SPEARHEAD
FROM SPACE
BY
ROBERT
HOLMES
EPISODE 1
1: SPACE
(The place: Earth, which hangs peacefully in its appointed place in the blackness of the solar system. Far off stars and dust clouds are the only other objects to be seen. But something is approaching the planet - something which gives out a trilling, signalling sound...)
2: EXT. RADAR STATION
(Down on one small part of the planet, a radar dish on top of a tower circles quickly round.)
3: INT. UNIT TRACKING STATION
(The results are relayed to a bored young TECHNICIAN from UNIT who sits at the radar screen in a small room filled with electronic tracking equipment. He is covered in a film of sweat as he yawns but suddenly, he becomes more alert. On the top left-hand corner of the circular orange screen, the sweep of the radar is picking up a thin white arrowed line as a series of objects approach Earth. The TECHNICIAN picks up a trimphone attached to the side of his radar console.)
TECHNICIAN: Duty Officer, please - urgent!
(He slams the phone back down.)
4: EXT. RADAR STATION
(The radar dish continues to turn.)
5: INT. UNIT TRACKING STATION
(A UNIT OFFICER enters the room. A brisk young woman, smartly dressed in a uniform with the UNIT badge affixed to her green tie.)
UNIT OFFICER: What is it?
TECHNICIAN: I’ve got something on the air, ma’am. Something strange.
(She joins him at the console.)
UNIT OFFICER: Are you sure it’s not just interference? Something to do with the heatwave?
TECHNICIAN: No, ma’am. There’s something on there.
(She sees the thin white line.)
UNIT OFFICER: Scan closer.
(The TECHNICIAN complies and the line is now divided into a series of white dots in an arrow formation.)
UNIT OFFICER: Still very high
TECHNICIAN: Coming down fast though, ma’am, and heading this way.
(The OFFICER reaches a conclusion.)
UNIT OFFICER: They must be meteorites.
(The TECHNICIAN looks at her, unconvinced.)
TECHNICIAN: But they’re flying in formation.
6: EXT. OXLEY WOOD
(The objects leave a vapour trail as they approach closer. Down in the woods, a poacher, Sam SEELEY, wipes his cloth capped covered brow against the heatwave as he prepares a snare-trap. The trilling and wooshing sound of the approaching objects do not seem to register at first until they a whistling sound, like that of a dropping bomb, causes him to look into the sky. His mouth drops open in alarm as he sees several oddly shaped objects falling towards the ground. They are not smoothly round but pock-marked at various points with flat indentations. SEELEY dives for the cover of some bushes. One of the objects lands close by with a loud explosion and SEELEY looks out of his hiding place, wide-eyed, at the smoking ground.)
7: INT. UNIT TRACKING STATION
(The objects disappear off the tracking screen.)
TECHNICIAN: They’ve come down.
UNIT OFFICER: Where?
(The TECHNICIAN reaches for a pad of paper and starts scribbling.)
TECHNICIAN: Sector five - Epping.
UNIT OFFICER: Bearing?
TECHNICIAN: Just working it out.
(He finishes his calculation and hands it to the OFFICER.)
TECHNICIAN: You know, I still think it was a formation, ma’am. There was a...shape.
8: EXT. OXLEY WOOD
(In the woods, the poacher is knelt next to where he saw one of the objects land. He picks up a stick and gingerly pushes the burnt and smoking soil away. He reveals a plastic-like globe, translucent and glowing with a red pulsing light in time to the ever-present signalling trilling. SEELEY looks down in amazement. He reaches down towards it but snatches his hand back from the red-hot heat that the object generates. He wipes his brow, looks round to make sure that he is unobserved and pushes the soil back into place.)
9: INT. UNIT TRACKING STATION
(The OFFICER puts a phone down.)
UNIT OFFICER: Controller reported that meteorite storm to UNIT HQ.
TECHNICIAN: So Control didn’t think they were meteorites either?
UNIT OFFICER: What else could they be? Don’t let your imagination run away with you.
(She heads for the door.)
TECHNICIAN: I suppose they must have been meteorites.
(He looks at her in puzzlement as she departs.)
TECHNICIAN: Mustn’t they?
10: EXT. OXLEY WOOD
(The TARDIS materialises in a clearing in the woods. The door is almost snatched open and a figure emerges. He is wearing a familiar pair of checked trousers and a scruffy black frock coat but it does not seem as oversized on his frame as it did previously. His hair is also grey in colour. He holds onto the doorframe of the TARDIS and then falls headlong into the surrounding heather.)
