on a thorn, then breaks more off and crawls onwards before climbing a tree. (The Doctor dips a thorn into the remains of the liquid in the small bottle then places it in his reed, turning it into a blow pipe. The hunter approaches cautiously. The Doctor blows, and the thorn hits the hunter in the thigh. He looks up and shoots. The Doctor falls from the tree. The hunter pulls out the thorn and cuts his trouser leg to see the wound it has left. The Doctor rolls over to reveal he has been shot in the right upper arm. He staggers away. The hunter jabs himself with what is presumably the antidote to the poison.)

[Records room]

(The guard Solis enters.)

SPANDRELL: Yes?
SOLIS: Message from the Chancellor, sir. He'd like the Doctor brought to him.
SPANDRELL: Solis, isn't it?
SOLIS: Yes, sir.
SPANDRELL: He's one of the Chancellor's personal guard.
ENGIN: Very well. You'll have to wait. It'll be over soon, one way or the other.
SPANDRELL: He's been in almost four minutes. How long can a living man exist in there?
ENGIN: I've no data available, but his body's on the point of collapse now. Low blood pressure, shallow respiration, carbon dioxide increasing. He can't last much longer.

(Solis sees a knob with a bright purple dot on it on the APC and smiles.)

[Matrix]

(The Doctor is staggering through a marshy area.)

DOCTOR: Must keep going. I must keep going.
HUNTER: He can't last long.

[Records room]

SPANDRELL: It's only a mental battle. If the Doctor's losing, why can't he just pull out?
ENGIN: It's not that simple. His adversary must have been in the matrix many times before. Hey, don't touch that!
SOLIS: Sorry.
ENGIN: He's created a mental stronghold, a dreamscape if you like. The Doctor's got caught up in it.
SPANDRELL: So he doesn't stand a chance?
ENGIN: A very slight one. His opponent is expending energy in maintaining the reality projection. The Doctor can employ all his own artron energy for defence.

(Solis reaches for the purple knob again.)

SPANDRELL: Get back! Get back from

(Spandrell pushes Solis back, but he gets up and lunges for the knob again, so Spandrell shoots him.)

[Matrix]

(The Doctor is using a branch to help him walk through the marsh.)

DOCTOR: Marsh gas.

(He gets onto firmer ground.)

[Adytum]

(Now the players finally reveal themselves.)

MASTER: That man! One final effort. Kill him! Destroy him! I, the Master, command you!

[Matrix]

(The Doctor is hiding in the purple loose-strife and buddleia. We can see the hunter's face through the gauze now, and recognise his voice.)

GOTH: Where are you, Doctor? You can't win, Doctor. You might as well give up now.
DOCTOR: What do you want of me?
GOTH: Only your life, Doctor. Your life for my Master.
DOCTOR: I'll make a bargain with you.
GOTH: No bargains. Show yourself, Doctor. Get it over with. Do you hear me?
DOCTOR: No. You show yourself first. Your real self.
GOTH: Very well, Doctor.

(Goth rips off the mask and hat, to confirm what we had already worked out.)

DOCTOR: Goth. All right, Goth, you win.

(The Doctor moves, Goth raises his rifle and fires, igniting the marsh gas and setting himself on fire. Screaming in pain, Goth falls face down into the water. The Doctor comes down into the water, and Goth leaps up and grabs him from behind. They trade punches, splashing around, until finally Goth floors the Doctor then sits on him, hands around his neck, holding his head under the water.)

GOTH: Finished, Doctor. You're finished.
Part Four

[Matrix]

(Goth lets go of the Doctor and stands up, hands to his head. The Doctor gets up and hits Goth with the branch he was using as a walking stick earlier. We go up the vortex.)

[Adytum]

(The Master removes the helmet from a spluttering, gasping Goth.)

MASTER: You wistful, you craven-hearted spineless poltroon. You failed me.
GOTH: Too, too strong. Too much artron energy.
MASTER: Bah. There's only one chance now.
GOTH: Master, what are you doing?
MASTER: I must trap him in the Matrix.
GOTH: No, Master, no. For pity's sake! The connections. You'll kill me.
MASTER: I've no time to waste on you.

(Goth screams.)

[Records room]

(Smoke comes out of the APC.)

ENGIN: The circuits!
SPANDRELL: No, you can't! If you cut the power, the Doctor will die in there.
ENGIN: But the circuits are blowing. If there's a fire, the whole panatropic net, thousands of brain patterns will be destroyed forever.
SPANDRELL: They're not alive. The Doctor is, I hope.

