Skip to content

Doctor Who S13 (Flux) • Episode 2

War of the Sontarans

72% 1,154 votes

Transcript Beta

[Battleground]

(The Cloister Bell tolls. The Doctor has a black and white vision of a crumbling house above dead trees.
She wakes up lying on desolate ground with the TARDIS parked nearby. There are barrels, bits of gun carriage and a dead horse here.)
DOCTOR: End of the universe. But we're still here. Wherever here is.
YASMIN: Doctor.
DOCTOR: Yaz. Is Dan with you?
DAN: I'm here. I just blacked out. Last thing I remember, we were on your TARDIS, that Flux thing was coming at us, and then...nothing.
YASMIN: Me too. I think. I was on the ground over there. We must've been thrown out.
DOCTOR: Must have been. Where are we?

(She goes over to a body in a red military jacket and scans it.)

DAN: Is she always like this?
YASMIN: Pretty much.
DOCTOR: If I had to call it, we're back on Earth, which meant the Lupari shield worked, but the TARDIS took a hit.
YASMIN: Looks like we're in the middle of a battlefield, which could mean...
MARY: Hey. Get away from him. Show me your hands. What did you take? Show me.
DAN: We didn't take anything. I know what goes on out here. Vultures emptying the pockets of the dead. What...? Who are you? Where you from?
DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor. This is Yaz. This is Dan. Nice to meet you. We were tracking for signs of life.
MARY: Sure. Doctor is a man's term.
DOCTOR: It's fluid.
MARY: Sentry patrol. All of them dead. It's too late for medical aid. But you're too close to the front to be with Mrs Nightingale. She won't come this close to Sebastopol. How long have you been here?
DOCTOR: Sebastopol. 1850s. Orientated. I know where we are. Crimean War, 1855, Ottoman Empire weakening, British soldiers fighting Russians.
MARY: What?
DAN: We're in the middle of the Crimean War?
DOCTOR: But that would make you Mary Seacole. Are you? You are, aren't you?
MARY: Mrs Seacole to you. Doctress to the fallen.
YASMIN: Everybody, shh, shh. Listen.
MARY: It's enemy soldiers. Back up, back up.
DOCTOR: Go.

(Taking cover.)

DOCTOR: Where in the battle are we? How many Russian troops are the British fighting? What's happening in Sebastopol?
MARY: What's this word you keep using? Russians. They're not fighting Russians. They're fighting Sontarans.
SKAAK: Taste the victory, my soldiers. Breathe in the rotting stench of our vanquished foes. Onwards, to domination. Sontar-Ha!
ARMY: Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha!

[Temple]

(Vinder wakes up on the stone floor. A diamond-shaped drone flies towards him.)

TRIANGLE: Are you response? Can you repair?
VINDER: Can I what?
TRIANGLE: Can you repair?
VINDER: W-w-where am I?
TRIANGLE: Can you repair? Respond.
VINDER: I need to make contact with my home planet. There's been a mass extinction event near where I was stationed.
TRIANGLE: We are aware.The Flux impacted the inner temple. Can you repair?
VINDER: Repair what?
TRIANGLE: Follow. Follow. This was not foreseen. Priest Triangles are only guardians. We maintain and serve. The impact of the Flux event was too great.

[Inner temple]

VINDER: Whoa.
TRIANGLE: The Temple is compromised. The Mouri must never be compromised. Do you see? Do you see the Mouri?

(Humanoid figures suddenly appear, then two flicker in and out.)

VINDER: Whoa.

[Camp]

DOCTOR: Thank you for getting us out of there safely, Mrs Seacole.
MARY: I know every safe avenue on and off of this battlefield. I have to stay alive if I'm going to nurse these men back to health.
DAN: You're an army nurse?
MARY: Oh, no. I work for myself. I'm the closest nurse to the front.
YASMIN: And this is your hospital?
MARY: This is much more than a hospital, child. This is my British Hotel.
DAN: So let me just get this straight. She's like a real person from history?
DOCTOR: You just talked to her, didn't you?
DAN: And those Sontaran things, they're not part of history, were they?
DOCTOR: No. She should be here. They shouldn't.
YASMIN: Could this be connected to the Flux? Is history being rewritten?
DOCTOR: Dan, are you okay?
DAN: Are you seeing that?

(Dan's right hand is glowing light blue.)

DOCTOR: Stay still, Dan.

(Now all of Dan is glowing and fading.)

DAN: What's happening to me?
DOCTOR: Ah! Dan!

(He has vanished.)

YASMIN: Doctor. You're fading.

(Yasmin is starting to glow.)

DOCTOR: A collision between Flux and Vortex energy. You're falling through Space and Time. Yaz, stay calm. I will find you.
YASMIN: Promise?
DOCTOR: I promise!

(Yasmin vanishes.)

[Battlefield]

(The Doctor runs back to the TARDIS. The Cloister Bell is still tolling, but...)

DOCTOR: Where's the door? I need the door.
SONTARAN [OC]: Over there, Commander. A voice. Another soldier waiting to be obliterated.
DOCTOR: Let me in. I have to find them.
SKAAK [OC]: Spread out and locate the human scum.

(The Doctor runs.)