11: EXT. LONDON
(A young woman sits in the back of a UNIT staff car as it is driven through the quiet London streets. She has red-hair, tied back in a severe bun and wears a brown jacket with a strange plastic moulding design on the sides. She looks somewhat disdainfully, yet at the same time with interest, at the route she is taking. The car pulls into the entrance of a large brick Victorian-type warehouse...)
12: INT. UNIT HQ. GARAGE
(...and the young woman sees that she is in an underground garage. The car turns carefully round some slim cast-iron pillars and approaches a large pair of wooden doors staffed by a blue-uniformed commissionaire. He steps forward and checks the UNIT driver’s pass. Satisfied, he opens the doorway to the driver and the car edges in.)
13: UNIT HQ. BRIGADIER’S OFFICE
(BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART sits at the desk of his office, his finger on the intercom switch.)
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: (Into intercom.) Yes, ask her to come in.
(With a satisfied look on his face, the BRIGADIER gets up and stands in the doorway of his somewhat spartan office, looking down a long brick-built corridor where he sees the young woman approaching, being escorted by a UNIT soldier. As she reaches him, he shakes her hand.)
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Ah, good. Miss Shaw, I’m Lethbridge-Stewart. Do come in and sit down, will you?
(She takes up his offer and heads for a chair at the front of the desk but LIZ SHAW is not in a good frame of mind...)
LIZ: Was all that nonsense out there really necessary? Identity passes? Guards?
(The BRIGADIER closes the door.)
LIZ: I was even searched.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Security.
(He takes his own seat on the other side of the desk.)
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Rather amusing, don’t you think?
(LIZ looks very coldly at him.)
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: No, you don’t.
LIZ: I have an important research programme going ahead at Cambridge.
(The BRIGADIER reaches for a file, opens it and reads its contents.)
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Yes, I know. An expert in meteorites, degrees in medicine, physics and a dozen other subjects. Just the sort of all-rounder I’ve been looking for.
LIZ: How I feel doesn’t matter?
(The BRIGADIER puts on his most charming smile.)
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: We need your help, Miss Shaw.
LIZ: I’m just not interested in security work.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Security?
LIZ: Producing invisible ink - that sort of thing.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: We’re not exactly spies here at UNIT.
LIZ: Then what do you do - exactly?
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: We deal with the odd, the unexplained, anything on Earth...or even beyond.
(LIZ’S eyes open wide and an amused yet condescending smile appears on her face.)
LIZ: Alien invaders? (Sarcastically.) Little blue men with three heads?
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Ten tons of alien material drift through space and land on this planet every day.
LIZ: And do no harm to anyone.
(It is the BRIGADIER’S turn to look cold.)
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Early this morning a shower of about fifty meteorites landed in Essex.
(LIZ’S curiosity is aroused but the smile remains on her face.)
LIZ: Landed? Most meteorites don’t even reach the Earth’s surface. They usually burn up in the atmosphere.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: These didn’t.
(He leans forward.)
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: These particular meteorites came down in a funnel of thin, super-heated air about twenty miles in diameter - for which no one has an explanation.
LIZ: There must be an explanation - a natural one.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: I hope so - we didn’t find one last time.
LIZ: Last time?
(The BRIGADIER allows himself a small smile as he sees that LIZ’S scientific curiosity has taken the bait...)
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Six months ago, a smaller shower of meteorites, about five or six, landed in the same area.
LIZ: (Laughs.) That’s impossible. The odds against two lots of meteorites landing in exactly the same place...must be incredible.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: (Quietly.) They are, Miss Shaw, they are.
(LIZ stares at him intently.)
14: INT. ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL. FOYER
(A UNIT officer - CAPTAIN MUNRO - stands in the wood panelled foyer of the Ashbridge Cottage Hospital next to the white-coated DR. HENDERSON who scribbles in a notebook. A nurse leads two porters through the foyer who carry the figure from outside the TARDIS through on a stretcher.)
DR. HENDERSON: And you’ve no idea who he is?
CAPTAIN MUNRO: Not a clue. We found him unconscious...beside a police box, of all things.
DR. HENDERSON: In the middle of the woods?
CAPTAIN MUNRO: Yes, we thought he was dead at first.
DR. HENDERSON: I see. Well, I’d better go and have a look at him.
15: UNIT HQ. BRIGADIER’S OFFICE
(The BRIGADIER hands LIZ a file.)
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Figures from the Institute of Space Studies, Baltimore. Do you realise that in our section of the galaxy, there are over five hundred planets capable of supporting life?