(The Doctor is surrounded by explosions in the quarry, then vanishes. Back in reality, he breathes in deeply.)

ENGIN: It's all right, Spandrell. He's made it.

[Adytum]

(A green light stops flashing. Goth looks very unwell.)

MASTER: They've cut the net. He must be out.
GOTH: You fiend. Why did I believe in you?
MASTER: I'll cheat them yet. I'm not beaten.

(The Master picks up a small hypodermic needle.)

[Records room]

DOCTOR: Do you mind? This is a non-smoking compartment.
ENGIN: What?
DOCTOR: What?
SPANDRELL: How do you feel, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Tired.
SPANDRELL: Yes, you'd better rest. You took quite a beating in there.
DOCTOR: You should see the other fellow. Where is he, by the way?
ENGIN: Who?
DOCTOR: Goth.
SPANDRELL: Did you say Goth, the Chancellor?
DOCTOR: Yes. The Master's legman. He's the assassin, Spandrell.
SPANDRELL: That's why he wanted a quick execution.
DOCTOR: Yes. Yes. That's right.

(The Doctor stands up, and staggers.)

DOCTOR: It was Goth, remember, who ordered my TARDIS to be transducted into the Capitol. He knew I was still inside it. Goth must have his own link with the Matrix. A tap-in. We've got to trace it back to him before he recovers. What's underneath here?
ENGIN: Only service ducts.
DOCTOR: Is that all?
ENGIN: Well, a long way down, vaults and foundations dating from the old time.
DOCTOR: Come on, come on. Show me.

[Adytum]

SPANDRELL: Doctor.

(A cloaked figure sits still on a chair. The Doctor raises the hood to reveal a dull eye in a skull.)

DOCTOR: The Master.
SPANDRELL: Is he dead?
DOCTOR: Yes.
ENGIN: The Chancellor's still alive.
SPANDRELL: Not for long, by the look of him.
ENGIN: He must have taken the full shock.
GOTH: So, Doctor, you beat us in the end.
DOCTOR: Goth. Goth, why did you do it?
GOTH: Wanted power. Wanted to be President.
DOCTOR: But you would have been.
GOTH: President told me I was not his successor.
SPANDRELL: So you killed him?
GOTH: For him, the Master. His plan.
DOCTOR: What was his plan, Goth?
GOTH: Met him on Tersurus. He was dying. No more regeneration possible. Promised me share all his knowledge if I bring him to Gallifrey.
DOCTOR: Goth? Goth, what was his plan?
GOTH: Couldn't fight his mental dominance. Did everything he asked. Sorry now.
DOCTOR: Goth, what was
ENGIN: It's no use, Doctor.
DOCTOR: No answer to a straight question. Typical politician.

[Chancellery]

SPANDRELL: It seems clear how it happened. The Master tried to trap the Doctor in the APC net by overloading the neuron fields. Then he collapsed and died, leaving Chancellor Goth still connected into the circuit.
BORUSA: Natural causes?
SPANDRELL: Yes, sir. His body was extremely emaciated. He had come to the end of his regeneration cycle.
BORUSA: No.
DOCTOR: No what, Cardinal?
BORUSA: The story is not acceptable. This is a very difficult, very delicate position. We must adjust the truth.
ENGIN: In what way, Cardinal?
BORUSA: In a way that will maintain public confidence in the Time Lords and their leadership. How many people have seen this Master since his death?
SPANDRELL: Apart from ourselves, Hildred and the two guards who took the body to the Panopticon vault.
BORUSA: Then we shall rely on their silence. We shall change the appearance of the corpse, Castellan. We all know the posthumous effect of a staser bolt. Within the hour, the body will be charred beyond recognition. Our story is going to be that the Master arrived in Gallifrey to assassinate the President, secretly. Before he could escape, Chancellor Goth tracked him down and killed him, unfortunately perishing himself in the exchange of fire. Now that's much better. I can believe that.
ENGIN: You're making Goth into a hero?
BORUSA: If heroes don't exist, it is necessary to invent them. Good for public morale.
ENGIN: And the Doctor's part in all this?
BORUSA: Best forgotten. Of course, Doctor, the charge against you will be dropped.
DOCTOR: How kind.
BORUSA: Conditional on your leaving Gallifrey tonight.
DOCTOR: Somehow, Cardinal, I don't want to stay.
BORUSA: Good. I believe you know something of the Master's past.
DOCTOR: We've bumped into each other from time to time.
BORUSA: Then before you leave, you can assist Coordinator Engin to compile a new biog of him. It doesn't have to be entirely accurate.
DOCTOR: Like Time Lord history.
BORUSA: A few facts, Coordinator, will lend it verisimilitude. We cannot make the Master into a public enemy if there is no data on him.
ENGIN: I can have an authentic seeming data extract ready by morning, Cardinal.
BORUSA: I'll leave that to you then. Later, Castellan, we must take another look at data security. We cannot have Time Lord DEs simply vanishing from the records.
SPANDRELL: I agree, sir.
BORUSA: Well, I think that's all. You'll attend immediately to the cosmetic treatment?
SPANDRELL: Sorry?
BORUSA: The body, Castellan.