[Outside No 37]

DAN: I'm home.

(But there's still the hole where the now-shrunken house used to be. He runs over to his neighbour looking through the window.)

DAN: Jim. Jim. It's me, Dan. Sorry about the house. I can explain. Jim.
(His neighbour closes his curtains, so he tries his phone - it's 20:10 by the way.)
DAN: Come on, Di. Pick up, will ya?

(Another neighbour across the road knocks on her window then taps her watch.)

DAN: What? No way.

(A honking big spaceship is hovering over Anfield.)

DAN: What the hell is that?
SONTARAN [OC]: Curfew defier. Breach of curfew will result in instant execution. Soldiers, apprehend. Divide and cover all escape routes.

(Dan runs down an alleyway. The two worst Sontaran marksmen in the galaxy get knocked out by...)

DAN: Mam? Dad?
EILEEN: Where the hell have you been?

[Temple]

(Yasmin also arrives at the Temple.)

YASMIN: Doctor? Dan? I need a universal GPS. Then I'd know where I was whenever this happens. Cos it does keep happening.
WILLIAMSON [OC]: This is intolerable.

(The Victorian builder walks around the corner and removes his hat.)

YASMIN: Hi. I'm Yaz.
WILLIAMSON: How am I meant to cope?
YASMIN: Cope with what, sir?
WILLIAMSON: Well, any of it. All of it. It just... It insists on shifting.
YASMIN: Why don't you take me through it from the start?
WILLIAMSON: The start. Do you mock me, madam? The start?
YASMIN: All right. Can you tell me... what's the year?
WILLIAMSON: Why? Do you believe it to be a matter of import?
YASMIN: It might be.
WILLIAMSON: It is the year of our Lord, 1820. Would you reckon it differently?
YASMIN: Very differently.
WILLIAMSON: Ah. Ah. All our fears made true. All is porous. All is broken. I must retrace. There's so much work to be done.

(Distant rumblings of shifting stone.)

YASMIN: I'll come with you.
WILLIAMSON: No. No. It will be to no avail, if my experience holds true. Oh, this confounded situation.

(He walks back round the corner and the Priest Triangle flies up behind Yasmin.)

TRIANGLE: Can you repair?
YASMIN: Can I what?
TRIANGLE: All assistance is required. Can you repair?

(Yasmin looks down at WWTDD written on her palm.)

YASMIN: Yeah. I can. That's exactly why I'm here.

[British Hotel]

LOGAN: Mrs Seacole, I helped myself to the rum... to aid planning.
MARY: It can go on your slate, General. Your rapidly rising slate.

(The Doctor enters.)

MARY: Good evening. Where are your friends?
DOCTOR: They were called away, while I'm remaining here for now. Apparently.
MARY: Well, then, you are most welcome to the British Hotel.
LOGAN: New arrival, Mrs Seacole?
MARY: Oh, yes. We met on the battlefield. This is Lieutenant General Logan of the Light Division.
DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor.
LOGAN: Oh. Mrs Seacole could certainly do with your assistance. Our advance tomorrow is not without risk.
DOCTOR: Please tell me you're not about to engage Sontarans in battle.
LOGAN: That is why we're here.
DOCTOR: You don't understand. I've fought Sontarans before.
LOGAN: Somehow I doubt that.
DOCTOR: Sontarans live for war. They're a clone race. It's what they're bred for. It's their entire history. And they're very, very good at it. They also have weapons beyond your imagination. So, even if you do have numerical advantage, I advise, at all costs, do not engage.
LOGAN: Then it's fortunate that I command these divisions of Her Majesty's Army, and you do not. Madam, I am at work.
DOCTOR: I know, I can smell the rum. How long have they been here, the Sontarans?
MARY: Outside Sebastopol?
DOCTOR: No, on Earth.
LOGAN: They have always been here.
DOCTOR: Trust me, I know your history and that's not true. Where are we? Britain there. Jamaica here. Still intact. Uh, Crimea there, and Russia is... not there. No Russia. No China. Only Sontar. And you both think that's normal.
MARY: War is the opposite of normal.
LOGAN: That word you used... Russia. Where have I heard that before?
MARY: She said it earlier. I thought the same. I heard it before, in the past.
DOCTOR: Like a memory. An echo of another time.
BOTH: Yes.
DOCTOR: Time is being disrupted. But if you're still retaining those memories of the truth, then the disruption must be recent. But how? Fallout from the Flux? Yeah, but that wouldn't be enough. I mean, Sontarans are embedded in maps all of a sudden.
LOGAN: Are you expecting a response to your musings?
DOCTOR: How far away is their encampment? You've gone very quiet, General.
LOGAN: The soldiers appear from directions unknown.
DOCTOR: See? They're doing the basics, and you're already on the back foot. You will lose every man if you face them in the battlefield tomorrow. You need my help.
LOGAN: I have Queen and Country on my side. That is all the help I need.
DOCTOR: Is she here with you, then, the Queen?
LOGAN: Obviously not.
DOCTOR: Then her influence may be limited.
LOGAN: Mrs Seacole, your new assistant is putting me off my task.
MARY: You want to be helpful, Doctor? Nursing rounds.
DOCTOR: You have to get the General to listen to me.
MARY: You think the army take advice from a doctress? I am here to nurse the wounded.
DOCTOR: Sifting the battlefield for injured soldiers, setting up a sanctuary? You just decided to come out here on your own?
MARY: If we all of us waited to be sent for, we would none of us find our purpose, would we? I paid for my own passage, and I had this place built from what I could find.
DOCTOR: A proper pioneer.
MARY: Rice pudding and hard liquor build morale. They also pay for medicines. But my time and my skills, those I give for free, to all-comers. Speaking of which, come over here. The General does not approve.