(LIZ smiles and hands the file back.)
LIZ: Why is Earth any more likely to be attacked now than during the last fifty-thousand years?
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: In the last decade, we’ve been sending probes deeper and deeper into space. We’ve drawn attention to ourselves, Miss Shaw.
LIZ: (Smiles.) Aren’t you being a bit alarmist?
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Since UNIT was formed, there’ve been two attempts to invade this planet.
LIZ: (Surprised.) Really?
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: We were lucky enough to be able to stop them. There was a policy decision not to inform the public.
(LIZ bursts out laughing...)
LIZ: Do you seriously expect me to believe that?
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: (Coldly.) It’s not my habit to tell lies, Miss Shaw.
LIZ: (Smiling.) I’m sorry, but it is a fantastic story!
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: We were very lucky on both occasions. We had help from a...scientist with a great experience of other life forms.
LIZ: Really? Who was this genius?
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Well, it’s all rather difficult to explain. We used to call him...the Doctor.
(One of the two phones on the desk buzzes and the BRIGADIER answers it.)
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: (Into phone.) Yes?
16: INT. ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL. FOYER
(CAPTAIN MUNRO stands in a wood-panelled phone booth in the hospital foyer.)
CAPTAIN MUNRO: (Into phone.) Munro here, sir. I’m in the Ashbridge Cottage Hospital.)
17: UNIT HQ. BRIGADIER’S OFFICE
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: (Into phone.) What the dickens are you doing there? Have you found any of those meteorites?
18: INT. ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL. FOYER
CAPTAIN MUNRO: (Into phone.) No, sir. All we’ve found is an unconscious civvy.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: (OOV: Over phone.) Well?
CAPTAIN MUNRO: (Into phone.) He was lying beside a police box, sir. Abandoned by the look of it, right in the middle of Oxley Wood.
19: UNIT HQ. BRIGADIER’S OFFICE
(The BRIGADIER is suddenly alert at this statement...)
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: (Into phone.) A police box...?
(LIZ sighs at hearing one side of this strange conversation.)
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: (Into phone.) Munro, this man you found...?
CAPTAIN MUNRO: (OOV: Over phone.) He’s here at the hospital, sir - undergoing treatment.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: (Into phone.) Has he said anything?
CAPTAIN MUNRO: (OOV: Over phone.) No, sir - not a syllable. He’s out to the wide.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: (Into phone.) Listen, Munro, I want an armed guard put on that police box at once.
(LIZ looks up, extremely puzzled.)
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: (Into phone.) Nobody is to be allowed near it, do you understand? Nobody.
20: INT. ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL. FOYER
CAPTAIN MUNRO: (Into phone, surprised.) A guard, sir? Very well, sir. Oh, er, do you want the police told, sir, about the police box? They may want it back.
21: UNIT HQ. BRIGADIER’S OFFICE
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: (Into phone.) On no account. I’m coming down there immediately. In the meantime, carry on with the search.
22: INT. ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL. WARD
(In a nearly empty ward, a NURSE attaches an x-ray slide to a projector and turns up the light.)
NURSE: Ready, sir.
DR. HENDERSON: Ahh...
(DR. HENDERSON walks forward and looks at the x-ray. After a quick glance, his face darkens.)
DR. HENDERSON: Is this somebody’s idea of a joke?
NURSE: (Puzzled.) Sir?
(He points at the x-ray.)
DR. HENDERSON: Look at that.
NURSE: His heart, sir.
DR. HENDERSON: If that is his heart, nurse, what is this.
(He points at a similar dark shape on the other side of the rib cage. The NURSE looks as the sound of a vacuum cleaner reaches them from the corridor.)
NURSE: I...I don’t know, sir.
DR. HENDERSON: Someone in the x-ray department having a game. You stay with the patient. I’ll find out who the fool is.
(An angry DR. HENDERSON leaves the ward.)
23: INT. ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL. PASSAGE
(In the passageway immediately outside the ward, MULLINS, the porter, moves a vacuum cleaner over the carpet. DR. HENDERSON pushes past him but only gets a few yards when his bleeper goes off. He switches it off and dials a wallphone next to him.)
DR. HENDERSON: (Into phone.) Henderson here.
(Unable to hear over the sound of the vacuum, he snaps his fingers and waves at MULLINS impatiently. The little welsh porter switches the machine off and HENDERSON resumes his conversation.)
DR. HENDERSON: (Into phone.) Dr. Henderson here, you’re calling me?
(An angry Scottish voice replies...)