(Borusa leaves.)

DOCTOR: Only in mathematics will we find truth.
ENGIN: What?
DOCTOR: Borusa used to say that during my time at the Academy, and now he's setting out to prove it.

[Adytum]

(A guard finds the hypodermic needle.)

HILDRED: Over there?

(His communicator beeps.)

HILDRED: Commander Hildred, Sector seven.
SPANDRELL [on screen]: A little job for you, well within your capacity. Come to the Chancellery.
HILDRED: Immediately, Castellan.

[Records room]

ENGIN: What about his character?
DOCTOR: Bad.
ENGIN: Oh, Doctor, could you please be a little more specific?
DOCTOR: Yes. He was evil, cunning and resourceful. Highly developed powers of ESP and a formidable hypnotist. And the more I think about it, the less likely it seems.
ENGIN: What?
DOCTOR: Well, that the Master would meekly accept the end of his regeneration cycle. It's not his style at all.
ENGIN: But that's something we must all accept, Doctor.

(Engin hands the Doctor a drink.)

DOCTOR: Thank you. Not the Master. No, he had some sort of plan. That's why he came here, Engin.
ENGIN: After the twelfth regeneration, there is no plan that will postpone death.
DOCTOR: He had a plan. Something to do with Goth becoming the President. What's so special about the President, Engin?
ENGIN: Nothing. He's simply an elected Time Lord, usually from some senior position. He holds the symbols of office, but otherwise he's no different from any other Time Lord.
DOCTOR: Symbols.
ENGIN: Yes. Relics from the old time. The Sash of Rassilon. The Key.
DOCTOR: Tell me about Rassilon.
ENGIN: Well, it's all in the book of the old time. But there's a modern transgram that's much less difficult.
DOCTOR: Could we hear that?
ENGIN: You mean now?
DOCTOR: Oh!
ENGIN: What is it?
DOCTOR: Engin, I can feel my hair curling, and that means either it's going to rain or else I'm on to something.

[Chancellery]

HILDRED: I understand, Castellan.
SPANDRELL: I chose you for this special mission because he's already dead. You are unlikely to miss him.
HILDRED: No, sir.
SPANDRELL: Right, off you go. Not a word to anyone.
HILDRED: Castellan, we found this in the adytum, under the chair where the body was.

(Hildred hands over the hypodermic needle.)

SPANDRELL: Empty, but enough traces to analyse, no doubt. Thank you, Commander. And report back after you've restructured the Master.

[Records room]

ENGIN: And today we tend to think of Rassilon as the founder of our modern civilisation. But in his own time he was regarded mainly as an engineer and an architect. And, of course, it was long before we turned aside from the barren road of technology.
DOCTOR: Yes, that's all very interesting. Could we hear the transgram?
ENGIN: Early history is something of a pet subject.
WOMAN [OC]: And Rassilon journeyed into the black void with a great fleet. Within the void, no light would shine and nothing of that outer nature continue in being, except that which existed within the Sash of Rassilon.
DOCTOR: Must be a black hole.
ENGIN: What?
DOCTOR: Shush.
WOMAN [OC]: Now Rassilon found the Eye of Harmony, which balances all things, that they may neither flux nor wither nor change their state in any measure. And he caused the Eye to be brought to the world of Gallifrey wherein he sealed this beneficence with the Great Key.
DOCTOR: What's the Great Key?
WOMAN [OC]: Then the people rejoiced

(Engin turns off the playback.)

ENGIN: It's an ebonite rod carried by the President on ceremonial occasions. But it's actual function, if it ever had one, is a complete mystery.
DOCTOR: Where's it kept?
ENGIN: In the Panopticon. There's a display case of relics.
DOCTOR: And the Sash of Rassilon, where's that?
ENGIN: Oh, that's held by the President. That stays in his possession.
DOCTOR: Of course. What a stupendous egotist.
ENGIN: Who?
DOCTOR: The Master. He'd have destroyed Gallifrey, the Time Lords, everything, just for the sake of his own survival.

