[The dining room]

(K9 and Darius are playing chess against Starkey and Jorjie.)

DARIUS: Check.
STARKEY: Check and mate, I’m afraid, Darius.
DARIUS: Nah, hold on. I was handicapped. I’ve got a non-human in my team.
K9: And only one intelligent lifeform.
DARIUS: Look, I just can’t play in these conditions.
STARKEY: What conditions?

(Thunder.)

DARIUS: I rest my case.
K9: From my observation, the problem is not too much is happening out there but not enough is happening in there.

(K9’s ears point towards Darius’s head.)

DARIUS: What do you mean?
JORJIE: He means in your brain.
DARIUS: Yeah, whatever. Great partner you turned out to be.

(Jorjie’s wrist communicator sounds.)

STARKEY: Ask her if you can stay over.
JORJIE: Are you joking? This is the woman who put the “mother” in “smother”. (She answers.) Hi, Mum. Particularly nasty weather we’re having.

[Department camo]

JUNE: Communications are going out all over London. I’m sending a courier to take you home now.

[The dining room]

(Gryffen enters.)

GRYFFEN: Unless you have an amphibious vehicle, I suggest Jorjie stays here. This storm is shaping up to be the biggest electrical event London has seen in decades.
JORJIE: Did you hear that? Professor Gryffen has asked me to stay over.

[Department camo]

JUNE: I want you to exercise some parental control, Gryffen. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

[The dining room]

GRYFFEN: Absolutely not.

[Department camo]

JUNE: Fine. I’ll pick you up when the storm passes. Now, be sure not to drink too many glasses of water after 17 hundred hours…

[The dining room]

(Jorjie hurriedly muffles the call.)

JORJIE: Missed that last bit, Mum. See you tomorrow.

(Jorjie ends the call. Something smashes upstairs.)

GRYFFEN: Starkey, do you want to run up and see what that was?
STARKEY: Yeah, I’m on it.

[The main hall]

(The STM powers up and activates.)

[Starkey’s bedroom]

(Starkey enters and sees that a window is open. He closes it and sees an apparition as the lightning strikes. He runs out.)

[The dining room]

(Starkey returns.)

GRYFFEN: Is everything okay? STARKEY: Yeah, the window’s fine, but I saw a little boy’s face just kind of hanging there.
GRYFFEN: What did he look like?
STARKEY: Umm… I must have been seeing things. It’s three storeys above the ground.
GRYFFEN: Tell me what he looked like.
STARKEY: I don’t know. He was a skinny blond boy about seven or eight.

(Gryffen runs off.)

DARIUS: Are you sure it wasn’t your reflection in the glass?
STARKEY: Well, it definitely wasn’t my face!
JORJIE: Maybe your eyes are playing tricks on you because of the lightning.
K9: Well, at 30 feet above the ground, I think we can safely assume the boy isn’t real unless he had extremely long legs.
JORJIE: Then why did Gryffen run off like a maniac?
STARKEY: I don’t know, but I’m tired of beating Darius at chess. Let’s do something else.

[The laboratory]

(Gryffen gets a handheld device and sits down with it. He activates it and watches a video.)

MINA AND JACOB: (Recording) Dad! Dad!
ELEANOR: (Recording) Leave Daddy alone! Give me a big smile.

[Starkey’s bedroom]

(Starkey is reading from a book.)

STARKEY: “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.”
DARIUS: Poetry doesn’t really do it for me.
JORJIE: Want to hear a really scary story? Let me tell you how my mother reacted when I told her I was hanging out with you? Terrifying.
DARIUS: Wait, your mum spends her days hunting bug-eyed monsters and she’s worried about you being with us?
JORJIE: What can I say? You’re boys, the scariest creatures in the universe.
K9: Correction. Second scariest. Someday, I’ll describe the Sporax to you.
STARKEY: Talking of generally odd and weird, what was that all about with Gryffen?
DARIUS: I don’t know. Not exactly.
STARKEY: Come on, you’ve worked here for a while.
JORJIE: And you obviously know something.

(Darius clears his throat. Gryffen enters with two luminescent globes and a lantern.)

STARKEY: We were just discussing what’s for dinner.
GRYFFEN: I thought I’d give you an update. It’s intensifying over the Channel. It’s turning out to be the mother of all storms.
DARIUS: Hallowe’en lamps. All we need now is pumpkins.
GRYFFEN: The fuses might blow at any moment.

(Gryffen leaves.)

JORJIE: All right, Darius. Spill it.
DARIUS: A few years back, the prof and his family were on holiday and they were… taken from him. It was an accident of some kind but he’s never been the same since. But he’s never stopped trying to bring them back, back from wherever they are.