DR. LOMAX: (OOV: Over phone.) Look here, Henderson, what’s the idea of playing stupid tricks?
DR. HENDERSON: (Into phone.) Me playing tricks? Who is that?
DR. LOMAX: (OOV: Over phone.) Dr. Lomax - path lab. You just sent up a blood sample for cross matching.
DR. HENDERSON: (Into phone.) Yes, that’s right - just routine.
DR. LOMAX: (OOV: Over phone.) Listen, Henderson! I will not tolerate stupid practical jokes. It wasn’t human blood and you know it!
DR. HENDERSON: (Into phone.) What do you mean not human blood?
(Behind HENDERSON, MULLINS stops to listen...)
DR. HENDERSON: (Into phone.) I took it from the patient myself.
DR. LOMAX: (OOV: Over phone.) It is not a human blood type! The platelet stickiness shows that.
(DR. HENDERSON is stuck for words and remains silent a moment...)
DR. LOMAX: (OOV: Over phone.) Henderson, are you there? Hello?
DR. HENDERSON: (Into phone.) Dr. Lomax, I took that blood sample from an adult male patient. Now you tell me it’s not human blood.
(MULLINS carries on listening...)
DR. HENDERSON: (Into phone.) I don’t know if that makes me a doctor or a vet, but it’s still my job to look after him!
(He slams the phone down, thinks for a moment and then walks off. MULLINS watches him go, puts his vacuum cleaner to one side and then walks off himself.)
24: INT. ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL. FOYER
(MULLINS walks into the foyer past various patients and to the phone booth. He sees a commissionaire show a patient out of the room and then dials a number on the phone. He closes the doors to the booth for privacy. The number is answered and MULLINS speaks in a broad welsh accent...)
MULLINS: Oh, hello. Is that the “Daily Chronicle”? (He listens.) It is. Well, look, er, my name’s Mullins. I’m a porter at the Cottage Hospital, Ashbridge. I...I understand you pay for stories (Listens.) You do? Well look, there’s something very funny happening up here.
25: EXT. OXLEY WOOD
(SEELEY, the poacher, has returned with a spade and a sack to the place in the woods where he found the buried meteorite. He shovels away the earth, uncovering the still signalling sphere. He opens the sack and lifts the pulsing alien object out of the ground and place it into the sack. He then hears voices through the trees and goes over to some bushes...)
CORPORAL FORBES: (OOV.) ___. Keep on your track.
(...where he parts the branches and observes two UNIT soldiers under the command of CORPORAL FORBES running detectors over the ground.)
CORPORAL FORBES: ___. Keep in a straight line. ____.
(SEELEY watches with suspicion and then returns to his sack...)
CORPORAL FORBES: (OOV.) Have you got something there?
(...which he slings over his shoulder and starts to slip quietly away.)
26: INT. ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL. WARD
(The NURSE works with some sterilised instruments whilst behind her, the stranger in the bed starts to stir. The NURSE walks away, not seeing the stranger somewhat disorientated but attempting to look under his bed. He mumbles and, hearing him, she rushes back.)
NURSE: What are you doing?
DOCTOR: Shoes...must find my shoes.
(She starts to push him back onto the bed.)
NURSE: Oh no you don’t, come on.
DOCTOR: (Vaguely.) Unhand me, madam!
(DR. HENDERSON walks into the ward as the NURSE pushes the stranger back.)
DR. HENDERSON: What’s happening?
NURSE: He tried to get out of bed.
DR. HENDERSON: What?
(The NURSE sees that the stranger is not moving and bends over his grey head to look at him.)
NURSE: He’s unconscious again now.
27: EXT. ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL
(The BRIGADIER’S staff car pulls up outside the main entrance to the hospital, next to a couple of ambulances. A soldier salutes and the BRIGADIER and LIZ get out.)
28: INT. ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL. FOYER
(Inside the hospital, a large contingent of television and press have gathered and are pressing a cool CAPTAIN MUNRO with questions.)
WAGSTAFFE: Why can’t we see him?
CAPTAIN MUNRO: He’s under medical care.
WAGSTAFFE: Is that the real reason?
(The television film camera focuses on MUNRO’S face...)
WAGSTAFFE: Well, what are you chaps doing here?
CAPTAIN MUNRO: I’m sorry. I can’t answer questions.
2ND REPORTER: Why not? Is it a security order?
(At the back of the group of reporters. A man with an intense yet unemotional face watches the proceedings. He seems curiously aloof from what is going on.)
WAGSTAFFE: Has it anything to do with those, er, meteorites?