(Spandrell enters and hands the hypodermic to the Doctor.)

SPANDRELL: It seems that the Master didn't die from natural causes.
DOCTOR: What?
SPANDRELL: He killed himself. Careful, it's poison.
DOCTOR: Tricophenyladehyde.
SPANDRELL: Deadly, no doubt.
DOCTOR: No. It's a neural inhibitor. Spandrell, we've been fooled.
SPANDRELL: What?
DOCTOR: The Master, he's still alive.
SPANDRELL: I've just sent Hildred to staser him.

[Panopticon vault]

(Three bodies lie in the vault. The President and Chancellor Goth, with their faces covered, and the corpse-like Master. He stirs as Hildred enters. Hildred walks up to him and points his staser at his face. The Master sits up and grasps Hildred by the throat.)

[Panopticon]

SPANDRELL: The vault's this way.

[Panopticon vault]

(The Master searches the President's corpse.)

MASTER: Bah.

(And slinks off into the shadows just before Spandrell, the Doctor and Engin enter.)

SPANDRELL: Hildred. The Master, he's gone.

(Hildred is a tiny doll lying on the floor.)

SPANDRELL: Look.
ENGIN: Amazing.
DOCTOR: The Master's consumed with hatred. It's his one great weakness.
MASTER: Ha. Weakness, Doctor? Hate is strength.
DOCTOR: Not in your case. You'd delay an execution to pull the wings off a fly.
MASTER: This time, Doctor, the execution will not be delayed. Castellan, I assure you I am not nearly so infirm as I look. Now you, bring me the Sash of Rassilon. Oh yes, Doctor, why else do you think I feigned death? When Goth failed me, it was necessary to more direct means. But the Sash is wasted on our dead friend, don't you think so? Bring it to me!
DOCTOR: Don't do it, Engin.
MASTER: A stupid remark, Doctor. Resistance is futile now.
DOCTOR: Don't give him the Sash, Engin.
MASTER: I have suffered long enough from your stupid, stubborn interference in my designs. Now we are coming to the end of our conflict, Doctor.

(Spandrell moves forward and the Master shoots him.)

DOCTOR: Why have you brought me here?
MASTER: As a scapegoat for the killing of the President. Who else but you, Doctor? So despicably good, so insufferably compassionate. I wanted you to die in ignominious shame and disgrace.

(The Doctor steps forward and gets shot.)

MASTER: Now, do as I say, Coordinator, or you'll get the same.

(Engin strips the late President of the Y shaped sash and gives it to the Master. )

MASTER: They're not dead. Stunned. They'll live long enough to see the end of this accursed planet, and for the Doctor to taste the full bitterness of his defeat!

(The Master leaves, and Spandrell and the Doctor waken.)

DOCTOR: The Sash. Where's the Sash?
ENGIN: It's gone.
DOCTOR: What?
ENGIN: Well, what could I do? It's only of symbolic value anyway.
DOCTOR: Engin, that Sash is a technological masterpiece. It protects its wearer from being sucked into a parallel universe. All he needs now is the Great Key and he can regenerate himself and release a force that'll obliterate this entire stellar system.
ENGIN: You really mean it?
DOCTOR: Well of course I mean it. Don't you realise what Rassilon did? What the Eye of Harmony is? Remember? That which balances all things. It can only be the nucleus of a black hole.
SPANDRELL: But the Eye of Harmony is a myth. It no longer exists.
DOCTOR: A myth? Spandrell, all the power of the Time Lords devolves from it. Neither flux nor wither nor change their state. Rassilon stabilised all the elements of a black hole and set them in an eternally dynamic equation against the mass of the planet. If the Master interferes, it'll be the end not only of this world, but of a hundred other worlds too.

[Panopticon]

(The Master smashes a display case and removes the President's Great Rod. He goes to hole in the floor in front of the main dais, and inserts it, twisting it in line with the markings on it. A section of the dais opens and a bright light comes out, followed by a giant crystal. Four pipes are attached to it, back and front, with red valve handles.)

MASTER: Rassilon's star, the Eye of Harmony.

[Panopticon vault]

(The entrance door has been sealed by the Master.)

ENGIN: It's no good. We can never move it.
DOCTOR: You're right, but we've got to get out of this place.

(The Doctor goes over to a sloping shaft by the biers.)