(Behind the curtain is a wounded Sontaran, shackled. It's Dan Starkey.)

SVILD: More of you. More to destroy when I free myself. Which will be soon.
DOCTOR: This is a surprise. No wonder the General doesn't approve.
MARY: All life is sacred to me. I use my remedies to help whoever is in need.
DOCTOR: Just as you did the Russian soldiers.
MARY: Although this one has refused all treatment and healed himself. He takes his rest in a regular rhythm. Seven and a half minutes every 27 hours. I recorded it.
SVILD: I shall massacre you for revealing privileged military information.
MARY: The rest of the time, he yells.
DOCTOR: No wonder you're angry. Capture, the ultimate shame for any Sontaran. How did it come to this?
SVILD: I was dispatched by my commanding officer to assess the laughable strength of the weak and pathetic human resistance, and was ambushed by a circular propellant.
MARY: Cannon ball in the back.
DOCTOR: Oh. I bet that hurt.
SVILD: There is no such thing as pain. A little.
DOCTOR: You're lucky you survived at all.
SVILD: You call this luck? The gloried embrace of death would have been luck.
DOCTOR: I have questions for you, soldier.
SVILD: I will answer nothing. I am trained to resist all interrogation.
DOCTOR: Where's your encampment?
SVILD: I assert my rights to silence under section Cyan K-Z Nine Slothback of the Shadow Proclamation.
DOCTOR: Oh, you do, do you? But what if I have valuable battle information for your commander?
SVILD: What sort of information?
DOCTOR: The Doctor.
SVILD: Huh?
DOCTOR: Vanquisher and sworn enemy of the Sontarans, former President of Gallifrey, is in the Crimea.
SVILD: Where? Show me. I will vanquish our despised nemesis with my bare hands. Where is the Doctor?
DOCTOR: Closer than you could possibly imagine.
MARY: But how can he have heard of...?
DOCTOR: Shh, shh. I'd be prepared to give your commander information on the Doctor's whereabouts, should he agree to parlay on my signal. Now, if we release you... will you relay this information?
SVILD: I accept your offer and pledge to end your life with maximum suffering at our next encounter.
DOCTOR: I'd expect no less.

(She sonicks off his shackles.)

SVILD: May death rain down on you both.
DOCTOR: Well, it's nice to meet you, too. Hurry along.

(Svild marches out through the main section of the hotel.)

SVILD: Human scum. You will be stamped beneath the boot of Sontar at a future point to be determined.

(Logan draws his pistol.)

DOCTOR: Do not shoot.

(The door opens and closes.)

LOGAN: You allowed an enemy combatant to escape!
MARY: I discharged my patient. The British Hotel is my establishment, General, and you are my guest.
DOCTOR: Mrs Seacole, may I suggest an evening constitutional? Come along.

[Battlefield]

(Following Svild at a distance.)

MARY: What are we doing?
DOCTOR: The thing about Sontaran soldiers is they're not very bright. But that means you can take advantage. M'laddo's got a message for his General. With any luck, he's going to lead us right to the location of the Sontaran base camp. Pretty simple, right?
MARY: Wait. Who are you?
DOCTOR: Me? I'm Mary Seacole's assistant.

(Svild vanishes into a rock face.)

MARY: Where...? Where did he go?
DOCTOR: See, Mary?
MARY: No.
DOCTOR: Exactly.

(The Doctor puts her hand through a hologram of a rock face.)

MARY: A conjuring trick?
DOCTOR: In a manner of speaking. Basic camouflage shield. But if you don't know it's there, it's impossible to spot. Want to give it a go with me?

[Above the Sontaran camp]

MARY: Where are we now?
SONTARAN [OC]: Soldiers, marching duty until sunrise. Strategic base construction troops report to Commander Strevs. Security patrols must execute any intruders on sight.
MARY: There's so many of them.
DOCTOR: Yes, there are. Mary, you're good at keeping observation records, right?
MARY: Of course.
DOCTOR: And you can survive on very little sleep, I imagine.
MARY: What are you asking of me?
DOCTOR: Monitor this encampment. Keep a note of everything that happens, but stay out of sight.
MARY: I can do that.

(The Doctor leaves.)

MARY: I think. Can't I?

[Sontaran camp]

SKAAK: You return to us, wounded, humiliated, and no deaths to your credit.
SVILD: I bring information, Commander Skaak. The sworn enemy of Sontar, the Doctor, is here on Earth.
SKAAK: The Doctor is here?
SVILD: My source will request parlay, to discuss bringing the Doctor to you.
SKAAK: This is useful. You have done... adequately.
SVILD: I am shamed, Commander.
SKAAK: Yes. The stench of your humiliation infects us all.
SVILD: I request mercy.
SKAAK: Request granted. The mercy of immediate execution be upon you for unanswerable shame upon Sontar. Sontar-ho.
SVILD: Sontar-ho.