CAPTAIN MUNRO: I’m sorry. There’s simply nothing I can tell you.
(MULLINS steps forward and covers his own activities by trying to push the reporters away.)
MULLINS: Look, stand back there now. Stand back!
(The reporters turn as they are being pushed back at the same moment that the BRIGADIER and LIZ walk in. The reporters pounce on the BRIGADIER and chaos breaks out. MULLINS dashes forward...)
MULLINS: Let him through!
(The BRIGADIER quickly recovers his composure as he is surrounded. The television camera points at him now. The intense watcher stands behind the BRIGADIER.)
WAGSTAFFE: Michael Wagstaffe, defence correspondent on the “Daily Post”...
2ND REPORTER: Can you tell us anything, sir?
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: What about?
WAGSTAFFE: Er, what’s UNIT doing here, sir? Is it true there’s a man from space in there?
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Nonsense. I don’t know where you get these stories.
2ND REPORTER: We heard there’s something odd about him.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: I know nothing about a man from space.
WAGSTAFFE: Then why are you here, sir?
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Training exercise.
(There is a short laugh from the reporters but the BRIGADIER takes advantage of the gap in questions to grab LIZ and push her through the melee.)
MULLINS: Stand back now! Let him through! Stand back now!
(The two only manage to make it to the other side of the small foyer before they are accosted again.)
2ND REPORTER: Has your visit any connection with the meteorites that fell last night? Is that why you’ve cordoned off the wood?
WAGSTAFFE: Did the man who was brought in here find one of the meteorites?
(The intense man shows interest at this question.)
2ND REPORTER: Was he injured by them?
WAGSTAFFE: Are these meteorites dangerous?
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: I’m sorry. I’ll talk to you later when...
WAGSTAFFE: (Interrupting.) Has he found it and hidden it away, perhaps?
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: (Angrily.) If there’s a story, you’ll be given it later. At the moment, I have no comment to make!
(And with that, he pushes LIZ through the doorway and follows. The reporters try to follow.)
MULLINS: All right, ___, stand back now, boys. I can’t let you go in there. It’s more than my job’s worth. Right now, clear away now.
WAGSTAFFE: (To the 2ND REPORTER.) You know, I think I’ve put my finger on it - that chap’s found one of those meteorites and won’t tell them where it is.
(Again, the intense man at the back of the room listens to the statement with interest...)
29: INT. ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL. CORRIDOR
(A livid BRIGADIER turns a corner and stalks down a long wood panelled corridor followed by MUNRO and LIZ.)
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: How did that lot get onto this?
CAPTAIN MUNRO: No idea, sir. They just appeared like swallows in the spring.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Have you put a guard on that police box?
CAPTAIN MUNRO: Yes sir. Two men with orders to keep strangers well away.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Oh, Munro, see that they’re issued with live ammunition, will you?
CAPTAIN MUNRO: (Shocked.) Live ammunition? But sir...
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: (Interrupting.) That’s an order, Captain.
CAPTAIN MUNRO: I’ll see to it, sir.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Good.
(They reach the end of the corridor...)
CAPTAIN MUNRO: Along here, sir.
(...and MUNRO shows the BRIGADIER to the one side.)
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Thank you.
30: INT. ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL. WARD
(They enter the ward with its sole patient and DR. HENDERSON.)
CAPTAIN MUNRO: Oh, Dr. Henderson, this is Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and, er...?
(He looks at LIZ who introduces herself...)
LIZ: Elizabeth Shaw.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: (To HENDERSON.) Well, how’s your patient, doctor? Can we see him?
DR. HENDERSON: Well, you can see him, certainly.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Ah...
DR. HENDERSON: He’s not making much sense yet.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: What, still unconscious, eh?
DR. HENDERSON: Most of the time. He has brief moments of consciousness and then slips back again.
LIZ: Well, what’s actually wrong with him?
DR. HENDERSON: I can’t say. Never had a patient quite like him before.
LIZ: How do you mean?
DR. HENDERSON: Well, his whole cardiovascular system is quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
(HENDERSON walks over to a table and sits at his notes.)
DR. HENDERSON: And I’m told his blood can’t be identified.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Splendid. That sounds like the Doctor!
(HENDERSON turns in surprise at this statement as the BRIGADIER strides over to the bed and turns the patient to face him. Instead of a dark haired little man he was expecting, a stranger lies there. Tall and gangly, he has shorter greying hair and an imperious, almost aristocratic face with a pointed and haughty nose. LIZ sees that the BRIGADIER seems disappointed.)
LIZ: Do you know him?