(The power goes out.)

JORJIE: Great, mood lighting. My mum should be calling right about now. (Her communicator rings. She answers.)

[Department camo]

JORJIE: (On communicator) Yes, Mum?
JUNE: Just making sure you’re safe.
JORJIE: (On communicator) I’m fine. How could I not be when you and the rest of the Department are out there keeping London clean from alien trash?
JUNE: Well, I’m glad you approve of my work. I knew you’d come around.

[Starkey’s bedroom]

DARIUS: I bet her lie detector’s going like the clappers!

[Department camo]

DRAKE: June Turner. Aren’t you lucky to have time for personal calls? Who is it you’re talking to?
JUNE: Oops, electrical interference. You’re cutting out.

(June ends the call.)

[Starkey’s bedroom]

JORJIE: Hey, that’s my trick.

(A boy giggles.)

STARKEY: Did you guys hear that?
DARIUS: That crazy giggling? No.

(The boy giggles again.)

STARKEY: Come on.

(Starkey, Jorjie and Darius go to the doorway and hesitate. Starkey and Jorjie then leave, but Darius remains stood there. K9 flies past.)

K9: Excuse me.

(Darius closes the door.)

[The main hall]

(The Space-Time Manipulator is still active.)

[The dining room]

(Gryffen lights some candles and dances to music playing on his gramophone.)

ELEANOR: (Ghostly voice) Alistair. Alistair.

(Gryffen stops the music.)

[Hallway]

(Starkey, Jorjie and K9 enter a hallway and see Mina and Jacob stood there.)

STARKEY: Who are you?
JORJIE: Where did you come from?
STARKEY: They’re weird-looking kids.
JORJIE: Are your mother and father here?
K9: Analysing now. I am receiving no vital signs from subjects.
STARKEY: Seriously?
K9: No infrared, no pulse, no respiration.
JORJIE: You mean, they’re not alive?
K9: Correct.
STARKEY: So, they’re…
K9: Non-corporeal entities.

(Mina and Jacob disappear.)

STARKEY: Where’d they go?
K9: You follow them. I’ll secure the rest of the house.

[The main hall, first floor]

(Jorjie sees Mina on a landing.)

JORJIE: There’s the girl!

(Jorjie goes after her. Starkey sees Jacob in a room.)

STARKEY: And the boy!

(Starkey goes after him. Mina has disappeared by the time Jorjie gets there. Darius surprises Jorjie by touching her shoulder.)

DARIUS: Hey.
JORJIE: Don’t do that!
DARIUS: I just wanted you to know that I’m right behind you.
JORJIE: That’s a real comfort.

(Jorjie walks off.)

DARIUS: Don’t worry. I’m right behind you.

(Darius follows.)

[The main hall, ground floor]

(K9 has joined Starkey.)

STARKEY: Any readings yet?
K9: Negative. I’ve checked the house. They don’t exist in any normal sense.
STARKEY: What’s normal around here?
K9: I have self-postulated the same query many times.
STARKEY: Well, why do you stay, K9? I mean, you could go anywhere in the universe if you’re not too fussy where the Space-Time Manipulator hurls you, so, why do you stay here?
K9: The same reason I calculate you do, Starkey. Because here, if nowhere else in the cosmos, I am needed. Excessive silence. Does this have meaning?
STARKEY: Negative, K9. (Jacob appears and disappears as lightning flashes.) Did you see that?

(Jacob reappears and Starkey runs after him.)

K9: Starkey, I detect nothing. Do you hear me? There’s nothing there.

[Upstairs room]

(Thunder. Someone holds Darius’s hand.)

DARIUS: Jorjie! Your hands are tiny. And they’re freezing.
JORJIE: I’m not holding your hand.

(Darius looks at his hand. It is covered in green slime.)

[The laboratory]

(Starkey chases Jacob inside, but he vanishes. Darius grabs Starkey’s shoulder from behind.)

DARIUS: Don’t worry! I’m right behind you.
JORJIE: He has a habit of doing that.

(Starkey sees the device that Gryffen was watching. K9 flies in.)

K9: Supposedly supernatural encounters during storms are easily attributable to large-scale galvanic effects on the… (He notices the recording of Mina and Jacob. Darius clears his throat.) Oh, I’ll just shut down, then, shall I?
STARKEY: The kid in this photo. That’s him. That’s the boy.
K9: My supercomputer brain and language circuits purely for show, are they?
JORJIE: And that’s her. That’s the girl.
DARIUS: Impossible. Come on. What are you on about?
K9: Fine.
JORJIE: What?
DARIUS: That’s Jacob and Mina, Gryffen’s children. That is the last vidpic that he ever took of them.