[Car]

(Hiding as a patrol passes.)

DAN: So when did they turn up here, these Sontarans?
EILEEN: Same day you vanished. What's that? Two days ago now?
NEVILLE: Already feels like a month.
EILEEN: We had the Three Minute Eclipse, and then, bang, they were here.
DAN: Three Minute Eclipse?
NEVILLE: Whole world went to blackout, all at the same time. It lasted three minutes.
DAN: Must've been the Karvanista's ships.
EILEEN: So come on, where have you been?
DAN: It's a bit hard to explain.
NEVILLE: Ey, lad, did someone nick your house?
DAN: Sort of. Listen, how many of these are there?
EILEEN: Oh, millions. All over the world, in their ships. Soldiers pouring out and taking over.
DAN: But you can knock 'em out with a frying pan?
NEVILLE: They've got this thing at the back of their neck, like a hole.
EILEEN: Probic something.
NEVILLE: All right, Eileen. No need to get all medical. And if you smack bang on it, then they go down like ninepins.
DAN: Who found that out?
EILEEN: Oh, fella in Birkenhead.
NEVILLE: He was drunk, with a mallet.
DAN + NEVILLE: Birkenhead.
DAN: We've got to get rid of them.
NEVILLE: That's what I said.
EILEEN: That's what I said. You said they'd be off after the weekend.
NEVILLE: I never did.
EILEEN: He does this to annoy me. They were in Liverpool first. Six hours before anywhere else. Nobody believed us. They went all round the world, but they started here.
DAN: When you say here, where exactly do you mean?

[Liverpool Docks]

(Mostly likely ABP Garston, 7 miles from Liverpool city, but details, details... )

EILEEN: This is where they first appeared. Took over the whole waterfront.
DAN: Let's go have a look.
NEVILLE: Ay, ay, where you going? There's thousands of them. They've got lasers.
DAN: Dad. This is our planet. These are our docks. What else do you want to do? Sit at home and complain?
EILEEN: That's what he normally does.
NEVILLE: Hey, you. I'm not afraid of a scrap. I was Wallasey's...
ALL: Junior Boxing Champion in 1966.
NEVILLE: We've already heard of people trying and then just disappearing.
DAN: Yeah well, I've had some experience with dealing with aliens these last few days. You two get back to the house. I'm going in.
EILEEN: By yourself?
DAN: It's better that way.
NEVILLE: Take this, son. In case you need it.

(A round-bottomed pan with a single long handle instead of the traditional two that a proper wok has...)

[Inner Temple]

VINDER: What happened to these two? They're all burned out.
TRIANGLE: Can you repair?
VINDER: I don't know what you mean.
TRIANGLE: Transmission received from outer corridor priest triangle. There is another. You will step aside. Repair is here.

(Vinder readies his hand weapon.)

YASMIN: Hi. I'm Yaz.

(Then puts it back in its holster.)

VINDER: Serving Commander Inston-Vee Vinder of Kasto-Winfer-Foxfell at your service.
YASMIN: Oh, well, if we're going formal, Serving Officer Khan, Hallamshire Police, Earth Division, at yours.
TRIANGLE: Repair. Repair.
VINDER: You know how to fix this?
YASMIN: Full disclosure, Inston-Vee Vinder.
VINDER: Just Vinder's fine.
YASMIN: I don't know how I got here, or why, or where here is, or how I get back home.
VINDER: Same.
YASMIN: And I don't want to freak you out, but there's something's very wrong with the universe right now. I saw it for myself.
VINDER: Me, too. From my outpost. Those objects, they called it The Flux?
YASMIN: What do they want repairing?
VINDER: This.
YASMIN: Oh. Well, I was hoping it was going to be a bit smaller. Less abstract. More like a washing machine. So these are what are broken? Like a before and after.
VINDER: And that's not all. Step back. Proximity activation, on all of them. I'm not sure why.
YASMIN: Do you even know what this place is?
VINDER: The triangle said it's the Temple of Atropos, but it can't be.
YASMIN: Why not?
TRIANGLE: Repair. You must repair.
YASMIN: I'm going to need more information. Take us through the basics. Idiot's guide.
TRIANGLE: Repair must not be undertaken by idiots.
VINDER: Explain... Mouri. Explain Atropos. And set context for repair.
TRIANGLE: We are the Guardian Priests. We maintain the Temple of Atropos on the planet of Time. All Time passes through the Mouri. Must pass through the Mouri. Before Atropos, Time ran wild. To harness, the Mouri were assigned.
YASMIN: Assigned by who?
TRIANGLE: Information unavailable. If the Mouri are broken, Time shall run unstoppable.
YASMIN: Which is a problem, right?
TRIANGLE: Time is destruction. The Mouri are control. They must not break. Time must not be unleashed.
YASMIN: You talk about Time as if it was a force.
TRIANGLE: Time is evil, and it will seek its own.

[Liverpool Docks]

SONTARAN: Human filth has been discovered within the compound. Commander Ritskaw requires an execution troop, immediate deployment.