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: What? No, I thought I might do, but...he’s a complete stranger. I’ve never seen him before in my life.
(The man in the bed comes round at the sound of the BRIGADIER’S voice, mumbles and opens his eyes. He stares at the BRIGADIER and then speaks in a clipped and precise, but at the moment weak, voice...)
DOCTOR: Lethbridge-Stewart?
(HENDERSON looks over at the sound of his voice.)
DOCTOR: My dear fellow, how nice to see you again.
CAPTAIN MUNRO: He knows you, sir.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: But he can’t do!
(The BRIGADIER bends over the man.)
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Look here - can you hear me? Who are you?
DOCTOR: Don’t you recognise me?
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: I’m positive we’ve never met before.
(The man in the bed looks shocked.)
DOCTOR: Oh, dear. Oh, I...I can’t have changed that much, surely? Oh, I must see what they’ve done to me. Can I borrow...can I borrow a mirror, please?
(LIZ reaches into her handbag and extracts a small mirror which she passes to the BRIGADIER who in turn passes it to the man in the bed.)
DOCTOR: Thank you.
(He looks in the mirror and is shocked by what he sees.)
DOCTOR: Oh, no!
(He lowers the mirror as if in pain.)
DOCTOR: Oh, no.
(He looks in it again.)
DOCTOR: Well, that’s not me at all!
(The BRIGADIER looks coldly down at him.)
DOCTOR: Huh! No wonder you didn’t recognise me. Huh! Mm, that face, mmm, that hair! Huh!
(The DOCTOR frowns angrily at his new appearance but suddenly, he seems struck in a different way. He purses his lips in thought as he takes another look at his recently acquired features.)
DOCTOR: Oh, I don’t know, though.
(He smiles at the BRIGADIER.)
DOCTOR: I think it’s rather distinctive, actually. Hmm! Don’t you think? Hmm? Mmm.
(The BRIGADIER continues to stare impassively at him.)
DOCTOR: No, you don’t.
(The DOCTOR takes one last look and then closes his eyes.)
DOCTOR: Oh, anyway, I’m...I’m tired. All this exercise and exertion...it’s been too much...have to get some sleep.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Now, just a minute. Wake up, man! Listen to me!
(DR. HENDERSON walks forward.)
DR. HENDERSON: I think that’s quite enough for the moment. His mind’s obviously disturbed...
(He looks the DOCTOR over.)
DR. HENDERSON: And, er, anyway, I’m afraid he’s out again.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Extraordinary business. Munro, I want this man brought to London HQ. (To HENDERSON.) When will he be fit to travel?
DR. HENDERSON: Difficult to say.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: I see. (To MUNRO.) Well, as soon as possible, Munro. In the meantime, carry on the search for the meteorites.
CAPTAIN MUNRO: Very good, sir.
(LIZ has collected her mirror back.)
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: (To HENDERSON.) Is there another way out of here? I want to avoid the press if possible.
DR. HENDERSON: This way.
BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE-STEWART: Thank you.
(They follow HENDERSON out by another door from the ward. As they walk out, the DOCTOR opens his eyes and watches them go, carefully making sure he is alone...)
31: INT. ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL. FOYER
(WAGSTAFFE is looking through the window of the foyer as he hears a car drive off. He goes over to the 2ND REPORTER.)
WAGSTAFFE: Lethbridge-Stewart. He must have nipped out the back way.
2ND REPORTER: So, he’s not going to tell us anything.
(WAGSTAFFE thinks.)
WAGSTAFFE: You know, there’s a story here, Jimmy. They’re trying to cover something.
2ND REPORTER: (To MULLINS.) Porter, when can we see Dr. Henderson?
MULLINS: Eh, look now - it’s no good asking me. You’ll just have to wait so there.
WAGSTAFFE: I’m gonna ring the office.
(He goes over to the closed phone booth. The intense looking man is stood inside.)
WAGSTAFFE: (To the 2ND REPORTER.) Hold on, who is this chap anyway? He’s been hanging around for ages.
2ND REPORTER: Don’t know. I’ve never seen him before.
(WAGSTAFFE calls over to MULLINS.)
WAGSTAFFE: Did he tell you which paper he was on?
(MULLINS comes over and looks at the booth.)
MULLINS: Oh him? No, he didn’t tell me anything. He came in with the rest of you. I thought he was one of you lot.
(WAGSTAFFE opens the door and leans in the booth.)
WAGSTAFFE: Excuse me, sir. Are you going to be much longer? You see, we’ve got some stories to phone through and we’d like to use the phone if possible.