(Thunder. Starkey and Jorjie jump.)

K9: Try to modulate your adrenaline secretion. You’re working yourselves into hysterics.
DARIUS: That must be Eleanor, his missus.
ELEANOR: (Recording) Let’s go for a walk and explore.
GRYFFEN: (Recording) Go to your mum.
ELEANOR: (Recording) Alistair? We’re just going for a walk.
DARIUS: So, what happened to them?
JORJIE: It must’ve been an accident. Must’ve. (Another giggle.) Who’s there? Look, come out! We’re not going to harm you.

(Mina and Jacob appear.)

DARIUS: Jacob and Mina. They’re back.
STARKEY: What are you?
K9: They only exist on the visible light spectrum. I can’t get a reading on them on any other wavelength.
DARIUS: Quit the mumbo-jumbo. They’re spooks.
STARKEY: Hang on. If they’re ghosts, they’re dead and if they’re dead, they can’t harm us, right?
K9: Warning! Entities phasing unidentified energy signatures. (Mina and Jacob shoot green light from their hands which knocks Starkey, Jorjie and Darius out.) You entities just made a big mistake. They are my friends. (He fires at them, but his blasts go through them.) What are you? You do not exist on any wavelength I’ve been programmed to detect. Hmm… Your energies only seem to affect carbon-based lifeforms and, as I cannot have any effect on you, logically, you can’t do anything to affect me. (Jacob puts his hand on K9’s head. His hand glows green.) Ah. Unless, of course, you can manifest ectomorphic substances and disrupt my circuits.

(K9 shuts down.)

[The main hall]

(The Space-Time Manipulator is active. Eleanor begins to appear.)

ELEANOR: I am coming.

[The dining room]

(Gryffen is putting out food. Eleanor walks in.)

ELEANOR: Alistair.
GRYFFEN: What? Eleanor?
ELEANOR: There’s no need to be afraid.
GRYFFEN: How’s it possible?
ELEANOR: Some things are beyond explanation. (Gryffen reaches for her.) No, Alistair, you mustn’t try to touch me. Not yet.
GRYFFEN: But why not, my love?
ELEANOR: I am fragile. It’s been such a long journey to get home to you.
GRYFFEN: And the children?
ELEANOR: They’re here, but they first must complete a task before they join us.
GRYFFEN: What task?
ELEANOR: Something to make their daddy proud and happy. Eternally happy.

[The main hall]

(Jorjie and Darius are lying on two benches and are watched by Mina and Jacob. The Space-Time Manipulator’s vortex is swirling.)

DARIUS: I can’t move.
JORJIE: They’re using some form of energy to seal us to the bench.
DARIUS: How is that thing still working? The power’s out!
JORJIE: It’s the storm. It’s sucking energy out of the atmosphere.
DARIUS: K9! K9!

[Cellar]

(K9 reactivates and Starkey wakes up.)

K9: I’m beginning to calculate what’s going on. When the boy entity attacked me, I was able to get a clear energy reading.

(Starkey finds that the door is locked.)

STARKEY: Let’s see if my jimmy key works. (He gets the device from his shoe.) Ugh, slime. Always with the slime.

(The device does not open the door.)

K9: My photon capacitor needs to power up before I can blast out of here.

[The main hall]

DARIUS: Right, the only thing we can do is tell their dad on them.

(Jorjie nods.)

JORJIE: Professor!
DARIUS: Gryffen! Help us!

[The dining room]

GRYFFEN: What’s that sound? It sounds like…
ELEANOR: It’s just the children, preparing a surprise for you.
GRYFFEN: The children? I remember some other children. A boy from the streets and a dog who thought he was a machine, or maybe it was the other way around…
ELEANOR: Hush, Alistair. It will all soon be erased and forgotten in time.
GRYFFEN: Time! That’s how it all began. I was trying to retrieve you from danger.
DARIUS: (OC) Help us!
GRYFFEN: The children. I can hear their cries.

(Gryffen wanders off.)

ELEANOR: Alistair! They’re safe at home.

[The main hall]

(Gryffen wanders in.)

GRYFFEN: Newton’s eyebrows!
JORJIE: Gryffen!
GRYFFEN: Jacob! Mina! Daddy’s Space-Time Manipulator is not a toy.
JORJIE: Professor Gryffen! Here at last.
GRYFFEN: Who are you?
DARIUS: Prof, it’s me.
JORJIE: Look at his eyes. He’s in a trance.

(Eleanor enters.)

GRYFFEN: My children. It’s been so long.
ELEANOR: Soon, darling. Soon.
JORJIE: Gryffen!
DARIUS: Wake up!