(Three people have been caught.)

RITSKAW: Bring them here. Place them in line. I am Commander Ritskaw of Sontaran Temporal Command. Spying is treason against Sontar. If you have any words, now is the moment to keep them to yourselves. Soldiers, raise arms. Execute.

(Dan can't watch.)

RITSKAW: Execution complete. Our Temporal Offensive is near, soldiers. Sontar-ha!
SONTARANS: Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha!
RITSKAW: Enough. Stay alert for intruders. We will execute all who defy us.

[Sontaran camp]

(Next morning, the Doctor uses her sonic screwdriver to create the sound of a 'change of shift' siren that is heard at the Sontaran base.)

SKAAK: Parlay.

(It even brings Logan out of the hotel and wakes the soldiers. one of whom can be heard grumbling in the background.)

[Battlefield]

DOCTOR: Let's be having you. Take your hat off, mate. Urgh. On second thoughts, put it back on.
SKAAK: You have information regarding the treacherous vermin known as the Doctor.
DOCTOR: You're talking to her.
SKAAK: What? You deceived my soldier.
DOCTOR: It wasn't difficult.
SKAAK: It is regrettable that our Flux strategy did not foresee your presence, but we shall not falter.
DOCTOR: You knew the Flux was coming? So, what caused it? Is it you lot? Are the Sontarans behind the Flux?
SKAAK: The Flux is neither of our making or our control, but our Psychic Command foresaw it. We timed our attack on this feeble rock in the fractions before the Lupari Shield took effect.
DOCTOR: While we were all looking the other way. You must be very proud.
SKAAK: This planet has defied us ever since the great Commander Linx first staked his claim in the ground of its feeble soil. We now assert that claim. Earth shall be an outpost of the Sontaran Empire.
DOCTOR: No, it won't. But why here? Why Sebastopol?
SKAAK: The Crimean skirmish seems the perfect place to start. So much conflict. So much opportunity. And also... I wanted to ride a horse.
DOCTOR: Leave this planet now and you get to leave alive.

(Skaak laughs, the Doctor winces.)

SKAAK: You think your puny words will stand me down?
DOCTOR: There will be no battle. I speak on behalf of all of humanity.
LOGAN: No, Doctor. You do not.

(He aims his pistol at her head.)

DOCTOR: What are you doing?
LOGAN: This woman does not speak for the British Army. We are ready.
DOCTOR: I speak for more people than you could possibly imagine. Don't be a fool.
LOGAN: Call me that again, Doctor, and see if you survive.
SKAAK: This is good sports.
LOGAN: Soldier, escort this doctress back to the encampment. Keep your weapon on her at all times.
DOCTOR: Don't do this.
LOGAN: It's done! Raise your arms above your head or be shot as a traitor immediately. Go.
SKAAK: You speak for no one, Doctor. Not even your pitiful self. I accept your offer of a massacre. Your blood shall soak our uniforms. Your bodies shall soften our steps.

(The two armies line up, ready for the signals from their leaders. They are not an even match.)

DOCTOR: Yes, it's as devastating as you're imagining. Be grateful you aren't there. And I'm sorry.

(She knocks the young soldier out with a fingertip to his jawline. Venusian Aikido, I assume?)

DOCTOR: Have a kip, it'll wear off in six hours. And you'll still be alive. Options blocked off. It's time to recalibrate.

[Liverpool Docks]

(Dan is using his phone.)

DAN: I'm filming this for you, Doctor. They've turned Liverpool Docks into some sort of space shipyard. I reckon I can get into one.

(He makes his way to a ladder, and puts the wok inside his jacket so he can climb up the cargo container crane for a high vantage view.)

[Temple]

AZURE: I remember this.
SWARM: Passenger. We are three.
AZURE: I'll lead.
TRIANGLE: Can you repair?
AZURE: Yes. That's why we're here.
TRIANGLE: Unsure.
AZURE: Come here, little thing. I said come here. Closer.
TRIANGLE: Identify. Surplus of unauthorised life form arrivals.
SWARM: We're not the first here.
TRIANGLE: Identify.

(Azure takes hold of the drone and its casing starts to crack and disintegrate.)

AZURE: I am Azure. And I am your death. Bwahahahaha! Ah. It's as you said. More powerful than before.
SWARM: And why the wait will be worth it. Now Atropos... where it all began, and will all begin again.

[Battlefield]

LOGAN: Fire.

(The infantry are cut down.)

OFFICER: Retreat!

[Above the Sontaran camp]

DOCTOR: You're still here, on your watch. Thank you. Mary Seacole.
MARY: What happened?
DOCTOR: I couldn't stop them. Now soldiers are dying. You're going to be very busy by day's end. I'm sorry.
MARY: I noted everything. It's deserted down there now.
DOCTOR: Excellent work, Mrs Seacole. And just as I thought. Now, given their absence, it would be churlish not to take advantage, don't you think? Come on.
MARY: Where are we going?
DOCTOR: Half a league onward.

(Meanwhile, everyone is dead, except Logan who opens his eyes. The background music seems inspired by Holst's Mars, from the Planets Suite.)