(The man in the box, whose eyes have been half-closed, suddenly is wide-eyed and alert. WAGSTAFFE sees that the phone handpiece is still on its cradle but before he can say anything, the man turns and pushes his way out of the box, past the startled reporter.)
32: EXT. OXLEY WOOD
(SEELEY has been caught in the woods by the two soldiers guarding the TARDIS. They both have their rifles pointed at the poacher.)
SEELEY: Don’t point that thing at me, mister.
CORPORAL FORBES: Where do you think you’re going?
SEELEY: Home - along these parts.
CORPORAL FORBES: How did you get into this wood? It’s restricted.
(SEELEY comes over to him and starts to open his sack.)
SEELEY: Do you fancy buying a rabbit or two?
CORPORAL FORBES: Oh, you’re a poacher, are you?
(SEELEY gives a sly grin as he takes pokes a rabbit out of his sack.)
SEELEY: Ain’t nothing so tasty as a fresh rabbit. A bit of salt and a few onions.
CORPORAL FORBES: Didn’t you see the patrols on the road?
SEELEY: Ah, but I reckon they never seen me.
CORPORAL FORBES: All right, dad, get on your way, and don’t come back until this wood it’s de-restricted. You understand?
(SEELEY starts to walk off but stops for one last word with a smirk on his face.)
SEELEY: You soldiers looking for them thunderballs, eh?
CORPORAL FORBES: That’s our business.
SEELEY: Reckon if I know where to find one of them things, it’d be worth a tidy old bit, eh?
CORPORAL FORBES: You know where one landed?!
SEELEY: (Quietly.) I didn’t say that, did I, son? I’m just asking.
CORPORAL FORBES: Yeah, well don’t ask. Go on, push off.
(SEELEY, still smiling, walks off.)
33: INT. ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL. WARD
(The DOCTOR, still groggy, leans under his bed.)
DOCTOR: Where...shoes? Where are my shoes? I must find my shoes...
(His left hand is held by the NURSE, absorbed with her watch as she takes his pulse. She turns and sees him almost falling out of the bed in an effort to find his shoes.)
DOCTOR: I must find my...
(She pulls him back on the bed.)
NURSE: Why? You don’t need them. You’re not going anywhere.
DOCTOR: You don’t understand, madam. It’s most important.
(HENDERSON walks in.)
DR. HENDERSON: How is he, nurse?
NURSE: His pulse seems to have settled down, sir.
DR. HENDERSON: (Satisfied.) Ah...
(She hands him a chart.)
NURSE: Ten a minute!
(He looks at her and the chart.)
DR. HENDERSON: Yes...well...the trouble is, we don’t know what’s normal for him, do we?
(He sees that the DOCTOR’S eyes are open and goes over to him with a cheery manner.)
DR. HENDERSON: Hello! How are you feeling?
(The DOCTOR stares at him.)
DOCTOR: Shoes!
DR. HENDERSON: I beg your pardon?
DOCTOR: Shoes...
(DR. HENDERSON looks at the NURSE for an explanation.)
NURSE: They seem to be worrying him, sir. I think he believes they’ve been stolen.
DR. HENDERSON: Well, if he wants them, he might as well...where are they, nurse?
NURSE: In his locker.
(HENDERSON opens the locker...)
DR. HENDERSON: Ah!
(..takes them out and shows them to the DOCTOR.)
DR. HENDERSON: Are these what you’re looking for?
(The DOCTOR stares at them for a moment, then in one swift movement, grabs them and turns over in his bed, hugging them to his chest with his eyes closed.)
DR. HENDERSON: (To the NURSE.) I wonder if the brain’s damaged?
NURSE: He does seem to be behaving very erratically.
DR. HENDERSON: Fetch the sphyg, would you, nurse? I’ll take his blood pressure again while I’m here.
(The NURSE goes off to comply with the request and HENDERSON sits at the table to make a note. Behind him, the DOCTOR looks up and, seeing that he is unobserved, sits up and looks in the right shoe. Finding nothing, even after shaking it, he tries to left shoe and is rewarded when the TARDIS key drops out. Satisfied, he puts the shoes under his pillow and goes back to sleep, the key grasped securely in his hand. HENDERSON, sat at the table, hears approaching footsteps.)
DR. HENDERSON: Thank you, nurse.
(But behind him are tow men, dressed in white orderly coats, and with strange shiny faces. One of them karate-chops HENDERSON on the back of the neck and he falls to the ground unconscious. The two men then go over to the DOCTOR’S bed. One of them holds a large piece of sticking plaster and he sticks this over a startled DOCTOR’S mouth. They throw the bedclothes back.)