[Cellar]

STARKEY: So, where did they come from?
K9: Do you remember the night we arrived here?
STARKEY: The Space-Time Manipulator?
K9: Gryffen was trying to reach his family but I came through instead.
STARKEY: I’m betting that wasn’t the only attempt.
K9: Perhaps every time he searches for them, he warps spacetime into three very particular shapes. Please, step back.

(K9 fires at the door and he and Starkey escape. The handle is covered in slime.)

STARKEY: Someone needs to get these kids a hanky.
DARIUS: (OC) Professor!
JORJIE: (OC) Gryffen!
DARIUS: (OC) Starkey! Anyone! Help us!

(K9 flies off.)

STARKEY: That’s Darius! Hurry!

[The main hall]

(K9 and Starkey arrive.)

STARKEY: Jorjie! Darius!
JORJIE: Starkey!
K9: Starkey, go round. Avoid the STM vortex.
STARKEY: Sic ‘em, K9!

(K9 fires at Mina and Jacob.)

DARIUS: Professor!
JORJIE: Gryffen!
DARIUS: Starkey! Anyone! Help us!
JORJIE: Starkey!
DARIUS: Help!
JORJIE: Professor!

(Gryffen turns from Eleanor to look at Jorjie and Darius.)

ELEANOR: Alistair. Don’t interfere, then we can be a family again. Forever this time.
DARIUS: Gryffen, help us! The Space-Time Manipulator is dragging us in!
K9: Energy depleted. Cannons offline. (Jacob puts his hand on K9 again.) Hurry, Starkey.

(K9 shuts down. Starkey reaches Jorjie and Darius and stops them from being pulled into the vortex.)

STARKEY: No!
ELEANOR: Intruder! How dare you interfere with our reunion!
STARKEY: You know why ghosts make such terrible liars? Because people can see right through them.
ELEANOR: Don’t listen to him, Alistair. They’re not your family. We are. I promise you, they won’t feel a thing.
K9: Negative. That’s exactly what these things are. Negatives.
ELEANOR: Lies!

(K9 has reactivated.)

K9: These entities are ectoplasmic simulations, merely echoes of your family.
JORJIE: But to fully materialise, they need to remove living beings from this plane of existence. That’s us.
STARKEY: I can’t hold on much longer!
DARIUS: K9, can’t you blast these creeps?
K9: Weapons offline. We must use an alternative to blasting. Starkey, you are the closest thing Gryffen has to a real son. You have to get through to him.
STARKEY: Gryffen! Gryffen, these things are not your family. Not like you and I. We’ve become…
ELEANOR: Silence! (She knocks Starkey down with her power.) Don’t listen to his lies, Alistair.
STARKEY: We’ve become friends. We look out for each other.
DARIUS: What about you and me, prof? We’ve got along nicely all these years. We’ve had some good times, yeah? Remember?
JORJIE: And me! We’re sort of like family.
GRYFFEN: I’m sorry.
K9: I detect the storm is diminishing.
STARKEY: If these things were family, would they do this to us? To you?
GRYFFEN: No. No, they wouldn’t. You’re right, Starkey.
ELEANOR: Please, Alistair. You don’t know what you’re saying.
GRYFFEN: No! Whoever… Whatever you are, you are not my family! They would never harm another living being. You betrayed yourself.
ELEANOR: I will not be banished back to nothingness! I will stay here and take what is mine!

(The Space-Time Manipulator starts to power down.)

STARKEY: The storm. It’s dying down.
ELEANOR: We’re not wanted here. (Mina and Jacob cry.) Oh, my little ones, it just wasn’t our time.

(Eleanor, Mina and Jacob disappear through the vortex. The vortex is closed. Jorjie answers her communicator.)

[Department camo]

JUNE: Jorjie, it’s me. How are you holding up over there?

[The main hall]

JORJIE: I’m fine, Mum. Just another evening with Starkey, Darius and K9. Pretty ordinary by their standards.

[Department camo]

JUNE: Hm, that’s what I’m afraid of.

[The main hall]

JORJIE: Don’t worry about a lift. Darius can take me home.

[Department camo]

JUNE: Stay right where you are. I’ll be there in two minutes.

[The main hall]

(The call ends.)

STARKEY: Will you be okay, Gryffen?
GRYFFEN: I shall be as I was, Starkey. I shall be as I was.
DARIUS: Is it over?
K9: By the time another storm of this magnitude comes along, you won’t be around to worry about it.
STARKEY: That was some evening, huh?
JORJIE: I reckon I’ll sleep well tonight.
DARIUS: I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to shut my eyes again.
STARKEY: Should I finish the poem?
K9: Negative.

(They all laugh.)

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.