[Sontaran camp]

DOCTOR: That one looks good, Mary. Let's have a squiz inside.

[Sontaran ship]

MARY: They built all of this?
DOCTOR: I mean, it's good, but it's no British Hotel. Here we are.

(Opens the door with her handprint and uses a catapult to knock out the Sontaran on guard.)

DOCTOR: Double top. Get in.

[Liverpool ship]

(Still recording on his phone.)

DAN: I've snuck on board. Haven't seen any of the potatoheads yet. I'm looking for the control centre or whatever.

(Again, his handprint opens a door.)

DAN: Ah, that's more like it.

[Sontaran ship]

DOCTOR: Now, Mrs Seacole, with your records, and this data, let's see what's really going on.

[Liverpool ship]

DAN: Is it bad just to press things? Hopefully, they won't self-destruct.

[Sontaran ship / Liverpool ship]

DAN [on screen]: Or let everybody know that I'm here.
DOCTOR: Dan! Dan! Dan! Dan, it's me.
DAN: Doctor.
BOTH: Where are you?
DOCTOR: Still in the Crimea.
DAN: I'm in Liverpool.
BOTH: Where's Yaz? I don't know. You speak first.
DOCTOR: How are you on a Sontaran ship?
DAN: I'm back home. They've took over Liverpool Docks. They're building spaceships, hundreds of them, alll along the Mersey.
DOCTOR: They're not just in the Crimea.
DAN: And they've got this obsession with Japanese food. I heard one of the big chief potatoheads talking about Tempura Command. Tempura Offensive. What's that all about?
DOCTOR: Could it...? Could it have been Temporal Command? Temporal as in time?
DAN: Oh yeah. That makes more sense. Hey, I've been filming everything, if that helps.
DOCTOR: Oh, good lad. Very nice. Hold your phone close to the screens. I can access the Sontaran data banks plus everything that's on your phone.
DAN: What, including me photos?
DOCTOR: Oh, of course. Temporal Offensive. They're just about to launch a huge wave of attacks throughout Time. They've been building Timeships so they can invade Earth's history. And the Crimea is the pilot scheme. Earth will become a Sontaran outpost from the dawn of time. The whole history, erased.
MARY: Well, you better make sure you stop it.
DAN: Is that Mary Seacole? Hey, Mary.
MARY: Oh. Hello, dear. I don't understand any of this.
DOCTOR: We have to get the Sontarans out of the Crimea. But the rest is on you, Dan.
DAN: I was worried you were going to say that.
DOCTOR: The first wave of ships in the Sontaran Temporal Offensive are about to launch. You have to stop those ships leaving.
DAN: How am I supposed to do that?
DOCTOR: What resources do you have?
DAN: A wok.
DOCTOR: I'm sorry, what? Why have you got a wok?
DAN: It's me Mam's. For hitting them on the probic thingy.
RITSKAW [on screen]: Tracing rogue transmissions. Who is using this frequency? Security detail...
DOCTOR: Dan, get out of there now.
DAN: What about the plan?
RITSKAW [on screen]: And execute all rogue transmitters.

[Sontaran ship]

DAN [OC]: Doctor!
DOCTOR: Good luck, Dan. Right, Mrs Seacole. We both have a lot of work to do.

[Liverpool ship]

DAN: Doctor!
SONTARAN: Halt. Intruder.
DAN: All right, mate? I'm a little bit lost. I was just looking for the Pier Head.
SONTARAN: This is an Imperial Sontaran Time Carrier. Unauthorised human presence shall result in immediate and enjoyably violent execution.
DAN: I'm just a tourist. Ask your boss, your commander, like. There he is.

(The Sontaran turns around and gets clobbered on the probic vent. He goes down. Actually, all the unnamed Sontarans have sounded like our Dan.)

DAN: How do you like that, eh? Pan-fried Sontaran. Now, I'm going to wok right out of here.

(Four more Sontarans appear.)

DAN: All right, lads. I was just looking for the Pier Head?

[Inner Temple]

YASMIN: How can we fix something that can't be touched?
VINDER: I have no idea.
SWARM: But we do. You can stand aside now. We understand exactly what's needed here.
TRIANGLE: Can you repair?
SWARM: Yes.
YASMIN: Sure. You got identification?
SWARM: Very good, Yasmin Khan. Does the Doctor know you're out this late by yourself?
YASMIN: I don't think we've met before.
SWARM: Such linear creatures. And that message in pen on the palm of your hand, that no one knows about. WWTDD. What Would The Doctor Do?
YASMIN: How could you know that?
SWARM: Why does she choose you? Any of you? So unremarkable.
YASMIN: Take your hands off me right now.
VINDER: You heard her.
SWARM: Commander Vinder. Shamed, disgraced and rejected. Were you hoping this could be your redemption?

(Vinder tries shooting Swarm, but he keeps relocating in the blink of an eye, and laughing.)

AZURE: Try me.

(The same thing happens.)

YASMIN: Stop. Stop, it won't work.
VINDER: Who are you?
AZURE: I'm Azure. This is Swarm.
SWARM: Translations, but they'll do. Now, unless you want to upset Passenger here, take five steps to your left.
AZURE: The proximity. They've been quantum locked against us, after last time. It's a good thing you were here. Stay there.
TRIANGLE: You are not repair. You are identified. You are forbidden from the temple. It was...