34: INT. ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL. PASSAGE
(The DOCTOR is seemingly unconscious in a wheelchair and pushed down the passage by one of them men while the other goes ahead and checks that the coast is clear.)
35: INT. ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL. WARD
(HENDERSON comes round and stares groggily at the empty bed. He gets unsteadily to his feet and, dropping his glasses, stumbles off in pursuit.)
36: INT. ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL. PASSAGE
(HENDERSON makes an uncertain course down the passage outside the ward. MUNRO comes from the other direction and runs to help him.)
CAPTAIN MUNRO: Doctor? What’s wrong? What’s happened?
37: EXT. ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL
(Outside the hospital, the strange man who was with the press waits with an ambulance. His two “colleagues” wheel the DOCTOR to the back of it. They are reversing the chair up a ramp when the DOCTOR springs to life and starts to furiously wheel the chair away from his kidnappers. One of the men in the white coats is about to pursue but his leader pushes him back to get into the ambulance.)
38: EXT. ROAD OUTSIDE ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL
(The DOCTOR wheels himself into the road outside and down the hill.)
39: EXT. ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL
(MUNRO and another UNIT soldier run out of the hospital as the ambulance shoots past them round the circular driveway, the man driving looking with concern as he goes.)
CAPTAIN MUNRO: (To the soldier.) ___ shoot the tyres!
(The soldier goes on bended knee and aims. He fires several shots, causing the watching nurses to jump at the noise and the man in the ambulance to register some emotion on his otherwise impassive face. The ambulance makes it out of the drive.)
40: EXT. OXLEY WOOD
(FORBES and the other soldier are still guarding the TARDIS when they hear the shots. They hold their rifles warily.)
CORPORAL FORBES: Here, something’s happening.
41: EXT. ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL
CAPTAIN MUNRO: (To the soldier.) Come on! This way.
(They run off in pursuit.)
42: EXT. ROAD OUTSIDE ASHBRIDGE COTTAGE HOSPITAL
(Meanwhile, a still gagged DOCTOR wheels furiously down the road. He hears MUNRO calling behind him as he runs along.)
CAPTAIN MUNRO: Sergeant Harris! Cut across to the main gate. Stop the ambulance! Shoot at the tyres! The rest of you go round the back!
(The soldiers run in pursuit as the DOCTOR continues his escape.)
43: EXT. OXLEY WOOD
(FORBES and the other soldier are now very wary and they ready their rifles.)
44: EXT. PATH IN WOODS
(The empty wheelchair lies on the ground, the blanket next to it. MUNRO and a soldier come into view.)
CAPTAIN MUNRO: There he is!
(He runs over to the chair and pulls the blanket back. Under it is a pillow.)
CAPTAIN MUNRO: He got away. Start searching.
(They run off.)
45: EXT. OXLEY WOOD
(The white-smocked DOCTOR starts trashing through the bushes to get to the TARDIS.)
CORPORAL FORBES: Who’s there!
(As the DOCTOR comes into view, the second soldier with FORBES cocks his rifle again and fires in a panic. The DOCTOR clutches his head...)
CORPORAL FORBES: Who told you to fire, you stupid...!
(...and falls to the ground.)
Doctor Who
JON PERTWEE
Liz Shaw
CAROLINE JOHN
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
NICHOLAS COURTNEY
Channing
HUGH BURDEN
Seeley
NEIL WILSON
Mullins
TALFRYN THOMAS
Captain Munro
JOHN BRESLIN
Dr. Henderson
ANTONY WEBB
Nurse
HELEN DORWARD
Corporal Forbes
GEORGE LEE
Unit Officer
TESSA SHAW
Technician
ELLIS JONES
Wagstaffe
ALLAN MITCHELL
2nd Reporter
PRENTIS HANCOCK
Title Music by
RON GRAINER &
THE BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP
Incidental Music
DUDLEY SIMPSON
Special Sound by
BRIAN HODGSON &
THE BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP
Special Effects designed by
JOHN HORTON
Costumes
CHRISTINE RAWLINS
Make-up
CYNTHIA GOODWIN
Film Cameraman
STAN SPEEL
Sound Recordist
DEREK MEDUS
Film Editors
WILLIAM SYMON
ADAM DAWSON
Script Editor
TERRANCE DICKS
Designer
PAUL ALLEN
Producer
DERRICK SHERWIN
Directed by
DEREK MARTINUS