DOCTOR: There's a light up there. Where does that lead, Spandrell?
SPANDRELL: The Panopticon. An old service shaft.
DOCTOR: Right.
ENGIN: It's a hundred feet, Doctor, at least.
DOCTOR: Oh, come on, come on, give us a bunk up.

(The Master has put on the Sash, and walked around the Eye. He opens one of the valves, removing the pipe from the Eye, and the place shakes.)

ENGIN: What's that?
SPANDRELL: If the Doctor's right, the end of the world is approaching.

(Rocks tumble down the service shaft.)

[Panopticon]

(Two more pipes have been removed. The Master strokes the Eye.)

MASTER: Rassilon's discovery, all mine. I shall have supreme power over the universe. Master of all matter! Bwhahahaha!

(The Doctor makes it to the top of the shaft as the building starts to fall apart.)

MASTER: Doctor, my congratulations. You're just in time for the end.
DOCTOR: You're insane. You're insane, do you hear me? You're releasing a force that nothing can stop.
MASTER: Take the Rod. You can take it with you to your grave, except that none of you will need a grave.

(The Master reaches for the final pipe.)

DOCTOR: If you undo that, you'll die as surely as any of us.
MASTER: You can do better than that, Doctor. Even in extremis, I wear the Sash of Rassilon.
DOCTOR: Yes, and the President was wearing it when he was shot down. The Sash won't protect you. It's damaged.
MASTER: You lie.

(The Doctor pushes the Master away from the Eye, and replaces one pipe. The Master tackles him, then chases him up the steps, swinging a club or something at him. At the top, the Doctor turns and pushes the Master back down the steps then returns to replace the pipes. The Master tries one more time to stop him, but gets a punch in the stomach for his efforts and goes down. The floor of the Panopticon splits, and the Master falls into the crack. He tries to pull himself out, but cannot get a grip, and finally falls, screaming. The Doctor continues to replace the pipes on the Eye. When the final one is in place, the planet stops shaking and the Doctor takes a deep breath in relief. )

[Chancellery]

(Borusa runs his fingers through a layer of stone dust on his desk. The Doctor is lounging in the fur-lined chair.)

BORUSA: Half the city in ruins. Untold damage, countless lives lost.
ENGIN: But for the Doctor it could have been much worse.
BORUSA: Yes indeed, I am conscious of the debt we owe the Doctor. But Gallifrey has never know such a catastrophe, such devastation. What will we say?
DOCTOR: Well, you'll just have to adjust the truth again, Cardinal. What about subsidence owing to a plague of mice?
BORUSA: As I believe I told you long ago, Doctor, you will never amount to anything in the galaxy while you retain your propensity for vulgar facetiousness.
DOCTOR: Yes, sir. You said that many times, sir. May I go, sir?
BORUSA: Certainly you may, preferably with the utmost expedition. Perhaps you will see that the transduction barriers are raised, Castellan.
SPANDRELL: Yes, sir.
BORUSA: Oh, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Sir?
BORUSA: Nine out of ten.
DOCTOR: Oh. Thank you, sir.

[Museum]

(Engin and the Doctor walk past a long case clock and on to the TARDIS.)

ENGIN: You know, Doctor, if you wanted to stay, I'm sure any past difficulties could be overlooked.
DOCTOR: But I like it out there, thank you very much.
SPANDRELL: The barriers are raised, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Thank you, Spandrell.
ENGIN: It's we who should thank you, Doctor, for destroying the Master.
DOCTOR: Well, I didn't actually see him fall, you know. I was quite busy.
ENGIN: Oh, but if by some miracle he survived the fall into that chasm, he was dying anyway.
DOCTOR: There was a good deal of power coming out of that monolith, and the Sash would have helped him to convert it.
SPANDRELL: Are you suggesting he survived?
DOCTOR: No, no, I hope not, Spandrell. And there's no one in all the galaxies I'd say that about. The quintessence of evil. Goodbye, Spandrell.
SPANDRELL: Goodbye, Doctor.
ENGIN: Goodbye, Doctor!
DOCTOR: Oh, goodbye, Engin, goodbye.

(The Doctor goes into the TARDIS and shuts the door. The TARDIS dematerialises. I prefer that word to 'transducts'. Spandrell turns and sees a wizened hand move a curtain by the long case clock.)

SPANDRELL: Look, the Master.
ENGIN: Where do you think they're heading?
SPANDRELL: Out into the universe. But, you know, I have a feeling it isn't big enough for the two of them.

(The Master's face appears in the clock face.)

MASTER: Bwhahahaha!

(The clock 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