(Azure disintegrates it.)

SWARM: You underestimated us, you pathetic temporal hags. Your deluded, pointless lives have led you here. Painful, powerless deaths. Two already broken. Shall I repair?

(He disintegrates one, and the rest scream.)

YASMIN: Stop! You don't know what you're doing.
SWARM: Don't worry. I'm getting to you.

[Liverpool ship]

RITSKAW: Spying is an act of treason against Sontar.
DAN: Yeah, yeah, I've heard all this...
RITSKAW: Troops, prepare for execution. Ready, aim...
KARVANISTA: I don't think so. I've still got a human in this fight.
RITSKAW: What?

(The Sontarans get zapped.)

KARVANISTA: You're welcome, idiot.

[British hotel]

MARY: So many wounded. We won't save them all. All of the casualties were ours.
DOCTOR: Soldiers pay the price for their commanders' mistakes.

(Logan enters.)

LOGAN: They'll attack again at first light. I don't know what to do. Help me.
DOCTOR: I'm going to need a pointy stick.

(To point at sketches pinned up on a board.)

DOCTOR: Sontarans. Project - Crimean Eviction. Right, pay attention, sit up, back straight, hand on heads. Actually, forget about that last one. So, here we go. Sontarans need a rest cycle of 7.5 minutes, every 27 hours, as detailed by Mrs Seacole in her observations here and at the Sontaran encampment. During said rest cycle, they all go back into their ships. Why?
LOGAN: Er...
DOCTOR: I'll tell you why. Because they cannot cope with Earth's atmosphere over an extended period. That's why they wear the protective armoured suits. The suits filter out harmful Earth gases and substitute them with chemicals and nutrients from their home planet. But the suits only have a limited capacity. They have to be refilled.
MARY: From their ships.
DOCTOR: Gold star and a sticker for Mrs Seacole. Keep up, Lieutenant General. The ships aren't just transport. They hold their supplies. So for precisely 7.5 minutes, every 27 hours, the Sontarans top up their suits by the probic vent in the back of their necks, resting and refuelling like cars refilling their petrol tanks. Oh, no, no, wait, forget that one. Erm... like horses replenishing their nose bags. Right. So, what we're going to do is empty their ships of those supplies, forcing a retreat out of the Crimea back to the 21st century where my best person will be there to deal with them. Hopefully.
LOGAN: Did you just say 21st century?
MARY: Sssh. She's talking.
DOCTOR: Now, if they're on the same timetable every day, which I bet they are, in 38 minutes' time, they will all enter their ships simultaneously. While they're inside, we will have exactly 7.5 minutes to drain their supplies. Might need some of your men to help.

[Sontaran camp]

(They walk up to a spaceship and the Doctor takes of a handy head-height panel.)

DOCTOR: Come on. Ah. Right, remember what I taught you. Divert this gas into this chamber... and it will render their supply feed inert, and harmless to humans. Then. rip off... oh, this, and let it all leak out into the air. Got it? Come on, General, next ship, 6.9 minutes left.

(Logan watches them move off.)

[Sontaran ship]

(Where everyone is replenishing at once instead of in shifts... the gas suddenly cuts off.)

STAAK: What is happening?
SONTARAN: Supply levels dwindling to critical across the fleet. Unable to refill armour.

(A screen shows the Doctor waving her sonic screwdriver around. Ritskaw roars.)

[Liverpool ship]

(Dan knocks out a Sontaran before Karvanista gets his weapon powered up.)

KARVANISTA: What is that useless weapon you've got?
DAN: It's a wok.
KARVANISTA: You look ridiculous.
DAN: Says the bloke with the floppy ears. What are you doing here?
KARVANISTA: We're still species-bonded. Clearly, you're so inept, you can't be on your own. And also, this is partially our fault. The Sontaran attack force snuck through in the second before we sealed the shield. It's our responsibility. Well, my responsibility, because I got the blame. As usual.
DAN: Listen, they're about to launch time ships into Earth's history.
KARVANISTA: I know.
DAN: I've got a plan. What do you mean you know?
KARVANISTA: I intercepted the transmissions. And it's not your plan, so don't pretend you're clever.
DAN: All right, keep your fur on. What are you doing?
KARVANISTA: What do you think I'm doing? I'm taking off.
DAN: What? Ah!

(A Time ship launches from the docks.)

[Battlefield]

DOCTOR: I understand you're having a problem with your supplies, Commander.
SKAAK: Sabotage!
DOCTOR: I warned you this planet was protected. Now, retreat.
SKAAK: That word shall never pass my lips. We shall make a strategic withdrawal. But we shall return.
DOCTOR: Not while I'm around. Now, hit the road, Skaak.

[Liverpool ship]

DAN: What's your plan? Some clever sciencey-spacey thing I won't understand?
KARVANISTA: We're gonna to ram them.
DAN: What?
KARVANISTA: We'll use this ship as a battering ram to hit all of the others, creating a massive temporal reaction. Takes the ships, and all the Sontarans on Earth out of existence. Huge temporal bang.
DAN: Yeah, but we're on this ship.
KARVANISTA: There's an escape pod down the corridor, you fool. Come on. We're out of here.

(The Sontarans in their way have other ideas.)

DAN: Well, that was a great plan.
KARVANISTA: Why did I have to get you to protect?

(Blasts open a hatch in the wall.)

DAN: You could've killed me. What are you doing?
KARVANISTA: Get down there. Hurry up. This thing's about to crash.

(Dan screaming as he plummets head first down the tube with Karvanista howling after him.)

[Liverpool Docks]

RITSKAW [OC]: This is Commander Ritskaw. The fleet is under attack from insurgents.

(The ship flies through all the others in the dock area. Two figures fall into the water just before a big explosion and shockwave.)

[Above the Sontaran camp]

(The Sontaran ships are powering up.)

MARY: Oh my. It worked. They're leaving.
DOCTOR: And with no further blood shed.
LOGAN: I must disabuse you of that.

(Logan strikes a match and drops it onto the end of a trail of gunpowder, which ignites despite the rain.)

DOCTOR: What have you done?
LOGAN: I recommend you run.
MARY: Run, Doctor. Run!
LOGAN: Ah. This is for my men.

(Piles of gunpowder barrels under each spaceship explode. Do not ask how they all got there in less than 7 minutes...)

DOCTOR: They were retreating! It was done.
LOGAN: That was for the men I lost today.
DOCTOR: For your guilt you mean. Sometimes men like you make me wonder why I bother with humanity.
MARY: I... I am grateful that you do. Whoever you are, Doctor.

(Sound of the TARDIS engines stuttering.)

DOCTOR: I have to go and find my friends. I hope we meet again, Mrs Seacole.
MARY: Where are you going?

(The Doctor goes to the TARDIS. She has a door now.)

DOCTOR: I'm here.

(The Police Telephone box notice appears.)

DOCTOR: What is this thing happening to you?

[Liverpool Docks]

(Karvanista and Dan haul themselves out of the water.)

DAN: What was in that tube?
KARVANISTA: It was the waste tube.
DAN: You're kidding me.

(Karvanista shakes himself dry.)

DAN: Urgh. They're gone. It's all gone.
KARVANISTA: Temporal implosion. You're welcome.

(The TARDIS materialises.)

KARVANISTA: Oh, here she comes, now the hard work's been done.
DAN: You made it back.
DOCTOR: And you got rid of the Sontarans.
It was pretty easy, really. I worked it all out by myself, until Scooby-Doo here tried to take all the credit.
DOCTOR: I need your people to stay protecting this planet while I'm away. I have to find my friend. Want to come?
DAN: (pause) Okay.
DOCTOR: I'm not done with you yet.
KARVANISTA: If you're going out into the universe, you'd better understand it's in a bad way. The Lupari will stay, shielding the planet, until this is over. If it is ever over.
DAN: I hope I never see you again.
KARVANISTA: Feeling's mutual.

[TARDIS]

(Crystalline structures are sticking out everywhere.)

DOCTOR: Whoa. That should not be growing out of the floor.
DAN: These things new?
DOCTOR: Yeah. They weren't here a second ago. Something's corrupted the TARDIS.

(The TARDIS dematerialises as she reaches to touch some black ooze.)

DAN: Did you just do that?
DOCTOR: No. Argh. Ah. Argh. I can't make it work. We're being hijacked.

[Temple]

DAN: Where are we?
DOCTOR: I don't know. But the spatial-temporal readings are at zero, which is impossible.
AZURE: This way.
DOCTOR: I mean, this is obviously a trap.
DAN: And we're walking into it, are we?
DOCTOR: I have to find Yaz. Stay close to me, do exactly as I say.

[Inner Temple]

SWARM: Ah, Doctor. At last. Come. It's been a long time. I have something of yours. Come, further.

(The Doctor and Dan step into the middle, and the remaining Mouri appear.)

DAN: Who are they?
SWARM: These are the Mouri, Doctor. The remnants of them at least. The Mouri. In the Temple of Atropos on the planet Time.
DOCTOR: There is no planet called Time.
SWARM: Yet here we are. The Temple of Atropos is broken, and the Mouri are failing. Creatures who hold Time in this universe together, broken. Time is beginning to run wild. Could really harm the TARDIS. So I made a short-term repair.

(He snaps his fingers and Yasmin and Vinder appear, with Mouri face markings.)

DOCTOR: Yaz!
YASMIN: Doctor, don't come near. I've seen what he can do.
AZURE: She's right. Try to rescue them, and we'll reduce them to ash. Her and her new friend.
SWARM: Will you count?
AZURE: Yes. Five.
DOCTOR: What have you done to them?
SWARM: It's what I'm about to do, Doctor.
AZURE: Four.
SWARM: Poor placeholders. Hardly equipped to be Mouri, are they?
AZURE: Three.
SWARM: When I click my fingers, the full force of Time will blast through them. How many seconds will their bodies be able to take before they die, Doctor?
AZURE: Two.
DOCTOR: Stop. You don't have to do this. Tell me what you want.
AZURE: One.
SWARM: All in good time.

(He points at Yasmin and snaps his fingers.)

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

Signal Strength: 50%

What's this?